The capital.◎,

Wu Xun soon found out that he was a big deal for Liu Jun. He had previously packaged the taxes of Salt Affairs and Sihai Bank, Jiangnan Manufacturing Factory, East India Company, etc. and ordered a tax of 20 million yuan per year. Liu Jun happily agreed. Wu Xun felt that he had taken a big advantage, especially when Liu Zongzhou supported him and asked Liu Jun to agree to the 20 million yuan tax, he had to enter the Ministry of Revenue, and when using it, he had to sign it with three people to withdraw it. He was extremely excited.

20 million yuan, financial problems can be greatly alleviated.

Then, he soon discovered that there was a reason why Liu Jun agreed so happily. Although the 20 million yuan had to be paid in batches, the first batch of eight million yuan had indeed arrived.

But when he and the officials of the Ministry of Revenue drafted a withdrawal plan and were about to use the eight million yuan, he realized that things were far from as simple as he imagined.

Liu Jun rejected the withdrawal order because he pointed out that military expenditure was not included, and military expenditure should be given priority. Liu Jun quickly proposed a supplementary plan, and the withdrawal order in it scared Wu Qi.

Because Liu Jun included a large amount of military expenditure in this list.

The most unexpected part was not the military budget for the Central Plains bandit suppression, but the military expenditure of the Chu army was officially included in the military budget, which was the first time.

From the beginning to the present, in several years, from the nine-headed bird horse team of dozens of people to more than ten towns, they have never received food and salary from the court.

This also made Wu Yan and the others ignore this important issue.

But now, Liu Jun just gave Wu Yan eight million with his left hand, but his right hand has already listed the military budget requisition form for the Chu army.

According to Liu Jun's military budget list, the Ming army's military expenditure in the first year of Longwu would reach 80 million. Among them, the Chu army occupied a considerable amount, including nine military regions, various divisions of the Navy and Army, as well as the defense outside the pass and the bandit suppression in the Central Plains, as well as the dressing, training, food and salary of the towns. They understood one by one, which was shocking to see.

The number 80 million alone shocked Wu Yan.

The court would never be able to afford so much money, and even if the court did not pay the military expenses of the Chu army, the other courts would not be able to pay.

"A full dress-up can be temporarily suspended."

In the Prime Minister's Office, the ministers were ordered to meet with three ministers. There were no other ministers. Wu Qi looked gloomy, "We don't need to change our clothes immediately."

Liu Jun smoked a cigar, nodded, and signaled himself to listen. Liu Zongzhou held a large cigarette pole in his hand, smoking the tobacco leaves one by one.

He knocked his pipe on the soles of his shoes a few times. Then he said, "I'll say a few words, the number of troops should be reduced. Especially in the southeast, there is no need to maintain that large number. I suggest that the number of troops in the southeast and southwest towns should be reduced. For example, the six military regions of Sanjiang, Fujian and Zhejiang, Guangdong and Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou, Central Plains, Shaanxi and Gansu, all have only one town, and it is no longer a member of the two divisions and six associations. It can be changed to a member of the two divisions and four associations, and one town will be reduced to 20,000 people."

"There are two towns of troops outside the Chuanhu River and the Passage, and the town with a total of 30,000 people can be retained."

"The three towns in Zhili, one army of the Imperial Guards and the Personal Guards, and the four towns of the Navy can be compressed into two towns, with 20,000 people in each town."

According to Liu Zongzhou's meaning, since it is a recruiting permanent army now, there is no need to retain so many more. Simplify the military and government and streamline the government to the end. The Nine Military Region plus the Navy and the Guards' personal army will be fully compressed and streamlined.

According to his simplified method, in the end, there were 410,000 troops left in the Ming Dynasty, a total of 16 towns. They were divided into 30,000 full-group A towns and 20,000 B towns.

The number of troops has been greatly reduced, and the cost of equipment and training has naturally increased significantly, and the expenditure on military pay has also been greatly reduced.

This streamlining range is quite large, almost half of the horses need to be subtracted.

Liu Jun did not object to this plan. Anyway, it was just streamlining it, and it was just enough to streamline other old Ming troops. The Chu army could also take the opportunity to expand its territory and strengthen its strength.

"Lushun and Zhenjiang are one towns, Ningyuan, Jinzhou and Guanning are one towns, Denglai and Kaifeng are one towns, Xuanfu, Datong and Taiyuan are one towns. The two armies of the garrison and garrison are each streamlined from the third division to the two divisions and six associations."

"The East China Sea and the South China Sea fleets are combined into one town, and the two fleets are compressed into two squadrons, each with 10,000 people, reducing the number of Marines and trying to maintain the number of ships and sailors. The Yangtze River Navy was combined with the troops of the Sanjiang Military Region and reorganized into a town of 30,000 people, with 20,000 troops in the army and 10,000 naval divisions retained 10,000."

Liu Jun and Liu Zongzhou bargained.

"Sanjiang does not need to keep the navy."

"It is still necessary for the navy. Although the court has a navy, the inland rivers are different from the sea. In this way, the three towns in Zhili will be moved to Shanxi, and the original troops in Shanxi will be removed."

In this way, the three military regions of Zhili, Sichuan and Hu, and outside the pass each retain two military towns with a total of 30,000 people. The five military regions of Fujian, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Central Plains, Shaanxi and Gansu each retain only one B town, with two divisions, four associations and twenty thousand people."

The Sanjiang Military Region is also a town, but there are two divisions and four armies, plus a navy fleet of 10,000 people, totaling 30,000 people.

In addition, the scale of the Imperial Guards and the Guards' personal army remains unchanged. The two armies have a size of 40,000 people, while the Navy has been changed to the Beihai and Nanhai towns, each maintaining a size of 30,000 people.

"All 320,000 people were organized into 16 towns. The North Sea Fleet was assigned to the Zhili Military Region, and the South Sea Fleet was assigned to the Fujian-Zhejiang Military Region and the Fujian-Zhejiang Military Region."

"If this streamlined plan is completed, then there will be 320,000 troops left and the speed of changing gears will slow down. This year's military expenditure can be reduced to 35 million. If the bandit suppression in the Central Plains and the defense outside the pass can also be maintained at about 40 million."

Forty million, this is half less than the eighty million that Liu Jun planned before.

However, it is still a big number. What made Wu Di dissatisfied was that most of the military expenditures of the 40 million would eventually become the military expenditures of the military towns controlled by Liu Jun.

Use the money from the court to support Liu Jun's soldiers.

Even if you only keep 320,000 soldiers, the average monthly salary is four yuan, and the monthly salary will be 1.28 million yuan. What's more, there are equipment, training and other expenses, as well as food consumption.

The eight million that Liu Jun had just pulled into the treasury was only enough to pay for half a year.

The 20 million yuan tax included in the All-China Federation of Trade Unions is only half of the annual military expenditure.

Wu Qi faced another problem, and his financial difficulties did not improve at all.

What's more, the court has issued 40 million national debts. In fact, these bonds were issued by Sihai Bank, which means that the court owed Sihai Bank 40 million. Interest alone is already a big figure.

Wu Qi could not find any good solution. The tax information in the Southeast has improved slightly, and it is estimated that he will have an income of about 10 million this year. The tax revenue in other aspects is estimated to be about 5 million, and the rest is imperial grain.

Even if the court does not pay interest on bonds this year, the income will be only 35 million yuan. There is still a gap of 5 million yuan to 40 million military expenses. What's more, the court also needs to use money in other aspects, all aspects, the salaries of officials, the salaries of royal families, and local expenses, etc., and disaster relief, etc.

"The court still has to issue bonds this year, otherwise there will be no expense at all."

Liu Jun smiled, and then made a very tempting proposal to Wu Yan.

"The court can issue another 20 million bonds, which can be purchased by Sihai Bank, and even include the 40 million bonds issued by Sihai Bank before, which can also be redeemed and paid by Sihai Bank's future generations."

The 60 million bonds from the court in the future were equivalent to the exclusive holdings of Sihai Bank.

"The court does not have to repay these 60 million bonds in the future, but only needs to pay interest every year. The annual interest is 8% plus a storage and handling fee. The court will pay interest of 5 million yuan to Sihai Bank every year in the future."

This proposal surprised both Wu Yan and Liu Zongzhou.

There is also such a good thing. If you borrow money, you don’t have to pay the interest. Wu Yan quickly calculated the account in his mind. Eight percent interest, which is definitely not high at the current interest rate outside. As far as he knows, the lowest bonds issued by the court were 10% interest for the lowest one-year period.

Sixty million, five million a year, and the interest paid in twelve years is 60 million principal amount. But if it is an ordinary bond, it must be paid back both principal and interest, and the profit is high, so compound interest must be considered.

Five million a year, which is absolutely affordable for the current taxes of the court. After all, the current taxes of the court are 35 million a year.

However, Liu Jun proposed another supplementary condition to Wu Yan that made him more excited.

"In the future, when the imperial court needs it urgently, it can still borrow money from banks according to this condition, and it can be limited to borrow less than 20 million yuan per year."

Wu Xuan admitted that he had fooled him a little, and he couldn't understand. What are the benefits of this plan for Sihai Bank?

Of course, Liu Jun also had the conditions, that is, the court's loan was borrowed by issuing bond mortgages. Then, the court granted Sihai Bank exclusive rights to mint silver and copper coins and print silver dollar coupons.

"Please rest assured that Sihai Bank will not print money randomly, creating chaos. Sihai Bank will use the bonds mortgaged by the court as reserve and then issue silver dollar coupons."

Wu Xuan was still puzzled. Sihai Bank was simply Liu Jun's property, and he had long been given the right to mint silver coins and print silver dollar coupons.

After all, the silver dollar coupon was not the treasure banknotes of the imperial court in his early years. This is something similar to the banknotes. Each silver dollar coupon is guaranteed to be exchanged for silver coins on the face of the coupon.

It is precisely because of this that the court did not care much about printing the money to Sihai Bank.

Because there are silver dollars to be reserved for printing silver dollar coupons, and there are no silver dollars and random printing, they cannot pay and exchange it. The one who ended up going bankrupt was Sihai Bank. In the eyes of officials such as Wu Chiang, this is a purely commercial act and has little to do with the court.

If the court hadn't had any money, the court would have done this business by itself.

Now Liu Jun has gone around and used such preferential loan terms to exchange for a right they had long ago. Isn’t it a bit strange?

Wu Yan didn't understand, but Liu Jun didn't plan to explain.

They didn't know that Liu Jun did this, which was actually a disguised blood transfusion to the court to maintain it. The Ming Dynasty was still a very valuable tool for Liu Jun. He did not want him to go bankrupt now. At the same time, the money was lent to the Ming Dynasty and after a walk, most of them were also returned to the hands of the Chu army.

What's more, he also needs to re-determine Sihai Bank's rights to mint coins and issue bank dollar coupons.

Liu Jun did not tell them that he was going to start the printing press and increase the amount of money. For Liu Jun, 20 million or 30 million were just paper.

Of course, Liu Jun did not plan to print money randomly without reserves like Zhu Yuanzhang. Liu Jun was still very careful to control this amount. He planned to issue additional silver dollar coupons, and the reserve was the bonds mortgaged by the court. Those bonds were interest, which was the future tax revenue of the court.

Besides, Liu Jun still had the last condition and didn't tell Wu Yan.

"In the future, the loans lent to the court and the taxes included in the tax will no longer be paid, but will directly pay the silver dollar coupons." Liu Jun said his last condition.

Silver dollars are the most important asset of the four seas silver dollars, and Liu Jun will try his best to control it in his own hands.

This condition made Wu Yan and Liu Zongzhou hesitate.

The imperial court had done the random printing of money back then. At that time, the imperial court had no reserve funds for printing money, so it printed as much as it wanted. It forced the exchange rate of treasure banknotes, silver, copper coins and rice, and used these banknotes to pay the officials and soldiers to buy supplies, but in the end it became infamous.

They were very worried that Liu Jun wanted to play this game too.

"Don't worry, the two cabinet masters. Paying with silver dollar coupons is just for the convenience of payment. Silver dollar coupons can be exchanged for silver dollars at any time. This is the foundation of Sihai Bank. Sihai Bank will not smash its own signature." Liu Jun explained to the two with a smile.

In order to make them believe in themselves, Liu Jun said, "It is better to do this. The taxes in the future of the court can accept the people and merchants pay taxes with silver dollar coupons. The court can use these silver dollar coupons to exchange silver dollars for silver dollars at any time. How about it? In this way, it will be convenient for the people to pay taxes and the court will collect taxes."

The imperial court's Baochao Credit went bankrupt, but in the end the imperial court only printed and issued Baochao, but refused to collect Baochao. He refused to let the people pay taxes with Baochao Credit, which eventually led to the complete bankruptcy of Baochao Credit.

Zhu Yuanzhang was an emperor who was born into a peasant family and had a very small-scale peasant sense of economics. The treasure money he made was just using the treasure money of the Yuan Dynasty. However, the treasure money of the Yuan Dynasty had reserves and the amount of issuance was controlled. Even so, the credit of the treasure money of the Yuan Dynasty was completely bankrupt.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang had no reserves or was not linked to gold and silver. He decoupled and forced credit currency, but he did not control himself. Unlimited printing of money was completely a big economic layman.

The end result is that the indiscriminate issuance of treasure money and the credit goes bankrupt, which becomes a pile of waste paper that everyone hates.

Liu Jun would never make such a mistake. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!