This undoubtedly means that Emperor Zhu Youxiao's imperial power has a stronger guarantee.But for the entire Ming Empire, the standing army needed is naturally more than 100,000.In the future, if we want to be able to fight in the south and the north at the same time, Henan will expand east and west, and the mobile strength and defensive strength of the water and land armies and the internal guards must add up to one million elite soldiers.Even now, there are still hundreds of thousands of border armies and guards guarding all sides.Zhu Youxiao, on the other hand, hoped that after his 100,000 pro-army was trained in the future, he would carry out a more thorough nationalization of these border armies and battalion soldiers and guard soldiers in various localities, so that the soldiers and generals would be separated, and the soldiers and generals would belong to the state, and they would no longer have private soldiers, or even only the private soldiers of military generals, that is, family members, would have combat effectiveness.However, the biggest challenge in this way is not the opposition of the generals, but the question of money.Because the Jiangmen of the Ming Dynasty were different from the feudal towns of the Tang Dynasty, they did not have a lot of financial revenue.Most of the fields of these Jiangmen are in the northern border towns, the output is not large, and it is still difficult to feed a large family of people, and it is naturally impossible to support so many families who need to eat and drink well every day by relying on the income from the fields.Therefore, the main income of these generals still depends on deducting military salaries and eating empty salaries.In addition, although the family members in their hands can fight, they are not numerous, so it is difficult to threaten the imperial court.And because there are too many generals and the forces are scattered, the imperial court can also check and balance separately.This is also why the Li family in Liaodong, that is, the Li Chengliang family, has such a big power in Liaodong, and Li Rubai and Li Ruzhen can still be escorted to the capital by the imperial court to punish crimes.And the Ming generals are completely difficult to control, and in history, they have to wait until after the Chongzhen period.Therefore, the current Zhu Youxiao, as long as he has a lot of money, pays full military salaries, gives full rewards of silver, and in addition, gives the generals enough legitimate income, so that they do not have to take the risk of peeling the skin and grass to deduct military salaries, and even eat empty salaries, even if they are not military generals, soldiers can become good fighters.Even the current guards and infantry, you must know that at the beginning of the country, when the army was well paid, they dared to charge the cavalry with spears."
But now the annual revenue of the imperial treasury has been mainly used for people's livelihood, education, construction and research and development of various skills and new equipment manufacturing, as well as the promotion of new crops, although it will not be beyond its means, coupled with the indemnity of the Japanese state, it can also make the treasury still have more than 10 million reserves, which is reserved for emergencies, such as disaster relief or something, so, after the rectification of the Beijing camp, immediately reform the guard military system and the battalion military system, and raise millions of elite soldiers belonging to the country, with the current treasury income, it is still not enough, please Your Majesty Mingjian!"
Therefore, when Zhu Youxiao proposed the reform of the military system, Fang Congzhe raised financial difficulties."
We still have to open up financial resources!
The imperial court wants to raise more soldiers, and it will launch a big war in the future to completely eradicate the troubles, and these will also need more money!
”Zhu Youxiao nodded, thinking to himself.For a while, Zhu Youxiao thought of raising commercial taxes.With the current commercial scale of the Ming Dynasty, once the commercial tax is raised, it will definitely bring a large amount of taxes to the imperial court.But among the people who are doing business nowadays, those who are a little larger, and who pay considerable business taxes, are all from backgrounds, and many of them are even his own people as the emperor.Therefore, if Zhu Youxiao wants to raise commercial taxes throughout the country, there will undoubtedly be a lot of opposition.But now for Zhu Youxiao, in addition to raising the commercial tax, there are not many other better ways to increase the annual tax revenue of the imperial court.All the homes that should be copied have been copied.Now no one dares to go against him, the emperor, in addition, the home he can copy is also limited, and as the emperor, he naturally can't completely ignore the rules and copy the house at will.The income from the fields after clearing the acres of land has also reached the limit.As for the external income, he also borrowed grain and asked for a reparation, but these are all one-time payments, but the business has been constantly allowing Daming to earn benefits from the outside.However, if the commercial tax is not raised and the sea is not completely and comprehensively opened, the income obtained by the imperial court through foreign trade will only be limited to the dividends of the official industry and part of the customs revenue."
The annual income of the national treasury must continue to grow, and we cannot just get by and enjoy ourselves just because the annual income has far exceeded that of the previous dynasties!
For the next thing, what is the best plan for increasing the annual income?
”Zhu Youxiao therefore asked his important ministers.As an emperor with real power, he naturally could not speak his own thoughts first, which would cause most officials to obey his ideas against their will.After all, the elders and scholars present, none of them are extremely shrewd guys, and they all have the ability to observe words and colors, and see the wind and steer the rudder.Therefore, Zhu Youxiao asked first."
In the opinion of the ministers, the preferential exemption of the gentry should be abolished, and the officials and gentry should pay the grain as an errand."
At this time, Fang Congzhe replied first.He knows better than anyone else that he has been with the Son of Heaven for six years.Fang Congzhe knew that his majesty was a restless lord.Determined to innovate, and very ambitious, not only want the country to become stronger and stronger, but also want to make the people richer and richer, so that the court has to earn more and more income, and can not increase the burden on the people.Therefore, Fang Congzhe had already thought about how to give the emperor a solution to increase financial revenue.And this solution is that the officials and gentry pay for food in one piece.It's not about raising business taxes.Fang Congzhe naturally knew that raising the commercial tax could bring more tax revenue to the imperial court without affecting the common people.But Fang Congzhe didn't do that.It's not that he is selfish and unwilling to raise business taxes for his own interests.Because of the benefits that the emperor gave him, even if the commercial tax changed from thirty taxes to three taxes and one, it would not affect the wealth of his family.And Fang Congzhe did not mention the matter of commercial tax, because he also knew how difficult it would be to raise commercial taxes in the country, and how much turmoil it would cause, after all, the powerful gentry all over the world, regardless of the ministers and generals, all relied on low tax rates to make a lot of money, and there were ordinary people, and many of them were made by low commercial taxes, and they were getting richer and richer.Fang Congzhe didn't dare to take this risk now, he was afraid that he would mess up the country because of this.Therefore, Fang Congzhe proposed that the officials and gentry should pay grain in one piece, and completely cancel the preferential privileges of the powerful gentry.In Fang Congzhe's view, this is much less resistance than raising the commercial tax, after all, it will not affect the interests of ordinary people and powerful gentry who rely on business for a living.Moreover, Fang Congzhe felt that it was better for the imperial court to collect as much food as possible than to collect more silver.Because the grain in the hands of the imperial court if it is pounded through the grain bureau, it can also produce more profits, after all, now the goods of the Ming Dynasty are more popular than before, and more silver has flowed into the Ming Dynasty, so that the price of silver continues to fall, and the price of grain is still rising, and it is obviously more cost-effective to hold grain than to hold silver.After listening to Fang Congzhe's proposal, Zhu Youxiao did not express his position, but only asked the other ministers: "What do you think this official gentry does pay for food in one piece?"
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