Chapter 2: The Continuation of the Fiscal Crisis

After the Great War that year, I wanted to come in Zhu Qizhen.

Probably two or three years later, the imperial court recovered its vitality, the financial situation improved, at that time it was a big move, step by step, the restoration of Kaiping, Daning, Dongshengwei, the entire southern Mongolia into the hands of the imperial court, the tile spur across the desert confrontation, and then operate Haixi, with Changbai Mountain as a barrier, sea route for transshipment, a large number of tuntian fields in Haixi, when the grain and grass are sufficient, all the way against the Heilongjiang River westward, one along the Liaohe River north, the two sides to seize Zhaozhou, that is, a little west of Harbin today, and then operate Zhaozhou.

Although Zhaozhou is bitterly cold, the water and soil are acceptable, and you can tuntian.

After the imperial court ran Zhaozhou, it went straight from Zhaozhou to Mobei.

From the south of the desert to the north of the desert, you have to cross the Hanhai Sea, which is hundreds of miles wide or even wider. This is a great difficulty.

But from Zhaozhou into Mobei.

However, the rivers are dense, the water and grass are abundant, and there are even many places where you can farm fields.

Therefore, if you win, you will rush forward, and if you don't win, you will fight step by step, and fight for national strength with the tile spur.

This has almost been brewing for too long, too long.

It's just that the truth is a little different from what he imagined.

A great war in the fourteenth year of orthodoxy caused a great disaster to the Ming Dynasty's finances.

Zhou Chen tried his best to maintain it.

also did a lot of unseemly things. What I said before, I won't say it. For example, selling Du Mu, yes, is the monk's ID card.

Emperor Taizu had many restrictions on monks, such as taking exams to be monks, such as being over forty years old to become a monk. Wait a minute. Later, the testimonies were somewhat relaxed.

Many people in the palace believe in Buddhism, but Zhu Qizhen does not believe in it, he does not suppress Buddhism much, nor does he support it. Therefore, the number of monks in Jingzhong has been greatly reduced after he became pro-government.

The reason is simple.

The main force in establishing a Buddhist temple in Beijing was the eunuchs.

The eunuchs in the palace are inextricably linked with the Buddhist temples outside. Zhu Qizhen has a repressive attitude towards the entire group of eunuchs, and it has also affected Buddhism outside.

Therefore, there is a big market for Du Mu, and Zhou Chen began to sell Du Mu and made a fortune from the temple.

There are a lot of bits and pieces.

In the fourteenth year of Orthodoxy, the various laws were strictly enforced, and the income from fines of dirty silver reached a new high, reaching about one million taels.

The so-called fine is the income of the criminal department, and in the Daming law, there are many crimes that can be redeemed, and the fine is paid.

It can be seen that Zhou Chen is doing everything in the face of the financial crisis.

Zhu Qizhen originally thought that after fourteen years of orthodoxy, he and Yexian were both dealing with internal problems, and his recovery time should be a little faster than dealing with Toktobu first.

But I never thought of it.

Orthodoxy has been good for 15 years, but orthodoxy for 16 years is that God will not give face.

Throughout the 16 years of orthodoxy, there was a situation of drought in the west and flooding in the east.

Gansu, Shaanxi, and Shanxi are in great drought, while Liaodong, Shandong, and Huai'an are in great water. There are also two earthquakes in Beijing, although they did not hurt much, but they also made people panic.

Whether it's drought or flood, disaster relief is always needed.

Therefore, in the fifteenth year of orthodoxy, I just saved a little silver, and I smashed it in.

However, in the sixteenth year of orthodoxy, it was still about the same. After all, the most economically developed place in the Ming Dynasty is not the north, but the south.

There were some difficulties in the south, but overall it was a good harvest.

At this moment, Zhou Chen resolutely demanded that the silver drawn from various places in the fourteenth year of orthodoxy be returned.

Because he has been a magistrate, he understands one thing too well, how much impact is it on draining the local finances, and many things have to be done even if the local government has no money, that is, a disguised tax increase on the people.

Zhu Qizhen was reluctant, but he had to admit that he was still thoughtful.

Although Zhu Qizhen wanted to destroy the thorns, he didn't want to let the people suffer because of the thorns.

It's just that Zhu Qizhen never thought that his idea would make his orthodox seventeen years a little better.

If it is said that in the sixteenth year of orthodoxy, the Ming Dynasty was flooded in the north and drought in the west. Then the seventeenth year of orthodoxy is the flood in the north and drought in the south.

To what extent has the northern flood reached, to Shaanxi, where there was a great drought,

In August of the seventeenth year of orthodoxy, the river decided Yan'an, Suide.

As for the whole north, three words were reported: "Heavy rain." ”

How heavy is this rain?

Judging from the intelligence reported by Zhu Qizhen from various places, Yu Qian reported in April that the water level of the Xinhe River exceeded expectations.

This new river is also the gold-swallowing beast of the imperial court's finances.

Another reason why the fiscal crisis has not been able to survive is another.

In the fourteenth year of orthodoxy, Yu Qian only had time to build a remote embankment on both sides, two rammed earth embankments, separated by forty or fifty miles, to limit the water of the Yellow River to it. There are even some places that are about 100 miles away.

It is estimated that unless it is a flood season, the Yellow River will not be able to fill the river.

But now it has just entered March, and the Yellow River is full, and there is a vast ocean from the south bank of the river to the north bank of the river.

Yu Qian naturally reported urgently.

However, on the whole, the new channel of the Yellow River is still in danger, first of all, Yu Qian has been managing the Yellow River and the canal system for several years, and the Yellow River embankment is basically completed, and as for the canal channel, even if it is completed. There is just one question, and that is how the canal will go north through the Yellow River.

That's a big problem. Yu Qian is trying to figure out a way to solve it.

It is planned to build two gates on the river embankment, one south and one north, for ships to pass through, and to close them when they are not in use or during the flood season.

The project that Yu Qian got done, overall

There will be no problem.

Secondly, the whole project has not yet been fully completed, and many materials are left, and when the Yellow River is so large, it is very easy to reinforce.

From April to May, it seems to be the first wave of rainfall, mainly in Henan, Shaanxi, and other Yellow River basins. The Yellow River has shown itself to be dangerous on several occasions.

Yu Qian dealt with it in a timely manner.

People on both sides of the river went up to the embankment.

From this point, it can also be seen that the resistance to the diversion of the Yellow River.

Not to mention the rush of the Yellow River, dozens of miles and hundreds of miles wide, but I don't know how many people have invested all their family property in it. Now the Yellow River is not peaceful, I am afraid that the people who live by the Yellow River will have to go up the river every flood season, which is a chore, not to mention the horror of the river break.

Shandong has always complained about this matter.

But in June, the north to Beijing, Liaodong, south to Nanyang, and the Jianghuai area fell into heavy rain.

This level of rainfall has exerted strong pressure on water conservancy measures in various places. The Hebei region is okay, Xuzhou, Henan, Fengyang, especially Xuzhou, which really have problems.

The heavy rain in Xuzhou seems to have been falling for three months in one go.

After three months of incessant heavy rains, all the harvest was soaked in water.

The people of Xuzhou should be glad that the Yellow River has been diverted and does not pass through Xuzhou, otherwise the disaster they encounter will be twofold.

Between June and August of the seventeenth year of orthodoxy, the thing that Zhu Qizhen saw the most was heavy rain. What he can do is disaster relief, disaster relief, disaster relief.

And that's not all.

There is a great drought in Jiangxi.

It seems that the rain of the Ming Dynasty has run to the north.

Leaving aside the situation in the north for the time being, just talking about Jiangxi alone, Jiangxi Governor Han Yong helped 144,700 households and more than 356,600 people.

And Han Yong, a young jinshi who was born in Shuntianfu and has been orthodox for seven years, also entered Zhu Qizhen's sight and was pinned on by Zhu Qizhen. Waiting for the future.

First cut and then played, swept away all the official warehouses in Jiangxi, and used various means to make rich households from all over the country donate, so that the situation in Jiangxi could be regarded as propped up.

But not every minister can stand up to such a situation.

Fujian thieves are back.

Zhu Qizhen could only let Fujian increase the development of Yizhou, and many displaced people moved to Yizhou, opening the journey of Fujian people to Nanyang in advance.

Only this time, they had the support of the imperial court behind them.

Yizhou soon set up three counties, which was enriched, and it was not a single county.

This is true in the South, let alone in the North.

This year, from the financial side, the imperial court seriously overspent, and just recovered a little vitality, it was smashed into the water.

And it's not the end of everything, but it's the beginning. A brutal start.