Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 562
Li Jing was shocked when he heard this: "What? Only a dozen or so guards? Why did Yang Xuan only arrange this manpower?"

After Li Jing entered Beijing, he lived in Dongnuange for nearly a year. At first, Xiao Wu served as the commander of the guards in charge of the palace's security. Later, it was replaced by Xiao Jiu. After Li Jing moved out of the palace, Xiao Jiu stepped down as the commander of the guards of the palace. , the post of guard commander was taken over by deputy commander Yang Xuan.

Of course, this deputy commander, Yang Xuan, is also Li Jing's man. He is one of the orphans Li Jing adopted ten years ago, ranking twelfth among those orphans.

Wang Chengen hurriedly said: "My lord, Commander Yang is not to blame for this matter. Hearing that the emperor is going out of the palace to visit the Duke, Commander Yang wanted to arrange for guards to accompany him. The emperor was in a hurry and did not wait for them. Commander Yang was afraid that something might happen to the emperor. He blocked it, and got a big mouth from the emperor."

Li Jing nodded lightly, thinking that Yang Xuan would not be so careless, he only brought a dozen bodyguards to protect the emperor.

Looking at Wang Chengen, Li Jing smiled, Wang Chengen really knew how to do things, he told himself in advance that the emperor had beaten Yang Xuan, if Yang Xuan told him, his meaning might have changed.

After waving his hand, Li Jing said, "Sit down, let's all sit down. Come and serve tea."

Zhu Youjian laughed and said: "You don't need to say hello, Cheng En is here, do you still need to order?"

Li Jing smiled and said: "This is not the same, you come to see me, how can I let the prince do these trivial things, not to mention the prince and the emperor are exhausted all the way, so he should let him have a rest."

Wang Chengen smiled and said: "My lord, this old slave is a servant. If you don't want me to serve you, I feel uncomfortable in my heart."

Li Jing shook his head and said with a smile: "I can't afford it, as for you, as long as you serve the emperor well."

While joking, Li Xiang came in with hot tea, Wang Chengen took it, passed a cup to Li Jing, and another cup to Zhu Youjian.

Zhu Youjian took a sip and said, "Brother Li, you are not in good health yet, why did you start to deal with official duties? Things can't be done all at once, you can't do it so hard. "

Li Jing said with a smile: "I will explain what will happen next year, and after the explanation is over, I will rest for a few days."

Zhu Youjian sighed softly when he heard the words.

After a while Zhu Youjian said: "I just heard from outside the door that you said who you want to give grace to. Let me see it. Who is it?"

Li Jing smiled and said: "King Li Zong of North Korea, you took the time to meet him a year ago."

Zhu Youjian pondered for a while and said, "What should I say when I see him?"

Li Jing smiled and said: "You can say whatever you want. I remember that after Li Zong became the king of North Korea, he didn't seem to go to Beijing to worship the emperor. If you don't know what to say, you should reprimand him first. After the training, Make him a Marquis."

"Slap first, then give jujube to eat?" Zhu Youjian laughed.

Li Jing smiled and said: "Yes, that's what it means. Your Majesty, let me tell you, North Korea has always been loyal to Daming, but they are really reluctant to merge them into Daming. If we directly send officials to manage In North Korea, these Koreans must make trouble, so for the time being, the North Koreans have to manage the North Koreans themselves. After all, this Li Zong used to be the king, and we always save him some face, so I let the emperor give him the title of Marquis."

"Isn't it a bit high to be a Marquis? Cao Wenzhao is only a Marquis now, and Huang Taiji is also a Marquis. Isn't it a bit inappropriate for Li Zong to be a Marquis like them?" Zhu Youjian said.

"There's nothing inappropriate. Cao Wenzhao doesn't care about this, and neither does Huang Taiji." Li Jing laughed.

"How about making Li Zong a third-class marquis, two levels behind Cao Wenzhao and Huang Taiji?" Zhu Youjian pondered.

"No, Li Zong was also a king in the past. What's the point of making him a third-class prince? It's better not to make him a prince." Li Jing shook his head and said.

After a pause, Li Jing said: "If you think it's inappropriate, you can give Cao Wenzhao another promotion. I originally wanted to give Cao Wenzhao the title of Duke."

Zhu Youjian shook his head again and again when he heard the words: "Cao Wenzhao will definitely not agree. Brother Li is the Duke of the state. How can Cao Wenzhao be the same as Brother Li? Or, I will make Brother Li the king? You want to agree to the title?" King, they'll be fine."

Li Jing shook his head hastily and said, "Conferring the king? Are you kidding me! I'm working hard to cut down the feudal clan. If I become the king myself, wouldn't that be slapping myself in the face!"

After waving his hand, Li Jing continued: "Okay, let's not talk about this matter, let's continue to explain the arrangements for next year. Alas! Where did I just say? Be careful, show me your records."

"Marshal, if you are tired, take a rest first." Yang Liufeng said hastily.

Li Jing shook his head: "Rest after finishing the work."

Yang Liufeng had no choice but to pass the record to Li Jing.

Li Jing looked at it and said: "There is also the matter of sending troops to Manla. Now that Ming's troops are scattered all over the place, it is really not easy to mobilize a division of soldiers. Brother Gao, where can we mobilize 1 troops?" come out."

Gao Qi pondered and said: "I'm afraid it's not easy to transfer 1 people to Manjijia. The main reason is that we are short of troops. You also know that our Jishi Army has only 5 people in total, and they are scattered among various troops. Except for Cao Wen There are 2 Jishi troops led by the imperial edict, such as Hong Chengchou in Shaanxi, Lu Xiangsheng in Henan, Brother Sun, Dahu and Er Leng, and other generals.

To send to Manlaja, of course the most elite troops must be dispatched, but if the Jishi Army is dispatched from various troops, the combat effectiveness of each army will drop sharply. "

Hearing this, Li Jing pondered for a while and said: "We can't send all the Jishi Army to garrison Manjijia. I think it is better to deploy 1000 people, and the rest can be ordinary soldiers. By the way, as I said earlier, the auxiliary soldiers should be converted into regular soldiers. Did you give the order?"

"It has been issued, but Mr. Shen said that it will take effect next year." Gao Qi said.

Seeing that Li Jing was a bit puzzled, Shen Zheng smiled and said, "Hehe, according to my statistics, there are more than 25 auxiliary soldiers in Ming Dynasty. The monthly salary of the soldiers is nearly two taels of silver. Even according to the minimum standard of the Jishi Army, after the auxiliary soldiers are promoted to the main soldiers, each person needs to pay an extra one tael of silver per month.

That's 25 people! 25 people are 25 taels of silver per month, and this is not counting the treatment after being promoted to a soldier.

In addition, after the auxiliary soldiers become full-time recruits, the recruits will be transferred to auxiliary soldiers. This is more than 20 to 30 people. The salary of these people will also be increased, and the monthly expenditure will be more than [-] taels.

I did the math, and I can save nearly 200 million taels of silver in the past few months. 200 million taels, which is equivalent to a year's tax in those wealthy provinces in the south. "

Li Jing nodded slightly after hearing this.

As for how much the military salary is reasonable, Li Jing once thought about it.

According to the prices in Ming Dynasty, a family of five can live on for a year with three taels of silver, and if they are more frugal, they can even live with one tael of silver.

But if you spend three taels of silver a year, the standard of living is quite low. Basically, you can't eat meat a few times a year, and you don't dare to add clothes at will.If you spend one tael of silver a year, you can only eat meat once a year during the Chinese New Year, forget about clothes, you have to wear old clothes during the New Year.

In addition, there is a prerequisite for living with such a small amount of money, that is, the family must have land and does not need to spend money to buy food. If the family only earns three taels of silver a year, it basically costs starve.

The price of grain in the Ming Dynasty was relatively stable in the middle and early Ming Dynasty. On average, a stone of grain was between 250 Wen and [-] Wen (unhulled grain), and one tael of silver was exchanged for a thousand copper coins. That is to say, one tael of silver can buy nearly four shi of grain rice. Calculated according to the rice yield rate of one to two, one tael of silver can almost buy two shi of clean rice.

A stone of rice is about 120 catties, and an adult needs to eat at least 180 catties of rice a year, that is to say, an adult needs to eat a stone and a half of rice a year.Then a family of five would have to eat seven stone and a half meters a year, which is close to four taels of silver.

Of course, ordinary people will definitely not spend such money, because ordinary people usually do not buy rice and flour. The rations of ordinary people are mainly corn grains, and the price of corn grains is lower than that of polished rice.

This counts the price of corn and miscellaneous grains, which is about [-]% lower than that of polished rice, which means that ordinary people also need three taels of silver to eat corn and miscellaneous grains.

But people can't just have rice, but also salt, cooking oil, and vegetables.In addition, people still need clothing and housing. When these are added together, no matter how much money is saved, at least one tael of silver is needed.

In other words, in the middle and early Ming Dynasty, if there was no land, the annual expenses of a family of five would be at least four taels of silver.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, grain prices began to rise, and at the same time, the exchange rate between silver and copper coins declined. For rice, it costs one tael to one tael of silver per stone, that is to say, the price of grain has doubled and a half at this time.

In fact, during the Tianqi and Chongzhen years, there were successive years of natural disasters and wars, and the price of food began to soar, and the price of rice in many places reached five or six taels per stone.But in places where natural disasters are the most serious and wars are most frequent, a stone of rice can even cost dozens of taels of silver.

Of course, Li Jing would not calculate the food price according to this price. If it were calculated according to this price, the common people would all starve to death.Li Jing calculates the price of grain based on the average price of the grain production area plus transportation costs, plus the profit of the grain merchant.

In major grain-producing provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Lianghu, the net rice costs about one tael, five or six taels of silver. When transported to the capital, a tael of rice costs more than two taels of silver.

That is to say, if ordinary people do not have land and rely entirely on buying, then a family of five, no matter how they save, will need at least eight taels of silver for food a year.Plus miscellaneous expenses, nine taels of silver a year.

The military salary of an ordinary soldier in Ming Dynasty is seven or eight taels of silver a month, and after a year, it is only eight taels of silver to support a family and barely make ends meet.If the payment was in arrears, the soldier's family would have no food to eat, so whenever the court was in arrears with the payment, some soldiers would make trouble and even follow the bandits to rebel.

(End of this chapter)