After Zhou Xuexi sat down, he didn't wait too long, Zhao Dongyun had already put down the pen in his hand, and then raised his head: "I've kept you waiting!" ”

Zhou Xuexi faced Zhao Dongyun, naturally he didn't dare to hold it up, and immediately said respectfully: "The department has just waited for a few minutes, and it won't get in the way!" ”

A few years ago, when Zhao Dongyun was only the commander of a new army in the Beiyang Standing Army, he Zhou Xuexi was already an important financial system official under Yuan Shikai, and Zhou Xuexi, who was in charge of a Beiyang government-run enterprise such as the Tianjin government-run silver number, was young a few years earlier, but his career was very early, even earlier than Zhao Dongyun's career.

And the two have had a lot of intersections in recent years, when Zhao Dongyun was preparing to set up the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, he was also cheeky to ask Zhou Xuexi to raise funds, and later Zhao Dongyun's Fuyuan Company and Zhou Xuexi raised funds to open Luanzhou Coal Mine, Tangshan Iron and Steel Plant, Tianjin Ash Factory and many other industries.

However, the two have more contact, which does not mean that Zhou Xuexi is a person under Zhao Dongyun, Zhou Xuexi is not just a financial official, he represents the internal financial system of Beiyang, and a series of government-run enterprises founded by Beiyang in the Gengzi New Year have close ties with Zhou Xuexi.

After the republic the year before last, although this person did not defect to Wang Yingkai or Zhao Dongyun, but by virtue of his special status in the Beiyang financial system, he was also firmly at the top level, and during the second cabinet, Zhao Dongyun also had to appoint him as the post of chief minister of finance.

However, Zhou Xuexi is not simple, Zhao Dongyun is more changed, if Zhao Dongyun's status is not as good as him during the Xin Chou period, then Zhao Dongyun's status after 1905 is not something he can compare, as for today's after 1908, Zhao Dongyun is the one he needs to look up to.

So when facing Zhao Dongyun today, Zhou Xuexi maintained a very necessary respect!

Zhao Dongyun is also accustomed to Zhou Xuexi's attitude, since he became the governor of the three eastern provinces, he has been among the top politicians in the country, only Zhang Zhidong, Wang Yingkai, Duan Qirui and a few other people can be compared with him, the rapid rise of power and status, outsiders, especially subordinates, are becoming more and more respectful to him day by day, and today, there are few people who dare to be angry in front of Zhao Dongyun, most of them are respectful and respectful, and they dare not be angry.

Over time, Zhao Dongyun became accustomed to the attitude of his subordinates, and became more and more accustomed to being a superior!

And Zhao Dongyun's attitude also makes his subordinates feel more and more pressured when facing him, and it is exaggerated to say that he can feel the so-called domineering spirit from Zhao Dongyun.

How did the so-called domineering spirit come about, most of them are accumulated by the superiors because of their power, strictly speaking, this is not a momentum, but an attitude: I am the best in the world!

Of course, if you are not the master of a country and the commander of the three armies, but just an ordinary person who also puts on the best attitude in the world, then it is not a bullshit but a fool!

Well, that kind of stupid momentum is the 'Wang Ba's Qi' that is only one word different from the 'Wangba's Qi'!

Zhao Dongyun and Zhou Xuexi's opening remarks did not last long, Zhou Xuexi knew that Zhao Dongyun was busy with daily affairs, and the time to meet him was fixed on the schedule, and the time before and after was only half an hour, and he had a lot of things to say, and if he was slow and slow, it would not be enough time.

So Zhou Xuexi quickly got down to business: "The preliminary table of this year's budget has been made, and I ask the president to show it!" ”

After that, Zhou Xuexi is a thick report on the ground, Zhao Dongyun took it and flipped it up, the report is quite thick, at least dozens of pages, Zhao Dongyun naturally didn't have much time to read them carefully one by one, so he looked at the summary table in front of the report, and said: "Oh, say!" ”

Zhou Xuexi, as your Minister of Finance, is naturally well aware of the various financial figures of the Soviet system, even if he does not hold the report in his hand, he can still come one by one:

"Last year, that is, in 1907, in addition to the payment of military expenditures, principal and interest on bonds, and administrative expenditures, our Ministry of Finance still had 17.6 million yuan.

In addition, 28 million yuan of principal and interest on patriotic bonds have not yet been repaid, 4.7 million yuan in arrears of 4.7 million yuan in ordnance payments to the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, and a total of 12 million yuan in arrears to 87 private enterprises, including the Fuyuan Yarn Factory, the Huludao Textile Company, the Tianjin Datong Yarn Factory, the Li Ji Grain Company, the Hongfu Commercial Bank, the Fuyuan Cigarette Factory, the Fuyuan Cement Ship, and the Northern Grain and Oil Company.

In addition, it defaulted on the principal and interest of loans totaling 6.7 million yuan to the original government offices and banks, and now the integrated Huatong Industrial Bank and the Middle East Industrial and Commercial Bank.

In addition, about $13 million was owed to civil servants in the central and northern provinces. ”

Hearing Zhou Xuexi's series of arrears, Zhao Dongyun also gasped a little in his heart, it's not that he doesn't know how difficult it is to be a family, in the eyes of outsiders, the Su family he controls is extremely strong, but only after personally reading the financial statements of the Su system will he find out how bad the actual situation of the Su family is.

Last year and now in order to fight the war, Zhao Dongyun embezzled all the money that could be embezzled, and the payment for the goods on the side of the Fuyuan Machinery Factory was never given, and it was always a drag on the side, and it was difficult for other merchants who were military suppliers to collect the payment, not to mention that the Fuyuan Cigarette Factory, which supplied cigarettes to the army, had not received a dime of payment for the past year.

The Northern Grain and Oil Company, which was jointly invested by Dingsheng Bank and Fuyuan Company's subordinate banks, Fulong Bank, Jinzhou Li Jia, and a number of capital consortia in the north, was initially established to focus on the soybean industry in the three eastern provinces, but was soon selected as the main supplier of military rations to Fengjun.

Although the Soviet finance department collected a lot of taxes in kind, the grain that the 200,000 soldiers ate was not a small amount, and although the troops fighting in the south generally adopted the mode of local procurement, the troops stationed in the northern provinces were generally procured by the ordnance department in a centralized manner, and the quartermaster department transported and supplied them in a unified manner, and some of these grains were requisitioned from the government's granaries, and some of them were purchased from those big grain merchants.

The Northern Grain and Oil Company has contracted many of these supply contracts, and the military contracts, the Northern Grain and Oil Company is naturally trying its best to supply, but it is also inevitably in arrears, and it has accumulated arrears of more than one million yuan, so that this company with rich financial resources, which was previously clamoring to build the largest grain processing enterprise in the northern provinces, was once on the verge of bankruptcy.

After 1907, the Soviet treasury was left with a deficit of more than 40 million!

As for the remaining 17.6 million yuan, it was desperately kept by the Ministry of Finance from last year's autumn tax, this money is life-saving money for the Soviet family, and it can only be used at the most critical moment, not to mention that Zhao Dongping of the military doesn't want to take out a sum of money from this money, even if he holds Zhao Dongyun's warrant, it is impossible to get the money from Xiong Xiling, as for Zhao Dongyun to ask for it in person, Xiong Xiling can't stop it, but when he turns around, he will hand Zhao Dongyun a resignation report, Thus announcing the dissolution of the second cabinet of the Republic of China!

Although in 1908, the Soviet system was still able to collect a lot of taxes from the local government, but it was far from quenching the thirst of the near water, and the most recent summer tax was half a year later.

To put it bluntly, if it weren't for the aftermath loans, according to the current situation of the Soviet finances, Zhao Dongyun would not have been able to survive even the first half of 1908!

It can also be seen from this why Zhao Dongyun is willing to pay a huge price, and does not hesitate to take out the salt administration mortgage, admitting that all the treaties of the former Qing Dynasty have to get these aftermath loans, not that he likes to betray the country, but if he doesn't borrow, he doesn't need Duan Qirui to beat him, and his Soviet Fengjun himself will collapse first because of lack of money.

And after paying a huge price, the benefits from the aftermath borrowing are also huge, and the first batch of the aftercare loans in various countries is as high as 5 million pounds, equivalent to about 50 million Chinese yuan.

Since this money is all foreign exchange on the gold standard, if it is placed in the Bank of China as a reserve, it can overissue at least hundreds of millions of Chinese yuan of paper money, but this money is far from being able to completely solve the financial difficulties of the Soviet system, because this money has not yet arrived, and the military has already planned to use this military expenditure to expand its armaments and war, and has drawn up many campaign plans for the subsequent southward crossing of the river.

There is no doubt about this money, it has only one purpose, and that is to serve as war expenses

Of course, although it is impossible for the Ministry of Finance itself to get much money from this money to fill the fiscal hole, with this money as a foundation, the military will not want to use the last bit of money of the Ministry of Finance to buy artillery shells all day long, so they can also free up their hands, such as repaying the salaries of civil servants, appropriately repaying part of the due national debt, and various arrears.

"Last year we had big gaps, and today it's going to be hard to fill them!" Zhou Xuexi also had a sad face when he spoke.

Zhao Dongyun didn't feel too much, lack of money, it's not a day or two, since he became the co-leader of the Third Mixed Association, the money available under his hands has not been relaxed, it used to be a shortage of tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands, and then it was a shortage of millions, and now, it is already a shortage of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions, as the so-called debts are not worried, when the lack of money reaches today's level, the deficit of three or forty million is nothing.

To really put it mildly, the total amount of the aftercare loans he has just signed with various countries is 27 million pounds, and the principal and interest to be repaid in the future are as high as more than 60 million pounds, which is more than 600 million yuan at the current exchange rate.

With more than 600 million arrears already on his back, a deficit of 30 million or 40 million is a fart!

So he was still able to look relaxed and said, "Oh, so what about this year's income budget, how much can it be expected?" ”

Nowadays, the Soviet Union has actually controlled and can collect taxes in very large areas, including the three eastern provinces, Chahar and other Mongolian regions, including the Tangshan Administrative Office, Shandong Province, Henan Province, northern Jiangsu, and northern Anhui. In the above-mentioned areas, it is worth paying attention to the nest of the Soviet system, Fengtian Province, which has been supporting the rapid development of the Soviet Fengjun since last year, and the Tangshan Administrative Office due to the rapid development of heavy industry, can contribute good financial revenue, and the rest of Zhili Province is slightly inferior, but Zhili Province has Tianjin and Jingshi, and it can barely be regarded as a rich province.

Shandong and Henan, which were also notoriously poor provinces in the late Qing Dynasty, did not have much hope for how much oil and water could be squeezed out in these two provinces.

The same is true in northern Anhui, Zhang Huaizhi has been entrenched in Anhui for most of the year, and has not been able to collect tens of thousands of people, which shows that the oil and water in Anhui, especially in northern Anhui, are really limited.

The situation in northern Jiangsu is better, Qingjiangpu, Yangzhou and other places are relatively wealthy, but the place has experienced many wars, and it will take a certain amount of time to restore the people's livelihood, so how much tax revenue can be contributed to the Soviet system by next year is also worth putting a big question mark.

In Shanxi and Hubei, where they are nominally loyal to the northern republican government, although Wu Fengling and Wang Shizhen are already loyal to the northern republican government, you don't expect them to pay even a dime in taxes to the central government, and they themselves are too little to support the army.

Zhao Dongyun himself is also a little worried about how much tax revenue can be collected next year for these territories controlled by the Soviet system!