Yingmin Temple.

The cabinet and ministers of ministries and ministries are gathering and holding a meeting of the Imperial Council.

Song Yingxing, who is sixty-eight years old, is still in good spirits: "Counting the silver taels deported overseas, last year's national income exceeded 40 million taels of silver. However, excluding local retention and royal withdrawals, the net loss for the whole year was 830,000 taels, which was the first time since the founding of the country. ”

As soon as this remark came out, nearly half of the ministers felt incredible, why did they still have a fiscal deficit of 40 million a year?

Song Yingxing then explained the reason:

"First, the establishment of the three major capital protectorates in the north, the expansion of the army, the establishment of post stations, and the immigration, road construction and city construction, which requires a large amount of materials to be transported north......"

"The second is culture and education. There are more and more school-age children, schools are constantly expanding, and although local tax retention has been increased, many provinces still do not have enough expenditures, and the central court needs to allocate two ...... of silver."

"Third, overseas development. The increasing number of overseas territories required the establishment of governors, the dispatch of officials, and the deployment of troops. Except for Luzon and Malacca, the rest of the overseas territories are still losing money, and Palembang is barely breaking even......"

"Fourth, conquest of Burma. In preparation for the war for several years, the patrol divisions were temporarily organized, the artillery was cast, the fleet was built, and the supplies were dispatched...... All of this costs money, and it costs more than 3 million taels from the beginning of preparations to the withdrawal of troops. This is just the beginning, those newly occupied land, but also to send officials, garrison immigrants, pave official roads, establish post stations, build cities......"

To put it bluntly, it is education spending and expansion spending that swallows up too much, too much of the finance.

Zhao Han said with a smile: "Don't worry, Zhuqing, the three major capital protectors are newly opened, and everything has to be smashed, so naturally there is a lot of cost." Overseas territories, don't look at the loss of money now, isn't Luzon a good example? A few more years of development, the Overseas Territories will be profitable. As for the newly occupied land in the southwest, it should be able to return to the capital in twenty years, and after twenty years, it will be able to send silver to the imperial court. ”

Successive dynasties have expanded their territories, and in addition to recovering their core territories, the frontier areas have been losing money most of the time.

Because you have to maintain the bureaucratic and military system, and you have to build a lot of infrastructure (post stations, post roads, cities). After the death of Zhu Di, the border of the Ming Dynasty shrank in a wide range, mainly because it could not bear the financial pressure and had nothing to do with the military.

As for those overseas territories, why did the European colonizers make money, but the Datong court has to lose money for several years?

First, China's colonial policy is not ruthless in its oppression of the indigenous people, and it is quite shameful. They even continued to open schools, using the power of culture and education to try to absorb and assimilate the local aborigines.

Second, the newly occupied colonies in Europe also had to lose money in the beginning. Take the Dutch occupation of Tainan as an example, even if the aborigines were squeezed to death, it also lost money for six years, and finally turned losses into profits with the help of the Han people (this so-called profit, not counting the military and infrastructure expenditures in the early stage).

"Your Majesty," Fei Chun put forward his own suggestion, "the six provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Sichuan have a large surplus of tax revenue every year. The minister felt that some of the surviving should be deducted from the survival to help the poor provinces, and that they could not all be counted on by the central court. ”

This is tantamount to having the East support the West and the South supporting the North.

It's not a new thing, the Ming Dynasty often did this, but it was very arbitrary, and there was no real system.

In the Qing Dynasty in history, this model formed a system.

The Qing Dynasty's finances were highly centralized, and there was no distinction between the central and local governments, so the annual revenue was very high.

All the taxes paid in the Qing Dynasty, what the state capital and county could keep, were not even enough for their own expenses, and the political secretary would collect the money and grain of the province. The province reported the situation to the central government, which then asked the emperor to make a decision to allocate the finances of the provinces. Some of them remain in the province (retained), and some of them are deported (shipped) outside the province. Those who send money and grain to the central government are called Beijing salaries, and those that support other provinces are called co-salaries.

In this way, it can ensure that the Qing government has money, and the provincial yamen also have money. However, the state capitals and counties are so poor that if the magistrates do not exploit the people, let alone how greedy they are, they will even have a shortfall in normal expenditures.

This has forced state and county officials to frantically collect harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and peel off the skins of the people layer by layer.

By the middle and late Qing Dynasty, almost all of the most lucrative state and county positions were in Sichuan. Because the positive taxes in other provinces are too heavy, state and county officials can't strip much. And Sichuan, because it was killed at the end of the Ming Dynasty, used a low tax policy to encourage immigration, and has not been adjusted. As a result, the people of Sichuan are relatively wealthy, and they can save up their energy to loot to the death, and make the excesses and miscellaneous taxes several times that of the regular tax, or even more than ten times or dozens of times!

At the beginning of immigration, the people of Sichuan had to fight against wild beasts and natural disasters in a group. Later, they had to work together to deal with corrupt officials and warlords. After more than 200 years of struggle, the Brotherhood, the largest community organization in the world, was formed. In the Republic of China, 70% of Sichuan people are robe brothers, and even the big girls and daughters-in-law in the countryside are very likely to belong to the members of the Elders' Association.

The current finances of the new dynasty of Datong are directly handed over to the central government in proportion, while remaining in the local government in proportion. As the rich provinces have a large surplus, but the poor provinces cannot make ends meet, the central government has to continue to invest money to help the poor provinces.

"Who is against this method?" Zhao Han asked.

No one spoke.

Cabinet and ministry officials, many of whom come from these six provinces. But they don't dare to fight for the interests of their hometown, because if one is not good, it is easy to be self-defeating.

The lessons of the Ming Dynasty made everyone feel apprehensive.

It is said that there was a Jiangnan gentry group in the Ming Dynasty, and officials and businessmen colluded to influence policies, entrap the people in the north, and make Jiangnan pay less taxes. But the real situation is that Jiangnan has the heaviest taxes, and the direct cause of Zhang Juzheng's reform is that the people in Jiangnan can't bear it.

If these officials in front of them dare to talk nonsense, what if the emperor is forced to collect heavy taxes in the south?

Zhao Han glanced at the ministers: "Since there is no objection, then you can go down and discuss how much of the tax deposit in these six provinces should be taken every year." ”

"Yes!" Song Yingxing received the decree on behalf of the ministers.

At the end of this matter, Lu Xiangsheng suddenly gave up his hand and said: "Your Majesty, all the frontiers in the north and south, except for Liaodong, the minister suggests that there should be no more wars within five years. Even if you have to fight, you can't fight a big battle. ”

"I know." Zhao Han expressed understanding.

In recent years, the expansion has been too violent, not only has military spending and related investment surged, but also the new territory has not been stabilized. Now that it is expanding its territory in the southwest, the follow-up financial pressure is extremely great, and all kinds of hidden dangers must be slowly erased.

Only Liaodong still had to fight, because the remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty were still entrenched there with Ningguta as the center. Hu Dinggui was busy enriching the population of Jianzhou, reclaiming wasteland, and building post stations, but he has not been able to free his hands, and he will plan to recover Ningguta in the next year or two.

In addition to not engaging in military households and military tuns, and not letting the prince guard the border, Zhao Han's expansion ideas are similar to Zhu Yuanzhang.

It is necessary to relocate the army and the people, enrich the population of the frontier, firmly lay the foundation, and push out step by step.

The frontier strategy of the Ming Dynasty failed, and the military household system and the prince had to bear the cauldron to guard the border.

After Zhu Di ascended the throne, he had to wipe Zhu Yuanzhang's ass and get all the princes in the frontier back. In addition, the battle of Jingyan took away the border army, so it was tossed back and forth, the court was short of money, food and soldiers, and the Horqin grassland was directly sent to Duoyan Sanwei. The system of military household guards also decayed in Zhu Di's later years, and many frontier guards were no longer self-sufficient. Finances are falling apart!

The good policy of the Ming Dynasty, Zhao Han humbly learned. The pit stepped on in the Ming Dynasty, Zhao Han carefully bypassed.

Zhao Han said: "The three northern capital protectorates, as well as the Pingnan Military and Civil Division, will definitely not be able to use troops in the short term." But the Annam Nguyen clan, as well as the Tartars of Ningguta, must be destroyed within three years! Also, the king of Joseon is becoming more and more rude, and he must send an envoy to admonish him! ”

The king of Joseon, Yi Hao, was like a grandson at first, and even sent his younger sister, who was less than ten years old, to Nanjing.

This is not too young, Li Hao actually trembled.

First, without external pressure, the DPRK ushered in a 10-year period of peaceful development.

Second, the DPRK's reforms have been very successful, the treasury has become increasingly full, and the army has been reorganized. Historically, Li Hao's ideas were even more awesome, because he had money in his hands, and he was clamoring for an expansion of 100,000 troops, wanting to fight with Shunzhi.

Although it was not so outrageous at this time, Li Hao, who had soldiers and money, sent envoys to Nanjing many times to ask China to return the territory of Baozhou.

Baozhou is south of the Yalu River, on the other side of the Dandong River.

At the beginning, in order to prevent the Manchu Qing from moving south, North Korea agreed to temporarily lend it to the Datong Army for garrison, but how could Zhao Han spit it out? Years later, China had sent officials to directly establish Baoxian in Baozhou, and tens of thousands of Koreans under its rule ruled it.

Seeing that Baozhou was getting richer and richer, Li Hao couldn't help it, and every year he begged for his return, and occasionally abducted the Korean border people, so he almost didn't directly mobilize troops.

These abnormal behaviors have long attracted the attention of Nanjing.

Zhao Han sent out a detailed investigation two years ago, and he easily obtained information, but it was really too big for North Korea.

The Imperial Camp Office Guard in Hanyang (Seoul) has expanded from one guard to three guards, and the strength has reached 21,000 people. The royal forbidden army was expanded from 600 to 1,500 people, half of which were cavalry troops. In addition, a new firearms battalion was formed, with a total of 1,800 guns and artillery.

These are just the troops in the capital of North Korea, and the local troops are also increasing, what exactly does Li Hao want to do?

Since last year, Zhao Han has been forced to make adjustments to increase the Datong army stationed in Baozhou to 1,000 people. At the same time, on the original city wall, the four corners of the fortress structure were added to prevent the Korean king from having a brain convulsion at any time.

It is impossible to fight, and China will not take the initiative to attack.

Even in North Korea, where the slap is big, it has been ravaged by the Manchus and Japan for decades, and the population has plummeted and the people's livelihood has withered. Even if the reform is successful, how much money can be saved? It is difficult to sustain such a frenzied expansion of the army for a long time, and it will either drag down the finances or reduce the treatment of the army.

As long as China quietly consumes a few years, North Korea's reform dividends will all be buried in the army.

In addition, Kim Yu, who presided over the reform, the "North Korean Jang Juzheng" is 75 years old. Although it succeeded in making a "dichotomy into acres" in North Korea, it also popularized the Chinese currency in North Korea, and the Korean gentry secretly accumulated strength. Once Kim Yu died, the Korean gentry would have to fight back, and the gains of reform would be in vain.

Slowly dragging out time, Zhao Han has already boiled Huang Taiji and Dolgon, the most capable governor of Batavia, and the male lord of Burma, King Tarong. Gushi Khan, who is entrenched in Qinghai and Tibet, is also about to be boiled to death, and a mere Jin Yu, of course, is not a problem.

Survive the enemy heroes and then make military plans, which is the most cost-effective and trouble-saving.

If King Talong was still alive, Zhao Han would definitely not send troops to Burma, because the difficulty would inevitably increase exponentially.

Gushi Khan was alive, and Zhao Han would not send troops to Qinghai and Tibet. When this old man dies, Zhao Han will do it.

The ministers dispersed, and Zhao Han said, "Call the envoys of various countries in turn." ”

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