In the end, Guo Ye and Yi? With the contract signed with Warrenham, he returned to the court.

In one day, only Prince Gong and Guo Ye went out, and even the Minister of the General Office, Wen Xiang, did not show up to get the United States!

Above the court, when Yi? When he showed the contract to Emperor Xianfeng, Emperor Xianfeng frowned, the contract was negotiated, but there were many problems in it, but I was afraid that this face would be torn off a lot.

"Your Majesty, please behead Prince Gong and Guo Ye!"

Wu Ren was the first to jump out, such a contract was really unacceptable to him, he couldn't wait to jump out, and shouted angrily, "Your Majesty, open ports, set up factories and mines, this is the way to destroy the country, and, look, you actually allowed the establishment of an embassy in the capital, this, this simply disgraces the face of our Heavenly Empire!" There is also a fire gas trade worth millions of taels, and now that the state affairs are difficult, it is ridiculous that we want to take out such a huge silver tael to please the foreigners! ”

Other important ministers also jumped out one after another, directly reprimanding the two of them for messing around, and resolutely disagreed to sign such a contract.

Xianfeng waved his hand, and everyone gradually quieted down.

Xianfeng asked, "Prince Gong, Guo Ye, what do you say?" ”

Prince Gong looked at Guo Ye, the terms in it were all drawn up by Guo Ye, and it was naturally up to him to answer, so it was appropriate.

Guo Ye hurriedly knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, please listen to Weichen's words." ”

Xianfeng replied, "You say." ”

Guo Ye replied: "The first one, buy 200 artillery pieces from the Americans, 10,000 muskets, as well as shells and bullets, the minister thinks that it is not too much, but less, if the minister can make full decisions, he will directly increase the number!" ”

The ministers in the court were even more angry, and they doubled it, it was worth four million taels of silver, how could it be done so badly?

Wu Ren roared: "Guo Ye, are you crazy with a loss of heart? Such a huge amount of silver, you will spend it with a wave of your hand, don't you know that the treasury is empty now? Where do we have so much money? Just to exterminate the Taiping army in the south, there is not enough money and food! ”

Guo Ye sneered: "Lord Wuren, I'm not crazy, it's just that your arithmetic may have been taught by a fool." Let me ask you, now that the 100,000 Hunan troops are encircling and suppressing the Taiping bandits, and the Qing army in the three provinces of Sichuan is added to exterminate the Shi Rebellion, how much grain will it cost the imperial court a year? ”

"This ......"

Although Wu Ren is in a high position, he is not so clear about the cost ahead, and Su Shun on the side stood up and replied: "In recent years, Zeng Guofan has spent no less than four million taels of money and grain every year in order to exterminate the long hair, plus the southwest zone to exterminate Shi Wei, the cost is probably not less than six million ta......els."

Wu Ren glanced at Su Shun and snorted angrily: "Look at it, just the war in the south will cost no less than six million taels a year, where does the treasury get the money and grain, many of them are taxes paid by the Jiangnan provinces in advance, and you have to take out a large amount of money to buy armaments to please the foreigners, it is really unreasonable!" ”

Guo Ye is also out of the way at this time, if he doesn't get these bigwigs down, I'm afraid that he and Prince Gong will be lying down today.

Guo Ye laughed angrily: "First, if there are 20,000 spears and 200 artillery pieces in the lowly position, within three years, the Taiping bandits will definitely fight in one battle, and it is enough to consume six million taels of silver in the country's money and grain, this is not a waste of the country's money and grain, but to save money and food for the country, even if these ordnance is allocated to the Hunan army, it can also be that Lord Zeng Guofan will exterminate the Taiping bandits in the shortest possible time, sharpen the knife and not cut wood, Lord Wuren, you don't even understand this truth?" ”

In the face of Guo Ye's ridicule, Wu Ren was furious and was about to fight back, Guo Ye continued: "Also, Lord Wu Ren, I want to ask, if it is a child who takes in and carries 10,000 taels of gold, what will happen when you say he walks out of the house?" ”

Wu Ren was stunned for a moment, and snorted coldly: "Then it goes without saying, since ancient times, we have paid attention to wealth and not show it, and a child holding 10,000 taels of gold must have been murdered and oversold goods, and his life is not guaranteed!" ”

Guo Ye said with a smile: "That's right, our Great Qing Dynasty has a wealth of things and people, and it has already aroused the watchful eyes of the great powers, but we are now lax in armament, and the soldiers can't stand, if we don't strengthen our armaments, will we soon be like this child with ten thousand taels of gold?" Don't say anything else, Tsarist Russia has been watching outside the border for a long time, some time ago, I was still thinking about encroaching on the boundaries of the Ussuri River in one go, the Tsarist army is ferocious, there are many artillery, if we don't do it in advance, once Tsarist Russia moves, east of the Ussuri River, north of the Heilongjiang River, will no longer be owned by our Qing Dynasty, even Heilongjiang and Jilin are not stable, do you think that with our current Eight Banners and Green Battalion, we can deal with the Russian army? ”

Xianfeng's heart was shocked on the dragon chair, if it is really as Guo Ye said, then Guo Ye is not wasting money and food for the country, this is preparing for the invasion of Tsarist Russia, it is definitely far-sighted, a twenty-year-old hairy young man has such a high vision!

Guo Ye turned around, looked at Xianfeng and replied: "Your Majesty, the Anglo-American and French are not to worry about in the short term, they do not border with the Qing Dynasty, even if they want to embezzle the Qing Dynasty, they do not have enough strength, so they can only continue to plunder some money with the soldiers, and then coerce us to sign a contract and sell more goods; But Tsarist Russia is different, Tsarist Russia is greedy, if we don't pay more attention, not only the three provinces outside the Guanwai, but also Outer Mongolia and Huijiang may be unstable, we must take precautions as soon as possible, these ordnance is prepared to deal with the aggression of Tsarist Russia, so, this matter, not the Americans took advantage, but we took advantage, you know, now Britain and France are unwilling to buy firearms for us! ”

Shangshu Ruilin of the Ministry of Rites shouted: "What about cutting a piece of land and allowing foreigners to open mines and set up factories? What about the opening of treaty ports? Isn't that also good for us? The foreigners are mercenary, and the influx of their goods will wipe out all our silver! ”

Guo Ye turned around and said solemnly: "Lord Ruilin, Lord Wuren and Lord Sushun have already said it just now!" Now the state affairs are hard, the treasury is empty, and the poor are going to be pants! ”

Wu Ren on the side shouted angrily: "Presumptuous, when did the old man say that the treasury is poor and should be used as pants?" Above the court, how can you be so foul-mouthed! ”

Guo Ye pretended to be serious and said: "Foul language? Could it be that Woohito-sama is not wearing pants? Bare-assed? That's disrespectful! ”

Hahaha......

The ministers in the court could no longer hold back and burst into laughter.

Uren's face was as red as an eggplant, and he trembled with anger.

Guo Ye didn't care, and said to Xianfeng: "Your Majesty, now the treasury is empty, it is absolutely true, just relying on the taxes of the people, it is absolutely difficult to support, it will only consume the vitality of the peasants, once we trade or bring in foreigners to open mines and set up factories, it will increase a lot of financial resources for us, you must know that as long as every factory and mine is operated in the Qing Dynasty, then we must pay taxes!" ”