Following the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Punishment also reported the number one after another.

The bulk of the Ministry of Rites' expenses are mainly on the two things of sacrifice and worship, although as the old saying goes, 'the major affairs of the country are in the worship and worship.' But what year is this, and what year is it now?

"Emperor Taizu was diligent and thrifty all his life, even if he was buried with gold and silver, he would be unhappy if he knew that future generations of children and grandchildren would spend national strength every year in order to sacrifice him."

This sentence was given to the Ministry of Rites as early as after Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne, so over the years, the Ministry of Rites has really not done any big pomp and circumstance in terms of sacrificial expenses, except for the sacrificial hole before the opening of Gengchen Branch.

Once only once sacrificed, Hongwu Dynasty, after the Taizu Emperor overthrew the Meng movement, did not successfully defeat Kongqiu, but also held a grand ceremony in the 26th year of Hongwu, which was also the general worship of the Ming Zhao world.

As for the annual festival held by the Confucian family itself every year, the imperial court will also send officials over, and the imperial court does not need to spend money on that kind of memorial service, and the way to eat, drink and feast is arranged by the Confucian family.

In the case of the Criminal Department, the main expenditure is to print the Great Ming Law and the Great Edict, and send special personnel to various provinces, prefectures and other cities to carry out activities similar to the propaganda of the rule of law in later generations, in fact, it is to gather scholars in the localities and distribute these two things, hoping that they can learn more in the local areas and teach the people along the way.

The two parts added up to less than one million taels, Xia Yuanji naturally responded very happily, and then there was Yan Zhenzhi, the last big head: the Ministry of Industry!

"I'd better talk about the errand expenses assigned by His Majesty first."

Yan Zhen cleared his throat and reported truthfully: "The three major shipyards in Longjiang, Fuzhou, and Quanzhou are all processing and adding points to produce warships, and for this alone, the expenditure for next year will be five million taels.

Let's talk about the openness of the imperial court and the places where the money is spent.

Emperor Taizugao's filial piety tomb is a fixed amount, two million taels a year.

The road from Nanjing to Beiping is still under construction, and it will cost two million taels.

Guangxi through Jiaozhi Langshan trail, His Majesty's intention is also to build a road out, the section of Jiaozhi territory, by the Jiaozhi political envoy at his own expense, we want to widen the road section cost, about one million taels.

Shandong embankment, 1.5 million taels.

In the Huguang and Henan sections, the local reaction this year is relatively strong, and the embankments along the river are somewhat unstable and need to be reinforced, and it is another one million taels.

The total expenditure of the Ministry of Industry next year is 12.5 million taels. ”

It's another big expense of tens of millions!

Slowly, Xia Yuanji almost died on the spot, and even Zhu Yunwen subconsciously raised his head.

I thought that this year's income hit a new high, and the imperial court could save a lot of money, but now that all of them have been calculated, it is estimated that the expenditure will be 50 million taels!

It's not that it's a good thing that the expected expenditure is lower than the income, you know, the imperial court must at least have a reserve of silver, in case there is a drought or flood next year, locusts and other natural disasters, where will the court get the money for disaster relief?

What if there is a war in the north next year?

In this way, what is enough to leave a family foundation of 4 million? When the stirrup is short, the imperial court will report a deficit next year!

"Your Majesty."

Xia Yuanji must stand up: "In the past two years, the treasury has been engaged in a deficit economy that cannot make ends meet, and there are less than 25 million taels left in the treasury of the Hongwu Dynasty. ”

He is the head of the household, so leave him four million taels of breathing space? Don't strangle him to death yet.

There is room for some relaxation, where did he Zhu Yunwen squeeze Xia Yuanji out?

Military spending is undoubtedly a major expenditure, but it is also a place that must not be saved, but the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Punishment and the Ministry of War have no expenditure at all, so where else can they be squeezed from?

Only the Ministry of Officials and the Ministry of Industry remained.

Zhu Yunwen himself set the Ministry of Officials and Zhi Shijin, and it is definitely not possible to turn his face and refuse to admit it for a long time, and the Ministry of Industry is related to the safety and survival of the local people, and it is impossible to stop.

"Can't squeeze it out."

Zhu Yunwen's eyelids drooped slightly, and he refused: "Each government, ministry and yamen have their own business, and they are all reasonable expenses, I still say that the court can't save a cent of the money that should be spent." ”

Open source and reduce expenditure, since there is no way to reduce expenditure, then it can only be open source.

Zhu Yunwen closed his eyes and thought about it, and suddenly came to an idea: "A few months ago, I asked Xue Ke and Zheng He to go south to explore the reality of overseas first, and when they come back, the cost of the warships supervised by the Ministry of Industry is used to open the sea, so their income after going to sea in the future will be repaid to the household department first, how about it?" ”

What does the emperor mean is that my household department lends money to the Fujian and Zhejiang sailors to go out to fight? And then they will pay off the proceeds of their captivity?

Xia Yuanji sounds fresh, whether it is the army or the court, everyone is fighting for the Ming Dynasty, they are all part of the Ming court, and they are so careful about using it?

There has never been such a thing in any dynasty or dynasty.

Zhu Yunwen, on the other hand, was obviously interested in his own proposal, because he seemed to have found a way to guide the group of bureaucrats in the court.

"As for the household's concern about emergencies and deficits next year, I still have that attitude. Either the household eats the inventory, or borrows money from the imperial merchants. ”

Zhu Yunwen folded his fingers to settle the account: "It's like the annual military expenditure of tens of millions of taels of the imperial court, but aren't the war profits obtained by our Ming athletes fighting abroad and the tributes of neighboring countries exchanged for sacrifices also replenished into the treasury?"

The construction of roads by the Ministry of Industry is conducive to the efficiency of merchants and stimulates the commercial prosperity of our Ming Dynasty.

In the same way, since the household department can 'invest' in the General Staff Office and the Ministry of Industry, it can also invest in the Fujian and Zhejiang Naval Divisions, and when the household department has no money, it can also borrow it from the imperial merchant temporarily, and then return it when there is money. ”

The accounts of the imperial court are naturally public accounts and general ledgers, and everyone eats the same bowl of rice, and then the money earned returns to this bowl. This is the subconscious cognition of the ancients.

However, Zhu Yunwen plans to guide them a little bit to make them more aggressive!

Suppose that Daming is a large private enterprise group, and the six departments of the General Staff are subsidiaries, and they all need Zhu Yunwen to inject blood in the early stage, but the later development still requires them to work together on their own.

Let the household department support the Fujian and Zhejiang sailors to open the sea for money!

Let the Ministry of Household support the Ministry of Industry to build roads and embankments for money!

Let the household department support the General Staff Office to fight for money!

Don't always think about how to eat a few more bites in this bowl of rice, if you have that effort, think more about how to catch more game outside and bring it back, as soon as there is more food, everyone will naturally be full.

Xia Yuanji's complexion was a little ugly.

He would not support the ideas and proposals of such a moth as the emperor, of course, this is also because the military expenditure of the household department over the years is not proportional to the return received.

Zhu Yunwen is not in a hurry, Xia Yuanji is still willing to bite the bullet and eat his old book, and when the interests are pushed to him in the future, he doesn't need to be persuaded by him, the emperor, Xia Yuanji himself will rush over.

When it comes to the word loan, Zhu Yunwen finally recalled the bookkeeping method that he had been thinking hard about before.

Loan balance method.

The loan balance method, also known as the loan accounting method, originated in Italy in the 13th century and was not introduced to China from Japan until the end of the 19th century. Among the various double-entry bookkeeping methods, the credit and debit bookkeeping method is the earliest and the most widely used and scientific bookkeeping method in all countries in the world today.

And 'borrowing' and 'credit' are just abstract bookkeeping symbols, and this meaning cannot be understood only literally, and Zhu Yunwen himself just intends to guide the cabinet and the six ministries to transform the ideological form, so it is appropriate to implement this method at this time.

Thinking of doing it, regardless of Xia Yuanji still immersed in the helplessness after being robbed, Zhu Yunwen had already set his eyes on Yu Xin, and said some fragments of the loan balance method in his memory.

He really couldn't remember it all.

Fortunately, Yu Xin has been cultivating the household department for many years, even if Zhu Yunwen said it was messy, but the general core idea can still be understood, and in series with what he has learned in his life, he himself deduced a rough idea, and his eyes are lit up at the moment.

"Good way."

The household department is the most headache for him to settle the accounts every year, dozens of special branch directors often have to be from the beginning of the month of the month to be busy at the end of the year to understand, sometimes there are too many accounts, a certain link is negligent and wrong, everything has to start all over again, it is really troublesome.

"Your Majesty is still involved in this?"

Impressed, really impressive, Yu Xin felt that in addition to the emperor in front of him, the level of the degree was also very good.

"Where do I understand?"

Originally, he wanted to take credit for himself, but Zhu Yunwen suddenly changed his words: "A merchant from the Western Regions wrote a book about what he saw and heard in the extreme west, and the sailor brought it back to me when he recovered the Ryukyus, and I happened to see it, and I didn't know whether it was reasonable or unreasonable to mention it, looking at Yu Ge Lao's expression, it should be good." ”

After a pause, and without waiting for Yu Xin to get to the bottom of the matter, Zhu Yunwen spoke first: "Okay, today's matter is so decided." The cabinet will stay for a while, and the other secretaries will go and get busy. ”

The emperor issued an eviction order, and no one dared to stay longer, so they all got up and bowed and retreated, while Qi Tai and Wang Qian, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, helped up the trembling Xia Yuanji and carried the latter out of the Xinuan Pavilion.

The expenditure of 50 million taels, this astronomical amount really made Xia Yuanji almost die suddenly on the spot.

"This Wei Zhe still lives like this."

Yu Xin smiled when he saw this, and said good things for his old subordinates: "Your Majesty, don't be surprised, this Xia Yuanji followed the ministers in the household department back then, and he was taught by the ministers, at that time, when the court was rich, there were many places to spend money, and it was inevitable to eat food when it caught up with natural and man-made disasters. ”

"Good thing, good thing."

It's a good thing to be able to live, where would Zhu Yunwen blame, when you are rich, you should think more about the embarrassment when you are poor, otherwise you will be extravagant and squandering, and there will be not enough gold and silver to eat.

"Where will I blame him, he Xia Yuanji is also dedicated to the court, not saving money for me."

Diverting the topic, Zhu Yunwen brought the topic to another matter.

"I am staying at your house for the opening of the Qiushi Newspaper next year."

Seeking truth is a matter that Zhu Yunwen attaches great importance to now, and now the newspaper bureaus of various provinces and governments have basically set up a framework, and they can open and distribute newspapers at any time.

At the beginning of the new year, everything is renewed.

And seeking truth is the most important update event at the moment