Daming: At the beginning, recognize Zhu Yuanzhang as grandfather!

Chapter 144 Year-End Small Court Meeting!
Zhu Xiongying's words made all the ministers nod their heads.

Zhu Yuanzhang grinned even more. It is really rare for his eldest grandson to maintain this neither humble nor overbearing attitude.

The maturity of this child is beyond my imagination.

On the street, anthracite is still being sold lively until late at night.

But Zhu Yuanzhang and the others don't have so much time to continue watching, because the year is approaching, and he needs to deal with many things.

One of the most critical things is the year-end summary.

At the end of the year, a family has to make calculations, let alone a country.

Among them, the most troublesome thing for the old man is the financial problem.

It has been 25 years since Hongwu founded the country, and the entire land of China has gradually recovered from the war. In recent years, the fiscal revenue has continued to be stable, and there has been no obvious increase. The folk agriculture has taken shape steadily, while the handicraft industry and commerce have sprung up like mushrooms after rain, quietly flourishing. .

Of course, the richer the folks, the better, and this is what Zhu Yuanzhang is happy to see.

However, the court's finances are not so optimistic.

Because at this time, the main source of Hongwu Dynasty's finances came from various taxes, including the population tax, salt tax, and taxes on various transactions.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang was born in extreme poverty and knew the suffering of the people at the bottom, so he did not increase taxes with the development of the economy, and everything was still in accordance with the standard when Hongwu established the dynasty.

In other words, the financial revenue of the Hongwu Dynasty basically maintained the standard of 25 years ago, and with the development of the economy, private prices have already risen. Spend up.

Since the past two years, the imperial court has had a tendency to make ends meet. Just like this year's Shandong and Henan floods, the imperial court was unable to provide enough silver to relieve the disaster.

So this year's financial report will not look good.

After the financial report comes out, it is necessary to arrange the financial budget for the ministries and localities for next year, and there is only so much money in the national treasury, how to allocate it, everything in it is not easy.

In the Hall of Martial Heroes, the old man's expression was not very good.

Zhu Xiongying saw it in his eyes, but also felt a little uncertain.

He has just ascended to the position of grandson, less than half a year ago, he has done his best to make changes, but it is not a matter of overnight to change the big problem of the imperial court's finances.

However, he was somewhat looking forward to whether the tea-horse trade market in charge of Xia Yuanji in Annan and the salt mine in charge of Zhao Mian in the Ministry of Households would bring some help to the stretched imperial finances.

Financial data can reflect many problems.

Zhu Xiongying led the old man to the Jinshen Hall, where the officials of various divisions and halls were already waiting.

"The ministers and others see the emperor, long live, long live, long live!"

"His Royal Highness, a thousand years ago!"

Zhu Yuanzhang sat on the main seat, waved his big hand, pointed to Zhu Xiongying who was sitting beside him, and said, "Da Sun, you will preside over this meeting."

"Sun Chen, obey the order!"

At the end of the 25th year of Hongwu, the Imperial Court Meeting was held under the auspices of Zhu Xiongying.

Don't underestimate this small meeting, it is one of the most important meetings of the year.

Those who were able to attend this meeting were all senior officials from various ministries and halls of the imperial court.

In order to prepare for this small court meeting, officials of all sizes and halls began to prepare relevant materials from November, and prepared for a whole month.

In the end, several thick account books were compiled and placed in front of Zhu Xiongying.

The cover of the account book is impressively marked: Daming Hongwu 25-year general account book!
Zhu Xiongying flipped through the booklet, it was full of dense data, and he couldn't see it clearly for a while, so he said:

"The Ministry of Household Affairs reported last year's various expenditures according to the actual expenses of the ministries and the [-] provinces in the capital. Today, there must be an explanation for what should be paid and what should not be paid. What are the major expenditures this year? Come out, and the Ministry of Households will do a comprehensive calculation to see if there was a surplus or a deficit in the expenditure of the imperial court in the past year?"

The household department is in charge of the court's financial affairs, so Zhao Mian was obliged to take the lead in taking the lead.

"Relying on the emperor's heaven-like virtue and His Royal Highness's sincerity, the past year has been passed smoothly."

As soon as Zhao Mian came up, he flattered him first, which showed his methods as an official, and then continued:
"Last year, there were big floods in two provinces, and two major wars in the north and southeast. To be honest, last year was not easy for the household department."

"Over the past month or so, the Household Department has finally calculated all the expenses of last year, and the accounts for last year will be settled, and then the ministries and halls will discuss this year's expenses."

“去年一年京师和十四省全年的税银共为三千530六万7000两，去年年初各项开支预算为两千980万两。可是, 昨天各部报来的账单共耗银四千180万两。收支两抵, 去年一年亏空竟达640三万3000两！”

"If you check it with the expenditure budget at the beginning of last year, the overspend last year was more than 800 million taels!"

Hearing this, all the hall officials present took a deep breath.

Even Zhu Xiongying was slightly taken aback, the financial difficulties of the Ming court were even more difficult than he had imagined.

On the contrary, the old man remained calm.

Zhao Mian continued: "Among these overspending, the Ministry of War accounted for 300 million taels. Last year, most of the military expenditure was spent on the defense of the north. Due to the increase in military strength and expenditure, several invasions by the Mongolian thieves were blocked. And It is to suppress Lu Timur's rebellion in Southwest Yue. According to the military newspaper of the Beiping Prefecture, the old Mongolian and Yuan troops will have a greater invasion next year, and the number of soldiers will increase. The Great Wall connecting many places in the northwest and northeast will also have to be rebuilt this year. Only this One item of expenditure has to be increased by more than 200 million yuan compared with last year. There is also the anti-bandit operation on the southeast coast, although the king of Qi paid part of the expenses, the court has to pay a large part in advance, and the expenditure in this area is about 100 million taels."

"The rest is the overspending of the Ministry of Industry. One is the public funds for river repair in Henan, Shandong. The report is 200 million taels, and the bill is 350 million taels. Ying Tian repairs the Baimao River and Wusong River, Zhejiang repairs Xin'an River, The Ministry of Industry’s report at the beginning of the year was 100 million taels, but this time the bill was 200 million taels. The overspend and the shortfall amounted to 250 million taels.”

"The last thing is the silver taels for disaster relief. In the middle of the year, the floods in Shandong and Henan cost a total of more than three million taels. At the end of the year, many places across the country suffered from severe cold and snow disasters. Although each locality was left to find a solution, the imperial court still invested more than 100 taels. Ten thousand taels of silver for disaster relief."

"According to these calculations, last year, the overspending of the imperial court was more than 800 million taels!"

After Zhao Mian's voice fell, the air in the entire hall froze.

In the past few years, the deficit pressure of the imperial court's finances has been increasing year by year. These ministers are well aware of it, but when they actually heard the data, they still couldn't help being surprised.

But at the same time, they also wondered that although the deficit was so large, last year was considered to be a stable one.

Zhao Mian continued: "In the past year, the emperor's clothes and food, no matter how tired the household department should be, if we can't get through last year, I'm afraid those in the household department will have to plead guilty and resign. You may not know, the household department The reason why we were able to barely support last year and did not worry the emperor is mostly due to the emperor's grandson!"

(End of this chapter)