Chapter 89 Financial Problems

Everything is a matter of money in the final analysis.

Zhu Houhuang looked at the bill and was a little stunned.

Immigrants need money, everyone is given a settling-in allowance, not much, one or two per person, and the people Zhu Houhuang got from Fuzhou Sanwei have already come over to 10,000 people. This requires 10,000 taels, and as for the boat, it is what Zhu Houhuang urgently needs, although he spent 20,000 taels of silver for the Fujian sailors to use for himself, but Zhu Houhuang does not want to rely on the Fujian sailors all the time. It doesn't feel good to be controlled by people. Therefore, Zhu Houhuang placed a large order to build ships for himself in the coastal shipyards.

Since Zhu Houhuang has the ambition to cover the four seas, he wants to build big ships, especially treasure ships.

But Fuzhou, not only Fuzhou, but the entire Ming Dynasty has not built such a large ship for a long time. It is necessary to start all over again, which takes a lot of effort, and besides, the price of a three-masted ship is generally between 500 taels and 800 taels. And every time a ship has an extra mast, the price doubles. Zhu Houhuang didn't order that kind of seven-masted treasure ship. But it's just that the five-masted ships are under one thousand taels, each of which is under a thousand taels. Zhu Houhuang's big arm was ten ships at once, and he had already thrown ten thousand taels into the water.

Of course, this is also the inevitable result of Dongyong's development, all of Zhu Houhuang's sea ships come from two parts, one part of which was donated by Xu Dong. Part of it was to rob those maritime merchants in Penghu. However, these sea ships are all some civilian ships, I don't know where they came from, they are tattered, and some of them are older than Zhu Houhuang himself, Zhu Houhuang naturally can't look down on them, these ships can't be regarded as warships at all, especially compared with the warships of the Fujian Navy, they can't be compared.

These ten big ships, all of them are for Xu Dong. Let Xu Dong establish the Yongguo Water Division.

It's just that this establishment of a sailor is not just a ship, naval warfare bow and crossbow rockets are the first, these things, none of them are cheap. If it's just not cheap, you can get it by spending money. But the problem is that the people don't have these things at all, so they can only buy them from the government treasury. And Jiangnan's armament has long been relaxed, those things are like goods, those are really usable, all within the stroke of those little officials, the so-called king of Hades is good, the little ghosts are difficult, even if Zhu Houhuang has the support of the eunuchs in Fujian, it will cost money.

It can be said that as long as everything begins, it is a money word, and there are thousands of things, and there is nowhere to save money, and there is no place to save money.

For example, Tang Yin suggested that the people should serve for free. This has been true for thousands of years. The regular tax of the people of the Ming Dynasty is not too much, but the labor is never less, it can be said that what can really kill people is not taxes, but labor. Although Zhu Houhuang felt that using these people for free would save him money now, he was still unwilling.

This matter is over.

It's only been a few months, and tens of thousands of taels have been smashed into it, even though Zhu Houhuang knows that this is just the beginning, the cost is a little bigger, and the monthly expenses will be a little less in the future, but there is definitely no less than five thousand taels per month.

Not to mention anything else, the people around him, such as Tang Yin, such as Zhu Yu, such as Wu Fengyi, etc., these people have not yet been decided. These people are very good, and Zhu Houhuang must not give less. Even give more, without him, Zhu Yuanzhang's salary is too low, making corruption in the Ming Dynasty a common problem that cannot be touched, and Zhu Houhuang doesn't want to be like this around him in the future.

Zhu Houhuang couldn't sit still anymore and left Tang Yin to preside over Dongyong. I took this person back to Penghu.

At this time, when Penghu and Zhu Houhuang came, they were already very different.

Although Penghu has not yet been built, the county government has already been built. Wu Xingzhi has not done nothing on Penghu Island for a few months, the three major families have disappeared, and the whole Penghu is Wu Xingzhi's hall. Wu Xingzhi used the paranoia of mathematicians to put the entire Penghu in order, and also brought Zhu Houhuang the only entry in this period of time.

10,000 stone of grain, 1,300 taels of silver. This is all the annual harvest of Penghu County. There is also the income of Penghu Port.

Wu Xingzhi said: "But Your Highness, don't expect Penghu County to have much tax revenue. The rule of the Ming Dynasty is that there are two taxes in the spring and autumn, except for the water diversion money from the port, the rest of the taxes will be paid in the second half of the year, and the maintenance of Penghu County also needs silver. ”

"Yes." Zhu Houhuang was already very satisfied. Before the Dutch, few people went to Taiwan to reclaim land, but Penghu was the focus of contention for the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese and even Westerners, precisely because although Penghu was overseas, there were already many people living in it, and the simple supply of food and drinking water could be replenished in Penghu. Zhu Wu Xingzhi didn't do anything at all, just rectified Penghu and brought Penghu under control, and it became Zhu Houhuang's first familiar land with financial revenue.

"It's just that the silver taels brought by Gu from Beijing have already consumed more than half, and I hope that Dongyong will be self-sufficient, and it will take at least three years. In this way, the loneliness will be unsustainable, what can you teach the widow? Zhu Houhuang looked at everyone with an inquiring gaze.

Except for Tang Yin, everyone is here.

Tang Yin's opinion, Zhu Houhuang has asked privately, Tang Yin has no opinion at all, just open source and reduce expenditure, the most important thing is to throttle. Let Zhu Houhuang give up the style of spending money lavishly, be diligent and thrifty, and use these tens of thousands of taels to survive for two years, and after the harvest of Dayuan Tuntian, he will be self-sufficient.

But Zhu Houhuang was unwilling.

Without him, such a speed is too slow, even if Dayuan and Penghu can be self-sufficient. At that time, Zhu Houhuang relied on the strength of the two places, and even if he could not open up the entire Dongyong in his lifetime, let alone participate in the feast of the Age of Discovery. So Zhu Houhuang simply asked Tang Yin not to come over, and presided over Tuntian in the big member.

Zhu Yu did not say anything that his stargazing platform on Penghu had already been built. If it weren't for Zhu Houhuang's recruitment, he would be sleeping at all at this moment, as an astronomer who is interested in resetting the calendar. Watching the stars night and night, and not being able to sleep all night, this is the essence of work. As for the finances, he had no problem with that, as long as he did not reduce his allocation.

In fact, although Zhu Houhuang gave Zhu Yu an allocation of 20,000 taels of silver, the money never reached Zhu Yu's hands. Although Zhu Yu built a stargazing platform in Penghu, Dayuan, and even Taiwan, and ordered a lot of very sophisticated instruments, he found out that it didn't cost much to build a stargazing platform, and those precision instruments, what an armillary sphere, water transport armillary sphere. It's all money and nowhere to buy it.

Wu Xingzhi's management of accounts is okay, and the establishment of a complete tax collection system in Penghu can be regarded as a high degree of hard work. But the finances of Penghu are simply chicken ribs for Zhu Houhuang. It's a pity to discard it.

Wu Fengyi also frowned and said, "Your Highness, I still have the money of the Shi family here, but it is only more than a thousand taels." ”

"Use it yourself." Wu Fengyi is not without things to do, on the contrary, what Wu Fengyi is responsible for is very important, that is, to establish the Jinyi system of Yongguo. The intelligence part is also a big part of the silver, even if Zhu Houhuang did not ask Wu Fengyi to go to the mainland to set up points, but asked him to set up points in Nanyang, Japan, Vietnam and other places. But it also takes money.

Zhu Houhuang set his eyes on Xu Dong again.

Xu Dong felt a lot of pressure and said: "Your Highness, I have tried to open the Oriental Shipping Route, but the people who occupy the Oriental Shipping Channel are very powerful, and the ministers dare not act rashly. "The reason why Xu Dong feels a lot of pressure is because a large part of Zhu Houhuang's financial pressure is brought by Xu Dong, such as the Yongguo Water Division that Xu Dong is establishing.

In the entire Yongguo Naval Division, there are soldiers of Fuzhou Sanwei, but more of them are Xu Dong's original subordinates, with more than a dozen three-masted ships and about 3,000 regular troops. Xu Dong's deputy is none other than Li Liangqin.

Although Li Liangqin is a native of Fujian, he has no special skills in fighting at sea, but he is the first person under Zhu Houhuang. However, the reason why Li Liangqin became Xu Dong's deputy was because Zhu Houhuang took a fancy to Li Liangqin's prestige among the three guards in Fuzhou and asked him to contain Xu Dong.