"Please rest assured to the Queen Mother. Lord Chen is famous all over the world now, how could he lack the company of a beautiful woman?"

Empress Dowager Deng smiled slightly: "Since that's the case, then the gentleman will not force others to do anything. Since Lord Chen really wants to resign, the Ai family will agree. It is just that he wants to give me kindness and rewards. We cannot let the world say that the court has treated the meritorious officials in a poor manner and hurt the scholars' desire to serve the country!"

"The Queen Mother's Holy Wisdom!"

It is almost noon now, and the Empress Dowager gave food in the side hall, and several prime ministers sat down for meals. Wang Qinian happened to sit beside Qi Zhiti, took a few bites, and whispered: "Why do you want to say good things to Chen Zaixing today?"

Qi Zhiti smiled slightly and replied in a low voice: "What, do you want to punish him for being disrespectful to the court and losing his ministerial body?" Wang Qinian did not answer silently. It was obvious that it was inappropriate to do this to a meritorious minister at this critical moment. Not to mention anything else, even Empress Dowager Deng could not pass the hurdle.

"Since that's the case, it's better to buy it. Besides, Chen Zaixing's departure from the court is not a bad thing. At least he would have lost a helping hand to the old man Wu in the southwest? You are the chief assistant, just give in these small things!"

"Then what do you think should be done?"

"The Queen Mother has set the tone and wants to be rewarded with good gifts. This Lord Chen heard that he has earned a lot of money in Myanmar over the years. It doesn't matter if he gives him too much money. He can only add some titles."

"Hmph! The court is very tight now!"

Qi Zhiti did not answer, but just smiled slightly. Both of them were prime ministers, and naturally understood the current court's family background. Although Dashun handled both events in the north and south in the past two years and did not delay the war, war was a war. The "The Art of War" said, "The cost of internal and external, the use of guests, the materials of glue, the delivery of chariots, the supply of armor, a hundred dollars a day, and then a 100,000 troops were promoted." However, it is definitely not an exaggeration. Dashun's income of millions of taels of silver increased by various means by borrowing debts, taxes, and fundraising some time ago, compared with the expenses of the two wars, it was like a pile of sugar washed by a flood, slowly collapsed and disappeared under the water. In a sense, the Dashun Empire was not the winner of this war. He gained very little in this war, but the foundation of the empire, the fragile financial balance, was slowly eroded.

Compared with the previous dynasty, Dashun's annual income was several times more, but the times were different, and expenditures had to grow faster. The construction of railways, the use of telegraph lines, the new army, navy, and the machine bureaus behind it, and factories all needed a lot of money to spend. These expenditures were like a monster that could never be satisfied, constantly devouring the wealth of the empire. Now for the empire's chief minister, the biggest problem is nothing more, to find new sources of wealth and more wealth to support the empire to continue to survive, but this is what Wang Qinian and others are most not good at.

It is not that the Confucian scholars in Dashun are the kind of old antiques that "why do you have to speak for profit" that can reach the position of the cabinet ministers. They have been in the official career for a long time. They all understand the importance of money to an empire. In a sense, money is the blood of the empire, the giant. If there is not enough money, no matter how vast the territory of the empire is, how rich the resources, how numerous the army, or how rich the people, this empire will only have a dead end.

But the problem now is that no matter how smart cabinet ministers Luo Jue, they found that compared to the expenditure of the empire, their income always seemed so short. The Minister of Revenue Hu Keqin, who cried poorly all day long, said the following words half-jokingly during a private banquet: "If we continue like this, Dashun will probably have to sell the land and houses left by our ancestors one by one like the old dilapidated houses to barely survive. When the sale is almost done, the emperor will no longer determine the national affairs, but the creditors who hold the debt scrolls behind them. Sometimes I think the form of the empire is no longer suitable for this country. The reason is very simple: the emperor earns less than the flowers. How can such a transaction be in the world last for a long time? It is better to let those guys who can earn more than the flowers take on this chore!"

Of course, Lord Hu's somewhat rebellious remarks did not spread to the empress dowager, but even the generous and kind Empress Dowager Deng heard this discussion, he would probably only smile bitterly without punishing Shangshu! Even though she was in the deep palace, she knew how bad the current financial situation of Dashun was. The reason for all this was not because Dashun is too poor now, on the contrary, but Dashun was too rich and could not get the money.

Over the past two hundred years since its founding, the country of Dashun has undergone slow and irreversible changes. Although the country's power is still in the hands of Confucian ministers whose imperial examinations are the main source, the sources of Confucian ministers are very different. At the time of our country, the proportion of Jinshi in the north and south was about 6:4, but with the economic recovery and development, the proportion of Jinshi in the north and south gradually became 7:3. By the time of Emperor Zhezong, it actually reached a terrifying 8:2. More than ten prefectures and counties in Jiangnan alone accounted for 30% of the national Jinshi's annual quota. This is of course not an accident. The huge gap between the economy of the north and the south determines that

With a larger population of literacy in the south and a more prosperous education, it will naturally have a greater advantage in the imperial examinations. This is indeed even more so in the wealthiest Jiangnan Wuyue. Although some people in the court were worried about this and demanded that various means be used to limit the quota of Jinshi in the south and maintain a certain political balance, their behavior failed without exception in the face of a large number of ministers from southern origin in the court. In the later years of Zhezong, there was a situation of "the cabinet was full of Wuyin", which made the elderly and weak Emperor Zhezong quite annoyed and issued the famous saying "Wu'er is frivolous and ruining our country!"

Under such a situation, it is obviously very difficult to increase the country's income by increasing taxes in the prosperous areas. Although the imperial court has tried several times in the past century to increase taxes on the south, especially in the Jiangnan region, under the obstruction of the ministers from the southern provinces who firmly safeguard local interests, all failed without exception. The industrial and commercial giants held huge amounts of money and hired millions of workers, and the power they possessed was amazing. As Qin Jihong, a famous minister during the time of Emperor Zhezong, wrote in his memorial: "The people of Jiangnan are frivolous in customs and do not pay attention to savings. Those who wear brocade and embroidered clothes have no food for ten months. They are Jiaxing Liu, Yixing Wu, Huating Chen surnames, and Wu and Yue, those who are raising their own businesses

, not just millions. If the family is destroyed, millions of creatures will suddenly lose their jobs. If there is a Chen, the Wu people will rush their arms to the south. I am afraid that half of the Jiangnan area will not belong to the court!" By the end of Emperor Zhezong, the court had basically given up the attempt to restore fiscal balance by increasing industrial and commercial taxes in the Jiangnan area, and basically used traditional tax methods such as money lending, wine tax, and salt tax to make up for the state. However, these methods have one or another sequelae. The consumption taxes such as wine tax and salt tax will increase the life pressure of ordinary people and increase the sales of private salt and private wine. Therefore, the problem of insufficient national use has become more and more serious. The debt lending requires a large amount of interest, which in the long run has increased the burden on the court.

Compared with many other ancient countries in the same era, Dashun was very lucky. Her long distance from Europe determined that the greedy European powers had a very limited power to it, and her huge size allowed her to bear the huge amount of money needed for military modernization. These gave her enough military strength to resist the invasion of the great powers. The huge advancement of military technology brought about by modernization actually widened the military gap between Dashun and the surrounding traditional vassal states. So in a sense, the first industrial revolution in the 19th century not only did not weaken, but also greatly strengthened Dashun's traditional strategic position in East Asia. But this impact was not unilateral. While enhancing the military power of the empire, it also increased the military gap between Dashun and the other side. But it weakened the financial and social foundation of the empire. A large number of bankrupt farmers entered the city and became workers. Production had made great progress, but the huge amount of wealth grew was concentrated in the hands of emerging factory owners and bankers, but the government had little income. These emerging classes with huge wealth and influence were full of confidence and prepared to reshape the country according to their wishes, while the rulers of the empire were hesitating about which path to go forward. As Jillins wrote in a letter to Belfort: "The Dashun Empire was a giant, but a giant with a steel body and dirt legs. His fragile ankles and knees were crushed by his heavy upper body. As long as he was pushed hard, he would fall to the ground and fall to pieces."

Although most people in the court were puzzled by Chen Zaixing's willingness to resign from office and had different opinions, one person still guessed the answer. The reason was not that this person's wisdom exceeded that of everyone, but because this person was a woman, a woman who had feelings for Chen Zaixing. Although women did not surpass men in wisdom, sometimes women had amazing intuitions, allowing them to cross the fog and directly reach the other side of the real world. For example, this time, Jiang Qingyue guessed the real answer the moment she heard Chen Zaixing's resignation memo.

"It must be for that woman, the regent princess of Burma, that he resigned!" Jiang Qingyue clenched her fists in pain, and her teeth bit her lips, but the pain caused was nothing compared to the feeling in her heart. When she thought of the man leaving her for another woman, she felt that there was an invisible beast in her chest that was biting. At this time, she felt that she was a woman, not a Weixian, who followed the order.

"Empress, Empress!" A voice woke Jiang Qingyue up, and a man beside him whispered with a pen and said in a low voice: "Your lips are broken, and blood is flowing out, wipe it quickly!"

Jiang Qingyue reacted and felt a tingling sensation on her lips. She hurriedly wiped away the blood with her handkerchief and turned to smile gratefully at the pen. At this time, the sharp singing of the female official came from her ears, and she realized that the court meeting was over. Jiang Qingyue lowered her head slightly in the direction of the throne of Queen Mother Deng, and her mouth was filled with the bitter taste of blood.

"Very good, resurrection, we're even this time!"
Chapter completed!