Is Zhu Yuanzhang short of money?

He is really short of money!

Don’t be fooled by the extravagant fish and meat he eats every day; that’s the standard for an emperor.

The annual expenses of the imperial palace are all paid from the imperial treasury, including those of the princes.

From the first year of Hongwu to the present, a full twenty-five years, the Ming Dynasty's finances have never been abundant.

The reason why the Ming Baochao was issued was because the national treasury had a hard time even paying for military pay. In the first few years after the Ming Baochao was issued, people lived a prosperous life.

Later, all kinds of wars, rewards, military pay, and salaries were almost all paid for with Baochao.

This is also the reason why tens of millions of Baochao are issued every year.

Then the Baochao depreciated sharply, which made Zhu Yuanzhang realize that he had to control the issuance of Baochao.

Even in recent years, officials' salaries have often been in arrears and delayed in payment.

In this regard, Zhu Yuanzhang had to take money from the Ministry of Revenue to fill the vacancies in the palace.

When Empress Ma celebrated her birthday, the banquet consisted of four dishes and one soup. Wasn't that because there was no money in the treasury?

If you really want to be rich, no one would do this.

There is actually no way to avoid holding the officials' salaries tightly.

Only when you manage a household do you know how expensive firewood, rice, oil and salt are. After calculating the cost, this was already the limit of the Ming Dynasty's treasury. Zhu Yuanzhang even wished that officials would bring their own salaries to work.

It would be better to earn some more money for the national treasury.

It was only in the past two months that the palace's expenses became slightly more relaxed.

This is of course the credit of my eldest grandson.

Now, after hearing what Dasun said, criminals can create income for the treasury, which is similar to the current situation of Dasun's factory.

Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang's face really lit up.

"Grandson, if you do this, how much silver can you earn every year?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked his grandson with a smile after thinking about it.

He was very eager to know how much additional income the treasury could gain by doing this.

What people hate most is living in poverty, let alone a founding emperor like Zhu Yuanzhang.

Every time he attended the morning court, what annoyed him the most was the Ministry of Revenue, which always pointed out that there was a shortage of silver here and there, and used various reasons to reduce the expenditure of the treasury.

Zhu Yuanzhang also knew that there was really nothing that could be done about it, but the annual income of the Ming Dynasty was limited, so what could he do?

First of all, the military pay must be stabilized. This is also the Wei Suo system that Zhu Yuanzhang has been thinking about. Otherwise, the military pay would be tight. Now at least the military households can be self-sufficient every year.

When the Ming Dynasty was first established, there were 491 guards and 311 offices.

One guard consisted of about 5,600 men. By this calculation, the Ming army had about 2.7 million men.

If such a large army were entirely dependent on the court for support, it would directly drag down the entire Ming Dynasty's finances.

The army is a problem if you have too many of them, and it's still a problem if you have too few of them. The more you use them, the better; when you don't use them, the fewer the better. In peacetime, your huge army is just a burden.

Zhu Yuanzhang then said: Now the country is peaceful and the borders are secure. If the soldiers are allowed to just sit and eat from the farmers, the farmers will suffer, which is not a way to ensure long-term stability. We should order the garrisons across the country to supervise the soldiers to plant crops, so that the soldiers and farmers can be integrated and the country's finances can be eased.

In this regard, Zhu Yuanzhang once said excitedly: Maintaining a million soldiers does not cost the people a single grain of rice.

In order to maintain the Wei Suo system for a longer period of time, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict: the status of all Wei Suo soldiers would be hereditary, and their children would not be allowed to take the imperial examinations or seek other jobs.

This has even been written directly into the Ming Dynasty Law.

In Zhu Yuanzhang's design, the third-level soldiers of the Weisuo system were trained, and the seventh-level soldiers were responsible for farming. This ratio would also be adjusted according to the barrenness of the land.

The design of this system already indicates that a decline in soldiers' combat effectiveness is inevitable.

But the Ming Dynasty’s finances are in this state, what can we do?

There is simply no extra financial resources to reform the Weisuo system, so this is the best solution given the current situation.

Whether it is the military farming system or the military garrison system, the disadvantages are very clear, which is that it makes the connection between generals and soldiers too close.

In history, the separatist regimes and warlords in the Tang Dynasty, each claiming to be their own king, were caused by the military farming system.

This will also pose a great threat during wars.

When the imperial court needed to mobilize troops for war, the army was led by a general appointed by the Governor's Office. These soldiers were separated from the original garrison officers, and the general was responsible to the commander-in-chief appointed by the imperial court.

Moreover, generally speaking, war call-ups are almost always done because problems have arisen, which means there is no time for training and adjustment.

This will cause the general to be unfamiliar with the soldiers, the soldiers will not listen to the general's command, and no one will submit to anyone, which will greatly weaken the combat effectiveness.

In the 34th year of the reign of Emperor Jiajing, a group of 53 Japanese pirates ran rampant in Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces as if they were in an empty land. They even blatantly attacked Nanjing, the secondary capital of the Ming Dynasty at that time, and killed and wounded 3,000 to 4,000 Ming troops.

The soldiers of the garrison were like paper, which broke with a single poke. You could destroy this small force of dozens of people using just a pile of people, but the result was shocking. This was simply unimaginable in the early Ming Dynasty.

If someone told Zhu Yuanzhang that the Ming Dynasty would face this situation because of the Wei Suo system, would he believe it?

Even the common people and officials would never believe that such a thing could happen.

However, it just happened in history, like a fairy tale, yet it was extremely real.

In fact, looking back at history, Zhu Yuanzhang was aware of the drawbacks of the military farming system and had also thought about the hidden dangers of the Wei Suo system.

But the current Ming Dynasty cannot do without the Wei Suo system.

There is not much pressure on military pay, and life is already so tight. It would be unimaginable to abolish the garrison system.

And in his eldest grandson, Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to see hope.

Hearing the old man asking how much money he could make, Zhu Ying estimated in his mind and said, "It depends on where you do what you do."

"If it's a relatively profitable business with a few thousand people, it should be possible to make hundreds of thousands a year."

"For example, in the Jiangnan region, where the trade volume is large, the rate should be even higher."

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard the number of hundreds of thousands, his breathing became a little rapid.

Is it so easy to make money here at Dasun's place? Just fill up the entire prison and throw a bunch of convicts in there, and you can make hundreds of thousands every year?

The Ming Dynasty had thirteen provincial governments, and even if there was only one for each province, millions of dollars would be earned every year.

At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to have thought about the days when the treasury would be full every year. While thinking, Zhu Yuanzhang asked again, "These hundreds of thousands, grandson, do you mean banknotes or silver?"

Zhu Ying replied, "My grandson is talking about silver. The price of Baochao fluctuates greatly across the country. For the time being, we can only use silver as a reference. Once the treasury is full, we can slowly recycle Baochao and control the number of issued ones."

"In this way, with sufficient reserves, Baochao can completely replace silver."

Millions of silver coins, equivalent to nearly 10 million strings of silver coins.

In this way, the Baochao Tizhusi would not have to issue a large amount of Baochao, and the national treasury would not only be debt-free every year, but would also have a large surplus.

"good!"

Zhu Yuanzhang thought of this, slammed the table, and shouted: "We should have done this a long time ago, grandson, this matter feels very urgent, we must start immediately."

"How about this, it's getting late today, so there's no need to go to the morning court tomorrow. Let's issue an imperial decree and have the three courts listen to our grandson's orders and immediately arrange a new Ming Dynasty code."

"The legal code may be a little slow. Let's not worry about the specific laws and regulations for now. Let's come up with a rough outline for the labor service. Tomorrow morning, we will announce to the world that criminals should be given a chance to reform."

"At the same time, a general amnesty will be issued. All those sentenced to death or exile will be detained in the prison first, and will be approached after the laws and regulations of the eldest grandson are issued. As for other criminals, they will also be detained temporarily."

At this point, Zhu Yuanzhang paused for a moment before continuing, "Grandson, please be careful when you formulate the law. The minimum labor period should be three years. If the period is too short, they may not even be apprentices, but have already been released."

My goodness, this old man is really cruel.

No matter what crime you committed, the minimum sentence is three years.

This requires hard pulling.

This means that even if someone steals a petty crime, he will be sentenced to at least three years in prison if he is sent to the government.

But perhaps from a certain perspective, at least the prison provides food, which may be a way out. Thinking of this, Zhu Ying could only smile bitterly and said, "Grandson understands."

After dinner and a walk, Zhu Ying was about to return to Kunning Palace to continue reviewing memorials.

Liu He came over and reported: "Your Majesty, His Highness Yunwen requests to see you."

Zhu Yuanzhang heard this and said with a sigh, "Why did Yunwen come to see us? Grandson, your brother is here. Don't be in a hurry to leave. Let's see what's going on first."

According to Zhu Yuanzhang's current thinking, if Zhu Yunwen had any problems, he should ask his eldest brother, our eldest grandson, to solve it.

How come you came directly here?

We have a lot of things to do every day. As the saying goes, the eldest brother is like a father. For example, the emperor’s grandson, of course, is fully responsible.

But now that they are here, it would be bad to not see them.

In the main hall of the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Ying could only sit down and drink tea, accompanying the old man.

Soon, Zhu Yunwen came over.

"Yun Wen pays respect to Grandfather Emperor, Big Brother."

Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang asked in a somewhat indignant tone, "What is the matter with Yunwen? Why did he come to us?"

Hearing this, Zhu Yunwen hurriedly explained: "Reporting to the Emperor, Grandpa, I went to my eldest brother's place earlier because I heard from the eunuch that my eldest brother was with you, so I came here specially."

Zhu Yuanzhang was not satisfied with this explanation and said, "Your elder brother is just having a meal here, which won't take up too much time. What's the matter that makes you so impatient?"

The implication is very clear. If your elder brother is not here, you just wait. Everyone knows he is with us, so why can't you wait?

When Zhu Yunwen heard this, there was a slight bitterness on his face.

Grandpa Emperor, you have changed. You were not like this before.

Now even if I come to him for help with something, I will be scolded.

Although he was very frustrated, he still pulled himself together and replied, "My grandson made a major discovery in Samarkand, Pirmahema, so I was a little impatient."

Zhu Yuanzhang was a little curious when he heard this. He still attached great importance to Samarkand, so he asked, "Tell me about it."

In fact, it’s not that he has no love for Zhu Yunwen at all.

But in the big family of the imperial palace, rules are very important, especially when it comes to maintaining the status of the eldest grandson.

Otherwise, the ones who will suffer in the future will be the princes and grandchildren of the emperor.