Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 103
"In that case, the minister will leave."

Just as Du Yinxi was about to turn around and leave, he was stopped by Chongzhen again.

"Duqing, stay here." Chongzhen waved his hand, "I forgot there is one more thing."

Du Yinxi hurriedly turned around and bowed to the ground, waiting for Chongzhen to ask him.

Chongzhen said: "Duqing's farming in Xuzhou is going well? Is there any difficulty?"

The leader of Chongzhen was really incompetent enough, but he only gave Du Yinxi the title of censor of farming, and he didn't even give him a single official, nor did he give him a penny of funds.

It's been more than a month now, and I just remembered to ask.

"No." Du Yinxi shook his head and said, "It went well, and there were no difficulties."

In fact, Du Yinxi's farming in Xuzhou was not as smooth as he said, and he encountered many difficulties in the middle, but they were all solved by Du Yinxi, so I don't want to say more.

Du Yinxi is such a straightforward character.

Don't want to show credit for making achievements, and don't want to complain when encountering difficulties.

Unless he encounters a difficulty that he really can't solve, he will ask someone for help.

For example, the problem of grain storage is beyond his ability, so he can only find Chongzhen.

Du Yinxi didn't want to say more, so Chongzhen could only ask himself: "I'll just say it, how many acres of wasteland have you cultivated so far?"

Xuzhou was also hit by wars, and most of the fertile land was ruined.

When Chongzhen first arrived in Xuzhou, he could barely see any crops.

Du Yinxi said without hesitation: "Most of the barren land in Xuzhou has been recultivated. The specific number of acres has not been counted yet, but I roughly estimate that it should be four million acres."

"Four million mu?" Chongzhen couldn't help being stunned when he heard this.

To be honest, this was really beyond his expectations.

Based on 1.5 million mu, even if one mu produces 600 shi, this year's autumn grain will be as large as [-] million shi!

Moreover, it is Tuntian, the land rent for Tuntian is neither 3 liters, 3 in 5 teaspoons per mu for civilian land, nor 5 liters, 3 in 5 teaspoons per mu for official land, but half of it is directly collected, which is 300 million shi!

Thinking of this, Chongzhen couldn't help but wanted to say I'll go!Isn't this too awesome?

It seems that Du Yinxi's ability is stronger than he imagined, a real capable official!
In other words, when the autumn rations come out this year, there is no need to worry about military rations.

Du Yinxi guessed what Chongzhen was thinking, and hurriedly said: "The sage doesn't know something. In order to solve the problem of seeds, I had to borrow grain seeds from the gentry in Xuzhou and neighboring counties. , and subtracting the income of refugees and officials Lumi, the final balance is estimated to be about 200 million shi."

"Jin Gentleman?" Chongzhen's face darkened in an instant.

Du Yinxi's words touched a sensitive nerve of Chongzhen.

Chongzhen said: "The thieves have ravaged the Central Plains for so long, and the Jin gentry in Xuzhou have survived?"

"Yes, and there are hundreds of them." Du Yinxi said, "I heard that after the imperial court recovered Xuzhou, these gentry came back one after another."

"These gentlemen are quite capable of saving their lives."

Chongzhen said in disbelief, "They must have asked you for the good wasteland, right?"

"I have asked for it." Du Yinxi said, "But it is impossible for the minister to pay them back. Not only will they not give it this year, but they will also have to pay the extra land rent for re-cultivation to the court next year and the year after."

Chongzhen walked back and forth for a few steps, and suddenly said: "Du Qing, I entrust you with an errand."

Du Yinxi bowed to the ground again, and said in a respectful voice, "Please show me, Your Majesty."

"You should carefully check these gentry in Xuzhou, and if you have time, you can also check the Jin gentry in the entire Central Plains." Chongzhen said pointedly, "Let's see if they have connections with thieves?"

Du Yinxi suddenly raised his head and looked at Chongzhen in shock.

From Du Yinxi's expression, Chongzhen knew that he had understood.

"Why?" Chongzhen stared at Du Yinxi and said, "Du Qing thinks something is wrong?"

"My lord, it's really wrong, it's really wrong!" Facing Chongzhen's eyes, Du Yinxi said fearlessly, "I heard that the king doesn't compete with the people for profit, and this move by the sage is really against the way of the king."

Chongzhen was not angry, and said calmly: "Okay, then I will ask you now, do you know how many taels of silver were spent on the rewards and salaries of the frontier troops in the ten towns in Xia Town this month?"

"I have heard about it." Du Yinxi said, "A total of 60 taels."

Chongzhen said: "Then I will ask you again now, can the frontier army of the twenty-eight towns in Xuzhou be able to stop the army of building slaves?"

"No." Du Yinxi said without hesitation, "If you want to defend the Huanghuai defense line, you need at least [-] frontier troops, and there are no problems with the bandits. Otherwise, Jiannu can go to Shaanxi first, and then pass through Huguang. If we go down the Yangtze River and take Nanjing directly, Zuo Liangyu, who is guarding Wuchang, will probably be hard to resist."

Chongzhen said: "Then I will ask you again, how much do the [-] frontier troops need each month?"

Du Yinxi: "According to the standard of Ji Town, the salary needs to be 80 taels per month, and the war salary is 240 million taels. If there is another war, there will be a large number of killings or casualties, the expenditure will most likely rise to 300 taels." Ten thousand or even four million taels!"

Du Yinxi himself was taken aback when he said this number, because it was too exaggerated.

This is one month's expenditure, how much military salary will be spent in that year?It costs 960 million taels to do nothing!

Chongzhen was also secretly shocked when he heard this, and at the same time strengthened his determination to reduce recruitment. 40 recruits are absolutely unaffordable, and at this stage even 20 cannot be supported.

"Du Qing, then I'll ask you again." Chongzhen said solemnly, "Where did so much money come from?"

Gu Yinxi muttered for a while, wanting to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, but swallowed the words again, because such a big gap cannot be solved simply by increasing revenue and reducing expenditure.

In the Ming Dynasty, the regular tax, the small tax, the corvee plus the three rates, it is 2000 million taels a year, and now half of the land north of the Yellow River has been completely lost. Although the rich land in the south of the Yangtze River is still there, the tax will definitely be reduced. Coupled with natural and man-made disasters and the pockets of officials at all levels, it would be nice to collect half of the taxes this year.

In other words, it may not be enough to use all the taxes for a year to maintain the Huanghuai defense line.

In this case, how can we increase revenue and reduce expenditure?No matter how we increase revenue and reduce expenditure, we can't bear it.

Seeing that Du Yinxi was being questioned by himself, Chongzhen said quietly: "Du Qing, let me tell you a story. One year, there was a flood in Xin'an River in Zhejiang."

"If the dams in Jiande and Chun'an counties in the upper reaches are destroyed to release the flood, then the two counties of Jiande and Chun'an will be submerged."

"However, if Jiande and Chun'an counties refuse to destroy the dam to release the flood, then the richest Hangzhou Prefecture will be submerged, and the loss will be ten times greater at the national level!"

"If you were the governor of Zhejiang, how would you choose?"

Du Yinxi showed bitterness on his face, and said: "I will choose to drown Jiande and Chun'an counties."

"So, do you understand?" Chongzhen sighed, "As the Son of Heaven, I am the father of all the people in the world, and all the people in the world are my subjects. As the saying goes, the palms of the hands and the backs of the hands are all flesh, and I am actually very embarrassed."

After a while of silence, Du Yinxi asked: "Is there no other better way?"

Chongzhen said in his heart that there is of course a better way, but it is unlikely to be effective in a short time.

And there's no need to tell Du Yinxi this, he wouldn't understand it, and there's a high probability that it will cause opposition.

No matter how clean and honest Du Yinxi is, he is still a civil servant after all. The order of scholars, farmers, businessmen, and the idea of ​​emphasizing agriculture and suppressing businessmen have long been integrated into their bones, which is difficult to change.

So just emphasize to Du Yinxi the matter of the northern gentry.

"Du Qing, as long as you have a better countermeasure, I will immediately change course." Chongzhen said solemnly.

"So, I understand." Du Yinxi bowed and said, "I will definitely handle the errands assigned by the Holy Majesty."

Hearing this, Chongzhen heaved a sigh of relief. With Du Yinxi's words, he doesn't need to worry about the preliminary preparations for this matter. The only thing he has to do now is to prepare to reap the fruits of victory.

At this time, Du Yinxi suddenly said again: "Your Majesty, although I have temporarily recruited some officials in Xuzhou, it is already extremely difficult for these officials to deal with farming. Then go to investigate the words of the gentry in Xuzhou and the surrounding counties and counties." , this manpower is far from enough, so can you transfer some people to the minister?"

Chongzhen said: "There are no officials, but there is an army."

"The army is also fine." Du Yinxi said without thinking, "Three hundred people are enough."

"I'll give you 2600 people!" Chongzhen directly assigned Jin Xuan's [-] cavalry to Du Yinxi. Anyway, Jin Xuan has nothing serious to do now, and just happened to assist Du Yinxi in investigating the nobles.

Speaking of this meal, Chongzhen waved to Lu Jiude again.

Lu Jiude quickly got down and stepped in front of Chongzhen with broken steps.

Chongzhen said: "You take my oral order and ask Jin Xuan to assist Du Qing with all his strength, and then you stay with Du Qing, so you don't have to go to Nanjing for the time being."

"Old slave obeys the order." Lu Jiude took the oral order and left with Du Yinxi.

To be honest, Lu Jiude is now eager to leave Chongzhen's side.

Companion to the king is like companion to the tiger, not to mention that he has supported the king of Fu in the past.

Even though the Holy Majesty seems to be much more magnanimous than before, but when it comes to the issue of succession to the throne, Lu Jiude feels that the Holy Majesty may not be magnanimous, so it is better not to be in front of the king.

Chongzhen said to Wang Chengen again: "Wang Daban, let the navy come to shore."

After receiving Chongzhen's oral order, Zheng Hongkui quickly commanded the naval warship to dock and put down the sampan.

Chongzhen took Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong ashore, and after thinking for a while, he asked Wang Chengen to call Fu Shan and his four fleeing scholars to the shore together, and then joined Hu Guozhu's [-] barbarians and went straight to Shanyang by land.

Chongzhen originally planned to take a leisurely return to Nanjing by water, but now that there is a problem with grain, he can only rush there by land as soon as possible, otherwise the more than 80 refugees in Xuzhou will run out of food.

Sometimes, Chongzhen really felt that he was a firefighter.

Ever since traveling to the Ming Dynasty, he didn't even have time to catch his breath.

(End of this chapter)