Chapter 213: Year-end reconciliation
Regarding Yan Song's suggestion, Chen Di neither denied nor agreed. Writing "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info he simply pretended to be confused.
Chen Di avoided the topic of the Flying Tiger Army and began to ramble: "Father-in-law, do you know that Da Ming has three plays?" Chess, Go, hemp hanging? These three things are so interesting! Chess, all for the sake of the commander. In Go, everything is black and white. Ma hanging, calculating each other only for their own successγγγγγγ β
Chen Di's words seem to be marginal, but in fact, there are words in the words. What does it mean to calculate with each other only for their own success? Isn't this just for Yan Song?
Yan Song is such a smart person, he understands what Chen Di is referring to as soon as he hears it! He knew that his attempt to install cronies in the Flying Tiger Army had been discovered by Chen Di. It seems that Chen Di, the righteous son, will not agree to do this! That's it, this Flying Tiger Army is Chen Di's starting capital, how can he give it away?
Yan Song decided that in the future, it would be the idea of fighting less of the Flying Tiger Army. If he wants to sit firmly in the position of the first assistant of his cabinet, he must get the full support of Chen Di and his Flying Tiger Army. Rashly inserting his own people into the Flying Tiger Army will inevitably arouse Chen Di's vigilance and disgust.
Yan Song also changed the topic: "Di'er, I heard that Princess Xiaoyan has moved to Fuqing Temple to live?" It's not good, after all, it's a husband and wife! β
Chen Di smiled bitterly: "Those who have achieved great things in ancient and modern times must be calm about the misunderstanding of others. β
Yan Shifan said nonchalantly: "Isn't it just a woman?" What's the big deal? Now that the court situation is in the hands of the righteous brother and his father, what kind of woman do you want? Don't say what kind of princess it is, even if you fall in love with the concubines of the Sixth Palace? Just take it and use it! What's there? The emperor is just a plaything in our hands nowγγγγγγ β
Yan Song saw that Yan Shifan was getting more and more out of the circle, so he hurriedly stopped him: "After drinking, you will talk nonsense in your face, you, it would be good to have half of your righteous brother's calmness!" β
The Ming Dynasty has a system, and the twenty-four households in the month of Layue must seal the accounts.
Chen Di woke up in the Xiyuan room and felt that he had a headache. Last night, I drank a few more glasses with Yan Song and Yan Shifan's father and son, and I still have a smell of alcohol on my body.
The head of the household is now Yan Song's concurrent service, the left waiter Zhang Juzheng, and the right waiter Long Zixing followed Yan Song to the Xiyuan duty room early in the morning with the account book.
Yan Song looked at Chen Di's face and asked with concern: "Hasn't the wine been gone?" Come, tell the imperial dining room to bring a bowl of hangover soup to Governor Chen. β
Chen Di waved his hand: "No need, I have already woken up after sleeping." β
Yan Song said to Chen Di: "In this case, then let's talk about the accounts of the household department last year." If the general ledger is okay, I will let the officials of the six departments come to the room to reconcile the accounts. β
Chen Di nodded: "Then let's talk about the general ledger first." β
Zhang Juzheng began to talk eloquently: "Last year, the fiscal revenue of the two capitals and 13 provinces of Daming was 41.2 million taels, and the total expenditure was 43.1 million taels. The deficit was 1,900,000 taels. β
Compared with the annual expenditure of tens of millions of taels of the imperial court, the deficit of 1.9 million taels is already negligible.
Chen Di sighed: "It's not easy." β
Yan Song added: "In fact, of the 41.2 million taels of silver in the income, 8 million taels are the silver of the inner carrierγγγγγγ β
The inner carrier depot was the emperor's private depot. At the beginning, Chen Di and Yan Song did not hesitate to "rob" Emperor Jiajing's internal carrier warehouse in order to maintain the operation of the overstretched Ming treasury. In this way, in fact, the deficit of the household department this year has reached nearly 10 million taels.
Chen Di said: "I forgot about it. In this way, the deficit last year still reached more than 10 million taels? Alas, Yin eats grain, Yin eats grain! β
Yan Song said to Chen Di: "The general ledger is like this, if Governor Chen has no objections, I will sign the general ledger with the left and right attendants of the household department." Then he called the officials of the six departments to come in and reconcile the accounts. β
Chen Di said: "I have no objection, please ask Yan Shoufu and the two waiters to sign and draw." β
Yan Song, Zhang Juzheng, and Long Zixing finished painting, and the officials of the six departments entered the cabinet duty room.
Zhang Juzheng said: "Last year, the Ministry of War spent 18 million taels of silver. β
Tang Shunzhi, the secretary of the Ministry of War, replied: "The governor of the capital, Yan Shoufu." Of the 1,800 taels of silver spent by the Ministry of War last year, 9 million taels were paid by the provincial guards. The other five million taels were ordnance silver from the Ministry of War's manufacturing office. The remaining four million taels are the military salaries and silver rewards of the Flying Tiger Army. β
Chen Di was secretly shocked in his heart, he really didn't know, he was shocked. The full set of new firearms of the 10,000 Flying Tiger Army actually cost the household five million taels of silver! In addition, he took out more than 3 million taels of private money from the Fuxing Commercial Bank and gave it to the manufacturing office. In this and outside, it cost nearly eight million taels of silver!
The Guards' Army, which was weak in combat strength and existed in name only, actually spent half of the money spent by the Ministry of War, which made Chen Di very painful. The military system of the Ming Dynasty's guards, although it stipulates that soldiers are usually for the people, and they raise their own salaries for farming. But every year, the Ministry of War still has to take out a large amount of silver as a subsidy to the military households in the guard. Hearing this, Chen Di strengthened his determination to implement the new policy.
Zhang Juzheng asked Yan Song and Chen Di: "Shoufu, Dadu Governor, can this account be cancelled?" β
Yan Song and Chen Di each nodded in agreement.
Zhang Juzheng put the account of the military department into a wooden box, and the account was cancelled.
Next is the bill from the Ministry of Industry. Zhang Juzheng said: "Last year, the Ministry of Industry spent 15 million taels of silver. β
Zhao Kewang, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, was a student of Yan Song. He replied: "The Governor and Yan Shoufu, of the 15 million taels of silver spent by the Ministry of Industry last year, 8 million taels were disaster prevention silver for the construction of water conservancy dams. Three million taels is the silver for the repair of the yamen of the two capitals and thirteen provinces. Another 4 million taels is a special fund for the emperor to expand the Yongshou Palace and repair the Spring Garden and Taihe Garden. β
Chen Di is familiar with history books, and naturally knows that the construction of water conservancy dams to prevent disasters has always been a bottomless pit. For example, the river yamen received ten taels of silver from the Ministry of Industry, but only one or two of them were used to repair the embankment, and nine taels of silver were privately divided among the officials. There was no rain for a year, no floods, and the embankments were safe, and the nine taels of silver fell into the hands of the officials safely. For example, the river yamen received ten taels of silver from the Ministry of Works, and used nine taels of silver to repair the embankment, but only one tael was lost for no reason. It happened that there was a lot of rain and flooding this year, and the officials of the river yamen were going to be unlucky!
When Chen Di heard this, he decided to establish a supervision agency to supervise the use of the river yamen under the Ministry of Industry. The top spot of this institution naturally has to be done by Hai Rui's iron-faced blue sky!
Chen Di said: "Zhao Shangshu, this year's eight million taels of silver flood control silver account will be cancelled first. In the future, the Imperial Court will set up a river supervision department under the Metropolitan Procuratorate. The Metropolitan Procuratorate Zuodu Yushi is also the director of the River Supervision Department. Next year, every penny that the Ministry of Industry spends on the river will be verified by the River Supervision Department. The River Supervision Department is not close there, and the Ministry of Industry does not want to write off a penny of silver in the Ministry of Households! β