If you two don't have money, just keep silent. If you have money, just keep arguing. I'll take it all, the more, the merrier.
Ten thousand taels is never too little, and one hundred million taels is never too much!
Just asking you if you are afraid? ? ?
Ah ha ha ha ha...
"Do you have a word, please?" Yaoji looked at the courtiers below. After waiting for about five seconds, no one spoke, so he could only continue: "My Ming Dynasty is still in the natural disaster stage, so we can only defend on all fronts. Now. Although the foreign enemies have retreated, the crops have failed and the people have nothing to rely on, but they must not be taken advantage of by the remnants of the rogue bandits. Shandong is the gateway to the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, and its strategic position is particularly important. It is a general trend to relocate the people and build cities for defense. It must be implemented immediately without any hesitation. procrastination."
I don't think anyone dares to object this time. Just open your mouth and ask for ten thousand taels. Set a minimum consumption. You can decide what to do!
Li Daiwen, Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, basically agreed with the "relief for work" plan that the prince planned to implement in Shandong, but he still had some doubts about details such as location selection: "I would like to report to His Highness the Prince, I don't know where he intends to build the city." ?”
If the prince is determined not to waste money in vain and wants to save the millions of victims in Shandong, he can only take the road of "relief through work". Then building a city is an inevitable trend as he said, and the site selection is of course the top priority. Heavy.
"The northern line built cities in Jiaojia County, Laizhou Prefecture and Linglong County, Zhaoyuan County, Dengzhou Prefecture, and the southern line built cities in Rizhao County and Lingshanwei, Jiaozhou. The two cities on the northern line should be mainly engaged in mining. The two cities on the southern line have sufficient sunshine, so they are naturally Mainly sun salt.”
The Zhaoyuan gold mine began mining in the fourth year of Jingde (1007) in the Song Dynasty, and it is still being mined more than a thousand years later. Over a thousand years, more than 200 tons of gold have been excavated.
The most exciting thing is that there is a veritable "golden dragon" lying underground from Laizhou to Zhaoyuan. There are more than 20 large and small gold mines. It is not an exaggeration to say that the ground is full of gold.
There are two gold mines, Hedong and Xincheng, within three kilometers of the Jiaojia Gold Mine. They are very close to each other and are very convenient for mining. There are four other gold mines in Laizhou Prefecture: Xiling, Shaling, Tengjia and Xinlicun. The total mineable reserves of the four mines are more than 1,000 tons.
Anyway, there is a famine in Shandong, and now there is a large labor force, as many as millions. If so many people have nothing to do, they will have nothing to eat. If they don’t have food, they may revolt. Instead of doing that, it is better to gather together and dig. Mineralized salt.
No matter what, even if the capital is lost, we must keep the "golden rice bowl" of Shandong Peninsula. This is the key place of great value for the Ming Empire. From a long-term analysis, whether it can turn over depends on the "random ore flow tactics".
To deal with Huangtaiji's three main bases, Yaoji must open an additional branch base, because engaging in an arms race is extremely expensive, easily costing tens of millions of taels of silver. If you don't have money, you will have no choice but to run away if you don't surrender when the Qing army marches south.
Originally, most of the courtiers were opposed to the hugely expensive city-building plan. When they heard that the prince was planning to build four cities at once, they felt even more unhappy. They were planning how to oppose it. However, when they thought about it carefully, it seemed that the two cities to be built in northern Shandong were not in the area. seaside.
From this point of view, if we want to provide "relief for work" and provide a livelihood for the victims, we must open a mine. Could it be that the prince already knows the location of the mineral deposit?
The purpose of building a city in Zhaoyuan County is to mine the gold mine, right?
This is incredible, we must ask clearly.
Liu Zunxian, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, hurriedly came out and asked: "Your Majesty, the Crown Prince, I don't know if His Majesty is building cities in Ye County and Zhaoyuan, can it be considered as mining?"
With the lessons learned from the past, even if you are a minister, you must be careful if you want to challenge the prince, lest you be asked something off-topic, what did you eat last night, and then die tragically on the spot...
"It's exactly what Liu Aiqing said!"
Anyone can guess what this guy wants to say next, but as the grandson of an "Oscar winner", he has enough self-cultivation as an actor, so he must cooperate well.
Since the prince admitted frankly, Liu Zunxian fired a gold medal arrow: "I'm afraid that your highness's move is suspected of competing with the people, which goes against the law and makes it difficult to move forward. Furthermore, since the Wanli period, our court has repeatedly sent servants to various places to mine. Not only does it have little effect, it often arouses the indignation of the Min people. This move may outweigh the gains and losses, so I hope Your Highness will think twice!"
The mining tax of Emperor Wanli, also known as Ming Shenzong, was in a broad sense, including other industrial and commercial taxes. The original intention and purpose of its implementation was good, which was to improve the empire's already deformed tax structure.
It's just that the tragedy is that this emperor who doesn't like the court wants to use his own power to fight against the powerful civil servant group and the industrial and commercial interest groups behind it. Unless these two groups tear each other apart, there is no hope of victory.
With Liu Zunxian opening the way, Chen Biqian, the left minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, quoted an example and said: "Your Majesty, I vaguely remember that in the twenty-eighth year of Wanli, Li Sancai, the governor of Fengyang, went to Shu Sheng and said that if the mining tax increases, all people will Unemployment, Your Majesty is the master of the people, but you cannot take away the food of the people. I think that if the mining envoys are spread all over the place and issue plunder orders, they will be robbed cleverly, causing the people to live in poverty. For the sake of our great Ming Dynasty, this must not be done! "
By the end of Chongzhen's reign, there were not many Donglin remnants in the court, but there were still many people, such as Chen Biqian, who was one of them. Usually there was no clue, but when it came to mining taxes, it was tantamount to stepping on them. These people are fucked up.
As long as their own interests are involved, let alone the chief minister, they can do anything to slander the emperor. On the issue of vetoing the mining tax, as the spokesperson of the industrial and commercial group, Donglin's internal attitude is extremely consistent.
The mining tax eunuchs at that time were a special channel for Emperor Wanli to circumvent Donglin's control. Therefore, in order to combat the emperor's willful actions, Donglin joined forces with the government and did not hesitate to incite the people and use exposure to resist the emperor's orders.
Seeing that the young prince was silenced by the rebuke, Shang Zhouzuo, the censor of the right capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, took the opportunity to say: "Your Majesty, the tax paid on each item is too much to bear, and the merchants have no profit. The people have suffered greatly from this, and the money obtained from the mining tax comes from exploitation at all levels. This is a method of breaking the bones and sucking out the marrow, and it contains the blood and tears of the people. Your Highness must not send out levy envoys widely, causing sudden chaos in various places!"
Dong Lin, who does not criticize the mining tax, is not a qualified Dong Lin. If he were a dumper and faced such fierce opposition, he would probably have to withdraw his plan and continue to ask for money from the farmers.
Judging from past experience, as long as courtiers insist on their opinions, they can succeed every time. In the face of rogue interest groups, the emperor became a vulnerable group worthy of sympathy. This was a common thing in the late Ming Dynasty.
What's more, in the thirty-fourth year of Wanli, when Yunnan exposed the gang and executed the mining tax eunuch Yang Rong, Emperor Shenzong was so angry that he had no choice but to go on a hunger strike in protest. A wonderful flower.
Yao Ji looked at the bastards with ulterior motives below and asked with a sullen face: "Is there anything else to say? If not, then let me talk about the mineral tax. Who just said that the mineral tax is a way to knock the bones and suck out the marrow? I don't think so. However, from the twenty-fifth year of Wanli to the thirty-fourth year of Wanli, the mine supervisors and tax envoys submitted a total of only 5.7 million taels of silver and less than 13,000 taels of gold to the inner treasury, which amounts to less than 6 million taels. Amortized evenly every year, it’s less than 600,000 taels. I’d like to ask Shang Aiqing, if only 600,000 taels of mining tax is collected a year, isn’t this a bit of a bone-crushing and marrow-sucking method?”
Zhou Zuowan of Shang Dynasty did not expect that the prince came well-prepared and actually brought out the specific figures. This immediately caught him off guard. To come up with the best countermeasures, he had to plan carefully in his heart, so he was criticized in some words. It's hard to refute for a while.
A target was misfired, but Yaoji did not intend to stop, but continued to fight back: "According to Chen Aiqing, the mining tax of only 600,000 taels per year is a swindle, so the taxes and fees of tens of millions of taels are evaded every year. , shouldn’t the family be confiscated and the clan exterminated?”
Everything in this meeting will be criticized. If I don't make you happy, happy, or laugh at you today, you won't be able to roll your eyes in comfort. Then I will satisfy your little wish.
Now that the prince asked, Chen Biqian would not sit still and wait for death. Instead, he seemed to have seized a chance: "I don't know what your highness is referring to. Who dares to evade tens of millions of taels of taxes and fees in our Ming Dynasty?"
It's really ridiculous. Although the prince is extremely intelligent, if he plans to compete with the mining tax, he is definitely no match for him. Chen Biqian is still confident about this.
Yaoji saw that this guy was confidently waiting for him to take action, so he asked the Minister of Household Affairs: "Li Dai asked, how much was the total salt production of our court last year?"
Li Daiwen didn't know the mystery, so he had to reply: "Your Highness, it's about fifty million catties!" (500 million catties)
“How much is the tax on salt per kilogram?”
"...Your Highness, the tax on salt per catty should be two cents and five cents of silver!" (0.025 taels of silver per catty)
“How much salt tax should be paid on fifty thousand kilograms?”
"Your Majesty, let me calculate it...it should be twelve and a half million taels!"
"How much was the actual salt tax collected by the Ministry of Household Affairs last year?"
"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Household Affairs received a salt tax of more than 730,000 taels last year!"
"Did I hear you correctly? Is it more than 1,730,000 taels? Or more than 10,730,000 taels?"
"...Your Highness, the Ministry of Household Affairs is indeed responsible. The salt tax collected last year was only more than 730,000 taels!"
Now the truth is revealed. According to the conversation between the prince and Li Daiwen, the salt tax is simply a cornucopia.
The courtiers were all stunned. They never expected that the court could collect so much money from the salt tax alone.
Although it is only an amount receivable, it has indeed aroused everyone's curiosity.
After Yaoji got a satisfactory answer, he set his sights on the target again: "Where did Chen Aiqing think the tens of millions of taels of salt tax that Chen Aiqing had escaped went?"
This question is equivalent to asking: What big meal did you have last night? You might as well tell me about it, so that everyone can have fun!
