Zhu Youxiao returned to the Qianqing Palace after the dispersal of the dynasty, thinking about the future development ideas, what to do to save the Ming Dynasty, he thought dizzy, for a while he didn't know how to be good, although his knowledge is hundreds of years ahead of the current era, but where to start, there must be a practical entry point. Finally, make some decisions and look at your family first.

Summoning Wang An into the study, Zhu Youxiao asked:

"Wang An, do you know how much money you have in the inner treasury now?"

Wang An said: "Now there are 12,625,000 taels of silver and 23,000 taels of gold in the inner treasury. These are the savings of Wanli Ye over the years, and there were originally more, and it took more than three million to rescue the vassal state Goguryeo. In addition to the part of this money that is divided from the household, five million taels of silver are the mining taxes collected by Wanli Ye, a total of ten years, about 500,000 taels per year. ”

The dignified Ming Dynasty mining tax (including commercial tax) is only 500,000 taels per year, this is simply a joke, think about the Song Dynasty when the commercial tax accounted for nearly sixty percent of the total tax revenue, there are more than five million taels of silver every year, even the "Xingshi Hengyan" said that an oil seller accumulates 16 taels of silver a year to prostitute the Oiran lady, and the Oiran lady's own private body money has four or five thousand taels of silver, so how much money should those prostitutes have. It seems that these Qingliu and Donglin Party members are not a good thing, they represent the interests of these prostitutes, enjoy the worship of the prostitutes, and they are fat and big-eared, eat fragrant and drink spicy food, but they give the country to the poor and don't even have cold clothes for the border soldiers.

Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the tax system of the Ming Dynasty has a great flaw, that is because Zhu Yuanzhang is a poor monk, he doesn't understand these at all, even his staff, most of them are from poor backgrounds, and the kind of Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin who was born in a family is not comparable at all, and he is a layman for the way of economy, which also caused the basis of the collusion between officials and businessmen of the Donglin Party. Students who have gone to high school know that there is a famous text called "The Tombstone of Five People" is the work of Zhang Pu in the Ming Dynasty. This article describes and praises the heroic deeds of the citizens of Suzhou who are not afraid of *, are not afraid of sacrifice, and dare to fight against the evil forces, and enthusiastically praises the image of the five martyrs who fought against violence and were unyielding to death.

Now the Ming Dynasty border pass is the implementation of the guard system, in fact, these soldiers are similar to the later generations of the construction corps, these semi-militarized militia if they deal with ordinary homeless rebellion, bandits and robbery may still be able to survive, but to deal with the Jurchen iron cavalry who grew up on horseback since childhood, then only be humiliated.

At that time, the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty were no longer enough to threaten the national security of the Ming Dynasty, and it was indeed a waste to spend millions of taels of silver every year to protect the border, so it was better to save the money for economic development and people's livelihood, which was still in line with the environment at that time.

And now they will face the Jurchen Iron Cavalry, which belongs to the regular field troops, and they must use the regular army to fight them. Therefore, how to organize regular troops should be put on the agenda, and the formation of regular elite troops will require a large amount of silver to pile up, and this financial problem must be solved as a priority.

The next day, Zhu Youxiao convened the cabinet members and the six Shangshu, but he did not expect that the cabinet only had the first assistant Fang Congzhe, the second assistant Han Yi, and Liu Yixie. The six Shangshu include Zhou Jiamo, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Sun Ruyou, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Li Ruhua, the secretary of the Ministry of Households, Yao Zongwen, the secretary of the Ministry of War, Huang Kezan, the secretary of the Criminal Department, and Wang Zuo, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry.

When these people arrived, Zhu Youxiao said:

"I am still young, and I have just ascended to the great treasure, and there is something wrong with doing things, so I ask you to negotiate first. The first is to supplement the cabinet members, and ask you to consult and recommend; Second, I want to know about the country's current family background, for example, how much money does the household have? Where are the necessary expenses? The military training of the military department, the state of military readiness, the situation in eastern Liao, and so on. I hope that all of you will be honest and do not talk about peace. Then our monarchs and ministers will discuss a solution together, so as to be worthy of the ancestors and ancestors, and benefit the people of Li. ”

Li Ruhua, the secretary of the household department, said: "Since Your Majesty asked about the household department, then I will introduce the current situation of the household department, the household department has 8.72 million taels of silver, the two deceased emperors need to repair the mausoleum, the Ministry of Rites needs to pay 2.6 million taels, the Liaodong army needs to pay a total of 2.1 million taels of silver, grain and grass, and armaments, Shaanxi needs to provide relief and disaster relief 500,000 taels, the annual salary of 100 officials of various ministries is 2.35 million taels, the military salary, grain and grass, and armaments in the northwest need 920,000 taels, and there are ......,"

"Stop, stop. What do you mean by that the current household department does not have enough money at all, and there is still a deficit, right? Zhu Youxiao didn't expect that the money in the household department was not as much as the money in his own treasury.

"Yes, Your Majesty. Now the Ming Dynasty enlisted in the army for 820,000 taels, and now it has just finished collecting taxes, and most of the military salaries just mentioned are still in arrears, and next year's will not be found, and there are still ....... ”

After the head of the household department finished talking about the situation, Zhu Youxiao's eyes were green, and he took over such a ragged mess, which made everyone anxious. Think about the tens of thousands of local tyrants and wealthy businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River, hundreds of thousands of people eat flowers and wine, prostitute themselves, and play with thin horses, and the poor people in the country can't even pay the salary of the soldiers, and twenty years later, the Jurchens slaughtered in Yangzhou with a river of blood, and the gold and silver treasures were robbed, what is the difference between this and termites eating wood and killing ants, but it is a pity that these moths can't think of these at all, it is really pitiful, sad, angry, and hateful.

Zhu Youxiao asked, "Since the financial situation of my Ming Dynasty is so bad, is there any way for Master Li to solve this problem?" ”

"There is no other way to raise taxes than to continue to raise taxes." Li Ruhua said helplessly.

"Can we continue to collect mining taxes?" Zhu has filial piety.

Li Ruhua said: "No, absolutely not." Wan Li Ye has been in a uproar because of the mining tax, which almost provoked a popular uprising. Moreover, the first emperor had already issued an edict to suspend the levy. As soon as His Majesty ascended the throne, he levied the mining tax again, which may hinder His Majesty's reputation, so please think twice. ”

"Master Li, you are already old, and you are ready to go home to recuperate!" Zhu Youxiao said lightly.

"Your Majesty, the minister will submit his resignation tomorrow." Li Ruhua said tremblingly, he didn't expect that he would lose his official position with a word.

Next, Zhu Youxiao did not mention the matter of the household department, but learned some information about the shortage of officials in the imperial court, the situation in Liaodong and some things in the military department, as well as the maintenance and construction projects of the Ministry of Industry. He also put forward requirements and conditions to Fang Congzhe and Han Yi on the issue of the candidates for the household department, asking them to launch suitable candidates as soon as possible.

After the cabinet monks left, Zhu Youxiao was extremely headache, and his words and consciousness had a feeling of playing the piano with these people, and it seemed that if he wanted to increase financial revenue, he had to find his own way. The collection of commercial tax is imperative, but who will collect it, what tax rate it will be levied, how to prevent tax evasion and corruption of collectors, these problems must be solved, otherwise it will inevitably cause a backlash from these rich people and local tyrants, and they will instigate ordinary people to make trouble.

People have a selfish side, which is why "the world is bustling, all for profit; The world is crowded, all for profit". Only if it is profitable for the people who implement the policy will they go and work hard. However, if the executor harms the interests of the state for his own interests, then the gains of such a policy outweigh the losses. People in the 21 st century often say: The state's policy is good, but it changes at the bottom, and the policy of benefiting the people has become a policy of harming the people. This shows that the formulation of any policy and system cannot be separated from the actual environment, and no matter how good the policy is formulated, there will be no good implementation system.