Chapter 299: Longxiong Pavilion, which was a good place, had to develop into a "sticky pole place"

Before they knew it, it was already time to light the lamps. Zhu Biao, who had become accustomed to three meals a day under Zhu Gang's influence, was now eating snacks in the study of Prince Jin's Mansion.

He seemed to have not noticed at all that Zhu Yuanzhang's expression had begun to become increasingly gloomy at some point.

"Are you saying that the mathematics students that the community school has worked so hard to train have been snatched up by those merchants?"

Zhu Gang took a piece of pine flower cake from the plate, put it in his mouth and took a bite.

Since white sugar is not yet popular, this kind of pine flower cake, which is made by mixing glutinous rice flour with a certain proportion of natural pine flowers and white sugar and then baking it over a low heat, is only available in Yijiangnan, Yujingge and Jinwangfu.

“Dad, as the saying goes, if you want to take something, you must first give it.

Just as the imperial court adopted the Kaizhong system to stimulate merchants to supply food to the army, promoting the development of community schools is inseparable from the participation of private capital.

Moreover, after enrolling in community schools, students need to pay for all expenses themselves.

For a poor boy from a commoner family, this is undoubtedly a big burden.”

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard Zhu Gang mention the issue of money, his expression immediately softened.

"Although there are 'treasure pots' like the Ming Dynasty's money houses and silver vaults, the financial burden faced by the court is still not small.

On the one hand, the salaries of those officials must be increased, and on the other hand, new positions must be set up in the Cabinet and Longxiang Pavilion.

Even though the current salary has not yet been determined, it will surely be a considerable expense.”

Since Zhu Gang had previously proposed that Longxiang Pavilion should focus on supervision and the execution of special affairs, Zhu actually developed this department into a new type of spy organization similar to the "Nian Gang Chu".

The personnel composition of this new department is complex and diverse, including guards and assassins highly skilled in martial arts, as well as spies and secret agents proficient in intelligence gathering.

In terms of organizational structure, it was under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Household Department, but in reality it was not under its direct control, but instead took orders directly from Zhu Yuanzhang alone.

The headquarters of Longxiang Pavilion is currently located in a side hall of Kunning Palace. In the future, it plans to open branches or contact points across the country to collect intelligence and carry out missions.

The nominal function is to collect intelligence, monitor the actions of the concubines in the harem, and take action to suppress dissidents when necessary.

In fact, all court officials, including the cabinet, were under the supervision of Longxiang Pavilion.

Now that Zhu Yuanzhang mentioned Longxiang Pavilion again, Zhu Gang decided to divide its official positions according to the organizational structure of the "Nian Gang Chu".

“I suggest that the personnel composition of Longxiong Pavilion should include three levels: management ministers, guards, and Baitang.

There is no fixed number of Ministers of Administration, who are mainly responsible for the affairs of the Prime Minister's department.

The guards are divided into first-class guards, second-class guards, third-class guards and blue-feather guards.

Specifically, Longxiang Pavilion has one first-class guard to assist in affairs and eight second-class guards.

There are thirty-one third-class guards and fifteen blue-feather guards.

In addition, officials of Longxiang Pavilion in various branches or contact points are all called Baitang.

The highest-ranking administrative minister of Longxiang Pavilion is tentatively a second-rank official.

The annual salary was 155 taels of silver and 77 shi 5 dou of rice.

The lowest level of Bai Tang is a ninth-rank official.

每年俸银31两5钱2分，禄米15石7斗5升7合。

In addition, all officials of the Cabinet and Longxiang Pavilion were given additional salaries and received double salaries, as well as other income from public funds.

If calculated in this way, even the highest-ranking administrative minister would generally not earn more than five hundred taels of silver per year."

Zhu Biao quickly reminded him, "Third brother, are you sure you are not talking about banknotes but silver?"

After swallowing the pine flower cake in his mouth, Zhu Gang nodded and said, "I have said it before, Japan has a large amount of silver.

As long as the court could use the money for its own use, there was no need to worry about the shortage of silver. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty money houses had interest to attract deposits, so even if the court did not force them to do so, officials would still rush to deposit their salaries there.

The withdrawal voucher given to them at that time will be Baochao, which will not lead to the depreciation of silver. "

Zhu Yuanzhang asked in surprise: "Third brother, are you saying that silver will depreciate?"

Zhu Gang, who has a lot of historical data to rely on, pointed out that "with the opening of maritime trade by the Ming Dynasty, the court could earn at least 1000 million taels of silver every year.

Of course, now all this money is mainly in the hands of pirates and Japanese pirates.

They colluded with smugglers in coastal areas, but secretly hid the silver they got in their own basements.

Previously, Zhu Huan and Wu Jinde arbitrarily imposed additional taxes in Dingyuan County, Fengyang Prefecture, and the merchants chose to swallow their anger because they sold tea, salt, oil, and cloth to smugglers in coastal areas. "

Dingyuan County is rich in resources, as shown by years of survey and exploration in later generations.

Gypsum, rock salt, mirabilite and glassy dolomite were found.

Cement limestone, coal, phosphorus, copper, aluminum, medical stone, calcite.

There are 14 mineral deposits and mining sites including quartz, barite, gold, etc.

Gaotang Lake, the only lake in Dingyuan County, is located on the western border of the county.

Luqiao Town is located on the bank of the lake, and there are three counties around the lake: Dingyuan, Fengyang and Changfeng.

The water surface of Dingyuan County reached 11.6 square kilometers during the Ming Dynasty.

The lake bottom is 15 meters high and the normal water level is 17.5 meters.

The total surface area of ​​Gaotang Lake is more than 7 mu, with a relatively flat lakeside terrain and fertile land.

Whenever there is a drought, farmers in the surrounding areas benefit from irrigation.

At the same time, Gaotang Lake is also the main drought-resistant water source in the western part of Dingyuan County.

However, due to the low-lying terrain, floods and waterlogging disasters occur from time to time.

In addition, Dingyuan County has developed transportation, and has been known as "connecting eight counties and nine provinces" since ancient times.

It is interconnected with the four cities of Hefei, Chuzhou, Huainan and Bengbu. In later generations, it became a member city of the Hefei Metropolitan Area and the Nanjing Metropolitan Area, as well as a cluster city in northern Anhui for industrial transfer.

It is precisely because of this unique condition that Dingyuan County is able to collude with smugglers in coastal areas.

In addition, the power of the nobles in Fengyang Prefecture was so intertwined that even after Zhu Huan's major collective corruption case was announced to have been solved,

Zheng Shiyuan and Han Yike, the presiding officials, were unable to eradicate the local smuggling forces.

"Why didn't Zheng Shiyuan and Han Yike mention these things before?"

Seeing the veins on Zhu Yuanzhang's forehead bulging, Zhu Gang muttered softly: "Dad, when you went down incognito to investigate in person, didn't you also not find these problems?"

Zhu Biao, who was sitting not far away, was worried that the relationship between the two, which had just been eased with great difficulty, would fall into a deadlock again.

He quickly said, "Dad, it's getting late now, and I have to attend the morning court tomorrow.

Why don't you let your third brother finish telling the story of Mr. Wang's family first? Maybe we can get some inspiration from it."

Zhu Yuanzhang rubbed his brows and said, "You, the prince, have to be a good person, but sooner or later the Ming Dynasty will be in power.

Especially when the power of the vassal kings is divided overseas in the future, they will need capable generals like the third brother to deter them.

Otherwise, we are worried that in a hundred years, the Ming Dynasty will also fall apart like the Yuan Dynasty."

(End of this chapter)