Reborn Ming Dynasty as Emperor

Chapter 486

Morozov, the Duke of Rakshasa, signed on the negotiating table reluctantly.

Both languages, one in Chinese and one in Russian, had to sign his own name.

Although the pen in his hand weighed less than half a tael, Morozov felt as if it weighed a thousand catties. He knew that from the moment he would become the biggest sinner in the history of Tsarist Russia, and bring a lot of trouble to Romanov. The first shame that cannot be erased, and his name will be permanently engraved on the pillar of shame in the history of the Raksha Kingdom.

Morozov's forehead was soaked with sweat, and he knew that there was nothing he could do. From seeing the giant chariots and artillery of the Ming Empire in the far east, as well as the firearms that could fire continuously without being easy to misfire, plus He knew that if he did not sign this shameful and unequal treaty today, he would bring even greater disasters to his country.

I don’t know if the Heilongjiang general Yishan, who was a member of the Manchu and Qing royal family in the original history, comforted himself in this way when he signed the "Aigun Treaty" and the "Sino-Russian Treaty of Beijing". However, in this era, it is impossible to have such a phenomenon.

Zuo Dudu Qi Changguo is very satisfied and very proud of the signing. The compensation of 5000 million taels of silver, plus the interest paid in installments, is no less than 7000 million taels of silver, and the total wealth is no less than [-] million silver dollars. Military spending and scientific research investment and infrastructure construction can undoubtedly play a big role in boosting.

At least, this indemnity can quickly increase the development speed of Ming Dynasty for ten years, just like the Japanese pirates in the original history can quickly develop into the world's most powerful industry after signing the "Treaty of Shimonoseki" and receiving a huge indemnity from the Qing government one of the countries.

Since ancient times, the increase of a country's capital wealth either relies on the improvement and development of productivity or relies on powerful violent machines to plunder more resources from outside to nourish itself.

Today, Daming is no exception. The improvement of productivity naturally depends on the development of science and technology, but naturally the wealth accumulated by several generations of Raksha Kingdom can also be used to contribute to the rapid development of Daming.

Qi Changguo didn't care about how Luocha Kingdom itself increased the exploitation of the bottom serfs in order not to compensate 7000 million taels of silver and at the same time not affect the lives of the rich and noble.

As an upper-level official of the Ming Empire, he would not care about how the people of the Raksha Kingdom lived.

As for the West Siberia ceded by the Raksha Kingdom to the Ming Empire, the loss to the Raksha Kingdom is not big.

After all, the current Raksha Kingdom has just entered Siberia, the foundation of development is not deep, and the investment cost is not high, and Siberia is still a barren land, and the mineable mineral resources discovered are limited, but for those who have entered the steam industry For Daming, which urgently needs the rapid development of productivity in the industrial age, it is an extremely valuable treasure land.

The mineral resources of West Siberia are already very considerable, covering almost all the metal and non-metal materials needed by the current industry and the industry to be developed in the future. Its reserves of coal mines, natural gas, and oil are extremely rich. Regarding the consumption of mineral resources, the development of Ming Dynasty in the next hundred years no longer has to worry about the shortage of any industrial raw materials.

Moreover, in West Siberia, there are not only mineral resources, but forest resources and corresponding biological resources are also extremely rich. In the future, the people of Ming Dynasty will not only have sea fish from the south and mutton from the northwest, but also wolf meat from West Siberia, and even Ming Dynasty food. The ocean resources of the empire have also officially expanded to the coast of the Arctic Ocean. Perhaps the Arctic Ocean at this time does not have much development value, but it can be used as a treasury of Ming Dynasty's reserves for future generations of China.

As for the concession and the most-favored-nation treatment, it is naturally for Da Ming to plunder and control the domestic market of the Raksha country in the future economic and trade with the Raksha country. After all, a country like the Raksha country has been cut off a large part of its territory. , but it is still a big power in Europa, and the potential consumption value of its market is not small, so it is necessary for Daming to extend the hand of capital to his economic center-Moscow.

Morozov, the Duke of Rakshasa, returned to the Moscow castle with the treaty in disappointment. When he showed the treaty to the people of the country, as expected, he was scolded by countless people of Rakshasa, and the reputation of his family for hundreds of years was ruined. Once, even Tsar Mikhail I had to seize his title and imprison him in order to appease the public anger, which can be regarded as making Morozov his scapegoat.

But for the treaty, Tsar Mikhail still had to implement it. He knew that with the current strength of his Raksha country, he could only recognize and implement the treaty, otherwise he would be reduced to a prisoner in a moment.

Therefore, Tsar Mikhail imposed additional money and grain on all nobles and farmers, and these nobles and farmers, while complaining, also increased their exploitation of their serfs, and these serfs would not complain , They can only endure it until they can't survive, and then they burst out suddenly.

Unlike the current whole country in the Raksha State who is full of scolding and resentment, after the first batch of huge indemnities were sent back to Daming, and when the treasure land of West Siberia was completely withdrawn by the people of the Raksha Nation, the entire country of Daming cheered.

Especially those of the reformist capitalist class, this is simply a huge encouragement for them, let them sweep away the resignation and relegation of the leader of the reformist party, Li Mingrui, a scholar of the Zhongji Temple, and the resignation of Guo Yunhou, the Minister of the Household Department. Come the haze.

They can't wait to share the looted wealth.

Seeing the first batch of silver loaded in Taicang, Zhu Youxiao was also very excited.

Although the current Daming seems to be more than ten times more prosperous than the Longqing Wanli years, but only he knows that the net income of the Daming treasury has not increased much because of his investment everywhere and huge military and scientific research expenditures. A royal garden that can gather the essence of global architecture has not yet been built.

But now with this batch of compensation, Zhu Youxiao felt that he could spend money boldly.

"Send an order to the Royal Bank and the Ministry of Households to immediately consider how many silver dollars need to be minted, and to bet the indemnity on the entire Daming market as soon as possible, so that the people of the entire Daming, whether they are gentry officials or workers, can enjoy this. Benefits from a reparation payment.

If there is no large-scale infrastructure and engineering investment to consume this wealth in the short term, then all officials, the Imperial College, the Imperial University Hall, the Royal Military Academy, etc., and individual workers will be given additional salaries and subsidies. The local government can also set up some special talents and special contributions. Rewards, the Ministry of Rites and local governors can also establish some new benefits, and they must know how to benefit and enrich the people.

In short, we can't let the compensation be idle, let them be transformed into productivity and consumption power! "

Lu Xiangsheng and other cabinet ministers now also have a certain amount of economics knowledge, so after hearing Zhu Youxiao's will, they can understand it, so they nodded in agreement, and immediately studied how to use this huge amount of compensation when they returned to Beijing.

For a while, the Ministry of Households and the Royal Bank, which were the financial expenditures of the Ming Dynasty, began to be extraordinarily generous, whether it was loans or appropriations, how much was loaned or how much was allocated. The officials of the faction were not willing to be lonely, and did not criticize what was wrong with Daming for plundering the wealth of the Raksha Kingdom. They also anxiously asked His Majesty for permission to expand the Confucian temples and palaces in various places.

Zhu Youxiao also agreed, because for the current Daming, there has been a short period of rapid wealth increase, and if you want to stimulate production and consumption, you have to spend this money quickly, so Zhu Youxiao and The Ming court became so generous, because only in this way can the indemnity quickly become real value in a short period of time. If it is just a pile of gold piled there, it is just a pile of metal, no different from copper and iron.

Not only Zhu Youxiao and the central court of the Ming Dynasty became more generous, but even the local government became more generous. As long as the officials are not too greedy, they will do a few things to enjoy the people while enriching their small treasury. For meritorious deeds, such as giving some money and food to the elderly, giving some festival expenses to the widowed and lonely, some officials in developed areas even directly announced that the tuition fees of students in their county or prefecture would be fully borne by the government within ten years.

Of course, some gentry officials became more extravagant and dissipated because of this. Fighting for wealth has become fashionable for a while, and luxury goods and antiques are even more popular. The inlaid silver mirrors with hundreds of silver dollars produced by the Royal Industries Company were sold out within one month, and Tang Bohu's Spring and 0 Palace Pictures even fetched tens of millions of silver dollars at auction.

Originally, the wealth of Ming Dynasty has entered a period of rapid development, and now it has obtained sufficient benefits from the Raksha Kingdom. Under the control of the central court, the wealth of the entire nation will naturally increase accordingly. Gold is like a horse, and those who have no money can buy a few pieces of jewelry and visit brothels a few times, which also promotes the rapid development and growth of the tertiary industry.

More and more people made a living out of labor and production by composing music, poems, novels, dramas, storytelling and other occupations, and some even got rich because of it. This is naturally the inevitable result of the further increase in the entertainment needs of the Ming people.

In short, since the last years of Wanli, the trend of competing for extravagance has become more and more intense, but its decadence and depression have become less and less. Although the whole society is impetuous and prosperous, it is full of sunshine and vitality. Class contradictions began to gradually ease and weaken. Some ideal officials began to try to build a Datong society, and some realistic officials began to accumulate fame.

Sensitive businessmen have already set their sights on these newly acquired lands, especially the resources of West Siberia and the consumer market of Raksha State. After a few years, various business legends have emerged. The Yunnan branch of the bank borrowed [-] silver dollars and then went to Raksha country to do business and earned millions of silver dollars. Such stories happened every day.

……

Wang Siyuan, who was still working diligently as an instructor in Dongxiang County, Suiding Prefecture, at the foot of the Daba Mountain, was also summoned to the county government by the new magistrate Gu Danfeng, and was directly rewarded with three thousand silver dollars by the magistrate Gu Danfeng. The reason was that the students taught by Wang Siyuan Among them, there were actually three students who passed the Jinke Sichuan Provincial Examination, and one of them just passed the Jinshi.

For Dongxiang County, this is simply a major event worthy of being recorded in the county annals, and Wang Siyuan naturally contributed a lot, so Gu Danfeng, the county magistrate, rewarded Wang Siyuan with three thousand silver dollars.

However, Wang Siyuan did not expect that the county magistrate was so generous that he would have three thousand silver dollars at once. You must know that in a place like Suiding Mansion, the purchasing power of three thousand silver dollars is equivalent to having six to seven thousand taels of silver. It can be described as getting rich overnight, but now Wang Siyuan, who is teaching in a barren county like Dongxiang County, doesn't know what to do even if he becomes rich.

And when he was forcibly invited by the magistrate to have a dinner together with officials from the county government and well-known gentry in Dongxiang County, he was even more astonished, because the scale of the dinner was no less than that of the deer party he attended after he was elected. There was a banquet, but he clearly remembered that when he first entered Dongxiang County of Suiding Prefecture, he was also grandly entertained by the magistrate because he was already a famous figure in the literary world, but it was nothing more than five dishes, one meat and one soup.

"The officials in Xiaoxiao Dongxiang County can be so extravagant and rich. What changes happened in my Ming Dynasty?" Wang Siren couldn't help sighing like this. Domestic servant: "Why is there a road here suddenly?"

"Reporting to my lord, this is the reason that the people recruited by Guzhi County in response to the order of He Zhifu to enrich the mountain people in his jurisdiction must be connected in all directions to build a bluestone road between Dongxiang County and Suidingfu City that can be passed by large carriages. I heard that For this reason, Gu Zhixian personally went to the branch of the Royal Bank of the provincial capital to apply for a loan, and the application was accepted, otherwise the construction would not have started so soon."

When the servant said this, Wang Siyuan just nodded helplessly, and then sighed: "The morals of this world have really changed. Ten years ago, although the luxury of a wealthy family was no less than it is now, the common people still couldn't eat enough. There are also six out of ten, poor water conservancy and poor roads are the norm in the south of the Yangtze River, but who would have thought that now a poor and remote Dongxiang County would actually want to build a bluestone road directly to the city? Where did the money come from? come?"

Coincidentally, after Chen Jiru, who was nearly sixty years old, trained three Jinshi and a special student who entered the Beijing Normal University, he was specially awarded by Zhu Youxiao as a bachelor of the Nanjing Imperial Academy to support his life. On the way, Chen Jiru also found that the whole Ming Dynasty had changed. Not only the gentry were ten times more luxurious than before, but even ordinary people were vying for wealth and enjoyment.

And when he passed by Huguang before, he lamented that Quyuan Temple was in disrepair and was submerged by a pile of weeds. Now when he passes by again, he finds that the whole Quyuan Temple has taken on a new look, with lush trees, neat stone steps, exquisite stone pavilions and terraces. The mausoleum made Qu Yuan even more stalwart, and he, Chen Jiru, had to lament that Daming would become even better after the literati in the south of the Yangtze River represented by the Donglin Party and Fushe were expelled from the political arena!
(End of this chapter)