Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 667 Fiscal Strategy
After thinking about it, Li Jing said to Su Heng: "Reply to Dahu, just say that in the coming year, I will find a way to allocate a few thousand cattle for him. Don't worry about farming, but soldiers must continue to be recruited. After these soldiers are recruited, I will send them to Elsewhere. He needs to hurry up and finish this matter, preferably this year. Tell him that the military expenses allow him to take part of the taxes in Jiangsu and Zhejiang this year, and I will help him with the rest. It is better to raise tens of thousands of soldiers than to resist a battle Is the locust plague less difficult?"

"Yes!" Su Heng hurriedly said.

Then Li Jing picked up the third official document, but it was the logistics department who requested the transfer of money from the household department. The household department could not solve the problem, so the official document was transferred to Li Jing.

After reading the letter, Li Jing couldn't help but smiled wryly. This Shen Zheng didn't know what to think. He was supposed to take care of these two stalls, so he just wanted to do these superficial things, and then pushed the matter onto himself.

After thinking about it, Li Jing knew in his heart that it must be that Shen Zheng knew that Lu Song wanted to pay a sum of money to go to Beijing, so he came up with a way to get him to transfer the money to him.

Looking at the list of arrears attached to Shen Zheng's official document, the biggest one was Zhang Yan's garment factory, which owed more than 50 taels of silver for the military uniform.

Li Jing scratched his head, as if he promised Zhang Yan that he would pay the money from Lu Song when it arrived in Beijing.

With a wry smile, Li Jing said to Su Heng: "In a while, you will inform Mr. Du to transfer 100 million taels of banknotes to Shen Zheng. When Lu Song arrives in Beijing, the money from Luzon will be deposited directly into the bank's treasury."

Su Heng heard it and hurriedly recorded it.

The next few official documents are basically a tune, and they all ask for money.

Li Jing made a rough calculation, and the money that Lu Song sent back to Beijing could not fill such a big hole, and there was a shortage of more than 60 taels of silver in the end.

After reading the official document, Li Jing sighed lightly. At the end of the year, money is needed everywhere, and there is no way around it.

In the past two years, Li Jing has used various means to increase the revenue of the treasury by more than ten times compared to before, but the expenditure has also increased several times than before. Every year, the treasury has no balance, and even has a slight deficit.

Li Jing knows that the main reason is that the country's foundation is too weak and there are too many old debts owed. It is impossible to reverse the country's financial situation at once.Of course, there is no way out. The best way to reduce financial expenditure is to reduce the army and reduce military expenditure.

But Li Jing would rather insist on gritting his teeth, and he was unwilling to reduce the army. You must know that the Ming Dynasty has a vast territory, and more than 100 million troops are not many at all. According to Li Jing's estimation, at least 200 million troops are enough.

In addition, it is easy to reduce the army, but when the army is needed, it is not enough to temporarily recruit strong men. A soldier needs to train for at least two years to have combat effectiveness, and after two years, the day lily may be cold.

Another one, the biggest trouble for Ming Dynasty now is that there are natural disasters every year, so that the country doesn't even have any food reserves. It can be said that the two items of money and food have seriously restricted Li Jing's foreign strategy.

Daming basically has no place to save money now, the only way is to open source.

Among the two items of money and food, food is undoubtedly more important, so Li Jing wants to occupy Hetao, immigrate to Liaodong, and open up a new granary.As long as the food problem is solved, Li Jing's biggest worry will be gone.

Then there is the financial issue.

Daming’s current financial sources are basically fixed. Except for salt and tea and other state monopoly industries, the rest are agricultural tax and commercial tax, and agricultural tax is unstable. It depends on whether God takes care of it. The final financial source depends on business tax.

Although the commercial tax in Daming has increased slightly every year, the increase is not large, because commercial development depends on production capacity, and if production capacity cannot be improved, business cannot develop.However, under the current conditions of Ming Dynasty, it is impossible to greatly increase the production capacity, which means that the business development is slow, so naturally the business tax will not increase significantly.

Then if you want to increase fiscal revenue, you have to find another way, and the quickest way is to plunder foreign countries, followed by foreign trade.

Now it seems that the effect of external plundering is still very obvious. Just one Jakarta has solved Li Jing's biggest problem. As Luzon is gradually occupied, more and more wealth will be plundered.

Foreign trade has also begun to take shape. The Netherlands has basically become Ming's trading partner. When the Netherlands tastes the sweetness, it will inevitably drive other European countries.

As long as the Ming Dynasty holds the Managa Strait firmly in its hands, those European countries can only obtain materials from Southeast Asia through trade, seeing that they cannot open the passage to Southeast Asia by force.

However, in order to completely control the Manga Strait, it is necessary to increase the military input in Manga, and at this stage, it is obviously a loss-making business to invest in Manga.

How can Man Saga not become a burden on Daming?

There is only one way, and that is to make Manlajia a transit point for trade between Daming and Western countries.

If this material transfer station is established, Western countries will not have to travel thousands of miles to Daming for trade, but only need to go to Manga. Although the profit will definitely decrease a lot, it will save a lot of time. There is only one round trip from Europe to Daming every year. With this transfer station, it is possible to go back and forth twice a year.If you make an extra trip, the profit will be more and not less. The European side must be more willing to trade in the Malawi area.Of course, if those businessmen are not afraid of wasting time, there is no problem in coming to Daming for trade.

Seeing that Li Jing was looking at the official document, but his mind was obviously not on the official document, Su Heng knew that Li Jing had another idea in his mind.

He sighed softly. The longer he was in contact with Li Jing, the more Su Heng admired Li Jing. This person always faces difficulties, and his tenacity is really rare, but he is not blindly reckless. No matter how big the problem is, this person can always solve it. Figure out a solution.

Seeing that the tea on Li Jing's desk was already cold, Su Heng turned around and went out to pour a cup of hot tea for Li Jing, and then gently placed it on Li Jing's desk.

Seeing him, Li Jing nodded slightly at Su Heng, picked up his teacup, and took a sip.

After pondering for a while, Li Jing said to Su Heng, "Bring me the map of Manjijia."

Hearing this, Su Heng hurriedly found out the map of Manjaga from the bookcase, and spread it on the desk.

Li Jing leaned over and looked at it seriously.

The total length of the Managa Strait is more than [-] miles, the widest point in the northwest is about [-] miles, and the narrowest point in the southeast is only [-] miles.

With the current naval strength of various countries, as long as the city of Managa is guarded, the channel of the Managa Strait can be controlled, but in the long run, the south bank must also be occupied.

However, according to the information sent by Zheng Zhilong on the surrounding areas of Manga Strait, the climate and geographical conditions on the south bank of the Managa Strait are far inferior to those on the north bank, so there are almost no people on the south bank, and the investment in building a city on the south bank is too great.

After pondering for a while, Li Jing turned his attention back to the north bank. If it is temporarily impossible to build a city on the south bank, then it can't be limited to just one city in Manla.

The eastern part of Manraga is the Kingdom of Johor, and the easternmost part is Temasek Island, which is the later Singapore.

There is no doubt about the strategic position of Temasek Island, but to occupy it at this time, the Johor Kingdom must be eliminated first, and then the Johor Kingdom's manpower must be used to build a city on Temasek Island.

If a city can be built on Temasek Island, then it can take care of each other with the city of Managa, and it can better control the Managa Strait.

When the conditions are ripe, choose a suitable location on the south bank of the Managa Strait to build another city, so that both sides of the Strait can be controlled at the same time, and the Managa Strait will be safe.

After thinking silently for a while, Li Jing said to Su Heng: "Send someone to send a letter to Zheng Zhilong, asking him to deploy some warships to cooperate with Liu Hong to launch an attack on Johor. If Johor doesn't surrender, it will be destroyed."

"Huh? There is still a war going on at this time!" Su Heng was shocked when he heard this.

Li Jing waved his hand and said, "I plan to build Manchu as a trade transfer station between Daming and Western countries, such a strategic place integrating military and commerce, how can there be a regime that is not subordinate to Daming?

If the Western countries unite with the Johor State, we will be attacked by land and sea at the same time. It will be more troublesome to deal with it at that time. It is better to destroy the Johor State now, and then we can focus on establishing a transfer station. "

Su Heng heard the words and suddenly said: "It turns out that the commander-in-chief planned this. He frightened the students just now, and the students thought... thought..."

"You think I'll feel bad if I don't fight for a while?" Li Jing laughed.

"Students don't dare." Su Heng said hastily.

Li Jing said with a smile: "I was born as a soldier. It's true that I like fighting, but it's not to this extent."

With a slight smile, Li Jing continued: "Wars must be fought meaningfully. For us, a battle that can ensure the safety of Daming is a meaningful battle, and a battle that can create value for Daming is meaningful. The battle of Taiwan, the battle of Macau, the battle of Luzon, and this time the battle against Johor are all for this purpose.”

"The commander-in-chief has a long-term perspective, and the students are amazed." Su Heng said.

Li Jing waved his hand: "We must hurry up and try to solve the Johor state next year, and then use the manpower and material resources of the Johor state to build Manjaka into a strong city. At the same time, in order to prevent Manjaka from becoming an isolated city, I will rebuild it on Temasek Island." A city that takes care of each other with Manraga and guards the Manraga Strait."

"Hehe, as long as Daming doesn't need to pay for it, now Daming really can't afford to build a city so far away." Su Heng laughed.

Li Jing smiled and said: "You think I'm stupid! If you transport manpower and supplies from Daming to Manga, you still have to pay for death? If you don't let these barbarians contribute money and effort, who will pay for it?"

Su Heng couldn't help but chuckled when he heard the words.

Li Jing pondered for a while and continued: "The war must be carried out together with the construction of the transfer station. You can't wait for the rice to be bought before boiling the water. You send someone to find Gu Bingyou. I have something to tell him."

Su Heng hurriedly responded.

After speaking, Su Heng turned around and left the study room, ordered someone to summon Gu Bingyou, and then came back and wrote a letter to Zheng Zhilong with a pen on the table beside him.

After finishing writing, Su Heng handed the letter to Li Jing, Li Jing read it roughly, and asked Su Heng to send someone to send it out immediately.

(End of this chapter)