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

"Five-year plan?" Emperor Chongzhen frowned slightly and muttered.

"Yes, Your Majesty, if you truly want the Ming Dynasty to develop faster and more steadily, it is imperative that you formulate a reliable plan.

These plans will be divided into long-term and short-term plans. The formulation of the plans needs to be combined with the current situation of the Ming Dynasty. Once the plans are formulated, all government offices in the Ming Dynasty must cooperate closely to achieve the established goals.

Zhang Shikang explained roughly.

This term is not difficult to understand, Emperor Chongzhen just found it a bit strange.

In fact, the imperial court also had plans every year, such as how many canals to repair this year? Which palaces to renovate? What was the approximate construction period and cost?

The annual financial meeting will also summarize the implementation of the current year and formulate the fiscal expenditure plan for the next year.

However, such a conventional plan is fundamentally different from the five-year plan mentioned by Zhang Shikang.

The court's annual plan basically revolves around some small goals, while the five-year plan is planned from a macro level, such as overcoming a certain technical difficulty or increasing grain production by a certain amount.

As a modern man, Zhang Shikang is very clear about the importance of planning. Based on the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, if he can point out the exact direction for the future of the court, Zhang Shikang believes in the wisdom of the ancients and never doubts their diligence.

After listening to Zhang Shikang's explanation, Emperor Chongzhen felt that he understood a little, but not much.

"Wuji, does this five-year plan cost a lot of money?" Emperor Chongzhen asked tentatively.

Although the imperial treasury was full in the past two years, money was spent like water, which even made Emperor Chongzhen feel frightened at one point.

This year alone, the expenditure on canal digging alone exceeded 30 million taels, including the expenses for canal digging last year.

In two years, more than 70 million taels of silver were spent just on digging the ditch.

More than 70 million taels! Not only the civil and military officials, but even Emperor Chongzhen had never seen so much silver.

In addition to digging canals, there were also a series of restructuring expenditures, as well as R&D expenditures of the General Administration of Manufacturing, Tianjin Dagu Fort, military ports, civilian ports, shipyards, etc.

Although this year's financial meeting has not yet been held, Emperor Chongzhen knows that this year's expenditure will definitely not be less than 50 million taels.

A few days ago, Emperor Chongzhen specifically asked about the remaining silver in the national treasury. The Minister of Revenue Hai Zhong said that there were more than 70 million taels of silver left in the national treasury. If the remaining jewelry, calligraphy and paintings were included, it would not exceed 90 million taels at most.

Although there is still a lot, at this rate of spending, it will run out in less than two years.

There was no way, Emperor Chongzhen was afraid of being poor.

"Of course it costs money! The plan wasn't made in vain, and each one will be a major project that benefits the country and the people.

But Your Majesty, you don't have to look distressed every time. The industrial level of our Ming Dynasty is too low and extremely substandard.

Taking this opportunity, I will work with various ministries, as well as Mr. Song from the General Administration of Manufacturing and others, to develop a more complete set of standards.

If we can implement the established plan according to the new standards, I believe that within ten years, the Ming Dynasty will no longer be short of money.

Your Majesty will probably be worried about how to spend so much silver."

Zhang Shikang burped and said.

At this time, the national economy was used to being indifferent, and officials just collected taxes step by step and never thought about GDP.

Otherwise, Zhang Shikang would have to set a series of new KPI assessments for each province, and even for each prefecture and county government office.

The central government has a plan, and the local governments also have plans. They are each moving towards their goals and then formulating a complete set of reward and punishment measures. I think it must be very interesting.

However, things still need to proceed step by step, just like the industrial standards mentioned by Zhang Shikang.

This was actually the problem he encountered when he was tinkering with the book of answers.

As the successor of nine-year compulsory education, Zhang Shikang used modern units of measurement when tinkering with the book of answers.

For example, one meter, one kilometer, one kilogram, one gram, but today's units, whether it is mu, hectare, jin, or shi, are different from those in later generations.

For example, the standards for measuring artillery are divided into caliber and shell weight. As for shell weight, the French on the southeast coast called artillery six-pounders, twelve-pounders, and even twenty-four-pounders.

In the north of the Ming Dynasty, the distinction was made based on the Ming Dynasty's measurement units.

One catty is sixteen taels, one tael of silver is ten coins, and one coin of silver is equal to one hundred copper coins. The decimal and hexadecimal systems are mixed.

Once Zhang Shikang's book of answers was handed over to the General Administration of Manufacturing, new problems would immediately arise.

Just making Wang Zheng and others understand the units of measurement is a big problem. If every one of them needs to be converted, new problems will inevitably arise.

Without mentioning other things, just taking the units of length as an example, how can microscopic concepts such as meters, decimeters, centimeters, millimeters, micrometers, and even nanometers be converted into the broad measurement concepts of one foot and one zhang?

The solution is actually not difficult. Either improve the existing weights and measures, or directly use a set of units summarized by later generations.

But no matter which one it is, it is bound to have a profound impact on the people. This is the ripple effect of reform.

Zhang Shikang hasn't made up his mind yet, and plans to have a meeting with Wang Zheng, Lao Bi and other bigwigs to resolve the issue when the time comes.

Emperor Chongzhen did not quite understand words like "industrial standards," but this did not prevent his eyes from shining:

"Ten years... and endless money..."

Emperor Chongzhen grumbled to himself, wondering how come there was so much money that it could never be spent.

Two years ago, when the national treasury had over 100 million silver coins in reserve, Emperor Chongzhen also felt that it would take many years to spend so much silver!

But Zhang Shikang told him through his actions that even three years would be difficult.

If it is true as Zhang Shikang said, that the flowers cannot be spent all, then how much silver would it take? How is this possible?

"Your Majesty, believe me, this is the best era." Zhang Shikang didn't say much, just wiped his mouth, appearing extremely confident.

To sum it up in one sentence, this is an era where we don’t have to care about so-called international condemnation.

This means that as long as you are powerful enough, you can, in theory, get everything you need.

What? Chinese culture emphasizes a legitimate reason for action? That's hard to say. Zhang Shikang could easily come up with a bunch of excuses.

The core of all problems is that the Ming Dynasty is strong enough.

This is also the core of Zhang Shikang's consideration of the five-year plan.

He has always disagreed with the militaristic approach to development, and there is still time.

Regarding this, Emperor Chongzhen did not waste any words:

"I trust you, just go ahead and do it."

He had already gone all in, and since he had no money left, he just let this kid figure it out.

After eating and drinking, Zhang Shikang saw that Brother Chongzhen was in a good mood, so he tried to ask:

"Your Majesty, the Crown Prince is only fourteen. Why must this marriage be so hasty? Can't it be done in two years?"

Although Zhu Cilang was a good person and looked good enough to match his youngest sister, at the age of fourteen... he was still too young and beyond Zhang Shikang's acceptance.

However, Emperor Chongzhen was extremely resolute on this matter. He just glanced at Zhang Shikang and replied very briefly:

"No."

Then he stopped talking.

Zhang Shikang was disappointed. After all, his youngest sister was already sixteen years old, so there would be no problem. As long as the old man didn't worry about his son's health, he wouldn't bother to care.

He curled his lips and was about to say goodbye, but he heard Brother Chongzhen say again:

"You should focus on your marriage.

After the Crown Prince's wedding date is set, it will be announced to the world as per custom. I intend to put your marriage to Kunyi on the agenda as well and announce it to the world at the same time."

……

PS: What are your thoughts on this chapter's questions about weights and measures? For modern people, do you think we should directly adopt modern weights and measures, or should we continue to use the Ming dynasty's traditional units of 10 feet, 1 stone, and 1 step? I'm also pondering this.