Chapter 119: Now there is a way to solve your worries

Zhou Chen watched from afar, and several carriages galloped past from the gallop.

Speaking of flying gallops, it is just a flying gallop in Zhou Chen's eyes.

If you let modern people see it, I probably think that if you give me a bicycle, I can give you an extra car.

I don't know if it's because the horsepower is limited, or if the top speed of the ancient gallop is not high. Anyway, the function of the gallop is to allow two horses to run.

A large number of carriages, in fact, it is impossible for a horse to run, and even if it does, it is a trot.

Compare traffic restrictions. Even if there is a horse with infinite strength, so he can pull any cart and gallop on any road condition, the result is a crash.

The structure of the Ming carriage does not support such a rush on the road.

The level of the Daming official road is just like the current country road, which is not paved with cement or asphalt, and is purely a dirt road that is pressed over one side by a road roller.

You can still see it if you always repair it. If it is not repaired, it is difficult to say what it will look like.

Therefore, from Tongzhou to the west of the city, a total of more than 30 kilometers. The carriage had been walking for nearly a day, and this was still the road condition under the feet of the Great Tomorrow.

As for the further afield, what the road looks like. Needless to say.

This is why Yu Qian said that it often takes seven stones to get one stone to transport grain to Shanxi.

Therefore, compared with the turtle speed of horse-drawn carriages in this era, the horse-drawn carriages on the galloping road with a speed between 20 and 30 kilometers per hour can already be called galloping.

And it's an extraordinary gallop.

The more Zhou Chen looked, the more excited he became, until he saw the sun set, and the carriage without coal on the gallop ran away, and then he came back to his senses.

That's when I found out. The gates are closed.

Zhou Chen had no place to stay, and he was about to see that the coachman didn't leave, but he couldn't go home, and he was going to go to Tongzhou tomorrow with a job from the capital.

Zhou Chen also gave thirty wen and was confused in the carriage all night.

This night, Zhou Chen didn't sleep long.

Different things have different effects in the eyes of different people.

Zhou Chen spent most of the night calculating, a galloping road, how much grain is consumed for a hundred miles, how much is consumed for thousands of miles of grain, and so on. My head is full of ideas.

But he had seen too many people suffering from transporting grain.

If the people of the north suffer from horses, then the people of the south suffer from food. Not only is the grain transportation itself hard, but also risky, and it is easy to delay the agricultural time.

He was in Jiangnan at the time, and he also thought about not knowing how many ways to solve the suffering of the people in transporting grain, and finally had to increase consumption, in fact, it was also necessary for the people to pay more freight, which could be exempted, but the people were happy.

The common people are the most picky group, and it can be seen that there are many things that he is willing to pay, or even pay more, but is not willing to do

Bitter.

Therefore, Zhou Chen has studied various transportation methods. It's never been so general at the moment, it's just an initiation. Suddenly, I felt that all the pulses were connected.

It's just that he only saw a surface today, and he didn't know a lot of the inside story.

So I thought about this for a while, and I thought about that for a while, and I didn't know how many days before I fell asleep in a daze.

Early the next morning, Zhou Chen entered the city, handed over the sign first, and wanted to go to the post station to rest, but he didn't want to just settle down, and a eunuch in the palace came to pass that His Majesty had summoned him.

Zhou Chen had to take cold water, take a shower, change his clothes, cheer up, and come to see Zhu Qizhen. It's not that Zhou Chen doesn't want to take a hot bath, it's just that taking a hot bath in ancient times was not an easy thing, and a large amount of hot water had to be prepared in advance.

Zhou Chen was too late.

It's just that people are old, and fatigue is easy to see.

So when Zhu Qizhen saw Zhou Chen, he saw it at first sight. After Zhou Chen saluted, he immediately ordered Zhou Chen to sit down. said: "Zhou Qing has worked hard. ”

Zhou Chen said: "Your Majesty Lao is worried and grateful. ”

Zhu Qizhen said to Zhang Huan beside him: "Lingtai Hospital came to the door to diagnose and treat Zhou Qing, and all the decoctions were made from the interior. ”

Zhou Chen saluted again and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty." ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "Zhou Qing, you are an old minister of the first emperor, and you are ordered to be in danger. It's been ten years since I sorted out the money and food in Jiangnan, and I know that you are doing an excellent job in Jiangnan. It's just that what do you think is the biggest problem above the imperial court's finances? ”

Zhou Chen said: "Your Majesty, it is a treasure banknote. The people do not use treasure money, then everything is inconvenient, the people are inconvenient, then the official can be convenient, so the treasure money is the first problem in my Ming finance. ”

Zhu Qizhen was a little embarrassed for a while.

The legal tender of that country is not available in the Manchu Dynasty. It's Da Ming.

It can be said that the issue of the Ming treasure banknote is not the first time it has been raised, but from the Yongle period to the Xuande period, I don't know how many ministers, big and small, have not known how many opinions have been made on this matter.

Zhu Qizhen even saw Yang Shiqi put forward an opinion, that is, to levy business taxes on the people and let the people pay treasure money.

However, Taizu Taizong issued too many treasure money indiscriminately, and the imperial court did not dare to use this method of taxation to recover the treasure money, otherwise the treasure money issued by the imperial court at the beginning was enough for the Ming court to collect white notes for several years.

This is also Yang Shiqi's proposal to collect treasure money on the commercial tax, and he never dares to say that Tian Fu can collect treasure money, otherwise the Manchu Dynasty civil and military will wait to drink the northwest wind.

Although everyone now uses silver taels for transactions, silver taels are not legal tender in the imperial court, not even currency. Because in the Great Ming Law, it is written in black and white that gold and silver are forbidden.

It's almost like a mockery.

Zhu Qizhen said: "Zhou Qing has a way? ”

周忱 says:

"Your Majesty, the treasure money is already incorrigible, but the finances of the imperial court can't be so chaotic, all kinds of folds, money and grain, can't be summed up and calculated at all."

Therefore, in the opinion of the ministers, the only way to collect silver taels is to collect silver taels, and in the future, except for grain, all can be converted into silver taels, and from then on, the court only needs to hold silver and grain at both ends. can balance the world. ”

Zhu Qizhen thought so.

After all, the accounts of the Ming Dynasty made Zhu Qizhen a little headache.

Statistics, how many horses of cloth Daming has, how many catties of iron, how many roots of wood, how many catties of spices, how many pearls, etc., all kinds of warehouses, but summed up, how much money Daming has, sorry, can't be summarized.

Such reserves are actually necessary, after all, for the country, many times, not everything can be sold for money.

It's just too confusing.

Zhu Qizhen said: "Zhou Qing is in charge of the household department, but he is ready to start from here? ”

Zhou Chen said: "Your Majesty approved this matter, the minister began to prepare, the minister is ready to set up the Taicang silver treasury first, gather all the silver in the world here, and sort out the upper and lower accounts, and the money in various places, either into silver, or into grain, in addition, at most, fold cloth and silk, and then have no other discount. ”

Zhu Qizhen secretly said in his heart: "This is a minister of financial management, but it is too slow to do so, and it is not emergency at all." ”

Zhu Qizhen admits that all kinds of taxes in kind, such as many river customs of the Ministry of Industry, what taxes will be collected? Collect wood. Said it was used for shipbuilding. But when Zhu Qizhen thought about transporting wood, he felt a headache.

As for the rest of the different situations, all kinds of inexplicable levies, there are many, many more.

This is something that needs to be sorted out.

It's just that he needs money more, whether it's the money for repairing the river now, although he still has some money in the inner treasury, but he can't really empty the inner treasury. Second, even if the inner library is emptied, it may not be enough.

This is still after Yu Qian's large-scale savings, otherwise according to the previous plan, it is absolutely not enough.

Zhu Qizhen could only turn the topic around and said, "Zhou Qing, you are from Hebei, have you seen the situation in Hebei?" ”

Zhou Chen said: "The minister has already seen it. ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "There are many difficulties for the people of Zhili, and I am ready to deal with the floods in Hebei once and for all, but the imperial court has limited expenses, but I don't know if Zhou Qing has any way?" ”

Zhou Chen knew that Zhu Qizhen asked if there was one, but his return must have it. Otherwise, the position of the head of the household department, he has not yet taken office, and he will lose it.

Zhou Chen said: "Your Majesty's talent, the minister has a strategy, which can increase the income of millions of taels of silver for the imperial court every year. ”

When Zhu Qizhen heard this, his eyes were about to jump out, without him, this number was too big.

Don't look at Zhu Qizhen's lavish spending, you think that millions of taels are not money, on the contrary, this is very money, and now it is not the same as the late Ming and Qing dynasties, without one or two million taels, it is difficult to say that you are rich.