Dynasty Conquest

Chapter 503 Military and Political Conference
Seeing the people sitting upright, Long Han spoke first: "Since all the lovers are here, let's start the meeting."

Hearing the start of the meeting, everyone's faces became serious. The meeting discussed all important military affairs, which were mixed with open and secret struggles for power, and everyone cheered up.

Long Han first set his sights on Zhou Rulin, the first assistant to the cabinet on the left: "Zhou Aiqing, if you have any proposals, let's discuss them."

"Your Majesty." Zhou Rulin responded, distributed the proposals that had been prepared to everyone, and began to talk freely.

"Your Majesty, my lords, the first bill of our cabinet is about increasing taxes. Now all departments and regions need money, and our treasury has bottomed out, leaving less than 9000 million gold coins. If we don't increase taxes, then we will There will be no money to pay officials' salaries, no money to pay military salaries, and the consequences will be dire."

Zhou Rulin paused and said, "According to our cabinet's calculations, at least an increase of [-]% in taxes can make up for the deficit and gap."

Before Zhou Rulin finished speaking, Long Han couldn't help asking: "Zhou Aiqing, isn't that right? It's only been less than a month. I remember that Lin Aiqing added a full 15 billion gold coins to the national treasury. Why is there only 9000 million gold coins left?" ?”

The Minister of Finance, Asius, explained: "Your Majesty, the humble minister is in charge of the treasury. I think I can answer this question."

Long Han didn't say a word, and looked at the Minister of Finance, hoping to give a reasonable explanation. After all, 15 billion gold coins is not a small amount, and it will be used up in less than a month, so there is no way to justify it.

"Your Majesty, my lords, I am in charge of the treasury because I know the use of the money best." Asius the Finance Minister took out a small notebook from his pocket and opened it, and began to explain the use of the money.

"On November [-], the Minister of Civil Affairs applied for [-] million gold coins to reissue the salaries of [-] provincial officials in September and October."

"On November [-]th, Master Yang, the chief of military affairs, applied for [-] million military expenditures, of which [-] million was used for the reconstruction of the Southern Army, [-] million was used for the suppression of rebel armies in various places, and the remaining [-] million was used to purchase weapons and equipment and distribute various Legion pay..."

"On November 300th, the Minister of State Affairs applied for [-] million gold coins to buy food for the [-] million refugees around the Wangjing area and set up porridge sheds."

"On November 5000th, allocate [-] million gold coins to repair the imperial palace..."

"Okay, don't talk about it." Before the Minister of Finance Asius finished speaking, he was interrupted by Long Han.

Although every entry and exit of the Chancellor of the Exchequer is recorded, as an observer, Lin Chuan, there is a big problem with this account, like a local tyrant, who does not plan carefully at all, but spends whatever he wants, and manages the treasury like this How can it be managed well.

Long Han is also suffering from a headache now. If he is not in charge of the family, he does not know how expensive Chai Mi is. Faced with various necessary expenditures, he has no choice but to express his position first: "I will order someone to return the 5000 million gold coins for the repair of the imperial palace to the treasury. Now These are difficult times and there is no need to waste them like this."

"Your Majesty is wise," everyone complimented in unison.

Long Han threw out the question: "Now let's discuss the issue of increasing taxes first."

"Our cabinet proposes to increase the winter tax, five copper coins per mu of land." Zhou Rulin laid out the plan that their cabinet had already discussed.

But immediately met with strong opposition from the military, Yang Yanxu, chief of military affairs, took the lead in rebutting: "I am firmly opposed to the collection of winter taxes. Now there are uprisings in various places, and our army is exhausted. If the winter taxes are increased, those people will be further pushed to the uprising. Going to the army will strengthen the rebel army, put more pressure on our military, and increase our casualties, so instead of increasing taxes now, I suggest reducing taxes immediately."

Lin Nuoyan is also a sensible person, and stood up to support the opinion of the Chief of Military Affairs: "Only by lowering taxes can we make those desperate rebels put down their weapons and return home to farm, and our military expenditure will be reduced. Otherwise, our military expenditure will be reduced." increasing, forming a vicious circle.”

"But how can we make up for the huge deficit without increasing taxes?" asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Yang Yanxu spread his hands and played a rogue: "Then it has nothing to do with our army. You can find a way by yourself."

"Since you are opposed to increasing taxes, then the future military expenditure should not be allocated from the treasury at all." The Minister of Civil Affairs snorted coldly, expressing his opinion.

"It is wishful thinking to want to reduce our military expenditure. Soldiers are fighting bloody battles on the front lines, killing the enemy and defending their home and country. They risk their lives. If you want to reduce military expenditure, you have to ask millions of soldiers whether they will agree or not."

"Hmph, I think it's your bureaucrats who should cut costs the most. You have raised hundreds of thousands of corpses. You don't even look at what will happen to all parts of the dynasty." hit the nail on the head.

"You—" The official's face was livid, but he was powerless to refute.

They have hundreds of thousands of officials under the Ministry of Officials, and the expenses are very high, but there are too many corrupt officials, and they all know how to make money and make a mess of local governance. The army came to wipe their ass, which is also the main reason for the military's dissatisfaction.

Hearing that the military and civil officials were already full of gunpowder and started to choke each other before they discussed a result, Long Han could only look at Lin Chuan who was sitting there silent.

"Lin Aiqing, what's your opinion?"

"Ah?" Lin Chuan's eyes were wandering, and his mind was not on the meeting at all. He disdained to participate in such nonsense, so he felt drowsy. He was too tired last night, so he heard Long Han's question, Confused, not knowing what to say.

Seeing Lin Chuan's bewildered face, some officials let out a silly laugh, and the tense atmosphere in the conference room eased a lot.

"I asked you about the tax increase proposal, what do you think?"

Long Han was also patient, not angry, and asked again and again.

Lin Chuan was sitting upright, glanced at the officials of the two factions who were not giving in to each other, and said slowly: "Your Majesty, my lords, our Supervision Office doesn't understand tax issues, but since Your Majesty asked me to express my thoughts, I still have a little bit. "

Seeing Lin Chuan speak with a serious face, the cabinet officials dismissed him, thinking: You are a brat from a military background, you have fart ideas.

The military is full of hope. After all, Lin Chuan is also from the military. He now sits in the Supervisory Office and plays a pivotal role. If Lin Chuan supports tax cuts, then they can severely suppress the civilian group.

"My opinion is that tax increases and tax cuts go hand in hand—" Lin Chuan elongated his voice while observing everyone's reactions.

(End of this chapter)