Beside the large dragon chair, Zhang Yan frowned slightly when she saw everyone looking at her.
Not long ago, she couldn't help but take a trip to Hangzhou out of curiosity. She also took a look at the merchant ships. They were all very old and worn out due to exposure to the sun and rain. Not only were they incomparable in size to the Western Yi warships,
, it was far less beautiful than the one being built by Longjiang Shipyard, and it was also much smaller. She was still a little reluctant to ask the court to spend money to buy such a broken ship.
Not to mention, you still need to modify and repair it after buying it. Even after everything is done, it is unknown how many years it will be used. It is not cost-effective at all.
The imperial court did not waste its money like this.
However, considering that what Zuo Liangyu said was true, after pondering for a long time, he slowly said: "The Ai family will let the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry discuss this matter. If the price is right, there is no problem in buying a few boats. Dear Sir,
Let’s discuss the shipyard matter!”
"yes!"
Everyone replied in unison, but they were all disappointed and thought to themselves, the Queen Mother is no longer easy to fool!
He actually knew that leaving this matter to the princess was obviously to prevent them from colluding with those maritime merchants to inflate the price.
Zuo Liangyu opened his mouth and wanted to say that this matter should be handled by the military. The Ministry of Accounts should directly transfer the money to the East China Sea Fleet and let it purchase it on its own. After all, the money of the Fujian Navy was transferred directly from the Ministry of Accounts.
Yes, but ultimately chose to shut up.
If the cabinet wanted to intervene, he would definitely argue hard to prevent the Queen Mother from being deceived and having her money deceived by these civil servants, but it was hard for him to say anything about the princess.
Now that the amount of money in the account of the Ministry of Accounts is as high as tens of millions of taels, the civil servants from the Eight Departments of the Cabinet, who came from the Chongzhen Dynasty, are almost dreaming about how to disappear without mercy. However, Zhang Yan is watching too closely, except for various
For the funds of the superior yamen, every additional expenditure, even if it is one hundred taels of silver, must be stamped by Zhang Yan personally before it can be transferred.
Because the bank only recognizes Zhang Yan's special seal, otherwise even the Minister of Accounts and Ma Shiying, the second minister of the cabinet, would not be able to use any money in the account.
This kind of thing that can be seen but cannot be touched almost makes all the ministers of the Ministry of Finance go crazy, while Ma Shiying and the Minister of the Ministry of Finance are more frustrated and depressed.
It sounds nice to say that all the money belongs to the public and is handled by the cabinet with full authority, but in fact, the money is all in the bank's vault. It's nothing more than the name of the Account Department, or a string of numbers, real money.
I have never seen it before. Even the salary and annual expenses are precious money.
Now all civil servants are aware of the horror of Emperor Xiao Zhu. A royal bank has completely isolated the yamen at all levels financially, so that yamen everywhere can no longer directly handle taxes.
Even for the customs duties of the shipping companies in various places, although the officials directly collect the treasure notes, each city shipping company operates independently. Not only is it subject to strict supervision by the royal family, but the tariffs collected must be deposited into the bank account as soon as possible.
On the surface, although the municipal shipping departments are nominally under the direct control of the Ministry of Accounts, the Ministry of Accounts has no involvement at all.
Originally, everyone thought that they could take advantage of the diversion of the Yellow River and the widening of the canal to make huge profits, but the facts once again made everyone dumbfounded.
After those contractors completed the first phase of the project, the project funds were directly transferred to their accounts by the Ministry of Accounts. The Minister of the Ministry of Accounts became a tool man, and could only watch as huge amounts of money fell into the hands of those contractors.
The foreman's pocket, and he personally drew up the list and presented the amount to Zhang Yan.
In fact, there are still many loopholes in the financial operation system formulated by Zhu Cixi. However, these civil servants are accustomed to the direct embezzlement method in the past, and now they cannot embezzle directly. Their thinking cannot be changed for a while, and they do not know how to use roundabout methods to embezzle.
At this moment, I was helpless and could only act in a hurry.
However, with the intelligence of these civil servants, I believe that their thinking will change before long, and they will be able to come up with any kind of routine.
At this moment, in the main hall, a group of civil servants began to discuss the matter of the shipyard. In fact, the Ministry of Industry had already had a charter, and the court meeting was just a process to satisfy everyone's sense of existence.
This means that Zhang Yan is patient and willing to play with them. If Zhu Cixiang directly ordered them to go ahead, he would not care about it and would only see the results.
In the end, Zhang Yan waved her hand and allocated a total of 10 million taels of silver to build the new Songjiang Shipyard. When completed, there will be more than 200 large and small slipways and a staff of 100,000 shipbuilding craftsmen.
The shipyard will also adopt a contracting method. The contractors will first fund the construction. After completion, it will be inspected and accepted by the Ministry of Industry and the Royal Construction Supervisor. Only when the ship is qualified can the project money be obtained.
Therefore, the ten million taels of silver allocated by Zhang Yan were used to purchase the wood needed for shipbuilding and recruit craftsmen, not to build a shipyard.
"Wang Shangshu, the Ministry of Industry is solely responsible for purchasing wood and recruiting craftsmen. However, the Ai family has spoken first. All accounts must be clear. When the time comes, the Audit Supervisory Committee will audit it from beginning to end. Once something goes wrong, not only your account will be affected.
The Minister of the Ministry will bear the brunt of this, and the officials involved, no matter how big or small, will be held accountable one by one. I hope you will take good care of yourself and not let the Ministry of Industry betray the trust of His Majesty and the Ai family."
Zhang Yan glanced at the excited-looking Minister of the Ministry of Finance and said sternly.
She naturally knew the thoughts of these civil servants. It was almost impossible to prevent them from being corrupted. However, Xinger insisted on letting the Ministry of Works be responsible for procurement and recruitment matters.
In fact, she also understood what Xinger meant. Being so defensive as to guard against thieves was not a solution after all. She could not worry about corruption among civil servants and not allow them to handle money. From now on, the royal family would not be able to handle everything, so they could only strengthen supervision.
The Ministry of Works was here to establish its prestige this time, and she knew without thinking that if these civil servants were not clean, Xinger would definitely kill them all, and he might even kill the entire Ministry of Works.
Because from the demeanor of the minister of the Ministry of Industry, it can be seen that he definitely wants money rather than his life. What's more, even if he is not greedy, he cannot control the officials under him.
"I will bear in mind the teachings of the Queen Mother, and I will serve the public with integrity, handle my duties with care, strictly restrain my subordinates, and live up to the trust of Your Majesty and the Queen Mother."
The Minister of Industry and Industry replied solemnly, but there was no way of knowing what he was thinking.
"I hope you can do what you say!"
Zhang Yan nodded, but anyone could hear the doubt and disbelief contained in her tone.
"Liu Aiqing, the Ministry of Accounts will allocate 10 million taels of silver to the account of the Ministry of Works. The required documents must be returned to the court and submitted. They must be received within three days without delay."
Although she didn't trust the Ministry of Works and was reluctant to part with it, Zhang Yan still decisively allocated the money to the Ministry of Works. They insisted on embezzling money and seeking death, and she had no choice but to do so.
"I obey the decree!"
The Minister of Revenue quickly replied, thinking that the bastard was delaying. If it was too late, he would go to the bank to transfer the money today.
The Minister of Works was also very excited. Ten million taels of silver. I am afraid that no dynasty's Ministry of Works has had such a large amount of funds since ancient times.
The accounts of the Ministry of Works are not as good as those of the Ministry of Accounts. With his Shangshu seal, he can withdraw the money transferred to the users. Originally, there was no need for the Queen Mother to nod. If he did not give Ma Shiying face, he would not even need to ask the cabinet for instructions, and he would make the decision entirely by himself.
.
The rest of the ministers were full of envy and jealousy. They had no choice but to do so. The Queen Mother was too stingy. Such a small amount of funds a year was simply not enough and could not be used indiscriminately. On weekdays, everyone applied to renovate the Yamen and so on, without even thinking about it.
Thinking about it, he also said that the funds were not enough and asked them to take a loan from the princess and pay it back next year. This was even more stingy than Emperor Taizu.
The key is to choose a show for that dog emperor without even frowning. He doesn't take money seriously at all. Not only did he allocate one million taels of silver to build a Chuxiu Palace, but he also spent money everywhere to buy girls and hire famous teachers.