Chapter 157                                                             

Zhu Qizhen could evade Liu Dingzhi.

After all, Zhu Qizhen is the emperor, and the emperor has many privileges.

For example, Wang Gu talks about him, for example, staying at home and not sending him.

With a heavy snow, the battlefield in the Western Regions could only wait for the white snow to melt. The dark tide in the court seemed to be frozen. Or Zhu Qizhen's delaying strategy worked.

However, the financial meeting in the 34th year of Zhengtong was affected by this and was delayed for a long time.

During the system that Zhou Chen had reformed, every year around October, the accounts of various places had to be reported to the court. Generally speaking, it was the autumn tax of last year and the summer tax of that year.

This is because before October, the autumn tax of that year was not enough to be collected. Generally speaking, local governments will pay the autumn tax to the court before May of the next year. Before the autumn harvest, the spring tax will pay the spring tax to the court.

But this year's financial meeting has been delayed for a long time.

This was originally a matter of the Ministry of Revenue. First, the Ministry of Revenue could not make a decision. Later, there were differences in the cabinet meeting. Finally, the imperial front meeting had to be held.

The biggest difference was the sudden outbreak of the Western Regions after last autumn. In this battle to combat the rebellion, the Ministry of Revenue and the Privy Council of the Ministry of War discussed and issued a military expenditure of 12 million taels.

However, the Ministry of Revenue cannot bear this digital, so it wants to weaken the budgets of other departments.

No one wants the other part.

The Ministry of Rites said that schools in various places have just been built and the trials are coming soon. It also requires a large amount of expenses and is impossible to reduce.

In addition, the court's various etiquette expenses, banquet expenses, etc.

The Ministry of Justice said that the Ministry of Justice’s expenses are not much, but it is just prison expenses and various administrative expenses. How can it be reduced? And even if it is reduced by tens of thousands of taels, can this hole be filled?

The Ministry of Personnel does not need to speak much, and the Ministry of Revenue dares not offend the Ministry of Personnel, and the Ministry of Personnel does not have much cost.

But it's just some office expenses.

However, the following departments have huge expenses, but each one does not want to be reduced.

Even at this imperial meeting, the Minister of Works was not required to speak at all, but Wang Yonghe fought on behalf of them.

The issue of the Ministry of Revenue is also endorsed by Liu Dingzhi, so it goes without saying that the Ministry of War has a lot of expenses per year, but the power of the Ministry of War has been invaded by the Privy Council. Most of these expenses are fought for by two dukes.

In fact, although these ministers all have their own interests, they have a big view of the situation when they can sit in this position, and the reason why they can't stand it for a long time.

It is not these planned projects, but some unplanned projects.

To be precise, it is the expense of some reform projects in Zhu Qizhen.

It can even be said that this is the response of all officials to drag Zhu Qizhen over and hope to drag this matter silently.

Faced with the sudden fiscal gap, the Ming Dynasty's finances were somewhat difficult. But it was not enough to squeeze out the money.

Zhu Qizhen knew it.

At this moment, in Wenhua Hall.

Zhu Qi sat quietly on the imperial throne, looking at the long mahogany table, the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet sat on both sides, and the six ministers and several generals of the Privy Council also sat at the far end of the mahogany table, with each of them having a stack of account books.

The ministers of various departments and even the chief officials of the second-level yamen were not qualified to sit on this mahogany table, but there was a row of tables behind these ministers. There were also a batch of account books here.

At today's meeting, there is destined to be a verbal battle.

Liu Dingzhi first stood up and bowed to Zhu Qizhen, then gave a flat ceremony to the ministers on both sides, and said, "Your Majesty has his life, I will preside over this meeting. Stop talking nonsense, this matter should have been resolved before the seal was sealed before the New Year. Now it is the end of the first month. All the yamen have opened seals, and it has delayed a lot of matters in the court, so it cannot be delayed any further."

"Last year, the imperial court's income was 15.35 million yuan in silver and 39 million stones of grain. There were 1.3 million stones of grain and grass in various places."

"Silver is actually collected, and the principle of transporting seven or three grains is to be kept in the granary of various places. There are 2,000 stones and 1,2 million stones left in the local area, and there are still several million stones, either directly supporting local garrisons or sending them to local projects."

"The account book is here. If you don't believe it, you can check it. I won't talk about it one by one."

"Silver dollars are mainly salt tax, tea tax, customs tax, and canal and Yangtze River banknote tariffs. These four items start by about one million yuan more than year. This amount comes from Nagasaki Pass, and the Japanese Governor Duanmurui is doing his job well."

"This is the annual income from last year. Let's talk about the original balance."

"Last year, the surplus was made, and the imperial court had 10 million silver treasury. There were 15 million stones of silver in each warehouse in Beijing, Tianjin and Tongzhou. According to the court's practice, these Beijing warehouses had to store 20 million stones of grain. However, last year, the Western Regions broke out, and the imperial court temporarily allocated grain three times, totaling 5 million stones. One was transported to Dongshengwei, preparing a large amount of grain for the expedition, and the other passed the hike, from the capital to Xuzhou to Luoyang, and preparing to enter Shaanxi from Luoyang. Now some have been transported. There are still some on the road. Therefore, this time, the capital must intercept at least 10 million stones of grain and replenish the Beijing warehouse."

"The court's expenses this year can cost up to 15 million yuan and 15 million stones of grain. The surplus of the Ministry of Revenue cannot be moved. There is also 20 million stones of Jingcang, which is also very good."

Liu Dingyi determined the total number of this spoils-sharing meeting at the beginning.

Zhu Qizhen also understands this.

Some people may think that it is a huge waste to store so many grain silver dollars in the silver treasury and grain treasury. But they don’t know that the ancients always had the concept of three years of storage.

This is not because later generations, where the country's finances are insufficient, there are ways to adopt temporary financial measures to issue treasury bonds, or simply over-issuance of currency.

There is always a duty to deal with it.

However, it is completely impossible in the Ming Dynasty system. The Ming Dynasty raised so many soldiers. It is still possible to owe salary one or two months. If the owed time is long, see if the people below will arm their debts.

And there are too many uncertain things in the agricultural society.

Not to mention anything else, just say that if there is a sudden disaster this year and there are tens of millions of victims to be provided, what should the court do? Where does this money come from?

There is no way, the people below are going to rebel.

When Zhu Qizhen fought with Wasai, the finances collapsed very tightly, but now it is a little peaceful, Liu Dingzhi made such a decision to maintain the Ministry of Revenue's bank treasury and granary, and always had enough reserves.

This is what Zhu Qizhen refers to. It is not that the court did not have enough money, but that some things have not been explained clearly.

Some things are difficult to accomplish, but it is easy to fail.

Zhu Qizhen first determined the center and said, "The Chief Supervisor, now is the extraordinary time. Don't stick to some things."

Liu Ding looked embarrassed and said, "This--------"

Zhu Qizhen said: "It's settled."

Liu Dingzhi then said, "I obey the order."

Seeing that Liu Dingzhi agreed so easily, Zhu Qizhen suddenly understood that Liu Dingzhi had this intention in fact. But he didn't want to talk about the front, and there was no other way, and there was a big fight afterwards.

If Liu Dingzhi had made concessions too easily, the rest would take it for granted.

Liu Dingzhi quickly said: "Even if it is cut by half, the fiscal expenditure available to the court this year will be only 20 million yuan, and 25 million stones of grain."

Although Liu Dingzhi agreed to Zhu Qizhen, he still left a warehouse for the Ministry of Revenue.

Zhu Qizhen said, "Since that's the case, let's start. Come one by one."

Liu Dingzhi seemed to start from a small part, among the six ministries and nine ministers, the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Justice, Taichang, Taipu, Guanglu Temple, Tongzhengsi, Hanlin Academy, Imperial College, Dali Temple, and other mixed yamen.

The biggest expenses of these yamen are staff salaries and office expenses. Liu Dingzhi calculated one by one, and gave a price of about 2 million taels for the purchase.

All were sent.

All the local governments have given a discount on all requests. Although each government is a little uncomfortable, he dare not say anything when facing Liu Dingzhi.
Chapter completed!