"Put!"

"Crackling—"

In the sound of firecrackers, the spring breeze sends warmth into Tusu.

When the sound of firecrackers sounded on the streets of Nanjing, the 33rd year of Hongwu successfully passed, ushering in the first year of Yongle.

Festivals like the New Year's Day are always filled with joy and warmth.

The huge atmosphere makes the whole city of Nanjing lively.

Perhaps because of the exemption, not only the people in the bustling inner city put up lanterns, but even the people in the outer city gradually painted lanterns, and everywhere the sound of firecrackers went, it was a festive atmosphere.

Walking through the streets, the laughter and laughter along the way, lingering in the air, makes people feel happy and warm.

Even some rural market towns outside Nanjing have held temple fairs lively, which are overcrowded and lively.

The stalls are crowded with people rushing to the market, and the stalls are full of dazzling goods.

There is pottery on one side and grease on the other, and further on, you will immediately see vendors pushing carts full of toys from the era, such as kites, wooden horses, lanterns, luban locks and wood carvings.

In the atmosphere of the New Year, the street vendors of these ordinary market towns are full of energy and joy, not to mention the wealthy families living in the inner city of Nanjing.

The smell of all kinds of festive food wafts through the inner city, and the common people's tables are filled with meat, and the homes of the rich are filled with traditional sesame paste, gluten, dumplings, and other snacks, and the taste is intoxicating.

Children have fun with toys and clothes for the New Year, while parents enjoy sweets and other snacks with their children.

Bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new, in these joyful moments, Miyagi is also bustling with activity.

Due to the stability of the capital, Zhu Yuying and other five princesses who stayed in Beiping also arrived in the capital south under Zhu Di's arrangement.

Therefore, the Qianqing Palace on the day of the Zhengdan Festival is very lively.

Three sons and five daughters, including Zhu Gaoxu, gathered, and the two daughters-in-law of Zhang and Guo Yan also arrived.

Among them, the oldest is Zhu Yuying, who has just been canonized as Princess Yong'an, one year older than Zhu Gaochi, and has long been married by Zhu Yuanzhang to Yuan Rong, the son of the founding minister Yuan Hong, and the second daughter Zhu Yuegui is twenty-two, and was also married by Zhu Yuanzhang to Li Rang, the son of the lord Li Da.

Although it is a marriage, Lao Zhu's marriage level is obviously not good, Yuan Rong is very arrogant, only Li Rang still abides by his duty and has some ability.

After Zhu Gaoxu was canonized as the crown prince, Yuan Rong often came to the Chunhe Palace, hoping to find a more powerful errand, but Li Rang avoided going to the Chunhe Hall at other times except for Zhu Di's orders.

"The food is on the table, let's eat it all, what are you looking at?"

In the Qianqing Palace, as Xu spoke, the family began to move chopsticks, and Zhu Gaoxu, who was sitting next to Zhu Di, glanced at his group of family members vaguely.

People say that sons are like mothers, daughters are like fathers, and this sentence is also very suitable for their own family.

Although Zhu Yuying and others are very white and delicate, they are at most average.

On the contrary, Zhu Gaochi, Zhu Gaoxu, and Zhu Gaosui are good-looking, especially Zhu Gaosui, who can be said to have inherited Xu's appearance, with thick eyebrows, long eyes and high nose, no wonder Zhu Di dotes on him.

Of course, from the perspective of this era, Zhu Gaoxu, who is burly and tall and handsome, is more in line with the aesthetics of the early Ming Dynasty of martial arts.

Zhu Di often boasted that Zhu Gaoxu was like himself, and he was also putting gold on his face in disguise.

In fact, once Zhu Di, who is quite tall on weekdays, sits next to Zhu Gaoxu, he will immediately be one size smaller.

Not only him, almost anyone sitting next to Zhu Gaoxu will be one size smaller.

"Today is a family banquet, everyone eats and drinks happily, just don't be greedy."

Zhu Di, as the head of the family, raised his glass and spoke, and everyone hurriedly agreed.

Zhu Gaoxu ate his own food, and said a few words to Zhu Di and Xu from time to time, but Guo Yan on the side talked and laughed with Zhang, Zhu Yuying, Zhu Yueying and others.

She has only been in the capital for less than half a year, and she has already contacted the wives and concubines of most of the civil and military officials in the capital, and even Zhu Yuying, Zhu Yueying and others, who have just arrived in the capital, were also smiling more than she said in a few words.

"How is the construction of the Han Mansion and the Zhao Palace?"

At the dinner table, watching the plates of delicacies on the table, Zhu Di suddenly asked a disappointing word, which made Xu glare at him.

However, Zhu Di looked at Zhu Gaochu as if he had not heard of it, and Zhu Gaochu also paused to bury his head in cooking, wiped his mouth and said: "Yunnan and Huguangbu political envoys are sparse, Yunnan's Han Wangfu was built in the north of Wuhua Mountain, and the local Kunming Left Guard moved to the outside of the city, and the palace was one mile from north to south and east to west, covering an area of nearly six hundred acres. ”

"The Zhao Wangfu in Changsha was expanded on the basis of Tanwang, covering an area of nearly 500 acres."

"Among them, the Han Palace's palace has already built three palaces and a royal city, and it will take about three years to complete the construction in the future, but it can be moved in now."

"The Zhao Mansion will take another two years to complete, but it can be moved in now."

Zhu Gaoxu said, Zhu Di heard the words and said directly: "At the end of this year, the boss, you and the third will be a feudal clan together, I have already given the third phase a family affair, the younger brother of the Marquis of Xiping, and the eldest daughter of the governor Mu Sheng." ”

"I've only just arrived in the capital and I'm going to let me go in less than a year, so I'm not going." Hearing that he was going to be a feudal domain at the end of the year, Zhu Gaochi laughed, and Zhu Gaosui turned his face directly.

Relying on Zhu Di to pamper him, he was unwilling to leave the capital no matter what he said.

"I'm twenty years old, you're nineteen now, and you're just twenty years old, what's wrong with the domain?"

Zhu Di saw that Zhu Gaosui was not on the road, so he immediately raised his face.

The capital is a nest of right and wrong, let them protect them, how can this stupid son not know.

"I'm not leaving anyway!" Zhu Gaosui played a scoundrel, and Zhu Gaochi persuaded when he saw this:

"Third child, don't you go to such a good place in Changsha?"

"Then the two of us will change, you will go to Yunnan, and I will go to Changsha."

Zhu Gaochi knows how to persuade people, as soon as he mentions Yunnan, Zhu Gaosui immediately feels that Changsha is good, and his attitude is not so resolute: "You want to be beautiful." ”

"That's it! So it was decided. Zhu Di made a decision, and Zhu Gaoxu did not say a word throughout the whole process.

However, after Zhu Di said this, the atmosphere at the dinner table changed.

After eating the family banquet, Zhu Gaoxu left Guo Yan to serve his parents, and he prevaricated with his busy official duties, and then returned to the Chunhe Palace.

It's just that he just arrived at the Chunhe Palace, so he asked Yishaha and Zheng He to prepare to drive out of the palace.

Not long after, an ordinary carriage drove out of the palace gate, followed by more than 100 cavalrymen from a distance.

The living conditions of the people in Yingtian are Zhu Gaoxu's ability and progress to measure the ability and progress of their father and son to govern the world.

Riding in a carriage, his goal is to head straight out of town.

After Lao Zhu's several migrations to rich households, there are very few people who can still live in the inner city, even those who run the hall, they are basically ordinary people who live in the outer city and come to the inner city to work.

After half an hour on the road, he arrived at a familiar town.

Dashuying Town, the first out-of-town market town that Zhu Gaoxu visited.

Seven years have passed in a flash, and after seven years of development, the population of Dashuying Town, which had plummeted due to Zhu Yuanzhang's migration policy, has become more populous than in the 27th year of Hongwu, and the area of the market town has also expanded a lot.

After putting on the cuirass and putting on the round-necked robe, Zhu Gaoxu took Yizha and Zheng He to shuttle around the town of Dashuying.

Since it was New Year, the people were almost always dressed in brand new white cloth, which was the cheapest new clothes they could afford.

At a glance, except for a small number of old people who did not have new clothes to wear, the rest of the people were wearing new clothes and walking on the rammed earth road that was trampled.

On both sides of the street, there are various butcher shops selling pigs, cows, chickens, ducks and other meats, and there are also government certificates posted on the door panels, which means that the pigs and beef sold are legal and compliant.

Since it is the New Year, there are not a few people who buy meat.

Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu greeted Zheng He and said, "You go and ask the head of the butcher shop, compared with the New Year in previous years, has the amount of meat purchased by the people has changed." ”

"Yes." Zheng He responded, turned around and went to ask.

After a short time, Zheng He returned with the news, and said while walking with Zhu Gaoxu: "Except for last year, when only less than two pigs were sold because of the war, five pigs were sold on the New Year's Day in previous years. ”

"This year, because half of the tax has been exempted, and the imperial court has deducted taxes from the entire Jiangnan, so the people have more spare money, and the butcher shop has already sold four pigs, according to this situation, it should be able to sell seven or eight pigs today."

If Zheng He's words are not adulterated, it means that the life of the people of Yingtian this year must be better than that of Hongwu.

Zhu Di's tax exemption of half of the tax allowed them to have more spare money, and Zhu Gaoxu's tax deduction was to recover the treasure money issued indiscriminately during the Jianwen period from their hands, so that they did not suffer too much loss of profits.

In such an environment, ordinary people dare to buy and sell meat boldly.

However, Zhu Gaoxu, who had lived in the camp for several months, knew that the living conditions of the people in the outer city were very one-sided from the perspective of meat alone, so he took Yishiha and Zheng He to see the stalls of other vendors.

All kinds of baskets made of bamboo, as well as all kinds of agricultural tools placed at the door of the blacksmith shop, are the most popular places for the people.

Whenever he passed by these places, Zhu Gaoxu would ask Yishaha or Zheng He to inquire, and the results were better than the business of Hongwu in the 31st year and the 32nd year of Hongwu.

This kind of prosperity put a smile on Zheng He and Yishaha's faces, but Zhu Gaoxu knew that such prosperity was only temporary.

If there were no exemptions and tax deductions, the current prosperity would have withered to the situation 31 years ago in Hongwu.

Of course, from a local point of view, the situation in the south of the Yangtze River will be better, because Zhu Gaoxu has divided tens of millions of acres of cultivated land.

These cultivated land have benefited a large number of poor peasants, and even if they are still poor peasants, they will live a better life than before, let alone the north......

"Go back, there should be someone coming from the household department soon."

Zhu Gaoxu spoke, turned around and returned to Miyagi with Yishaha and Zheng He.

It didn't surprise him, and when he arrived at the East Palace Chunhe Gate, he learned that Tobe Shangshu Yuxin asked to see him.

Zhu Gaoxu walked into the Chunhe Palace, and sure enough, he saw Yu Xin, who had been waiting for a long time.

In his sixties, he got up and waved at Zhu Gaoxu, but Zhu Gaochu did not shy away from taking off his round-necked robe and untied his breastplate.

This move let Yu Xin know that Zhu Gaoxu must have visited the people, so he adjusted his thoughts a little and began to play.

"The household department has calculated this year's expenses and tax items, and among the fixed tax items, the seed grain of Juntun has dropped to more than 21.4 million stone because of the policy of changing Liaodong and Shandong to the people."

"At present, there are still 876,000 soldiers, and there are still more than 992,000 soldiers who have been converted into people."

"There are nearly 60,000 soldiers in Shandong, Bohai, Daning, and Liaodong, as well as the Shenji Battalion and the Jurchen Eight Guards after the replenishment, and their military salary is 20 stone of rice, 8 guan military salary, and all kinds of cloth and salt."

"The treatment of other soldiers and cantonment soldiers remains unchanged, so this year, the Governor's Mansion of the Six Armies will spend nearly 26 million stone grain and 1.46 million copper coins."

"On the household side, we have to subsidize 4.6 million stone and 1.46 million guan, as well as 2.16 million pieces of cloth and more than 24 million catties of salt......."

Yu Xin wanted to report in more detail, but Zhu Gaoxu interrupted after sitting down: "Detailed, I will read the documents of the household department afterwards, and Yu Shangshu can only talk about the general expenses and income, as well as the shortfall." ”

"Yes......" Yu Xin saw Zhu Gaoxu say this, and also glanced at the content of his wat board, and then talked about the general situation.

"Wuxun, the six departments and the three divisions have a total of more than 47,600 people, and they have spent more than 1,860,000 stones."

"The construction of Beijing spends 2 million guan a year, the dredging of the Yellow River 500,000 guan a year, and the dredging of the canal and the Wusong Erjiang River will spend 500,000 guan this year, and the Western fleet will spend 500,000 guan and 600,000 stones."

"In the palace city, the inner and outer courts will spend no less than 1.4 million yuan this year......"

"6 million stone of grain for Liao, 3 million stone of grain for Jianwen and Yuchen in Yunnan......"

"The sum of the above items gives a total of more than 5,420,000 stones, 6,360,000 yuan."

After Yu Xin finished talking about the total expenditure, Zhu Gaoxu was expressionless, and seeing this, Yu Xin could only talk about income.

"According to the amount of land assigned last year, as well as the amount of land set for the people in Shandong, 33.5 million stone should be collected this year."

"Counting the Juntun seed grain, a total of 54.9 million stones."

"As for the salt and iron tea class, as well as various colors of silk and cotton, a total of 4.26 million guan, and the southwest government-run mine 2.46 million guan, a total of 6.72 million guan."

"Normally, there is still a balance of 700,000 stones, 360,000 guan."

The foundation left by Zhu Yuanzhang, coupled with Zhu Gaoxu's restructuring of Shandong and Liaodong, made the finance of the Ming Dynasty still able to make a surplus while building Beijing, dredging the Yellow River, canals, Wusong Erjiang, and preparing to go to the West, which has to be said to be a financial miracle.

However, Zhu Gaoxu knows very well that the premise of this miracle is that there is no greater toss, and Yu Xin did not come just to report the financial situation, but to find out whether there is a new policy in the East Palace that has not been promulgated, and whether the tax deduction with banknotes is carried out.

"The price of private banknotes, I just went to the outer city to ask some businessmen, and it is basically stable at about 500 wen per meter."

Zhu Gaoxu got straight to the point and talked about the price of the banknote, and explained to Yu Xin: "I mean, maintaining stability is already good at this real price, it is true that the people also have burdens, but the burden of the court is heavier." ”

"From now on, the policy of tax deduction with banknotes is subject to His Majesty's grace, and the tax deduction with banknotes is not fixed."

"At the same time, the treasure banknotes only remain trade-in, and are no longer recycled and distributed."

"Your Highness is wise......" Hearing Zhu Gaoxu say this, Yu Xin breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, but still reminded:

"In this way, the burden on the imperial court will be reduced a lot, but I am afraid that there will be many people in the temple who will criticize it."

"Let them be criticized." Zhu Gaoxu responded flatly, which surprised Yu Xin.

Lao Zhu's legacy in the treasure banknote is too big, and if it really needs to be filled, it will definitely not be filled.

At present, he can only use the silver and copper ingots produced in the southwest, Japan, and Luzon to slowly establish a reserve system, and strengthen the anti-counterfeiting of treasure money.

In the Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty, if you want to issue paper money, you must first collect the capital, which is the reserve in the words of later generations.

Although as the dynasty weakened, there was usually a shortage of reserves, which also caused inflation, but in general, paper money was manageable under the premise of a basic balance of payments.

In addition to the collapse of the banknote law in the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the large issuance of Lao Zhu, there was also the lack of reserves.

Lao Zhu did not set up reserves because of the serious shortage of money in the early Ming Dynasty, but with the development of silver and copper mines in the southwest, the Ming Dynasty gradually had the capital to set up reserves.

Now, as long as the Ming Dynasty succeeds in going to the East Ocean and successfully sets up long-term mutual trade sites in the Hidden Islands and Treasure Island, then Japan will be able to steadily import more than 2 million yuan worth of silver to the Ming Dynasty every year.

Coupled with the import of silver and copper ingots from the southwest and Luzon, no less than five million yuan worth of gold, silver and copper coins were added to the treasury of the Ming Dynasty every year.

The situation faced by the Ming Dynasty is different from that of Europe, where the population market is too small and the influx of silver from the Americas is too large, a price revolution will occur.

However, the population market of Daming is huge, not to mention five million, even if it doubles or triples, there is no way to shake the market economy of Daming.

The only thing Zhu Gaoxu needs to pay attention to is to stabilize overseas gold and silver imports on the road of changing the tax in kind to a monetary tax.

The reason why Zhang Juzheng's whipping method failed was because the influx of silver from overseas was unstable and the amount was too small, and the inflow of silver only stayed in the hands of the rich squires and could not reach the people in the mainland.

Under such circumstances, the peasants have to exchange grain for money and then use it to pay taxes, which in turn increases the peasants' burdens.

To deal with this situation, Zhu Gaoxu also has his own methods.

On the surface, it did not abolish forced labor, but it did not collect taxes exempt from forced labor, but distributed silver and copper ingots collected from overseas and southwest China to the people in the form of coins in the form of "work for relief".

In this way, it not only solves the problem that silver and copper coins cannot be circulated to the people, but also solves the problem of the inventory of silver and copper coins.

However, if you want to do this, you must continue to maintain the civil sea ban and maintain official trade, so as to ensure that a large amount of silver and copper coins are in the hands of the imperial court.

What Zhu Gaoxu wants to do is to really take it from the people and use it for the people, not from the people and use it for the gentry.

It was precisely because he saw the path Zhu Gaoxu wanted to take that Yu Xin reminded him that there might be a lot of criticism in the temple.

In the final analysis, although the policy of using banknotes to offset taxes is intermittent, it does give the Jiangnan gentry a taste.

The imperial court must maintain the stability of the treasure banknotes, so as not to let the price of the treasure money fall too much and let the wealth of the people evaporate too much.

The gentry had to collect treasure money as a way to offset their taxes.

The cycle itself is fine, but the problem is that the imperial court is now under a lot of pressure to continue this policy.

For Yu Xin, he can understand the predicament faced by the imperial court, but how many of the hundred officials can understand?

Or, in addition to their understanding, how many people can understand the imperial court?

"Sheng'en fights against each other, they feel dissatisfied, so jump out by themselves."

Zhu Gaoxu said to Yu Xin calmly, and Yu Xinyan knew what Zhu Gaoxu meant.

It's easy to say if you're dissatisfied, after all, the law doesn't blame the public, but if someone really jumps out to be the first bird, then Zhu Gaoxu doesn't mind killing chickens and making an example.

Their father and son are not Zhu Yunwen, but the father and son who took down the world with soldiers and horses.

Bargaining works with Jianwen, but not with Yongle.

In the face of Zhu Gaoxu's change of attitude, Yu Xin didn't have much thought, but in the face of Zhu Gaoxu's tightening of his steps, he unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.

In fact, for what Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu, the father and son, did, in addition to building Beijing, Yu Xin didn't feel that there was anything wrong with other things.

The premise, of course, is that Japan does have a large number of silver mines, and that the Western fleet can indeed bring back enough gold and silver for trade.

As soon as he thought of the trade in the West, Yu Xin said:

"A few days ago, Zheng Bingbi handed the documents needed for Western trade to the household department, I wonder if His Highness has read it?"

"I've read it, is the brochure of the household quotation out?" Zhu Gaoxu responded without thinking, and Yu Xinyan also spoke:

"Another thing that the minister has come to discuss is to negotiate the price of this trade goods......

"According to the calculations of the household officials according to the tributary trade over the years, each blue and white porcelain plate should be priced at 500 guan, each bowl 300 guan, each bottle 500 guan, the bean celadon plate each 150 guan, each bowl 100 guan, and each bottle 150 guan......."

"Since this trip to the East is the advance, there are 1,000 pieces of blue and white, bean green and other porcelain, plates, bowls and bottles."

"In addition, there are one million catties of raw silk, two hundred and fifty wen per catty, and brown sugar."

"In addition, the household department also listed the goods that could be collected for going to the East, such as sumu per catty, sulfur 70 wen, red copper 50 wen......"

Zhu Gaoxu didn't know the price of goods in Japan, but after hearing that Yu Xin was preparing a porcelain plate to sell for five hundred yuan, he still frowned and said:

"The two sides still have to let each other make money, and according to you, Japan may not make a profit, and trade will not be able to sustain for a long time."

"Your Highness." Yu Xinzuo said: "Japan's small country, over the years to buy and sell blue and white and bean celadon at this price, now that our fleet arrives in the East to sell, they save the price, should be happy." ”

"What's more, the imperial court also gave a profit, for example, sulfur in Japan is only six wen a catty, while the imperial court gives seventy wen."

"The cost price of all kinds of goods purchased and sold to Japan this time is 420,000 guan, and the selling price is 2.17 million guan."

"To buy sumac, sulfur, red copper and other things, you can only call 500,000 yuan."

"In this way, even if there is no gold and silver on Treasure Island, the imperial court can make a net profit of 1.25 million yuan."

"If it weren't for Your Highness, you would stop the treasure banknotes, and the household department would be ready to settle with Japan with the treasure money."

Yu Xin's words represent the concept of scholars and doctors in this era.

Tributary trade can make the other party earn, but you must earn more, and you must not suffer.

In Yu Xin's view, giving back 500,000 yuan to Japan is already a blessing from heaven.

"It's okay to set the price so much, but how to sell it depends on the situation, after all, the imperial court still needs to set up a trade market for Japan in Treasure Island and the Hidden Islands."

"If you ruin this matter because of petty profits, it will be more than worth the loss."

In the face of Yu Xin's explanation, Zhu Gaoxu could only admit it first, but in practice, it was mainly the difficulties encountered by Zheng He and them.

This time in the East, even if it is not profitable, as long as it can allow the Ming to gain a firm foothold in Treasure Island and the Hidden Islands, it means that Japan has become a dumping ground for Ming goods.

In the long run, Daming only makes money and does not lose.

"The minister leads the ......" Yu Xinzuo responded, and Zhu Gaoxu also commanded when he saw this:

"All the goods were prepared in advance, and it was less than four months before I went to the West."

Hearing this, Yu Xin's head shook and withdrew from the Chunhe Hall with a "minister retirement".

Looking at his departing back, Zhu Gaoxu rubbed his eyebrows: "This group of scholars and doctors really eat people and don't spit out bones, but what about ......Japan?"

As he spoke, Zhu Gaoxu was no longer burdened.

(End of chapter)