Zhu Hongsan was in a very happy mood today, and he had acquired thousands of miles of land in the hands of the Dalai Lama. These are still secondary, and the most important thing is to obtain the main transportation route into Tibet.

The northern border troubles have been a stubborn disease of the Central Plains Dynasty since the Qin and Han dynasties, and when the Central Plains Dynasty was strong, these northern nomads naturally had to retreat and flee to the extreme north to avoid the army of the Central Plains Dynasty. But flowers are not good for a hundred days, and once the Central Plains Dynasty is weakened, this is an opportunity for the northern nomads.

If these nomads went south to occupy the land of the Han Chinese, it would be fine, and the extremely powerful fusion properties of the Han civilization assimilated them. But if these guys are not here to grab land, but to grab things, then it's troublesome.

Mongolia in the north of the Ming Dynasty has always been a problem in the heart, these guys can't beat and run, and they will come in a few days, which is really a headache for the rulers of the Central Plains, so in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, along the Great Wall, the general army of eight towns was formed to guard against the northern Mongols. These armies accounted for five-sevenths of the army at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and it was these armies that sucked all the financial resources of the Ming Dynasty like vampires, creating opportunities for the rise of the Jurchen tribes in Liaodong.

Thanks to a large number of Manchu film and television dramas in later generations, Zhu Hongsan learned that after the Manchu Qing occupied the Central Plains, the problem of northern Mongolia was much smaller than that of the Ming Dynasty. Naturally, there are reasons why the three emperors of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong used force in Mongolia. However, starting from Jiaqing, the Qing Dynasty in the Central Plains has begun to decline, but Mongolia has never had any ambitions to go south.

Of course, this is not that the Mongols suddenly got better and played with the Manchus and the Manchus, but that the Manchus used force to suppress the Dzungar thorns, and another trick was to use Lamaism to castrate the Mongols' martial spirit.

The Manchu Qing vigorously promoted Lamaism in Mongolia, and at the same time stipulated that no matter how many sons a family had, except for one who left the family to inherit the family property, all other sons should become lamas. In addition to these, they also gave all kinds of privileges to those living Buddhas and Dharma kings, and basically gave the local autonomy completely to those lamas, so that these lamas who had benefited from it had to repay the Manchu government, and under their unremitting mission, the northern border problems that had plagued the Han people for thousands of years were completely solved in the middle and late Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Zhu Hongsan's calculation was similar to that of the Manchus, first occupying Tibet, controlling the large and small living Buddhas there, and then using these religious swindlers to clean up the Mongols. Today, the first step of Zhu Hongsan's grand strategy has been successfully completed, and Zhu Hongsan is naturally very happy.

Zhu Hongsan returned to the side hall of the Qianqing Palace to change into regular clothes, and then came out to the imperial study to see the first assistant Feng Ziyong, and he had to discuss with Feng Ziyong what to do next.

Today is the fifteenth day of Feng Ziyong's coming to power, exactly half a month. If you didn't know the price of firewood and rice as an old man in the soy sauce pavilion before, now Feng Ziyong fully understands that the position of Shoufu is not easy to do.

The reason is very simple, as a big steward of a country, there are more than 100,000 officials in the country, and nearly a million troops, these people are waiting for the first assistant to pay your salary, and at the same time, you have to guard against those elders who wear small shoes for themselves, and always pay attention to the emperor's joys, sorrows, and sorrows.

Today's grand welcome to the Dalai Lama, Feng Ziyong has some complaints, a religious representative of a vassal country went to Beijing to worship, let the Ministry of Rites Shangshu receive it, but the emperor not only sent the crown prince to greet him, but also held a ceremony in the Fengtian Hall to welcome the Dalai Lama. In addition to these, in order to make the Dalai Lama's residence in Beijing comfortable, it also cost tens of thousands of silver dollars to build a new lama temple.

However, there is no way for Feng Ziyong, these are all set when Ma Mingyuan, the first assistant of the previous office, was in office, and the Lama Temple was also built half a year ago, when Feng Ziyong couldn't intervene in the government at all, so he was also objected.

But today is different, the emperor just now in the Fengtian Hall happily agreed to build a new palace for the Dalai Lama in Chengde, and it will be the same scale as the Potala Palace in Lhasa, how many silver dollars will it cost?

It's already October, and the summer and autumn levies have been collected, and the money will be enough to maintain the huge expenses of the empire, where is the money to build any lama temples? Where is the money to engage in the Tibetan garrison that the emperor said?

Feng Ziyong was angry in Fengtian Hall just now, but Feng Ziyong was different from Ma Mingyuan, Feng Ziyong still had to save face for the emperor in front of the civil and military officials, so Feng Ziyong was ready to go to the Qianqing Palace where there was no one to talk to the emperor.

Zhu Hongsan came out and sat on the throne, and when he saw Feng Ziyong, he smiled and said, "Second cousin, be happy today!" I've expanded the empire for thousands of miles! ”

Feng Ziyong stood up from the chair and gave a deep salute and said, "Of course, the minister wants to congratulate His Majesty on opening up the territory and expanding the territory, but the minister thinks that the Kham region should not be wanted!" ”

Zhu Hongsan heard Feng Ziyong say this, is it a lot, does the cabinet have any good ideas?

Zhu Hongsan hurriedly asked, "What?" Does the cabinet have any good ideas to control Tibet? ”

"Your Majesty, that Wusizang was originally a barren land, and it is also located on the plateau, which is really not suitable for my Han people to live in, and the emperor gave so many benefits to the Dalai Lama for thousands of miles of barren land, is it a bit too much!"

Feng Ziyong still wanted to explain to the emperor at this time, but Zhu Hongsan was full of joy and was poured a basin of cold water on Feng Ziyong's head, and Zhu Hongsan was very unhappy in his heart.

"Second cousin doesn't know, the Dzungar Department is very fierce, if they are allowed to occupy Tibet and Qinghai, my Ming frontier will never be peaceful. The second cousin is the first assistant of the cabinet, and the internal affairs are handled by the second cousin, so the second cousin doesn't have to worry about this kind of military affairs! ”

Feng Ziyong's personality is different from the sleek Ma Mingyuan, if it is Ma Mingyuan today, he will definitely not refute the emperor, and will only wait for the matter to find an opportunity to persuade the emperor. But Feng Ziyong is different, Feng Ziyong has a lot of the Donglin Party's stinky temper that is not afraid of power, plus Feng Ziyong was dissatisfied with the emperor's decision to build a palace for Da Lai Lai if he didn't discuss with the cabinet just now, and now he heard the emperor say so, Feng Ziyong can no longer suppress the anger in his heart.

"Your Majesty, military ministers should not be in charge, but the money must be paid by the Ministry of Finance! In the 11th year of Shenwu, the summer and autumn taxes collected less than 2 million silver dollars, the commercial tax collected 21.2 million silver dollars, and the local gold collected 10.8 million silver dollars. This money looks like a lot, but more than 500,000 troops in the northwest, northeast, and Nanyang, these will cost half of the annual taxes, in addition to these, there are also the unresolved war in Fujian, the officials' salaries, and the disaster relief funds in the northern provinces, all of which are calculated This year's balance is only 300,000 silver dollars, and now His Majesty the Emperor said that he will garrison troops in Wusizang, and build a new palace for the Dalai Lama, and the treasury has no money! ”

Zhu Hongsan was so angry when he heard Feng Ziyong say this, a secondary reason why he got rid of Ma Mingyuan was that he could spend money happily, and now he was replaced by Feng Ziyong, I didn't expect this good old man to become the first assistant How did he become the same as Ma Mingyuan, and he liked to control his own spending?

In fact, compared with those emperors of the former Ming Dynasty, Zhu Hongsan spent relatively little money, at least he did not raise tens of thousands of eunuchs and palace maids in the palace. Now there are only more than 20 women of Zhu Hongsan's size, and there are no comparisons with Zhu Di, who has thousands of beauties in the harem. In addition to these, Zhu Hongsan's requirements for food, clothing, housing and transportation are not high, and one meal is four dishes and one soup, which is the most frugal among the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, and even Zhu Chongba, who is called Huazi, can't compare.

Zhu Hongsan's face became more and more ugly, but Feng Ziyong didn't see it, and he was still saying to himself: "Your Majesty, now the war is raging on the Burmese side, the Fujian and Taiwan sides are also confronting, and the fighting between the Nanyang side and the Dutch has not stopped, and there are wars on three sides, so it is really not appropriate to start lightly in the northwest!" Isn't it good to let them kill each other with the Dzungar tribe anyway? Why does Your Majesty have to get involved? ”

"Second cousin, you don't know, the Zheng family and the Dutch are insignificant, only Dzungaria is the henchman of the Ming Dynasty! Did the second cousin forget that it was the imperial court's inaction against Liaodong in the former Ming Dynasty that allowed the Manchu Qing to sit big? ”

Feng Ziyong heard Zhu Hongsan say this, it was complete nonsense, just half a year ago, your emperor said that Zheng Chenggong was a big problem, how can it become insignificant now? But now neither of the two can convince anyone. Feng Ziyong simply decided to show the emperor his hole cards.

"Your Majesty, the minister is a civilian official, I don't know that the war is important, but the treasury just has no money, Your Majesty wants to fight in the northwest, then please use your Majesty's internal funds!"

Feng Ziyong said very simply, the treasury has no money, but your emperor has money, half of the big factories in Guangdong belong to your emperor himself, and the emperor's small treasury has tens of millions of inputs every year. Now the emperor wants to fight, so let's say, you can pay for the money yourself!

Zhu Hongsan was so angry when he heard Feng Ziyong say this, why did these stinky old nine think about their own family background? Zhu Hongsan has a lot of factories in Guangdong, but those are all arsenals and steel factories, and eighty percent of the production capacity of these factories has to produce ordnance and equipment for the army free of charge, so what is the income?

And Zhu Hongsan used to be rich, with an annual income of between 10 million, but at that time, those were all snatched from the northern provinces by using industrial scissors. Now that the north has been recovered, it has become Zhu Hongsan's own territory, so naturally he can't use this method of scraping the land, so Zhu Hongsan's income has plummeted in recent years, and only less than two million silver dollars are recorded every year.

Of course, two million silver dollars is also a large amount, but don't forget that Zhu Hongsan has a lot of wives and children, and his son is going to get married when he grows up, won't he prepare a house for his father? Don't you prepare a dowry when your daughter gets married? There are also more than 20 wives of Zhu Hongsan, as the emperor's wife, there are few sets of jewelry when you go out, are you embarrassed to go out? There are also hundreds of people in Zhu Hong's third uncle's family who want to eat, these people are not nobles or clans, but they are all relatives of your mother, can your emperor care?

These all need money, but the Ming Dynasty cabinet was extremely powerful, and the Longqing Emperor wanted to buy a set of jewelry for his wife, but the household said that there was no money, and in the end the jewelry was not bought. Emperor, your son and daughter were born to you, and your wife was also robbed by you back then, not to mention your mother's relatives, this is all your emperor's own business, and if you want to ask for money from the treasury, there is no penny. Therefore, Zhu Hongsan's annual income of 2 million seems to be quite a lot, but in fact, it will be enough.