Chapter 146: The Yellow River is Diversion

Zhu Qizhen paced slowly, and he didn't care about any political principles at the moment.

Yes, in many cases, without making direct decisions and indirectly manipulating the government, in many cases, Zhu Qizhen can be in an invincible position in politics.

But there are some things, these things are just superfluous.

Zhu Qizhen has to make many major decisions immediately, because there is not so much time to go through the process.

Like now.

Zhu Qizhen suddenly stopped and said: "Since it is so difficult for the Yellow River to restore its old course, how about letting the Yellow River take a new course?" ”

"Your Majesty is wise." Cao Nai's column said: "The water is good, after the Yellow River comes out of Guangwu Mountain, it has shown the state of hanging river on the ground, and the bottom of the Yellow River is higher than the Kaifeng Iron Tower. In the Kaifeng area, the highest place is not another place, that is, the embankment of the Yellow River, so that the Yellow River floods, the people block it, and it is half the effort. Acting against the sky. ”

"Your Majesty has a clever plan to harness water and attack sand, the Yellow River embankment should have been built, why not build a new embankment, the water is good, the Yellow River bursts, but I think about it, I want to come to this new river, which is the lowest place nearby. Coupled with the method of harnessing water and attacking sand, it can become an indestructible industry. ”

Zhu Qizhen listened to Cao Nai's words and slowly came back to his senses.

Cao Nai's approval of this method is the political attitude he has always held, that is, domestic affairs are greater than external enemies. Cao Nai knows one thing too well, that is, the manpower and material resources of the imperial court are limited.

Since Zhu Qizhen chose to repair the Yellow River, he naturally had to give up the battle with the tile spur, so it was a big victory for Cao Nai. And such a plan, if Ma Yu is here, he will definitely oppose it. The reason is very simple, Ma Yu is a native of Shandong.

Every minister in the court has the obligation to fight for the interests of his hometown, otherwise he can't be an official for a lifetime, and even if he can be an official for a lifetime, the feeling of being picked up by his hometown is not comfortable.

In this opportunity, the biggest loss of interests is Shandong.

I'm sorry that there is such a river in that province, and it is enough for the governor to the people of this province to not be able to sleep.

But for Cao Nai, he didn't have to think much about Shandong Shilin's thoughts.

Zhu Qizhen said: "Zhou Chen. ”

Zhou Chen immediately said: "The minister is here." ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "You immediately straighten out the treasury and prepare to find a way to squeeze out a sum of money." Prepare to repair the river. ”

Zhou Chen's face was a little unsightly, but at this time, Zhou Chen would never talk back to Zhu Qizhen, but Zhou Chen knew very well that the finances of the Ming Dynasty were not too healthy.

Because of last year's drought, more than 10 million stones, millions of taels, were exempted and appropriated for silver taels, and you must know that this is an extraordinary expenditure. It's not that outside of the catastrophe, the normal operation of the imperial court does not require money.

as

Judging from last year's fiscal round, not to mention that there was a surplus, there was a deficit.

The court seems to have some savings. If there is no way to use the money and grain to build a new embankment on the Yellow River, there will be no problem.

But there are tile thorns, and a lot of silver taels are transferred to the inner treasury, which is included in the military expenses, but it is not used now.

Therefore, Zhou Chen's work is very difficult.

Zhou Chen tried his best to find a way to make money for Zhu Qizhen, but no matter how he made money, it seemed that he couldn't exceed the speed at which the court spent money, which also made Zhou Chen very helpless.

Zhu Qizhen also knew this, and he was ready to stay and talk to Zhou Chen for a while.

Zhu Qizhen said, "Ruan An." ”

Ruan An immediately saluted and said, "The minister is here." ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "I ordered you to be the ambassador of water control, immediately go south, explore all the forms of mountains and rivers from the mouth of Baliu Village to the mouth of the Yellow River into the sea, and give me a plan with Wang Yonghe." ”

"It can stabilize in the shortest possible time."

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty, since the Yellow River has entered the sea." Ruan An said: "For a while, there should be no major incident. ”

Ruan An's words seemed to be comforting Zhu Qizhen

But it made Zhu Qizhen's heart even more uncomfortable.

Nguyen An is telling the truth. The Yellow River has burst, rushing thousands of miles, drowning an unknown number of people. At the beginning of the new river channel, I think that for a while, the Yellow River will no longer drown a village or a town.

After all, the obstacles to the Yellow River's entry into the sea have been washed away.

It's just that the more Zhu Qizhen tastes, the more he feels that there is an irony.

If it weren't for the fact that Zhu Qizhen had been in contact with Ruan An for more than ten years, he knew what kind of person Ruan An was, and he didn't go to his heart, but he was still a little uncomfortable in his heart.

"Your Majesty," Cao Nai said, "Now it seems that the matter of controlling the river is not something that can be done for a while, but it is not urgent, but there is one thing that is very urgent, and that is Cao Yun." Now that Zhang Qiu has been affected by the disaster, the transportation has been interrupted, and I am afraid that it will not be able to flow smoothly before the river is built. ”

"The minister thought that he should make up for the lack of transportation."

Zhu Qizhen listened, and his heart paused slightly, Cao Nai's words made Zhu Qizhen think in his heart, that is, from now on, will Daming enter the stage of shipping as the mainstay and Cao transportation as the supplement?

To be honest, Zhu Qizhen has a deep understanding of the various influences of this canal on the Ming Dynasty. He also had no idea of scrapping the canal in one go.

Although there are many alternatives, the canal is a very suitable means of transportation for this era. Even though the cost of maintaining the canal is high, there is a lot of income from the canal, and all the rivers on the canal are rich in flowing oil. This was also when the canal was more for official use than for democracy.

If you say, it will be a fortune in the future

As a supplement to sea transportation, then the transportation volume of four million stones, reduced to one million stones, or even hundreds of thousands of stones, is just to maintain the transportation capacity, and after something happens to the sea transportation and the transportation is interrupted, it can be restored to the transportation volume of four million stones per year in a short time. That's it.

The rest of the transportation volume can be given to the private sector.

At that time, the river tariff alone may not be much worse than the customs tax.

After all, as far as the entire economy of the Ming Dynasty is concerned, the Ming Dynasty in this matter is still obviously domestic demand-oriented, and most of the output is consumed by the Ming Dynasty itself.

Of course, this is also to establish a thorough transformation of the low-level tax collectors.

Otherwise, it is difficult to say how much tax can be collected.

As long as the output of the canal can make up for the maintenance costs of the canal, Zhu Qizhen will not want to abolish the canal, and one day in the future, the canal will become a money-losing business, and it will not be too late to abolish it.

Zhu Qizhen said: "Yes, the cabinet immediately sent an order to Wang Ying, the chief officer of the maritime transport, so that he could prepare for his life." Let Jiangnan prepare good grain, and all the grain transported this year will be transferred to sea transportation. ”

"Yes." Cao Nai said.

Immediately, Zhu Qizhen gave a few more instructions about disaster relief, and sent the Imperial History of the Metropolitan Procuratorate to inspect the disaster.

This time, the Weihui Mansion in Henan Province, the Daimyo Mansion in Zhili Province, the Dongchang Mansion in Shandong, the Yanzhou Mansion, and the Jinan Mansion were all affected by the disaster, so they naturally had to send people to see them.

These big and small things are enough for the cabinet to keep busy for several days.

Zhu Qizhen sent the cabinet to leave with Ruan An, but left Zhou Chen behind.

Zhu Qizhen said: "Just now you wanted to talk and stopped, but now you can say it." ”

Zhou Chen said: "Your Majesty, non-ministers shirk, it is really not enough money and food for the imperial court now, since Your Majesty has been in power, there have been major events, there are the Luchuan expedition, Hebei water conservancy, the renovation of the nine-sided city wall, the construction of Haixi Town, and now the new river channel of the Yellow River is going to be repaired, even if there are gold and silver mountains in the household, it can't be spent like this." ”

"And Your Majesty is bent on fighting the Tile Thorns, which all require money. In such a situation, the minister is eight hands and eight arms, and he can't fill this bottomless pit. ”

Zhu Qizhen sighed and said, "Mr. has worked hard, and this situation is not what I want." ”

Zhou Chen also knows that although crying children have candy to eat, they also have to be measured, and it is tiresome to talk too much. Zhou Chen sighed and said: "The minister received the grace of His Majesty's knowledge, even if he fought for this old life, he also wanted to make up enough money and food for His Majesty, but I just asked Your Majesty to think about the difficulties of the household when deciding." ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "Please estimate how much silver is needed for the new channel of the Yellow River." ”

Zhou Chen said: "Your Majesty, the minister estimates that from the breach to the sea, there are about more than 1,300 miles. The embankment had to be built on both sides, so the embankment of more than 2,600 miles was built. Not to mention that His Majesty is going to control the water and attack the sand. ”