It's late August. The one-and-a-half-month Crouching Tiger Merchant Exhibition is still being held lively, but Zhao Xing has no interest in wandering the streets.

That afternoon, Zhao Xing called Liu Jili, Qin Yilu and Mi Zhen to his study, and carefully inquired about the current income and expenditure inside and outside the house, and the result was just as he expected: the future is very bright, and now he is short of money.

Qin Yilu was mainly in charge of the storage, transportation and sales of commodities within his sphere of influence for Zhao Xing, and all the large-scale workshops, workshops, guilds, and chambers of commerce in the Jin Kingdom were under his control, which was equivalent to the Minister of Commerce and the Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation in later generations.

Liu Jili was mainly in charge of Zhao Xing's area of influence in charge of the agricultural, soldier, commercial and gold banks within the sphere of influence, as well as the gold and silver exchange, banknote printing and delivery, and other businesses involving lending, capital injection, shareholding, asset appraisal, etc., which was equivalent to the later finance minister plus the governor of the central bank.

Mi Zhen is directly in charge of the huge internal government expenses. As the largest landlord, the largest factory owner, and the largest shareholder, Zhao Xing controlled at least forty percent of the annual income of all walks of life in the area of influence he controlled went to the city lord's mansion. The wealth that Zhao Xing now has on his books is no longer something that can be described as rich, but in fact, the amount of gold and silver kept in the vault in the backyard of Zhao's mansion will not exceed one million taels of silver at most.

Where did Zhao Xing's money go? The answer is that as start-up capital, it went to the newly occupied areas, and became investment in building water conservancy, roads, improving fields, and building public welfare infrastructure. A large part of it was distributed to all the people as a benefit when the New Year came.

Liu Jili once made statistics, since Zhao Xing first distributed Changhe Daqu to the people as a welfare, over the years, Zhao Xing, the God of Wealth, has accumulated more than 80 million taels of silver to the people under his rule. With the increasing number of people under Zhao Xing's control, the population he governs now exceeds 10 million people, even if each person is only given one or two taels of silver during the Chinese New Year, Zhao Xing will have to use a full ten million taels!

Starting from the military supplies used in the preparation of the Western Expedition for three years a few years ago, a lot of silver money was spent by Qin Yilu and Liu Jili like flowing water. In order to maintain the military expenditure of nearly 500,000 people, these two people are even more worried about how much hair they have chopped.

Even if there is no need for the two to explain, Zhao Xing also knows very well that sending troops to fight has been the most money-burning action since ancient times, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty almost exhausted the wealth accumulated by Emperor Wenjing in the past fifty years in order to fight a decisive battle with the Huns.

In order to realize this earth-shattering plan, Zhao Xing's previous accumulated family funds have been completely exhausted. Taking advantage of the fact that the bulk commodity ordering meeting of the trade fair has ended, and Crouching Tiger City finally has a new entry, Zhao Xing gathered everyone to discuss the next big plan to open up sources and reduce expenditure.

Zhao Xing first spoke: "We have already summarized our actual family background, the situation is really worrying, if we can't find a way to open up sources and reduce expenditure, we are afraid that we will go bankrupt when we can't wait for the harvest." What does bankruptcy mean? I think you know better than me! If we are unable to exchange the national bonds for the people, pay salaries to the army, officials, and people of various trades, and provide the people with enough food and clothing, then before others come to attack us, the seemingly powerful Jin Kingdom will be in chaos!"

Qin Yilu reported: "According to our tracking statistics, the total fixed population of Jin, Liangguo, Youzhou, Jizhou, Qingzhou, Xuzhou and other places has exceeded 11 million, of which the population of Jin is about 3.5 million, the population of Liangguo is about 2 million, the population of Youzhou is about 2.4 million, the population of Jizhou is about 1.6 million, the population of Qingzhou is about 1 million, and the population of Xuzhou is about 900,000. If you include the Western Regions, Fuyu, Dongsheng and the entire Northeast in the future, there will probably be at least five million people. In other words, in the next few years, we need to feed more than 16 million people, and solving the problem of food and clothing is still the biggest problem we face. ”

Liu Jili reported: "At present, in the area under our control, if the new wealth increased every year is converted into silver according to the current exchange rate, it is about 89 million taels, which is estimated to account for 60% of the entire Han Dynasty. However, the actual annual tax revenue of the local government does not exceed 10 million taels, the income of the internal government is nearly 20 million taels, and the remaining 60 million taels goes to the people, hiding the wealth from the people. ”

Mi Zhen continued: "This Crouching Tiger Merchant Exhibition has received a total of 12 million taels of deposits from all over the world, which is 5 million taels less than the previous one, mainly because the franchise rights of some commodities have not expired, and as the territory under our control is getting bigger and bigger, many places have not come to participate in the trade fair, but can obtain quotas directly through the internal share distribution without money. ”

After listening to the words of several people, Zhao Xing thought for a long time, and then said: "According to the current situation, we are no longer able to support a new war. The Western Regions must base themselves on the war to feed the war, Liangguo, Jizhou, Qingzhou, and Xuzhou all need to recuperate, Youzhou can barely support the use of troops in Liaodong, and the expenses of the Black Mountain Army and the Navy Division have to be borne by the Inner Government. ”

"At this sealing ceremony, four million taels were knocked from various forces, of which one million taels of grain sent by Jingzhou was directly transported to Liangguo from the direction of Shangyong, which could just alleviate the problem of lack of food supply in Liangguo. The minerals worth one million taels sent by Sun Jian in Wuzhou will not be dug up for a while. The total of two million taels of silver sent by Cao Cao of Yanzhou, Yuan Shu of Yangzhou and Liu Yan of Yuzhou was allocated to the Youzhou Legion, 500,000 taels to the Sailor Division, and 1 million taels to the Liangzhou Legion. Zhao Xing continued to command.

"The 12 million taels obtained at the Crouching Tiger Merchant Exhibition were allocated to 2 million taels of special construction funds in Jizhou, 1.5 million taels to Liangguo, 1.5 million taels to Youzhou, 3 million taels to Qingzhou, 3 million taels to Xuzhou, 600,000 taels to Fuyu, and 400,000 taels to Dongsheng. ”

Seeing that Zhao Xing only mentioned three legions, Qin Yilu asked, "Where do the military expenses of the other legions come from?"

Zhao Xing replied: "In the future, the Pingxi Army will support the war with war, and will no longer spend from within the Jin State, and if there is a shortage of national military funds, it will be supported by the Inner Treasury." The Qingzhou and Xuzhou legions maintain the status quo for the time being, and the expenditure is determined by the Qingxu and Xuzhou states. The salaries of the officers and men of the Blue Wolf Army and the Black Mountain Army were paid by the Inner Treasury, and the grain and grass required were supported by the two countries of Fuyu and Dongsheng, where they are currently located. ”

Liu Jili proposed: "Now that money and food are tight, can we issue a new batch of treasury bonds to raise funds from the private sector?"

Zhao Xing replied: "We must issue treasury bonds according to the amount of private wealth we hold, and it is not a matter of trying to catch fish with all our might; at present, the non-governmental liquidity is obviously insufficient, and we cannot issue any more treasury bonds for the time being, and we need to wait until the third batch of treasury bonds expires, and then depending on the situation." ”

Finally, Zhao Xing reminded several people: "The next two years are the most critical two years, and all major material flows and money gatherings must be approved by me before they can be implemented!"