Shen Wanqing asked, "Where do we get the silver?" ”

Lin Yuan said: "I plan to start from the Qing court and use their silver!" ”

Shen Wanqing said: "You are snatching meat from the wolf's mouth, they will not agree." ”

Lin Yuan smiled: "What do you think are included in the money that a country spends in a year?" ”

Shen Wanqing smiled: "How can I know this!" ”

Lin Yuan said: "Okay, let's put it simply, how much do you think the proportion of military spending should be accounted for?" ”

Shen Wanqing shook her head and said, "I don't know the specific number, but I don't think it will take too much." ”

Lin Yuan nodded and said, "That's right, in our era, military spending accounts for no more than five percent of the country's fiscal expenditure, and in this era, do you know how much it is?" Fifty-five percent! ”

Shen Wanqing exclaimed: "How can it be so many! ”

Lin Yuan said: "The Qing court originally had two kinds of armed forces, the Eight Banners and the Green Battalion, and these forces were all taken from the state, especially the Eight Banners, these people had no combat effectiveness at all, and they were completely retained by the high-level for the defense of the Manchu and Han Dynasties. ”

"After the Taiping Rebellion, the Green Battalion and the Eight Banners had no combat effectiveness at all, so militia groups were set up in various places to practice bravery, such as Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army and Li Hongzhang's Huai Army, these people were the main force fighting against the Taiping Army, and they also had to take money from the state, and the money they took every year was as high as 20 million taels of silver, and the annual financial expenditure of the Qing court in this era was only more than 80 million taels."

Shen Wanqing asked, "Do you want the Qing court to stop issuing this silver?" ”

Lin Yuan shook his head and smiled: "How is it possible? There are too many vested interests involved in this silver, let's not touch them for the time being, I am eyeing another amount of silver, which accounts for about 10% of the Qing court's annual financial expenditure, and it is the royal fee. ”

Lin Yuan continued: "The people in the palace, food, clothing, and supplies are provided by special institutions, to take the most common example, they live in the Forbidden City, but they don't drink the water inside, and the water they drink is all transported from Yuquan Mountain in western Beijing; The meat they eat is specially raised by the Keihoji of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. ”

"They spent a lot of silver when they were alive, and they spent more silver when they died, and the first thing every emperor did when he ascended the throne was to build a mausoleum for himself, and he also had to find a large number of burial goods, such as Cixi's Dingdong Mausoleum, which cost more than five million taels of silver just to repair the mausoleum."

"As for the funeral goods, there are more, such as the phoenix crown that Cixi wore when she was buried, which was inlaid with pearls, the largest one was bigger than an egg, worth more than 10 million taels of silver, and she had to put all kinds of treasures around her, these are nothing, and when all kinds of treasures are finished, you have to put in pearls and gemstones, fill the gaps in the coffin, and put four liters of pearls alone!"

"See, the pearl is put in it, compared to them, the most rich tyrants in our era are just a group of poor eggs!"

Wait until the next day, Lin Yuan went to find Cixi, came to the palace to ask, only to know that Cixi was watching a play at this time, Lin Yuan said that he had something important to see Cixi, and asked the little eunuch to report, the little eunuch put a good snack on Lin Yuan, and asked Lin Yuan to wait for a while.

After a while, another minister walked in, Lin Yuan saw from his official uniform that he was just a third-grade petty official, for ordinary people in this era, it was already very good to be able to mix with a third-grade official, but Lin Yuan didn't care about him, because if you want to talk about grade, he is a dignified first-grade official.

At the same time that Lin Yuan saw the minister, the minister also saw Lin Yuan, he took a few steps and knelt in front of Lin Yuan, and said with a smile: "Xia Guan went out today to look at the yellow calendar, it said that today is suitable for travel, and I didn't meet any good things along the way, I still wondered, why is this yellow calendar inaccurate, I didn't expect to meet Lord Lin here, it seems that this yellow calendar is really accurate." ”

Lin Yuan thought to himself: "This minister is really good at talking. So he asked, "May I ask who you are?" ”

The minister said: "Under is the Minister of Tanglin Mausoleum, surnamed Qian, with a single name of the word 'Su'. ”

Lin Yuan nodded and said, "Hello, are you here for something?" ”

Qian Su said: "Tanglin is Tongzhi six years when the construction of the good Lu, has been more than 20 years, these years the sky has rained heavily, so there is a lot of damage everywhere in Tanglin, I came this time is to give Lafayette a fold, please Lafayette to rebuild Tangling." ”

Lin Yuan thought to himself: "Originally, it cost nearly five million taels of silver to repair Tanglin, and now it has to be rebuilt, how good is this money spent on national construction!" So Lin Yuan didn't answer.

Qian Su said: "Lord Lin, the lower officials have long heard that you are a national scholar, so I want to be closer to you, but the official is lowly and small, I dare not do this, and I heard that you don't like to receive gifts, and I don't know what to give. ”

Lin Yuan asked curiously, "Can it also be used as a gift?" ”

Qian Su said: "My lord, do you know, do you know who is going to be buried in this Dongling?" ”

Lin Yuan said: "Isn't it the Empress Dowager Cixi? ”

Qian Su said: "Not only the Empress Dowager Cixi, but also the Empress Dowager Ci'an, it turns out that the specifications of the mausoleums of the two people are the same, but Lafayette is unwilling, he has long thought about rebuilding his mausoleum, and he has to press Ci'an after his death, but there is no chance, just wait for now." ”

"So if the lower official hands over this fold, Lafayette will definitely be happy, in that case, won't the official road ahead be much smoother? Therefore, the lower official will give you this excerpt, and you can talk about it. ”

Lin Yuan's heart moved, nodded and said, "Okay, I agreed, so let's do it, it's up to you to say the twists and turns, and I'll support you on the side." ”

Qian Su couldn't help but smile when he saw that Lin Yuan not only didn't want his play, but also supported him on the side, and then the little eunuch came in and said, "Lafayette passed on the two adults." ”

The two came to the inner hall, Cixi knew Qian Su, so she said, "Qian Aiqing is also here?" That's right, let's move two chairs. ”

When Qian Su heard this, he hurriedly knelt on the ground and said with a smile: "No need, no need, in front of Lafayette, the slave is comfortable even if he kneels!" In the Qing Dynasty, Han Chinese officials usually referred to themselves as "ministers" in front of the emperor, while Manchu officials usually referred to themselves as "slaves" to show their loyalty.

Cixi was amused and asked, "What's the matter with you?" ”

Qian Su said: "The slaves were guarding the mausoleum in Tanglin and found that Tanglin was damaged in many places, and hoped that Lafayette would give an order to rebuild it." ”

When Cixi heard this, she immediately smiled and said, "Okay, great! I wonder how much silver it will cost to rebuild the road? ”

Qian Su smiled: "Of course, the more the better, let's pay two million taels of silver first, and if it's not enough, add it slowly." ”

Cixi nodded slightly, and said: "Yes, the Caoyun silver from Jiangsu and Fujian provinces has recently arrived in Beijing and sent to the Hubu warehouse. ”

Qian Su hurriedly kowtowed and thanked him, thinking, "Lin Yuan didn't speak, it seems that this credit belongs to me alone." ”

Lin Yuan sat comfortably on the chair, but he was thinking in his heart: "This time the railway is repaired, it is considered to have silver!" ”