Hong Inji's appearance was just a small episode, and when everyone's sense of surprise and inner flame gradually disappeared, this person seemed irrelevant. Then began the first annual national planning and budget conference of the Kingdom of Heaven under the rule of King Xi.

In fact, all dynasties and dynasties also have the annual budget formulated by the government, in history, from the Zhou Dynasty's "Nine Fu Nine Style", to the 34th year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty, the Qing government promulgated the "Cleaning Up Financial Regulations" and began to prepare the national budget, that is, the Chinese feudal dynasty for the first time will prepare the country's annual financial revenue and expenditure plan called the preparation of the budget. Xiao Yungui had worked in his father's company before the crossing, and he knew the importance of preparing annual plans and budgets, so Su Fu Province promulgated the "Su Fu Provincial Financial Budget Regulations" and the "Su Fu Provincial Military and Political Annual Governance Outline Regulations" very early, which clearly stipulated that at the end of each year or the beginning of the year, all ministries, departments, counties, counties and other levels of government must prepare their own annual budgets and annual administrative plans or military plans.

After Xu Naizhao took over the household department, it coincided with the entry of the Western King into Tianjing, and Jiangxi, southern Anhui and other places were still in the process of taking over, appointing officials, counting household registration, measuring land, and other trivial matters, so this year's conference was delayed until before the beginning of spring. The king of the west wanted the original subordinates of Tianjing to adapt to the rhythm and rules of the west hall as soon as possible, and it turned out that Tianjing had prepared a similar budget in the era of the king of the east, but the budget was more extensive, that is, the officials, generals, soldiers and military dependents needed to calculate, plus the use of the princes to build mansions was the main expenditure of a country. As for the income of a country, it is only counting the money and grain handed over by various places.

This kind of old budget does not take into account the budget for people's livelihood, industry and commerce, education, medical care, science and technology, transportation, and so on. In other words, there were no plans or regulations for the systematic development of people's livelihood, industry and commerce, education, medical care, science and technology, transportation, etc., and the few local constructions only relied on the improvisation of local officials. For example, when Shi Dakai went west, he built some civil affairs facilities in Jiangxi and Hubei to benefit the people. But it's just a passing preference.

Xiao Yungui was eager to squeeze out the wisdom of the officials, let them think about the future development of their own departments and counties, and systematically consider the development of people's livelihood, industry and commerce, education, medical care, science and technology, transportation, and so on under the rule of one country. Every year, there is a meticulous development and governance plan, which is accompanied by the budget of money and grain that needs to be invested, so that the money and grain of fiscal revenue can be used to the fullest.

This year is different from the past, and the King of the West has entered Tianjing. It is the plan and budget that represents almost the entire Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in this year's administration, military plan and annual budget, rather than just the words of one family in Sufu Province and Xidian as in the past.

After Xu Naizhao finished reading the long and dull figures, many of Tianjing's old subordinates were a little overwhelmed. Fortunately, King Xi let everyone sit and listen at the beginning, and everyone was assigned the corresponding official documents, otherwise many people are afraid that they will not be able to remember Xu Naizhao's words.

In general, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom now occupies Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, half of Jiangxi, one-third of Anhui, one part of Hubei, and a small part of Hunan. Because the Taiping army occupied all the densely populated areas south of the Yangtze River. With a total population of more than 110 million, the army has reached more than one million soldiers and horses in the East Palace, the North Palace, and the Wing Palace, more than 3 million township soldiers and police forces, and more than 80,000 officials of all sizes in Tianjing.

The annual income of the entire Taiping Heavenly Kingdom this year, Xu Naizhao and other household officials unanimously agreed that it should be above 50 million taels, compared with the Manchu Qing Dynasty's annual income of 60 million taels, which is already an incredible number, how much space did the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom occupy? Of the 50 million taels of income from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, two-thirds came from the contribution of Sufu Province and Fujian Province. These two places have treaty ports and relatively mature industrial and commercial systems. The natural income is higher than that of Jiangxi and other inland areas.

However, Xiao Yungui is not satisfied with this revenue budget, he still thinks Xu Naizhao and their estimates are too conservative, with the opening of the Yangtze River waterway, this year the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom must greatly encourage the development of industry and commerce in Jiangxi, Anhui and other places, and the commercial profits brought by the Yangtze River golden waterway will not only be more than 10 million taels. Moreover, Jiangxi, Anhui and other places are the land of fish and rice, and with the expansion of the territory, the copper, iron, gold and other minerals owned under the rule have also greatly increased, especially the copper mines in Dexing, Jiangxi are very much. Xiao Yungui believes that if these places can make full use of these resources, their income will be very considerable, although it will not reach the income level of Sufu Province and Fujian Province all at once, but it will not even be half of it.

And the idea put forward by Xu Naizhao and others is also reasonable, this year's newly occupied land is mainly to maintain stability and invest in development, it is impossible to earn so much at once, and the western part of Jiangxi is still under the control of the Qing Demon Jiang Zhongyuan, there is a possibility of war at any time, the situation in Jiangxi is not too stable, and it is conservatively estimated that there is only so much income.

Xiao Yungui temporarily agreed with the statement of the household department, but when he went on to talk about the expenditure, Xiao Yungui went violent. The expenditure of the entire Taiping Heavenly Kingdom this year actually reached an astonishing eighty million taels, and when he heard this total, Xiao Yungui's thick voice almost lifted the tile roof of the Golden Dragon Palace.

The old courtiers of the West Hall are used to it, this kind of dispute over military and political affairs is a common thing, and the old subordinates of the East Hall and the North Hall are a little trembling.

But I didn't expect Xu Naizhao, the Qing court to demote an official, was not afraid, and slowly explained the detailed expenditures, and after listening to them, everyone suddenly realized that the biggest expenditure was still in military spending, and the entire military expenditure would cost more than 50 million taels, accounting for almost two-thirds of the annual expenditure budget.

This year, the Ministry of War plans to reorganize 500,000 soldiers and horses in the east hall and the north hall, counting the original more than 100,000 soldiers and horses in the west hall, plus millions of township soldiers and police forces, these money can be regarded as saved, and in the plan of the general staff, there are still two major battles to be fought this year, one is to go south to Guangzhou, and the other is to launch a western expedition to fight against the Qing demons in Hubei and Hunan. As the saying goes, when the cannon goes off, the gold is ten thousand taels, so it is calculated. Xu Naizhao and others from the household department held the door to help Xiao Yungui calculate the 50 million taels of military expenses, which is really very economical.

Seeing the West King walking around on the jade steps with a black face, and the officials of the East Hall and the North Hall sitting below did not dare to come out, Zuo Zongtang said with a smile: "His Royal Highness the West King." Since there is a deficit in the budget, it is necessary to think of ways to smooth it out, either by increasing revenues or by cutting the budget. ”

Xu Naizhao also said: "If the Ministry of War can reduce the number of reorganized soldiers this year, such as to 300,000, and only launch the Liangguang Campaign alone, I believe that the military expenditure can be reduced to 30 million taels." ”

The voice fell. Li Kaifang, General Li Xiucheng and others of the Ministry of War quit, and they all stood up and said, "Liangguang must be won within this year." Hubei and Hunan must send troops at the same time, otherwise the Qing demons of Hunan and Yungui may reinforce Liangguang, causing an unfavorable situation. "The West Hall originally had a new army of 180,000, and now we have to deal with the Qing demons in several directions. And the territory has more than tripled. How can such a small number of troops maintain the pressure on the Qing Demon on all fronts? The reorganization of 500,000 soldiers and horses is already a small number, you see, after the two major battles this year, 500,000 soldiers will definitely not be enough, and the more than 200,000 people in the reserve force will still have to be pulled up! ”

Xu Naizhao's subordinate servants also stopped doing it, and Lu Xianba was the first to jump out and said: "500,000 new troops are enough for the Northern Expedition, can there be so many soldiers and horses in the direction of the Qing Demon?" Your military department and staff department always want to blossom in all directions, but you also have to think about whether our current money and food can support the war! "Not bad. Hubei has a winged king in town, are you still afraid that the Qing Demon Hunan Army will come to the aid of Guangdong Province? Qing Demon Ye Mingchen was about to be driven crazy by the British and French fleets in Guangzhou. Why don't you think about joining forces with Britain and France and directly landing in Guangzhou to fight? This will at least reduce the cost of money and food! ”

The Golden Dragon Hall was arguing like this, the old courtiers of the various divisions of the West Hall were arguing hotly, and the East Palace, the North Hall and others were dumbfounded, and there was such a discussion? It turns out that it is all the East King who comes to decide the matter, and it is rare to have such a scene like scolding the group.

Zuo Zongtang frowned and listened for a while, and found that these people only considered the budget between cutting and not cutting, and they really didn't have any creativity, and they couldn't listen to it anymore, so he shouted: "Okay!" Nothing will work after talking for a long time! Cut, don't you have any other ideas? ”

After Xu Naizhao argued, his face turned red, and after taking a few breaths of tea, he stood up and said: "His Royal Highness the King of the West, Zuo Xiang, and the subordinates have also considered the method of open source, but as the appropriate talent said, Jiangxi, Anhui and other places of industry and commerce have just begun to recover this year, and they will definitely not be able to dig out more money and grain, if it comes next year, it may be much better, but this year it is impossible to have a large amount of money and grain taxes into the treasury, Jiangxi and Anhui also have many civil affairs to invest, especially the township school, primary school and other educational places, Jiangxi, Anhui and other places can be described as poor and white, should we cut these inputs? ”

Xiao Yungui stood up and waved his hand: "None of the funds for education and scientific research are allowed to be moved!" Think about other open source methods! Xu Naizhao, this king is for you to find a way to get silver, not for you to buckle this and that! ”

Xu Naizhao also lost his temper, for the sake of this budget, he hadn't slept for a few nights, so he could be able to cut it to this extent, if King Xi saw that the first draft was a deficit of 60 million taels, he was afraid that he would immediately flip the table. At that moment, Xu Naizhao snorted and said: "My job is dull, and I can't think of a better way." ”

Xiao Yungui also knew Xu Naizhao's dilemma, last year when he entered Tianjing and took over Jiangxi, the West Hall spent a lot of money, and now it is indeed very difficult to reorganize and arm 500,000 soldiers and horses, but the West Hall has begun to fight in pure firearms troops, and Xiao Yungui does not want to return to the mode of mixing hot and cold weapons, so that the previous reorganization is meaningless.

Hong Yun'er, who had not spoken on the side, suddenly stood up and asked the people in the East Hall, the North Hall and others, "I only listened to the people in the West Hall just now, why are the princes so silent?" There's a good way not to bother to come up with some advice. ”

"The subordinates came from Shanghai, and saw that the people in Sufu and other places were rich and prosperous, and there were many large families, and these people were rich and ...... food" It was Hong Renji who spoke, and when he said this, the people in the palace thought, does this Hong Renji want to let the king of the west re-engage in these big households? Forcibly confiscating their property?

Xiao Yungui frowned when he heard this, if he went to eat big again, the sprout of capitalism that he had worked so hard to build would be truly abolished, this Hong Renji should not talk nonsense.

But he didn't want Hong Renji to continue: "The wealth of the people is beyond our imagination, in this case, why don't we follow the example of Western countries, run banks, issue treasury bonds, collect private capital, and do major things for the country?" Before the words fell, the hall was silent. (To be continued......)