Chapter 4 The Empty Treasury

If it provokes a popular uprising, I am afraid that the situation will be even more out of control.

You must know that not far south of Yulin is Li Zicheng's hometown.

Zhu Qizhen asked, "Are you familiar with Yu Zijun?" These millions of people go south to eat, can they control it, and how much food is there in Guanzhong Warehouse, is it enough? ”

Zhu Qizhen asked Han Yong if he was familiar with Yu Zijun, in fact, he was asking, is Yu Zijun your person?

If Yu Zijun is a person on Han Yong's line, then if something happens to this matter, Han Yong will be responsible.

Han Yong said: "Your Majesty, please see, this is his plan. Han Yong presented it with both hands.

Huai En immediately took it respectfully and handed it to Zhu Qizhen with both hands.

Zhu Qizhen opened it and looked at it, his fingers lightly tapped on the table, and there was suddenly a hint of joy in his heart.

Without him, Yu Zijun's plan is good.

He left the old and weak in the local area, and there was still some food in the local area, plus the summer, which was enough for them to eat for a while, and now the young and strong men were organized in the form of a lijia and an army, and each li was led by an official, and Yu Zijun sent the following officials to divide into roads, pass through different roads, eat in different prefectures and counties, and finally meet in Xi'an.

There are many details in it, which made Zhu Qizhen see that Yu Zijun was well thought out.

But Zhu Qizhen can still see it.

It is the result of the reform of the bureaucracy.

If it weren't for Zhu Qizhen's persistence for several years, he would have vigorously implemented the reform of officials. With so many available manpower, Yu Zijun would never have been able to accomplish such a task.

Even so, there are two more reasons.

One of the reasons is that Yu Zijun's own organizational skills are very good, which can be seen from the details of the various arrangements in the documents.

Zhu Qizhen didn't know that Yu Zijun in history was as famous as Ma Wensheng and was known as one of the three governors of Guanzhong.

His greatest achievement is to build thousands of miles of border walls, and it does not cost much, and most of the planning of the Northwest Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty is done by him.

At that time, he was facing the harassment of the captives, and the central government completed a great project with little central funding, which can be seen Yu Zijun's talent.

Another reason is that the affected areas are all border land.

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, in the battle of Mobei, the three-way northern expedition, Xu Da and Wang Baobao faced off in the middle of the road, Xu Da could not win, and could only retreat to Guanzhong, when the Western Route Army did not face the enemy, but in this case, it could only retreat to Guanzhong, and took away all the local people, which was only tens of thousands of people.

Therefore, most of the people in the northwest migrated later, and the most common way to migrate was the guard.

Coupled with decades of war on the nine sides, the local people cannot be described as familiar with the military.

This is the reason why Yu Zijun can complete this kind of eating with Guanzhong.

Zhu Qizhen wants to understand this, heart

is ready to be allowed.

Han Yong said: "Your Majesty, this is already the best way. ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "Okay, that's it, exempt Shaanxi from all taxes last year, and let Yu Zijun keep it." What is the general food shortage? ”

Han Yong said: "According to the big mouth, one stone in March is calculated, and the current situation is estimated that there will be no autumn grain this year, at least to supply the people with a year's grain, by this time next year, it will be about four million stones, Shaanxi's existing money and grain, but about one million stones, and the imperial court will at least pull out three million stones in Shaanxi." And even more. ”

Zhu Qizhen frowned slightly.

After all these years, he has actually understood one thing.

How much food is available for disaster relief?

No.

In many cases, disaster relief is nothing more than starvation.

The rations of the people of the imperial court are given one liter a day, and one stone is 100 liters. A big mouth is a strong man. According to what the court gave, a strong man, the court prepared four stones of grain, which is actually good.

It's just, one thing is overlooked.

That is, the imperial court only gave a large mouthful, not a small mouthful of grain.

In fact, it was the food that the court gave to women and children, which was added to the big mouth. This is also a very real problem.

Without strong men and young people, it is impossible for women, children and children to survive in such a situation. As a result, food is more scarce.

And the number of millions is just an estimate.

How many there are is a number that no one knows.

At least not counted yet.

Zhu Qizhen said: "Okay, the herald ordered the household department to immediately allocate five million stones to Shaanxi, no, it's not wrong." ”

Han Yong first agreed, and said: "Your Majesty, in this way, the household department will see the bottom, and the Jingshi only has 10 million stones of grain." And the balance of the household bank is only three million, once there is one, the imperial court will not be able to support it. ”

When Li Bing heard this, his heart moved slightly. There was a hint of relief in his heart, but he wouldn't leave this expression behind.

It's naïve.

But the current situation of the imperial court is the same as Li Bing predicted before.

The finances of the imperial court could not support the reform of officials.

Nowadays, the number of Ming officials has increased a lot. There is not much increase in the superstructure, and the scholars are still those scholars, and the scholars are still those scholars.

However, in each of the following counties, there are many more officials, and this number is about 100,000.

It seems like a lot, you must know that there are hundreds of prefectures and more than 1,000 counties in Daming, so you won't say more. The addition of more than a dozen petty officials of eight grades and nine grades in each county is not a small number.

It can be said that to improve the administrative efficiency of the Ming Dynasty, this one has been done.

But the state apparatus of Daming is more expensive to operate.

Since the thirty-ninth year of orthodoxy, the reform of officials at this time is in full swing

After the Ming Dynasty was basically completed, the burden on the imperial court increased greatly.

After the income of the Zunhua Iron Works was also converted into the household department, the household tax income suddenly reached 20 million taels.

But 20 million taels are enough to support the military expenses of the imperial court and the salaries of officials, so there is no more. In particular, the war in the Western Regions was intermittent, and the cost of fighting a war in the Western Regions was ten times that of the Xuanda War.

For a war of the same scale, it is estimated that it will not even cost 10,000 taels in Xuanda, but it will cost a small 100,000 taels in the Western Regions, and these will be included in the military spending.

At this time, Han Yong allocated the proceeds of the dirty silver to the locality, which was operated by God.

Of course, although the income from the fine of dirty silver has been decentralized, it must be recorded in the criminal department.

The Criminal Department can see that the income from fines of dirty silver in various places last year alone was about 1.3 million taels, which was several times more than the original tens of thousands of taels, and became the fastest growing imperial court income recently.

Generally speaking, as long as it is not a county that is too poor, the county government will earn more than 1,000 taels of silver by fining dirty silver in a year, and it is loose.

This fine of dirty silver has strongly supported local finances.

But it is still not enough, it can be said that the income of the Zunhua Iron Works has all been smashed into the income of the officials.

If the world is peaceful, with the current income of the imperial court, it is enough to support this feat. But the Western Regions is a constant bleeding wound.

Thanks to the Western Regions, the imperial court previously reduced the annual military expenditure of 8 million taels, and every year it was more than 10 million taels. In addition, there are many large and small disasters in various places, and a lot of money and food have been spent on disaster relief.

This is like a war of attrition that cannot be interrupted, and it consumes the blood of the imperial court little by little.

There is still some money in Zhu Qizhen's inner treasury.

After all, Japan's gold and silver continued to enter the inner treasury, but after the loss of Zunhua Iron Works, the annual income of the inner treasury in Zhu Qizhen also fell below the level of 10 million.

Moreover, the consumption in the court is not small, although Zhu Qizhen is more frugal, but to maintain the Forbidden City, more than three million taels a year, there is still to be it. and then the external ceremonial reward, or Zhu Qizhen's investment in something.

Five million taels a year may not be enough.

Therefore, although Zhu Qizhen has a balance on hand, it is not much.

It is also impossible to count on the inner treasury to subsidize the household department, and over the years, Zhu Qizhen has subsidized a lot.

Zhu Qizhen said: "What does Qing mean to collect business tax? Now that a whip law has not been fully implemented, is it slow? ”

Han Yong said: "Your Majesty, it is already necessary to do it now. Moreover, since the 33rd year of orthodoxy, the world's big businessmen have risen together, with dozens of people claiming to be millions, and there are also a number of people claiming to be tens of millions. This generation does not want to be loyal to the monarch and serve the country, extravagant, extravagant, countless, bad atmosphere, and chaotic people's hearts, and now is the time for the court to educate this generation and let them contribute to the court. ”

"The ministers seconded the proposal."

As soon as Han Yong's words came out, many ministers below came out to second.