Chapter 1149: The hard-earned money of the master of the Tang Dynasty
Li Xuan called back, and by the way, he directly cut off several projects. For example, the experimental railway construction plan mentioned by the Ministry of Industry was only three million taels, and it was the payment for the preliminary project. Li Xuan's brain was burned out.
This kind of budget will be approved only after
Although the construction of railways is the trend in the future, even steam trains have not yet been developed, and the output of steel is not high. The cost of building railways is high, and only carriages pulled by horse-drawn carriages can be used, so the efficiency is still too low.
Li Xuan planned to wait until steam trains matured before developing railways, and even if he did, he did not intend to directly fund the construction of railways.
The funds required to build the railway are not something that can be obtained with just a few million taels of silver. It is a super-large project that starts with tens of millions of taels of silver and can go up to hundreds of millions of taels of silver. It must borrow the power of private capital.
Otherwise, it is estimated that until the day Li Xuan dies, we will not be able to build a national main road railway network.
The experimental railway was cut off, and many other projects were cut down as much as possible. Finally, after Li Xuan finished cutting, he found that the total budget was only about 80 million taels of silver, and he didn't even need 86 million taels of silver!
Seeing this result, Li Xuan directly called all the ministers on duty in the imperial study room, and then gave them his budget after cutting it, leaving a sentence: "This year's fiscal expenditure budget can only be 80 million taels of silver.
!”
When Li Xuan said this, his expression was not very good. Qian Zuoli on the side whispered: "Your Majesty, don't you have a revenue budget of 86 million taels for next year?"
Li Xuandao: "I know that I have other arrangements for the other six million taels of silver. Well, that's it. You will finalize a detailed budget plan today!"
Hearing Li Xuan's words, the group of ministers on duty consciously stopped talking. Li Xuan's expression fully showed that there was no room for negotiation on this matter.
The ministers are all mentally prepared for the budget to be cut, because every year when the budget is drawn up, these ministers will add a thousand taels of silver to their psychological bottom line. Why add it? So that it can be left to His Majesty to cut the budget.
space!
As a minister, how can you expose all your psychological bottom lines, and then honestly say that the amount is what it is? So, what do you ask His Majesty to do? Could it be that His Majesty took a casual look at it, and then approved it when he found that nothing could be changed?
?
Please, that's the Holy Emperor, that's the Eternal Saint King. How could they really not care about the budget at all, and then just stamp it casually? As ministers, we have to find something to do for the Holy Emperor, so that the Holy Emperor can brush his presence.
Feeling.
Therefore, when making budgets, ministers would overstate millions or even tens of millions of taels of silver every year, leaving room for His Majesty to cut the budget. When His Majesty finishes cutting the budget, what is left
The numbers are just right.
This can be regarded as a small tacit understanding between these ministers.
Therefore, they reported a budget of 100 million taels of silver this year, and estimated that His Majesty might cut thousands of dollars. The final figure was about 85 million, and the fiscal revenue budget was 86 million, which was just right.
However, they did not expect that the Holy Emperor would be a bit ruthless in cutting the budget this year!
It was directly cut to 80 million taels of silver, and it was still non-negotiable. This made the ministers dumbfounded. Their psychological bottom line was 85 million, and this suddenly became 80 million, which was a direct loss of 500.
Ten thousand, in this case, the budget will not meet expectations.
Therefore, after listening to Li Xuan's words, all of these ministers looked bitter!
The Holy Emperor said so eloquently that 80 million means 80 million. At this time, no one dared to directly ask Li Xuan to ask for a few more million, so they all consciously kept their mouths shut, and then one by one
They are all thinking in their hearts that the current expenditure budget has become only 80 million, which is still a shortfall of 5 million taels of silver from the original psychological bottom line that everyone discussed.
Where will this gap be filled in the end?
Military Army or Navy?
Departments of the Cabinet?
Abolish Jinling Dongcheng District expansion plan?
Reduce the scale of reclamation development in Huguang and Guangzhou provinces?
Reduce the scale of immigration in Liaodong Province?
Or is it to reduce some of the office expenses of various government offices in Gyeonggi Province?
Damn, it’s hard to reduce any of them!
In fact, judging from the current financial expenditure of the Tang Dynasty, 80 million taels of silver is not impossible. The financial expenditure for the ten years of Xuanping was only more than 70 million taels, which was less than 80 million taels.
What about silver?
But the tenth year of Xuanping is the tenth year of Xuanping, and next year is next year!
Various departments of the Tang Dynasty had already made various plans for the eleventh year of Xuanping, especially various large-scale projects such as construction, reclamation, and immigration. They were not formulated in a day or two, but over several years.
The plan has been formulated for the whole year. How can it be changed easily? This change will disrupt the overall plan.
Well, this is actually a problem caused by the lack of smooth and timely communication between the ministers and Li Xuan.
These ministers thought that the Holy Emperor Li Xuan would slash the budget, so they reported a lot of amounts that were unnecessary or deliberately exaggerated. These exaggerated figures made Li Xuan even more disgusted with it, and in the end they simply reported it themselves
The death limit is eighty million taels of silver.
Naturally, Li Xuan did not set this number casually!
It is set based on this year's fiscal expenditure. This year's fiscal expenditure is less than 80 million taels of silver. To be honest, comparing next year with this year, there will be no special expenditure. Li Xuan judged that the two are about the same.
As for the six million taels of silver left behind, Li Xuan didn't have a clear goal for a while. Anyway, he felt that the financial budget did not need so much, so he would keep the six million taels of silver for now and see how to spend it next year.
Or simply don’t spend it and just store it as a fiscal surplus to be spent later when you need a lot of money.
It is also interesting to say that for so many years since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the treasury has never had any fiscal surplus, because there is a fiscal deficit every year. This fiscal deficit has not been caused by the fact that the fiscal revenue of the Tang Dynasty has increased from one to two thousand.
Wan has changed into more than 80 million taels of silver today.
Because the more fiscal revenue, the greater the corresponding fiscal expenditure.
Sometimes, Li Xuan even felt that the Tang Empire government under his rule, which was very likely to go bankrupt due to fiscal deficits in the next few years, was still in a period of fucking peace.
This situation is not normal for a feudal dynasty!
Li Xuan did not want to see this situation arise, so he felt that the current situation of lavish financial expenditure must be changed.
No matter what the situation, there are so many places that need to spend money, and it is impossible to satisfy all the needs. If they were to be satisfied, let alone one hundred million, one billion would not be enough to spend.
He needs to let these ministers prioritize, spend what should be spent, spend what cannot be saved, what should not be spent, don't spend what is not necessary, don't make it look like the money is not yours, spend it as hard as you can.
So Li Xuan left behind a quota of 80 million taels of silver and left, leaving behind a group of stunned ministers on duty in the imperial study room.
Liu Bagou looked around at the people around him, and then said: "Don't look at it, there are still a lot of things to do. The Holy Emperor has a purpose. A detailed budget allocation plan must be formulated today!"
When everyone heard this, they reacted, and then they all looked at each other and there was something wrong in their eyes.
Why, because they will all be rivals in the future, rivals competing for the budget!
Obviously, there is a shortfall of five million taels in the fiscal budget. Where should these five million taels be reduced? I am afraid no one is willing to do so!
At this time, Qian Zuoli took two steps towards Liu Bagou, and then lowered his voice and said: "Mr. Liu, look at whether the gap of five million taels of silver should be pushed to the military, especially
It's the Army. Their military expenditure is 20 million taels of silver. Even if it is 5 million taels less, there is still 15 million taels of silver!"
Qian Zuili's voice was lowered, but the ears of General Lei Wan, the Minister of Army Operations and the Minister on Duty in the Royal Study Room, were even more sensitive. He immediately shouted: "Qian Zuili, you are a traitor to the country, you actually want to deduct money."
My hard-earned money from the Tang Army is so courageous!"
"My army of the Tang Dynasty has one million soldiers stationed at the border, guarding the hinterland, and controlling the capital. How much blood and tears have been spent on it. Without the millions of soldiers of our army standing by day and night, your money would have been swallowed up by the Tatars!"
"As long as I, Lei Wan, don't die today, don't try to deduct your hard-earned money from my army!"
General Lei Wan is able to sit firmly in the imperial study for a long time and participate in military and state affairs as a representative of the army. Naturally, he has his own merits!
When it comes to fighting, there are a lot of generals in the army who are more powerful than him. The commander of a field division can beat Lei Wan in all kinds of strategic and tactical qualities, not to mention those army commanders and big bosses who are also generals.
They are.
This person's fighting ability is at the level of a regiment commander at most, but he can become an army general, and his prestige within the army is comparable to that of Hao Bainian and others, and he is deeply trusted by His Majesty. Naturally, he also has his unique characteristics.
ability.
As the director of the Operations Department, he is good at employing people and manages the Operations Department in an orderly manner without any chaos. When formulating grand strategies, he is also unambiguous. He may not know much himself, but he is good at discovering the war geniuses under his subordinates.
And listen to their opinions, and then formulate various grand strategies.
At the same time, he has a good relationship with Hao Bainian and other powerful figures who came from the military's field army.
In the imperial study room, he represented the army against the civilian clique represented by Liu Bagou, and he also did not forget to confront Admiral Bao Yifen to defend the interests of the army. Every year when competing for military expenditures, Admiral Lei Wan never gave in.
The entire Army has been disappointed!
Otherwise, he would not be able to gain nearly the same prestige within the army as Hao Bainian and others!
There is no other reason, he can only compete for interests for the Army!