Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 278: The Crown Prince's Disaster Relief Plan (I)
"Grandpa Emperor, I have a plan that I would like to report."
"You are the regent, there is no need to report anything. Just tell everyone to do it directly."
"Yes, Sun Chen obeys your order."
After taking a deep breath, Zhu Youdong turned around and said, "My Lords, facing the impending large-scale locust plague, the most difficult thing for the court now is that the food reserves are insufficient. To solve this problem, we can only increase revenue and reduce expenditure. We will talk about increasing revenue later, and I will talk about reducing expenditure first."
"Your Highness, please give your instructions."
"Cao Sanxi."
"I am here."
"Now all the official warehouses of my Ming Dynasty have been cancelled and are all under the management of your bank. The various departments only have an account with you, but the goods are all in your bank. I will make a rule here today. Whenever there is a fire in a warehouse, I will not ask the cause, and the person in charge of the warehouse will be punished for corruption! This rule will take effect today."
"Yes, I understand . I will definitely carry out your orders."
"In addition, banks should quickly instruct all branches to set up relief points and recruitment points in advance."
"A job opening? Ah~ I understand."
"Very good." Nodding, Zhu Youdong turned to Sun Wei and asked, "General Secretary?"
"I am here."
"Starting from this year, the salaries of all civil officials and clerks in the country have increased so much. With this salary standard, clerks may need to calculate , but the officials have enough money in their hands. If they still want to embezzle money at such a critical moment for the country, it is really unacceptable! The previous rule that the government at all levels collected 30% of the relief materials distributed by the country as floating materials must be abolished! I also ask the Censorate to gather the censors to make advance arrangements for the provinces in North China. Once a locust plague really breaks out and relief begins, the Censorate must strictly supervise the use of relief materials! Anyone who dares to take action at this time, the Chief Censor can pass on the message in advance: confiscate the property and punish severely!"
"I obey your orders, but the disaster area is so extensive this time that I'm afraid it's beyond the capability of the censors of the Metropolitan Censorate to investigate it alone."
"No problem." Zhu Youdong pointed his finger towards the front hall. "After the palace examination, all the new Jinshi this year will be temporarily handed over to your Censorate for at least half a year. After half a year, if it is found that the Jinshi with a large amount of embezzlement has been found, the Ministry of Personnel will give priority to arrange good tasks. Grand Chancellor, what do you think of this matter?"
"Your Highness, this is a brilliant idea. I have always felt that it is inappropriate for newly-appointed scholars to be sent directly to the Ministry of Personnel. It is a good opportunity for them to go to the grassroots and see the hard-working people of our Ming Dynasty, so that they will be alert when they return to the court to serve as officials."
"Since the Grand Chancellor has agreed to this, then it is settled. Grand Chancellor? Are you satisfied?"
"Satisfied! I am very satisfied! This way I don't have to worry about manpower, and the new scholars are the most enterprising, and they dare not show mercy to corrupt officials. Please rest assured, Your Highness, with these more than 300 new scholars, I may not be able to waste a single dollar of national treasury during this inspection, but the money and grain embezzled for disaster relief this time will definitely be controlled within a very small range."
"Yeah." Zhu Youdong was not worried about Sun Wei's ability and integrity. But most of his subordinates were just talking big but not doing anything. It was hard to say what effect this would have. But it didn't matter. By then, the Jinyiwei and the East Factory would all be mobilized. This time, disaster relief was not simply to feed the victims, but to do everything possible to prevent the emergence of refugees. If the people spontaneously fled because they had no food to eat, then the census that had taken so much effort in the past few years would have been wasted, at least in northern China!
In other words, the difficulty of this disaster relief is much greater than previous disaster relief efforts.
Therefore, in addition to strengthening warehouse management, optimizing disaster relief locations, and strictly investigating corruption and other cost-cutting measures, it is also necessary to increase revenue.
"I will give orders to Yan Siqi, Li Guozhu, and Yu Zigao to escort the Ming Dynasty's maritime trade ships to Korea, Luzon, and Annan to purchase grain. The Spaniards are now entrenched in Luzon, and it is not easy to deal with them. Korea and Annan are vassal states of the Ming Dynasty. So we really have to buy grain. Grand Tutor, please prepare a budget of 10 million yuan for these three fleets. These three places are not large in size, and the total amount of grain they can purchase is 20 million dan, which is the limit."
"Yes, I obey your command."
"Also, in Yunnan, all profits of the Jade Company in Mubang will not be distributed as dividends this year, and all profits will be used to buy grain from Myanmar. Give Xiong Tingbi an order to get this done as soon as possible. The existing grain reserves in Yunnan must be transported north as soon as possible, otherwise it will be too late to help in an emergency."
"Yes, I will go and issue an order to Yunnan later."
"So, there are about 35 million dan of grain, but this is only the total amount. In the actual transportation, there are also losses, corruption, and even people burning down granaries. In addition, the more than 10 million dan of grain stored in the Ministry of Revenue in Beijing has to supply the nine border garrisons, and the officials in the five northern provinces and the people who are not affected by the disaster still need to eat. Therefore, we have to prepare at least another 10 million dan!"
As soon as Zhu Youdong said this, everyone, including Wanli, was very surprised: Why, you want to save everyone this time? There are so many dynasties in China. When faced with such a disaster, those who did well can give a few million shi as a token of appreciation. Those who did not do well? Then they will die and their country will be destroyed. All the people affected by the disaster? It's okay for a small disaster, but how is it possible for such a big disaster?
Therefore, at the beginning of this meeting, what everyone thought was that while the country had money in the past two years, they could provide about 10 million dan of grain and save as many people as possible.
But judging from what Zhu Youdong said, not even one can be missing? How is that possible?
But His Royal Highness has done so many things over the years, and basically achieved his original goals. So this time?
"I will write to the gentry in Jiangnan and ask them to borrow grain. These guys have a lot of grain in stock. Not only in Jiangnan, but also in Huguang, Guangdong and Guangxi, and Sichuan, there are actually a lot of grain in these places. Even in the five disaster-stricken northern provinces, the gentry's granaries are not short of grain!"
"Your Highness, just borrowing will probably have little effect."
"I know, so I plan to let the Ming Bank act as a guarantor. I will borrow the grain, and the bank will pay them back in the future, either grain or silver dollars! I will give them 10% annual interest!"
"Hmm..." Fang Congzhe, who had served as the Prime Minister since Li Sancai, stroked his beard and calculated for a while before saying, "Your Highness, if we calculate it this way, it's estimated to be only about three to five million dan. After all, the gentry in the north also need to store grain for disaster preparedness. And if the gentry in the south transport the grain to the north and sell it at this time, the profit will be much higher than the interest Your Highness will give."
"It doesn't matter. As long as they are willing to sell, I can buy it! Recently, we have set a minimum and maximum price for grain purchases. If they dare to sell above the maximum price, I will kill their entire family!"
Threatening people with a knife again! Alas, the royal family who directly controls the military power is hard to deal with.
At this point, quite a few civil officials attending the meeting did not want to talk anymore - the so-called gentry, aren't they the leaders of the gentry? It must be said that this disaster cannot be like before, otherwise the prince's knife will come!
The meeting was almost over here. The ministers stood up with mixed feelings and bowed to Wanli and his grandson to say goodbye.
After all the ministers left, Zhu Youdong approached Wanli and said, "Grandpa Emperor, even if we prepare several million shi of grain for disaster relief as usual, it will not put the Ming Dynasty in danger of collapse. But since your grandson has done this, please issue an order to all the princes in the country to come to Beijing!"
