Chapter 54: War Boom
The sky is simply three feet high.
These chieftains wanted all the things that the Ming army looked down upon. Speaking of which, these chieftain soldiers are actually not much richer than the locals in Myanmar.
Most of the chieftains are slaves. The so-called chieftain soldiers had no personal freedom at all. Everything about them belongs to toast. Kill whatever the chieftain kills. No reason is needed.
In the late Ming Dynasty, the wolf soldiers were good at fighting because their lives were not valuable. No matter what they grabbed after the war, they would make money after they returned.
In this way, what has become of the Myanmar scourge.
Naturally it is conceivable.
Of course, this was something Muchun and Huang Zicheng had discussed and acquiesced to.
Otherwise, Myanmar is too far away from the core area of Ming Dynasty.
Whether you come here via Yunnan-Guizhou, or from Annan or Siam. Even crossing the Strait of Malacca by sea to get here is very far, which indicates one thing.
That is, Ming Dynasty can project very little power here.
The new army in Muchun's hands was no more than 10,000 at most and less than 20,000 at most.
It is estimated that it will be difficult to deploy a full army in the future. Unless there is a breakthrough in other aspects, the railway from Yunnan to the outside world has been repaired. Or the steamship made it.
Otherwise this quantity will not change.
Although, Muchun also knew that a vassal king would be sent to control Myanmar in the future. But faced with resistance from local people in Myanmar. It's also a headache.
Now this group of chieftains were brought here, and these chieftains had a life-or-death feud with the locals. Whoever rules Myanmar in the future will have some staunch supporters.
If the Ming Dynasty cannot stand in Myanmar, the chieftains who migrated from the country will surely die.
Yunnan-Guizhou chieftains, especially those from Guizhou, are a problem in China and are restless. However, in Myanmar, they have become the biggest supporters of the Ming Dynasty.
This can be regarded as turning waste into treasure.
After the two sides met in Siam. This war, which lasted for nearly a year, was finally over.
Report to the imperial court and let the imperial court deal with post-war matters without mentioning it.
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It was already the sixth year of Longwu when He Xi received the news that the two armies were joining forces.
He Xi had expected this news. I didn't think there was any problem. After all, victory in the war on the Indochina Peninsula was only a matter of time.
But He Xi felt that some things were coming to an end.
This war. The total cost is about 20 million yuan. Apportioned into the financial budget of Longwu five years and Longwu six years. But in the past five years of Longwu, fiscal revenue has exceeded 200 million yuan.
This is a very high income.
It was almost double what it was before the Civil War.
Of course, He Xi knew that this income was not normal. Because many of them are direct trophies on the battlefield. The total amount is more than 60 million yuan.
The entire year's military expenditure has been offset.
After all, according to He Xi's plan, even if there is no war, the annual military expenditure will be around 30 to 40 million yuan. Even with the additional expenses of more than 2,000 yuan. That's enough.
And He Xi knew better.
In fact, the vast majority of the loot did not reach the hands of the center at all, but was divided among the frontline generals and soldiers. It was useless even if He Xi emphasized military discipline.
Most of the Ming soldiers joined the army just to get promoted and make a fortune, and to be admired by others.
Moreover, if the imperial court competes with the frontline generals and soldiers to snatch the spoils of war, the army will lose its morale. It may also cause other things.
Therefore, He Xi could only formulate an unspoken rule, that is, 30% of the spoils from the front line would go to the court, 30% to the generals, 30% to the soldiers, and 10% as losses.
The reason is unspoken rules. That means you can't get on the stage.
Once on the stage, it directly conflicts with the military discipline of the Ming Dynasty. After all, the Ming army should never make any mistakes.
But in fact, don't go too far, just asking for money is pretty good.
Of course, even if these spoils of war were not in the hands of the Ming court, they were still flowing in the Ming economic circle. In order to support the war in the southeast, various industries were very prosperous. The so-called war boom.
Now the war is coming to an end.
Many things are coming to an end.
Now Hexi has become very skilled in transferring internal conflicts to the outside world.
For example, this time, this war, not only Guizhou chieftains moved south. There are also many places where powerful people have been forced to immigrate. Even He Xi decided to form a system.
In the future, when every vassal king goes out to establish a vassal state, he will ask the court to compile a list of names, and pick up and take away local powerful people from various places.
There are benefits to doing this too.
Just look at the Han Dynasty. In the early Western Han Dynasty, generations of powerful people from Guandong moved to Guanzhong to build tombs. Guandong has always been under the control of the imperial court. Later, the tomb system was abolished. Many aristocratic families immediately appeared in Guandong, and Guandong was not owned by the Han Dynasty.
Moving from area to area made it easier for the Ming Dynasty to directly manage local areas. It also allowed some places to be more under the control of the central court. Within the country, these local tyrants, like the Guizhou chieftains, are harmful to the country's rule. However, externally, in the colonies, Chinese clans are comparable to companies, and are more suitable for development and taking root overseas.
It can be regarded as maintaining the central governance ability of the Ming Dynasty as much as possible to cope with the changing situation in the future.
Of course, the reason why Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue was so high was not just due to war. Another sentence is that the unified market formed by the reform was formed. After the world was reunified, all aspects of development increased.
etc.
However, the war is coming to an end, and He Xi is not prepared to start another war during his term. There are some things that need to be prepared.
Such as reform.
After two years of implementation, most of the local reforms are almost complete.
There is a complete interest group behind He Xi's support. The local opposition forces were wiped out under He Xi's iron fist. Even if there are some small interludes, they can only be interludes, just interludes. .
But He Xi also knew that most local prefectures and counties had not actually changed much.
It is nothing more than that yamen servants become officials, officials eat public meals, and local scholars can apply for promotion. There are also several more officials in one county.
Originally, there were at most a dozen high-level officials in a county. But now there are at least a dozen officials in a county, and if there are more, there are not many more than hundreds.
Including the officials, there are at least several hundred officials, as well as the police.
There are too many people eating public food.
There are at least a thousand people in a county. Such as Shuntian Mansion and Yingtian Mansion, there are not too many such mansions with more than 20,000 officials. But Suzhou. Songjiang, Quanzhou, Yingkou, and more than a dozen are still available.
The day when the number of Ming officials and staff will exceed that of the army is just around the corner.
As a result, Ming Dynasty's annual administrative expenditure plus military support, 100 million yuan can only be said to be barely enough.
Fortunately, with so many manpower, a large amount of taxes can be effectively collected.
He Xi estimated that in the ninth year of Longwu. That is, by the time he is ready to leave office, it is possible that he will earn 300 million yuan a year, or even more.
However, paying off the national debt of more than 3 billion yuan is still a huge problem.
After all, according to He Xi, money is needed everywhere in the world. Money is needed to build the Yellow River, money is needed to build the Huaihe River, money is needed to build the seawall, and money is not needed to build the railway. Public bonds were issued.
It would take several years, even ten years, to repay the three billion yuan.
It's just that such a big change was made within a few years. He Xi has sacrificed a lot.
He Xi’s hands affected countless people. I don’t know how many families were affected by He Xi’s stroke of a pen. Sent overseas. I don’t know how many people have lost their families and lives under He Xi’s policies.
This is because He Xi has transferred the costs to foreign countries, and Annan, Champa, Siam, and many other countries have borne these costs. This gave He Xi room to relax internally.
Otherwise, this situation will become even more cruel.
cool.
This is also the reason why China’s reforms are always difficult to succeed.
China is so big that almost all political means and methods have been used just to maintain stability. I want China’s reform to be successful. Almost like making an elephant jump through a ring of fire.
No matter how exquisite the design or how good the idea is, it will always go out of shape during execution.
Even He Xi must admit that there are actually many people below who are holding up the banner of reform and holding up He Xi's sign. He did evil things and did many things.
He Xi knew some things and didn't know others.
Knowing all these, He Xi will naturally deal with them one by one in the future, but not now, and cannot ruin the overall reform situation. As for not knowing those things, He Xi had nothing to do. I can only take a closer look later.
He Xi's popularity and prestige quickly dissipated during the reform.
Without him, before that, He Xi was the Duke of Zhou who turned the tide and rebuilt the world. However, as the reform deepened, countless people suffered losses due to He Xi's policies.
Very resentful towards He Xi.
People have a feeling that whatever they get is their own credit, and whatever they lose must be someone else's fault, and people are more deeply impressed by what they lose.
Under this circumstance, the support for He Xi from the interest groups that benefited from the reform was not as strong as before.
Without him, He Xi would want to carry out a capitalist revolution. But He Xi has always been wary of capital. Restrictions in many aspects have harmed the interests of some capital.
For these people, they take it to heart.
More importantly, He Xi could no longer give them anything.
People who have lost their interests hate He Xi deeply, but these people are scattered all over the world. As gentry of the old forces, they are all smart people. They quickly colluded with the new capitalism and were complicit. Even though they have lost the power to control the world, because of their strong foundation, they are still one of the best forces in the world and have great united front value.
Appeasing them is also what a ruler must do, otherwise many things will easily be messed up.
Shang Yang died in law, and mankind did not thank Luo Ji.
