Ming Dynasty: The Rampant Crown Prince

In the entire hall, there are only three ministers left in the cabinet, all of whom are Zhu Cihong's people, so they basically report to work and then wait for instructions, and there is no mess of civil and official fights.

"Your Royal Highness, the treasury expenditure of Chongzhen in the eleventh year was about 11 million taels, 1 million more than the year before, mainly because the clan's Yulu was distributed, and all the grain was distributed, military rations, rations, disaster relief grains, basically the treasury was empty. First

of all, Ni Yuanlu, the head of the household department, was the first to speak, put the prepared account book on the table, and then Qiu Zhizhong walked over, picked it up and looked at it, and then waited for His Highness's meaning, whether to sign or not.

"Chongzhen's expenditure for ten years is 10 million, and this is still His Highness allocated 1.5 million yuan from the inner treasury to the ministers, otherwise it would not be able to maintain, and last year, fortunately, there was a commercial tax and salt tax of the Longmen Chamber of Commerce, and the silver income of the treasury only reached 11 million, and the grain was reduced from 20 million stones in the previous year to 15 million stones.

"Among them, there are many wars and natural disasters, which lead to less harvest for the people, an increase in the number of displaced people, and then a decrease in the tax on people.

Seeing His Royal Highness the Prince's contemplative appearance, Ni Yuanlu immediately explained the reason for the decrease in the treasury.

Zhu Cihong stretched out his hand towards Qiu Zhizhong, he wanted to look at the account book first.

Seeing this, Qiu Zhizhong immediately handed over the account book with both hands.

Zhu Cihong opened the account book and looked at it, he thought that there was no problem with the reduction of grain, not to mention the problem of annexation, in the seventeen years of Chongzhen, the grain was getting less and less year by year, mostly because of natural disasters.

He also vaguely remembered that in the next few years of Chongzhen, the treasury was directly as low as three or four million taels of silver, because in the original history, the Qing army entered the customs for the fourth time and won a complete victory, which led to another internal turmoil in the Ming Dynasty and another decline in local control.

But in the eleventh year of Chongzhen, the silver income was still about one million less, only more than seven million, if it weren't for the tax of the Longmen Chamber of Commerce, I am afraid it would still not be able to survive.

This is still the income of three salaries, and if these three salaries are not added, the treasury would have only four or five million silver incomes.

Zhu Cihong almost forgot about this, the so-called three salaries are, Liaodong's salary, thieves' salary, and soldiers' training.

To put it bluntly, the state cannot collect taxes, relying mainly on agriculture, but if those who have the privilege of not paying taxes annex the land, they will not be able to collect taxes, and the country will naturally have no money, and half of these silver revenues are the only remaining fields, and half are the income from the per capita tax.

Now that Chongzhen is just in his early twelfth year, he needs to move, just start with Jiangnan, Zhu Cihong's eyes sharpened.

With the help of private salt, the source of corruption killed a group of criminal gentry in Jiangnan, otherwise, all the new reforms and policies in the future would not be implemented.

But before you go to Gangnam, you have to prepare.

"Sign.

Zhu Cihong put the account book on the table, Qiu Zhizhong heard this, so he stepped forward and took the account book back to his desk to stand, and then took out a red pen to sign.

"Sun Chengzong, tell the two elders about the reopening of the post station. "

Zhu Cihong plans to finalize the reopening of the post station first.

"Yes.

Sun Chengzong responded, and then told Fan Jingwen and Ni Yuanlu about the matter of reopening the post station with His Royal Highness before.

"The first is to abolish non-military information, emergency news outside the passing and overnight officials, free food and drink, free requisition of carriages and horses, the second is to increase the express delivery business when there is no military information, urgent news, so that we can reduce the burden on the Ming Dynasty's finances, but also for the treasury to increase revenue, killing two birds with one stone. "

In terms of manpower, we can recruit and train from the disaster victims, and as for the express delivery yamen, how it works, please ask Your Highness to solve your doubts."

After Sun Chengzong finished speaking, he looked at His Royal Highness the Prince, how the express delivery was specifically operated, he didn't know yet, and His Royal Highness had to explain it.

Fan Jingwen and Ni Yuanlu originally heard that they were going to reopen the post station, and they originally thought that it was another expense, but when they heard Sun Chengzong's words, their eyes lit up, and it was indeed a good way to remove the disadvantages of the post station and increase their income.

"Each state and county government, set up an express delivery yamen, sell express tickets, each express according to the distance, weight charge, the distance is far, the item is heavy, the charge is more, vice versa.

Zhu Cihong thought for a while, and explained simply: "Then if the guest wants to mail anything, he has to go to the express yamen to weigh and buy the express ticket, and the ticket needs to fill in the sender's name, as well as the recipient's name and address, and then the yamen will send the guest's items and express tickets to the post station, and then the people of the post station will help the guest express to the destination."

"This is the mode of operation of the express yamen, is it clear?" he

said a bit bluntly, and he was really afraid that these literati would need to digest it for a long time.

"Wonderful

!" Ni Yuanlu pondered for a while, then immediately understood, and said in surprise: "I didn't expect that the post station could be used like this, even if there is a military situation, when there is an emergency, there will be no conflict between the two, and it can also increase revenue for

the treasury!" "There is no need to spend a lot of financial and material resources to support those passers-by, okay!"

When it comes to the income of the treasury, he, the head of the household, is definitely the most sensitive.

"But how to calculate this large amount of manpower, there are disaster victims in some places, and there are no disaster victims in some places, and if you want to move the disaster victims from one place to another place to settle down, you also have to resettle a lot of things, which is a huge expense.

Fan Jingwen, who is the secretary of the ministry, was thinking about manpower and scheduling at this time, and said, he said: "Moreover, this income flows into the local government, and I am afraid that it will be plucked by geese again."

As soon as these words came out, the three of them pondered, what Fan Jingwen said was not unreasonable, the water of the Ming officialdom was very deep, and the atmosphere of corruption was well known, the income of this express delivery would definitely be half of the local government's greed, and the price of selling express tickets would also be deliberately increased by the people below to earn benefits.

"First of all, where there are disaster victims, use disaster people, and where there are no disaster victims, use the people who have no land to recruit as couriers, express yamen, and put those soap officials in the local government, helpers, all kinds of officials, miscellaneous jobs, six rooms, three shifts, grooms, feeding grooms, yin and yang, menzi, prisons, patrol fences, fasting, sweeping halls, ferrymen, inspection, laying, drumming, changing husbands, low marquis, teachings, etc., this kind of personnel, all rational use, some people who do not have much work, all transferred to the express yamen, teaching this kind of scholars, can do management, give a nine-grade, eight-grade and other positions, and the rest of the personnel are all transferred to the main post of the imperial court, collectively called the government commissioner, to give them a stable income.

Zhu Cihong said, and said: "The county government in each place, there are more than 200 people in small counties, and even thousands of people in large places, but most of them are mixed rice, so it is better to use them." "

The next decree is to add ten grades to the official position, and all the people in the yamen of the country will enter the main posts of the imperial court and be the commissioner of the ten grades of the government, so that there is room for growth, stable monthly service, eating national grain, and eating imperial grain.

When Fan Jingwen heard this, he thought for a while, and really thought it was feasible, but there was another problem that was the problem of lowly status, so he said: "This method is indeed possible, but in the county government, except for four or five officials, the others, including the government officials, are all lowly servants, which belong to hard labor, and all of them have become officials of the imperial court all of a sudden, I'm afraid, I'm afraid...... It is detrimental to the majesty of the imperial court.

"That's easy.

Zhu Cihong smiled, he had a will today that was this, so he said: "Make an order, abolish the lowly status, and write it into the Ming Law." "

This has many advantages, one is that the untouchables do not pay taxes, and some of the untouchables have a good income, and they have to pay taxes after the abolition of the untouchables, and secondly, most of the untouchables have become the labor force of the gentry, which greatly reduces the country's labor force, and the third is that it can also facilitate the stability of the party, and many of the untouchables who cannot work normally, some occupy the mountains as bandits, some go to sea as thieves, and some become traitors.

"Also, you can increase the labor force, increase the income of these people, increase the consumption of the Ming Dynasty, stimulate the economic circulation of the Ming Dynasty, and the circulation of money, such as the Department of Agricultural Affairs, many workers in the Longmen Chamber of Commerce are lowly, but they get wages, so that they can live without land in time, or if the land is annexed by the landlord."

As soon as these words came out, the three of them fell into deep thinking, they were thinking too much today, and they all felt that they couldn't keep up with His Royal Highness the Prince's thinking and ideas, too bold, but very reasonable.

Zhu Cihong looked at the contemplative appearance of the three of them, and knew in his heart that the untouchable status could be abolished, but the lowly status in his heart could not be abolished, but this was enough.

Even in modern times, people still discriminate against all kinds of noble and lowly occupations in their hearts, but everyone has food to eat, and everyone can live well.

He also hopes that everyone in the Ming Dynasty can live well.

(PS: The abolition of the untouchables is not the same as the abolition of slaves, the untouchables are the untouchables, the slaves are slaves, the abolition of the untouchables during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty was only a verbal pardon of the untouchables in some regions, not the abolition of the national untouchables, nor was it written into the laws of the Qing Dynasty, and some untouchables were also added.) ）