"This summer tax has collected a total of 5.46 million stones of rice and wheat, 320,000 pieces of silk, and 400,000 yuan of treasure money."

In mid-September, when the grain harvest had already begun outside the gates, the summer tax had just been counted.

In the middle of Taixue, Zhu Gaoxu, who was sitting in the study room of the small courtyard, was holding the document handed in by the household department, and Yu Xin, who was reporting the situation, sat in front of him.

As the four Wenchen trusted by Zhu Gaoxu, Yu Xin, Xia Yuanji, Huang Fu, and Sun Cheng can undoubtedly enter and leave Taixue in an emergency.

Scanning the book, it took a while for Zhu Gaoxu to speak: "Compared with the summer tax of the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu, it is 708,000 stone higher, and the silk and treasure money have also increased. ”

"Yes, it is mainly Shandong that has contributed more." Yu Xin replied and spoke:

"Shandong's officials are doing a good job, and Han Zhoubo (Sun Cheng) has outstanding ability, so the summer tax rice and wheat paid by Shandong this time occupy twenty percent of this year's summer tax."

"Oh?" Zhu Gaoxu was also surprised, and then reacted before he smiled: "It seems that there has been new progress in the inventory of fields and acres in Shandong. ”

Hearing this, Yu Xin also raised the corners of his mouth slightly, and raised his hand: "Your Highness guessed well, although the quantity of cultivated land has not made much progress, the quality has improved a lot." ”

"In addition, many squires, wealthy families, and officials who committed crimes have been brought to justice, and the number is as high as 4,000."

"But ......" Speaking of this, Yu Xin paused: "Recently, there are many people in the temple who impeach Hanzhou Bo for being too harsh, although His Majesty has suppressed these news, but many people compare him with the righteousness of the Western Han Dynasty, thinking that he and Chen Ying are cool officials of the country. ”

"Chen Ying?" Zhu Gaoxu became interested and couldn't help asking: "What shocking things did he do, which can be compared with Sun Cheng?" ”

Sun Cheng cleaned up many squires and officials in Shandong, and expanded the scope and raised the price of fields to distribute a large number of lieutenants and grain chiefs to the army, so that he took the name of a cool official.

Although Chen Ying is said to be a person under Zhu Di, what did he do that can be compared with Sun Cheng?

"Yesterday, Chen Ying went to the top and impeached more than 40 officials, such as the waiter Huang Guan and the editor Wang Shuying, and commanded Ji Gang with Jinyi Wei to directly arrest them and put them in prison, and directly sentenced them to death before the trial of the three divisions, hundreds of people were involved, and thousands of people were implicated......

As soon as Yu Xin spoke, Zhu Gaoxu laughed, he didn't expect Chen Ying to use methods to please Zhu Di.

There is no doubt that this group of officials are all people who occupy official positions after the Jing Martyrdom and do not do practical things, not that they can't do practical things, but they are unwilling to do practical things for Zhu Di.

Because of this, Zhu Di has endured them for a long time, this time Chen Ying impeached so many people, most of them were instructed by Zhu Di, but Ji Gang actually got involved, it seems that this matter is not over yet.

"If that's the case, that's not surprising."

Zhu Gaoxu leaned back in his chair with a smile on the corner of his mouth.

"Shandong is too far away, the knife is not on them, they don't know the pain of the flesh, but Chen Ying's knife cuts every knife on their flesh, making them grin."

"But that's okay, they will focus on Chen Ying, and I can continue to prepare for the implementation of the new policy in the future."

After he finished speaking, Yu Xin said worriedly: "Having said that, Chen Ying's move is a palliative rather than a cure, and the imperial court does not have so many good talents to fill official positions." ”

"That's right." After hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu propped up his chin with his hand and thought thoughtfully.

The reason why he did not kill all those who stood in the way of the New Deal in one fell swoop was that he did not have enough handles, and secondly, there were not so many officials who could use them enough.

Governing the country is like cooking a small fresh, and the plants are too much, and if you can't choose someone who can be replaced, you will have to face the suspension of the yamen, and it is easy to cause chaos.

There are many yamen in the Ming Dynasty, each of which has a different mode of operation, and it takes several years for ordinary officials to master its mode of operation, so Zhu Gaoxu can replace the most basic officials, lieutenants, and grain chiefs, but he cannot replace too many officials.

In the final analysis, the work of the officials, the lieutenant chief, and the grain chief is too simple, as long as they know how to read and write, and can master basic arithmetic, they can complete their work well.

It is precisely because of this that Zhu Gaoxu can master the grassroots level in Shandong so quickly, because there are too many people in his hands who can replace Xu officials.

"There is still a month to collect the autumn tax, and this year's autumn tax must be collected, and the provinces must not be in arrears."

Zhu Gaoxu set his eyes on Yu Xin, not forgetting to explain to him, but Yu Xin also asked: "Will this year's tax deduction with banknotes continue?" Today, the imperial court has recovered more than 28 million treasure banknotes. ”

"These treasure banknotes are destroyed and the new ones are kept for the time being, how much is the banknote on the market now?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked Yu Xin, and Yu Xin said without thinking: "Each run is equivalent to seven hundred texts." ”

"Yes, the next tax deduction with banknotes can be stopped, but the imperial court also has a new policy ready to be promulgated in Shandong."

Zhu Gaoxu didn't want to be a person who harvested the people to enrich the treasury, and the treasure money issued by Zhu Yuanzhang in the past did harvest too much wealth from the people, not only the squires and wealthy households, but also the common people.

He didn't dare to say these things before, but now there is no need to say them.

No matter how much you say, it's better to reduce the pressure on the people.

"Starting from Shandong, the pilot project will be paid according to the daily wage of 10 yuan for those who need to use forced labor."

"The wages paid must be based on the new money."

Zhu Gaoxu said, Yu Xin immediately reacted: "The imperial court wants to make new money? ”

"Yes, this is the style and style of new money." Zhu Gaoxu took out the money fan and three coins from the drawer next to his desk.

The coin is still the traditional Chinese heaven and round place, the front is the four characters of Daming Tongbao, the back is Yongle up and down, and the left and right are respectively "one text, ten texts, one hundred texts" three kinds of regulations.

The reason why it is called a coin and not a copper coin is that the coin with a denomination of 100 wen is a silver coin.

"The quality of these three copper coins ......"

Yu Xin, as the head of the household, naturally understands the popular coins on the market, and Zhu Gaoxu took out three Ming Yongle Tongbao, whose quality can be said to be the most in the past dynasties.

"Three coins, each weighing one penny (four grams), and the silver and copper mixed into the coinage are more than ninety-five percent of the coin."

"Such a quality copper coin can be distinguished at a glance, and the profit is not high, and the private coinage cannot afford it, and it is difficult to imitate."

Zhu Gaoxu was talking about the situation of the three coins, after all, he was familiar with the flood of private money in the Ming Dynasty, and he had already made full preparations.

The flood of private money in the Ming Dynasty was mainly due to the lack of control by the imperial court and the instability of the currency system, which provided opportunities for thieves to make huge profits.

In addition, there are also official institutions that engage in favoritism and fraud, using official money furnaces to privately mint coins, so as to enrich their own pockets.

However, there are also many problems with private money, for example, private money is generally modeled after the official coinage, and the design, size, thickness, and weight are close to the official coinage.

In addition, most of the private coins are folk crafts, the process is simple, the production is rough, and it is easy to have quality problems such as non-standard fonts and casting deformations.

The reason why private money can be flooded is mainly because the quality of official money is just like that, and the casting of official money is also scattered all over the place, resulting in different processes.

At present, Zhu Gaoxu implemented the Ming Yongle Tongbao is different, all coins will be set up by the household, unified by the same technology casting, and the quality should be in accordance with the copper, silver content of more than ninety percent of the standard to do.

Under such a standard, it is impossible to imitate the Yongle Tongbao of the Ming Dynasty because the cost is too high, it is easy to be recognized, and it is not as comfortable as imitating copper coins from other periods.

"According to this quality, I'm afraid no one dares to fake private money."

Yu Xin looked at the three new coins, and in addition to liking them, he was also very happy about the denomination design of the coins.

Based on the economic knowledge he had learned from living with Zhu Gaoxu for two years, he understood that only the imperial court could mint this kind of money to obtain sufficient profits through volume, and the people could not go that large at all.

As far as the inflow of silver and copper ingots from the southwest and Japan is concerned, the Ming Dynasty can mint more than 3 million new coins every year, and each coin has half a profit.

Minting 100 "Baiwen" coins, the imperial court can make a profit of 5 times, although it is not as fast as cutting corners, but the new money of more than 3 million yuan per year, the income that can be brought back is still very considerable.

Compared with the imperial court, if the evil money dealers who minted private money among the people wanted to imitate, they could only spend the same amount of energy to harvest less than 30% of the profits of some old money, and if the minting amount was too small, they would not be able to recover the original at all.

After all, it is a big sin to mint money privately, and many craftsmen's wages are at the standard of tens or hundreds, if they only earn a few or a dozen times when they cast a furnace of money, then they have to wait until they are old if they want to make money, not to mention how easy it is to be detected when a large number of new money emerges in a place.

"How much money is Your Highness going to mint?"

Although he already had a premonition in his heart, just in case, Yu Xin still asked.

"Every year, all the silver and copper ingots are minted, and the old money recovered is also recast."

When Zhu Gaoxu said this, Yu Xin frowned and said: "If this is the case, then the profit will decline, after all, the quality of the old money is uneven." ”

"If the imperial court expects to mint money to make money, it is too useless." Zhu Gaoxu smiled heartily, raised his hand and said:

"What is taken from the people is for the people, and what is taken overseas is used domestically."

"Only when good money drives out bad money can the private currency system not be so complicated."

"In addition, all kinds of old money are kept for future generations to admire."

"Yes" Yu Xinzuo returned the salute, after all, Zhu Gaoxu said so, and he couldn't refuse.

After discussing everything, he got up and prepared to leave, but before leaving, he conveyed a word.

"When the minister came to Taixue, His Majesty asked the minister to pass a message to His Royal Highness."

"Huh?"

Yu Xin bowed down, and Zhu Gaoxu was surprised.

"Your Majesty said, please don't forget the emperor and grandson, you should return to the Chunhe Hall as soon as possible."

Yu Xin conveyed Zhu Di's words, but this was obviously modified by him, because Zhu Di would not speak so elegantly.

"I forgot that I am now a father."

Zhu Gaoxu was stunned for a moment, and then said with a hearty smile: "Don't worry, I will return to the spring and the palace after this month, after all, the next two months will be busy with government affairs." ”

"Yes." Yu Xinwen returned the salute, then exited the study and walked out of the small courtyard.

After he left, Zhu Gaoxu looked at his bedroom: "Come out." ”

As soon as he opened his mouth, the door of the bedroom was pushed open, and Yisha and Hu Lun walked out to the study and waved at Zhu Gaoxu.

Zhu Gaoxu motioned for them to take a seat, and then looked at Hu Lun: "Shandong officialdom is shaking, and the Confucian Mansion has not been affected at all?" ”

"Uncle Han also tried to catch Kongfu's sore feet, but they broke their arms badly and failed to implicate too much, only caught some inconsequential side disciples, and only implicated dozens of people."

Hu Lun's face showed regret, but Zhu Gaoxu was calm: "It's not surprising, if they didn't have three skills, they wouldn't be able to stand until now." ”

"But it doesn't matter, cats are always stealing, just keep an eye on them."

"In addition, the Sichuan side can also be laid out......" Zhu Gaoxu looked at Yishiha: "The money from the East Palace will be allocated to Hu Lun at any time, don't let him be tied." ”

"Slave and maid to teach." Zhu Gaoxu also refocused on Hu Lun: "How many people are there in the West Factory now?" ”

"Six thousand seven hundred and forty-seven." Hu Lun didn't think about it, and Zhu Gaoxu also ordered: "Jiangxi also has to send people early, the Jiashenke is about to be promoted, they should have already begun to select their children, pay attention to it." ”

"Yes!"

"Alright, you all stand down."

After ordering everything, Zhu Gaoxu waved his hand and motioned for them to leave, wanting to be alone and quiet.

Leaning back in his chair for a long time, he came back to his senses, rubbed his eyebrows, and felt that he was indeed a little too tired during this time.

"It's good to be busy for this time."

He comforted himself, and then turned his attention to the government.

As time passed, the Ming army began to move in the southwest, and such a large-scale mobilization of troops naturally could not be concealed from the Annan Hu clan, who had eyeliners in the southwest.

"Drive! Drive! ”

Early the next morning, Tang Cai, riding a horse from southern Yunnan, traveled south from Lang Son in the north into Thang Long (Hanoi) province, where he saw the developed plains of the Red River Delta and endless farmland along the way.

In the fields, many low-stature people were skinny and numb in the fields.

Since Hu Jichen restored the surname Hu, claimed to be a descendant of Yu Shun in the Central Plains, and changed the country name from the original "Da Yue" to "Da Yu", Annan fell into a very embarrassing situation.

Although the previous Dayue Chen period was also harsh on the people, there were glorious moments after all.

Following the Li dynasty, the Dayue Chen clan not only attached importance to the development of agriculture and water conservancy construction, but also followed the system of the Southern Song Dynasty to implement a new policy, vigorously building river embankments, from the source of the river to the coast, digging ditches, in order to prevent the river from flooding and washing away farmland, and can obtain the benefits of drainage and irrigation, so that the rice harvest can be guaranteed by drought and flood.

Not only that, the Chen Dynasty also learned from the tuntian system of the Central Plains, and threw the country's serfs and criminal slaves, as well as a large number of prisoners of war, into the Red River Delta Plain for land reclamation.

Due to the bias towards the Song Dynasty, the Chen Dynasty's commerce and handicraft industries were developed, and the imperial examination system of the Li Dynasty was continued, giving the Chen Dynasty's middle and lower class people and minor nobles the opportunity to jump up the class.

The only thing that is not so good is that after more than 400 years of separation, they have developed their own culture, and the Chen Dynasty is the driving force behind this movement.

Before the Yuan Dynasty, Chinese characters were the common language of the Annam region, and government documents, books, poems, and articles were all written in Chinese characters.

However, with the promotion of the Chen Dynasty, the Annam people originally created the "Mur Character" for the convenience of writing Chinese characters, and embarked on the development track of replacing Chinese characters.

Because of their own writing, the Annan people also began to follow the Central Plains Dynasty to compile their own history books, so after the fall of the Chen Dynasty, many Annan people still miss it, and this is what Hu Jichen is afraid of.

Because he knew that the remnants and officials of the Chen Dynasty hated him, Hu Jichen took the throne to his son Hu Hancang in the same year as he usurped the throne, and called himself the emperor, but he still held the power of Annam.

His mind is clear to everyone, but they don't think that Hu Jichen can last long, because many of them have fled to Daming, preparing to use the power of Daming to restore the country.

Of course, they naturally decided not to restore the country for the sake of the Chen family, but for their own interests.

"This group of people is embarrassed to say that it is for Da Yue, but it is not actually for their own interests, worms!"

At noon, when the sentinel rode through the streets of Thang Long City, the most prosperous city in the Indochina Peninsula, and brought the military intelligence of Langshan in the north to the palace, Hu Jichen, who got the news, also began to curse.

Although he is over sixty years old, it can be vaguely seen from his facial features that he was quite handsome when he was young, and the only drawback is that his figure is not outstanding, and his height of only about five feet makes him look a little funny when he wears Daming clothes.

At this moment, he was sitting in the Qinzheng Palace, and his eyes had to look around from time to time, as if someone in the hall would come out at any time to take his life.

Originally, he had already moved the capital to Thanh Hoa, but as the situation in the north worsened, he had to return to Thang Long City, which filled him with a sense of unease.

Looking at this Shenglong Palace, the information in his hand made him angry.

He denounced the princes and nobles as "worms", and there was a reason for all this.

After he usurped the throne, he was inspired to change the decadence of the Chen Dynasty in his later years and the dark rule of officials, but the reality made him have to bow his head.

Faced with Annam's predicament, he first restricted the princes and ministers of the previous dynasty from plundering the people's land, and restricted them from using slaves and servants to forcibly develop the land.

In the entire Dayu court, except for the king and princess, everyone must not occupy more than ten acres of land.

In addition, the officials of various roads, prefectures, prefectures, and counties set up land surveying agencies to register in the register, and the land that was not registered was confiscated as "public land".

It can be said that his policy borrowed from the new policies of the previous dynasties in the Central Plains, but it was also hindered by the implementation of the new policies of the previous dynasties.

The nobles not only opposed the implementation of this new policy, but also imposed additional taxes among the people, and lied to the people that it was the king Hu Jichen who levied taxes on the people, which completely ruined Hu Jichen's reputation.

After his reputation was completely stinky, Hu Jichen began to hunt down the remnants of the Chen Dynasty, and at the same time promulgated other new policies that were beneficial to the people's livelihood, such as restricting the princes and nobles from supporting domestic slaves and slaves, setting land taxes and commercial taxes, and unifying domestic weights and measures in Annam.

However, his reputation had already become stinking, and whatever his new policy was intended to be, it could not stop the people from disloying of him.

Hu Jichen knows all of this very well, and he also knows what Daming in the north thinks.

"The King's ......"

In the Qinzheng Palace, the only minister spoke carefully, and while waking up Hu Jichen, he couldn't help but speak: "Now that tens of thousands of Ming Chen soldiers are in Lin'an and Longzhou, and our soldiers and horses in Xuanguang and Langzhou add up to only 30,000, do you want to transfer the troops of Shenglong and Qinghua to the north to fortify the defense?" ”

"Of course" Hu Jichen's face was cloudy, he knew very well what Da Ming was thinking.

The descendants of the Chen family have been almost killed by themselves, if the Ming Dynasty attacks Dayu under the leadership of the remnants of the Chen Dynasty at this time, the army north of Dayu obviously has no way to hold it, so it is necessary to send additional troops.

"Mobilize 70,000 soldiers and horses from Shenglong and Thanh Hoa to gallop to help Xuanguang and Langzhou, and recruit another 150,000 people to follow them north, and then send elephant soldiers to accompany them."

"Back then, Chen Xingdao was able to defeat the Hu people's army of 500,000 twice, I didn't believe me, I couldn't!"

Hu Jichen was naturally wary of the prying eyes of the Ming Dynasty, but since independence, Annan has fought against the Southern Han Dynasty or the Northern Song Dynasty, and even the heyday of the Great Yuan at its peak, and has won wars with them.

This kind of history is undoubtedly worthy of pride and reference for Hu Jichen, if the Ming Dynasty really intends to seize Annan, it must only send troops from Xuanguang and Langzhou.

As long as Lang Son held out, the Ming army had to turn to the Bai Teng River to engage itself.

The Baiteng River, which engulfed the armies of the Southern Han, Northern Song and Great Yuan, will now become the place where the Ming army will sink into the sand.

"King, do you want to send an envoy to the Ming Dynasty to explain ......?"

"Explain what?" Hu Jichen interrupted the minister's words, and at the same time spoke boldly:

"They thought that Gu Dayu was easy to bully when he first established the country, but Gu just wanted to use his strength to tell them the truth."

"Taking advantage of this opportunity, Lone wants to let the people know that Da Yu replaces Da Yue is God's gift, and Lone is also the master given by God to the people."

Hu Jichen's eyes were burning, he knew very well that he was gambling, and once he won the bet, the new policy he wanted to implement would be unhindered.

As for losing, he didn't think about losing, after all, Dayu's national strength is here, compared to the Ming army that needs to transport grain from the south of the Yangtze River, his own side occupies the right time, place and people, and it is impossible to fail.

The three battles of the Baiteng River have allowed this land to enjoy peace for more than 400 years, and now he is going to fight the fourth battle of the Baiteng River.

"The king can't, if the war starts, it will be very bad for you and Dayu."

The minister advised Hu Jichen, but Hu Jichen knew very well that it was not whether he wanted to fight now, but whether Daming wanted to fight.

"The war is not a lonely want to start, but the group of ministers of Qianchen are fanning the flames."

Hu Jichen put his hands behind his back and stood on the golden platform to look down on the minister: "Send an envoy to tell the officials of the Guangxi Political Envoy Department, just say that I am worried about internal affairs, so I will not bother the Celestial Empire." ”

"The insects who fled north are just the ministers of Qianchen, and it is precisely because they bewitched the young emperor that the country will become ruined."

He took a deep breath and seemed to calm down a bit: "If the Celestial Empire gives Lone time, Lone himself will clean them up, and Da Yu is still a courtier of the Celestial Empire." ”

"If the Celestial Empire is tough, then Gu will never be afraid."

His gaze became firm, and his low stature seemed to hold up millions of people at this moment, and his mouth was sonorous and powerful.

"If the Celestial Empire is determined to obey the slander of the ministers and invade Dayu, then the Baiteng River is a gift from Dayu to the Heavenly Army!"

(End of chapter)