As soon as Chongzhen heard "120,000", a mouthful of old blood almost spurted out of his mouth, and he exclaimed: "Where can I get so many usable soldiers?" Even if so many soldiers were brought, where would the household department get so much food? ”

Yang Sichang said unhurriedly: "Weichen has already thought about it, Fengyang and Sizhou Ancestral Tombs sent 5,000 officers and soldiers, and Chengtian Ancestral Tombs sent 5,000 officers and soldiers, each holding on; The border army sent 30,000 troops, the prime minister sent 30,000 officers and soldiers, the Fengyang and Shanxi governors each sent 10,000 troops, and the Huguang and Henan governors sent 15,000 officers and soldiers each......"

Chongzhen listened to him like this, huh? It's not that 120,000 can't be taken out, anyway, Liaodong has been relatively peaceful recently, and Jiannu has not come to knock on the side, and he doesn't know what kind of fame he is doing, so he just took out his hand to clean up the thief army.

At this time, it was March of the tenth year of Chongzhen, the Manchu Qing Dynasty was using troops against the DPRK * Xian, the Phi Island of Dongjiang Town was being attacked by the Qing army, and it was about to be finished soon, and the Chao * Xian had surrendered to the Manchu Qing Dynasty in February, officially changing from the Ming Dynasty's Fan State to the Manchu Dynasty's Fan State, but Chongzhen had not yet received the news. It wasn't until March that the Ming army went to sea to reinforce Chao Xian, only to know that the Bangzi State had surrendered to the Manchus, and had to come back embarrassed.

Chongzhen said: "Although the 120,000 army can be drawn, where can I get so much military salary?" ”

Yang Sichang said: "Regarding this point, Weichen has also had a plan. Among the 120,000 officers and soldiers. seventy-four thousand infantrymen, each of whom was paid five cents of silver per day, for a total of one hundred and thirty-two thousand taels of silver for a year; There were 36,000 horsemen, and each of them was paid a penny of silver and forage a day, and a total of 1,296,000 taels of silver a year. The total of the two items required was 2,628,000 taels of silver. ”

When Chongzhen heard the figure of 2,628,000 taels, his face changed miserably, and he almost slipped under the chair. Not to mention asking him to take out this number, even if he thinks about it, he will have chills all over his body. Hurriedly waved his hand and said, "So much money, I don't have it!" ”

Yang Sichang had already guessed his reaction, so he said: "Wechen also knows that the imperial court is short of silver, so Wechen thought of a way, this money might as well be raised by the emperor's Neinu, princes, relatives, civil and military officials, we have so many officials in the Ming Dynasty." Each took out a few thousand taels. You can make it up. ”

Chongzhen thought about it, it seems to make sense, there are not thousands of officials in the Ming Dynasty, but there are also eight hundred, and one official pays some money. Isn't it a piece of cake to make up 2,620,000 taels of silver? Immediately, he rejoiced: "This plan is good. So I decreed that money would be levied. ”

He didn't even have the heart to listen to Yang Sichang's third plan. After getting the money first, he wrote an edict in an uproar, asking the princes, relatives, and civil and military officials to come to the court. But...... After the edict was sent. Except for dozens of junior officials who each donated a small amount of silver, none of the senior officials moved.

Chongzhen was furious, held a court meeting, and angrily scolded the civil and military officials: "I ordered the Xunwei family to donate, but I have resisted so far, and I have no heart to rush the country." Even the provincial squire did not donate, and when the thief came, it was all owned by him. How can you be so stupid? ”

The hundred officials were scolded, but they didn't blush, and shouted: "The ministers really don't have any money, please ask the emperor to send a ......."

Chongzhen was furious: "My Nenu has already run out, and I have no money." ”

Baiguan also said: "The minister's money has also been spent, and there is no money." ”

The monarchs and ministers stared together, and after staring, Chongzhen was helpless, so he had to summon Yang Sichang to discuss: "Aiqing's plan can't work, none of these officials are loyal to the monarch and patriotic, they all hide the money and don't take it out, waiting for the thieves to rob them, it's just a bunch of bastards, does Aiqing have a better plan?" ”

Yang Sichang actually had a backup plan, so he proposed: "Since this is the case, I have to send the more than 200 taels of silver according to the acres of land." ”

Chongzhen listened and said: "That is, to levy additional grain?" ”

The so-called "because of grain" is a special way of levy, which is similar to the poor do not pay taxes, and the rich pay taxes a special means of taxation, the "because of grain" standard in the Ming Dynasty is five taels of silver, that is, the grain tax is paid by more than five taels of silver, this tax standard is proposed by Lu Xiangsheng, has not been able to be truly implemented, his original intention is that the rich pay a little tax does not affect anything, but the poor can be exempted from paying, will not be subject to the weight of such a tax.

The "grain-based" taxation method proposed by Lu Xiangsheng is actually very advanced, and it is quite a bit of the taxation style of later generations, because he is well aware of the people's sufferings and knows that the people have been overwhelmed, so he excludes the poor from the scope of tax payment. But Yang Sichang is different, he doesn't understand the suffering of the people as much as Lu Xiangsheng, this person is actually a big talker, and he doesn't know the situation in the world at all. What's more, he himself is also a big landlord and big bureaucrat, if he taxes like this, his family will also have to pay a lot of money, so when he heard Chongzhen mention "because of grain", he hurriedly said: "No, your majesty, this plan of levying grain will not work." ”

Chongzhen Qi said: "Why doesn't it work? ”

Yang Sichang said: "Because of the grain salary, we must first find out which people's acres of land need to pay more than five taels of taxes, but the rich people of the eunuch family have always sprinkled and sent tricks to avoid the big households. ”

Chongzhen is also a poor brain, as soon as he heard what he said, he immediately felt justified, and said, "Then what should I do?" ”

Yang Sichang said: "Don't do anything because of grain, just distribute the more than 2 million taels of silver evenly to all the acres of land in the world, and levy it on the rich and poor, so that there is not much on everyone's head, and there should be no problem." ”

Chongzhen thought about it, but he didn't have any better ideas, so he sighed and said, "Okay, just do as you say!" ”

Yang Sichang said again: "Your Majesty, we should also check the overflow land." ”

Chongzhen Qi said: "What is Yidi? Why haven't I heard a word? ”

Yang Sichang said: "The so-called overflow land means that some farmers secretly reclaim wasteland next to their fields, and the number of acres they actually own is higher than that of our government. ”

As soon as Chongzhen heard that he could make money, where did he think that this practice was good or bad, he was overjoyed at the moment: "Okay, just do it!" By the way, you have a third plan, and now you can talk about it. ”

Yang Sichang said: "The third plan is to employ people, we are not effective in suppressing bandits, in fact, it is mostly because the officials who supervise and suppress are all wine bags and rice bags, if we use competent talents, the rogue has already calmed down." After the death of Lord Hong Chengchou, Lord Lu Xiangsheng succeeded him as the governor of the seven provinces, but Lord Lu was soon forced to go north to resist the captives, and the position of governor became in name only, and it was reasonable to send another capable person to live in it. ”

When Chongzhen heard this, he only felt that Yang Sichang really knew his life, and he had long felt that the officials under him were all idiots, and said with great joy: "Who can recommend Aiqing?" Hurry up! ”

Yang Sichang immediately said: "The position of the governor of Chensi, the full-time killing, must be courageous, and the talent to respond to the situation must be seen Xiong Wencan, the governor of Liangguang." ”

In other words, who is Xiong Wencan, the governor of Liangguang? In fact, this person is the person who recruited Zheng Chenggong's father, Zheng Zhilong, and this book has been talking about the northwest, rarely mentioning the southeast. In fact, during the Chongzhen period, the southeast was not calm, the Westerners made trouble at sea many times, and the Dutch colonists contacted the great pirate Liu Xiang to cause trouble along the coast. At this time, Zheng Chenggong's father Zheng Zhilong was also a big pirate, the most powerful in the southeast China Sea, he had the heart to take refuge in the imperial court, drive away the Dutch colonists, and responsible for appeasing Zheng Zhilong, it was this Xiong Wencan, he made great contributions because of the appeasement of Zheng Zhilong, and was promoted from the governor of Fujian to the governor of Liangguang, and later with the help of Zheng Zhilong's power to pacify the great pirate Liu Xiang and defeat the Dutch colonists, so he had a great reputation in the court. From Chongzhen to civil and military officials, they all think that Xiong Wencan is a talented person......

In fact, everyone didn't know that the reason why Xiong Wencan was able to appease Zheng Zhilong was because Zheng Zhilong wanted to be appeased, and the two hit it off. Later, Liu Xiang was exterminated and the Dutch were driven away, all relying on Zheng Zhilong's strength, Xiong Wencan himself didn't have any strength at all, and once he left Zheng Zhilong, he couldn't do anything.

But Chongzhen is a person who doesn't know people, and Yang Sichang's eyesight is not very good, so both of them thought that Xiong Wencan was a talent, and now the two discussed and decided to transfer Xiong Wencan to serve as the governor......

A few days later, Zhu Yuanzhang was supervising his officials to organize the people to take care of the "morning potato", when he suddenly saw a spy running over, holding a bulletin paper in his hand, handed it to Zhu Yuanzhang, and said loudly: "General, this is our spies from the post road in the west of the mountain, it seems to be some kind of edict issued by the emperor, the brothers are illiterate, they only know that this edict is very important, it was sent at an expedited speed of 800 miles, and it was stolen when the post man changed horses...... Please take a look at it. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang took it casually, opened it and looked at it, and his face couldn't help but turn three points blue at this look.

I saw that this edict was written like this: "The bandits have spread for a long time, and the people have been extremely miserable. If you don't gather troops, you will be killed, and thieves can't be eliminated quickly; If you don't take more money and food, the soldiers can't move in a big way. There is a shortage of money, and there is no place to set up. The court decided to change the grain to an equal loss, which temporarily burdened our people for a year, and in addition to this serious trouble. Think about it again and again, and it is a last resort. …… Today, I am instructed to take care of the place, and make a big example, describing the court's efforts to remove the disabled for the people and to show compassion in many ways. Gather officials all over the world, strictly enforce precepts, distribute to the villages, and give detailed advice, so that all the distance is known, the rich and the poor are inclusive, and if they can obey without disturbance, they will naturally be happy and losing, and the success will be accomplished, and the narrative will be recorded in one. ”

After reading it, he couldn't help but sigh and said, "Zhu Youzhen, this unlucky child, who was he deceived again?" He actually wants to raise taxes again, is he afraid that the people will not have enough? It is also necessary to force another group of good people to rebel and increase the number of thieves by hundreds of thousands. (To be continued.) )