I want to be emperor

Chapter 352 Your Majesty, We Are Rich
Fan Jingwen died, and the Chu thieves had already entered the city at this time, and a large number of Chu thieves had already circled to the west wall and even the north wall.
Of course, even at this time, there are still many people who are unwilling to surrender.

Some of them still tried to resist, some committed suicide in various ways when they were desperate, and some changed their clothes and tried to hide and then escaped from the city.

Many officials of the Ming court in the city made various choices and staged a portrait of all officials.

But at this time, whether it was the various ministries of the Chu army entering the city, Luo Zhixue outside the city, or even the civilian officials such as Chen Xingkai who came with them, their focus was not on these Ming court officials.

Even if Fan Jingwen committed suicide, Zhang Guowei's stubborn resistance and death did not move them in the slightest.

Even, they didn't care much about how many enemy soldiers were beheaded and how many prisoners were captured.

At this moment, they only care about one thing, and that is how much money they can make this time.

"This is Jinling City!"

"It's not just a false capital, but also a bustling city that gathers money and food from the entire south of the Yangtze River!"

"Including the outer city, there are more than [-] people in the city, and there are countless dignitaries and gentry!"

"In the city, there are also a large number of noble mansions, such as Wei Guogong's Mansion, which has accumulated countless wealth!"

"This time we seized the official money and food in the city, and confiscated a large number of honorable gentry such as Wei Guogong, so the money and food we got from it may be beyond imagination!"

"This time, we're going to get rich!"

When Chen Xingkai, the Minister of Counseling and Minister of Taxation, said this, his saliva was about to flow down!
As Minister of Counseling, Chen Xingkai is not only the Minister of the Taxation Department. In fact, the scope of work he is in charge of also includes the Finance Department. Whether it is cleaning or budgeting, it is basically his responsibility.

It was the purse of Luo Zhixue, the veritable God of Wealth in the Great Chu Empire.

But while Chen Xingkai has a high position and weight, the pressure is also enormous.

The empire has to spend money in all aspects, not only a huge amount of military expenditure, but also a lot of administrative expenses and other livelihood expenses.

All other departments, whether it was the military or other administrative agencies, or the provinces, they all approached Chen Xingkai for money.

However, with the financial revenue of the Great Chu Empire, it is absolutely impossible to meet such a huge financial expenditure.

For more than a year, Chen Xingkai tried every means to keep the empire's finances from going bankrupt, and he tried all kinds of ways to increase revenue and reduce expenditure.

Even at the beginning of the year, middle and senior officials were called on to take the initiative to suspend their salaries in order to reduce financial pressure.

Well, it’s a call in name, but in fact it’s enforced. However, when officials above the eighth grade receive their salaries, they can only get [-]% to [-]% of their salaries according to their ranks. The lower the rank, the higher the cash share they receive. , the higher the level, the less cash share you get.

For the rest, a delayed method was adopted.

It's not that I won't give it, I just wait until the financial pressure is relieved before giving it, and now I will keep the account...

This measure has actually made many people dissatisfied, but there is nothing to be dissatisfied with. After all, everyone knows that the Great Chu Empire is under great financial pressure. In addition, it is now undergoing rapid expansion, and officials have a lot of room for improvement, so many people even I was dissatisfied that the salary was delayed, but I could only hold back.

You can't just cause a disturbance to ruin the overall situation of the Eastern Expedition just because the salary is delayed.

If you really want to do this, if you are labeled as sabotaging the overall situation of the Eastern Expedition, your political future will be ruined in minutes.

However, this measure of delaying the payment of part of the salary is only limited to officials above the eighth rank, and this group of people is actually not many, and the salary is high. The delay in paying part of the salary will not affect their lives.

As for the grassroots officials with the largest number, a higher proportion, lower income, and poorer ability to resist risks, that is, a large number of officers and grassroots patrol officers from the nine ranks, the genuine nine ranks, and the eight ranks. Waiting for personnel, their salaries are still paid in full.

In addition, even if the release of middle and high-level officials is delayed, the actual impact will not be great.

After all, the salaries of officials in the Great Chu Empire are still relatively high. It is not like the Ming court that only pays officials a few taels of silver, and high-ranking officials are paid only a few dozen taels of silver.

For the salaries set by the Great Chu Empire for officials, the central government will formulate a unified minimum salary set by the central government.

In addition to the minimum wage, each locality will float up a certain percentage according to the local consumption level and most importantly, the local fiscal revenue level.

Then, certain job allowances will be subsidized for more dangerous positions, which are mainly for more dangerous positions such as patrol police and inspectorate investigators.

In the end, the salary income of an ordinary staff member from the ninth grade is about the same as that of a local middle-level civilian worker.

Taking the salary of officials in Hantianfu in the capital as an example, the monthly income of ordinary staff from the ninth rank is about four taels of silver, and that of the patrol police from the ninth rank is about five taels of silver.

The higher the grade, the higher the income will be.

For example, the position of Zhengqipin is already at the level of a town magistrate or section chief of a county. Its monthly income is about 15 taels of silver, and the monthly income is about 180 taels of silver. This income is about the same as those of those large-scale The shopkeepers of the trading houses and the senior craftsmen in the arsenal are on par.

If it is the sixth grade, it is the county magistrate level or the level of the department director at the prefecture level. Its monthly income is about 20 taels of silver, and its annual income is more than 240 taels of silver.

Zhengsipin, that is, the level of the magistrate or the head of various provincial departments, the monthly income is about 25 taels of silver, and the annual income is about 300 taels.

However, there is another situation that often after an official reaches a certain level, his own expenses are already very small, and the official uniforms for eating, drinking, and traveling are basically provided directly by the official. He himself does not need to spend any money. treatment received.

On the whole, the salaries of officials in the Great Chu Empire are higher than those in the Ming Court, and they are much higher.

As for illegal income, let's not talk about it for now, after all, no matter what era or dynasty, corrupt officials will have it, and there are quite a few of them.

Therefore, in order to save financial expenses, the Great Chu Empire implemented some measures to delay the payment of salaries to officials above a certain level, which did not actually affect the lives of these officials.

As for the ordinary staff who would be affected, the Great Chu Empire did not move.

Chen Xingkai relied on all kinds of messy methods to barely maintain the financial operation of the Great Chu Empire, so as not to go bankrupt in an instant.

And this situation was the most difficult time between the launch of the Eastern Expedition.

At that time, the Great Chu Empire even defaulted on the payment of a large number of private commercial firms... After all, at that time, the Great Chu Empire was spending millions of dollars in order to prepare for the Eastern Expedition...

This situation was initially alleviated after the Eastern Expedition was launched, Jiujiang City was captured, and a large area of ​​northern Jiangxi was seized, and a large amount of money and food was obtained.

In the next few months, the Great Chu Empire obtained a large amount of money and food from northern Jiangxi, central Jiangxi, and Chizhou Prefecture and Anqing Prefecture in the west of Nanzhili.

The Ministry of Finance has the money to maintain the war, and at the same time, it can also release part of the administrative expenses, such as repaying part of the arrears of salaries to some middle and low-level officials, and to several strategic suppliers of the Ministry of Commerce, that is, Fenghe Commercial Bank and the others supported part of the arrears... At that time, if the money is not paid at that time, Fenghe Commercial Bank and other trading firms that have strategic cooperation with the Great Chu Empire and are extremely important to the Great Chu Empire will be completely dragged down ...

And it also allocated funds to the Ministry of Industry to continue to support the expansion of the Hantian Arsenal, mainly the production line construction of flintlock guns, artillery production lines, especially the production line construction of large-caliber heavy artillery.

There are also important factories such as Hantian Machinery Factory and Daye Iron Works that have also received funding one after another.

Anyway, these factories are wholly invested and controlled by the Ministry of Industry, and direct capital injection is enough.

It's just that although the financial situation of the Great Chu Empire has been greatly eased, it can actually only quench the thirst for a while.

The annual military expenditure of the Great Chu Empire is more than 2000 million, plus other administrative expenditures have exceeded 3000 million, and the tax revenue is only tens of thousands, and the Great Chu Empire has to wait for the Pan-South of the Yangtze River, that is, Jiangxi and beyond. East, a large area along the Yangtze River to the south of the Yangtze River.

Anlu is the governor of the area south of the Yangtze River, the governor of Yingtian, and the north of Zhejiang. These three areas are the Jiangnan in the traditional sense. Only after taking these places can the tax revenue of the Great Chu Empire be greatly increased, and then completely Reverse the embarrassing situation of financial insufficiency.

But it takes time, not only for military operations, but also for tax collection.

But the grand start of the Great Chu Empire cannot wait for a moment.

In this way, there is a gap, and it can easily cost tens of millions. How to solve this gap?

Naturally, it needs to rely on various seizures and confiscations during the war.

This is something that the Great Chu Empire is familiar with.

I have already gained a lot when I was in Jiangxi, Chizhou Prefecture, Taiping Prefecture and other areas.

However, in the current Jinling City, there are more.

The tax department estimates that the confiscated income in Jinling City alone is at least tens of millions.

Not 1000 million, but at least 1000 million!

At about nine o'clock in the morning on October [-]th, Chen Xingkai had already entered the city with the armed tax police belonging to the tax department. Don't be afraid, just follow the army and enter the city.

The purpose is to be able to seize and confiscate in the first time!
All of a sudden, the mansions of the dignitaries of the Ming court and the mansions of the gentry all over the city welcomed armed tax policemen in black uniforms one after another.

Among these armed tax policemen, there will also be some officials of the tax department in civilian robes.

At this time, the Chu army had actually completely controlled the four walls and all the important places and government offices in the city, and the organized resistance in the city had been eliminated.

However, the sound of guns and artillery in the city still did not stop, but continued for several days.

Luo Zhixue, on the other hand, waited patiently at Yuhua Terrace for the armed tax police's operation to end.

In the afternoon of October [-]th, Chen Xingkai, who was tired but excited, had an audience with him. Before he came in, he had already shouted outside: "Your Majesty, we got rich, this time we really got rich... "

(End of this chapter)