"I dare not fail to do my best to help Your Majesty." Sun Yingyuan and others bowed their heads and accepted the order.
Zhu Youxiao nodded slightly and ordered people to award rewards. He gave out thousands of "Zhu Xiaotou" without being stingy at all.
"Go!" With the palace servant's long and shrill voice, the young emperor boarded the dragon chariot and returned to the capital under the protection of many Jinyiwei.
It is not the case that better weapons are more complicated to manufacture and more expensive; in history, all weapons that have been widely equipped have, without exception, to take into account the difficulty of manufacturing, the high or low cost, and the reliability of operation.
For example, in a flintlock rifle, the primer cover and the curved anvil are made into one piece. When firing, apart from loading and cocking the hammer, no other actions are required, which is more convenient than a matchlock or a wheel flintlock rifle.
Because of the reduction in parts, the structure of the flintlock is simpler, which reduces production costs while also improving the reliability of the gun itself.
Moreover, the firing steps of a flintlock rifle were reduced by half compared to a matchlock rifle. Combined with paper tube ammunition, a skilled soldier could fire three to four rounds a minute, more than twice as fast as a matchlock rifle.
It is precisely because of this characteristic that flintlock rifles will be widely equipped in Europe about fifty or sixty years later, completely replacing matchlock rifles.
In other words, the Ming army had already surpassed the Western barbarians in the development and equipment of flintlock rifles by fifty or sixty years; if bayonets were added, it would not be an exaggeration to say that they were a hundred years ahead.
According to the current manufacturing capabilities of the Gunpowder and Weapons Bureau, as well as the large number of craftsmen trained in the manufacture of matchlock rifles, coupled with simple processing machines, the output of three to four thousand flintlock rifles per month can be guaranteed.
According to this output, in one year at most, Liaozhen and Dongjiangzhen will be able to equip most of their soldiers with flintlock rifles.
The defending troops could continue to use matchlock rifles. The 30,000 to 40,000 troops equipped with flintlock rifles and bayonets, with the support of artillery, would have the ability to fight the Jiannu in the field.
If we can survive for another year, it will be time to launch a counterattack and defeat the Jiannu.
The young emperor was thinking in his carriage, squinting his eyes, and had already seen the dawn of victory in pacifying Liao.
Labor and capital have money, and expanding production capacity will not only promote employment but also equip the troops more quickly;
I have money, I can feed the officers and soldiers well, and they also have adequate salaries. Can't I build a strong army that dares to fight?
Zhu Youxiao was even more confident when he thought about the money. He had many ways to solve the problem, so he had no worries.
……………………
Over the past year, changes in the court's political climate, the emperor's preferences and ideological tendencies have basically been reflected in the "Daming Forum".
With the criticism of He Xun, Shao Jingbang and Yang Qiaoshi, the definition of the so-called "famous ministers" was also revised. Everyone knew that the court was going to take major action on commercial tax collection.
As more and more data and information were published in newspapers, officials in economically developed provinces began to feel the pressure. There is no harm without comparison.
Inland areas with less prosperous commerce pay more taxes than you do, and there's no way to justify this. Are you incompetent and lazy, or are you accepting bribes and making things easier for merchants, harming the country and benefiting yourself?
Of course, the people under the greatest pressure were the tax collectors in various places. The emperor's dissatisfaction was obvious. At the very least, they would be dismissed from office, and at the worst, they would be punished and imprisoned. The officials of the tax collectors seemed to have anticipated their own fate.
Perhaps it could still be salvaged, they thought, so they naturally had to work harder and collect more silver to appease the emperor's anger.
But Zhu Youxiao was not in a hurry to take action because he did not have many suitable officials to fill the vacancy. Replacing is easy, but who can you let take over?
The new school was built to train professional officials who could act according to his will, but the number of students enrolled was too small to meet his requirements.
In this case, you are forcing me to become a tyrant and kill me!
Zhu Youxiao picked up his pen and quickly wrote down an imperial edict, ordering all places to strictly implement Li Qiyuan's proposal of thirteen reforms, which included reducing the treatment of the Supervisory Confucian scholars and prohibiting them from being exempted from special treatment.
If you can live comfortably on these privileges, I will destroy your jobs and remove your privileges. If you can't earn your living, you deserve to starve to death.
"Draft decree: If the Confucian scholars and students are willing to serve the country, they should start studying practical knowledge or teach and educate people..."
This was the path Zhu Youxiao pointed out to the Confucian scholars and students. If they wanted to continue to receive preferential treatment, they could either enroll in a new school or run a school and teach.
There was no explanation for joining the new school, but there was a story behind setting up and teaching there. It was not the large primary and secondary schools of later times, but rather a village school of the private nature.
To put it bluntly, Zhu Youxiao hoped that students could become village teachers, thereby improving the education level of the entire Ming Dynasty.
Don't think that after studying for a few years and passing the exams to become a scholar, a student, or a juren, you will have a stable job and can get something for nothing.
You can either go to a new school to study, learn something useful, and then be assigned an official position; or you can open a private school in your village or another village and teach children to read and write. In any case, you have to do some work and make some contribution.
There are regulations for opening a private clinic. You must teach three or more children for free, regardless of gender, and report to the authorities before you can enjoy preferential treatment.
"Draft decree: If a person with a meritorious title smuggles goods through customs for merchants, causing a loss of national tax revenue, his meritorious title will be revoked, and he will be barred from further official positions in the five categories..."
You're allowed to study for a few years and become a jack of all trades, and you're allowed to escort merchants on their transport, but without any official title, what's the point of showing off? And you're not allowed to take the imperial examination for 15 years, just to see if you're afraid.
"Draft decree: Officials who facilitate the passage of money through customs for merchants will be dismissed from office and expelled from the government register, and will never be employed again..."
Besides the scholars, juren and jinshi, officials were also not spared. If caught, they would be sent home to eat rice, and they would be ordinary people for the rest of their lives.
"Draft decree: Grant the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce President Tang Momin the sixth rank of nobility. He may submit a petition to the court..."
The Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce was relatively obedient, and Zhu Youxiao wanted to see how it would perform. Furthermore, the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce's recognition by the emperor and the right to submit petitions to him also contributed to the situation.
At least in the short term, members of the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce should be trusted to exercise self-discipline and self-awareness.
Of course, the emperor also gave them the same treatment as the maritime merchants and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, paying a tax of 15%. After paying the tax, they would receive a certificate and could pass through other customs for free.
Zhu Youxiao wanted to abolish the banknote collection fee, but now was not the right time and he was not ready. However, starting with merchants, collecting commercial taxes first would circumvent the lack of tax authorities.
After dictating several imperial edicts in succession, Zhu Youxiao let out a long sigh, picked up his tea bowl and drank some to moisten his throat, then instructed the palace servants, "Summon Wu Zheng, Zheng Zhilong, and the leaders of the three major chambers of commerce to come to the emperor tomorrow."
The tax authority in Beijing in the early Ming Dynasty was the Xuankesi, which was mainly responsible for collecting taxes from merchants, butchers, and miscellaneous taxes in the market. It was located in the national capital.
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