The atmosphere of today's imperial meeting was quite relaxed.

It had been very tense before, and the armies of the two countries were fighting in Hebei and Shanxi, and no one knew how the war would be won or lost.

After all, the Jin soldiers beat the Liao soldiers and fled, but it was these Liao soldiers who were stunned that they overturned the Northern Expedition Song soldiers with fewer victories and more victories.

That combat power was too terrifying, and it had already knocked Zhao Song Hanchen out of the psychological shadow.

Even Zhu Guoxiang knew that Jin Bing was very good in history, and he was afraid that his son would capsize if he was not careful.

At today's meeting, Zhu Guoxiang even joked with the important ministers of the cabinet, and Li Bangyan took the opportunity to tell a joke about the Jin people on the side, making Zhang Gen, who has never been smiling, laugh.

After talking nonsense, the cabinet ministers spoke one after another.

It wasn't until Qian Chen, the head of the household, spoke, that the cheerful atmosphere was finally solemn: "Last year, we first fought with the Western Xia, and a lot of grain and grass were consumed. Subsequently, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Liangguang, Fujian, and Jiangxi were recovered, and although a lot of money, grain, and grass were confiscated, the reorganization of the old army and the dismissal of non-commissioned soldiers also consumed a lot. ”

"This year, I first fought against Zhong Xiang, and Hunan, Guangxi, and Jiangxi were all seriously affected. In particular, Hunan's population has plummeted and people's livelihood has withered, so not only can it not collect taxes, but it also has to transfer money and grain from Sichuan to help. This was followed by the war in Hebei and Shanxi, and a total of 170,000 soldiers and civilians were mobilized. People eat horses and chew them, and they ask for money and food everywhere. ”

"The imperial court set up ordnance factories in various provinces, creating tens of thousands of pairs of armor, and countless swords, guns, swords, and halberds. There were also warships, muskets, and artillery, all of which cost a lot of money. ”

"If you win this war, you will also reward the soldiers and compensate for the casualties."

"If it weren't for the additional issuance of tea money and salt, and the tariff of the Southeast City, the household department would have run out of money to supply the army."

"If there is a war next year, you will have to pay more taxes. Or follow the example of the army in Sichuan, and issue war bonds to the wealthy. ”

"It is important to know that more than half of the bonds issued in Sichuan have not been repaid. The household department has always owed money, and has been eating food in Yin. The tea banknotes and salt that have been issued for two years will be issued again next year, and I am afraid that the tea merchants and salt merchants will complain. ”

"In order to fight the war, the water conservancy on the north bank of the Jingjiang River has been stopped!"

The ministers of the cabinet looked at each other, they knew that the central government was in a difficult situation, after all, they had been fighting wars and not raising taxes, but they didn't expect to be so embarrassed.

Meng Zhao asked, "How much money does the household department have?" ”

Qian Chen said: "There are still more than 60,000 silver dollars, 930,000 copper coins, and a number of grain, cloth, wood and other things. These goods, after giving money to officials and rewarding them during the New Year, are not even enough to give rewards and pensions to soldiers. ”

How much the war bond owes, Qian Chen did not say.

That thing was issued twice, mostly grain bonds, and it is estimated that it is more than one million yuan with interest.

That is to say, the Ming finance was negative at this time.

This is normal for an emerging regime, the historical Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, and the Northern Expedition was no longer able to pay officials. So he frantically gave land to officials and let them farm their own land to collect grain to pay their wages.

Zhu Di was even more awesome, he conquered Mongolia several times, and was financially embarrassed, so he directly distributed pepper to officials and asked officials to sell pepper themselves to make money.

These peppers were brought back by Zheng He from the West, and they were especially valuable at first, but later they also overflowed. As a result, the officials received pepper, and even if they sold it all, it would not be enough for their own wages. This is also one of the reasons why the Manchu Dynasty opposed continuing to go to the West!

What's more, the Ming Dynasty under the rule of Zhu Guoxiang not only did not levy additional taxes to fight, but also lightly imposed light taxes on the newly recovered provinces.

Zhu Guoxiang thought carefully and said: "Whether to continue the war next year or not, this will be discussed with the prince before making a decision." ”

Zhang Gen nodded and said: "The Jin Kingdom has been defeated this year, and it will be more difficult than us next year, so we should recover the homeland of Shanxi in one go." As for the sixteen states of Youyun, Liaojin was almost a white land during the war, and even if the Jin country migrated last year, it is impossible to restore people's livelihood in the short term. Whether or not to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun as soon as possible depends on the specific facts. If it is too difficult to fight, there is no need to recover it for the time being, because it costs money and food to recover it, and it has to be put into the treasury. ”

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Let's get the money for the reward and pension first." ”

"If it's urgent, the coastal city can still get a lot of money." Chen Dong said suddenly.

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "How did you find out?" ”

Chen Dong said: "There is no one in the city, the city, and the city, from the officials to the officials, who are not corrupt. It has been investigated for three months, and several huge embezzlements have been found. But no matter how greedy they are, the officials appointed by the Ming Dynasty have only been in office for less than a year, and more of them are investigated and punished by those old officials of the city and the yamen. If you want to steal more money from your home, check the officials of the city department of the old Song Dynasty! ”

Zhu Guoxiang shook his head: "Forget about the old Song Dynasty officials, don't make people panic." They have already left the city, and they were corrupt in the previous dynasty, what is the matter with the new dynasty tracking down the corruption of the previous dynasty? ”

Chen Dong immediately shut up.

Zhu Guoxiang asked again: "What about the money casting field?" ”

Qian Chen said: "You can let them step up the minting of 200,000 copper coins, and they will not be able to bear it any more, unless they mint a large amount of money." As for the silver dollar, there are many silver pits in the newly recovered Hunan and Fujian, and tens of thousands of silver dollars can be added. ”

The ability of the merchants and gentry to hide money is really awesome, and the Ming court minted more than 3 million taels of silver dollars a year, which has almost exhausted the treasury silver reserves, but the silver dollars circulating in the market are becoming scarce day by day.

There were even merchants from Huainan and Zhejiang, who transported goods to the Central Plains for sale, and would rather bear more transportation costs than transport silver dollars back to their hometowns and hide them in cellars.

Or the new Ming Dynasty is too merciful, in the Northern Song Dynasty, gold, silver and copper coins are transported in different places, and they also have to be taxed proportionally along the way - in order to enhance the circulation of coins, the Ming Dynasty canceled the cross-border tax on gold, silver and copper coins.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Let's issue additional bonds." In Yangzhou, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Jiangzhou (Jiujiang), Luoyang, and Chengdu, there is a bond issuing office, and the alum monopoly must subscribe for the bonds, and the rest of the merchants are all on their own volition. ”

Alum was a monopoly commodity in ancient times, and it was necessary to obtain a franchise license issued by the government.

This thing is so versatile that it can be used to make cosmetics, paper, tanning, dyeing, etc., and even it is a traditional Chinese medicine in itself.

Forcing alum monopolies to subscribe to state bonds will certainly make a lot of money.

Qian Chen reminded: "When issuing bonds in Sichuan, His Majesty personally watched it, and there was still corruption and fraud. Now that there are six bond issuance offices set up across the country, I am afraid that the Inspectorate will have to conduct regular and thorough inspections! ”

Chen Dong said: "The Inspectorate will closely monitor it. ”

Qian Chen saw that the ministers had serious faces, and smiled and said with relief: "You don't have to worry, as long as you don't fight a big war for a year, the treasury revenue and expenditure can be balanced." If there is no major war for three years, the new provinces have passed the tax reduction period, and the people have resumed production one after another, then the state treasury will become full. After all, the redundant soldiers, redundant officials, and redundant expenses of the previous dynasty no longer exist in the new dynasty. ”

Meng Zhao suddenly said: "According to the report of Honglu Temple, the envoy of Dali has already passed Jiangling, and he should be able to enter Beijing on New Year's Day." ”

"I'm here to ask for canonization again, just send it away." Zhang Gen said.

Zhai Ruwen also said: "Dali is like a jackal, eyeing the border of our Ming Dynasty, and its king cannot be canonized." ”

Dali is very interesting, and the kings and ministers of the past generations have asked for canonization again and again. And the emperor ministers of the two Song Dynasty, except for the sons of Song Huizong, were all unwilling to canonize Dali at other times.

The Northern Song Dynasty alone refused to canonize Dali eleven times, each time just accepting the tribute of Dali, and then giving back gifts to find an excuse to send away.

The two Song monarchs still remember that since the Nanzhao Kingdom, Dali has always wanted to encroach on the land for expansion.

It is also Song Huizong who likes all countries to come to the court, and he is the only canonized Duan Yu for the first time.

And the Dali monarchs and ministers are keen to ask for canonization, which is nothing more than the instability of the regime. They needed the canonization of the Central Plains Dynasty to strengthen their legal system and prevent other castes from conspiring to rebel.

Last year, the small court in the southeast was destroyed, and Dali got the news and immediately sent people to Lizhou to ask for canonization.

After the Ming court refused, this year it sent envoys with a large number of gifts to pay tribute.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "You don't have to blindly refuse, it should be that Dali is afraid of Daming, not that Daming is afraid of Dali." You can discuss with the prince to see when he will send troops to recover Dali. If you have to wait a long time, it doesn't matter if you canonize it first, just find an excuse to send troops in the future. You can also encourage businessmen to buy and sell in Dali in the Guangxi mutual market, and get more news about Dali in China. ”

Zhao Shu, the secretary of the Ministry of War, reminded: "Dali has a lot of miasma, if you want to attack Dali, you should train the southern soldiers to fight, and you can't let the northerners go on an expedition." ”

"It's nature." Zhu Guoxiang nodded in agreement.

Zhang Gen and Zhai Ruwen glanced at each other, both feeling a little uncomfortable, and they were quite worried.

With the character and ambition of the crown prince, I am afraid that in the next twenty or thirty years, wars in the north and south will be indispensable. The Jin Kingdom and the Western Xia are definitely going to be attacked, and the Western Regions are very likely to be targeted by the crown prince, and now the emperor says that he will also fight the Dali Kingdom.

If you don't pay attention, you will become a desperate soldier!

Xiao Chu was overjoyed, he supported the "great unification", not only Dali should be recovered, but Jiaozhi should also be taken back.

Zhu Guoxiang also said: "According to the front-line war report, the Privy Council and the Ministry of War have established a reward and pension. On the side of the Ministry of Rites, the matter of knighthood was discussed, and the merits in Western Xia, Southeast China, and Hunan were also accumulated this time. ”

Meng Zhao asked, "What is the highest title?" ”

Zhu Guoxiang said: "The highest can be given to the county duke." Bai Qi is already the Duke of Shu, although Zhong Xiang was killed this time, there is no need to raise the title for the time being, just give some other official positions rewards. In the future, there will be wars, and I am afraid that there will be more than one or two kings of the county. ”

"Yes!" Meng Zhao had a bottom in his heart.

The imperial meeting dispersed, and Zhang Gen paced out of the council hall.

The north wind blew with snowflakes, and Zhang Gen couldn't help but shiver. He is almost 70 years old, and he should have died of illness several years ago.

Now, he has lived for several more years, but his health is getting worse.

Walking to Zhai Ruwen's side, Zhang Gen said in a low voice: "Gongxun, if I resign and return to my hometown, you should advise the official family and His Royal Highness a lot." It is a matter of course to expand the territory, but we must not use all kinds of military force. After the destruction of the Jin Kingdom, you should recuperate for a few years, and you must not stop conquering Western Xia. ”

Zhai Ruwen was surprised: "Gong Zhang is in good health, why do you want to resign?" ”

Zhang Gen said: "I know my own body. In the past six months, I have always felt low in energy, and I am afraid that I will not live for a few years. Now that the two roads in Hebei have been recovered, there are no regrets at all, and they have retired after success. ”

Zhang Gen always felt that he was jealous of the emperor, after all, his faction of civil officials was too powerful.

got his son-in-law Li Gang to Hebei to participate in politics, his younger brother worked as a political envoy in Zhejiang, and a daughter was the crown princess, Zhang Gen thought that it was time to resign.

He really wanted to go back to his hometown, and he hadn't been back to his hometown for almost 20 years.

"Remember, advise the prince!" Zhang Gen said.

Zhai Ruwen is not from Zhang Gen's faction, but if Zhang Gen resigns, Zhai Ruwen will be the first assistant of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhai Ruwen arched his hand and said: "This should be done, Zhang Gong, please rest assured!" ”

(End of chapter)