"Your Majesty, where will the taxes of Shandong province come from?"
"Your Majesty, if there is no public land, where will the official land of Shandong local officials come from?"
Gao Hongtu, the governor of Shandong, and Su Guansheng, the governor of Denglai, simultaneously raised objections to Emperor Zhu's land policy in Shandong.
Gao Hongtu added: "Shandong Province has been in turmoil for many years, its industry and commerce are in decline, and its finances depend entirely on land tax. If exempted for five years, how can the officials and soldiers in Shandong Province be maintained?"
Su Guansheng said: "Local officials in all provinces in the world have job fields to supplement their eunuchs' pockets, but Shandong has no job fields. I'm afraid the officials are dissatisfied and ineffective in doing things!"
After listening to the two people's questions, Zhu Cixiang just sighed lightly, and then laughed again: "The imperial court has fallen into the eyes of money in recent years. The success or failure of running a place is based on profit and loss. The provincial government is directly managed by the Cabinet Office. , are also places of prosperity and peace. This is true for the Four Rivers (Jiangnan, Jiangbei, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang are collectively called the Four Rivers) and the two lakes, Guangdong, Fujian, and the east and west capitals."
The current eight provinces under the direct control of the Cabinet Office of the Ming Dynasty are Jiangnan, Jiangbei, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong, and Fujian. In addition, there are two directly managed mansions, Yingtian mansion and Wuhan mansion.
These eight provinces and two prefectures have always been good places with fat and oil. The strategic plan Zhu Cixi made when he was in Beijing was to temporarily abandon the loss-making northern territory and retreat to the profitable southern territory to work hard.
Of course, such an approach will attract infamy politically, but when the Qing army enters the customs, bandits are causing chaos, the climate in the north is harsh, and famines continue, if the "profits" of the southern provincial government are not fully tapped, what will they do with it? Fill the North’s shortfall?
The failure of Emperor Chongzhen was certainly due to factors such as blind command and inability to employ people, as well as natural and man-made disasters, but a very important factor was that the imperial court failed to benefit from the great economic prosperity in the south, and even became a Victims of the prosperity of the South - The prosperity of the South's economy was largely brought about by the Age of Discovery, and the inflow of hundreds of millions of taels of silver not only brought prosperity to the South's industrial and commercial industries, but also caused inflation!
And most of the taxes collected by the Ming Dynasty were reduced to silver. In the context of inflation, the taxes collected by the imperial court from the southeast, even with the addition of three-rate assessments, actually declined.
In the northwest, the situation is quite different, although the effects of rising food prices caused by inflation and natural disasters have also been transmitted to the northwest. However, successive years of famine have left northwest farmers with no surplus grain to sell, and rising grain prices will do them no good. At the same time, due to the prosperity of the textile industry in the southeast and the fact that the Ming Dynasty hardly levied commercial taxes, the cheap and high-quality southeast textiles easily destroyed the "men farming and women weaving" in the northwest, making it difficult for northwest farmers to obtain silver income.
In addition, the northwest has always been an important border defense town of the Ming Dynasty, with many guard posts, many generals, and many royal palaces (the rich southeast has no royal palaces). A large amount of land has been occupied by officials, gentry, and clans, and taxes all overwhelm the bottom class who have difficulty getting silver. For the common people, it is very natural for the government to force the people to rebel.
Therefore, fully exploring the "profits" of the South to make up for the deficit of the North is the only option - in fact, until the 21st century, isn't China also following this path? If Shaanxi in the 21st century were to pay 80% more taxes than Guangdong, would the people of Shaanxi still be alive?
Before the profits in the south are fully exploited, we can only temporarily give up the stop loss in the north - although it is incorrect, there is nothing we can do about it. Because the Ming court had no real power to issue banknotes, nor the ability to issue government bonds for financing, the deficit had no way to be passed on to the future, but would be passed down level by level, all the way to the lowest level of soldiers. As the soldiers at the bottom are the ultimate bearers of the shortfall, it is very normal for excavation collapse to occur.
Of course, if Zhu Cixiang is a military genius, he can also steal a few corrupt officials to raise some money, and then in a short period of time, he can train 30,000 to 20,000 elite soldiers who can defeat the Eight Banners soldiers, and he can overwhelm Dole in troop deployment. With the abilities of Gun and Duoduo (taking into account the advantages of the cavalry-based Eight Banners soldiers in terms of mobility and battlefield reconnaissance, it would not be enough if you are not a genius military strategist), but they can also stay in the north to quell the invaders...
But Zhu Cixiang didn't have that kind of military ability, and making money was what he was best at. So now he is taking the profits from the south to cover the losses in the north.
Zhu Cixiang showed a proud smile and said: "Fortunately, the imperial court now has money... It made 6.55 million taels last year, so it can bear Shandong's losses!
I invite you all to come here today to discuss how to make good use of these 6.55 million taels of silver! "
What? Give all 6.55 million taels to Shandong?
Emperor Hongxing’s handiwork was so great!
The ministers present were all shocked by Zhu Cixiang's words.
This is 6.55 million taels of silver!
And it is paid in full, there will never be arrears, and there are no department fees - the money is not taken out from the bank account of the Account Department at all, but directly transferred from the accounts opened by the Account Department at the two banks.
"Your Majesty, will all these 6.55 million taels be given to Shandong?" Gao Hongtu, the governor of Shandong, was still a little unsure, so he asked.
Zhu Cihong smiled and said: "These 6.55 million taels of silver are all spent in Shandong Province. Of course, they cannot all be used by the Shandong Governor's Yamen."
"That's natural, that's natural..." Gao Hongtu said happily, "The governor's office in Shandong can't spend that much."
Zhu Cixiang added: "Now that we have taken over the Jinzhou Guard in southern Liaoning, we can open the governor's office in Liaodong... Liaodong can also arrange for a deficit of three to four million. In the first year of Hongxing, we will prepare to build a new city in Shandong , Liaodong lost 10 million!
In addition, most of the two prefectures of Nanyang and Runing in Henan are also in the hands of the imperial court, and the Henan governor's office can be established... and be prepared to lose 2 million! "
Chen Rui, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, frowned and said with an embarrassed look on his face, "Your Majesty, this is 12 million taels! Last year, the tax revenue of the Ministry of Revenue was only more than 13 million yuan... and this year's budget has been prepared Well, the surplus is only three to four million. Even if we add last year's 655 taels, it's still only a thousand taels, still short of more than 2 million!
In addition, Wu Sangui and Dai Wangfu both sent people to the south to ask for money, and Ma Shiying of Sichuan also sent people to ask for money from the court. Wu Sangui and Dai Wang both owed a lot of money from loan sharks, and both wanted the court to help with the debt. Because Zhang Xianzhong's remaining troops entered Sichuan, Ma Shiying's pressure increased sharply and was difficult to cope with. He urgently needed the imperial court to send troops and pay..."
It was not easy for him to work in the Department of Accounts. He was a scholar at first. It was very difficult to prepare the reports in the Department of Accounts. When he finally managed to make a little profit, people from all walks of life came to the door asking for money. Even Emperor Hongxing was lavish. Woke up......
Zhu Cihong glanced at Chen Rui and laughed: "Mr. Chen, there is no need to be embarrassed. When I return to Nanjing, I will ask him to leave the town of Zhejiang. Let others take care of the stalls in the household department!"
Chen Rui breathed a sigh of relief. Being the governor of Zhejiang is indeed more comfortable than being the minister of household affairs. I wonder which unlucky guy will fill this vacancy?
Zhu Cixiang continued: "I originally planned to attract Dorgon's main force to Shandong, and then land at Dagukou... I didn't expect Dorgon to retreat on his own initiative. Moreover, Wu Sangui was defeated by the rest of Zhang Xianzhong's troops. , temporarily unable to conquer the east, King Dai also ran to Yulin. It seems that the five-pronged northern expedition can only stop here. I will be victorious and return to the court soon!"
Can this be considered a "victory" for him? The ministers present were pounding in their hearts, but of course they didn't dare to say anything. They all had to pretend to be happy.
Zhu Cixiang also had a winner's smile on his face. Of course he won - he will definitely leave a mark in youth history!
"Before I return to the throne, the two provinces of Shandong and Liaodong need to be arranged." Zhu Cihong said, "Today we will talk about Shandong. Shandong can no longer have one province and two prefectures. It is enough to establish a governor's office... ...For the position of governor, I want Gao Hongtu and Gao Qing to take over! Su Guansheng and Su Qing have other important responsibilities.
In addition to a governor's office, Dengzhou will have two more governor's offices, one is the governor's office of Shandong and Liaodong military affairs; the other is the governor's office of Beiyang... The governor of Shanliao is Shi Kefa, and the governor of Beiyang is still held by Shen Tingyang.
In addition, I also plan to establish a Shandong Tuntian Yamen, with Zuo Qing, Zuo Maodi, as the Tuntian Minister, in charge of the Tuntian affairs of the eleven counties in the two prefectures of Shandong and Western Shandong. You guys should discuss how to spend the 6.55 million from Shandong first and make a budget for me. "
