From the Song dynasty onwards, the feudal town became a particularly politically incorrect thing. And cutting the feudal domain is a particularly politically correct thing.

However, Zhu Cihong's perspective on the issue of feudal towns is different from that of ordinary people. He did not look at the feudal towns from the perspective of maintaining the highest political ideal of great unification, but from the most realistic financial problems.

In his view, the purpose of the Tang Dynasty's establishment of feudal towns was never to divide the country, but to defend the country. As for why you want to use this kind of military and political feudal town to defend your home and country, the reason is very simple, it is because there is no money!

When the Tang Dynasty reached the hands of Emperor Ming of the Tang Dynasty, there were already problems of land annexation and "non-class" of the majority of the population, that is, the majority of the population did not pay taxes.

The former made the government unsustainable, while the latter left the central government without enough financial resources to support the recruitment.

Therefore, delegating power to the local government, setting up a feudal town with military and political integration, and letting the feudal town make itself work hard, take care of its own profits and losses, and feed a mercenary army that can fight, became the only way for the Tang Dynasty to maintain the prosperous situation.

If there was no Fang Town, the land annexation and financial difficulties of the Tang Dynasty would destroy the country's armament, and without the result of an army to defend the country, would it really be better than the Anshi Rebellion?

And Zhu Cihong's ability to make money is also one of the best among Chinese emperors, so he has enough financial resources to support a large army. But now there are a lot of financial black holes in front of him, such as the governance of Huang Huai - can it not be cured? Tens of millions of people want to eat! Give you a big flood, directly wash away tens of millions of stones, and the price of rice will not rise to the sky?

The battlefields of Shandong and Liaodong are also a financial black hole! There is no income in both places, and Zhu Cihong, in order to absorb the four towns in Shandong, has expanded the military quota of the new army by 80,000 yuan, and the military expenditure alone will increase by four or five million taels in a year!

In addition, the government of Shandong and Liaodong will also have expenses, and there are many large workers, and there are two tuntian divisions, Jinzhou Tuntian in Liaodong, which will also start planting, potatoes, soybeans and sorghum rice.

These two places have a lot of expenses in the past two years, and spending tens of millions of dollars a year is nothing!

Sichuan and Guizhou are also now turning into fiscal black holes!

Because of the confluence of Dashun and Daxi, the strength of the Dashun army has increased greatly. Chengdu Mansion finally failed to defend in the summer of the first year of Hongxing. Ma Shiying, Yang Zhan, Zeng Ying, Qin Yiming and other armies now retreated to the Sichuan Xingdu Division, Mahu Mansion, Wumeng Mansion, Dongchuan Mansion, Zhenxiong Mansion, Wusa Mansion in western Sichuan, Zunyi Mansion in southern Sichuan, and Guizhou Province to continue their resistance.

This is another army of more than 100,000 plus a bunch of land that cannot collect taxes - the amount of land in the whole of Sichuan is only 1.08 million stones, and Guizhou is only 50,800 stones. Now that this bit of land is left, I don't know if there is 100,000 stone in a year's tax? And the cost of an army of more than 100,000 is at least a few million a year......

In addition, the Sichuan army had been fighting against the armies of Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng (pretending to be alive) and Li Guo in Sichuan for five or six years, and the imperial court did not allocate any military funds.

How to calculate the accounts of hundreds of thousands of Sichuan troops who have been fighting for five or six years? How can so many people die in battle, and how can they be counted as disabled?

If you really want to be reasonable, Zhu Cihong has to take out at least 20 or 30 million taels to report to Ma Shiying, Yang Zhan, Zeng Ying, Qin Yiming and other soldiers......

And Gan Shaanxi, which Wu Sangui and Zhu Cijiong are holding on, is naturally a super big bottomless black hole!

Think about how much silver the Qing Dynasty spent in the long war with the Junggar tribe in history, and you can imagine how big the hole in Ganshan was?

Finally, the situation in Yunnan is still unstable, and it is a fiscal black hole that is forming.

If Zhu Cihong wants to take over all the black holes and carry them himself, Daming doesn't have to think about it without more than 100 million yuan!

Therefore, carrying the black hole that must be carried up, and then throwing the less important place to the feudal town, has become the only way out.

Oh, and it can't be said to be the only one. There is also a way out, which is to transfer the fiscal black hole to the grassroots soldiers......

And this price is that the combat effectiveness of the Ming army has plummeted again!

.......

"Two grandfathers, Shopkeeper Huang and Shopkeeper Su have arrived."

In the city of Xiangyang Prefecture, in the military affairs yamen of Hubei and Henan, Wu Sangui finally waited for a "master" who could solve Wu Sangui's financial difficulties.

This governor's military yamen in Hubei and Henan was Wu Sanfu's territory. In the territory directly under the jurisdiction of the Ming court, military affairs and government affairs have begun to separate.

The senior officers in charge of military affairs on one side include the governor (in charge of military affairs of two or more provinces), the admiral (in charge of one province), and the general soldier (in charge of one government).

In wartime, field units such as divisions and regiments are assigned to the governor's yamen, admirals' yamen, or the commander-in-chief's yamen. In non-war times, the Generalissimo's Office has jurisdiction over military orders, and the Ministry of War manages military affairs.

In addition, there are 16 generals' offices in various parts of the town, which are in charge of recruiting troops, training new recruits, and protecting military dependents.

The yamen in charge of the civil affairs of one party is the governor (in charge of a province), the prefect (prefecture), and the county (prefecture). Among them, the governor and the prefect will also have jurisdiction over a small number of troops to maintain local law and order.

Wu Sanfu, who entertained Wu Sangui in Xiangyang, is now the governor in charge of the military affairs of the two provinces.

And this governor is not permanent, now not counting the governor of Nanbeiyang, the entire Ming Dynasty only has Wu Sanfu, the governor of Hubei and Henan, Shi Kefa, the governor of Shandong and Liaodong, and Ma Shiying, the governor of Yunnan, Guichuan.

"Hurry up, please." Although Wu Sanfu is the governor and the uncle of the country, he still doesn't dare to put on a big shelf in front of the two big shopkeepers.

"Second brother," after instructing the staff to invite each other, Wu Sanfu took off his official uniform, stood up, and said to Wu Sangui, "These two people followed the emperor before Beijing broke through, although they are only an imperial businessman, but they control two major banks, which is not trivial!" And although both of them have no official positions, they both have knighthoods. Huang Jiang is the new uncle of the county, and Su Sheng is the uncle of the Qingpu of the country. ”

"Really?" Wu Sangui also got up, "The two imperial merchants also made the earl?" ”

"The Earl doesn't have anything, but the treasurers of the two major banks are powerful...... The eldest brother's debt, the two of them can be taken over by two lines in a word. ”

"Really? That's great! Wu Sangui finally felt a sense of relief.

Debt-free and light!

......

"Guogong, what the emperor means, the debts owed by you and the acting king are all feudal debts, not national debts."

"Guogong, the court can help with the repayment of the debts of this domain, but it is impossible to take all the debts."

Wan Jun's huge debt did not leave......

Huang Jiang and Su Sheng, the two earl merchants, although they were both amiable and wealthy, did not mean to help Wu Sangui repay his debts.

They were only ordered to find out the debts and help Wu Sangui and Zhu Cijiong negotiate with creditors to reach a debt restructuring plan.

"How can a debt of millions be repaid by relying on Ganshan's financial resources?" Wu Sangui's head kept shaking, and his face was bitter.

He is probably the first lord of a feudal town after the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms who wanted to withdraw the feudal domain but couldn't, right?

The warlord is also very bitter when he does his part.

"It doesn't matter if you can't pay it yet," Huang Jiang smiled, "If you can't pay it yet, you can borrow a little more!" ”

Su Sheng nodded: "Lend him 10 million...... Children and grandchildren will pay it back slowly, and there will always be a time to pay it back! ”

I want my children and grandchildren to return! Wu Sangui said in his heart that he was sorry for Wu Yingxiong...... Being a feudal lord is still a lot of debt!

"But who else is willing to borrow Gan Shaan's appearance?" Wu Sanfu understands finance better than his second brother, and he has seen a lot in the southeast for several years.

"There's a way!" Huang Jiang patted his chest, "We have a way...... What we need to pay close attention to now is to find out the debts of the Duke of Jin, and at the same time set up a town under the command of the Duke of Jin as soon as possible. With Fangzhen, there will be feudal properties and feudal taxes, so that the upper limit of feudal debts can be calculated. Once the upper limit is calculated, we can negotiate with the creditors, and we can always negotiate a reasonable term and interest rate. ”

Su Sheng added: "The emperor still has an idea, issue a negotiable feudal debt bill!" Let the feudal debts be liquidated and copied and sold, forming a feudal debt trading market. ”