Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 57 The sword points at the courtyard!

In fact, Zhao Guangmei and Zhao Kuangyin were just joking. Money is not much for the country, but in fact, for Zhao Guangmei personally, it is of no use at all.

Even if Zhao Kuangyin didn't divide the money, he would definitely give it back to the Forbidden Army for use. In fact, making money was never Zhao Guangmei's purpose. Reforming the military expenditure system of the Northern Song Dynasty was Zhao Guangmei's real and fundamental intention. It was just his first try.

Zhao Kuangyin was actually joking just now. After calculating the accounts, Sun Liancheng stepped aside knowingly. Zhao Kuangyin watched the storytelling show on the stage and asked with a smile, intentionally or unintentionally: "What are you doing with this sword?" Point to the courtyard."

Zhao Guangmei still smiled and admitted: "Big brother is big brother. You can see what I want to do at a glance. Big brother, you will have surgery sooner or later, right? You do what you do, change what you do, and I will be responsible for checking it for you." Don't worry, all my reforms will be based on your major policies and I will never cause trouble for you."

"hehe"

Zhao Kuangyin smiled and said without comment, "You are still so honest and dare to touch such a sensitive thing. Let's not talk about it here. Come with me to my mother's place for dinner tonight."

"it is good."

Many military issues in the Northern Song Dynasty were actually financial issues, or military expenditure issues.

During the Five Dynasties, the army's military expenditures did not all come from financial allocations. The army had its own factories, which were called field courtyards.The main business of this yard is the production and repair of armors, weapons and other military equipment. The main employees are family members and veterans of the military camp. However, in addition to the main business, there are often some other side businesses involved. Is it profitable? .

Whether it is the Jiedu Envoy Army or the Forbidden Army, they are actually doing their own business. To a large extent, these armies have the ability to support themselves. Otherwise, civilian officials would not be able to control the army at all.

Zhao Guangmei, who has a certain understanding of the history of the early Song Dynasty, knew that Zhao Kuangyin would soon slash the sword of reform on the military reform. One of the most important military reforms in the early Song Dynasty was that Zhao Kuangyin stipulated that the military courts were not allowed to make profits in the future. , and even if there is a "Xianyu" in the yard, Zhao Kuangyin will punish the person in charge of the yard.

I have to say that this actually makes sense. The reason on the surface is that this creates a space for corruption. In fact, the space for corruption here is indeed very large. It is no exaggeration to say that the entire courtyard of Song Chuchang All the people in charge, big and small, were picked out and beheaded one by one in the name of corruption, ensuring that no one was wrongly accused.

The deeper reason lies in competing with the people for profit, because the army does not pay taxes when doing business, or it only pays a small amount in name, which is completely symbolic and meaningful. Which tax collector would be bold enough to go to the army to investigate? Tax?
The army is already strong and does not pay taxes. The common people will not be able to engage in any business that the army likes. This competition is bullshit.

Of course, the most fundamental reason must be to limit the autonomy of the military. If the military has no money, can it naturally listen to the civil officials? Otherwise, if the military has money, the emperor will not be able to sleep well.

Zhao Guangmei also felt that the elder brother had done the right thing, but it had to be said that this approach was still too rough and had serious side effects.

As a result, the army could only rely on state financial appropriations. However, the problem was that the Northern Song Dynasty was famous for its redundant troops. The country could not afford to support so many soldiers. The soldiers' military pay could only be owed again and again. Button and button again.

To put it bluntly, this money was not earned by the army, but it was not earned by the country either!

Secondly, since the farm is not allowed to make a profit, isn't the person in charge of the farm not greedy?Although the former factories were greedy, they still found ways to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and they were greedy from profits. But if they were not allowed to make profits, and they all ate from financial allocations, then they could only be greedy from cost, which led to the failure of the Northern Song Dynasty's ordnance. The quality was getting worse and worse, so that by the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the Imperial Guard, but many soldiers did not even have any decent weapons in their hands, let alone armor.

Is there a way to control and restrict the field and weaken the military's financial autonomy, but also prevent the military from relying too much on financial allocations and reducing the military's combat effectiveness?

Zhao Guangmei doesn't have any good solutions, but there are some barely usable ones. For example, he can earn the soldiers' military rewards through business, share some of the functions of the court, and then Take the money out of your own pocket, return it to the Privy Council, and then distribute it to the soldiers as military expenses.

Also help yourself save some money.

Of course, this is because his brother is Zhao Kuangyin. Firstly, he values ​​family ties. Secondly, the troubled times of the Five Dynasties were so scary that he had to appoint virtuous people. If it were other emperors and other dynasties, he would not dare to be so sensitive. There is a place to reach out.

In the stands, the effect of the storytelling was relatively mediocre. Although everyone still listened with interest, the sound was still a little quieter. The venue was too spacious, and the audience in the back rows might still have difficulty hearing.

Moreover, this original vernacular version of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms was really boring to him. It was far less exciting than the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It was even interspersed with a lot of pornographic jokes and many vulgar things. Zhao Guangmei also found it boring to listen to it.After all, Zhao Kuangyin himself had read history books, and this thing didn't sound very interesting to him, so soon, the two brothers started chatting below.

"What do they teach over there in the school shed? Why do they say it's more profitable than the theater here?"

"Teaching reading and literacy in the morning is free. Anyone can come and listen. If you want to listen, you can leave if you don't want to. We have recruited retired military people and old people who have nothing to do to teach. We don't expect them to take the imperial examination, but It’s always good to be able to read and write, and you can also add some private goods and teach them how to be loyal to the emperor and patriotism.”

Zhao Kuangyin nodded first to express his approval.

"What about the afternoon?"

"Teaching real things in the afternoon, but it also depends on their career choices. Most of them are following Pan Meimei to fight in the military, and a small number of them study medicine, arithmetic, industry, and business. After all, there are still some children who don't want to live and die in a military camp all their lives. In the military camp, those who are willing to see the outside world, and girls will not be able to go to the battlefield in the future. There are many people who learn all kinds of crafts. If you learn these, you will be able to marry into a good family in the future. Everyone will learn it, and if you don’t learn it, you will be able to marry into a good family. Yes, I won’t be able to get married in the future. Don’t you have to charge some money for this? A little adds up to a lot.”

"Oh~"

Zhao Kuangyin couldn't help but sigh: "You kid, you are really good at doing business. You can do so many tricks with just a shed. With so much money, what are you going to do next?"

Zhao Guangmei did not answer, but asked: "What is the eldest brother busy with recently?"

Zhao Kuangyin smiled when he heard this, took out a coin from his pocket and said, "I'm busy with this."

"This is...Song Yuan Tong Bao?"

"Yes, Song Yuan Tongbao, our Song Dynasty's own money."

"Oh, then this is what I will be busy with next."

"You do this too? What does this mean?"

Zhao Guangmei said, "Brother, you'd better tell me first, what do you mean, how do you plan to use this Song Yuan Tong Bao?"

"Naturally, we collect the iron coins, small coins, especially Nan coins on the market, and exchange them all for Song Tong Bao. Hum, from now on, not even a penny of Jiangnan money will be allowed to flow into the Song Dynasty."

"Oh... Then I have to take advantage of this opportunity to buy up small coins from the Southern Tang Dynasty, especially in various military camps. I will collect the Southern coins from the soldiers and give them to them in exchange for the Great Song Tongbao. This way, I can wait for the Southern Tang Dynasty in the future. When money goes up in price, I can make another windfall.”

Zhao Kuangyin was stunned and turned to look at Zhao Guangmei: "What do you mean? I want to ban the coins of the Southern Tang Dynasty, but you think the price of the coins of the Southern Tang Dynasty will increase?"

"Yes, if you don't ban the coins of the Southern Tang Dynasty, the price of the coins of the Southern Tang Dynasty will not increase."

"You mean I can't do this?"

"Yeah, you definitely can't do it."

"You fart!"

(End of this chapter)