The reforms that Chongzhen has carried out in the past few years can be said to be successful, but they cannot be regarded as complete successes, and it can only be said that the situation has been improved, but no fundamental improvement has occurred.

That is, it treats the symptoms but not the root cause, and the dependence on the fiscal side is very large, and all aspects have to spend money.

Although in terms of fiscal revenue, the tax revenue of the Ming household department has increased to 150 million silver dollars, which is several times that of previous years, and the amount is quite considerable, not only the agricultural tax has increased, but the urban commercial tax can also be collected, and a new official evaluation standard has been formulated, which is linked to taxation, and can collect more taxes, and the good local development can be quickly raised.

In addition, in recent years, the Ming royal family has vigorously operated the royal farm by opening a royal factory, plus commercial income, the income supported by Xujiazhuang, and the income of the internal treasury has also increased to 80 million silver dollars, which is also a considerable figure, which was unimaginable before.

The sum of the two incomes is a huge figure of 230 million silver dollars, which is equivalent to a tax of about 1 silver dollar from the head of each Ming citizen.

That is, the money has indeed been collected, and it has been successfully received, which proves that the effect of the reform has indeed been achieved, and the goal pursued at the beginning has been achieved.

But......

Zhu Youzhen just can't be happy.

I don't think this is called success at all, but I feel very worried and unfair.

Because he, the emperor, has too much responsibility.

Either there is a flood and drought in this place today, or there is a rebellion in that place tomorrow, and then the civil and military officials will ask for money to perform, and they will often ask for hundreds of thousands of millions of silver dollars to solve the problem.

The 'warrior battalion' loyal to the royal family has increased to 100,000 at present, all of them have been trained into elites, their combat effectiveness is very good, they have successfully completed many tasks, they are very reliable and trustworthy, but in order to feed this elite army, the annual military expenditure has increased to as much as 20 million, not including the expenses of other regions.

There is also the governance of various parts of the Ming Dynasty, although after several crackdown on corruption, the number of corrupt officials has indeed been greatly reduced, and a large number of honest officials have been reused, but the governance of the locality, whether it is to build a road, build a small bridge, or do any little thing, have to spend money to do, in the implementation of some decrees, will also pay a lot of costs, that is, if you do not spend money, no matter how good the policy, it is impossible to be implemented, and it will not be welcomed and supported by the people, but do more wrong, can not end up with good results.

This problem was encountered several years ago, when the reform was just being implemented.

found that the cost of governing such a large empire as the Ming Dynasty is unimaginable, that is, the cost of ruling is high.

Later, of course, some solutions were found, such as cooperating with businessmen, outsourcing some tasks, or simply handing over the judicial authority directly to Xujiazhuang, and Xujiazhuang's professional lawyers, you can make money by helping people fight lawsuits, realize the profitability of the judicial system, and ensure basic fairness and justice, which has been welcomed by many Ming people, so if you encounter any contradictions and disputes, you like to find the court of Xujiazhuang to solve them, anyway, the loser will pay, and this kind of business, if you hand it over to the Ming officials, There is no doubt that it is a hotbed of corruption, and I don't know how many unjust wrongs and wrongs will be created, and how much injustice will be brought.

The last five or six years of reform down.

Zhu Youzhen was surprised to find that the financial revenue of the imperial court had increased to as much as 230 million, but the expenditure also exceeded 200 million, with a maximum balance of several million silver dollars, and occasionally overspending, so he couldn't save any money at all.

It really achieves the words 'take from the people, use it for the people', and the money used for personal enjoyment is very least, which can be described as thrifty.

But why can't we get money down and achieve the goal of getting richer and richer?

On the one hand, because prices are rising, the purchasing power of the currency has depreciated, resulting in an increase in spending every year, which has largely offset the increase.

The second is that there are too many places to spend money, a large number of officials' salaries, military spending, royal spending, local disaster relief and relief spending, education spending, medical spending, encouraging overseas development, etc., each piece will consume funds, and it must not be given, otherwise there will be some chaos, bringing destructive consequences and losses, which will be much more than the little money saved.

The most important point is that there are still too many burdens, too big and too heavy, a full population of 250 million, even if there is one-tenth of them who need to be taken care of regularly, there are as many as 25 million people, and if you spend ten silver dollars on each of them, Zhu Youzhen will go bankrupt and fall into a deficit state where she cannot make ends meet.

If he could get rid of all these burdens, travel lightly, and reform only for his own enjoyment, Zhu Youzhen would have lived an extremely comfortable and comfortable life a long time ago, and it was impossible for him to grow a lot of gray hair in his early thirties.

Because it's a responsibility!

It's an obligation that can't be shaken off!

It is the real representative of the imperial power, if you completely lose the support of these people, maybe the imperial power will come to an end, and it is a matter of course to be abandoned by the people.

But that being said.

Look at today's Xujiazhuang, the management population is only about 60 million, but the total economic volume has reached the level of 30 billion silver dollars, and the fiscal income is 10 billion, which is almost 50 times the income of the Ming Dynasty.

Xujiazhuang's pervert can't be compared at all, but after several years of development, it is said that the annual profit of Guan Ningjun has increased from about 100 million silver dollars to 600 million today, three times richer than the imperial court, with an extremely elite army of 300,000, and a firearms rate of 100%, it has long had the strength to destroy the imperial court. Living an extremely extravagant and wasteful life, the number of beauties is the same, and they are more comfortable than the emperor, why bother to pursue the throne, after hundreds of years, it is a disaster and torture for the children and grandchildren, and it is undoubtedly an extremely good choice to pursue a rich and noble family for thousands of years, and it is very fragrant.

There is also Fujian Zheng's Group.

Zhejiang Maritime Group.

have achieved the goal of breaking 100 million yuan in annual profits, and they are much better than the Ming royal family.

There are even several new business families that have sprung up, and they are also extremely profitable, such as the Ma family in Shizhu, which has become the overlord of the textile industry, with an annual income of more than 50 million and a very considerable profit.

Even some feudal kings with good investment vision, whose annual income has reached the threshold of 10 million, have lived a well-off life, and have also led the people of Shizhu to embark on common prosperity, which has been highly praised by the "Oriental Times", which is considered to be the best economic sustainable strategy, rather than allowing wealth to be concentrated in the hands of a small number of people, resulting in serious inequality.

Sometimes.

Seeing the extremely rapid development of the forces, Zhu Youzhen was very envious and jealous, and there was a deep regret, feeling that he had really been tossing blindly in the past few years, even if he had made a lot of achievements, let thousands of corrupt officials fall to the ground, and won the hearts of many people, but he just couldn't save money, but he felt poorer and poorer, there were many new products such as TVs and game consoles, and he didn't dare to buy and consume, and his living standards had declined significantly.

In private, Zhu Youzhen, who felt more and more regretful, often fell into a state of self-doubt, muttered in Queen Zhou's ear, and said what was in his heart:

"Zitong, I have worked hard in the past few years, I have been prospering in my heart, my hair is a lot grayer, I dare to take a day off a month, I feel more and more tired, but those officials, why are they so uneasy, every day to find trouble for me, every day to ask for money, to do practical things, said to let the Ming Dynasty achieve prosperity and growth, although the Ming Dynasty has indeed grown, it is much more prosperous than in the past, it is about to be comparable to the past Han and Tang dynasties, but I only feel tired, not too happy, and I know, as long as I relax, As long as I don't watch half an hour of twists and turns every day, somewhere in the Ming Dynasty, there may be chaos, and I will not get proper supervision, and slowly the sky will be high and the emperor will become the same as before, and the people will continue to return to the dark days, because I can't see or know that they are suffering, and I have become a faint king. ”

"But the pressure of wanting to be a Ming Jun is too great, and I am too tired to enjoy it with peace of mind, which is why in the past thousands of years, there are far more deaf monarchs than saint Ming Sages, but I continue to be so tired, I don't know if I can live past the age of forty? And once I fall, the situation will improve slightly, and I will immediately return to the way it was before, or in a few years, my previous efforts will be lost, and the Ming Dynasty will continue to become even worse and hopeless. ”

"It's still a good life in Xujiazhuang, especially that Xu Yuan, he is indeed a person of great wisdom, he actually did not take care of mundane affairs, the interior of the rich and prosperous Xujiazhuang, but it is not chaotic at all, I underestimated him, I should actually learn from him, before his "King's Manor Plan", I should study and study, instead of refusing without thinking, hey, now I heard that the king's manor of the Korean kingdom almost does not care much about the people outside the manor, and all of them are thrown to those landlords and squires, Single-mindedly concerned about development and making a fortune, no longer need to pay attention to so many trivial things, as long as you take care of your own one-third of an acre of land, but the annual financial surplus is as much as two or three million, and the life is not much worse than mine. ”

"Hey, it's too difficult to be an emperor, it's really not easy to live in charge, I used to think about killing this opponent and solving that enemy, but now, I just want to deal with less government affairs, so that I can have a little more time, accompany you and the children, these things are as important as Jiangshan Sheji."

Zhu Youzhen hugged Queen Zhou in his arms, and couldn't help but reveal his true thoughts.

Now he is really no longer the young king who was full of anger and impulsiveness, always thinking about doing something big.

He learned that it is not easy to run a country.

I know that it is not easy to do some things well.

I understand more that those heavy responsibilities, the fate of more than 200 million people in the Ming Dynasty, are pressed on his shoulders alone, which is really very heavy, and he can't bear it.

And even if he becomes the first emperor of the ages, the emperor of the ages, it is only a temporary glory, it can last for twenty or thirty years is very good, and after the glory, it is often decay and chaos, how about the Han Dynasty, the same is true of the Tang Empire, no matter how good the prosperity is, it is a flash in the pan, it cannot last, endless chaos and trouble, is the protagonist of history.

The limit of what he Zhu Youzhen can do, it is estimated that he is classified into the category of Ming Jun, it is a little difficult to squeeze into the top ten, his wrist and courage are really more general, the opponents and situations he faces are also extremely complicated, the royal family cannot act rashly at all, and forces such as Xu Jiazhuang are also full of interest in foreign expansion, and they do not seem to be interested in rebellion, so in the territory of the Ming Empire, the atmosphere is extremely harmonious, everyone is trying to do business, the atmosphere of cooperation is strong, public security has been improved, and the bandits have been wiped out. As a result, an extremely stable, business-oriented environment is created in order to obtain more benefits.

However, Zhu Youzhen's insistence on the old routine will only bring huge burdens and pressures, and will not bring much benefit at all, even if he has a reputation as an emperor through the ages and is loved by the people, the royal family will not get much benefit from it, and can only consolidate the ruling order and extend the national honor for a hundred and ten years.

In terms of actual interests, there is a serious loss of points.

If the royal family also pursues interests, choose the "King's Manor Plan", build an "Emperor's Manor" to rule the Ming Dynasty, occupy the best and most fertile land, can achieve self-sufficiency, and control the right to appoint and dismiss officials, the rest is basically not much care, the people's agricultural tax and Dingkou tax, permanently exempted, reduce their pressure, the number of officials, from at least one million people, reduce the number of people, reduce the number of people, from at least one million people, to less than 100,000, and then let the free development of all places, the royal family only controls the most important industrial system, Attracting and cultivating the best talents, providing a large number of business development opportunities, it is estimated that in five years at most, the emperor's estate will be able to take off, the burden will be greatly reduced, the profits earned by the royal family can easily break 100 million, and save a large balance, the royal family can also live a high-quality and high-consumption life, Zhu Youzhen does not have to spend more than ten hours a day on the boring handling of government affairs.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen is indeed moved, and has the idea of lying flat and salted fish, and the reason is also very sufficient, he is tired and tired, what if he is the first emperor of the ages, if the emperor behind him is mediocre and losers, no matter how good the situation he creates, he will be quickly defeated, which is not interesting at all.

If you change to the king's manor model, not to mention worry-free and trouble-free, the ruling system can also become more stable, even if there will be a variety of local tyrants, and even powerful warlords, but no matter how good and powerful they are, they do not have several big advantages that the royal family has, even if they are challenged, the royal family is not necessarily at a disadvantage.

What's more, the royal family has formed a strong alliance with Xujiazhuang, and once something happens, Xujiazhuang will send troops to help, which can defeat all opponents and challengers.

The premise is that we must have a good relationship with Xujiazhuang.

And his idea of lying flat, after Queen Zhou Yufeng heard it, she also expressed her opinion.