Save the Bachelor of Heaven

After Xiang Nan took back power step by step and gradually eliminated cabinet officials, his next step was to control finances.

The emperor's power mainly comes from three aspects, namely personnel power, financial certification power and military power. All three powers are indispensable, otherwise the emperor will become a weakling.

The financial system of the Ming Dynasty was very strange. For example, the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang only collected taxes in kind, and set the rule that he would only collect 27 million shi per year, and announced that he would never increase taxes.

However, the physical tax has two major drawbacks: First, the management cost is high. There are thousands of types of dynasty products. Not only are the storage methods different, but classified accounting and accounting are also huge challenges.

Second, the cost of use by the court is high. For example, a place thousands of miles away requires 100 shi of rice, but the shipping fee alone is far more than 100 shi. The transportation costs of collecting taxes were not paid by the court, but were borne by the farmers who paid taxes.

Therefore, collecting taxes in kind may seem to reduce the burden on the people, but in fact the burden on the people is even greater.

Moreover, the annual tax of 27 million dan may have been sufficient in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. However, as the population multiplied, the number of officials expanded, and the meritorious class grew, the financial expenditure became larger and larger. Taxes are no longer enough.

For example, in the early Ming Dynasty, the number of various princes and nobles was no more than a thousand. However, after hundreds of years of reproduction, the number of clan members surnamed Zhu alone has reached more than 10,000. These people all relied on the imperial court to support them, which took up a lot of financial expenses.

Fiscal reform is therefore necessary.

But it is not easy to reform finance.

Because the interests of vested interest groups are the most difficult to touch.

During the reign of Yongzheng, in order to implement the idea of ​​sharing the land between the peasants and the peasants, returning the wealth to the public, and the gentry working as errands and receiving food as one, the emperor turned from a very accomplished emperor into a cruel and violent tyrant.

The legendary death method is the most bizarre among all the emperors in history. He was beheaded by the chivalrous lady Lu Siniang.

The reason for this is that his reforms offended scholars all over the world. Naturally, people would not say good things about him, and they tried their best to slander him and make fun of him.

This also shows that reform is the most difficult.

Therefore, many monarchs in the past dynasties wanted to reform, but few were able to persevere and succeed in reforming.

Especially for someone like Xiang Nan, the previous Tumu Fortress Incident killed half a million soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, and all dignity was lost. Although the restoration was successful now, it still relied on the support of the courtiers.

It can be said that as long as he dares to promote reforms and engage in such things as "dividing a small family into an equal share", "returning envy to the public", "officials and gentry working as errands and receiving food from one", etc., those courtiers will have to push him down.

Therefore, even if Xiang Nan wanted to control the finances, he could not attack his ministers or scholars first. He currently does not have enough prestige to subdue these ministers. Even if he issued a decree, it is estimated that the decree will not be able to leave the Forbidden City.

Therefore, Xiang Nan could only think of other ways, but fortunately, he knew many ways to make money.

…

Xiang Nan later built Tiangongfang in Xishan, which was used to produce glass, soap, perfume, cement, mirrors, clocks, etc. All the money he used was obtained from Cao Shaoqin.

As for the eunuchs, although their homes were ransacked and millions of taels of silver were confiscated, the money was taken over by the Ministry of Household Affairs and could not reach Xiang Nan's hands.

And Xiang Nan believed that there must be a thief here. After all, how could the eunuch party only embezzle a few million taels of silver after controlling the government for so many years?

To put it into perspective, even tens of millions of taels of silver can't afford it. The Ministry of Punishment and the Ministry of Husbandry must have made a lot of money when they ransacked homes.

But Xiang Nan can't deal with them yet.

After all, the ministers who are now in power are also wary of him, worried that he will liquidate the old ministers of the previous dynasty. If he conducts a large-scale purge and dismissal of officials, it will definitely lead to "official upheaval."

Although power appears to be from the top down, the official level can crush people to death. But in fact, power comes from the bottom up. Without the support of the people below, even a noble person is nothing more than a puppet sitting on a dragon throne.

Just like Zhu Qizhen before, he was the Supreme Emperor in name, but even the eunuchs who were guarding the door dared to yell at him without any respect at all.

Therefore, Xiang Nan could only slowly figure it out, slowly cultivate his confidants, and accumulate reputation before he could compete with the civil servant group, the general group, the meritorious group, and the Zong family group.

…

Xiang Nan's construction of a factory in Xishan did not attract the attention of the courtiers.

To them, this was just a little pastime for the emperor, no big deal.

After all, the emperor has done many more ridiculous things.

Xiang Nan then proposed to open Enke to select scholars.

The Song Dynasty already had Enke to recruit scholars. Whenever there is a happy event of national importance, Enke will be given to express the universal celebration. Naturally, the courtiers had no reason to refuse.

Therefore, Enke's decree to obtain scholars was immediately announced, and for a while, scholars across the country were very excited.

The main reason why Xiang Nan wanted to recruit scholars was to recruit a group of people who were loyal to him.

He doesn't want to use those old ministers anymore.

Different from real history, in the world of "New Longmen Inn", Emperor Jingtai does not have loyal ministers such as Yu Qianyu Shaobao, Wang Zhi, and Chen Xun.

The ministers with bones, such as Yang Yuxuan, Zhou Huaian, Qiu Moyan's uncle Qiu Chenzhong, etc., were either killed, demoted, or mutilated.

Above the court, all that was left were a group of boneless people. Facing Cao Shaoqin's power, he did not dare to resist at all. He only knew how to obey and obey.

If Cao Shaoqin hadn't died suddenly and the remaining Chang Yanxiao couldn't control the situation, none of the courtiers would have dared to resist.

Therefore, Xiang Nan really doesn't want to use these weaklings who act according to the prevailing circumstances and forget their loyalty to others. Just because he had just ascended the throne and his prestige had not yet been established, he could not fall out with the courtiers yet.

He will look for opportunities and take care of them slowly. He still has plenty of time anyway.

…

Just as Xiang Nan was slowly promoting reforms, Qiu Moyan also followed his instructions and took Zhu Qizhen outside the Northwest Pass, leaving him 20,000 taels of silver.

"Take this money and become a rich man. Stop thinking about being an emperor." Qiu Moyan said to Zhu Qizhen.

Zhu Qizhen already knew about the incident and that someone had replaced him as emperor. He was angry, he was upset, he regretted, but there was nothing he could do.

Even if he told others that he was the emperor, it would be useless, no one would believe him. After all, the emperor is well in the palace, so who is he?

It's better to stay outside the customs and become a rich man. Fortunately, with twenty thousand taels of silver, he doesn't have to suffer from hunger and lose his freedom like Nangong Li.

"Okay. It's all retribution for me to be reduced to this." Mayor Zhu Qi sighed and said to Qiu Moyan, "Please help me tell that person to manage this country well. If he acts recklessly and harms the people, I will forget it. Even if he is a ghost, he will not be spared."

Qiu Moyan nodded.