The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 229 Where Does the Food and Money Come From?

In early November, it was about to snow in the capital.

Wanli gathered everyone together for a discussion, then hurried back to the palace with his entire family.

However, he did not care about the affairs of the court.

At this moment, his mind was full of how to make money and ensure that the Ming army was fully paid and invincible.

As for the affairs of the court, the civil servants are now arguing fiercely.

Shen Yikuan and the old party of Shen Shixing, the old party of Zhang Siwei, and the old party of Zhang Juzheng were all fighting each other.

When they saw that it was difficult to bite the important officials of the court at the level of the six ministers, they simply started to bite the six vice ministers, the five temple chiefs, and even the six deputy ministers and the five temple junior officials.

There are so many officials at this level that they will have enough to bite for years.

He is too lazy to care about these things now, let them bite as they please, no matter who controls more positions or who controls fewer positions.

Anyway, as long as the royal party grows up, the end of these people will come.

The most important thing at this time is to make money.

The Ming Dynasty navy has not yet developed.

This is an era of maritime supremacy. He has already recruited more than 700,000 infantrymen, so he must have hundreds of thousands of navy as well.

How much does that cost?

Early the next morning at about noon, he was still sitting in the imperial study, thinking about how to make money.

Li Xuancheng suddenly poked his head out and said, "Your Majesty, Lord Yu is here."

Then let him in.

Wanli nodded absentmindedly and said, "Announce."

Soon, Yu Youcai walked in quickly.

After the emperor and his subjects exchanged greetings, he held up what looked like an account book and said carefully, "Your Majesty, the land and population of the former vassal state have long been counted. Are you free to deal with it now?"

He really couldn't handle this matter while he was fighting outside because there were too many fields and people involved.

He took the account book and looked at it carefully, and couldn't help but snort inwardly.

This Dai vassal was so lawless that he actually enslaved more than two million civilians!

The reason why the population recorded in the Ming Dynasty's "Yellow Book of Taxes and Services" has never increased is that these princes have colluded with local tyrants, gentry and scholars with official titles to conceal the population.

They wanted to gradually turn the common people in the vassal states into slaves and not register them for household registration, so that the common people would never have a chance to make a living and could only farm for free without having enough to eat.

There are more than two million civilians, roughly four or five hundred thousand households, and the land annexed by the three major powerful families of Dai and Puzhou is nearly 15 million mu. If it is divided equally, each household can get at least 30 mu.

Is this division appropriate?

It's not that he was reluctant to give up these fields, nor does he want the people to have enough food and clothing.

The problem is, this division is unfair.

Now many farmers in Datong Town and Pingyang Prefecture only have about ten acres of land. If he gives each of them thirty acres, what will the farmers who only have about ten acres of land think?
The slaves, who were so poor that they didn't even have household registration, had three times more land than they did?
Why doesn’t this average include farmers with registered household registration?

This is how people are. They are not worried about scarcity but about inequality.

It doesn’t matter if everyone is poor. You are a slave who has nothing, and I even feel a little sorry for you.

But if you suddenly have three times as much land as I do, I can't stand it.

How to solve this problem?
Are all people in Datong Town and Pingyang Prefecture equal?

Then people in other states will have objections.

Shanxi is a border town, and there are still many remnants of the three major families in Puzhou. If he makes the common people dissatisfied, something bad will definitely happen.

By the way, it is a border town, and it is the center of the nine borders of the Ming Dynasty.

Wanli frowned and thought for a while, and finally came up with a solution.

He took the account book and explained in detail: "Bingzhong, each of these common people can be allocated 30 mu of land, but this land cannot be given to them for free. If we give it to them for free, the other people will have objections.

We gave them 30 mu of land, of which 10 mu was used as military farms. They got 20 mu for free, so they had to cultivate these 10 mu as well. Every year, every household had to hand over 20 dan of military rations, and the land tax was calculated separately.

However, we can't let them work too hard. As a reward for growing military rations, we will send garrison guards with oxen and plows to help with planting and harvesting every year."

Now Datong Town can produce nearly 10 million dan of military rations every year, which is enough for the border troops and the Beijing camp, and there is even a lot left over for food and wages.

Upon hearing this, Yu Youcai bowed and said, "Your Majesty is wise." Now my mind is full of money. I am not only thinking about how to make money, but also how to save money.

Wanli nodded slightly, then asked, "How is it going? Are those civil servants making any moves now?"

Uh, this.

Yu Youcai said cautiously, "Your Majesty, it seems a bit inappropriate to let Shen Yiguan control the Ministry of Personnel. Now the Qingliu are criticizing him. Most of the officials in the court are appointed by Shen Yiguan. This guy is too outrageous."

This problem is actually very easy to solve. Just promote Shen Yikuan to the cabinet as an exception.

However, it's not yet time.

If the Qingliu officials are all scolding, it proves that other officials have a lot of opinions about this dog, which is why they keep biting it!

Wanli said calmly: "It's okay, let them scold us, as long as the cabinet is under our control, it will be fine."

This is true.

Now the Six Ministries and Five Temples Inspectorate actually does not have much power, and most matters in the court must be approved by the cabinet.

Upon hearing this, Yu Youcai slowly nodded and said, "I understand."

Wanli thought for a moment and then asked, "By the way, what did those princes say? Have they handed over the land that was offered to them?"

This one.

Yu Youcai said helplessly, "Those princes didn't say anything. It's as if they didn't know that their vassal states had been reduced."

Damn it, these bunch of parasites, they want me to kill a chicken, right?

Okay, when I’m short of food and money, I’ll kill a chicken for you to see.

There is no rush now. Wait until the navy develops. If you still don’t obey me, don’t blame me for being rude.

Wanli was a little annoyed and said, "They are pretending not to know, right? Fine, let them pretend for now. When I have time, I will let them know."

What does this mean?
His Majesty still wants to reduce the power of the feudal lords!
When Yu Youcai thought of this, he subconsciously shrank his neck again.

He didn't specify.

He didn't dare to get involved in such matters, as he might end up killing his entire clan.

Since Wanli didn't care about the affairs of the court, Shen Yikuan tried his best to place his own confidants in the court.

The Qingliu, Shen Shixing's party, Zhang Siwei's old party and Zhang Juzheng's old party were all furious and started biting anyone who was planted by this guy.

In the court, people were having a great time biting each other.

Wanli was always thinking about how to make money.

Food, clothing, housing and transportation are the most basic necessities, and most of the profitable businesses these days also come from these four.

The problem is that clothing needs time to develop. In those days, weaving was still done by hand, and it required hundreds of thousands of looms. The carpenters in the Summer Resort could only make so much in a year.

Moreover, the price of cloth in the Ming Dynasty is so high, and the profit is thin. If you sell it at a high price, people will not buy it. If you want to make big money in this business, you have to rely on overseas trade.

As for food, it is meat that can make money. Chicken, duck, fish and meat are the most basic four.

Raising chickens, ducks and pigs requires a large number of people and a large amount of food. We don't need to consider this for the time being. Many people are still not getting enough to eat, so it is simply unrealistic to use a large amount of food to feed chickens, ducks and pigs.

It seems we can only rely on fish.

The Ming Dynasty has had a maritime ban for more than two hundred years, and there are simply too many fish in the sea.

Delicacies from land and sea, this seafood is actually quite valuable.

The problem is that fish in the sea have to be caught by boats, and these boats have to be protected by navy. Otherwise, it is very likely that they will not be able to come back after going out to sea to fish.

This again involves the issue of navy and shipbuilding.

It seems that I must go to Nanzhili.

As for housing and transportation, building houses and trains, those are not things that can be done now.

Many ordinary people today cannot even get enough to eat, so don’t even think about buying a house.

There is no need to think about building a train, which is much more difficult than building a ship. Whether in terms of investment or time, building a train is not as good as building a ship at this moment.

It seems that this trip to Nanzhili is inevitable.

(End of this chapter)