"These mud legs have gone to buy coarse salt from the imperial store, so what should we do?"

"Yes, the market price of seven wen, but the imperial store only sells five wen, what is the reason?"

"What does the court want to do?"

"This is not the meaning of the imperial court, it is obviously the meaning of King Qi and Long live, the treasury is not abundant, and it will not compete with the people for profit, right?!"

In a mansion in Beizhili and Tongzhou County, there are sixteen powerful businessmen sitting here and now, they are discussing, and the reason for the discussion is the sale of coarse salt in the imperial store.

It can be said that in the late Ming Dynasty, it was not strange that the vassal kings and princes sold smuggled salt, but the problem was that there were no such people as Zhu Youzhen.

Others have seven and six of them, others have six and he has five of them, and they are working against everyone, which makes most salt traders feel very uncomfortable.

But they can't deal with King Qi clearly, or they don't dare to do it.

Everyone knows that His Royal Highness King Qi currently has sixteen guards and twelve guard battalions, and he is still recruiting soldiers and horses recently.

All this is not without the impeachment of the official and the imperial history, the problem is that the emperor ignores it, and often only replies to these notes and no longer responds.

It is already July 26 now, and the imperial store of the Imperial Horse Supervisor is still opening in an endless stream, from Beizhili to Shanxi, and then spread to Shandong, Henan, and Shaanxi, the speed is so fast that it is jaw-dropping.

At this time, I have to sigh at the role of the tooth shop in the Imperial Horse Supervisor's store.

Because the imperial store is not specialized in one kind, it is divided into teahouses, restaurants, tooth shops, warehouses, flower and wine shops, gold and silver shops, tax stores, etc., and this time the emperor store can expand so rapidly, it is to borrow the momentum of the tooth shop.

With the identity of the Huangdian Yaxing, in advance, when everyone was looking at the battle of Shenyang, he purchased buildings and shops in various parts of the north, and then as soon as the matter passed, the imperial shops in various places sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

At present, Huangdian has spread all over the north, as far as Xi'an in the west, Xiangyang in the south, as well as the whole territory of Shandong and Huaibei.

In this way, Huangdian can be said to cover most of the north, and for these places, the interests of salt merchants are becoming less and less.

In desperation, they gathered in Tongzhou, ready to use the old method to make the imperial store of the imperial horse supervisor retract.

"My Fan family in Shanxi is willing to pay 30,000 taels of silver, please ask the ministers and nobles in the court to speak fairly, so that the emperor will stop competing with the people for profit!"

Suddenly, a young businessman in his thirties stood up and opened his mouth to the crowd.

And when they saw it, they knew why he had risen.

Shanxi Fan, they mainly do business in Zhangjiakou and Mongolia, after seven generations, passed to Fan Yongdou to become a wealthy merchant in Zhangjiakou area, the people of the time called it "Jia in the border city, with faith".

Among them, the Fan family's favorite thing to do is to sell smuggled iron, salt and grain and other materials to the northern captives of Tumut.

His family had a close relationship with the Hedong Salt Farm, and the official salt from the Hedong Salt Farm was only ten wen a catty, and the northern captives who sold the Tumut Department were fifty wen a catty, and five times the profit fattened them.

Therefore, the northern captives of the Tumut Department often suffer losses when doing business with the Fan family, and I heard that they have been thinking about doing business with Karaqin recently, but they don't want to be destroyed by the King of Qi's opening of Baima Guanguan City.

Karaqin is a part of Karaqin, which is the scale of more than 100,000 people, and every year, just salt can sell three or four hundred thousand catties.

This seems to be only one or two hundred thousand taels of silver, but the Mongols could not take out the silver, so they could only exchange cattle and sheep for it.

In this way, three or four hundred thousand catties are thousands of cattle and sheep, and after being transported to the south and sold, it is a profit of more than 100,000 taels.

More than 100,000 taels, most of the people sitting here, this is the income from selling illicit salt for a year.

Therefore, they didn't think it was strange that the Shanxi Fan family was the first to stand up, and after the Shanxi Fan family, several people stood up one after another.

"Shanxi Jin family, willing to pay 13,000 taels of silver!"

"The Wang family of Shanxi is willing to pay 20,000 taels of silver!"

"The Li family in Shaanxi is willing to pay 20,000 taels of silver!"

"Henan Liujia ......"

I saw one family get up, one family sat down, and after a while, when everyone got up and finished, the silver taels raised were as high as 294,000 taels.

This is only the strength of the salt merchants in the north, if you add Lianghuai and Jiangnan, Huguang, and Sichuan, then it is estimated that you can get nearly one million taels of silver at will, which shows the benefits of private salt.

"The money has been raised, now it's up to us to find someone......

Suddenly, one of the lords of the mansion spoke, and as soon as he opened his mouth, someone proposed:

"Why don't you go and ask Chengguo Gong to be soothing?"

"Xungui can't do it now, he can't even control the removal of troops and horses from King Qi, in my opinion, it's better to find that Donglin?"

"Donglin? Isn't that a clear stream? ”

"The water is clear and muddy, Donglin is strong at the moment, do it well, you can always find a few."

"Why don't you find another party?"

"You can also ......"

With the help of everyone, the salt merchants soon abandoned the nobles because of their political weakness.

Soon, under the temptation of nearly 300,000 taels of silver, in the name of polishing the pen, the imperial history and the imperial court and the central government and the officials all received a lot of polishing fees.

Among them, whether it is Donglin, Qichu, Zhejiang, Xuankun and other parties, there are always some officials who are open to money because of the problem of money.

So, after a few days of silence, with the arrival of the first day of the ninth lunar month, Zhu Youxiao's eucalyptus also appeared a lot of impeachment notes.

Zhu Youxiao sat in front of the Eucalyptus of the Heart Cultivation Palace, and after taking a look at one of the books, he said to Wei Zhongxian at the door:

"Take down all the notes on the impeachment of the emperor."

"The slave and maid receive the order ......" Wei Zhongxian heard this, and immediately ordered people to withdraw all the songs, and at the same time he also said to the emperor:

"Long live, this year's Liao salary collection has come out, Li Ruhua, the head of the household department, resigned before last month and returned to the old, and the new head of the head of the household, Wang Yingjiao, is sparse, please divide the field and give it miscellaneous."

"Huh?" Hearing Wei Zhongxian's words, Zhu Youxiao frowned slightly, and then got the recital of Wang Yingjiao, the head of the household, from the recital.

"The Four Episodes of the Big Soldier Are Not Enough"

Looking at the recital written by Wang Yingjiao in front of him, Zhu Youxiao frowned tightly and opened the recital:

[The ministers of Taiwan Province are loyal to the rules, such as salt class, such as drum casting, such as pawn shop, such as deed tax, such as treasury folding, such as examples, such as Tuntian, etc., ......]

[The minister has not arrived, and the ministers of the department have discussed and replied separately, and those who have been ordered to do it, and those who have not fulfilled the order, and then discussed and confirmed, the ministers and the ministers have repeatedly checked the terms of the meeting before and after, and discussed them one by one, so as to ensure that the law is feasible, and there is no time to hinder, the approximate number that can be done is divided into three million six hundred thousand taels, and the levy is still sent. 】

"Finally did a practical thing......"

Looking at the performance of Wang Yingjiao, a member of the Donglin Party, Zhu Youxiao breathed a sigh of relief, just because this was the first meaningful performance of the Donglin Party after the Great Huaibei Famine this year.

In this note, Wang Yingjiao mentioned that the fourteen miscellaneous levies except for the land and mu plus and salt taxes all belong to the category of commercial taxes, which can solve the urgent needs of the national treasury.

In addition to the field salt class, Song Shuzhong and Wang Yingjiao thought of a lot of ways to collect commercial taxes and miscellaneous items and solve financial problems, and Zhu Youxiao was very comfortable to watch.

However, he alone could not make the decision very well in the matter of finance, so he said to Wei Zhongxian:

"Go and pass the King of Qi to the Heart Cultivation Palace."

......Seeing this, Wei Zhongxian honestly retreated, leaving Zhu Youxiao alone to deal with the slack.

"Go to the Miaoqin Palace to find His Royal Highness King Qi."

When he came to the gate of the Qianqing Palace, Wei Zhongxian gave an explanation to the eunuch who had sent a message, and when the eunuch heard this, he retreated.

He took the two of them to the Qingong Palace, and finally arrived a quarter of an hour later, but only saw Cao Huachun, and then he knew that Zhu Youzhen had gone to the armor factory.

Helplessly, the eunuch explained Cao Huachun, and went back to restore his life, and Cao Huachun personally left the palace and went to the armor factory in Ming Shifang.

Finally waited for him to arrive, half an hour had passed since Zhu Youxiao's message, fortunately Zhu Youzhen did not walk around, and when Cao Huachun arrived, he was inspecting the armor factory with Sun Liang.

"Your Highness, long live you to go to the Heart Cultivation Hall to discuss matters."

Cao Huachun hurriedly came to the armor factory, and then gave an edict to Zhu Youzhen, who was in front of the armor and stomach division.

When Zhu Youzhen heard this, he bowed his head slightly, and then said to Sun Liang:

"You have just been promoted to the eunuch of the Seal of the War Bureau, and you have to be careful about the affairs of the armor factory."

"At present, there are still more than 20,000 people in the 16th Guards and 12th Battalion who are not equipped with chain inner armor, and they need to be prepared."

After that, Zhu Youzhen looked at Cao Huachun and said: "Transfer 300,000 taels of silver to buy iron and charcoal, and then transfer 100,000 taels to the armor factory to make a classman silver." ”

"Slaves and maids receive orders......" Cao Huachun and Sun Liang took orders one after another, but Zhu Youzhen still didn't feel at ease and explained:

"That Wang Gongchang, it is not a matter to put it in the inner city, it is best to put it in the area of Chong'an Fang near the city wall, and the gunpowder in the inventory should not accumulate too much, it is best not to exceed 500,000 catties."

"This ...... But the Ministry of War stipulates that there are two million catties of inventory......" Sun Liang was a little embarrassed, and after Cao Huachun saw this twisted appearance, he immediately scolded:

"Are you listening to His Highness or the Ministry of War?"

"Yes, yes, the slave and maid sent the extra 1.5 million catties to the Yanshan camp?" Sun Liang was scolded by Cao Huachun and reacted, he was the king of Qi's people, and he didn't care what his grandmother's army did.

"500,000 catties will be sent to Shenyang, Liaoyang, Zhenjiang Prefecture, and the remaining gunpowder and the currently accumulated armor will be sent to the Yanshan camp, and then go to the ordnance institute to transport the qualified armor created by the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War together."

Zhu Youzhen remembered Qi Jin's embarrassment of insufficient gunpowder in Liaodong, so he confessed, and then left the armor factory under Sun Liang's preoccupation.

After getting into the carriage of the armor factory, Zhu Youzhen said to Cao Huachun: "How many troops are recruited by the Yanshan camp now?" ”

"Back to His Highness, according to His Highness's requirements, a total of 59,327 troops have been recruited in the past three months, of which 16,800 have been sent to Daning Sanwei, and there are still 42,527 people, plus the three guards of the navy, there is still a shortage of more than 20,000 people."

Cao Huachun responded, and said:

"With the food of the Sixteen Guards and the Twelve Gong Guard Battalions, the officialdom of the Imperial Horse Prison can no longer afford it, except for the eggs, which can be borne normally, the rest of the pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks and other meats have been shortage."

"Let's lower the food of the Sixteen Guards Camp according to one meal of meat a day, one or two pieces of meat per meal." Zhu Youzhen knew that it was impossible for all the soldiers and horses of the Ming Dynasty to use the food of the 16th Guards and the 12th Gong Guard Battalion of Shangzhi as a standard.

The 16th Guards of Shangzhi and the 12th Gongwei Battalion of Shangzhi are from the outside expedition and Gongwei Beizhili, and it can be said that the Son of Heaven chooses the front, and it is not surprising that such a selection of the front and eating well are not surprising.

But if he were to disarm in the future and set up guard battalions in the provinces, it would be impossible to follow such standards.

What Zhu Youzhen thought was relatively simple, the arch guard camp was divided into the straight arch guard camp and the outer arch guard camp.

The upper straight guard battalion guards the north Zhili, and the outer arch guard battalion is responsible for the south and the thirteen provinces, as well as the future Liaodong and the new frontier.

At present, there are 1,427 counties and 37 prefectures in the Ming Dynasty, with a total of 1,464 basic local administrations.

According to the battalion sentry system, five people are one team, two soldiers are a team, three teams are a team, three teams are a sentry, five sentry is a total, and five general is a battalion, corresponding to the number of 6 people, 13 people, 40 people, 121 people, 606 people, and 3031 people.

If you want to control the localities, then there are 1,464 local administrations here, and at least one total force must be in each place, that is, at least nearly 890,000 soldiers and horses are needed to garrison the whole world.

This amount is obviously too much, even if it is a military salary of ten taels of silver per person, it will need to spend 8.9 million taels, which is almost 50% of the finance of the Ming Dynasty.

If you add the nail stomach, then the cost is even more.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen had to come up with a compromise method that would not only deter the localities, but also ensure that the financial affairs of the center would not be affected.

If that is the case, simply station a general army and horses in the seat of a prefecture, and the prefecture-level units of the Ming Dynasty have 163 prefectures and 37 prefectures.

According to the compromise method, that is, 121,200 people were needed, and nearly 40 outer guard battalions were needed.

The Ming Dynasty has two capitals and thirteen provinces, except for the two capitals, on average, that is, nearly three battalions are stationed in each province.

With three battalions of Gongwei Battalion, plus the lower division of soldiers and horses in the city, it can basically maintain the stability of the basic situation of the two capitals and thirteen provinces, and ensure the adaptability of future financial reforms.

However, this is not insurance, and it is also necessary to station a battalion of soldiers and horses in the field to facilitate the gallop to the provinces and counties.

Therefore, if you calculate it, you will need about 53 battalions and 160,000 soldiers and horses.

Under the situation of increasingly inflationary prices, the general's salary was set at 15 taels, and the annual expenditure was about 3 million taels when grain was included.

160,000 soldiers and horses may not seem like much, but it is enough to stabilize the basic plate, and how to open up outward, it is necessary to reactivate the guard system.

The system of the guard, which is actually a disguised tuntian system, is still used in later generations, and is a fairly cheap method of stability for external provinces.

What Zhu Youzhen wants to do is very simple, first of all, the 16th Guards Army, this army will inevitably need to be expanded in the future, and the treatment will inevitably be better than that of the Gongwei Battalion.

Because what they have to do is to be stationed outside, like the army of the Tang Dynasty, to fight outside.

And if they are transferred, what will happen to the emperor's military power? This is going to look at the Twelve Arch Guard Battalion.

If the Beijing battalion is abolished, then the Shangzhi 12 Gongwei battalion can also be expanded to 16 battalions, or even 26 battalions.

The treatment of the Shangzhi Gong Guard Camp is higher than that of the Outer Gong Guard Battalion, from this point of view, it is the external use of the Shangzhi Guard Army to fight + the Wei Institute immigrant Tuntian rule.

The interior is stabilized by the outer arch guard battalion + the Terracotta Division, and the center is guarded by the upper straight arch guard battalion, so that the local outer arch guard battalion does not dare to rebel.

As for how to relocate the people, Zhu Youzhen had already thought about it.

Since the military households do not have tuntian now, it is enough to move them to a place where there is tuntian.

It is true that the homeland is difficult to leave, but after the seventh year of the Apocalypse, all parts of the two capitals and thirteen provinces will encounter drought.

It's impossible for this group of people to starve to death in the local area because they can't leave their homeland, right?

Thinking about it this way, Zhu Youzhen probably formulated the internal and external levels of the army, if you want to use the concept of later generations, then the Shangzhi Guard Army is the field army, the outer guard battalion is the local left-behind troops, and the Terracotta Division is the police force.

In this era, there is no need to make it as complicated as later generations, because the productive forces cannot keep up, and the requirements of the later generations will only collapse the imperial finances.

Thinking of this, the carriage also entered the imperial city, and Zhu Youzhen also changed into a chariot, and then drove to the Palace of Nourishing Hearts.

His chariot passed in front of the Wenhua Palace, making the passing Wenchen look sideways, not knowing what he was thinking.

After a quarter of an hour, he arrived at the Qianqing Palace, and then swaggered into the Heart Cultivation Palace, and said to Zhu Youxiao, who bowed his head and frowned:

"Brother, I'm here."

"Huh?" Hearing Zhu Youzhen's voice, Zhu Youxiao raised his head and wondered: "Why is there no sound when my brother walks?" ”

"Is it brother, you are too concerned about the music, and you don't know what to call me to come?" Zhu Youzhen was not polite at all, and sat on the couch of the Heart Cultivation Hall with a smile.

Zhu Youxiao was not angry when he saw this, he got up with Wang Yingjiao's recital, sat next to Zhu Youzhen, handed it out and said:

"This is the new head of the household department, Wang Yingjiao of the Donglin Party, you can see if it is feasible."

"Huh?" Hearing this, Zhu Youzhen took the song and looked at it, then slowly frowned, and finally raised his head and said to his imperial brother:

"This is a good opinion, if my officials in the Ming Dynasty are obedient, then there is no problem with such a levy, but the question at the moment is, if this is approved, can it be implemented in the people?"

Zhu Youzhen's question shows the unreality of Wang Yingjiao's performance.

As far as the process and taxation items are concerned, Wang Yingjiao has proposed well, but the only thing he miscalculated is the obstruction of local forces.

According to Wang Yingjiao's recital, it is perfectly in line with the Donglin Party's policy of reducing the field tax and transferring the field tax to miscellaneous and commercial taxes.

But the historical Donglin did not play with this thing, the reason is the lack of grassroots support.

A group of Donglin Party did practical things for Liu Yixie, Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou and others, and the others were either talking about it, or they were reluctant to approve of the businessman's "moistening pen" silver.

With this group of guys dragging their feet, it's really hell that this policy can be played.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen never thought that before the students of Yanshan Institute went out, they would be able to collect large taxes in the local area except for field taxes.

To put it bluntly, without the support of the grassroots for him, he would not have been able to let the army under his command collect taxes, and they would not be able to play it.

Therefore, in the face of his royal brother's inquiry, Zhu Youzhen did not hesitate to expose Donglin's impossible policy.

"Between my brothers, this new law can't be implemented?" Zhu Youxiao asked, and saw his younger brother's slightly bowed answer.

Such an answer made Zhu Youxiao frown, just because Daming's finances gave him a headache.

As far as the current situation is concerned, fortunately, the vacancies of Jizhen and Liaodong and some soldiers and horses in Beizhili have been abolished, otherwise this year's Ming Dynasty is estimated to still owe 780,000 taels of wages.

At present, only the seven towns in Northwest and Shanxi still owe military salaries for the second half of the year, but only about 4 million.

If the vacancies in the three towns of Shanxi can be reduced, then it can be reduced to 1.7 million taels.

Such a situation can be regarded as a return to the thirty-sixth year of Wanli.

"How long will it take for my brother's soldiers and horses to be dismantled from Shanxi and Beizhili's guards?"

After a while, he asked his younger brother again, and Zhu Youzhen also said:

"For now, it will take at least three months, and then send the capital's Xiaoqi and Tiance, Yulin Sanwei, and Jinwu and Baotao to take the lead in Shanxi Sanzhen to control the situation."

"If you send the 16th Battalion to it, you can directly dismantle the guard post and measure the acres of land."

"Another ......"

Zhu Youzhen paused, then looked at his imperial brother with a strange expression and said:

"Brother Huang, the soldiers and horses of the three guards of the navy are almost over, your big ship ......"

"Ahem! The timber was delayed by a month due to the rainy season, and arrived in Tianjin at the beginning of last month, and it still needs to be dried for a year. Zhu Youxiao coughed, and then felt embarrassed and said:

"Let's let the Navy Sanwei use the Fu Boat to conduct the drill first, and after a year of drilling, I will almost be able to patrol the sea on the big ship I made."

"But why does my brother want so many warships? Is it possible that you want to imitate Zheng He? ”

"Nature is useful." Zhu Youzhen explained helplessly.

It was impossible for him to tell his brother that if he had a large fleet and then stuck Malacca, he would get hundreds of thousands of taels or even millions of taels in taxes every year.

Because of this, I can't believe it for my brother.

Although Daming benefits from maritime trade, its domestic demand can be said to occupy one-third of the world's current market.

Not to mention foreign conquests, as long as the Ming clarifies its own internal tax issues, it can beat Spain, Ottomans and Mughal countries in terms of taxation alone.

Not to mention anything else, just a simple problem of land endowment, on the surface, it is thirty endowments and one, according to the Ming Dynasty's 750 million mu of cultivated land, at least 30 or 40 million stone grain can be received, but the real collection of this tax is the first year of Hongxi.

That is, during the reign of Emperor Mingrenzong Zhu Gaochi, the land harvest reached 31.8 million stones, while the national land at that time was less than 420 million mu.

In Zhu Youzhen's view, the Ming Dynasty did not need to levy poll tax and miscellaneous items on peasants.

It is even said that the Ming Dynasty completely abolished all kinds of miscellaneous taxes and forced labor for the peasants, as long as the number of acres of land is clarified, and then the amount of land is divided into acres, as long as each mu is honestly paid according to the thirty endowments, it is enough to feed half of the soldiers and officials of the Ming Dynasty.

The current embarrassing problem is that a large number of feudal kings use the privileges granted by the imperial court to protect the acres of land without paying taxes, Xiucai and Juren shelter tenants from forced labor, and the big merchants and large landowners put a fixed amount of taxes on ordinary peasants, resulting in the actual taxes borne by the peasants being far higher than 30 to 1, and even to the extent of 10 taxes and 34.

To solve this problem, it is very simple, that is, to abolish the privileges of Xiucai and Juren and officials over land, and then send a large number of officials of new interest groups to clarify the acres of land, apportionment of land to acres, and reasonable taxation.

Only by collecting taxes reasonably can the peasants' burdens be lightened, and when the peasants have grain, they will be able to earn a sufficient amount of silver money in the following natural disasters.

If you don't have to go out of your hand, it will be a disaster for the imperial court.

So simple is coming, in the salt and iron wine court state-run, and then at the same time as the foreign demand poured in a large amount of silver, raise the price of salt and iron wine to collect the silver money in the hands of the people.

What if the people don't have money? It was simpler, the imperial court served as a transit point, buying grain from wealthy places, transporting it to the place of calamity, and selling grain at a cheap price.

"The Sword Comes"

This is a salvage point at the end of the Ming Dynasty, because except for 1640, 41, and 42, when more than eighty percent of the country suffered disasters, most of the other time, the most widespread impact was the five northern provinces of Jianan Zhili in the north.

As long as we purchase grain rationally and make arrangements for transporting grain in advance, so that the price of grain does not rise to an exaggerated level of killing two or three taels with one stone, the people will be able to survive.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen also said to Zhu Youxiao:

"Yantian's side has already expanded to 200 miles of long beach, and I think the ministers of various parties should impeach me, right?"

"Hehe......" Hearing this, Zhu Youxiao smiled and said:

"Naturally, it's impeachment, but I've already let Zhongxian leave it in the middle of the song, and when it's winter, I'll take the earth dragon and burn it as waste paper."

"I have the affairs in the court, my brother doesn't have to worry!"

Zhu Youxiao's comfort made Zhu Youzhen breathe a sigh of relief, and then he also got up and said to Zhu Youxiao:

"In this case, the younger brother will return to the Yanshan camp tomorrow, and the soldiers and horses of the Yanshan camp are only Sun Yingyuan, I'm afraid they can't be trained."

"So fast?" Zhu Youxiao got up and said worriedly:

"It's not been three months since you returned to the capital, and you're going out again, and the next time we meet, I don't know when it will be."

"Brother rest assured, the next time we meet, the matter of wanting to come to the three towns of Shanxi has been resolved." Zhu Youzhen responded with a smile.

Hearing the truth, Zhu Youxiao also said with a smile on his face:

"Okay, then I'll wait for my brother's good news!"

"The younger brother retired, and the elder brother didn't have to send ......"

Zhu Youzhen wanted to leave and signaled that he didn't need to send him off, but inevitably, Zhu Youxiao still followed, and sent him out of the Qianqing Palace without saying a word.

Zhu Youxiao looked at his departing back, and only after disappearing did he return to the Qianqing Palace with a smile.

It's just that when he returned to the Qianqing Palace, Wang Tiqian vaguely handed Wei Zhongxian a handwritten letter.

"Father-in-law, this is what Kebaba asked me to deliver."

"Huh?" Hearing this, Wei Zhongxian glanced down at the handwritten book in his hand, and then slowly opened it.

When he saw the contents, he was immediately overjoyed, but then he became terrified......