The state banquet held by the Chinese Empire in order to promote the national bonds was quite successful, and a total of more than 10 million yuan of treasury bonds were sold, which also means that the Ministry of Finance's fiscal revenue this year has increased by 10 million, which is enough to effectively alleviate the current financial predicament of the Chinese Empire.

As soon as the money arrived, the military and cabinet ministries frequently went in and out of the Ministry of Finance, and some people even went directly to Qi Xuanhao's private house in order to get funds from the Ministry of Finance.

There are also some people who go to the upper echelons, such as going directly to the emperor Lin Zhe to complain, and whenever this time, Lin Zhe will always say that he agrees, and he will definitely urge the Ministry of Finance to allocate funds as soon as possible, but in fact, Lin Zhe often approves the reports of these requests for money with the same instructions, that is: transfer them to the Ministry of Finance for reading.

And these words often mean that the decision is handed over to the Ministry of Finance, and the financial easing can be allocated, and the financial tightness is a relief.

Very few people can get instructions such as 'the Ministry of Finance', because only this kind of instructions that are clearly handled by the Ministry of Finance can make Qi Xuanhao relax and squeeze out a part of the tight finances.

So in the end, they still have to find Qi Xuanhao!

However, although Qi Xuanhao has often been impeached by his colleagues since he became the Minister of Finance, and even once asked the Inspectorate to investigate Qi Xuanhao, he can continue to do this position steadily, naturally because of his means.

What are his means?

On the one hand, it was to open source the backward tax system of the Manchu era, and establish a new and efficient tax collection system, which is now spread throughout every local independent financial department, such as the county-level financial department, the prefecture-level financial department, and the prefecture-level financial department. Provincial finance offices, although these departments are ostensibly subordinate to local government and county agencies. However, they are under the direct leadership of the Ministry of Finance, and the chief officials of the local prefectures and counties have no authority to dictate the operation of the financial system. For local governments and counties, as long as they can get a fixed share of tax distribution from the local finance department every year, then they are too lazy to care about how the people in the finance department collect taxes and how much taxes they collect.

In addition, the General Department of Customs is also under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance, and the General Department of Customs, which adopts all-Western management and employs a large number of foreigners, has become the most efficient and honest administrative agency in contemporary China.

And these are the achievements of the Ministry of Finance, and the achievements of the Ministry of Finance are also the achievements of his Qi Xuanhao.

In addition to his inherent political achievements, Qi Xuanhao was able to win Lin Zhe's trust and keep many of the secret folds of impeachment against him. The rejection of the Ministry of Justice's proposal to open a case for investigation against a number of senior officials of the Ministry of Finance is related to another of Qi Xuanhao's skills.

What is this ability?

Two words: Knock on the door!

This person dared to deduct the living expenses of those international students in the Ministry of Education, and other departments were basically able to deduct them, and half of the year had passed in 1858, and many departments had not even been able to get half of the office funds.

Of course, this slamming of the door was also forced, and it was acquiesced by Lin Zhe, or even secretly instructed, because the military budget was too tight during the war now. Before the summer tax and autumn tax were not collected, they could only rely on commercial taxes, and then serve other sporadic income, which was not enough.

The light is the first half of the year. Military spending has already accumulated about 40 million yuan, and almost all of the fiscal revenue in the first half of the year and part of last year's savings have been squeezed out.

Qi Xuanhao, who has no money in hand, naturally can't pay too much money to other departments, so he can deduct it!

It is precisely because of Qi Xuanhao's large-scale withholding of office funds from other departments. This led to the impeachment of many officials.

For a regime, especially one that is nascent and still at war. That's not enough money to spend, and 50 million fiscal revenue is not enough. The fiscal revenue of 100 million yuan is not enough, but how to maintain the stable operation of the regime when it is not enough no matter what, and the continuous tension of the war will test Qi Xuanhao's financial management ability very much.

It is necessary to tear down the east wall and replace the west wall, as is to withhold funds under various pretexts.

And although Qi Xuanhao is not a financial manager in general, let alone an economist or anything like that, he can finally make the empire's finances barely maintain and not completely bankrupt.

And this is enough to show his ability and let Lin Zhe continue to reuse him.

In the face of the major departments coming to the door one after another to ask for money, Qi Xuanhao did not give money indiscriminately because he had more than 10 million yuan of treasury bond income in his hand, and continued to deduct what should be deducted, and gave a little bit of what he really couldn't shirk, such as Jiang Daoquan's old guy, but he was waiting for the funds to arrive, otherwise the Ministry of Education would have no money to pay salaries to teachers in national schools, and there would be no way to mail living expenses to those publicly-funded international students studying abroad.

So Qi Xuanhao is not good not to give at all, first gave 300,000 yuan meaning, as for when the remaining funds of the Ministry of Education can be given, it depends on the subsequent development of the situation, well, especially the development of the war between the Chinese Empire and the coalition forces, if it does not go well, it is estimated that it may not be able to give it when the autumn tax is collected, if it goes well, the military pressure is reduced, and the corresponding military expenditure is reduced, then the lack of funds of the Ministry of Education in the first half of the year can be made up for the summer tax.

Other departments, such as the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, are also given a little bit, so that the state employees of these departments can get salaries to support their families, especially those front-line state employees such as grassroots clerks and patrol police, these people are not as short of money as those middle and upper-level officials, and people are all counting on monthly salaries to support their families, if they are not paid, they will not be paid in this day.

On the contrary, the salaries of middle- and upper-level officials can be slowed down, because the Chinese Empire implemented a high-salary pension system, and the overall income of officials was similar to that of officials in the Manchu era, but all kinds of bad rules and fire consumption of officials in the Manchu era were abolished and directly included in the salary.

The salaries of the officials of many departments in Nanjing and some directly subordinate agencies, such as the General Department of Customs, are relatively fixed, and the annual salary of the top senior officials at the level of ministers is about 10,000 yuan, while the ordinary staff members in each department. His annual salary is about 1,000 yuan.

However, in the case of local officials, the level of salary has a great deal to do with the affluence of the local government in which they work. This is because in addition to the fixed salaries paid directly by the state treasury, the salaries of local officials are also subsidized and benefits issued by the local government. For example, the annual salary of Xue Huan, the governor of Jiangsu, is as high as 15,000 yuan, but the annual salary of Chen Xiangmeng, the governor of Fujian, will be much lower, only about 10,000 yuan.

The same is true for ordinary clerks, the average clerks in the Shanghai Business Zone may have an annual salary of more than 1,000 yuan, but the average clerks in poor places in Fujian, such as Yanping, Tingzhou and other places, have a salary of a few hundred yuan a year.

The reason for such a gap is actually related to the local affluence and price level. Ordinary clerks in poor places such as Tingzhou get a salary of five or six hundred yuan a year, and they can live a well-off life, but in the business area, where housing prices and prices are extremely expensive, it is difficult to live a more comfortable life without a salary of thousands of yuan this year.

The salaries and salaries of government departments account for the majority of government expenditures.

It is worth mentioning that although the Chinese Empire now adopts a state employee system, not a civil servant or an official, there are many kinds of state employees, such as patrol police, guards, cleaners, and even horsemen. And the salary level of these people is actually quite low, for example, the largest number of patrol officers, their salary level is according to the salary standard of soldiers, and then the standard is lowered.

However, they are also a group of state employees above the level of clerks. It can be regarded as an official in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the number is small, and their salary level is far higher than that of low-level state employees such as patrol officers. The gap is five, tenfold upward.

The salary of the group above the staff is high, but the number is also small. An ordinary county has only twenty or thirty state employees above the rank of clerk, and some counties have even fewer employees. There are only a dozen, and if you look at these staff by the standards of the Ming and Qing dynasties, they are actually a group of officials and above.

It is estimated that the salary costs of national employees would be even higher if it were not for the limited overall number of national employees above the staff level.

Now the financial situation is tight, Qi Xuanhao does not give funds to various departments, and it will be difficult for various departments to pay salaries, so they will withhold them, and based on the higher salaries of personnel above the level of section members, and at the same time, these people also have greater economic affordability, well, more importantly, these section members are basically officials, and they have to consider the political future, so when the top suspends the payment of their salaries, the endurance will be better.

It won't say that if you don't pay your salary for two or three months, you won't be able to live, and you're going to make trouble.

As for those patrol policemen, watchmen and other low-level state employees, even if the financial constraints are still barely maintained, sometimes the central government has no money to pull it out, and the local governments are showing their own powers, and it is not possible to engage in exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes on their own as in the pre-Qing era, nor can they directly engage in apportionment.

But there are other ways, for example, in order to fill the financial gap in Shanghai County (excluding the business district), the so-called county expansion plan was put forward with a stroke of a pen, and part of the land from the business area to the original southern suburbs was included in the so-called new city plan, and then the matter of buying land was started.

Although some of the funds obtained through the purchase of land have to be handed over to the state treasury, a large part of them can still be retained.

Another example is to raise donations from wealthy businessmen in the name of building bridges and roads, and then deduct a part of it to pay the salaries of state employees, and so on.

There are even some local governments and counties that have learned from the Ministry of Finance and directly issued local government bonds!

For example, when Jiaxing County issued local government bonds, it was stopped by the Ministry of Finance, saying that the bonds can only be issued by the Ministry of Finance, and the local government cannot issue them, but people say: do not allow the issuance of local bonds, and you will not give the local government taxes that belong to the local government expenses in the tax, so it is difficult to let hundreds of state employees in the county drink the northwest wind, or can Jiaxing County Yamen dig out gold mines!

For these things, Lin Zhe is also powerless, he also wants the horse to run and not give it grass, but in reality it doesn't work, the central government withholds the funds and doesn't give them, and invests them in military spending, is it difficult to let the local government and county find a way to make up money by themselves!

For these, Lin Zhe could only say to himself, special for a specific period, and if there are any problems, I will talk about it later. (To be continued......)