Just when Yuan Shikai was busy raising military funds for the Beiyang Army, Zhao Bei's affairs were busy.

The vitality of government finances is directly proportional to the vitality of the social economy.

Now that there is an armistice between the north and the south, trade and trade are gradually resuming, and the republican military government is again fully supportive of industry and commerce, and quite a few businessmen go to the military government's office every day to apply for business licenses and tax payment certificates.

Although the Qing court's harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes were mostly abolished, the military government did not collect taxes, and severely punished profiteers who dared to evade taxes, ranging from fines to raiding their homes, without ambiguity, so the merchants also had a lot of rules, and they did not even dare to bribe tax officials, otherwise, they might also be raided.

As for the tyrants and tyrants in the former Qing Donation Bureau, they have become the key targets of the military government, and the "people's fat and people's ointment" recaptured from them have greatly relieved the financial pressure of the military government, and at the same time, the entire government has been completely renewed.

After the revolution, the whole atmosphere was completely new, thanks to the commander-in-chief.

Now, the commander-in-chief is reviewing the provincial clean-up financial report in the military junta office area in Hanyang City.

Although the current provincial wall is still Wuchang City, but the actual office of the military government is in Hanyang City, there is only one provincial council in Wuchang City, and other government departments are in Hanyang, and according to the order of the commander-in-chief, the offices of these departments are concentrated in one place, this is the experience that Zhao Bei learned from later generations, so arranged, not only can be supervised nearby, but also convenient for the people to do things, there is no need to run around in order to do one thing, and the government departments cannot pass the strings, and the office efficiency is greatly improved.

The military government office area is located on the street in front of the government office, which was originally a shop run by some officials, but was taken over by the Republican Army and is now converted into an office space.

The military government has two major departments, the "Ministry of Military Affairs" and the "Ministry of Civil Affairs," each of which has a general director and two deputy ministers. The Ministry of Military Affairs is divided into a staff office, a logistics office, a military justice department and other departments, Zhao Bei is the chief of military affairs, one of the two deputy ministers is Lan Tianwei, and the other is Wu Zhenhan who is still in Yuezhou, and the civil affairs department is more detailed, the internal affairs department, the foreign affairs office, the education department, the finance office, the judicial office, the industrial and commercial office, etc., the chief of civil affairs is also concurrently served by Zhao Bei, and the two deputy ministers are Li Yuanhong, and the other is Tang Hualong, but Tang Hualong has already left for Shanghai to attend the North-South Peace Conference, and the current post of deputy minister is actually acting by Zhang Jiyang, secretary general of the Political Propaganda Commission. As for the directors of the various divisions, they were all appointed by Zhao Bei, and they were basically applied based on the amount of talent, regardless of their background, so the League, the Liberation Society, and the Constitutionalists all got a piece of the pie, but there were no complaints, only the director of the Finance Department was concurrently served by Zhao Bei, and he was personally in charge of the most important financial power.

After the recovery of the whole province of Hubei. Local power fell into the hands of the People's Army and the People's Party. Most of these people are under the influence of the republican military junta. Claims to be subordinate to the junta. But in reality, most of them are working in silos. Especially military and financial power. are unwilling to hand it over. For this case. Zhao Bei didn't give them any respite. Order. The Republican Army and the Revolutionary Guards were divided into four parts. The local authorities were quickly taken over by drastic means. The resisting "militia leaders" were either killed or fled. The rest of the people saw that things were not good. had to obediently hand over military and financial power. The military and political affairs of the whole province have finally completed the unification. Only remote prefectures and counties have no time to take care of it.

After the unification of the decree. The financial clean-up team was sent down one after another. Quickly put in place local finances. And summarize the results one by one. Statistics are made by the Finance Department. It's a complicated matter. It took almost a month before and after. It's basically an eyebrow.

After statistics. At present, the whole province of Hubei can be used for the military government's land, and the official funds are about 20 million taels of silver. Converted into silver dollars, it is nearly 30 million yuan. If those that are ready to be sold to private land, government, and civilian enterprises are also counted. The junta will be able to grasp more land and cash. In addition, when he killed all the way from Jiangxi to Hubei, he got those "floating wealth". The number is considerable.

The cash looks plentiful. But do the math. Still a little stretched. Because not all of that money is a fiscal surplus. Now there is no war on the earth. But there are still small recalcitrant forces in various parts of the country who are rebelling against the junta. And the war is in chaos. Bandits swarmed everywhere. Silver is needed to suppress bandits. Resettlement of displaced people requires silver. Silver is also needed for military and official salaries. The arsenal needs silver to buy raw materials. Spring is coming soon. The embankments must be strengthened before the spring floods. This also requires silver. In addition, it is necessary to continue to provide support to the revolutionary armed forces in Hunan and Henan. This also requires the junta's local money...... Consume a little here. Consume a little there. These tens of millions of yuan can only barely be sustained. If you want to stabilize the Hubei base area. It's not just about throttling. It's more open source. If it weren't for the fact that you couldn't borrow foreign debts. Zhao Bei may have already gone to negotiate with foreign banks.

Since the New Deal of the Qing Dynasty. The concepts of "national tax" and "local tax" have emerged. This would have been the junta's most reliable source of revenue. But here's the problem. A large part of the power over the local "state tax" is in the hands of foreign countries. Take, for example, salt taxes and customs duties. These two types of taxes bear the obligation of guaranteeing the "Gengzi indemnity". The annual deduction of land tax should be paid to the local authorities of each country. The rest of the land was at the disposal of the Qing court. This is called "salt surplus" and "sekiyu".

After the rise of the revolutionary army. The Great Powers had effectively intercepted the entire surplus. The salt surplus from the coastal salt works was also expropriated

Only the well salt whip in Sichuan is beyond the reach of the whip, but that financial resource is now in the hands of the faction, and the revolutionary military government will not be able to get it for the time being.

In order to open up the source and intercept the flow, the Hubei military government can be said to have tried its best, considering the people's ability to bear the land, the method of increasing the tax rate is not feasible, and it can only find another way.

Zhao Bei has not thought about the method of issuing bonds, but the problem is that there is no suitable person to handle it, foreign banks are unwilling to help, and private banks do not have that strength, and they are mostly wait-and-see, so the matter of bonds can only be put aside for the time being, and then talked about after the national system is established.

In the past few days, the regent Yuan in the north has been busy borrowing money from foreign consortia, and the commander-in-chief Zhao in the south has also not been idle, staying in the finance office all day long, discussing financial issues with his assistants.

The office of the Finance Department is in the original official money bureau, a small signing room with a few tables, and a few circle chairs, which is the office, and when you need to have a meeting, you can put a few tables together, which is a conference table.

Now, Director Zhao is sitting at the "conference table", holding a pen, and has crossed a few strokes on the "Financial Clean-up Report", ticking off a few expenses that he thinks are unnecessary.

Putting down the report, Director Zhao raised his head and looked at several civil servants of the Finance Department at the table. Now that the military government has abolished many of the old titles, "adults" and "villains" are no longer audible, "masters" and "slaves" have disappeared, and even "officials" have become "civil servants", and according to the orders of the commander-in-chief, all civil servants are not allowed to wear robes and horse coats to work, but uniformly wear the work clothes assigned by the military government, which are divided into winter clothes and summer clothes, and whether they wear top hats or not is as they like, but it is absolutely forbidden to wear Qing court official hats, let alone men are allowed to wear braids.

Winter clothes are suit-style tops with lapels, but now there are not many civil servants wearing work clothes, only the finance department all change their clothes, and the pants are prepared by each person, so there are some strange matches, breeches, military pants with work clothes is relatively normal, if there are silk pants, crotch-free pants with work clothes, it is absolutely not surprising.

Zhao Bei put down the pen and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, finance is the top priority of the government, and you can't be sloppy. Now the province's work of cleaning up the finances is nearing the end, although the treasury can barely be maintained, but if you want to have a revolution, relying on this bit of silver is far from enough, not to mention anything else, the Hanyang Arsenal needs to be greatly expanded, increase the production and quality of weapons, this requires a large amount of silver, without silver, nothing can be done, can only be mixed and wait for death, I am not willing to wait for death, what about you? ”

"I don't want to!"

Everyone said in unison, working with Zhao Bei these days, they have understood the character of this commander-in-chief, he hates Rory wordy the most, and hates nonsense even more, talking to him, it is best to be simple and clear, not to drag mud and water, not to delay the precious time of the commander-in-chief.

"So, come up with your solution. Of course, there is no need to talk about the proposal to increase the land endowment, because now the burden on the rural peasants is very heavy, and the idea of giving land can no longer be beaten; now that the revolution is underway, it is necessary to let the people realize the benefits of this revolution, so not only can this land not be increased, but must also be reduced, especially those small peasants who do not have much land, and they should be given priority. In addition, the work of clearing up the title deeds in various places must be stepped up, and those who dare to conceal the real amount of real estate, no matter what their background, will be severely punished, and will not be tolerated and accommodated! Now, you would like to share your opinions. ”

After Zhao Bei finished speaking, he leaned back and glanced at these subordinates.

"The department has a suggestion!" A civil servant stood up.

"Say."

"Now there are big smoke halls all over the province, and some people suggest that the commander-in-chief close them all, but the ministry thinks it is inappropriate. It is better to follow the pseudo-Qing method, 'prohibit and levy', impose heavy taxes, the higher the price of cigarettes, the less smoking, and if the tobacco shops are not closed, the government revenue will not decrease, so that it will kill two birds with one stone. It is important to know that even if we prohibit smoking, the smugglers in the concession are not restricted, which is equivalent to cheapening foreigners. ”

"That's the idea you had too?" Zhao Bei was a little late, someone made a similar suggestion a few days ago, but Zhao Bei considered the harm of opium, did not immediately adopt it, as for the Qing Dynasty's so-called "forbidden in the levy", it was purely to sell dog meat on the head of a sheep, "levy" is the goal, "ban" is the means, a large part of the provincial finance is from this kind of tax, it is addicted, and it can't be stopped.

Now the military government's finances are tight, in order to maintain the operation of the government, Zhao Bei can be said to have tried his best, not only to follow the advice, to the Qinglou brothel to levy a "flower donation", but also unprecedented levy of "braid tax", those men among the old and young want to keep braids, must pay the braids tax, five silver yuan a year, do not pay the braids. However, these measures cannot fundamentally reverse the current financial predicament, considering that the war has not really ended, and that the army needs to be expanded, weapons must be replenished, and the army must be fed as a gold-swallowing beast.

Zhao Bei thought about it for a moment, wrote the word "big smoke" on the report, and then crossed it out again, but he never made up his mind. In the past, he also had a good understanding of the policy of "banning opium in the levy", but when he traveled to this era and saw with his own eyes the appearance of those addicts who were not human and ghosts, he hated this policy, so a few days ago he had issued an order to close those tobacco shops for a limited period of time, intending to forcibly ban smoking and stop "banning in levy" at the same time.

But now he is a little undecided, after all, without money there is no army, without the army can not realize his ideals, his ideals cannot be realized, then China will continue to sink and continue to be beaten.

"In the face of interests, is morality so worthless?" Zhao Bei sighed, closed the financial clean-up report, and looked up to see the captain of the guard, Tian Jinfu, standing outside the door and gesturing to him, so he slowly stood up and made a final decision.

"In that case, you have drawn up a plan for a five-year period to completely ban opium, and in the meantime, continue to implement the 'ban on taxation,' but double the tax rate. In addition, the military government could not sit idly by as the merchants and civilians suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Hankow and made sacrifices for the revolution. Hankou was originally an important place for trade and commerce, as well as an important place for finance and taxation, and the reconstruction should be carried out as soon as possible, and the matter should be handled by the Ministry of Finance with full authority, and the military government and the merchants and people should each contribute half of the funds required for reconstruction, and the specific planning matters should be handled by special personnel. The former Hankou is the old Hankou, and the future Hankou will inevitably be the new Hankou, not only to lead the business atmosphere, but also to lead the social atmosphere! In terms of urban layout, we should learn from the great powers, and the construction of bungalows and wooden houses in commercial areas that have been burned down will be prohibited, and the slums that have not been burned down will gradually be incorporated into the unified urban planning. In the future, the commercial center of Hubei and even the entire central China region will be established in the hands of our revolution, and all of you here are witnesses and personal experiences of this history. ”

Decisions are made, and the rest of the work is done by these civil servants, without the need for the commander-in-chief to preside over it himself.

When the commander-in-chief walked out of the signing room, Tian Jinfu came over with a staff officer on duty, handed over a copy of the telegram, and said: "There were two more telegrams just now, one was taken by President Tao of the Restoration Society, and the other was taken by Tang Hualong. ”

"Oh? President Tao's telegram? How does he know how to contact me? ”

Zhao Bei took the telegram, glanced at the code code, and couldn't help but be slightly stunned. Some time ago, he purged the troops, cut the mountain, implicated the forces of the Liberation Society, Xiong Chengji sent the "prison army" was not convinced, and he reasoned but could not say that he had to go to Anhui to complain, before leaving Zhao Bei specially sent those people a sum of money, by the way asked them to Xiong Chengji to bring this telegram password, ready to use in the future, but I don't want Xiong Chengji's telegram did not come, Tao Chengzhang's telegram arrived first, I think those people did not go to Anhui, but went to the Shanghai concession, directly to Tao Chengzhang to complain, but look at that pen" "On the ground, maybe they changed their minds.

Speaking of which, since the uprising, he, as a "liberated member", has never been in contact with his nominal leader.

Tian Jinfu said: "President Tao said, according to reliable information, Yuan Shikai is discussing with Britain, France, and Russia about borrowing foreign money, which is said to be equivalent to tens of millions of taels of silver. President Tao's meaning, please ask the commander-in-chief to come forward and inquire with Yuan Shikai. ”

"Is President Tao also quite humorous, let me ask Yuan Shikai about it? If Yuan Shikai's loan this time really has any secret additional terms, he Yuan will point to his nose and say to me, 'I have betrayed the country'? When I went to ask about the earth, I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to ask anything. ”

Zhao Bei smiled bitterly and shook his head, he remembered the "big loan for the aftermath" in history, the loan at that time was used by Yuan Shikai to suppress the "Second Revolution", and now if this loan is established, it seems that it is not difficult to speculate what Yuan Shikai wants to do.

"Then how do you call President Tao back?" Tian Jinfu asked.

"Not busy calling back. Let's power it up first. ”

Zhao Bei smiled faintly, put his hands behind his back and said: "We want to use the telegram to tell the whole country and the world that the revolution is still going on, whether China is a republic or a monarchy, no one knows, this national system has not yet been established, how can we borrow from foreign countries?" Therefore, neither the Regent Government of the North nor the Revolutionary Government of the South has the right to borrow foreign money from a consortium of countries or countries alone. Without the signature of the representative of the revolutionary government of the South, all Huayang debts after January 1, 19c9 A.D. will be null and void! As for the loan signing representatives of the Southern Revolutionary Government, the Republican Army first nominated two, one is Zhao Zhenhua, the commander-in-chief of the Republican Army, and the other is Tao Huanqing, the leader of the Restoration Society. ”

The staff officer hurriedly wrote down the content of the telegram, and while he was at this time, Tian Jinfu handed another telegram to Zhao Bei.

Tian Jinfu said: "Tang Hualong and they have arrived in Shanghai, please ask the commander-in-chief, what to do next?" ”

Zhao Bei glanced at the transcript of the telegram and said, "Call back, just four words: act cheaply." Tang Hualong is a smart person, and he should know how to do it himself. In addition, he negotiated in Shanghai, not only to talk about the republic, but also about the constitution, a modern country, the constitution is the foundation of the country, the source of the law, now first set up the framework of the constitution, listen to the opinions of all parties, and after the national system is established, the first thing is to formulate the constitution. ”