"Your Majesty, after the water in the Yellow River recedes, will water transport be restored?"

The person who raised this question was Xu Yunsong, the commander-in-chief of water transport. He relied on the canal to make ends meet! Of course, the commander-in-chief of water transport relied on water transport. If there was no water transport, what use would he have as the commander-in-chief?

"It's not like water transportation has completely stopped, so how can it be restored?" Zhu Youjian said: "The Jiangnan Canal, Zhejiang East Canal, Huainan Canal, Tianjin North and South Canal and other canal sections are still smooth today. Moreover, the water transportation from Cao to the sea also starts from Huai'an.

Enter Tianjin. In the future, the Tianjin North Canal, Jiangnan Canal, Zhejiang East Canal and Huainan Canal will only become busier. Although the Tianjin South Canal from Tianjin to Dongchang will be cooler, it will still exist. The only one that cannot be navigable is the one from Dongchang to the Huaihe River.

A paragraph.”

"That's more than 1,000 miles..." Xu Yunsong said with a bitter look on his face, "And the 600 miles from Tianjin to Dongchang in the south is of no use. The total length of the canal is only more than 3,000 miles, so now it's

Half of them were eliminated, and tens of thousands of grain transport soldiers and at least hundreds of thousands of people in the towns along the canal were cut off from their livelihood..."

Xu Yunsong doesn't care about the livelihood of tens of thousands of grain transport soldiers and hundreds of thousands of people along the canal! All he cares about is his official position and oil and water - this is not his business alone. He has brought 4,000 households from

It costs a lot of money to move so many people south from Beijing! I originally planned to get them back by water transport, but I didn’t expect that only two years after taking office, I encountered a flood before I could get back to my roots. Now that the flood has not receded, it will be abandoned.

canal!

Although Long live the water transport has not stopped completely, but the more than a thousand miles in between are missing, it is no longer one, but has become two sections that cannot be coordinated between the north and the south - a water transport commander cannot control these areas at all.

Two sections of canals that are not connected!

Moreover, the most difficult part of the Grand Canal is the section from Huai'an to Dongchang! Sometimes the flow is cut off by drought, and sometimes it is washed away by the Yellow River. It is really troubled by disasters, and it is troublesome to manage. Of course, it also has the most oil and water. So most of them

The grain transport troops of the Han Dynasty were all stationed along the canal from Huai'an to Dongchang. Therefore, the yamen of the General Water Transport Corps was located in Huai'an.

"Dong Guo Gong," Zhu Youjian nodded, "Of course I know the difficulties of the grain transport army, and I will also make arrangements... I will not let them wait to starve to death!"

Xu Yunsong was still crying and sad.

Did the Canal Army starve to death and do this stupid thing? The problem now is that he suffered a huge loss. In order to arrange for the 4,000 families to go south, he also borrowed usury from Widow Xu of the same clan, and also gave away eight of his family members in Tianjin Wei.

Zhuangzi and two gardens in the west of Beijing were escorted out... The consequences would be heavy!

Zhu Youjian knew about this, but Xu Yunsong himself wanted to be the chief grain transporter, so of course the risk was also his.

This means that being an official is risky, so you must be cautious when entering the industry!

Zhu Youjian paused, and then said: "I have arranged two places for the grain transport army from Huai'an to Dongchang. One is Huaidong, and the Huaixi general army will take them in, and allocate farmland to them in Huaibei - I have already

It is planned to dig a way for the Yellow River to enter the sea in Huaibei. Once the way to the sea is completed, the Huaihe River can be controlled, and both sides of the Huaihe River can be transformed back into the land of fish and rice. It is still profitable to plant military settlements in Huaibei.

The second is to let them make a living in the soon-to-be-opened Shanghai Commercial Port. Farmland will not be divided into categories when going to the commercial port to make a living, but they can be given residential land, half an acre per household. In addition, the officials used in the Shanghai Commercial Port can give priority to those who have settled in Shanghai to transport grain.

Recruitment in the army.”

Not to mention, the conditions given by Zhu Youjian are still very good. You can either live a stable life as a farmer in Huaibei, or you can get a Shanghai household registration, work as a civil servant, and you can also divide the land into a separate house to build a single-family yard...

..I don’t know how those food transport troops will choose?

But what happened to the minister's book? Xu Yunsong looked at Zhu Youjian eagerly.

Of course, Zhu Youjian will not deny Xu Yunsong the opportunity to repay his money. The question is whether he has the courage to do it!

"Ding Guo Gong," Zhu Youjian said with a smile, "the canal is interrupted for more than a thousand miles, and everything from Huai'an to Tianjin is transported by sea... Moreover, the rice shipped to the north is no longer directly collected from the south.

Instead, it will be shipped from Huguang, Jiangxi and other places. Therefore, starting from next year, the grain transportation army will not be responsible for transporting grain. All grain transportation will be changed to commercial operations. From now on, there will be no official grain ships on the canal. The grain transportation army will be responsible for Huainan from now on.

, the maintenance of the Jiangnan and East Zhejiang canals and the customs taxation!"

What?

Banknote tax?

Xu Yunsong was heartbroken after hearing this.

He is Dingguo Gong, a top figure in the tax evasion circle. Of course he knows how the canal banknote tax is collected!

Zhu Youjian looked at Xu Yunsong and said: "I have handed over to you all the four major banknote checkpoints on the thousand-mile canal from Huai'an to Hangzhou, including Huai'an, Yangzhou, Xushuguan (Suzhou), and Beixin (Hangzhou). No ships will be able to do so in the future."

It’s tax-free. Even for ships shipped by the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs, the customs will still collect taxes as usual. There is no need to check the value of the goods, just the size of the ship... I won’t ask you for more, just one bill for you.

Give me 200,000 taels of silver, and the four major banknotes will give me 800,000 taels of silver. The rest should be used to maintain the Water Transport General Military Office."

What? Four banknotes for 800,000 taels?

Xu Yunsong almost cried when he heard Zhu Youjian's asking price.

During the Tianqi period, the country's eight major banknotes could only earn more than 420,000 taels per year, which was only obtained under the high pressure of Wei Zhongxian. Zhu Youjian now gives Xu Yunsong four banknotes, which will cost 800,000 taels a year...

...This is to impose exorbitant taxes!

In fact, Zhu Youjian's requirements were not high, and Zhu Cihong back then was much more ruthless than him.

The tax standard for banknotes in the Ming Dynasty was theoretically thirty tax per person. From Hangzhou to Chongwenmen in Beijing, there were eight banknotes in total. If they all passed, the tax would be thirty per cent, which is more than 20%.

However, the actual tax collection standard is based on the gross estimate of the size of the ship. It cannot reach 30 tax per 1, and even 50 tax per 100% may not be reached.

There are also three rules of not accepting ships, that is, official ships are not accepted, eunuch ships are not accepted, and scholar-bureaucrat ships are not accepted. In addition, of course, the grain transport army's own canal ships are not accepted...this one is not accepted, and that one is not accepted.

If you don't collect it, there won't be many ships left to collect taxes.

In this case, there will still be more than 420,000 taels during the Tianqi year!

Now Zhu Youjian wants to collect them all, and the four major banknote checkpoints are all located in the most economically developed areas. He has to hand over 800,000 taels a year, which is really not a lot!

Zhu Youjian looked at Xu Yunsong who was crying and said, "Dong Guo, you don't have to give me an answer today. Go back and do the math... If you feel that you can't eat it, I allow you to resign."

But what about after resigning?

The high-interest loan owed to Widow Xu still needs to be repaid, and the whole family still has to eat!

...

Xu Yunsong, the "gong of the loan country" who owed a lot of debt, left Nanjing Xiyuan with a group of loyal and treacherous ministers of the Ming Dynasty who did not know what their intentions were. Later, two extremely wealthy profiteers came to the house - Zheng Zhilong and Shen Tingyang.

The two of them entered the main hall together with the Nanjing garrison eunuch Lu Jiude and the Shanggong female officer Xu Ruolan.

Zhu Youjian saw the big black man Zheng Zhilong from a distance and waved to him with a smile.

"Zheng Yiguan, I've been looking forward to seeing you... Come here, come here, show me, hahaha, you're much younger!"

Zheng Zhilong was confused when he said this - is the man in red robe the emperor? Why does he look so familiar to me? And... what does it mean to be much younger? I am 28 years old, not young. Got it!

"The Fujian Navy guerrilla Zheng Zhilong respectfully invites the Holy Ann..."

Zhu Youjian and Zheng Zhilong were "naturally acquainted", but Zheng Zhilong still had to respectfully follow Shen Tingyang in the ceremony.

"Flat body, give me a seat! Ruolan, you sit down too." Zhu Youjian smiled and waved his hand, asking the eunuchs beside him to move an embroidered pier for Zheng Zhilong, Shen Tingyang and Widow Xu.

After the three of them were done, Shen Tingyang wanted to formally introduce Zheng Zhilong to Zhu Youjian, but Zhu Youjian seemed to be more familiar with Zheng Zhilong. Before Shen Tingyang could speak, he smiled and said: "First officer, you How old is the tea girl?"

Tea girl?

Zheng Zhilong was stunned again and again. He had a daughter named Zheng Chagu, but she was only four years old this year... Isn't it her that Long Live the Lord is asking about?
Chapter completed!