The smile of the Son of Heaven made the seven pavilion elders who claimed to be honest and selfless ministers all show shame.

Previously, they vigorously opposed the reform of the salt administration on the grounds that it might cause a sharp reduction in the tax revenue of the national treasury, but the Son of Heaven directly offered a price of 5 million taels to gag their mouths.

Now that the Son of Heaven is very determined to reform, and after the reform of the salt administration, the harvest from the salt industry is far beyond expectations, and this policy is indeed beneficial to the country and the people, and they want to return the new policy to the treasury without any defensible reason to oppose the new policy, what is this?

This shows that their previous opposition was a disguise, they had selfish thoughts, and they were afraid that the new salt policy would lose the interests of the scholars, so they had to oppose it.

And these words will be recorded and passed on to future generations, and they will inevitably become an indelible stain on the seven elders.

"Is it appropriate for Yang Shangshu to talk to me about the return of the income from the salt administration to the household department at this time?"

"Yes." Yang Yiqing is also out of the way, no way, he doesn't know the price of tea, rice, oil and salt, he is the head of the household, facing the empty household treasury, to be honest, he has long been poor.

Since you are poor, what kind of face do you need, it is much better than the dilemma when the various yamen block the household to ask for money, and the Son of Heaven can collect more than 20 million taels a year from the new salt policy, and give 5 million? There are no doors.

"I bothered to reform the salt administration, the reason is because I am also poor, I want the Ming Dynasty to be rich, I want the Ming Dynasty to be prosperous, I want the Ming Dynasty to be peaceful, I want the people to live and work in peace and contentment, there are too many things to do, and everything needs a lot of silver to complete, to be honest, 20 million a year is just a drop in the bucket for me."

Yang Yiqing showed a look of I believe you are a ghost and said: "Everything Your Majesty wants to do can be handed over to the foreign court, and the foreign court has a cabinet with six ministries, as long as the treasury is full, everything can be done."

Zhu Houwei said with a smile: "Yang Shangshu knows how much money it has cost me since I reorganized the three battalions of the forbidden army, eliminated the old and weak, cleaned up the armaments, and built a 100,000 divine army?"

"This ......" how can Yang Yiqing answer such a question, to put it bluntly, the courtiers do not support the Son of Heaven to adapt the forbidden army at all, in their eyes, the third battalion of the forbidden army is a silver-like pewter spear head, it is purely a useless existence, since it is useless, what is the point of reorganization, isn't it a waste of silver?

In order to form the Shence Army, the Son of Heaven also asked the household department for silver, but it was obviously rejected on the grounds that there was no money, and there was indeed no money......

But the three battalions of the forbidden army were still reorganized, and the army was expanded to 100,000, but it was the silver of the Son of Heaven's inner treasury, and the outer dynasty naturally didn't bother to ask.

Now that the Son of Heaven is asking this, it is obvious that he is slapping the head of the household......

"I'm here to tell Yang Shangshu." Zhu Houwei said with a straight face: "The formation of the Shence Army, the dismissal of the old and weak settling camp is 100,000 taels, recruiting new recruits to settle down in the camp 600,000 taels, the daily consumption of meat, fruits and vegetables, and grain is almost 5,000 taels, and the monthly consumption is 15,000 taels, plus the consumption of armor, knives, guns, shields and firearms is indefinite, and there are 150,000 taels of silver per month, since I reorganized the Shence Army, these 100,000 troops have cost more than 2 million taels like a gold-swallowing beast, and the monthly consumption in the future will be almost 200,000 taels, and it will be 2.4 million taels a year!"

Every time Zhu Houwei said a word, the face of the seven elders turned white, and there was no way to refute it, the Ming army, according to the system, the most common soldiers had to pay one or two silver per month, but everyone knew that only the general's family members could get the actual salary, and the rest could get half or even three achievements.

The so-called drinking the blood of soldiers means this, but the generals who have raised their families have never expected ordinary soldiers to go to the battlefield to fight, and letting those old, weak, sick and disabled go to the battlefield is not much different from sending them to death.

As for the empty salary is a common phenomenon, take Datong, one of the nine sides, as an example, Datong has 20,000 soldiers under the command of the general army, but in fact, there are less than 10,000, and the real battle may only be 5,000 or even less, that is to say, the original Datong border army ate 5,000 empty salaries and drank the blood of 15,000 soldiers.

This is the norm, and the ministers of the court also know it, but no one will have much to do, after all, the existence of the border army is to guard it, in order to prevent barbarian invasion, to put it bluntly, it is necessary to rely on others to fight, after you remove the generals, what does it mean to replace them with a virtue?

But the Shence Army is different, the Shence Army has a staff of 100,000, according to the usual practice, the imperial court will not care how much empty pay has been eaten and how much blood has been drunk, since the establishment is 100,000, then the imperial court will allocate 100,000 taels of silver for military salaries, which is 1.2 million taels a year.

As for what Wu Chang, Xiaoqi, 100 households, and 1,000 households, these middle-level and low-level martial artists should take every month, and it doesn't matter how much the court should take, there is also grain, there are tuntian, and there are regular military rations in the past, these are not within the scope of consideration of the imperial court, the silver is enough, let you be greedy, you still want this and that, when the household department is a good hall?

This is a common phenomenon in the Ming army, but the Shence army is real, and there is no empty salary and soldier blood in the Shence army, and there is no family.

According to the military law regulations of the Shence Army, generals who eat empty salaries, drink soldiers' blood, deduct military salaries, and support their families are dismissed from their posts, and those who are serious are imprisoned for questioning and beheading!

It can be said that the Shence Army is an outlier in the Ming Army, and it is very incompatible no matter how you look at it, but the Shence Army, which was organized by the Son of Heaven at all costs, has yet to be verified, but the training is the most difficult in the world's army, there is no doubt about it.

"The minister thinks that the Jingshi has the 26 guards of the Jingzhi Gongwei, and there is no need for a strong army like the Shence Army to guard it, and even if the salary and consumption of the Shence Army are allocated by the Household Department, as long as the income from the salt administration is attributed to the Household Department, it is okay."

Yang Yiqing's abacus is very fine, as long as the new salt policy does not go wrong, it can have a harvest of about 25 million taels a year, and it is still fixed, while the expenditure of the Shence army is only more than 2 million taels.

Several ministers nodded in unison, obviously agreeing with Yang Yiqing's proposal.

"Yang Shoufu once told me that one of the malpractices of the Ming Dynasty is the garrison of soldiers, and if it is a maladministration, should it be changed?"

Yang Tinghe was depressed, he did say this, he also said that Jinyiwei and Factory Guard were too, why didn't the Son of Heaven mention it?

"The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty have long been decayed, and the most ridiculous thing is that the sons of military households can only be military households, and the children and grandchildren of craftsmen can only be craftsmen for generations, which is simply ridiculous ......in the world."

"Your Majesty, this is the ancestral system!"

Zhu Houwei looked at Yang Tinghe like a torch and said: "Jinyiwei and the garrison are also ancestral systems, but the first assistant said that this is a bad government, how can the Jinyiwei be abolished, the government of the garrison can be changed, and the government of household registration cannot be moved?"

Yang Tinghe shook his head and said, "It's not that you can't, but you don't need to ......."

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