Winter is approaching, and the New Year is approaching.

As the weather gets colder and colder, the land in the south of the Yangtze River is gradually covered with a layer of ice and snow.

The thick snow froze everything, and also liberated the people who had been busy in various parts of Chu for a year from their busyness and enjoyed a moment of peace.

However, the people below were idle, but the officials in the imperial court became busy.

At the end of the year, according to the usual practice, at the end of the year, the imperial court will make a summary of all government affairs this year, count the income and expenditure of the year, the gains and losses of various achievements, and then evaluate and reward the officials according to their political achievements......

The list goes on and on.

At the same time, at the local county level and above the provincial government, it is also necessary to send officials to come to Beijing to pay tribute to the Great Dynasty, and at the same time report the results of local work.

In this way, at the end of the year, a large number of officials from the local government flocked to Baling City. While making the court busier, it also added a bit of prosperity to Baling.

In this context, even if Lu Yuan has become a monarch who lets go of government affairs and comes to the throne, he can't completely ignore it, so he has to be busy.

Fortunately, his main job is not to do those statistical evaluation things, but just to take time to look through the twists and turns, listen to the reports of Cui Changqing and other ministers, and at the same time make overall planning and guidance on some major national political affairs.

After a large number of trivial matters were dealt with by Cui Changqing and others, his work was not too busy.

Just take one or two hours a day to come, and that's enough.

However, as the statistical evaluation at the end of the year is gradually processed, Lu Yuan must personally take charge of these important matters for the next year's work and long-term strategic planning in the future, and it is impossible to completely let go of these important matters.

Therefore, after the Winter Solstice Dynasty accepted the meeting of the local government and hundreds of officials of the imperial court, Lu Yuan summoned Cui Changqing and other ministers to discuss the strategic plan for next year and the next few years.

Tai Chi Hall, side room.

Cui Changqing and several of the chief officials of the six ministries gathered together, and Lu Yuan sat next to him, facing several ministers and commanded.

"It has been two years since Shenwu was four years ago, and he conquered Southwest Yi and set up Qianzhong County.

When Qianzhong County was established, Lone set the strategy of immigrating to Shibian and developing the southwest.

However, in the past two years, even if they have continued to migrate displaced people, recruited landless and landless people from China, exiled criminals, and stationed troops in garrisons, all kinds of means and policies have been applied, so far only more than 400,000 people have emigrated to Guizhou.

In the land of Qianzhong, the Yi people still occupy the majority.

It's not okay. ”

Lu Yuan looked at the ministers and said in a serious tone: "In the southwest, my Great Chu has the three vassal states of Kunhai, Chili, and Jianchuan, which are all the barriers of my Chu State, and they are also the minions that control the southwest.

And Qianzhong County, this is my Great Chu's tool to control these three outstretched minions.

If you want to subdue these countries and continue to operate the southwest, the strength of Qianzhong County must continue to develop.

It needs more people, more fertile land, and more grain to be produced here, so that it can serve as a logistics base and continuously provide assistance for the operation of the southwest.

Next year, and even the year after next year, the year after tomorrow, I Dachu should not use troops again, it is a rare opportunity for cultivation.

Therefore, on the side of the imperial court, I want you to continue to migrate at least 150,000 people to Qianzhong County within three years after the Ming Dynasty.

In this way, Qianzhong County has more than 600,000 Chu people, so they can barely assimilate the local Yi people, and initially develop this county to become an important place in the southwest.

There is also the Nishikawa side.

Xichuan County was originally Xichuan and Hanzhong two countries and seven prefectures, with a vast area and sparsely populated. In some prefectures and counties, there are only tens of thousands of people in one prefecture, and there are only thousands of people on the front line, which is not as many as the people in one county and one township in Dongting.

Hukou is so expensive, how can we govern and develop Xichuan?

The Xichuan Plain, the fertile soil, is not inferior to the Dongting and Jianghan Plains, which is equivalent to the name of the country of abundance.

Originally, Xichuan County relied on this plain to support three or four million people.

But now Xichuan Xintuo Seven Mansions add up to only 600,000. Even if you count the original three prefectures of our Chu State, the household registration is only about 1.5 million, which is only one-third of the heyday of Xichuan County.

Therefore, in order to develop the Xichuan Plain and make it become another source of money and grain in our Great Chu after the Jianghan and Dongting Plains, it is necessary to immigrate to Xichuan, especially those from the prefectures and counties located on the Xichuan Plain.

The three prefectures of Yuzhong, Linjiang and Wushan in Xichuan County are crowded, and there have been a large number of landless and landless people in recent years, making a difficult livelihood.

Xiangyang and Dongting counties also have many such people.

The imperial court cooperated with the local government to make statistics, and recruited at least 500,000 people from these three prefectures and two counties, and moved them to the new Tuo Seven Prefectures in Xichuan County to develop Xichuan.

This immigration is also limited to three years and is completed within a time limit.

In this way, immigrating to Xichuan and Qianzhong counties is the first important national policy of our Dachu in the next three years.

Do you understand? ”

His gaze swept over Cui Changqing and the others, and Lu Yuan asked.

Or nodded again and again, and echoed: "The minister understands." ”

The matter of immigration, the imperial court has been doing it, and this has long been the national policy.

Now Lu Yuan put it forward, but it is just a reiteration, and in terms of the imperial court, it is just a national policy.

Cui Changqing and others understand that it is important, and it will not make any sense.

"Hmm."

Seeing that all the ministers nodded in agreement, Lu Yuan nodded and didn't say anything more in this regard, but continued: "Now the local county government and county soldiers of the Chu State, the Central Forbidden Army, and the three divisions of the Navy Division are expanding their troops one after another. Up to now, the total number of soldiers and horses in the country has reached 382,000.

These many soldiers and horses need more than 27 million taels of silver for military expenditure alone in a year.

If there is a war, it can be close to 30 million taels of silver.

At the same time, the basic expenses of the local government and the central court also cost about five million taels of silver a year.

There is also an ongoing resettlement project, which also requires one million to two million taels of silver per year.

And the current financial income of the imperial court, counting the annual tribute of three million taels of silver from the Nanhai Kingdom, is only twenty million three hundred taels of silver a year.

In this way, every year, there is a deficit of about 10 million taels of silver.

Although alone to conquer the southwest, from the hands of many Yi people. More than 50,000,000 taels of silver were seized. Some time ago, Huang Xuanzhen plundered Jianchuan and also got more than 20 million taels of silver.

Blocking 70 million taels of silver, it can only last for seven years at most.

Seven years later, when all this accumulated wealth is exhausted, the imperial court will face the dilemma of having no money to use.

Therefore, how to open up sources and reduce expenditure as much as possible in the past seven years, so that the income and expenditure can be balanced, is the top priority now.

If there is anything you can do, let's talk about it now. ”

Speaking of this, Lu Yuan also had a headache.

Since he started the army, the problem of money and food has always been the biggest difficulty that has plagued him.

Even in the early days, in order to obtain military spending, he did not hesitate to deceive Danding Dao and made a big enemy for himself.

Then, with the transition from Changsha to Chu, it was finally barely able to reach a balance in the past two years, and the finances finally did not have to make ends meet.

But now, with the development of Xichuan and Qianzhong counties, and the large-scale expansion of the Chu State, the fiscal revenue that had just reached the balance line was broken in an instant, and continued to develop towards an annual deficit.

And the size of the deficit seems to be getting bigger and bigger.

Lu Yuan was naturally worried about this situation.

Therefore, at today's strategic planning meeting for the next three years, this matter has been brought up as a key topic.

In order to hope to brainstorm and use the wisdom of everyone to find a way to solve this problem together.

"Your Majesty, regarding this matter, the chief officials of the three provinces and six ministries have already discussed it, and have already formulated several solutions for this purpose."

In the face of Lu Yuan's worries, after hearing the inquiry, Cui Changqing, as the left minister, naturally stood up, saluted Lu Yuan, and then said: "Solving the fiscal deficit is nothing more than two ways to open up sources and reduce expenditure.

In terms of reducing expenditure, the army is now constantly increasing its troops, building ordnance, and building warships, which is related to the foundation of national defense and cannot be saved at all.

In order to stabilize the newly expanded land, the imperial court is also constantly selecting new officials to govern the local area, and it is not possible to save it here.

However, it is a matter of immigration, and now the annual immigration to the two counties of Qianzhong and Xichuan costs nearly two million taels of silver in money and grain every year, which is quite a lot.

But the same is true, as the king said before, within three years, a total of 650,000 people migrated to the two counties of Xichuan and Qianzhong.

When these people finish migrating, then the annual expenditure of two million taels of silver can naturally be saved.

This subtracted the deficit of two million taels of silver.

This is the throttling aspect.

The rest is open source.

According to the first national policy formulated by the king, people were successively migrated to Xichuan and Qianzhong counties, and after these hundreds of thousands of people arrived in the two counties, these two counties could naturally be developed.

At that time, three million people in the two counties, governing for a few years, can provide a tax of 10 million taels of silver per year.

That alone is enough to wipe out the deficit. ”

Cui Changqing said this, obviously quite confident.

At the beginning, when the state of Chu only had three counties and 17 prefectures, and 5.7 million people, the annual tax revenue could reach 20 million.

Today, the state of Chu has become four counties and thirty-four prefectures, with more than 8 million people, the territory has doubled, and the population has increased by nearly one-half.

Such a large plate, as long as all of them are developed, it is more than enough to increase the annual income tax by 10 million taels of silver.

Even if the two counties of Xichuan and Qianzhong are well developed, the annual increase in tax revenue will be more than 10 million taels of silver, and it will not be a problem to raise another 2 or 3 million taels of silver.

At the beginning of the founding of the Chu State, the elite bureaucratic team that was trained, as well as the meritocracy of the courtiers and the wisdom of the monarch.

Cui Changqing has this self-confidence, and within five or six years, he will develop these two counties to the extent he said.

Lu Yuan listened to his words, and couldn't help but be moved: "If this is really the case, at that time, I will use troops from Dachu, and there will be no shortage of money and food." ”

Cui Changqing smiled, and then continued: "It's not all. In addition to the development and governance of the two counties of Qianzhong and Xichuan, there are several other methods.

Qianzhong County is mountainous, and there are many mineral deposits in the mountains.

The minister flipped through the classics, and in the history books of the Yangzhou dynasties, there were mentions of the southwest Zhuyi, rich in gold, silver, copper and other mines.

After the king set up Qianzhong County, the ministers also sent officials and craftsmen to Qianzhong County to investigate and find.

After some investigation, I really got a lot.

In Qianzhong County alone, the mines originally opened by the Yiren countries included gold ore 1, silver ore 3, and copper ore 7, and the annual production of gold, silver and copper was worth no less than 2 million taels of silver.

Moreover, the Yiren mining technology is backward, and these eleven gold, silver and copper mines, if they use the more advanced mining technology of our Dachu, the output can at least double, reaching an annual output of four million taels of silver.

In addition, there should be other undiscovered minerals in Qianzhong County, and if you search carefully, you should be able to gain a lot.

And as long as one is found, it is enough to add hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to my income every year.

Yichen estimated that as long as the existing mines were technologically renovated and new veins were developed, Dachu would be able to increase its income by at least five million taels of silver a year in the future before those veins dried up.

If more minerals are discovered in the future, this annual harvest will be even higher, even if it reaches 10 million taels of silver, it is not impossible.

The only concern is that mining requires a large number of manpower, and there are many casualties.

Even if we innovate in technology, the casualties will not be small, and hundreds or even thousands of casualties a year cannot be avoided.

In this way, it will become a problem for Qianzhong County, which is already sparsely populated. ”

Speaking of this, Cui Changqing also frowned.

Qianzhong County is already a small number of people, and now even after continuous immigration, even counting the Yi people in Huichuan and Jianchang Prefectures, which have just been developed, the total population is just over one million.

With such a few people, just to develop Qianzhong County, Chu State is not enough.

If we go to mine again, we will not only occupy a small number of miners, but also reduce the manpower of the development area.

And a thousand people die every year, and this loss is definitely not small.

With the national strength of Great Chu, it is inevitable that he will feel pain for this.

However, after listening to Cui Changqing's concerns, Lu Yuan laughed, waved his hand and said, "You don't have to worry about the miners' affairs, you have your own way."

At the beginning of spring this year, he crossed the Lushui River alone and fought to capture the country of Huichuanyi.

In this battle alone, 50,000 Yi troops were defeated and more than 30,000 prisoners of war were captured.

After that, he successively pacified Huichuan, subdued the Great Chang and the country, and captured more than 10,000 people.

That adds up to 50,000 prisoners of war.

And Huang Xuanzhen supervised the army to attack Jianchuan, in addition to capturing 30 Yi women and children to return abroad, he also captured nearly 70,000 Yi prisoners of war.

In this way, on the Qianzhong side, there are no less than 120,000 Yi prisoners.

These are all men, and they are all good workers.

Originally, it was useless, so they let them build roads in various parts of Qianzhong, and after a few months, they were quite successful, connecting the main roads between the prefectures.

Since Qianzhong County has a need for mining, then Gu Ke can allocate 50,000 yuan and send these people directly to the mine.

The rest was left to continue building the road.

Nowadays, although the main road is open between the various prefectures of Qianzhong County, the roads in the local counties and towns are still dilapidated and in urgent need of rest.

When they finish building the road, they can also pull it to the mine at any time.

There are also more than 60,000 captives in Xichuan County, who are also building roads and cities.

These are also available manpower.

With these people, not to mention the 1,000 people who die in the mine every year, even 10,000 people die. ”

In the previous Southwest and Xichuan World War II, Lu Yuan won a great victory, and the total number of Yiren soldiers captured before and after exceeded 180,000.

With the policy he implemented in the Qianzhong region, he originally intended to reduce the number of local prisoners of war, so it was naturally impossible to release these prisoners of war.

And killing it directly is too wasteful.

After all, a man who is also an adult, or nearly an adult, is a valuable labor force in this era.

Therefore, after thinking about it, he directly regarded it as a free coolie and built projects everywhere.

The construction of roads is just one of them.

Later, he planned to use these captives to build water conservancy, to build city walls, and to grow grain in the fields......

Nowadays, the two counties of Qianzhong and Xichuan are all in ruins. Qianzhong County, in particular, is a wasteland.

To develop these two counties, the amount of manpower required is simply incalculable.

Some of these difficulties have to be filled with human lives.

Since they are all going to die, it is better to simply use these prisoners of war than to die the Chu people who can become the basic plate.

Use their hard work and blood to create the prosperity of central Guizhou and Xichuan.

Since Cui Changqing wants to open a mine, he just transfers a part of the surplus prisoners of war and uses them to open up the source of water for the Chu State and obtain more financial revenue.

It's also valuable, not a waste of food.

"If this can be the case, then the Qianzhong mining affairs will be worry-free."

When Cui Changqing heard Lu Yuan's words, he couldn't help but be overjoyed, and he was relieved in his heart.

And to solve this problem, he talked about the next open source method.

"In addition to normal taxes and mining, on top of the tribute of the feudal state, my Dachu can also get a lot of benefits.

The three kingdoms of Chili, Kunhai, and Jianchuan are all my Great Chu Domain, and they are my courtiers.

Within my Chu country, local counties, prefectures, and counties must collect taxes and hand them over to the imperial court.

The Southern Sea Domain, which had not yet submitted to the Chu State, also had to pay an annual tribute of three million taels of silver and two million stone of grain.

And the three southwestern kingdoms, since they have surrendered, they naturally have to pay tribute according to the routine.

In the opinion of the ministers, the king can set up a custom, the three southwestern countries, according to the population of their existing prefectures and counties, with a government to pay 100,000 to 300,000 yuan of silver, so that they can contribute every year for the use of the state.

In this way, in the land of the fifteen prefectures of the three southwestern countries, two or three million taels of silver can be collected every year for tribute alone. In the future, when they develop, it will even reach four or five million taels of silver.

It's also a big income.

The above method of opening up sources and reducing expenditure is the strategy obtained by the ministers after brainstorming.

According to the implementation of the above national policy, after three years, the expenditure of 2 million taels of silver can be saved, and the income of more than 10 million taels of silver can be opened, and the accounts can be smoothed out by 12 million taels of silver.

That is to say, in the ninth year of Shenwu, the annual harvest of the Chu State will reach a balance of four million taels of silver.

And six years later, that is, in the twelfth year of Shenwu, the state of Chu opened the source, and it is estimated that it can reach 20 million taels of silver, reaching a balance of 12 million taels of silver per year.

With this income, not to mention the 382,000 soldiers and horses now.

Even if another 200,000 soldiers are recruited, Dachu's finances can support it.

And if we can really support 600,000 troops, then our Great Chu military strength can truly be comparable to Zhou, Liang, Ning and other great powers, and become a real overlord country.

At that time, the army will move eastward, go down the river, attack Ningguo, and unify Yangzhou, which is also just around the corner. ”

Cui Changqing's face was a little flushed, and he said in an extremely excited tone.

Although six years later, he is long gone.

But as long as I think of such a great cause, it is slowly realized in my own hands. The ambition in the heart will also be accomplished.

I can't contain that excitement.

Even Lu Yuan, after hearing that six years later, the Chu State was able to balance 12 million taels of silver a year, he was also shocked.

Because this means that when the potential of the Chu State is fully developed, the annual income can reach 42 million taels of silver in a year.

This kind of income is no less than that of Ningguo, which owns the five counties and 38 prefectures of Jiangdong.

Because according to the report of the Imperial City's Foreign Division, judging from the tone revealed by those ministers in Jinling, Ningguo's annual income is only more than 5,200 taels of silver.

Compared with what Cui Changqing depicted at this time, six years later, the Chu State would have 42 million taels of silver a year, which was only 10 million taels of silver.

This gap is not huge.

How not to excite him?

And six years later, Brother Sun will inevitably be born, and my second Yellow Turban Lux clone can also be refined. At that time, the Chu State will be able to have two more innate combat powers, plus 600,000 soldiers and horses.

At that time, it may really be able to directly wave eastward, attack Ningguo, and unify Yangzhou, as Cui Changqing said. ’

Lu Yuan thought like this in his heart, and then couldn't help laughing when he saw Cui Changqing and other important ministers looking forward to the future and having a proud appearance.

"Cui Qing is right, with this national strength, why worry about Ningguo, if you don't destroy Yangzhou, you won't be unified!"

The heroic words suddenly echoed in the room.

The ministers next to him were infected by this, and they also said: "The king is so sage, he will definitely be able to destroy the Ning Kingdom and dominate the world." Ministers are the great Chu He! Congratulations to the King! ”