"Sixth brother, seventh brother, eighth brother, twelfth brother... you all tell me, are the things my sister-in-law and Yu Wenxuzhong said today correct?"
Zhao Kai held one of his beards, frowning and just looking at the account book in his hand. Several half-eaten dishes and drinks placed on the table were no longer hot.
There was silence in the room. After a while, King Jing Zhao Qi broke the silence: "Third brother, sister-in-law and Yu Wenxuzhong are right, can't you tell by looking at the account books yourself? The numbers in the account books are correct, Qi and I Brother and Bage have checked... The annual income of this Southeast Seventh Road has increased several times since the eldest brother moved south! It's not that the eldest brother is particularly good at searching, but that the original collection was too little. The eldest brother leads After his small court arrived in the southeast, it would just sit there and collect taxes, and it would be difficult to evade taxes."
King Ji Zhao Xu said with a smile: "The eldest brother and sister-in-law often divide the towns of Jiangdu and Jinling. Jiangdu is connected to the canal and salt, and Jinling guards the Yangtze River and the money industry. In addition, these two places are land of fish and rice, both rich in silk... .Just by looking at these two places, they made a lot of money!"
Zhao Chu, the king of Yi, sighed and said: "I think back then, in order to collect more money, our grandfather, Emperor Shenzong, asked Wang Anshi to carry out reforms, which caused a lot of confusion. But our eldest brother and sister-in-law went to Jiangdu and Jinling to collect taxes, which was higher than Wang Anshi's. There is a lot more... but no one rebels, no one makes trouble, it is very peaceful. This shows that the imperial court received too little from the southeast in the past, what a loss!"
Zhao Qi took over the topic and said: "That's not because the southeast is too far away from the imperial court and beyond the reach of the whip... Officials sent to the southeast are difficult to supervise, or they are ineffective, or they enrich their own pockets, or they take public funds for the sake of their personal reputation. Go and be a good person. In addition, the power of the scholar-officials in the Southeast has always been considerable, so the officials sent to the Southeast are unwilling to charge more money, so that the Southeast has not paid what is due, and the Northwest, Hebei, Hedong, Jingxi, Jingdong and other places The burden has increased.”
Zhao Xu said: "Third brother, I really haven't been to the southeast. I don't know how rich the land of plenty is in the southeast! My farm in Kaifeng Prefecture is incomparable to the farm in Jinling Prefecture... The farm in Kaifeng Prefecture is ripe every year." , the annual average harvest per mu is less than one stone of wheat. But in Zhuangzi, Jinling, I have two crops a year, and there are no worries about floods or droughts. The average annual yield per mu is around four stones of millet!
The cultivated land on the Seventh Southeast Road is no less than 20,000 acres, and even if the average annual output is only two shi, it is 40,000,000 shi per year... Ten million won by the imperial court is not too much! This is only the land tax. If you include the salt tax, wine tax, tea tax, customs tax and the income from the forecourt and market, it is still the commercial tax of the big cities and towns in the southeast. It’s incredible!
To be honest, in fact, the eldest brother and sister-in-law in the southeast do not earn much at all. If they really collect it, they can earn an annual income of 10 million! "
An annual income of ten million sounds terrible, but just look at the number of acres of land in the Song Dynasty and the annual output of rice in the south, and then take into account the output of cash crops such as silk and tea, plus the developed trade and industry, an annual income of ten million In fact, it can be done!
Zhao Kai said to himself: "If they receive ten million, then I won't be able to come to Jinling City..."
Zhao Qi smiled and said: "Third brother, if the water is clear, there will be no fish, and if the people are careful, there will be no disciples... So it is really not easy for Southeast Seventh Road to earn tens of millions a year. The imperial court has this number Ten million, plus the income from Shandong Road, Jinghu Road, and Sichuan Road, are you afraid that you won’t have the military expenses to destroy Jin Pingxi?”
The destruction of the Jin Kingdom and the expulsion of the Western Tang Dynasty were both costly transactions... Because the land value in the Western Region and Northeast China was low, even if it was allocated to the soldiers, a large amount of investment would be needed to secure it and make a profit.
Therefore, while Zhao Kai was allocating land to the Fu soldiers and the new Fu soldiers, he also wanted to give heavy rewards!
Only when the money is in place can we secure and firmly occupy the Northeast and Western Regions.
As for colonizing the world...of course it will require a lot of investment!
Because except for a few colonies that are stuck in world trade nodes or can produce a large amount of gold and silver, it is easier to make quick money. Most of the other colonies must first require a large amount of investment before they can make a profit.
And where will the huge funds required for investment come from?
There is no doubt that even Southeast, only Song Southeast can afford this money!
And this money should also come from the southeastern region of the Song Dynasty!
"These tens of millions can actually be received by my officials!" Zhao Kai frowned and said, "I received tens of millions in one year in Sichuan!"
Zhao Qi smiled and said: "Third brother, I received it under the watchful eyes of hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the four camps, and..."
"And what?" Zhao Kai saw Zhao Qi hesitate to speak, "Is there anything you can't say?"
Zhao Qi said: "And the fact that Sichuan can pay so much tax a year is actually related to the 'rice and iron trade' between Sichuan and Ezhou."
"Rice and iron trade?" Zhao Kai frowned even more.
In fact, he knew about this...but in order to obtain enough rice and silk, he turned a blind eye.
As for the profiteers on Sichuan Road who exported iron materials to the Southern Song Dynasty... to be honest, they were scheming with the enemy!
Sichuan is known as the land of abundance and is rich in ironware, rice, silk, and salt. It actually has to rely on this method to collect tens of millions of taxes a year... and those who were sent by Zhao Kai to govern Shu were the most trusted. He is also a very capable minister.
For example, Zhao Bushi, Zhao Shuxiang, Chen Ji, Zhao Kai, Zhao Ding, Zhang Jun, Liu Kai, Yu Wen Cuizhong (Yu Wen Xuzhong's brother) and others all served as Sichuan Road transfer envoys.
Therefore, the 10 million tax revenue contributed by Sichuan every year has made Zhao Kai extremely satisfied, and he can only be satisfied... It is impossible for him to move the capital to Chengdu! Wouldn’t that be Meng Chang?
"Brother," Zhao Zhi looked at Zhao Kai at this time and said with a smile, "from my perspective, unless the princes of the clan are sent to guard the southeastern roads, the annual income in Jiangnan, Lianghuai, and Liangzhejiang will definitely not be as good as Sichuan! After all, the Sichuan people really don’t have an army, but here in the southeast... they have a navy!"
Yes, the navy troops in the southeast are still there!
He hasn’t surrendered to Zhao Kai yet!
Apart from appeasing them, Zhao Kai seemed to have nothing to do with them... His soldiers were all landlubbers, and they were no match for them when they went to sea.
Zhao Qi nodded, "That's right... Now that the canal has been blocked, the goods from the southeast can only be transported to Beijing by sea!"
Another trouble!
Now the canal is blocked by the Yellow River...and it's hard to recover!
Zhao Kai has already asked officials who know about water conservancy, and they are all in favor of restoring the canal. Because the canal cannot cross the Yellow River - then the sediment from the Yellow River will silt up the canal soon.
If the canal and the Yellow River do not cross, then the Yellow River cannot dig a channel into the sea north of the Huaihe River. The only way is to let all the Yellow River flow into the Huaihe River to silt up the Huaihe River... The riverbed of the Huaihe River has risen rapidly in recent years, and it will not be long before it becomes a hanging river.
At that time, the only thing we can do is to let the two Huaihe rivers flood frequently to ensure the smooth flow of canal transportation...and it will not be particularly smooth, because the flooding of the Huaihe River will also destroy the canal.
In short... only one of the Huaihe River and the Canal can be guaranteed!
To protect the Huaihe River, we must develop maritime transport!
And if we want to develop maritime transport... maritime merchants and pirates are actually just the same thing, and they are all evil men who wield force!
Therefore, the profiteers and tyrants in the southeast are definitely more difficult to deal with than those in Sichuan.
From the perspective of strengthening the northern court's control over the prosperous areas in the southeast, it is understandable to ban the sea and abandon the Huaihe River to protect transportation... But Zhao Kai cannot do this!
He knows that by doing this he is waiting to become a semi-colony!
He has to be a big colonist, how can he wait to become a semi-colony? So what is he busy with when he travels back in time? Just to not be the cuckold king?
"But the princes and kings..." After thinking about it, Zhao Kai still shook his head, "It's still inappropriate!"
King Jing Zhao Qi, King Ji Zhao Xu, and King Yi Zhao Chu all set their sights on Zhao Zhi.
Zhao Zhi and Zhao Kai are from the same mother, and they have followed him loyally over the years. They are the most trusted ones in the clan, and they also know Zhao Kai's thoughts.
And Zhao Zhi understands what the brothers mean - none of them want to be labeled as "artists"!
Brothers of their generation all know that being an "artist" is no longer good... and they have already tasted the sweetness of power, so why are they willing to go back to "engage in art"?
"What Third Brother said is absolutely true," Zhao Zhi said, "This vassal king is indeed unreliable... The chaos of the Seven Kingdoms and the Rebellion of the Eight Kings were caused by the vassal kings in the cities!"
Zhao Kai glanced at the faces of the four brothers and said in his heart: I am cruel! If you dare to rebel, it will be easy for me to destroy you!
Zhao Zhi didn't know what Zhao Kai was thinking, and was still giving advice to his brother, "Third brother, these princes and kings can do bad things only because of the military power and civil administration. If they only have military power but no civil administration power... .”
Zhao Zhi nodded and said: "What if we only have the power of civil administration? We only care about collecting taxes or supervising taxes, but don't care about the army. What can we do?"
Of course, it is impossible to rebel without military power. Even if there is a rebellion, it will be easily eliminated!
Zhao Zhi added: "If you, third brother, move south to Jinling, you can personally supervise tax collection. Of course, the people below will not dare to evade taxes..."
"This is not possible," Zhao Kai shook his head, "The soldiers in the north need me to take care of them even more!"
Military power cannot be lost!
I would rather have no money than no soldiers! If you don't have money, you won't die immediately, but if you don't have soldiers, you won't be far away from death!
Zhao Zhi smiled and said: "Your Majesty personally controls the military power. As for the tax supervision power in the southeast, why not give it to the trustworthy prince..."
This seems to be a solution!
Zhao Kai squinted his eyes and said to himself: The Ming Dynasty first used vassal kings to guard the border, which resulted in great chaos. Later, when the emperor went to guard the border, the vassal kings were imprisoned. Although no trouble was caused, it was of no use at all. What if we change the approach and let the feudal princes participate in the civil affairs of places beyond the reach of the imperial court?
Is it okay for the feudal king to help collect taxes? It seems to be possible! Moreover, the vassal king who supervises taxes has no military power and can do whatever he wants. If the supervision is not good, he can be replaced! If the officials feel that their nephews and brothers are unreliable, they can also let their own sons serve as tax supervisors...
