Dafengxiang Hutong, Prince Gong's Mansion.

When King Gong and Bao Jun walked into the "small house", King Gong's Liufujin was already waiting inside. Eight fruit bowls have been laid out, in addition to two tall crystal glasses and a bottle of red wine.

Seeing the two of them coming in, Liufujin flashed aside, blessed slightly, and then retreated lightly and closed the door tightly.

The so-called "small house" is a "suite" in King Gong's study, which can only be entered from the study, and the other side pushes the window to face the water, without any "corner" to hear, which is the most secret. This place will only be used if King Gong consults with people on the most confidential matters. And those who are qualified to enter and leave the "small house" to serve, in the entire Gongwang Mansion, there is only one Liufujin, who was born in a room. Plainly, even King Gong Fujin would not set foot in this place.

The cold wind outside the house was cold, and the dragon inside the house was burning, warm as spring. Bao Jun sat down on the "sofa chair" with a butt, touched the hot head, and exhaled a heavy breath.

King Gong gently turned the tall crystal cup in his hand and said slowly: "Pei Yu, you tell me the truth, did you interfere in the case of Anhui's military expense reimbursement?" ”

Baojun's face was gloomy, and he didn't answer King Gong's words immediately, he took a sip of wine slowly, swallowed it, exhaled lightly, and was silent for a moment before gritting his teeth and saying: "Anhui's reimbursement, the Shandong Division of the Ministry of Households, is a verified one, and it should be repaid, and there is no case of bending the law." ”

He did not say that he "interfered," nor did he say that he "did not interfere," but defended the behavior of the household department, which is tantamount to indirectly admitting the Anhui military reimbursement case. I "meddled".

Explain. There are 14 "Cleaning Divisions" in the household department. Named after the province, it manages the money and grain affairs of the province and neighboring provinces. Among the 14 "Qing Officials Division", there is no "Anhui Division", and the "Shandong Division" is responsible for Anhui's affairs.

Baojun accepted bribes and meddled in the Anhui reimbursement case, which was not unexpected by King Gong. King Gong didn't think how unbearable Bao Jun's behavior was—who didn't take money, he collected 60 pieces of silver. It's a lot more than that. Although Bao Jun "flickered his words", after all, he was also "frank about his affairs", which shows the depth of mutual trust, and King Gong was quite relieved in his heart.

As for whether it is really "retribution", it is basically a matter of "opinion".

Before Yan Jingming's "arrival at the ministry", the various regulations of the household department were extremely chaotic, and there were not only countless loopholes, but also many contradictions. Which regulation to use, which one not to use. It's A and B, and it's one and the other. Whether it is a god or a ghost, it is all in the thoughts of the priest.

This is particularly true of military reimbursements. When the military was booming, it was not easy to distinguish between what was military and what was civilian, with the financial and technical means at that time. In addition, the provinces would often take the opportunity to "add congestion" and stuff expenses that are difficult to reimburse under normal circumstances into military spending, so that the reimbursement of military expenses in various provinces at that time was almost a bad debt.

The "discretionary power" of the officials is too great, making the reimbursement of military expenses a source of high incidence of corruption, and even the inevitable occurrence of military expenses, and those in charge of the country are well aware of this.

Defeating Hong Yang, the Xuan Army was the first unit to reimburse military expenses. At that time, Guan Zhuofan was instructed by Zhou Jiayu to hang the Xuanjun with the sign of "Jingying", and the military expenses were divided into two pieces and one piece of military salary, which was directly filed at the Eight Banners Salary Office, without going through the household department at all; A piece of guns and medicines, according to the handicap of one centimeter and four, asked the beetle officials of the household department to earn about 40,000 silver.

The household department scraped limited oil and water on Xuan Jun's body, and they all rubbed their hands, waiting for the big head behind - the Xiang Army, a series of door-to-door "talks". The military expenses of the Hunan army are not comparable to the millions of taels of silver of the Xuan army, it is a "big job" of tens of thousands of taels, even according to the "preferential price" given to the Xuan army - a handicap of one centimeter and four, there are also 1 million taels of silver that can be safely pocketed.

After the battle, it was natural for those who fought for their lives on the front line to get rich at that time. But the beetle officials of the household department, hiding in the rear, did not exert any strength, but wanted to grab such a large piece of food from the mouths of the soldiers, not to say that the Zeng Guo clan was not happy, and even King Gong felt that it was inappropriate.

More importantly, in terms of the source of military spending, the Hunan army and the Xuan army are very different.

The military expenses of the Xuan army came from Guan Yin, which was completely raised by the imperial court. Most of the military expenses of the Hunan army were raised by themselves; Only one of the "co-salaries" is a part of the government's financial revenue, which is not from the provinces that have not been recruited, but it is basically Zeng Guofan and other commanders of the army, who want to use their own face to reconcile the principals of the provinces to "talk about friendship", and the imperial court has really not made any great efforts in it.

Since the military salary is raised by others, you only have to report a figure here in your household department, why should you let the officials be picky and grinding, and make such a large fortune for no reason? Bai told the commanders to grit their teeth, and the court didn't get a benefit of one or two silver!

So King Gong made an extremely bold decision: on the day of the queen mother's longevity, the "edict" was issued, "since the rise of the army, the military expenditure of the provinces is not reimbursed"; However, "since the first day of July this year, the old system has been restored."

As soon as this edict came out, the governors of all provinces praised the saints in unison, and King Gong himself was very proud; It's just that the top and bottom of the household are naturally like mourning, and they are scolding "Devil Six" behind their backs, which is needless to say.

This incident happened during Xuan Jun's trip to the United States. After returning to China, Guan Zhuofan learned of this and was also quite amazed by King Gong's courage.

However, it was precisely because it was unable to get any great benefits from the reimbursement of military expenses for fighting Hong Yang that the household department intensified the subsequent reimbursement of military expenses, until the "sky-high price" of 150,000 taels of silver was demanded in the Anhui military expense reimbursement case.

This new round of reimbursement of military expenses is mainly due to the reorganization of the green battalion. Guan Zhuofan's request is that Xuanjun is responsible for the reorganization and training of the green battalions in various provinces, but cannot take over the bad debts of the green battalions in various provinces; Before Xuanjun took over, there must be a clear account of the green battalions in each province.

Thinking that the opportunity had come, the household department sharpened his knife and prepared to slaughter the fat sheep.

I didn't expect that "the teacher is not good".

Among the provinces, the first to complete the reorganization of the green camp are Jiangsu and Shandong provinces. Jiangsu is the base camp of Guan Beizi, and the household department does not dare to go under the knife; Shandong, I'm sorry, I bumped into Yan Jingming.

Yan Jingming was the governor of Shandong at the time, and Yan Danchu resolutely refused to do such a thing as bribery. The accounts he handles are clean and clear, and it is not easy for the household to be picky. More importantly, Yan Jingming's background in charge of the household department, and the relevant regulations are more familiar than the current class of officials in the household department.

This reimbursement of military expenses cannot be postponed indefinitely. Otherwise, someone must want to eat hanging. In the end, the household department was helpless, and finally reimbursed according to Shandong's accounts. From beginning to end, the iron tongs of the first-class beetle officials in the household department failed to pluck a single hair from Yan Lao Xi'er's body.

I couldn't swallow this breath, so I lost Shandong and wanted to take Anhui. The "handicap" of the "fees" for Anhui's military reimbursement was opened too high, almost double the normal price. Anhui did not want to be a fish and meat, and the two sides bargained, and they quarreled for too long, and finally got into big trouble.

*(To be continued......)