The battle against Busan was temporarily terminated due to the arrival of a heavy rain. The Ming and Japanese armies, as well as the Korean army gathered from all directions, had to stop their respective actions and wait for the rain to clear up.
On this day, the Jinhai County Government, which was temporarily requisitioned by the Ming army, had already hung up the big book of the Jinhai County Office. The great scholar of the Wenhua Palace of the Ming Dynasty, Pingbo Jinglue, and Nanning Hou Gao Pangshi were convening a small-scale meeting of senior generals. Military discussion.
Before the meeting started, the messenger reported that an angel had arrived, and Gao Pingshi went out to receive the order. Only then did he know that the emperor was interested in the captured Japanese ships.
However, the emperor's imperial edict did not actually mention this. He simply encouraged Gao pragmatically on his achievements since his expedition. Of course, he also said a few words that he would be rewarded heavily after the war.
These were all official words. When Gao Pragmatic saw that there was no actual content in the imperial edict, he knew that after receiving the edict, he would have to invite the ministers who delivered the edict to talk about it in order to find out what the emperor wanted to say to him.
It was a coincidence that the angel who came was an old acquaintance, a real old acquaintance—Liu Ping, the nephew of Huang Mengyu, the eunuch of the former Chief of Ceremonies.
Liu Ping and Gao Jingshi knew each other very early. They met when Gao Jingshi went to Datong to "Guanzheng Datong Firearms" on behalf of Zhu Yijun when he was the prince's accompaniment. At that time, Huang Mengyu was serving as an imperial envoy to guard the local eunuch in Datong, and Liu Ping was one of the three eunuchs serving as supervisors under the supervision of the Datong eunuch.
When Gao Jingshi first met him, he was praised by Gao Jingshi because he was extremely familiar with the production and supervision system of military firearms in the government camp at that time [see Chapter 126 of this book, Chapter 126: Observing Government by Order (6)], so later Gao Jingshi After helping Huang Mengyu get promoted, he also took good care of Liu Ping.
Later, Huang Mengyu became a "retired veteran cadre", and Liu Ping had no direct backer in the palace. Although Chen Ju was good to him, after all, Chen Ju also had a bunch of godsons behind him, and this care was somewhat beyond his control. Therefore, Liu Ping became closer to Gao Pragmatic - of course, this was actually Huang Mengyu's explanation.
Gao Pragmatic was very nostalgic, and he did help a lot, so Liu Ping was quickly transferred back to the palace from the imperial envoy to guard the local eunuch in Fujian, and became the eunuch Bingbi, the eunuch of the ceremony. He ranked last among the four Bingbi - Gao in previous years. After Pragmatic Fa Yuan's victory, he was promoted one more place, and now ranks third among the four great eunuchs.
But the position of eunuch Bingbi... how should I put it, is somewhat like the situation in the cabinet, that is, the chief eunuch Bingbi at the top of the list holds the real power - that is, he also serves as the governor of the East Factory. The next three are like assistants, but their real power is far behind. Unless the emperor favors this person, they can at most be regarded as one of the successors to the chief eunuch Bingbi. In terms of real power, it all depends on what he gets. Sent.
Liu Ping's mission is good or bad. He is mainly responsible for the guard-related matters in the palace. Note that he only manages the palace. He is not responsible for the military affairs of the capital outside the palace. In the inner court system , the military affairs of the capital, that is, the affairs of the capital camp, are the scope of authority of the eunuch in charge of the imperial horse supervisor.
[Note: However, due to the highly pragmatic military reform of the Beijing camp, the Beijing camp has been split into the Imperial Guard and the Production and Construction Corps. Therefore, the powers of the eunuchs in charge of the Royal Horse Supervisor have actually been severely weakened, leaving almost only the most basic ones. supervision function. Of course, the power of internal officials can be large or small. In the final analysis, it depends on how much power the emperor delegates. ]
Since he was an old acquaintance and a member of his family, Gao Pragmatic didn't beat around the bush too much and directly asked about the inside story of the matter. Liu Ping was naturally outspoken and quickly told Gao Pangshi about the discussions in the court, including the discussions between the emperor and several close ministers in the palace.
It turned out that although the emperor's words in the court were all from his heart, he had not finished what he said, and he still had some thoughts that he had not expressed in public. This time, Liu Ping was asked to bring the words to Gao Pangshi.
Let's get straight to the point. To put it simply, the emperor also began to covet the sea trade business. The fleet he wanted to build was actually not the "imperial fleet" but the "emperor's fleet."
This matter can be understood this way: just like the court's money is actually divided into two parts: the household department and the internal funds. The court's money is in the household department, and the emperor's money is in the internal funds.
Most people in later generations probably thought that the emperor's internal funds were simply allocated a certain percentage from the Ministry of Household Affairs, just like the royal income of many European countries. In fact, this is completely wrong. It is completely different here.
To clarify this issue, we need to first understand what parts of Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue are composed of. Because the composition of Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue is very complex, we need to understand it separately.
First of all, you need to know what the tax process is like in Ming Dynasty. There were treasuries all over the Ming Dynasty to store taxes collected, such as grain, goods or silver. After taxes are collected in various places, they need to be transported to large warehouses in the two capitals. At this time, it is necessary to distinguish which warehouses are national public property and which are the emperor's private warehouses.
The warehouses under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Revenue are mainly the treasury, mainly the Ether Warehouse, the east of Zuoshunmen, Baoshanmen and the various warehouses of Nancheng Porcelain. This is the area under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
The Twelve Prisons of the Inner Palace, the Sacrifice Hall, the Kagura Hall, Taichang Temple, Guanglu Temple, and the Imperial College, as well as the Changying Treasury of Taipu Temple and the Jieshen Treasury of the Ministry of Works, each have their own warehouses. The Ministry of Household Affairs originally had no jurisdiction over the departmental funds of these departments.
However, Gao Pragmatic is very aggressive. After his initial reform of the Household Department, except for the Twelve Supervisors of the Neifu, the independent financial rights of the remaining yamen were all transferred to the Household Department. Therefore, currently only yamen with independent financial rights are left. The twelve prison guards of the lower inner palace.
The financial power of the twelve eunuchs in the inner palace was high and pragmatic. After all, even he couldn't handle matters in the palace casually - how could he? Do the Empress and the Imperial Concubine need to submit to someone in charge of you in advance for approval in order to make a bellyband? It's so outrageous.
Therefore, the Ministry of Household Affairs belongs to the country's external treasury, which is commonly known as the treasury.
"Internal money" refers to the "Ten Internal Treasurys" set up by the Ming Dynasty. This is the private property of the emperor. Some people also call it the "Twelve Treasurys". The difference is whether there are "Tian Treasury" and "Treasury for Use". "Counted as a problem of the inner government warehouse. In short, if you don't get entangled, you can collectively call these twelve warehouses "internal warehouses".
"History of the Ming Dynasty" records: "There are ten treasury in the inner palace: the inner transport treasury, which stores satin, gold, silver, gems, jade, horns, and feathers. The gold and silver are the largest, with an annual income of one million taels. The Guangji treasury stores sulfur. , Saltpeter. The A-character storehouse stores cloth and paint. The B-character storehouse stores fat coats, combat shoes, and sergeant fur hats. The C-character storehouse stores cotton and silk. The D-character storehouse stores copper, iron, animal skins, and hematoxylin. The E-character storehouse, The armored war chest is stored. The stolen goods are punished in the treasury, and official property is stored. The Guanghui treasury is used to store money and banknotes. The Guangying treasury is used to store silk, gauze, damask, brocade, and silk.
The six treasuries all belong to the Ministry of Household Affairs, but the Yi-zi treasury belongs to the Ministry of War, and the Wu-zi treasury, Guangji treasury, and Guangying treasury belong to the Ministry of Works. There is also the Tiantai Treasury, also known as the Secretary Key Treasury, which stores the keys of various government offices and also stores money. The offering warehouse stores japonica rice, cooked rice and offerings. The above are collectively referred to as the inner library. "
You can simply know the names of other warehouses, but only the internal shipping warehouse needs to be understood in detail. The Inner Transport Treasury is specifically responsible for storing gold and silver. It has the highest status among the twelve treasuries in the Inner Palace. It is also the most commonly referred to as the "Internal Treasury" or "Internal Money" by later generations. In the Ming Dynasty, any official who asked to "distribute internal money" would It refers to this "internal shipping warehouse".
However, there is something to note here. The "History of the Ming Dynasty" says something like "Liuku belongs to the Ministry of Household Affairs, Yiziku belongs to the Ministry of War, Shuzi, Guangji, and Guangyingku belong to the Ministry of Works." Don't think that these prefectures The treasury is really under the management of the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Industry.
The inner treasury can still only be used and managed by the emperor himself. The Ministry of Revenue can send officials to inspect and register the inner treasury's revenue and expenditure, but it has no authority to manage it.
The Ministry of Works is only responsible for inspecting things entering the inner treasury. Historical records say, "Between Hongwu and Yongle, in various prefectures and counties, the Ministry of Works inspected the items before sending them to the inner treasury." The Ministry of Accounts here is only responsible for keeping accounts.
For example, Liu Zui once mentioned in his memorial: "Money belongs to the internal government, and although the ministers are not responsible for the gains and losses." In other words, even the "consultant", the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, cannot fully understand the income and expenditure of the internal government. As for the actual accounts, the actual management staff was composed entirely of eunuchs.
According to historical records, the inner treasury contains "one eunuch who holds the seal, more than ten eunuchs who are close attendants, bookkeepers, and eunuchs, and dozens of chiefs, writers, and supervisors."
"The inner treasury of the palm is under the control of all gold, silver and other treasures."
The main source of internal funds is "gold flowers and silver". The so-called "gold flower silver" refers to the specific name of silver that appeared after the tax reform of the Ming Dynasty.
It is generally believed that this thing was originally used to solve the problem of the loss of rice in the salary of civil and military officials who moved from Nanjing to Beijing, so some officials suggested that rice be folded into silk cloth, silver and other items in Jiangxi, Nanjing, Zhejiang and other places. , sent to the capital to serve as salary, this is the origin of "gold flowers and silver".
At that time, silver was not the legal tender of the Ming Dynasty, so the daily salary was divided into rice. Later, the grain was transferred from the canal, and "gold flowers and silver" were used as salary to the military ministers in Beijing. All other excess was put into the internal transportation treasury, becoming an important source of income for the emperor.
But there is a question here. Why should "Jiangxi, Nanjing, Zhejiang and other places convert rice into silk, silver and other items"? With the "spirit" of the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty, your emperor took a farm tax as gold and silver for no reason. Is that what they can agree to? Of course not.
In fact, legally speaking, this money really belongs to the emperor personally, because the so-called "rice harvested in Xi, Nanjing, Zhejiang and other places" here does not come from the fields of ordinary people, but from the fields of emperors and emperors.
Now you know why the emperors of the Ming Dynasty built more and more imperial estates around the capital after moving the capital to Beijing, right? That's right, it's because the "folded rice" in Huangzhuang can be turned into gold and silver to be used as the emperor's private property.
But there is another problem here. Gao Pragmatic persuaded Zhu Yijun back then and asked him to gradually release the imperial estates in the capital and even the entire Beizhili area back to the people through installment redemptions. As a result, the emperor's internal money income has been reduced. Now almost all of the internal money, gold, flowers and silver come from the old imperial fields in and around Nanzhili - these fields have not changed.
There are two main reasons why there has been no change: First, the area around Nanzhili is not the home ground of the pragmatic school, and Gao Pragmatic has not yet shown any interest in forcing his way in, lest the imperial village does not return to the common people after being given away, but is instead completely lost to the nobles of Nanjing and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang plutocrats. Occupied;
Secondly, most of the imperial mansions here were built by Zhu Yuanzhang at that time, and they were the true "ancestral properties" of the emperor. Gao Pragmatic did not want to "violate the ancestral system" at all levels for a while.
Of course, Zhu Yijun did not live solely on this "ancestral property". Gao Pragmatic also generated income for the emperor on a commercial level. Take the Liaonan Saltworks, for example. Since Gao Jingshi was restructured during Jin Fuhai's military preparation, the emperor used the land of the saltworks as a stake. From then on, he just paid dividends on the saltworks, and the management was entirely handed over to Gao Jingshi.
This dividend was not much at the beginning, but it has snowballed over the years and has become larger and larger. Five years ago, the emperor was able to receive more than 800,000 taels of silver a year from the Liaonan Salt Farm, and this year it is expected to exceed one million. two. ,
Doesn’t it look scary? No, in fact, this amount is normal, because you must know that the Zhang family in Puzhou, which controls the output of the Qiba Changlu Salt Farm, has an annual income of more than three million taels.
Of course, there is the issue of "exclusive areas" here. That is to say, before the restructuring of the Liaonan Saltworks, all major regions in the country had "exclusive areas", each with its own exclusive area.
The main reason why the Liaonan Salt Farm has not been boycotted by the government and the opposition is that it agreed not to sell in other companies' exclusive sales areas. Therefore, the Liaonan Salt Farm has always made money by opening new trade zones - except for Liaodong, which has long existed, all the salt farms now make money. The Jurchen tribes, Eastern Mongolia, North Korea and Japan are all the places where salt is sold in Liaonan.
In fact, North Korea and Japan have been able to boil their own sea salt for a long time, but how can this technological level compare with the low cost and high output of Jinghua's brine sun salt? Of course, it was quickly defeated and the main market share was occupied by the Liaonan Saltworks.
By the way, after that, both North Korea and Japan increased the tariffs on "Ming Salt", which was one of the reasons why Gao Pragmatic had to surrender to them. It was also the reason why Gao Pragmatic controlled the Korean court and Zhu Yijun seemed to have never heard of it. one.
How dare you, North Korea, infringe on my internal funds and income? If I don't show you some colors, you probably don't know how big my dyeing workshop is!
Of course, in addition to the Liaonan Salt Farm, Gao Pragmatic also gave the emperor some dividends in other "cooperation projects". Compared with the original Beizhili Huangzhuang, this business was definitely a good deal for the emperor.
However, Zhu Yijun will still be short of money, because after the victory in the Yuan Dynasty a few years ago, Gao Pragmatic fulfilled one of his previous promises, and Jinghua Infrastructure under his name funded the reconstruction of the emperor's three main halls.
However, Gao Pragmatic is only responsible for repairing the house and does not care about the decoration. As we all know, if the land price is not included, the construction cost alone is actually not high. Really "high-end" decoration is a bottomless pit.
Now that the three main halls have been repaired, decoration must of course be carried out. As the holy king who rejuvenated the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Wanli had to decorate the three main halls even to commemorate the success of conquering the Yuan Dynasty. He must have the dignity of being the supreme king in the world. Besides, since the three main halls have been renovated, does the harem, including Ciqing Palace and Cining Palace, also need to be renovated?
What to do if you have no money? So we have to make money - the fastest way to make money seems to be maritime trade... The emperor himself built the fleet that went to the Western Ocean back then. Isn't it too much for the Tian family to build their own fleet now, right?
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