Hetao Wuhai City, the new city closest to the border of the Ming Dynasty in the Hetao area, Zhang Zhang, who had been promoted from the magistrate to the governor, gathered a merchant group from the interior here at this time, ready to sell the land around the manhole, this is a new method he recently thought of to increase military spending and infrastructure funds, that is, to pre-sell the land and then annex the land, so as to obtain the funds needed to start the war in the early stage, and it has been tried and tested repeatedly.

"This official has obtained His Majesty's permission, ready to build a city in manholes, expand the land under the jurisdiction of the Hetao, think that Wuhai City is the arch guard, and promote Wuhai to the capital city, the current geographical overview of the manhole has been investigated and understood by the Ministry of War, there are five iron mines, nine coal mines, 36,74 hectares of pastureland, more than 10,600 hectares of fertile land, and the legal business group registered in the household department can now go to the Wuhai Merchant Hall to find Liu Gui, the first magistrate of Shajing, to apply for auction!"

As soon as Zhang Zhang, the governor of Hetao, said something, all the wealthy businessmen flocked to the Wuhai Merchant Hall.

Now these Ming rich merchants are no longer as conservative as Yulin City just built in those years, after seeing the first batch of northbound merchants relying on mining and border trade to make a fortune, there are more and more Ming rich businessmen rushing to Hetao, coupled with the reform of the opening of the Chinese law, a large number of Huaiyang giant merchants also rushed to Hetao, so there are more and more merchants in the Hetao area, are trying to make profits by taking advantage of the empire's northward advance.

And the imperial court naturally had to make money, otherwise it would not be able to maintain military spending on the Hetao area, so Zhang Zhang, the governor of the Hetao, thought of pre-selling land.

As Zhang Xuan, who was personally taught by Emperor Zhu Houzhao at Beijing Normal University, it is not surprising that he could think of obtaining capital for foreign expansion by pre-selling overseas land, and even he can do it very well.

After serving as the governor of the Hetao, Zhang Xuan openly sold the official land that had not been divided after the Hetao settlers, but because these undivided official lands were all on the border of the Hetao, and were often harassed by Tatar rangers, not many merchants were willing to buy them at first.

But there are always a few who dare to be the first to eat crabs.

When Zhang Xuan, the governor of the Hetao, issued an order that the imperial court was preparing to build a new city and pre-sell the land for the new city, some merchants who had a long-term vision or confidence in the empire's military capabilities bought the land.

After the commander-in-chief Yang Yiqing led the guards to defeat the Tatar nomadic tribes in the target area of Xincheng and build a city, these merchants who had purchased land in Xincheng in the past all got the land as they wished.

According to Zhu Houzhao's plan, Guannai must have stopped the land annexation.

This is not necessarily the case outside the Guan, and in order to consolidate the foundation of the rule and increase the incentive of merchants to develop new territories, these merchants can naturally be encouraged to buy land.

After all, the land outside the customs is barren and sparsely populated, even if the imperial court holds it in its own hands, it can't make money, and even has to send troops to garrison it, spending money and food in vain, it is better to let merchants develop it.

These merchants who have obtained new land do have their own methods for developing new land, as long as the imperial army can give them a stable environment and can protect the safety of their property, they can make profits through mining and other means.

Because the imperial government only participates in the form of a certain number of shares, these businessmen do not have to worry about being exploited by the local government and eunuchs when they open mines in border towns, but only give a portion of the dividends to the households every year on a regular basis.

The profit of this dividend is actually Zhu Houzhao's disguised increase in commercial tax.

After all, the Ming Dynasty levied too little on commercial taxes, and if you want to directly increase commercial taxes, you will naturally encounter layers of obstacles, and there are no large civil officials and gentry forces to interfere in the newly opened areas of border towns, so Zhu Houzhao can naturally take advantage of this to use various ways to provide the imperial court with weight in the distribution of commercial interests.

But in general, because the government only collects a certain share of equity dividends, and does not pay other miscellaneous taxes, as well as blackmail openly and secretly, these businessmen still make a lot of profits, coupled with the progress of steel smelting technology and the increase in military industry and infrastructure projects in the Ming Dynasty, the demand for iron ore in the Ming Dynasty has increased sharply.

These first batch of merchants who opened mines in the newly opened territory made a lot of money, and also attracted more merchants to dig north to make a fortune.

In the later period, basically as soon as the Hetao imperial court issued an invitation to build a new city, countless businessmen flocked to buy it, and as a result, the land price of Hetao continued to rise, not only with the benefits of development but also the interests of investment.

Naturally, the Hetao government also had a large amount of income when it had not yet expanded to the outside world, and even realized the mode of carrying out local infrastructure construction without the appropriation of the imperial court, changing the feeling that the border towns had been abandoned for thousands of years, and it was a pity to occupy the chicken ribs of the money and food, and began to have a surplus of taxes without the need for the imperial court to allocate assistance.

Of course, the Ming court naturally can't do anything after receiving the money, even if the court doesn't want to send troops to build a new city, the merchants who pay to buy land will force the court to send troops, after all, they have spent money, just wait for the court to expand to build a new city and divide the land, they can develop and recover the cost.

What's more, many businessmen also have military backgrounds, and the real force involved in foreign expansion and plunder is the Ming Guards and border troops, and naturally they also want to share the benefits of foreign expansion.

The interests of the Tatar nobles were naturally damaged, and their living space was thus reduced, and even the low-level Mongolian people and slaves they could exploit became hired workers of the Ming merchants because of the large number of Ming merchants.

Because the agriculture outside the border was underdeveloped, and the degree of exploitation of the people at the bottom by the Tatar nobles was not shallower than that of the landlord class of the Ming Dynasty, many Mongolians were also very poor, even if they were doing hard labor in the hands of Ming merchants, their income was stronger than that of only being slaves of the Tatar nobles.

On the one hand, they intensified their efforts to loot the border towns of the Ming Dynasty, on the other hand, they increased their internal control, and directly beheaded the fugitive slaves, but Rao was so, and they failed to prevent a large number of ordinary Mongolian people from migrating to the areas controlled by the Ming Dynasty.

"Lord Futai, the first batch of land in Shajing County has been pre-sold, and this is the silver taels, which is more than 1.2 million taels more than when the first batch of land in Tongda County was sold!"

Liu Gui, the magistrate of Shajing County, braved the wind and snow on the night after the third day and came to Zhang Zhang's inner hall.

As a magistrate who had just risen from the rich county in the south and the history of Jurong County, Liu Gui saw for the first time that a small border town and county countless times poorer than Jurong could realize so much silver at once, and it was even a county that had not yet been classified under the rule of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, the excitement on Liu Gui's face couldn't be concealed at all, holding a bunch of bills issued by the Royal Bank, he came to Zhang Xuan and began to take care of it.

Zhang Xuan was already surprised, glanced at the bills and the cooperation contracts signed by the government and major commercial banks, and just smiled faintly: "Why did the business group in Jiaoge's hometown buy so much land, he wants to come to Shajing County for retirement!" ”

After Zhang Xuan said, he said: "It's still in accordance with the rules, except for a part that is handed over to the household department and part is left in the Hetao government at all levels, you keep a part for yourself, and it is estimated that there is a million taels of silver;

At that time, once the guards occupy Shajing, you need to organize people to build the city and build the road, and you must build a road between Shajing County and Wuhai Mansion, you are responsible for yourself in Shajing County, and the other sections are responsible for the counties, the road must be repaired, the city must be built solidly, as long as the road is repaired, it is equivalent to establishing a connection with Wuhai;

At that time, the 3rd Division of the Guards Army in Wuhai can arrive in the morning and evening, and naturally there is no need to worry about being attacked by the Tatars! His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty formulated a general military and political strategy! Be sure to strictly enforce it, you estimate, you only take your own silver in Shajing County is enough to build roads and build cities, if it is not enough, the official will allocate some more to you, after all, this Shajing County is really to build a city on the grassland, and some are places to spend money. ”

"The lower officials have been county adjutants for many years, and they have never known that the subordinates have released money to the superiors, and they have not known that the superiors have allocated funds to the subordinates, and now, His Majesty has the hardships of governing the people in the local area, and he can't bear to levy the local officials on the people, and let the local government keep a part of the treasury silver, which can be described as a holy monarch, which has never been seen before! More than 100,000 taels is enough, and the lower officials dare not ask for more. ”

Liu Gui said with a smile, for him, millions of taels is already a huge amount of money, and let him take an extra amount of public money, he himself doesn't know how to use it in practice, and he also knows that the current officials are very strict, he has always been cautious, and he doesn't want to cause a lot of trouble because of too much public money in charge, so he rejected Zhang Zhang's kindness.

"In this case, when you need to pay the silver again, then find the official, now the Royal Bank has too much money, according to the meaning of the household, you have to spend it as much as possible, and it cannot be stored in the hands of the imperial court, and Your Majesty is unwilling to build a large number of palaces, you have to help the people first, you spend more, you can also let the border people have more money in their hands, and then there will be more people who are willing to come to the north to make a living.

As soon as Zhang Xuan said this, Liu Gui also nodded: "Xiaguan should remember the teachings of Lord Futai, but what Xiaguan is worried about is that my Ming Dynasty built a city and built roads in Hetao to expand too quickly, and most of the people in Wuhai Mansion are Hu people at present. ”

"Although it is not my race, its heart will be different, but my Ming Dynasty is the kingdom of the Celestial Empire, and I can't do anything to destroy human nature, and these Hu people are also poor people who were enslaved by the Tatars, many of them are still the Han people who were robbed by the Tatars, they came here spontaneously to do coolies, and we also need them to build cities, build roads, transport mines, etc., as long as they let them live better than when they were slaves, they naturally will not want to go back;

However, we also have to take this opportunity to change customs and let them be sinicized, these low-level Hu people can eat enough, and naturally they don't care what kind of culture they receive, but we have to instill etiquette in them, so that they forget that they are Hu people, only know that they are Ming people, through trade, work, cultural propaganda, entertainment so that they gradually get used to speaking Chinese, gradually, they will forget that they used to be Hu people, for example, there were Xiongnu surnamed Liu and established a Han state, you Liu Gui may be all Huns, you say yes or no".

Zhang Xuan joked about Liu Gui as he spoke, and Liu Gui smiled awkwardly: "Although I don't know whether my ancestors are Han or Yi, the minister knows that he is a minister of the Ming Dynasty." ”

Zhang Xuan nodded, and continued: "That's right, those who are loyal to His Majesty the Emperor are all subjects of my Ming Dynasty!" You have to remember one thing at that time, you have to prohibit these Hu people from living together in clans, Han and Hu together, and prohibit intermarriage within their clans to form alliances, prohibit gangs and factions, and kill those who want to be the masters of other Hu people! The Hu nobles will not be spared!

Use more of the methods in the "Foreign Regulations" issued by the General Political Department of the Guards, when promoting their sinicization, tell them about the sins of the Tatar nobles when they enslaved them, investigate a few of the more miserable, give them the opportunity to talk about their painful experience of being enslaved in the major Hu people's working quarters, and by the way, talk about the good in the Ming Dynasty! The effect of this will be very good, and it will even make these Hu people defend the city even more desperately than the original Han when they encounter Tatar cavalry attacks in the future! ”

As soon as Zhang Xuan finished speaking, Wang Xi, the prefect of Wuhai Mansion, and Gui Yong, the deputy chief soldier, suddenly came in a hurry to report: "Futai!" The cavalry of the Uliangha attacked, led by the son of the leader of the Uliangha, and according to the report of our Jinyi guards, they still came to ask the Hu people to go back, saying that we had plundered their people. ”

"It's ridiculous! These Hu people fled on their own, how did we plunder."