Lu Ming

After figuring this out, Chongzhen was no longer obsessed with transferring Cao Zongbing to Liaodong to garrison.

The following tea party entered another topic: military spending.

Speaking of which, Cao Zongbing began to ask the two elders to reimburse military expenses in front of the emperor. How much? 30 taels.

This number stunned the emperor and Zhou Yanru.

Then Lord Shoufu resolutely expressed his disbelief, and once again questioned Cao Zongbing's mouth in the lion.Cao Zongbing complained endlessly, not only settled the accounts on the spot, but also took out the official documents that Xiong Wencan had collected for him for 20 taels of military expenses.

This suddenly aroused the emperor's interest: Fujian is a poor province, and there is never enough to eat. Where did the 20 taels of silver come from?

This time Zongbing Cao finally got his chance, so he slammed the old bear in front of the emperor. Pull down the face and shave the ground three feet, interview/extort/donate merchants and gentry.In the end, it was found that the money was still not enough, so Lao Xiong could only endure the humiliation and rent out all the houses facing the street of the governor's yamen to merchants. Only then did he collect enough 20 taels of silver for Cao Zongbing.

After listening to Cao Zongbing's emotional story, the young emperor was immediately moved, and his eyes turned a little red: "Okay, okay, Xiong Wencan is doing well. I don't blame him for scraping the ground!"

At this time, the emperor finally established a basic concept in his mind: if he wanted to use the heads of the Tartars as a ball, the previous way would not work. It would cost money, spend money, spend a lot of money, and rely on beggars to win the war .

Cao Zongbing's story is well told, but unfortunately some people still don't buy it.Although Zhou Yanru is only 45 years old, those who can become the chief assistant must be old foxes. How can he be influenced by chicken soup jokes?

Not only that, Zhou Shoufu also found a flaw in Cao Zongbing's words-since the 20 taels were paid by the Fujian governor's yamen, then the household department and Xiong Wencan went to fight the famine.As for you Mr. Cao, the cabinet will consider researching and researching in the future. Probably, you may be reimbursed 10 taels.

Well, on this issue, Cao Zongbing can only admit it.Everyone knows that the imperial court is poor. He didn't expect to get money from the household department in the first place. He said that this topic was mainly to brag about the emperor.

After talking about the military expenses, it came to the last important topic: the emperor and the two assistant ministers began to discuss the formal arrangement of Cao Zongbing.Of course, as a great hero, Cao Zongbing also got the opportunity to listen in and express his opinions.

If you don't go to Liaodong, Cao Zongbing's position is actually very well arranged.

Whether it is to rise one level from the existing Zhangchao deputy commander-in-chief, or go to Guangdong and Fujian to serve as the deputy commander-in-chief, the emperor said that it can be considered, and heroes should not be treated badly.

At this time, it was Wen Tiren's turn to step forward.Because it is impossible for Zongbing Cao to express his position on this kind of matter, he can only humbly express that my old Cao listens to the emperor.

Wen Tiren's plan is very simple: just increase the rank of Deputy General Cao by one level.The reason is also very good: there are currently no vacancies for the commander-in-chief in Guangdong and Fujian. If you have to promote Cao Zongbing to Fujian and Guangdong, it will involve a series of personnel transfers, which is very troublesome.

A little history has changed here: in the Ming Dynasty, there was no Zhangchao general soldier, only the deputy general soldier, and the general soldier would not appear until the Qing Dynasty.

Seeing Wen Tiren talking eloquently, presenting the facts and making sense, Chongzhen secretly nodded inwardly.Actor Wen's view of the overall situation satisfied the emperor... As expected of a lonely minister, even Cao Zongbing, who sent him into the cabinet, could fool him.

For the emperor, the commander-in-chief of Fujian and Guangdong provinces, at least for now, cannot be handed over to Pirate Cao—even though the emperor said that he can choose the seat at will, but after all, he is the real commander-in-chief in charge of the army and horses of a province, that's all The emperor must have made a fuss about granting the title to Pirate Cao.

In history, Chongzhen appointed Zheng Zhilong as the commander-in-chief of Fujian, and that would have to be in 1640, when the Ming Dynasty was precarious.But now because of the great victory, Chongzhen is full of enthusiasm, and he still plans to be the master of ZTE, so naturally he will not let the warlords grow bigger.No matter how much credit Cao Zongbing has, what should be suppressed secretly should still be suppressed.

Therefore, the plan proposed by Wen Tiren is the most suitable for the emperor's mind: Zhang Chao's deputy commander-in-chief is promoted to the commander-in-chief. It seems that he has been promoted to a higher level, but it is actually useless.Cao Zongbing is still the same soldiers and territory as before, and he still has no right to command the officers and soldiers of Fujian and Guangdong.

However, the time-traveling crowd also thought so.

Right now, Daming has no defenses at sea, and its officers and soldiers are decadent, so they can only barely fight soy sauce in the coastal areas.Cao Zongbing is in this relatively unique position of Zhangchao Zongbing with both ends, which is equivalent to actually bringing the coastal areas of Fujian and Guangdong into his own jurisdiction. This is the most important thing.

As for what Chongzhen was worried about, the people who traveled through didn't care.Anyway, he can't rebel right now, and instead of being the commander-in-chief of a province, his hands are tied.

When the first and second assistants nodded to this plan, the emperor followed suit and promoted Cao Chuan to the commander-in-chief of Zhangchao on the spot.Then Cao Zongbing took the order to thank you, and then everyone smiled with blessings on their faces, and it was impossible to see who was silently saying the word "stupid" in their hearts.

After the canonization was completed, he probably felt a bit of a pang in his conscience, so the emperor asked Cao Zhongchen to promptly report the list of those who made meritorious service in this battle, "for the best use".

As for the meritorious personnel, Cao Zongbing really has nothing to report here.In the next few years, the cross-travelers will follow a low-key development route in the north, so they don't plan to recommend a shiny agent, standing there to be targeted by the Guanning Army and the Donglin Party.

Like Wen Tiren and Li Jichun, the second and fifth boy, Cao Zongbing has now pretended not to know these two.The reason was that they were afraid that after he left, the two of them would be labeled as one of Cao's party.

However, although there is no recommendation list, Cao Zongbing still needs to mention it.After finally earning some credit, it must be exchanged for something from the emperor.

So Zongbing Cao put forward the following two requirements.

First: open the sub-base.

According to Cao Zongbing, this time he led his troops to serve the king. The reason why he stayed in Tianjin at the beginning was because the supplies did not keep up. On the other hand, a large number of southern soldiers fell ill.

When the southerners came to the north, they were not acclimatized to the environment, coupled with unaccustomed diet and poor accommodation conditions, etc., which led to his imposing commander-in-chief for a time.

So Cao Zongbing took this opportunity to apply to the emperor today, hoping to designate a piece of land in Shandong and Tianjin for him to build a military port.In this way, he can usually hoard supplies locally, and when the next time he serves as the king, the soldiers can quickly finish their rest and go to battle after arriving at the station.

Cao Zongbing's request was reasonable and reasonable, and the emperor would definitely agree to it——Huang Taiji returned with a full load this time, and he knew with his heels that the Houjin bandits would definitely find an opportunity to enter the customs.At that time, Cao Zongbing will definitely come in handy.

Chongzhen immediately nodded and agreed to this request.

By this time, the benefits of the time-traveling crowd supporting Wen Tiren's entry into the cabinet became apparent.There is no need for Lao Wen to make wind and rain, it is precisely because of these inconspicuous, but crucial political affairs for the people of the crossing.

For example, in the subsequent official correspondence, Lao Wen could seemingly arbitrarily designate a certain place in Shandong Province that was favored by the public for the construction of a military port.The emperor doesn't care about such trivial matters.

After the first request was met, Cao Zongbing's second request was a little weird: Macau.

Yes, according to what Cao Zongbing said: the Franji people entrenched in Macau not only robbed him of the arms trade in the Indian Ocean, but also opposed him on many sea trade routes.

Cao Zongbing now formally proposes to the emperor: let him personally pay for troops and horses, and take back Macau without spending a penny from the court.

Cao Zongbing also promised: After the matter is completed, he will return Macau to the imperial court, and the imperial court will send regular civil officials to manage it.

Although this topic was embarrassing, the other people present understood that if this was really the case, Cao Zongbing would be considered to be expanding his territory.

Chapter 480 Land Purchase Policy

Is Macau small?very small.

But this piece of land the size of a palm has now become an ink spot on the face of this giant, Daming.This is called toad crawling on the feet, not biting people, but responding to people.

It would be a bit unfair to say that the monarch and his ministers do not have the concept of "maintaining the territorial integrity of the country". The concept of "Jin Ou Wu Que" has existed since ancient times.Otherwise, why did the imperial court beat the Dutch to death in Penghu?You must know that Penghu is in the middle of the strait, and its distance from the mainland far exceeds that of Macau.

The key question is: the Portuguese used the "insert" method correctly.

From the beginning to the end, the attitude of the Portuguese in dealing with Ming officials was very low.

From the beginning of "borrowing land to sell goods" to the later construction of Macau City, no matter how strong the Portuguese are behind the scenes, they have always maintained a humble attitude on the bright side.Using this kind of diplomacy is very effective when dealing with bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty who think they are in the sky.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty did not hesitate to mobilize the army to fight against the hard-line Dutch, but relaxed its vigilance against the Franji people who were close at hand, and was "kicked" by the camels a little bit under the tent of Macau.

However, to this day, when the monarchs and ministers of the Ming Dynasty discovered that Franji's ghosts and animals were already too big to lose in Macau, I'm sorry, it's too late!

In fact, at the end of the Wanli period, officials of the Ming Dynasty had already realized this trend: the Ming Dynasty used it to guard the capital and Ningyuan, and the red-clothed cannons that were regarded as treasures can be seen everywhere on artillery factories, forts and warships in Macau.

The officials of the Ming Dynasty were not stupid, so they naturally understood at this time that it was unrealistic to forcefully drive away the Frangji people.Even after the Ming Dynasty adopted soft measures such as cutting off food and terminating trade, this just showed that the court lacked confidence.

It is impossible to say that the emperor and his ministers did not know the situation in Macau.The memorials sent from various channels in Guangdong often mentioned Macau, and whenever the Portuguese made troubles, the posts of Yushi and Sansi would be sent to the capital as soon as possible.

Everyone now knows that that piece of land has in fact been self-governed by the Portuguese.Daming's feeble jurisdiction is not so much jurisdiction as the Portuguese deliberately lowered their heads in order to take care of the face of the "sovereign country".

So when Uncle Zhongyong brought up the matter of Macau, the expressions of those present were inevitably a little strange.After all, someone has uncovered the scars, so it's not enough to pretend that you can't see them lightly.

From the first reaction, the emperor had no reason to reject the proposal.According to Uncle Zhongyong, he went to Macau to contract labor and materials by himself, and was also responsible for handing over the house after the renovation. Where did he find such a good guy?

But the emperor thought about it again, and felt that this matter should not be so hasty - easily allowing someone Cao to use weapons in a distant place, and the court was too far away, would it lead to a series of follow-up reactions such as this person's arrogance and domineering in Guangdong in the future?

In addition, although this matter does not seem to be a big deal, after all, the Franji people must be uprooted, and the opinions of the court, including the official circles in Guangdong, must also be considered comprehensively.Thinking of this, Chongzhen's expression became hesitant.

Zhou Yanru, the chief assistant at the side, saw the emperor's face, and he came to power relying on his own thoughts, and immediately expressed his thoughts on behalf of the emperor: "This is a big matter, and we still need to discuss it with the courtiers, and we will discuss it later." discuss."

When the emperor heard this, he nodded in time, and the matter was temporarily shelved.

Cao Zongbing didn't say anything when he saw this situation.Originally, this proposal was just to say hello in advance, and it could also be said to be a ceremony before soldiers—on the day when the cross-travelers wanted to clean up the Portuguese, the sky was high and the emperor was far away, who would care whether Chongzhen agreed or not?

Afterwards, casually writing a memorial to the court that "a small friction led to a sudden war" is considered a face-saving. Could the emperor still let Cao Zongbing return Macau to Franji?Aren't you afraid that the Tartars are coming, and Cao Zongbing won't go to serve the king?

Today is different from the past, the importance of Cao Zongbing is no longer something that the emperor can handle casually.So as long as he thought about it afterwards, the emperor would definitely not slap himself in the face and quarrel with Cao Zhongchen over such a trivial matter.

Besides, it is now April 1630, not long after a certain governor of Guangdong died of overwork.At that time, the newly appointed governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Xiong Wencan, and the local hardline officials in Guangdong who have always advocated driving away the Franks will launch a wave of petitions. How can the court stop it?

Cao Zongbing's visit to the palace this time, after the consultation on the Macau issue, it was considered a successful conclusion.

Generally speaking, the atmosphere of the tea party in the imperial garden was quite harmonious between the guests and the host. It can be said that the emperor himself did his best to win over Cao Zhongchen.From the perspective of the Ninth Five-Year Supreme, Chongzhen's posture is very low today, which is quite rare.

Cao Zongbing basically got what his family wanted.The most important point is to get out of the mess in the north and return to a detached strategic position where you can advance, attack, retreat, and defend, while getting the results planned by King Qin.

After the tea party, Cao Zongbing had the honor of being treated to dinner by the emperor.After being half full on the imperial banquet, the three courtiers bid farewell to His Majesty with expressions of gratitude on their faces, and went back home.

……

From the moment he left the palace, Cao Zongbing entered the countdown to go home, but before that, there was still a lot of work to be done.

For the next period of time, although Cao Zongbing said that he would go to court every day, no one paid any attention to him at this time.If the civil servants don't talk about generals, then according to the rules of the court, this general is really a human background board, and he has no right to speak on world affairs. This is an unspoken rule.

But every day when he goes to court, after Cao Zongbing returns home, the old man is very busy.

Due to the previous land purchase policy, Zhongyongbo's mansion was crowded with people.Honorable officials from all walks of life came to visit one after another, and then Cao Zongbing had no choice but to feast wildly, drinking from get off work until late at night, explaining the land purchase policy to the guests over and over again.

Within a few days, Uncle Zhongyong, who is honorable and noble in the whole capital, has almost made friends with half of them. The "older brother" and "brother" have recognized countless, and Uncle Zhongyong has completely turned into a sweet pastry.

At the same time, large-scale renovations have also begun on the street frontages of Uncle Zhongyong's Mansion: Zhezifang and the head office of commerce will be opened here.

Zhezifang is the Beijing office of later generations.Local officials at the level of Uncle Zhongyong usually set up an office in the capital to send and receive letters and documents on weekdays, as well as complete other tasks assigned by the boss.

Zhezifang in Uncle Zhongyong's Mansion and Northern Commercial and Trade Corporation have two teams and one team, and the host is Xue Haiyuan, the head of the Beijing Station, who has a very inconspicuous official position.In other words, there are actually three sets of teams here, and outsiders of Beijing Railway Station will naturally not know.

Although Xue Jingjing's official position is small, he is also very popular at the moment - it is impossible for civil servants in the capital to openly visit a Qiu Ba, so he had to send his confidantes or family members to visit Xue Jingjing.

Those who can find Xue Jing are naturally not those poor Beijing officials who can't afford to change their official robes.

Generally speaking, those who dare to take out 5 taels of silver to test the water must be those wealthy gentry who have been wearing hairpins for many generations.As for the first-generation family formed by Xinke Scholars, these people have not accumulated enough, so they cannot get involved.

Xue Haiyuan naturally treated all the stewards who came to him to clear the account of the master.Even though the owner of this family was still spraying his own adults in the hall before, Xue Jing still greeted these people with a smile on his face, and held several business promotion meetings in succession, and publicly explained Tainan's land purchase policy to all gods.

All in all, the land purchase policy launched by Travelers is still very appetizing to Ming people.

First of all, the first point, which is also the point that everyone is most concerned about, in terms of taxation, Xue Jing has publicly made a promise: no matter what the harvest after everyone buys the land, the Zhongyong Bofu will not collect a penny of agricultural tax, this promise will always be valid!

In traditional agriculture, apart from the hidden fields, the landlords have to pay agricultural tax on the fields that are revealed.This tax was the most important tax in the feudal dynasty, and it rose step by step at the end of the Ming Dynasty. The three additional rates collected by Chongzhen were all scraped from the world's agricultural taxes.

After confirming that there is no taxation, the gods of all walks of life are full of confidence in this investment plan: this is equivalent to buying [-] mu of hidden land, and all the harvest only needs to be shared with the tenants.

And in front of such a huge force, Uncle Zhongyong would not dare to speak out even if he thought about it.

The people who participated in the purchase of land this time were almost all bigwigs from the capital and powerful gentry from all over the country, including civil and military officials from the Manchu Dynasty, and even top relatives such as the imperial concubine Guozhan—this force can basically represent the imperial court , didn't you see the emperor and didn't say anything?Therefore, it is impossible for Uncle Zhongyong to renege on his debts.

However, the time-traveling crowd will never talk without counting.

Today's Tainan has long been built into a standard industrialized society by the time traveler.The gentlemen in the capital don't understand the horrors of industrialized society at all... As long as the government is willing, there are countless channels to collect those agricultural taxes in disguise.

However, the old men can be thankful that in order to avoid fishing from exhaustion, the crossing crowd will not do that.As long as someone is willing to invest in Tainan at this point in time, the people who are hungry for resources must ensure that the investor is profitable.

This guarantee is very precious.In fact, at the investment promotion meeting held by Xue Haiyuan, he not only promised not to collect agricultural taxes, but also promised that all farmland public facilities, including reservoirs, roads, canals, etc., would be built and repaired by Uncle Zhongyong. at this point.

Hearing this policy of supporting agriculture, which is very common in later generations, the gentry from all over the country who are often "persuaded" by local officials to donate money to build roads are also very happy, and finally they have been taken advantage of!

After the benefits are given out, the next condition, the cross-travelers showed their fangs: Every land buyer must be in Tianjin or Shanghai, and in the future, Shandong and other places, and transport them to the private port opened by Zhongyongbo enough to cultivate [-] yuan. Acres of prime labor.

These laborers have to be trained in the quarantine camp before being transported away.

This number is calculated based on the fact that each strong laborer cultivates 20 mu of land.That is to say, every household who bought land had to hand it over to 500 strong men of Uncle Zhongyong, not including the family members of the strong men.

As for whether these people will hire big iron cattle to plow the land because of the huge cost after they go to Tainan, they don't care about it. Anyway, if they want to buy land, the supporting tenants will send it to Lao Tzu first.

Chapter 481 Consequences

Attracting investment from wealthy men in the capital is a good thing that kills multiple birds with one stone.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the finances had fallen into serious stagflation.On the one hand, the country is poor and the people are poor, but on the other hand, the gentry class hoards a large amount of stolen national taxes and does not participate in economic circulation.Natural disasters and man-made disasters occur frequently in various places, and the upper echelon has already sensed the crisis and began to store food and grass for the winter.

However, these people did not expect that there would be a person named Li Zicheng who would eventually take all the money in their hands... 2000 million taels.

People in later generations know that for economic development, currency must be circulated.Therefore, the cross-travel crowd threw out a plan to buy land: the wealthy people in the capital have money, and instead of waiting to be plundered by others, it is better to take it out and buy land early.

In this way, the blood vessels that were originally blocked are equivalent to re-working - the land purchase money will be used by the transversal people on the spot, invigorating the northern economy, buying northern refugees, and doing multiple things in one fell swoop.

The policy of requiring customers to bring their own farming staff is a must.It can even be said that this is the real purpose of the Travelers to absorb capital from the capital.

In this way, the accusation of "rebels absorbing refugees" does not exist.

The ancients were actually very clear about this trick. It was left over by the ancestors for thousands of years. In today’s situation of frequent disasters and wars, is there another explanation for a force to recruit refugees wantonly besides wanting to rebel?

The most serious crime in the previous bulletin accusing Cao Zongbing was absorbing refugees, and the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty acquiesced to this.

That's why Cao Zongbing promptly threw out the land purchase policy to hedge against this accusation.

The core point of the land purchase policy is that it gives investors a false concept: Lao Tzu bought the land, and the tenant farmers are also Lao Tzu's households, and these assets are not named Cao.Since the population and land are scattered in the hands of the lords, it is not illegal to transport people to Yizhou.

Yes, as of now, this is how the gentlemen think.

In addition, some of the gentry who were deeply hostile to Cao Zongbing still kept their back tricks.

In the future, if the person surnamed Cao is sensible, everyone will live like this; if the person surnamed Cao is not sensible, then I am sorry.The land and the population belong to the lords. If it’s not possible, the imperial court can be used to reform the land in Yizhou and set up prefectures and counties... Although the county magistrates have to pay agricultural taxes when they come, there is no such thing as Cao It's over.

This is a reserved big move that hurts both sides.

It's still the same sentence: You've got your eye on other people's XX, and they've got their eyes on... The ideas of the gentlemen look beautiful, as for the result, just wait and see.

In short, after the introduction of the land purchase policy, the biggest accusation that Cao Zongbing is currently facing no longer exists.The provision of "self-transportation of tenant farmers" by investors broke all the legal constraints and enabled the cross-travelers to quickly open up the situation in the north. With the help of the wind, a more "coarse" population transportation channel was opened up.

After the two most important terms of tax exemption and self-importation are negotiated, some other small policies are not very important.After all, investors have to send a team to investigate first, and then go to Yizhou to experience it, and understand all the policies.