On October 20th, the Chu army's army had officially ended its large-scale purge activities in the city and vacated all the houses in the North District and East District, that is, around the Nanjing Palace City, for the subsequent settlement of the Chu army and officials from various ministries. .
In addition to the 1st Guards Division, the soldiers of the 1st and 6th Divisions left the city one after another and went to the original Ming Army Camp on the east side of Yuhuatai to station and rest.
At the same time, the armed tax police who followed the army into the city also officially ended their intense confiscation operation!
As soon as the statistics were completed at noon, Chen Xingkai couldn't wait to take the report and went straight to Yuhua Mesa.
He wants to report this harvest to His Majesty as soon as possible!
The harvest this time was so great that it even far exceeded the initial estimate of the Ministry of Taxation. When Chen Xingkai saw Luo Zhixue, he ignored the dignity of the Minister of Counselor and shouted that he was rich!
He looks like a humble person who suddenly got rich.
"We have simply summarized and compiled the money, food and materials in various official warehouses in the city, as well as the confiscated proceeds from the many fake dignitaries and the recalcitrant gentry."
While Chen Xingkai was talking, he handed a document to Luo Zhixue.
"Just gold, silver, copper coins and other cash amounts to a total of sixteen million taels."
“In addition, there are a large number of calligraphy and paintings, antiques, jades and other treasures.”
"In addition, there are large quantities of grain, cloth, salt, livestock, iron materials, saltpeter, sulfur and other materials."
"All kinds of fixed assets, including many houses, shops and real estate in other places in the city, farmland, and mountains and forests have a large number of deeds, and their value is even more inestimable!"
"After we sell various treasures and some real estate and shops for cash later, we can cash out at least more than 20 million taels."
"Such a large amount of money, if we use it sparingly, will be enough for us to spend for a year!"
Chen Xingkai became more and more excited as he talked. He waved his hands and said: "Previously, when we waited until next summer's harvest, our financial gap might reach tens of millions of taels. But with this money, we can not only fill the gap, but also wait until next summer's tax collection." If we collect it, we can get at least tens of millions more taels of silver."
Even if he is just the Minister of Taxation, the money he handles usually amounts to hundreds of thousands or millions, but Chen Xingkai has never seen a mountain of gold and silver worth sixteen million taels of silver at once.
That's really a mountain of gold and silver, and it's visually stunning!
Otherwise, Chen Xingkai would not be as excited as a kid who got rich after winning the lottery.
Luo Zhixue also opened the account book in his hand at this time, which recorded various seizures in detail.
In the thick account book, there are not only gold and silver accounts, but also various messy materials registered in the book.
Including cash, various treasures and fixed assets that can be cashed out, the Chu Empire made at least 36 million taels.
This does not include a large number of fixed assets that cannot be liquidated, such as many large-scale mansions and the most core asset, which is land.
According to the old rules, these lands will be directly included in the management of official land, and then continue to be leased to farmers. In order to maintain the lives of the bottom farmers without causing too much turmoil, the original land will not even be changed. Tenancy relationship.
For example, the Duke of Wei had a farm in the suburbs, which was leased to a large number of local farmers. After the Chu Empire confiscated these lands, they would continue to let the original farmers lease these lands, and they would not easily do so. Change the tenancy relationship.
This is to ensure the survival of the bottom farmers!
As for the newly leased land for landless and landless peasants, it is usually abandoned land that no one has cultivated or simply cultivated new land.
Therefore, the large amounts of land confiscated by the Chu Empire will all be treated as official land and will not be sold for cash.
After Luo Zhixue briefly looked through the account book, he smiled: "Okay, well done!"
Although Luo Zhixue had long predicted that he would make a fortune in Jinling City, he still did not expect to get more than 30 million taels of silver!
The wealth of Jiangnan is indeed well-deserved.
The wealth of Jinling's powerful people is truly worthy of its name.
Just the city of Jinling is enough to cover all the expenses of the Chu Empire's Eastern Expedition in recent months.
The Da Chu Empire made a huge fortune in Jinling City, and the news quickly spread among the senior officials of the Da Chu Empire.
In fact, everyone had guessed that the harvest in Jinling City would be big, but they didn't expect that the harvest would be so big. Therefore, the heads of various departments were looking for various excuses to come to the meeting. .
Even Guo Quanshu, who had been presiding over affairs in Wuchang before and had just arrived at Yuhuatai in Jinling City with a group of civil and military officials who had stayed in Wuchang in recent days, came directly to the door.
However, it is not that Guo Quanshu wants more administrative funds for the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which he directly manages. Guo Quanshu now thinks very highly of himself, not only as the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, but also as the Chief Counselor of the Great Chu Empire.
Its focus is no longer limited to departmental disputes, but a broader field.
This time Guo Quanshu approached Luo Zhixue in the hope that Luo Zhixue could leave at least three million taels of silver from this windfall to fund the post-war restoration of people's livelihood in Jiangxi, Anlu, Jiangnan and other places.
Luo Zhixue is very happy about this!
So many ministers came to ask for money, and all of them were thinking about their own departments or their own political achievements. No one mentioned the post-war relief in front of Luo Zhixue.
And this matter is something Luo Zhixue attaches great importance to.
Even without Guo Quanshu mentioning it, Luo Zhixue was already ready to find someone to give orders.
Immediately he said to Guo Quanshu: "Relief after the war is a practical act. A certain amount of money and food will be received one after another. Guo Aiqing, you have to make arrangements later."
Immediately, Luo Zhixue temporarily summoned the heads of many departments such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Ministry of Industry, and the Patrol Department, and reiterated the importance and necessity of post-war relief.
"After this Eastern Expedition, the people's livelihood in the Pan-Jiangnan region will be more or less withered and the land will be abandoned. The Pan-Jiangnan region is the most important granary of our country, and it is also our country's money bag. All the capitals and local governments must work together to establish a new project as soon as possible. Restore people’s livelihood, especially agricultural production.”
"Before, we were in northern Chu and southern Chu. We quickly invested manpower and material resources after the war, implemented work-for-relief, repaired various local water conservancy facilities, provided jobs for local people who lacked rations in exchange for food, and also provided interest-free services to the people. Borrow grains and tools to help local people restore their livelihood."
"These have achieved relatively good results. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has also reported that Chubei's grain output this year has returned to the level of Chongzhen in about five years, and will increase significantly next year."
"Although large-scale fighting broke out in Chunan this year, a large number of rural areas were not greatly affected. In addition, we provided timely relief, so the grain output in Chunan this year can remain at the same level as last year."
“This shows the importance and necessity of post-war relief!”
“All prefectures and local governments must attach great importance to and strictly implement post-war relief work.”
After Luo Zhixue's long speech, he set the tone for the post-war relief work in the pan-Jiangnan region.
On the spot, the ministers and co-ministers discussed intensively and finalized the post-war relief funds for the pan-Jiangnan region, which was estimated to be 3.5 million taels.
In the future, this funding will be gradually distributed through special relief funds for factories, governors, prefectures and counties under the Ministry of Industry.
The main methods of relief are still work-for-relief, construction of water conservancy facilities, interest-free borrowing of grain seeds, agricultural tools, etc.
As for giving money directly, the Da Chu Empire has never done such a thing.
Even for the elderly, weak, women and children who have lost their homes, we adopt a work-for-relief method within our capabilities. Those who cannot do manual labor can always do laundry, cleaning, and sewing.
Of course, for those who are about to starve to death, there will still be emergency porridge soup, but after the porridge soup is given, the refugees will often be directly arranged to work for relief, and it is also mandatory.
Work-for-relief is publicly advertised as only relieving people, but in fact it has a more important purpose, which is to control these refugees and prevent them from turning into bandits.
Therefore, you don’t just have to be a refugee if you want to, the Chu Empire won’t let you...
——
Post-war relief work was very important, so we were the first to reserve funds of up to 3.5 million taels of silver.
Immediately afterwards, Luo Zhixue and a vote of ministers successively allocated funds to various institutions and affairs according to their priorities.
If you get money and food, you should spend it, but it is useless to keep it in your hands...
Naturally, the bulk of the expenditure comes from military expenditures, with both the Army and Navy receiving additional special funds.
The Army's special funds are used to purchase new flintlock muskets, namely the 2-year-old Suifu pistol and the 2-year-old Suifa rifle.
At present, at the Hantian Arsenal, the production line of Suifa pistols has begun preliminary production, and the production line of Suifa rifles has been gradually completed in October. It is currently undergoing the final stage of debugging, and is expected to be completed in November. large-scale trial production.
However, in order to be able to use the flintlock gun as the main battle equipment in time, the Dachu Empire did not hesitate to spend high costs, so that the current flintlock gun, which is still very high-end for the industrial technology of the Dachu Empire, can be directly mass-produced and equipment.
As a result, the price has also gone up. The purchase price of the first batch of 5,000 rifles has reached eighteen taels of silver each. The price of the second batch will be lower, but it is estimated to be fifteen taels. .
Because flintlock guns are too expensive, it is very painful for the military to purchase them.
Therefore, this time, a purchase fund for flintlock guns was specially approved for the military.
The Navy has also received funding for the research and development and procurement of a number of large-caliber naval guns.
Specifically, it is the purchase funds for the fourteen-pound naval gun, the research and development funds for the eighteen-pound naval gun and the twenty-four-pound naval gun.
These large-caliber artillery were prepared for the subsequent establishment of a real navy and equipment for large maritime warships.
In the future, if the navy does not have a group of real maritime warships with large tonnage and a group of large-caliber naval guns, it will not even bother to go out of the Yangtze River Estuary to greet Zheng Zhilong's fleet...
There is no big guy on hand, and if you insist on coming up to say hello, you will probably be beaten by Zheng Zhilong’s fleet and your parents will not even recognize you...
Zheng Zhilong's fleet is still very impressive these days.
