On the way to court, I kept thinking about it. I only had 40 million taels in cash on hand, plus the 20 million taels from selling off the guilty minister's property, the total was 60 million taels, excluding the five million taels the palace needed this year.

, there are still 55 million taels, and military pay and disaster relief require 50 million taels each. There are too many monks and too little food, so it is difficult to allocate. We also need to consider that if military pay is not paid, the military governors in various places will raise troops.

An excuse for rebellion. Once the military pay was allocated, the Jiedushi envoys, who already had a disloyal heart, would have more money to recruit troops.

Concealing the amount of silver in the national treasury seems to be the simplest way, but the amount of silver in the national treasury cannot be concealed at all, because he is not the only insider. The ministers and doctors in the Ministry of Accounts all know how much money is in the national treasury.

In addition, the emperor's thoughts must be considered. The method of distributing these silver coins must be taken by the Ministry of Revenue. To put it bluntly, it must be taken by him, and the emperor is only responsible for expressing his approval or disapproval of the distribution method he proposed. Since he became an official

He has never been alone with the emperor, and the relationship with the emperor is only maintained by the tacit understanding before. He sent away the Ni family yesterday, and the emperor is already dissatisfied. If the method of allocating deposits and silver is not obtained this time, the emperor will not be able to get it again.

With recognition, the relationship between monarch and ministers will cool down sharply.

Unexpectedly, the sedan chariot he was riding in had already arrived outside the palace gate. He bowed down from the sedan and entered the palace together with the civil and military officials for the morning court meeting.

He was the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue and the Imperial Censor, with great power. The officials who entered the palace in the early morning were in awe of him, but they were only polite to him. After saying hello, they left with excuses and did not talk to him for a long time.

.

This kind of reaction from the civil and military officials was also expected. The imperial court's intention to attack the Ni family was very obvious, but yesterday he blatantly sent everyone away from the Ni family. This move was tantamount to confronting the emperor. How will the emperor react today?

He is still unknown, and it would not be wise to get too close to him at this time.

He didn't feel disappointed that everyone kept a distance from him, because he had no intention of pursuing an official career and did not want to have anything to do with these officials.

When the time comes, go to the palace and pay your respects early.

Even though there were ten thousand unwillingnesses in his heart, he could only kneel down and kowtow like other officials, because the emperor had previously ordered him to withdraw from the Taoist sect. Although Zhang Shan secretly retained his Taoist status, he no longer publicly

He is a Taoist priest. Since he is not a Taoist priest, he can no longer perform the ritual of bowing his head.

When he got up after the ceremony, he raised his head and glanced at the dragon chair sitting in the north.

As an emperor, his happiness, anger, sorrow, and joy will naturally not be exposed to the public. It is impossible to judge whether his mood is good or bad by just looking at his expression.

There is no decree issued today, so the next step is for officials from various ministries to go out to report. I wanted to hear what the civil and military officials said today before going out to report, but there were no civil and military officials in the Manchu Dynasty who came out to report.

Seeing that the eunuch was about to announce his resignation if he waited any longer, he had no choice but to step out of the queue and say, "I have something to report to you."

The eunuch turned around when he heard the sound. Seeing the emperor nodding, he said sharply, "It's accurate."

At the critical juncture, he instantly regained his composure and quickly entered the state, "Report to the Emperor, Wei Chen was appointed to be in charge of the household department. At the beginning of taking office, the national silver inventory was about two million taels. When Wei Chen was in charge of Yushitai, he inspected the money obtained by corruption.

All four million taels were turned over to the state treasury, and the six million taels donated by Jiguo Gong Ni Zhuo have also been put into the treasury. In the past few days, the eunuchs’ property has been confiscated and 32 million taels of silver have been obtained. Other properties should be equivalent to 20 million taels of silver.

After deducting the 3 million taels allocated yesterday to raise troops and military supplies, the national bank balance is approximately 61 million taels."

He paused briefly at this point, then continued, "The Ministry of Household Affairs has decided that these 60 million taels will be used for the following purposes. The emperor is the most respected person in the world and the co-owner of the world. It is indispensable for the needs of the imperial palace and the inner court, and should be allocated in full."

The annual expenditure is 5 million taels, so there is still 56 million taels of silver in reserve. The current disaster is serious, and there are many victims in various states, counties, and counties. Human lives are at stake, and relief is urgently needed. A total of 5,000 taels of silver are needed for disaster relief in various places.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development plans to allocate 28 million taels to purchase grain and provide relief to disaster relief. In addition, the officers and soldiers stationed in various places are also in urgent need of military grain and grass. The Ministry of War has urged many times before that soldiers are a major event for the country and military supplies should be

Prioritize processing. The garrison also needs 50 million taels of silver for military pay and military supplies. However, the Ministry of Revenue currently does not have that much silver. Therefore, the Ministry of Revenue plans to allocate all the remaining 28.2 million taels in the national treasury to purchase grain and grass and send them to various places.

garrison."

After saying this, there was silence in the palace. After a moment, the emperor said, "According to the report, we will also reduce the needs of the inner court by two million taels, which will be used to provide relief to the victims and purchase military supplies."

"My emperor is a wise man." All civil and military officials flattered him.

Seeing that other officials had nothing to say, the emperor stood up and left. The eunuch shouted

Retreat from the court.

Everyone thought they would be punished today for sending everyone away from the Ni family. Who would have thought that he did not mention this matter at all, and the emperor did not ask about it. Not only did he not convict him, but he also paid all the money he had planned.

Sight.

The officials were so realistic. Seeing that they had not been punished, they came over to talk to him one after another. They were too lazy to pay attention to these people. They didn't even bother to pay superficial courtesy. After retreating from the court, they turned around and left.

When he came out of the hall, he breathed a sigh of relief. His previous words seemed ordinary, but in fact they contained a hidden secret. He could not and did not want to hide the true amount of silver in the national treasury, because it was all his fault. He

He has achieved remarkable results in raising money for the imperial court.

In addition, the reason why he mentioned Ni Zhuo's donation of six million taels was to express his and Ni Ni's attitude. If the Ni family had no fault at all, why would they donate six million taels? The donation itself was to show that they had done something good.

There was a fault, which was in the nature of atonement, and the reason why the Ni family did this must have been discussed with him. Therefore, Ni Zuo donated 6 million taels, which not only showed Ni Zuo's attitude, but also his attitude. To put it bluntly,

It means admitting that what you have done is lacking, and hoping to gain the emperor's understanding. Whether the emperor understands or not depends on the emperor's magnanimity. At least Ni Tuo and his attitude are correct.

Furthermore, he divided the national treasury into two and allocated all the money, half for disaster relief and half for military supplies. This was also a very smart approach. It placed soldiers and people in an equally important position, whether it was the army or the army.

For the people affected by the disaster, no one can say that the imperial court prefers one to another. It is also a very clever way to use all the silver allocated to both parties to purchase grain and grass without discovering the silver. For the affected prefectures, counties, and counties, the court does not distribute silver or rice.

They are all the same. But there is a difference for the army. If silver is given to the army under Jiedushi, the direct consequence is that Jiedushi will use the money to recruit troops on a large scale, while distributing food can help in some way.

Of course, it is impossible to completely eliminate this situation, because the grain distributed to Jiedushi can also be sold for money, but it takes time to sell it, and the court buys grain and transports it to various military camps.

It also takes time, and what the court needs most right now is time. After all, recruiting 300,000 new troops cannot be accomplished overnight.

The last sentence of the emperor's words, "Reduce the needs of the inner court by two million taels, and use them to provide relief to the victims and purchase military supplies."

The important word is "purchasing military supplies," which shows that the emperor understood his painstaking efforts and why he did not directly issue silver coins but grain and grass. He also understood that he did this to ease the conflict and buy time for the court.

In addition, the reason why he directly emptied the treasury was to kill two birds with one stone. One was to save as many lives as possible, and the other was to highlight his own importance. Since the treasury was empty again, the new army recruited by the imperial court would need military pay and rice grain.

With no place to live, you have to rely on him to raise money. As the saying goes, a clean slate covers a hundred ugly things. Although he violated the holy will in the case of the Ni family, he was ruthless and raised money quickly. Moreover, the Ni family moved away, leaving behind

All the property fell into his hands, which was a huge fortune. In critical moments, whether to donate money to help the court or not was only a matter of his mind.

This is the imperial court, this is officialdom. Even if he is dedicated to serving the public good, everything is dangerous and he is startling at every step.

There is a reason why many people don't like officialdom. Being in officialdom requires brains. If you don't have enough brains, it will be difficult to move forward in officialdom.

Datou knew that he was not used to sitting in a sedan chair, so he led his horse to wait outside the palace gate early. When he was about to go out, he hurriedly greeted him, "Sir, how are you doing?"

Knowing that Datou was also worried that he would be punished for sending everyone away from the Ni family, he casually replied, "Nothing."

Datou was relieved when he heard this. After getting on his horse, he asked again, "Sir, where are you going?"

Before he could answer, the Minister of War, who was following behind, hurried forward and said, "Master Li, can you take a step to speak?"

"Huh?" He frowned and turned around.

"I would like to discuss the issue of military pay and military supplies separately with Mr. Li," said the Minister of War.

"I'm not free right now, let's talk about it another day," he said casually. Seeing the officials from the Ministry of Revenue coming out of the palace gate, he waved to them. After a few people came forward, he said to them, "Go back and allocate the money for disaster relief as soon as possible."

Library."

The officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs bowed and cupped their hands, and responded in unison.

Shaking the reins and urging the horse, he left the Minister of War behind and headed south quickly.

Da Tou followed up on horseback, "Sir, where are you going?"
Chapter completed!