"Your Majesty, after the water in the Yellow River recedes, will water transport be restored?"
The person who raised this question was Xu Yunsong, the commander-in-chief of water transportation. Just rely on the canal to feed the canal! Of course, the commander-in-chief of water transport relies on water transport. If there is no water transport, what use will he have as a commander-in-chief?
"It's not like water transportation has completely stopped. How can we say it has been restored?" Zhu Youjian said: "The Jiangnan Canal, Zhejiang East Canal, Huainan Canal, Tianjin North-South Canal and other canal sections are still open today. Moreover, the water transportation from Cao to the sea also starts from Huai'an. Enter Tianjin. In the future, the Tianjin North Canal, Jiangnan Canal, Zhejiang East Canal and Huainan Canal will only be busier. Although the Tianjin South Canal from Tianjin to Dongchang will be cooler, it will still exist. The only one that cannot be navigable is Dongchang to Huaihe River. A paragraph.”
"That's more than 1,000 miles..." Xu Yunsong said with a bitter look on his face, "And the 600 miles from Tianjin to Dongchang in the south is of no use. The total length of the canal is only more than 3,000 miles, and now it's Half of them were eliminated, and tens of thousands of grain transport soldiers and at least hundreds of thousands of people in the towns along the canal were cut off from their livelihood..."
Xu Yunsong doesn't care about the livelihood of tens of thousands of grain transport soldiers and hundreds of thousands of people along the canal! All he cares about is his official position and wealth - this is not his business alone. He brought 4,000 households south from Beijing. It would cost a lot of money to bring so many people south! I originally planned to get it back from the canal transport, but I didn't expect that only two years after taking office, I encountered a flood before I could get back to my roots. Now that the flood has not receded, the canal will be abandoned!
Although Long Live Lord said that all water transportation has not stopped, but the more than a thousand miles in between are missing, it is no longer one, but has become two sections that cannot be coordinated between the north and the south - a water transportation commander cannot control these areas at all. Two sections of canals that are not connected!
And the most difficult part of the Grand Canal is the section from Huai'an to Dongchang! Sometimes there will be drought and dry up, and sometimes it will be washed away by the Yellow River. It is really a disaster, and it is troublesome to manage. Of course, there is the most oil and water. Therefore, most of the grain transport troops are stationed along the canal from Huai'an to Dongchang. Therefore, the yamen of the General Water Transport Corps was located in Huai'an.
"Dong Guo Gong," Zhu Youjian nodded, "Of course I know the difficulties of the grain transport army, and I will also make arrangements... I will not let them wait to starve to death!"
Xu Yunsong was still crying.
The Canal Army starved to death and did other stupid things? The problem now is that he suffered a huge loss. In order to arrange for the 4,000 families to go south, he also borrowed usury from Widow Xu of the same clan, and mortgaged his eight farms in Tianjin and two gardens in the west of Beijing. If you get out...it will be a big loss!
Zhu Youjian knew about this, but Xu Yunsong wanted to be the chief grain transporter, so of course the risk was also his.
This means that being an official is risky, so you must be cautious when entering the industry!
Zhu Youjian paused, and then said: "I have arranged two places for the grain transport troops from Huai'an to Dongchang. One is to take in the general troops of Huaidong and Huaixi, and allocate farmland to them in Huaibei - I have already It is planned to dig a way for the Yellow River to enter the sea in Huaibei. Once the way to the sea is completed, the Huaihe River can be controlled, and both sides of the Huaihe River can be transformed back into the land of fish and rice. It is still profitable to plant military villages in Huaibei.
The second is to allow them to make a living in the soon-to-be-opened commercial port in Shanghai. When going to the commercial port to make a living, agricultural land will not be divided, but they can be given residential land, half an acre per household. In addition, the officers and soldiers used in the Shanghai commercial port can be recruited first from the grain transport army who settled in Shanghai. "
Not to mention, the conditions given by Zhu Youjian are still very good. Either he can be a stable farmer in Huaibei, or he can get a Shanghai household registration, become a civil servant, and even build a separate house in a piece of land... ..I don’t know how those food transport troops will choose?
But what happens to my father’s book? Xu Yunsong looked at Zhu Youjian eagerly.
Of course, Zhu Youjian would not deny Xu Yunsong a chance to repay his money. The question is whether he has the courage to do it!
"Ding Guo Gong," Zhu Youjian said with a smile, "the canal is interrupted for more than a thousand miles, and everything from Huai'an to Tianjin is transported by sea... and the rice shipped to the north is no longer directly collected from the south. Instead, it will be shipped from Huguang, Jiangxi and other places. Therefore, starting from next year, the grain transport army will not be responsible for transporting grain. All grain will be transferred to commercial operations. From now on, there will be no official grain ships on the canal. The grain transport army will be responsible for Huainan from now on. , the maintenance of the Jiangnan and Zhejiang canals and the customs taxation!"
What?
Banknote tax?
Xu Yunsong felt heartbroken after hearing this.
He is Dingguo Gong, a top figure in the tax evasion circle. Of course he knows how the tax at the canal banknotes is collected!
Zhu Youjian looked at Xu Yunsong and said: "I have handed over to you all the four major banknote checkpoints including Huai'an, Yangzhou, Xushuguan (Suzhou), and Beixin (Hangzhou) on the thousand-mile canal from Huai'an to Hangzhou. No ships will be able to do so in the future." It’s tax-free. Even for ships shipped by the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs, the banknote customs will collect taxes as usual. There is no need to check the value of the goods, just the size of the ship... I won’t ask you for more, just one banknote for you. Give me 200,000 taels of silver, and the four major banknotes will give me 800,000 taels of silver. The rest should be used to maintain the Water Transport General Military Office."
What? Four banknotes to pay 800,000 taels?
Xu Yunsong almost cried when he heard Zhu Youjian's asking price.
During the Tianqi years, the country's eight major banknotes could only earn more than 420,000 taels a year, and this was only obtained under the high pressure of Wei Zhongxian. Zhu Youjian is now giving Xu Yunsong four banknotes, which is 800,000 taels a year... This is an extortionate tax!
In fact, Zhu Youjian's requirements were not high. Zhu Cihong was much more ruthless than him back then.
The tax standard for Chaoguan in the Ming Dynasty was theoretically one tax per thirty. From Hangzhou to Chongwenmen in Beijing, there are a total of eight banknote checkpoints. If all pass, the tax will be 30% and 80%, which is more than 20%.
However, the actual tax collection standard is based on the gross estimate of the size of the ship, which does not reach 30 taxes per 1, and even 50 taxes per 100% may not be achieved.
There are also three rules of not accepting ships, that is, no official ships, no eunuch ships, and no scholar-bureaucrat ships. In addition, of course, the grain transport army's own canal ships are not collected... If you don't collect this, you don't collect that, there are not many ships left that can collect taxes.
In this case, there will still be more than 420,000 taels during the Tianqi year!
Now Zhu Youjian wants to collect them all, and the four major banknote checkpoints are all located in the most economically developed areas. He turns in 800,000 taels a year, which is really not a lot!
Zhu Youjian looked at Xu Yunsong who was crying and said, "Dong Guo, you don't have to give me an answer today. Go back and do the math... If you feel that you can't eat it, I will allow you to resign."
But what about after resigning?
The loan shark owed to Widow Xu still had to be repaid, and the whole family had to eat!
...
Xu Yunsong, the "gong of the loan country" who owed a lot of debt, left Nanjing Xiyuan with a group of loyal and treacherous ministers of the Ming Dynasty who had no idea what their intentions were. Later, two extremely wealthy profiteers - Zheng Zhilong and Shen Tingyang - came.
The two of them entered the hall together with Lu Jiude, the Nanjing garrison eunuch, and Xu Ruolan, the female official of Shang Gong.
Zhu Youjian saw the big black guy Zheng Zhilong from a distance and waved to him with a smile.
"Zheng Yiguan, I've been waiting for you...come here, come here, show me, hahaha, you're much younger!"
Zheng Zhilong was confused by what he said - is the man in red robe the emperor? Why do you look so familiar to me? And...what does it mean to be much younger? I'm 28 years old, no longer young!
"The Fujian Navy guerrilla Zheng Zhilong respectfully invites the Holy Ann..."
Zhu Youjian and Zheng Zhilong were "naturally acquainted", but Zheng Zhilong still had to respectfully follow Shen Tingyang in the ceremony.
"Flat body, give me a seat! Ruolan, you sit down too." Zhu Youjian smiled and waved his hand, asking the eunuch beside him to move an embroidered pier for Zheng Zhilong, Shen Tingyang and Widow Xu.
After the three of them were done, Shen Tingyang wanted to formally introduce Zheng Zhilong to Zhu Youjian, but Zhu Youjian seemed to be more familiar with Zheng Zhilong. Before Shen Tingyang could speak, he smiled and said: "First officer, how old is your tea girl?" Already?"
Tea girl?
Zheng Zhilong was stunned again and again. He had a daughter named Zheng Chagu, but she was only four years old this year... Shouldn't Long Live Lord be asking about her?
Zhu Youjian saw that Zheng Zhilong was still in a daze and said with a smile: "First officer, I am talking about your daughter Zheng Chagu. I want her to enter the palace to be a companion to the emperor's nephew."
