Great Zhou Empire: Kill Zhao Kuangyin at the beginning

Chapter 491 Free Medical Care for All (Special thanks to the book friend 2021…0300 for the 2 monthly tickets!)

In the afternoon, Chai Zongxun summoned dozens of the most beautiful Fuso noble women to the Yeongbokgung Palace.

After selecting seven young and beautiful women to enter the harem, he issued an order to reward all the remaining Fuso noble women to the princes, ministers and soldiers who had made contributions to the Royal Navy.

In the past few years, the wars in the Great Zhou Dynasty were always land battles, with the Royal Army showing off its strength and the Royal Navy rarely having the opportunity to show its prowess.

Three days later, on November 8, Emperor Chai Zongxun of the Great Zhou offered sacrifices to heaven at the Altar of Land and Grain to reward the Royal Navy officers and soldiers who went on the expedition to Fuso.

After the Imperial Eunuch Tang Qi read out the imperial edict announcing the merits of taking over Fusang, he rewarded the entire army generously:

The reward for soldiers starts at 100 taels of silver, and their rank is promoted three levels.

The pension for fallen soldiers starts at 300 taels of silver, and disabled soldiers are given retirement silver, a monthly subsidy of 2 taels of silver, and lifelong support.

As for the soldiers under Jing Qiong who had made great contributions in the war with the Royal Navy, each of them was rewarded with thirty taels of silver and ten acres of Fusang land, and was allowed to return to their farmland.

On November 15, the 36th year of Kaixi, early morning court.

The Vice Minister and Minister of Revenue Wang Dan came out of the class and said:

“Your Majesty, now that the barbarians are all pacified and there are no more enemies on the sea, the court supports two fleets of the Royal Navy, totaling 200,000 people. The annual expenditure of the national treasury for salaries alone is more than 12 million taels of silver.

If the cost of manufacturing and maintaining warships is added, it will be another huge amount of money.

In my humble opinion, it would be better to cut the Royal Navy by half and use the extra warships as royal merchant ships of the "Royal Commercial Group" to go overseas for trade.

In this way, with one reduction and one increase, the national treasury can increase its silver by more than 30 million taels every year."

The cabinet chief, Hu Yanzan, immediately came out and said:

“As the saying goes, ‘Forgetting war leads to danger!
Your Majesty, although our Great Zhou has now been pacified, our territory is extremely vast and we are the largest and most powerful country in the world!

To rule such a vast territory, the Royal Navy will be needed in many places in the future! How can it be abolished?
In the past, Your Majesty entrusted me with the important task of recovering Annan. Thanks to the Royal Navy, which quickly sent the Longxiang Army from the navy, we were able to successfully launch a surprise attack on Ding Ni's party!
I think the Royal Navy must not be cut!"

The civil and military ministers on the left and right sides of the hall were clearly divided. They all spoke out in support of their own chief ministers, and the verbal sparring was quite exciting.

Chai Zongxun thought:
"As long as the system is well designed, it will be good to let the civil and military officials perform their respective duties and check and balance each other. I think the military officials are not necessarily inferior to the civil officials in their eloquence.

Just like Zhao Ni in my previous life, for the sake of the so-called stability of imperial power, self-castration of Chinese military power is really the most stupid! The root cause is that this thief is usurping the throne!
Civil officials control most of the power, so wouldn't they think of murdering the emperor?"

Chai Zongxun listened to the arguments of the civil and military officials in the palace for a while, but felt that it was a bit boring, so he spoke:

“The Royal Navy cannot be abolished.

Fusang is but a tiny country. How can we say that the whole world will be at peace if we pacify it?
Our Great Zhou has a thriving maritime trade today. Just to protect domestic and foreign merchant ships heading south on the sea and to suppress pirates, we need to maintain two fleets of the Royal Navy in such a vast sea area.

For example, Yelu Xian and others fled from the far north to the "Maya Continent". Why didn't I conquer them for the past twenty years?

Isn’t it because it’s too far away over the sea?

As long as the maritime trade is kept prosperous, and the annual tax revenue of the national treasury is above 400 million taels of silver, why should we be stingy with tens of millions taels of silver in the Royal Navy expenditure!
The future duty of the Royal Navy is to cruise the vast seas of our Great Zhou and explore new continents."

The emperor had already spoken, and all the ministers said:
"Your Majesty is wise!" By mid-December, within this year, Chai Zongxun had crowned three princes as kings and granted palaces to three princesses.

On December 22, when Chai Zongxun was writing an economics monograph in Yanfu Hall in the afternoon, a eunuch outside the hall reported that the Minister of War Li Fang wanted to see him.

Chai Zongxun had an idea and immediately summoned him to see the emperor.

After a while, Li Fang, led by several eunuchs and imperial guards, walked into the Yanfu Hall.

After greeting, Li Fang said:
"Your Majesty, after this year I will be seventy years old, and according to the court system, it is time to retire.

I have come here specially to bid farewell to Your Majesty! After spending New Year's Eve in Bianjing, I will retire and return to my hometown to retire."

Li Fang, courtesy name Mingyuan, was born in 925 AD in the third year of Tongguang reign of the Later Tang Dynasty. He was a native of Raoyang, Shenzhou. He passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi in the Later Han Dynasty. He served as a secretary, right picker of relics, and editor of Jixian Hall.

He was a cautious and kind person who liked to entertain guests. This year, the 36th year of Kaixi (995), had passed, and he reached the age of 70 to retire and return home as stipulated in the "retirement system" set by Chai Zongxun.

Chai Zongxun sighed:
"Minister Li has been an official for nearly fifty years and has made outstanding achievements. Now that he has reached the age of retirement, I cannot force him to stay.

I have promoted you to the title of Sikong, awarded you 10,000 taels of silver, and will escort you back home in glory under the escort of the Wude Division!"

Li Fang knew that he was not a direct official of Emperor Chai Zongxun, and that the fact that he could be promoted to the Minister of War and join the Cabinet was a great recognition of his abilities by the emperor. He immediately performed a great ceremony to express his gratitude.

After Li Fang got up, Chai Zongxun said:
"Lord Li has been an official for many years and is very experienced. Before we part, do you have anything to teach me?"

Li Fang repeatedly said he dared not, and said:

"Your Majesty is wise and powerful, benevolent, righteous and intelligent. You are a sage king that China has never seen before. We, the ministers, are fortunate to have lived in the era of a sage king, and to serve Your Majesty and the country with our humble talents."

Chai Zongxun insisted on his request.

Li Fang could not refuse, and said:

"Your Majesty, if there is anything that can be done to further improve the government of our Great Zhou, in my opinion, it is to implement free medical care for all people with the current tax surplus of the national treasury, but it has not been implemented yet."

According to the statistics of the annual treasury revenue at the end of the 36th year of Kaixi, expenditures were greatly reduced after the Xingxing Sect was pacified.

The annual tax revenue from the country and maritime trade reached 1.5 billion taels of silver, with a surplus of nearly one-third, or 400 million taels.

In order to improve the medical benefits for the people, the imperial court invested about 1 million taels of silver each year in medical treatment and medicine for the people, about tael per person.

There are about 2 million doctors in the country, accounting for nearly 1% of the population. The annual medical fee income is about 70 million taels, and the average annual income of each doctor is 35 taels, which is slightly higher than the average annual income of 29 taels and 30 taels for workshop workers and shop assistants.

In other words, under Chai Zongxun's welfare policy of using financial resources to guarantee people's ability to seek medical treatment, the annual output value of the medical industry in the Great Zhou Dynasty reached a huge scale of 300 million taels of silver.

Chai Zongxun knew that what Li Fang said made sense. If the court implemented free medical care for all the people, it would only have to spend an additional 70 million taels of silver on top of the current annual investment of 230 million taels for medicine. With a treasury surplus of 400 million taels, it would not be difficult to implement the plan even though there were several major projects under construction, such as the imperial mausoleum, the second phase of the Great Zhou Straight Road, and the expansion of Bianliang.

Chai Zongxun nodded slightly and said:
"Lord Li's suggestion is very good and practical, but the policy of providing free medical care to all and having the court pay doctors' fees is not feasible at the moment."

(End of this chapter)