The Soul of the Han Dynasty in the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 484 Tradeoffs
Since the fourth year of Chongzhen, due to the difficulty of the court's expenses, the field tax has been increased from nine per cent to one cent and two per cent, and more than 660 million taels of silver have been distributed.

In addition to the war and desertion, the actual collection of more than 520 million taels of silver, plus tariffs, salt taxes and miscellaneous items, a total of 740 taels of silver was collected, and the cost of the front line of Shanhaiguan and Liaodong required more than 290 million silver per year. two.

It can be seen that Liao's salary accounted for more than half of the fiscal revenue of the entire Ming Dynasty, and giving General Ping and Liao's father and son a full amount of troops would take up half of the Liao's salary.

If the Shanhaiguan commander-in-chief came from the "Red Banner Army", wouldn't half of the imperial government's fiscal revenue be given to the "Red Banner Army" after a year or so?
Over the years, it is well known that the "Red Banner Army" can fight, and it is not inferior to Jiannu.

But Daming can't bet all his fate on this army!
Of course Chongzhen had to balance, and he always had to find ways to check and balance!

Fang Zhenghua and Li Ruolian, who returned to the capital at the end of February, were summoned by the emperor on the same day. Chongzhen was unusually anxious, and he held a lot of questions in his stomach to ask these two people.

When Chongzhen summoned Fang and Li, only the confidant eunuchs Wang Chengen and Cao Huachun were left by his side to wait on him, three intimate ministers plus Li Ruolian, the retainer, the emperor spoke very easily.

After asking about the situation in Denglai in detail, he learned that Huang Han, who did not send troops to join the war, supported the Jingying and Jinyiwei with a lot of food, so that more than [-] troops were not hungry.

The emperor already knew Huang Han's ability to deal with money and food, and he was very happy to learn that he took the initiative to relieve the court's worries.

Chongzhen also asked about Yang Dalang's situation. Fang Zhenghua and Li Ruolian fought with the cavalry of the "Red Banner Army" many times, and they were indeed familiar with Hanzi.

Originally, Hanzi was a solid man of fierce general type, and he basically did no evil. With the help of Fang and Li, Chongzhen, who had already had some impressions of Hanzi, had a certain understanding of Hanzi.

The emperor suddenly had an idea, why didn't he call Yang Dalang to the capital to meet him?

I personally communicated with this fierce general, gave him grace, encouraged him to do his duty for Daming, and made it clear that he does not need to be restrained by other commanders after he serves as the commander-in-chief.

It should not be difficult to replace the former supervising army, re-appoint reliable ministers to Shanhaiguan, and firmly grasp Yang Dalang, a real man, in the hands of the court.

At this time, Chongzhen was full of self-confidence. In fact, being too self-confident was self-willed.

Chongzhen believed that the imperial court gave money, food and soldiers, and he gave Yang Dalang a generous favor. It should be reasonable to get the general's allegiance.

The emperor told Wang Cheng'en to draw up an edict to send Yang Dalang to Beijing for an audience today.

Next, Chongzhen instructed Cao Huachun to take Fang and Li to visit the Nightless City in the past few days, and asked the three to jointly arrange for Jinyiwei and Dongchang to step up inspections on Chongwenmenwai Street. place.

Cao Huachun and Wang Chengen knew it well, because the emperor asked many times about the situation of the city that never sleeps, and every time they heard nothing.

It was in the outer city of the capital, and they had long thought of persuading the emperor to make a private visit to find out, lest the emperor always ask this and that, many things cannot be described clearly in a few words.

Since it was a private visit in microservices, it was of course necessary to hide it from the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty.

It's just that the city that never sleeps has long been the best place to go in the capital. There are many civil servants and generals wandering around every day. The possibility of the emperor being recognized is too high. It is best to choose the evening.

At this time, the Outer City of the Imperial Capital of the Ming Dynasty was not as messy and messy as it was in history, it was really relatively clean.

Under Jin Yiwei's fine education, people who used to litter, even messed up the toilet, basically couldn't see it.

Since the sanitation management fee is charged on a per capita basis, Jinyiwei has money to hire people to transport garbage out of the city for landfill and sell fertilizer to farmers.

Regardless of the sanitation fee, which is only ten cents per person per month, the amount of firewood collected by many people is high. The resident population in Beijing, including floating population, exceeds one million. Jinyiwei can get close to 1 taels of silver a month, and can make a surplus by hiring 5000 people to clean.

This spring, the capital has already enjoyed the benefits of sanitation. The number of people suffering from epidemics has dropped significantly, and the complexions of ordinary people have improved a lot. This is of course also due to the thousands of jobs provided by the city that never sleeps.

Thanks to the massive popularity of the city that never sleeps, the novel shops on the pedestrian street are thriving and have gradually formed a scale.

A strict management system has been adopted here, and the supply of goods can be expensive, but it cannot be filled with inferior products. The development goal of Everbright City Pedestrian Street is to build a high-quality goods concentration place for Ming Dynasty and even the whole world.

On the east side of the pedestrian street is a large playground, which is now a place that all children in Beijing yearn for, with carousels, seesaws, swings, slides, hanging swings, toy houses and mazes, roller coasters built using the drop, etc.

In order to encourage children to practice literature and martial arts, there are also recreational activities such as guessing riddles and archery to win prizes.

The construction of this place did not consider profit at all, but only to balance the income and expenditure.

Therefore, the ticket price and the unit price of various facilities are relatively low. Unexpectedly, since the opening, it has become very popular. Not only children love to come here to play, but also the sons and daughters of wealthy families enjoy it and earn a lot of money.

She is so famous that even the concubines in the Forbidden City have heard about it. The only four-year-old Princess Aunt Zhu of Kunxing pesters Zheng Xiu'e and Chu Chu every time she sees her, asking about the toys in the playground.

Chu Chu spoke more casually, and she told Aimee Zhu that she would definitely find a chance to take her to the playground to have fun all day when the spring is warm and the flowers bloom.

Of course the four-year-old child likes to play, she has kept Chu Chu's promise in her heart, and now whenever she sees her coming to the Forbidden City, she will ask when she will be taken out of the palace to the playground in the outer city.

Zheng Xiu'e found that Chu Chu's casual words made Princess Kunxing think about it for several months, which was a bit funny, so she specially discussed with Queen Zhou to take Princess Kunxing to Huang's mansion in the city that never sleeps for a few days when the weather is warmer.

Chongzhen's heirs are not prosperous, and now there are only two sons and one daughter. Zheng Xiu'e has the idea of ​​taking the prince and prince out of the palace for fun.

In fact, the women in the Forbidden City all want to go to the playground, but it is not easy for them to leave the palace. Chongzhen is very strict with his son, but relatively speaking, he is much more tolerant of Kunxing. It is not harmful to let Zheng Xiu'e take him out of the palace to play for a few days .

Empress Zhou agreed to Zheng Xiu'e in front of Kunxing, and the four-year-old princess was overjoyed. Of course, the five-year-old crown prince Zhu Cihong looked bitter.

(End of this chapter)