Time passed slowly but firmly, and soon it was the thirteenth year of Chongzhen.

In the past year, the changes in the Ming Dynasty can be said to be rapid and amazing, in Shaanxi, Li Zicheng in Li Yan, Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance and a small number of scholars who came to him to help, a change in the past burning, killing, plundering, in the rectification of soldiers and horses at the same time is also vigorously rectifying discipline, although the effect is not very obvious, but in general it is much better than before. After nearly a year of painstaking management, they have slowly gained a firm foothold in Shaanxi, and have developed the army to a scale of nearly 200,000.

And Pang Gang is working hard to improve his strength, at this time he already has five provinces of territory, managing so many territories is not an easy thing, Pang Gang is almost anxious to work for a year to let these places slowly get on the right track. However, it is worth mentioning that Hubei and Hunan are worthy of being rich places and places of grain production since ancient times. Although it was ravaged by the Liukou, but after the governance, it also showed a thriving atmosphere, until the summer grain of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, this former rich Huguang area was self-sufficient, and it was like Pang Gang paid seven million stone of grain, which greatly surprised Pang Gang.

Originally, Pang Gang thought that after the expansion of the army, there would be an increase of 100,000 mouths that were not for production, and the food would definitely be very tight, and he was even ready to go to North Korea to find his cheap old man to fight the autumn breeze, but now it seems that the food problem is no longer a problem.

In this year, Pang Gang has been busy training this newly recruited army, and from time to time he is also busy increasing warships for sailors and training sailors, even if he has the help of the mutated "Encyclopedia of Modern Weapons", but the salary of the new 100,000 troops is also a large amount, not to mention the development of water conservancy, subsidized agriculture and other provinces such as Hubei, Hunan and Henan, if it were not for his new commercial tax, as well as refined salt, cement, and the continuous supply of silver brought back by merchant ships to and from Obarro, it is estimated that Pang Gang would have gone bankrupt.

Pang Gang calculated that in the twelfth year of Chongzhen, he had made a total profit of about 20 million taels of silver per month in commercial taxes, cement, refined salt, and trade with Obaro. This number is staggering, compared to the Ming court represented by Chongzhen, he is already a very rich man, but in addition to providing all the salaries of the various officials under his rule, he also has to support the growing number of sailors and 200,000 troops. Even if his income is not expensive, it is only able to equalize, and if he encounters any major war, his money bag will be tight.

As the saying goes, the people take food as the sky, only by letting the people eat enough, can the people's hearts be stable, only when the people's hearts are stable, their own control can be stable, and only when the control stabilizes their own great cause can there be hope, so although it is very difficult, Pang Gang still subsidizes a steady stream of money to the bottomless pit of Hubei, Hunan and other provinces.

In Pang Gang's study, Kong Ruolan, who was Pang Gang's financial housekeeper, looked through the account books, and said to Pang Gang, who was lying on the lazy chair eating grapes, with a frown: "Husband, we have allocated a total of 4 million taels of silver to Hubei and Hunan last year, and Henan has also subsidized 1.5 million taels of silver, which is equivalent to using the power of one province in Shandong to support three provinces. ”

"How is it not appropriate?" Pang Gang spit out a few grape cores indifferently before he said casually: "Do we owe them a lot of money or no food for them to eat, as the saying goes, one side is in trouble and all sides support, now Hunan and Hubei are a little more difficult, but we can't ignore it, besides, the millions of stone of grain they handed over last year is not proof, as long as they get through the most difficult period in the past few years, their life will be better, be a man, take a long-term view." "It's coming, Pang Gang also taught Kong Ruolan a lesson.

"Okay, anyway, this foundation belongs to your huge master, even if it's a little woman who is nosy, I won't ask anymore in the future." Kong Ruolan turned her head angrily.

Seeing that his royal shopkeeper was angry, Pang just now had to sit up and smile at Kong Ruolan: "You, you just love to think nonsense, now Hunan and Hubei are already our territory, we can't ignore it, you may not know it, Huayan is busy repairing water conservancy in Hubei, persuading farmers to cultivate mulberry, the whole person has lost dozens of pounds, Li Xianfeng is not easy in Henan, silver is not brought to life and death, since it is earned, it is used to spend, otherwise what are you doing with silver?" Do you think that's the reason? ”

Hearing Pang Gang's persuasion, Kong Ruolan also sighed lightly: "How can the concubine not know this truth, but the problem now is that we have done something, and some people still don't understand, and they are still making trouble in secret." Many people are scolding you for the sake of our 20% commercial tax and the policy of paying grain for the official gentry and the gentry, do you know how they scold you? ”

Pang Gang snorted lightly with disdain on his face: "How do you scold?" Scolding and scolding is nothing more than the old routine, saying that collecting 20% of the commercial tax is to loot the people's wealth, and letting the officials and gentry pay the grain as one is an unprecedented tyranny, comparable to that Qin Shi Huang. These idiots are only staring at the few pieces of meat in their bowls, and they should really let them all go to Obaro to see how they collect taxes, and to put it mildly, their tax rates are much more ruthless than ours, for example, the tax rate of those plundering taxes has reached 50% or even 60%, and this kind of meeting half of the tax rate is called ruthless, and we only collect 20% It is already very merciful, if there are still people chirping crookedly, I will drive them all to Obaro. ”

These things that Pang Gang said especially indicate that the businessmen in Jiangxi are the most troublesome, Jiangxi belongs to a part of the south of the Yangtze River, and the business atmosphere here is quite strong, although it is not as good as Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but it is also a major tax place in the Ming Dynasty. After Pang Gang occupied Jiangxi, as soon as the two percent tax rate and the policy of integrating Tibet and dismantling and paying grain were promulgated, almost all the merchants and gentry jumped up, compared with Shandong, which had been trained by Pang Gang to be very well-behaved, the rich gentry were almost swept away by the rogue in Hunan and Hubei, and the opposition in Jiangxi was the largest.

The Jiangxi gentry and wealthy households, who were accustomed to thirty taxes and did not even have to pay taxes, were so emotional that they almost wanted to kill people at first, but Pang Gang quickly told them with a Mini rifle what it means that the arms can't twist the thighs, and the rumbling gunshots, blood all over the ground and dozens of bloody human heads hanging on the city wall told them helplessly, if you want not to pay taxes, you can do it, but please go somewhere else, as long as you are on Pang Gang's territory, you must pay taxes according to the rules.

The businessmen's backlash was quickly suppressed by Pang Gang with an iron fist, of course, Pang Gang naturally did not just blindly wield a steel knife, and the Yankees in later generations wielded a big stick in one hand and a carrot in the other He would also use the trick. After killing so many people, Pang Gang began to announce again that all merchants who paid taxes on time had a quota to go to Obarro, and the sailors would escort them, of course, the cost of this escort should be shared equally by the merchants, and they still had to pay taxes after they returned, and the tax rate was 30%.

Even if the conditions for going to Obaro are so harsh, there are many businessmen who want to sign up to go to Obaro, and for no other reason, this profit is too high. Tea, porcelain, cloth, and handicrafts that are not worth a few dollars in the mainland can easily change hands with five times the profit, or even dozens of times the profit, and even if the General Administration of Customs takes away 40% of the profit, the remaining profit is enough for them to make a lot of money.

What the? You don't want to go? Please get out of the way, if you don't go, some people want to go, in order to go to the quota of Obarro, I don't know how many people broke their heads in front of the yamen of the General Administration of Customs set up in Dengfeng. In the face of huge profits, even the gentry of Jiangxi businessmen who were full of complaints had to lower their arrogant heads and pinch their noses to admit Pang Gang's rule.

Looking at Pang Gang who was lying on the recliner proudly, Kong Ruolan couldn't help but be angry and funny, she really couldn't figure out how her husband came up with the bad idea of subordinating those businessmen in Jiangxi who saw the money, she laughed and said: "Okay, don't be complacent, now the number of troops has increased, and the military salary to be paid has also increased, this concubine has no opinion, but how can you adjust the salary of those officials so high, it is thirty times that of Ming officials, and our burden is not small in the long run!" ”

"This is a must." Pang Gang said resolutely: "How can you let the officials lead the Weibo money, but do the hard work?" As the saying goes, no matter how hard you are, you can't work hard, well, forget it. ”

Seeing that he almost said the smooth words of the later generations, Pang Gang hurriedly stopped his mouth, and then said with a straight face: "Now the officials' money is too little, if a dignified seven-grade official lives on money, he can't even afford to eat meat, is this like a word?" You can't expect all officials to be as incorruptible as Hai Jui, right? ”

Counting through the dynasties, it is estimated that the Ming Dynasty's officials are the lowest, the reason is very simple, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Mr. Zhu Yuanzhang, believes that if you want to be an official, you must have quality, and those who think about silver all day long must not be good officials, so he set the Ming officials' salary is simply outrageous.

These officials who have reached the level of 99 percent of the Ming Dynasty dare to say to people with confidence: "Lao Tzu wants to be corrupt!" ". It is estimated that this is also the most urgent group of officials in China for thousands of years to deal with corruption

(To be continued)