Poor Family Chapter 940

Chapter 940 The contradiction has deepened

Five days later, Li Yanqing's official report was sent to the imperial court, and at the same time, he attached a list of Zeng's property. There are hundreds of boxes of jewels and emerald jade, hundreds of various shops, and large-scale industries such as houses, docks, warehouses, fleets, mines, etc. This property is equivalent to the current fiscal revenue of the Song Dynasty for a year, and it is simply rich.

Now Zuo Zangku's silver inventory is only six million taels, and gold is three hundred thousand taels. While everyone denounces Zeng Xiulin's greed, how to deal with the wealth of the Zeng family has become a hotly debated topic. Now the court needs money. There are too many places, and it is necessary to restore the relief and pension system, rebuild the Taixue, restore schools in various places, and build dormitories for officials. At present, many low-level officials still occupy three or four people in one room.

Zhao Gou also wants to increase the salaries of the ministers, improve the life of the harem, and let the concubines in the harem use Baoyanzhai's makeup. At present, they are all using Zhang Gugu's makeup, which is Baoyanzhai's middle and low-end products. There is really no money.

Of course, the army needs to be restored, the number of troops increased, a large number of weapons built, and a strong defense built. All these things require financial support, so Li Yanqing's harvest from this search immediately gave the court great hope.

Of course, Li Yanqing also has conditions. He proposed two distribution plans. The first plan is that the imperial court and the Sichuan-Shanxi Economic and Strategy Office each get half. The Northwest Third Road needs huge military expenditures. The monthly military expenditure is as high as one million guan, and it is as high as 12 million guan a year. In addition, to build military armor for recruits, to build trebuchets and artillery, to purchase military items such as tents, kerosene, gunpowder, and pig iron, and to maintain about a thousand craftsmen In terms of scale, at least five million guns are required every year.

The second plan is that the Northwest Third Road will take one year's military expenses, and all the rest will be turned over to the imperial court, but the imperial court needs to support the reform of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Economic Strategy's tea and wine sales system in Bashu.

In fact, Emperor Zhao Gou has approved Li Yanqing's implementation of the sales system reform on Bashu Sanlu, but this kind of major system reform related to people's livelihood and finances cannot be approved by the Emperor, and the key is Zhizhengtang's support, that is, With the support of the imperial court, if only the emperor's approval can be implemented smoothly, then Wang Anshi's reforms will not be so difficult.

Li Yanqing's reform is to restore the tea and wine monopoly department, which is independent of the local government. This reform is not new. In Bianjing, the tea and wine monopoly was under dual management. The reform itself is not too controversial.

The key point is that the Monopoly Division is directly under the jurisdiction of the Jinglue Mansion, and all the proceeds from the monopoly will be used for the military expenses of the Northwest Third Route, and will be handed over to the court after five years.

This condition is a bit unacceptable. Although the taxes of the Bashu Third Road are currently used to support the Northwest Third Road, this tax is controlled by the government, and now it is controlled by the Jinglue Government. To put it bluntly, it is controlled by the army , It is not a good thing for the military to intervene in politics!

It was precisely because of this that Li Yanqing offered a huge temptation. He only wanted 17 million taels of money, and the rest of the 300,000 taels of gold, more than 8 million taels of money, more than 10 million taels of copper coins, and a large number of shop real estate belonged to him. imperial court.

If the court refuses to agree to his plan, then the wealth may not be available.

For this reason, the imperial court also had huge differences. There were half of supporters and half of opponents. Opponents believed that once the finances became independent, it would cause the Third Northwest Road to lose control and form the danger of a separatist warlord. With an independent heart, even if the imperial court controls Bashu's finances, it is meaningless.

Besides, the Third Northwest Army could easily occupy Bashu, and the imperial court had no choice but to allow the Jinglue Mansion to control the monopoly department so that the imperial court could obtain huge wealth and greatly improve the imperial court's financial difficulties.

The debate inside the Zhizhengtang was the same as that of the imperial court. The two opinions formed a three-to-three confrontation. Fan Zhixu, Gao Shen, and Zheng Wangzhi supported Li Yanqing's second plan, while Lu Yihao, Fan Zongyin, and Zhu Shengfei opposed the control of the monopoly by the Jinglue government.

The final choice is still decided by the emperor Zhao Gou, but this time there is the intervention of the Supreme Emperor Zhao Ji, who clearly opposes the control of the monopoly by the Jinglue Mansion.

In the study room of the Royal Courtyard on Xizhao Mountain, Zhao Ji slapped the table angrily and asked, "Are you still the emperor? You can accept such ridiculous conditions? He is a minister. What qualifications does he have to bargain with the court first?" ? Could it be that he is really an independent warlord?"

"Father, if he were an independent warlord, he would not need to inform the court at all. He could transport all the property away, and he would also collect taxes independently in Bashu. He is the envoy of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Economic Strategy. However, he did not do so, but put forward his own ideas, hoping that the court would agree, which shows that he has enough respect for the court, and I believe that if the court does not agree, then he will not continue to implement reforms .”

"Hmph! What a respectful court, is he playing tricks on the court? Why doesn't he let the court control the monopoly department, why doesn't he bring all the wealth to the court and let the court redistribute it? If he is really a minister of the court, he will It should."

"Father also saw it with his own eyes. Zeng Xiulin has not only seized unimaginable wealth these years, he has also seized the military expenditures that should have been given to the Sichuan-Shanxi Economic and Strategy Mansion without authorization, which seriously affected the morale of the Jingzhao Army. I don't want this situation to happen again. happened, that's why Li Yanqing agreed to investigate Zeng Xiulin."

Zhao Ji said coldly for a long time: "It is my decision to let Zeng Xiulin withhold the military expenses of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Economic and Strategy Mansion!"

In an instant, the room became chilly, and the two of them stopped talking. After a while, Zhao Ji said coldly: "I request you to immediately remove Li Yanqing from his position as a strategic envoy, and transfer him back to the imperial court!"

Zhao Gou bowed his head for a while and said, "Father, this decision is hard to follow!"

"Good! Good! Good!"

Zhao Ji looked up to the sky and sneered, "Your wings have finally hardened. Don't listen to my father's advice anymore. Are you going to send troops to **** me back to the Kingdom of Jin, and let the Jin people continue to imprison me?"

Zhao Gou knelt down and said with a sad face: "I never thought of this!"

"boom!"

Zhao Ji slapped the table heavily and roared angrily: "Then why don't you listen to my advice? Don't you think I dare not abolish you?"

Zhao Gou seemed to have been hit hard, and the father finally said this sentence.

He was silent for a while, then suddenly gritted his teeth and said: "The reason why I fully support Li Yanqing's army expansion is because I decided to let Li Yanqing send troops to destroy Xixia."

Zhao Ji was stunned for a while, and asked after a while: "What are you talking about?"

"Father, Xixia is actually extremely weak and can't support the war with the Song Dynasty at all, so they withdrew from Xihe Road to seek peace. If it wasn't because the Jin soldiers were eyeing Hexi Road at that time, Li Yanqing's army could even fight Go to Xingqing Mansion."

"Then you are not afraid that Jinbing will take the opportunity to invade Hedong Road and Shaanxi Road this time?"

"Reporting to my father, my ministers have received accurate information. The main force of the Jin army is fighting against the tribes in Mobei, and Liu Yu from the Central Plains and Gao Qingyi from Hebei have not yet had time to build their own armies. This is an excellent opportunity. If Wan Yanxie also wants to tear up the agreement, then we can justifiably go north to recover the Central Plains and Shandong."

Zhao Ji walked a few steps with his hands behind his back, and then asked, "When will we send troops to Xixia?"

"The plan is next spring."

Zhao Ji narrowed his eyes again, "What if Li Yanqing fails to attack Xixia?"

"Li Yanqing issued a military order to his ministers. If he fails to destroy Xixia, he is willing to resign from the post of Sichuan-Shaanxi Economic Strategy Envoy."

Zhao Ji nodded, "Okay! If it is really for attacking Xixia, I promise you to handle the affairs of Bashu this time, and I will not interfere again, but if the attack on Xixia fails, Li Yanqing must resign from all military posts. You have to memorize the three chapters of the agreement between you and me."

Zhao Gou took a deep breath, "I understand!"

"Go! I want to rest."

Zhao Gou slowly backed out, Zhao Ji stood in front of the window with his hands behind his back, he was also very conflicted, of course he knew the purpose of his son wanting to start a war against Xixia, once Xixia was really wiped out, it would greatly increase his prestige, It was not easy to abolish him then.

But attacking Xixia is a double-sided sword. If the attack on Xixia fails, it will also be a heavy blow to his son's kingly power. Then it will be more justified to abolish him.

It was this kind of double-sided sword that made Zhao Ji really uneasy, and it was difficult to calm down for a long time.

In the afternoon of the same day, Zhao Gou held a small court meeting. At the court meeting, he formally stated his position and agreed to Li Yanqing's second proposal. The monopoly department of Bashu 3rd Road would be controlled by the Sichuan-Shanxi Economic and Strategy Office for a period of five years, and another 30 million yuan would be transferred to the government for a period of five years. As the military expenditure of the Northwest Third Route, they are required to go all out to prepare for war and build an elite army.

This decision did not attract any further opposition. All the ministers knew that for the government to make such a decree, it must have reached some kind of agreement with the Supreme Emperor.

(end of this chapter)

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