My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 366 The Offense and Defense Shift, Hongli Continues to Boost Yongzheng's Morale!

After saying this, Yongzheng took out a handkerchief and wiped the corner of his eye.

Then, Yongzheng sighed again and said, "He knows what the foundation of the Great Qing is!"

"Although I forbid Manchus from leaving the banners, it does not mean that Manchus will not be willing to continue to be loyal to me as their master because of the Crown Prince's benevolence and filial piety."

After Yongzheng added with a pleased expression, Yunli nodded and said, "The Crown Prince is benevolent and filial, and Fourth Brother is not an immoral ruler. Therefore, after the Crown Prince's appeal, the Manchus will actively support him."

"It's just too expensive."

Like Yongzheng, Yunli naturally wouldn't say it outright, as the lower-class Manchus were easy to bribe.

A little rice and charcoal to get through the winter could transform the "political opinion" of a Manchu citizen into one that praises Yongzheng as a wise and virtuous ruler.

Yunli also understood that only by allowing more voices to emerge, and ensuring that most of them were praising Yongzheng, could he effectively isolate those voices that displeased him.

But he also knew that to do this, he would have to spend money and offer tangible benefits.

Like other ethnic groups, the lower-class Manchus were tolerant and flexible in their bottom line, but they were not stupid. They would not respond actively if there was no benefit to them.

Those who hold power are not, in essence, people who produce resources, but rather exploiters who monopolize the means of production to exploit producers.

Therefore, for every extra penny those in power spend on the people, it means they extract less money from them.

Therefore, Yunli still smiled and sighed that Hongli's actions would harm his own interests.

Yongzheng nodded. He understood that if he wanted more people to like and praise him, he had to bring benefits to more people; verbal instruction alone would not suffice.

Although he only said that the Manchus at the bottom of society were now praising him because the Crown Prince Hongli had moved them with his benevolence and filial piety.

"It costs a lot of money!"

"But what's remarkable is that the Crown Prince didn't care about this in order to be loyal and filial."

Then, Yongzheng replied with this sentence, and after standing up, he said: "But he will eventually become emperor, and after becoming emperor, he will have to spend more money to educate the people of the world to know the etiquette of loyalty and filial piety."

Yunli, Zhang Tingyu, Ortai, and Fuerdan all looked up and glanced at Yongzheng.

"Fourth Brother is right. Even if the Crown Prince becomes the ruler of the world in the future, he will not have to worry about money."

"First, the national treasury must always be abundant; second, annual revenue must continue to increase. This way, if Hongli truly inherits the throne in the future, he will be able to be more at ease and allow the Qing Dynasty to reach its zenith!"

Yunli bowed and replied.

Emperor Yongzheng nodded: "That's right!"

With that, Yongzheng looked at everyone and said, "You all think of ways to increase the annual revenue!"

"Whoo!"

……

……

"Your Highness, the expenses of Yuqing Palace have exceeded the budget by three million taels!"

Liu Tongxun, the Grand Master of the Han Dynasty, was conducting a year-end accounting of Hongli's expenses at this time. On this day, he reminded Hongli to be more frugal.

Although Hongli received more tributes after becoming the crown prince, and more people bought fertilizers, coal and carriages produced by his factories, his income only increased.

However, Hongli's expenses are also increasing rapidly, especially recently as he has been spending money to build a reputation for himself and Yongzheng.

Hongli's method of spending money was almost equivalent to distributing supplies to the entire population for free, giving away various essential goods that should have been in high demand to the people at virtually zero cost.

Such expenses could not have been sustained for so long if it weren't for the Crown Prince.

Even though he was the crown prince, he was still quite intimidating.

Therefore, Liu Tongxun had to remind him.

The prince's chief secretary was responsible for managing the prince's personnel, assets, and expenses; while the crown prince's chief secretary was responsible for assisting and teaching the crown prince in these matters.

The Manchu Grand Tutor Songshou was directly involved in matters benefiting the lower-ranking Manchu people, and his abilities were indeed inferior to those of Liu Tongxun, who had been in business for generations. Therefore, Liu Tongxun was basically in charge of the Crown Prince Hongli's finances. Now that Liu Tongxun had reminded him of this, Hongli was not flustered.

Because he knew very well that he had a father who was working hard to earn money for him.

Furthermore, as long as he retains real power, money will continue to flow into him.

After Liu Tongxun reminded him, Hongli dismissed it, saying, "It's alright, keep spending. Spending money on treating the people with kindness will at least earn us a good reputation."

"Whoo!"

Liu Tongxun had no choice but to respond.

He finally understood that his son, the Crown Prince, was now locked in a complete power struggle with those who were dissatisfied with Emperor Yongzheng and his powerful officials and gentry.

The powerful officials and gentry who were dissatisfied with him were unwilling to spend too much money to bribe the common people, but this prince dared to!
However, Hongli did not entirely intend to use money to buy fame, nor did he not consider increasing his own and the court's revenue.

However, when it came to increasing revenue, Hongli was mainly concerned with how to increase the court's income.

Because if he were to increase his own income now, it would more or less raise suspicions of competing with the imperial court for profits.

Therefore, it would be better to find a way to guide Emperor Yongzheng to continue increasing the court's revenue.

Anyway, the Qing Dynasty will belong to him in the future.

The government's revenue will also be his revenue in the future.

Therefore, he could still get Yongzheng to do the hard work first.

"The reason why Manchus wanted to join the banners was not only because most of them wanted to enjoy peace and tranquility with their sons, but also because there were too few lucrative positions to go around."

"Your subject believes that the State Taxation Bureau should not be merely an official agency responsible for collecting taxes from various shops under the Imperial Household Department on behalf of the Ministry of Revenue to supplement the national treasury."

"Instead, there should be a dedicated elite force of veterans to serve in the State Taxation Bureau, responsible for collecting taxes for the court. Especially now that border trade has been opened, it is necessary to prevent border merchants from colluding with powerful officials and foreign barbarians to smuggle goods, or even using powerful officials and foreign barbarians to refuse to pay tribute. That requires a strong tax army!"

"Otherwise, the amount of national funds flowing out each year would probably be quite large."

"It's not just money, but also various kinds of food, weapons, salt and iron that are absolutely controlled by the imperial court as important resources."

“The Ming Dynasty suffered repeated losses because it failed to strictly control the smuggling of grain, salt and iron.”

"Please, Father, understand!"

When Hongli was with Yongzheng that day, he told Yongzheng about his idea of ​​establishing the Eight Banners Tax Army.

After all, the Qing Dynasty has now agreed to trade with Russia and has also granted the Dzungar Khanate its submission and permitted trade. This will undoubtedly lead to a boom in border trade. Furthermore, the permission for the Tanka people to come ashore will further boost maritime trade.

Therefore, along the entire long border, a significant amount of tax revenue would undoubtedly be lost through various forms of smuggling.

Thus……

The Qing Empire could no longer rely solely on local officials to collect taxes; it needed a more professional and powerful tax collection organization.

It was certainly better to assign some of the Eight Banners descendants who had lost sons in battle and wanted to retire to their hometowns to preserve their family line than to have them take charge of tax collection, rather than continuing to fight for the Qing Dynasty on the battlefield.

Those who needed to continue fighting for the Qing Dynasty on the battlefield were naturally even more motivated, since as long as they fought well, they could collect taxes.

After hearing this, Yongzheng smiled and said, "I also thought about whether to set up additional tax offices in various border areas to meet the growing demand for border trade because of your suggestion to my thirteenth uncle to take over the State Taxation Bureau. Therefore, I have already asked your fifth brother to investigate the case in the Northwest and take the opportunity to check on the situation of border trade smuggling."

Hongli secretly praised Yongzheng for being quite astute in making money, realizing the financial benefits and the impact on the nation's destiny.

of course!

If we regularly analyze the reasons for the fall of the Ming Dynasty and the rise of the Qing Dynasty, it will be difficult to ignore the risk of uncontrolled border trade smuggling.

However, Yongzheng suddenly sighed and said, "If it's like this, even foreign barbarians will hate me to the bone."

"In my humble opinion, as long as we have money, we can unite the 200 million subjects of the Great Qing, which means we have united the majority. All the others will be a tiny minority, so there is nothing to fear!"

(End of this chapter)