Ning Yu's words caused an uproar, and everyone exchanged heads and talked about it in the audience.

Old Man Cheng smiled, "What Yu'er said is not unreasonable, but this clever woman is difficult to do after all, how big the plate of our Han Army is now, Yu'er should also know, a few days ago, I couldn't even take out the money and food for the Eastern Expedition, how can I talk about increasing salary?" ”

Everyone nodded unconsciously when they heard this, the big guy had a tight time during this time, even Ning Zhongyi nodded lightly, as the privy deputy of the Privy Council, when he formulated the new military spending plan a few days ago, he didn't lose his hair, and the people in the political hall also fought with each other every day, this day without money was really uncomfortable.

Cui Wancai had a smile on his face, at this time he had to help his disciple, so he said softly: "The old lady's worries are indeed reasonable, but the matter of money and food is also divided into urgency, and after the initial decision in Jiangnan, our taxes must be able to go to a higher level, and it is not impossible to increase the salary at that time, and now the people's hearts are very important, and this malpractice can be removed first." ”

Old Man Cheng also sighed, and he smiled bitterly: "If we can really get rid of the bad government, it will also be quite beneficial for me to restore the Han army and regain the hearts of the people." But now that the big guys are short of money, if they can really increase their salaries, it doesn't hurt, and those who want to come to the officials will not have much opinion. ”

Just because there's not much of an opinion doesn't mean there's no opinion at all. Ning Yu can naturally understand what the old man said, if you want to reform, it is impossible not to touch the interests of others at all, but this process needs to be slow, it is good to cut through the mess quickly, but it may not be able to withstand the fierce medicine.

With a little smile on his face, Ning Yu bowed deeply to Old Man Cheng, and said with emotion: "Grandpa acts steadily, which is exactly what a kid should learn, but my Fuhan Army is about to enter Jiangnan, and the people in this world have to be a little more scrupulous." ”

Ning Zhongyuan saw that the others had no objections, so he officially opened the first knife to the current maladministration and officially gave the order. That is, from today onwards, completely cancel all consumption and envy, in addition to no donations, for this year's consumption of silver will be handed over to the political treasurer, one to make up for the deficit of the official treasury, and the other to the officials to raise incorruptible silver, this policy will be rolled out in Huguang, Jiangxi and Anhui provinces.

In terms of the system of raising honest banks, Ningyu adopts the method of announcing it once a year, but it will not actually give all of it, but only give three tenths, if there is no corruption charge for ten consecutive years, then give another three tenths, and as for the remaining four tenths, it must wait until the official has given the official a letter to the official.

In order to win over these officials who worked for the Fu Han Army, Ning Yu set a very high amount of cheap silver, about twice the salary, that is, a seven-grade county order, and now the annual salary is about forty-five taels, but the annual incorruptible silver is a full ninety taels, and the officials can only get twenty-seven taels that year, and they want to take the rest away? Then don't do it.

This move is quite good, at least many of the officials of the Fu Han Army have a little joy on their faces, after all, the current Fu Han Army is a new collective, in terms of integrity and efficiency, it is very good, many people are indeed living on these dozens of taels of silver, life is tight, with this incorruptible silver, naturally unwilling to take risks to exploit the people.

Next, it's time for the main event. Ning Zhongyuan sent someone to bring over this year's tax account book, and said: "These are our annual income and expenditure last year, which is all our belongings now. ”

Ning Zhongjing took out a small booklet in his hand and said softly: "Let's talk about it first, last year, the annual income of my Fu Han Army was about eight million taels of silver, but the expenditure of silver was nine million taels, which can be described as a big deficit. ”

Everyone first heard that the income was eight million taels, and their faces were happy, but when they heard it again, they felt that something was wrong, and the expenditure was actually ninety thousand taels of silver, and they immediately gasped. The co-author of the big guy fought for a year, and he actually lost a million taels.

Ning Zhongjing took everyone's looks into his eyes, and he couldn't help but smile a little bitterly, when this was the account of the Ning family in the past, it was only hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in the sky, but this time it was tens of millions of taels, but it made his brain a little congested.

"Let's talk about the input first, last year's input was mainly concentrated in Huguang, as for Jiangxi and Anhui, it needs to be entered from this year, and the Tianfu and Rentou Fu in Huguang occupy the lion's share, about 3.5 million taels of silver, and the industrial and commercial tax and mining tax, etc., add up to 1.5 million taels of silver, which is what we actually collect."

"Isn't there three million taels left?" Zheng Xian asked puzzledly, and the other people were also quite curious on their faces.

Ning Zhongjing smiled, "There are still three million taels, all of which are the harvest of the Metropolitan Governor's attack all the way, especially after confiscating all the silver money land of Jingzhou Eight Banners, plus the property of those landlords and gentry who supported the Qing Dynasty, we also got three million taels of silver." However, it is clear that this part of the silver can only be regarded as a temporary wealth. ”

"But in this way, even if there is no money at all this year, the prince of Chu and the Huguang Chamber of Commerce have raised three million taels of military salaries, which is enough to fill the shortfall, but these three million taels of silver will have to be repaid in the future."

Only when everyone heard this did they understand that the money was still eaten by a large family..... It's just that everyone understands that money like this is at most collected once, after all, those people have already been used to mine, and if they want to eat big households, they can only eat the people here.

Zheng Xian hurriedly asked, "What about the expenditure of nine million taels of silver?" ”

Ning Zhongjing first glanced at Ning Yu, and then said hatefully: "What else can it be?" As soon as this cannon sounded, there were 10,000 taels of gold, and we fought from the year before last to this year, and we never stopped breaking it everywhere, plus the newly built Hanyang Gun Factory and Hanyang Iron Factory, as well as those dozens of mines, this silver must not flow out like water....."

Ning Yu smiled a little embarrassedly, but he was also very helpless, this is facing the siege of 200,000 Qing troops, so he naturally wants to strengthen the Fu Han army in other aspects, if there is no meritorious field and a lot of silver, who wants to follow him Ning Yu to die?

But Ning Zhongjing was just joking, he smiled: "Of course, we have to spend this money, otherwise Kangxi wouldn't be angry and die in the north, isn't ......"

Cui Wancai took over the conversation, "Fortunately, most of this money is for our Fuhan army, and those guns and martial arts halls don't need such large-scale investment in the future." Therefore, even if our army will be expanded to 130,000 this year, the actual cost will not be particularly high. It's just a little bit higher. ”

"In addition, among the nine million taels of silver, not all of them are military expenses, and we still have three million taels of silver invested in the local government...... Huguang also fought a war for a year, and many people's lives were ruined, and they had to spend a lot of money in all aspects....."

Zheng Xian was also a businessman before, so he could naturally understand what Cui Wancai said, but he still shook his head after thinking about it carefully: "But even so, our income this year is still difficult to support the ...... needed by the army."

Ning Yu stood up again at this time, "Ladies and gentlemen, in view of today's wealth, our army's expenses this year should be sufficient, because now my Fu Han army has reached an agreement with the chamber of commerce in Huguang and Jiangxi on the flag fields in Jiangnan, that is, to use the future 500,000 mu of flag fields as collateral, equivalent to 7.5 million taels of silver, and when our army enters Jiangnan, if it is unable to repay, the land will be directly granted to the merchants." ”

In this speech, the amount of information revealed was very large, which made everyone slightly suffocated. Some of them have already begun to calculate, that is to say, from last year to this year, the amount of silver taken out by this gang of chambers of commerce has been 10 million taels, although it is considered to have hollowed out the old capital of the three provinces, but this number is still very terrifying.

Strictly speaking, the wind of industry and commerce in Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi is not strong, but it is still much worse than that of Jiangnan, but the chambers of commerce of these three provinces, after so many years of tossing, can also take out this 10 million taels of silver, which really shocks many people.

Of course, the Huguang Chamber of Commerce is relatively more special, because the organizer behind the entire Huguang Chamber of Commerce is the Ning family itself, especially after the private salt and iron tools are brought into the operation of the Chamber of Commerce, the profits created are also extremely scary.

Ning Yu's face was a little solemn, he looked at everyone and sighed: "The reason why my Fu Han Army was able to start is ostensibly with the help of firearms, but the benefits of firearms are also inseparable from the support of industry and commerce, otherwise where did this ten million taels of silver come from?" ”

"Now that our army's financial reform is no longer possible to exclude the entire industry and commerce, I think you should understand this truth."

Everyone was silent, they knew that the critical time had come, that is, the issue of the status of industry and commerce. And this question is unanswered in this day and age, and it can even be said that no answer is allowed.

As mentioned earlier, the so-called chambers of commerce in the three provinces are actually dependent on the major gentry families, like the so-called eight imperial merchants back then, and they are naturally the most powerful royal family in the world, and those slightly smaller chambers of commerce are attached to the gentry in the provinces and provinces, which belong to the relationship of symbiosis and coexistence.

Businessmen have no independent qualifications in this era, and if there is no dependent political force, then sooner or later they will be swallowed by others, but the development of such industry and commerce is bound to be affected by many things, and naturally they cannot become a truly powerful class, and there is no way to win more support and help for industry and commerce.

If the time is set back another 500 years, Ning Yu will never choose to support industry and commerce, because the environment does not allow it, it is indeed impossible to support it, and it will offend the gentry of the whole world, such a loss-making deal Ning Yu will not do.

But now the times are different, just when the Western colonizers are staking their land all over the world, if they blindly care about the interests of the gentry, I am afraid that even if the world is obtained, it is only a Manchu dynasty ruled by the Han people, and there is not much difference in essence.

Ning Yu knew in his heart that if he wanted to accomplish this in this era, he needed to liberate the productive forces of capital, that is, to fully support the growth of capital, so as to truly become a class that could exert its strength.

"Now, I plan to introduce a series of regulations to support industry and commerce after the capture of Jiangnan, including fundamentally improving the status of the industrial and commercial industry, changing from the end of the four peoples to the equality of the four people, allowing businessmen to participate in the imperial examination, ensuring the safety of their property, abolishing a series of unreasonable gold and checkpoints, and creating a good business environment, so as to promote the development of industry and commerce."

Ning Yu's words were like a stone thrown into the pool, and countless splashes were stirred up in an instant. The emotions of the crowd seemed to be ignited all at once, and they whispered in the audience.

Cui Wancai looked at the good student and son-in-law who stood tall like a pine, but there was a joy in his heart, the seeds he had worked so hard to plant, and the water he had worked so hard to water, had finally grown into a towering tree today, which could shelter more people from the scorching sun.

Old man Cheng is full of poetry and books, and once served as Kangxi's right attendant of the household department, and he is not a stranger to business and commerce, so he immediately sighed: "Yu'er's idea this time is a little radical, the so-called commercial and mining industry has always been gathered because of profits, and chaos is caused by profits and losses. ”

What Mr. Cheng said is still very reasonable, because there is no so-called labor security at all in this era, especially when opening a mine, it is basically to use human life to mine.

As early as the 21st year of Kangxi, the Qing Dynasty had faced the problem of copper and silver, and Cai Yurong, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou at that time, set up a furnace to mint money in the provincial capital and Lufeng, Mengzi and Dali.

But then the problem came, hundreds of thousands of miners gathered in Yunnan, but there was a saying, just like the old man Cheng's statement, that the miners are easy to gather and difficult to disperse, and sooner or later something will happen.

After Kangxi heard this, he thought it made sense, and then issued a ban on mining, and the entire mining industry in the Qing Dynasty took a sharp turn and no longer had the prosperity of the past.

Now this problem is placed in front of Ning Yu, he said with a smile: "What my grandfather said is not unreasonable, but now there are dozens of mines under the banner of my Fuhan Army, and there are tens of thousands of mining workers, but now there is no such problem." The reason is that the measures taken by our Han army can completely put an end to this problem. ”