Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1611 War Prelude ([-]) Agreement
On the last day of the Wanshou Festival, as usual, they still did not go back to the Yamen to work, but Gao Yushi's house was very lively, maybe not a lot of traffic, but it was still full of guests and friends without interruption.

In the morning, first the four ministers from the household department came and held a meeting in the name of a private party. The meeting mainly discussed the cost of rescuing Horqin.

Expenses are generally nothing more than two points, one is to make a total budget, and the other is where the money will come from.

There are obviously several parts to the total budget. When the imperial court dispatches troops, it needs military pay, rewards, consumption of gunpowder and bullets, loss of food, grass and horses, and of course pensions. , are all paid by the Ministry of Households, so we have to do calculations.

These are only matters paid by Daming himself. The matter of Tumed’s military assistance that has been discussed in private yesterday will obviously also cost money, but fortunately, Gao Pragmatism has a unique position in Tumed, and both public and private friendships are considered hard. So you don’t have to spend money to reward directly, but buy horses instead.

But there is another small episode here. Shortly after Erde Mutu left last night, he returned to find Gao Yushi, saying that according to his estimation, the number of war horses that Tumed can directly trade at this time may be relatively limited, because the war horses Unlike the chariots of later generations, it is not a product of industrial production, and it can be improved immediately by increasing production.

War horses are living creatures, with both a growth cycle and a training cycle, as well as subsequent reproduction and reproduction, etc., so in general, Erdemutu estimates that at this moment, Tumed will be able to guarantee what he needs. , probably can only sell a maximum of [-] war horses (gelding horses) at a time.

Tumed’s war horses are relatively high-level. Originally, in the early stage of Alda’s tribute, the price was about 25-30 taels of silver per horse (because it is a living thing, so the price of a single horse cannot be unified, and it is often inspected and priced on a horse-by-horse basis. ), the average price is about 27 taels.

Later, because Daming was a big customer (both public and private), Tumed gradually increased the breeding of horses. As a result, the unit price of war horses dropped to a certain extent, and the average price started at 23-24 It hovers around two (but on the whole, Tumed still earns more, because the cost of raising horses for Mongolians is relatively low).

Since buying horses this time has a certain nature of rewards, the price Gao Yushi gave was "the average price of a single horse is 25 taels".In this way, the total value of 50 war horses is as high as [-] taels.

50 taels is not a small amount. Fortunately, Gao Yushi does not intend to give all cash, or even most of them do not give cash, but barter.

The private part of this transaction is obviously dominated by Jinghua itself.Since Jinghua is a commercial overlord, bartering is easier. No matter what Tumed needs, Jinghua can hardly be troubled.However, judging from Gao Pragmatic's current understanding of Tumed trade, there is a high probability that they will mainly "import" three types of products.

One is metal farm tools and production tools.Among them, the three largest agricultural tools are iron hoes, shovels and iron plows, and the daily utensils are iron pots and tin pots.Ironware is the best deal. Kaiping has enough production capacity and inventory to meet the transaction. Tin pots are a little more troublesome, because most of this part of production capacity has been transferred to Nanjiang by Gao Yushi in the past few years.

The reason for this is southern Xinjiang, because the Indochina Peninsula and the Longya Peninsula are areas with particularly dense tin resources in the world. High pragmatism not only transferred the production of a large number of tin products to the past, tin alloys such as various bronzes—including a large number of bronze artillery The manufacturing of the mine was also transferred in order to use nearby minerals and reduce costs.

However, this is only a matter of logistics, and production capacity is not a problem. In terms of Gao Wushi's face in front of Hannaji, he can even play futures trading, and Hannaji will never worry that Gao Wushi will renege on some tin pots.

The second type of product that the Tumets want is porcelain.Don't think that porcelain is a high-end product and has no market in nomadic areas. This is a huge misunderstanding, because the nobles of Tumed are now Sinicized—especially "Chinese life" is very strong, and they consume high-end products. their demeanor.

The pricing power of porcelain is in the hands of Daming, and it is a typical high value-added product. A small amount of porcelain can be exchanged for a large amount of livestock, so even if the total amount required by the other party is not large, the value is definitely not low.As for the high-level porcelain, let’s not panic. Since the re-emergence of Yu Kiln (Jun Porcelain) in the world, its price has skyrocketed in recent years (it’s hard to beat someone Gao for hype), and a set of tea utensils can be exchanged for hundreds of pieces Things like war horses are by no means priceless, nor are they priceless. There is a real market turnover. Of course, in order to maintain scarcity, the transaction volume is still relatively limited.

In addition, the third largest category of products is textile products.Tumed has basically no output in these products, and almost all depends on the input of Ming Dynasty, so whether it is the coarse cloth and homemade cloth needed by ordinary herdsmen, all kinds of mid-to-high-end silk and satin yarns, and even the most high-end "King velvet and Su satin" , Hang Luo”, they all have needs.

However, when it comes to high-end fabrics, Gao Yushi does not intend to let Jinghua get involved this time, because he has to leave a door for the imperial court and the Ministry of Household Affairs.Many people in later generations know that there were "three major weaving industries" in the Qing Dynasty. In fact, the Ming Dynasty also had them. In Jiangning County, Nanjing, there was an admiral weaving eunuch who was in charge of official weaving.

Official weaving in the Ming Dynasty can be divided into imperial bureaus and local bureaus.Among them, the official bureaus of the imperial court include the Inner Weaving and Dyeing Bureau in Nanjing, also known as the Southern Bureau, which belongs to the Ministry of Industry; the Outer Weaving and Dyeing Bureau in Beijing, that is, the Weaving and Dyeing Institute of the Ministry of Industry; Beijing supply engine room.

Its local government bureaus were divided into 22 weaving and dyeing bureaus in eight provinces and prefectures including Zhejiang and Nanzhili. After being abolished and merged, they were reduced to 19 bureaus in four provinces seven years after Jiajing.Official weaving is mainly based on the unpaid labor of dyeing and weaving handicraftsmen in various places (some are craftsmen, some are corvee), and generally adopt the form of local weaving for centralized production.

In addition to being used by the court, the silk fabrics supplied by these weaving and dyeing bureaus were often used as rewards to civil and military officials.According to Gao Wushi’s statistics since he took office as Minister of the Household Department, tens of thousands of bolts of brocade are needed every year just for the brocade and other official uniforms given to officials. It is the product of these weaving bureaus—of course, it is only given once, and if you always wear it out, you have to spend your own money to make it. Anyway, the essence of "blessing" is actually giving you the qualification to wear this kind of robe.

Such a huge demand makes it difficult for government-run weaving to afford.Therefore, for a long time, the court and the government often used methods such as "collar weaving", "purchasing" and "purchasing" to collect satin from the people.However, this situation has been improved to a certain extent after the uncles and nephews of the Gao family successively took charge of financial affairs, because the Ming court as a whole had a tendency to "commercialize".

There are two key points in the specific performance: First, due to the demonstration effect of Tumot, the products woven by the Ming government began to be sold commercially, and the direct sales of the imperial court were mainly concentrated on land, and most of them were sold to the most affluent land on the grassland. Mert.

The second is Jinghua consignment sales, which mainly take the sea route.Since Jinghua itself has limited strength in Jiangnan, and silk is even weaker, for a long time, Jinghua's textile business has been mainly concentrated in low-end products such as yarn and cloth. The way of small profits but quick turnover.

But no matter how powerful the Jiangnan business gang chaebol is, they dare not confront the Tian family face to face—well, in fact, the main reason is that they dare not confront the "ancestral system", because the admiral weaving and eunuchs belong to the ancestral system and have existed for a long time.Therefore, a new method has emerged in which the government-run weaving is responsible for production, and Jinghua Group is responsible for overseas sales.

This method is that Jinghua purchases a large number of products from various weaving bureaus at a price slightly lower than half the market price, and then directly ships them to overseas for sale.The reason why this approach did not arouse strong opposition from the Jiangnan business gang chaebol is obvious: the sales market is overseas and has no direct relationship with the country, and their fundamentals have not been shaken.

On the other hand, because the total output of the Weaving Bureau is actually not particularly huge, it is impossible to meet the demand of the entire overseas market, and the Jiangnan chaebols continue to sell overseas without any impact.

One thing to say, one of the important reasons why Gao Wushi is willing to carry out such consignment sales is that Daming's official weaving is not at the same level as the original official military manufacturing.The quality of the products manufactured by the military industry is extremely poor. This is already a cliché, so there is no need to say more. However, the official weaving is completely different, and the quality of its products can almost be called the top choice.

The official weaving of the Arimei Dynasty has always been strictly managed.For example, later generations discovered that the fabrics unearthed in Dingling basically preserved girdle seals, that is, rectangular ink script ink script printed with cloud and dragon patterns on both ends, which recorded the color, name, pattern, origin, and weaving and dyeing craftsmen of the fabrics. , the name of the supervisor, etc.From this information, it can be deduced that the craftsmen were most likely to be held accountable at that time.

This is actually easy to understand. The users of military products are those military households who have almost no human rights. As mentioned above, the products woven by the government are often given to civil and military officials. , give them some rags to make do?
Hey, you weaving eunuchs are amazing, the court officials must dig up the graves of your ancestors for you!

Therefore, this morning, an important topic discussed by Gao Wushi and the four ministers was to urgently transfer a large number of finished products from the weaving bureaus in the south of the Yangtze River to the north to cover part of the capital for the imperial court's purchase of horses.

Of course, this discussion is not enough for the Ministry of Households to talk to itself. After all, the weaving bureaus belong to the Ministry of Industry. It is decided to use the product, but it is still necessary to send a letter to the Ministry of Industry to explain, and to obtain the consent of the emperor.

Gao Wuzhen was very busy now, and he didn't have time to write memorials himself, so he entrusted this work to his senior brother, Cheng Wen, the left servant of the household department.If the position of Zuo Shilang is to be expressed in the words of later generations, it is roughly equivalent to "executive deputy XX". One of the core fighters of the first series, so it is appropriate for him to do this.

The division of the share of the horses bought this time, the imperial court assumed a huge amount of 35 taels, and Jinghua helped to take away the share of 15 taels with its own efforts, basically equivalent to the imperial court buying 14000 gelding horses, and Jinghua bought the remaining 6000 taels. match.

Calculated on average, the cavalry of Ming Dynasty cannot reach the level of one man and two horses, but it is not enough to have only one man. Fourteen thousand war horses can still equip at least ten thousand cavalry. This is very important for the overall military strength of Jiubian quite helpful.At this time when the war was approaching, Gao Yushi believed that the emperor should be able to agree, and as long as the emperor agreed, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, although Shi Xing, could not object.

In the afternoon, there was a different group of people who came to Shangshu Gao’s mansion. Minister Zhou Yong of the Ministry of War brought three servants to visit together—there was another servant who was not in the capital and went to inspect the defense of Jizhen. Now he is in Daning. Of course I can't come.

Although almost all Beijing officials know that Zhou Yong, Minister of the Ministry of War, is almost a sounding board of high pragmatism, but after all, Ming Dynasty is about rules and etiquette. come under the banner.

Because of the presence of his subordinates, Gao Pragmatism also gave extra face, saying "suggestion", "pragmatic opinion", "likely", "maybe" and so on.However, the attitude is the attitude. In fact, the highly pragmatic "suggestions" include not only who will lead the army, how many troops will lead the army, but also how many troops will be dispatched from a certain unit, when and where the armies will gather, at what speed to march, and which route to take. The road and other details are clearly stated.

Uh, to put it simply, Zhou Benbing only needs to say, "Grand Situ has a high opinion, and Yong and others will definitely follow through on it."

After talking about the arrangement of the imperial court's economic system army, Gao Wushi also took the initiative to mention the issue of two reinforcements, that is, Tumed's reinforcements and Jinghua's reinforcements.

Tumed is relatively far away from Liaodong, and it is impossible for his cavalry to drive thousands of miles from Datong to the Liaodong side wall, and it is even more inconvenient to let them walk hundreds of miles in Daming territory casually, so Tumed's side The reinforcements are mainly responsible for creating military pressure on Tumen.

To put it simply, it was Tumed who sent troops to the east, taking Daning City as a stronghold and pointing directly at Chahanhot.As for the follow-up, unless the Tumen army gives up attacking Horqin and Yehe, fully retracts Chahanhot or even simply meets the Tumed army westward, otherwise the Tumed cavalry will slowly approach Chahanhot.

However, Gao Yushi also made it clear that Tumed is obviously not here to fight Tumen this time. Once Tumen Khan's main force moves westward, Tumed will retreat.As for the reason, it was the Emperor Ming's goal to pacify Chahar. If Tumet really took the credit for this achievement, wouldn't Ming be embarrassed?

Besides...the money is not enough!
As for Jinghua's question, it was much simpler. Gao Yushi made his position clear in one sentence: "Four thousand cavalrymen will be temporarily compiled under Xiao Ruxun's command and under his command. Pragmatism is not a remote control."
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(End of this chapter)