In the political affairs hall, Yuan Guizheng climbed the stairs, and Zhang Yan called him from behind: "Lord Yuan......"

Liu Zhi is still recuperating, and Zhang Yan is also serving as the internal attendant and the salt and iron division, but after the imperial horse supervisor in charge of the palace guard was abolished, the original title of the internal attendant was somewhat weak.

Yuan Guizheng stopped, waited for Zhang Yan to come over, and asked, "Lord Zhang has something to see you?" ”

"The household department discussed using salt profits as a pledge to raise funds from Huaidong Qianzhuang, what does Lord Yuan think?" Zhang Yan asked.

"It turned out that it was ...... for this" Yuan Guizheng responded, and he didn't rush to answer Zhang Yan, standing in front of the steps frowning and thinking.

The political affairs hall is also known as the Zhongshu Gate or the Zhongshu Dutang, which is the place where all the ministers deliberate; Zhang Yan is the governor of the inner province, and if there is nothing important, his entry and exit to the capital hall will still be restricted. However, Yuan returned to Jiangning, and served as Shangshu's subordinate and counselor with Shen Rong respectively, adding the bachelors of the Chongwen Palace and the Chongzheng Palace, and it was more convenient to enter and exit the capital.

In the middle of the matter, the subordinates of the Shangshu Sect of the Yuan Guizheng Office have the right to refute the performance; And Shen Rong served as a counselor, is a counselor outside the system of the Imperial Inspectorate, specializing in the discipline of the ministers and the emperor - Shang Shumen gave the matter and the second post of advice, which was set up in the early years of the founding of the country, but was revoked in the Kaiping period, and this time the two officials were reset, which was the specific manifestation of the Yongxing Emperor's guilt and the Empress Dowager's supervision - these two positions are from the fourth grade, but the position is humble and powerful, and the palace bachelor is in the body, and the palace can't help but walk.

When Yuan Guizheng went to Juchao, he caught up with Zhang Cheng, Yuzuo and others to divide the silver reserves that the household department, the inner government, and the Ministry of Industry moved away from Jiangning with the ship, so as not to give it to Huaidong - Yuan Guizheng arrived at the right time, and also made a sum for Nanyang, but this time the silver division completely led to the central financial bag.

Cheng Yu, Zhang Zuo and others can only suffer by themselves at this time, and they have to bite the bullet to deal with the financial crisis that the center is currently facing.

Speaking of which, it is also Huaidong's trick to capture the past - if Huaidong takes over the power of the court, Cheng Yu, Zhang Zuo and others will naturally not ask about money and silver, and any basket can be pushed to Huaidong's head.

However, after Emperor Yongxing returned to Jiangning with hundreds of officials, Lin Jian did not try to completely control the court, except for the Privy Council, which held the military and political power, the officials of the political hall and the six departments, and only a few people in the Huaidong family.

In this case, if Cheng Yu, Zhang Zuo and the others do nothing, they will first offend the officials of the various ministries and temples who are in arrears, and push them to Huaidong - fleeing from Jiangning, and it is not a secret that the silver deposits of the household department, the Ministry of Industry, and the inner government are moved on the ship, but they come back empty-handed. The documents were burned, and there was no way to check the accounts, but it was impossible to calm the anger of the officials.

Cheng Yu, Zhang Zuo and others will not have a proper strategy, and they will also throw the mess to Huaidong to take over, and Huaidong will completely control the government at this time, who in the world can say what Huaidong is not?

Lin Xuwen threw out a plan to borrow money from Huaidong Bank on behalf of the household department, but he only wanted to borrow four million taels of silver from Huaidong Bank to deal with the current crisis, and the conditions proposed by Huaidong Bank were naturally harsh:

4,000,000 taels of silver, with an annual interest rate of 20%, a loan period of 10 years, annual interest payment within 10 years, and a one-time return of all the principal after 10 years; If you borrow 4 million taels of silver, you will have to return a total of 12 million taels of silver within 10 years, and you will also have to take out the salt tax income from the workshops, mines, and salt and iron divisions under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry as collateral for borrowing silver.

Workshops and mines are entrusted to the management of Qianzhuang, and there is a surplus that will offset the annual interest - in the view of Yuan Guizheng, Huaidong should pay more attention to the two Huai salt profits.

When the two Huai salt were marketed to the surrounding counties, the salt tax revenue was as high as 3 million taels of silver a year at its peak, and it had been reduced to less than 1.5 million taels of silver at this time - Huaidong Qianzhuang proposed to use salt profits as collateral, that is, half of the salt profits should be directly transferred from the salt profits as annual interest every year, and the money village should recommend officials to serve as deputy envoys of salt and iron, and directly control the power of transferring salt and silver.

I've seen shameless, but I've never seen such shameless-Yuan Guizheng knew that when he returned to Jiangning this time, he wanted to tear through the veil of warmth between him and Huaidong before, and he had to face Huaidong, who had become a giant beast, but he didn't think that Huaidong's methods were so tricky, frowned, and said: "These conditions are agreed, which can solve the urgent need, but there is a danger of quenching thirst: how can the annual interest of 800,000 taels of silver be saved?" How to accumulate the principal of four million taels that will mature in ten years? The entire central finance is constantly sucking blood from Huaidong, and finally forming a mess, and in the end, it has to beg Huaidong to take over and solve it...... Powerful ministers throughout the ages, I have never seen anyone's methods so feminine! ”

"But it's not such a thing to drag it out - there are rumors below that if the money is not distributed again, the officials will gather outside the Chong'an Gate to knock on the ground......" Zhang Yan said with a stomp of his foot.

"What do Cheng Xiang, Zuo Xiang, and Yu Xiang mean?" Yuan Guizheng asked.

"Drinking water to quench thirst is also a last resort, and it is always necessary to get through the difficulties in front of you," Zhang Yan said, "The vast majority of the industrial and mining mines under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry have been devastated by the war and are unable to recover, so there is no pity to throw them out; Yanli is the only large income that can be grasped in the future, and it will be infiltrated into Huaidong, and the legacy will be endless. Moreover, the interest rate of the second adult is too heavy, and this year, the imperial court is afraid that it will be difficult to pay the annual interest......"

Zhang Yan didn't elaborate on which idea, but what he said should be the consensus of Cheng Yuqian, Zuo Chengmu and Yu Xinyuan - it is imperative to borrow money from Huaidong Qianzhuang, but I just hope that the conditions can be relaxed.

Seeing Yuan Guizheng frowning like this, Zhang Yan stomped his feet and said: "This year's interest rate has dropped to below one percent, and you can still do it, it's a big deal to throw the hat of the salt and iron envoy to Huaidong to wear, and get through the difficulties in front of you first!" ”

Yuan Guizheng smiled bitterly, Zhang Yan and they had nothing to do, what could he do?

Speaking of which, Huaidong Qianzhuang still has the principal of 100,000 taels of silver invested by the Yongchang Marquis Mansion in it, but I didn't expect it to be such a behemoth today, plus the previous loan to the Jiangning Mansion, in just one month, he was able to take out five million taels of silver - Yuan Guizheng thought to himself: In the future, should he hope that Huaidong Qianzhuang will collapse well, or will it not collapse?

Yuan Guizheng and Zhang Yan entered the capital hall, and when they saw Cheng Yuqian, Zuo Chengmu, and Yu Xinyuan, they didn't see Lin Xuwen, and the five of them discussed it together, so they sent someone to Lin Mengde to summon them. Although the chief treasurer of Huaidong Qianzhuang is Zhou Guangnan, Zhou Guangnan is a businessman and not an official, and Cheng Zuo, Yu Zhang and others can't let go of decency and directly summon Zhou Guangnan to the political hall to discuss the loan.

Anyway, Lin Mengde is the real God of Wealth in Huaidong, and it is always right to call Lin Mengde over.

***************

For thousands of years, the state's finances mainly relied on the land tax and the Ding tax, and the increase of the land tax and the Ding tax was the most slow and the most laborious collection - in addition to the Tian Fu Ding tax, there were also taxes, municipal taxes, taxes (monopoly taxes such as salt tax, brewing tax, tea tax), miscellaneous taxes such as donations, military contributions, and a variety of capitation assessments.

Among them, the tax was assigned to the inner government, but after Emperor Yongxing ascended the throne in Jiangning, in order to increase the income of the inner government and expand the imperial power, he incorporated the city tax and the tax into the scope of the inner government, and in fact, he could only control the municipal tax in the surrounding areas of Jiangning. The land tax and the Ding tax are assigned to the household department; Miscellaneous donations such as fire consumption and foot expenses, capitation apportionment, and other miscellaneous taxes that come with the levy of land and ding taxes are mainly the source of local revenue.

Since the beginning of the Yue Dynasty, there have been imperial villages set up in various places, directly enclosing large areas of grain fields, and the income and the tributes paid in response to the decree of various places have been placed under the jurisdiction of the inner government - all of which are the embodiment of imperial power in the world.

Lin Jian made Lin Xuwen directly control the household department, and the next goal was to deprive the inner government of the financial power and enter the household department.

When Lin Xuwen and Gao Zongting went to Juchao to welcome Emperor Yongxing back to Jiangning, the two sides admitted that the Jiangning Mansion had borrowed silver to redeem rice and pledged the municipal commercial tax revenue from the surrounding areas of Jiangning to Huaidong Qianzhuang, and this piece was divided from the income of the inner government.

For this reason, Huaidong Qianzhuang specially recommended Zhou Guangdong to set up the Jiangning Lijin Bureau to govern this matter, collect and collect the lijin, first repay the principal and interest of Qianzhuang, and then allocate the excess to the Jiangning government.

This time, Lin Jian even wanted to separate the two Huai salt taxes from the inner government, otherwise the loan of four million taels of silver could be mortgaged by the land under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Households.

The prime ministers summoned Lin Meng to the political hall to discuss the loan, and Lin Meng took Lin Xuwen to the political hall with Zhou Guangnan, the general manager of Huaidong Qianzhuang.

The so-called sky-high asking price, sitting on the ground to repay the money - the annual interest can be reduced, to the same level as the original Huaidong Military Division, but the pledge cannot be reduced.

In the view of Cheng Yuqian and others, the city tax in the surrounding areas of Jiangning is still a small amount, and the Queen Mother agreed to cede to Huaidong jurisdiction, and the two Huai salt and silver can not be easily given up, and the compromise method is that Zhang Yan resigned from the salt and iron envoy and merged the salt and iron division into the household department.

No matter what you say, it is still the household department of the imperial court, which is better than having a merchant recommend someone to be in charge of the salt and iron division.

After the negotiation was completed here, the proposed excerpt was requested, and the news also reached Chen Yuan at the same time......

****************

When the news reached Chen Yuan, Chen Huawen was coming to Lin Tie to bid farewell - the remnants of the Haiyu Army, except for a part of the sword and bow soldiers incorporated into the prefecture and county as local security forces, most of the Bai Nao Naval Army with Su Pinxiao will be reorganized by the Zhejiang West Battalion, after Chen Huawen handed over the right to resign the army, he was recommended by Lin Tie and will serve as the prefect of Luzhou.

Chen Huawen will leave Jiangning, and his brother Chen Huazhang will also leave Jiangning and return to Haiyu, and today they will go to the Chongguo Mansion to bid farewell to Lin Lian, drinking tea in the front yard hall.

"Qian Zhuang only lent one million taels of silver to Jiangning Mansion a while ago to tide over the difficulties, and at this time, he has to take out four million taels immediately, I'm afraid it's a little difficult, right?" Chen Huazhang listened to the news of the compromise between the two sides on the loan from the political hall, and asked with some concern.

"It's not difficult," Lin Jian shook his head and said, "The Song family and other big clans in eastern Fujian put all the grain fields under their names into the money village in exchange for the equivalent share of gold, and the money village immediately sent people into eastern Fujian to divide the grain fields into pieces and sell them to the local land-deficient farmers on credit. In three months, Quanzhou Prefecture and Jin'an Prefecture raised an additional 1.6 million taels of cash through this law......"

Mindong has been crippled like that, and in such a short period of time, it is unbelievable that Huaidong Qianzhuang can still suck out so much cash. In addition, the shortfall is probably that the Dongyang Township Party transported grain into Jiangning to make a lot of profits, and the surplus silver was mostly stored in the money bank, which could be misappropriated.

"It's still the master's clever strategy that is incredible," Chen Huawen admired, "The sages don't know how many people are there, but they haven't seen such a method ......of raising money, but they haven't seen it."

"Hua Wen is polite," Lin Jian smiled and said, "In the eyes of others, these are just side tricks. "I thought that it was rare for the government in later generations not to borrow from the public and banks, and as long as the government's credit could be maintained, there would be no need to worry about the scale of borrowing.

Lin Jian has no intention of directly interfering in political affairs for the time being, so he cannot implement the new policy in the Seven Mansions of Jiangnan and the Weiyang Mansion on the bank of the river for the time being, but the large amount of land in the hands of the Chen family, the Seven Mansions of Jiangnan have also negotiated with the Chen family and a few other big families to follow the model of the Song family in eastern Fujian to dispose of the land in their hands. Chen Huazhang went back this time to deal with this matter.

At this time, he took out these things and said that it was to enter the heart of the Chen family. The three fathers, sons, uncles and nephews of the Chen family can be said to be the choice of the moment, but Chen Mingzhe is still stubborn in Jiaxing and has not expressed his position.

Speaking of which, Chen Huazhang is indeed still a little uneasy in his heart, not only worried about whether Lin Jian has the ability to take the last step, but also worried that the world will give other families or Yanlu or the Cao family to go, but after living in Jiangning these days, his mind is a little calmer - Chen Huazhang does not practice martial arts and does not know how to use soldiers, but he also knows that in history, or the collapse of power, or the rise and fall of the imperial court, or the invasion of foreign races, in the final analysis, it is all bad for political affairs.

Compared with Lin Lian's invincible military methods, what can impress Chen Huazhang more is Huaidong's political skills.

Eight surnames such as the luxury family have been in Mindong for more than 200 years, and with such a thick foundation, it is not a fluke that Huaidong has surpassed and disabled Huaidong in just a few years. Taking the Cao family as an example, three generations of border marshals and two generations of county kings, according to Guyuan for nearly 60 years, expanded from 30,000 elites to 130,000 in four years......

Maybe this world is going to compete between Huaidong and Yanyu, the Chen family can't go to Yanyu, and if you vote for Huaidong, you can't make a mistake.

Thinking of this, Chen Huazhang said: "Huazhang will return to Haiyu this time, and deal with some things in the clan according to the instructions of the lord, and then come over to listen to the ......."

Chen Huazhang used to focus on the clan and ignore the eunuchs, and he returned to his hometown to take care of clan affairs after taking the examination in his early years. At present, the core policy of Huaidong is to suppress land annexation, after the land is handed over, there will be no great improvement in the next ten years, and Chen Huazhang will continue to stay in Haiyu There is nothing to do.

"That's great," Lin Jian said happily, "Chen Gong said so, then I will wait in Jiangning......"

Before the Northern Expedition, Lin Jian first had to straighten out Jiangning's political affairs, and Chen Huazhang, who was pragmatic and experienced in governing politics and financial management, was the most urgently needed talent in Huaidong. In fact, although Chen Mingzhe served as the prefect of Jiaxing, he was still a cut short of his father. Chen Huazhang has a relatively conservative weakness, but at this time, it cannot be called a weakness for Huaidong.