Gao Pangshi is about to return to Beijing to report on his duties. This is naturally the political trend that the courtiers are most concerned about at present, because his return to Beijing this time is not an ordinary report on his duties, but is also responsible for the victory in the war to aid Korea, promoting the inward attachment of Korea, and planning to send troops to Japan. With three major events, every move is even more eye-catching.
All forces are very concerned about this. Needless to say about the emperor, there are many detailed issues that need to be discussed just for the annexation of Korea, including the arrangements for the King of Korea and the Korean courtiers, the administrative and military system settings after the annexation of Korea, how to start the post-war reconstruction of Korea and where the money will come from. Where did it come from, how were the various ministries involved in the war to aid Korea rewarded, etc.
In addition, the "divisions" mentioned above do not only refer to the military divisions, but also include the Mongolian Tumut, Ordos and Nenhorqin tribes, and the Jurchen tribes such as Jianzhou Wei, Jianzhou Zuowei, Jianzhou Youwei, and Yehe tribe. , Hada tribe, Ula tribe and some small tribes, etc., they all sent troops with the conscription, and of course they had to give corresponding rewards after winning the war.
Almost all of these matters are prone to disputes, because in the final analysis, each item involves real money. Since it is related to money, of course, the highly pragmatic God of Wealth must be present for the discussion to be meaningful at this time. Otherwise, you have been discussing for a long time and finally come to a conclusion, but the word "household department" comes back to you. How shameless is that?
Which two words you ask? Of course...no money.
Although it seems that since Gao Pragmatic took control of the Ministry of Revenue, it seems that there are very few - or at all - hearing the word "no money" directly said by the Ministry of Revenue, but it is not appropriate to assume that this is because the Ministry of Revenue has not said it before. No one dares to ignore a highly pragmatic opinion. If you really ignore someone, see if he will kill you on the spot by saying "no money".
Otherwise, the most popular god in the world is the God of Wealth, because often a penny can really kill a good man.
The same goes for the imperial court. The most important thing in the world is money and food. If you really had unlimited money and food to throw around at will, no matter how much you, the emperor and officials, spent, things might not be so bad that it would be a matter of life and death.
Of course, the problem often lies in lack of money and food, and that’s usually the end of it. Most of the current generation of officials have experienced how the Ming Dynasty struggled with money and food decades ago. They were generally not in high positions at the time, and their experience is actually deeper.
Nonsense, will the salaries of cabinet ministers be in arrears? Of course, those who are owed are the people below...not to mention the cabinet ministers who are not short of this salary. Just like when Gao Gong was relatively poor because he was honest, he ended up writing epitaphs and other things for others to make money.
To be honest, this money is much easier to earn than the salary from the imperial court. As long as Party A is not a heinous and pure scumbag, you can take this job, because if you just pick out a person's merits and praise them in writing, you will get a lot of money. I got it, and because I didn’t write anything against my will, I felt no guilt at all.
Of course, this job is not only for high-level people, but also for high-level people. The only difference is that Gao Gong took this kind of job to earn some easy money to support his family in Hukou, while Gao Pingshi took this kind of job to maintain his connections and appeal. After all, he didn't lack the money.
Closer to home, when the court decides on major issues, it is indispensable to ask for pragmatic opinions on almost everything. Because over the years, everyone has become more and more aware that no matter what ideas you have, you cannot disagree with the opinions of the Ministry of Revenue. Otherwise, no matter how wise and powerful you think the idea is, it will be useless because you will not be able to implement it.
As long as the Ministry of Accounts approves it and allocates the money, congratulations, this matter is basically done. If it doesn't work, well...ask the Ministry of Accounts to allocate another amount, it can always be done.
The emergence of this situation has led to the current Xin School officials, especially the elders of the Xin School, becoming increasingly less confident when facing high pragmatism.
It's like people with certain functional challenges walking around the streets and willow lanes, with many thoughts on their minds, but if no one gives them a certain drug, they can only worry. In this way, the person holding that drug becomes someone they can't afford to offend - even if they know they should be on the opposite side of that person, it's still difficult to stand upright.
Why did the Ming Dynasty become like this bird? They are often so aggrieved in their hearts, but when they are faced with high pragmatism, they dare not say these words, or even express this feeling at all.
Just imagine, because you, the court official, offended Gao Pragmatic, the office funds in the yamen were not available. There was a lack of charcoal in the winter, no fans in the summer, and even the food was only enough to feed the dogs. So what do the people below think of you? How many people are determined to follow you?
Therefore, some people in later generations said that the most basic job of a top leader is to get money from superiors. This is not unreasonable.
Now that Gao Pragmatic is coming back, and his attitude on these three matters is very clear, then the question comes to everyone in the DPRK: Do you want to object? Can you object? What will happen if I don’t object?
Do you want to object? Well, it’s best not to, for the reasons analyzed above.
Can you object? It's probably not possible, because the holy book of high pragmatism is obvious, and one of his characteristics over the years is that he will never make a loss business.
By extension, Gao Pragmatic believes that North Korea's internalization is a good thing. No matter whether he discovers the good thing or not, Gao Pragmatic will definitely benefit the court from this matter afterwards to prove that this is indeed a good thing.
Does continuing to conquer Japanese pirates violate the ancestral system, and is it necessary? If Gao Pragmatic says he won't violate it, then just "don't violate it." Anyway, he has changed so many systems now.
If you think about it, you will know that since he quoted "Although Zhou was an old state, its destiny was restored", there have been so many things about "following the will of the ancestors but not necessarily the system of the ancestors". What's even more terrible is that these "reforms" proved necessary in the end, and each of them benefited hugely.
Let’s take a quick look: The reform of the post station not only greatly improved the efficiency of the imperial post station, but also saved a huge expenditure of 1.3 million taels of silver every year. It has even made a profit in the past few years. The entire inn system turned over 270,000 taels of silver to the Ministry of Revenue last year alone. After hearing about it, some veterans in the court almost collectively cried out for hell.
The War of Yunnan and Burma was a broken battle that would cost a lot of money at first, but it was Gao Pragmatic who insisted on fighting it, and actually made it possible for the court to borrow money to fight the war. As a result, after so many years, looking back, not only did the principal and interest of the loan be paid off, but the imperial court also earned more than one million taels, and the money has not been fully earned yet... The imperial court still has some gold, silver, and jade mines from Myanmar. Pinch.
So far, no obvious profit has been seen, probably only by driving away the Chahar tribe. But this is mainly because the investment after the war was quite large, such as rebuilding Daning City, which cost a lot. If it weren't for these reasons, just judging from the income from the newly established ranches and horse farms for supplying horses and selling cattle and sheep in the pass, it might be possible to "turn losses into profits" in just a few years.
Well, this does not take into account the economic promotion effect of the increase in horses in the customs (equivalent to more convenient logistics), otherwise the benefits will definitely be greater.
Then there is the Federal Reserve Bank of China, which many people do not understand so far. For many people, they don’t even understand “what the yamen is doing.” Many people just regard it as a large joint bank. The problem is that the Federal Reserve itself does not lend directly to individuals, it only lends money. The money was given to the court and big banks registered in Eucalyptus, and the interest rates were ridiculously low.
The annual interest it received on the money it lent to the imperial court was only one hundred and one. The annual interest it received on the money it lent to big banks was slightly higher and fluctuated, but it was generally only between one hundred and two to one hundred and three.
Although it requires borrowers to have collateral to borrow money, it has actually never asked for collateral from any creditor who cannot repay the debt. Instead, it usually takes the initiative to understand the situation before the debt defaults, or takes the initiative to extend the repayment period afterwards - —But if it really gets to this point, it would require “business guidance.”
Another problem is that no one knows how much money the Federal Reserve has in the Ming Dynasty. Anyway, a group of people once united to conduct a run, and at that time they came up with a huge amount: 11.39 million taels.
Not to mention a "joint bank", even the Ministry of Accounts may not be able to come up with such a large sum of money at any time, but the Federal Reserve Bank of China did not even blink an eyebrow, and completely spent it within one and a half months in accordance with the regulations of the Federal Reserve Bank of China. These more than 10 million taels of silver were all in the form of "silver bricks" and were delivered on the spot and in public at the Nanjing branch of the Ming Dynasty Federal Reserve Bank.
There are more than ten million taels of silver bricks, piled there like a mountain of silver!
To this end, Nanjing's three giants led more than 2,000 heavily armed Zhenjiang Guard troops temporarily transferred from neighboring Zhenjiang to provide on-site protection. Jinghua Bank, the backend of the Ming Dynasty Federal Reserve, also mobilized the Jinghua Ma'anshan Iron and Steel Plant Protection Team from nearby Taiping Prefecture. Six hundred armed servants served as inner guards to ensure that the money would not be robbed by the crazy people.
This incident shocked the world. From then on, no one doubted the strength of the Ming Dynasty Federal Reserve, especially how much cash the Jinghua Group behind the Ming Dynasty Fed owned - well, this is because those silver bricks were all engraved with numbers, such as "Jinghua Group" "One hundred taels of Japanese silver 00032", "One hundred taels of Jinghua Lu silver 00065" and so on.
According to the information later revealed by some sources, "Japanese silver" refers to silver from silver mountains all over Japan, and "Luyin" refers to silver obtained from Luzon. However, these silvers do not seem to come from Luzon, but from Luzon. "Red Barbarians" were transported across the sea from the "Far East" to trade with Beijing.
"Japanese Bank" is easy to say. Many people in the Jiangnan area have heard of the silver mountain in Japan, but Hongyi actually has so much silver?
So some people who live a life at sea jumped out to explain, saying that everyone who has followed the Jinghua fleet knows that the red barbarians discovered several silver mountains in the far east, and there was so much silver that they could not dig it all out. If it weren't really too far away, and if we go to the "Far East", there are mostly countercurrents (ocean currents), otherwise we would really want to be a gold digger - oh, a silver digger.
At this moment, everyone was speechless. Everyone had heard about Jinghua's production capacity, and now that there was such a big buyer who had no shortage of money, Jinghua's money was of course too much, too much to be estimated.
Of course, these are all popular opinions. In fact, it was not as easy for Jinghua to collect the money as it seemed. The fleets of the North and South Oceans were dispatched at the same time for this purpose. Half of Jinghua's Beijing bank was emptied (but it could not be completely emptied), and the Japanese bank and Luzon bank were also emptied. They all mobilized urgently, and so much cash was mobilized within a month and a half.
The danger in this matter is that at that time, Gao Pragmatic had received news that some plutocrats in Jiangnan had joined forces to cause trouble, but many of their deposit certificates at the Ming Dynasty Federal Reserve were like "flying mail" and were not used by themselves. Identity is saved, but when it comes time to run away, it is all concentrated.
As a result, the two cousins, Gao Guoyan and Gao Pingshi, misjudged the magnitude of the run. They thought the size of the run should be between five million taels and six million taels. Who knows in the end? It doubled and almost overturned the Federal Reserve Bank of China.
Of course, no matter what, things were settled perfectly in the end, and the Ming Dynasty Federal Reserve Bank's reputation as one of the richest in the world was completely established. Including Beijing Bank, the Ming Dynasty Federal Reserve's most important investor, there is no longer any doubt about its strength. Compared with the final result, the risks taken before seemed worth it.
Although the Federal Reserve has money, it still has money, but do the major banks and banks rely on their own deposits to support their money? If the Federal Reserve itself does not make money, then what is the purpose of such a pragmatic institution? Most officials still don't understand.
In their view, the lending interest rate of the Federal Reserve Bank of China is too low. Not only is it unprofitable to just collect the lending interest rate, at least it is making money while throwing it away. But everything costs money.
But not being able to understand it does not affect a key judgment: with the Ming Fed in hand, Gao Pragmatic, the head of the "big household department", can truly control the world's financial power.
If we change to another Minister of Household Affairs, apart from other things, can we still borrow money from the Ming Dynasty Federal Reserve so easily for emergencies? I'm afraid it's difficult. However, it is common for the Ministry of Household Affairs to have money for emergencies. Just like the outbreak of the Korean War before, who could have expected such an "unexpected surprise"? If a war is about to start at the last minute, where the money will come from will naturally become a big problem.
But now that the Federal Reserve is here, this problem is much simpler - the court can just fight this battle first, and just plan a separate payment for the taxes in the next few years.
He controls the wealth and power of the world, is invincible in every war, and has benefited from reforms time and time again, and he is only thirty-seven years old. Such an assistant minister returned to Beijing to report on his duties, and the proposals he brought naturally attracted much attention.
For example, Zhao Zhigao and Shen Yiguan, the two new elders of the Heart School, had to have an impromptu meeting today to discuss at Zhao Ge's house what attitude they should have towards relevant major events.
Oh, by the way, the reason why it was at Zhao Zhigao's house was because the elder was in poor health and was almost a medicine jar. It was objectively difficult for him to see Shen Guangyi. After all, he was not good at what he did.
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