Zhao Yu was not unwilling to carry out a large-scale Northern Expedition, and the world was decided by the first war, but there were many last resorts. Whenever the situation was tense, he should be strict and even enter the palace several times to persuade him not to believe people's words, not to act rashly, and not to take risks because of the momentary anger. And he is not a foolish person, he knows the danger in it, and it is not the time for the Northern Expedition.

First of all, from a political point of view, since the recovery of Jiangnan, Zhao Yu has carried out a large-scale suppression of rebels and enemies, including many scholars. made the Jiangnan scholar class think that he was too cruel and treated the scholars harshly, so they were dissatisfied. Then there was the case of Chen Yizhong's rebellion, and a large number of Jiangnan scholars were suppressed, and some officials in the middle of the dynasty were also involved. Later, he suppressed the Jiangnan bureaucratic family by marrying the Wu family, causing the Jiangnan scholars to be very resentful of him.

Therefore, the current political situation in Jiangnan seems to be calm, but it is full of crises. After the restoration of Jiangnan, the people who had experienced years of war were also determined and unwilling to launch a large-scale war. How can war be fought in such a sinister political environment? War is inseparable from politics. In the face of such a sinister political situation, how can the war continue?

Then there are economic considerations, and war must have economic security. "A teacher of 100,000 is a thousand gold per day." "If the army has no baggage, it will die, if it has no food, and if it has no commission, it will die." Economic difficulties are also an extremely important reason for the difficulty of conducting large-scale military operations.

At present, the expenditure of the army is the largest, and the strength of the forbidden army now has 400,000 people, and according to the calculation of three liters of grain per person and 50 wen for food, 12,000 yuan of grain is needed, and at the current price of 800 wen per stone, the total of the two items reaches nearly 30,000 yuan, which is only a lot more, because the food expenses of officers and sailors are higher than that of ordinary soldiers, and this alone reaches 11 million guan per year.

Another is clothing and equipment, you can't go to the battlefield bare-chested and empty-handed! The equipment does not have to be changed every year, but each person has two sets of military uniforms in summer and winter, as well as boots and hats, even if each set is conservative, it costs about five yuan, which is eight million yuan a year. Although weapons do not need to be updated every year, there is also wear and tear in training, which requires constant maintenance and consumption of ammunition, which is also a large expense.

In addition, the salaries of officers and men are now being conscripted, and they are required to be paid. Considering the current standard of living, a family of three needs six times a month to make ends meet, so Zhao Yu set the salary of newly recruited soldiers at six times a month, and as their length of service increases, they can get up to 12 times when they retire in seven years. The minimum salary of the officer is 10 yuan, and the highest privy envoy can reach 300 yuan, so the annual salary expenditure is at least 4 million yuan.

But these are only the most basic expenses, and there are rewards for major festivals and national events, and wartime subsidies for wartime. Injuries and sacrifices must be bereavement benefits, and retirements must be subsidized. And these are just capitation fees, and the annual expenditure reaches as much as 20 million. In addition, weapon and equipment updates are also a big one, and they need to be stockpiled in case of wear and tear in wartime. This year has not yet ended, and the money that Zhao Yu has invested in the ordnance prison has exceeded five million.

In addition to the forbidden army, there are nearly 200,000 van troops, and although their treatment and weapons are less than those of the forbidden army, they are not a small number. In order to prevent the recurrence of the incident of the Quanzhou army's betrayal of the state and the surrender of the yuan, Zhao Yu also listed the needs of the Xiang army as being supplied by the imperial court, rather than being borne by the state capital where it was stationed, and the annual cost was about 10 million yuan.

Therefore, at present, to maintain an army of this size, the annual cost of the imperial court is about 40 million. And some people will say that it will cost so much money to be idle anyway, so why not send troops to fight, on this basis, it is nothing more than to add the cost of grain and grass transportation (mainly the cost of requisitioning people and livestock) and the reward of the army, maybe you can make a profit.

People who have this kind of thought, Zhao Yu can only say that his head has been kicked by a donkey, and it can be said that no one can stay out of the war. In peacetime, the additional consumption of the army is nothing more than the renewal of ammunition and equipment needed for training. However, when a war starts, the consumption of materials does not increase exponentially, but increases geometrically, casualties are inevitable, and the corresponding expenses for bereavement and treatment will also increase.

During the war, people were recruited to transport grain and grass, and people did not bring their own dry food to work for you, not only to be exempted from taxes, but also to provide food money, and they also had to eat, and every time they transported only the people had to consume two-thirds of the grain. And because of the difficult journey, the tired and sick dead are not much different from the soldiers, and they also need the court to pay for the pension.

These are still the money spent on the surface, and there is also invisible consumption, generally there is a soldier in the front to fight, and the rear has to be guaranteed by several times its people, and the mobilized young and strong are also 100,000. This will inevitably affect agricultural production in the rear, resulting in the abandonment of land, and the state's taxes will be impossible. And these are still on the basis of winning the battle, if they are defeated, hehe...... The country is basically bankrupt!

Later generations said that the Song Dynasty was the happiest era for scholars, but this happiness was built on a rich income. Compared with the previous dynasties, the Song Dynasty's Yulu can be described as quite generous.

In the case of the prime minister, during the Renzong period, there were 300 yuan per month, 100 stones of millet, a number of silk, silk, cotton, and Luo, as well as various miscellaneous expenses such as food and clothing for 100 servants, penny, charcoal, salt, etc., as well as various subsidies, which were converted into quite a lot of salaries. During the festivals, the royal sacrifices can also receive rewards, including gold, silver, silk satin, etc., which are also quite generous when converted into cash, sometimes higher than a year's salary. In particular, the triennial suburban festival is the largest in scale, and will have a great impact on the state finances and the official economy.

Of course, there are only a few officials with the title of prime minister, and there are only a few people in office, and the state still supports them. However, even if the magistrates are not of a very high grade, they generally have forty or fifty yuan of monthly salaries, a number of silk silk, food and clothing for servants, etc., and there are government subsidies to the magistrates as remuneration for the job field, this part of the job land is still exempt from taxes, in order to "hold them accountable" and prevent corruption and bend the law, in fact, it is to pay for incorruptible silver in disguise. From this point of view, it is more than the upper than the bottom, which is enough to live a very nourishing life.

However, the treatment is also graded, and the gap between senior officials above the fifth grade and low-level civil servants is very large. From the county order to the level of the county book, it is about ten to twenty-five yuan, and Lu Su is five to ten stones, plus a few jobs and fields, but there is no chance to have other rewards as subsidies. This is still Zhao Hao's consideration of the hard work of low-level officials and the complexity of affairs, but there will still be some constraints in life.

Some people will definitely say that ordinary people can live well with two or three yuan a month, and the officials are not rich as them, and they are purely moaning without illness. In fact, judging from Zhao Yu, most officials are still very poor, of course, they are relatively better than ordinary people. The reason for this is related to the prevalence of the imperial examination and the family system.

After the rise of the imperial examination, gate politics turned to bureaucratic politics, and a large number of scholars from poor backgrounds entered the official career. Before the Song Dynasty, most of the officials were born in the clan of the gate lords and had family backgrounds, so they did not need to consider money to support their families. The family members of the officials of the Song Dynasty were different from those of today, and the officials generally had thin backgrounds and heavy burdens. Now it is basically a small family, even if you count the parents of both sides, each family has no more than ten people, and the concept of living together in the Song Dynasty is more prevalent.

Because the person who passed the imperial examination was in a relatively prominent position in the big family, and could enjoy all kinds of preferential treatment from the government, such as exemption from military service, and a reduction in the land rent paid by the official household, other people in the same clan were more inclined to live with him. For example, the officials before the Song Dynasty were the second and third generations of officials, and they did not expect to live with salaries. And the official of the Song Dynasty was a phoenix man, who earned money alone and spent it with his family, even if he earned a lot of money, he couldn't afford so many people.

However, these are all high-grade officials, and there must be someone to do things below, this is Xu Official, their number is basically ten to one compared to the number of officials, the number is extremely large, and they also have to support their families to live. And there is no good thing in the world that allows the horse to run and does not let the horse graze, of course, you have to pay salaries, otherwise who will run errands for you.

At present, Zhao Yu has always been vigilant against the harm of redundant officials, and there are only 1,000 officials in the DPRK, about 10,000 local officials at all levels, and Xu officials are also within 100,000. It looks like a lot, but compared with the past 40,000 or 50,000 officials and 200,000 or 300,000 officials in the Great Song Dynasty, it has been greatly reduced. But even so, the annual expenditure is about 10 million yuan. This is still a relatively young team, and in the future, there will be officials who are wise and idle to support, which is also a big expense.

And the other big part of the expenditure is the royal family, at the moment Zhao Yu is routinely saving, his wife does not dare to marry more, relatives do not dare to recognize more, and going out is even more light. But to maintain the façade and functioning of the entire royal family, the expenses are also in the millions. In the coming days, poor relatives came to the door to ask for seals, and at that time, the money was spent like flowing water.

In addition, the state not only supports soldiers, officials, and emperors, but also maintains the operation of the entire country, and it costs money to build water conservancy, repair bridges and roads, provide disaster relief, and provide relief to the poor, and this amount of money is not a small amount in a year. Last year, Zhao Yu spent an incalculable amount of money on large-scale repairs of cities along the river and strengthening border defenses, and he estimated that these expenditures would not be less than 10 million yuan in normal years.

Therefore, in order to maintain the normal operation of the state apparatus, a minimum of 40 million yuan of fiscal revenue is needed in a year, and how much is the annual income of the imperial court? You must know that the land occupied by Zhao Yu is not as good as at the beginning of the southern crossing, with less Lianghuai and Sichuan-Shu regions, and these two places have always been important sources of taxes for the imperial court, and at the beginning of the recovery of Jiangnan, taxes were exempted in many places, so the income of Zhengfu was estimated to be about five million, which was far from being able to maintain the operation of the imperial court.

The bulk of the income is still tea, salt, wine, pit metallurgy, goods, and commercial taxes, Zhao Yu estimated that it could be around 30 million guan, and he felt that there was still potential to be tapped, because the commercial tax in the Southern Song Dynasty had reached 60 million guan at the highest time, of course, this was on the basis of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes. Therefore, in order to achieve this amount, it is necessary to further develop industry and commerce and expand the channels of taxation.

Another important source of tax revenue is the tariff of the Municipal Shipping Division, under the vigorous support of Zhao Hao, the maritime trade is booming again, and he estimates that the annual tariff revenue of each port can reach 10 million yuan. Then there is the income of about 2 million yuan for silk cloth, silk cloth and other miscellaneous taxes. The sum of several items is about 60 million yuan, which is barely able to achieve a balance of payments. However, if two local wars start this year, the fiscal balance will be broken, and the deficit will basically become a foregone conclusion, and the Cave Imperial Court will definitely throw it to Zhao Yu and pay for it from the Inner Treasury Treasury. Therefore, whether Da Song can have a balance depends on how much money he has left.

And this time, Zhao Yu used troops in Jiangbei, and it was by no means arbitrary to seize Sichuan, Shu and Yangzhou, but also with deep-seated considerations. We all know that strategic buffer zones are generally created in border areas. Using this area as a resilient defensive zone that delays the enemy's offensive and provides time for us to organize a counteroffensive is completely out of consideration for possible developments, even if it is originally a fertile field.

This is because any attempt to restore production would be uneconomical in view of the fact that these areas will eventually be reduced to combat zones. As a realistic example, if we look at the development process of Fujian in the coastal economic circle, we can understand how the economic development of the strategic frontier area has been sluggish under the threat of possible war. At present, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Changshu and Wuxi, which are close to the Yangtze River, and Changshu and Wuxi in the Taihu Lake region are all important grain and tax areas, so it is absolutely impossible to burn the flames of war to these areas, and it is necessary to ensure the safety of this economic belt through counterattacks, which has the meaning of having to fight.

Therefore, the strength of the Great Song Dynasty is far from enough to support a long-term war, and the insistence on doing it can only be squeezed from the people by increasing taxes. Can they bear more taxes than they can afford every year, and they have to be called up for conscription at any time, and even go to war as soldiers? If ordinary people have difficulties in survival, do they still have the heart to support the war? As a "government", if you don't care about the lives of the people, can the people not rise up and rebel?

Again, all the revenue goes to pay for the war, so what about government administrative expenses? What should I do with the bureaucrats after the office? What happens to the salaries of serving officials? Can this "government" exist without money? Zhao Yu's "government" cannot but consider the issue of its own political survival, and it is not only the government that will go bankrupt at that time, but the Great Song Dynasty may no longer belong to the Zhao family.

In the face of the call of the 'Young Zhuang faction's Northern Expedition, they did not know the price of firewood and rice, so Zhao Yu could not help but do something, and either explained, reprimanded, or appeased in his reply, so that they could settle down to engage in construction and wait for the good opportunity of the Northern Expedition......