Dai Zhou has been annoyed lately. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

It has been three months since he took office as the head of the household department, and the year is approaching, and the various expenses of the imperial court have increased instead of decreasing. It costs money everywhere, but the imperial court still owes so many foreign debts, and many foreign debts are about to expire, but the imperial court can't come up with the money.

And next year's budget for appropriation of funds, which has already been completed, has not yet been completed.

The post of the head of the household department is the chief financial officer of the imperial court. His predecessor was Ma Zhou, and his predecessor was Li Chao, both of whom are recognized as good financial managers. Although Dai Zhou held this important position, he was actually not very good at the economic side.

Now more than 50 years old Dai Xuan in the early years of the Sui as an official, and then at the end of the Sui Dynasty served in Wang Shichong, after returning to the Tang Dynasty for the Qin Wangfu Shi Cao joined the army, after the current Yuji, he successively served as Shangshu Youcheng and Dali Shaoqing, but also acted as the official of the Ministry of Shangshu, presided over the election of officials.

In the court, he was very trusted by the emperor.

He was upright by nature and outspoken. But for the economic and financial part, it is really not good.

Especially in the past, when Li Chao and Ma Zhou served as the head of the household department, they also added the title of Pingzhang under the same Zhongshu Sect and were prime ministers. It is naturally more convenient to re-appoint the prime minister as the head of the household.

And now he has not been able to increase the title of prime minister, so he is extremely restrained in the household department, and he is not so hard to speak.

As the secretary of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, his biggest responsibility is to manage the money bag for the emperor. Not only do you have to cover your money bag, but you also have to find a way to make it bulge.

But in fact, three months after he took office, his money bag had been deflated, and there was still a shocking deficit in the financial accounts.

After carefully looking through the financial chronology, Dai Zhou almost wanted to resign from the seal. This official is too hard, the court expenses are so big, and they need money everywhere. The army was expanded in the north and south, and the soldiers in the south were fine, and they were soldiers in the war when they were farming, and when they were not fighting, the cost of training was not large.

But the Beiya is a standing army, and now the Beiya has a full 60,000 standing army.

It sounds like an empire as big as the Tang Dynasty with 60,000 standing troops doesn't seem to be much. But in fact, the cost of raising 60,000 standing troops is much more than the peacetime cost of the 740,000 registered soldiers after the expansion of the Nanya.

There were 20,000 left and right Yulin troops, with 14,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry. The left and right Shence army directly has 20,000 cavalry, 16,000 light cavalry, and 4,000 heavy cavalry. Only the 4,000 heavy cavalry cost more than 20,000 infantry.

Left and right Shenji Army, 20,000, or 20,000 firearms troops. Infantry, cavalry, and artillery are all equipped with firearms, and these new firearms are more expensive to equip, especially artillery, and an artillery piece is on top of a small infantry unit.

Armor, ordnance, horses, muskets and artillery, plus grain, grass, military salaries, all kinds of rewards, etc., these 60,000 people are simply a bottomless black hole, and no matter how much money is smashed into it, not a single sound can be heard.

The 60,000 standing troops of the Northern Ya also had to be stationed in the border areas in batches, and this rotation was almost like a war, and the expenses along the way increased greatly.

And fighting.

Tubo and Goguryeo surrendered successively, which can be regarded as a temporary rest of the sword soldiers. Although the emperor dispelled the idea of conquering the Western Regions and saved a lot of money, the imperial court would still launch Tuyuhun, Xue Yantuo, Xi, Khitan and other coalition armies, and the imperial court would send a number of troops, and the expenses were still very large.

In addition, the imperial court's nine-sided fortifications continued, and at the same time, forts were planned to be built in Hetao, Yanbei, and Liaoxi to stabilize these places, and the expenditure was large.

And immigration, again a bottomless pit.

In order to stabilize the frontier and alleviate the problem of more people and less land in the Central Plains, the imperial court expanded to the four sides on a large scale, and in these immigration plans, the imperial court needed to subsidize a lot of money.

There are also water conservancy construction and road construction in various parts of the Central Plains・・・・・・

Money money money, a penny is hard to beat a hero.

If you don't belong to your home, you don't know how expensive firewood and rice are.

Money is needed everywhere, and all departments report it and ask for money.

But where did he ask for money?

It is true that the population of the imperial court has indeed increased dramatically, but the vast majority of these extra populations are hermits and slaves who used to be attached to powerful landlords and Taoist temples.

They had no money at all, and the imperial court had to give them settling-in allowances, and they had to lend them money to settle down and buy farm tools and seeds. In order to reassure them, the imperial court had already issued an edict that these immigrants would open up and reclaim the wasteland, and the imperial court would not collect their taxes for three years.

It will take at least three to five years for these new hukou people to see an increase in taxes.

The imperial court promoted education and built schools in various places, which was a great investment in this area.

Where you can pull money, Dai Xuan has really pulled it.

But next year's expenses of the imperial court are still unknown.

However, many of the foreign debts are about to mature, and there is no money to repay them now.

"It's got to this point?"

In the imperial study, after listening to Dai Guan's report, Li Shimin's face was ugly. He did say that he would ignore the finances for the time being and that the crown prince would be regent, but Dai Xuan insisted on asking to see him, saying that the matter was urgent.

He just didn't expect things to be so tricky.

Two years earlier, the state of the imperial court was even more difficult, and at that time, internal and external troubles, especially the catastrophe that swept the entire north for more than two years, made the imperial court almost collapse at that time.

But it was so difficult, and the court survived.

He thought of Li Chao again, at that time, in the most difficult time, it was Li Chao who planned and helped him through the difficulties.

"Isn't there a way to open up sources and reduce expenditure?" Li Shimin asked.

"The gap is very large!" Dai Xuan said truthfully.

"How old?"

Dai Xuan thought for a while, "At most, by next spring, we will not be able to pay the salaries of the forbidden army, nor will we be able to pay the salaries of hundreds of officials." Subsidies for immigrants cannot be withdrawn, funds for water conservancy and road construction in various localities cannot be withdrawn, and even funds for Guozijian, Jiangwutang, and government schools in various localities cannot be withdrawn・・・・・・・"

"In fact, the imperial court still has a large amount of foreign debts that cannot be repaid when due, and if we were a commercial bank, we would go bankrupt next year." Dai Xuan said a new word, bankruptcy. This is a saying in the business world today, if a firm is insolvent, it is called bankrupt.

The imperial court is going bankrupt.

Li Shimin covered his forehead with his hand.

It hurts.

"What about the income of the imperial court?"

The income of the imperial court is also quite a lot now, and after Li Chao's various open sources, the rent tax has increased a lot, and the land tax and household tax have been added, which basically doubles the tax revenue of the imperial court.

What's more, there are industrial and commercial taxes and tariffs, as well as monopoly taxes on salt, wine, tea and iron. There are also large foreign trade groups in the imperial court, and they can make a lot of money every year.

Why don't you have enough money to go bankrupt?

"Your Majesty, in the past few years, the use of troops has been continuous, and the cost is huge. After a war, it costs tens of millions of dollars at every turn, and the rare disasters in the north before, the savings of the imperial court have been exhausted. ”

To tell the truth, Dai Zhou has been the head of the household for three months, and the biggest gain is that he has a new understanding of Li Chao's ability. He didn't know how Li Chao had made the imperial court survive in the first place, and in such a difficult situation, he could still tinker and bring Datang over.

Originally, the situation should be better now than then, but he really couldn't help it. Li Chao thought of the methods he could think of, such as the monopoly of salt, iron, tea, wine, sugar mines, etc., and even made salt tea, etc., and also issued stocks such as salt tickets and tea tickets to raise funds. It also organized many official merchant groups to conduct large-scale trade with neighboring countries and make money for the imperial court.

At the beginning, he also rectified Buddhism, and also got a lot of money and land, which greatly alleviated the wave.

He also borrowed a lot of money through the issuance of bonds and other means.

In fact, it is to dig deep into the potential, or to say that Yin eats the grain.

"I still have about two million yuan in my inner treasury, you can take it." Li Shimin said.

"Your Majesty, this is also a drop in the bucket." Dai Xuan said.

Li Shimin was silent, when he was martial arts, the annual income of the imperial court was only a few million, but he could live it. Now two million is a drop in the bucket.

"What do you suggest?"

Dai Xuan hesitated and said, "The minister suggested that we continue to open up sources and reduce expenditure, first of all, to reduce the Northern Ya Forbidden Army. If half of the disarmament is dismantled and the Sixth Army of the Northern Ya retains 30,000 people, then it can save at least 3 million yuan a year. If the artifact army is cut directly, it can save another million yuan. ”

"If the firearms supervisor is also cut, it can save a lot in a year."

In addition, the minister thought that the Beiya Forbidden Army would no longer pay military salaries in the future, but give them land. The land was distributed to the forbidden army of the Northern Ya, and after these lands were distributed to them, they could be rented by the imperial court or handed over to their own families to cultivate. In this way, the imperial court will no longer pay them military salaries, and they can also save a lot of expenses. ”

"Also, the cost of fighting a war is greater than raising an army. The imperial court should suspend all plans for the use of troops, including the plan to send troops to the Western Regions, to save military spending. In addition, the construction of castles and forts in the nine-sided defense plan, and the construction of military forts in Hetao, Longnan, Yanbei, and Liaoxi should also be suspended・・・・・・"

Dai Guan's plan to reduce expenditure is first and foremost to attack the military.

The Northern Ya Forbidden Army was reduced, the Shenji Army and the Firearms Supervisor were abolished, the construction of fortifications in the border areas was stopped, all plans for the use of troops were suspended, and even the military salaries of the Beiya Forbidden Army were suspended・・・・・・

One by one, you can really save a lot of money.

After all, it can save tens of millions of dollars a year.

But the more Li Shimin listened, the more frowning he became.

Datang can have today precisely because it attaches great importance to armaments. No matter how hard the days are, there is no self-abandonment of martial arts. When Li Chao was in the DPRK, he even took the initiative to expand the army to 800,000, and also actively developed a firearms unit, established a firearms superintendent, and built a firearms production line.

Datang also established a regular standing army.

But it's good now, as soon as Dai Xuan comes, he will cut it all.