Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 749 National Debt

This matter is really tricky. Think about how the whole country was boiling after the Ming merchants encountered unequal treatment in India a while ago. The patriotism and sense of identity of the Ming Empire, which is becoming more and more enthusiastic, has always been Song Qingshu's helper, but this Once, it became his resistance.

In fact, even in his dreams, Song Qingshu wanted to go to war with Jiannu. However, the Songhan Railway has not been successfully built, and it is not a good time to fight Jiannu to the death. This is different from the crusade against the Mughal Empire. The life-and-death war between the two sides, once won, the Ming Empire will take back all the northern territory, and at the same time bear the impact of a population of 3000 million to 5000 million.

This is not as simple as tens of thousands of soldiers and horses killing people, setting fires, frustrating the Indians, and getting some compensation on Indian territory.

But once the news got out, according to the current situation in the Congress, I am afraid that everyone will immediately vote for the Northern Expedition, and I am afraid that some people will clearly know that the Northern Expedition is not yet ready!
Just like in the Southern Song Dynasty, Yue Fei who supported the Northern Expedition, Han Shizhong was a loyal minister, while Qin Hui, Jia Sidao and other opponents were treacherous ministers. No one could withstand the pressure of public opinion, including Song Qingshu who built such an empire single-handedly!

"Three days, three days at most, if the Freedom Pioneer newspaper doesn't report! It will lose the meaning of being a pioneer!"

Seeing Song Qingshu turn her eyes to herself again, Zhu Yuhui, who was leaning on the desk, stroked her hair in distress, giving up breaking the news immediately. For her, who has integrated her passion and life goals into her career What a pain for a strong woman.

Song Qingshu could imagine, so he nodded gratefully.

"Thank you!"

Immediately Song Qingshu ran out of the office again in a hurry, and his roar seemed to be heard in the corridor.

"Call the Imperial High Command immediately, a top-secret meeting!"

…………

The situation came like a storm. Although it was not as fast as the Internet communication channel of later generations, as successive ship owners docked at Songjiang Port, they reported the loss and at the same time sent the frightening and angry news back to Jiangnan.

"Massacre in Outer Town of Dengzhou, Absolutely Tragic! "

"Dengzhou city wall was breached, Master Zhang Haocai led the fearless imperial army into street fighting! "

"Blood on the Battlefield!Dengzhou in the black smoke. "

At the port, almost all the reporters from the empire gathered here. Every merchant ship returning from the north had to come forward to interview. In less than three days, even in Fuzhou, the newspaper bureaus in Guangzhou sent letters through flying pigeons. Knowing this important news, the entire empire caused even greater repercussions than the provocation of the Mughal Empire last year.

After all, although the Mughal Empire was hateful, it only lost a small part of the empire's interests, and even some rotten scholars wished that those lowly merchants died abroad, but building slaves was a thorn in the heart of the Ming Empire, as far as Wu Sanguihao Ge's Bingfeng has reached the edge of Guangdong and Guangxi, and there are traces of their burning, killing and massacre everywhere in the huge Jiangnan. People in Jiangnan have changed their color when talking about them.

A few years ago, when the braided soldiers came, they could even stop children from crying at night. Even if Song Qingshu was strong in Jiangnan, through the Battle of Yixing and the Battle of Poyang Lake, he completely defeated the forces of slavery in Jiangnan, making Daming waist The pole is a bit stronger, but taking the initiative to attack north is still a problem that the Ming people in Jiangnan do not want to mention. Everyone is frightened by Jiannu's surging cavalry.

Just like the Southern Song Dynasty.

But things don’t just turn a blind eye. Some people fleeing from the south to the north still insist on going north to fight back home, and there are always news from the north. This time it becomes an unavoidable hurdle. When the fear accumulates To a certain extent, the outburst will be unprecedented anger and desire to destroy.

The massacre of Dengzhou touched the bottom line of the citizens of the Ming Empire.

During the Revolutionary War in later generations, the workers in Shanghai went on strike. The workers went on strike, the merchants went on strike, and the students went on strike. Countless young and middle-aged men once again blocked the entrances of the reserve forces of military departments in various places, voluntarily asking to join the army.

This is an incredible scene in the feudal era.

Although Chinese politicians have always been isolated from the people and stand above the ground, politics is a matter of gathering public opinion after all. What's more, a series of reforms over the years have made the decision-making organs of the Ming Empire much closer to the ground, not to mention the massacre of Dengzhou. Affecting the interests of the big capitalists, the Congress that was convened suddenly in the past two days was also full of voices.

"Everyone, the empire has just gone through the expedition to the Mughals, spending tens of millions of taels of military pay. Yingtian went to Jingzhou, and the road to Fuzhou is still being repaired. More than 50 projects such as Huguang and Zhejiang are still being repaired. At this time , it is really not suitable for a large-scale Northern Expedition, the Ministry of Households has not yet prepared enough money, and the food and grass are not enough to support it!"

He had never encountered such a thing before, and Song Qingshu couldn't retreat for the past two days. He threw his second assistant Zhou Yanru out to delay the time. Facing the Congress full of people, beads of sweat dripped down his old forehead. As the highest level of the empire, he was aware of Song Qingshu's overall plan, but in response to that sentence, the plan did not change quickly. Zhou Yanru suddenly missed the days when he was the chief assistant of the cabinet in the 15th year of Chongzhen.

At that time, there were no such long-winded things now, except for the emperor, everything else was a matter of his words.

But this idea disappeared just after thinking about it. How could it be compared to now?The higher-ups are intriguing, deeply afraid that they will lose their heads tomorrow while wishing others would lose their heads today, and they are worried about state affairs and political affairs, so they spend their days as if they were sitting on the crater of a volcano.

But now, the business is upright, the official is a breeze, and there are dozens of manors in the family. What's more, Daming is no longer like a broken ship that is precarious. He can pull out hundreds of thousands of troops who dare to fight. It is also comforting to pay out millions of taels of silver so that no one will worry that the whole family will be smashed to pieces with the empire at any time.

Listening to Zhou Yanru's shouts standing in the center of the congressional stage, these fanatical congressmen who shouted to send hundreds of thousands of troops and exterminate the slaves all fell silent. The war is full of excitement, and having no money is indeed a headache.

Although there is only half of the country left, the annual fiscal revenue of the Song Qingshu regime is more than double that of the Chongzhen era, reaching more than 2000 million taels, and it is not counted as grain rice. The huge Southeast Asian colonies contribute to Ming Dynasty’s grain every year There is more rice than the harvest in Wanli years, logically speaking, it is absolutely impossible to be short of money.

However, it is obviously different from Chongzhen's court in that the money collected by Chongzhen every year is gone except for raising officials, soldiers, clan relatives and vassal kings in various territories. The water conservancy was in disrepair, which led to more serious natural disasters, and the turbulent peasant uprising pushed the empire to a dead end.

But now it is different. At the beginning of each year, the Congress will hold a regular meeting, and it will take one month to include the fiscal revenue of the whole year in the plan. How much is needed for military procurement, what is needed for port construction, as well as mines, construction of state-owned enterprises, and so on, and then gradually invest in it. There are about 300 million taels to 400 million taels of contingency plans every year, but it is necessary to start a full-scale war with Jiannu. A little money is not enough to see.

Moreover, this time is different from fighting the Mughals. The north is also the territory of the Ming Dynasty. To fight is to completely eliminate the slave regime. It is impossible for the Qing court to pay compensation to supplement military expenses.

However, the biggest difference between the current Daming and the Chongzhen Daming was revealed. Sitting in the seat for a moment, Chen Zilong suddenly stood up with a loud shout.

"Everyone is responsible for the rise and fall of a country. As a member of Congress, Mr. Chen decides the affairs of the people in the world. How can he not set an example? Mr. Chen is willing to donate 5 taels of silver to help the military!"

"Master Chen is willing to own most of the family property. How can I, Shi Tianfu, fall behind? Shi is willing to give 50 taels of silver to support the Northern Expedition of the Ming Dynasty!"

Fortunately, Emperor Chongzhen is no longer in power. Otherwise, watching these members of Congress donate one by one is like running water. Compared with his two donations in the past, he only donated less than 20 taels. Well, let him donate 5 taels, he only took out 3000 taels, and withheld a small half of the 5000 taels given by Queen Zhou, what should Zhu Youjian think?
But there is a reason for this enthusiasm. Once the country belonged to the emperor, and the wealth belonged to him. If your emperor is going to perish, what does it matter to me?But now, Daming has really made these outstanding people realize that it belongs to each of them, so when the country is in crisis, it is naturally incumbent, this is the difference!
The accumulative shouts and money even added to 2000 million taels. The development of overseas colonies has allowed these elites to make a fortune. Only a few major shareholders of the West India Company can take out more than 500 million taels. This made Zhou Yanru sweat even more. The task Song Qingshu gave him was not a promise, but a delay!
"Everyone! Everyone! Listen to me!"

"Master Cifu, since you have all the military expenses, hurry up and vote on sending troops to the Northern Expedition!"

Just when Zhou Yanru was wiping his sweat beads and was in a hurry, his savior finally came. Suddenly, a congressional guard beat the ground with the butt of a gun and shouted.

"Silence! Silence! Lord Shoufu is here!"

Once again, the upper and lower chambers of Congress, which had expanded to more than 800 seats, became silent, but everyone showed their expectations. After all, only when Song Qingshu arrived was the time to make a real decision. Otherwise, with his powerful influence It is not impossible to overturn the congressional resolution.

However, there were still people who couldn't wait to stand up, full of excitement, Chen Zilong opened his mouth to say something, but replaced Zhou Yanru, who was soaked in sweat in his official uniform, Song Qingshu stretched out his hand and pressed down.

"Everyone! The slaves committed the same unforgivable crimes as Yangzhou, Changshu, and Chengdu in Dengzhou City. This pavilion feels the same as everyone else and is full of anger. However, before voting for the Northern Expedition, this pavilion still There's a proposal that needs to go ahead."

"National debt!"

"After the cabinet's discussion, this cabinet has decided to put forward a proposal to issue treasury bonds, issuing 1000 million taels of treasury bonds with an annual interest rate of [-]/[-] to provide military expenses for the Northern Expedition!"

As soon as the words fell, it caused an uproar in the entire Congress Temple. He thought that Song Qingshu's proposal would be related to the Northern Expedition, but he didn't expect it to be so related. Immediately, Chen Zilong roared angrily.

"Is Mr. Shoufu looking down on us? If the military funds are not enough, Chen is willing to donate all his family property, as long as he can recover my Central Plains and take back the land of our ancestors! I am a great Ming, is there no one? I still have to borrow money to pay for it." Collect military expenses!"

"That's right! Mr. Shoufu, everyone will make up for the lack of military expenses. I'm going to heaven to borrow money? It's too embarrassing!"

"quiet!"

The bailiffs had to knock on the butts of their guns again. After a long while, the boiling parliament fell silent. Under the dissatisfied eyes of a group of congressmen, Song Qingshu helplessly spread his hands.

"Everyone, listen to me!"

"Do you still remember the 17th year of Chongzhen? Chuangjun came to the city, and His Majesty even gave up his dignity, and ordered the ministers to collect donations. The result? King Zhou Kui 3000 taels, son-in-law Dong Li 1000 taels, and fifty, 20 Two!"

Unfortunately, Emperor Chongzhen lost face again. Under the amazed gaze of the councilors, Song Qingshu knocked on the podium in grief.

"Our generation has experienced wind and rain, and experienced the pain of almost extinction. Song knows your awareness and sense of responsibility to the Ming Empire, but the next generation, Song is not sure. What if the country needs money again in decades or hundreds of years, but your children and grandchildren don’t have this awareness, so what should we do?”

"It's not that Mr. Song looks down on everyone, but Mr. Song hopes to establish this mechanism. Even after a hundred years or a thousand years, when the country needs money urgently, it can still call on everyone to donate enthusiastically! This is the national debt!"

"Printed by the Royal Bank of Ming Dynasty. Each bond is worth one tael, with an annual interest rate of three thousandths. After the victory over the slavery, the mining output of the Huaihe River and the Huaihe River will be used as the repayment funds. It will be repaid within five years or ten years! This cabinet agrees with this proposal , I cast the first vote!"

It was the familiar ballot box again. Listening to Song Qingshu's heartbroken words and seeing his first vote, Chen Zilong and others fell silent again.

Indeed, who can guarantee that there will be no prodigal sons in your family in future generations?No myopia?Not to mention later generations, there are bloody examples before us. Jiannu is about to fall to the city. Gao Hongtu, Lu Daqi and other Donglin Party are still fighting in the nest, driving out Song Qingshu who can fight. Jiannu bowed his head and proclaimed himself a minister.

Chen Zilong was the first to stand up and put the votes of approval into the box. At the same time, he made up his mind that after returning home, he must set up a family motto. Those who dare to be selfish and disregard the country in future generations will be expelled from the clan. Get rid of the name, don't even think about burying it in the ancestral grave after you die!

Immediately after, Shi Tianfu, Xia Yunyi, Qu Botao, Wang Chongwen and other senior members of parliament cast their honorary votes in turn.

However, no one noticed that it was originally impassioned to raise troops to fight Jiannu to the death, but looking back, Song Qingshu unknowingly made the matter abducted to the national debt, and the turbulent atmosphere of all-out war suddenly dissipated a lot... …

(End of this chapter)