Before many things were discussed at the cabinet meeting, they had reached an agreement in private. Just like at the meeting today, Liu Jun proposed to integrate the military towns of the six provinces, namely, Liaodong, Shandong, Shanxi, Zhili and Henan, into three military regions, especially to incorporate Shanxi, one of the five major military regions in the north, into Zhili. This was actually negotiated with Wu and Liu Zongzhou before the meeting.

The six provinces and towns were merged into three military regions, and the other two auxiliary ministers had agreed. Of course, it was not the reason that the merger was more conducive to command after the command. What impressed them was that Liu Jun promised to transfer 10 million silver dollars into the Ministry of Revenue today.

This is the fundamental reason for their consent.

From the death of Chongzhen in early August to the end of the twelfth lunar month, Liu Jun pulled out a little silver dollar intermittently every time, sometimes hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions, and kept hanging on the court, barely ending it. But he has never been able to truly solve the financial problems.

Wu Yan and Liu Zongzhou were also helpless in the exchange conditions proposed by Liu Jun this time.

Liu Jun promised them that he would throw 10 million into the Taicang silver warehouse of the Ministry of Revenue a year ago, and then raise at least 30 million silver dollars for the court next year.

Liu Jun agreed, and Wu Yan and Liu Zongzhou supported Liu Jun’s proposals at the cabinet meeting today. From the recommendation of several candidates for positions in the Privy Council and the Ministry of War to the proposals of the establishment of three new military regions outside the pass, Zhili and Central Plains.

"The military region outside the pass shall govern the troops of Liaodong and western provinces, and has a governor, which governs the four towns of Lushun, Zhenjiang, Ningyuan, Guangning, Jinzhou Town, and Jinzhou Defense Zone shall be merged into Guangning and Ningyuan."

"The Zhili Military Region governs Zhili, Shanxi Province, and has a military commander of the two provinces. It has a governor, which is under the jurisdiction of guards, garrisons, Datong and Taiyuan, Xuanfu Town, and Xuanfu Town Defense Zone merged into Datong Town."

"The Central Plains Military Region governs the troops of Henan and Shandong provinces, and has a governor, and has two towns in Denglai and Kaifeng, and has three towns in Daming, Jinan and Zhending, and the defense zone is incorporated into the other three towns."

After the merger is made into three military regions, the five towns of Jinzhou, Xuanfu, Daming, Jinan and Zhenbao will be abolished. This is another vigorous military town after the Jingji has been sacked from nine towns to four towns.

For Liu Jun, laying down military towns can not only reduce military expenditures, streamlining military administration, strengthening equipment and training, but also greatly weaken the original military strength of the court, allowing the Chu army to further occupy a better position and dominate the entire family.

Others could not express any objection to Liu Jun's reasons for rescinding the army, reducing military expenditure, training troops and enhancing combat effectiveness.

After all, the court was indeed strong and could not afford to pay so much money to the army. On the other hand, the series of victory of the Chu army in Liaodong also fully demonstrated that the army did not win battles by relying on a large number of people.

But after all, it's still a matter of money.

Wu Yan took over as the chief minister and was still facing an empty treasury.

"Everyone has worked hard during this period, and this year is about to pass. To be honest, I don't know how this year has come.

But finally, the next one will be a new year. The court has already agreed to change the year name of Longwu next year. The new year and new atmosphere will have a good start next year. Now we will discuss the various expenses for next year and make a budget. Let’s discuss how to raise these funds.”

"The Ministry of Revenue has a preliminary estimate that the expenditures for next year will not be less than 50 million silver dollars, while the current silver dollar income of the imperial court is less than 10 million, with a difference of 40 million." said the Grand Secretary Fang Fengnian, "I suggest that I still pay additional salary."

Liu Zongzhou opposed this kind of extra sect, "If there is a famine today and the bandits are on the rise again, and there will be extra sects at this time, isn't that adding fuel to the fire? I advocate laying off troops, cleaning up military camps, reducing military spending, and changing the military camps of the original garrison to civil camps for the purpose of supplying the army. In addition, we can no longer go to war with the Eastern Barbarians to maintain stability in the north. Let's wait for these few years before talking about it."

It turned out that the imperial court had thirty-six towns. After the last sack, there were thirty-one towns left. This time, five towns were laid off, and only twenty-six towns were left. Each town had thirty-one, and there were still 780,000 troops. Even if the average annual cost of raising soldiers of each soldier of fifty yuan per year, it would cost 40 million yuan in military expenditure.

Liu Zongzhou meant that the army should be consolidated in the future, especially in the south where there was no war, and some troops should be further abolished.

"Three rivers, Fujian, Zhejiang, Sichuan and Lake, these nine provinces and three provinces have a military region. Each military region retains one town of troops. Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong, Guangxi, two provinces and one military region also retains one town of troops. Shaanxi and Gansu and Shaanxi provinces have a military command. One town will be abolished based on the existing three towns and the two towns will be retained."

The fifteen provinces retained the troops of seven towns.

In addition, the three military regions outside Zhili, Central Plains, and the three military regions outside the pass shall have 10 towns in six provinces, four towns in the navy, and the personal guards and the imperial guards. The internal and external waters and land troops shall retain the organization of twenty-three towns.

The national troops are below 800,000.

Liu Zongzhou took the path of reducing expenses.

However, no matter how much you save, it will be a seven or eight hundred thousand army, and you will still get tens of millions of dollars a year. After all, these are standing troops, not the original guards. Unless the court still relies on arrears of food and wages, the military will still have a high cost for disarmament.

However, the tens of millions of military expenses include equipment costs. At the same time, there is no need to send additional food, etc., and a unified discount is given to the soldiers. If that part is included, it will be significantly reduced compared to the past.

"Prince, how much can I raise if I issue bonds?"

Liu Jun smiled. Since he got a bond, the court has now relied too much on bonds. In the thirteenth, fourteenth, and two years of Chongzhen, the court relied on this bond to get 50 million silver dollars.

This bond is completely issued by Sihai Bank, and it is in the name of Sihai Bank. In fact, Sihai Bank is lending money to the court. After all, the 50 million bonds have not been paid yet. The interest alone is already several million.

There was a historical reason why Liu Jun made this bond. But now, he could not be willing to lend money to the court without restrictions.

Liu Jun didn't have the ability to support the entire Ming Dynasty court alone.

"In the 13th and 14th years, the imperial court issued 50 million yuan bonds through Sihai Bank. Now, many one-year and two-year periods have not paid the principal and interest after maturity, and it is still paid by Sihai Bank. Even if it continues to issue next year, it can only raise 10 million yuan at most, and it has to take out at least 5 million to pay the previous interest."

"Then is there any good way for the prince to solve the financial problems next year?" Wu Xuan looked at Liu Jun dissatisfiedly. Liu Jun had promised to give the Ministry of Revenue 10 million this year and 20 million next year, but now he says this.

"The expenses of the court are not a decimal. You cannot expect to issue bonds and borrow money to live. After all, even if you borrow them now, you have to pay them back, not to mention that there is a high interest rate. We cannot rely entirely on bonds, and we have to think of other ways." Liu Jun whispered as he spoke, but he had a momentum covering the four fields.

The court's finances had long been rotten into a pot of paste, and no one could make it clear. Now it was all up to Liu Jun, so everyone could only listen to Liu Jun at this time.

"I recently read history books and read the history of the Southern Song Dynasty. When the Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed, the Song people crossed the river and established the Southern Song Dynasty, only half of the country was left. But they still persisted with this half of the country for more than a hundred years. They relied on half of the country in the south, but they had a huge and powerful army to fight the north. Why did the Southern Song Dynasty support so long? With a good army, why could they still have such an army? Because the Southern Song Dynasty had more than a hundred years of tax revenue, and its finances were abundant, and even only had half of the country. The national tax revenue was not even less than the fiscal and tax revenues of the whole world in the Northern Song Dynasty."

Speaking of this, Liu Jun emphasized some tone, "On the contrary, my Ming Dynasty today has the entire Central Plains world, with twenty-one provinces, but the national finance and taxation each year is less than one-tenth or even one-twentieth of the Southern Song Dynasty? Why? We all reflected on what went wrong? Otherwise, just relying on Yin to eat the food and tear the east and west walls, the problem would never be solved."

The finances of the Ming Dynasty are indeed a joke. The Ming officials received the lowest salary of all dynasties, and the tax rates set by the state for the people were also the lowest, but why did the court end up being poor?

There are many reasons, such as corruption, the privileges of the royal family and literati, etc., too many.

Liu Jun didn't want to be enemies with the world immediately, things had to be done step by step. Today he said this, just to make a big deal.

"Everyone, I looked through the history books of the Song Dynasty and found that during the Northern Song Dynasty, the fiscal revenue was about 60 million RMB in normal years, and the salt tax revenue accounted for more than 30 million RMB in total. By the Southern Song Dynasty, the annual fiscal revenue reached more than 80 million RMB in total, of which the salt tax revenue alone exceeded 50 million RMB in total, and sometimes even reached more than 80% of the national fiscal revenue. It can be said that during the Song Dynasty, salt tax supported fiscal expenditures."

"Everyone, let's look at the Ming Dynasty. During the Wanli period, the national silver income was only more than two million, of which the salt tax income was only one million."

"The population of our Ming Dynasty is far greater than that of the Song Dynasty, and the annual salt output is also a multiple of the Song Dynasty. If we follow the salt system in our dynasty, the annual salt tax revenue should be at least between 1,300 and 1,500 taels of silver, or even higher. But in fact, our annual salt tax revenue is only one million taels, and a large amount of salt tax has been lost. Where has it flowed? It flowed into the hands of those salt merchants and nobles. These people occupy the baits, monopolize the profits of salt, and are rich, and have a very luxurious desire."

"And these salt merchants are dissatisfied with the desire to monopolize salt profits and have also raised the price of salt so that the people can't even afford salt, and they complain."

"In many places, salt merchants sold a pound of salt for three to four hundred cents, which was much higher than the Song Dynasty, where the annual salt tax revenue was tens of millions. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the average price of a pound of salt would not exceed one hundred and twenty cents, which was three to four times the amount, but the salt tax we collected was one to twenty to thirty to thirty to the Song Dynasty."

Liu Jun knocked on the table, "The court called poor every day. In fact, as long as we collect the salt tax, the court's financial problems can be solved immediately."

Wu Yan and Liu Zongzhou and other members of the cabinet are looking forward to me, I hope you, don’t they know what Liu Jun said? I know. But salt involves the interests of too many people, and they are colluding together. It is simply a mess. No one can be wise and clear.

"I plan to reorganize the salt business and strive to collect 20 million yuan of salt tax from it next year, plus Shanghai customs and commercial taxes. Then, even if the bonds are not issued next year, at least 40 million yuan of taxes can be raised, which is enough for next year's fiscal expenditure."

"The prince is really sure?" Liu Zongzhou was excited. For some reason, he just felt that Liu Jun had this ability. If ordinary people said they wanted to organize salt affairs and had to charge the salt tax of 20 million yuan a year, he would feel that he was talking lies with his eyes open, but this was what Liu Jun said, but he suddenly felt credible.

The current salt production in the Ming Dynasty was actually the salt production, which was supervised by the government and sold by merchants. Similar to a dealer system, the court controlled the stove owners of major salt farms to produce salt and then controlled the monopoly of salt.

If merchants want to sell salt, they must first obtain a salt sales license, which can be held for a long time or even hereditary. This license stipulates the quantity of salt merchants who can buy and sell salt and the market for sales. Only after they have this license can they be eligible to buy salt, and purchase limited salt according to the quantity of salt, and then sell it in a limited market.

These salt merchants in the Ming Dynasty were all distributors at all levels and had monopoly on their respective markets, and other merchants were not allowed to sell them. Under this system, various disadvantages arose, resulting in the salt merchants getting rich, but the salt prices remain high. Those honorary officials controlled the right to sell licenses and made a fortune by reselling licenses and placing salt to attract salt.

Many wealthy businessmen make money by hoarding salt and reselling salt and making money.

In short, everyone made money, and the court and ordinary people were cheated.

The court's salt tax revenue was only one million taels per year, and the people spent three or four hundred cents a pound of salt, but the salt they ate was still inferior salt mixed with soil and sand. A large number of people selling private salts rose and took risks, resulting in chaos in the local security situation.

Even those stove owners who produce salt are exploited. If you only get salt and eat a stone of food, you can't solve the problem of food and clothing.

These salt merchants were extremely fat, all of them were big fat pigs. Liu Jun felt that they could kill them.

"I hope that all the cabinet masters can support me in rectifying the salt affairs. As long as you are willing to fully support me and let go, then I can tell you here and promise you that you can pay at least 20 million yuan of salt tax to the Ministry of Revenue next year."

Twenty million yuan, which is worth ten million taels of silver.

"Twenty million silver dollars, don't have silver dollars coupons, don't have silver bills, can you do it?" Wu Xuan's eyes also flashed, and he stared at Liu Jun and asked.

The temptation of 20 million yuan is too great to solve the financial problems, and he, as the chief minister, cannot sit firmly.

"Twenty million silver dollars are not silver not silver bills or silver dollar bills."

"Okay, I am willing to support the prince." Wu Yan slapped the table with a palm.
Chapter completed!