Chapter 212: Financial Pressure

Zhu Qizhen sent Meng Ying away. Silently ponder the question just now.

When the news of the defeat came, Zhu Qizhen thought a lot, and the most important thing was how to turn the crisis into his own plan.

In the Ming Dynasty army's Beijing camp system, the first major reform was presided over by Yu Qian, and the three major battalions were divided into ten regimental battalions. It is also the most impactful reform.

After all, after that, the situation in Beijing is getting worse day by day, and no matter how much reform is useless.

And why Yu Qian was able to reform so easily, of course, after the change of Tumubao, Jing Nanxungui was wiped out. There is also a crisis of the tile spurs approaching the city.

In this case, the political resistance to Yu Qian is almost zero.

This big defeat shook Zhu Qizhen's authority. But the problem is that the emperor is not another politician, the emperor is the emperor, and there has never been an emperor who has stepped down because his ministers have lost a battle, unless he has been conquered by the capital division.

Zhu Qizhen has a way to reverse this impact, and even the civilian system will help Zhu Qizhen instead.

Because although the emperor and the civil clique had struggles with each other, they were a little more cooperative in many things.

If this were not the case, civilian politics would not have lasted for so many years.

Therefore, the time is ripe for a knife against Jingying.

But how to reform the question?

Zhu Qizhen first had to decouple the Beijing camp from the guard.

As I said before, the relationship between the Beijing camp and the 72 guards of the Beijing army, and the collapse of the guards, the world soldiers, the occupation of acres of land, and even various problems.

Zhu Qizhen didn't know how to start at all, after all, they were an important pillar to maintain the rule of the Ming royal family.

If you use civil officials to rectify it, will the Beijing camp still listen to the emperor after the rectification?

The reason why the emperor was so weak in the late Ming Dynasty was that the military power was no longer in his hands.

As for letting Xungui check it himself, Zhu Qizhen also tried it, but the effect was not obvious.

When the problem is intertwined and messy, and you don't know how to deal with it. Zhu Qizhen began to think about starting something else.

That's recruitment.

In fact, the military strength of the Tang Dynasty also encountered such a crisis, that is, in the early period of Tang Xuanzong, the government soldiers were unusable, and the Tang Dynasty recruited troops to replace the government soldiers to continue the combat effectiveness of the Tang Dynasty.

Although the Anshi Rebellion later came out, it cannot be said that this method is useless.

Therefore, what Zhu Qizhen wants is an army recruited from him. No longer selects people from the guards, but now directly pays silver, and no longer grants land. Completely professional soldiers.

Zhu Qizhen has already calculated, not counting equipment or anything, each soldier's salary of twelve taels of silver a year is enough to feed. If you raise 500,000 Beijing camps, it will be about 6 million taels a year. This one

It is a salary, plus equipment, horses, pensions, etc., ten million taels of silver a year, which may not be able to sustain it.

Therefore, Zhu Qizhen will not change the Beijing camp into a recruiter in an ancient mind, but there is a shortage of 50,000 people in the rush of the imperial court, can it be used to recruit 50,000 soldiers first?

At this critical juncture, which minister dares to say that he can't?

The process of recruiting soldiers, and then involve civilian officials. In this way, civilian officials will have the incentive to expand the scope of recruitment and reduce the scope of guards.

As for recruiting into the army, it is natural that the students of martial arts are the mainstay.

The process of recruiting soldiers instead of guards is naturally combined with the replacement of the old and new nobles.

When will the imperial court's military system based on recruitment be completely formed, and after sorting out the military system, Zhu Qizhen's authority will be enough to implement it in the army without hindrance.

At that time, there was no big deal about the spurs.

Of course, there is a problem with this plan.

That is, once Meng Ying got rid of it, the real soldiers of the tile spur came to the city? What to do?

First of all, Zhu Qizhen still trusts Meng Ying more, and he has already guarded all walks of life, Yang Hong, Guo Deng, all of whom were promoted by Zhu Qizhen from below, and they are all people who dare to fight.

It can be said that the middle-aged generals in the Ming Army are at the highest level.

If such a camp can't stop the tile spurs. It can only be said that the tile spur is open.

Even if it's incredibly impossible. The tile spur broke through the outer defense line of Beijing and approached the city of Beijing, and Zhu Qizhen was also confident that he would defend the city.

First of all, it is that the tile thorns are not good at attacking the city.

This is reflected in many ways. And the city of Beijing, but the city of the world, which has made a lot of money, immediately has millions of stone grain, countless weapons and artillery, and more than one million soldiers and civilians.

Besides, during the defense of Beijing, the entire Beijing division only had a few thousand young troops, and there were 100,000 deserters.

In addition, there are still 50,000 in the army, although it is a fish belly army, but it is also an army.

It is not a problem to defend the city like this for a few years, but is it really possible for the tile spur to stay under the city of Beijing for a year?

The war potential of the Ming Dynasty is something that the tile spurs dare not imagine.

Zhu Qizhen felt that although it was risky to do this, he lived in this low pocket.

The only thing that made him feel a little tricky was nothing else, financial pressure.

More than 100,000 soldiers have been killed in battle, which is a huge expense. Not to mention, the last battle was defeated, and the next battle will be fought again.

The cost is even more flying.

As soon as Zhu Qizhen thought of this, he didn't dare to see Zhou Chen.

Zhou Chen is a financial manager, but he is not an ATM.

Zhou Chen has worked the current financial basis and worked hard to squeeze out the oil and water. But

The growth rate of Ming military spending is a figure that makes Zhou Chen desperate.

Zhu Qizhen and Zhou Chen have a common principle, that is, no matter what, no matter what, no tax can be raised.

Zhu Qizhen was impressed because the Ming Dynasty died because of tax increases, so he tried his best to avoid it. It is better to make money from other means than to raise taxes.

As for Zhou Chen's better understanding of the people at the bottom, he knows better that some taxes are not written in the imperial court tax book, but he exists, which is the so-called harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes.

Generally speaking, in the past few years, Zhu Qizhen has inherited the policy of recuperation and recuperation of the Empress Dowager, and has made a difference, but in essence, many things are disturbing the people.

Therefore, the burden of the people at the bottom is already very heavy, in the year of the disaster, it is the displacement everywhere, and Fujian, Jiangxi, the movement is banditry, in fact, these two places are not these two places, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the blow is not big, so the population density is the largest. The population is larger, and land annexation is also the most intense.

In such a situation, any tax increase can be borne in some places and cannot be borne in some places. will upset the balance of places.

Moreover, the officials stretched out their hands layer by layer, the court received one or two, and the officials below could be greedy for three hundred words. This is still relatively incorruptible, in the Qing Dynasty government collected one tael, the additional consumption was at least more than five yuan, and even in some places, the additional consumption was more than the regular tax. Naturally, the increase was divided equally among local officials.

Therefore, many of the fiscal reforms implemented by Zhou Chen have not been stabbed on the field tax, is there no potential for the field tax to be improved? No, the field tax is a regular tax of the Han Dynasty for thousands of years, and if it is cleaned up, the income will definitely not be more than 23 million stone grain, and it may not be impossible to double it.

It's just that the water in here is too deep. Even to rectify the salt tax, you have to kill people first, if you want to rectify the field tax, what kind of look?

Therefore, Zhou Chen advised Zhu Qizhen several times not to easily change the ancestral law on top of the field tax.

It's just that with such a big financial gap now, Zhu Qizhen really doesn't know what to do.

He could only summon Zhou Chen to discuss this matter.

Zhou Chen's gray hair is now completely white, and his eye sockets are deeply sunken, and he has to take care of the logistics of the army during this period of time, and he has to take into account the logistics of the army, and the Yellow River Dagong, and the problems of the flood season in various places, Zhou Chen is already quite tired.

Zhu Qizhen exchanged a few words with Zhou Chen, and talked about the use of the Yellow River, and Zhou Chen even plugged the hole. As for military spending, military rations, and so on, not to mention.

It's just that when Zhu Qizhen took out the secret report of Jinyiwei, Zhou Chen suddenly became angry, he ignored the military gaffe, and shouted angrily: "Zhu Yong should die." ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "Mr. is angry, Mr. is angry? ”

Zhou Chen said: "Chengguo Gong has been appreciated by several generations of kings, but he has buried all the elite iron horsemen of the army, how can such a sinner not deserve to die, please dispose of Chengguo Gong according to Qiu Fu's example." ”