The so-called "levy of sea pay" was actually being planned and launched at the beginning of Yin Feng's Zhonghua Company's rebellion and when the sea ban policy was reopened. Once the sea ban was lifted, the Zhonghua Company "allocated" hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Fujian government every year. The payment of two silver coins stopped. The overseas trade tax of Haichengyue Port controlled by the Zhonghua Company has not been collected at all. The commercial tax of Yue Port, known as the "Emperor's South Treasury", has been suspended. The imperial court's military expenditures to maintain the maritime embargo have plummeted. rise.
Originally, Wanli had completely plundered the Taicang treasury regarding the "Land of the Blessed King". This made the treasury, which had bottomed out after the "Wanli Three Major Expeditions", completely unable to cope with the newly increased "sea ban" expenses.
Fang Congzhe, the chief minister of the cabinet, asked Emperor Wanli to use the internal treasury to make up for the shortage of military expenditures. Emperor Wanli kept his memorial and kept it silent. There was no news. Therefore, the Minister of Household Affairs proposed a countermeasure to increase land tax. The minister responsible for the relief of the drought-stricken and hungry people in Shandong The supervisory censor reported to the court that the chief ministers were plagued by famines and the people were unable to bear the pressure of increasing taxes. The court ministers started a new round of quarrels over this.
When the Chinese army suddenly landed near Dagukou and Zhenjiang, and the troops were directed towards the southern and northern capitals, the ministers in the court were stunned and quickly passed the plan to increase "sea pay" nationwide. resolution.
After the Battle of Nanjing came to an end, Yin Feng learned the news about the increase in "sea pay" from the intercepted imperial newspaper. He took the newspaper in the old tent of the Shogunate Mountain and couldn't help but smile bitterly: In his previous life, he gave Ming The increase in "Liao pay" that added fuel to the fire has not yet appeared. The imperial court has allocated more "sea pay" for itself. It wants to "change the trajectory of history." History has really made a big difference with itself. What a joke.
Xu Hongji held the same newspaper and shook his head while reading: "This increase in pay and stipends is really an attempt by the imperial court to mend wounds. Alas... The imperial court is not actually without money. The Taicang treasury has to pay two or three dollars for the clan's expenses every year. One million taels of silver. And the sea tax was levied. Nine percent of silver per mu was added, and the total tax was 5.2 million taels. It was only two years of royal family expenses. I have seen the imperial palace newspaper from the Zhengde period. It said Zhengde During the 1960s, the imperial estates were spread all over the country, covering a total area of more than 37,600 hectares. Now there are only more. The current emperor gave the newly-named princes many hectares of farmland. In fact, there are not so many ownerless hectares in the world. In addition to the "folks who compete for size", a considerable part of the idle land is replaced by additional distribution of rent money."
Xu Hongji, the secretary responsible for collecting all public information from the imperial court, remembered something. He lowered his head and rummaged through a pile of documents for a while. He handed a copy of the imperial newspaper to Yin Feng: "Your Majesty, this is the memorial from the governor of Henan. It says in In Xixian County, Henan, the 1,157 hectares and 32 acres of land allocated to Prince Fu's Mansion were all assigned "within one whip of the county." King Rui's 20,000 hectares of fertile farmland also came entirely from Shaanxi. Henan, Shanxi, and Sichuan allocate additional taxes to obtain rent money based on the number of acres of land allocated. These clan lands do not need to pay taxes. The levy of sea rates will have no impact on them at all. It will only affect the common people."
Xu Hongji spread out a copy of the Di newspaper and handed it to Yin Feng. He said: "This is the accounting record given to the cabinet by the Ministry of Household Affairs. It records the forty-fourth year of Wanli. That is, the court's land tax revenue last year was more than 28 million shi. Its expenditures Yes: First, the local reserve of grain is about 10 million shi, of which 8 million shi is used as clan rice. The rest is local administrative expenses. Eighty percent is used to feed the increasing number of Zhu family descendants;
Secondly, four million stones from the annual grain transportation are converted into one million taels of gold and silver. A small part is used as military officers and officials. Most of it goes to the palace for consumption; the palace consumes the majority every year;
Thirdly, four million dan of grain are provided every year for the consumption of the Beijing army, the Jizhou garrison and the bureaucrats of various central government offices. The bulk of the money is spent on raising officials;
Fourth. One hundred and seventy thousand shi of white grain for the consumption of the inner palace;
Fifth. Nanjing’s annual food expenditure is about one million dan.
Sixth. The nine-border army spent 3 million to 8 million shi per year on military rations. The above six items of expenditure were about 23 million to 28 million shi. In other words, almost all the income from the court's land tax was used for military, administrative and
One-third of the palace consumption supplies the emperor and the descendants of the Zhu family."
Yin Feng nodded and said helplessly: "This is what is called using the world's wealth to support one person. It is said to increase the land tax to deal with me, a pirate. In fact, I think the people who benefit the most are the local officials, subordinate officials, and government officials.
.Therefore they have various
It is an opportunity to cleverly create a name, add sects without permission, and invade from it. Moreover, regardless of the clan land, the imperial village, the official land, and the land of the families of the officials, gentry and landlords, they are all exempt from taxes.
We have to pay the salary, but only the land of ordinary people is left."
Xu Hongji gave a wry smile, shook his head and said, "Your Excellency, you are right. The imperial government is actually digging its own grave by drying up the lake and digging its own grave. In the newspaper here, there is a memorial from Zhang Heming, the left minister of the Ministry of War and the minister of Nanjing Ministry of Industry. It is said that it is.
: Although the people today are poor, they are not poor in paying taxes. In the first year of the year, the number of people who are given extra orders is unknown. For example, if the Hajj exam is completed, the performance will be promoted, and few will be promoted.
The fee is five to six thousand gold. Taking into account the internal plans of the sea, the country will select a group of people to guard the order, and the country will send millions more to patrol and conduct inspections, and give gifts and recommendations. If the number is more than 20,000 to 30,000 gold. Combined with the internal plans of the sea, the country will
A patrol was sent, and more than a million people were sent to the world. The amount of extra money sent by local officials was greater than the various land taxes increased in the Ming Dynasty. If this continues for a long time, the world will be in a state of uproar. "
Yin Feng patted the newspapers: "Mr. Xu, one thing must be made clear. It's not that the court and the government have no money. It's that they have no way to convert the money into national power. The royal family has land and money, and high-ranking officials have land and money.
, the gentry and landlords also had land and money. But the court had no way to convert their financial resources into the strength of the country. Those salt merchants and Shanxi merchants were all as rich as the country. But the court had a way to convert their money
Requisition them all? Impossible. This is the fundamental difference between our Chinese company and the imperial court. We can temporarily mobilize funds by borrowing money from wealthy businessmen. We can also use the company's financial system to recruit countless funds. There are also our banks and banking systems. As long as our company
If necessary, we can borrow funds from all over the world. But in the imperial court, high-ranking officials and nobles hold high positions, but they are unwilling and unable to solve the financial problems of the imperial court."
Xu Hongji never thought of looking at the problem from this perspective. He couldn't help but nodded: "Your Majesty, this is indeed the strength of our company. But is it possible for the imperial court to learn from our system?"
"This is impossible. The imperial court has never borrowed money from businessmen. It is all apportionment and purchase. It is no different from robbery. It is even more impossible for the imperial court to rob the property of the royal family and high-ranking officials. The announcement of the Seven Great Hatreds
God, I said when I was in class at the Political Science Institute that the Ming Dynasty court had no mobilization
The war financial mechanism of the whole country and the whole people. Since all beneficial war resources have not been mobilized, defeat is inevitable. Coordinating the overall situation means that it is impossible to mobilize and mobilize the resources of the whole society in a financial way. No matter how much wealth is accumulated, production and trade
No matter how developed it is, it is useless."
Yin Feng stood up and opened the curtain of the big tent. Outside was the autumn wind and autumn rain, which was a murderous weather.
After temporarily occupying half of the Jiangnan area, the Chinese army stopped military operations. The Ming army is gathering forces and intends to counterattack. Now is the transition between summer and autumn. It is a good time to fight. The wind direction of the Western Pacific is about to change. In order to catch up with the north wind Logistics supplies have been ensured before. The Chinese company is doing its best to recruit thousands of sailing ships to transport supplies and ammunition to the expedition troops.
Mr. Zeng had already arrived from Quanzhou. He took over the administrative management of the occupied areas in the south of the Yangtze River from Zeng Shan, Xu Hongji and others. Along with Zeng Qi, there were more than 100 students from the Political College that trains civilian administrative officials. They immediately accepted them The government affairs of more than ten prefectures and counties did not copy the administrative system of the Chinese Company. Instead, they only followed the policy of governing by doing nothing, exempting people from taxes, opening warehouses to help the people, carrying out trade, and maintaining public order.
The financial strength accumulated by Zhonghua Company over the years can fully support Zeng Qi's various expenses in Jiangnan. Therefore, the Chinese army promoted the slogan of "three-year tax exemption" in the occupied areas and began to recruit craftsmen from all over Jiangnan with high salaries. Doing great business with wealthy Jiangnan merchants.
There has been no water conservancy construction in Jiangnan for a long time. Zeng Qi used the funds of the Chinese company to hire local people to repair water conservancy. He also repaired the Confucius Temple in Jurong and the school in Wuhu. In publicity, the company made full use of all printing shops and printed a large number of "Seven Hatreds", "Six Major Oaths" and "Business News" published by some Chinese companies are distributed for free in the occupied areas. In the propaganda post written by the Zengshan organization, the Chinese Army claimed that it sent troops to the two capitals for military remonstrance. As long as The imperial court agreed to the "Six Major Oaths" proposed by the Chinese Company. The Chinese Army will immediately withdraw its troops.
One thing is clear. The Chinese Army does not treat those officials, gentry, landlords, and landlords in any special way. As long as they don't talk nonsense, they generally will not provoke them. But once there are people who openly resist, the Chinese Army will use armed force mercilessly. Sweeping down. Usually the rural soldiers are wiped out. After the regiment training, the leaders of the troublemakers will be executed and the property will be confiscated. However, the Chinese army does not keep all the confiscated property as their own. Instead, most of them are distributed to the surrounding people, even forcibly. Give it to them. Even the properties of those landlords who were wiped out. The Chinese Army burned all the land deeds. At the same time, the Chinese Army also released all the domestic servants and slaves and burned all the deeds of sale.
According to Zeng Qi: "The occupation of Jiangnan is only temporary. We are not here to manage local government affairs for the imperial court. We only need to leave a good influence on the people. Those gentry and landlords do not cause trouble, and we will not touch them. Anyway, we will stay If you dispose of them, they will not increase taxes on the court. Instead, they will be a burden on the court's finances."
Yin Feng asked: "There is now a rumor among the scholars that we are thieves who dare to advocate chaos. It will be detrimental to our future struggle for the world."
Zeng Qi sneered and said: "So what. I was originally from the Shilin. Jiangnan is a place where Donglin scholars gather. I usually talk loudly. Now under the gunfire of our army, only those in Jiangnan dare to openly oppose us. They are just some landlords and gentry. They are just scholars. They have high ambitions but low abilities. Don’t pay any attention to them.”
Yin Feng nodded: "Okay. Since we are here to remonstrate, we still have to make a fuss about the military and occupy a large territory. Now is not the time. But my father-in-law, there are many outstanding people in Jiangnan. There are too many craftsmen, painters, and scribes. .You should try your best to recruit as many useful talents as possible."
…
While Yin Feng and Zeng Qi were busy competing with the imperial court in the south of the Yangtze River for the hearts and minds of the people, the decisive battle between Chen Zhongji and the imperial army was about to begin.