Before Zhu Youxiao could speak, Cheng Guoxiang continued:
"The left minister of the Ministry of Industry and Bi Maokang, the governor of the ordnance factory, are also asking for a large amount of silver."
"It is said that a large-scale equipment upgrade is to be carried out. To build sophisticated equipment, at least five million taels of silver will be needed!"
"Your Majesty, the annual tax revenue of the national treasury is only three million taels of silver. Even if the additional levy of Liao Xiang is included, it is only more than seven million taels. His arsenal will cost five million taels, and the national treasury still has
what money?"
"After I rejected Bi Maokang's petition, I thought I would give up on it, but who knew that the general manager of the arsenal was extremely unreasonable. Director Li Yongzhen actually co-signed the petition again, insisting that I allocate five million taels of silver!"
"If this continues, I, the Minister of Household Affairs, will really not be able to continue my job. I have few talents and little knowledge. I hope Your Majesty will choose someone more capable!"
Five million taels of silver was indeed a huge amount of money, and Zhu Youxiao was a little shocked.
The funds for the arsenal have always come from his own funds. Although he has spent several million taels on it, he can still afford it.
I have never had enough funds. Even if I want to mass-produce flintlock guns, I won't be able to use so much money in this year.
The armor project, which cost the most money, has been temporarily stopped by his own decree. As the two projects were started and stopped, the funds not only did not increase, but actually decreased.
As far as he knew, Bi Maokang was not the kind of person with a huge appetite. He would have to find time to get to know the inside story later.
"Da Situ cannot resign lightly. You are my most trustworthy minister. The money bag of the Ming Dynasty can only be placed in your hands. No one else is qualified to be the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue!"
"Besides these two items, Da Situ must be worried about other things. Tell them all and I will make a decision for you!"
A person with an extremely strong heart like Cheng Guoxiang cannot bear the pressure. It seems that the job of the Ministry of Finance is really not easy to do.
This is just like the foremen of later generations: the boss does not pay enough for work.
The construction deadline was as tight as the deadline, and harsh words were given. If the project could not be completed and accepted within the specified date, the wages would not be paid.
The foreman was helpless and did not dare to quarrel with the boss, for fear that he would not receive his part of the work payment.
But just after he stabilized his boss, his subordinates stopped working again, and they couldn't get their wages, so they began to work passively.
She also asked him for help every day, so she was caught in a dilemma.
Now the household department in the Ming Dynasty is no different than the foreman.
The money that should have been received was not received, but the money that should have been spent was a lot.
And it is still increasing infinitely, more and more every year.
No matter who it is, they can't handle it.
"Your Majesty, I am worried about these two things!"
In fact, the problems he faces now are far more than taxation and arsenal. There are countless people asking for money and food from him in various names.
Not to mention the six ministries and nine ministers, the local officials seemed to have discussed it, and all the memorials asking for money were delivered to him within a few days.
The content is roughly the same. It is nothing more than asking for the arrears of official salaries, as well as local policies that benefit the country and the people, such as building roads and bridges, and asking the court to allocate money and food.
For these reasons, it was really difficult for Cheng Guoxiang to refuse. After all, they were all based on moral principles and were well-founded.
However, he could still handle these trivial matters. The emperor had to deal with many things every day. If he had to worry about everything personally, then what would he do to ministers like them?
Cheng Guoxiang is still relatively strong. He was originally promoted by the emperor and appointed as the Minister of the Ministry of Hubu. Not to mention all the officials in the court, even the Ministry of Hubu had countless people who dissatisfied with him.
Everyone was waiting for him to fail, and then immediately wrote to the emperor to depose him, and then rushed home, and even made him follow in the footsteps of Ye Xianggao and others.
His position is really too critical. Only if their own people sit in this position can they take the initiative and compete with the emperor.
He clearly sees the pros and cons of this.
Since His Majesty ascended the throne, he has basically purged the powerful officials of fifth rank and above in the court, and then transferred a group of officials from remote areas such as the northwest and Guangdong and Guangxi.
Most of the main ministers and ministers were appointed outside the rules. For example, he and Song Yingxing were completely against the rules.
He has been an official for some years, and has a lot of competition among the official circles.
He admired the emperor from the bottom of his heart for his courage to be direct and tough. Although it was a bit cruel, the results and changes were obvious to all.
The current work efficiency is several times faster than that during the Wanli period, and those censors no longer dare to write letters to the emperor every day.
But he knew that this was only temporary. No matter how many people the emperor killed, as long as the Ming Dynasty was still there and the officialdom was still there, it would be impossible to completely eradicate it.
Since taking office, he has been cautious in everything, never doing anything out of the ordinary, and doing everything according to the rules, just for fear of becoming a breakthrough point for them to make trouble and take the opportunity to suppress the emperor.
These two matters are not difficult for Zhu Youxiao. The arsenal is entirely his decision. He can just take the time to talk to Bi Maokang when the time comes.
As for the wealthy gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, if they defaulted on paying taxes to the court, they would need some violent means.
These shameless and selfish hypocrites, even if you kneel down and beg them, it will be of no use, but as long as you put a knife to their neck, they will be more obedient than a dog.
Then Wang Xiangqian made a summary report to Zhu Youxiao on all financial expenditures in the first year of Tianqi.
Forty-eight years of Wanli's tax revenue was spent, and nothing was left. It was all emptied out.
Especially Zhu Youxiao's cheap dad, he just cheated him when he was alive, but he still needs to advance money when he is dead.
Because he died too quickly and suddenly, the construction period of his mausoleum was extremely urgent. In order to improve speed and efficiency, he was buried as soon as possible, which cost the treasury more than two million taels of silver.
Hundreds of thousands of civilian laborers were collected, and the work was finally completed in a hurry in early September, and then the tomb was buried and sealed.
Zhu Youxiao didn't know how much he hated this prodigal son. He only knew that he would not pay homage to this prodigal son.
In history, there is the first year of Taichang. After all, after ascending the throne, you still have to give some face.
The ministers discussed for a long time that they would divide the forty-eighth year of Wanli into two parts, giving the first half to Wanli and the second half to him.
But in this time and space, there is no so-called first year of Taichang. In Zhu Youxiao's view, he does not deserve to have an era title at all.
Of course, someone had suggested this to Zhu Youxiao, but he dismissed it on the spot.
The reason is also very simple. Zhu Youxiao directly carried his grandfather out to control the situation. He was right to abide by his filial piety, but Emperor Wanli had much more authority than this temporary emperor.
Zhu Youxiao responded directly with one sentence, "Forty-eight years is forty-eight years, and one year is one year. There is no talk of splitting it up. Should I split you up too?"
The ministers had nothing to say. The emperor was already cruel, and now he brought the old emperor out to control the situation. They really couldn't do anything.