"Your Majesty, do you really believe that your great nephew can raise 120 million taels of silver for the imperial court in one year?"
The person who is questioning Zhu Cixiang's ability to collect money is the newly appointed Minister of Household Affairs Shen Tingyang.
After being a high school scholar in Chongzhen for ten years, he turned to literature. First, he became the prefect of Tianjin (this is a newly established prefecture, covering Tianjin Sanwei, Jinghai County, Wuqing County, and Dong'an County). Later, because of With outstanding political achievements, he was promoted to governor of Northern Zhili. In the 15th year of Chongzhen's reign, he joined the cabinet and served as Minister of Household Affairs.
Since Shen Tingyang was born into a wealthy merchant family and had been a maritime merchant for many years. He also managed the Xiangshan Commercial Port from scratch. His financial management ability was definitely ranked first among all the ministers of the Ministry of Household Affairs in the Ming Dynasty. Zhang Juzheng, the famous prime minister who presided over the Wanli New Deal, could not compare with him.
But even he, the Minister of Household Affairs, who had the best financial management ability in the Ming Dynasty, could not raise 120 million taels of silver in one year for Zhu Youjian, an emperor who spent money like a torrent.
"Mr. Shen Ge, I believe in my nephew's ability. He said that he can raise 120 million before September next year. This amount of money can be raised in one year."
Of course Zhu Youjian knew what the traitor was. In his previous life, Zheng Zhilong was known as the richest man in the Ming Dynasty, Shen Tingyang was the second richest man in the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Cixiang was the richest man in the Ming Dynasty... Zheng Zhilong and Shen Tingyang together were probably not as rich as Zhu Cixiang !
Therefore, 120 million taels of silver is not a problem at all to Zhu Cihong. Moreover, the 120 million taels that Zhu Cihong gave to the Ming Dynasty was not cash, but silver on the books of the Salt Merchant Bank... There is still a difference between the two.
"Your Majesty, the total amount of silver in the Ming Dynasty is only more than 700 million taels, or 120 million taels. This is only one-sixth of the total silver in the world. How can we raise it?"
The speaker was Hong Chengchou, the chief minister of the cabinet. He didn't believe in Zhu Cixiang's ability, and he hated the Ming Dynasty capital from the bottom of his heart... He didn't know the reason, but he just didn't like it and thought Zhu Cixiang was unreliable. And it’s very dangerous!
Zhu Youjian glanced at Hong Chengchou and said with a smile: "I believe that my nephew can do things that Yuan Fu thinks are impossible. Do Yuan Fu want to make a bet with me?"
bet? When Hong Chengchou saw Zhu Youjian's confident look, he immediately lost confidence and quickly changed his words: "Your Majesty, if His Highness the Great Nephew has really raised so much money from the Southeast, it means that the wealth of the Southeast is already in the hands of His Highness the Great Nephew. Already..."
As soon as he said these words, the faces of the ministers in the West Nuan Pavilion of Wansheng Palace changed slightly, and even Zhu Youjian frowned slightly.
Hong Chengchou's words were a bit heartbreaking, and they also touched Zhu Youjian's sore spot.
Zhu Youjian knew that the Ming Dynasty had always had the problem of separating military and financial resources...The elite soldiers of the Ming Dynasty had always been concentrated along the Great Wall, while the wealth of the Ming Dynasty was concentrated along the Yangtze River.
The capital of the Ming Dynasty, Beijing, was the core of the control of the nine-sided thirteen towns along the Great Wall. Zhu Di's purpose of moving the capital to Beijing was actually to allow the imperial court to firmly control the nine-sided military power.
But the hub that controls the wealth of the Ming Dynasty is not in Beijing, or even in the north. It is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River, which is the hub of rivers, seas, and transportation. Especially after the Ming Dynasty lifted the maritime ban and established the Shanghai commercial port, the status of the Yangtze River estuary as a wealth hub became even more prominent.
Although Zhu Youjian relied on his strong military strength and the big government system (the prerequisite for implementing the big government system was that the court had strong military power and was not afraid of local government separatism), he effectively suppressed the wealth of the Yangtze River Basin. There, tens of millions of taels of wealth were obtained. But this is merely suppression, not firm control. So tens of millions is the end, and it is impossible to get hundreds of millions.
Once Zhu Cihong goes south and opens the Salt Merchant Bank, he will be able to completely control the wealth of the Yangtze River Basin - because the bank controls the circulation of money, while the Yangtze River Estuary controls the circulation of goods. When money flow and logistics After they are brought together, the wealth center of Ming Dynasty will be firmly controlled by Zhu Cixiang!
By the time Zhu Youjian controls the Ming Dynasty's sword and Zhu Cixiang controls the Ming Dynasty's money bag, the situation of two masters of the country will be inevitable.
Although the handle of the knife is still quite a deterrent to the money bag - if it doesn't work, you can still grab it!
But once Dao Baozi is let go, the wealth center of Salt Merchant Bank will be destroyed. Without this wealth center, can Dao Baozi still spend money comfortably in the future?
It is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality!
Once the Ming Dynasty's knife masters got used to the good life of spending hundreds of millions a year, it would be difficult to live in the "hard life" of spending tens of millions a year. Are you asking them to live in a life where they spend more than 10 million a year?
Even Zhu Youjian himself needs an income of hundreds of millions or more a year to maintain his huge and expensive empire - because his expansion is at the expense of long-term losses. Once the capital chain is broken, his The empire would quickly collapse.
The only person who can maintain the safety of the empire's capital chain is the treacherous son Zhu Cihong... Without the treacherous son, the prosperous Ming Dynasty that Zhu Youjian worked so hard to build would probably be difficult to maintain until the end of his life.
And with a rebellious son, Zhu Youjian can continue the expansion of the empire, and at the same time live a luxurious and luxurious life. He will definitely be an emperor in the history books in the future!
As long as the territory left to the descendants is large, as long as there are more and more son countries and grandson countries in the Ming Dynasty, who will know that Zhu Youjian is actually a promiscuous and prodigal emperor?
Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian was already a little depressed. He has been very powerful in his life. Since ancient times, there have been very few emperors who can surpass him. Why is he still subject to the treacherous son?
"Isn't it a good thing that all the wealth in the southeast is in the hands of my nephew?" Zhu Youjian forced a smile, "My nephew is the foundation of the Ming Dynasty, the future emperor, and my biological son. Yuan Fu is still worried that he won't give me money. Flowers?”
Hong Chengchou had already finished driving the nails, and of course he wouldn't say anything more. He quickly changed his words and said, "Your Majesty, Guo Ben is a filial son, and of course he will not fail to spend money for Your Majesty."
Dutiful son? Zhu Youjian sneered in his heart, what a filial piety! He is clearly the number one traitor in the world... In his previous life, he came with a sword to force the palace to seize the throne. In this life, he cannot defeat me, and now he wants to control the world's wealth to compete with me!
But it doesn’t matter, I can live to be over 90 years old... You rebellious son, just be a grey-haired old lady’s nephew!
...
"Brother, can you really get more than 100 million for my father?"
"Second brother, our father said that the boss is capable, you still don't believe it? Boss, our father said that as soon as you get more than 100 million, the country that the second child and I can do will be conquered!"
"Hehehe, second child and third child, don't worry, my brother is here and I won't let you have no money to spend..."
"Let me just say, the boss is our good brother!"
"Boss, then you can take more care of me and the third child in the future..."
"Easy to say, easy to say..."
In Duanben palace, a good show of brothers, friends and brothers is going on.
Zhu Cixiang's two good brothers, the next Mongolian Khan and the Great Mingxin King Zhu Cixuan and Ning Wang Zhu Cijiong both visited early this morning.
These two brothers are both princes of the Ming Dynasty with real titles, and they both have many titles. Zhu Cixuan has 20,000 titles! And Zhu Cijiong has 18,000 households!
But the future that Zhu Youjian has arranged for them is more than that. Zhu Youjian wants them to be the kings of a country!
Zhu Cixuan was determined to be the next Great Khan of Mongolia, so he had to take his feudal lords to build a castle on the Mongolian grasslands. And Zhu Cijiong wants to develop eastward... Zhu Youjian initially wanted him to inherit the Kingdom of Korea, but now he changed his mind and wanted Zhu Cijiong to land in Japan and marry the Japanese Emperor Mingzheng!
But these two big plans are bottomless pits of money!
And Zhu Youjian couldn't spend so much money to fill it, so he couldn't start it for a while...until yesterday Zhu Cihong promised to raise 120 million for Zhu Youjian!
Zhu Cixuan and Zhu Cijiong heard the news from somewhere, and they both visited Duanben Palace after class today.
