In early February of the first year of Hongxing in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Cixiang, the Emperor of Hongxing in the Ming Dynasty, had left Wohu Mountain City in Jinan and arrived at Dengzhou City on the Bohai Sea.
Since the war situation in Shandong was not very good, Zhu Cixang moved the capital of the integrated Shandong Province from Jinan to Dengzhou. Dengzhou is not only far away from the front line, but also a port city on the seaside. In the past four years, Su Guansheng and Shen Tingyang have been operating it as the Ming Dynasty's base in the north.
So when Zhu Cixi arrived, he saw a brand new and impregnable seaside city with prosperous industry, commerce and fishery.
Moreover, Su Guansheng and Shen Tingyang were very efficient in building the small and exquisite Penglai Palace for Donggu, Princess Heshuo of the Qing Dynasty who did not know when she would come to Dengzhou.
Now that Dongguo has not come yet, Zhu Cixiang, Ning Xiangyu and Fei Zhen'e have moved into this palace built on Danya Mountain, which looks like a fairyland on earth.
In this palace, Zhu Cixiang received three pieces of good news in a row.
Another three blessings!
The first favorite is of course Wu Sangui anyway!
Although Wu Sangui was notorious in history, Zhu Cixiang didn't care about history at all... He was looking forward to the stars and the moon for Wu Sangui's defection.
If Wu Sangui doesn't defect, Zhu Cixiang's new army cavalry can be disbanded!
In last year's war, the biggest losses on Zhu Cixiang's side were not the personnel, nor the artillery, muskets and other deadly equipment, but the horses!
The number of folded horses in Fengyang Racecourse has only reached 300 now... What's the use of them?
The total number of horses lost or retired by various units of the New Army (war horses will grow old and get sick!) is as high as more than 2,000. The stocks of war horses of the Shandong Army, Huaibei Army, and Xu Haijun also decreased by about 3,000 horses.
The sum of the two is 5000...
If the loss of draft horses is included (some retired war horses can be used as draft horses, but draft horses can easily die of exhaustion and illness due to the heavy burden), the war state of World War I can make the Ming army excluding the armies of Southwest, Sichuan, Shanxi and other places 10,000 war horses and draft horses were lost.
Historically, the Northern Expedition in the South was always very difficult, which was actually related to the lack of horses. The lack of horses not only affects the operations in the front, but also causes difficulties in transportation in the rear.
Because the consumption of horse-drawn carts is much lower than that of oxen-pulled carts and people-pulled carts, if oxen and people are used instead of horses, then the "delivery rate" of grain and grass (that is, the proportion of grain that can be delivered to the destination after deducting transportation consumption) will be proportion of food) will drop significantly.
If we take the thousand-kilometer relay transport as the criterion, horse-drawn carriages can achieve a delivery rate of 10%, ox-carts can only achieve half a percent, and rickshaws... will have a negative delivery rate!
If a relay transportation system cannot be established (transport stations need to be set up along the way and losses must be carefully calculated), the delivery rate will be even lower. Therefore, the supply lines that rickshaws and bullock carts can afford will also be shorter.
Therefore, if the Ming army wanted to fight without the support of the canal system during the Northern Expedition, a certain number of horses was indispensable.
If you look at the history of the Northern Expedition during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, they sometimes even had to dig canals to transport food, and you will know how painful it is to be short of horses - there were no horse-drawn cannons during the Southern and Northern Dynasties!
Therefore, Wu Sangui took over the horse-producing land of Shaanxi and Gansu. For Zhu Cixiang, it was undoubtedly a timely help!
The second happy event was that Ning Xiangyu and Fei Zhen'e, who accompanied Zhu Cihong on his Northern Expedition, were both happy. Plus Zheng Chagu was about to give birth, Emperor Zhu Da had three chances to have a son...
As for the third happiness, it was brought by Chen Rui, the Minister of Household Affairs!
Daming is making money!
Last year, the 20th year of Chongzhen, the Ming Dynasty finally achieved profitability after "excluding non-recurring gains and losses."
The so-called "deduction of non-profit" refers to the profit and loss after deducting one-time gains such as house confiscation and confiscation.
Of course, since this is wartime, war funds are recurring expenditures.
In other words, despite spending a large amount of military expenditures on the Northern Expedition, the Ming Dynasty still achieved profits last year.
This is a huge happy event!
"Your Majesty, these are the account books of the Ministry of Accounts... They are all done according to the rules you gave. We also asked the Metropolitan Procuratorate to send personnel to verify them. They are basically correct."
After traveling for more than 20 days, I looked at the dusty household secretary Chen Rui, pointing at several thick account books, and smiled from ear to ear.
Chen Rui smiled: "This is the first year after the temple that we have truly achieved a surplus... I don't dare to take credit for this. Everything is due to the emperor's good management!"
Good at gathering, right?
Zhu Cixiang thought maliciously: In the eyes of the gentry and scholars in the south, this emperor must be a black-hearted emperor even blacker than Emperor Wanli...
"Mr. Chen, how much did we earn?" Zhu Cixiang asked with a smile.
Chen Rui stretched out five fingers and said with a smile: "More than six hundred and fifty-five taels, all of which are deposited in the accounts of Maritime Bank and Salt Merchant Bank..."
"Six million five hundred and fifty thousand taels? Why so many?" Zhu Cixiang frowned slightly when he heard this number. It's not that he dislikes the money, but that before leaving Huai'an, he had to read the monthly financial statements every month and knew Daming's "financial situation" well.
He not only wants to read the reports from the Ministry of Household Affairs, but also the monthly reports from the Military and Tunnel Division of the Ministry of War, Maritime Bank, Salt Commercial Bank, Yingtian Grain Depot and Wuhan Grain Depot (the two largest grain depots under the Military Tunnel Division)—— These monthly reports are produced according to the methods in "Financial Planning Theory" written by Zhu Cixiang himself. A semi-annual report is issued every six months, and an annual report is issued every year. Semi-annual reports and annual reports are also subject to external audits.
Among them, the annual and semi-annual reports of the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of War, Yingtian Grain Depot, and Wuhan Grain Depot will be audited by the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the Yingtianhuang Chamber of Commerce will also send personnel to assist in the audit work.
Although Maritime Bank and Salt Bank are not yamen, because they are responsible for managing treasury funds and issuing silver and copper coins (authorized by the Ministry of Accounts and collecting seigniorage), they must also accept the approval of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Imperial Chamber of Commerce. Joint audit - This time it is a joint audit, instead of the Imperial Chamber of Commerce assisting the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Because the Royal Chamber of Commerce itself is a major shareholder of the two major banks, it naturally has the right to participate in management and review accounts.
Ying Tianhuang Chamber of Commerce knows that it has a good background just by looking at its name! This chamber of commerce was established by Zhu Cixi after the Yingtian eunuch rebellion. At that time, Zhu Cixi distributed the confiscated gold and silver, land (farmland), and mansions, but gave the "black" the open and dark shares of the shops and companies confiscated from Nanjing Xungui and the four old Xi Salt General Managers in Yangzhou. Lost.
The Yingtian Emperor Chamber of Commerce was used to manage and dispose of these assets. Later, Zhu Cixiang added his shares in the Maritime Commercial Bank and the Salt Commercial Bank, and the land in Shanghai to the Imperial Chamber of Commerce, and later added the land of Wuhan Prefecture. Under Zhu Cixiang's control, the Imperial Chamber of Commerce gradually concentrated its investment in the three major industries of finance, real estate and military industry.
Finance, of course, refers to the two major banks. After the two major banks gradually gained popularity, the Royal Chamber of Commerce continued to seek to increase its shareholding, and now holds more than one-third of the shares of the two banks.
Real estate only invests in high-quality real estate in five first-tier cities such as Nanjing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Suzhou, and Guangzhou. It only rents but does not sell, and holds it for a long time.
The financial and real estate assets owned by the Royal Chamber of Commerce are of course of extremely high quality. Zhu Cixiang has personally checked them. How can there be any mistakes? While "making money" in finance and real estate, he got involved in the military industry, a business that is prone to losses, investing in the Nanjing Artillery Factory, the Nanjing Shipyard, and the Daye Iron Works in Daye County and Xingguo Prefecture in Wuhan.
In addition, the Imperial Chamber of Commerce also opened a Shanghai Business School. Zhu Cixiang personally participated in the compilation of some textbooks and invited retired stewards, accountants and shopkeepers from various imperial merchants to serve as teachers. Students from this school can not only easily enter the major imperial merchants and commercial firms affiliated with the Imperial Chamber of Commerce, but also easily find a job as a magician.
Now the accounts of the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of War, Maritime Bank, Salt Merchant Bank, Yingtian Grain Depot and Wuhan Grain Depot are all handled by graduates of Shanghai Business School, so Zhu Cixiang can read all the accounts without any difficulty.
According to his memory, as of August last year, the "net profit" of the Ming Dynasty was less than 1 million taels. How could it suddenly increase to 6.55 million taels in four months?
