"Bell-bell-bell-bell......"

On the first day of the first month of the seventh year of the Apocalypse, with the sound of the morning bell and dusk drums, when the annual New Year comes, the city of Beijing is covered with snow.

The two-foot snow made it difficult for the carriage to travel, as if to prove that the entire city was covered in ice and snow when the Xiaoice River came......

It's just that in the eyes of the people, Ruixue is a good year, and they are still quite satisfied with this snow.

Because heavy snow can freeze to death pests and diseases in the field, and when the snow melts, the next year's cultivation is bound to be abundant.

But for Zhu Youzhen, this is not a simple snow.

Perhaps the experience of the five years of the Apocalypse is still there, and in the face of this heavy snowfall, he knows very well that this is undoubtedly a huge disaster for the poor people in the north.

Early in the morning, before dawn, a eunuch from the inner court came to pass the word, saying that the emperor was mentally exhausted, and signaled the king of Qi to organize a court meeting today.

Zhu Youzhen, who is changing his crown clothes, is very clear about this, what kind of mental exhaustion? It's better to say that last night the sex was too deep and I didn't sleep enough, so I found a top shifter.

But it seems that he is used to being dragged by his brother to work temporarily, Zhu Youzhen didn't say anything, and after changing into his crown clothes, he sat on the elephant chariot and rode it to the palace.

Along the way, there was an endless stream of horse-drawn carriages and donkey carts, and more than 2,000 officials in Beijing went to the palace.

When the Daming Gate opened, all the officials got off the carriage and walked to the Huangji Palace.

Only Zhu Youzhen not only has the privilege of the prince, but also has the privilege of riding an elephant chariot in the palace after the Battle of Sweeping the North.

He sat down at the foot of the steps of the Imperial Palace in one breath, and when the hundred officials were still walking on foot, he had already walked up the steps.

The two rows of Han generals at the gate of the Imperial Palace opened the door of the Imperial Palace, and a wave of heat hit it.

There are a lot of finely crafted copper stoves in the hall, and there are charcoal fires for heating in the furnaces, and in addition to them, there is also a nanmu chair in the lower left of the side of the high platform dragon chair.

This is the position of the prison state, and Zhu Youzhen was not polite, and after walking up to the high platform, he sat directly on the chair.

The eunuch in charge of the inner court on duty today is Wang An, and Wang An saw that there was no one in the hundred officials, so he asked Zhu Youzhen to serve some pastries and ginger tea, and gave him a fist-sized hand warmer.

Zhu Youzhen held the hand warmer in one hand, and pinched the pastry with the other and stuffed it into his mouth.

In the Ming Dynasty, people ate pastries, often with tea, a piece of lens-sized pastries, often need to eat more than a dozen bites, eat carefully, eat a bite of pastries to make up for a mouthful of tea.

However, Zhu Youzhen doesn't have so many mundane etiquette, if he wasn't afraid of being choked, he could stuff three osmanthus cakes in one bite.

It's been a while since he returned to Beijing, maybe he was busy running between Yanshan and the capital, but his weight was rising a little slowly, and he was still a little thin.

The perennial conquest made his skin look much darker than that of the pampered officials.

When the hundreds of officials arrived one by one, first more than 300 officials above the fifth rank stood on the gold bricks of the Huangji Palace, and then more than 1,900 officials stood on the open-air Huangji Hall Square.

When everyone arrived, Zhu Youzhen wiped his hands and mouth with good Su silk, and then motioned for Wang An to remove the tea and pastries.

His set of actions was smooth, treating the Imperial Palace as if it was no one, which invisibly brought a lot of pressure to the officials.

Ancient and modern, no emperor in the Ming Dynasty dared to eat pastries and drink tea in front of hundreds of officials during the Zhengdan Dynasty meeting.

No emperor did it now, but one prince did it first.

"Bell ......"

"Hey!"

Seeing that the eunuch removed the small table where tea and pastries were placed, Honglu Siqing immediately sang, and the two rows of Han generals at the gate of the Huangji Hall also took out the net whip and swung it into the air.

The sound of the whip exploding in the air made many people straighten their backs, and then they sang one after another:

"Long live the Emperor of the Apocalypse...... Hooray......"

The sound was transmitted from the imperial palace to the square, and more than 2,000 officials sang one after another, and Zhu Youzhen, as the supervisor of the country, also needed to get up at this time and salute the throne with hundreds of officials.

Naturally, he did the same, and did not give any special treatment at such a time.

It's just that when Baiguan knelt down, he had already sat back in his position, and Honglu Siqing didn't dare to say anything when he saw this, but just sang: "Get up ......"

"Emperor Xie......"

Baiguan got up slowly, and Wang An also took the opportunity to say: "Zhengdan Dynasty, please send a ...... to the prison."

When a sentence was spoken, the officials pricked up their ears and listened, wondering how Zhu Youzhen would show and say when he was in charge of the country for the first time in the Zhengdan Dynasty.

In the past, the emperor would say some words of lenient courtiers, but it was obviously impossible for such words to come out of Zhu Youzhen's mouth.

Paying attention to reality, he put the business on the court meeting for the first time and said it, leaning on the armrest of the wooden chair with one hand, supporting his chin weakly, and said very suddenly:

"For the winter snow, you can't be sloppy, the white disaster of the five years of the apocalypse is still vivid, and you can't take it lightly."

"The political envoys of the various departments in the north must pay attention to the livelihood of the people in the government, if there is a place that suffers a white disaster, the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Households must not be careless, they must come up with a plan and submit it to the cabinet urgently."

"For the people who may be damaged by this heavy snowfall, as well as those homeless homeless, we must treat them well, at least to ensure that they have a way to survive this heavy snowfall."

"Especially for the herdsmen on the grassland, if the livestock are short of forage, Taicang can directly allocate grass bundles without waiting for His Majesty or Gu's reply."

"Herdsmen and people whose cattle and horses and livestock have froze to death, don't be afraid of the government's punishment and hide it, you can go directly to the play, let the officials go to inspect, check the number, and the government will distribute livestock cubs to them again next year."

"People who don't have food to survive the winter can rent it from the local government without interest and pay it back next year."

Under the leadership of Gu Bingqian, the cabinet officials all bent down and saluted: "Your Highness's benevolence is the blessing of my Ming people and the blessing of the world. ”

Regardless of whether Zhu Youzhen's style is a show or not, at least it has given many people a way to live.

As the first assistant of the cabinet, Gu Bingqian had a bit of a heavy look on his face:

"In the past two years, the disasters in several northern provinces have continued, and although relief has been received, most of the population has moved to the three prefectures outside the Guanxi and Hetao, Liaodong and other places."

"The people of Fujian, Guangdong and other places have all moved to the old port, and the old port has received a lot of development and progress, and the society has become more and more peaceful."

"But in some places, there are still many people who are not under the shadow of the imperial court, and this is still on land, not to mention other provincial capitals, and there are still many things to be done by the imperial court."

Gu Bingqian knew very well what Zhu Youzhen wanted to hear, so no matter whether what he said was a joke or sincere, in general, Zhu Youzhen's mood improved a little, and he said in a low voice:

"After all, Liaodong, Guanwai, Hetao, and the old port have only been recovered for less than four years, and it is normal for people to have difficulties in people's livelihood, as long as you still have the people in your heart, it will naturally get better and better in the future."

"What His Highness said is a shame for us."

Gu Bingqian took the lead in flattering, and Zhu Youzhen said after saying this:

"For the matter of sweeping the captives, we need to look at the situation of the imperial court this year, but it is a real thing that the commander of the Annan Metropolitan Department has crossed the border many times to rob the people in Yunnan, Guangxi and other places."

"The matter of the Annam Metropolitan Division, I want to ask your opinion for Your Majesty......"

Zhu Youzhen glanced at the ministers, and after the ministers below listened, although there was no expression on their faces, the thoughts in their hearts had already been raised.

Obviously, this is Zhu Youzhen's examination of the ministers.

For the Ming Dynasty, as long as the battle of sweeping the captives is opened, then after the end, there will be no enemies in the north that can threaten the Ming Dynasty, and the rest is actually to clean up the domestic mess.

For example, knocking on the disobedient Uszang, setting up the political envoy and the provincial government in the northeast, and so on......

Or it was to further extend the power of the Ming army to the Western Regions and Central Asia.

Those are no longer the main things, just follow the rules.

In Zhu Youzhen's view, the real challenge in the future is actually the process of collision between the tributary system of the East and the colonial system of the West......

Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, and a number of other countries were expelled from South and Central Asia by the Ming Dynasty

However, in the future, the Ming Dynasty will conquer Tianzhu, or go deep into Central Asia and Leviia, and it will not be possible to encounter these countries.

Politics is not a fight to kill, war is the last kind of politics, and there is no way to do it.

Although the Ming had the strength to drive away all the Western colonists, the Ming needed Western merchants to buy trade.

If trade is prohibited on both sides, then the Ming Dynasty will lose 10 million taels of trade every year, and reduce the tariff of several million taels of silver.

Although there is no Ming merchandise, the nobles and common people in the West are not having a good time, but it is not a long-term solution after all.

What Zhu Youzhen wanted most was to use the economy to restrain the European countries, and while maintaining the strength and strength of the Ming Dynasty, he also used commodities and goods to penetrate into all aspects of their countries.

With a big stick in one hand and a radish in the other, whoever jumps up will be beaten, this is the situation that Zhu Youzhen wants.

In order to maintain this situation, it is needless to say how important the old port is, and in order to control the old port well, it is necessary to have a land route that can extend to the old port.

Recovering Annam, connecting the Ming with Gan Po Chi and Siam, then the Ming army could rely on the army to reach Malacca from the land all the way south.

Garrison Annam, at that time, Siam and Gan Xiaozhi will not disobey the orders of the Ming Dynasty and achieve complete vassal rule as long as they are not stupid.

For the obedient vassal states, there is no need for Zhu Youzhen to occupy them, and there is no need for them to engage in any bloody means.

The population is the market, and the army is the means to guarantee the market.

With the deterrence of the army, the goods of the Ming Dynasty can flow into various vassal countries in a steady stream, and the population of nearly 10 million vassal states has brought millions of taels of silver and nearly one million taels of tariffs to the Ming Dynasty.

"The lower officials think that this move of the Annan Metropolitan Commander is provoking the majesty of our Ming Dynasty, and when the troops are dispatched, they will be dealt a head-on blow, and by the way, Annan will be completely recovered."

In the face of the school examination, Gu Bingqian stood up without hesitation, and carried the black pot for Zhu Youzhen with righteous words.

"When you send troops to Annam, you can put down the rebels in the territory!"

"Troops! Naturally, send troops! ”

With Gu Bingqian taking the lead, everyone also knew what Zhu Youzhen wanted to hear, so they opened their mouths one after another, and Zhu Youzhen also said when he saw this:

"Since Gu Ge Lao said so, then the land taxes and taxes and silver from the six provinces of Liangguang, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and Huguang this year will all be transported to Lin'an Mansion in Yunnan, Nanguan in Zhennanguan in Guangxi, and Lianzhou Mansion in Guangdong Province after they are collected in October."

"Grant Hong Chengchou as the Jiaozhi Jingluo, govern the Western Army Governor's Mansion, the Southern Army Governor's Mansion, and the Navy Governor's Mansion, and set out on the expedition in the winter month (11) of this year, recover Annam as Jiaozhi, and set up a political envoy for Jiaozhi!"

"Your Royal Highness Chitose ......" Hearing Zhu Youzhen's order, the people led by Gu Bingqian clapped their ass.

No one asked why the troops were sent in the winter months, because as long as the officials who knew Annan knew the weather in Annan at this time.

The temperature in Annam in winter is more pleasant, such as the weather in September in the Central Plains, which is very suitable for sending troops.

It's just that to the surprise of the hundred officials, Zhu Youzhen asked Hong Chengchou to control nearly 400,000 soldiers and horses in the three provinces with a wave of his hand, and also allocated taxes to the six provinces.

Among the taxes paid by these six provinces, only the taxes of Sichuan and Huguang, after the two divisions collected taxes on salt tea, the tax silver on the books was as huge as 2 million taels, and the field tax was as high as more than 5 million stones.

Coupled with the other four provinces, the scale of tax silver can reach about four million taels, and the field endowment can reach more than nine million stones.

Although it can't be compared with the Battle of Sweeping the North, the important thing is Hong Chengchou.

Hong Chengchou is only thirty-three years old, and above the imperial court, most of them are officials of the fifth rank or the fourth grade.

Zhu Youzhen entrusted him with a heavy responsibility, and if he was defeated, he would also need to bear responsibility.

Although Hong Chengchou has had a lot of achievements, it is the first time that he has led so many soldiers and horses alone.

However, since it was made by Zhu Youzhen, naturally no one dared to refute it, and all the officials shouted Chitose, as if Zhu Youzhen had made such an amazing decision.

After the announcement, Zhu Youzhen also asked Bi Ziyan, the head of the household:

"Today's court meeting, the household department will first report the household registration, acres of land, commercial tax, tariff, and land endowment of the Ming Dynasty!"

"Obey the order......" Hearing Zhu Youzhen let the household be the first to speak, Bi Ziyan was not stage frightened, but read directly to the wat board:

"Last year, I had 16 provinces in the Ming Dynasty, 8,653,400 hectares, 21 acres and 8 cents, 19,924,367 households, and a population of 99,451,823 people."

It's just less than two months, and Da Ming suddenly found more than 200,000 people, obviously as Zhu Youzhen expected, the number of black households in Daming is still very large.

"Between the winter and the month of last year, a total of 250,037 people were born among the people, and 63,521 people died of illness or old age."

Suddenly, Bi Ziyan reported a data that officials had never heard of, and when the data was finished, Bi Ziyan paused for a moment.

When the courtiers heard this, they all whispered, and Zhu Youzhen did not stop this behavior, but gave them a cup of tea to discuss.

"Bell—"

After the Honglu Temple rang the bell in the corner of the main hall, the officials closed their mouths.

They closed their mouths, and Zhu Youzhen, who was sitting in a high position, was about to speak: "You may be curious why Gu asked Bi Shangshu to report this amount. ”

"Maybe you have all experienced it, when the baby was born in the family in these two months, the officials came to the door to count."

Zhu Youzhen glanced at the officials in the palace, and then spoke:

"From now on, such an inventory will be normalized, once the male and female babies are born in each prefecture, they must be registered, and those who violate the rules will be fined 300 yuan, and those who dare to abandon will be confined to the army, and if the neighbors do not report it, they will be exiled directly!"

Zhu Youzhen issued a very strict policy, especially the last one, which is equivalent to a joint sitting system.

As for why Zhu Youzhen did this, it is obviously to make the statistics of the Yellow Book more real.

Most of the time, the emperor underestimated how powerful his dynasty really was, and this was the problem of acres and population.

Why did the Song Dynasty and the Sui Dynasty dare to exploit the people so much? It's not just that the population inventory is done well, and you know what the capacity of each person is.

Of course, this is only one aspect, and more importantly there is another ......

"Don't you know about the folk trend of drowning baby girls?"

"The people are poor, and the court understands, so when the land is three acres per person, it has never been abandoned because of men and women."

"At present, there are still people in the fields who dare to drown baby girls, not because of poverty, but because of provocation to the imperial court."

"If the trend is not controlled, in the long run, will my Ming become a world without women?!"

Zhu Youzhen suddenly shouted, causing echoes in the square outside the Huangji Hall and the Huangji Palace, and the officials also knew what Zhu Youzhen wanted to say.

In ancient times, the situation of "preference for sons over daughters" was very common, and in the ancient divination, it was believed that giving birth to a boy was a good thing, and giving birth to a daughter was not a good one, and then there was a saying that a son inherited the incense.

Therefore, in order to "keep behind", many families must give birth to a son, no matter how many girls are born in the front.

Zhu Youzhen saw that the folk indulged in baby girls, and he was naturally extremely annoyed.

You must know that the territory of the Ming Dynasty is so vast, there is an old port of millions of square kilometers, but only two million Han people, and the northeast and northwest regions that have not yet been recaptured.

It is difficult for these areas to stabilize without a certain number of Han Chinese.

After all, without women, men in the Ming Dynasty can't beat singles, right?

It's okay to talk about these places like Annam and Donghu, but what about other places? Is it difficult to intermarry with local dwarf blacks, such as the Old Port?

Although the Ming Dynasty did not carefully divide the data of men and women, it is certain that there are more men than women, and for Zhu Youzhen, population is an important resource for maintaining the stability of the Ming Dynasty's current territory.

It is precisely because of this that he issued such a strict policy, and the hundreds of officials in the court are also looking at their noses and noses.

They all knew that if the people really wanted to drown the baby girl, the local government would not be able to find out much, so they only hoped that Zhu Youzhen would forget about it later.

But they thought too easily, Zhu Youzhen is not the emperor, he is the king of Qi, he has to pay attention to one thing, and he will have more energy than the emperor.

"From now on, the number of officials in the Criminal Department will be expanded by another 150,000, and if anyone is found to have concealed the report of the child, the reward will be 50!"

"The Dali Temple of the Yamen of the prefecture and county is responsible for the trial and verification."

Zhu Youzhen made tempting conditions, and although he knew that there would be many false accusations in this way, he still gave the order.

He knows very well that the people drown baby girls not because they don't like them, but because the family is poor, and the productivity of women is not as good as that of men, so they can't support this mouth.

Therefore, strict inquiries are only one point, and increasing people's income is the most important thing.

Therefore, after announcing this policy, he looked at Bi Ziyan and said:

"Starting this year, Liaodong, Jiugang and other places began to resume taxation, and those who have babies can receive six stones of barren grain from the government, and replace them with male and female babies, or move orders."

"The people in Hetao, Jiugang and other places, regardless of men and women, have ten acres of land."

"Obey the order......" Bi Ziyan responded, and Zhu Youzhen also signaled him to continue.

Seeing this, Bi Ziyan also replied to Zhu Youzhen:

"Last year, the customs duties of the city were 4,354,000 taels, the land tariffs were more than 213,000 taels, and the city tax was more than 134,000 taels."

"The two capitals and sixteen provinces handed over miscellaneous items totaling 2,375,300 taels, and the old port mining tax was 751,000 taels"

"Tian Fu half wheat 2,382 stones, six buckets and nine liters, Tian Fu millet 2,7493,563 stone one bucket and one liter, folded color 1,64,300 taels."

"The two divisions of salt and tea paid a total of six million one hundred and seventy-three thousand six hundred and four hundred and forty-eight cents and two cents of silver"

Bi Ziyan's words made hundreds of officials look sideways, just because judging from the books of the household department, it seems that Daming's cash income has exceeded two-thirds of Tian Fu.

Obviously, the Ming Dynasty was changing from a dynasty of pure agricultural income to a dynasty of parallel commerce and agriculture.

"Starting this year, all customs duties and entry taxes on land will be abolished, but if there is a levy, the whole family will be exiled to the old port of Dongshan Mansion."

As soon as Zhu Youzhen opened his mouth, he wanted to cancel all the customs duties and entry taxes on the land, and the total tax items of the two were more than 340,000 taels, which was also a large amount of income.

If you say that it will be abolished, it will be abolished, which will inevitably make the officials want to stop talking.

They are afraid of Zhu Youzhen, but they want to persuade them, and those who dare to speak are undoubtedly some people who are more familiar with Zhu Youzhen.

"Your Highness, is it a bit hasty to abolish customs duties and entry taxes?"

It was Zuo Guangdou who spoke, he was not a beneficiary, but he felt that after the abolition of the tax system, it would be difficult to increase it.

At that time, the imperial court did not have enough money, and there were problems and difficulties in collecting it.

However, in this regard, Zhu Youzhen has his own plans.

He abolished customs duties and entry taxes, not for fun, but to reduce the burden on the peasants.

The tax items of these two seem to be only 300,000 taels, but in fact, the amount collected may be two, three, or even several times that of this.

It's just that the silver didn't go into the treasury, but into the hands of some officials and soldiers who set up cards to block the road.

Zhu Youzhen thought that instead of reducing the land endowment, it was better to directly cancel some miscellaneous items to reduce the burden on the people.

The Ming Dynasty's positive tax, that is, the field tax, is only thirty and one, and the tax rate is very low, so that the people have a real burden of more than a dozen various tax items on miscellaneous.

The abolition of these taxes can not only eliminate a number of officials and soldiers, but also benefit the people and reduce the burden.

If all miscellaneous items are abolished and the trade and taxes are simply paid by the royal shop, then the process of collecting taxes will be much simpler.

What Zhu Youzhen wants is a Ming dynasty with low land endowment, high commercial taxes, and high tariffs.

It was the peasants at the bottom who were to benefit from the exploitation of the common people and to the domestic and foreign merchants.

Instead of collecting the miscellaneous items of two or three million taels of silver, it is better to directly abolish them, increase the scale of trade between the East and the West, and incidentally increase the tariff of Malacca by 10%.

Anyway, at present, Europe often has a tax rate of 30% or 40%, and the tariffs of the Ming Dynasty are still too low.

Suffer from outsiders again, and infatuate him Zhu Youzhen to bear it......