The economic base determines the superstructure. This is a universal truth. The rhetoric of being pragmatic can indeed avoid the accusation of "tong Yi", but in the final analysis, the final solution to the problem still depends on whether there is sufficient money and food.
This year's major disaster in the north is almost foreseeable. This means that the special disaster relief funds that Gao Pingqing set aside before accompanying him to Nanjing at the beginning of the year not only cannot be used for other purposes, but may even be insufficient. It is best to take advantage of the situation.
Now is the opportunity in late autumn and early winter to make some additions, lest we be unable to do anything by then, leaving many people homeless and disaster victims turning into refugees.
Under this situation, it can be said that there are many hidden dangers in the Ming Dynasty. If Tumut and even Nenhorqin are still accepted, the girls from all the Northeastern provinces will really be included, and they will carry a huge burden on their backs... By that time
Just don't crush yourself to death.
"Before convening the meeting today, I sent people to the major commercial houses in the capital to conduct some research. Although I cannot say it is very accurate, I have roughly figured out some information in the capital, as well as Beizhili, Shanxi, and Liaodong.
Inventory status of bulk materials.”
As soon as Gao pragmatic opened his mouth, he first made a shocking statement. However, it was not surprising when the officials thought about it. After all, the largest commercial hegemon in the north was the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance led by Jinghua. Gao Yuanfu's so-called "Ichiban
"Understood", you may only need to do an internal audit and inventory inventory and you will be in good agreement.
"The specific data has been compiled into a report by someone from our ministry. You can circulate it to each other." Gao pragmatically said, taking out a report from his sleeve and handing it to Zhao Zhigao, the Grand Scholar of Jianji Palace.
The Grand Bachelor of Jianji Palace is already the second assistant, but Zhao Zhigao is old and sick, and was frightened by Gao's pragmatic and sharp political methods last time, so that he did not even accompany the Holy Emperor on his southern tour this year, but
Staying in the capital, known as "sitting in the cabinet", actually did not dare to take the limelight and deliberately gave the limelight completely to Gao Pragmatic.
Now his performance was in line with his consistent style over the past year. When Gao Zhigao handed over the statement pragmatically, Zhao Zhigao, who was originally looking sleepy, quickly sat up straight, bowed slightly, took it with both hands, and then opened it carefully.
Look. But he looked at it very quickly - all the officials thought he was just doing it for show - and immediately handed it to Shen Yiguan, the great scholar of Wenhua Palace.
In addition to the Big and Small Jiuqing, there are four assistant ministers in the meeting. Obviously Gao Pragmatic will not wait for everyone to read them one by one before continuing to talk, so now he has opened his mouth again, and continued from the previous article: "In general
, in addition to rice, noodles and other grains, other materials in the three places are relatively abundant. Even if there are still gaps in some materials, our ministry can solve the problem by temporarily increasing production or allocating inputs from various provinces.
For example, when the White Disaster strikes, freezing to death is the first major crisis. This means that protection from the cold is a top priority. Protection from the cold can be divided into three aspects, one is clothing, the other is shelter, and the third is warmth.
In terms of clothing, there is quite a lot of coarse cloth and cotton stored in the three places. According to calculations, it can roughly sew 1.2 million cotton-padded jackets worn by adult men and women, or 900,000 adult men's and women's cotton-padded jackets plus 600,000 children's cotton-padded jackets.
Based on the current rough calculation of the population of Tumut, Horqin, and Jurchen tribes, it should be almost enough.
Of course, you may want to ask, what about the Han people in Liaodong? This cabinet department has also considered this. On the one hand, some of the military uniforms in Liaodong can be temporarily allocated, about 200,000 sets; on the other hand,
Now there is still time to mobilize cloth and cotton from the southern provinces for urgent production."
When he said this, Zhou Yong, the academician of Wuyingdian Palace, became a little anxious. He stood up and asked hurriedly: "Yuanfu, if we use the cotton-padded jackets in the inventory of the Liaodong Army, if some of them are worn out in the future, it will be easy to cause trouble afterwards."
…”
"Mr. Zhou Ge is worrying too much," Gao Pragmatic waved his hand and said: "After the deployment of these more than 200,000 sets of cotton-padded jackets, the inventory of the Liaodong Army will be written off directly. Next year, the cabinet will allocate a batch of new cotton-padded jackets to them to replenish the inventory."
When Zhou Yong heard this, he immediately sat back. His job in the cabinet was relatively simple, and he was only responsible for the Ministry of War. Therefore, since Yuan Fu, who is also the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, said that these more than 200,000 sets of cotton-padded jackets could be written off directly,
There will be new cotton-padded jackets to replenish the stock next year, so what else can he say?
To be honest, when this news reaches Liaodong, the generals of the Liaodong Army at all levels may even celebrate it - this is a good opportunity to settle the accounts!
Although various financial audits have become increasingly strict in recent years since the establishment of the large household department system, anyone who has really worked at the grassroots level knows that some loss of items such as inventory clothing is inevitable. What kind of mouse bites it?
, it got damaged due to moisture... This is all reasonable.
Since it makes sense, if the specific number is slightly higher, even the Audit Office will not be able to easily conclude that you are responsible for it, right?
Zhou Yong was originally worried that Gao Jingshi's plan to allocate cotton-padded jackets from military uniforms would cause dissatisfaction with the Liaodong Army, but Gao Jingshi was too familiar with the military, and he knew the ropes here very well. Therefore, he said "write off the account" and "make up for it next year".
"Full" immediately reassured Zhou Yong - the Liaodong Army would never be dissatisfied, but would rather wish to build a shrine for Gao Pragmatic.
As for how much more money the court will spend next year, Zhou Yong will not interfere. Yuan Fu will handle this matter. After all, he is the Minister of Household Affairs.
However, Song Yingchang, Minister of War, couldn't help but ask more: "Yuanfu, although the inventory of the Liaodong Army is still sufficient, if these more than 200,000 sets of cotton-padded jackets are taken away, if the clothing of the registered soldiers is damaged,
I’m afraid it’s not easy to handle.”
That is, it is not surprising that military uniforms are wasted. After all, even if they are not fighting, training, standing guard, sentry and other tasks, there will be losses to some extent. Gao Pragmatic directly emptied the Liaodong Army's cotton-padded jacket inventory, which is equivalent to
There is no redundancy at all, and it must be resolved.
Who knew that Gao Pingshi would not be able to speak this time, so he straightened his face and said: "It is not in wartime, so there is no reason to destroy it easily. It can be repaired, so how can you just replace it?"
Song Yingchang was frustrated and did not dare to confront Gao Pragmatic. He was about to retreat when Gao Pragmatic said again: "However, although the clothes are difficult to replace this year, let alone replenished, they can give the Liaodong Army some warmth."
compensate."
Song Yingchang was startled for a moment and asked, "I wonder how Yuan Fu wants to arrange it?"
Gao pragmatically said: "This year, an additional 10% of briquettes will be allocated to the Liaodong Army. As for how Li Rusong plans to allocate it, that is his business, and this cabinet has no business."
Ever since Gao Pragmatic invented briquettes, this stuff has developed in the north for thirty years and has become the most important heating material, and the coal mining industry has also achieved great development.
Because the Liaodong Army has many mountains and forests, in the early years of government offices and wealthy households, they often used charcoal for heating. People among the people tended to cut down trees in advance and dry them in the shade, and then burned firewood directly during the winter. It is different now. Burning honeycomb briquettes has become the mainstream, while charcoal firewood has become the mainstream.
As a supplement, this point becomes more obvious the closer to important coal producing areas and the more developed water transportation areas are.
Of course, water transportation in Liaodong will become "ice transportation" in winter because the rivers will freeze. Although it is better than ordinary land transportation, the transportation capacity is still much worse than when it is not frozen, and the freight will also increase, so everyone has to prepare in advance.
The habit of hoarding coal for winter use.
Gao Yingshi dared to say this because the output of Jinghua's coal mines in Liaodong was obviously sufficient, so Song Yingchang thought about it and felt that with such a supplement, there would be no trouble, so he resigned.
Since heating has been mentioned, Gao Pragmatic simply moved the third item to the second item. He said: "I have checked it and found that all major coal mines in Shuntian, Beizhili, Shanxi, and Liaodong have it."
There is sufficient inventory, so as long as the imperial court orders the allocation, not only local yamen and military camps can increase the supply, but can even provide it to the people."
When Yu Shenxing heard this, he immediately became excited and praised: "The imperial court allocates briquettes to the people to keep out the cold. This is really good governance that has never been seen before..."
"Wait a minute!" Gao Pingshi quickly stopped and said with wide eyes, "Don't try to block me with your words, Mr. Goshang. The student didn't say that these briquettes are distributed to the public for free."
He quickly explained: "First of all, although Jinghua and other large and small coal mines have a lot of coal, they are legal assets. They cannot be made free of charge by the court with just a word. If the court wants to
You have to spend money to buy it - at most, Jinghua will lower the price on its own, but it can't be free. Otherwise, if Jinghua's many mining areas cannot pay wages, then tens of thousands of miners will also have to eat. By then... it's not a joke.
Play."
Yu Shenxing really wanted to "bleed" Gao Jingjing, but there was no malicious intention. He just felt that Gao Jingjing did not lack the money. However, Gao Jingjing was not selfless to this extent. He could help in whatever way he could.
The imperial court will not use money to waste money like "breaking up the family for the sake of the country" - unless there is a crisis of national subjugation and genocide.
Yu Shenxing laughed dryly and said, "So, it's the imperial court that has brought trouble to Beijing."
Gao pragmatic always felt that his words were a bit of a squeeze on him, but what could he do? He was the master of his provincial examination, and he couldn't care less about it. So he could only pretend not to hear it and continued: "There are still some troubles here.
Although the imperial court could provide the Han people with coal supplies for this winter at low prices, loans, or even credit, they would then go door to door to ask for it based on the ledgers next year.
However, after Tumut, Horqin, and Jurchen were attached to the various ministries, it was difficult to calculate the accounts for a while. In this way, the supply could only be distributed according to the rough number of heads of each ministry. Not to mention whether they were capable. There is a willingness to distribute fairly to avoid freezing to death of people and animals. Even if they can do a good job, they will still have the problem of collecting the accounts in the coming year.”
Gao Pragmatic frowned and said: "Tumote and Nenhorqin are easier to handle. As long as we can help them survive the white disaster this year, they can use horses, cattle and sheep to offset it next year. If it doesn't work, they can also postpone the debt repayment. The year after next, big The year after tomorrow, that is not non-negotiable.
But what should we do with those girls? These people only know how to fish and hunt, and our Ming Dynasty does not have the custom of flying eagles and lackeys. No matter how good the Haidongqing is, it will be useless if not many people want to buy it. In this way, they can only get some fur goods and stuff. Zhulai offsets it... I have made a rough estimate, and I'm afraid it won't be able to increase the production value just by relying on these things."
This is indeed a problem. The officials were talking about it for a while, but there was no good solution. Shen Yiguan came up with an idea, saying that he had heard that the men who gave birth to girls were quite brave, or they could simply let them sell themselves into the mainland and go to rich families everywhere. You can go and look after the homes of powerful people.
Gao pragmatic rolled his eyes when he heard this, and thought to himself, are you deliberately making bad ideas to disgust me? The Jurchen tribe has just been encircled, and my court is going to drain their men and disperse them among the Han people with a population of trillions. , what do you want the leaders of the various ministries to think? I invited them here first, and then forced them to rebel and show me?
The discussion was going on, and in the same year when Gao was pragmatic, Xiao Liangyou, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, suddenly came up with an idea and said: "Rixin, I think of something, maybe I can refer to it for details."
Gao Pingshi hurriedly said: "Brother Han Chong, come quickly."
Xiao Liangyou said: "Because Jiaci is weak, I went to the pharmacy a few days ago to buy a few ginseng plants. Suddenly I found that ginseng this year was 40% more expensive than in previous years. After asking, I found out that it was because the Mature Women's Zhen tribe moved to North Korea. , the production of ginseng has been greatly reduced, so the price has increased.
The owner of the pharmacy kindly advised me to buy a few more ginseng plants, because according to his estimation, when the ginseng stocks in pharmacies in various places are exhausted, and the production in Liaodong will not increase, it will become more and more expensive in the future."
Gao Pragmatic suddenly slapped the armrest: "Oh, I forgot about this!"
He was quite upset, because he was the one who strongly advocated the move of the Jurchens, but at that time it was mainly based on geopolitical and military security considerations: if the Jurchens were moved to North Korea, Liaodong would be fully Sinicized, and then there would be the Yalu River. , even if the situation was so bad that the Jurchens captured the entire North Korea, it would be almost impossible for them to fight back to Liaodong.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! However, he forgot another thing. In history, Nurhachi started his career mainly by relying on the capital accumulated from the ginseng trade, but now Nurhachi has been kicked. It is true that after reaching southern Korea, the military threat has been basically eliminated, but there are not enough people to dig ginseng in the Jianzhou Jurchen area he vacated!
However, Gao Pangshi also knew that when Xiao Liang mentioned this matter, he was definitely not suggesting that he arrange for Han people to dig ginseng. Although Han people are very hardworking and hardworking, digging ginseng is obviously not professional.
The level of development in Liaodong these days is very low. As long as you leave the Han people's cities, there is basically no big difference from primitive society. The mountains are full of jackals, tigers, leopards, wild boars, and bears, and no one is easy to deal with.
If you insist on saying that Han hunters can go to this kind of place, you are right, but how many Han hunters are there? How many hunters are there compared to the Jurchens? Are you kidding me? The Jurchens don’t care about rawness or familiarity, almost all of them are on horseback.
It can be called an Orion... If you don't believe it, just look at Meng Guzhezhe's archery skills.
You know, Meng Guzhezhe is a mature woman from a top family, and is the princess of Ye He tribe. She usually doesn't really need to hunt to make a living. Her archery skills are at that level. If she were someone who usually relies on "crafts" to make a living
Jurchen hunters, I can't even think about it.
Gao Yingshi immediately made the decision: "Thank you, Brother Han Chong! In this case, I will send someone to contact Sheng Jurchen and ask them to exchange ginseng for the supplies they need. This year, time is too tight, so it doesn't matter if they don't get enough. The court allows them to take credit, and allows them to do so."
They postponed it for a few years and slowly made up for it!”
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PS: I received another sad news today. My eldest sister-in-law has a cerebral infarction and is admitted to the ICU. The hospital said that she can survive it in the next three days. From now on, there is a high probability that she will be in a vegetative state. If she cannot survive it, she will die. Alas, I just suffered from the disease in the past two months.
The brain tumor left my uncle, and this time my uncle came again... Sometimes I think about it, people are really fragile.