Shi Kefa's carriage drove out of the barracks, and politely declined Yang Chao's invitation to let him review the military appearance.

A small official in the carriage asked, "Why doesn't Lord Shi want to look at General Yang's army?" ”

This little official is a little official in charge of money and food, and he was brought by Shi Kefa to listen to the strategy of opening up the wasteland, and he saw the results directly, but it was a little not in line with Shi Kefa's expectations, but the young official was a little curious about Yang Chao's invincible army.

Shi Kefa shook his head: "It's okay if you don't watch it, I have already seen Yang Chaojun in Huai'an, and he lives up to his reputation." There is not much need to look at it now, presumably military discipline under Yang Chao's rule will not be wasted. And this official also has a word of suffering, and he has no shame to see those soldiers. ”

The little official asked, "What is the secret of the adults?" ”

Shi Kefa sighed: "When I was in Huai'an, the official did not reward these soldiers, and if this time the official reviewed them as the secretary of the military department, if there was no reward, it would be impossible to say." So it's better not to see. ”

The little official also sighed secretly, knowing that Shi Kefa, the secretary of the military department, was indeed too poor, but it was also Shi Kefa's dead heart, and he didn't need to use a lot of opportunities to make money, didn't he have anything to sell an official casually, but Shi Kefa just strictly followed the procedures, don't you know how much of those procedures are controlled by others, he Shi Kefa doesn't sell his official position, but others will not be polite, all the lists that Shi Kefa sees, they have all paid money, but this money does not have Shi Kefa's share.

……

"Military fields, that's right, they are all military fields, you can plant them, and if you have this official for one day, you are allowed to plant them for one day. There is no land deed, Shi Benbing does not agree to give the land deed, what can the official do. ”

Not long after Shi Kefa left, Yang Chao called the general managers under the left and right thousand headquarters, telling them that the land deed they wanted was gone, and they were willing to open up the wasteland. Pull down unwillingly.

I have to say that Shi Kefa's inspection brought a lot of trouble to Yang Chao.

Originally, he could use 10,000 acres of wasteland to exchange for the official positions of these people and the number of soldiers in his hands, but he didn't expect Shi Kefa to see it. Dead and alive did not agree to the issuance of the title deed, he told Yang Chao. These are all military fields, and they are still military fields when they are cleared out, and Yang Chao is allowed to raise troops here, but Yang Chao is not allowed to divide the fields.

Shi Kefa also hoped that Yang Chao would not blame him, he just hoped that the problem of military salaries could be solved, the military department really couldn't get military salaries, and it was a good way to raise soldiers in Tuntian, but it could only be used to raise soldiers. If it becomes a private field, it will not be beneficial to Tuntian.

Yang Chao knew that Shi Kefa was also forced by money to have no choice, his predecessor Xiong Mingyu could do Tai Chi, but Shi Kefa was a serious person, and this kind of thing would be pressed on his heart by the army's arrears.

"That being the case, then the subordinate will leave, don't blame General Yang, it's not that the subordinate doesn't know what to do, it's really a family's livelihood, so that the subordinate doesn't dare to be careless."

One by one, the military attachés took their leave and left. They can't afford to offend Yang Chao, but there is no guarantee, they really don't want to give up the only thing in their hands. As middle-level military attachés, they don't even have a share of empty salaries, so they can only farm land in the barracks, raise pigs and the like, and have no worries about food and clothing, but they dare not ask for luxury if they are rich and rich.

And because there is no money, everyone has dozens or even a dozen people, of course, it is impossible to use up the number of troops in their hands. But each of them had a full quota on their books, apparently empty. But they can't eat those empty amounts.

But Yang Chao didn't eat their empty salary, because the military department hadn't seen the military salary this year. Last year, the eastern captives entered the Kou, and there was a toss in the south of the Yangtze River, and the captured soldiers robbed it again, and the officers and soldiers took the opportunity to rob it again, and the officials took the opportunity to loot it, and many people got fat, but the imperial court was poor, and it was already in deficit every year, and this year it was even worse, and perhaps by the end of the year, last year's military salary might not be able to be paid.

So even Yang Chao didn't have a chance to eat empty salaries, let alone these officers who still had to receive salaries from Yang Chao.

The imperial court is so embarrassed, no wonder Shi Kefa tried his best to solve the problem of military salaries for the barracks.

If you want to blame Yang Chao for the different purposes of Shi Kefa, Yang Chao only thought about getting those soldiers and official positions into his hands, but he didn't think about raising troops in Tuntian at all, because Yang Chao has a way to make money, in fact, the imperial court can also do it, such as opening a sea transport, not much a year, three million taels of silver is not difficult, even the Zheng Chenggong family, it is said that every year just to do Japanese trade, you can have a profit of 10 million taels, the entire Ming Dynasty opened the sea ban on tariffs, only 3 million taels is not easy.

But whoever dares to mention the ban on the sea, those upright people will definitely scold anyone to death, the emperor is a face-loving person, and he doesn't know how huge the customs tax is, in the past few years when the sea ban was opened, the taxes received by the court were better than nothing, and most of them were greedy by the officials of the tax department.

So the emperor had no money, he only knew that he was desperately looking for money from the common people, and the levy of three salaries was in an uproar, at best, he did not receive more than six million taels of silver every year, which was not as much as the net worth of a big salt merchant, so Chongzhen had to bear the infamy of looting the people.

If Chongzhen knew that all the big and small leaders in the Zheng Group were worth more than one million and made millions of taels of silver every year, I am afraid that no matter how many pedantic officials scolded, Chongzhen would not be able to help but ban the sea.

In addition to the sea ban, there are many ways for the imperial court to make money, such as increasing commercial tax, as the most prosperous country in this era, the commercial tax received by the Ming Dynasty is far less than those small countries in Western Europe, that is, the tax rate of the small people is lower than that of the merchants, which is obviously too unreasonable.

However, when a country needs to spend money, temporary tax increases are the most inferior method, the real wisdom is actually to borrow money, the state borrows money is to issue national bonds, but unfortunately, the Ming Dynasty is the world, the country borrows money that is the emperor borrows money, the emperor borrows money is too embarrassing, but when those old pedants say, 'I am rich all over the world, how can I borrow money from the people?' It was enough to make Chongzhen, the emperor who loves face, give up.

But in the final analysis, there is still confidence, the Ming Dynasty relied on tax increases, maintained millions of troops all year round, fought against captives for decades, and always maintained an advantage in the battle with the rogues, and supported on two fronts for decades, which is unimaginable in small Western countries, these small countries, when encountering major events, can only borrow, in the past it was borrowed from Italian interbank and Jewish bankers, and now it is borrowed from Dutch exchanges.

The Ming Dynasty is such an evil family, obviously it has the most silver on the earth, but the emperor's treasury can't pay the silver, and all the money is stored in the cellars of the local tyrants. According to later statistics, in the Ming Dynasty for more than 200 years, the amount of silver flowing into China was about 400 million taels, of which 300 million were hidden by wealthy businessmen, landlords or officials, and less than a quarter of them circulated in the market, resulting in the value of silver always being very high until the late Ming Dynasty.

Daming is not short of money, but he can't collect it, to put it bluntly, this is that the various systems are too inefficient, and it is simply impossible to integrate the power of the entire country, let alone tap the potential.

Yang Chao sometimes feels very puzzled about this situation, but he can't find a solution, many things are obviously that simple, but in Daming just can't do it, how normal it is to open the sea, how can there be a country with tens of thousands of miles of coastline that does not engage in overseas trade, but the civil officials in the court are opposed, Longqing and Wanli Emperors opened a sea ban for money, but these two emperors were scolded to death by civil officials, and as soon as the two emperors died, these civil officials immediately suggested that the emperor re-ban the sea.

The same is true for commercial taxes, it is hard to imagine that the Ming Dynasty would rather make the world boil and reach out to the lowest level of the people, but not tax the rich businessmen who are so rich, if Zhu Yuanzhang is here, I am afraid that let alone collect taxes, he will directly kill a group of rich businessmen to grab money.

Later generations of people did not understand it, there are various experts to study, some believe that the reason for not collecting business taxes is that most of the big businessmen in Jiangnan are inextricably linked with the court officials, and it is these people who manipulate the officials to prevent the emperor from collecting taxes, and the reason why the sea ban is not opened is because many big officials in Jiangnan are doing smuggling at home.

But what Yang Chao saw was really not like this, if the officials of the Ming Dynasty had such executive power, it would not be bad.

Yang Chao felt that the emperor did not collect business taxes, probably because he couldn't look down on them, probably because he couldn't pull his face, because he looked down on businessmen, so he was unwilling to reach out to businessmen, or it was possible that the emperor didn't know that he could receive so much business taxes, and those pedantic civil officials probably couldn't think of how much business taxes could be collected.

As for the ban on the sea, it is even more nonsense, the officials oppose the open sea trade, which is definitely influenced by conservative concepts, always thinking that the sea is full of dangers, and the open sea trade is easy to attract pirates, and the rebellion of the Japanese invaders in the south for decades still makes them feel uneasy, so it is overkill.

As for those who deliberately obstruct the opening of the sea because of smuggling interests, it is completely in vain to ignore the laws of the economy, and for these smuggling maritime merchants, after the opening of the sea is banned, they are the group of people who will get the greatest benefits, and they wish to open the sea as soon as possible.

The impact of the sea ban is only to cause the cost of smuggling to rise, affecting the competitiveness of the Ming Dynasty's goods, only because the Ming Dynasty has the strongest domestic demand, the result is the development of the world's largest handicraft industry, plus silk, porcelain and other unique handicraft products, so that the Ming Dynasty's handicraft industry will not lag behind the whole world in the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty forbade the sea for more than 200 years, the Ming Dynasty is still the world's first country, the Qing Dynasty forbade the sea for more than 200 years, the result is completely backward, if the Ming Dynasty is open, China will not lose the opportunity of the Age of Discovery, and even because of the most powerful capital and confidence, in this era of openness, receive the greatest benefits.

If the sea ban is opened, the level can earn millions of commercial taxes, and the industry and commerce of the Ming Dynasty have opened a window to the world market, promote the industry and commerce of the Ming Dynasty, and increase the commercial tax, which is a virtuous circle, so as long as the sea ban is opened, the emperor will probably not be short of money for many years.

If the emperor is not short of money, he will not raise taxes, and even has the ability to provide disaster relief, and then slowly the internal peasant uprising will subside, and the fate of the Ming Dynasty will change after consuming the Manchu forces outside the pass with strong national strength.

Thinking of this, Yang Chao couldn't help but get excited, but how to get the emperor to agree to open the sea ban?

It definitely doesn't matter if you say it yourself, at least you have to find someone who has weight to say this to the emperor, then Shi Kefa is quite suitable! (To be continued...... ）。