Daming: Wanted to be a small landlord, but was forced to ascend the throne

Chapter 397

"what happened?"

Qin Shao lifted the curtain of the carriage and was about to jump out when the horse neighed and stopped immediately.

"Master, a child crossed the road and startled the horse."

Wang Yin came forward to report.

Qin Shao looked forward, and there was a child in ragged clothes sitting shivering in the middle of the road, and a soldier in front of him was reprimanding the child.

This is the official road, Qin Shao's trip today is relatively streamlined, Wang Yin and the others were going to clear the road, but he stopped him.

Today is New Year's Eve, and tomorrow is the first day of the new year. Generally, at this time, there will not be too many people on the road.

Because there were queens, princes, and princesses in the car behind, Wang Yin and the others were not walking very fast, who knew that a child ran out suddenly.

The guards were vigilant, worried that it was someone with malicious intentions, so the reaction was more intense.

"Don't kill my child! Don't kill my child!"

Seeing a guard drawing his knife to the child, a woman suddenly jumped out crying and rushed towards the child trembling.

"Master, there is nothing around!"

Wang Yin and Xiao Sanzi checked around and came to report.

Dozens of guards surrounded Han Jinrong and the others' car.

Qin Shao gestured with his eyes, Wang Yin nodded quickly, and walked towards the woman and child surrounded by several guards.

Soon, the woman and the child were pulled aside, the carriage started again, and the third son led a group of people to escort the two carriages to the manor.

In the distance, Wang Yin had the mother and child bound and walked to one side.

"You are still wearing Taoist robes during this big festival, are you really planning to become a monk?"

Qin Shao couldn't help but joked when he saw that Zhu Youzhan was still wearing a plain Taoist robe during the big festival.

He knew that although Zhu Youzhao said earlier that he was studying Taoism, he actually didn't believe in it in his bones.

However, although Zhu Youzhao was dressed plainly, he was in good spirits, and his body was much thinner and stronger than before. Of course, he often walked outside, and his skin was much darker!
I heard from Li Su that Zhu Youzhan's epilepsy has not occurred for nearly a year, which was very difficult in the past.

"Aren't I used to wearing this kind of clothes? Now it's very convenient for me to wear this kind of clothes when I go out, and I'm used to wearing this kind of clothes, and I feel more comfortable than those silk and satin clothes. Now you wear those clothes every day, and your head is so heavy Is your hat comfortable?"

Zhu Youzhu said disapprovingly, and also teased his son by the way.

In fact, what he said is also true. Many Taoist robes are made of pure cotton cloth, which is highly breathable. Compared with silk and satin, thick cotton cloth is also much warmer in winter.

Of course, there are not many silks and satins in summer, and they are more luxurious and face-saving.

But for Zhu Youzhu today, luxury and face are the last thing he cares about.

The father and son joked about some household chores and walked towards the concubine's yard.

There is a fireplace in the main room of the concubine's yard, and as soon as you enter the room, you can feel the warm atmosphere.

During the time Qin Shao was walking, and under Han Jinrong's suggestion, he was wearing thick clothes, so he felt a little hot after entering the room.

As soon as he stood up, Han Jinrong walked over presciently, unfastened his outer sash to one side, and helped him take off his outer thick coat.

The old concubine glanced at her son and grandson who came in, then lowered her head and continued to distribute Chinese New Year's crushed golden melon seeds to her two great-grandsons and a great-granddaughter.

Before Qin Shao joined the royal family, he thought that the royal family would at least give out some gold ingots, and even if it was not good, they would give out some gold leaves.

To be honest, although the old concubine lived a lonely life in the palace, she was really not poor!

Every year, the old Xing Wang Zhu Youzhu would have people bring a large amount of gold and silver to the palace to the old concubine through Wang Tu, just to prevent her from having no money to spend in the palace.

In fact, the concubines in the imperial palace are all supported by the imperial court, and they have a monthly salary, and they are reimbursed for food and drink.

The reason why some concubines say they are poor is that apart from some exclusion and deduction, many people spend on interpersonal communication.

The old concubine's age and status are there. Although she can't be called a noble, no one dares to deduct anything!

What's more, the family's son is still alive and well. Although he can't meet each other, representatives of the royal family of the feudal domain can enter the palace to meet the concubine during the tribute every year.

The old concubine had no interest in anyone else, so she didn't need to socialize, and the money from the court alone would not be enough to spend.

Therefore, she has a large amount of gold and silver in her hand.

When Qin Shao met the old concubine for the first time, the old lady thought that her grandson would never have a chance to see her again, but she gave him a lot of treasures.

But for the crushed silver of the Chinese New Year, the old lady still gave the children some golden melon seeds just like ordinary civilian families, except that the bag containing the golden melon seeds was fuller.

Qin Shao knew that the old concubine Shao grew up in a poor family in the early years, and she was still frugal in her bones.

The children don't have much concept of gold and silver, but they still like sending money.

After Grandma gave out the crushed silver, Zhu Zaihou took his younger sister Fu Ai to surround Zhu Youjiu to crush the silver.

The youngest son, Zhu Zaitan, can't walk yet, and he can't speak well. Seeing his elder brothers and sisters surrounding his grandfather to crush silver, he also wants to crawl this way with a whimper.

Zhu Youzhang laughed so hard that his mouth almost reached behind his ears!

Qin Shao originally thought that he would be more generous this time and show some big money.

Who knew that when Li Su brought them over on a tray, each person had a bag of golden melon seeds.

"I said you're too picky! The old concubine is old and doesn't have a lot of money. It's justified to give a bag of golden melon seeds, but you are also giving these, which is somewhat unreasonable!"

Qin Shao couldn't help but tease.

"What do you know! Children are so young, let them get a lot of money so easily, they will develop a problem of luxury and lust! The original purpose of crushing silver is to give children pocket money and make them happy! If you simply If you want silver money, let alone gold ingots, I can also afford gold bricks. In the future, anyway, my silver money will belong to you in the future, and it will all be your inner money. Can you stop acting like you have never seen silver money? , It's like getting into the eyes of money!"

Zhu Youzhu blew his beard and stared at his son with some dissatisfaction.

"Forget it! You don't have to pretend to be generous! I saved your life a few years ago, and you didn't say you would give some silver taels as a reward, but you would just give some ginseng, deer antler, etc. Maybe someone else gave you, and you would You can’t eat it, just pass it away. Don’t say I value money. I needed money to do business and settle down in the early years. You don’t know that the treasury of the imperial court is in a deficit all year round. The best situation is balance of payments , others see me as the emperor, but in fact I am a poor emperor, what do you say I don't value money? Money is not needed for everything!"

Qin Shao smiled, thinking of those interesting things in the past few years.

I also thought of checking the state treasury's revenue and expenditure in recent days.

Grandma, this Daming treasury is really poor!

To be honest, Qin Shao didn’t read much history before, he only knew that the reason for the demise of the Ming Dynasty was that the treasury was empty, land annexation was serious, the people were in dire straits, and finally...

Among them, the deficit of the Ming treasury is very serious. One word to describe the situation of the Ming treasury is: poor!

Among them, there are many opinions that the reason why the Ming Dynasty’s treasury is poor is that the wealth is hidden in the people, especially the wealthy landlords in the south, who possess a large amount of wealth, but evade taxes and evade taxes, making the people rich and the country poor, and eventually leading to the indirect demise of Ming Dynasty.

After Qin Shao came up, these days he has been researching and digging through the relevant information about the finance of the Ming treasury.

During the period of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming treasury was relatively simple, and there was no so-called internal treasury and state treasury.

The internal treasury is the national treasury, and the national treasury is also the internal treasury.

For Lao Zhu, everything in this world belongs to me, not to mention the national treasury. inner library.

Lao Zhu thought it was ridiculous for Song Taizong to set up a private treasury!

The ruler of the world regards the world as his home, and secures the wealth of the world for the use of the world. What is the difference between public and private?Taizong, the wise emperor of Song Dynasty, is also like this.

Lao Zhu believes that the monarchs of the Song Dynasty took the lead in setting up private treasuries. This kind of selfishness led to many demonstrations, and the country perished. Therefore, private treasuries are unnecessary.

Therefore, Lao Zhu asked his courtiers to set up twelve treasury treasuries, and there was no such treasury as a private treasury.

The internal treasury is also called the national treasury.

Twelve warehouses include internal transportation warehouse, Guangji warehouse, five warehouses of A, B, C, D, E, stolen goods and fines, Guanghui warehouse, Guangying warehouse, Tiancai warehouse and supply warehouse.

Among the twelve warehouses, only gold and silver are stored in the inner carrier, and the rest are sulfur, saltpeter, cloth pigments and other real objects.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang's idea is good, there are indeed certain disadvantages in private storage.

But many times, when the emperor does things, such as encouraging and rewarding some people, having no money is actually a big problem.

Like Lao Zhu, he thinks that the treasury is his own, and he takes money at will, regardless of public and private, which is inconvenient for the emperor, and often causes chaos.

In the seventh year of Zhengtong, due to the inconvenient transportation in some places in Nanzhili, Huguang, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi, Zhou Quan, the deputy capital at that time, converted the taxes and grains into cloth and silver for payment.

Zhao Xin, governor of Jiangxi at that time, and Huang Fu, minister of the Ministry of household affairs, also supported this proposal and wrote petitions successively.

After the petition was approved, the summer grain and autumn harvest in the above-mentioned places amounted to about 400 million stones, which were converted into the transportation depot in the capital for payment.About 1012700 taels of silver are converted into silver every year, and are paid quarterly, with about 25 taels per quarter.

This is the so-called honeysuckle. In addition to distributing about 10 taels of salary to the military generals in the capital, the rest became the emperor's internal money and a real private treasury.

When Qin Shao first saw that he had so much money in his internal funds every year, his heart swelled with joy.

More than 100 million taels a year, and 25 taels a quarter. In terms of Daming's purchasing power, this money is really rich, and it is really convenient to do anything!

No wonder that although Zhu Houzhao was ruled everywhere, he had the money to bring the frontier army to the capital, build such a large and luxurious Leopard House, and easily stationed in Xuanfu to wander around. It turned out that he was rich!

But when he actually went to see the silver deposits in those private treasuries, Qin Shao was dumbfounded, and the money in them was almost exhausted.

The account book also records that more than 20 taels of money are borrowed from Guanglu Temple every year.

Now the emperor of the Ming Dynasty not only has no savings in his internal funds, but also owes money, what is this called!

Only then did Qin Shao realize that Zhu Houzhao had clearly left himself a mess.

Jiang Bin said with a weeping face that Zhu Houzhao had already been unable to make ends meet when he was here, and he himself lent a lot of money to the emperor.

Why is it so sad that the emperor borrowed money from the ministers around him to live on?
Where is the money?Where did all that money go?

Jiang Bin said with a mournful face that he didn't know. Most of Zhu Houzhao was surrounded by military generals, and they were not good at calculation and planning. Anyway, if they had money, they would spend it.

Qin Shao was speechless.

Not to mention that Zhu Houzhao spent a lot of money wandering outside these years, even the annual expenses in the palace are also staggering.

Qin Shao asked Zhang Zuo and Gu Dayong to check the bills in the palace together, and asked them to classify them and check them for themselves.

All the numbers shocked Qin Shao!

There are so many people in a Daming Palace, and such a big expense!

After all, there are still too many people!Too much!
Qin Shao finally knew why Zhang Zuo had been so busy during this period of time as the supervisor of ceremonies!
Tell him yourself that he likes to be clean, and he wants to replace the servants in the palace, and the idle and useless people will get rid of them.

He thought it was a simple matter, but only after he understood it did he realize how complicated it was and how big the project was!
Even now, Zhang Zuo is only retiring and replacing a part, and it will take a month or two to complete!

Yes, a month or two!

Because there are too many people!The number of internal officials who want to be involved in the work of the palace alone is as many as 10!

What is the concept of 10 people!
Of course, this number includes Nanjing and Fengyang.

Although not all of the fourteen eunuchs worked in the palace, and some of them were paid by the court, the number of people in the palace was huge, and the palace had to bear a lot of food and drink.

And most of those people in the foster palace have to use the emperor's private treasury.

Looking at those bills, Qin Shao felt pain in his heart.

What he is looking at now is Zhengde's 12-year bill.

In this year alone, in terms of food for the palace, the annual procurement of fruit materials was 135 million catties, 14000 wild products, 267 live deer, 320 swans, 1800 million catties of charcoal, and 600 million catties of forest charcoal;

Clothes for the Emperor and Empress, travel (travel is a big expense, and the royal horse you ride needs to be domesticated and various accessories), 15 taels
The renovation and repair of the palace where he lives is even more expensive, because there is no summary because of the rush.

For the construction of the imperial mausoleum, the bills for six years were collected, about 300 million taels
4000 court ladies' clothes, 12 taels of cosmetic powder;

The expenses of craftsmen and servants in the palace are fragmented and complicated, and they have not been summed up yet;
Use of honeysuckle, 90 taels;

Send it to Guanglu Temple, 25 taels;

Qin Shao summed up those things briefly, and made an approximate calculation, and found that the daily expenses of the Daming Palace are as follows:
Daily expenses, about 8000 taels, nearly ten thousand taels!
After becoming the emperor, I found myself a poor man, not to mention having no money, and still owed so much foreign debt!

It is conceivable that Qin Shao's mood is complicated.

Of course, the issue of the Ming treasury must be resolved, and it is a problem that must be solved slowly.

However, the problem of private treasury is imminent. If it is not quickly streamlined and reduced expenses, this problem of operation...

What's more, Zhu Houzhao's lessons learned from the past, the more complicated the situation around him, the less sure his own safety can be guaranteed.

The more streamlined the palace is, the easier it will be for him to go into battle, this matter cannot be delayed!

"Your Majesty, according to your arrangement, the number of officials and maids in the palace is being reduced. They will not stay in the palace unless necessary to reduce expenses. It's just that this work is complicated and needs to be done step by step. It is estimated that it will be the end of next month. It should...it should be done!"

Zhang Zuo wiped the sweat off his head and replied.

"Chen... I also try my best to assist Mr. Zhangyin to do this work, and I have found dozens of people who are familiar with things in the palace to do this work."

Gu Dayong also bowed in salute.

Although Zhang Zuo is capable, of course Gu Dayong is more familiar with this palace.

"Dayong, you can help find a good person to do the work, let Zhang Zuo take people to do the work, and let Zhang Zuo take the people to do it! I heard that there are still a lot of materials about Zheng Gong's voyages to the West in the palace. You can find it when you have time." , let's study it!"

When they were about to leave, Qin Shao looked at Xiagu Dayong, asked him to stay, and said casually.

"Your Majesty? Could it be... Could it be that you want to..."

Gu Dayong's face turned red, and his face was full of joy.

"I heard that you are very familiar with this aspect. There is a Frankie named Magellan who traveled on the planet and arrived in Nanyang a few days ago. Have you ever heard of it?"

(End of this chapter)