"Do you know how many horses Gao Shidu, this servant, has brought from Tumochuan to our border troops in the three towns of Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi in the past six months?"
As soon as Zhu Xixiao said this, he immediately attracted the attention of everyone present. Not to mention that Emperor Longqing immediately cast his gaze over. Even Li Chunfang, the chief assistant of Qingci, came back to his senses from the state where the old monk was in meditation before and looked at Zhu Xixiao. .
Everyone knows the importance of horses to the army, and they also know that since the collapse of the horse administration in Ming Dynasty, the problem of horse shortage has become more and more serious. Even on the sixth day of February this year, the person responsible for managing the horse administration Gu Cunren, minister of Taipu Temple, also wrote a note saying that the court should pay attention to six matters concerning Ma Zheng.
The six points he put forward in the article are: 1. Give stallions a premium. Recently, stallion families have suffered from official intrusions on fishing, and they are afraid of losing their horses. From now on, all those who are determined to have important horses by the people will be given a premium, but they will still be free of charge. Collect two taels of silver for fodder. Second, ask for grazing. The general magistrate is responsible for horse administration. Third, move the election in a grand manner. The horse management officer should be in office for a long time. Fourth, strictly supervise the transportation. In various states and counties, the money and horses are often monopolized, so they should be strictly prohibited. Reform, and trace the price of horses in various places for those who have not finished the grains in the capital camp. Fifth, discuss the change of faction. The non-horse-producing areas in South Zhili are far away from the capital, so it is advisable to change all the horse prices. Sixth, store the records carefully. Many of the documents and records in this temple have been forgotten. Please use the spare old warehouse as a pavilion storehouse and order the officials to guard it.
Gu Cunren's memorial is very famous in history, but no one here except Gao Pragmatic knows this. But at least they all know that the two most critical points in Gu Cunren's Ma Zhengtiao are actually " "Horses raise horses" and "exchange money to buy horses".
Let’s not talk too much about the horse households raising horses. Anyway, the northern horse households were tortured by this policy, and the famous Hebei horse bandits were born. For example, the Bazhou bandit that Cao Gan inherited from his father-in-law is a typical example.
The Southern Zhili of the Ming Dynasty was almost the generation of Southern Jiangsu and Southern Anhui in later generations. The economy was developed enough, but it obviously did not produce horses. However, there was always a "share" of horse breeding hanging over them, so they could only change it to horse breeding. Money, that is, "change taxes and break silver".
Gu Cunren's statement mainly talks about the problem of not collecting the "levied silver" in full, but in fact, all the ministers in the Jiyi Palace today know that even if the money can be collected, it will most likely be diverted to other uses. Why? Because there is no place to buy horses.
Back when Duoyan Sanwei was still obedient, Daming could still buy some horses from them. Although even Duoyan Sanwei was not willing to sell stallions, the geldings they bought could last for some years, which was better than nothing. Later, after the Duoyan Sanwei were surrendered by the Mongolian left wing who moved south, the channels for buying horses in the Ming Dynasty were basically broken, and the number of local horses was insufficient. As a result, in recent years, only Liaodong had enough horses, and the rest of the areas including Xuan A large town like this can only maintain one or two elite but relatively small cavalry.
The problem of horse shortage in the Ming Dynasty has already caused headaches to even the civil servants of the imperial court.
Therefore, as soon as Zhu Xixiao said these words, the eyes of everyone in the Jiyi Hall were all focused on his face in an instant, as if a large number of horses could be found on his face.
Of course, Zhu Xixiao didn't even have a hair on his face, but as soon as he opened his mouth, everyone was overjoyed. Zhu Xixiao stretched out two fingers and said: "In about half a year, the servant Cao Gan, who was studied by Gao Shi,
, a total of 2,327 good horses that can be used in battle were purchased from various departments in Tumochuan."
"Wow!"
"hiss--"
"More than two thousand three hundred horses?"
"Is this true?"
"Can they all be used in combat?"
…
Zhu Xixiao's brother, Cheng Guogong Zhu Xizhong, stepped forward, gestured to everyone, and said with a smile: "This is indeed not a lie. Lord British, you are in charge of the former military governor's house, and you should know that the number of horses has changed. Come on."
Tell me?"
Everyone then looked at Zhang Rong again, only to see Zhang Rong nodded: "In the three towns of Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi, the number of war horses has increased by more than 1,900 in the past six months. If the war horses are damaged as usual, they will die of illness.
Judging from the general situation, it should be true that the three towns purchased more than 2,300 additional war horses."
Long Qing suddenly clapped his hands and said loudly: "Okay! Good buy! That Cao Gan did a good job and should be rewarded!" When he said this, he suddenly remembered that Cao Gan was neither a civil official nor a military general, but he was highly pragmatic.
Servant, even if he is the emperor, it is not easy for him to go beyond his master to reward others, so he added: "Gao Aiqing, this is all because of your merits in training the servant, and you should receive this reward."
Gao Pangshi breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. He estimated that this matter should be covered up. Moreover, the biggest significance of this is not to cover it up for now, but that he can use this reason to trade with Mongolia in the future - although I will not answer the question in the future.
After the tribute was successfully completed and the horse market became normally open, this reason did not seem to be that important. But don’t forget that after Anda paid tribute, the Ming Dynasty only opened the Anda headquarters, Tumochuan Department and the Wo River it could control.
Erdusi and other Buma markets still firmly closed their trading doors to the Mongolian left wing.
But things are different now that Gao Pragmatic has laid the foundation for today's drama. He can use the same reason to get in touch with the Mongolian left wing and also start trade.
The reason is still the same. Gao Pragmatic is not worried that these transactions allow the Mongols to resist disasters to a greater extent, reduce losses, strengthen the economy, etc. Because history has proven that the harder these nomadic peoples live, the more aggressive they will be.
On the contrary, if their lives become more comfortable, their aggression will be lower - they don't know how to produce agriculture, so if they can't survive, they can only rely on robbing? Do you think they don't kill people when they fight, do they naturally like to fight?
This is also the reason why Gao Pragmatic dared to consider using economic and political means to control Mongolia.
Of course, there is always a premise here, that is, the Ming Dynasty can maintain sufficient defensive power. If there is a war mad leader among them who wants to fight, the Ming Dynasty must be able to give him a head-on blow. When they find that fighting hard is not as good as
When it is cost-effective to do business honestly, even internal forces will prevent them from forming a joint force to invade the Ming Dynasty. And this is the so-called economic influence on politics.
I felt secretly happy in my heart. I still had to do the show that I should do. I saw Gao Pragmatic, his face as usual, stepped forward, bowed to Longqing, and said: "The Gao family has been favored by the emperor for generations, even though I am a humble minister.
I was young and had little knowledge, and I also knew that war horses were very important to our Ming Dynasty, so I sent Cao Gan and others to the north secretly to sell horses for the country. However, although the civil and military officials tacitly agreed to take care of this matter, it was still a matter between the ministers and Cao Cao.
Gan and others violated the ban first. I think that your Majesty's failure to punish them is already a great favor, so how dare you accept the reward? Please take back your Majesty's orders."