"Oh? I would like to hear about it. ”

Although he was wronged by a young man who was younger than his grandson, Bi Ziyan was not annoyed by the confrontation at all, but showed an expression full of interest.

"A very simple truth: whoever serves the bowl will be served. You said that a county in Daming only needs to be responsible for the fortune of four chief officials, but we all know that only four chief officials will definitely not be able to control a county seat. They must be assisted by a large number of assistants. And these people can't stick their mouths together, and they must have to have an income, and that income must be high enough to be worthy of the power in their hands - so who will pay for it? If it is a county official, then those subordinates are only responsible to the county official himself; If it is a large local household, then they will become lackeys raised by the large household -- whoever gives the money will listen to whom, and it is only right. ”

Guo Yi said that he probably forgot where he was for a while, and even took out the strength to give training classes to students in night school on weekdays, and said sonorously:

"What is the government? The government is a tool that embodies the will of the ruling class! We control those three places, so the local administrators have to carry out our will - but only if we can guarantee their income. If you don't feed the sheepdogs, you can't blame them for stealing the sheep. If you want the horses to run and the horses don't eat grass, there is only Zhu ...... Capable of doing it. ”

Guo Yi was about to taunt Zhu Yuanzhang - it became a habit. Usually, when they talked about the policies of the Ming Dynasty, nine times out of ten they ended up mocking the beggar emperor. However, at the last moment, he finally remembered that this was not a night school on Hainan Island to teach his own students, so he stopped the car - the advantage of saying these words in his own class was that it could gradually and subtly dispel the awe of those peasant students for imperial power. But on the side of the Jingshi of the Ming Empire, in front of a group of top bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty, Guo Yi was not as "bold" as he was to dismiss the table.

In fact, several officials on the other side had already understood, but they all made a posture that they hadn't heard anything. didn't even blink his eyes, and completely ignored Guo Yi's speech.

Bi Ziyan was still smiling, and then Guo Yi said in the previous sentence:

"So, have you raised all the officials and the white servants? But aren't you afraid of repeating the mistake of redundant officials and redundant expenses in the former Song Dynasty? ”

"Redundant officials?" Guo Yi smiled, "If you don't work, just take money, that's called redundant officials, but Old Man Bi, you yourself are also a dignified scholar." You should have a good idea of how many people you need for administrative work. Not to mention anything else, the financial department under the jurisdiction of our Qiong Navy alone has a scale of several hundred, otherwise how could it cope with so many expenditure items? ”

"Hundreds?"

Guo Yi said this, but he saw that the faces of several Shangshu adults on the other side became very strange. After a while, he still groaned in a deep voice:

"The old man's household department is in charge of the world's finances. Daming two capitals and thirteen provinces, one hundred and forty prefectures, one hundred and ninety-three prefectures. 1,138 counties...... All taxes are paid in various places, income is calculated, officials are paid, food and salary are distributed, and all affairs are gathered in Si. However, there are only seventy-four officials in the ministry and one hundred and sixty-five subordinate officials, which adds up to a total of not more than two hundred and four! ”

is worthy of being the person in charge of the money bag of the Ming court, Bi Ziyan opened his mouth. The numbers are all accurate to the single digit, which is very different from the usual speaking habits of Ming bureaucrats. And when his string of data came out, it also stunned a group of people - on the other side, Lin Hanlong, Guo Yi, and Chen Tao were all stupid:

"What?"

"The financial core of the Ming Empire only has a total of two hundred and thirty-nine employees? You're not kidding, man, are you? ”

Facing skepticism. Bi Ziyan looked at the successor sitting next to him:

"At least there were only so many people when the old man was in power, unless Yang Shangshu added or subtracted something later?"

"No, no!" Yang Yihe next to him hurriedly waved his hand, "The lower official has not been in office for a long time, and everything is Xiao Cao Gui, just wait for the old gentleman to return to office." How dare you move indiscriminately. ”

-- Bi Ziyan has no official position at this time, and strictly speaking, he can be regarded as a prisoner. But everyone here knows that since he has been allowed to participate in this negotiation, the next step will definitely be to reinstate the official, and maybe he can still be mixed up in the cabinet like Lao Qian. So Yang Yihe's posture was very low in front of him. Of course, there is another reason: Yang Yihe has seen the financial burden that Bi Ziyan faced before, and he thinks he can't take it. I also really admire the business ability of my predecessor.

So Bi Ziyan nodded:

"That's just that many people."

Guo Yi was stunned for a long time, and then smiled bitterly:

"Then Bi Shangshu, can your work still be carried out? It's just such a small number of people, and you can't even build a shelf. ”

"How so? In addition to being in charge of the affairs of their own provinces, the Qing officials of the thirteen provinces will each share a part of the Yamen's food and salary. For example, the Qin Tianjian where this Chen Xiaoqi'er is located, and the Yulu is distributed by the Shaanxi Qing Officials Division. ”

Bi Ziyan casually pointed at Chen Tao, but when he saw him stunned, he couldn't help laughing:

"You probably never got it, did you?"

Seeing that Chen Tao actually nodded seriously, Bi Ziyan couldn't help but smile bitterly:

"Sure enough, there is no shortage of money, but this dynasty is very meager, and some capable officials will not expect it to live. has been a rich and noble official all his life, but he doesn't know that there are many people at the head of the household, and you are not alone. ”

Sighing softly, Bi Ziyan continued:

"In addition to the left and right waiters, they often have to take people to run outside and urge the payment of taxes in various places, which is relatively hard. The chief of those Langzhong of the Qing Officials Division is to be busy on the day of distributing the food and salary every month, and there are also places where there are taxes, silver, grain, and rice to send to Beijing, and they will be busy when they are checked and put into storage, and they are usually quite idle. Of course, if there are additional large expenditures such as river control, disaster relief, military affairs, and mausoleum construction, it is necessary to allocate materials from various warehouses and recheck the accounts, which will be more tiring. When there is a shortage of manpower, you can go to Guozijian and find some Tai students to help - but there are not many such times after all. ”

Guo Yi listened patiently, and waited until Bi Ziyan stopped his mouth for a long time before he woke up and asked:

"That's it?"

"yes, it's gone."

Old man Bi looked at him with a smile:

"What else does Guo Xiaoyou think should be?"

"What you just said is nothing more than daily expenses and statistics, which can be handled by an accountant and a cashier. The most important tasks of the financial department are: assisting in the preparation of government budgets, controlling the final accounts of projects, and reviewing major investment projects...... You didn't even mention any of that. ”

At this moment, the officials on the other side were stunned:

“…… What is the final budget? Investment review? ”

Guo Yi rubbed his forehead, and once again felt like facing those peasant students in night school. After thinking about the wording, he took out the attitude he had taken in class and said:

"Let's take a practical example to illustrate: for example, some time ago, someone suggested building a highway from Qiongzhou to Lingao. Then the first thing is to ask the engineering department to make a construction plan and come up with an upfront estimate: that is, how much money is expected to cost the entire project. Then we take it to our finance department to make a declaration: one is to determine if it needs to spend so much money. The second is to see if we can come up with the money, and if not, whether we can raise it by other means -- the final decision is to borrow money from a trading company. After the amount and source of the money were determined, they took the information to the committee for discussion - as you have probably heard, it is the decision-making body of our Qiong Navy. ”

Several high-ranking officials of the Ming Dynasty on the opposite side bowed slightly, and the expressions on their faces were quite serious, obviously realizing that what Guo Yi said was extremely important. Lin Hanlong also frowned here, but did not stop Guo Yi's speech, and the latter also continued:

"At the committee, everyone analyzed the pros and cons from various aspects, decided whether the road should be built, and finally the discussion was passed, and the project was officially established. The Ministry of Finance allocates the upfront costs to the engineering department, and they entrust the construction unit to undertake the construction...... The road is divided into sections and repairs, and after each section is repaired, the Ministry of Finance will pay the balance in accordance with the agreement after the engineering department has passed the acceptance. After the completion of the entire project, the Ministry of Finance also has to carry out the overall project final accounts and calculate the final expenditure. If the final amount of expenditure exceeds the original estimate, the reasons for this should be found and reported to the Committee...... And this is just one of the many projects that our Treasury Department oversees. ”

"Others, such as sending troops to Shandong or Liaodong, absorbing refugees from the mainland, and building resettlement villages in various places...... For many projects, only when the financial department declares the various places, and the projects that need to be spent are statistically integrated, combined with the annual planned income, the committee, as a decision-making body, can know where the money needs to be used, and where the money can come from. Then they can try to balance their payments based on the priorities of the project and our overall income – that's the government budget, usually in a year-round setting. ”

Although Guo Yi tried his best to explain his views in plain language, there were still too many new terms mixed in his words, and it was obvious that the Ming bureaucrats on the other side had a hard time listening to them. But they didn't mean to interrupt or ask, but one by one they frowned, listening intently, lest they miss a little. Among them, Bi Ziyan even took out a pen and paper to keep recording, not caring about losing face at all.

"On the other hand, the finance department also needs to keep a record of all the revenues and expenses of the previous year to see if they are in line with the previous budget. Whether there is a surplus or a surplus, if it is not balanced, at least let the decision-makers understand where the money is being spent and how to make up for it...... That's where the final accounts come in. (To be continued.) )