Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 707 Loyalty Society

"Being safe from the outside must be done first!"

At a later meeting at the Prime Minister's Office, the emperor clearly stated his views.Keeping the pass and making progress must never be without soldiers, and soldiers must never be without pay.

And the salary comes from the people, and if there are people, there will be a salary, and only when the people are safe can they get a good salary.

"My lords, the Han and Tang Dynasties are revived, each has his own capital, I am mediocre, and I am afraid of embarrassing my ancestors. I am cautious, like walking on thin ice. Since the formation of the army, I have personally raised the Sixth Division, and the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains. Although there are small successes, the world is still in turmoil.

Qing and others persuaded me to send my troops to take Beijing directly, and then the situation was unstable and the people were not safe. If we use troops like this, the people will be in trouble, and I will be uneasy. "

Zhu Yihai's words are very clear, don't look at Huguang without a fight now, but for Daming, the situation looks good on the surface, but in fact it has already supported to the limit.

In particular, the southeastern provinces that the imperial court really controls are relatively strong, half of the other newly recovered Shandong and Hebei, Henan and Hubei, and Yunnan, Guizhou, Guizhou and Gansu. These places basically have no real governance rights.

Without real control, it is not called real recovery.

Without military power, there would be no governing power, no wealth and taxation, and no stability.During the Zhengde period, Wuzong fought against Mongolia, and as a result, there were thieves everywhere in Nangan, Yunyang, Pianyuan and other places, and the Liaodong Jurchen also began to grow.Not to mention the three major levies of Wanli, which emptied the foundation of the country, and Mingshi died in Wanli.

The Chongzhen Dynasty and Jurchen fought in Liaodong. As a result, peasant uprisings rose up in the interior, and it was a pincer attack from both inside and outside.

Since the Ming Dynasty, three inter-provincial governors have been set up in the mainland, namely Nangan, Yunyang and Pianyuan. Nangan governs the border counties of Jiangxi, Huguang, Fujian and Guangdong. They are stationed in Ganzhou to arrest robbers and appease the refugees.

The governor of Yunyang was established to manage the refugees in Yunxiang, and was in charge of the military and civilian affairs of the five provinces and eight prefectures in the four provinces of Sichuan, Hubei, Henan and Shaanxi.

Governor Pianyuan was originally set up specifically for the Battle of Bozhou, assisting in the transportation of military supplies, and later also served as the admiral of military affairs to suppress the Miao Rebellion.

These places are all after the social turmoil in the Ming Dynasty. A large number of people fled their hometowns and became refugees. They poured into remote mountainous areas with vast land and sparsely populated areas, especially in the areas where several provinces bordered and lacked management, to cultivate wasteland, mine, etc., and caused serious banditry. Therefore, the imperial court had to set up a special governor to facilitate cross-provincial suppression of bandits and peace of the people.

The refugee problem among the people was serious, and then it turned into bandit rebellion, and then the peasant uprising in the late Ming Dynasty.

In the final analysis, the people could not survive.

Whether it was the continuous use of troops against Mongolia in the early and mid-Ming Dynasty, or the later Wanli Three Great Expeditions, or the war against the Jurchen since the late Ming Dynasty, coupled with the corruption of officials, and the huge loopholes in the country's fiscal and taxation system, it caused internal troubles. The collapse of foreign aggression, poor people are the first to fall.

They were forced to leave their homes and became hungry people, then refugees, then bandits, and finally rebels.

It is necessary to rejuvenate the Ming Dynasty to drive out the Tartars.

But the outside world must also be settled, otherwise a situation like that of Chongzhen may appear. The court officers and soldiers fought desperately with the Jurchen outside the pass, and as a result, the backyard caught fire, Liao pay, famine, etc. caused the people to revolt one after another.

This kind of thing happened endlessly in history.

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty conquered Goguryeo three times, and then Wang Bo, a native of Shandong, revolted in Changbai Mountain, sang the death song of Liaodong waves, set off a great uprising at the end of the Sui Dynasty, and sang the funeral song of the Sui Dynasty.

Later, Li Shiminxiong, Yang Guangbiao's nephew, was called Tian Khan by the grasslands, but he didn't dare to send troops to Liaodong until his later years, and he only dared to send [-] troops.

"I need the provinces of Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Henan, Jiangbei, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi to provide taxes to the imperial court. I hope that the provinces can be stable so that they can reduce the excessive army to save military expenditure.

I also need the place to be stable and the people to work happily, so as to reduce the relief money and food. "

Wen Anzhi, Ruan Dacheng and other great scholars listened to the emperor's words and couldn't help but nodded in understanding.

Indeed, although the imperial court has recovered most of the world, but now, the provinces that can really pay taxes to the imperial court and do not need subsidies from the imperial court are Jiangdong, Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangbei, Shandong, and Liaodong. Sichuan has been at war before, and it is still in a state of continuous subsidies.

If it weren't for Zhu Yihai's maritime trade, collecting industrial and commercial taxes, and effectively controlling taxes on salt, tea, wine, mines, etc., he could also levy lijin, plus confiscation of criminal property, sale of official property, and subsidies for income from official and royal operations, etc. How can it support such continuous military expansion, payment, and equipment.

But in the past two years, the expansion of the land has been a bit fast, and many places have not been able to turn losses into profits, and have always been subsidized, which makes Zhu Yihai helpless.

He wanted to strike into Guanzhong while the iron was hot, kill Nikan, kill Wu Sangui, and then march into Shanxi, join forces with the Hebei army, and regain Beijing in one fell swoop.

However, Wen Anzhi, the chief assistant, Ruan Dacheng, a senior scholar of the branch of the household department, and Ma Shiying, the minister of the new household department, are all warning the emperor that there is no money in the treasury, and there is not much food and grass to supply. With so many troops marching into Guanzhong to fight, Not to mention going to Shanxi and Beijing in one go.

Money and food can't support it.

Pay the central and local officials, pay more and more imperial camps, foreign towns, village towns, and regiments, pay the postmen in post houses, pay salaries and subsidies to schools in various places, and give the people everywhere Relief and disaster relief, recruiting refugees to resume farming, and even paying for farming immigrants in border areas.

There are also special funds for repairing the Yellow River and canals and dredging water conservancy.

It is even an interest-free and low-interest loan for the people to resume production.

But these newly recovered places, because after the war, the imperial court had to exempt the land and silver, and even the industry and commerce had to be preferentially reduced or exempted.

Gold sucking black holes are everywhere.

The imperial court also issued a lot of special government bonds, such as the Yellow River government bond, such as the Huaihe River governance bond, such as the Yangtze River government bond, such as the post station government bond, etc. A lot of money was borrowed, which had not yet matured, but interest had to be paid every year.

Taxes don't rise, spending skyrockets.

It's hard for a clever woman to cook without rice.

The emperor also had to suspend the pace of military offensives, and began to turn around to reorganize the army, reduce military expenditures, and organize places, hoping to resume production as soon as possible and increase fiscal and tax revenue.

Solving financial problems is nothing more than two means, increasing revenue and reducing expenditure.

Zhu Yihai also has a third method, which is to raise debt and issue national bonds. Since Chongzhen, a large number of low-level people have gone bankrupt and are still waiting for relief. They can't even pay taxes, let alone buy bonds. borrow.

Before the fall of the country, Chongzhen asked ministers and relatives to borrow money, but they couldn’t borrow money. Zhu Yihai borrowed money, and what he did was bonds, but the essence was also borrowing money, but there was a complete set of bill rules, and the interest was [-]%.

Moreover, Zhu Yihai's successive victories in the military also provided him with credit that he would not borrow. Although the interest was relatively not very high, it was still considered safe.

However, debts must be repaid, and you cannot borrow infinitely.

The most critical thing is to increase revenue and reduce expenditure.

Open source is nothing more than strengthening foreign trade, increasing the price of public land, selling mineral resources, etc., or increasing the income of state-owned handicraft workshops, etc., but these increases are difficult.

So it has to be throttling.

Now, among the fiscal expenditures, military expenditures account for the largest proportion.

The two main ones are fighting and raising troops, so Zhu Yihai can only choose to suspend the war and continue to reorganize and reduce troops.

Although the provincial towns and outer towns have lower military pay, they are large in number and expensive. Now that the south is pacified, they are of little use and the cost performance is too low. Especially the imperial court has weak control over them. They are composed of local rebels, Composed of armed landlords, tribal soldiers, and even bandits and refugees, the military discipline is poor and the people are disturbed.

Now, it has become a burden and hidden danger of the imperial court, and it is time to clean up and rectify.

Tunzhen and regiment training, although the cost of military pay is not high, they also need to be rectified in depth.

"Now the overall disarmament of the army will require a large amount of demobilization and resettlement expenses." Ruan Shicheng said bluntly that the emperor has always treated soldiers generously. A generous severance package.In addition to the several months of salary saved by the soldiers every year, the court had to double it again, which was another large sum.

"As for the severance pay and the provident fund, it's not a problem. They should be paid as much as they want, but they can be paid on a monthly basis and paid out in a few years, so that the financial burden will not be so big." Zhu Yihai said directly. .

Liu Chao came in.

"Your Majesty, the factory guards have secretly reported that Zhang An is plotting chaos, and the Longwu army will rebel."

This astonishing news fell into the ears of the emperor, but he was not surprised at all, he just nodded, and then said to the ministers with his usual expression, "No accident, there is still an accident, Zhang An wants to rebel, Long Wu The army is going to make trouble, which makes me very disappointed."

Wen Anzhi and others were all moved when they heard this.

"Your Majesty, please hurry up and order troops to surround the Longwu army."

"It doesn't matter, there are a large army here, and thousands of barbarians can still fight against the sky. I am just a little regretful. I have treated Zhang An like this, and I have treated the Longwu Army well. I have added officials, promoted them, awarded them rewards, and distributed them. I just gave them yesterday. The decree is to give each of them [-] mu of land, and give them a free wife, and the officers will keep them, and the brave soldiers will also choose them, and they will continue to be paid and fed, why should they oppose it?"

"Your Majesty, please send troops to capture Zhang An quickly to prevent the turmoil from expanding."

Zhu Yihai poured himself a cup of tea and drank it slowly.

"Don't worry, wait a little longer, I want to see what kind of noise Zhang An can make, and also want to hear what slogans he can shout."

"Liu Chao, you inform the Office of Foreign Affairs, and tell the cabinet co-organizer Yang Tinglin, official minister Wanji, Jie Chongxi, Fu Dingquan, Liu Tongsheng, Liu Guangyin, Li Yongmao, and Luo Rong, Xiao Sheng, Luo Yafu, Zhang Zisheng , Cao Dahao, Wang Laiba, Hong Guoyu, Zhao Yinxuan, Hu Yiqing and others came here."

These people are civilized and military, but they have a common feature, they all came out of Jiangxi, and most of them are Jiangxi people.

At the beginning of Zhu Yihai's army, under the leadership of Wanji, Yang Tinglin, Fu Dingquan, and Jie Chongxi, they burned incense and made an oath together in the Minglun Hall of the Confucian Temple in Ganzhou to build a loyalty society, raised the banner of resisting the Qing Dynasty, and then recruited soldiers everywhere horse.

Luo Rong, nicknamed Mr. Yan Luo, was once the leader of the southern Jiangxi tribes. Zhang An of the Longwu Army was originally just one of his forwards.

(End of this chapter)