C3792 (1/2)
Tongzhi immediately noticed that something was amiss. After circling around for half a day, the most important thing was not about whether or not he should cultivate the Steel plant! It was a matter of money!
”Mm …” Zai Chun muttered to himself, ”I've seen the balance of income and expenditure for the past few years in your Department of Revenue. Right now, the government has an annual surplus of over ten million.
”Bao Yun! ”What do you mean?”
Bao Yun's face was pale white as he cupped his hands and said, ”Your Majesty! The Ministry of Revenue's surplus of more than 10 million may seem like a lot, but the hole in our government is also huge! ”
”Do you know how much new spending is planned for each department?”
”Every year, there will be around two discounts on the rates paid by the clan members. ”Although there has been a portion of it in the past few years, there is still a huge debt of seven million from the Flag People!”
”work department requests to dredge up a total of 11 million silver taels from Huang Huai … Fortunately, the rain has not been heavy in the past few years, so there is no need for cultivation. However, if this year and next year, the Huang Huai region rains too much, there might be an overflowing situation! ”
”This money won't be left either!”
”The military has been clamoring for a long time about repairing the River Yin Cannon. That's another two million taels of silver!”
”All the other departments have approved the application, the total amount is 40 to 50 million silver taels!”
”Where is the money? ”The Ministry of Revenue doesn't have any money to begin with. Your Majesty, please know that the Ministry of Revenue really doesn't have any silver …”
Bao Yun was an honest official, and the way he spoke was completely different from that of a bastard king like Yi Kuang! Yi Kuang only knew how to play dirty and act rascally, but Bao Yun was able to display every single place that his country had spent their money on!
Every one of them made you unable to speak, unable to refute!
Salary arrears were a debt that had been owed for many years, and had already been owed since Daoguang years ago. It could be put on hold, but how could Huang Huai save the money for the water conservancy?
Previously, the warring states didn't have any money, but now that they had money, shouldn't they quickly make up for it? Were they really waiting for the heavens to be unhappy and cause such a commotion?
The Jiang Yin Fortress could not be fortified, as the Chinese and foreign powers were becoming more and more powerful, the Great Qing's defense of the sea was already useless!
If the defense of the seas was gone, would the defense of the rivers be lost as well?
This gap between Shanghai and Nanjing happened to be blocked by Jiang Yin. This fortress was controlled by the imperial government, and all enemy warships would have their tails between their legs!
This is an investment in national security, can you save it? The military had already slammed their hands on the table for this!
The Ministry of Rites and Ministry of Justice also had many projects that they wanted money for. Each of these reasons was absolutely grand!
In the final analysis, if the Ministry of Revenue didn't have any money, don't think that it was true that they had a surplus of over 10 million yuan every year. In fact, that was not counting all the debts!
Zai Chun's expression turned wooden. He did not expect that governing a country would actually require so much money, and all of them were so important.
Everyone was looking at Zai Chun, anxiously hoping to hear the emperor's reaction. Since Bao Yun had kicked the ball over, it was time to see how the emperor was going to receive the blow!
This was a conspiracy, a trap. The government's old fox had actually smelled it, but no one dared to say anything!
Ci Xi and Ci An's face changed, the two of them had already guessed what the courtiers wanted to do, but it was too late for them to inform the Emperor, so they could not say it out loud.
Just as Ci Xi was about to break Zai Chun's train of thought, the Military Chief, Gui Ying, suddenly stood up and kneeled in front of Tongzhi, his eyes red.
”Your Majesty! ”This official has something to say. The stronghold of the river Yin cannot be fortified any longer. The situation at the mouth of the Yangtze River is only the first stage of the river Yin.”
”As long as we build our cannons high, we can easily seal the river surface with the latest cannon. When that happens, the enemy's battleships can forget about invading our river along the river!”