Zhang Juzheng seemed to be in a good mood, the study window was half open, reflecting the bamboo forest behind the house, and the crystal lampshade on the wall was frosted, emitting a faint light, reflecting the smoke of the pipe slowly burning in the palm of the head of the household Shangshu Kingdom.

In front of Chen Mu's eyes, there were thirty or forty volumes of books on the table, which were compiled by Wang Guoguang in charge of the household department and the waiter Li Youzi and others, called "Wanli Accounting Records", which contained the secrets of the entire empire's finances.

"This set of books is based on regions, first the whole country, then the provincial crown, and the government crown; By the amount, by the total number of points, by the total number of points; In terms of revenue and expenditure, the total amount of income and output of the old amount of grain in the whole country, the fraction of the provincial capital, the number of prefectures and counties, the number of salaries in the sub-border towns, the sub-treasury supervisor, the sub-Guanglu, the sub-clan domain, the sub-official office, the sub-Chenglu, the sub-Caoyun, the sub-warehouse, the sub-camp and the guard-to-grain, the sub-tuntian, the sub-salt method, the sub-tea method, the sub-money method, the sub-banknote customs, and the sub-miscellaneous classes. ”

Zhang Juzheng reined in his finely trimmed beard and praised Chen Mu: "The prince compiling this book deserves this great achievement!" ”

"Today, there is only one step away, the situation in various places overseas, the price of goods, this cannot rely on the prince, and the court still needs to rely on Jing Haibo." Zhang Juzheng said as he spoke, turned around and took out two books from the table and nudged them in the direction of Chen Mu, and said: "My Emperor Taizu once said that many of the children of people, merchants, workers and peasants do not know how to read, so it is appropriate to explain them directly with the person in charge of the business, and make them a book for agricultural and technical merchants, so he ordered Confucian scholars to make these books. ”

Chen Mu lowered his eyes slightly, and the two books that Zhang Juzheng pushed over were called "List of Business Journeys" and "Identification of Treasures on Land and Water", these two books he knew were almost business manuals in the country, and it was not an exaggeration to even regard them as merchant textbooks in the Ming Dynasty.

But...... Chen Mu was puzzled, and blurted out in surprise: "Emperor Taizu, isn't it heavy agriculture and suppressing business? ”

Zhang Juzheng glanced at Chen Mu, his face was expressionless, and he only smiled when he turned to Wang Guoguang, and the silence for a moment even made Chen Mu think that he had said the wrong thing, and then turned his head and said: "Between the government and the opposition, everything must respect the law of the ancestors, do you know why?" ”

"When the world was in turmoil, my ancestors raised troops to chase the Yuan Kou in the north, and recovered China, when the people were scattered, the people were frozen and hungry, and the fields did not dare to farm. At the beginning of the world, the ancestors encouraged the merchants, but this is not what you said about valuing agriculture and suppressing commerce or valuing commerce and suppressing agriculture, because the earlier emphasis on commerce hurt the peasants, and then the emphasis on commerce can benefit the peasants - the so-called ancestral law is like this. ”

Chen Mu nodded again and again, and arched his hand: "I have been taught here." ”

Then he said: "Elder Ge and the prince can rest assured, the compilation of overseas accounting records will be completed by the Beiyang Military Government on their behalf, and they will be divided into the West, Nanyang, and Beiyang for a period of five years, and the prices of the countries in the world will be found out within five years." ”

In fact, what Zhang Juzheng said was nothing to teach Chen Mu, what really made him feel taught was the starting point and mentality of Zhu Yuanzhang and those in power - some people do it arbitrarily, while some people know what is right and what is wrong, policy expediency, and can do it.

"Later, I will hand over to you a set of telegram ciphertexts for Beiyang, and there are still some things to do with the telegram from the Ministry of Industry, which will be talked about later." Zhang Juzheng slowly bowed his head, and said to Wang Guoguang: "Please continue to say that Jing Haibo is good at finance, or he should have the view of seeking the country." ”

Chen Mu didn't think so, he spread out the Wanli accounting record on the table, sat down very obediently, and waited for Wang Guoguang to say the following.

"The old man made up the tax for the year, taking Henan and Shaanxi provinces and Nanzhili as an example, the true color of the tax law was converted into silver, and the household department Zhu Cao had discussed, thinking that after the national money law could be converted into silver, it should be a border place with less silver, and it was still on the true color; At the beginning of wealth and prosperity, there was more silver, and less money. ”

The true color here refers to the so-called tax in kind, Chen Mu frowned, glanced at Zhang Juzheng, and found that he had the same expression as himself - shouldn't it be like this? Where does the money come from in the frontier lands?

"Quite the opposite."

Wang Guoguang shook his head, raised his hand to the books on the table, and said: "Last year, the place with the most silver was Shaanxi, followed by Shanxi, and then Henan, and the rest of the provinces handed over the accounts. Taking Henan as an example, two counties in its province were affected by the disaster, transporting 4,200 stones, of which 30 percent was converted into color, and the taxes paid in Henan as much as 40 percent were converted into silver, and in Shaanxi it was as high as 50 percent. ”

"In Jiangnan, the fold color is only one percent."

Hubu Shangshu put down his pipe, raised a finger and said: "Collect accounts, summon officials, and discuss with colleagues in many ways, Jiangnan commerce and trade are prosperous, the people have a variety of silk cotton, and the price of rice is cheaper than in the north, so they are more willing to pay their true colors; However, in the northern provinces, where agriculture is a living, and the people in the poor and impoverished areas suffer a little from farming, their true colors are not enough to pay the taxes, so they have to turn their colors. ”

No problem, huh?

Zhang Juzheng nodded and said: "This is to make it more convenient for the people in the north, the price of rice and grain is higher, and the discount of silver is beneficial to the people." ”

"But in the past, the Democratic Liberation and Democratic Movement (DPM) struggled to pay taxes in the grain chief; Now the official dismissal of the official luck, the tax is difficult to rush all in the people, greed, deduction, stripping, consumption, under the four urgency, should have paid one tael of silver, the court can only collect one tael, of course, the household can only enter the account can not see this two silver, but the people have to pay two taels or even three taels to pay, this is a heavy tax. ”

"The poorer the people, the more they need to be taxed on silver, and the more they are taxed on silver, the poorer they are."

"That's not the problem. The money relied on the wealthy families of merchants and landlords, mainly grain merchants, and when the government collected taxes, the price of grain became low, hurting the peasant households; The rise in grain prices after the tax is collected and the peasants are hurt again, which is the natural instinct of the people in ordinary times to seek profit. ”

Zhang Juzheng's brows furrowed, but Wang Guoguang did not stop, and his tone was even heavier.

"In times of chaos and war, merchants, grain merchants, and even ordinary families with enough food and clothing, whoever has gold and silver, must keep silver by his side to avoid the calamity of the clan."

As the leading financial strategist of the Ming Dynasty, Hubu Shangshu Wang Guoguang seemed to travel through time and space to see the scene decades later, his tone was slow and worried: "There is little silver in the market, silver is expensive and grain is cheap, there are few rich people and many poor people in all parts of the world, and those who pay taxes are less and those who owe taxes are heavy......

"If there is nothing to be done about it, we will have to increase taxes and salaries, increase military salaries, and increase military salaries, and the people will already be unable to pay taxes, so they will fall into the grass."

Chen Mu suddenly understood, he took over the words, and said: "If the grass is a coward, the imperial court will use troops inward again, and send more bandits to suppress salaries, the imperial court will not do this if there is still a way to live, but there is no other way to worry about internal and external troubles; If the court gives the people a way to live, they will not only not fall into the grass, but also help the government to capture it, but once the people are all in the grass, and then levy and suppress wages, they can only break the door and destroy the family and exterminate more bandits. ”

Chen Mu's words not only made Zhang Juzheng look sideways, but also surprised the elderly Wang Guoguang, Zhang Zhangkou was almost speechless, paused for a moment to exchange glances with Zhang Juzheng, and then smiled dumbly: "Jing Haibo is inevitably a little alarmist, only can't pay taxes, not so, even if it is really as the old man said, recuperate for a few years, then the officials and talents will have a better tax law, the south and the north have been in turmoil for so many years, and it starts from my generation and my generation...... Scold! ”

Speaking of this, Wang Guoguang looked at Chen Mu, his eyes were quite stern, and he said with a reminder: "At this moment, isn't it just improving the tax law?" ”

Chen Mu, who has always been sluggish, turned his head quickly, and it took him half a day to understand what the old man of the household department was doing so harshly all of a sudden, the tax law was determined by Zhang Juzheng, and he said that the tax law would destroy the country, wasn't he saying that Zhang Juzheng had a problem?

However, his acting talent played a great role at this time, he pretended not to see Wang Guoguang's reminder, shook his head slowly with a gloomy face, and said: "It's not that there is a problem with the tax law, there is no problem with the tax law, it is in currency, in silver, and in financial transportation." ”

"Oh?" Zhang Juzheng's brows still didn't stretch, he was also deducing the situation quickly in his mind, in fact, he didn't care if Chen Mu felt that there was a problem with the tax law, and said casually: "Jing Haibo said what he wanted." ”

"The world of the dynasty circulated silver taels, money and silver taels and copper coins in parallel, but the silver was not minted in the imperial court, mostly inflow from overseas, and it was difficult to regulate, so the imperial court's ability to resist risks was low; The same is true for financial transportation, the collection of silver is not in the treasury, regardless of its true color or folded color, the provinces levy it, the provinces transport the silver and grain by themselves, and the silver and grain are not managed by the treasury in a unified manner, which is not conducive to the concentration of power, and the finances are chaotic. ”

"And the imperial court has two sets of finances, the central and the local, only a few officials in the 100,000 households receive the money, and the soap officials who help them manage the local government are all recruited by the local government and self-sufficient, which is neither conducive to the centralization of power, nor to the finances, nor to the governance of the officials."

"The incident happened suddenly, and the younger generations were not prepared, so let's say a few words...... Ge Lao, our Ming Dynasty, can we set up a bank? ”