Many things were discussed in the Cabinet meeting, but in fact, they were almost agreed on in private. Just as at today's meeting, Liu Jun proposed to merge the military towns of Liaoxi, Liaodong, Shandong, Shanxi, Zhili, and Henan into three military regions, and in particular, to merge Shanxi, one of the five major military regions in the north, into Zhili.

The towns of the six provinces were merged into three military districts, and the other two auxiliary ministers had agreed to it. Of course, it was not the reason that would be more favorable to the command after the merger that moved them, but what impressed them was Liu Jun's promise to transfer 10 million silver dollars to the account of the household department today.

That's the fundamental reason for their consent.

From the death of Chongzhen in early August to the end of the month now, Liu Jun intermittently pulled out a little silver dollar every time, sometimes hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, and hung the court and reluctantly survived. But all along, the financial problem has not been truly solved.

This time, Liu Jun proposed this exchange condition, Wu Fu and Liu Zongzhou were also helpless.

Liu Jun promised them that he would send 10 million to the Taicang Treasury of the Ministry of Household before the year, and then raise at least 30 million silver dollars for the imperial court next year.

Liu Jun agreed, and Wu Fu and Liu Zongzhou supported Liu Jun's proposals at today's cabinet meeting. From the recommendation of several candidates for the posts of the Privy Council and the Ministry of War, to the proposal to set up three new military regions, namely Guanwai, Zhili, and Central Plains.

"The Guanwai Military Region has jurisdiction over the soldiers and horses of Liaodong and Liaoxi provinces, and has a governor-general, and has jurisdiction over the four towns of Lushun, Zhenjiang, Ningyuan, and Guangning, and the town of Jinzhou has been cut, and the Jinzhou defense area has been merged into the two towns of Guangning and Ningyuan."

"The Zhili Military Region has jurisdiction over the soldiers and horses of Zhili and Shanxi provinces, and has a governor, with jurisdiction over the four towns of guard, garrison, Datong and Taiyuan, and Xuanfu Town is cut off, and the Xuanfu Town Defense Area is merged into Datong Town."

"The Central Plains Military Region has jurisdiction over the soldiers and horses of Henan and Shandong provinces, and has a governor and two towns of Denglai and Kaifeng. The three towns of Daimyo, Jinan, and Zhending were cut, and the defense area was merged into the other three towns. ”

After the merger into three military regions, the five towns of Jinzhou, Xuanfu, Daming, Jinan, and Zhenbao will be abolished, and this is also another large-scale reduction and merger of military towns after Gyeonggi was merged from nine towns into four towns.

For Liu Jun, the reduction and merger of military towns can not only reduce military spending. At the same time, it can also greatly weaken the original strength of the imperial court, so that the Chu army can further occupy a better position and become a dominant family.

No one else could say anything against Liu Jun's reasons for cutting and merging military towns, cutting military spending, refining troops and horses, and enhancing combat effectiveness.

After all, the imperial court is indeed strong, and it can't come up with silver to distribute so much military salaries. On the other hand. The series of victories of the Chu army in Liaodong also fully showed that the army could not win the battle by relying on a large number of people.

But at the end of the day, it's about money.

Wu Fuxin took over as the first assistant, but he was still faced with an empty treasury.

"Everyone has worked hard for this period of time, and this year is coming to an end. To be honest, I don't even know how this year went

Target. But after all, the next year will be the new year. The imperial court has already agreed to change the year name to Longwu next year. New year, new weather. Gotta get off to a good start next year. Now let's discuss next year's expenses and make a budget. Let's talk again. How to raise these funds. ”

"The household department has a preliminary estimate that next year's various expenses will not be less than 50 million silver dollars, and the current income of the imperial court is less than 10 million silver dollars, and there is a difference of 40 million." Fang Fengnian, a university scholar, said, "I propose to raise the salary again. ”

Liu Zongzhou opposed this kind of addition, "If there is a famine today." The bandits are rising again, and they have to be sent more at this time, isn't that adding fuel to the fire? I advocate that it is better to reduce troops and horses, clean up military cantonments, and reduce military spending. At the same time, the military tun of the original guard post was changed to a civilian tun for the army. In addition, it is no longer possible to start a war with the eastern captives and maintain stability in the north. Let's get through the past few years. ”

Originally, there were thirty-six towns in the imperial court, and after the last abolition, there were still thirty-one towns left, and this time five towns were cut, so there were twenty-six towns left. There are 30,000 soldiers in each town, and there are still 780,000 soldiers and horses. Even if the average annual cost of raising soldiers is 50 yuan per soldier, it will cost 40 million yuan in military expenditure.

Liu Zongzhou's meaning is that in the future, we should continue to reorganize the army, especially in the south, where there is no war, and further reduce the number of troops.

"Sanjiang, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Chuanhu, these nine provinces and three provinces have a military region, and each military region retains a town of soldiers and horses. Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangzhou, two provinces and one military region, each also retains a town of soldiers and horses. Shaanxi and Gansu govern the soldiers and horses of Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, and one town will be abolished on the basis of the existing three towns, and two towns will be retained. ”

Fifteen provinces retained seven towns of soldiers and horses.

In addition to the soldiers and horses of the six provinces and ten towns under the jurisdiction of the three military regions of Zhili, the Central Plains, and the Guanwai, and the four towns of the naval division, and the guards and the Janissary Army, the internal and external water and land soldiers and horses will retain the establishment of 23 towns.

The national army is less than 800,000.

Liu Zongzhou took the road of throttling.

However, no matter how economical it is, it is still seven or eight hundred thousand troops, and the same annual expenditure of tens of millions of dollars, after all, these are standing armies, not the original guard army. Unless the imperial court still relies on arrears of food and wages, the cost of military disarmament will still be very high.

However, these tens of millions of military expenses include equipment costs. At the same time, there is no need to send food and so on, and the silver is uniformly converted to the soldiers. If that part is included, it's still a lot lower than in the past.

"County King, how much can be raised by issuing bonds?"

Liu Jun smiled, since he came up with a bond, now the imperial court has become overly dependent on bonds. In the thirteenth and fourteenth years of Chongzhen, in two years, the imperial court relied on this bond to get 50 million silver dollars.

This bond is completely issued by Sihai Bank, in the name of Sihai Bank, in fact, Sihai Bank is lending money to the imperial court, after all, 50 million bonds, the imperial court has not repaid a copper plate until now. The interest alone is already in the millions.

There was also a historical reason why Liu Jun came up with this bond at the beginning. But now, it is impossible for him to be willing to lend money to the imperial court without restrictions.

Liu Jun didn't have the ability to raise the entire Ming court alone.

"In the thirteenth and fourteenth years, the imperial court issued 50 million yuan of bonds through the Sihai Bank, and now after the expiration of many one-year and two-year periods, the principal and interest have not been paid, and the Sihai Bank has paid on behalf of them. Even if the issuance continues next year, it will only be able to raise a maximum of 10 million yuan, and at least 5 million will have to be taken out to pay the interest in advance. ”

"Is there any good way for the county king to solve next year's financial problems?" Wu Fu looked at Liu Jun dissatisfied. Previously, Liu Jun promised to give 10 million to the household department this year and 20 million next year, but now he said this.

"The expenses of the imperial court are not a small number, and you can't expect to issue bonds to borrow money to live, after all, even if you borrow now, you have to pay it back. Not to mention the high interest rate. We can't rely solely on bonds, we have to think of something else. Liu Jun lowered his speed when he spoke, but he had the momentum of covering the four wilds.

The finances of the imperial court have long been rotten into a pot of paste, and no one can figure it out. Now it all depends on Liu Jun, so everyone can only listen to Liu Jun at this time.

"Recently, I read history books and read the history of the Southern Song Dynasty. In that year, the Northern Song Dynasty was broken, and the Song people crossed the river and established the Southern Song Dynasty, leaving only half of the country. But they still relied on this half of the country for more than 100 years. They relied on half of the south, but they had a large and powerful army to confront the north. Why did the Southern Song Dynasty support it for so long? There is a good army, why can they still have such an army? Because the Southern Song Dynasty has been in the Southern Song Dynasty for more than 100 years, the tax revenue is very sufficient, the finance is very abundant, and even only half of the country, and its national tax revenue is not even less than the financial and tax revenue of the whole world in the Northern Song Dynasty. ”

Speaking of which. Liu Jun accentuated his tone, "On the contrary, I am bright today." It has the entire Central Plains and has 21 provinces, but the national fiscal and tax revenues are less than one-tenth of the Southern Song Dynasty every year, or even one-twentieth? Why? We all reflect on what went wrong, or else. Relying only on Yin to eat the grain and tear down the east wall to make up for the west wall will never solve the problem. ”

The finance of the Ming Dynasty is indeed a joke, the officials of the Ming Dynasty hold the lowest salary of all dynasties, and the tax rate set by the state for the people is also the lowest in each dynasty. But why is the court so poor in the end?

There are many reasons, corruption, privileges of the clan and literati, etc., too many.

Liu Jun didn't want to be the enemy of the world right away, things had to come step by step. What he said today is just a remark.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I looked through the history books of the Song Dynasty and found that during the Northern Song Dynasty, the fiscal revenue in a normal year was about 60 million guan, and the salt tax revenue accounted for more than 30 million guan, and by the time of the Southern Song Dynasty. The annual fiscal and tax revenue is more than 80 million yuan, of which the salt tax revenue alone is more than 50 million yuan, and sometimes even more than 80 percent of the national fiscal revenue. It can be said that during the two Song Dynasty, the salt tax supported fiscal expenditure. ”

"Ladies and gentlemen, look back at my Da Ming. During the Wanli period, the national silver income was only more than two million, of which the salt tax income was only about one million. ”

"And the population of my Ming Dynasty far exceeds that of the Song Dynasty, and the annual salt production is also a multiple of the Song Dynasty, if according to the salt system of our dynasty, the annual salt tax revenue, the normal situation should be at least between 1,300 and 15 million taels of silver, or even higher. But in fact, our annual salt tax revenue is only one million taels, and a large amount of salt tax is lost. Where did the stream go? It flowed into the hands of those salt merchants and nobles. These people occupy the nest, monopolize salt profits, are rich and oily, and are extremely poor and luxurious. ”

"Moreover, these salt merchants are dissatisfied, monopolize salt profits, and wantonly raise the price of salt, so that the people can't even afford to eat salt, and they are full of complaints."

"In many places, salt merchants sell a pound of salt for three or four hundred yuan, which is much higher than the Song Dynasty, which had a salt tax income of tens of millions a year, and during the Northern Song Dynasty, the average price of a pound of salt would not exceed 120 Wen, which was three or four times as much, but the salt tax we collected was one-twenty or thirty-tenth of that in the Song Dynasty."

Liu Jun knocked on the table, "The imperial court shouts poverty every day, in fact, as long as we collect the salt tax, the financial problems of the imperial court can be solved immediately." ”

Wu Fu and Liu Zongzhou and other cabinet members, you look at me, I look at you, Liu Jun said this, don't they know? Know. But salt involves the interests of too many people, and the top and bottom are colluded together, and it is simply cut and sorted out, and no one can sort things out.

"I plan to reorganize the salt business, and strive to collect 20 million yuan of salt tax next year, plus customs and commercial taxes, so that even if no bonds are issued next year, I can raise at least 40 million in taxes, which is enough for next year's financial expenditure."

"Is the king of the county really sure?" Liu Zongzhou was excited, and somehow, he just felt that Liu Jun had this ability. If an ordinary person said that he wanted to sort out the salt affairs and collect the salt tax to 20 million yuan a year, he would feel that he was talking nonsense with his eyes open, but this was said by Liu Jun, and he suddenly felt credible.

The current salt system of the Ming Dynasty is actually the salt system, which is sold by officials and merchants. Similar to a dealer system, the imperial court controlled the salt production of the stoves in the major salt works, and then held the monopoly of salt.

If a merchant wants to sell salt, he must first obtain a salt sales license, which can be held for a long time or even hereditary. This license stipulates the amount of salt that the salt merchants can buy and sell and the market in which it is sold, and with this license, they are eligible to buy salt, and buy a limited amount of salt according to the amount of salt, and then sell it at the limited market.

These salt merchants in the Ming Dynasty are dealers at all levels, and they have a monopoly on their respective markets, and other merchants are not allowed to sell. Under this system, there were all kinds of drawbacks, which led to the prosperity of the salt merchants, but the price of salt remained high. The officers held the right to sell the permits, and made a fortune by reselling the licenses and issuing salt.

Many wealthy merchants made money by hoarding salt and reselling it.

In short, everyone has made money, and it is the court and ordinary people who are trapped.

The annual income of the imperial court's salt tax is only one million taels, and the people spend three or four hundred yuan on a pound of salt, but the salt they eat is still inferior salt mixed with soil and sand. A large number of people who sell illicit salt have risen up and taken risks, resulting in a great chaos in the local security situation.

Even those who produce salt are also exploited, and one salt can only be exchanged for a stone of grain, and food and clothing cannot be solved.

These salt merchants, all of them are extremely fat, all of them are big fat pigs, Liu Jun thinks that they can kill them.

"I hope that all the elders can support me in rectifying the salt business, as long as you are willing to give me my full support to do it, then I can tell you here that I can promise you that I can pay at least 20 million yuan in salt tax to the household department next year."

Twenty million pieces, converted into the original silver, there are also ten million taels.

"20 million silver dollars, no silver dollar coupons, no silver tickets, can you do it?" Wu Fu's eyes also flashed, and he stared at Liu Jun and asked.

The temptation of 20 million yuan is too great to solve the financial problem, and he, the first assistant, cannot sit in a stable position.

"Twenty million silver dollars, not a silver ticket or a silver dollar coupon."

"Okay, the old man is willing to support the county king." Wu Fu slapped his palm on the table.

Liu Zongzhou also said, "The old man is also willing to support the king of the county." (To be continued.) )

PS: Thank you benhe for your support, thank you!