Huang Zhishen walked briskly on the corridor outside the Zichen Hall with an oil-paper umbrella. The God of Wealth, who had always shown a smiling face, now had a sad expression on his face, and his footsteps struck heavily on the corridor, as if he wanted to vent all his thoughts.

Xu Ziyuan stood at the gate of the Zichen Palace, saw Huang Zhishen coming with an umbrella, first bowed to him, and then said in a low voice: "The saint is having a banquet with the generals, please come with so." ”

Huang Zhishen looked up at the door of Zichen Palace, the lights were dim, and no one played music and danced, just eating and drinking. This Emperor Chen's spending is really saved to the extreme, and the annuity withdrawn from the government secretary every year is only 50,000 yuan, which is all the annuities of the entire royal family, including the queen mother and seven concubines and a bunch of princes and princesses! It's unbelievable to say that he can't even afford a dancing girl and a band...... Of course, Chen Dexing has other ways to make money, one is the income from the operation of the royal family's property that Guo Fuer is responsible for. The other, even more powerful, is the Heavenly Dao Sect, which is getting richer and richer.

Huang Zhishen sighed and was about to walk towards the Zichen Palace, when he suddenly turned around and asked, "What did the saints talk about at the banquet?" ”

Xu Ziyuan said: "What else can we talk about?" Of course, it's a matter of the Southern Expedition...... After the enthronement ceremony, the southern expedition to Tusong was the biggest thing. ”

Huang Zhishen nodded, "The Song Kingdom must be destroyed...... If you don't destroy the Song Kingdom, the country will always be insufficient! ”

Today's financial crisis in the Ming Dynasty is, to put it bluntly, a population crisis! The population of the northern Han land is too small to support the big country and so many troops! Although Chen Dexing himself was frugal, more than 300,000 troops and more than 100,000 officials were supported by the more than 10 million people in the north.

And the Northland can provide. But livestock, grain, steel, timber, furs, medicinal herbs, coal, ships, vehicles, harnesses, armor, and other items. Among them, handicrafts are almost all related to the military, such as silk, lacquerware, porcelain, paper, and so on. There are also miscellaneous handmade products, including the umbrella used by Huang Zhishen, which are imported from Jiangnan...... After all, Jiangnan has a population of 70 or 80 million. It is possible to provide sufficient labor for a developed handicraft industry. The population of the Northland is too small, and the total number of handicraft workers is estimated to be only three or four hundred thousand.

According to later generations, the Northern Ming Dynasty was a backward agricultural country, while the Southern Song Dynasty was a developed industrial country.

Therefore, if the Southern Song Dynasty is not swallowed, even if the Ming Dynasty gets gold and silver from the New World and Japan, it will eventually flow into the Southern Song Dynasty through trade, which may also stimulate the great development of capitalism in the Southern Song Dynasty.

"A million are coming! No need to salute, just sit down and eat. ”

Huang Zhishen walked into the main hall. Chen Dexing's loud voice rang out. "This Laoshizi weather, the rain doesn't stop, I can't go anywhere, I can only order delicious food at home, today is Yang Po'er's own cooking!"

Huang Zhishen is the head of the cabinet - according to the "Chen Li" monarch and ministers, the king does not have to personally manage government affairs, the kind of emperor who is busy until late at night every day, and is dizzy with criticism, Chen Dexing has no interest in being it! Therefore, he advocated the establishment of a cabinet to oversee government affairs. Although there is no prime minister now (the Beiming government is the foundation of the Beidi Recruitment Division, of course, there is no prime minister), but Huang Zhishen, the judge of the administrative secretary, is the actual prime minister.

After Chen Dexing ascended the throne and became emperor, the Ming Dynasty wanted to set up a cabinet. Huang Zhishen will serve as prime minister. Overseeing the affairs of the Cabinet. In addition, the Cabinet will set up 10 ministries, including the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of State (Foreign Affairs), the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Colonization, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, the Ministry of Communications, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, as well as a Cabinet Personnel Department responsible for the management of national affairs officers.

In addition, the four military departments, including the War Department, the Navy Department, the Army General Staff, and the Navy General Staff, also have the Secret Agent Bureau, the Imperial Household Bureau, and other yamen. All are under the direct control of the emperor. However, the military expenditure of the army and navy was still raised by the cabinet ordered by the emperor. In addition, it is necessary to prepare a budget for income and expenditure, as with the various expenditures of the cabinet. Submitted to the Council for deliberation and approval by the Emperor.

Although Chen Dexing has not yet ascended the throne, the cabinet and the council have begun to be established, and Huang Zhishen has also begun to assume the responsibilities of prime minister. The budget for the southern expedition was also prepared by the Military Affairs Department (which had not yet been split into the Army and Navy Departments). According to the plan, the southern expedition will start from the first year of the Great Ming Dao - according to the "Chen Li", the Ming Dynasty and its subjects will use the Heavenly Dao year from the next year, and the year name will not be changed.

Huang Zhishen's seat is the first on the left side of the main hall, which is just a simple table and a chair. There are a few side dishes and a pot of soju on the table, and the dining room in the palace is trained by Yang Po'er, Guo Fu'er and Wang Rong'er, and it is said that Chen Dexing himself also gave a lot of suggestions for cooking. The food and wine are very delicious and distinctive, and many of the dishes are unique to the palace. The only shortcoming, in Huang Zhishen's view, is that it is too simple. Each meal is not more than ten flavors of hot and cold dishes, a pot of wine, enough rice, and no singing and dancing.

When Huang Zhishen arrived, everyone in the hall had already eaten a lot, and they began to discuss the matter of raising funds for the southern expedition. Huang Zhishen is the future prime minister, and the wealth of the Ming Dynasty is under his control, so naturally he has no heart to taste the palace dishes. Once you sit down, join in the discussion.

"Sage, the cabinet and the military department have repeatedly studied the military expenses of the Southern Expedition," Huang Zhishen gently turned the wine glass in his hand and considered the words, "The military budget should be lenient, it doesn't matter if you can't spend it, if you don't have the money halfway through the battle, it will be bad." Therefore, the Cabinet and the Ministry of War decided that it was necessary to organize five battles according to the standard of 200,000 troops and 100,000 people, fighting abroad for one to two years, killing more than 100,000 wounded and sick, replenishing 100,000 personnel, and providing relief to 3 million refugees to raise military expenses and food ......."

Chen Dexing had already put forward the two major demands of "killing less" and "taking all" for the Southern Expedition, and the Military Affairs Department, the General Staff Department, and the Cabinet formulated plans on the basis of these two major demands. The reason why this is so, on the one hand, is because Chen Dexing regarded the southern conquest and destruction of the Song Dynasty as a civil war, and the people of the Southern Song Dynasty would automatically become the people of the Ming Dynasty after the war, and they were also first-class Han; On the one hand, it was also so that after the war, he could immediately grab wealth from the treasure land of Jiangnan.

After the Battle of Yanyun and the Battle of the Central Plains, the people of the Northern Ming Dynasty have fully understood the truth that it is easy to break and it is very difficult to build...... It is easy to wipe out a third of the enemy's population in a war of annihilation, and it is easy to wipe out the population by massacre and famine, but it is not possible to produce new human beings to fill the void without decades or even centuries.

Therefore, it is extremely easy to raise military funds and rations in Jiangnan by burning, killing and looting, and to turn Jiangnan into a scorched earth. But the hard days after the fight are endless...... The national use of the Ming Dynasty mainly comes from sea trade, and sea trade depends on Jiangnan!

If Jiangnan is destroyed, I am afraid that the finances of the Ming Dynasty will not improve much after the reunification.

If you can take all of Jiangnan, then with Chen Dexing and Huang Zhishen's financial management skills, it is not a problem to earn tens of thousands of dollars a year!

In order to have a good life in the future, this southern expedition will have to raise more money and make more preparations.

Huang Zhishen paused for a moment, and then continued: "Not counting the food and military expenses that may be raised from Jiangnan locally. The cabinet had to prepare at least 5 million stone of grain and straw before the war, 40 million yuan for military expenditure during the war, and another 20 million yuan before the war for the purchase or lease of armored vehicles and ships. In addition, it is necessary to raise at least 10 million guan and at least 5 million stone grains for the aftermath ......"

That's an astronomical amount! The generals in the hall all gasped.

Ping's Jiangnan actually costs 70 million guan and 10 million stone grain...... This expenditure is enough to fight three Central Plains wars!

However, behind the huge investment, the benefits are also not small.

Huang Zhishen said again: "If we can successfully take Jiangnan, then in the first full year after seizing Jiangnan, the financial income of the imperial court can increase by at least 60 million!" Among them, the tariff can be increased by at least 15 million, the salt, wine, and tea taxes can be increased by 20 million, the gentry donation will be increased by 10 million, the mining tax will be increased by 5 million, and the tribute of Jiangnan Shang City (commercial city) will be 15 million. In addition, we can also obtain the official property and official land of the Song Kingdom worth at least 10,000 yuan! ”

Hearing this, the generals in the hall immediately danced with their eyebrows.

"Damn, this Jiangnan turned out to be a mountain of gold and silver!"

"If you spend 70 or 80 million, you can get back 160 million a year, this deal...... Big money! ”

"Trading is a good business, but where does the seventy or eighty million capital come from? How many are in Hwang Sang-gong's hands? ”

Hearing the question, Huang Zhishen smiled bitterly and said, "Only eight million." ”

"Only eight million?"

"There are still more than 70 million left...... This can't be done! ”

"What can I do?"

All the generals set their eyes on Chen Dexing, if there is anyone in the world who can conjure up more than 70 million copper out of thin air to fight, it is only His Royal Highness the Ming King who descended from heaven.

"Borrow!" Chen Dexing's method is simple. If you don't have money to do business, you can borrow capital!

Huang Zhishen shook his head again and again, and said, "Sage, you can't borrow so many ...... If it's one or two million, maybe there's a way. 70 million ...... If the Song Kingdom did not prohibit the circulation of Heavenly Dao tickets, then it would be fine, and now even Heavenly Dao Village will not be able to take out much. ”

Tiandao tickets now have the function of redeeming paper money, but the issuance of Tiandao tickets is not large, because the Great Song Dynasty has banned the circulation of Tiandao tickets in its territory, and there is no big market in the Great Song Dynasty. The amount of paper money absorbed and digested by the northern land and the Goryeo kingdom is very limited, and if the Tiandao tickets are issued indiscriminately, it is very likely to cause the credit bankruptcy of the Tiandaozhuang.

Chen Dexing smiled heavily: "Million, you don't have to worry about this...... 70 million war expenses, 10 million stone grain, you have to help the lonely king get 10 million guan and 10 million stone grain. The remaining 60 million, the lone king figured out a way. After King Gu ascended the throne, he personally went to Zhoushan to Quanzhou to meet with the wealthy businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River! The lonely king wants to borrow Jiangnan's money to swallow Jiangnan! (To be continued......)