A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 533 Development Order

Silver mining is a profitable business, and the imperial court is now sharing this profit in order to get the nobles to support the reform and innovation.

This silver mine is also in the hands of the imperial court. Now only the imperial court has large ships that can safely travel between Fusang and Daqian. In addition, only the imperial silver coin bureau is in charge of the technology and machinery for minting silver coins.

Those nobles who wanted to mint coins could only hand over the silver to the court. Even if other income is not counted, the court can control 30% of the profit from just coinage and transportation. Coupled with the 20% rent from the silver mine, the court's profit was only 50%, and more importantly, the court did not invest a lot of manpower and material resources in this.

Of course, on the surface, the court's profit is 20%, which is for the nobles to see. In fact, the imperial court sent people to Fusang to mine silver mines, which was very expensive, so it was better to share the profits with nobles.

"If it can be implemented, the imperial court's finances will be worry-free. This is a source of income."

"To reduce expenditures, the court needs to eliminate mediocre officials and strictly investigate corruption. The imperial post station is allocated by the imperial court every year and circulates throughout the country. It is supposed to facilitate the appointment of officials and the passage of official documents and edicts. Since Taizong, many servants and family members of officials have used them to borrow money. It takes a lot of time to do this. The imperial court spends no less than a million dollars on this every year."

"I request an imperial edict. Except for officials who take office, return to their hometown after serving as official officials, or for official business of the court, no one else is allowed to use the inn."

"Prime Minister, this method is very good, but if you don't use the post, it will be inconvenient for officials to move goods. Why not use them at market prices?" Wang Yi thought for a while and said.

"Your Majesty is kind."

"Nowadays, the Central Plains is crowded, and many people have become refugees or slaves of nobles and powerful families. If we do not change, it will definitely be a disaster if there is a natural disaster. I would like to ask you to clear the way to relieve the difficulties of large numbers of people and small land."

"It takes a lot of money to open the border, and most of it is in barbaric places, so you won't gain much." Wang Yi shook his head and said.

"Your Majesty, the imperial court can issue an order to summon the world's nobles, powerful people, official families, and wealthy people to go to the wild lands to explore."

"The imperial court can establish a development order. The nobles and powerful people in the world who are willing to develop can purchase from the imperial court. They are allowed to organize their own troops and horses, prepare their own food and wages, and go to develop. All the gains are their own. If they can expand the land , you can reward officers and nobles for guarding."

After hearing Chao Cuo's words, there was a sudden silence in the hall. This pioneering thing is called pioneering, but it is actually enfeoffing marquises, which is what Zhou Zhou did in those days to divide the world.

What's more, nobles and powerful men are allowed to prepare their own soldiers, horses, money and food to form an army. This was the first time since the founding of Daqian. Even according to what the decree says, if the development can be successful, it will be an actual enfeoffment.

The feudal nobles were a treatment that was only available during the Spring and Autumn Period. Even during the Warring States Period, there were fewer such feudal nobles, and the rights of the vast majority of the feudal nobles during this period were far from those of the Spring and Autumn Period.

What is the next step for the feudal nobles? Princes!

In the world, are there any noble, powerful, or official families who don’t want to be princes? Wang Yi doesn’t think so. Is this decree good? good. If it is really implemented, the court will not have to spend money, and those nobles and powerful people will prepare their own money, food and troops.

The imperial court can sit back and enjoy the success. After the success of opening the border, awarding those people titles will not only solve the problem of the imperial court having a large number of people and a small area, but also eliminate the need for the imperial court to waste money. The nobles and powerful people will also be profitable.

But Wang Yi was hesitant in his heart. It is difficult to make this determination, after all, it is to give military power to nobles and powerful men.

"Let's discuss it now!" Wang Yi finally made up his mind.

Except for the government decrees of increasing revenue, cutting expenditure, and development orders, Chao Cuo's reforms were similar to previous reforms. Basically, after a few decades, officials at all levels will slack off on these matters and then do things in violation of regulations.

The next step is to be perfunctory, and the rules and laws of the court will be in vain. In order to prevent officials from slacking off, Daqian has always set up inspection censors to supervise, but even so, there are still endless incidents of officials violating regulations.

After Wang Yi returned to the palace, he discussed the development order with the direct descendants of the Wang family. This development order looks good, but they can't guarantee whether it will cause chaos once it is opened.

Finally, the emperor's uncle Wang Kan spoke up: "The imperial court of Daqian lives in the sacred land of China. It is thousands of miles away and has hundreds of millions of people. Don't you still have the confidence to subdue the princes?"

Wang Yi thought about it and felt that this was the reason. If such a huge advantage could not be suppressed, then the country would be destroyed. He finally decided to agree to the development order.

However, although Wang Yi is prepared to grant this right, it does not mean that this right has no restrictions. If there are no restrictions, then when the time comes, just by finding a pioneer order, hundreds of soldiers and horses can be gathered for training. What will happen then?

Wang Yi plans to return the issuance of development orders to the royal family. Only with the emperor's consent will a development order be issued, and these development orders are also limited.

If you want to open up a barbaric land, if you send too many soldiers, it will cost too much. If you send too few soldiers, you will not be able to stand, and your efforts will be in vain, so you must be reasonable.

What's more, these soldiers used for development need to be trained in Daqian. If more soldiers are given, what if those daring guys rebel directly?

These must be taken into consideration, and besides these, how do weapons and equipment count? Should they be allowed to buy, or should the imperial court impose unified restrictions? All these must be made clear.

This kind of military must be made clear. There is a huge difference between soldiers without armor and soldiers with armor. If you have fifty armored elites in hand, you can easily defeat hundreds of unarmored soldiers.

But if they are not given armor, what advantage will those pioneering soldiers have when facing the barbarians? Wang Yi discussed it with his direct family members and finally decided that the pioneer soldiers were not allowed to have heavy armor, but only armor inlaid with iron leather and weighing less than twenty kilograms.

For elites, the minimum armor is thirty kilograms, and if it is heavy armor, it can reach fifty kilograms. Twenty kilograms of iron armor can only pursue key defenses and reduce the defense in other places. In this way, the armor can be reduced to twenty kilograms. .

Similarly, there are restrictions on crossbows. Crossbows and arrows are not allowed, but there are no restrictions on bows and arrows. There are no restrictions on war horses, but they are not allowed to be equipped with vests.

As for the scope of the development order, the upper limit is fifty miles. If it exceeds fifty miles, the court will prosecute. And this fifty miles is not fifty miles for you alone, but for one family. Don't think about dividing households directly, and then let the main family and collateral families do the forty-nine miles. Don't even think about taking advantage of this loophole.

Fifty miles was already a fiefdom of viscounts during the Bangzhou period. When King Wu divided the world, the duke was only a hundred miles away. Nowadays, fifty miles is the upper limit for large-scale development orders, but most development orders should be around twenty miles. It is not easy to get one with a radius of fifty miles.

(End of this chapter)