Wuying Palace.
After the morning court dispersed, there were only two cabinet ministers left, plus Shen Yi, the minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and Wang Yonghe, the minister of the Ministry of Industry.
It's almost time for everyone to leave.
Zhu Qiyu then asked.
"Qing Shen, there are not many ministers in the palace now. You can speak frankly about the situation of the treasury."
Chen Yi sighed, knowing that he couldn't escape no matter what, so he spoke bluntly.
"Your Majesty, last year we paid taxes, taxes, and various discounts to various places, and the total amount was 34.2 million gu of rice and wheat, 29.3 million guan of treasure notes, and 1.25 million of silver. More than enough."
"In the past few years, the Supreme Emperor has been deploying troops everywhere, and the army has been very expensive. Counting the money and food left by the previous emperors, there are still 12 million stones of rice and wheat in the treasury, 57 million treasures, and 93 silver. Ten thousand taels."
Zhu Qiyu was silent. He probably knew the state of the treasury, but he didn't expect it to be worse than in his previous life.
No wonder these days, every time he has to pay, Chen Yi's old face wants to wrinkle into a ball.
The treasury is really out of money!
The current taxation in the Ming Dynasty is still mainly based on in-kind taxation. Rice, wheat, silk, silk, and cloth are the main part of taxation.
In addition, tea, cotton, iron, salt and other items are also used for taxation. Finally, treasure notes and silver coins are used, but they are rarely used.
Twelve million taels of rice and wheat, based on the current market price of four qian per shi, is less than 5 million taels.
As for treasure notes, the current market price of this thing is one thousand to seven, and it is still falling!
In fact, except for some places where taxes are collected by the imperial court, people no longer use treasure money.
Fifty-seven million treasure notes, converted into less than 400,000 taels of silver.
Including the remaining more than 900,000 taels of cash, that is to say, all the property in the treasury is taken into account, which is about 6 million taels.
When Zhu Qiyu was in power in his previous life, the total expenditure of the court for a year was more than six million taels.
In other words, the money in the treasury now is barely enough for daily expenses, and there is no need to think about additional expenditures.
Zhu Qiyu frowned and turned to Wang Yonghe, the Minister of Works.
"Wang Shilang, you are a veteran of the Ministry of Industry. According to your estimate, the construction of the border city wall and the reconstruction of Daomaguan will cost a lot of people. How much money will it cost?"
The Minister of the Ministry of Industry is still outside supervising the army, so the Ministry of Industry is the only one among the six bureaus, and it is also the yamen headed by the minister.
Wang Yonghe also moved forward with a bitter look on his face.
After the dispersion of the dynasty, the emperor kept him together with the Minister of Hubu, and he knew what was going on.
The problem is, he can't solve this problem!
"Back to the Emperor, the reconstruction of the border city wall is a small matter. There should be a lot of stones, sand and other materials that were transported from various places. If it is repaired, it will be barely enough."
Wang Yonghe's words made Zhu Qiyu frown.
Because this is actually just whitewashing the peace!
Originally, there were indeed a lot of materials left in each pass, but after the civil engineering battle, each pass was reinforced one after another, and most of those materials have been used.
Most of the materials shipped from various places were used in the reinforcement of the capital's fortifications.
In other words, what Wang Yonghe said is barely enough, in fact, it is just a casual practice, and it can be tolerated for the time being.
However, although he was dissatisfied, he also knew that this was a helpless move, so he did not speak to stop it.
So Wang Yonghe continued.
"Besides the materials, the biggest problem is the common people and craftsmen!"
"The craftsmen are not bad. During the reign of the late emperor, the number of craftsmen's registered residences was expanded. There are about 200,000 shift craftsmen and about 35,000 shift craftsmen registered in the Ministry of Industry."
This is also one of the household registration systems of the Ming Dynasty. In addition to military households, the Ming Dynasty also had a considerable number of craftsmen, called craftsmen households, who were responsible for the production of construction, textiles, weapons, handicrafts and other work distributed by the court.
The so-called shift craftsmen, as the name suggests, serve in turns. Basically every year or every three years, depending on the situation, they need to serve for about one month. The rest of the time is the same as that of civilian households. As for the shift craftsmen, they are those who have served in the government for a long time. Of course, , not all year round, but about ten days a month, required to serve the government.
The craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty were distributed in various places, not all of them in the capital. Zhu Qiyu vaguely remembered that there were about 8,000 craftsmen near Beizhili.
Only 3,000 of them are sitting workers, and the remaining 5,000 are all shift workers.
"I roughly estimate that to rebuild Daomaguan, about 8,000 craftsmen will be needed. For other passes, 100 to 300 craftsmen will be needed depending on the situation. As for the civilians, it is estimated that more than 30,000 craftsmen will be needed to rebuild the pass. The passes will be reinforced and each Around a thousand people are needed.”
Looking at the emperor's expressionless face, Wang Yonghe gritted his teeth and said.
"It's okay for civilians to say that they can be recruited on the spot, but in my capital, Zhili, there are only more than 3,000 craftsmen."
"And these people need to be responsible for construction, weaving, weapons and other matters for the distribution of official uniforms in various places. If they are recruited from various places, firstly, it will delay the time, and secondly, now that the new year is approaching, it may be a waste of people and money."
That's the biggest problem.
The household registration system of the Ming Dynasty, whether it was a military household or a craftsman household, was based on needs.
In other words, as many people are needed as possible, and there is very little room for maneuver.
The 35,000 full-time craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty were not only distributed in various places, but more importantly, they themselves were responsible for the daily affairs of the government in various places.
It is impossible for them to put down their work and go to build the city.
As for shift craftsmen, they can be recruited, but the problem is that the recruitment of shift craftsmen is not at a fixed time every year, but on a rotating basis.
In other words, at the same time, the number of shift craftsmen serving was approximately one-tenth of the total.
If they are all recruited now, then it will not be appropriate to recruit again in the next year. As a result, many ongoing projects will inevitably be shelved.
What's more, as Wang Yonghe said, to rebuild Daomaguan, even if all the craftsmen in Beizhili were brought together, it would not be enough.
However, if they have to be recruited from other places, as the new year is approaching, I am afraid that not many craftsmen are willing to leave their hometowns, and it will also be delayed for a long time.
What's more, recruiting from other places is also a temporary solution rather than a permanent solution.
Zhu Qiyu knew clearly that in the past two years, floods had occurred frequently in various places, and there were many places where craftsmen were needed, and they could not keep borrowing them here and there.
After pondering for a moment, Zhu Qiyu asked.
"When I inspected the city defenses before, I saw many craftsmen building houses and working in the capital. Are they also craftsmen?"
Wang Yonghe answered directly without thinking too much.
"It's not that the craftsmen under the Ministry of Industry are just craftsmen who work for the imperial court. There are actually many craftsmen among the people. What do you think, Your Majesty?"
He knew the elegant meaning after hearing the string song. When the Ministry of Industry was short of manpower, it also recruited craftsmen from the private sector, so Wang Yonghe immediately guessed the emperor's thoughts.
Zhu Qiyu nodded slightly and said.
"The Ministry of Industry first issued a recruitment order to select some of the available craftsmen households, and also ordered the Ministry of Household Affairs to allocate money, and the remaining craftsmen were recruited on the spot from among the common people at various border passes. It is now the middle of winter, and there is no need for farming. The craftsmen among them should be called upon to work.”
"As for the civilian men who were summoned this time, they will also be given silver and remuneration. All local officials must be strictly ordered not to increase their service without authorization."
After the emperor finished speaking, Wang Yonghe on the side also breathed a sigh of relief.
In the final analysis, this matter is nothing more than a matter of money. As long as the emperor is willing to appropriate the money, the Ministry of Industry is good at recruiting craftsmen from the private sector.
As for where to get the money, that is a matter for the Ministry of Finance and has nothing to do with the Minister of Works.
But just as he was about to open his mouth to accept the order, he heard the emperor's voice ringing again.
"After this war, the lack of deployment of craftsmen is really the fault of the Ministry of Works. Later, you can draw up a plan and discuss it with the Ministry of Works on how to prevent this from happening again in the future."
"In addition, since this time we can allocate money to recruit from the private sector, whether this matter can be included in the regular system and how to include it, we will discuss it later and submit a memorial to me."
