After the end of last year's revenue and expenditure, and the deliberation of this year's budget began, the ministers began to lift their spirits and prepare to fight for greater rights and interests for themselves.

Because of Chen Zizhuang's joining, the local gentry in Guangzhou were not so resistant to Zhu Hongsan, and many retired officials came out to become officials again, so the Shangshu Shilang of the Sixth Department was quickly filled, and there was no need for a few part-time Shangshu Shilang.

The current Shangshu of the Ministry of Officials is Huang Yingxiu, who was born in Guangdong, this old guy is a local tyrant in Dongguan, and Chen Zizhuang is a Jinshi in the same department, both of whom are Jinshi in the 47th year of Wanli. However, Chen Zizhuang is Tanhua, and Old Man Huang is the fourth in the second class, which is also very awesome, seventh in the country.

After Chen Zizhuang came out of the mountain, the first thing he did was to go to the Huang family to invite this old man to come out of the mountain in the same year, and gave him the position of the heavenly official of the Ministry of Officials. However, Old Man Huang has two brushes, and he has been a political envoy in Shandong for ten years before, and he can be regarded as a capable official.

There is no Shangshu in the household department now, and the squire is Wang Yunchang, a disciple of Feng Ruoshu.

The secretary of the Ministry of Rites is Liang Zhaoyang, the first year of Chongzhen, his hometown is Panyu, Guangzhou, when Feng Ziyong was the prefect of Guangzhou, he didn't know how the two hooked up and became an adulterer, and he also went out of the mountain to help Zhu Hongsan.

The squire of the Ministry of War is Zhang Bingwen, the former squire of the Criminal Department, this guy just helped Ma Mingyuan and Tong Yangjia fight a few months ago, but he didn't expect to be transferred to the Ministry of War now, and it happens to be managed by Tong Yangjia. However, there was no deep hatred, and Zhang Bingwen soon mixed with Tong Yangjia again.

Shangshu of the Criminal Department was born in Qiongzhou Mansion, Guangdong, and was also a Jinshi in the forty-seventh year of Wanli, but he had a bad relationship with Chen Zizhuang, when the party attached Wei Zhongxian, and later Wei Zhongxian fell and was dismissed and went home. When Tong Yangjia was in Qiongzhou, he didn't know how to hand in the relationship, and Tong Yangjia promoted him to be the secretary of the criminal department.

There is no book in the Ministry of Industry, and the squire is Zhu Hongsan's eldest brother and father-in-law, who is Ma Jiyuan, the prefect of Leizhou Prefecture. Because he did a good job in Leizhou, Zhu Hongsan transferred him back to serve as a waiter in the Ministry of Engineering, acting in charge of the Ministry of Engineering.

In addition to these six high-ranking ministerial-level officials, there are also four members of the Cabinet who are meeting today. Chen Zizhuang in charge of the Ministry of Officials, Ma Mingyuan in charge of the Ministry of Household and Industry, Tong Yangjia in charge of the Ministry of War, and the last one, Feng Ziyong in charge of the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Punishment.

Zhu Hongsan looked at the ten people sitting or standing below, and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, now let's start discussing this year's expenses, and that one will talk about it first!" ”

The first to stand up was Wang Yunchang, the head of the household department.

"Your Highness, the minister is in charge of the household department, and the minister will speak first!"

After getting Zhu Hongsan's approval, Wang Yunchang said loudly: "Your Highness, my lords, just now Lord Yuanfu Chen said that last year's income was 15 million taels, which looks like a lot, but you must know that this is the income obtained on the basis of buying land, and the land in the development zones of Guangzhou and Dongguan has been sold out, leaving less than two-tenths of the land, that is, the income from the sale of all this year is at most 3 million. Therefore, the budget minister who reported that the Ministry of War needs nine million taels of silver this year cannot be passed here! ”

Unexpectedly, Ma Mingyuan fired at Tong Yangjia in the first step. However, Ma Mingyuan didn't jump out, Tong Yangjia couldn't speak, and he couldn't lose his identity. Wang Yunchang has someone to deal with.

Zhang Bingwen, the squire of the military department, stood up, and at this time, his vital interests were involved, and it was not possible not to protect his rights.

"Lord Wang, why do you say that our military department's budget cannot be passed this year? What is the rationale? ”

"If you look at the data reported by your military department, this year's daily training of soldiers will cost 600,000 taels of silver, and the soldiers' meals will cost 500,000 taels, and there will be 10 warships of 1,000 tons this year. Now that your navy is already the most powerful armed in the South Seas, why do you need so many ships? In order to build ships for you, the Ministry of Industry has reported that three large docks will be built, each of which will cost 50,000 taels of silver. And you have 300,000 taels of intelligence expenses here, what is this? There is no elaboration at all! ”

Zhang Bingwen took out the budget fold of the Ministry of War and explained one by one: "Prison country, Lord Wang, my lords. Now we have 50,000 troops and 30,000 navy, a total of 80,000. The army needs 20,000 taels of silver for training every month, as well as the loss of artillery, guns and ammunition, etc., and the navy is the big one, every time a warship comes out for training, it costs several thousand taels of silver, and each warship has hundreds of guns, and as little as 30 guns, and each gun fires once it costs one tael of silver. Jian Guo also said that the army is used to fight, not to be raised as an uncle, so the 600,000 taels and one tael required for training cannot be less. The number of warships to be started by the Navy this year was set by the supervising state last year, and this cannot be reduced. There is also the soldier's meal fee, the rule has been set when the superintendent organizes and trains the recruits, each soldier cannot be less than one pound of rice, three taels of pork or half a chicken and a fish every day, if it is reduced now, I believe that Lord Wang will face angry soldiers. As for the cost of intelligence, the prison country has already placed Jinyiwei under the command of the military department last year, and Jinyiwei has set up a large number of detectives and intelligence stations in the northern provinces in recent years, and the specific situation cannot be told to you here, so the budget of our military department is 9 million taels and 1 taels of silver! ”

Zhang Bingwen refuted Wang Yunchang's several questions one by one, Wang Yunchang was just about to speak, Ma Mingyuan, who was sitting in front of him, got up and said: "Last year, the Ministry of War spent nearly nine million taels because there was a war between Nanzhili and Nanyang, and now the prison has an order, and the war in Nanzhili has stopped. The war in Nanyang has been fought, and there is no need for a large number of garrisons, our household department discusses, your military department does not need so many calculations this year, let's halve it this year! ”

Good guy, Ma Mingyuan reduced the budget of the Ministry of War by half with one mouth, Tong Yangjia could agree, stood up and said: "Ma Mingyuan, now that the country is ruined and the family is ruined, and the Ming Dynasty is shaking like this, it is the time when soldiers need to sacrifice their lives for the country, you don't reward them at this time, but reduce their profits, is your heart black?" ”

Ma Mingyuan sneered: "Lord Tong just said that the country was ruined and the family was ruined? Now that the Ming Dynasty has not lost the country, isn't His Royal Highness the Prison State in charge of the government? What do you mean by that? ”

Tong Yangjia, who was caught with pigtails, scolded: "Ma Mingyuan, do I mean this? You don't want to spew blood! ”

Seeing that the two were about to fight again, Chen Zizhuang couldn't sit still, and now Jian Guo was watching from above, and the gang of people under him seemed too incompetent if they did it.

Chen Zizhuang stood up and said, "Okay, don't quarrel with the two of you, what to do, please make a decision from the prison state!" ”

Zhu Hongsan looked down, the conflict between Ma Mingyuan and Tong Yangjia has become public, this is very good, checks and balances are the way to be a king. As for the appropriation of the Ministry of War, not a single tael of silver can be less, this year is an important year, and it all depends on the performance of the army.

"Ladies and gentlemen, yesterday I received news from Beijing that the Manchu regent Dolgon had decided at the imperial council on the first day of the new year that he would lead 100,000 people to march south with Belebolo of Nanjing as the general of the expedition to the south, and that he would soon go south. There was also Prince Su Haoge as the general of Jingyuan, who led 60,000 people from the Manchurian and Mongolian Eight Banners to enter Sichuan through Hanzhong, Shaanxi, and attack Zhang Xianzhong. So this year will be an important year, so let's take a look at the budget of the Ministry of War! ”

Hearing Zhu Hongsan speak, everyone stopped moving, and now the main contradiction is the problem of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. There will be 100,000 horses attacking him, and at this time there is a lot of noise inside, and it is really not far from death.

Tong Yangjia and Ma Mingyuan retreated. Wang Yunchang went on to talk about the problems of other ministries.

The Ministry of Industry, the second major head, needs to allocate 3 million taels this year, of which 600,000 taels will be funds for the expansion of shipyards and the construction of new seagoing vessels. There are also 900,000 taels to expand the production scale of iron ore in Qiongzhou Prefecture, coal mines in Hongji, and gold mines in Luzon. Now these three places need a lot of labor, and there are nearly 100,000 craftsmen and workers in the Tengtian vein of Changhua, Qiongzhou, accounting for one-third of the entire Qiongzhou capital, so steel production is still not enough. The Ministry of Industry is already preparing to develop the Tiandu Iron Mine in Yazhou, which is also a large expense. There are also 800,000 taels of resettlement costs, and it is expected that the number of displaced people going south should increase a lot next year, and 800,000 taels is only a conservative estimate, and if it is not enough, it will need to be added by the household department. The last 700,000 taels were the money for the expansion of the arsenal. Because of the many wars, the arsenal is now completely full of capacity, workers work in three shifts every day, and the replacement of machinery is non-stop, and the 700,000 yuan is to build three new gunpowder factories, two musket production workshops, and two artillery production workshops.

The lack of productive forces is also a matter of Zhu Hongsan's scratching his head, now it is already the limit to support 50,000 new-style troops with the strength of Guangdong, and it is basically impossible to increase the number of troops without the input of new production tools, thinking that Zhu Hongsan is very annoyed in his heart, the steam engine has been working on it for almost a year, and they have not yet come up with a practical one, and it seems that they will go and see it in person in a few days.

The Ministry of Industry is now under the control of Ma Jiyuan, and of course the Ministry of Household Affairs cannot be embarrassed by the Ministry of Industry with this relationship, Wang Yunchang simply asked and approved the request of the Ministry of Industry.

Tong Yangjia looked at it from the side and sneered in his heart, but this time is not the time to make a difficulty, just now Jian Guo just said that he wanted to work together to the outside world, and now he is not giving face to Jian Guo, this kind of mindless thing Tong Yangjia can't do.

Compared with the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry, the next few ministries are all small money, and the most needed is the Ministry of Officials, and this year's salary for officials is only 700,000 taels of silver, and the Ministry of Xing and the Ministry of Rites can be ignored.

Seeing that the officials of the various ministries reached an agreement, Ma Mingyuan finally stood up and said: "Supervising the country, this year's budget needs 13 million taels of silver, and now there are still 2 million taels in the treasury, that is, there is still a gap of 11 million taels, and this year cannot sell a large amount of land like last year, may I ask what the King of Chu should do this year?" ”

Zhu Hongsan nodded and said: "This year is already the fourth year, when the Dongguan Development Zone opened, I promised them three years of tax exemption, and this year it should be collected." Didn't you set up a tax collection bureau under the household department? In addition, there are tax bureaus in Guangzhou and Dongguan, and this year will start to levy a look, if not, then think of other ways! ”

This can be regarded as a solution, Ma Mingyuan bowed and retreated.

Zhu Hongsan looked at it and announced that this year's budget meeting was adjourned.