Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 113

A few days later, Master Zhang Wenbao escorted away the 7000 taels of tax silver with a smile on his face. Huang Laifu was fine, Eunuch Ma, and all the people in the castle watched the money go away reluctantly.

Forty-seven thousand taels of silver, weighing several thousand catties, had to be divided into more than a dozen carriages to be packed.In addition to some servants accompanied by Mr. Zhang Wenbao, Huang Laifu also sent some servants and some village men to act as civilian husbands to help escort Mr. Zhang Wenbao to escort the tax bank to Taiyuan.

After Mr. Zhang Wenbao left, within a few days afterward, after the memorials of Mr. Zhang Wenbao and Mr. Andaishan, as well as Ma Gonggong, Huang Laifu and others were handed over to the cabinet quickly, Wuzhaibao had a spat with the officials in the capital. The battle is coming.

The Ministry of Industry expressed its understanding of Huang Laifu's request. According to Zeng Tongheng, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, as long as the expansion of the Wuzhaibao castle is not required, the Ministry of Industry does not need to pay for it.

However, Wang Lin, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, has a different opinion. He believes that it is not impossible for Huang Laifu to have the right to develop wasteland in Shenchi Fort and Bajiao Fort. However, should the tax be increased a little?According to his estimation, there are hundreds of thousands of acres of wasteland in these two places. Although these lands were abandoned in the past, now that Huang Laifu has taken a fancy to them, it shows the value of these places and increases taxes and food appropriately. It is also necessary and necessary.

Regarding the issue of developing the wasteland in these two places, everyone quickly reached a consensus, but when Huang Laifu asked to mine the minerals in the two places.Cabinet minister Shen Shixing was undecided.

On September [-]th of this year, the Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun sent his ministers to ask the cabinet why there was no reply from the Ministry of Households when someone neglected to open the mine.The chief minister of the cabinet, Shen Shixing, replied that mining must be done by gathering crowds, and gathering crowds must be used to prevent chaos. In order to prevent disasters and save money, it is better not to open mines.

However, his reason does not exist in Shanxi Town and Wuzhai Fort. This area is an important border defense area, and there are heavy troops gathered. A gathering of people will cause chaos, but it may not be true. No, aren’t the farms in Wuzhai Fort all good? ?Moreover, according to Huang Laifu's work style, letting him manage the two mines would not only cost the court and China money, but also collect a lot of taxes.

However, Shen Shixing, the chief assistant of the cabinet, is worried that as soon as this case is opened, Emperor Zhu Yijun of Wanli will vigorously send people to various places to collect mining taxes. Now the minerals in various places have been divided up by local forces and big merchants. Sending people to collect taxes, I'm afraid there will be a lot of trouble.

At the time of this stalemate, the father-in-law Ma in Wuzhai Fort gave a secret letter to Zhu Yijun, Emperor Wanli, and proposed a good prescription, that is, the management rights of the two places can be contracted to Wuzhai Fort to guard Huang Laifu. How much tax and money, as for what Huang Laifu operates, there is no need to say too clearly, it is good to be vague.

Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun was overjoyed when he saw the secret document, and asked Shen Shixing, the chief minister of the cabinet, and others to discuss it accordingly.In the end, everyone discussed the total amount of the tax package: Huang Laifu led the operation of Wuzhai Fort, Shenchi Fort, and Bajiao Fort, with a tax package of 10 taels per year.

Regarding the agreement on this amount, Shi Xing, Minister of the Ministry of War, originally said that the total tax amount of the three places should be 6 taels.The chief minister of the cabinet, Shen Shixing, believes that 7 taels is appropriate.However, Wang Lin, Shangshu of the Ministry of Household Affairs, had a different opinion. He believed that Huang Laifu was so good at farming that it was a desecration of Huang Laifu's talent to only receive such a small amount of money from the three places.In the end, he insisted on collecting 10 taels of taxable silver from the three places.

After listening to Wang Lin's opinion, Shen Shixing, the chief assistant of the cabinet, also thought that what Wang Lin said was very reasonable, and finally he also changed to support the opinion of Wang Lin, Minister of the Ministry of household affairs.Under the circumstances that Minister of the Ministry of Industry Zeng Tongli was with Heng, and Minister of Rites Xu Guo also supported Wang Lin, Minister of the Ministry of Households, Master Shi Xing, Minister of the Ministry of War, could not compete with several adults, so he had to give up.

After discussing this method, everyone was very satisfied, especially Wang Lin, Minister of the Household Department, was even more satisfied.Now it is no different from the early days of the Kingdom, and the Ministry of Households has to pay for it everywhere, especially the army, which is rich in money.Take Shanxi Town as an example, there are more than 5 Mabu officers and soldiers in a town, and the annual salary is 22 taels.If 10 taels of tax can be collected from the three places of Wuzhaibao each year, most of the army and horses in Shanxi Town can be supported, which can greatly reduce the burden on the household department.

After Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun confirmed it, the cabinet finally sent a document to Wuzhaibao Huang Laifu to see how he felt about this decision.The document was very vague. It didn't say that Huang Laifu was allowed to farm in the two places, nor did he say that he would open mines in the two places, but only said to manage the three places.
After waiting for a few days, Huang Laifu finally responded. He agreed with the opinions of the adults, but he complained in the memorial, saying that Wuzhai Fort has not updated its weapons, equipment and military uniforms for many years. Those who hear it cry, and those who see it are sad!
He hoped that the court would give Wuzhaibao some weapons and equipment, and it would be better to give some artillery chariots.In addition, Huang Laifu believes that the current Wuzhai Fort is densely populated and there are many traders. In order to prevent thieves and bandits, he asked the court to allow Wuzhai Fort to manufacture some medium-sized firearms such as bird guns.You can ask the current imperial envoy Ma Jiuying in the fort to be the supervisor on your behalf.

Finally, after the cabinet deliberated, it agreed to Huang Laifu's opinion, and Shi Xing, Minister of the Ministry of War, sent an official document to Shanxi's Armament Bureau and Needlework Bureau, asking them to transfer a batch of equipment to Huang Laifu, who was guarding Wuzhai Fort.

The last batch of equipment that Huang Laifu received included:

150 pairs of iron armor with eight-petal iron helmet, 150 pairs of leather armor with vermilion leather helmet, and three tiger crouching cannons.Three hundred bird guns, [-] hand guns, equipped with matchlocks, medicine tubes, lead bags, gun holsters, gunpowder, and some lead.

Three hundred combined bows, two hundred bowstrings, thirty thousand large arrows, two thousand waist knives, two thousand spears, two hundred rattan and long cards, one hundred wolf whisks, and fifty saddle sticks.In addition, there are [-] sets of military fat jackets, combat shoes, military trousers, sergeant fur hats, and [-] catties of wrought iron.

Finally, there are three chariots, making Huang Laifu feel like a treasure.

Of course, at this time, the Ming army had to give money when receiving the equipment from the arsenal, but due to the explicit order of the Ministry of War, Huang Laifu's price would be more favorable. After paying nearly ten thousand taels of silver, Huang Laifu successfully obtained the equipment.

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On the day of receiving the equipment, all the sergeants rejoiced on the horse racing field outside the Wuzhaibao barracks.

Everyone gathered around the tiger squatting guns and three chariots, discussing excitedly.

Huang Laifu was also surrounded by the crowd, and carefully looked at the chariots. He saw that each of the three chariots had two wheels and a long shaft, with two mules on both ends, so that they could advance and retreat.The side compartments are used on the upper side, and each is placed with the left and right.It is one foot and five feet long, with a door at each end, which can be opened and closed for entry and exit. There are two giant Buddha wolf machines installed on each car, sweeping the cold light majesticly.

Daming's chariots have always been powerful. Back then, Qi Jiguang used the chariot battalion to block the Tatars' attack, and then led the cavalry to outflank them, and wiped out tens of thousands of invading Tatar cavalry.With the chariot by his side, when infantry meets cavalry in the field, their sense of security increases a lot.

Looking at the eager eyes of everyone around, Huang Laifu's plan for the final use of this equipment is as follows.

Naturally, each member of the military wears a new set, and among the 150 pairs of iron armor with eight-petal iron helmets, each servant has a pair.There are also hundreds of households, general banners, small banners and other officers, each of whom is issued a pair of iron armor, so that the distribution of these armor is completed.As for the [-] pairs of leather armor with vermilion leather helmets, they will be distributed to those sergeants who have trained harder during these periods, so that the leather armor is also distributed.

Bows, arrows, waist knives and spears are temporarily stored in the arsenal.

Three tiger squatting cannons are usually used to defend the city.In field battles, pull them out.

As for bird guns and hand guns, each officer is provided with one hand gun.Regarding the bird guns, Huang Laifu was a little worried about the quality of the firearms at this time. Sure enough, during the inspection, it was found that dozens of bird gun barrels were in danger of bursting. Finally, Huang Laifu gave up the idea of ​​using these bird guns. Still made it myself.Anyway, the court's approval has come down, allowing Wuzhaibao to manufacture bird guns.Take it easy on what you make yourself.

As for the use of chariots, Huang Laifu decided to set up a miniature chariot battalion, temporarily using a hundred households to serve as it, that is, to follow Jiang Dazhong himself.

Huang Laifu still learns and trains in the actual record that each car sends [-] sergeants, divided into Qizheng and Qizheng two banners.

There are ten soldiers and one banner, and two are dedicated to the head of the mule.Six people are in charge of two Buddha wolf machines, three for each.There is one car, who only wears a strong flag on the car to drive forward and stop.One helmsman, who is in charge of transporting vehicles, left and right, front and rear, separates and closes.

One banner of strange soldiers, ten sergeants, small banners holding the banner, four gunners with long swords, put the birds in the car, and put the guns first when leaving the car.The enemy used a long knife, and two young and weak men in the body were rattan players. They fired rockets in the car and beat stones when they got out of the car. The enemy used the rattan card.They also used the two murderous men as wolf traps, and fired rockets in the car, and fired rockets when they were out of the car. The enemy used wolf traps close by.All its responsibility.

In this way, 60 people are needed for three chariots, plus some miscellaneous chores, which is just right for a hundred households.

After dealing with the equipment, according to the conditions stated by his court, Huang Laifu also prepared to expand the city of Wuzhaibao.Because the Ministry of War gave itself a large amount of equipment, it also saved Huang Laifu a lot of money, food and trouble in making weapons for at least a year.

The money saved was just used to expand the city.

Huang Laifu's plan is to pay part of the money himself and let the merchants in the castle share part of the money and food.

Huang Laifu spread the word that Huang Laifu will give priority to cooperation with merchants who have performed well in the construction of the city in the future, and Huang Laifu said that he has obtained the permission of the court and obtained the governance rights of Shenchi Fort and Bajiao Fort. There are many wastelands and minerals there, and if they cooperate in the future, they will be rich in wealth.

The merchants in Wuzhaibao already had some confidence in Huang Laifu. After Huang Laifu's words, not only the Qu family, but also the Li family in Pingyao, the Hou family in Jiexiu, the Pan family in Wanrong, and the Yang family in Yangcheng. The big merchants such as the family also came to visit the garrison mansion one after another, willing to donate generously. Soon, Huang Laifu paid 1 taels of silver by himself, and the remaining tens of thousands of taels of silver were shared by various merchants, and sufficient funds were raised. .

This shocked Eunuch Ma Jiuying, Master Andaishan and others when they saw it.The two showed deep admiration for Huang Laifu's ability to make money.

Building the city requires at least a few thousand civilian workers, and it will take at least half a year. Huang Laifu is busy working with Mr. Andaiyama to formulate the specific plan of the new castle, reviewing the design drawings, etc., while recruiting migrant workers everywhere.

After Huang Laifu paid each person a salary of five renminbi per month, refugees from all over the world came here even more after hearing about it.All of a sudden, at least a few thousand families of refugees were given a chance to survive.

(End of this chapter)