Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 192 Sweeping Shandong
"The king of Qi led his troops to defeat the bandit army in Dong'e, beheaded three thousand, captured the rebel general Shen Zhi alive, and captured twenty-two thousand enemies..."

"King Qi led his troops to defeat the bandit army in Dongping, beheaded two thousand people, beheaded the rebel general Xia Zhongjing, and captured eight thousand and two enemies..."

"The king of Qi led his troops to recover Yuncheng, beheaded six thousand people, beheaded the rebel general Zhang Jianbai and Hou Wu, and captured six thousand enemies..."

"The king of Qi led his troops to plunder the formation. In the east of Shushan Lake, he joined forces with the governor of Shandong, Yuan Keli, to defeat [-] rebels. Xu Hongru, the leader of the rebel army, was captured alive. He beheaded [-] people and captured [-] enemies..."

"The king of Qi led his troops to defeat the right prime minister Chen Canyu of the rebel army in Juye, and the general Xu Heyu of the rebel army in Yu Jiaxiang. He beheaded [-] people and captured [-] enemies."

"By October [-]th, the entire territory of Shandong had cleared the rebels. The officers and soldiers beheaded a total of [-] people and captured [-] enemies. More than [-] people!"

On October [-]th of the second year of Tianqi, with a letter of victory being passed into the palace, the officials above Chang Chao only felt burning pain on their faces.

He also said that the enemy was captured in [-] days, but the opponent wiped out the Shandong rebels in [-] days, and it is estimated that the rebels in eastern Henan can be wiped out in the remaining six days.

Now it's all right, let alone add to the block, and give Zhu Youjian the opportunity to show his ability as a leader.

This kind of counter-insurgency speed has never been seen throughout the Ming Dynasty.

This is of course because this is the first time that Ming has used so many cavalry in countering the rebellion, and the opponent is just a bunch of mud legs. It is normal to win, but judging from the beheading and capture, the merits on the books are too great. It looks good...

Many civil servants closed their mouths, looked at their noses and hearts, and held the wat board in the hall without speaking, while Zhu Youxiao looked at the officials, then at the victory report in his hand, and said with a corner of his mouth:

"King Qi's extermination of the rebel army is just around the corner, so we can celebrate King Qi's achievements in advance."

"At the beginning, the king of Qi was conferred by the inspector General Hussars, the second rank, and the Ministry of Officials made a book."

"The minister leads the decree..."

Zhang Wenda, the new Minister of the Ministry of Officials, responded, and when Ye Xianggao heard the words, he also opened his mouth and said:

"Long live, although the rebels in the whole of Shandong have been suppressed, there are still tens of thousands of rebels in Kaifeng Mansion and Guide Mansion in eastern Henan."

"In addition, quite a few rebellions broke out in Chengdu, Sichuan, Wuchang, and Xiangyang, Huguang. All of these require local officials and troops to go to suppress the rebellion."

"This matter, the cabinet can handle it as it sees." Zhu Youxiao responded, and then said:

"How are the provinces doing about the autumn tax payment?"

Zhu Youxiao was a little worried. This was mainly because the taxes in Jiangnan were able to be handed over the year before last and last year. It was all because Qi Jin and his son recruited soldiers in Zhejiang and indirectly inserted nails.

But this year they did not arrange for Qi's father and son to go to Zhejiang to recruit soldiers, so he was a little worried that the gentry in Jiangnan would make small moves.

However, perhaps it was frightened by the emperor's operation of stationing troops in Zhejiang for two consecutive years. In order to prevent the emperor from continuing to use the form of "recruitment" to station troops, Jiangnan this year appears to be extraordinarily peaceful.

"Long live back..."

Regarding matters in Jiangnan, it is natural for Zhu Guozuo of the Zhejiang Party to speak up, so he responded with a bow:

"Zhejiang this year's summer tax and autumn tax have paid a total of [-] taels, [-] taels have been retained, and [-] taels have been shipped."

"A total of more than [-] and [-] taels were collected for the additional payment of silver, and all of them were shipped. Those who were shipped together with the autumn and summer taxes totaled more than [-] million and [-] taels."

Summer taxation of wheat and autumn taxation of rice, excluding Liaodong Province, which is exempted from pilgrimage, among the fourteen provinces of the two capitals of Ming Dynasty, Zhejiang Province’s summer tax accounted for 3.32%, and autumn tax accounted for 10.76%...

On paper, the population of Zhejiang is [-] million, and the total income is nearly [-] million taels, which looks really good.

Therefore, Zhu Youxiao nodded in satisfaction, and then turned his attention to Ye Xianggao, signaling for him to talk about other provinces.

Ye Xianggao knew this well, and said:
"This year, Nanzhili's summer and autumn taxes will amount to more than [-] taels, an additional [-] taels, [-] taels will be retained, and [-] taels will be shipped. There are two more."

"In Jiangxi's summer and autumn taxes, all the summer tax wheat is converted into more than [-] taels, and the autumn tax tax is now more than [-], [-] cents in silver, and [-] shi in rice."

"Due to the great earthquake in Shandong at the beginning of the year, Nanzhili and Zhejiang allocated grain from Changping warehouses. Therefore, more than [-] million shimi from Jiangxi were sent to Nanzhili and Zhejiang. Jiangxi kept all the cash, and this year it has not started to ship smoothly. .”

After saying this, Ye Xianggao did not continue, but waited for the emperor's response.

However, Zhu Youxiao also knew that the earthquake in Shandong had indeed exhausted the Changping warehouses and official food in Nanzhili and Zhejiang, so there was not much reaction.

Seeing that the emperor did not respond, Ye Xianggao also reported to the last few provinces one after another.

The four provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, North Zhili, and Henan have handed over more than [-] million shi of wheat, more than [-] million shi of rice, [-] taels of silver, and kept [-] taels of wheat. [-] million shi, [-] million shi.

In Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi, [-] million taels of silver were discounted, [-] million shimi were shipped, and [-] taels and [-] million shimi were retained.

As for the remaining four provinces of Sichuan, Huguang, Guizhou, and Yunnan, needless to say, there is no additional payment and summer and autumn taxes this year.

Shandong itself was exempted from disaster relief for one year, and there was no tax.

Therefore, counting, the situation reported by the provinces is that the income of the household department of Daming this year is [-] four cents in cash, [-] shi in rice, and [-] cents in wheat. More than one and two hundred thousand stones.

Compared with last year's land tax, this land tax is almost [-]% off.

Of course, this is due to the fact that Sichuan, Huguang, and Shandong provinces with large land taxes did not pay land taxes.

But more importantly, Ming used too many troops and used them too frequently.

Among other things, [-] main and auxiliary soldiers are fighting in Guizhou, and the five southwestern provinces are supplying them, as is Guangzhou.

An earthquake in Shandong and Henan, a breach of the Yellow River, and the raising of the flag by the rebels naturally did not pay much.

Mimai has more than [-] million shi, and the current silver is [-] million taels, which sounds pretty good.

But excluding the deposits from the provinces, there are only four million taels of cash, and eight million stones of rice and wheat can be transported to Shuntian Prefecture.

In this way, the cash is okay, but Mimai is not even half of what it was last year.

All the ministers did not speak again, but Zhu Youxiao frowned tightly, because his internal money, this year's income is only more than [-] million taels.

Of the [-] million taels, of which more than two million taels were delivered to the inner money by the Yumajian successively, otherwise the annual income of the inner money this year may only be more than two million taels.

It can be said that an earthquake and a war in the southeast have messed up Daming's finances.

With only more than [-] million shimimai and more than [-] million taels of silver in hand, at most the military salaries and salaries of the four towns in the northwest, the officials of the court, the post stations of the world, and the clan will be distributed, and two to three million will be left in the end. Two.

It's only October now, and there is still a whole year before next year's autumn harvest.

Spending a whole year with two or three million taels of silver is almost laughable.

"What about the annual income of the other five ministries and five temples..." Zhu Youxiao asked with a slight headache, and Ye Xianggao then responded:
"A total of more than [-] taels, and [-] shi of rice and wheat."

Few is better than nothing...

Hearing that the annual income of the six ministries and five temples was only so small, Zhu Youxiao had a headache, because such an annual income still could not meet the expenditure of the imperial court next year.

After all, no one knows whether there will be another natural or man-made disaster next year.

The most important thing is that Zhu Youxiao knows that after the autumn harvest next year, the important battle to recover Liaodong will begin immediately.

Not to mention, if hundreds of thousands of main and auxiliary soldiers are deployed, millions, or even two million taels will be given at one time.

In addition, although Zhu Youjian has already guaranteed the food that the army needs, saying that the Yumajian can solve it by himself, Zhu Youxiao still needs to plan ahead and make second-hand preparations.

Therefore, in order not to delay the recovery of Liaodong next year, the court must have enough silver and taxes before launching troops next year.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao could only frowned and pinched the center of his brows, but at this moment someone suddenly said:

"Long live, the Household Department, the Yumajian still owes more than [-] shi in taxes. According to the grain price in Beizhili, it should be converted to [-] taels of silver."

Zhu Youxiao glanced at Wang Yingjiao, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and to this, he could only respond:
"Well... I know about this matter. After the King of Qi went to the expedition, Cao Huachun, the admiral of the imperial horse inspector, said that it will be sent to the new bank of the household department in the spring after the color is folded."

"Forget it, since the battle is all right, let's get back."

He waved his hand to signal all the officials to retreat, and all the officials also sang, and then withdrew from the main worship hall.

As for Zhu Youxiao, after all the officials retreated, he said to Wei Zhongxian next to him:
"Go to Xuqin Palace to pass on Cao Huachun, and let him wait in the Hall of Mental Cultivation."

"The maidservant leads the decree..." Wei Zhongxian answered honestly, and then ordered the other eunuchs to go to work, while he himself sent Zhu Youxiao back to the Hall of Mental Cultivation with the memorial from the Supervisor of Rituals.

Not long after returning to the Hall of Mental Cultivation, Cao Huachun came to the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

Under the notification of the accompanying eunuch, Zhu Youxiao motioned for him to come in.

After a while, Cao Huachun entered the hall and knelt down to salute, while Zhu Youxiao, who was frowning while processing the memorial, also said:

"I sent you here to ask you, what is the income of the Yumajian this year."

Such an inquiry, for Cao Huachun, who often kept accounts, almost didn't need to think about it before replying:
"Back to Long Live, the Yumajian received a total of [-] stones this year, and after deducting the taxes owed to the household department, there are still more than [-] stones."

"How much?" Hearing this series of numbers, Zhu Youxiao stopped the pen in his hand, frowned and raised his head to ask.

Helpless, Cao Huachun reported again, and such a number made everyone except Cao Huachun dumbfounded.

The co-author Yu Majian now has more money and food than the imperial court, no wonder King Qi didn't panic about money and food at all when he was in Beijing.

It turns out that I have food in my hand, so I don't panic...

They were still immersed in the series of shocking numbers, and Cao Huachun continued:

"Except for Tian Fu and Huangdian, the balance is more than [-] taels."

"Currently there are still [-] million taels of silver in the treasury, and the total amount of stored grain is more than [-] million taels including the autumn harvest."

Cao Huachun's calm reply shocked everyone once again.

More importantly, Zhu Youxiao keenly grasped the word surplus, and then thought of the more than two million taels of silver sent to the inner court by the Yumajian, as well as the allocated silver.

Calculated in this way, the money passing through the hands of the Yumajian every year has already exceeded ten million taels.

Therefore, Zhu Youxiao was very curious about where the money went, so he asked:

"What is the income of the Yumajian, and what are the main expenses?"

"Long live back..." Cao Huachun didn't think it was wrong, because Zhu Youjian had explained that as long as the emperor asked, he could tell:

"Calculated from the Zhese of the Yumajian, there are more than [-] million taels, most of which are grain trade."

"As for the expenses, it is mainly the [-]th Guards of Shangzhi and the [-]th Guards Battalion in Beijing and the Two Provinces, the [-]th Battalion of Wai Gongwei in Shanxi, the [-]th Battalion in Liaodong, and the Three Guards in Daning."

"The military pay of these troops needs to be paid more than [-] million taels, and food also needs to cost more than [-] million taels, so these alone need more than [-] million taels of silver."

"In addition, the armor factory, ordnance factory, and Tianjin Shipyard's total expenditure is more than two million taels."

"In addition to these, there is also support for the reclamation of the three guards in Daning and the transportation of military supplies to Liaodong. The total expenditure of these is about three million taels."

"In this year's revenue, the amount of silver taels that can be transferred at will is actually only more than six million taels, and [-] million taels are transported to the south and the interior, so the remaining balance is only two to three million taels of silver."

Twenty-two million taels of silver...

Hearing this amount, even knowing that it was the amount after folding color, it does not mean that the Yumajian got so much money, but the shock that this amount brought to everyone is still indescribable.

You know, before Zhu Youjian reformed the Yumajian, Daming's land tax was about [-] to [-] million shi.

According to the price of grain in Beizhili, it is [-] million taels to [-] million taels of silver.

Adding the income from the inner court, six departments and five temples, the finances after Daming Zhese would be about the same as the current Yumajian.

The current Yumajian not only directly pays more than three million taels of silver to the national treasury, but also earns [-] million taels of silver annually.

Adding in the annual revenue of the national treasury, it is [-] taels of folded color.

Except for the first [-] years of the Ming Dynasty, when it was possible to achieve such a number of folds, when did the Ming Dynasty have such a terrifying annual income?

Perhaps because he was afraid that the emperor would think that this was the Yongding annual income of the Yumajian, Cao Huachun immediately explained:
"The high annual income this year is all due to the high price of grain in Liaodong. Therefore, grain sales from the south to the north can only be achieved by stabilizing grain prices."

"Right now, grain prices in Liaodong have stabilized, and the situation will improve after Liaodong is recovered next year. His Highness said that the annual income of the Yumajian should be suspended at around [-] million taels."

"If the problem of guards in Shaanxi, Henan, and Shandong is solved, the annual income should increase to more than [-] million taels. If the imperial stores are opened in the three provinces, the annual income can reach [-] million taels."

Cao Huachun explained honestly, but he didn't think that these words did not play the role of "humility" at all, but stimulated Zhu Youxiao.

Only then did he know how terrifying his younger brother's ability in making money was.

Since the Ming Dynasty's military colonization of seed food was corrupted, the emperors who made the most money were nothing more than Zhengde and Wanli.

Emperor Zhengde gained control of part of the frontier army by virtue of wantonly opening Huangdian and Huangzhuang.

However, since he was facing the entire pan-Southern Civilian forces at that time, he was unable to stabilize the situation quickly.

On the contrary, Emperor Wanli, although facing the civil service system that was split by Jiajing, was really incapable of collecting money. Not to mention the confiscation of a mine tax, it also broke the hearts of the people.

Compared with the two of them, Zhu Youjian's way of collecting money is a bit perverted.

Grasping the military power that Emperor Zhengde wanted to seize, the military power does not rely on the side generals, but on his own training. In terms of the ability to control soldiers and horses, Zhu Youjian's ability is much higher than Zhu Houzhao.

Compared with Zhu Houzhao's need to face the monolithic Pan-Jiangnan civil forces, Zhu Youjian's current situation is very good. The Pan-South civil forces have been divided for a hundred years, and it is difficult to join forces to deal with him.

In such a situation, by elevating Donglin and attacking the five parties of Qi, Chu, Zhejiang, Xuankun, and then when Donglin's family was dominant, he chose to speak for the five parties of Qi, Chu, Zhejiang, Xuankun, etc. in the court.

This kind of balancing act made the civil servants of the two factions never take him seriously.

If it weren't for the fact that in the battle of Liaoshen, Zhu Youjian used Mangui to go out of the fortress, which exposed his strength prematurely, and then showed his terrifying military power in the abolition of Shanxi and Beizhili, then it is estimated that the current two factions of civil servants still have In mutual tearing, there is no time to estimate Zhu Youjian.

Thinking about it this way, Zhu Youjian's methods are terrifying.

He understood that the opening of Huangzhuang would disgust the common people, small and medium-sized landlords, rich peasants and other forces, so he chose to offend the already weak nobles to attack the army and re-open a source of income that had nothing to do with the common people.

After that, he used the method of dividing the land to win the hearts of the bottom-level military households and the ordinary people who obtained the land.

In this way, Zhu Youjian has a huge foundation to support him.

His power appears to be military power on the surface, but under military power is civil power.

Behind the hundreds of thousands of troops, there are millions of family members of soldiers and millions of landless people.

If you want to move Zhu Youjian, you must first cut off Zhu Youjian's connection with more than tens of millions of people, so that he can be completely separated from the political center.

Who was the last time someone had such a large base of support?

In an instant, Zhu Youxiao flashed a portrait in the Taimiao.

That is Emperor Gao, Emperor Taizu of Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang.

The forces supporting him are Huaixi nobles and Huaixi children who started their family with Zhu Yuanzhang.

What kind of force is this?Even Zhu Yuanzhang himself spent more than [-] years suppressing this force to a state of balance with the civil servants, and killed many arrogant and unruly famous generals and ministers for this reason.

Now, who in the entire Ming Dynasty dares to say that the methods are more decisive and ruthless than Zhu Yuanzhang?
There is no such person, even Zhu Youjian, who created this new interest force, can't stop at all.

Even if he declares his surrender now, the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and tens of millions of children under his command will not agree.

The general will carry him forward, and what Zhu Youjian can do is to suppress this force and let them understand their bottom line.

What is the bottom line?
"My brother...you are too...you have the style of Emperor Guangwu of Han Dynasty"

Zhu Youxiao analyzed everything in a short time. In the end, he wanted to say that Zhu Youjian had the style of Emperor Taizu Gao, but he was afraid that the civil servants would be wary after knowing this sentence, so he could only change the object of comparison to Guangwu Emperor Liu show.

Liu Xiu was able to fight and treated heroes well, but his only shortcoming was that he could not restrain the rising powerful forces in his later years.

But this is not to blame Liu Xiu. After all, Liu Xiu's powerful power was far inferior to that of Wu Xun in the early Tang Dynasty and Huaixi Xungui in the early Ming Dynasty, so there was no need to torture and kill.

What Liu Xiu didn't expect was that most of his descendants died young and lived short lives, which made Hao Qiang seize the merits of supporting him several times in a row and rise rapidly.

But all of this is not what Zhu Youxiao intended to say.

The reason why he said this was because he knew that his younger brother would eventually run counter to the younger brother he thought in his heart.

Zhu Youxiao thought very well, that is, let his only younger brother be a king of idleness and live his life in peace.

But under the attack of various forces, there are powerful enemies outside, thieves inside, natural disasters on the upper side, and human disasters on the lower side, he still had to drag his younger brother into the water.

Zhu Youjian's grasp of such a large force did not make Zhu Youxiao afraid. What he was worried about was Zhu Youjian's future.

To balance such a force that started with the army and fields, the interests to be checked and balanced are naturally military exploits and fields.

It's no wonder why Zhu Youjian has been emphasizing outward cultivation and development.

Only by expanding outward can we give military merits to the army, and only then can we give military subordinates a field.

If these are not satisfied, then don't think that this interest group can always be external, and one day they will be internal.

"Okay, you step back..."

Zhu Youxiao's face was neither sad nor happy, but he had a brief surprise before, and he really did what Zhu Youjian said before without showing his anger and anger.

But after he opened his mouth, Cao Huachun paused and didn't get up, as if he still had something to say.

"What? Did my brother explain anything else?"

Zhu Youxiao keenly sensed something was wrong, and Cao Huachun hesitated for a few seconds, and finally said with difficulty:
"His Royal Highness said that the clans of the three provinces can be reformed in advance..."

"..." After the words were spoken, everyone was speechless, only their hearts tightened.

Wei Zhongxian's heart was even more turbulent. He went through everything these days in his mind, and finally came to a conclusion:

"It's no wonder that King Qi took the initiative to lead the attack at this counter-insurgency meeting. It turned out that he wanted to attack the clans of the three provinces..."

"Qin Fan took the position in the side line, his position is unstable, and he can't control the side line. If the king of Qi makes an order, I'm afraid he won't be able to refute it."

"Shandong has the three kings of De, Lu, and Heng, but they are not great vassals. Therefore, when the troops were dispatched, they made a special promise to capture Xu Hongru alive."

"Xu Hongru is just an excuse. What he really wants to do is to solve the most difficult problems, King Fu and King Zhou."

"Take out the rebels in Shandong first, and finally lead the troops into Henan. Then there is a lot of room for maneuver..."

Wei Zhongxian swallowed his saliva, thinking that King Qi, who occasionally smiled at him on weekdays, had such a scheming plan, and began to think carefully about whether he had offended him.

As for what Wei Zhongxian can think of, Zhu Youxiao can naturally think of it too.

He sighed in his heart, thinking that his younger brother always does things like an antelope's horns, making it impossible for people to think of his true intentions.

It can be said that this guy is applying the art of war to political actions, and he can't even see through himself.

I am afraid that Zhou Fan and Fu Fan, as well as the three kings Zheng, Tang, and Chong, will all be reformed.

If there is no innovation, the king of Qi may not be able to suppress the thieves, and the thieves will flee to the west and south and besiege the clan and vassals...

I'm afraid King Fu and King Zhou have already guessed what their younger brother is thinking, and they are starting to panic...

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao didn't know why, but when he thought of his good third uncle's frightened look, the corners of his mouth unconsciously twitched.

"Madam Zheng, I really want to see the expression on your face when you know that my good third uncle will be besieged by bandits..."

(End of this chapter)