"Bang-"

"Hit!"

"Inspector makes good marksmanship!"

At the beginning of the month, when the Ming Dynasty was in turmoil because of the new policy and war, the Qi country on the other side of the ocean was unusually calm.

"I haven't played a rifle for many years, and I heard that a rifle is better than a rifle, so I don't know if His Highness will send a rifle to us."

Outside the Xijing City (Sacramento) of the Jingzhao Mansion of the Qi Kingdom, when Jin Xuan returned the step gun in his hand to the soldier next to him, he also turned to look at the Xijing City that was being built.

As far as the eye can see, the so-called Xijing City is currently just a wooden camp, covering an area of only three or four acres.

Around the camp, vast areas of forest have been cut down, and soldiers are using tractor cables to pull roots from trees buried in the soil to clear the land.

After arriving in Qi on October 28, Jin Xuan did not go to Anling County (Seattle), where Yang Bingwen and the others first landed, but went directly to Xijing City according to Zhu Youzhen's instructions.

Xijing is a good place, with the Coast Mountains to the west and the Inland Mountains to the east, and it is located in the central valley between the two mountain ranges.

This valley is more than 120 miles wide from east to west and more than 1,200 miles long from north to south, and there is a wide river in front of Xijing City, which can directly lead to the southwest bay area.

If this area is properly developed, it can feed 10 million people.

Therefore, Kim Hyun mainly set the development of Gyeongsofu as a short-term goal, while Anneungfu in the north was used as an auxiliary.

Qi is currently divided into ten provinces, but Kim Hyun is not going to directly enclose the land, but to develop two mansions that can be used directly.

Jingzhao Mansion and Anling Mansion are its short-term development goals.

He set up a total of five county-level units for the two prefectures, namely Xijing City and Jingmen Port (San Francisco) in Jingzhao Province in the south, and Anling County (Vancouver), Changning County (Seattle), and Qiqiu County (Portland) in the north.

These five agglomerations are short-term county-level units, and Kim Hyun's goal is to develop these five counties within five years, and develop gold mines in the Chengshan Mountains (Nedahua Mountains) to generate income for the Qi country.

In the first five-year plan, what he needed to do was to bring the population of five counties to 100,000.

To feed 100,000 people, at least 500,000 acres of arable land are needed, and the number of tractors in his hands is currently 3,000, and there are more than 20 industrial steam engines.

The 20 or so industrial steam engines are currently building factories in several places in Gyeongzhao Province and Anling Province, mainly cement yards, fertilizer factories, steel factories, and brick factories.

According to the Dr. of the Hanlin Academy of the Armaments Institute, it will take about three months for these four factories to be built and put into operation, but the output will not be very high, and it will take the follow-up transportation of machinery from Daming to slowly expand the production capacity.

Kim Hyun doesn't know much about this, and his main task is to develop forest land as a field.

At present, there are three battalions in Qi State, more than 9,000 soldiers and horses, plus more than 1,000 craftsmen and 10,000 Yingzhou labor workers.

The craftsmen taught the laborers and soldiers how to use the tractor, and then they were involved in the construction of the factory.

Although only a month has passed, Kim Hyun has successfully used more than 19,000 people and 3,000 tractors to level more than 4,000 acres of woodland and wasteland in five counties.

They spent another year cutting down trees, building towns, digging up stumps and roots, burning them, stacking them aside, and removing stones from the land.

When this is done, the ashes can be poured on the land, and the ashes can be burned to fatten the land until a year later, when a fire burns the weeds on the land, and the land can be cultivated.

According to Jin Xuan's estimates, in a year's time, Qi State will be able to reclaim at least 50,000 mu of arable land and feed at least 10,000 people.

"You can ask His Highness for some cattle, sheep and horses to graze here, which is estimated to relieve a lot of pressure."

Feeling the climate of Xijing, where the temperature is still above zero even though it is the wax moon, Jin Xuan spoke to the Tongzhi of the Supervision Department next to him, and the other party also wrote down everything he said.

"Do the Furrons in the south know of our presence?"

Jin Xuan asked a brocade guard in a scarlet robe, and the other party shook his head: "Their intelligence is not so sensitive, there are still six or seven thousand miles from here to their city, and the overseer does not have to worry." ”

"It's not that I'm worried, if I open a big battle, I'm not afraid, I'm just curious." Kim Hyun smiled, and then began to continue his tour of Xijing City.

In fact, he didn't have any matters and government affairs to deal with, because the current Qi State only had two tasks, that is, craftsmen built factories and labor prisoners reclaimed forest land.

Due to the dry climate, there is no miasma on the west coast, and the only thing Kim Hyun needs to care about is the mental health of the Gongwei soldiers.

The soldiers of the Gongwei battalion of the Qi State are actually the soldiers and horses of the Ming Dynasty, and their families are also in the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, it was impossible for them to stay in Qi for a long time, so Zhu Youzhen's proposition was that each batch of soldiers and horses should be stationed in Qi for one year, and after one year, they would be transferred back to their hometowns for one year, and then transferred back to their original station.

However, even so, Kim Hyun still has to pay attention to the mental state of the soldiers.

Walking on the wasteland around Xijing City, in the distance are thousands of soldiers using tractors to pull tree roots and clear the land.

The plain and monotonous life is very valuable to an official like him.

Far away from Daming, he is also far away from intrigue.

"It's not bad if it goes on like this......"

With a sigh, he said his thoughts, but compared to his leisure, there was an undercurrent of Da Ming at this moment.

The new policy of ten endowments was completely fermented, and it was transmitted to the world through the official newspaper.

The people couldn't believe it, the gentry had ugly faces, the officials were in a dilemma, and only Zhu Youzhen, who was sitting in the carrying hall, was calm.

"From the first day of the ninth month to the first day of the lunar month, 35 villages arose in the three provinces outside the Guanwai, and 27,000 people and 5,037 households moved in."

"The household department is sparse, and officials from the three provinces have distributed more than 70,000 taels of money and grain."

"The Ministry of Industry is sparse, and the three provinces outside the border are expected to build 30 market towns and 300 villages, which can accommodate 300,000 people."

"The ...... on the royal store"

In the carrying hall on the ninth day of the lunar month, when Cao Huachun read out the recitals of the six parts and six subjects, Zhu Youzhen leaned back on the chair with his eyes closed, without any expression on his face, which was unpredictable.

"The cabinet is sparse, and the balance of the country and dynasty this year is 326,400 taels."

Originally, the Ming Dynasty could have a balance of 12 million taels, after the Northern Expedition, it could only have a balance of 320,000 taels, if it were not for the financial department to mobilize gold and silver to support the household department, I am afraid that this year the Ming Dynasty would have to accumulate more than 16 million taels of silver.

"This year, a total of 125,607 taels of gold, more than 3,352,600 taels of silver, and 335,000 tons of copper ingots have been escorted from Jiugang and Yingzhou."

"The gold, silver and copper ingots have all been escorted to the Financial Division, and Li Changgeng, the waiter of the Financial Division, is sparse, and before June 16, the mint will have accumulated 49.2 billion pieces of Apocalypse Tongbao, with a denomination of more than 82.37 million taels."

After Cao Huachun finished speaking, he also closed the book, everything on behalf of the imperial court had been said, and hearing his words, Zhu Youzhen had greater confidence in the opening of the bank.

"Since March, the copper coins in the imperial store have been intercepted and transported to the Financial Department, and the Financial Department has been told that each version of the copper coins of the past dynasties, all the great unified dynasties, have accumulated 100 million pieces as a collection, and the rest of the separatist forces only keep 10 million pieces, and the rest are smelted into the Apocalypse Tongbao."

"Slave and maid receive ......"

Zhu Youzhen wanted to start smelting the copper coins circulating in the market into the Apocalypse Tongbao, and the previous copper coins naturally could not be circulated as currency.

Since the Spring and Autumn Period, hundreds of copper coins have been produced on the land of the Central Plains, and each edition is different.

It is impossible for Zhu Youzhen to smelt them all, so it is still feasible to keep 100 million pieces per edition as a national collection.

There is no need to keep too much for some small coins, 10 million is enough.

In this way, these currencies used as collections will evaporate millions of taels of currency in the Ming market.

However, in this situation of continuous inflow of overseas minerals, Zhu Youzhen is not afraid that it will cause a "money shortage".

On the contrary, he is personally worried about the inflation problem caused by too much monetary release.

In order to alleviate this problem, he deliberately ordered the Ministry of Industry to raise the wages of the employees of the imperial court.

Fortunately, because of the cost problem, the wages of the court workers were basically much lower than those in the local government, so even if the wages increased by two or three yuan, they were actually not much higher than the wages given by the local merchants, and they were basically the same.

In this way, the people benefited, the merchants were not affected, and the court could also use this to increase the savings of the people.

When the people have income, they will naturally consume, and Huangdian, as a huge institution that occupies one-half of the market in the Ming Dynasty, basically half of the money spent by the people will be recycled by the imperial court, and the Ministry of Industry will once again release the coins in the form of cash-for-work.

As long as the millions of workers under the command of the imperial court are accustomed to this model, then when the wages are changed from other copper coins to the Apocalypse Tongbao, their personal receptivity will be much stronger, and they will not be so resistant.

As long as the workers do not resist, the private merchants can only take the money.

At that time, the imperial court relied on official education and used the problem of children's reading to start census and register the population, and the real population of the Ming Dynasty will also surface.

As long as the population is clear, then the next step is to check the cultivated land.

If these two things are done well, Daming's finances can slowly return to the right track, but during this period, Zhu Youzhen still has to be prepared to live a hard life for several years.

Once the new policy of "ten to one" on the first day of the first lunar month is issued, the Ming Dynasty will directly lose a large amount of taxes.

The miscellaneous items of more than three million taels will definitely disappear, and the military tuntian distributed by the imperial court will also change from ten to three, ten to two, to ten to one.

The original 120 million yuan of land endowment will be cut in half to 52 million stone in an instant, and after removing rice husks and fire consumption, the income of field endowment will probably be about 36 million stone.

After Hong Chengchou finished the war and the taxes of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan continued to return to the household department,

In addition to the more than 80 million mu of cultivated land in Shanxi and Shaanxi, there can still be 840 million mu of cultivated land in the Ming Dynasty, and the annual income will be 84 million stones.

From an annual income of more than 98 million to an annual income of more than 58 million, the Ming Dynasty disappeared 40 million stone field fu, and the color was at least 18 million taels of silver.

In this way, the tax of 18 million taels of silver was missing, and it was false to say that Zhu Youzhen was not distressed, but he knew very well who took the missing 18 million taels of silver.

Take it from the people, use it for the people......

That's true, but it's not entirely true.

At least at present, when the Ming Dynasty is about to transform into a semi-agricultural and semi-industrial road, reducing land endowment is necessary for ordinary farmers.

Zhu Youzhen couldn't eliminate the agricultural tax, because Daming's science and technology had not yet reached that level.

But at the very least, he can control the agricultural tax at 10 percent.

However, according to his experience and memory, after the general agricultural tax is set at 10%, there will always be some insects below who will make a dark tax, and the actual collection of 10% of the agricultural tax will be turned into a nominal collection of 10%, and the actual collection of 20% or 30% of the hidden tax revenue.

All this extra income went into the pockets of the localities, and not a single cent went into the state treasury.

Since the lessons of history are all there, he has to guard against these insects.

"According to the calculation of the household department, if it is according to the ten endowments, how much will the dynasty be able to earn next year?"

Zhu Youzhen opened his mouth in a pretended sleep, and when Cao Huachun heard it, he took the initiative to look at Wang Chengen, and Wang Chengen also opened the book summarized by the household department, glanced at it and read:

"If the drought in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces is not abated for a long time, and the taxes on the new cultivated land in Yingzhou and Luchuan are added, then the actual tax in the Ming Dynasty will be about 60 million stones, about 42 million taels of silver, and about 70 million taels of taxes."

70 million taels of tax, such an annual income, the Qing Dynasty did not reach until the Tongzhi period, but the Ming Dynasty reached it more than 200 years in advance.

And unlike the Qing Dynasty's exploitation of the people, the Ming Dynasty deliberately lowered taxes.

If the collection method of the Qing Dynasty is followed, the tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty can exceed 100 million taels.

At present, the taxes of the Ming Dynasty, especially the taxes of the original two capitals and thirteen provinces in China, actually account for less than half of the total taxes, about 30 million taels, while overseas accounts for more than two-thirds, about 40 million taels.

The field endowment alone, the three provinces of Yingzhou, Jiaozhi and Jiugang reached 20 million stones, which was more than 9 million taels, and the gold and silver mining tax accounted for more than 4 million taels.

There are more than 20 million local people in the three provinces, and they also contribute about 4 million taels of salt tax, wine tax, and tea tax, and the city shipping department stationed in the old port earns more than 3 million taels a year, which is 20 million taels together.

The remaining 20 million taels were contributed by the imperial stores of Ryukyu, Liaodong, Hexi, and India.

With the same population, the Qing Dynasty relied on internal pressure to reach a tax of 50 million taels, while the Ming Dynasty only received 33 million taels, and the total population of the Ming Dynasty was similar to that of the Qing Dynasty in the sixth to tenth years of Qianlong.

In the sixth year of Qianlong, the population of the two capitals and eighteen provinces alone reached 140 million, while the Ming Dynasty had only 120 million people.

During the Qianlong period, each of them had to pay at least three cents and five cents of silver in direct taxes, while at present, the people in the Apocalypse period only needed to pay two cents and five cents of silver.

And that's just direct income, not indirect income.

The Qing Dynasty relied on the "thirty-three taels" to control the people's hands, and in comparison, according to the situation in the eleventh year of the Apocalypse, the annual income of a household of five people in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty was about eighteen taels to thirty-two taels, and the main source of income was the yield and quantity per mu of the military tuntian, and the income from part-time work.

But in terms of expenditure, most of the expenses of a family of five people in the eleventh year of the Apocalypse were about sixteen taels, that is, at least two taels of silver could be saved.

Of course, if you want to add meat or other substances, it is basically difficult to save too much silver.

However, if the new policy is successfully implemented, the income of a family of five people will reach 22 to 36 taels, and they can save at least 6 taels of silver.

Once the new policy was promulgated, Zhu Youzhen did not dare to say that the people could eat meat for a meal, but there was no problem in eating meat once a day.

Moreover, with the development of cultivated land in Northeast China and the continuous migration of people, this situation will continue to improve.

According to the data at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the current data, roughly in the 20th year of the Apocalypse, when the price rise does not exceed 20%, the personal income of the people of the Ming Dynasty will reach 6 taels of silver, and the annual income of a household can basically reach 30 taels.

However, this requires Zhu Youjian to increase his efforts in supervision to avoid the recurrence of the former "omission and imposition".

All in all, in the next ten years, the route of Daming has been decided, and what Zhu Youzhen has to do is to keep an eye on the road under his feet while Daming is advancing, so as to avoid stepping on some puddles and getting dirty......

"What about Li Dingguo?"

After thinking clearly about what he wanted to do, Zhu Youzhen slowly opened his eyes, he glanced at the clock, and found that it was already six quarters (18:30), and then he realized that Li Dingguo was home an hour later than usual.

"Your Highness, that kid is going to rest in his classmates today, what does it seem to be called......" Wang Chengen thought about it carefully, and then thought:

"Zhou Boqian! took Brother Li to dinner. ”

When Wang Chengen said the name, in the small courtyard of Changle Fang in Dongcheng, a woman also shouted loudly into the ear room.

"It's coming!"

In the ear room, a twelve or thirteen-year-old boy answered the window, and then looked at Li Dingguo in front of him: "My mother is like this, her voice is loud, don't think she is angry." ”

"No, my mother also has a loud voice." Li Dingguo sorted out the homework on the table, returned to the bookcase, and walked out of the ear room with Zhou Boqian.

In front of Li Dingguo's eyes, what caught his eye was a small courtyard covering an area of more than 60 square meters.

The courtyard is very small, with only a main house and an annex room, as well as a kitchen.

The main house covers an area of only about 20 square meters, the middle is only a dozen square meters of the hall, the left and right sides are two wings, one is Zhou Boqian's mother is living, and the other is Zhou Boqian's sister is living.

As for the ear room, this is for Zhou Boqian, who is still studying, but it is only ten square meters.

The three houses are very compact and surrounded by a courtyard wall, leaving a courtyard of seven or eight square meters in the middle.

A shadow wall obscured the doorway, and now a table was placed in the patio clearing, with four stools placed.

Zhou Boqian's mother was an ordinary woman of thirty-six or seventeen years old, not tall, wearing a blue gown, and her hair was held in place by a wooden hairpin.

Judging from her size, and the marks left on her face by the years, it is not difficult to see that she may have once been a rural woman.

As for Zhou Boqian's sister, she is a girl named Zhou Xiniang, with a slightly delicate appearance and a girl's double screw, as well as hands without frostbite, it can be said that the Zhou family raised her quite well.

"Brother Li eat more, these are our village dishes in Shandong, I don't know if you can get used to it."

As Zhou Boqian and Li Dingguo sat down, Zhou Wang greeted Li Dingguo with a smile, and her eyes flashed with kindness and kindness when she smiled, which made Li Dingguo unconsciously think of his mother.

It's just that it quickly came to its senses and set its sights on the food on the table.

A simple plate of fried shredded potatoes, and a plate of steamed carp, these two dishes plus a plate of river shrimp, and a plate of scrambled eggs with tomatoes on the dinner table of the people of the Ming Dynasty.

With these four dishes and a bowl of stewed chicken, this is already a meal for entertaining guests.

This table of meals costs more than thirty yuan, so Li Dingguo couldn't help but laugh after reading it: "There are so many good dishes, and I have the habit of eating naturally." ”

"Mother, Li Dingguo is also from the village, and what we eat is about the same."

Zhou Boqian muttered while picking up the rice, and his restless appearance made Zhou Wangshi glare at him: "You can't stop your mouth with so much food?" ”

"Hehe......" Zhou Xiniang couldn't help but smile when she saw her younger brother being trained.

Unlike the Qing Dynasty, women in the Ming Dynasty were allowed to eat at the table.

Many people in the Qing Dynasty thought that the Confucian rule that women could not serve at the table, so they took the opportunity to follow suit, but they misunderstood it due to insufficient literacy.

On the contrary, in the Ming Dynasty, when official learning was prevalent, most of the people could understand the meaning of Confucianism that "men and women do not eat together for seven years".

The meaning of this sentence is not that men and women cannot eat together, but that the inner house needs to set up a table for the female dependents.

In the Ming Dynasty, the rich family or the official women's inner house was a part of the human relationship, but also a necessary communication, the "table" of the female dependents was also full of various etiquette requirements, to be worthy of the identity of the head and guest, the degree of luxury is by no means lower than the "table" of the men in the outer hall.

Moreover, this rule is also aimed at scholars and the Yin Shi family, ordinary people like the Zhou family, unless there are many guests, otherwise they generally eat at the same table with men.

As for the Qing Dynasty's "women don't go to the table", in fact, it was purely caused by the misunderstanding of the common people, plus "poverty and exquisiteness".

But even in the Ming Dynasty, after the woman got married, she had to look at who was at the table to decide whether she could sit and eat with other men.

If it is an elder and a junior, it is okay, if it is an equal, and it is still the opposite sex that the female relatives are not familiar with, then a separate table needs to be opened at home for the female relatives to eat.

It's just that the Zhou family doesn't seem to have this concern, because they don't know many people in the capital.

"Boqian, you said that Uncle Zhou is in Shandong, and your family is also from Shandong, so why did you move to the capital?"

Li Dingguo suddenly asked Zhou Boqian at the dinner table, because he knew that Zhou Boqian's family was from Qingzhou, Shandong, and Zhou Boqian's father also served as the chief flag officer in the Qingzhou camp in Shandong, so why did they come to the capital?

"Naturally, I came here for this kid's studies, three years ago, there was only an official school in the capital, so naturally I could only send him here."

Zhou Wang explained, and by the way, he also gave Li Dingguo a chopstick meat, and said:

"Besides, the prices in the capital are quite cheap, and it is cheap to buy books and paper, and you can let Boqian teach Xi Niang to read in your spare time."

"Can't you go to a girls' school?" Li Dingguo remembers that there are female students in some places.

"It's too expensive, you have to teach ten taels of silver a year, where can ordinary people afford to read?" Zhou Wang explained with a smile and said:

"This kid is only two or three taels of silver for a year of official study, and it is only twelve or three taels after five years of reading, and this courtyard is only more than twenty taels, and it can be sold after reading, and in five years, the three of us will use a maximum of thirty taels."

"If their sisters and brothers are all studying, they will get more than 20 taels a year, and if they are a bride and sister, they will get 50 or 60 taels in five years."

"Now many people are like this, sending the men in the family to study in cheap official schools, and then letting the men go home to teach their sisters to read, can save a lot of money."

Zhou Wang's family is happy for his economic acumen, Zhou Xiniang doesn't feel that there is anything wrong with this, Li Dingguo also thinks it makes sense, only Zhou Boqian, at this moment he is trying to stretch out his chopsticks with a bitter face, but every piece of meat he likes was given to Li Dingguo by his own mother......

(End of chapter)