Prime Minister's Office.

Emperor Zhu Yihai was reading a report while drinking ginger cinnamon tea.

Suddenly caught a cold, the emperor's head felt dizzy, he always had a runny nose, and he was afraid of the cold. The imperial doctor advised the emperor to get more rest, but in the cold spring of February, various affairs were still heavy.

The Ceylon cinnamon and Guangxi old ginger in the ginger osmanthus tea, paired with Keemun black tea, made him feel a little more comfortable, and even his nose seemed to be much clearer.

"Last year's winter budget estimate was not rigorous enough and was too conservative."

Zhu Yihai covered the warm tea cup with his hand and raised his head and said to Ruan Dacheng. Ruan Dacheng is the Dongge bachelor who ranks last in the cabinet. However, he was the minister of the Ministry of household affairs before, so now in the cabinet, the affairs of the household ministry are also divided.

For the time being, in this cabinet, only two Grand Masters have been awarded the title of Prime Minister, namely First Assistant Wen Anzhi and Second Assistant Wang Zhiren.

Ruan Dacheng came to the Prime Minister's Office today. He was actually summoned and was not on duty here. The newly appointed Minister of Household Affairs, Ma Shiying, was also summoned.

The Prime Minister's Office, the new Prime Minister, and the Associate Ministers are also here.

In addition to the two prime ministers in the cabinet, there are also the newly appointed Zuodu censor Xu Shiqi, the official secretary Wan Yuanji, and Zuo Jianyi doctor Wang Yongzuo also become prime ministers.

The newly appointed governor of the capital, Wang Xiang, the cabinet co-organizers Zhang Mingzhen and Du Yinxi, the general affairs envoy Shen Wenzhong, and the military minister Shen Youlong are the associate ministers.

Ten people in total.

The rest of the bachelor's degree students in the Prime Minister's Office and the bachelor's degree lecturers are drawn from the Shushe people in the Chinese calligraphy department, the Shushe people in the cabinet, Hanlin Academy, Zhanshifu, six ministries, Yuanwailang, etc., and serve as part-time employees.

It is divided into four shifts, with eight people in each shift, taking turns to be on duty day and night, one rotation every two days.

The ten ministers in the Prime Minister's Office are also part-time. Every day after the morning court, they first come to the Prime Minister's office to meet with the emperor and report several important matters in person. The emperor will also hand over some major military matters handled the previous day to the Prime Minister's Cabinet.

Seems like purpose.

If there is a matter that requires ministerial consultation, a meeting of the Prime Minister and Ministers will be convened, or only one or two will be summoned for the matter.

If there is no special matter, only two Dali will be on duty in the Prime Minister's Office, one Prime Minister and one Associate Minister. They will not be on duty at night, and the bachelor's degree and the bachelor's degree will be on duty.

After all, the Prime Minister's Office cannot read important military aircraft reports in advance, nor does it need them to discuss votes and formulate recommendations. It only handles matters in the Prime Minister's Office, and sometimes has the emperor's advisers.

Today, the emperor called all ten ministers from the Prime Minister's Office and held a meeting of the Prime Minister's Office, which also focused on budget issues.

Last year the emperor implemented tax sharing.

Leave 60% of the land tax to the local government, and 60% of other taxes are also given to the local government, while only 40% is turned over to the central government.

After increasing the local reserve, the local government will have a lot of financial resources, and it will of course be more convenient to do things. However, it is not easy to make good use of this money.

In addition to the fixed expenditure budgets such as local officials' salaries and office expenses, there are also too many non-fixed expenditures, such as building roads, city walls, water conservancy, disaster relief, etc. You cannot not reserve even a little bit, nor can you reserve too much in advance.

, it is more difficult to grasp this degree.

Local winter budgets also need to be approved by the central Ministry of Household Affairs, and must also go through the cabinet and the emperor.

The central government also has to have its own budget. In addition to regular expenditures such as official salaries, troops, post stations, and running schools, there are also expenditures on rivers, water conservancy, city defense, border towns, regiment training, etc., as well as war expenditures, and even palace expenditures.

.

This year we have to fight a big war and build the Yellow River, so the expenses are huge and the budget is too high, but Zhu Yihai still cannot be satisfied. He is too strict and the budget is too tight, so there will be many restrictions in implementation.

"If we don't have enough money, I can withdraw some from the internal funds, borrow some from the internal funds to the Ministry of Accounts, or even issue bonds instead of making budget discounts."

"The Yellow River needs to be repaired this year. Now, during the rainy season, the new river channel will break into three branches again, flooding everywhere, harming dozens of prefectures and counties, and the precious land of the Central Plains. It cannot be left alone."

"There is also the amount of money reserved for disaster relief. It is too little and needs to be increased. Without money and food, how can we help the victims and how can we help people return to their hometowns or even settle down there?"

"If we don't resettle the victims properly, it will only cause more harm."

"The budget for military spending is also low."

Zhu Yihai was very dissatisfied and felt that Ma Shiying was too timid. Of course, this budget was mainly led by Ruan Dacheng when he was the Minister of Household Affairs, and also had the intention of the previous cabinet.

Now that there is a new cabinet, a new Prime Minister's Office, and a new Minister of Household Affairs, Zhu Yihai hopes to readjust the budget.

"The imperial camp has only completed the reorganization of six towns. It is too slow. I hope to complete the reorganization of eighteen towns by the end of this year, especially since the armor coverage rate must reach at least 60%."

"There are also artillery and cavalry equipment in each town, including twelve-pound field guns, three-pound battalion guns, and cavalry horses. These are relatively expensive. If the budget is not in place, the imperial camp will be in trouble.

How to complete the reorganization?”

After the previous major adjustments, the emperor used thunderous means to directly cut off the small signs of the imperial court taking back the power of the imperial camp.

No one can take away the command of the imperial camp. The imperial camp can only be directly subordinate to the emperor.

At least that's the case now.

In order to hold the direct command of the imperial camp, the emperor even only asked the Ministry of Household Affairs to provide part of the military expenses. He used internal funds to pay for part of it, while still insisting that the lijin revenue should be used exclusively for the imperial camp.

The Ministry of Household Affairs only spent one-third of the imperial camp's military expenditures.

But their budget is still too small.

Ma Shiying returned to the Central Committee again. Although he failed to join the cabinet like Ruan Dacheng, he was actually very satisfied to be able to return to the Central Committee and serve as the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.

He also knew that many people had been watching them closely and calling them traitors, but they had worked hard in Jiangnan in the past two years and made a lot of achievements. Of course, they did offend many people.

Jiangnan was originally the headquarters of the Donglin Party, and it was the base of the emperor's army at the beginning. A large number of distinguished ministers and senior ministers came from Jiangnan, but Ma Shiying still resisted the pressure and fully implemented the New Deal in Jiangnan.

He personally took the lead in supervising and implementing every item, and he was completely willing to do so, not afraid of offending anyone and not giving anyone any face.

Cleaning up official fields, reorganizing military settlements, levying industrial and commercial taxes, and collecting lijin, each of which will offend countless people.

Fortunately, with the support of the emperor and the successive victories in the Northern Expedition, he was able to gain a lot of power in the rear.

Now that he has just entered the dynasty, he is facing the dissatisfaction of the emperor.

Ma Shiying also felt a little aggrieved, but still tried to remonstrate with the emperor.

"Your Majesty, I think that although the situation in the Northern Expedition is very good, and many places such as Shandong, Henan, Hanzhong, Gansu and so on have been recovered one after another, I think that the situation in Shandong, Henan and other places is not good now, and even Huainan has not recovered. The imperial court's recovery of these places is actually

Carrying a huge financial burden.

It is difficult to obtain any taxes in a short period of time. Your Majesty is kind to the people and exempts the people in these places from land and silver. He even provides great relief and relief efforts. This is a big hole. The imperial court fills a lot of money and food into it. The newly recovered

These places need to send troops and officials, and the cost of governance is also very high.

I have no objection to His Majesty's benevolent policies, but they are indeed a great burden.

Nowadays, we need to build the Yellow River, provide relief to the victims, reorganize the imperial camp, Beijing camp, garrison camp, and foreign camp, and even train regiments and suppress bandits. Each of these items is a huge expense.

Military pay, equipment, and war expenses.

At the beginning of the Northern Expedition, although we only held a corner of eastern Zhejiang, it was basically complete and relatively wealthy at that time. We did not have a big burden and did not have many soldiers and horses. During the Northern Expedition, we were able to sustain the war with victory and even gained a lot through the war.

Money, food, etc. But now we are different. I think we still have to eat in one bite.

I also hope to invade Beijing immediately and recover the two capitals and thirteen provinces, but haste makes waste.

If Your Majesty can be more patient and give us more time, then the court, the soldiers, and the people will be much more relaxed."

"If we reorganize a few less imperial camps this year, we will be much more financially comfortable."

"One less war can reduce military expenditures by millions or even millions."

Ma Shiying felt that if the plan was too full, he would have to reorganize the imperial camp of the Eighteen Towns, attack Beijing, capture Yingzhou, Nanyang, and even Jingxiang, Hubei, capture Baocheng, and attack Guanzhong. It would be too much of a task.

Heavy.

You can't have your cake and eat it too.

He boldly proposed that the attack on Beijing might be replaced by a sheep attack, pretending to attack Beijing, but it was just a bluff.

Concentrate on recovering Henan first. You can let go of Hubei, Jingxiang and Jingxiang first. Take it step by step and fight one battle at a time. Do not fight on several fronts at the same time. Even if you transfer troops from other towns and garrison them to fight, the military expenditure will be very large.

Food supplies have to be distributed, food, grass and equipment have to be consumed, not to mention the pensions and rewards for fighting. These are astronomical figures.

It is better to let the outer towns, villages, and regiment trainers step up their training while working in the fields, and the court can also gradually provide them with armor, weapons, and equipment.

The war still needs to be fought by the imperial battalions who are better equipped, better trained, more experienced in actual combat, and more motivated.

The imperial camp is the main force, and the outer town and the town group practice and fight are the assistants.

If the attack on Beijing is effective, it can also force the Tatars to withdraw their troops and earn a fortune.

"Your Majesty, you must relax your strings in a controlled manner, otherwise if the strings are kept taut, they will easily break."

"Your Majesty is in the prime of life, so why not be more patient? It will only take three to five years, not to mention ten years, and by then our Ming Dynasty will be able to completely crush the Tartars, return to the Central Plains, and return to the old capital. It is just a matter of course."

Zhu Yihai listened to Ma Shiying's words very carefully and felt that what he said was quite reasonable.

I was indeed a little anxious. I originally thought of giving it a try, but now it seems that something is wrong.

It is indeed rare to have the current situation in a few years, but it has also reached its limit.

Zhu Yihai wanted to fight directly to the city of Beijing, but he had never thought of fighting a battle with the Tatars in Beijing. He originally believed that if he could really advance all the way north, there might be a battle with the Tatars in the Hejian area.

If we can win this battle, we can reach the city of Beijing. At that time, the Tatars will most likely retreat outside the pass, and Beijing will be able to recover it in one fell swoop.

Therefore, the key point is the battle in Hebei. This may be the last full-scale battle of the main Tatar forces, and the risk is still quite high.

"What do you dear ladies think of what Ma Qing said?"

Wen Anzhi, the chief assistant, said bluntly, "I think what Ma Gong said is very reasonable. I will first transfer the six reorganized towns of the imperial camp to Henan, attack Yingzhou first, then Nanyang, and then Xiangyang, and attack steadily.

Outside the Pass, whether it is Liaodong, Shaanxi, Gansu, Hanzhong, Hunan, Jiangxi, or Taihang Zhili, they only harass and contain them."

One goal at a time, one step at a time, attack Yingzhou first, then Nanyang, then Xiangyang and Yunyang, and try to avoid fighting on two or even multiple fronts.
To be continued...