When he entered the East Lake Palace again, Wu Sangui was already the official military envoy of the Pingxi Army!
Although he was a powerful force with a lot of troops and power, Wu Sangui could not feel any domineering aura in him... He was still worried, and his mind was filled with borrowing debts and how to repay them. Where to find money to make up for the shortfall, and how to get money from the huge daily expenses of the Pingxi Army!
I have to say that it is not easy to be the lord of this "limited liability domain" at all.
You have to be responsible for your own profits and losses, you have to work hard, you have to deal with everything properly, and if you are not careful... you will be ruined!
He came to the East Lake Palace today for no other reason than to find money to repair the hole... Before leaving Xi'an, he and his staff had already made plans. It was not easy to be the feudal lord!
Wu Sangui's jurisdiction is not small, with about 20 million acres of registered cultivated land, and the 330 thousand households below account for about half of it - an average of one thousand households occupies 300,000 acres of land. The remaining half is under the direct jurisdiction of the Duke's Office (now the Jiedushi).
It is said that they are under direct jurisdiction, but in fact most of them have owners, and the public government (Jiedushi) also has the right to levy personal taxes. But that’s Shaanxi, how much more tax do you want to levy? Dry land that doesn't rain a few times throughout the year won't have much harvest. Ten million acres may not be enough to receive 10 million shi of flour. Ten taxes per one is one million shi...
In addition, there are some cities and customs that can charge some commercial taxes. However, Shaanxi's business is not developed, and the commercial center is not in Wu Sangui's territory, but in Yulin.
Yulin is where grasslands and farming areas meet, making it easier to form a commercial center. Moreover, trading with the grassland can also generate huge profits - although exchanging firearms for good horses from the grassland may seem a bit "incorrect", you can really make money!
After acquiring Shaanxi and Gansu, the Ming court seemed to be no longer short of horses. But the supply of war horses is still in short supply - the horse breeds in Shaanxi and Gansu are also grassland breeds, which are horse breeds close to the original ecology of nature. Of course they can be tall, short, fat or thin, just like humans. Among them, the prairie horses that can serve as war horses are equivalent to the tall and powerful warriors among humans. Not to mention one in a hundred, but one in ten or one in twenty.
In other words, to obtain enough good horses, there must be twenty or thirty times the number of horses. However, the number of horses in the Gansu and Shaanxi farming areas is still insufficient. Based on the standard of selecting one out of twenty, the horses selected may not be enough even for Pingxi and Shuofang. How can there be spare power to supply the southeastern Ming army?
Now the number of troops in the Southeast Ming Army has gone to 600,000... Even if some of them are garrisoned in branch towns and not on the front line, they can still be organized into at least 160 infantry regiments (400,000 people).
But if he wants to organize these 160 regiments into 40 model divisions with strong field capabilities in five years, Zhu Cixiang will need at least 40 cavalry battalions and 40 division-level artillery regiments. This required the equipment of nearly 1,000 3-pound cannons and 50,000 war horses (draft horses). Artillery is easy to handle, because bronze cannons are very durable and will not be damaged after decades of use. So it is nothing more than casting 200 doors a year and sixteen or seventeen doors a month.
But fifty thousand horses... If they are mainly grassland horses (it is impossible for such a large number to be all broken-eared horses), there must be at least hundreds of thousands of horses to support this number!
Even if you own Ganshan, you can't raise so many horses...
So Shuofang Jun's "gun-for-horse" business can make a lot of money!
And Wu Sangui's Pingxi Army... fell out with the powerful Heshuote Ministry because of the previous detention of the fifth great lama. Therefore, the Pingxi Army did not dare to clean up the Mongols on the Hetao Grassland and establish prestige like the Shuofang Army did - without establishing prestige, you cannot do business well! And to establish prestige may trigger a long-term war with Heshuote Mongolia!
Therefore, the grassland trade of the Pingxi Army is not easy to develop...
Therefore, Wu Sangui and his staff did a lot of calculations and found that the annual income was more than one million.
The worried Wu Sangui followed the eunuch who led the way and wandered around the East Lake Palace for a long time before finally stopping in front of a majestic house.
The eunuch who led the way was a very stout eunuch, probably a "Kenan Eunuch" from the Jing Dynasty. He was wearing a large python robe and led Wu Sangui all the way. The corners of his mouth were curled up, looking arrogant. But when he turned back to talk to Wu Sangui, he still smiled like a flower: "Master, this is the Yongning Palace where the Queen lives."
It turns out I’m going to meet a girl today!
Wu Sangui relaxed and then looked at the palace gate in front of him. It cannot be said to be grand, but it is very exquisite, a bit like the garden of a wealthy and powerful family - the Hongxing Emperor does not seem to like to display royal prestige!
There were guards waiting at the gate of Yongning Palace. When they saw Wu Sangui coming, one of them ran in to report. After a while, a summons came: "The General of Pingxi, the Military Envoy of Pingxi, and the Duke of Liang have an audience!"
Wu Sangui straightened his clothes, stepped into Yongning Palace, and then followed the big man to a palace with good lighting. The palace is not big, and it is equivalent to the hall where the powerful family entertains guests. But it is built very high and has windows all around. The weather is not very cold now, so they are all opened to let the sunlight in.
Zhu Cihong and Wu Sangui were sitting in the palace. Emperor Zhu sat behind a table and Wu Sanmei sat next to him. There are some papers spread out on the table. I don’t know what they are? When Wu Sangui entered, Zhu Cihong and Wu Sanmei were watching.
"Uncle, there's no need to kneel down, come here quickly."
"Second brother, come and see."
Zhu Cixiang and Wu Sanmei didn't have any airs about them, and warmly greeted Wu Sangui to come forward and see what was going on.
Wu Sangui was not polite and walked up to the table. Only then did he realize that there were many printed materials on the table that looked like treasure banknotes.
"This is the Pingxi Domain debt...Chang Bo, how do you think the seal is?"
The bonds of the feudal clan!
Wu Sangui sighed in his heart.
Zhu Cixiang added: "They are all with a face value of 100 taels, with a coupon of 6 taels per year, and can be transferred... Each one must have the seal of Maritime Bank or Salt Merchant Bank, and the bond must be registered. In theory, The transaction transfer can only be completed within the branches of the two banks. Uncle Chang, what do you think? Are you satisfied?"
What are you satisfied with...Wu Sangui is not satisfied at all!
Because no matter how he calculated, it was impossible to pay off these accounts of the King of Hell!
"Your Majesty, I'm afraid I can't even pay the interest on the feudal debt. Why don't you hire someone else..."
As soon as Wu Sangui opened his mouth, Zhu Cihong was amused. In history, because Emperor Kangxi cut down his vassals, they all rebelled!
Now he is forced to resign due to millions of feudal debts. Isn't this a big change?
"The fiscal deficit is normal," Zhu Cixiang smiled and waved his hand, "If the imperial court takes over directly, the deficit will only be bigger... Nowadays, if a town is autonomous and maintains it with force, the deficit can still be minimized. Long-term Uncle, don't have any worries, just go ahead and do it, the court supports you!
You can control the Pingxi Army for life, and you can also pass on the post of Jiedu Envoy to Ying Xiong! "
I have to pass it on to Wu Yingxiong! Wu Sangui thought to himself: When will this vassal be withdrawn?
Zhu Cixiang said again: "Uncle Chang, please don't let it out that the Pingxi Army Jiedushi will be hereditary, otherwise the debt notes will not be issued... The Salt Trading Company and the Maritime Trading Company have already made plans. The new issue of bonds to be issued soon will have a total face value of 3 million taels, and the annual interest will be up to 10% of the face value. It will be issued not only in Hankou, but also in Nanjing, Shanghai, Quanzhou, and Guangzhou.
In order for this issue of bonds to be issued smoothly, we must make people believe that the Pingxi Army will withdraw from the domain in three or four years. Therefore, the imperial court would later establish a Shaanxi governor's office and a governor-general's Sichuan-Shaanxi military affairs office. The governor of Shaanxi will be appointed by Wang Yongji, and the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi will be appointed by you! At that time, the imperial court will also issue a subsidy to Pingxi and Shuofang towns in the name of using troops in Sichuan. With this news, the first tranche of old bonds will definitely rise, making it easier to issue new bonds. "
