Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 394 Daming Asian-African Economic Circle

"Others are at best not doing a good job, but he is good. He picked himself out by following the rules."

The case files of Liu Si Zuo Shu and Liu Yuyou, who worked so fast, were sent to the capital only five days later.

Zhengdan has passed, and it is now the seventh day of the first month of the tenth year of Tianqi. Zhu Youjian sat in the palace of Qi Wang, and Cao Huachun and the others sat there, each with a different expression.

At the critical moment, Wang Chengen was still caring. He spoke cautiously and broke the deadlock:

"Your Highness, how will the case of Liu Yuyou and Pan Shiliang be judged?"

"The case can be judged in any way. The important thing is Zhou Yanru's actions." Cao Huachun answered, and put forward a more profound suggestion:
"Your Highness, the rules must be followed, and those who follow the rules must abide by them even more."

"The gentry below haven't heard the news yet, so we have to let them all know that the rules of the court are generally still in place."

Cao Huachun's words were spoken, and Zhu Youjian took the main seat, and after listening to his words, he responded:
"The rules of the imperial court have always existed, but the rules depend on the person."

"Zhou Yanru is showing off his cleverness, helping the court to appease the gentry, and also wants to help himself ascend the court."

"There are seven ministers in the cabinet right now, and all the positions are full. Who do you want to step down..."

Regarding matters involving cabinet ministers, the four of them dared not speak. After a moment of silence, it was Wang Chengen who broke the deadlock again:

"This servant thinks that Huang Liji..."

Wang Chengen wanted Huang Liji to step down, because he had defected to Gu Dang after the downfall of the eunuch party, and it was a good choice to move him to elect Zhou Yanru.

But as soon as his words came out, Li Ruolian hesitated and said:
"There are seven ministers in the cabinet. Although it is said that if Zhou Yanru retreats and Zhou Yanru is replaced, the strength of the Gu party will not decrease, but if Zhou Yanru is in power, I am afraid that Wen Tiren will also be in power..."

Gu Bingqian, Yuan Keli, Sun Chengzong, Shi Fenglai, Zhu Xieyuan, Bi Ziyan, Huang Liji...

These seven cabinet ministers all represent one side of power, except for Bi Ziyan, who is considered a neutral faction, Gu Dang, Donglin Party, and Zhejiang Party, each of which holds two seats exclusively.

Shi Fenglai is the current leader of the Zhejiang Party, if he is resigned, the power of the Zhejiang Party will be greatly reduced, and Wen Tiren is not enough to convince the masses.

Zhu Xieyuan is in the Zhejiang Party and his heart is in the court, and he has made meritorious deeds. If he retires, it will chill the hearts of the meritorious officials.

It has to be said that apart from Huang Liji, the others all have the meaning of being in the pavilion.

There is only one position, which cannot be increased or decreased, so it is difficult to promote Zhou Yanru.

"Your Highness, this servant thinks it's best not to be promoted!"

Cao Huachun took the initiative to speak and explained:

"Although it is necessary to appease the southern gentry and establish the rules, it is not necessary to let Zhou Yanru join the cabinet."

"If you don't join the cabinet, you will have to come to the house to do errands." Cui Yingyuan said cautiously, and Li Ruolian became vigilant.

There are not many positions in the cabinet, and even less in the Qi Palace.

Compared with the cabinet, the position of Prince Qi's Mansion is more important.

Those who can accompany Zhu Youjian are only those few people, and Zhou Yanru is still a civil servant.

If one is bad, Zhou Yanru will be the next "Gu Bingqian".

It is very bad for them that civil servants enter the government, so everyone looked at Cao Huachun, not knowing why he raised this question.

"It's not bad to enter the house..."

Zhu Youjian's sudden opening attracted everyone's attention, but soon he vetoed it:

"It's just that there are not so many places in the mansion to place him. Let him go to the Ministry of Punishments to be the secretary."

Zhu Youjian's words proved that Zhou Yanru's game was correct this time, but he chose the right thing to do, and he directly became one of the six ministers and squeezed into the power center of the Ming Dynasty.

It's just that although he won Zhu Youjian's favor, he annoyed other people...

"Zhou Yanru is too sophisticated..."

"It's not sophisticated, it's shameless! Shameless!"

When Zhu Youjian gave Zhou Yanru the Minister of the Ministry of Punishments, in a side hall of the Wenhua Palace, Xue Fengxiang, a member of the Gu Party, could not help complaining, but Huang Liji, a cabinet minister, yelled.

The two sat at the bottom, Gu Bingqian sat at the main seat, and Gu Dang's Hanlin editor was on duty at the door, so the three of them could discuss unscrupulously in the side hall.

Gu Bingqian could see Huang Liji's anger, but he also knew that there was fear in Huang Liji's anger.

To put it bluntly, they all understood that Zhou Yanru had solved a difficult problem for the imperial court, and established the court's rules.

Therefore, according to his merits and rewards afterwards, he will definitely be able to join the cabinet, and if he wants to join the cabinet, Huang Liji will be the first to be squeezed out.

Huang Liji was particularly angry, but he was also very fearful in his heart.

He is 62 years old now, although he is old, but among the cabinet ministers, he is one of the younger two.

Except for Bi Ziyan who is one year younger than him, everyone else is two to six years older than him.

At this age, if nothing else happens, he can stay in the cabinet for a few more years and hold power for a few more years.

But now Zhou Yanru's sudden emergence made him feel a sense of crisis, so he specifically targeted Zhou Yanru.

His thoughts couldn't be hidden in front of Gu Bingqian, and Gu Bingqian took up the teacup with an old god, made some tea, and said calmly:
"He can't enter the cabinet, and there is a high probability that he will replace the position of the six ministers, which is good for us."

"Mr. Ge, aren't you angry that he didn't do what you said?" Xue Fengxiang hesitated to ask when he heard Gu Bingqian's words, but Gu Bingqian said flatly:

"He said things very clearly. If the eunuch who passed the decree brought His Highness, it is not easy for him to do so."

"You guys, don't be too mean to people. It's a good thing for us that people like Yusheng can get up."

Gu Bingqian called Zhou Yanru by his nickname, and obviously regarded him as a member of his inner circle.

After he said this, Xue Fengxiang didn't say anything else, but Huang Liji was still frowning, obviously still worried about his position.

Seeing this, Gu Bingqian drank his tea calmly.

He drank a cup of tea slowly until Huang Liji stretched his brows before he said:

"Liu Yuyou and Pan Shiliang, their lives are in His Highness's hands right now, and we can't help them."

"See you, Mr. Ge..." Huang Liji agreed after hearing the words, obviously they were going to abandon Liu Yuyou and Pan Shiliang.

They can't keep it?Naturally, it can be guaranteed, but it will cost too much to protect them, Gu Bingqian is unwilling to confront Zhu You directly.

What he wanted was to be the chief assistant for a few more years, to step down as the chief assistant before the situation got out of control, and to retire and return home.

How long has this situation been?He can see it specifically from the new policies in Sichuan and Beizhili promulgated by Zhu Youjian this time.

It can be as short as three years and as long as seven years.

In seven years, Gu Bingqian may not be able to live to that time. On the other hand, Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian, seven years later, they will only be 33 and 27 years old.

At this age, unless they die early, no one in the temple can survive the two brothers.

Gu Bingqian has also seen through this point a long time ago, so he has never planned to confront Zhu Youjian head-on.

If it wasn't for the people below to support him, he would rather honestly work in Prince Qi's mansion.

Dealing with these two brothers, I don't know how many people I have to train to survive until they leave. It's a waste of energy.

I don’t even look at the group of Fang Congzhe, Sun Ruyou, Zhu Guozuo, Shen Yu, and Yao Zongwen who were all eliminated by the third batch. If the Zhejiang Party hadn’t become weaker, they might be in the fourth or fifth batch now.

The Zhejiang Party may still be happy about Zhou Yanru's bluff, but as long as he, Gu Bingqian, doesn't start a party struggle with King Qi, the Zhejiang Party's calculations will be in vain.

Thinking of this, Gu Bingqian felt a little proud.

"Sometimes it takes a step back to live long..."

Putting down the teacup, Gu Bingqian got up and walked towards the main worship hall stooped, ready to continue processing the memorial.

Once he retreats, the authority in his hand can be held tightly for a few more years...

As for whether the following people will object?
A group of people from other parties jumped on the fence to attach themselves to the Qi Palace, and now they turn their backs to attach themselves to their soft bones, how can they react?
Gu Bingqian was there, and things went as he expected. Few of the Gu party officials in Beijing raised any objections.

In their view, Liu Yuyou and Pan Shiliang can be said to be bold.

I have seen corrupt people before, but this is the first time that officials from the government and the opposition have seen people who corrupted and invaded the army's fields together with the local imperial horse supervisor.

As far as what they did, King Qi would not let them live as long as he was a normal person.

If they can survive, then other people will follow the example of the occupying military farmland, and once the military farmland falls, a quarter of Ming's finances will fall.

Right now, Daming's finances are based on continuous external blood transfusions.

Especially the four places of Yingzhou, Jiaozhi, Jiugang, and Xiaoxiyang. Once they are all stabilized, they will send tax silver worth tens of millions of taels and more than 2000 million stone rice and wheat to the imperial court every year.

The reason why they do not have the potential to explode at present is because there is still one year to save the cochin, and although the grain in the old port is collected more than 900 million shi every year, but due to the distance, only grain from Luzon can actually be transported to Guangdong, Fujian.

However, Yingzhou will be able to feed back Daming this year, and it is not difficult to transport 700 million shi rice and wheat to the imperial court under the condition of stabilizing local grain prices.

The only thing restricting Daming seems to be the severe drought in the interior.

It's just that compared with last year's severe drought in eight provinces that affected more than 3000 million people, this year's spring rains gave Daming a sigh of relief.

Before and after the Lantern Festival, Nanzhili, Fujian, Hexi, Sichuan, Huguang and other provinces received rains. Within [-] days, it rained for several days before and after. The dry rivers reopened, and the drought in various places gradually subsided.

After the Lantern Festival, more than half of Guangdong received rain, and Guangxi received rain. South of the Yangtze River, only five prefectures, including Guangzhou, Huizhou, Chaozhou, Shaozhou, and Zhangzhou, did not receive any rainfall and remained severely drought-affected.

To the north of the Yangtze River, only Xuanfu in Northern Zhili is still suffering from severe drought.

However, there was still no rain in the whole of Shaanxi again. Even the Guanzhong area relied only on the Wei and Jing rivers for farming. Taiyuan Prefecture in Shanxi Province, which had been in peace for a year, also suffered a severe drought, but Liaozhou, Zezhou, and Lu'an Prefectures fell several times. A light rain.

But even so, the number of people affected by the severe drought dropped from 3000 million to less than 200 million in the first year of the ten-year apocalypse.

Following the beheading of Liu Yuyou and Pan Shiliang by Li Banghua of Chengdu Prefecture, there were no more political events worth mentioning in the Ming Dynasty.

The only thing that attracted everyone's attention, apart from the Sichuan New Deal, was the Northern Zhili New Deal for Officials and Schools...

"More than 97 people, more than you and me think."

"Brother took this opportunity to check out more than 60 hidden households and more than 130 million mu of hidden fields. It is estimated that the hidden households in Beizhili have almost been investigated."

On the first day of February, when the registration deadline for the Beizhili Official School, Zhu Youjian, who had received all the summary documents, came to the Hall of Mental Cultivation non-stop.

He had a long talk with Zhu Youxiao, and the two took turns looking at the summary of the documents, with smiles on their faces that couldn't be concealed.

Zhu Youjian was lamenting the enrollment situation in Beizhili, while Zhu Youxiao was lamenting the investigation of hidden households and fields.

Zhu Youxiao is holding the latest population summary and cultivated land summary of Beizhili in his hand at the moment. The situation written on the paper is that Beizhili has 780 people, and more than 600 two acres of cultivated land. Divide four per cent.

Compared with the more than 260 million people and more than 600 million mu of cultivated land in the Hongwu period, the population has tripled and the cultivated land has increased by more than 300 million mu.

Even if the nobles in Beizhili were unwilling, the arable land in their hands was hard to hide in Beizhili, where the imperial power was the deepest.

Finding out more than 300 million mu of arable land is equivalent to increasing the tax of 10,000+ shimimai.

From this point of view, the promotion of basic education undoubtedly made Daming's household registration system more precise.

Zhu Youxiao began to support the policy of basic education for all, and Zhu Youjian cared more than he only cared about population and arable land.

"Nearly a million students have been studying for five years, which still poses a big challenge to the court's finances." Zhu Youjian put down the study summary booklet, and then said:
"Beizhili has relocated nearly 200 million people to the three prefectures of Liaodong and Taining. It seems that when my brother came to the throne, there should be nearly [-] million people in Beizhili."

Speaking of this, Zhu Youjian sighed a little.

In Beizhili in the first year of Tianqi, the situation may be that 10,000+ dignitaries, civil servants, and guard officers invaded nearly 2000 million mu of cultivated land, and nearly [-] million people divided nearly [-] million mu of land.

In this case, if grain is not transported from south to north to maintain the situation, then the price of grain in the north will skyrocket.

As for now, despite the drought, the people in Beizhili basically have an average of three acres per capita, while the land in the hands of noble civil servants has dropped to more than 700 million acres.

This number is naturally large, because their number is only more than [-].

One percent of the people controlled a quarter of the arable land, which naturally made Zhu Youjian firm in his idea of ​​cracking down on honorable gentry.

Of course, this strike does not mean killing them all, but finding ways to nationalize the fields.

If the number of farmers in Northern Zhili can be further reduced to 500 million through migration, and the imperial court takes back the more than 700 million mu of arable land and uses steam engines to further develop Northern Zhili, then the farmers' lives will be better.

According to the development of later generations, the entire North Zhili is smaller than Hebei, but at least 6000 million mu of arable land can be reclaimed.

Of course, in order to protect the groundwater, it is best to limit the cultivated land to about 5000 million mu, and if the 5000 million mu of cultivated land is distributed to 500 million farmers, with an average of [-] mu per capita and [-] mu per household, the middle peasant economy will soon be realized.

Not to mention that Duoyan Mansion in the north is likely to be transferred to Beizhili by Zhu Youjian, and the more than 3000 million mu of grassland in Duoyan Mansion will also be distributed to the people.

More than 3000 million mu of grassland and more than 5000 million mu of cultivated land are distributed to only 500 million farmers. The middle peasant economy may be realized in Zhu Youjian's generation.

However, the middle peasant economy can only last for a few decades. With the industrial revolution, Shuntian Prefecture and Tianjin Prefecture will inevitably become contemporary populous cities like later generations.

The urban population does not exceed 300 million, and the rural population does not exceed 500 million. This is Zhu Youjian's plan for Beizhili.

The current situation is that the urban population of North Zhili has reached 260 million, and the rural population has reached 510 million, of which the population of the capital city has reached 1304 million, and the population of other counties and towns is only 1305 million.

But the problem is that the arable land in North Zhili is not growing because there is not enough livestock to develop some of the arable land at the foot of the mountain.

"The breeding of the fourth version of the steam engine and the draft horse is going on at the same time..."

Zhu Youjian thought of the large European draft horses brought by Xu Xiake, and then he sorted out his thoughts and put his thoughts back on basic education.

"There are nearly a million students in Guochao, and the number of teachers in charge of them is obviously not enough. The younger brother gathered together from other places, and a total of [-] teachers were collected."

Zhu Youjian breathed a sigh of relief, and then said: "Cheng De from the Department of Law and Law gave the expenditure of the Department of Law and Education this year."

"Although the imperial court collected [-] documents and books, as well as students' rations, and obtained livestock and poultry from local donations, the situation is not optimistic."

Zhu Youjian pushed the Chinese brochure in front of Zhu Youxiao, which said there were more than 87 pigs and [-] poultry.

This scale seems a lot, but after calculation, the average annual meat volume per capita is less than [-] catties. This is the data that Cheng De wrote later.

Maybe the students can eat more meat when they go home, but during the holidays, they only eat [-] catties of meat for eight months, which is not in line with Zhu Youjian's policy of using overseas blood transfusions to the country.

Therefore, in front of Zhu Youxiao, he picked up a pen and added the number seventeen to the number thirteen with the pen.

"Eight months at school, thirty catties of meat, all provided by the officialdom of the Yumajian."

"Plus the 140 teaching salaries and food, and the fuel costs for the fire wall of the official school every winter, the expenditure given by the Department of Legal Studies is about [-] million taels."

"..." Hearing the string of numbers Zhu Youjian said, Zhu Youxiao frowned.

In his opinion, the imperial court has given the students the opportunity to study, which is already a great kindness, and now they are actually responsible for their meat and fuel costs for the firewall?

140 million taels of silver a year may not seem like much, but it already accounts for one fortieth of Daming's current financial expenditure.

Don't forget, this is just a province, and its population size is only one-seventeenth of Daming's registered population.

If education for all is to be implemented, doesn't it mean that Ming Dynasty needs to spend more than 400 million taels of silver every year just for education expenditure?

Not to mention whether Daming needed so many scholars, just because this accounted for nearly one-half of the imperial court's financial expenditure, Zhu Youxiao believed that this policy could not be successfully promoted.

Therefore, facing Zhu Youjian's thoughts, he mentioned the Zhubi and also wrote the numbers.

twenty……

"Brother, don't forget, I have two capitals and nineteen provinces, and Beizhili is only one of them. There are another twenty provinces waiting for the implementation of this policy."

Zhu Youxiao looked at Zhu Youjian straightly, and Zhu Youjian also put down the Zhu pen with a smile:
"Of course I know this, but I also know that as long as one hundred of these million students can enter the academy, the court will not lose money."

"In addition, the high expenditure on education for all is also to promote household registration checks and arable land checks."

"Guochao currently has 7000 million mu of arable land. Even if you do dozens of gifts, you can still receive tens of millions of stone fields."

"After the tens of millions of stone fields have been converted into color, the country will have 5000 million taels of tax money, and half of the 5000 million taels will be used to support education. Why not?"

"But after the severe drought, the price of food dropped. Even if it is tens of millions of Shitian Fu, the discounted tax is only 4000 million taels." Zhu Youxiao raised his eyebrows and questioned.

Zhu Youjian can understand his doubts, but he knows where Daming's tax increase is now.

Salt, wine and tea mines are distributed into acres. After all this is done, the tax potential of Daming, without considering the gold and silver stocks, is likely to be between 5000 million and 6000 million taels.

With a total of 5000 million taels of military pay, official salaries, and basic education, unless Daming did nothing else, the finances would easily run into deficit, and even road construction would be impossible.

But the problem is that Daming not only has its own country, but also overseas.

Jiaozhi, Xiaoxiyang, Jiugang, and Yingzhou can provide gold and silver mines worth more than 800 million taels per year, as well as tax silver of more than 200 million taels, and more than 2000 million shimimai.

All these things, after the color reduction, Daming Overseas can enter the country with nearly 2000 million taels of silver.

This is the reliance of Zhu Youjian's reform. Local income is used to maintain basic expenditures, and overseas income is used for other additional expenditures.

Under this model, Daming’s finances were no worse than those of the Tongzhi period in the late Qing Dynasty.

Daming can afford to support a maximum of 6000 million people with the taxes of [-] million people, and technology will gradually increase Daming's overseas income.

The popularization of basic science will give birth to talents, and talents will help Daming to advance in science and technology after entering the Armament Academy.

Scientific and technological talents need problems to overcome, and there are many problems in Zhu Youjian's mind.

Not to mention anything else, the more than 300 subjects he left to the Military Armament Academy alone are enough for them to spend hundreds of years to overcome.

Once the more than 300 subjects are overcome, Daming will basically be able to reach the level of science and technology during World War I.

Even if half of it is broken, Ming can still reach the technological level of the late nineteenth century.

After universal basic education, what Zhu Youjian has to do is to clean up all private schools and private schools, and prohibit private make-up lessons.

Private schools and private schools, no accident, will become aristocratic schools after the national government schools.

Abolish this existence and achieve educational equity, so as to curb the leadership of the aristocratic classes such as gentry and nobles.

From a political point of view, it can restrain the gentry's control over education, economy, people's livelihood, and politics.

In terms of technology, according to the proportion of Beizhili, Daming has more than 2000 million school-age children. As long as there are [-] scientific and technological talents, Daming can maintain a century-old lead over Western countries.

Even if it is imitated by the West and copied to keep up, the inheritance is enough for the Han people to eat for nearly a hundred years.

This comes and goes, even if it is surpassed, it will be 200 years later.

At that time, let alone whether Da Ming still exists, even Zhu Youjian will have already been turned into ashes.

Therefore, basic education must be implemented, and welfare policies must also be implemented. Faced with his brother's doubts, Zhu Youjian wrote down the number "two thousand".

"Once the bank and the new currency are successfully implemented, this is the income that the three overseas provinces, one company and one state can provide to Daming every year."

"With the extra income of 2000 million taels, does my brother think that Daming can spend one-third or even one-fourth of the taxes to implement the policy of basic education for all?"

"..." Zhu Youxiao was stopped by Zhu Youjian's words. He really didn't know that there was so much energy overseas.

After all, this year's overseas income mainly comes from more than 3000 million taels of gold and silver before and after Huang Longping destroyed the South Asian land.

"If the South Kunlun Supervisory Commission has a firm foothold, and the development of Nanzhou is successful, the imperial court regains three propagandas and six consolations, and the feudal clans gain a firm foothold in South Asia, then the imperial court's overseas revenue may reach this amount..."

As Zhu Youjian said, he picked up his pen and wrote down the number of [-] million.

This number made Zhu Youxiao's eyes widen, and he even thought that his younger brother was exaggerating, but only Zhu Youjian understood how easy it is to achieve this statistic.

Relying on its overseas colonies and the achievements of the first industrial revolution, it took only 21 years for Britain to increase its annual income from 100 million taels in 9000 to more than [-] million taels in [-]. two.

Although it fell to 5000 million taels later because countries kept up, it still maintained a stable income for nearly 30 years.

After the second industrial revolution, Britain's annual income soared to 6000 million taels.

What Britain can do, there is no reason why Ming cannot do it. What restricts Ming is gold and silver, and the reform of the currency system and the inflow of overseas gold and silver will undo this shackle.

Once the Asian-African economic circle and suzerainty system of Ming Dynasty are established, Ming Dynasty can increase its annual revenue to 30 million taels of silver within 5000 years, with a steady increase in population and no increase in prices.

The foundation for all of this has been laid long ago, and you can do it step by step, and you can't go wrong...

"The banks and the new currency system really have such great capabilities?"

Zhu Youxiao is still a little hard to believe. After all, in his opinion, Daming is the center of the world, and the energy overseas cannot be as big as Daming.

But in the face of his disbelief, Zhu Youjian chuckled and put the documents about the bank and the new currency system on the table, and slowly pushed towards Zhu Youxiao:

"Whether you have this ability, brother will know after reading it..."

　Update around 09:30pm
　　
　
(End of this chapter)