Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 403 Surrender

If the soldiers and horses are not moving, the grain and grass will go first.

The third Northern Expedition has not yet been officially decided, but money and food must be prepared first.

Although there is a voice in Nanjing at the moment, and it is not small, it has the support of many scholars and people, and that is peace talks.Beijing has once again sent envoys south to demand a truce and peace talks.

Zhu Yihai also knew very well that the tartars' petty thinking was just a tactic to delay the attack.However, he was still willing to play with the Tartars, so on the surface, he still let the court choose representatives to negotiate with the Tartars.

This undoubtedly caused some misunderstandings among the people. They really thought that Daming had already stabilized half of the country and could divide it from the Tartars.The cruelty of war is obvious. Now that there is an opportunity to cease the war, many people are actually willing.

They just wishful thinking that peace can really be negotiated, but they did not expect or are unwilling to think that peace cannot be negotiated.

The people talked about the matter of drawing the river to rule, and even many officials appeared in the court to discuss peace.

A peace faction appeared in the court, and there were quite a few of them.

Some people are afraid of war, they are afraid, and now they can have half of the country, so they want to negotiate a peace quickly, and want to settle down.As for some officials, it is because they have insufficient intelligence information, which leads to deviations in their judgments. They believe that under the current situation, it is beneficial to negotiate a peace for the time being.

Take the opportunity to recuperate, resume production, and stabilize the south, so that they can fight again in the future and regain the Central Plains. They are the slow-war faction.

If the fight continues, I'm afraid it will collapse and subjugate the country.

Anyway, no matter what the idea is, everyone is very active and enthusiastic about negotiating peace, and many people have even discussed in private what conditions should be raised, whether to establish the Southern and Northern Dynasties side by side, or to let the Tatars call their vassals. Of course, everyone knows that the Tatars are now Zizi occupies the north, and its strength may be stronger than that of the south.

But everyone is definitely unwilling to accept the fact that Ming paid tribute to the Tartars, so they still feel that even if they want to talk about it, it will follow the old rules. Before Jianzhou Jurchen was a vassal of Ming, so it can fake the previous example of the Joseon Kingdom. Make Manchu Qing a vassal state of Ming Dynasty.

No matter how heated everyone's talk, Zhu Yihai's heart is still firm.

It is impossible to negotiate peace. Now that there is a chance, if you don't rush to beat the tartars, let them relax, it will be even more difficult then.

Although the national treasury is now empty and Jiangnan is corrupt, we still have to fight and maintain an active offensive posture. If we turn to defensive, we will be passive everywhere.

What's more, Zhu Yihai held up the banner of resisting the Qing Dynasty to restore the present Ming Dynasty. If there is a peace and truce, the remnant Ming may start to fight among themselves again.

It is necessary to continue to attack and continue the Northern Expedition, so as to transfer all internal conflicts and unify the outside world. Under the banner of the Northern Expedition, many things are much more convenient to do.

Once the peace is negotiated, many people feel that there is no threat of national subjugation and genocide, and they may want to make trouble again.

Of course, not everyone wants to negotiate a peace, and there are still quite a few main fighters, including important officials in the court and ordinary scholars.

Some daring scholars openly wrote letters, attacking the court's peacemakers as capitulators, saying they were traitors, and saying that the emperor was weak.

Some young censors were even more bold and straightforward, and their words were very rude. After reading it, Zhu Yihai was not angry, but very relieved.

He deliberately wrote the passionate letters of these main fighters, let them be published in the imperial court newspaper, and even copied by Fuxing Daily, so that more people could know these voices and attitudes.

His reaction made many people quite satisfied. In comparison, when Chongzhen was trapped internally and externally, and was beaten to Beijing by the Tartars, he thought about negotiating a peace in order to gain opportunities, but he wanted to negotiate a peace, but he didn't want to. Dare to bear this infamy, secretly send ministers to discuss things, but refuse to bear the responsibility when things are leaked, and instead kill ministers to take the blame. This kind of behavior is actually irresponsible.

In contrast, Zhu Yihai was very generous. He accepted the suggestions of some peacemakers and selected officials to start contacting the Qing envoys to prepare for negotiations.

But even at the beginning of the peace talks, he didn't say that there should be no objections. As long as what he said made sense, he even let it be published in the newspaper.

This attitude is at least acceptable to all the officials and civilians.

Of course, on the surface, the public peace talks, despite the infamy of many Qingliu scholars and bureaucrats, said that the land of the Central Plains, every inch is the land of the ancestors, and even the land of the Liaodong Jurchen, which was already the homeland of the Han family as early as the Han and Tang Dynasties, and should not be discarded lightly. Zhu Yihai doesn't care about these things.

He is a pragmatic emperor.

Peace negotiation is only a means of struggle.

Fortunately, the important ministers in the court today, no matter whether they are the main peace or the main battle, under Zhu Yihai's summoning and honesty, most of them understand the emperor's intentions, and they also support the emperor's pragmatic approach.

As the center of the court, Zhu Yihai's will was well implemented.

Shouting and shouting outside will not cause chaos in the Ming Dynasty Hall.

The generals of the imperial camp were also summoned by the emperor one after another. The three generals supported the plan of the Northern Expedition. Compared with the officials of the imperial court, many of the imperial camp officials were from lower backgrounds. Yes, those soldiers in the imperial camp are now receiving high salaries and enjoying good benefits. They know very well who gave it all and how it came about.

So they supported the Northern Expedition more than anyone else, and they were all willing to fight, because fighting in the Northern Expedition would lead to a better life.

They are not afraid of death, nor are they afraid of war. Many imperial soldiers used to be miners, farmers, small traders, and even poor military households in the guard.

If you can trade your life for future, money and food, fields and houses, or even the emperor marrying them, then there is nothing to be afraid of.

Many generals in the imperial camp were originally ordinary people, such as Yang Boxing, who used to be a woodcutter, and Zhang Quan, who was just a defeated soldier.

Not to mention many lieutenants participating in guerrillas and so on.

Their fate and future are not tied to Daming, but to Emperor Zhu Yihai, without Zhu Yihai, they would not have everything.

Not to mention Zhu Yihai's three Northern Expeditions, even if Zhu Yihai now says that he wants to lead troops to directly attack Beijing, they are willing to follow to the death.

Once fighting, leaving the garrison, even the military salary will be much higher, and there will be an increase in rations, not to mention the meritorious service, rewards, and even promotions in the war, so there is no reason not to support the Northern Expedition.

The generals of the imperial battalion clapped their chests one by one to express their opinion to the emperor, raising soldiers for a thousand days and using them for a while, use me in the first battle, and use me to win.They don't care about other things, just fight, and fight wherever the emperor dictates.

Zhu Yihai was very satisfied with this attitude, he deserved to be the pro-army of the imperial camp brought out by him, and all conditions were given priority, and fortunately, he insisted on himself as the superintendent of the warlord and led the troops himself.

There is no need to worry about the morale of the army, the only thing Zhu Yihai needs to worry about now is food and salary.

"All lijin, salt tax, and customs duties are dedicated to the imperial army."

In order to be able to fight the Northern Expedition well, and for the establishment of imperial camps in other places, Zhu Yihai specially decreed that all the money collected by the Lijin Bureau, Shibo Division, Chaoguan, and Yansi Yamen in various places should be earmarked for the Imperial Army. The battalion is used for the food and equipment of the imperial camp, as well as marching and fighting, pensions, etc.

However, the land tax and silver collected by the imperial court from the per-mu level were turned over to the state treasury for palace expenses, salaries for officials, food and salaries for the Beijing and provincial camps.

The remaining part of the local government is responsible for the salaries of local officials, the expenses of regimental training, Baojia, and water conservancy projects.

The rest of the industrial and commercial tax is under the unified management of the Ministry of Households, and it is used for some construction projects or disaster relief at the imperial court and local governments.

Zhu Yihai also has the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Royal Manor, the Weaving Bureau and other manors and mineral workshops, and even trading houses, caravans, etc. The money earned from these is Zhu Yihai's private money, which is mainly used for rewards.

Live within your means.

Each income has its own arrangements, but the imperial camp is obviously very special, they have special funds for the army, and now there are a lot of income from lijin, salt tax, banknote tariff, and customs tax, and with the recovery of the entire Jiangnan, the income will increase in the future A substantial increase.

With such a guarantee of the source of special funds, the food, wages and equipment of the imperial camp can also be guaranteed.

Although it seems unfair to other armies, for Zhu Yihai, good steel must be used on the blade.

To reorganize the national army, reorganize the private army of those local military leaders into the official army, and control it, the best way is to start with money and food.

The construction of imperial camps in various places is to first ensure the guarantee of income and expenditure of money and food, and prohibit local military leaders from collecting additional distributions privately, or even withholding local taxes, or even openly smuggling, etc.

Without the support of money and food, the local military leaders would not be able to separate their regimes. They could only rely on the supply of money and food from the imperial court. Naturally, their lifeblood would be held by the emperor, and they could only obey the emperor in the future.

Likin is essentially an additional industrial and commercial tax. The industrial and commercial tax was almost abolished in the past, but now it has been reintroduced. Zhu Yihai has also levied an additional likin on top of the regular industrial and commercial tax. Although this likin may not seem high, Zhu Yihai has set up a special likin bureau , and from the disabled soldiers in the imperial camp to the officers of the tax police regiment, plus some supplementary tax police, especially the tax police regiment is specially directed by the imperial camp.

Therefore, Zhu Yihai's Lijin Bureau has a strong collection ability. The front is the tax police group, but behind it is the imperial army from all over the country. No one dares to mess with the Lijin Bureau. They are a special yamen directly under the emperor at the same time.

This particularity from top to bottom makes the Lijin Bureau a powerful department. In just half a year last year, the Lijin Bureau collected more than 200 million taels of silver in Zhejiang. This is only the five prefectures in eastern Zhejiang, not including western Zhejiang.

This year, the director of the General Administration of Lijin reported to Zhu Yihai that the General Administration of Lijin has begun to be established in the recovered places, and it is expected to collect 600 million taels of lijin this year.

In fact, I still have some reservations. The figure of 600 million mainly refers to the amount collected in the areas under the control of the imperial camp. As for the three provinces in the south of the Lingnan and the three provinces in the southwest, although these places have also begun to set up lijin bureaus, they are temporarily controlled by the local governors. I am also receiving it, so I don't expect too much lijin to be handed over for the time being.

But even the figure of 600 million taels is still very astonishing.

Last year, the salt tax revenue was more than 270 million taels. This year, after the restoration of Jiangnan, it is expected to reach 600 million. Such a high salt tax revenue is mainly brought about by the new salt administration. In addition, the amount of private salt was reduced instead. Although the salt tax was reduced and the income of salt nests was also reduced, the scope of salt tax collection was wider, especially the imperial camp also supported the salt tax business and strongly guaranteed the collection of salt tax.

Only half of the country is used, but the salt tax can be several times that of the whole country before.

According to the report of the salt tax office, if the whole country is restored, the national salt tax revenue will even reach as much as [-] million taels a year.

The income from customs duties and banknote duties was not high last year, but the imperial court also operated foreign trade firms and directly operated trade, so the total income was nearly one million taels.

This is still affected by the war, otherwise the income from customs and trade is very high, even if it is tens of millions of taels a year, it is not surprising.

Therefore, this year's expected lijin income is 600 million taels, salt tax is 600 million, and customs tax and foreign trade can also be one million, adding up to 300 million taels.

If all this money is used to supply the troops of the imperial camp, it is not a small amount.

At that time, the Ming Dynasty tried its best to build the Guanning Army for support. The court spent several million taels of military expenditure in Liaodong a year. The new army is elite.

Zhu Yihai has 300 million for the imperial camp, which can definitely guarantee that the elite of the imperial camp can fight.

The imperial battalion, the left wing, and the right wing, plus the Fujian camp, the Huguang camp, and the proposed Sichuan-Guizhou camp, Shaanxi-Ganxi camp, and Yunyang camp.

The three armies of the headquarters, plus five battalions, the left and right sides of the headquarters each have six towns with [-] soldiers, and the six towns of the Central Army have [-] soldiers in each town plus [-] soldiers directly under them.

Five battalions, each with [-] soldiers, totaling [-] soldiers.

Then the imperial battalion can be expanded to 11 soldiers in the headquarters this year, 13 in the Five Elements Battalion, adding up to 15 soldiers, and [-] auxiliary soldiers, totaling [-].

This troop strength is definitely very strong. If 300 million taels of silver are spread among these 15 soldiers, one soldier can spread 83 taels.

The average food and salary of the imperial camp is about 50 taels a year for a soldier, plus the consumption of equipment, war horses, etc., if there are soldiers for war, plus rewards and pensions, then 300 million taels a year for the imperial camp is not enough.

A base of 500 million is not included in the additional military expenses for the war. If the Northern Expedition is going to take place this year and camps are set up in various places, at least 500 million or even 1000 million will be added.

Of the 500 million military expenditures, the salt tax, lijin, and customs duties alone are not enough, and there is still a shortage of 200 million. Zhu Yihai does not plan to use land tax, Dingyin, and industrial and commercial taxes for this part.

After all, the money has already been allocated for use, and there is nothing left.

He can only find supplements from other places, such as issuing national debt, and then such as persuading donations to raise wages, and then supporting the war with war, seizing money and food through war, and seizing land, houses, goods, etc. for sale, or even beating local tyrants.

For example, confiscating the property of Tartar officials, or confiscating the property of those who surrendered and collaborating with the enemy.

The last way to make money is to sell officials, not simply selling officials, but selling some false titles, such as prison students, who pay to sit in prison.

Or sell some scholars, recruits or even some officials without real positions, usually some officials with false titles below the fourth rank, buy them with an identity, you can honor your ancestors, even do not kneel when you see officials, and you can’t even use torture directly in case of lawsuits , You have to report to seize your identity first, anyway, there are some small privileges.

But you cannot directly serve as an official.

In fact, many people are willing to buy this kind of supervision and official status.

For example, in the Qing Dynasty, a fourth-rank Taoist title cost 6000 taels of silver to buy, but you can only wear fourth-rank official uniforms after buying it, not being a fourth-rank official. Under normal circumstances, it is actually impossible to really have it in a lifetime There is a real shortage of jobs, but this is still very attractive to many wealthy people.

It is still possible to sell officials, issue bonds, and raise donations. It is still possible to make millions or tens of millions a year. Of course, if the Northern Expedition goes well, the money obtained through seizure, seizure, and confiscation will not be less. , the key is to be able to win.

(End of this chapter)