Three million taels!
Zhu Yunwen looked at Song Sheng with a speechless expression. He asked you to raise 10,000 to 20,000 war horses, not hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Why do you need so much money?
Song Sheng sent carefully prepared documents.
Zhu Yunwen took the document and looked carefully, only to realize that there was a bottomless pit in front of him, and he was jumping into this bottomless pit...
Is it difficult to raise a horse?
Isn't it just raising some grass, which is similar to raising cattle or pigs.
This was Zhu Yunwen's initial understanding, but it was a big mistake.
Song Sheng's documents completely shattered Zhu Yunwen's understanding of the issue of raising horses, and he finally understood that although Bi Mawen was not a big official, he was probably a very rich, powerful, and prestigious official...
The Ming Dynasty was short of war horses, and many dynasties were short of war horses. They tried their best to regulate horses, but not many really made progress. There is only one reason for this:
It is difficult to raise a horse, but it is difficult to raise seven babies.
Anyone who thinks raising horses is easy is naive and takes it for granted. If raising a horse is just to build a stable and serve fodder for a day, then the horse may survive, but it will basically be useless.
First of all, raising horses requires stables.
The location of the stable is not chosen randomly. The size of the space, temperature conditions, light conditions, air circulation, ground undulation, surrounding environment, and drainage facilities all need to be considered.
Secondly, horses are delicate and require careful care.
The delicate here refers to the horse’s intestines and stomach, not the skin.
How meticulous...
Jia Sixie once introduced the technique of raising horses in "Qi Ming Yao Shu": "There are orchid and cud for food, and there are three times for drinking."
The Ming Dynasty further developed and formed the "three drinks and three feedings" drinking and feeding method, including when to drink less water, when to drink a little water, and when to drink enough water. There are regulations. It does not say when to think about it and when to go. Hey, it’s not always possible to let the horses drink enough.
In the selection of feed, you need to be more careful. In spring and summer, you need to choose cool feed, such as barley or bitter mugwort, mung beans, peas, black beans, red beans... In autumn and winter, you need clinker, and boil the beans to help them warm...
By the way, if you eat three meals, the horse must also eat three meals. If the horse cannot lose weight, it must be fed with specially selected beans.
After the problem of eating and drinking has been solved, the problem of grazing still needs to be solved. In the spring, the pigs need to run in the mountains and feed some bile to keep them energetic. In the summer, they need to bathe at the river to prevent heat stroke. In the autumn, they need to "clean the stables." "Fumigated mosquito rainbow", you have to be careful not to get too cold in winter.
By the way, if the horse is pregnant, it needs more careful care. It must eat grass first and then drink water. It is not allowed to feed wheat straw, millet, or other grains. It needs to eat well and have someone take care of it every day...
He also takes the horse to run twenty or thirty miles a day to exercise his leg strength. Looking at it this way, this is not taking care of the horse, but taking care of the mother's baby.
Third, raising horses is really expensive.
As the saying goes, "A horse cannot fatten without night grass." Not to mention the labor cost, just the cost of food, which no one can easily afford. Concentrated feeds based on beans, bran, and cereals, and roughage based on grasses must also be supplemented with some minerals, such as salt...
According to relevant data from the Song Dynasty, the fodder consumed by a horse in a year was roughly twenty-five shi. Converted to the Ming Dynasty, it was almost twenty-three shi, equivalent to 3,450 kilograms. On average, one horse required ten kilograms of fodder per day. This is just forage. In addition, it needs to be fed with concentrated feed, which is about five kilograms a day. Considering the price of goods, a horse costs eight taels of silver a year just for food.
A horse costs 80,000 taels a year, and ten thousand horses are 80,000 taels. Adding in other miscellaneous expenses, it costs at least hundreds of thousands taels. In addition, Taipu Temple also needs people to pay wages. To take care of so many war horses, it requires not one or two horse owners, but hundreds. These people also need to receive wages to live.
No matter what, if you calculate it over and over again, you can't even use 500,000 taels a year to break the sky.
Zhu Yunwen was very puzzled. Song Sheng was not a coward. He could still figure out basic mathematical problems. The corresponding expenses were also listed above. It was an extra 2.5 million taels out of thin air. It was not like his style.
Sure enough, Song Sheng explained his reason: "Your Majesty, the construction of Shandan Racecourse in Gansu does not need to cost so much in the first year. However, these three hundred taels are for five years. I now propose that what I am afraid of is that the court will spend the next five years. Cutting the cost of racecourses is unsustainable and cannot be achieved.”
Zhu Yunwen was relieved.
It turns out that Song Sheng came up with a five-year plan, but only raised a fixed price. What he wanted was a continuous guarantee. The money and food from the racecourse should be used as a professional fund. When the household department allocates finance every year, this part should be listed separately first. Was assigned to other departments.
Three million taels in five years, which equals 600,000 taels in one year, is still a large amount. Zhu Yunwen made a few money after making great changes in the palace and playing tricks.
The emperor's private money is not enough to raise a horse farm. Compared with some wealthy people in later generations who raise sea cucumber teams, the emperor is still shabby...
"This money and food is quite a lot."
Zhu Yunwen was very embarrassed.
Although this year's fiscal revenue is good, there will still be a lot of expenses next year. The Huitong River must be dredged, and the concrete road needs to be accelerated. The Second Artillery Bureau, Longjiang Shipyard, and Qingjiang Shipyard all need money. The New Army Strategy The scope will be further expanded to include the northern border garrison garrison, and every time this is expanded, hundreds of thousands of taels will be spent more than in previous years.
Although the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion has consolidated military camps in various military posts (except near Peking) through inspections, and in some places even the acres of land in military camps have been increased to support most of the sergeants, but the military system of military camps still relies on Not sustainable.
But now is not the time to completely abolish the military garrison. The population has not yet grown, and relying on agricultural and commercial taxes cannot fully support the huge army. The garrison garrison still needs to exist.
After all, not every place is like Peiping. There are many small landowners and enough manpower to farm. Selling farmland will not affect the food supply. In places like Gansu and Liaodong, even if they want to sell land, someone has to buy it...
The population is still not large enough, otherwise it would be great if immigrants leave the country and reclaim black land on a large scale in Liaodong. It's a pity that so many places within the pass are deserted and so much land has not been utilized, so we really can't care about the outside of the pass.
The Jurchens are not strong enough now, so there is no harm in letting them catch fish and hunt. When they are free, they can take care of Liaodong and other places.
Money is needed everywhere, and no matter how big the financial cake is, it cannot afford to be divided.
Song Sheng explained: "Horse breed, I need to purchase horse breed."
"How to purchase?"
Zhu Yunwen asked.
Song Sheng replied seriously: "I would like to ask for an order to set up tea and horse divisions in Hami, Shazhou and other places to attract Westerners to engage in tea and horse trade. Although there is chaos in Yiliba, the war horse trade can still be carried out. And to use tea, Money is also needed.”
Zhu Yunwen put down the document, rubbed his brows, and said nothing.
For the Han people, tea is just a drink, but for the nomads, it is an indispensable necessity. In addition, there is no way to grow tea trees in the areas where the nomads live. If you want to get some tea, you have to import it from the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Yuanzhang once ordered that anyone who leaves the country for private tea will be punished with death. The reason why his consort Ouyang Lun was killed was because of this violation.
In the Ming Dynasty, tea, salt and iron were almost the same and both were produced by the government. Zhu Yuanzhang once expressed the importance of tea in a passage:
"This is why the fate of the Ban people, the strengthening of China's borders, and the cutting off of the right arm of the Xiongnu are tied to a heavy and powerful force that cannot be dealt with in an ordinary way."
The tea-horse trade was an important means of acquiring and replenishing war horses in the early Ming Dynasty.
Of course, official tea does not mean that the court directly gives it to Song Sheng. For tea and salt, the imperial court has set up special tea and salt importers. Merchants can obtain these tea and salt by helping the court transport corresponding goods. lead. In other words, in ordinary times, the main force in transporting tea, grain, salt, etc. is the caravan.
Naturally, when a caravan comes, it is impossible to bring only these things. It will also bring some farm tools, porcelain, and what the sergeants need to reward them. For the sake of farming and the morale of the army, they always need to spend some money to buy them. Besides, silver and copper coins are hard currencies, and Ming Dynasty banknotes also have some credibility in the Western Regions. People don't necessarily only want tea, they may also want cash.
Zhu Yunwen thought again and again, stretched out his hand and said: "Fifty thousand taels a year is probably the limit of the household department. There is really a shortage of horses. You can also walk to the north and bring back some war horses. With Song Sheng's ability, This is not difficult..."
Song Sheng swallowed. Did the emperor let him go out to rob?
Yes, just do it.
When the Oara Tatars were short of things, they went south to rob the Ming Dynasty. Now the Ming Dynasty is also short of things. It seems that it is not a big deal to go north.
If you can't defeat the main force, you can't defeat the remaining tribes?
Song Sheng walked away humming a tune.
Zhu Yunwen seemed to have seen the scene of Xia Yuanji blowing his beard. This Minister of Household Affairs was really not easy to be a minister. However, the racecourse is really important, and the necessary expenditures are still indispensable.
The Security Bureau received news that Song Zhengchen, Ru Yu, Zhu Gaoxu and others had arrived on the north bank of the Yangtze River and could enter the city in the evening.
Zhu Yunwen was still waiting for Zhu Di's reaction and the reactions of the vassal kings, whether he would use "Huang Ming's Ancestor Instructions" to pursue Ru Ru's crime. But to Zhu Yunwen's disappointment, Ru Ru and Zhu Gaoxu all arrived outside the gate of the Ministry of Punishment. There was no movement from the vassal king, and it seemed that he did not know the news that Zhu Gaoxu had been arrested by Ru Yu.
A good show is over before it even begins.
No, wait.
The censor stepped in and things looked good again.
Cheng Zhao, the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, impeached Ru Yu for violating the ancestral system and arresting relatives of the emperor. Zhu Di, who was sleeping in Prince Yan's Mansion, heard the news and jumped out of bed. He took off his sword and rushed out to arrest Cheng Zhao. The sign was cut off.
That's my son, not your son. I didn't say a word. What did you say?
Zhu Di saw Ru Yu's intention and the danger behind the matter. This kind of matter needed to be dealt with coldly and asked Zhu Gaoxu and Ru Ru to go to the Ministry of Punishment. In a few days, someone would naturally release them.
If the matter gets bigger and spreads throughout the city, then Zhu Gaoxu's reputation will be completely ruined. Although he doesn't have a good reputation, Prince Yan's Mansion still wants to lose face. There are so many officials in the capital now. Once they have a bad reputation, when they go back and talk about what happened during the pilgrimage, Zhu Gaoxu's name will be spread to every corner of the country.
Zhu Di was afraid that the vassal kings would make trouble with Zhu Yunwen because of this, so he wrote a letter to tell all the vassal kings in Beijing to ignore this matter. This is their own business and does not need your help.
Now, the censor is jumping up and down. This is not helping Zhu Gaoxu, but harming Zhu Gaoxu.
Princess Xu Yihua hurriedly pulled Zhu Di, but Yan Guan could not be killed. The most important thing now was to enter the palace and let Zhu Yunwen handle this matter as soon as possible without making a big fuss.
Zhu Di threw down his sword with a sad look on his face. Why did he give birth to such a stupid son? He asked you to run out of the capital to avoid the limelight, and you caused trouble for him on the way. brand.
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