I

The first assistant was Song Yingxing, the second assistant was Fei Chun, and the cabinet ministers Liu Ziren, Yuan Yunlong and Chen Maosheng.

This cabinet, after gathering together and familiarizing themselves with the matters at hand, discussed major national affairs with the emperor for the first time.

Song Yingxing spoke first: "With the full collection of taxes in Shandong and Henan provinces, the annual tax revenue has increased significantly. The industrial and commercial taxes and tariffs of various provinces, especially in coastal areas, are also increasing, but the national treasury has not Too full…”

"First, due to the surge in military expenditures, each division has increased from 10,000 people to 11,000 people, and new cavalry divisions are also being formed. The Navy continues to build ships, which all cost money."

"The second is to increase official salaries and increase local taxes. One decrease and the other increase, the court's fiscal revenue has disappeared out of thin air."

"Third, education funding is increasing year by year. Thanks to His Majesty's great blessing, the world is now at peace, exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes are exempted, and the number of children in various provinces has increased sharply. Although free lunches have been cancelled, when there are more children, new schools will be built and teachers will continue to be recruited. Governments in various places They all say that there is not enough money, which is also the reason for the increase in local interceptions. Primary and secondary schools have local expenditures, but universities in each province are directly allocated by the national treasury. The number of universities is increasing day by day, and the number of teachers and students is also increasing. The annual expenses are real Quite a few.”

"The fourth is immigration expenses. This is a cliché. Last year, there were a total of 250,000 official immigrants. Vehicles and boats, grain, seeds, quilts, cattle... all kinds of things. The immigration expenses exceeded 2 million taels of silver."

"The fifth is water course management. The Yellow River is the most expensive to regulate, and the existing river courses need to be continuously reinforced. Zhang Shangshu (Zhang Guowei) is also digging and dredging new river courses in Shandong. He has to allocate funds every year, and he doesn't know when it will be completed."

"I suggest that after the two new cavalry divisions are formed, the number of troops should not be increased. There are too many troops in the north, and there are no troops in the south. One division should be transferred to Sichuan, two more divisions should be transferred to Minyue, and two more divisions should be transferred back to Nanjing. Regarding immigration, the number of immigrants can be appropriately reduced, and 50,000 immigrants per year is enough."

Zhao Han nodded and said: "What Song Aiqing said is reasonable. After the two new cavalry divisions are established, the army should not be expanded. But there are still battles to fight in the north, so there is no need to move so many troops south. Let's move one division to Chengdu. Mainly guard against Tibet. Send another division back to Nanjing, which will be enough to defend the capital."

After saying that, Zhao Han thought for a while: "As for immigration, the total number of immigrants this year will be reduced to 150,000. Fifty thousand of them will immigrate outside the Liao Great Wall to fill the population void after the destruction of the Tatars! All immigrants from cold or remote areas must be given preferential treatment. Provide them with more clothes and food, and the more cattle they have, the better."

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty!" Song Yingxing said with cupped hands.

Fei Ruhe's brother-in-law Yuan Yunlong said: "The newly occupied territory outside the Liao Great Wall (Jilin) ​​can be managed by additional civilian officials, but it does not need to be placed under direct control of Liaoning. A capital department should be set up for military control, firstly to prevent the Tatars from coming back, and secondly. It is to frighten the barbarians in the Northeast."

Liu Ziren said: "This statement is reasonable. The land of Nuergandusi in the former Ming Dynasty should also be recovered. After being ravaged by the Tatars for many years, Nuergandusi and the native people longed for China. I suggested setting up a capital outside the Great Wall of Liao. In Jianzhou (Hetuala), it governed a vast area from the Great Wall of Liao to Heilongjiang."

Zhao Han shook his head and said: "The location of Jianzhou City is too far to the west. Where can we control Heilongjiang? Bring me a map!"

A map of Nuergandusi was quickly placed in front of Zhao Han. This map was obtained from the Wenyuan Pavilion Library in Beijing.

Zhao Han looked at the map carefully, pointed to Harbin in later generations and said: "It is best to locate the capital of Dusi here."

Harbin in the Ming Dynasty was called Laluwei, and you can immediately tell that it is the name of the guard station. There is also a post station there called Zhalanu Station.

In the Ming Dynasty, post roads were opened, all the way from Shenyang to Heilongjiang.

The places along the post road include Yidonghewei (Changchun), Laluwei (Harbin), Hasansuo (Tonghe), Huerhaiwei (Yilan), Zhubang Post (Jiamusi), and Fotiwei (Fujin)...Follow the Heilongjiang River to the mouth of the sea. The mouth of the sea is the seat of Nuergandusi.

Zhao Han looked at the map and continued: "All the post stations set up in the previous Ming Dynasty must be restored. This year's immigrants will be sent to the post stations first. Those divisions in the northeast should not be idle and clear all the abandoned post roads. Dredge them. The amount of work on the post road is quite large, and there are not that many civilians in the area, so Datong soldiers can only be used to carry it out. It is estimated that it will take one or two years to complete. After the post road was dredged, Li Zheng led the army to attack Luwei (Harbin), and the cavalry division Follow them too. In this way, military power can radiate to the Heilongjiang and Songhua River basins, and even scare the Jurchens in Beishan (outer Xing'an Mountains)."

"To the south," Zhao Han pointed to the map and said, "Don't continue to stay in Jianzhou. Hu Dinggui will lead my troops to Huifa City (eastern Huinan County). With Huifa City as the center, resettle immigrants, educate the indigenous people, and increase the population When there are more and enough food, you can go to Ninggu Pagoda and wipe out the remnants of the Tatars! Before the population is sufficient, you can also go into the mountains to raid every year. Take away as many people as you can from the people under the Tatar rule. Those who can’t be taken away will be killed directly! They come once a year, and in a few years, the Tatars will be depopulated.”

Zhao Han picked up another map: "Xiao Zongxian's troops moved to northern Liaoning to target the Mongols outside the Liao Great Wall. Xiao Zongxian is not allowed to use troops this year, and Li Zheng, Hu Dinggui and other troops will consume a lot of food. When the food supply in Liaodong slows down next year, Xiao Zongxian can wait for the opportunity to act. He can use any means to win over divisions, use force to conquer, and cooperate with the friendly forces in Hebei to take back all the lands of Duoyan and Sanwei!"

Zhao Han continued to look for the map, pointed to the Hetao area and said: "Last year, there was a severe drought in Shaanxi and Henan, and the local grain storage was exhausted. After the grain storage is restored, immediately ask the local officials of Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan provinces to collect regular food from their jurisdictions." Clear the warehouse with grain, send troops to recapture the Hetao in one fell swoop, and get back everything south of Yinshan Mountain!"

The five cabinet ministers looked at each other. The emperor said so many things in one breath, all of which were expansion plans in the north.

If all were implemented, how much food would be consumed?

It had not moved in the past few years. That was because the population in the north was empty and a lot of land was abandoned. To fight a big war, grain had to be transported from the south to the north. After several years of recovery, coupled with the continuous immigration of grain from the south, the population of the northern provinces has gradually increased, and grain production has also continued to increase.

In this way, it is completely possible to requisition food on the spot and send troops to the grassland to regain the lost territory.

If it hadn't been for the severe drought in the north last year, which consumed too much of the stored grain, we would have been able to send troops to recapture the Hetao this year.

Fei Chun asked: "Since the administrative office of the Northeastern Dusi has changed, should we still call it Nu'er Gandusi?"

Zhao Han thought seriously and said: "Let's call him Heilongjiang Dusi. Li Zheng will no longer lead the troops in person. Appoint him as the Heilongjiang Dusi Commander to take charge of the military and civil affairs of Heilongjiang."

Military and civilian affairs were grasped, and its jurisdiction included Heilongjiang and Jilin in later generations, as well as large areas of Russia. This power is powerful enough, and it certainly cannot be given the actual command power of the army.

By the way, in addition to purchasing military rations from North Korea and shipping them from southern China, some of the military rations in Northeast China also come from Japan.

Famines broke out repeatedly in Japan, and farmers starved to death every year, but local lords took the initiative to sell food. The grain was first transported to Ganghwa Island, then transferred to Lushunkou, and finally passed overland to the hands of the Datong Army. Ganghwa Island, located at the estuary of the Han River, was originally a place where North Korean political prisoners were exiled, but now it has become a sea trade between the two countries. trading place, and the Datong Navy rented a piece of land as a military port.

Liu Ziren suddenly said: "Your Majesty, according to the report from Guangnan Province, after more than a year, most of the officials who went to Guangnan have learned to speak the local dialect and are familiar with the specific people's customs in Guangnan. They will be leaving this year. Heavy hand, forcing the big families in Guangnan to divide their land... Maybe the gentry in Guangnan will confuse the people and incite them to riot again. The Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of War both want to slow down. Guangnan had a civil uprising last year, if there is another civil uprising this year Change may not be conducive to winning over the people of Guangnan."

"What are you afraid of?" Zhao Han sneered, "Cut the mess quickly, otherwise how long will it take? If there is a civil uprising, send out the army, just in time to kill a few more gentry with ulterior motives. As for the people of Guangnan, there will inevitably be casualties during the war. They Since you are following the gentry in rebellion, you must be prepared to die in the sword!"

Now that half of Vietnam has been occupied, farm division must be carried out.

Firstly, this was a national policy of the new dynasty, and secondly, it was an opportunity to eliminate the influence of the gentry. There was so much land annexation there that the people didn't understand anything and the gentry just took whatever they said. If the gentry wants to rebel, the people will be deceived. If not dealt with, it will always be a hidden danger.

Only by implementing the policy of dividing land so that the gentry cannot monopolize land resources can the problem of rebellion be solved once and for all.

Like the Ming Dynasty, they suppressed those who rebelled, but did not clean up the Vietnamese gentry. Then after the national power declines, the Vietnamese gentry will have different intentions and use the resources and influence in their hands to start chaos again with the common people who don't understand anything.

The five cabinet ministers dispersed, and Zhao Han leaned on his chair and closed his eyes to rest.

Not long after, the British envoy was brought in.

"Meet His Majesty the Emperor!"

"Sit down. How many schools have you visited?"

Milton said: "We visited two primary schools, one middle school, and Jinling University. China's school education is very great, and we sincerely admire it."

"Don't admire me, Britain can do this too." Zhao Han said with a smile.

"When I return to the UK, I will submit my proposals to Parliament," Milton said.

After a small chat, Milton suddenly issued an invitation: "Your Majesty, the great Emperor, on behalf of the Republic of England, I invite Chinese officials to visit the United Kingdom."

These words made Zhao Han think seriously, and it seemed that he could indeed send an envoy.

Not only visiting the UK, but also visiting other countries along the way, increasing China's official influence from Asia to Europe. By the way, collect intelligence information along the way and compile new navigation charts like Zheng He did.