People's eyes are always fixed on the benefits they have in their hands, and how much money is spent for these benefits is ignored intentionally or unintentionally. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info Xu Ping repeatedly mentioned the cost of doing things, and every time he fell up, the courtiers were surprised, and there was no way to do it. In addition to the local positive tax, the heavy duties of transfer, conversion, purchase, and distribution, and even the front of the government are actually part of the cost of the regular tax. And what makes the people talk about it is these miscellaneous donations.

The ministers here have all been pro-people officials in the prefecture and county, and as soon as Xu Ping makes it clear, they will know what is going on. Only Zhao Zhen was still extremely surprised, constantly weighing what Xu Ping said, and exclaimed again and again.

Xu Ping said: "Your Majesty, what I just said is the cost of collecting money, but in fact, the cost of spending money is also amazing. ”

Zhao Zhenqi said: "Collecting money has gone through the hands of countless people, and I can understand that the cost is large, what kind of capital do you need to spend money?" ”

Xu Ping glanced at the privy envoy Zhang Shixun and said: "Take the military expenditure spent on the border states as an example, for example, the imperial court spent one million guan to buy grain, and if the color polished rice in Kaifeng Mansion is always counted as one stone, it will need one million stone. In fact, in wartime, taking the soldiers in Shaanxi during the Zhenmiao period as an example, the rice milling five times was still not consistent. If you count the peacetime, the price of rice in Shaanxi is only half of that of Kaifeng Mansion, then more than four times a stone of rice is the capital of trading. When the army is used, it is conceivable where the military expenditure is spent. ”

Zhang Shixun said in a deep voice: "Although it is good to advise this, it is a helpless move. In wartime, everything is expensive, and the price of rice is naturally much more expensive than usual. The army should not go without food for a day, and it is worth spending some extra money. ”

"Although the cardinal's words are good, every time the army is used, the court has done its best to spend the money, and it can be said that it is not careless. But in the end, because the cost is too huge, you will have to stop fighting and sue for peace, which is not always the way. Recently, the three divisions checked the accounts of the past years, and found that the real temple used troops in Shaanxi, and the military grain collected in the border areas reached five times and one stone, and it was not colored rice, and the grain price of Kaifeng Mansion at that time was still the same as in previous years, and it was still a stone for polishing rice. If the military rations are calculated as one million stones, more than 4 million yuan of money will be wasted in vain, and the soldiers in the border areas will not eat good rice. More than 4 million yuan, if the Bridge and Road Division organizes people to transport there, even if it is collected from Jiangnan and Zhejiang, the freight will definitely not cost so much. In this way, the cost of spending money along the border is too high. ”

Zhang Shixun said: "Having said that, it's just that the transportation and collection of military rations in this dynasty has its own precedent, and it is not easy to change. ”

Now the financial revenue of the imperial court is guaranteed, and if a war breaks out in the northwest, there will be no serious financial difficulties. However, what Xu Ping was most afraid of was that no matter how much money the imperial court invested in it, it would not be able to transform into the combat power of the front-line soldiers in the end. In the end, the money was spent, but the work was not done. At this point, the war has become a bottomless pit, and if you don't want to make peace, you have to make peace.

Grain is the most conspicuous bulk strategic material, and the efficiency is also low to this extent, and other war materials can be imagined. It is true that fighting a war is to fight money and food, but money and food must always be used where it should be used.

The forbidden army did not have a logistical organization, which was determined by the military system. In wartime, a temporary military transport envoy will be set up, and the logistics system relied on is actually the original administrative system of the local prefectures and counties. The more densely populated the interior, the more effective this organizational system is, and the more sparsely populated the borderlands, the more overstretched it becomes, and the more it is at a loss to break out of the borders. Whether it is the northwest or Hebei, the operation is highly dependent on merchants to transport logistics, so what else can be done if this is not done?

Merchants who traffic supplies with the army can only play the role of icing on the cake, relying on them completely, and no amount of money is enough for them to earn. And in order to maximize profits and push up the price of goods, they will always keep the front-line supplies in short supply. The final result of the war was to fatten a large number of merchants accompanying the army, empty the treasury, and have to stop fighting. After the armistice, the bureaucracy felt that it was a bag, and killed a group of businessmen to vent their anger. The next time there is a war, the same story will be repeated.

Xu Ping was really afraid that the same situation would occur after the Northwest fought with the party. He can't manage the forbidden army, but he can let the third division smooth the logistics system to Shaanxi. The war is together, to ensure that there is a steady stream of war materials to be transported to Guanzhong, as for how to get to the front line in the end, it is the matter of the commanders and ministers from all walks of life.

Seeing that Zhang Shixun was silent, Zhao Zhen said: "If it is as Xu Ping said, most of the money is spent on useless things, which is really worrying. The Privy Council should figure out how to transport money and goods to the frontiers at the least cost. ”

Zhang Shixun said: "What Your Majesty said is extremely true, but there are few ways. In the past, I also tried to use the box army to transport grain to Shaanxi, which was more expensive than hiring merchants to transport grain, and it was best to do that. ”

Xu Ping said: "The cardinal minister said, when it is the cost of transporting tea with the carriage army calculated before, plus the money for making ships, and the waste of shipwrecks on the road, it is better to hire a merchant to transport tea." However, this is a peacetime expense, and when it comes to wartime, it is not such a price. The carriage army transports grain and tea, whether it is in wartime or peacetime, it is all about spending that money, but the merchants will sit on the ground and raise the price, the more urgent the court urges, the higher the price they want. ”

"Naturally, businessmen seek profit. However, the war is not fought every year, and there is no need to transport so much grain in peacetime, so can there be so many soldiers in vain? And if you requisition the people, it is better to buy them from the merchants. ”

What Zhang Shixun said touched on another point of the military system, that is, no matter whether the forbidden army is in or out. When a war starts, it is necessary to increase the number of troops, but the additional soldiers will not retire after the battle, but will eat military rations for a lifetime. Under such circumstances, it is naturally not cost-effective to raise a professional army for transporting grain, and over the years, in order to reduce the number of military personnel, all non-combatants have basically been laid off. Officials are not fools, and their decisions are made in line with the military system.

Xu Ping looked at Zhang Shixun, then at Zhao Zhen, at the surrounding ministers, and said in a deep voice: "Speaking of which, there were many places where troops were used at the beginning of the war, and they had to increase their troops. If there is no increase in troops, it will be inconvenient and costly. ”

Zhang Shixun said in a deep voice: "However, it is easy to increase troops, but it is difficult to reduce soldiers, and it is difficult to do both. ”

This is where the conscription system is troublesome, in peacetime it is actually less than the cost of conscription, but when it comes to wartime, it encounters great difficulties. If there is a large-scale increase in troops, it will become a question of where the surplus personnel will go after the war, and under the conscription system, being a soldier is the job bowl of these people, and if the jobs of so many people are smashed, and those who have served as soldiers, the whole society will face turmoil. And if there is no increase in troops, and the wartime needs are solved by commercial behavior, then the money will be astronomical, and no government can afford it.

Not to mention this era, Xu Ping remembered that in his previous life, the world's largest country, when it was generally peaceful, fighting a few years with a small country could drag the entire country's finances to pieces. And during the world war, they used conscription, and the scale of the war was not much larger, but there were not so many strange things.

Conscription itself is not a problem, but in wartime it can only be combined with commerce, and that becomes a big problem. Under this system, the only things that can still be fought and cost less are colonial plundering wars. Normal state-to-state wars are actually simply not something that a normal regime can afford. The cost of war under this system is simply too high.