Seeing Tang He, Minister of War Shen Shu, Minister of Household Yang Jing and others all present, combined with Zhu Biao's reminder two days ago, Han Du had already made a guess in his mind. I'm afraid Lao Zhu really wanted to fight this battle. Meng Yuan took action.
Sure enough, the first time Lao Zhu opened his mouth was to ask Yang Jing about the situation of the treasury.
"Yang Aiqing, how much money does the national treasury have now?"
Yang Jing is obviously only in his forties, but his face is full of vicissitudes of life. I don't know whether he was born like this or was tortured as an official under Lao Zhu.
When asked by Lao Zhu, Yang Jing quickly stood up and bowed and said: "Your Majesty, last year's "rent transfer" of the Ministry of Revenue collected a total of 11 million yuan in taxes. Last year, the emperor transferred 400 taxes from the Ministry of Revenue. Wan Guan. Later, cement roads in Liaodong were built, and another 1.8 million Guan was transferred. In addition to officials' salaries, water conservancy and cement roads were built in various prefectures and counties. Now there are still several months until the autumn harvest, and the court still needs to leave money. Spend enough money”
Yang Jingluo talked a lot, and the last sentence summed it up with two words: "No money!"
No matter whether the Ministry of Revenue really has no money or he pretends to have no money, Yang Jing, as the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, his first priority is not to make money for Lao Zhu, nor to save money for Lao Zhu, but to keep an eye on Lao Zhu. Inner library.
There is no way, who made Lao Zhu’s inner treasury full of gold, silver and jewelry, making people jealous?
The Jiaofang Division sends 1.2 million yuan to the palace every year. This is something that all officials know. There is also a sea trade tax collected by the Shipping Division. Although the officials do not know the specific amount, they only look at purchases. People who work in securities are making a lot of money and have hundreds of thousands of dollars in their pockets. You can guess what kind of gold, mountains and silver are sent to the palace every year. ??
Where did the officials get the money? Seeing that the emperor received so much money every year, they suddenly felt uncomfortable even with the treasury. What they were thinking about all day was not how to keep the treasury in their hands, but how to get the emperor's money from the inner treasury. Take it out inside.
Fortunately, the civil servants still disdain overseas affairs and do not know that overseas governor-general offices send millions of dollars to Lao Zhu every year. Otherwise, I am afraid these civil servants would have become so jealous that they would wallow around on the spot.
Lao Zhu obviously also knew the virtues of these civil servants, and had already sealed the information tightly to guard against them.
Yang Jing's words naturally dissatisfied Lao Zhu. Lao Zhu looked at him coldly and shouted: "Last year, the Ministry of Revenue even stopped giving me money to put into the internal treasury. You actually said you have no money?"
"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Finance is indeed
There is still some money, but these are prepared for officials' salaries and expenses in the next few months. If the emperor wants to go to the north, he really doesn't have any extra money." Yang Jing looked like a dead pig who is not afraid of boiling water. It doesn't cost money, it looks like it costs a life.
Lao Zhu stared at Yang Jing with his eyes wide open. He didn't know what he was paying attention to. At this time, Lao Zhu regretted a little. He shouldn't have subsidized part of it out of his own pocket when Naha was recruited last year. As a result, his money was revealed. Let these civil servants worry about it.
Lao Zhu was too impatient at the beginning. After the Ministry of Revenue allocated 4 million guan, the Ministry of Revenue complained that there was no money. As a result, Lao Zhu was afraid of missing the opportunity to attack Nahachu, so he did not hesitate to spend 2 million guan. To supplement it.
When the civil servants saw that the emperor had taken out two million guan without any effort, what's that? A thoughtful person carefully checked the emperor's income and suddenly discovered that the emperor had an income of several million guan every year. This was so fast.
Equivalent to half of the national treasury.
Lao Zhu alone accounted for half of the revenue of the national treasury, which naturally caused dissatisfaction among the civil servants. In their view, since it is tax revenue, it should all be collected into the national treasury and then distributed to the national treasury. How could so much be withheld privately?
?Even if you are an emperor, that won’t work.
Therefore, the current scene has emerged.
Anyway, Yang Jing made up his mind. As long as the emperor did not agree to let the shipping department's maritime trade tax return to the Ministry of Revenue, he would kill the Ministry of Revenue and have no money.
Lao Zhu sneered twice and did not get angry at Yang Jing, nor did he directly dismiss him. Because Lao Zhu knew that the civil servants were jealous of his income. Even if he dismissed Yang Jing and selected a new minister of the Ministry of Revenue,
No money will be given either.
"Your Majesty," Lao Zhu's sneer was extremely oppressive, and Yang Jing couldn't bear it, so he had to bite the bullet and said: "Since Naha was conquered last year, the Ministry of Finance's money has been extremely tight, and it has always been able to live within its means.
Now the Ministry of Household Affairs only has more than two million taels of silver in reserve. If it is used rashly, the court will not even be able to pay officials' salaries in the next few months."
As he said that, Yang Jing glanced at Lao Zhu who was full of anger, and with a calculation in mind, he carefully tried: "However, if the emperor can transfer the sea trade tax of the Shipping Department to the Ministry of Revenue, then the Ministry of Revenue can
Take out all this money. After all, in more than a month, it will be the day when the maritime merchants return. By then, the shortfall in the Ministry of Accounts can be made up by the maritime trade tax.
.”
If you want money, use maritime trade taxes in exchange for it. This is the plan of the civil servants.
Lao Zhu was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then fell into silence. He wanted to take away the sea trade tax for more than two million taels of silver. What are you dreaming about? Just the sea trade tax last year, Lao Zhu
Zhu Jiu's income exceeds 7 million taels. He wants to buy the sea trade tax for more than 2 million taels. This is simply a cheap sale and cannot be sold at a lower price. Unless Lao Zhu is mentally ill, it is simply impossible.
Moreover, Lao Zhu also realized clearly that if Yang Jing knew the annual income from sea trade tax, he would definitely not come up with such a whimsical idea. Since he said this, it means that he does not know the annual income from sea trade tax at all.
Income, I'm afraid such civil servants thought that the sea trade tax was only more than a million dollars a year. Only in this way would they think of taking advantage of me and selling the sea trade tax to them while I continue to use the money.
After Lao Zhu figured it out, he immediately knew that he must not let the civil servants know about the sea trade tax situation, so he quickly glanced at Han Du.
Han Du nodded slightly and smiled understandingly. "These civil servants really think of themselves as noble. I'm afraid they don't look down on overseas profits at all, and they don't have a clear understanding of sea trade tax. Since Lao Zhu has given orders, Han Du will naturally not
Talk too much. Just let these civil servants immerse themselves in their world and entertain themselves until they die.'
Lao Zhu did not consider selling the sea trade tax to the Ministry of Revenue at all, but he could not refuse Yang Jing's proposal. If Lao Zhu refused directly, then all fools knew that the revenue from the sea trade tax would be greater than they thought.
, otherwise the emperor would not be indifferent to more than two million taels of silver.
Therefore, you must find an excuse to get the money from the Ministry of Accounts without paying the sea trade tax.
After pondering for a moment, Lao Zhu shook his head slightly and said: "The sea trade tax is collected for the Navy to fight against the Japanese pirates. If it is used for other purposes, how can the Navy have enough energy to suppress the Japanese pirates? Since the Ministry of Revenue still has more than two million taels of silver, then
Let’s call two million taels first.”
When Yang Jing heard that not only was there no chance of sea trade tax, but the emperor also wanted the Ministry of Household Affairs to come up with two million taels of silver, he immediately became anxious. Wouldn't this mean losing his wife and losing his troops?
"Your Majesty, this money is the salary of officials and the roads that need to be built in all prefectures and counties in the world. River workers, if two million are transferred away, won't the Ministry of Revenue not even be able to pay the salaries of hundreds of officials? The world.
If the river is not repaired, it will probably have a big impact on this year's food supply."
Lao Zhu looked at Yang Jing seriously for a few times, and then said:
Jiao Hang sneered, "Didn't the river workers repair it last year?"
"Go, last year? Go back to the emperor. Of course, it was also repaired last year." Yang Jing suddenly had some cold sweat on his forehead.
Lao Zhu stood up from the dragon chair, walked towards Yang Jing step by step, walked directly in front of him, looked down at Yang Jing who was bowing in front of him, and asked sternly: "This river construction has been repaired every year.
, Don’t think that I don’t know anything. I will give you one last sentence, at least one and a half million taels will be allocated to me.”
Rivers are repaired every year. Although some rivers are really washed away by floods, most of them are fine. After all, floods cannot happen everywhere in the world. In some places, there is very little rain all year round.
Well. Some rivers just need simple cleaning and that's it.
And the reason why every prefecture and county in the world has reported the need for money to repair rivers is because it costs nothing. When the time comes, just tidy up the rivers, and you can put the money into your pocket. Even if it happens in the future,
They are not afraid of the floods destroying the river channels, so they can continue to submit reports next year and ask for money to be allocated for repairs.
He didn't believe that Yang Jing, a minister of household affairs, didn't know what Lao Zhu himself knew. It was just that everything was focused on the overall situation, and Lao Zhu had no time to deal with these people.
Lao Zhu used his power to suppress others, but Yang Jing was even more free and easy. He simply took off the official hat on his head, knelt down and placed it in front of the emperor. "I have few talents and little knowledge, and it is difficult for me to hold a big position. I would like to beg for my bones and ask the emperor to choose another capable person."
Are you resigning? Are you giving up your job? Han Du was a little surprised at Yang Jing's courage.
Lao Zhu is not one of those snot-nosed emperors of the former Song Dynasty. The Song emperor would try his best to keep his ministers begging for their bones. In Lao Zhu's view, if you are given an official position, it means that he, Lao Zhu, thinks highly of you. If you don't know what is good and what is good,
Then it wouldn't be begging for bones, it would really become a pile of bones.
But in the face of Yang Jing's provocation, Lao Zhu actually endured it, looked at Yang Jing angrily for a long time, and shouted sternly: "One million taels, this is my bottom line, not even a penny less. If you dare to say more, what do you think?"
I don’t dare to kill you?”
Yang Jing quickly picked up his official hat and put it on again, straightened his clothes and bowed again: "I obey your decree."
Seeing that Yang Jing finally agreed, Lao Zhu's anger dissipated a lot. He glanced at him who was kneeling on the ground angrily and said in a neutral tone: "Get up."
When Yang Jing heard this, he got up from the ground and felt deeply that it was not easy to be an official in the Ming Dynasty.