Daming: Stealing Chen Yuanyuan at the beginning

Chapter 88 One Guard, Two Factory, Four Courtyards, Jiangnan Tannery Factory
As early as in Ningling, Li Cunming had a clear idea of ​​how to govern the country. The first is money, the second is soldiers, and the third is power.

Through opening up wasteland and farming, increasing business taxes, and promoting the cultivation of potatoes and corn, the problem of money and food has been alleviated; and through the recruitment of new soldiers, when the Jiangbei was captured, there were also 20 elite soldiers.

Now, suppressing the Donglin Party, quelling party strife, and vacating the cabinet is the solution to the power problem.

After establishing the General Administration Department system equivalent to the Military Aircraft Department, Li Cunming made persistent efforts and announced the establishment of the Four Courts.

The four colleges are the Medical College, the Academy of Sciences, the Military Academy, and the Supervisory Yuan. The first three institutions have already taken shape in Xuzhou, and they are respectively in charge of Fu Shan, Tang Ruowang, and Bi’s uncle and nephew. Run immediately.

The Overwatch Council is an institution that Li Cunming and Yan Ermei decided to create after careful consideration.The biggest responsibility of the Overwatch Council is to supervise officials, which has a lot of authority, which is equivalent to a combination of the anti-corruption department and the discipline inspection department.

As for Jinyiwei, the main duties were changed to spying on enemy intelligence, arresting imperial criminals, and protecting the emperor; the East Factory was mainly responsible for spying on domestic news, focusing on the capital and its surrounding areas; the West Factory was responsible for business matters, including mining and operating Huangzhuang Or state factories.

These institutions are collectively referred to as "One Sanitary Factory, Two Factory and Four Courtyards". Check and balance each other.

After some manipulations, Li Cunming truly became arbitrary and firmly controlled the power of the court.

At the end of the Yin hour of this day, Li Cunming came to the Secretary of General Administration.The Department of General Affairs does not have a special official position. The officials who are on duty are collectively referred to as the Minister of Communications, and the lower-level officials in charge of documents and files are collectively referred to as the Secretary of General Affairs.

When the military ministers of the Qing Dynasty discussed matters with the emperor, they had to kneel on the ground from the beginning to the end.After all, Li Cunming came from modern times. He needed his courtiers to be loyal and capable, but he didn't need everyone to become slaves, so he specially prepared seats for the ministers in charge.

Moreover, these people are veterans from Jiangbei, and they have a good relationship with the emperor, so the atmosphere of the general political meeting every day is relaxed and harmonious. Everyone speaks freely and expresses their opinions freely, but the final decision-making power is always in the hands of the emperor.

After Li Cunming sat down, Jiang Dejing immediately spoke: "Your Majesty, it has been more than a month since I took over Nanjing. The imperial court's expenditures are very large, and the national treasury can hardly support it."

hiss!
Li Cunming had a toothache, frowned, and said, "The amount of money obtained from the plundering of the capital was more than 5000 million taels. Cao Huachun collected commercial taxes and paid more than 700 million taels of silver not long ago. It's only been a year, why are you crying poor again?"

Jiang Dejing raised his fingers and said: "Let's not mention official salaries and palace expenses for the time being. The main ones are soldiers' salaries, craftsmen's salaries, and weapons manufacturing. Song Yingxing went to Foshan to smelt iron and make cement, Zhang Guowei repaired river embankments everywhere, Yuan Jixian and Huang Degong built warships, received refugees from the south in winter, and went around for disaster relief..."

"Just tell me how much money is left in the treasury!"

Jiang Dejing said with a smile: "Actually, there are more than 2000 million taels of silver in the treasury, but His Majesty strives for excellence in everything, regardless of the cost of manufacturing weapons and building warships, and also exempts the three rates. The taxes paid by farmers are no longer converted into silver. You can Directly hand over the grain, what I am worried about is that after the 2000 million taels of silver are used up, it will be difficult to reserve a large amount of cash in the treasury. As for the grain, I am not worried!"

"You just say that I spend money like water, and I'm a prodigal, so why be so euphemistic." Li Cunming laughed, and all the ministers also laughed.

"I don't dare to say that, besides, His Majesty spends his money on good things. It's just that the money circulating in the country is getting less and less. Your Majesty, please make a plan early."

Li Cunming nodded at Jiang Dejing, looked at the ministers present and said: "If you are not in charge of the family, you don't know how expensive Chai Mi is. Jiang Shangshu is in front of the family of the Ming Dynasty, and he looks at the problem much more profoundly and far-sighted than Bill and others. He pointed out a very serious fact. My Ming Dynasty did encounter a silver shortage, it was deflation!"

The silver shortage is understandable.But what is deflation, the courtiers don't know why.

In the late Ming Dynasty, many problems and troubles were encountered, and the chaos became a mess.When scholars of later generations studied the history of the late Ming Dynasty based on economic knowledge, they all pointed out that the amount of silver circulating in the country at the end of the Ming Dynasty dropped sharply, which greatly affected the social economy and national finance. This was also one of the reasons for the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

The currency system of the Ming Dynasty was very chaotic. Copper coins and banknotes were issued in the early days of the founding of the country. The banknotes became waste paper due to reputation problems, and the copper coins depreciated sharply due to serious private casting.

Later, the silver standard currency system was established, and silver became the currency in circulation.The reason why Zhang Juzheng implemented a whip law, stipulating that people can only pay taxes in silver, is to conform to the trend of the times.

But our country is not a big silver-producing country, and the reserves of silver mines are extremely thin.Silver mainly flowed into the country from the Americas and Japan. At this time, the Thirty Years War broke out in Europe and the Tulip Crisis broke out. The silver from the Americas was consumed in Europe, while Japan adopted a policy of seclusion, so less silver flowed into Ming Dynasty.

What's even more terrible is that the Chinese people are resettling and have a very serious mentality of small farmers.When rich people have money, they often use it to buy land, houses, and make jewelry, and rarely invest it in reproduction activities.

After the outbreak of the Peasant War, the rich cherished their wealth even more. A large amount of silver was cast into silver cakes, hidden in cellars or hidden places, and they were even more reluctant to use them. There was even less silver circulating on the market.

A large amount of silver flows into the country, causing inflation; the inflow of silver decreases sharply, and the amount of silver circulating on the market decreases, causing deflation.

In the late Ming Dynasty, it was called chaos, and in Chongzhen, it was called suffering.How many factors enough to subjugate the country have piled up and exploded at the same time, what can I do to save you, my Great Ming Dynasty!

Li Cunming said: "There is not enough silver in the market. First of all, the imperial court should take back the right to mint money. Private minting of money is not allowed. Once found, there will be no mercy. The Ministry of Household Affairs will draw up a charter, and I will make a decision after reading it."

Yan Ermei said: "Besides, we should recycle the old coins minted in the previous dynasty and develop copper mines."

"Speaking of mining, Jiangxi's reserves of copper mines are very rich. I still want to mine coal, but unfortunately Shanxi is occupied by the Tartars, so I can only mine in Huainan and Huaibei. Fang Yizhi is familiar with geography and is proficient in Western learning. He has written the book "Little Knowledge of Physics", so I will send him to work with Xichang to mine."

"I will obey your orders!"

Li Cunming smiled: "Why, no one objected to mining?"

At the beginning, the Donglin Party always opposed the increase of business tax and mining, and the imperial court's measures were very restrictive.It's all right now, the emperor Gan Gang insisted on saying one thing, which saved a lot of time for verbal battles.

……

Mining copper mines to cast coins can alleviate the silver shortage to a certain extent.But it will take a long time to accomplish this and see results, and it will not happen overnight.

"The rich are reluctant to spend their money, I have to find a way." Li Cunming thought to himself.

After returning to the study room, he whispered: "System, I want to sign in again with ten times the positive emotion value."

"Ding, after deducting the corresponding positive emotion value, Nanjing has repeatedly signed in successfully. Congratulations to the host for obtaining 3000 military backpacks."

"Military backpack?" Li Cunming pinched his teeth and covered his cheek.

"Backpack, bag... oh, I have an idea!" He suddenly became excited and rushed to find Queen Zhou.

In Kunning Palace, Empress Zhou is working as a female worker, embroidering on a handkerchief.

"Queen, your needlework is getting better and better." Li Cunming praised with a smile.

"The concubine pays homage to the emperor!" Empress Zhou hurriedly saluted, and ordered the maids to serve tea in repeated voices.

Li Cunming waved his hand and said: "I came to see you because I have something to explain. Well, first bring me paper, ink, brush and inkstone."

The maid brought paper, ink, brush and inkstone, Li Cunming wrote and drew, and handed it to the queen after finishing.

The queen looked at it and asked, "Your Majesty, what did you paint?"

"Bag, lady's bag, a bag that can cure all diseases!"

Li Cunming didn't explain too much, and said: "Queen, I want you to lead people to set up a leather factory, specializing in the production of all kinds of leather bags. I have already thought of the name of the leather factory, and it will be called Jiangnan Leather Factory."

Then he smiled and asked, "Queen, do you have a real sister?"

"Your Majesty, my concubine has been with you for nearly 20 years. Don't you know who is in my family? Where did I get my own sister?"

"It's a pity, I lost a sister-in-law." Li Cunming said, putting his arms around Queen Zhou, "The Jiangnan leather factory will collapse, and my sister-in-law will run away. Only I will accompany you to grow old!"

(End of this chapter)