Chapter XXXI discusses the budget

"Your Majesty."

Li Ruolian came over and bowed to say goodbye.

"The minister returned to Beijing overnight. Do you want these squires of the Wailing Temple to keep them and let them go to the capital?"

"It's almost time, no matter how you say it, you can rest for a night before leaving, I'm still so mean? What do you keep for those who are going to send food to the temple and cry for them? What kind of people are they, who really think I don't understand? If you say that you personally sent grain to Beijing, you have to supervise him to send grain to Beijing. Don't play the trick of sitting in a sedan chair and hiring someone to push the cart. Lao Tzu can't send it, doesn't he still have a son, and his son can't send it, and he still has a grandson. You remember." Zhu Youzhen thinks it's good to be a bad person.

"Also, other ministers are digging holes. You are not my brocade guards, you are the brocade guards of the imperial court, and you are also the brocade guards of the prime minister." Zhu Youzhen still advised, he knew Li Ruolian's character. Loyalty is a little too much.

Jingshi, Prime Minister Yamen.

It's already past midnight, but it's still noisy, and Zheng Sanjun, the right waiter of the Ministry of Rites, really doesn't care about it this time.

"In Your Majesty's inner treasury, there are no less than five million taels of silver, and now Baoding, Dagu, and Dengzhou are full of trenches. The royal fleet also sent brown rice from the south to the north for no money. I don't understand this, if the court has no money, now it is going to build a large number of buildings. If you want to say that the imperial court is rich, why should you collect the levies now?"

Bi Zisu replied directly:

"The money of the court is useful, and every penny is in the plan. What's more, the construction and expansion of the Army Academy, the construction of a port in Dagu, Tianjin, and the expansion of the Royal Navy Military Academy are all long-term military and people's livelihood related to the country.

Huang Weizheng, a waiter in the Ministry of Works, arched his hand, "What is difficult to explain that the construction is a big construction project without considering the people's livelihood? At present, there are still 60,000 or 70,000 displaced people outside the city who need the imperial court to subsidize the disaster. Wouldn't it be better to use this food for disaster relief. Besides, whether it is an official school or a port, the Ministry of Industry has budgets and plans, so why does the imperial court use private construction to undertake? There's no other purpose in this, but I really don't know."

"Regardless of people's livelihood?" Chen Zilong, the right attendant of the household next to him, smiled.

"If it weren't for the Ministry of Industry taking the initiative to remove His Majesty's Dagu Jingshi Railway construction plan, how could there be any remaining 780,000 displaced people outside the city today who have nowhere to live? These 80,000 people have to pay at least eight taels of silver per person, which is nearly 700,000 taels of silver, and how many small businesses in the capital can be supported. As you come and go, how much tax can the imperial court receive? Nowadays, everyone else is easy to say, when will your Ministry of Industry be able to talk more?"

"How is my Ministry of Works? Diligence and thrift are long-term national policies, and with such a big spend, even if the treasury has a lot of money, how can it withstand such a toss?" Huang Weizheng is not to be outdone.

"This is the way you understand economics? During the Apocalypse, your Ministry of Industry did not have a tael of silver to build roads except for the river, how much did you save for the treasury? The treasury is not still empty every year." Chen Zilong asked directly.

"You are an official in the Chongzhen period, so naturally you only say that it has been good in the past few years. How could there have been so many rights and wrongs during the Apocalypse?"

"Huang Weizheng, are you crazy? How can you say such a great rebellion!"

"Why did you lose your mind and go crazy, I think it's you Chen Zilong who is crazy. If you are not short of money, what are you doing to make up the endowment? You don't know, now the people of Jiangnan say that the imperial court is so tyrannical!"

"Why is it that the money from Jiangnan and the money from Nanzhili is wasted on the construction of the imperial court, and the construction projects are constantly increasing, why is this?" Zheng Sanjun stood up as he spoke.

"Weichen is not talented, it is recommended that the three provinces south of the Yangtze River and the south of Zhili be exempted from money and grain next year, the three major projects of the imperial court and the cost of the Academy of Sciences will be halved, and the expedition of Mobei and Hetao in Mongolia will be stopped, and the existing money and grain will be enough to support the military food needs of Liaodong. Prime Minister Tianxia Yamen should use this proposal to reject the budget of the Ministry of Military Affairs for next year. Otherwise, this prime minister's yamen would just be an ornament."

"Humph!" Bi Zisu was about to laugh angrily.

"The three provinces of Jiangnan plus the money and grain that should be levied by Nanzhili, how much does Zheng Gong know? Even if these four provinces don't levy anything, they will be able to make up for the needs of the three major projects?"

"Then in that case, you can dispense with the world's grain and silver, so as to show Your Majesty's benevolence."

Zheng Sanjun was in pain to the bones. This year, his clan alone has made up as many as 70,000 taels, which has already made his heart bleed. In addition, Sihai Qianzhuang and Sihai Grain Bank have been stationed in Ningbo Mansion, and their own family's grain stores and money banks have also been on the verge of bankruptcy. At this time, he would not consider that the five-cent interest of his family's money bank was much higher than the two-cent interest of the four seas. He just felt that if there was no 70,000 taels of supplementary payment, his family's business would be much better.

"Giving away the world's money and food will not benefit the people of the world. The levy is levied by the proprietor from the surrounding households. Waiver of money and food, does Zheng Gong think these people will return the money and grain? Gong Zheng has also been a county official, he must know the harm of inferior gentry and officials, if the court directly waives money and grain, do you think it can really reach the hands of the people?"

Hubu Shangshu Bi Ziyan said lightly.

"He who has many lands deserves to die? What's more, the imperial court is now tested for the law, and there are hundreds of officials supervised by the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and Bi Shangshu is often in collusion between officials and inferior gentry, but it is also suspected of smearing the imperial court. I have heard that there are now nearly 500 enlightened gentlemen who are ready to go to the capital to send Fu Fu and cry Taimiao. I don't know if there is such a scene in the Ming Dynasty in Shangshu's mouth?"

"Zheng Shilang has time, you might as well take a look at this account book. Among the endowments in the south of the Yangtze River, ninety percent of the families have not paid off more than 55 acres of land per capita. How can there be small and medium-sized households? However, what Zheng Shilang said is right, there are indeed a lot of grievances, but I also want to ask the Prime Minister Yamen, Dali Temple, and Jinyiwei to jointly try 17 of the major cases of civilian tax resistance. Let's see who's lying!" Chen Zilong also added.

"Yes."

Han Ying sat in the position of the head of the country, but it was completely different from when he was in the cabinet before.

His Majesty left a text message for himself when he left, in addition to once again explaining the meaning of his existence in the Academy of Sciences. All that remains is to advise yourself that it is better to make the contradiction between yourself and the emperor public and sustained.

"From this, the prime minister of the country is the prime minister of the country!"

His Majesty ended the text message with a half-incomprehensible sentence, and Han Ying understood the emperor's intention to leave the capital again. Even from the perspective of a scholar, His Majesty can make this move, and he can be called a wise monarch in history. For the sake of the prosperity of this empire, His Majesty really intends to transition the power in his hands.

However, he looked at some of the people below and couldn't help but ask himself:

"Is it worth it, Your Majesty? Do scholars really put the country first? Isn't it just to accept your family's endowment? You want to reduce the world's money and food at every turn? Could this be the Donglin that I used to be fanatical about and excited about? Isn't this kind of belief worth tens of thousands of taels of silver?"

"Everything else can be discussed. What Chen Zilong proposed just now, I have approved it here. The matter of tax resistance should have been reported to the Criminal Department. The Criminal Department, Dali Temple, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and Jinyiwei went to re-investigate several cases. The rest, everybody, continues. Next year's imperial court budget is a big event, and if our prime minister's yamen doesn't make it clear, it won't be easy for other ministries to do it."

As he was talking, a little eunuch entrusted the official to hand Han Ying a small note, on which was a statement from Empress Yi'an to convey His Majesty.

"Next year's budget should be lenient rather than tight, there is still a balance of three million taels in the palace treasury, and there are still two million taels in Chen Zilong's office, Han Qing can know this matter by himself."

Han Ying read it carefully twice, and then retracted the strip into his cuff as if nothing happened.

"You all agree with Chen Zilong's approach? The purpose of collecting the levies and measuring the fields is to discourage the homeless people from joining the squire. In addition, if the imperial court increased the number of displaced workers, it would only make the wealthy squires more dissatisfied. Leaving these squires, how will the Ming Dynasty govern? Could it be that the imperial court is going to send officials down to the villages?"

"So what? There are 300 lieutenant chiefs in the School of Administration this year, and for a long time, is it possible that the imperial court can't do without the squire? We are also powerful squires, but we are still scholars, unlike those money-hungry squires. In our eyes, there is also the society and the country. If this society is gone, what will we talk about today, in short, next year's expenditure will not be concerned, but I firmly do not agree with the reduction of grain and silver, especially the reduction of the world."

"You are the enemy of the people! I don't know how hard it is in the world!"

"You are talking on paper, without food and silver, how about stopping your money?"

"My money is the due expenditure of the imperial court, why do you want to stop my money, why don't you stop the three major projects?"

"You're going to reduce the world's silver!"

"Why do you want to spend the treasury and build a large number of buildings?"

This kind of quarrel is rarely stopped, Zhu Youzhen said it, and he himself understands it. His Majesty is letting various forces take advantage of the absence of the emperor and the prime minister to jump for a while.

No, this is a Zheng Sanjun and Huang Weizheng.

"Behind everyone there are interest groups that naturally arise because of his interests, and the prime minister may wish to watch more, listen more, think more, and talk less. We just need to know which groups there are, and then we need to see who is aligned with our interests, whose direction can be corrected, and who must be discarded."

"I feel that it doesn't matter whether the policy is good or bad, in short, let the collective interests that we are not supposed to protect be damaged in the new policy, and let the groups we support benefit from our policies."

"Long ......"

His Majesty wrote in a letter to himself:

"Only the Ming Empire can prosper. It's just getting started, so there's no need to worry."