Crossing the Continent in the Eighteenth Century

() Four days passed, and it was August 21st. I found that basically everyone in the meeting room of the United Front Work Department had red eyes. This time, more people came to the meeting.

Cheap Daddy took over the proposals submitted by the ministers and listened to their opinions that would not destroy the status quo but also save money.In fact, cutting expenses means removing some irrelevant personnel from the empire's administrative agencies and canceling the purchase of unnecessary materials.In order to save a considerable amount, there are only a handful of departments in the empire with the most room for manipulation, and only the government affairs department, the foreign affairs department, the military affairs department and the royal chamber affairs department can do it.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs canceled the budget for changing carriages, replacing the decoration of embassies in other places, and purchasing new decorations, saving the empire 23 soridos.The Government Affairs Tribunal also made a similar arrangement. Several executive officers who should have retired continued to serve, and their pensions were withheld, and the appointment of two governors was cancelled, saving a total of [-] soris in personnel expenses. s.

It was the turn of the Royal Chamber of Commerce, and the owner there, the deputy head of the royal family, said excitedly with a blushing face: "Caesar, after a night of discussion, we think that during this period, the Thanksgiving court ball should be canceled, and the autumn hunting and November Thanksgiving should be reduced." The scale of the three sacraments on Eve, New Year’s Eve, and Christmas Eve, and the New Year’s and January Christmas royal banquets! And His Majesty’s expenses must also be reduced!”

"All the happy festivals in the second half of the empire have been lost by you. This is really a bold proposal." Daddy Cheap touched the mustache on his mouth and smiled, then cut down on spending The proposal was handed over to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, "Erics, how much money can we save with the suggestion of our Deputy Chief of the Royal Family?"

The chancellor spent three to four minutes to roughly browse the copywriting in hand: "From the perspective of the funds arranged for various celebrations in the past, the Thanksgiving court ball can save Solidus 4. From November to Thanksgiving The three celebrations of serving the sacrament on Christmas Eve can initially save about 47 Soridos, the autumn hunt can save us 22 Soridos, and if it is cancelled, it will be 70. The banquet can save 52, plus the reduction of His Majesty's expenditure by the end of the year by 57, a total of 180 Solidus."

"The royal family's expenditure was reduced by 57 yuan. If this plan is carried out, the old man will be offended to death." I couldn't help but sigh with emotion. More than 900 million francs, and for us, only 210 million soridos were obtained after the reduction of several major departments.

Alexander said with a smile: "Don't laugh at others, our expenses will be cut accordingly."

Cheap Papa glanced at us and said nothing, motioning the heads of departments to continue.

Sure enough, none of the other departments could save more than [-] soridos when it was their turn.

"Prince! Prince! I have a way to save a lot of money in the Post Office!" I saw a bloated minister with medals moving his huge body.If we were to say who is the most useless person in each department who is just waiting to die, it would be the postmaster.

I lowered my voice and asked, "What's his name?"

"Marcus, our relatives are our cousins."

…Brother, I know he is our relative, okay?

"There are more than 5000 postmen in villages and towns across the country, or 4000, and each person gets 3 soridos a month! After thinking hard all night, I think this number is full of huge We must thoroughly investigate this.” The cousin who is old enough to be me and Uncle Alexander waved his big hand impassionedly, “The vacancy found through the thorough investigation will save us Part of the funds, and on the basis of the information we have on all the postmen, I think we must dismiss 8000 to [-] people, and the old and the weak must be excluded! Let the post offices across the country barely have enough manpower! In this way, as long as the post offices are gone, then If there are many people, then they will not be idle, and they will not be lazy guys with a monthly salary!"

Damn, what kind of god's conclusion is this? I poked Alexander with a wry smile, and he shook his head speechlessly: "It's so naive and terrifying."

Cheap Dad asked with a smile: "Only half of the number is kept, how can we maintain the delivery of letterheads across the country?"

"Modify the delivery service areas in various places. Just buy horses for some of the busier post offices, and take part of the cut budget to solve this problem." The man said calmly.

Now even Daddy Cheap rolled his eyes speechlessly, this cousin was purely joking.

At least let him go back to his seat, Daddy Cheap started to revise the proposals of various departments on spending cuts, and finally initially planned to cut expenses by 180 million in the second half of the year.

The autumn hunt is cancelled, the scale of serving the sacraments remains unchanged, and the palace banquet on Thanksgiving is retained, but the scale is reduced. The deputy head of the royal family needs to draw up a new list for this. The scale of the royal banquet from New Year to Christmas will not decrease but increase. Even the expenses of His Majesty the Emperor have been reduced from 57 to 33.

At noon, the meeting was almost coming to an end. At this moment, a guard opened the door with a sealed letterhead and came to Daddy Cheap.

"Urgent note, from Castile."

Everyone stretched their necks the moment Cheap Daddy opened the letter, but everyone knew that they saw Cheap Daddy's calm eyes.After dozens of breaths, Daddy Cheap closed his eyes and handed the letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

"I want to know what's going on! Why, I just got the news now!"

Everyone had a bad feeling.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs took the letter and looked at it hastily, his expression changed drastically: "Prince Jabil of Habsburg has passed away!"

One stone stirred up thousands of waves, and all the ministers present couldn't sit still!

"The one sitting in Aragorn?"

"Couldn't it be murder?"

"I don't think so. If it was murder, the old ghost would have died before the next war, not now."

"The Kingdom of Aragon is the biggest jewel in the crown of the Austrian Habsburgs. Now the old man stationed there by the Austrian Habsburgs is dead, and the old thing is gone. His sons and local dignitaries are still there. Don't make trouble to heaven?"

"It's really bad news one after another! We have received the news now, and there is no reason why Versailles will not be later than we received the news! When we make arrangements, I am afraid that the French side has successfully bought the group of Aragonese dignitaries. !"

"Where is Aragorn? I've never heard of it." My cousin grabbed someone next to him and asked quietly...

All the discussions now point to a conclusion, how should the empire respond? !

"Caesar!"

"Caesar!!!"

The buzzing hall was silent because I spoke, because usually we would not speak while watching. This exception naturally attracted everyone's attention.

"One thing, I have to say, France is expanding its military! In the future, we may not be facing 20 French troops, but 30, or even 40!" Dajun, do you think it was a peasant uprising in China, or a million-armed army in the Song Dynasty? The numbers are good, but in fact, there are not only three-year-old children and eighty-year-old women, but also pregnant women.But now, it is indeed possible!

"Your Highness, are you kidding me?" The Minister of Agriculture said with twitching eyes, "40 troops, that's a huge number."

The Minister of Finance, Alexis, didn't believe it either. He seconded, "France has been fighting for years, and its expenditure has exceeded its annual income. If the number of people doubles from the current 20, wouldn't the whole country go bankrupt!"

Cheap Dad still had the same look of honor and disgrace: "Tell me the reason why you judged that France is expanding its army."

"The death of Prince Jabili of Aragon of Habsburg is one reason, and another, did Caesar hear of the French Mississippi Company?" I said slowly.

Looking at Daddy Cheap's puzzled eyes, Foreign Minister Leo reminded: "It is a company that has monopolized the trade rights of the Mississippi Valley in the New World for 35 years. Silver livres."

"I learned the news yesterday that the company's 240 francs issued shares rose to 880 francs a month ago! And this company owns [-] shares!" Seeing those ministers frowning thoughtfully, I said, "The royal family has a background and monopolizes the development of the New World. Does it need to invest so much money at once to develop the land there, so I am sure that France is raising funds for the war their king is passionate about! I think the stock is still It can rise, and if they are all sold, France will be able to extract more than [-] million, no, [-] million livres of wealth from all classes in the entire country!"

"[-] million!!! Your Highness is telling me that you can sell a few pieces of broken paper to sell for [-] million?!" The Minister of Finance was very excited, so excited that he was in a mess. I can understand his mood, my cheap father worked hard After more than ten years of preparation, the treasury did not exceed one billion Soridos.

"Obviously, that's the truth!"

"Twenty million livres. 40 French troops? No, France won't be able to take it. But 35 is possible." After the cheap daddy calmly analyzed, he suddenly asked, "My son, if it were you , what will you do now?"

"Others can't see the great power of this wealth, but when the French army expands to more than 30, 35, everyone will tremble under such a huge force! Therefore, we must stabilize the Habsburgs in Austria! The death of Prince Jabili cannot be allowed to become the fuse that triggers the collapse of Habsburg in Austria-Aragon, there is no other choice! Otherwise, it will trigger a domino effect and a herd effect, from local decadence It has evolved into an overall weakness! That is to say!" I said word by word, "Rome must also expand its army! Increase the confidence of our future ally!"

"I object! The expansion of the army will definitely increase the burden on the shoulders of the imperial people. For the nobles, this is nothing. Just buy one or two less clothes, but ordinary people are different! Even if we restrain the skyrocketing food prices, this year's The price of food is still much higher than usual!" When the Minister of Finance said, he immediately got the support of many people.

"Your Excellency, please listen to me. Considering our financial situation and the interests of the people of the empire, we don't need to expand our army in a large scale at present, but we will make a large-scale expansion of our army!

"Then how do you do it?" Cheap Dad asked.

"filter!"