Lord of Ming Dynasty

Mi Chun was not influenced by him, but continued: "In addition, there are 8000 militiamen in Jinhua Prefecture, and more than 3 garrison troops. Up to now, it has cost 11 taels. In addition, it has cost 5 taels to build a new recruit training camp. Their supplies of food and grass have cost 19 taels. The captive camp has cost [-] taels to accommodate prisoners, transport materials, and add various materials and weapons. [-] taels of silver, this is for the army."

Zhang Qiang lost his eyes, his heart was beating violently, there was no increase in the military salary, the military expenditure was so large, it was not just the military salary, and other aspects were needed to make the army operate, and the military expenditure attributed to the government was so large, This has exceeded my expectations.

Mi Chun continued: "In addition, this year to resettle the refugees, the government will spend 8000 million taels on operations, 15 taels on buying land from landlords, 10 taels on buying clothes, food, building houses, and farm tools, totaling 26 taels. "

This amount is larger.

And then there is.

Mi Chun went on to say: "Jinhua Mansion operates as the capital of the Jinhua Rebel Army. Jinhua Mansion bears all the military expenditures of the Jinhua Rebel Army. This expenditure used a total of 58 taels of silver, and another 20 taels was allocated to Taizhou Mansion. Allocate 30 taels to the arsenal, my lord, allocate 10 taels to the artillery factory Jinhuafu factory you are planning to build, and 20 taels to factories in the other two prefectures, and 11 taels to build defenses against the Qing army,... ,"

Zhang Qiang has already covered his face. If you are not in charge, you don’t know how expensive Chai Mi is. So the total is 1409 million taels, and the other total is 160 million taels. Jinhua Mansion bears the responsibility of the capital of the Jinhua Rebel Army. This expenditure, It really made Zhang Qiang feel embarrassed and dumbfounded. Is this a huge expenditure of tens of thousands of taels that I can afford?

Mi Chun finally calculated that in the one and a half years since the establishment of the Jinhua Rebel Army, the expenditure reached 230 million taels.

"What income do we have, can it offset these expenses?" Zhang Qiang asked.

Mi Chun took a breath, "Sir, we seized 10 taels for the first time, 20 taels for the second time, and 19 million taels for the third time. This is enough for our expenses in the first half of the year, and in the next year, we have already Owning most of Jinhua Mansion and Taizhou Mansion, a lot of materials and silver have been seized one after another. These can offset the food and material needs of the army and the people, as well as your money expenditure for rewarding soldiers, all major items The expenses are all spent fighting against the Qing army in the second half of the year, and after the meeting."

"Although we seized a lot these two times, and the emperor rewarded us with a million taels of silver, our Jinhua Mansion obtained a total of 130 million taels of silver, but you dredged the river, although you used captives, but the captives have to eat , clothing, and the army guards, which also requires expenses, repairing roads, building fortifications, repairing the county seat, and building the Governor’s Palace, these expenses total 90 taels.”

"Afterwards, it has been used in civil affairs, such as building new water conservancy facilities, building private schools, and accepting refugees. The expenditure has exceeded these funds. In the past year and a half, our tax revenue has only been a mere 30 taels. Therefore, my lord, we in Jinhua The government’s current finances are beyond their means.”

The whole place was silent.

Zhang Qiang thought for a while, then raised his hand to signal Zhou Porridge to report.

Zhou Porridge took the master's account book, opened it, raised his head and glanced at everyone, his eyes were slightly beaming with joy.

"My lord, since the restoration of the Taizhou government eight months ago, a total of 84 taels of silver have been seized, 15 taels of tax revenue, 73 taels of expenditure, and a balance of 25 taels. The report is over."

"It's over?" Zhang Qiang was also puzzled, why is this guy so brief, he was just about to chatter like Mi Chun, but he was listening to Zhou Congee's nagging, Zhou Congee had already finished talking, and he couldn't react too quickly .

"Yes, my lord, the report is over." Zhou Congee said proudly.

"Don't you just say it carefully, what aspect do you need to strengthen, and what aspect do you need everyone's help?" Zhang Qiang asked cautiously.

"My lord, it's not that troublesome. How much money is there, how much money is used, how much money is left over, isn't that enough?" Zhou Congee asked with a strange look.

"Okay, sit down first." Zhang Qiang pressed his hand to him, motioning him to sit down.

Then he asked You Haibo: "Prefect You, how about you?"

You Haibo is actually not used to sitting down and discussing issues with everyone. As a member of the Ming Dynasty, he is still used to the way of emperors and ministers, but when facing the Jinhua Rebel Army team dominated by young people, he has to accept it. Trying to find a position in the imperial court, but everyone there has a group of classmates, partners, the same year, or something, a gang guy, it's not something he, a country tycoon, can get in, so he can only come back and continue to serve Zhang Qiang.

He bowed and saluted, "Your Excellency," then raised his head, and reported loudly without looking at the account books.

"Chuzhou now has a total of 34 taels of silver, 21 taels of tax revenue, 38 taels of the previous war, and 8 taels of silver from the sale of tax materials, and 5 taels of silver from the sale of captured fishing boats, grain, and weapons and armor. "

"Expenditure? Repair the city wall, armor equipment, feed horses with 8 taels of silver; militiamen eight thousand, garrison force three thousand, a total expenditure of 3000 taels; open up wasteland, attract refugees, give out porridge for refugees, build houses, spend one 8000 taels; with the increase in construction of water conservancy, digging rivers, encouraging farming and mulberry, etc., the expenditure of the yamen will increase significantly, but these expenses are currently maintained at around 5 taels.

Since the recovery of the Chuzhou government, and now more than half a year, the Chuzhou government has spent a total of 56 taels of silver. Generally speaking, the expenditure is greater than the income. If it were not for the previous seizures, the Chuzhou government would not be able to make ends meet. "

After speaking, Yu Haibo sat down.

Zhang Qiang rubbed his forehead, and glanced at everyone, everyone frowned, because their expenditures were greater than their incomes.

This is still in the case that most of the projects in the territory are contracted to the captives, otherwise the expenses alone will overwhelm the magistrates at all levels.

If this is the case, let’s not mention the increase in military pay. It can be seen that the income of the magistrates at all levels is mainly the income captured in these few battles to pay for the operation of the territory. bankrupted.

Zhang Qiang continued to rub his forehead. He was not a high-achieving student with a degree in economics. He was just a part-time worker. He didn't know how to run a government office, let alone how to make money.

Chapter 153 Wartime System Solve Economic Problems

Zhang Qiang doesn't know how to run the entire territory. Without income, the territory will go bankrupt. He can't go out to fight every time he runs out of money, and seize the enemy's property and distribute it to everyone, right?

Wei Wuji glanced at Zhang Qiang, "My lord, I have a solution."

Zhang Qiang looked at Wei Wuji.

Wei Wuji said: "My lord, if you want to reduce expenses, you only need to turn everyone into soldiers."

Zhang Qiang opened his eyes wide, "That's right, militarized management and wartime rationing system make it impossible for all people to buy things even if they have money, hehe, wouldn't this save a lot of money?"

"Yes, that's it," Zhang Qiang patted the table.

You Haibo glared and stood up, "Sir, this will deal a great blow to us. In this case, the common people will not come to our territory again, and those outstanding Ming scholars will not come to us again. It would be a catastrophe for recruiting talents and restoring an economy disrupted by the war, and our finances would be even more stretched if no businessmen came to our territory to do business."

Zhou Porridge stood up and said happily, "My lord, this is great, so that those merchants will no longer be able to sell grain, and they will not be able to raise prices casually."

Zhang Qiang nodded slightly, "Yes, I just realized now that it is the merchants who forced us to increase the soldiers' salaries. Why should we be so passive, to give in to the merchants and satisfy their greed? We are the government. Just do it."

Zhang Qiang stood up, "Now I order," everyone quickly stood up, the governor himself stood up, who would dare to sit in front of the governor.

"One month from tomorrow, we will slowly transfer to the wartime system. Everyone will accept militarized management. From the economy to the basic necessities of the people, we will slowly transfer to the wartime system."

"In the first week starting from tomorrow, of the 1 prisoners of war captured this time, 8000 people were left in Jinhua Prefecture, 2000 were allocated to Taizhou Prefecture, 5000 to Quzhou Prefecture, 3000 to Chuzhou Prefecture, and 2000 to Chuzhou Prefecture. In Wenzhou Prefecture, the remaining [-] people will be given to the navy, and of course the fishermen and pirates in the future must be screened out, and these people will become officers and soldiers of the navy to enrich our navy."

"Within one week from tomorrow, all merchants in the territory will be ordered to sell grain to the territory at a price 20.00% higher than the price before the price increase. If they do not comply, they will be seized directly. Except for [-]% of the seized grain, [-]% will be reserved for distribution by several prefectural government offices Other than that, the others were transported to the official warehouse of the Governor's Mansion in Jinhua Prefecture for storage.

For the cooperative merchants, the military quartermaster of the Governor’s Mansion will contact them for purchase in the future, and the food supplies of the three prefectures will need to be allocated through the Governor’s Mansion’s Quartermaster’s Department. The Governor's Mansion has dual management, which is divided into distribution of food and other materials. "

"From now on, the transaction of gold and silver and other currencies is prohibited within one month. The governor's office will issue grain tickets to exchange for the grain and gold and silver in the hands of the people. The gold and silver will be stored in the governor's mansion and various magistrates' yamen. The magistrate's yamen will store very little according to needs. The gold and silver were used for foreign trade, and the rest were handed over to the special grain bureau set up by the governor's office."

You Haibo shouted in surprise: "The yamen of the Grain Bureau manages gold and silver?"

Zhang Qiang replied seriously: "Yes, because our food stamps have replaced gold and silver as money. Only food stamps are allowed to circulate internally, and gold and silver are used externally. We issue grain stamps based on the amount of grain and gold and silver stored. Therefore, the Grain Bureau, the yamen under the Governor’s Mansion, manages money, and in the future I will set up a department such as a bank to manage this kind of exchange business.”

Wei Wuji said: "My lord, how will the military salary be distributed?"

Zhang Qiang said: "Use the silver seized earlier to pay the soldiers. This month, it will be distributed as usual, with an increase of [-]% to the soldiers. But next month, when the food stamps are printed, all the gold, silver and copper coins in the hands of the soldiers will be returned to the governor. Government Food Bureau, in the future, we can only use food stamps to buy things and supplies in our territory."

Zhou Porridge was happy, "Master Governor, doesn't that mean we can print as many as we want? We don't need to give them gold and silver?"

Zhang Qiang shook his head, "No, our food stamps have to correspond to gold and silver. In the future, our money will be divided into: fen, mao, and yuan, corresponding to the current Wen, fen, qian, and the value of two grades of gold and silver."

Xuanyuan Longfei touched his head, and said with some annoyance: "Master, I don't understand."

"Hehe," Zhang Qiang laughed, "that means that copper coins used to be written, but now we have changed them to cents, a cent of silver, and everyone uses silver pliers to weigh them. What a trouble, we use banknotes instead of broken silver. Just write down how many cents it is. You don’t need to spend money on fire or weighing. For some taels, we expressed them in numbers, which is equivalent to one tael, two taels, and so on."

Xuanyuan Longfei still didn't seem to understand, Zhang Qiang looked at Zhou Porridge, "Prefect Zhou, please explain."

Among these few people, the one who knows him best is probably Zhou Porridge, his servant who followed him earlier. He is savvy, does not grab or take possession, and is very loyal. Therefore, Zhang Qiang asked Zhou Porridge to explain, believing that he can tell the ugly Yinmao.

Sure enough, Zhou Porridge thought for a while, and said to everyone: "I don't know if what I said is right, everyone, listen to it, and let adults explain if it is wrong."

He paused for a while, and waited for everyone to focus on him before he said: "I think that one penny is one cent, two pennies is two cents, five pennies is five cents, ten pennies is one cent, and twenty pennies is one cent." It is two cents, fifty cents is fifty cents, one hundred coins is one yuan, two hundred coins is two yuan, five hundred coins is five yuan, one thousand coins is ten yuan, and one thousand four hundred coins is fifteen yuan Money is equivalent to one tael of silver, I don’t know if this is right, sir, do you think?”