Chapter 282 Great Ming and Rich! Hundreds of millions of taels of accumulated silver!
After Zu Dashou heard his verdict, he fainted directly on the ground.
Wu Xiang, Zu Dachun and others cried out for mercy.
But crying is of course useless, Da Ming no longer needs them, and they even became a stumbling block to Da Ming's revival, so they are destined to be kicked away.
When Zu Dashou and other Liao generals were tortured, many Han people from the Liao who had settled down in the pass came to watch the execution, and said that the torture was good.
Because as the Han people of the Liao region, the persecution that Zu Dashou and other Liao officials would inflict on them was often no worse than Jiannu.
Because, the Han officials in this era can't expect them to have any national consciousness. If they can rob the people of ten points, they will never show kindness and only grab nine points.
Therefore, when the Han people in the Liao region saw their ancestors being cut to pieces, they would naturally shout hello.
Wu Xiang took a look at He Kegang who was in the crowd when he was killed. Now he hates He Kegang because He Kegang betrayed them.
Wu Sangui, a descendant of the Liao general, was also tortured.
Wu Sangui naturally didn't know that in the original history, after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, he would become the vanguard of the Qing Dynasty's entry into the customs to seize the Han family, and cut off the last hope of the Ming Dynasty regime in the mainland, and strangled Emperor Yongli with a bowstring.
Now he just feels that he is very unlucky. From the beginning, he suddenly wanted to become a slave to be a bannerman, and now he has become a criminal executed by the court along with his fathers.
Wu Sangui laughed bitterly. He couldn't help feeling that the heavens didn't give him a good fate, so that he couldn't be a loyal minister and general who made great achievements. He could only be forced to die in the name of a traitor.
In any case, the eradication of Liao generals is a good thing for the country and the people.
First of all, Tianqi finally decided to issue an edict to stop collecting Liao pay.
Liao pay should have been suspended a long time ago, after all, the national funds have already been filled.
However, there is still resistance to the suspension of Liao pay, and the biggest resistance comes from these Liao generals and the forces behind them.
Now that the generals of the Liao region have been eradicated and replaced by officers and troops directly under the imperial court to guard the Liao region, naturally there is no longer any resistance to stopping the collection of Liao salaries.
Secondly, the fertile land annexed by the generals of the Liao region began to be evenly distributed among the Liao people, so that the Liao people would no longer have to leave their homes because of heavy exploitation. In addition, the imperial court also increased land tax revenue in the Liao land.
In addition, because the guarding officers and soldiers in the Liao region are directly under the central government, the emperor and the Ministry of War are willing to spend more generously on domestic funds to distribute salaries and rewards to the Liao region, so that these officers and soldiers do not have to pay for the money. Insufficient military discipline leads to corruption, and even oppresses the local people.
At the same time, because these officers and soldiers are directly controlled by the imperial court, they are also guest troops, and their family members are mostly controlled by the imperial court, and even their income is judged by the amount of military merit. They are not like Liao generals, because they are local landlords. The income from land rent is not inferior to the salary given by the imperial court, so he is not very keen on making military achievements, and only hopes to get more benefits from the imperial court. However, the current officers and soldiers are only actively fighting, which has alleviated a lot of border troubles in the Liao land.
Therefore, the eradication of the generals of the Liao region is undoubtedly a positive feedback for the people of the Liao region.
The generals of the Liao land were eradicated, making a large amount of cultivated land in the Liao land owned by the people.
After the four kings, King De, King Heng, King Jing, and King Jin, were all punished for killing the king, their royal estates were also distributed to the people.
The land occupied by these people in the past was not a small amount, so after the land was distributed to the common people, it was not a small amount that was directly reflected in the income of the imperial court's land tax.
However, this is a later story. The problem facing the Ming court is no longer a lack of money, but a problem of too much money and too little food.
"The domestic funds have accumulated more than 30 million taels of silver! There are also more than 130 million taels of gold and silver in the warehouses of the national treasury! There are also more than two million stones in grain."
At this time, Bi Ziyan, the new Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, reported the savings of the imperial court to Tianqi and others in the Department of Policy Planning, and said: "These are all tax incomes that have been increased after years of confiscating various families, recovering taxes, and clearing Zhang's fields. Operating official stores in the East and West Factory and the proceeds from the overseas crackdown on smuggling in the West Factory. Although it is very abundant, the food expenditure is huge. Nearly 30 million stones and grains have not yet arrived in Beijing every year, because they are allocated to the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War. More than half of it is consumed due to use, plus the consumption of the inner court, government offices, schools, etc., as well as disaster relief, so there is not much left."
"But people can't eat silver directly after all. There are only more than two million stones in storage, which means that the imperial court is not enough to support a large army to completely wipe out Jiannu within this year. So what's the point of saving so much silver?"
Tian Qi frowned and spoke in thought.
Zhang Gui said at this time: "Your Majesty, don't worry too much. Although the silver cannot be eaten directly, he can exchange it for food."
"Although Huangming is a big grain-producing country, it is also a big grain-consuming country. To make food no problem, one is to increase domestic grain production, and the other is to ask barbarians for food. And this is inseparable from silver!"
"After all, increasing one's own domestic food production requires spending money to build water conservancy projects and develop high-yielding crops."
"To ask for food from barbarians, whether it is by sending troops to collect it or sending people to buy it, it also costs money."
"So, the biggest problem now is how to spend it. Money has to be spent to turn it into food, to strengthen the country and benefit the people. Instead of saving it like the old wealth of private landlords."
"That's the reason. Today's Ming Dynasty is indeed different from the early days of the country. There is too much silver and too many people. Relatively speaking, it seems that there is too little food. On the contrary, it is still difficult to open up territories. Dear friends, you have to think quickly. Think about how to spend the money, how to spend it properly, and how to spend it can produce more food."
Apocalypse said.
"yes!"
Zhang Gui continued: "Not to mention spending money to increase domestic grain production, spending real money and silver will definitely have an effect, but the possible increase in grain production is limited. New high-yielding crops are not so easy to appear. It takes several years from breeding to trial planting and promotion.”
"Actually, the quickest way is to ask for food from foreigners, and this requires breaking the previous concept of our heavenly kingdom, which has a large land and abundant resources, does not need to talk about benefits with foreigners, but only discusses the concept of propriety! Whether it is emphasizing business and encouraging traders to go to sea Buying food, still worshiping Wu, sending troops to let foreigners donate food, all need to change the current perception of being good-neighborly and friendly and treating barbarians with courtesy!"
"Naturally. The Ministry of Rites is obliged. The ban on the sea can no longer be banned. Banchuan or domestic merchant ships must be allowed to transport grain for sale."
Chen Zizhuang, Minister of Rites, echoed this sentence.
(end of this chapter)