Time is like an arrow, and a few months go by in the blink of an eye.

It was the second day of November in the first year of Hanxing.

In the Qianqing Palace of the Forbidden City in Nanjing, there was a fierce controversy.

"Song Gebu, you know best," it was Yang Tinglin, the first assistant of the cabinet, who spoke, "The project of rebuilding the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal is huge, and to achieve the level that Zhang Butang said, it will take at least three or four million taels of silver, and it will take several years.

"At present, the wooden track going to Liaodong has left Shanhaiguan, and the army is about to leave the northern expedition in the near future. In the unlikely event that the war situation is a little stalemate and the amount of food and salary required is incalculable, it is advisable to save some silver at this time for emergencies. ”

He said and glanced at Huang Zongxi, and said to the Son of Heaven: "Your Majesty, according to what the ministers have seen, even those giant ships in the Longjiang Shipyard can also be slowed down for a while, and it is not too late to build them after the destruction of the Eastern Prisoners." ”

Zhang Canghai hurriedly said: "Ge Lao, although it costs a lot to dredge the canal, there is no need to take out millions of taels at once. The government treasury can allocate 300,000 or 400,000 taels first, and start construction immediately, which is enough for the first half of next year. This little money will not affect the Northern Expedition. ”

Now it is different from the past, and now the household department has long been in the embarrassment of "begging" everywhere to fill the holes during the Longwu Dynasty, and his waist is also a lot stiffer when he speaks.

Due to the spread and promotion of potatoes and sweet potatoes throughout the Ming Dynasty, a large number of barren land that did not grow crops have produced a lot of output. In addition, these two crops are relatively "leather" and easier to adapt to the harsh climate of the Xiaoice period, so this autumn, except for a few places such as Shaanxi, Jin, and Beizhili that have not had time to plant potatoes and sweet potatoes, the remaining more than ten provinces have a bumper harvest!

In fact, if we only count rice and wheat, due to the impact of the war, the harvest is even lower than last year, but due to the terrible production of potatoes and sweet potatoes, the total amount of grain harvested in the country has nearly doubled that of last year!

Daming was still an agricultural country for the time being, and a bumper grain harvest meant a surge in tax revenues and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment.

In addition, after Zhu Linmiao's previous reforms, the gentry began to pay taxes. This alone caused the household department to collect 17.8 million taels of extra tax and silver during this half-year period.

In addition, the Huangzhuang contract system has greatly increased the enthusiasm of the peasants at the bottom, and the efficiency of land production has also been greatly improved.

Based on these advantages, Zhang Canghai is very confident in this autumn's tax revenue. Although the tax and silver in Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Guangdong and other places have not yet been reported, he estimates that the household department should be able to earn more than 2.4 million taels this year! After removing all kinds of necessary expenses, there will be a balance of at least six or seven hundred thousand taels.

This is the essence of Daming!

As long as the system is reasonable and there are no bandits, the productive forces that have erupted in the country will definitely rank first in the world. This is still the beginning of the war, and everything is waiting to be rebuilt, and when the people in various places settle down in the coming year, this number will definitely rise rapidly.

And that's just the traditional tax program.

Sure enough, when he heard that the construction of sea ships was to be postponed, Huang Zongxi immediately became anxious and stood up and said, "Elder Yang Ge, these ships are urgently needed, and they must not be stopped."

"As for the money, you don't have to worry, yesterday the official received the news that the ocean-going caravan had passed Malacca in the middle of last month, and it is estimated that it will arrive at Ningbo Port in the near future."

The Ming Dynasty now has a large number of ships coming and going in Southeast Asia, and it should be that the caravan met its own clipper ship near Malacca, and the latter returned in advance to report the news.

Yang Tinglin also showed joy, and hurriedly asked, "But the merchant ship going to Europa?" ”

"Exactly." Huang Zongxi nodded, "It is reported that all seven boats, large and small, have returned safely. ”

The ocean-going caravan left Moon Harbor more than half a year ago and set off for Europe, because it was the first time to go such a long way by sea, for the sake of safety, they used ordinary Galen merchant ships, and hired many Spanish and Portuguese seafarers as guides. Unexpectedly, the trip was quite smooth, and in seven months, he returned to Daming safely.

Since the defeat of the Dutch fleet in Taiwan, the Ming Dynasty had frequent maritime trade, and the courtiers had long known how profitable it was. Suddenly, including Yang Tinglin, almost all the people present looked at Lord Shangshu of the Ministry of Commerce and asked, "I don't know what the benefits are?" ”

"If you go so far, you must have gained a lot, right?"

"It's tens of thousands of miles away, even Gonggong Zheng couldn't do it back then."

Huang Zongxi smiled slightly, and said: "The specific number is not known yet, but it is always around 2.3 million or 400,000 taels." ”

As soon as he said this, there was a gasp in the Qianqing Palace.

You can earn more than two million taels on one trip to the sea?! It's like a gale!

Even Zhu Linmiao was a little moved.

He was not surprised by the high profits, he was well aware that the seventeenth century routes from East Asia to Europe were very dangerous, so the profits were naturally extremely high.

What he cares about most is that through his own efforts, the Age of Discovery finally has a strong stroke of the Chinese! With this successful voyage, the trade routes between Asia and Europe will continue to bring wealth to the Ming Dynasty in the future.

After the channel is familiar, you can change to a clipper boat. With the speed of this ship, I believe that it will soon be able to defeat all European merchant ships with cost advantages, and it is even possible to monopolize the Asia-Europe trade route!

At that time, any sea coachman may only be able to run short distances around Europe.

Huang Zongxi looked at the surprised faces around him, and said: "In fact, because I was worried about the attack of the pirates, the ocean-going caravans were all carrying goods on warships this time, and the goods they carried were not much. If you remove the cannon and reduce the weight, you can benefit more than a million taels. ”

The ministers inhaled the cool air until their mouths cramped. You can earn more than three million taels in half a year?!

Immediately, someone couldn't help but say, "This—this is too powerful, isn't it?" ”

"If that's the case, where will the court worry about silver in the future?"

"The official thought that two million taels was enough, but I didn't want to open the loading ......."

Huang Zongxi explained to everyone: "Your Excellency does not know, the journey to Europa is extremely long, and the crew has been adrift at sea for a long time, and it is very easy to suffer from sepsis.

"The Europaians came all the way to Daming, and at least forty percent of the sailors died of illness back and forth. At such a large price, how can the selling price of the goods sold back not be high? ”

The other courtiers sighed, "No wonder the benefits are so great, it turns out that so many people will die." ”

"This maritime business is simply filled with human lives......"

"With such a loss of life, it would be better to have fewer merchant ships going to Europa in the future......"

Huang Zongxi waved his hand and smiled: "Your lords have misunderstood. The Europa people often suffered from sepsis and blood disease when they went to sea, but my Ming caravan had a good prescription from His Majesty, but not a single person was killed or wounded. ”

"It turned out to be a good medicine."

Everyone was immediately overjoyed, and praised the Son of Heaven one after another, and some people reminded the Huang Pavilion Department to beware of the Yiren on the ship stealing the pharmacy.

"It doesn't matter." Huang Zongxi said confidently, "They don't know that the secret is placed in front of the Yi people, and even if they know, they can't learn it." ”