amaotonovel Chapter 996 This bastard is just trying to make us suffer!
Chapter 996 This bastard is just trying to make us suffer!
Park Sung-sung arranged for someone to report to the Honglu Temple.
Park Sung-sung took Wang Jeon to the Huitong Hotel to check in.
Yang Shaofeng, who was the Vice Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial, had no idea that the Korean king, Wang Zhuan, had come to the Ming Dynasty.
At this moment, Yang Shaofeng was still talking eloquently in the palace.
"If we have to arrange 100,000 laborers to build the railway, then we can only make life difficult for the people of the various vassal states."
Yang Shaofeng stroked his chin, carefully considering his words as he spoke: "On the occasion of Your Highness's wedding, envoys from various vassal states and even some rulers of vassal states will come to the capital."
"I just did the math."
"Great... Korea, Japan, Annam, Burma, Siam, Khmer, Srivijaya, Malacca, there are more than a dozen or twenty vassal states of all sizes."
“If each family contributes five thousand laborers, a total of one hundred thousand people can be gathered.”
Emperor Zhu first grunted in response, then gave Li Shanchang a wink.
Li Shanchang stroked his beard and said with a smile, "What the Prince Consort says is true. If each of the twenty or so vassal states contributes five thousand laborers, we can raise a total of one hundred thousand."
"However, the Ming Dynasty's treasury is currently empty. The wages of 100,000 laborers are 1,000 strings of cash per day. Adding the cost of food and lodging, the daily expenditure is probably more than 2,000 strings of cash."
"Over a year, wouldn't it amount to over a million strings of cash?"
understood.
It seems that Lao Deng and that old scoundrel Li Shanchang had long ago planned to solve the labor problem through the outer vassal states.
However, Lao Deng and Li Shanchang are both the kind of greedy people who want labor but don't want to pay.
This whole messy setup was mainly aimed at getting free labor from the numerous vassal states.
Or to put it more bluntly: these two old scoundrels wanted to save face and get something for nothing, so they pushed me, the Vice Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial, out as a shield.
Yang Shaofeng smiled and bowed to Emperor Zhu, saying, "Father-in-law, please rest assured. It's just some laborers; I'll take care of it."
As Yang Shaofeng finished speaking, a sense of vigilance suddenly arose in Emperor Zhu's heart.
When did this bastard become so easy to talk to?
Why did you agree so readily? Could it be that you have some ulterior motive hidden behind this?
Just as Emperor Zhu was pondering this, Yang Shaofeng smiled and said, "In fact, our Great Ming Dynasty itself can mobilize a million people."
Emperor Zhu's eyes lit up, and he asked, "Where can we draw a million from?"
Yang Shaofeng smiled, then shook his head and sighed softly, "Let's forget about it?"
"I just did the math. If we can really mobilize a million men, the annual wages would be around 60 million strings of cash."
"The national treasury can't even afford to pay their wages."
One hundred thousand laborers would cost more than one million coins a year.
A million workers would need tens of millions of dollars a year.
The wage standard set by Lao Deng was sixty coins a day for ordinary people, six times the wage standard for laborers.
In other words, even if the Ming Dynasty could mobilize more than a million people, the national treasury could not afford the wages of 60 million strings of cash.
Emperor Zhu couldn't help but glare at Yang Shaofeng.
Let's just say this bastard is no good.
They had just said they would find many foreign vassal states to recruit 100,000 laborers.
They immediately followed up by saying that our Great Ming Dynasty could also mobilize a million troops.
That bastard is just trying to make us suffer!
Emperor Zhu snorted coldly, glanced around, and said in a low voice, "As the old saying goes, 'Discard the donkey after it has done its work.'"
"The Southern School's 'Hongwu Encyclopedia' is not yet finished, and the Northern School still needs to organize many books for us."
"We haven't even finished grinding the millstone, and you're already thinking of slaughtering our donkey?"
After a slight pause, Emperor Zhu continued, "Tell me honestly, where will these million men be drawn from? And how will their wages be paid?"
If the Ming Dynasty could really mobilize a million people, only a fool would ask foreign vassal states for laborers!
Do workers not need to be paid?
Do laborers not need to eat or wear clothes?
Do workers not need housing?
Moreover, as stated in the Zuo Zhuan, "Those who are not of our kind will surely have different hearts."
We're both spending money, but if we spend it on the people of the Ming Dynasty, they'll at least say something good about us, right?
But what if the money were spent on laborers from other provinces?
Those barbarians might not appreciate our kindness.
The common people of the Ming Dynasty also had fewer opportunities to make money.
They might even criticize us behind our backs, thinking we've treated the barbarians too well.
We're getting nowhere, neither inside nor outside the country.
What are we after?
Yang Shaofeng chuckled twice and looked at Xu Da and Chang Yuchun, saying, "Didn't the Grand Commander's Office set a rule that soldiers must retire at the age of forty-five?"
As soon as Yang Shaofeng finished speaking, Emperor Zhu's eyes lit up, while Xu Da and Chang Yuchun stared at Yang Shaofeng in utter bewilderment.
"Veterans over forty-five?"
Xu Da frowned slightly, stroked his beard, and said, "There shouldn't be too many veterans over forty-five years old retiring from the military this year."
Yang Shaofeng chuckled twice more and said, "Then why not set the retirement age for the military at forty, or even thirty-five?"
Chang Yuchun's eyes widened. "Thirty-five years old?"
"Does Your Highness know what thirty-five years old means for a soldier?"
"It means a veteran who has undergone years of training and even experienced many battles!"
"You might not see anything special in normal times, but on the battlefield, a veteran who has been through many battles can be worth three, five, or even ten green recruits!"
Xu Da nodded and said, "That's right."
"The prince consort has also trained soldiers, so he should know how valuable those veterans who survived on the battlefield truly are."
"It is a waste of talent to let them retire from the military at the age of thirty-five."
However, after Xu Da finished speaking, Li Shanchang stroked his beard and said, "Letting old soldiers retire at the age of thirty-five is not necessarily a bad thing."
Zhu Biao also stood up and echoed, "Actually, it's a bit late for the old soldier to retire at thirty-five. The age should be brought forward to thirty."
Xu Da and Chang Yuchun were both dumbfounded.
Although Yang Dianfeng was quite skilled in training troops and had various unorthodox methods, he had never personally experienced the battlefield. It was not surprising that he could make such a statement as advising veterans to retire at the age of thirty-five.
However, Prime Minister Li had experienced the battlefield, and so had His Highness the Crown Prince.
If they didn't genuinely believe that Yang the Madman was right, they would never have agreed with him.
Just as Xu Da and Chang Yuchun were feeling bewildered, Emperor Zhu stroked his beard and smiled, saying, "Biao'er is right. The retirement age for veteran soldiers should be raised to thirty."
Seeing Xu Da and Chang Yuchun still looking bewildered, Emperor Zhu couldn't help but smile and said, "Actually, we've had some ideas about this for a while, but we haven't figured out how to do it yet."