Maybe Xu Wenbi couldn't hold on anymore, so he only talked about the matter with Gao Pingshi, and then left Shangshu Mansion and went back to rest.
However, Zhu Yingzhen and others stayed and chatted with Gao pragmatically about the recent operations of the Production and Construction Corps.
Gao Pragmatic's reform of the Beijing camp is very interesting. Its biggest feature has already been mentioned, which is that the real combat force of the Imperial Guard is separated from the "logistics department" of the Production and Construction Corps.
There is nothing to say about the imperial guards. The emperor has the highest power to command troops, command, and appoint and remove all personnel. However, these powers are usually "devolved" to the Minister of Rongzheng of the Ministry of War, who exercises most of the powers on his behalf, especially The power to command troops. The real command power is still retained in the hands of the commander of the Guards, but the commander of the Guards can only command, but does not have the power to mobilize troops - the power to mobilize troops is the power to command troops.
At the same time, another important guarantee for the loyalty of this army is the separation of logistics to the Production and Construction Corps.
The so-called logistics refers not only to the supply of military rations, but also other materials such as barracks and marching tents, including clothing, bedding, and other materials, all provided by the Production and Construction Corps. Moreover, for major consumables such as military rations, the Imperial Guards can only receive half a month's worth of supplies during normal times, and no excess is allowed. This is similar to Gao Pragmatic's method of controlling the garrison forces in southern Xinjiang.
The above are considered military supplies, in addition to ordnance. The ordnance warehouse of the Guards adopts the "Imitation Tiger Talisman System", that is, the warehouse key is divided into two, and the warehouse management personnel of the Guards and the Production and Construction Corps each hold one half. Only when both keys are unlocked can the warehouse be opened smoothly.
As for the regular training of the Guards, there are also regulations on the distribution of weapons, of which four-fifths are cold weapons and one-fifth are firearms. Why are there fewer firearms? It is to prevent changes, but this does not meet the high pragmatic requirements of increasing the proportion of firearms, so the firearms training of the Guards adopts a rotation training system - there are so many things, everyone takes turns to train, and the guns are not changed when changing people.
Of course, not replacing the guns is just a saying. In fact, they still have to be replaced. However, after this batch of guns has been fired, they must be handed over to the Production and Construction Corps and replaced with another batch.
Of course, there are many details in this. For example, the Guards must carefully inspect every time they receive ordnance, otherwise the damage during training will have to be recorded; the same goes for the Production and Construction Corps, every gun must be carefully inspected. Otherwise, once it is not accounted for in person, the next time it is given to the Imperial Guard, they will find something wrong and refuse to accept it, and then the account will be charged to the Production and Construction Corps.
Since the two parties now have no real superior-subordinate relationship, they will of course keep an eye on each other for their own benefit. In this way, they will achieve high and pragmatic expectations and form the "mutual supervision" he hopes for.
In this era, the driving force of interests is obviously a hundred times greater than the so-called "responsibility" and "honor". Gao Pragmatism would rather let them supervise each other because of interests, and does not expect them to realize any national responsibility or national justice.
The production and construction corps is controlled by the nobles, and the nobles themselves are an extension of the imperial power. Of course, any appointment or dismissal of the Five Army Governor's Mansion is decided by the emperor, so the emperor is the real source of power for them.
The emperor gave them power, and they rewarded them with loyalty, but also with money - that which was given to the Praetorian Guards.
However, Gao Jingshi, as the "associate in charge of the military affairs of the Beijing camp" at that time, certainly could not forget himself, so the minister of military affairs supervised the production and construction corps on behalf of the emperor.
The word "supervision" is very interesting, especially in Ming Dynasty.
The governor supervises the officials of a place, and gradually becomes the territory of a place; the admiral of the East Factory supervises the Jinyiwei, and gradually becomes the superior of the Jinyiwei.
The Minister of Rongzheng supervised the Production and Construction Corps, and of course became the "top leader" of the Production and Construction Corps. In this way, coupled with the fact that the Minister of Rongzheng exercised various powers on behalf of the emperor over the commander of the Imperial Guard, both parts of the Beijing camp were actually in the hands of the Minister of Rongzheng.
However, the Minister of Rongzheng was only a civil servant, and his position was appointed and removed by the emperor. Like other imperial decrees, such appointment and removal required the approval of the cabinet and the six departments, so the civil servant group also controlled important power.
Why is it that such a big thing as the restructuring of the Beijing-based camp has met with very little opposition within the civil service group? Here's the reason - the civilian group is the beneficiary. Through this restructuring, the civilian group has completely overtaken the military officials, including the Xungui Group.
But there are two things that are strange: First, Gao Pragmatic himself does not agree with the model of "literacy treats martial arts like dogs". Why would he do this?
The second is why Xungui and the Wuchen group did not object.
The first question is actually not that complicated. There are only two reasons: First, the reason why Gao Pragmatic did this is because he knows that he cannot let the civil service group think that he is a "rebellious boy". He must insist on showing that he is always doing something for Only when the civil service group seeks profits can the officialdom continue to exist.
Secondly, although the Minister of Rongzheng has such great power, in fact it still varies from person to person. In other words, if he is pragmatic and down-to-earth in his duties, the Minister of Rongzheng will be able to completely override the Imperial Guards and the Production and Construction Corps, and whatever he says is east, whatever he says is west, he will be west. But once someone changes, it's hard to say whether the uniformed servant can still do this.
What's the reason? One is that the holy family members are different, and the other is that they have different control over the nobles. There is no need to explain the Holy Family at all, and there is no need to explain too much about the control of the nobles: the Beiyang Sea Trade Alliance is on the one hand, and the Production and Construction Corps' many transactions are constantly involved with Beijing on the other.
This is Gao Pragmatism's influence on the Production and Construction Corps. He actually also had an influence on the Imperial Guards - among the officers of the Imperial Guard, starting from the commander Qi Jiguang and down to the battalion level, who is not selected by Gao Pragmatism? ?
No matter how powerful the next Minister of Rongzheng is, he can just ignore Gao Pragmatic's existence and beat off the Imperial Guards from top to bottom, and then replace him with his people?
If there is no change, Gao Pragmatic's influence will definitely still be there, because he is not returning to his hometown as an official. Gao Sinong's future is very good, and the people in the Imperial Guard are not stupid either.
On the whole, the highly pragmatic reform of Beijing Camp has only left a small "back door", that is, according to his current practice, the Production and Construction Corps itself has achieved basic financial independence, and this independence is from outside the court. of the financial system.
Gao Pragmatic was not a saint. He also had his own interests: at that time, he needed the Production and Construction Corps to be financially independent and not be influenced by the Ministry of Revenue - because being influenced by the Ministry of Revenue was also influenced by the cabinet, and the chief minister of the cabinet was Shen Shixing after all.
However, Gao Jingshi didn't expect that he would be the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, so some things had to change a little bit. For example, this fiscal power must now be returned to the Ministry of Accounts.
This matter was quite troublesome at first, but now it's a blessing in disguise - honorable nobles have come to ask for help.
Because they were worried that the emperor would be deceived by Shi Xing, a guy who was most likely to be a traitor, the nobles were afraid that their own interests would be damaged, so they took the initiative to tell them what they knew, and at the same time hoped that Gao Pragmatic would rescue them.
The opportunity has come.
After listening to Zhu Yingzhen and others' sighing concerns, Gao Yingshi said solemnly: "Your worries are justified. The mausoleum project is nothing special, but no official of the Ming Dynasty dares to push back on this matter. "
Zhu Yingzhen, Zhang Yuangong and others looked at each other and said cautiously: "But to be honest, this system was set by you..."
Gao pragmatically spread his hands: "There's nothing we can do. No matter how much face I have, it can't be bigger than the emperor. What's more, my Gao family has been deeply favored by the emperor for generations. If the emperor's longevity palace is really in need, even if I let the emperor pay the donation myself. , we must fully support it, not to mention making a slight exception to the established system?”
"Yes, yes, this is the truth. If necessary, any one of us would be willing to share the emperor's worries..." Zhu Yingzhen said, paused, and said awkwardly: "But the Production and Construction Corps If you open this hole, things will be difficult in the future."
Gao pragmatic looked at him, then suddenly smiled and said, "I heard that the Production and Construction Corps made more than one hundred thousand taels last month?"
Zhu Yingzhen knew that Gao Yingshi could check the accounts before, so he naturally did not dare to hide it. He smiled dryly and said: "Yes... last month, the total profit was 113,700 taels."
Gao Pragmatic smiled: "Based on this calculation, the Production and Construction Corps' annual profit will be more than 1.3 million taels. No wonder you are afraid that you will be in a situation where you may be beaten at any time in the future."
Therefore, it is very important to liberate the productive forces. According to the previous practice, the Beijing camp was "exploited" by the imperial court, and the nobles secretly enriched themselves in the military status and military camps controlled by their own families. First of all, we must maintain the old garbage system, and secondly, we dare not make big changes on the table, and the people below have no motivation to produce, which naturally leads to low efficiency at all levels and extremely low returns.
The current situation is somewhat similar to the implementation of the stock dividend system at the top of the Production and Construction Corps, and the implementation of the "joint production contracting system" at the grassroots level. There is motivation from top to bottom, and they are all trying to find ways to increase production and income. Efficiency will rise immediately, and income will increase. Naturally, the sesame seeds are blooming steadily.
At this time, the nobles suddenly realize that their good days may be coming to an end, so who can bear it? Destroying someone's wealth is like killing one's parents, not to mention such a huge fortune? It’s really unbearable!
However, Zhu Yingzhen misunderstood Gao Pragmatic's meaning at this time. After hearing what he said, Zhu Yingzhen immediately exchanged glances with Zhang Yuangong and others, and then said with a smile: "This is actually all the credit of you, Qiuzhen. We and Some people are different, repaying kindness is written in their bones... So we have discussed that Qiuzhen should have your share of all the money."
Gao Pragmatic was startled for a moment before he realized that this group of people planned to use a dividend to bribe him to help deal with this trouble. He couldn't help but feel dumbfounded.
To be honest, although Jinghua is now in a period of financial stress, he really won't be bribed by this little money - so what if the Production and Construction Corps earns 13.44 million a year, they have so many people, they can give How much will you share? If Po Tian gives him a tenth, then it will only be 130,000 to 40,000 yuan a year.
A hundred thousand taels is not a small amount of money anywhere, but in front of Jinghua's boss, Gao Pragmatic, it really is just that.
For example, let’s take the third-level battleship project that Jinghua planned to build recently but has temporarily stopped. What are the standards and prices of the third-level battleship?
Jinghua's internally scheduled third-class sail battleship has a design displacement of 1,600 tons, adopts a two-layer deck gun specification, has 72 guns of various types, has a crew capacity of 460 people, and the cost of a single ship is as high as 240,000 taels of silver.
Although Jinghua's previous construction plan was only three ships, and the plan was temporarily suspended, that is not the key. The key is the total cost - 240,000 taels per ship!
This kind of battleship, which is completely built for combat, has such a terrifying ability to swallow gold, so the navy is really not something that weak and small countries can afford. With such a large trading volume, Jinghua has to suspend construction once finances are tight. This illustrates the problem.
But having said that, Jinghua had such a plan before, and it can be seen that Gao Pragmatic will definitely not care about the "small income" of more than 100,000 taels of silver every year.
Gao pragmatic smiled and said, "I'm kind-hearted, but it's not necessary." Then he reached out to stop Zhu Yingzhen who was about to speak, and comforted him: "Actually, although this matter is difficult, it just so happens that I have gone to the Ministry of Revenue, so there is a way. It can be used, but..."
"Just what?" All the nobles sat up straight, leaned forward slightly, and asked these four words in unison, and then waited for Gao's pragmatic answer.
Gao pragmatic smiled slightly: "I just don't know if you can trust me."
"What's that?" Zhu Yingzhen looked surprised: "If we can't even trust you, who can we trust? Ji Bu's promise is only a thousand pieces of gold, but your promise... that's three hundred thousand taels!" "
Zhang Yuangong also nodded repeatedly and said with great certainty: "There is no need to ask this kind of thing. The person we trust most in the world is your high pursuit of truth. I won't talk about our friendship of more than ten years, but let's talk about what we have done with you these years." In business, when have you ever made us suffer? If you can't understand this, then I think this person is hopeless."
Gao Jingshi then looked around at the other nobles. If everyone still didn't understand anything, they naturally expressed their complete trust. We trust you Gao Qiuzhen more than we trust our biological father.
Seeing this, Gao Pragmatic nodded, with a solemn look on his face, and said: "This method is that the financial income of the Production and Construction Corps will be handed over to the Ministry of Household Affairs first, and then the Ministry of Household will return it to the Corps according to the needs of the Corps and the Imperial Guard. But the other In this way, I can have a reason to push back the request of the Ministry of Works for you. In other words, if this happens, if the Ministry of Works wants to use the Corps, it must first pass the Ministry of Revenue - even if the emperor wants to use it, he must first Come talk to me."
The nobles could not oppose the emperor. They could only do what the emperor said. But the civil servants were different. It was not uncommon for the civil servants to push back the emperor's wishes.
only……
----------
Thanks to book friends "Cao Mianzi" and "Jayashena" for their support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "gdafaj" and "Ding Qi Zhao Bi Xin" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!
