Chapter 666: Small Feudal Debts, Big Finance

But Zhu Cilang's view of the military governorship problem was different from most people's. He did not look at military governorships from the height of the supreme political ideal of preserving grand unity, but from the most practical fiscal problem.

In his view, the purpose of establishing military governorships in the Tang dynasty was absolutely not to split the country, but to defend it. As for why they had to use these military-civilian unified governorships to defend the realm, the reason was simple — because there was no money!

By the time the Tang dynasty passed into the hands of Emperor Ming of Tang, land annexation had already appeared, along with the problem that most of the population was "not taxed" — that is, most people paid no taxes.

The former made the fubing system unsustainable, while the latter left the central government without sufficient financial resources to support a mercenary army.

So delegating power to the localities, establishing military-civilian unified governorships, and letting the military governors work hard at managing their own territories, bear their own profits and losses, and support a capable mercenary army became the only way for the Tang dynasty to maintain its golden age.

If the military governorships had not been established, the Tang dynasty's land annexation and fiscal difficulties would have destroyed the nation's military preparedness. Would the result of having no army to defend the country really have been better than the An Lushan Rebellion?

And Zhu Cilang's ability to rake in money ranked among the very best of all Chinese emperors through the ages, so he had sufficient financial resources to support a huge army. But the fiscal black holes now laid out before him were not few. For example, managing the Yellow River and Huai River — could he not manage them? Over a hundred million people needed to eat! If there was a great flood, it would directly wash away tens of millions of shi, and would rice prices not soar to the heavens?

The Shandong and Liaodong battlefields were also fiscal black holes! Both places had almost no revenue, and in order to absorb the four garrisons of Shandong, Zhu Cilang had expanded the quota of the eighty thousand man Hardship New Army. Just one year of military expenses would increase by four to five million taels!

Moreover, the government offices in Shandong and Liaodong still had expenses, and there were also many major construction projects, plus two land reclamation bureaus — the Liaodong Jinzhou land reclamation was about to begin too, and would plant potatoes, soybeans, and sorghum.

These two places would both require huge expenditures over the next two years. Spending over ten million a year would be nothing!

Sichuan and Guizhou were now also trending toward becoming fiscal black holes!

Because the Shun and the Xi had merged, the strength of the Shun army had greatly increased. Chengdu Prefecture finally fell in the summer of the first year of Hongxing. Ma Shiying, Yang Zhan, Zeng Ying, Qin Yiming, and the other armies had now retreated to the Sichuan Regional Military Commission in western Sichuan, Mafu Prefecture, Wumeng Prefecture, Dongchuan Prefecture, Zhenxiong Prefecture, Wusa Prefecture on the Sichuan border, Zunyi Prefecture in southern Sichuan, and the territory of Guizhou Province to continue resisting.

This was another hundred thousand plus troops plus a pile of territory from which no taxes could be collected — the entire land tax quota of Sichuan was only 1.08 million shi, and Guizhou only 50,800 shi. With the little territory now remaining, it was doubtful whether a year's tax revenue even reached 100,000 shi. Yet the expenses of over a hundred thousand troops were at least several million a year...

Moreover, the Sichuan army had already been fighting Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng, and Li Guo's armies in Sichuan for five or six years, and the court had not allocated any military funds.

How were the accounts of over a hundred thousand Sichuan troops who had fought for five or six years to be settled? And how were all those killed in battle and crippled in battle to be accounted for?

If one really wanted to be reasonable, Zhu Cilang would have to produce at least twenty or thirty million taels to settle accounts for the armies of Ma Shiying, Yang Zhan, Zeng Ying, Qin Yiming, and the others...

And the Gansu-Shaanxi region that Wu Sangui and Zhu Cijiong were desperately holding onto was naturally also a super-sized bottomless black hole!

Just think about how much silver the Qing dynasty in history spent in its long war with the Dzungar Khanate, and you can imagine how big the hole in Gansu-Shaanxi was.

Finally, the situation in Yunnan could never be stabilized, and it was a fiscal black hole in the making.

If Zhu Cilang wanted to take over all the black holes and bear them himself, the Great Ming would need over a hundred million in revenue — no need to even think about it otherwise!

Therefore, bearing the black holes that had to be borne, and throwing the places that were not so critical to the military governorships, became the only way out.

Oh, it could not be called the only way. There was another way out, which was to shift the fiscal black holes onto the soldiers at the grassroots level...

And the price of that was that the combat effectiveness of the Ming army would once again plummet in a straight line!

"My two Lords, Shopkeeper Huang and Shopkeeper Su have arrived."

Inside Xiangyang Prefecture, within the office of the Governor-General of Hubei and Henan Military Affairs, Wu Sangui had finally waited for the "experts" who could solve Wu Sangui's financial difficulties.

This office of the Governor-General of Hubei and Henan Military Affairs was Wu Sanfu's territory. On the territory directly administered by the Ming court, military affairs and civil affairs had already begun to separate.

The high officials in charge of military affairs in a region had several levels: Governor-General, Provincial Military Commander, and Regional Commander.

And field units such as divisions and regiments were attached to the Governor-General's office, the Provincial Military Commander's office, or the Regional Commander's office in wartime. In peacetime, military orders were administered by the Grand Marshal's Office, and military administration was managed by the Ministry of War.

In addition, there were the 16 General's Offices stationed in various regions, which were in charge of recruiting, training new soldiers, and protecting military dependents.

The offices in charge of civil affairs in a region were the three levels of Governor, Prefect, and County Magistrate. Among them, the Governors and Prefects also commanded small numbers of troops to maintain local order.

Wu Sanfu, who was hosting Wu Sangui in Xiangyang, was now the Governor-General in charge of the military affairs of two provinces.

And this Governor-General post was not permanently established. At present, not counting the Governors-General of the Northern and Southern Coastal Regions, the entire Great Ming had only three: Wu Sanfu, Governor-General of Hubei and Henan; Shi Kefa, Governor-General of Shandong and Liaodong; and Ma Shiying, Governor-General of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan.

"Quickly, invite them in." Although Wu Sanfu was noble as a Governor-General and also a brother-in-law of the emperor, he still did not dare put on airs before the two chief shopkeepers.

"Second Brother," after instructing his aides to invite them in, Wu Sanfu straightened his official robes, stood up, and said to Wu Sangui, "These two have followed His Majesty since before the breakout from Beijing. Although they are merely imperial merchants, they control two great banks — no small matter! And although the two of them hold no official posts, they both have noble titles. Huang Jiang is the Hardship Newhui Count, and Su Sheng is the Hardship Qingpu Count."

"Is that so?" Wu Sangui also rose. "Two imperial merchants have even been enfeoffed as counts?"

"The count titles are nothing, but the shopkeepers of the two great banks are formidable... Big Brother's little debts can be taken over by the two banks with just one word from them."

"Is that so? Then that would be wonderful!" Wu Sangui finally felt a sense of relief.

No debts, and the whole body feels light!

"My Lord, His Majesty's meaning is that the debts owed by you and the Prince of Dai are feudal debts, not national debts."

"My Lord, these feudal debts must be repaid by the feudatories. The court can help out a little, but it absolutely cannot take over all the debts."

The colossal debt had not left...

Huang Jiang and Su Sheng, the two count-merchants, both had the appearance of men who made money through harmony, but they had no intention of helping Wu Sangui repay his debts.

They had merely been ordered to come and investigate the debt situation, and to help Wu Sangui and Zhu Cijiong negotiate with creditors to reach a debt restructuring plan.

"A debt of several million — how could the finances of Gansu-Shaanxi possibly repay it?" Wu Sangui shook his head ceaselessly, his face full of bitterness.

He was probably the first military governor since the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period who wanted to relinquish his governorship but could not.

To be a warlord to his extent was truly bitter to the extreme.

"It doesn't matter if you can't repay it," Huang Jiang said with a smile. "If you can't repay it, then just borrow a bit more!"

Su Sheng nodded. "Borrow ten million... let sons and grandsons slowly repay it, and there will always come a time when it is paid off!"

Sons and grandsons would still have to repay it! Wu Sangui thought to himself that he had let Wu Yingxiong down... being a feudal lord and ending up with a pile of debt!

"But with Gansu-Shaanxi looking like this, who would still be willing to lend?" Wu Sanfu understood finance better than his second brother. He had spent several years in the southeast and had seen a great deal.

"There is a way!" Huang Jiang patted his chest. "We have a way... What is urgent now is to thoroughly investigate the debt situation of the Duke of Jin, and at the same time establish as soon as possible a military governorship under the command of the Duke of Jin. Once there is a governorship, there will be feudal assets and feudal taxes, and then the upper limit of the feudal debt can be calculated. Once the upper limit is calculated, we can go negotiate with the creditors. We can always work out a reasonable term and interest rate."

Su Sheng added, "His Majesty also has an idea: to issue transferable feudal debt certificates! To make feudal debt liquid, tradable, and form a feudal debt trading market."