"Your Majesty,"

"Two days ago, Qin Mufeng sent troops and withdrew 500,000 taels of silver from the household department in one go, and at the same time allocated 1 million taels of silver to the soldiers of the Tianwei army, and now the salary of our household treasury is less than 500,000 taels, even if it is a problem to support the court officials this year, river engineering, water conservancy, and war everywhere need silver, and the taxes of Jiangsu and Zhejiang have been detained in Shandong for a long time, and the imperial court really has no way to raise excess silver......

Hou Sui is an expert in managing money and grain, but now the majority of the imperial court taxes, Jiangsu and Zhejiang taxes have entered Shandong, and there is no stay at all, just relying on the taxes of Minyue Lake and Guangshu provinces, it is not enough to support it, not to mention military salaries, even the daily court expenses have encountered great difficulties, and now Hou Sui is helpless.

Zhu Jie raised his eyebrows and asked, "Lord Hou, the taxes of the Minyue Lake and Guangzhou provinces have been used up so quickly?" ”

Hou Sui smiled bitterly: "Your Majesty, the new imperial court, all aspects have to use money, not to mention anything else, the soldiers who died on the front line have to be compensated, this is a big expense, together with the former for the first emperor's state funeral, just a national funeral, it cost 300,000 taels, since you ascended the throne for a month, the salary expenditure of officials at all levels of the court has exceeded 150,000 taels, and in the next year, we will need at least 1.8 million taels for the official envelope alone, and now we have to hold a public sacrifice for the soldiers, which is a big expense." , the minister really can't conjure up so much money......"

Zhu Jie's heart was also helpless, the most difficult thing is that at this time, the house leak is windy and rainy, and a penny can suffocate the dignified household Shangshu!

"What is Aiqing's plan?"

Zhu Jie asked.

Hou Sui shook his head and replied: "There are only two sections, one is open source, and the other is throttling, the so-called open source, that is, to tax the people again, or to levy additional salaries, or to levy taxes for next year in advance; The so-called throttling is to reduce all unnecessary expenditures, temporarily suspend the bereavement pensions of the fallen soldiers, or reduce the salaries of officials and the expenditure of river engineering and water conservancy, and there is another way, that is, in the future, Xu Yifan, the governor of the Central Plains, will solve the military salary on his own and raise grain and grass on the spot......

Qian Qianyi said dissatisfiedly: "Lord Hou, the rest is okay to say, the salaries of the princes of the court are already very small, and if they are deducted, how can the princes of the court support their families?" This is absolutely unacceptable! Even if it is reduced, it can only reduce or stop the pension of the fallen soldiers......"

Zhu Jie said coldly: "Lord Qian, you don't care about anything else, just oppose the reduction of the salaries of your colleagues in the DPRK and China, can you not deduct the bereavement pensions of the fallen soldiers?" You courtiers can at least eat three meals a day, without reducing it, and the families of those soldiers who died in battle have no source of life, so there is only one way to starve to death, the soldiers in front are fighting bloodily, and the rear will stop giving compensation, you are pushing the soldiers in the court to the side of the Manchurian Tartars! Monkey business! ”

Qian Qianyi's face was stunned, and he thought about it, the emperor is the most favorite soldier, and when he first arrived in Nanjing, he publicly declared that he would never default or deduct anyone's military salary in the future! But he couldn't die and asked the emperor to suspend the pension of the fallen soldiers......

"The emperor is not thoughtful, and the minister thinks that the court can increase taxes to solve the current crisis......"

Qian Qianyi hurriedly said, it doesn't matter if you levy more or stop the pension, as long as you don't reduce the salaries of our courtiers, then everything is easy to say, and we have to eat......

Zhu Jie was speechless for a while, these people are simply shameless, no matter whether others live or die, as long as they can live! The dog said, with such a group of officials, it is a rare thing for the Ming Dynasty not to die! When the treasury is tight, the first thing that comes to mind is to levy more, or how to snatch food from the soldiers at the bottom.

"Don't even think about the levy, I will never levy on the people of the lower classes, even if the country is destroyed; Second, the soldiers' pensions must also be in place, and whoever reduces their money must not reduce the soldiers' salaries. As for river engineering and water conservancy, it is the foundation of the state, and stopping the allocation of funds is tantamount to drying up the river and fishing, and it is not advisable to ......"

Zhu Jie said a few words, not only Hou Xun's face changed, but above the court, all the people's faces became very ugly, this is not allowed, that is not allowed, what else can this courtier do? At the critical moment, the country and the society are important, the emperor started with conquest, he won't understand this truth, mercy is not in charge of soldiers, good is not in charge of wealth, the emperor has committed these two taboos, where is the original decision to kill?

"Your Majesty!"

Hou Sui was about to cry, "The minister is really incompetent, you don't agree to these items, in a hurry, Weichen really can't raise so much silver, you just copy the minister's house, you can't do it......"

Zhu Jie said helplessly: "Lord Hou, who said that you are going to raid your home, although you have a lot of wealth in your family, but it is not a drop in the bucket, I just want to ask you, according to the current situation in the provinces, next year Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Jiangnan, how much tax can be collected?" ”

Hou Sui hesitated for a moment and replied: "Your Majesty, although Zhili, Shandong, and Shanxi in the north are all in the hands of the Tartars, then, at the beginning of your arrival in Nanjing, you vigorously encouraged agricultural and commercial trade, I think the imperial court tax should not decline, but will increase slightly, after all, the provinces in the south of the Yangtze River are the majority of the imperial court tax, accounting for as much as seventy percent of the imperial court tax, and the annual tax should not be less than 10 million taels of silver......

Zhu Jie nodded and replied, "Since there are so many taxes next year, what are you afraid of?" Hou Sui, let me tell you, the so-called open source, is not simply to give farmers more endowments, the peasants' life is hard enough, open source is to block the world's subjects to evade taxes, this is the most important thing, not to mention anything else, now the imperial court is the total trade volume every year, not less than tens of millions of taels a year, according to the fifteenth tax one, there will be at least two or three million taels of silver tariff every year, but for so many years, what about the customs tariff silver we levied? Where did it go? Every year, when the household receives the most customs tariff silver, it is only two or three hundred thousand taels, and there is no need to say much about the loopholes, right? Let's talk about commercial tax, after a year, not to mention anything else, the tea tax paid by the entire Jiangnan is only a few hundred taels of silver, are you all fooling the ghosts? There are millions of catties of tea produced in the Ming Dynasty every year, right? Only a few hundred taels of silver were levied, could it be that the tea sold by those tea merchants was cheaper than horse grass? What bastard logic? ”

(End of chapter)