Chapter 150 See Your Majesty
Inside the study.

Zhu Di and Zhu Su stood obediently in the corner.

After hearing what Deng Qianqiu said, Zhu Gang stood up proudly and said, "Master, this number is just a rough calculation. The mining tax and commercial tax collected by Qixia in the past few months totaled 290,000 taels."

After a pause, Zhu Gang seemed to be keeping someone in suspense: "In addition, the profits from the resale and operation of various lands in Qixia are also amazing. The biggest part is the income from the sale and sublease of land, which is as much as 94,000 taels. In addition, the several smelting workshops built earned 64,000 taels of silver. In addition, the various warehouses built were subleased to merchants, earning 9,400 taels of silver. There are other miscellaneous incomes, roughly around 5,000 taels. The total is around 180,000 taels of silver."

When Zhu Yuanzhang pricked up his ears and heard this number, his expression changed.

So much?
This is just a piece of land in Qixia.

The tax and personal income were close to 500,000 taels of silver.

Even though 500,000 silver ounces may not seem like a lot, it is a steady source of income.

Zhu Yuanzhang's expression changed constantly.

If there were more places like this in the world, wouldn't the taxes alone be enough to support many of the world's expenses?
Deng Qianqiu smiled and said, "That's not all. As far as I know, the Ming Dynasty also operates a lot of gold, silver and iron mines. These mines are all mined by the people, and most of the profits from mining go to the court. Zhu Gang, let me ask you, how much profit did the court get from this?"

Zhu Gang said, "I have already checked this. You don't need to calculate it. My Great Ming has many mines. Take gold mines as an example. There are dozens or even hundreds of mines all over the world, big and small. The revenue the court gets from them is 3,400 taels."

When this number came out, Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes almost popped out.

Others have suffocated.

With so many mines, big and small, the profit is only three thousand four hundred taels?
There are countless tax items in the world. It can be said that under the leadership of Zhu Yuanzhang, officials made some revisions based on the Yuan Dynasty system, and finally formed the current tax base.

Zhu Yuanzhang only knew that the amount of taxes the imperial court could collect each year was indeed not much, and he was even proud of it, thinking that this was his move to reduce the burden on the people.

It was impossible for Zhu Yuanzhang to keep an eye on the taxes and profits from the gold mines. After all, in the Ministry of Revenue's accounts, the taxes and profits from the gold mines were only the least prominent ones.

But... three thousand four hundred taels still broke Zhu Yuanzhang's bottom line.

Gold mines, so many gold mines, just this?
……

Deng Qianqiu smiled. He knew this result and was not surprised because he had some impression of it in his previous life. In the entire Ming Dynasty, the most severe taxation on gold mines was during the Yongle period, which was when Zhu Di, who was standing in front of him, was in power.

That was in the 21st year of Yongle's reign. The court's income from the gold mine surged to 5,340 taels, directly breaking the historical record of the Hongwu Dynasty.

Not only did it break the record of the Hongwu Dynasty, but from then until the end of the Ming Dynasty, no emperor among Zhu Di's descendants could earn more than 5,000 taels of gold from the gold mines.

How much gold was mined from gold mines during the 300 years of the Ming Dynasty? Only God knows.

Anyway, as far as Deng Qianqiu knew, a large amount of gold artifacts were circulating in the world, and the value of gold had always been high.

The funniest thing is that even though the Zhu family collected gold taxes in three hundred years, the highest record was only more than five thousand taels of silver.

Even so, he was still criticized by scholars at that time, and the criticism was so severe that someone even wrote a poem to mock him: "The eunuchs have hollowed out the mountains and rivers, and the sage has been working day and night to find gold. Fortunately, the bones of the horses have been rare in recent years, and the gold should be used to build a high platform."

If Zhu Yuanzhang knew that his descendants had been scolded by the people for hundreds of years just for a few thousand taels of tax every year, he would probably kill them all and flow rivers of blood.

To put it bluntly, this was just taking advantage of the fact that Zhu Yuanzhang had no idea about the golden tax.

At this time, even Zhu Di and Zhu Su, who were standing in the corner, became serious.

The gap was so huge that the two of them couldn't imagine it.

"Now do you understand the crux of the matter?" Deng Qianqiu said, "Let me ask you, there are countless gold mines of all sizes in the world. Compared with the gold mines in the world, the gold mines here are really a drop in the bucket. But why is it that the income that the court can obtain from here is dozens or hundreds of times that of the mining areas in various parts of the world?"

Zhu Su could no longer hold back and could not help but shout, "Master, what's the problem?"

Deng Qianqiu sighed and said, "The problem is that your Majesty has been deceived by villains and has no way to establish an effective taxation system. The problem is that the mountains, rivers and lakes of the world are nominally owned by the emperor, but in reality, they are mostly controlled by private individuals. Of course, this is a problem left behind by the Mongols..."

"Boom..."

The door of the study was suddenly kicked open.

Bang... The poor door was kicked and made a loud clanging sound, and it was about to fall down.

Deng Qianqiu and the other three were so frightened that they trembled all over.

The three princes stood there in a daze.

But he found that his mentor had already squatted on the ground with his hands covering his head.

At the gate, the burly figure of Zhu Yuanzhang appeared.

He walked in quickly and shouted, "This is not a legacy issue. If this is just a legacy of the previous dynasty, why hasn't anyone reported it when I have hundreds of officials?" Zhu Yuanzhang was furious, and his eyes were like a knife as he swept through everyone in the study.

Deng Qianqiu and the other three were so frightened that their faces turned pale and they hurriedly tried to salute.

Zhu Yuanzhang had a stern face and waved his hand: "No need to salute, Deng Qianqiu, I want to ask you why no one reported it? Are all the people in this world deaf or blind?"

Deng Qianqiu was so shocked that he was speechless.

Then, he thought to himself, you ask me, how dare I tell you? If I tell you, won't everyone in the world hate me to death?
Taking away someone's money is like killing their parents. Who among those who can gain profits from various mines is a good person? It is impossible for ordinary people to gain profits, right?

Deng Qianqiu took a deep breath and finally said, "Your Majesty, maybe... maybe... everyone doesn't know."

"Don't know?" Zhu Yuanzhang sneered, with an unspeakable horror on his face, and said, "One or two people may not know, one hundred or one thousand people may not know, but I have more than ten thousand people, and none of them know? If they don't even know this, what's the point of me keeping them?"

Zhu Di said angrily, "Father, my teacher is too kind-hearted. He thinks the best of people. In my opinion, those who know about it have benefited from it. Others who have heard about it dare not speak out because they are afraid of offending others, so they would rather pretend to be stupid."

Deng Qianqiu rolled his eyes at Zhu Di and thought, you said that yourself. Zhu Laosi is really bold. No wonder he dared to lead the rebellion in history.

Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to have heard his own answer.

Something flickered in his eyes, and he suddenly calmed down and said, "I was just wandering around, and I don't know how I ended up here with Xu Qing and Hu Qing."

Deng Qianqiu hurriedly said, "When your Majesty comes, you should let us know so that we can welcome him."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded without comment.

At this time, Xu Da and Hu Weiyong also came in one after another.

As soon as Deng Qianqiu saw Hu Weiyong, he became alert.

Zhu Yuanzhang then asked, "What do you mean by production relations?"

Deng Qianqiu regained his composure and said, "This... is actually an economic activity. For example, our Ming Dynasty mainly relies on farming for a living. So, farming, land, and agricultural production are the main production relations of our Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a moment and said, "Just like the Tartars make a living by looting and herding, is this also their production relationship?"

"That's right." Deng Qianqiu said: "What is a person's biggest daily benefit? Naturally, it will affect their living habits and production habits. The same is true for a country."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said, "Mr. Deng's family has a clear understanding of this. So how can we reverse the dilemma of increasing population and land annexation in the future?"

Deng Qianqiu paused, then scratched his head and said, "There are many ways to solve this problem. In fact, war is the most effective solution..."

Zhu Yuanzhang: "..."

Zhu Di, who was standing nearby, couldn't help but subconsciously make a "hehehe" sound.

Zhu Yuanzhang was furious. He glared at Zhu Di and shouted, "Stand at the door."

Zhu Di, who was somewhat excited just now, immediately became as cold as a frost-bitten eggplant. He let out an "oh" and walked out.

Zhu Yuanzhang continued to look at Deng Qianqiu and asked, "Besides that?"

"Make money!" Deng Qianqiu said directly: "Only by making money, and with money, we can improve production capacity, and under the premise of suppressing mergers as much as possible, as long as the court runs faster than the population, then... this dilemma can be solved."

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and said, "This is so troublesome, isn't there a way to solve it once and for all?"

Deng Qianqiu said directly and pointedly: "The method of solving the problem once and for all is only found in various so-called classics and historical books, and only appears in legends like the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. But where are the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors now?"

Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to be thinking about something, and said quietly: "It's just a mining tax... Among all the officials in the world, no one reported it to me, and I was complacent about it. Now thinking about it, my scalp is numb. What Mr. Deng said is very true. I have to make a new plan. Hu Weiyong..."

Hu Weiyong's heart was filled with mixed emotions. He glanced at Deng Qianqiu meaningfully, then hurried forward and said, "I am here."

Zhu Yuanzhang asked, "Zhongshu Sheng, why did you turn a deaf ear to this?"

Hu Weiyong bowed down and said, "Your Majesty... I followed Your Majesty to build a career, and I have never heard of this..."

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Hu Weiyong with a half-smile, his expression unclear, and said, "You mean to say that Li Qing's family is confused?"

This simple sentence shocked Hu Weiyong. He suddenly realized that the structure of the Secretariat might really change.

He knew that any of his next words could have far-reaching consequences.

(End of this chapter)