Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

Ni Yuanlu stopped talking again.

When the Ming Dynasty's annual income was at its highest, it was more than 30 million taels. But by the year before last, it was only more than 10 million taels.

Apart from the frequent disasters in the north of the Ming Dynasty, agriculture, commerce and manufacturing in the south of the Yangtze River were not affected and developed quite well.

But where did the money go? Didn't it get taken away by those guys?

"The purpose of raising the salaries of officials is to maintain their integrity. The court has given them the respect they deserve, and what they should do is to be good officials, honest and dedicated to their duties.

Your Majesty, I suggest adding a clause to this decree: anyone who embezzles 60 taels of silver will be skinned and stuffed with straw, which will be hung as a flag at the government office.

This is our ancestral rule, and we must follow it."

Zhang Shikang said with a smile but seriously.

What you deserve has been given to you. If you want more, don't blame the court for being rude.

After Zhang Shikang finished his last sentence, several cabinet ministers looked stern. They understood that Zhang Shikang was definitely not joking.

But they were a little speechless about the ancestral system that Zhang Shikang mentioned. Does it mean that the ancestral system that does not suit your, Zhang Shikang's, taste does not need to be followed?

Emperor Chongzhen also smiled.

"Let's do it." Emperor Chongzhen made the decision.

As the Son of Heaven, he hated corrupt officials the most. In fact, the reason why Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang set the salary so low was because he had seen too many corrupt officials and hated them so much.

"Your Majesty, I suggest that the salaries of the nobles be converted into silver in the future. The nobles no longer rely on the court's salary to survive, so I suggest taking this opportunity to reduce it."

A year has passed since corrupt officials were killed. This is indeed a good time for reform. If we don't do it now, the resistance to reform will be different in the future.

After some discussion, everyone decided to lower the Earl's monthly salary to 220 taels, which was 20 taels slightly higher than the first-rank official position. The Marquis' monthly salary was 260 taels, and the Duke's monthly salary was 300 taels, slightly lower than the Prince's.

This is actually not considered low. Any lower title will be worthless.

Fortunately, this year all the nobles in Nanjing were wiped out in one fell swoop, and the number of nobles in the Ming Dynasty, which was already small, was reduced by half.

But even after varying degrees of ups and downs, the total annual salary expenditure for royal family members, nobles, and officials across the country will reach around 12 million taels.

Among them, the salary of officials increased the most, while that of royal family members and noble relatives decreased significantly. Zhang Shikang believed that only officials were doing things, and the whole country would rely on officials to rule.

Although the expenditure was higher, as long as the ancestral system of skinning and stuffing with straw was strictly followed, it was nothing compared with the silver that officials had embezzled over the years and the court's new sources of revenue, commercial taxes and industrial taxes.

What's more, Zhang Shikang knew the potential of business. In the future, the main income of the court would definitely not come from agricultural taxes, but from industrial and commercial taxes.

As long as the imperial court encourages industry and commerce more and does a good job of macro-control, commercial tax revenue will increase.

Having said this, Zhang Shikang picked up the tea bowl and took a sip of tea to moisten his throat.

This financial meeting was held in a very strange way. In previous years, the officials from various departments would basically quarrel with each other over whether the pitiful savings in the national treasury should be spent in the Ministry of War or the Ministry of Works.

But there was almost no quarrel at today's meeting, and the officials from various departments were surprisingly harmonious.

After knowing that the theme for next year would be to continue deepening reform, Zhang Shikang basically put forward his reform suggestions and everyone discussed whether they were appropriate.

If it was inappropriate, he would raise objections, Zhang Shikang would make an explanation, and finally Emperor Chongzhen would make the final decision.

Of course, the reason why it was so smooth was that although Zhang Shikang and Emperor Chongzhen held military power, the main reason was that Zhang Shikang's reform plans were more in line with the interests of the court.

If Zhang Shikang dared to carry out reckless reforms, Hai Zhongqi and others would never succumb to Zhang Shikang's tyranny even if it cost them their lives.

"Now that the expenditure on the salaries of royal family members, noble relatives and officials has been discussed, the next thing is the military expenditure." Zhang Shikang turned over another page in his little notebook and said.

Military expenditure has always been a major part of national finances since ancient times, especially in today's times when wars are frequent.

The soldiers' salaries, food, weapons, uniforms, artillery, ammunition, bows and crossbows, armor, etc., none of them require money.

Especially when a large army goes out to war, the sound of a cannon is truly worth a fortune.

“Your Majesty should know that the current guard post is only in name only.

Therefore, I think we should take this opportunity to change the military system of our Ming Dynasty."

Most of the garrison soldiers in Jiangnan were gathered together by Xu Hongji, and then Zhang Shikang killed some of them and captured some of them.

In the end, Zhang Shikang released all the captives and sent them back to their hometowns, and instructed the local government to continue to allocate land to them.

By this time, the soldiers in the garrisons had already become serfs of the generals. Now the imperial court had taken back all the military farms, official fields, and private fields and redistributed them, so they no longer even had the qualifications to be serfs.

Moreover, the problems of quotas and empty salaries in the garrisons were very serious. In a garrison of a thousand households, less than a hundred people ran away, and it was considered good if a garrison could mobilize a thousand people.

The problem is that these soldiers' weapons and equipment are all in tatters and they have no combat effectiveness at all.

The Ming Dynasty relied almost entirely on border troops to suppress bandits.

In fact, the imperial court has always known that the garrison soldiers are incompetent and the garrison system is rotten, but no changes have been made before. The reason is that there is too much resistance.

To put it bluntly, as I said before, reform will always affect the interests of vested interests.

But now it has to be changed. It is too rotten to look at, and most of the resistance has been removed, leaving only the nobles of the Five Military Commandery.

These nobles had already compromised with Zhang Shikang as early as last year, and Zhang Shikang also planned a future path for them. With military power, those nobles were no longer an obstacle.

Li Banghua and others' eyes brightened. After a day's meeting, their views on Zhang Shikang also changed.

Because every major change this guy talked about almost coincided with what they wanted, but they didn't have the courage to propose these changes.

Because that is the Achilles' heel of too many people.

But Zhang Shikang was like a monster in the court, an invincible monster.

Even though they still believed that Zhang Shikang had too much power, they would naturally be happy if they could take this opportunity to change the many bad policies of the Ming Dynasty.

"Alas, even if you didn't mention it, I know that the garrison should have been dealt with long ago." Emperor Chongzhen sighed.

He could not hide his melancholy in his heart. After all, most of the reforms discussed today were decided by Emperor Taizu.

As a descendant of Taizu, this is tantamount to denying Taizu's decision. Even if he thinks it is right to do so, the guilt in his heart is difficult to alleviate.

"Then shall I continue?" Zhang Shikang glanced at his brother Chongzhen.

After receiving an affirmative answer, he continued:

"Dismiss all the garrisons in the country, release all the old and weak, abolish the military farming system, change it to a recruitment system, and recruit soldiers anew."