"Sixth brother, seventh brother, starling brother, twelfth brother...you all tell me, are the things that my sister-in-law and Yuwen Xuzhong said today right?"

Zhao Kai picked up one of his beards and frowned, just looking at the book book in his hand. The half-eating wine and food on the table were gone.

There was silence in the room, and it took a while for King Jing Zhao Qi to break the silence: "San brother, is the eldest sister-in-law and Yuwen Xuzhong right? You can tell by reading the account book yourself? The number in the account book is correct. Brother Seven and I have checked the number... Since the eldest brother moved south, the annual income has increased several times! It is not that the eldest brother is particularly good at plundering, but that the original collection was too small. After the eldest brother took his small court to the southeast, he would just sit on the ground to collect taxes, and it would be difficult to evade taxes."

King Ji Zhao Xu smiled and said, "Brother and sister-in-law often divide into Jiangdu, Jinling, and Jiangdu are stuck in canals and salt. Jinling guards the Yangtze River and the money industry. In addition, these two places are home to fish and rice, and they are rich in silk... Just by watching these two places, they make a fortune!"

King Yi Zhao Qi sighed and said, "I remember that in order to collect more money, our grandfather Emperor Shenzong asked Wang Anshi to reform the law, which made it a mess. Our elder brother and sister-in-law ran to Jiangdu and Jinling to collect taxes, which was much more than Wang Anshi... but no one rebelled or caused trouble, and it was very peaceful. This shows that the court used to collect too little in the southeast, and it was a loss!"

Zhao Qi took over the topic and said, "It's not that the southeast is too far from the court, and it's beyond the reach... officials sent to the southeast are difficult to supervise, either ineffective, or have enough personal pockets, or they are greedy for personal reputation and use public funds to be good people. In addition, the power of the Southeast scholars and officials has always been quite large, so officials sent to the Southeast are unwilling to collect more money, so the southeast should pay the payment and the burden on the northwest, Hebei, Hedong, Jingxi, Jingdong and other places has also increased."

Zhao Xu said: "San brother, I am really not in the southeast. I don't know the prosperity of the southeast fish and rice town! My farm in Kaifeng Prefecture is incomparable to the farm in Jinling Prefecture... The farm in Kaifeng Prefecture ripens every year, and the harvest per mu is less than one stone of wheat. But I am in Jinling Prefecture ripens twice a year, and since there is no worry about water and drought, the average annual yield per mu is around four stones of wheat!

The arable land on the Seventh Road in Southeast is no less than 200 million mu. Even if the annual output is only two stones, it will be 400 million stones a year... The imperial court collected 10 million not much! This is just the tax on the land. If you include the salt tax, wine tax, tea tax, checkpoint tax, and market income, it is also the commercial tax of all major cities and towns in the southeast, which is amazing!

To be honest, in fact, my elder brother and sister-in-law don’t collect much in the southeast. If you really want to collect it hard, you will have an annual income of 10 million yuan!"

It sounds terrible to earn tens of millions of dollars a year, but just look at the number of fields in the Song Dynasty and the annual yield of rice in the southern region, and consider the yield of economic crops such as silk and tea, and including developed trade and industry and commerce, it is actually completely possible to earn tens of thousands of dollars a year!

Zhao Kai said to himself: "If they receive ten thousand yuan, I will not be able to come to Jinling City..."

Zhao Qi smiled and said, "Third brother, if the water is clear, there will be no fish, and if the people are careful, there will be no disciples... Therefore, it is not easy for the seventh route in the southeast to earn tens of millions a year. With these tens of millions of dollars, plus the income from Shandong Road, Jinghu Road and Sichuan Road, are you still afraid that there will be no military expenses to destroy the west of Jinping?"

The destruction of the Jin Kingdom and the expelling of the Western Tang Dynasty were both expensive transactions... Because the land value in the Western Regions and Northeast China was relatively low, even if it was distributed to the government soldiers, it would require a lot of investment to gain stability and profit.

So while Zhao Kai divides the land for the soldiers and new soldiers of the government, he also has to give a heavy reward!

Only when the money is given in place can we build and firmly occupy the two territories of the Northeast and the Western Regions.

As for colonizing the whole world... Of course, it also requires a lot of investment!

Because except for a few colonies that stuck in world trade nodes or can produce a large amount of gold and silver, most other colonies must first invest heavily before they can make profits.

Where should the huge amount of funds needed for investment come from?

There is no doubt that even in the southeast, only the southeast of the Song Dynasty can pay for this money!

Moreover, this money should be paid in the southeast of the Song Dynasty!

"These tens of millions of officials rely on my own to receive them!" Zhao Kai frowned and said, "I have received tens of millions in a year in Sichuan!"

Zhao Qi smiled and said, "Third brother, that was received only under the urgency of hundreds of thousands of government soldiers on the four Yingtian Road, and..."

"And what?" Zhao Kai saw Zhao Qi want to speak but stopped, "What can I say?"

Zhao Qi said: "And Sichuan can pay so much tax a year, which is actually related to the 'rice and iron trade' between Sichuan and Ezhou."

"Rice and iron trade?" Zhao Kai frowned even more.

In fact, he knew about this... but in order to get enough rice and silk, he turned a blind eye.

The profitable merchants on Sichuan Road exported iron materials to the Southern Song Dynasty... To be honest, they are just investors!

Sichuan is known as the country of Tianfu, and is rich in iron, rice, silk, and salt. It actually needs to rely on this method to make up tens of millions of taxes a year... Moreover, those sent by Zhao Kai to govern Sichuan are the most trusted and capable officials.

For example, Zhao Bushi, Zhao Shuxiang, Chen Ji, Zhao Kai, Zhao Ding, Zhang Jun, Liu Wei, Yuwen Cuizhong (Yuwen Xuzhong's brother) and others have all served as Sichuan Road Transportation Inspectors.

Therefore, the 10 million tax contributions from Sichuan every year have made Zhao Kai extremely satisfied, and he can only be satisfied... He can't move the capital to Chengdu! That's Meng Chang?

"Brother," Zhao Zhi looked at Zhao Kai at this time and said with a smile, "According to me, unless the royal prince is sent to take charge of the southeastern routes, the annual income of Jiangnan, Lianghuai, Liangzhe and other places will definitely not be as good as Sichuan! After all, the Sichuan people really have no army, and in the southeastern side... they have navy troops!"

Yes, the southeastern navy is still here!

I haven't surrendered to Zhao Kai yet!

Besides plagiarism, Zhao Kai seemed to have no tricks on them... His soldiers in the palace were all landslides, and he was no match for him when he went out of the sea.

Zhao Qi nodded, "That's right... The canal is broken now, and the southeast goods can only be transported to Beijing by sea!"

Another trouble!

Now the canal is broken by the Yellow River... and it is difficult to recover!

Zhao Kai has asked officials who understand water conservancy, but they do not agree with restoring the canal. Because the canal cannot cross the Yellow River - the silt and sand of the Yellow River will silt on the canal in no time.

If the canal and the Yellow River do not cross, the Yellow River cannot dig into the sea channel north of the Huai River. Only by allowing the Yellow River to enter the Huai River to silt the Huai River... The riverbed of the Huai River has risen rapidly in recent years, and it will soon become a hanging river.

At that time, we can only stand firm and let the two Huaihe Rivers flood regularly to ensure smooth water transportation... and it will not be particularly open, because the flooding of the Huai River will also destroy the canal.

In short.....The Huaihe River and canal canal can only be protected!

To protect the Huaihe River, sea transportation must be carried out!

And to promote maritime transportation... Maritime merchants and pirates are actually all the goods, all the evil people who master the force!

Therefore, the Southeastern businessmen and gentry are definitely more difficult to deal with than the Sichuan businessmen and gentry.

From the perspective of strengthening the control of the northern court over the Southeast prosperous areas, it is understandable that the maritime ban and abandoning the Huai River to ensure transportation... But Zhao Kai cannot do this!

He knew that he was just waiting to be a semi-colonial!

He has to be a great colonist, how could he wait to be a semi-colonial? Then why did he work through time? Just to avoid being a cuckold king?

"But the princes..." After thinking about it, Zhao Kai still shook his head, "It's still inappropriate!"

King Jing Zhao Qi, King Ji Zhao Xu, King Yi Zhao Qi and King Yi Zhao Qi all turned their attention to Zhao Zhi.

Zhao Zhi and Zhao Kai are the same mother, and have been following him loyally over the years. They are the most trusted in the royal family and know Zhao Kai’s thoughts.

Moreover, Zhao Zhi understood what the brothers meant - they didn't want to be encircled as "artists"!

Their generation of brothers know that being "artists" is not good... and they have already tasted the sweetness of power, so why are they willing to go back and "work on art"?

"What the third brother said is very true," Zhao Zhi said, "this prince is indeed unreliable... The rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, the rebellion of the Eight Kings, and the princes in the urban princes made it!"

Zhao Kai's eyes swept across the faces of the four brothers, and he said to himself: I am cruel! If you dare to rebel, it is easy for me to destroy you!

Zhao Zhi didn't know what Zhao Kai was thinking, and was still giving advice to his brother, "Third brother, and these princes can ruin things, it is nothing more than just the military power and civil affairs. If they only have military power but no civil affairs power..."

Zhao Zhi nodded and said, "What if there is only the power of civil affairs? Just collect taxes or supervise taxes, regardless of the army, what can this do?"

Of course, it is impossible to rebel without military power, and even if it rebels, it is easy to eliminate it!

Zhao Zhi said again: "If you move south to Jinling, you can supervise the tax collection yourself. Of course, the people below will not dare to evade taxes..."

"This is not possible," Zhao Kai shook his head, "the soldiers in the north need me to take care of them!"

Military power cannot be lost!

I would rather have no money than no soldiers! I wouldn’t die immediately without money. If I don’t have money, I’m not far from death!

Zhao Zhi smiled and said, "Your Majesty personally takes charge of the military power. The power of tax supervision in the southeast should be given to the trustworthy prince..."

This seems to be a solution!

Zhao Kai narrowed his eyes and thought to himself: The Ming Dynasty first used vassal kings to guard the border, but it caused a great chaos. Later, when the emperor went to guard the border, the vassal kings were kept in captivity. Although there was no trouble, it was useless. What if there was another way to let the vassal kings participate in the civil affairs of places beyond the reach of the court?
Chapter completed!