Ginger is indeed old and spicy!
A piece of old ginger that has been floating among Jinyiwei for decades is naturally extremely spicy.
Luo Sigong has long understood the general trend - now the Emperor of Heaven is as ferocious as Taizu and Chengzu!
When serving as an official under him, you must remember one thing: you must not stand up to him, otherwise you will die in an ugly way!
Of course, as a court official, you can't stop being a traitor to make money just because the emperor is too cruel.
I think back when Emperor Taizu Gao was still alive, should officials still be fishing? Just be careful and keep a low profile.
Therefore, when dealing with Zhu Youjian, a cruel and wise king, we cannot stand up to him openly, otherwise we will be seeking death. It's about being obedient and disobeying, and stopping in moderation... Although this Long Live Lord is ferocious and wise, he is also a loner, and the only way to deal with the treacherous officials below is to kill the chickens to scare the monkeys.
So everyone should work hard to be a monkey, and never be the chicken that is slaughtered!
But this time, father and son Luo Sigong and Luo Yangxing not only have to be monkeys, but also have to be two monkey heads that can reach both sides and reach up and down.
The two monkey heads, one old and one strong, looked at each other.
Luo Yangxing, the strong monkey head, said to everyone again: "When Long live the Lord was in Shaanxi, he first established his power by taking a group of mutinous people, and sixty to ten thousand... Then he eliminated the Qin government's vassal. When he went to Sichuan and Guizhou, he slaughtered An The She family also moved the Shu vassal. In Huguang, haha, let’s not talk about it, it’s miserable... Now it’s in Nanzhili again, everyone, think about it!”
"yes!"
"Everywhere he goes, a lot of people die!"
"Let's be careful..."
"Forget it, ten million is ten million!"
These nobles are all scared. The nobles of Nanjing are cowardly. No matter how hard the nobles of Beijing are on the front line to defend the country, they have to fight with the Tatars from time to time. They are somewhat bloody, but the nobles of Nanjing feel comfortable. After more than a hundred years, it has really become rotten.
"Luo Weishuai, we just need to pay taxes, why do we still need to keep the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs?"
I don’t know which useless Nanjing Xungui suddenly asked.
Luo Sigong had already seen the performance of these cowards and immediately said with a smile: "Keeping the power of the Nanjing Household Department, we people can hide behind and make a difference! If there is no Nanjing Household Department, then we We have to go directly to face the palace sent by Long Live Lord!"
No matter what, the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs is easier to deal with than the "big prefect" who grasps the military, political and financial power. The Nanjing Household Department is aloof, but it does not have too much power, nor does it have much responsibility - the Nanjing Household Department and the Beijing Household Department are bumping into each other, who sells whose account? Moreover, it was rare for the Emperor of Ming Dynasty to come to Nanjing. As long as he didn't come, the sky would be high and the Emperor would be far away.
Old Man Luo said again: "Now I estimate that Long Live Master will be satisfied if he can receive 20 million a year. As for where these 20 million will come from... shouldn't we discuss it with the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs?"
Wei Guogong Xu Hongji interrupted Luo Sigong and said: "Luo Weishuai, didn't you say 10 million? Why did it become 20 million?"
"There is also commercial tax!" Luo Yangxing took the question, "The prosperity of industry and commerce in Nanzhili is obvious at a glance. How can we not pay commercial tax? Besides, starting from the Seventh Year of Chongzhen Competition, the number of Jinshi will be calculated by province. …The quota for each province is linked to the amount of tax paid.
Now Huguang gives 20 million a year to the imperial court. How can we, Southern Zhili, give less? If you pay less, the future elders will all be from Huguang! We can agree to this, but Jiangnan Shilin can’t agree either! "
The method of linking taxation with the number of Jinshi and Jinshi is really evil. This is obviously to mobilize the lower-level scholar-bureaucrats to fight against businessmen and nobles.
"But 10 million business tax is too much, right?"
"Yeah, 10 million!"
"How can I get it?"
The children of the Xungui family are generally poor academics and have little chance of rising through the imperial examination, so they don't care how much quota they have, and of course they don't want to use their own money to pave the way for the children of scholar-bureaucrats.
Luo Sigong twirled his beard and said with a smile: "Twenty million is actually not that much... In the past, the tax collected by the imperial court from Nanzhili was basically half money and half food. The food had to be transported north by water and sent to Beijing. However, in recent years, the cotton mulberry trees in Southern Zhili have flourished, and the population has increased greatly. The food is no longer rich, and it is not even enough for oneself. Every year, a large amount of food is purchased from Huguang. If all the land tax can be discounted, The color is very beneficial to Nanzhili.
In addition, Long live the Lord has made up his mind to abolish the canal and convert it to the sea... This is undoubtedly a great good governance for Southern Zhili! In order to maintain the smooth flow of the canal, Nanzhili invested no less than 2 million in manpower and material resources on the canal every year. In addition, the abandonment of the Huai River caused frequent floods on both sides of the Huai River!
Mr. Luo sighed: "For example, the last flood in Xuzhou lasted for several years and did not recede until three years after Chongzhen... After the water receded, the canal was dredged. I don't know how much manpower and material resources were spent. It has not been completed yet. This year Flooded again!
In Xuzhou and Huaibei counties in Huai'an Prefecture alone, the food lost due to these two floods was enough for the entire southern Zhili to pay the land tax for two or three years! "
Although the total land tax in Southern Zhili is only more than 6 million shi, it doesn't look like much. However, the water transportation expenses borne by the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs, as well as the expenses for the management of the Huaihe River, Hongze Lake and the Huanghuai River in South Zhili, are not included in the more than 6 million shi. These expenses basically have to be raised by the Nanjing Household Department itself, that is, they are allocated downwards.
The root of the great troubles of the Huang-Huai River was the policy of "protecting the canals and abandoning the Huai" after the Huang-Huai captured the Huai. This policy impoverished the two Huai rivers for hundreds of years and turned the originally prosperous Huai River coast into a place plagued by flooding year after year.
If the Ming Dynasty was willing to abandon water transportation and switch to sea transportation. Then "protecting the Cao" will become "protecting the Huai", and additional channels for the Yellow River to enter the sea can be dug in the Huaibei area of Xuzhou and Huai'an Prefecture. Once this river channel is completed, sediment from the Yellow River will no longer enter the Huaihe River, and floods in the Huaihe River will be greatly alleviated. Moreover, the cost of maintaining the Huaihe River, Yellow River, and canals can also be reduced a lot.
The entire South Zhili profits from this amount to tens of millions of dan every year...
Luo Sigong added: "In addition, now that the imperial court has 2,000 shihuguang rice, there is no need for Southern Zhili to take out the rice and transport it northward. In this way, we can fight for folding colors... and we can also fight for folding cloth and Folding silk. South Zhili is rich in cotton and silk. The tax of 2,000 shi is to pay for food, silver, and silk, which are completely different!"
"Long live the Lord, can you agree to fold cloth and silk?" Another distinguished nobleman from Nanjing asked.
There are four central cities in the textile industry in South Zhili, including Suzhou, Nanjing, Yangzhou, and Songjiang. The output of cloth and silk is huge, which is not only marketed in China, but also exported to the world. If 20 million stones are folded into cloth and silk, then the pressure on South Zhili will be greatly reduced.
"Yes!" Luo Yangxing laughed, "Long live the Lord is not unreasonable... The Huaihe River has not been regulated yet, and the food in South Zhili is not enough to eat. If we transport another 20 million shi northward, it will be terrible." The whole country will starve to death. And if you transport money north... How much silver is there in the market in South Zhili? If you transport 20 million yuan a year to the north, you will soon run out of money. And there is too much silver in North Zhili, and food The price of cloth should be greatly increased. Why not transport cloth and silk to the north, which can be used as military pay and used to win over the Mongols? Wouldn't it be great?"
The traitorous minister still knows a little about finance, and knows that the commodity economy around Beijing is underdeveloped and cannot digest a large amount of silver. And the economy of South Zhili is developed, and it needs money turnover - if Zhu Youjian follows the example of Nizi and establishes a financial system centered on the banking industry, of course there will be more money in Beijing and less money in Nanjing.
But Zhu Youjian had never thought about this and didn't understand it, so he would definitely agree to fold cloth and silk.
Luo Sigong's eyes swept around the hall again, and said with a smile: "If it doesn't make any sense, let's draft a memorial together, and then cross the river to Shiziling to see the Long Live Lord... and let the Long Live Lord Look, we nobles and the Ming Dynasty are of the same mind!"
