When Xu Wuqi told this number, not to mention Su Laochang and Shi Zhen, Xu Huai couldn't believe it and thought he had heard something wrong.
"It should be this number!" Xu Wu'an, Yan Xiaoyi and others didn't know what kind of expressions they should put on, so they smiled bitterly, "We all thought we had misunderstood just now, so we grabbed Jiao Pan and asked him several times!
When Pan comes back, in addition to the secret report of the Zhou Dynasty, there is also a letter from Mr. Wang!"
Yuan Lei led a team of elites to sneak into Tongxu County to support the craftsman's family on their way south. However, in order to prevent the Chihu people from noticing the target, Zhou Jing, who was in Bianliang, could only arrange for the craftsman's family to leave the capital in batches.
At this time, the first batch of craftsmen's families were heading south. Yuan Lei would continue to stay in Tongxu to take charge, and it was relatively safer to go south from Tongxu. Yuan Lei arranged for his military officials to escort the craftsmen who had left the city first.
The master's family went south in order to prevent too many people from staying in Tongxu Hui and causing trouble.
Xu Huai walked to the government hall with a gloomy face.
Su Laochang still murmured to himself: "This number is too outrageous! How much does the imperial court earn per year? How can it be possible to collect so much gold and silver?"
Shi Zhen put his hands behind his hands and looked at the hazy sky.
He is quite clear about the financial expenditure of the DPRK.
The total annual income of Dai Viet is approximately 50 to 60 million guan, including grains, grains, and silk cloth. This number may seem huge, but this figure includes all the wealth of the world.
The taxes collected by prefectures and counties are usually divided into three parts: "staying in the state", "sending envoys", and "offering to the emperor". "Liuzhou" means leaving part of the money and grain in the prefecture and county for business purposes, and "sending envoys" are escorted to Lusi.
Only the last part was escorted to Zhongjingzhong. The annual income of the central government was about 123 million guan.
However, silver is expensive and cheap in Dai Viet, and the annual income of the central government converted into silver may be less than 8 million taels.
The red warrior asked for five hundred taels of gold and fifty million taels of gold and silver, which was enough to cover the central government's annual income for ten to twenty years.
Xu Huai walked into the government hall. Jiao Pan, the military official responsible for escorting him, was in the government hall. Guo Junpan and Tang Pan were asking him in detail about the details of his trip.
Seeing Xu Huai come in, Guo Junpan and Tang Pan all patted the long case and shouted with excitement: "It's really the most ridiculous thing in the world!"
"How many craftsmen are being escorted here this time? Go and invite them over for a meeting." Xu Huai sat behind the central desk and asked the craftsmen who were traveling south to be invited over for a meeting.
Tang Pan handed Xu Huai the secret report brought back by Jiao Pan and Wang Zhen's letter.
The Chihu people had a strict blockade on Bianliang. Zhou Jing would not take the risk of sending people back to Chushan except under special circumstances. However, after he arrived in Bianliang, he recorded all the things that happened in the court one by one in a thick stack.
Letters and newspapers should be wrapped tightly in oil-soaked paper.
Xu Huai opened the oil-soaked paper in silence, sat behind the long desk and read the more than 20 pages of letters and newspapers one by one, and then opened Wang Zhen's letter.
In his letter, Wang Zhen also briefly talked about some of the things that had happened in the court during this period, and finally expressed that he was aware of what Xu Huai wanted Lu Xiong to send back.
Xu Huai handed Wang Zhen's letter to Shi Zhen, and Su Laochang and others passed it on to read.
"The Prime Minister Wang's letter did not mention the Chihu people's claim for compensation..." Su Laochang read Wang's letter, raised his head and said, he couldn't help but hope that the claim for compensation was just a rumor.
"The Prime Minister is ashamed to mention this in his letter!" Xu Huai said with a deep sigh.
"The problem is, the Hulu are asking for a price all over the sky, and the court can't agree to it, right? Think about it, the court formed an alliance with the Khitan people more than a hundred years ago, and they agreed to treat each other as brothers. They paid an annual tribute of 200,000 taels of silver, and everyone in the world criticized them.
How many years have I lost my spine!" Su Laochang still couldn't believe that this was true.
Guo Junpuan sat on the ground in front of Xu Huai's case. He had not yet digested such shocking news, and said: "Even if the government and the government are full of cartilage, where can we raise so much gold and silver? Empty the national treasury."
Isn’t it far from enough? Mr. Shi, how much gold and silver do you think the government can move out?”
"The central government's annual income is equivalent to only seven or eight million taels of silver, and the annual expenditures are complicated, so the savings are extremely limited. This time the Red Army invaded the south, tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in the capital participated in the defense, and the imperial court also gave many rewards to boost morale. The treasury said
There should be very few left!" Shi Zhen said.
"Let me just say, even if the imperial court were all cartilage with boneless knees and wanted to surrender, they wouldn't be able to spend so much gold and silver to fill the bottomless pits of the Hulu!" Guo Junpan said, "In my opinion,
These weaklings should realize that the road to peace is totally futile, and they have to fight tooth and nail!"
Shi Zhen smiled bitterly and pushed Wang Zhen's letter forward.
Su Laochang and Guo Junpan were all stunned. They were so excited that they didn't know what Shi Zhen meant by this move.
"The letter from Prime Minister Wang is so indifferent that no one can see the slightest disturbance. If the court no longer seeks peace and is determined to fight to the death with the barbarians, how can this letter from Prime Minister Wang be so calm?" Shi Zhen smiled bitterly.
He said, "There is no greater sorrow than death!"
"..." Su Laochang was stunned for a while and asked, "Now that the treasury is empty, is it possible that even if the barbarians are not needed to enter the city to plunder, the imperial court will help the barbarians to scrape the ground in Bianliang City to search for gold and silver?"
At this time, Jiao Pan came in to report that he had invited three craftsmen from the south.
These three craftsmen were all acquaintances of Shi Zhen and were invited to Chushan by Shi Zhen.
However, when everyone first heard such shocking and tragic news, no one could feel the slightest bit happy.
After a brief exchange of greetings, Xu Huai invited the three craftsmen to take a seat and asked about the situation in the capital.
"On the day we left Bianliang, we heard news that the officials had ordered the entire city to search for gold and silver to fulfill the Hulu's wishes, and even stipulated that the princes and ministers must pay a certain amount of gold and silver. Shi Zhen invited us to leave Beijing
, we still hesitated for a long time, too worried to let go, and now we are glad to have left the city a day earlier and not suffered any hardships. Zhou Wenli and the others should have left Bianliang one day later than us, but we waited for three days in Tongxu, but they did not show up.
If someone comes over, it must be that when the whole city is searched, it will be doubly difficult to leave the city..." Zhuang Shouxin, the master of the armor repair case of the Salt and Iron Department, is over sixty years old. His face is as dark and thin as withered tree bark, and his voice is hoarse.
When it comes to Zhou Jing, he hasn't had time to find out or write down some details in the letter.
"Even if we search the whole city, it's impossible to collect this number - and it's impossible for the Red Guards not to give a time limit," Shi Zhen tightened his face and asked solemnly, "Did Shouxin hear any other gossip?"
There are some news in Beijing, but Zhou Jing has not established enough hidden and in-depth channels, so it is difficult to find out; even a lot of news is difficult to distinguish between true and false, and can only rely on subsequent analysis.
However, there are tens of thousands of officials in the ministries, monasteries, supervisors, and supervisors. They have been rooted in Bianliang for several generations and have close contact with each other. The news dissemination network weaved in Bianliang City is much deeper than the world imagines;
Even the most hidden things in the palace cannot be hidden from their eyes and ears.
Zhuang Shouxin found it difficult to talk about many things. He didn't know whether he should go to the court to cover up the secrets for that high-ranking official. When he saw Shi Zhen, Xu Huai looked at it. He hesitated for a while, then sighed bitterly and said
: "I just heard it, so it may not be true."
"Please tell me everything you know. No matter how bad the news is, we can bear it." Xu Huai saluted.
Zhuang Shouxin said: "I heard that the Hulu extortion was very tight. It seems that if the amount of gold and silver is insufficient, the clan girls can be used to offset it. However, in addition to claiming the amount of gold and silver and ceding the military town, the Hulu also asked for an additional 'Princess II'.
There are four princesses and four clan daughters, two thousand female musicians, and three thousand craftsmen of all kinds. This has nothing to do with the clan girls who make up the number, it is extra. I now hope that Zhou Wenli and the others will be here in Zhou Dynasty.
With the help of the captain, my family has been hiding, otherwise I might not be able to escape this disaster."
"What!" Guo Junpian suddenly stood up and brought down the cases in front of him. The paper, pen and inkstone on them spilled all over the floor. Thinking about it, he became angry and kicked the cases towards the door of the Yamen.
He went over and cursed, "What the hell is this?"
Tang Pan and Xu Xin'an both had red eyes, and it was really hard to imagine that this could be true until this moment.
"This..." Su Laochang stammered for a long time before asking, "It's impossible for Prime Minister Wang to keep silent about these things, right? There is no mention of it at all in Prime Minister Wang's letter here. Zhou Jing mentioned it in the letter.
Nothing is written, what’s going on?”
"When we left Bianliang, Lieutenant Zhou had not seen anyone from the Prime Minister's Mansion for several days. He was busy arranging for us to leave Bianliang, and he did not have the manpower to collect all kinds of information," Zhuang Shouxin said, "We also listened to many things.
I heard some rumors, but I don’t know whether they are true or not. I was even more ashamed of the rumor and didn’t even mention it to Captain Zhou. The Prime Minister Wang probably wouldn’t be indifferent either. On the third day after Hu Envoy entered the city, I heard that there was a troop of soldiers and horses.
At night, they attacked the captive camp in the east of Zhongmou City. However, some people in the court seemed to be afraid that this move would anger the captives, so they sent people to inform the messengers of the captives. They heard that all the troops and horses were wiped out by the captives! After that, except for
Mr. Lu came over and handed a letter from the Prime Minister to Captain Zhou, but we didn’t hear anything more about the Prime Minister!”
"This is asking for peace! This is asking for peace! The great Vietnam, the mighty great Vietnam!"
Su Laochang slapped his ear hard and cried out in distress.
"I can't stand it!" Tang Pan shouted, and walked out of the Yamen with Xu Xin'an.
Wang Ju and Xu Wuqi didn't say much, but listened patiently, with tears filling their eyes...
