Chapter 459: Making up for the situation before it is too late
Wu Yusheng was quite pleased with what he had done. The huge losses suffered by the Ministry of Revenue were irreparable, but we could not break the pot because of this. We still had to take the necessary remedial measures. If we could save a little, a little was better than nothing.
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Before, he had never wanted the courtiers to know that Wu Yusheng was very close to him, but at this moment, he no longer cared and talked quietly to Wu Yusheng from the corner of the inner corridor where he was waiting to go to court. He had been away from the court for some time, and he
During this period, Wu Yusheng had been in charge of the household department as the left minister of the household department, so Wu Yusheng knew the current situation of the household department better than he did.
Don’t beat around the bush and get straight to the point, “How much money is needed to tide over the current difficulties?”
Opportunities are always reserved for those who are prepared. Wu Yusheng guessed that he would be summoned and would definitely ask this question. Therefore, he sorted out the financial needs of various departments of the Ministry of Revenue last night. When asked this time, he immediately answered,
"Going back to your Majesty, based on my rough calculation, if you want to maintain the tax collection and deposit into the treasury until this autumn, you will need at least 130 million taels of silver."
"Huh?" The number Wu Yusheng said was far higher than expected.
Wu Yusheng's surprise seemed to be expected, and he whispered, "One hundred and thirty million taels can only guarantee basic military equipment and disaster relief needs, and does not include the salaries of officials at all levels and the cost of embankment construction during the summer rain season."
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"Are you sure your calculation is correct?" He confirmed that he had also been in charge of the household department. In his opinion, the number Wu Yusheng said was obviously too high.
"Sure," Wu Yusheng nodded and said, "My lord, you have overlooked one point. The 70 million taels of silver deposited in the Ministry of Household Affairs were stolen by traitors. With so much silver flowing into the private sector, food prices will inevitably rise sharply."
Hearing Wu Yusheng's words, he nodded slowly. Wu Yusheng said that it did make sense. Before, he had ignored the rice grain premium caused by the large amount of money flowing into the private sector.
Wu Yusheng looked solemn when he saw him, and looked ashamed, "He is incompetent in his humble position and cannot share the Lord's worries."
Although there is a word difference between "sharing worries for the king" and "sharing worries for the Lord", the meanings are completely different. Wu Yusheng's sentence is equivalent to "sharing the worries for the Lord". Although this sentence is not high-level, it is full of gratitude for the support along the way.
Factions have existed since ancient times. Subordinates will definitely feel grateful when their superiors support them. This is also human nature. You cannot not be unappreciative to your superiors who support and care for you, but instead be grateful to those who suppress and exclude you.
"As a minister of household affairs, if you don't go to the middle hall or join the nine ministers, what you can do is very limited." He said casually.
"Your Majesty." Wu Yusheng sighed and lowered his head. He is a smart man, and he is also a wise man. Sometimes he doesn't need to say things clearly, it is enough to just listen to the implication. Since he said this
After all, I will definitely fight for him to be the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.
"Nine million taels will be put into the treasury within 20 days, of which 5 million taels will be allocated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs," Zhengse said. "We should try to reduce expenditures during this period. The next month, the silver taels will be sent to us one after another."
Hearing the words, Wu Yusheng nodded heavily. Although he didn't know where he got the money, he knew that it was not easy to get the money.
The time for going to court has passed, but everyone did not wait for the emperor to come. They only waited for Eunuch Zhou to deliver the decree. The emperor had decreed that the court should be suspended today.
It was expected by all the officials that the emperor would not go to court today. After hearing the edict from Eunuch Zhou, they all retreated.
Seeing Eunuch Zhou waving to him, he walked over. When he got closer, Eunuch Zhou said in a low voice, "Your Majesty, the emperor has said that if you are going to court this morning, please go to the back hall to speak."
After nodding, he turned around and waved to Yang Kai and Wu Yusheng, signaling them to go back first, and then went to the back hall with Eunuch Zhou.
Eunuch Zhou had not slept all night and was very tired. However, a sudden change occurred and the emperor did not speak, and he did not dare to go on duty.
"How is the emperor?" he asked casually.
"I woke up several times last night and am not in good spirits today," Eunuch Zhou said in a low voice, "I wanted to announce the arrival of the imperial doctor, but the emperor stopped me."
He nodded. As the saying goes, once bitten by a snake, he will be afraid of well ropes for ten years. The emperor was already suspicious, but after this incident, no one would dare to believe it.
When he went to the back hall, the emperor stood up and sat on the soft couch to talk.
In fact, the emperor summoned me today because he just wanted to know what should be done next, but naturally it was not convenient for the emperor to ask, so he could only take the initiative to say it.
The emperor was in low spirits and did not talk nonsense. His thoughts were concise and concise. First, Zhang Shan's attack on Hanzhong was a tragic one and the new army he led was severely reduced in number. He was determined to join forces with Tongchen and take Hanzhong first.
Second, when the Ni family left for the Western Regions, they left some properties in China, which could solve the urgent needs of the new army. At this time, Long Haotian was attacking Xichuan. At this juncture, it was not appropriate to issue an order to correct the situation. We could only wait and see how the war in Xichuan developed before making any further decisions.
Calculate.
Third, he finally led the main force of the Japanese pirates back to Japan and gained a little advantage. It was urgent to find the Earthly Branches for protection. Yang Kai, Yu, Shi, Xuanming and the others went to Hebei Road today to continue searching for the Earthly Branches.
Fourth, Datou stayed in Chang'an to raise money and food. The five million taels of silver would be delivered to the Ministry of Internal Affairs within five days. He left Beijing immediately to try to raise the money and food needed for the follow-up.
Fifth, Wu Yusheng is worthy of a big responsibility and can correct the situation.
Seeing that the arrangements were in good order, the emperor was convinced that everything he asked for in his report would be fulfilled.
After finishing the business, he immediately stood up and left. The emperor was exhausted both physically and mentally and urgently needed to rest.
When he came out of the inner room, he criticized Eunuch Zhou and others a few words, saying that they were exhausted and lack of energy, so he immediately replaced other eunuchs to serve the emperor.
Although they were criticized, Eunuch Zhou and others were full of gratitude. The emperor was in shock and distraught at this time. He didn't care whether they were tired or not, and they did not dare to change shifts normally. If they made the emperor unhappy, they might be killed at any time.
Different place.
After coming out of the back hall, he told Liu Tianlin and others a few words, ordering them to mobilize all the purple energy masters of the Yulin Army to take turns day and night to closely protect the emperor.
Logically speaking, he had no authority to command the Yulin Army, but Liu Tianlin and others were very grateful to him for speaking at this time, because they could finally take advantage of the opportunity to reply and speak out from the courtyard, so that the emperor knew that they had been guarding outside the palace.
Didn't go far.
In response to the order, Liu Tianlin and others did not respond loudly, because if they responded solemnly, it would be equivalent to mobilizing the Yulin Army, which would make the emperor suspicious. Therefore, they replied, "Your Majesty, don't worry, leave this place to us."
, such an answer is not considered a formal acceptance of the order.
People with insufficient mental capacity cannot be officials. Even if they become officials, they will be dismissed within three days. As the saying goes, if virtue is not matched, there will be disaster. If the mind is not matched, disaster will come faster.
Back at the palace, almost all the officials from the three provinces, six ministries and major government agencies arrived. There was such a big mess in the court, and they were eager to know what the emperor would do next, but the emperor was currently invisible, so they could only come over.
When you pay a visit, you have fulfilled all the etiquette and got close to each other, and you can also get some information.
Although he was eager to leave for the south, he could only patiently meet with officials from various ministries one by one, mainly encouraging them and supplementing them with criticism. He should not only encourage them to carry out their tasks with peace of mind, but also let them know what they were not doing well.
It is actually not good to interview them one by one. It is easy for people to suspect whether they have any personal relationships with these officials and whether there is anything shameful in the conversation. But it is not good to interview them all at once, because the division of labor among officials is different, and some are superiors and subordinates.
relationship, and you cannot criticize your subordinates in front of them
boss.
In order to avoid being criticized, he only served one cup of tea. After drinking one cup of tea, he stopped adding water and directly served the tea to the guests. He just said that he was eager to raise silver for the court and had no time to talk to them.
The three provinces, six ministries and major government agencies all have their own office expenses. Anyway, he has already said it, and let these people figure out the rest.
Even in an effort to be quick, it was already noon after meeting so many officials. Wu Yusheng did not come to the palace originally, but came just before noon. He had already received the imperial decree and was directly promoted from the left minister of the Ministry of Revenue to the minister of the Ministry of household affairs.
The minister of household affairs is the fourth rank, the minister of household affairs is the third rank, and there is the junior rank in the middle. The promotion from minister of household affairs to minister of household affairs is a leapfrog promotion and an exceptional promotion.
Wu Yusheng naturally knew that his promotion to the position of Minister of the Ministry of Revenue was highly recommended, but he did not come here to express his gratitude. Instead, he came to ask for two official documents, one of which was about the imperial court's additional winter grain collection. The winter grain of some prefectures and counties
It had been collected, and he came to ask for instructions on what to do with the rice and grain. Another thing was that there were still 20,000 dans of grain stored in the Hangzhou treasury. At present, Lizhou, which was close to Hangzhou, was affected by the disaster, and the new army led by Tong Chen was running out of grain.
, how to deal with the 20,000 dan grain storage in Hangzhou?
Wu Yusheng is the real Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. At this time, he is just adding the title of Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. Logically speaking, Wu Yusheng can handle this kind of matter by himself, but he chose to come to ask for instructions. He also knows why Wu Yusheng came to ask for instructions, because Wu Yusheng wanted to use him to deal with the matter.
The handling of these two things will determine his true thoughts deep inside.
After thinking for a long time, he finally gave instructions on these two official documents. Not a single bit of the winter grain that had been collected was retained, and all was returned to the people. The 20,000 dans of rice grain from Hangzhou were urgently distributed to Tongchen.
Wu Yusheng successfully handled these two matters and understood his attitude. If he could save the people, he should try his best to save the people. If there is only one cup of soup but two mouths waiting for him, then he can only feed it to the soldiers who are fighting.
It is not easy to make such a decision, but there are always trade-offs in everything. The reason why Wu Yusheng asked unclearly, "If there is not enough food and grass, should it be given to the people first or to the soldiers first?" is because once such a question is answered directly, it will be criticized.
People criticize people for not caring about the common people.
Now that he knows through trial and error how to focus on things when he has no choice but to do so, he will then implement them according to his ideas. He is the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and he has to bear the responsibility himself. Don't let the already criticized person bear the infamy again.
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Chapter completed!