"Your Majesty, this is a secret report submitted by Xiong Tingbi on the trading situation of leather goods and ginseng in Liaodong."
Kuimen.
Zhu Yijun had just returned from watching the Three Gorges, and Shen Li handed him a memorial.
Zhu Yijun opened the secret memorial and read it for a while, then said: "In that case, we will discuss the transfer of the imperial property after returning to Beijing."
Shen Li raised his hands and said yes.
On the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival in the thirty-fifth year of Wanli, Zhu Yijun returned to the capital.
When Zhu Yijun returned to the capital, the capital had completely completed the city construction work, so it also changed drastically.
The huge capital city looks even more majestic from a distance, especially the strengthening of the drainage system and sanitation work, making the entire capital city cleaner.
Even arc lamps were installed at key points in the inner city and towers, so at night, the brightly lit capital was filled with many dazzling light pillars, making it even more eye-catching.
But the more this happened, the more Zhu Yijun became concerned about the vast deserted Imperial Manor outside the capital.
He had to admit that it was really out of place to turn a large area of land on the outskirts of the capital into a weedy wasteland due to the existence of Huangzhuang near the capital, just like a psoriasis growing on Shuntian Mansion. It also seemed to continue to demonstrate the drag the Ming royal family had on the people of the capital.
to this end.
As soon as Zhu Yijun returned to the capital, he immediately discussed the matter with the ruling ministers, and finally decided that the territory north of the current border wall would be the private property of the Ming Dynasty royal family, and at the same time, the imperial mansions that the Ming Dynasty had set up in large numbers since Yongle would be abolished.
All the fields in Huangzhuang were given to the common people, and the fields that were still rented were directly distributed to the tenants. The tenants changed from tenant owners to landowners. The untenanted fields were sold directly at a fair price, and the proceeds were returned to the treasury.
All the former managers of the imperial estate were transferred to the imperial estate management staff and transferred back to the Shaofu to serve in various newly created positions in order to prepare for the management of the large number of imperial estates beyond the Great Wall.
Although the mountains and forests in the north of the Great Wall have now become imperial property, it is impossible for Zhu Yijun to really hold these territories in his arms like gold ingots and not let people in the world mine them. That would make no sense.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun decided to contract out the mountains and forests in the north of Saibei.
Of course, Zhu Yijun only contracted the right to use it, and it was a time-limited use right. He was cooperating with people in the world who were capable and willing to go to the north to develop interests.
The royal family is only responsible for collecting a certain percentage of dividends every year.
The closer to the customs, the higher the contract price and the higher the dividend ratio.
The further away from the customs, the lower the contract price and the lower the dividend ratio.
Even in some places that are particularly far away, Zhu Yijun only requires that he provide a hundred mink skins every year, without any dividends, or even with subsidies, free money for weapons and equipment, and only allows them to share in proportion after three or five years.
For the powerful bureaucrats, they are naturally willing to contract for nearby places that are easy to develop. They just need to pay dividends to the royal family every year and accept the supervision of the corresponding personnel in the inner court. However, this is nothing to them, as long as it is beneficial. Just make money.
For the middle and lower class scholars, some of them who are brave are naturally more willing to venture further afield.
Of course, many retired military attachés, even high-ranking military attachés, prefer to contract to places farther away, and take this opportunity to continue living the military life they are accustomed to, while also being able to freely "dominate" in these places.
General Zhong Changdong, who became an official, contracted a large piece of land in the Yenisei River Basin for later generations, together with about a hundred of his old subordinates.
According to the contracting regulations given to them by the imperial edict, they can get 80% of the wealth mined here, but only need to give 20% to the royal family, and this 20% will be paid in the form of taxes when entering and selling slaves, leather goods, ginseng, etc.
certainly.
The reason why the emperor gave them such a high share is because this area is now basically inaccessible and extremely cold. Only some completely uncivilized primitive Tatars live here.
The profits they can make here are hunting, leather-making, and arresting people to dig ginseng, or forcing local natives to donate skins and ginseng to them.
These benefits are very visible, and may not even be as cost-effective as those obtained by buying subscription bonds in China, not to mention the difficult conditions.
Because of this, the emperor was so generous and increased the share of contractors to 80%. He also provided free equipment, food, etc., and said that he would use 10% of the 20% for future railway construction. It is convenient for these people to come back to trade or reunite with their families in the future.
But even though it had increased to 80% and many promises had been made, not many people actually came to grab the deal.
Therefore, it was very smooth for Zhong Changdong and others to contract this industry, and his family also thought he was stupid. His son even knelt down to persuade him, but Zhong Changdong did not listen.
And even if Zhong Changdong and others choose to contract here, it is not because of wealth and wealth, but just because he likes it, because he does not like the intrigues in the internal government offices.
However, because Zhong Changdong has lived in Liaodong since he was a child, he is not very afraid of wind, frost, rain and snow.
Now he and his subordinates are fighting in this area with one man, one horse, one gun and one jug of wine.
Although they did not have many troops, because they were well-equipped and experienced in combat, the original Tatars living here were basically conquered by them.
It was just during this period that Tsarist Russia was also expanding eastward, and had already destroyed the Siberian Khanate in the Ob River Basin in the 10th year of Wanli. It was moving deeper into the Yenisei River Basin further east, and had sent a large number of Cossack cavalry to patrol this area. With the sentry.
Therefore, Zhong Changdong and others soon encountered the Cossack cavalry, and the two sides had many encounters.
The sharp swords and spears of the Cossack cavalry did not take advantage when encountering Zhong Changdong and other Ming royal mercenaries, because Zhong Changdong and other royal mercenaries had already used rifled breech-loading cavalry muskets, which were extremely fast in loading and firing, and could Dispose of the highly mobile Cossack cavalry faster.
What's more, many of Zhong Changdong's subordinates are Chinese Tatars themselves. It is easier to communicate with the local original Tatars and to get support from these Tatars. This makes it easier for the Cossack cavalry to play a role in intelligence investigation and concealment. Advantage.
this day.
Zhong Changdong led a main force composed of 300 old subordinates and locally recruited Tatars, and lurked in a mountain col where he knew that a group of Cossack cavalry was about to pass by based on intelligence reports, while grabbing the snow into his mouth and eating it. While smoking a cigarette made of Damingguan paper, he said:
"Pass this order, as long as you win this ambush battle, each person will be rewarded with five boxes of cigarettes."
The officers and soldiers under Zhong Changdong were very excited after hearing this.
Because they are very addicted to smoking, it is difficult to get cigarettes from China in the remote Yenisei River area. Therefore, in their eyes, cigarettes are more expensive than gold of the same quality, and the local Tatars who became their mercenaries The Tatars also quickly became obsessed with the cigarettes, and they were even willing to work for Zhong Changdong just because they needed the cigarettes. After all, this thing made them addicted.
Therefore, Zhong Changdong specifically used the cigarettes he brought here as bait to boost morale before the war.
So, after a group of Cossack cavalry came over, Zhong Changdong had just issued an order, and the three hundred officers and soldiers under his command rushed down the mountain with roars, and threw countless thunderbolts at the Cossack cavalry camp one by one. Then Zhong Changdong also personally He urged the horses to charge, and drew his sword and shouted:
"For our great Ming Emperor, massacre all invaders!"
Soon, these Cossack cavalry were defeated, and many chose to surrender.
"Behead them all!"
"All outsiders who invade the territory of His Majesty the Ming Emperor will be killed without mercy!"
Because Zhong Changdong had a small number of people and was already very stretched to manage the original Tatars, he still chose to execute the surrendered Cossack cavalry. He only took some of the Cossack cavalry equipment away from his own people as supplementary losses, and the rest was They were given to the local Tatars who had chosen to be loyal to them.
Therefore, Zhong Changdong and his comrades were basically unable to organize a large population to concentrate on mining. Instead, they only collected fur goods and ginseng from the local Tatars in the form of taxes, and then regularly sent reliable people to the south to exchange.
Zhu Yijun expanded his wealth by relying on the wealth sharing obtained by these partners from looting and tax collection in Saibei.
Although one partner could not provide much tax revenue from fur goods and ginseng to the royal family, the primitive jungle in the north was too big and the territory was too vast to support the entire north, and there were too many partners working with the emperor. Therefore, after they were pooled together, the emperor relied on this to increase his income. Wealth is not a small amount.
Zhu Yijun used the money to increase domestic investment and at the same time use the investment income to reward the people around him. This made the people around him more respectful to him and more generous to those who contributed to the Ming Dynasty. This made these people respect Zhu Yijun even more.
"The No. 1 Prize in Mathematics in the 36th year of Emperor Wanli's reign is awarded to Zhan Shishuai Jiamo, a lifelong academician of the Huangming Academy and the former Young Master of Zhan Shifu!"
On this day, after Chief Assistant Wang Xijue announced the winner of the annual Huangming Mathematics Prize, Emperor Zhu Yijun of the Ming Dynasty personally awarded Shuai Jiamo the imperial edict of a bonus of 500,000 silver dollars and the award of a third-class viscount.
Nowadays, the Ming Dynasty has become accustomed to changing the name of arithmetic to mathematics, mainly because Ming Dynasty's research on mathematics has entered a new level, and it is no longer just for arithmetic, but has been used to explore the world, so the Arithmetic Award has now been renamed the Mathematics Award.
(End of chapter)
