The Guards want to garrison troops in several strategic towns in the country, and the existing strength is definitely not enough, so the army has to be expanded, but the expansion of the army is simple, and the funds are in place when the army can be expanded, and everything will come step by step.

The Guards were expanding, and this was not for foreign conquest, but because the Empire's foreign strategy led to a major expansion of the army, forcing the Guards to follow the expansion in order to maintain strategic balance.

This has to be said that it can be regarded as an internal friction within the Tang Empire, and it is also an internal friction deliberately created by Li Xuan.

But this kind of internal containment is necessary for a big country!

It is simply unimaginable and even abnormal that there are no factions or struggles in a big country, on the contrary, there are factions and struggles, which is normal and can make people feel at ease.

If the courtiers in the Tang Empire did not fight each other, then Li Xuan would have to worry that they were plotting to overthrow him.

In order to maintain the balance of domestic military strength, the Guards wanted to expand the army, but the expansion of the army required money, so in the Xuanping 22-year financial expenditure budget, the military expenditure of the Guards was a lot more, which made the army and navy, which were already arguing over military spending, smell the sense of danger.

Then one by one, they ran to Li Xuan and cried, saying that the army was in difficulty, the navy was even more difficult, and the officers and men in the army couldn't eat enough or something, for fear that it would be too late to cry, and the money would be taken away by the cabinet.

You know, what kind of transportation strategy is the cabinet is working on, and what kind of train and ship subsidy program has been developed to stimulate the rapid development of domestic trains and ships, and they are crying every day to raise next year's funding.

The Tang Empire's fiscal expenditure budget is always insufficient, no matter how much the fiscal expenditure budget of this year is, but in the end, the expenditure budget summarized by various departments will always be overspent.

Because there are too many places to spend money in the Tang Empire, even if there is no money, those ministers will come up with a lot of plans that need to spend money in order to compete for funds.

In this case, no matter how much money is generated, it will never be enough to spend.

However, Li Xuan also knew that the courtiers under him often cried and cheated on funds when they had nothing to do, so he gave what should be given, and he never gave what should not be given.

Over the years, Li Xuan has controlled the funds of various ministries, and then used the balance of fiscal revenue to repay the huge national debt, and it was not easy to completely repay the national debt last year.

After all, in the past few years, basically the sum of the principal and interest of repaying the treasury bonds every year has increased from more than 10 million yuan, and in the early days of reunification, in order to develop armaments and infrastructure, and in addition to the credibility of the treasury bonds at that time, no one bought them, and in order to attract people to buy treasury bonds, the issuance of treasury bonds at that time was rather ruthless, the amount was large, and the interest rate was high.

In the early days of reunification, the annual interest rate of some of the five-year treasury bonds issued in order to raise funds could even reach more than 20 percent, and basically after five years, they would be repaid in double!

The interest rate of the early treasury bonds was too high, which also caused the subsequent Datang finances to be overwhelmed, and had to issue new bonds to repay the old debts, and pay high interest every year.

In just over a decade, the total interest on the treasury bonds paid by Datang has actually exceeded the total principal of the treasury bonds.

From the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China to the 20th year of Xuanping, Datang Finance issued a total of about 80 million yuan of various types of treasury bonds, and Xuanping did not continue to issue treasury bonds 20 years later.

And the total interest generated by these treasury bonds, which have accumulated 80 million yuan, has exceeded 100 million yuan!

The annual repayment of the interest and principal of the treasury bonds is a heavy burden on the finances!

If it weren't for the heavy retaliation of the treasury because of the national debt, Li Xuan would not have gritted his teeth and insisted on repaying the principal and interest of the national debt every year in the past ten years, no matter what, and at the same time, he would not have borrowed the national debt as much as possible.

Fortunately, thanks to the rapid development of industry and commerce in the empire and the good recovery of agriculture, this fiscal revenue became higher and higher, and in the twenty-first year of Xuanping, the fiscal revenue had exceeded 190 million yuan.

And if nothing else, next year, that is, the 22nd year of Xuanping, it is not a problem for fiscal revenue to break through the 200 million mark!

Under the condition that the fiscal revenue is getting higher and higher, it is possible to continue to repay the treasury bonds while initially meeting the needs of domestic development, and now we have finally repaid the principal of the treasury bonds that have accumulated more than 80 million yuan and the interest on the treasury bonds that have exceeded 100 million yuan.

After paying off the national debt, Li Xuan felt that the financial situation of the empire had improved a lot, so that he could also do some other things, after all, after paying off the national debt, he would be able to free up at least tens of millions of funds every year.

However, even if there is more money, those courtiers also know that there is more money now, and all of them are lions with big mouths, which also requires money, and that also needs money.

And Li Xuan's method has always been to throw the bones out, let them eat the dog, and sit firmly on the Diaoyutai by himself!

This is also the reason why the Cabinet and the military, the Cabinet ministries, the Army and the Navy, and almost all other institutions at the annual budget expenditure meeting have a fierce quarrel over funds.

If Li Xuan directly set the plan for the allocation of the financial expenditure budget, then everyone would not have to quarrel, no matter how much, just use it.

However, Li Xuan never made sure in person, and after giving a total amount, he let the departments quarrel on their own.

The total amount of the fiscal expenditure budget for next year, that is, the 22nd year of Xuanping, is 190 million, because the fiscal revenue budget is about 200 million, but according to tradition, a part of it will be withheld for emergency funds, and this part will be used for disaster relief, or for war expenses, or for some other things, and will not be included in the fiscal expenditure budget.

Next year's emergency funds withheld will be 10 million, so there will only be 190 million left for various departments to compete for.

And these 90 million li were first deducted from the royal family's expenses, and then the minimum administrative expenses of various departments were also deducted.

Because the above are all basic funds, they belong to the kind that cannot be reduced, if they really want to be reduced, then the salaries of soldiers, officials, government employees and other people who eat public meals will not be settled.

Therefore, this part has never been the target of competition, because everyone is not a simple person, and they will also investigate, so how much necessary funds are used by various departments, it is also transparent, and there is no way to fight at all.

The main point of contention is the remaining part after deducting the royal funds and the minimum expenses of the various departments, and the remaining part is quite a lot, full 60 million.

There are many institutions staring at these 60 million, such as the Ministry of Industry, their water conservancy projects have not yet been completed, and they are still engaged in some transportation strategy, preparing to build railways, official roads, and dredge rivers.

However, the officials of the Ministry of Rites are not easy to mess with, and their subordinate education departments have always been big money-eaters, and the annual education funds are not a few, and the core work of the Ministry of Rites in the past two years is to improve the basic education and basic technical education in the country.

In order to popularize primary education to a larger number of people, in addition to building more government-run primary schools, it is necessary to reduce tuition fees and miscellaneous fees, otherwise the children of poor families will not be able to afford to go to school at all, even if it is only primary school.

Basic technical education, on the other hand, refers to technical secondary school.

The education policy of the Ministry of Rites has always been closely following the pace of the Son of Heaven, who said that he wanted to popularize primary education, so they carried out universal education in primary schools.

The Son of Heaven said that he wanted to set up a number of first-class universities, but they only set up seven first-class comprehensive universities, which is in line with the word "several" that the Son of Heaven said, and there will not be only a few, nor will there be more than a dozen.

The Son of Heaven said that he would vigorously open up primary vocational education so that the students of Guangzhou University could have a skill, so they did not hesitate to open secondary technical schools in various places, similar to the technical secondary schools in later generations.

This kind of college is not the same as the previous technical colleges, because the previous technical schools belonged to higher technical schools, and the enrollment was recruited from the preparatory schools, although they were similar to the junior colleges of later generations, but in fact they also belonged to the higher education category of the empire, and the colleges and universities in various places combined, in fact, did not go there more than ordinary universities.

Colleges and universities, in the Tang Empire, belong to the category of higher education, and for higher education, the phalanx of the Tang Empire has always been elite education, and it is advisable to refine it rather than more.

At present, secondary technical colleges recruit students from middle school students, and their courses are very practical courses, because their purpose is to train all kinds of technical talents.

Basically, the education policy of the Tang Empire is to follow the plan formulated by Li Xuan, the Son of Heaven, that is, to popularize basic education, cultivate a large number of basic talents of all kinds, especially science and engineering, and select a small number of elites to train them as senior talents.

This model can be called pyramid education, or elite education!

Under this model, the vast majority of ordinary people go to middle school or even only primary school at most, then they go home to farm or go to work in factories, they lack culture, they play the role of peasants and workers in the empire, and these people because they have not received advanced education, so they will not be like those intellectuals, thinking about rebellion every day, they will be very honest to farm and enter the factory, and contribute to the empire.

A small number of ordinary people can complete secondary school, and these people will become the backbone of the whole society, they have professional knowledge, and can be competent in middle and low-level technology and management work.

However, they still lack some of the vision that comes with higher education!

The other few will be those who go to colleges and universities, and these people will become the main group of the imperial superstructure.

Then, there are a very small number of famous college students who have gone to prestigious schools, elites who have received comprehensive higher education, and they will constitute the top group of the pyramid of the Tang Empire.

Under this kind of education system, because there are not too many talents who receive higher education, in order to avoid a shortage of such professionals in society, there is a secondary school.

In the past two years, the construction of a large number of secondary schools is also one of the most important tasks of the Ministry of Rites.

Moreover, the Ministry of Rites is running education, and the slogans shouted are very loud, saying that for a hundred years of education, for the prosperity of the empire, this education cannot be left behind, and then open a mouth, that is, to ask for a special fund of 8 million!

Looking at the cabinet of people shamelessly talking about big plans, the generals of the army and navy couldn't help it, and the generals of the navy directly slapped a thick file on the table, which read: 'The first five-year development plan of the global strategy of the Tang Navy'.

Then I saw this human: "We Navy don't care how much money you want and what you do, and we can't control it, but the money needed for the five-year development plan approved by the Son of Heaven himself must be left for the Navy!" ”

But soon the army generals on the side showed a hint of sneer: "Didn't you just give your navy a special fund for building ships last year?" Take the same plan to ask for funding twice, your navy is so shameless? ”