Hidden Dragon in Qing Dynasty

The Empire's terminal illness was not just this piece of bread!

When the crown prince heard those words, he was dumbfounded. It was as if his life in the clouds had been pushed down by someone and he had fallen into hell.

The high-ranking officials of the Finance Department also wanted to protect their lives. They had just seen the hostility on the crown prince's body. If they continued to be dishonest, their lives might not be preserved today.

Those of the political scene understood this unspoken rule. They would rather offend an old fox than a young one, because no matter how ruthless and merciless the old fox was, he at least knew the rules. And even if he offended them, he could use money or benefits to salvage the situation.

To put it bluntly, old foxes would not close the door to negotiations even while fighting with you. As long as there was an exchange of benefits, they would not be finished.

He didn't know these rules, especially for a young man like the Crown Prince. He was the future emperor of an empire with a status that was high enough to be the king, and he was even pretending to be idealistic.

The most frightening thing was that the entire empire belonged to someone else. How could you bribe such a person?

When faced with such a person's anger, he couldn't just go forward and take the blame. As the saying goes, if our dead daoist friend doesn't die, we should sell him out and share the Crown Prince's anger.

The filth under the red velvet carpet of the Empire was finally exposed today!

The entire France was filled with corruption, and all sorts of incompetent people occupied important positions. They all worked together to create a protective net that would draw the blood of the empire to their mutual benefit.

Countless government expenditures had corrupt and unscrupulous debts, and almost all arms orders were backed by high-ranking officials who were repaid!

The biggest loan sharks in Paris didn't have the support of nobles!

The empire's finances were in a state of chaos. Anyone who had a little surplus would be able to break it down. On the surface, the funds were still in the treasury, but in reality, they had been secretly raised by the people in power and placed in the capital market to earn interest.

This was a game of white wolves. As long as one was able to borrow over 10 days worth of money from over a hundred million Gold franc, the final interest rate would be over 10 million!

Ten days was just a matter of time, but no one would know for sure. Those interest rates would eventually be shared among all the powerful figures in the world.

Humans were always insatiable. At the beginning, they would dismantle it for ten days, then they would dismantle it for a month or even half a year. In the end, they would even dismantle it forever, never to return.

The Crown Prince was confused. They would never return the money if they dismantled it. Aren't they afraid of being found out?

The corrupt officials from the Finance Department cried, "Your Highness!" The governance of a country is not as simple as the textbooks say! "

"The water in here is too deep! The Empire is not short on money. The taxes collected from the colonies are enough for the Empire to spend! "

"The empire's fiscal surplus is the fat flesh that these people have set their eyes on! They boldly borrowed it to eat the interest, and then the Emperor didn't even know about it! "

"In any case, those people will be the ones to check the accounts, so it's only natural that they would hide it from the world!"

"But! But what if the Empire needed to use those funds? For example, the big war, for example, the preparation for war! "

"Financial surpluses have to be used, after all! Will we still be able to deceive others by doing false accounting? " The crown prince shouted angrily.

"Of course not! Your Highness! Of course they couldn't be deceived! But you can't underestimate the greed of these people! "

"This is a game of destroying the east wall and making up the west wall. When the Empire has to spend these capital surpluses, they should hurry up and recover them from the capital market!"

"Find those borrowers and force them into debt, and do everything you can to get the money back! If they do not have enough time, they can go to the capital market to dismantle the funds and temporarily plug up the treasury! "

"As long as they don't spend too much money in the treasury and don't use up all their surplus money in one go, they can keep destroying the east wall to make up for the west wall!"

Two warring officials from the crowd choked with sobs and said, "Why is it so difficult to dismantle capital markets in the entire country this year? Is money coming from everywhere?"

"It is still going on because of this war! Due to the impending war, the Empire began to use large amounts of funds from the treasury. Those fiscal surpluses were not enough at all! "

"We do it every day, and those people get scared, and we do it every day! Just how many Factory Owner were forced to their deaths this year? "It's too many to count!"

"Why have the workers been causing such a ruckus these past two years? Their boss would also be under a lot of pressure, how can there be a Factory Owner who doesn't need to borrow money to manage it? "

"Now that the creditors are forced to go all out to collect their debts and these people are about to commit suicide, who can raise the wages of the workers? If you don't break it, then God bless you! "

"If the Factory Owner wanted to survive, they could not afford to offend those big shots who lent money, so they could only reduce the workers' income. Whether it was through layoffs or working overtime, it was a common thing for them to deduct their wages!"

"Your Highness!" This was the Empire's weakness, its terminal illness … What are you doing with those pieces of bread? This empire is not something that can be saved with just a few pieces of bread! "

The Crown Prince was stunned. He had never thought that he would be in such a mess in the future!

"My God! Had the situation become so serious? Is the whole country making up false accounts, tearing down the east wall to make up the west wall? "

"Is the military like this too?" Tell me, would the army be able to take empty pay? Will there be a discrepancy between the actual military strength figures and the statistics? "

At the mention of the military, the high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Finance did not dare to speak.

"Speak!" Are you all mute? Speak! "Say something …"

The Crown Prince scolded loudly with bloodshot eyes. In the end, the military officials who had been studying with him since childhood came forward to resolve the dispute.

"Your Highness …" "There is no use in asking them. The military is in deeper waters!"

"I only heard it from below, I didn't really see it … Why was the deployment overseas so slow? Do you know where the problem lies? "

"As this is a peacetime deployment, the Admiralty will not send out battleships! And the Empire does not have many troop carrier, these kinds of missions are all outsourced to civilian merchant ships to do! "

"You've just heard that there are still outstanding promissory notes from the military port of Marseille in 1864. Furthermore, there are indeed logistics officials and a portion of the shipowners here who colluded with each other to make false accounts and deceive the freight!"

"Now we finally have this opportunity. Those corrupt criminals will definitely take advantage of the chaos to settle their own account! Heaven knows how many non-existent merchant ships are riding the waves in our books right now! "

"And the other side is the colony! My lord! Not as far as I know, but colonial soldiers don't have the same equipment as the accounts show! "

"You have transferred back a regiment from North Africa, and you have not only transferred back a regiment's strength, but also a regiment's weapons and equipment!"

"Damn it! God knows if the colonists still have that much equipment. A rifle issued by our military is 20 to 30 times more profitable when dealing with the aboriginals!"