C3402 Zuo Zongtang who was worried about money (1/2)

The finances at the end of the Qing dynasty were so chaotic that it was outrageous!

The military spending that Zuo Zongtang had used to flatten Xinjiang was coming from an extremely chaotic source. Due to the previous conflict between the sea and land, it had almost become a political power within the imperial government.

However, most of the imperial court officials still supported Li Hongzhang's suggestion. It was not because they did not want Xinjiang, but rather, they wanted the limited financial resources to go to sea.

After all, how close was the coastline to the capital? British and French combined forces could even directly send a attack from the Da Gu Kou to the capital!

~ Ah, how far is Xinjiang? There are so many natural moats along the way, how is Yaqub able to fight his way to Beijing!

With the morals of those officials who had been waiting to die during the last years of the Qing Dynasty, they would not be in a hurry to destroy the east wall and repair the west wall. Since the hole in the sea defense was closer to them, they might as well block this hole first.

In the battle between Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang, he gradually fell into a disadvantageous position. The hot-tempered and stubborn Zuo Zongtang would not accept defeat, he wagered to the imperial government that he wanted to raise his own salary.

As long as you don't spend my money, you can do whatever you want!

However, the so-called self-financing military pay could not be disregarded by the imperial government. It was not shameful at all, and in the end, the Ministry of Revenue gave them two million taels of silver.

The rest was up to the provinces!

It was clear from how incompetent the Qing Dynasty was. In the end, even the basic financial control over the country fell, and the provincial rates gave the provinces a very large amount of independent authority over the finances.

Until this moment, the daoyin s of the various provinces were truly called border feudal officials!

All kinds of bad debts and bad debts come up one after another. In any case, your imperial government doesn't have the energy to check the accounts, and even your imperial government is tacitly accepting the corruption of the local bureaucracy.

Under the order of the rate, those who had a good relationship with Zuo Zongtang would be able to raise fifty to sixty percent. If the relationship was not good, then they would say that their province's water was uneven, even if they owed you, they wouldn't be able to do anything.

Until the year that Zai Chun returned to his hometown, Zuo Zongtang did an accounting, and discovered that he was owed a huge amount of twenty million silver!

There was no money in the government account department, only debts owed by the provinces. Zuo Zongtang had no choice but to borrow money, borrow money from the private capital of the Qing Dynasty, and borrow money from foreign merchants … He wanted to borrow money from the Chinese!

In the real history, Zuo Zongtang borrowed money to take back Xinjiang!

A dignified Great Qing like him actually forced his subjects to borrow money to fight a war. Even if he turned around and used the imperial taxes to pay his debt, this process would still have to be carried out by the imperial government!

Why did the Qing Dynasty perish? He himself had already decided that he would die in a country, and since the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he knew that he would die sooner or later.

If you want to spend my Manchu's money, then you definitely can't, but if you want to borrow money to do business? Anyway, in the end, the Chinese will pay the tax, and that will not touch the meat in my Manchu's pot.

With such greed and selfishness, how could the imperial government not perish?!

In the dark night, under an oil lamp, the infamous Zuo Zongtang was lost in thought in his study in the Golden Region Grand Commander's Estate.

”Marshal …” ”It's too dark, let's have one more lamp …”

A voice came from outside the study room, and soon after, a high-ranking officer dressed in commander's uniform walked in, holding a silver candlestick in his hand.

The three smokeless candles on the trident candlesticks of the Sea King flickered with flames, and as soon as the candlesticks entered the room, they lit up.

”Ah …” It was Yi Zhai! You haven't rested yet? ”There's no need for it to be so bright. Save your military expenses …”