Valley Emperor

The Datang Dynasty was not the Ming Dynasty, nor was it dominated by the gentry and big businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River, but by the rebels who were born in the mud. Although the Datang Dynasty also adopted various policies to ease the relationship with the landlords and gentry, it also Just easing.

In fact, in the process of the continuous expansion of the Tang Dynasty, there were many rich and rich landlords who were seized and exterminated by the Tang Dynasty. Otherwise, how do you think the Tang Dynasty supported the huge consumption of the 100,000 army?

A considerable part of the military spending comes from the rich and powerful families of landlords whose families have been raided and exterminated!

Under the strict salt monopoly system, the original salt merchants either resisted and continued to sell illicit salt and were raided and exterminated, or they began to transform. These salt merchants are very rich, and the salt business cannot be done. There are other things that can be done. For example, Datang now encourages industry and commerce, maritime trade, especially industry, so many smart salt merchants have started other businesses, and they are still living quite well.

This also ensures that the salt tax in the Tang Dynasty is fully guaranteed. Although there are still a large number of private salt sales, the salt tax has increased significantly compared with the Ming Dynasty. It is estimated that the salt tax in Xuanping three years. The income can reach about 1.5 million taels, more than 1 million taels a year, just the beginning!

Under the salt tax, there are customs duties, and then there is the tea tax, and other bits and pieces of taxes!

A total of three years of Datang's fiscal revenue constituted Xuanping: 9 million!

This figure is almost two or three times the central fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty. You must know that the central fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty is notoriously low. It is only a few million taels a year. In many years, it is only three or four million taels. It's only silver, and the silver in the treasury is only a few million taels.

Therefore, it is actually very easy to become rich and rival the country these days. Many businessmen can do it, and even some senior officials have a net worth much higher than the country's annual income.

However, although the financial revenue of the Tang Dynasty was already high, it was far from enough compared to the huge financial expenditure of the Tang Dynasty.

In the three years of Xuanping, the military budget alone exceeded the threshold of 10 million taels of silver!

Then, in addition to military expenses, a dynasty's financial expenditures include other expenses, such as administrative expenses. Even if this is a few millions, it is impossible for the Tang Dynasty to be the same as the Ming Dynasty. This is paid to officials every year. Dozens of taels of silver, and then let the officials go greedy for money, the Datang Dynasty did not treat the officials very generously, but it also allowed the officials to live a decent life.

Secondly, water conservancy construction, urban construction, industrial and commercial development, etc. in various places need money. The budget of the cabinet is that even if Xuanping saves in three years, the administrative expenses still need more than three million taels.

After all, the current Datang Dynasty is no longer a king of mountains. After all, it is also a local regime with three provinces and a 100,000-strong army. For the formal Datang Dynasty, to maintain its rule, a lot of expenses are Unavoidable.

At present, the main expenditure of the Tang Dynasty is only military and administrative expenses, but the sum of these two amounts to 13 million. A gap of one million taels of silver!

Seeing such a huge number, Li Xuan felt a headache!

Such a gap is not easy to solve. Even if there will be a follow-up to the seizure of the Ming Dynasty's official property, the property of the vassal, and the floating income of the Ming Dynasty officials' property, but the fat pigs like King Jingjiang are rare!

The huge financial deficit also made Li Xuan choose to give up his plan to continue to expand the army for the first time!

He even had plans to suspend the offensive on some fronts first to save the cost of the battle.

For example, in Yunnan, there is no hair, and you won't be able to get anything good after you shoot it down, but it requires a lot of troops and a lot of military expenditure. The resistance of the local chieftains and the Ming army is not violent, but However, they have always insisted on resisting, and all kinds of enemy troops have simply killed one wave after another.

Although the financial gap is huge, the war is still going on, and the war in some directions cannot be stopped, especially the war in Huguang, which has entered the most critical moment, and must maintain the army in Huguang direction. Sufficient supply, so as to be able to capture the southern part of Huguang and Guangxi, and step out of the even land of Guangdong and Guangxi.

The financial gap of up to 4 million taels of silver has been pressing on Li Xuan's appreciation, so that when the Spring Festival arrives, Li Xuan is frowning!

The Spring Festival is here, which means that we have entered Xuanping for three years. Although strictly speaking, the Tang Dynasty has only been three years and two months since its establishment, but in terms of chronology, it can be said to be stepping into It's the fifth year.

On New Year's Eve, Li Xuan, following the practice of the previous two years, began to entertain the ministers in the palace. Naturally, this banquet must maintain a royal style, so there are all kinds of delicacies from mountains and seas.

However, the money spent is not the silver in the treasury, but the silver in the royal family's own internal treasury. It can't even be said to be the royal family's funds allocated in the treasury, because this money is basically invested by Li Xuan into the guards. , as part of military spending.

Even the royal treasury, that is, the emperor's personal money, except for a few to continue to build the palace, most of the rest was invested in the guards.

The royal family can run mice if the library is empty, so how to solve the living expenses of the royal family?

That's because most of the expenses of the royal family now come from the private money of the Queen Mother!

Yes, that's right, it's Empress Dowager Bai's private money!

If you count the royal family and even officials of the entire Tang Dynasty, the Empress Dowager Bai is definitely the richest one. Since the era of Xingquan Mansion, the treasury and the internal treasury of the Tang Dynasty have been clearly divided, while the private house of the Empress Dowager Bai is relatively clear. Money has nothing to do with the royal treasury either.

The royal treasury is Li Xuan's private property, or the entire royal family's property. There are several main sources, one part is the royal family's funds allocated from the fiscal revenue, and the other part comes from the royal village, these royal villages. Most of the confiscated Ming Dynasty official fields and land of vassal kings were used for distribution to soldiers, and the other part was controlled by the royal family and became part of Huangzhuang.

Part of it comes from the commercial profits of some industries and businesses invested by Li Xuan. Li Xuan, however, has set up an imperial obstetrics department under the Imperial Academy to invest in and manage royal assets, and has also invested in the establishment of several factories in the name of the imperial obstetrics department. .

For example, there are soap factories, paper factories, and glass factories. Among them, the glass factories are still in the stage of construction and research and development. Why, because until now, the Datang Dynasty has not figured out how to make transparent glass.

There are also several factories dedicated to supporting the arsenals under the Ministry of Industry, such as lumber factories, machinery factories, and iron smelting factories.

Although the scale of these royal factories is relatively small, far from being comparable to the large factories of the Ministry of Industry, the profits are actually not low.

In addition, the assets in the imperial treasury also include confiscated items that are difficult to cash in in a short period of time, or valuable treasures, paintings and calligraphy, etc., but these things are used as decorations in the palace or given to courtiers, not many Liquid value can be ignored.

Although the royal treasury has a lot of assets, in fact, in order to maintain the expenses of the guards, it is actually a pauper.

But Empress Dowager Bai had a lot of money on hand, and Empress Dowager Bai had a lot of money in private houses. Later, like Li Xuan, she appointed her confidants to invest in factories outside, and she also followed Li Xuan's advice to invest in the textile industry. Quite abundant.

Of course, although these assets of Empress Dowager Bai are also owned by the royal family in name, but Li Xuan, a son, is naturally not good at taking money from Empress Dowager Bai's private property, which is why the current situation is caused.

Fortunately, the Empress Dowager Bai is rich, otherwise, the royal family with an empty imperial treasury might not even have the money to hold the Spring Festival state banquet.

After the Spring Festival state banquet was over, Li Xuan also returned to the harem and continued to eat a family banquet. In the New Year's Eve, he had to eat two meals. During the day, he had to eat the state banquet with his ministers, and at night he had to eat with his family. feast.

The next day, Li Xuan took a rare day off. Instead of going out to work, he stayed in the harem to accompany the Queen Mother and a group of concubines. She also watched several operas with the Queen Mother. Li Xuan was dizzy. Bloated!

A dance connoisseur who is used to seeing rows of long legs and turbulent waves twisting and turning on the stage, to be honest, he is really not interested in the sturdy and babbling operas in front of him. .

If he had to watch operas or dance dramas, yes, he would prefer to watch the dances performed by the dancers in the palace in private occasions in the harem~www.wuxiaspot.com~ Why do I like to watch it, four words: veil and thin wings!

However, Queen Mother Bai and the others were very interested in watching this Kunqu Opera. Even the pregnant Empress Dong was very interested in watching it. From time to time, she would say something to the daughters of the Dong family who came to the palace to pay New Year's greetings to see her.

Now the Dong family has long been trapped in the Tang Dynasty, unable to extricate themselves. Not only the daughter of the Dong family has become the empress of the Tang Dynasty, but even the direct descendants of the Dong family are now all entering the Tang Dynasty to join the army or act.

Father Dong, who used to be an official in the south of the Yangtze River, was also rescued by the special envoy sent out early. Originally, Father Dong wanted to commit suicide to show his allegiance to the Ming Dynasty, but I don’t know why I figured it out. Now it’s honest. In fact, he was an official in the Tang Dynasty, and now he is serving in the Ministry of Rites.

After a day's rest, the next day, the second day of the new year, Li Xuan had already started normal work. The army was still fighting fiercely with the Ming army in Huguang. They couldn't spend a happy Spring Festival, and many government affairs still remained. Waiting for him to deal with this situation, whether it is him or the middle and high-level officials in the Tang Dynasty, in fact, can not rest for too long.

However, when Li Xuan started to read the first memorial, he frowned instantly, then pressed the bell, and said to a lecturer who pushed in the door: "Hold a cabinet meeting immediately!"