Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 407 Ten Years of Yongle
"At that time, there were more than 81,625,000 people in the world, more than 32 acres of land, more than 6,220,32 acres, 72 acres and six cents, and a tax of 40 million dan."

"Thirty-four thousand nine hundred and forty-two taels and three cents of gold, more than one million nine hundred and fifty-two thousand taels of silver, and more than two million six hundred and forty-three thousand taels of copper."

"There are more than 2,703,000 pieces of miscellaneous items, commercial taxes, mining taxes, salt and tea taxes, and 100 pieces of iron, lead, silk, silk, silk, satin, cloth, cotton and other items. There are more than thirty-five thousand strings left."

"The annual income from food is 40 million guan, and the annual income from other various forms is more than 8,682,000 guan."

Amidst the sound of firecrackers, one year old was born, and in the Fengtian Hall, Guo Zi, the Minister of Household Affairs in court uniforms, reported the results. The ministers in court uniforms in the entire temple sighed inwardly at the changes in the Ming Dynasty over the years.

From 60 million people and 4.52 million hectares in the 14th year of Hongwu to more than 80 million people and more than 6.2 million hectares in the 10th year of Yongle.

Most of these populations and cultivated land were hidden during the middle and late Hongwu period, but now they were measured and investigated by Zhu Gaoxu using academic records.

However, in the Ming Dynasty, there were two chief secretaries in the capital and fourteen. Currently, there are only six chief secretaries who implement the New Deal. Adding one from Beizhili, there are only seven, not even half of the world.

If Zhu Gaoxu continues to demand that the next Chief Secretaries implement the New Deal, that will be a frightening outcome.

Fortunately, judging from the news they received, the implementation of the New Deal seemed to have reached its limit.

In these years, in addition to the seven places where the New Deal was implemented, many Beiwa guards along the coast and guards in Shaanxi have been converted into civilian households, with their number reaching more than 700,000.

These are where the guard system shines. It is no longer needed in the mainland. It is enough to retain only 20,000 to 40,000 permanent soldiers in various places.

The annual expenditure on food for these more than 700,000 military households is only 9 million dan.

Only when Zheng He brought back the gold and silver obtained from this voyage could Zhu Gaoxu fully promote the New Deal in Jiangnan.

If these garrison troops were converted into civilians, the number of remaining combat troops would be only about 300,000, and military food expenditures would drop from more than 14 million to 6 million.

"Now that it has been implemented for many years, each province still collects taxes according to the fixed quota. Is there something wrong with this..."

At the same time, his eyes also scanned the ministers, seemingly with a bit of provocation.

After Wang Hui finished speaking, the entire temple could not stand.

"Sure!" Regarding Zhang Yu's words, Zhu Di chose to agree without hesitation.

His words shocked the ministers. After all, in the second year of Yongle, the Governor's Mansion paid more than 27 million dan for military rations and more than 2 million dan for military pay.

Standing under his golden platform, Zhu Gaoxu also smiled lightly and glanced at the ministers. The pressure brought by the father and son made the ministers bow their heads.

By then, the Ming Dynasty's military food expenditure will be controlled at about 10 million dan, and military pay will be around 7 million guan.

As long as Jiangnan is solved, it will be much easier to implement it in Shaanxi, Guangdong, Yunnan, Huguang, and Fujian.

Sanxuan and Liuwei, the Nanyang region, Nanzhou in the south, other places in the Northeast, and the Western Regions...

I have to say that the pressure on Zheng He's shoulders is really great now. He not only has to bear the flint pressure required for the army's northern expedition, but also has to bear the financial pressure of the implementation of the Jiangnan New Deal.

The reason why the officials are unwilling to expose it is very simple, because if they really collect taxes according to ten taxes, it is equivalent to actively requesting that the New Deal be implemented in Jiangnan.

"Your Majesty, I, the Minister of the Household Department, have something to report..."

One of Zhu Gaoxu's New Deal policies was to abolish many health clinics in the mainland and convert them into civilian households.

After excluding these 60 professional garrison soldiers in the Ming Dynasty, there were only 216 garrison garrison stations left, numbering close to 1.21 million, but nearly 75% of them were garrison troops.

Considering the current population of more than 30 million in Jiangnan, the total number of teachers and officials required to implement the New Deal is at least 500,000 to raise this tax and promote official education.

As for Zhu Gaoxu's idea, it is also very simple, that is, the current Ming Dynasty has insufficient finances to implement the New Deal in the most densely populated Jiangnan region.

"Accurate!" Zhu Di wanted to see what the official was trying to do, but Wang Hui continued;
“The implementation of the New Deal was supposed to impose taxes on each province on a one-for-ten tax basis.”

How can these people in the temple not understand such a problem?
But the problem is that no one is willing to break through this layer, not even Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Di on the golden platform.

But I didn't expect that the military rations now only require more than 18 million yuan, but the military pay has only increased by more than 1.4 million yuan.

Suddenly, a sudden sound sounded in the Fengtian Palace. Everyone looked around and saw a young official in his mid-twenties bowing.

To maintain such a large number of officials and teachers, the money and food required are beyond what the Ming Dynasty can afford today.

"The annual military rations are 18 million dan, and the military pay is more than 340 guan."

After eliminating them, only the original combat troops were retained in various places, numbering nearly 240,000, including 70,000 in the navy, a total of 60 guards, with a strength of 336,000.

Indeed, if the method announced by Zhu Gaoxu was followed, the tax collection in the Ming Dynasty should have abolished the quota of land tax, and instead collected taxes based on the output of each mu of land in each region.

In addition, the soldiers will also rotate with the frontier every three years in accordance with Zhu Gaoxu's system to ensure the combat effectiveness of the mainland soldiers.

However, after so many years of implementation of the New Deal, various localities still collect taxes according to fixed quotas, which is somewhat unreasonable.

Despite increased spending, the quality of the military has improved.

Although they could accept the imperial court's implementation of the New Deal in Jiangnan, they would not take the initiative to ask for it.

Zhu Yuanzhang's garrison system can continue, but by then the troops will be used to fight and the garrison will be cultivated. Once the proportion of local Han people remains above 50%, the garrison will either be abolished for the people or organized into the army, step by step Push outward.

Just when the ministers were thinking about the increasing financial expenditure, they did not expect Zhang Yu, the British Duke of the Sixth Army Governor's Mansion, to stand up and bow to him.

Not only that, overseas places such as Jiaozhi, Jiugang, Luzon, and outside the customs such as Daning will continue to increase the number of field guards.

"This year, the imperial court needs to allocate 400,000 dan for military rations, 3.4 million dan for military pay, and another 2 million dan for bean feed."

However, at the same time, the amount of grain in the current military garrisons will plummet to the level of only 40 overseas garrisons, worth about three million shi.

But it’s normal to think about it. Although Zhu Gaoxu talked about how it would be after the implementation of the New Deal, the reality is that local fiscal expenditures are getting larger and larger, and now they are so large that they account for one-third of the fiscal budget.

"Last year, the Sixth Army Governor's Mansion had 17.6 million shi of farmland. There were more than 158,000 army horses and 365,000 riding horses."

After all, the current number of officials in Jiangnan is simply not enough to implement the one-in-ten tax collection method.

If Zheng He knew all this, he would probably speed up and rush back to the Ming Dynasty. After all, he had already entered the Malacca Strait at this moment.

Not to mention his side, what needs to be solved urgently at the moment is mainly Wang Hui's matter.

Zhu Gaoxu remembered this man. He was from Jilin City, Bohai Sea, Shandong Province, which meant that he was a real member of the Bohai New Deal faction.

Given his status in proposing this idea, it is not difficult to see that the young and powerful New Dealers are very dissatisfied with the imperial court's practice of limiting the number of officials recruited in the past two years.

In their view, the Ming Dynasty needed more officials, and it was difficult for the children in their hometown to become officials through the imperial examination, so they had to take the official path.

Anyway, the officials and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River have always discriminated against the northerners, and now they are taking this opportunity to go to the south of the Yangtze River and deal with these guys.

Zhu Gaoxu can guarantee that once the New Deal is implemented in Jiangnan, even if he does not have to ask, officials and staff from the New Deal faction will make every effort to investigate officials from Jiangnan.

Whenever they have issues of principle, the New Dealers will kill them.

The contradiction between the north and the south was always a hurdle that could not be overcome in the early Ming Dynasty. Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu wanted to drag out the emperors and scholar-bureaucrats from Zhao and Song Dynasties to Lingchi.

A policy of "southerns return to the south and northerners return to the north" has literally divided the north and the south for more than two hundred years, not to mention the various operations of Sanyi Huihe that ruined the people and economy of the north.

Although he wanted Jiangnan officials to be suppressed, he did not want Jiangnan officials to die.

If the officials in Jiangnan are really killed, then the New Deal faction will be a bit like a single family.

"If we use the method of taxing one out of ten, there are more than 6.2 million hectares of cultivated land in the world, and we can harvest at least 780 million stone field tax."

"According to my experience in participating in the implementation of the New Deal in Sichuan, the level of subordinate officials appointed during the Hongwu period was low, and most of the people were fishermen. In addition, various inventions such as linjiankihu, Kuzi, cattail baskets, bamboo baskets, oral food... etc. were invented. There are endless ways to exploit people.”

"Relying on these means, they exploited tens of millions of dan in land tax and grain. Therefore, although the imperial court had a quota of 32 million dan, the subordinate officials collected 60 to 70 million dan, thus pocketing most of it."

"In this way, the imperial court has become the small head, and the subordinate officials have become the big head."

"Since the implementation of the New Deal in Sichuan, we have collected taxes according to the method of one out of ten taxes, which has reduced the burden on the people, and the grain they receive every year far exceeds the quota set by the imperial court."

"It's just that due to quota restrictions, the harvested grain can only be stored in the township's communal warehouses."

"As time goes by, even a humble minister can't help but become greedy..."

"Because of this, I would like to ask Your Majesty whether to implement the new policy of one tax per ten tax, or to continue to follow the quota during the Hongwu period."

Wang Hui called the junior officials in the Hongwu period as subordinate officials, and called the junior officials in the New Deal as official officials. His words were full of contempt for the former minor officials.

Everyone knows that he is a pawn pushed up by New Deal officials. If this thing succeeds, he will rise to the top.

If he failed, it would be difficult for him to be killed. After all, he had the protection of Jilin City.

Everyone knows that the current Donggong takes great care of officials and staff from Jilin City. Naturally, they will not think that the Donggong, who rarely kills people on weekdays, will ask for the life of this king.

However, the ministers did not want Zhu Gaoxu to really implement the New Deal in Jiangnan now. After all, most of their farmland had not been sold yet.

"There is some truth in what you say."

When Zhu Gaoxu said his words of agreement, the expressions of Xie Jin and others in the temple changed.

"However, the imperial court currently does not have the extra money to implement the New Deal in the south of the Yangtze River, not to mention that Shaanxi in the north has not implemented the New Deal. It is not good to act too hastily."

"Therefore, this year we will start piloting the one-ten-tax tax in Shandong, Liaodong, and Sichuan where the New Deal has been implemented, while Beizhili, Shanxi, Henan, and Guizhou will have to wait another year."

Logically speaking, except for Guizhou, which needs to rest and recuperate after the war, the rest of Beizhili, Shanxi, and Henan should be able to pay taxes according to the one-in-ten tax policy.

But since Zhu Gaoxu has to defer for a year, it doesn't matter.

"As for the provinces, let's wait for the spice sales in Xicang and the return of the voyage fleet to promote the New Deal."

"According to the schedule, Zheng He should arrive in the capital in April, but the current court cannot wait for him, so in the first half of this year, it will go all out to start the new policy of Shaanxi and Shaanxi Xingdusi."

For the New Dealers who deal with millions of people at every turn, Shaanxi, with a maximum population of just over three million, will not put any pressure on them.

In the first half of the year, they spent six months fully deploying the Shaanxi New Deal, which was not difficult for them.

"Zhao Sheng, a member of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, has something to report..." An official in his thirties came out. He was also an official of the New Deal faction, and was among the first batch of graduates. Therefore, Zhu Gaoxu took advantage of it and recommended thousands of people to become officials. of that batch.

"Yes!" Zhu Di said without thinking. He also wanted to see what these New Dealers wanted to do.

"I have just made a mental calculation. Based on the numbers from Shaanxi and Xingdusi, it is necessary to dispatch about 20,000 officials and 30,000 teachers."

Zhao Sheng did not intend to be the first, he was simply settling accounts.

"In this case, we will select from the students who graduated at the end of last year. Shaanxi Dusi and Xingdusi will cooperate with each other."

After Zhu Di responded, he glanced around the crowd to make sure that no one wanted to go to the rear, then he stood up and walked to the rear of the palace.

Zhu Gaoxu followed, and upon seeing this, the minister of Honglu Temple sang loudly: "Dismiss the court!"

"Long live your Majesty, long live long live..."

Listening to the singing of the roaring mountains and the tsunami, Zhu Di, who returned to the Fengtian Palace, changed out of his royal robes and put on his plain clothes under the service of his slaves.

Zhu Gaoxu, like him, put on plain clothes.

"The momentum of the New Deal is fierce, you have to keep an eye on it."

After putting on his clothes and walking to the palace gate, Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu exchanged words with each other. Zhu Gaoxu also nodded: "The New Deal must be implemented, but they cannot be allowed to overthrow traditional Confucianism. Both parties must maintain a balance."

"I know this well. Please relax, father."

"Well!" Seeing what Zhu Gaoxu said, Zhu Di didn't say much more and just said:

"When Jiangnan is going to implement the New Deal, you should find a way to deal with Ji Gang and Chen Ying."

As Zhu Di's white gloves, Ji Gang and Chen Ying can be said to have arrested a large number of officials who were dissatisfied with Zhu Di for Zhu Di's impeachment, and investigated many affairs of the vassal kings.

Although Zhu Shangbing and Zhu Jixi were not targeted as miserably as in history because of Zhu Gaoxu, they were also impeached by Ji Gang and Chen Ying. Not only did they obediently hand over their guards, they also stayed behind closed doors and only had fun in the palace. .

Upon seeing this, the other vassals also expressed their intention to hand over the guards, but Zhu Di refused.

The Qin and Jin mansions needed him to be vigilant because of their seniority. As for the other vassal kings, as long as they didn't make too much trouble, Zhu Di would not deliberately target them.

But compared to him, the reason why Zhu Gaoxu agreed to the vassal kings retaining guards was because he was prepared to arrange another title change in a few decades.

He originally transferred these vassal kings to the southwest in order to stabilize the situation in the southwest and make the court pay attention to the southwest.

Now that the Dongman tribes in Hunan and the chieftains in Guizhou have been sorted out by Muchun, Li Jinglong, and Gu Cheng, it will be meaningless when the chieftains in Yunnan, Guangxi, and Sichuan are also repatriated, and the vassals seal the southwest.

At that time, the Western Regions, Sanxuan and Liuwei, and southern Jiaozhi will be their destination.

As for Nanyang, Zhu Gaoxu would not easily canonize vassal kings. Even if he wanted to do so, he would do so to his descendants. After all, it was easy for that place to take the initiative to separatist regimes when domestic unrest broke out.

However, if the vassals are to be willing to go to Sanxuan and Liuwei, they must increase the development of Sanxuan and Liuwei.

Apart from anything else, the most important thing is for the migrant population to have a suitable living environment.

In this era when coal is not widely available, the best fuel is trees. To provide firewood for a family for a year, at least seven or eight towering trees need to be cut down.

If Zhu Gaoxu remembers correctly, the old leader of his unit in his previous life was born in the Yunnan border area.

According to their words, they have never seen any miasma or malaria in their lives.

Even in places with abundant rainfall in southern Yunnan, the mountains were still bare in the 1960s and 1970s because people needed firewood.

As for most of the trees they see when they travel now, they are actually trees that survived the economic development in the 1990s and slowly grew when gas and electricity entered people's homes.

Before there was gas and electricity, unless local coal was extremely cheap, there was no shortage of people cutting down trees.

For the people in Jiangnan, if Zhu Gaoxu's new policy had not vigorously developed coal in Liaodong and Shanxi, the coal output in Suzhou and Xuzhou alone would not be enough to provide the local people with hot meals.

Diversion of coal from the north to the south and diversion of grain from the south to the north can be said to be a small policy under the New Deal. Due to insufficient transportation capacity, it is also very difficult to transport coal from the north to the south.

But even so, coal prices in Jiangnan have been suppressed a lot.

In addition, trees in Guizhou and Sichuan are also cut down in batches and sold along the Yangtze River to Jiangxi and South Zhili.

Even dried river firewood can be sold for twenty-five cents per hundred catties.

Compared with the thirty-three coins per load during the Hongwu period, it was already a visible bargain, but for the common people, the price was still too high.

Therefore, there is no shortage of farmers in the Jiangnan area today.

"gone."

Zhu Di's voice woke up Zhu Gaoxu, and watching him get on the bus and go away, Zhu Gaoxu turned his thoughts to Ji Gang and Chen Ying.

These two people have used their fathers to make money over the years. As white gloves, they should do the last thing before they die.

The implementation of the New Deal in Jiangnan will definitely be very difficult for the people, so you have to prepare early.

After thinking about it, Zhu Gaoxu also sat on the Buyu and returned to Chunhe Hall a quarter of an hour later.

When he returned here, he saw Guo Yan waiting here.

After the death of Queen Xu, Guo Yan began to manage the harem for Zhu Di.

Although she is a princess, most of the women in the harem are in their twenties and thirties, and Zhu Di is now fifty years old.

Except for Zhu Gaoxu who knew that he could live for a long time, the other concubines did not know how long he could live. Therefore, in their opinion, the best thing they should do was to curry favor with Haodong Palace.

Although Zhu Di was instructed by Zhu Gaoxu when he came to the throne, he criticized Zhu Yunwen for forging a posthumous edict and burying the concubines of Emperor Gao. However, no one knows whether Zhu Gaoxu will follow Zhu Yunwen's example after Zhu Di's death and bury the Daxing Emperor for the sake of the peace of the harem. Concubines.

Only by fawning over Zhu Gaoxu can they continue to live their lives with peace of mind.

However, Zhu Gaoxu was unable to go to the harem, so the only person they fawned over was Guo Yan, the crown prince who was currently in charge of managing the harem.

"Why did you come to Chunhe Hall to look for me today?"

It seems that the death of Queen Xu touched Zhu Gaoxu a little, and he seemed to have more feelings for Guo Yan, who had been accompanying him since his youth.

Zhu Gaoxu's change was noticed by Guo Yan. She was happy and sighed to him:
"Zhan He and Zhan Qi didn't go to official school much last year, and they didn't take any exams."

"I can't control them in the harem, and Zhang Fengyi can't control them either."

"Huh?" Hearing that Zhu Zhanhe and Zhu Zhanqi were skipping school, Zhu Gaoxu frowned slightly, and then looked at the eunuch on duty: "Isn't anyone interested in them?"

"I took care of them, but..." The eunuch on duty hesitated, obviously not daring to take care of these two masters.

"Let Yishiha help take care of them in the future. If they don't obey, give me a hard spanking on their butts."

Zhu Gaoxu frowned and gave an order, then said to Guo Yan: "After you find them, bring them to Chunhe Hall."

"You won't..." Guo Yan was afraid that Zhu Gaoxu would make a move against Zhu Zhanhe and the others, but Zhu Gaoxu interrupted: "I won't make a move."

To be honest, Zhu Gaoxu really didn't dare to attack the two children. Who knew if he would use too much force and beat his son to death.

"Yes..." Seeing Zhu Gaoxu say this, Guo Yan breathed a sigh of relief, then returned the greeting and exited the Chunhe Hall.

Zhu Gaoxu returned to his chair to handle government affairs. About two hours later, noisy noises sounded from outside the hall.

"Yidaban! Let me go!"

"I'm sorry, grandson, Your Highness wants to see you."

"Second brother, what are you doing! If you are strong, just take care of Yi Daban!"

"I can not……"

Zhu Zhanhe was noisily carried into Chunhe Hall by Yishiha. As soon as he entered the place and looked into Zhu Gaoxu's eyes, he stopped abruptly and did not dare to make a sound.

Zhu Zhanqi, who was behind him, followed Yi Shiha honestly, making no move to escape.

"Who are you going to deal with?!"

Zhu Gaoxu heard Zhu Zhanhe's words and immediately asked Zhu Zhanhe in a deep voice. Zhu Zhanhe was startled and knelt on the ground while Yishiha let go.

"Dad, I am joking..."

Zhu Gaoxu was not originally going to deal with Zhu Zhanhe, but when he heard that he was going to deal with it, he suddenly lost his temper.

He stood up aggressively and walked towards Zhu Zhanhe. Yi Shiha was startled and quickly protected him in front of Zhu Zhanhe.

Zhu Zhanhe and Zhu Zhanqi had never seen their father look so cold, and they were so frightened that they could not stand up.

"Dad...Dad...I was wrong..."

Zhu Zhanhe quickly admitted his mistake. After all, he had witnessed his father subduing a fierce horse in the backyard of the East Palace and provoking three guards while playing with him.

If his father had punched him, he would have to answer here today.

"Gu tells you that Yishiha is brother Paoze who has followed Gu from Jilin City to the present day."

"If I hear you being disrespectful to him again in the future, please stop calling me your father."

Holding back his temper, Zhu Gaoxu did not make a move. Instead, he coldly used "Gu" as a self-identification that he had rarely used over the years, and verbally reprimanded Zhu Zhanhe.

Although he was only ten years old, when Zhu Zhanhe heard that his father claimed to be an orphan, he was so frightened that he lowered his head and did not dare to say anything.

"Get up and tell me why you skipped school with your dick!"

The eunuch on duty brought a chair to Zhu Gaoxu, and he sat down, ready to see what Zhu Zhanhe could tell him.

(End of this chapter)