Then, Zhang Gui couldn't hide his excitement and looked at Tianqi with excitement, and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, it seems that the wealth of the major magnates and bureaucrats in the capital is really immeasurable. ”

Apocalypse nodded: "Moreover, under normal circumstances, it is difficult for them to take out so much money!" This guy named Zhao She and his father Zhao Shichun have actually made a great contribution in doing so! ”

"What Your Majesty said is that the Ming Dynasty has been peaceful for more than 200 years, and most of the wealth given by the world is in the hands of these powerful bureaucrats."

"Now it can be returned to the hands of the imperial court in this way, and then the imperial court will redistribute the wealth given by the world for more than two hundred years of the Ming Dynasty, which can undoubtedly make the world more prosperous, and when this large amount of wealth is transferred to the hands of the world's powerful bureaucrats, it will take another hundred years."

Zhang Gui echoed.

After hearing this, Tianqi looked at Zhang Gui and asked, "You mean, if this money is redistributed properly, the Ming Dynasty will be able to continue the national throne for at least a hundred years?" ”

Zhang Gui nodded and said: "But if the distribution is not appropriate, it may exacerbate the contradictions within the Ming Dynasty!" After all, hundreds of millions of taels of silver are not hundreds of millions of stone grain, and they cannot be eaten directly, and if they are squandered directly, it will only lead to a sharp rise in prices, but will increase the burden of food and clothing for the people. ”

Although Tianqi has not learned financial knowledge, he is not stupid, and he quickly understood the problem, so he continued to ask Zhang Gui: "You just said that the wealth of the world must be distributed to those engaged in production as much as possible in order to make the society prosperous, but what does this mean?" ”

Zhang Gui continued to nod: "Yes!" The people who produce are mainly the people of the world, and the imperial court has to use the method of work instead of payment to let the wealth flow into the hands of the people. Or make the price of the grain, meat, and cloth necessary for the people lower, so as to avoid new problems after the money is spent. ”

"Tell me more about it."

Apocalypse seemed to have realized that what to do with the hundreds of millions of taels of silver was a big problem, so he said more.

"Yes!"

After Zhang Gui responded, he said: "First, the imperial court organized large-scale basic projects that are beneficial to the people's livelihood, such as building more bridges, more roads, more canals, and more embankments; Let the life of the people who work and work more conveniently, work better, reduce the impact of natural disasters on farming, and then increase income! ”

"When a large amount of wealth in the world is concentrated in the hands of the powerful gentry, most of these things are done by some powerful gentry, but they will only carry out various basic projects for their own land industry, which will naturally only make the poor poorer and the rich richer; If today's wealth is concentrated in the hands of the imperial court, it is natural for the imperial court to do it, and try to benefit all the people in the world. ”

"2. Intensify efforts to purchase and hoard grain, salt, iron, and other things necessary for the people of the world and the imperial court from overseas, especially grain, and increase the maintenance of the world's regular positions, so as to avoid the impact of natural and man-made disasters on grain prices. In short, exchange the silver for something more useful. You can't let Daming only have silver. ”

Tianqi laughed after hearing this: "In this case, it is not a problem that there are many Han people, but it is a good thing." ”

Zhang Gui nodded: "This is nature." If there is no money, a large number of people is a problem, but if there is money and a lot of money, it is easier to do things with more people. Perhaps in the future, we will still feel that there are not enough Han Chinese, and we will be worried about this, and we will have to encourage childbearing. ”

Apocalypse said, "I hope for such a day. ”

Then, Tianqi looked at Zhang Gui, couldn't suppress his excitement, and said, "Don't I have something to tell you?" What I want to tell you is that Song Yingxing and they have made the steam pumping machine run successfully! ”

Zhang Gui was stunned for a moment after hearing this, and then smiled: "In this way, it is more appropriate to come with hundreds of millions of taels of silver now!" And there is also a third place where you can spend a lot of silver. ”

"Where?"

Apocalypse asked.

Zhang Gui replied: "After the steam engine pump comes out, it is natural to continue to spend money to reduce the cost of the steam engine pump, which is really conducive to the world's farming, irrigation and mining." At the same time, it is also necessary to make steam engines for other purposes, such as steam-powered ships and steam-powered cars; In short, all the instruments in the world should be steamed. Let the silver flow to these areas, and then bring about a great increase in the wealth of the world, so that the increased silver will not be spent in vain. ”

Apocalypse groaned for a long time.

He can realize that if all the world's vehicles and ships are vaporized, without the use of manpower and animal power, it undoubtedly means that it will be more difficult for people to be used as cattle and horses, and cattle and horses will only be used for food and drink, and then the world will really change, and the world can really be rich, and the Ming may really be able to form a larger army and open up more territory!

"This Zhao She, you must be closely guarded, and you can't reveal the news. This 100 million taels of silver plus the silver copied will all belong to the treasury, and will no longer belong to the treasury, and it will be up to you, Han Yi, and Yuan Keli to figure out how to make this amount of silver be used exclusively for the three purposes you just mentioned! And let the money flow into the hands of the laborers. ”

Apocalypse also commanded suddenly.

"Yes!"

Therefore, next, the Department of Planning and Planning officially requested the establishment of a Huimin Treasury to store the money used to benefit the people, which is actually used to store the silver, and at the same time to set up the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which will manage the wealth of the Huimin Treasury and plan the affairs of the world to benefit the people.

It is worth mentioning that there was originally a Ministry of Civil Affairs in history.

Historically, the Ministry of Household was the Ministry of Households, but in the Tang Dynasty, in order to avoid Li Shimin's ridicule, the Ministry of Household was changed to the Ministry of Households, so it was habitually called the Ministry of Households.

But now the new Ministry of Civil Affairs of the Ming Dynasty is naturally not the Ministry of Households, its function is more like formulating development plans and engineering plans, and then taking money from the special treasury to do it with the Division.

Those who don't know only think that the imperial court is just trying to practice the concept of "benefiting the people", and specially take money from the treasury to benefit the people.

In fact, it is just because the imperial court now has a huge amount of property, which needs to be specially distributed to the people of the world.

This is also Zhang Gui deliberately letting the apocalypse do this.

Zhang Gui knew from what he had learned in later generations that if the national economy wanted to develop in a good direction, the most important thing was that the wealth of society should increase by more popular producers.

Only in this way can a society develop benignly in terms of economy.

Otherwise, if the social wealth increased by the national economy is more popular, it will not be the producers, and the producers will certainly be a small number of magnates and bureaucrats.

In this case, the national economy of a society will not develop benignly, and even if the economy is prosperous, it is still a kind of abnormal prosperity, that is, the prosperity of those who belong to vested interests.

Just like the original middle and late Ming Dynasty in history, it seems that the commodity economy and society are becoming more and more prosperous, and all kinds of prosperous towns are emerging in an endless stream, especially the slaves of the rich scholars in the south of the Yangtze River, but in fact it is a kind of deformed prosperity.

This prosperity did not make the country strong and the people rich, but allowed the Ming Dynasty to quickly fall to Li Zicheng in a short period of time, and then was stolen by a small Manchu Qing dynasty.

Therefore, Zhang Guicai took the opportunity of taking advantage of the fact that a large amount of wealth in the hands of the powerful bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty was controlled by Tianqi, and suggested that Tianqi distribute more of this wealth to the people of the world.

The reason why the apocalypse agreed was naturally because he, as the emperor, also wanted to make Daming strong, and in addition, he had too much money to spend now, so the money he kept for himself was just a pile of silver, and he also wanted to use this money in exchange for what he wanted more, that is, to have a real imperial feat!