Li Xuan called back, and by the way, he directly cut several projects, such as the experimental railway construction plan mentioned by the Ministry of Industry, which is three million taels, and Nima is the preliminary project payment, Li Xuan's brain burned out before approving this kind of budget.

Although it is said that the construction of railways is the trend in the future, even steam trains have not yet been built, and the output of steel is not high, not to mention the high cost of building railways, and the efficiency is still too low because of the use of carriages drawn by horse-drawn carriages.

Li Xuan planned to wait until the steam train matured before building a big railway, and even if he did, he didn't plan to directly contribute funds to build the railway.

The funds needed to build the railway are not something that can be done with a few million taels of silver, but a super project that starts with tens of millions of taels of silver and rises to hundreds of millions of taels of silver, and must borrow the power of private capital.

Otherwise, it is estimated that by the day Li Xuan died, the country's main road railway network would not be built.

The test railway was cut, and many other projects were also cut if they could, and finally Li Xuan finished cutting it, and found that the total budget was about 80 million taels of silver, and he didn't even need 86 million taels of silver!

Seeing this result, Li Xuan directly called all the ministers on duty in the imperial study, and then left a sentence after giving them the budget after he had cut it: "This year's financial expenditure budget can only be 80 million taels of silver!" ”

When Li Xuan said this, his face was not very good-looking, and Qian Qili on the side whispered tentatively: "Your Majesty, don't you have an income budget of 86 million taels of silver next year!" ”

Li Xuan said: "I know, the other six million taels of silver, I have other arrangements, well, that's it, today you will finalize a detailed budget plan!" ”

Hearing Li Xuan's words, a group of ministers on duty consciously did not speak anymore, Li Xuan's expression had fully indicated that there was no room for negotiation in this matter.

The ministers are psychologically prepared for the budget cut, because every year when they engage in the budget, these ministers will add a thousand taels of silver under the psychological bottom line, why do they add it? So leave room for Your Majesty to cut the budget!

As a courtier, how can you expose all the psychological bottom lines, and then honestly say that as much as you want, in this way, what do you let Your Majesty do? Could it be that His Majesty took a casual look at it, and then found that it could not be changed and approved?

Please, that's the Holy Son of Heaven, that's the Holy Monarch of the Ages, how can people really care about the budget at all, and then stamp it casually, as courtiers, you have to find something to do for the Holy Son of Heaven, so that the Holy Son of Heaven can brush up on his sense of existence.

Therefore, when the courtiers make the budget, they will overreport such a large number of millions or even tens of millions of taels of silver every year, and then leave room for Your Majesty to cut the budget, and when Your Majesty finishes cutting the budget, the number left is just right.

This can be regarded as a little tacit understanding between these ministers.

Therefore, this year they reported a budget of 100 million taels of silver, estimating that His Majesty might cut a thousand, and the final figure was about 85 million, and the budget for financial revenue was 86 million, which was just right.

However, they didn't expect that this year's Son of Heaven cut the budget with a knife that was a bit ruthless!

directly cut 80 million taels of silver, and it was the kind that was not negotiable, which made those ministers dumbfounded, their psychological bottom line was 85 million, and this time it became 80 million and directly reduced by 5 million, in this case, the budget would not meet expectations.

Therefore, after listening to Li Xuan's words, these courtiers all showed bitter faces!

The Holy Son of Heaven said that 80 million is 80 million, and at this time, no one dared to directly talk to Li Xuan about adding a few more or something, so they all consciously closed their mouths, and then they all pondered in their hearts one by one, the current expenditure budget has become only 80 million, and there is still a gap of 5 million taels of silver from the psychological bottom line that everyone discussed.

Where does this gap end up being filled?

Army or navy of the military?

Cabinet departments?

Cutting down the Jinling Dongcheng expansion plan?

Reducing the scale of reclamation development in Huguang and Guangzhou?

Reducing the scale of immigration in Liaodong Province?

Or will it reduce some of the office expenses of the various yamen in Gyeonggi?

Damn, which one is not easy to reduce!

In fact, in terms of the current financial expenditure of the Tang Dynasty, 80 million taels of silver is not impossible, and the financial expenditure of Xuanping for ten years is only more than 70 million taels of silver, which is less than 80 million taels of silver.

But the tenth year of Xuanping is the tenth year of Xuanping, and next year is next year!

The various departments of the Tang Dynasty have long had various plans for the eleventh year of Xuanping, especially all kinds of large-scale projects such as construction, reclamation, and immigration, which are not formulated in a day or two, but have been formulated in the past few years.

Well, this can actually be regarded as a trouble caused by the ministers' lack of smooth and timely communication with Li Xuan.

These ministers thought that the Holy Son of Heaven Li Xuan would cut the budget, so they reported a lot of unnecessary or deliberately exaggerated amounts, and these exaggerated figures made Li Xuan even more disgusted by this, and finally simply limited himself to the figure of 80 million taels of silver.

This number, Li Xuan naturally didn't set it casually!

It is set according to this year's financial expenditure, this year's financial expenditure is less than 80 million taels of silver, and next year, to be honest, compared with this year, there is no special expenditure, Li Xuan judged that the two are about the same.

As for the six million taels of silver left behind, Li Xuan didn't have a clear goal for a while, anyway, he felt that the financial budget didn't need so much, the six million taels of silver would be left first, and he would see how he spent it next year.

Or simply do not spend it, just seal it as a fiscal surplus, and save it for later when you need to spend a large amount of money.

It is also a bit interesting to say, that is, the Tang Dynasty has been established for so many years, and the treasury has never had any financial surplus, because every year is a fiscal deficit, and this fiscal deficit has not changed because the financial income of the Tang Empire has changed from one or two million to more than 80 million taels of silver today.

Because the more fiscal revenue, the more relative fiscal expenditure.

Even sometimes, Li Xuan felt that the government of the Tang Empire under his rule, the government that was very likely to be bankrupt due to fiscal deficits in the next few years, was still peacetime.

This situation is not normal for a feudal dynasty!

Li Xuan didn't want to see this happen, so he felt that the current situation of large-scale financial expenditure must be changed.

No matter what the situation, there are more places to spend money, and it is impossible to meet all of them, if you have to meet them, let alone 100 million, 100 million is not enough to spend.

He needs to let these courtiers prioritize, spend what should be spent, spend money that can't be saved, don't spend money that shouldn't be spent, don't spend money that is not necessary, don't make the money not his own, and spend it desperately.

So Li Xuan left a limit of 80 million taels of silver and left, leaving behind a group of stunned ministers on duty in the imperial study.

Liu Bagou looked around at a few people around, and then said: "Don't look at it, there are still a lot of things to do, the Son of Heaven has a purpose, and today we must formulate a detailed financial budget allocation plan!" ”

When everyone heard this, this was the reaction, and then they looked at each other one by one.

Why, because they will all be opponents next, rivals in the fight for the budget!

Obviously, there is a shortfall of five million taels of silver in the budget, and where should these five million taels of silver be reduced? I'm afraid no one wants to!

At this time, Qian Aoli took two steps towards Liu Bagou, and then lowered his voice and said: "Liu Lao, look, if the gap of five million taels of silver is pushed to the military, especially the army, their military expenses are 20 million taels of silver, even if it is less than 5 million taels of silver, there are still 15 million taels of silver!" ”

Qian Aoli's voice was lowered, but the ears of Admiral Lei Wan, the head of the Army Operations Department and the minister on duty in the imperial study, were even more sensitive, and he immediately shouted: "Qian Aoli, you traitorous minister, actually want to deduct the hard-earned money of my Tang Army, so bold!" ”

"My Tang Army's millions of soldiers are stationed on the frontier, guarding the interior, and guarding Gyeonggi, how much blood and tears have been paid, without the millions of soldiers of our army waiting day and night, your money would have been swallowed by Tatar life!"

"As long as I, Lei Wan, don't die today, don't try to deduct your hard-earned money from my army!"

Admiral Lei Wan was able to sit firmly in the imperial study for a long time, and participated in military affairs as a representative of the army, which naturally has his advantages!

When it comes to fighting, there are a large number of generals in the army who are more powerful than him, and the division commander of a field division can be brought out at random, and his various strategic and tactical qualities can beat Lei Wan, not to mention those army commanders and the bigwigs who are also generals.

This person's ability to fight is at most at the level of a regiment commander, but he can become an army general, and his prestige within the army is comparable to that of Hao Bonian and others, and he is also deeply trusted by His Majesty, so he naturally has his unique ability.

As the head of the war department, he is good at employing people, keeping the war department in an orderly manner, not chaotic at all, and when formulating grand strategies, he is also unambiguous, and he himself may not know much, but he is good at digging out those war-torn geniuses under his subordinates, and listening to their opinions, and then formulating various grand strategies.

At the same time, he has a good relationship with Hao Bonian and other military field army bigwigs who are from the real power.

In the imperial study, he represented the army to confront the civilian clique represented by Liu Bagou, and did not forget to confront Admiral Bao Yifen to defend the interests of the army.

Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to gain almost the same prestige as Hao Bonian and the others within the army!

There is no other reason, he can fight for the interests of the army!