The ruthless emperor in the late Ming Dynasty forced Chongzhen to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 282 The Stingy Zhang Yan

Beside the large dragon chair, seeing everyone looking at her, Zhang Yan frowned slightly.

A while ago, she couldn't hold back her curiosity and went to Hangzhou. She also saw the ships of the sea merchants. They were very old under the sun and rain for many years. Not only were they not as big as the Xiyi warships , is far less beautiful than the one being built by the Longjiang Shipyard, and is much smaller in size. She is still a little reluctant to ask the court to buy such a broken ship with money.

Not to mention, after buying it, it has to be refitted and repaired. Even after it is finished, it is unknown how many years it can be used, and it is not cost-effective at all.

The court's money is not wasted like this.

However, considering that what Zuo Liangyu said was true, after pondering for a while, he said slowly: "The Ai family will let the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry discuss this matter. If the price is right, it is not necessary to buy a few ships. Let's talk about the shipyard!"

"Yes!"

Everyone replied in unison, but they were all disappointed in their hearts, secretly thinking, the queen mother is not easy to be fooled now!

He actually knew that leaving this matter to the princess was obviously to prevent them from colluding with those sea merchants to inflate the price.

Zuo Liangyu opened his mouth, wanting to say that this matter should be handled by the military, and that the Ministry of Accounts should transfer the money directly to the East China Sea Fleet, and let it purchase by itself. After all, the money for the Fujian Navy was transferred directly from the Ministry of Accounts Yes, but in the end he chose to shut up.

If the cabinet wants to intervene, he will definitely argue with reason, so as not to be fooled by the queen mother, and the money will be cheated by these civil servants in vain, but the princess is hard to say anything.

Now that the amount of silver in the account of the Ministry of Accounts is as high as tens of millions of taels, the civil servants of the Eighth Ministry of the Cabinet who came from the Chongzhen Dynasty are almost dreaming about how to get away with the law. However, Zhang Yan is watching too closely. For the funds of the high-level yamen, every additional expense, even if it is 100 taels of silver, must be stamped by Zhang Yan before it can be used.

Because the bank only recognizes Zhang Yan's special seal, otherwise, even the minister of the household department and Ma Shiying, the cabinet minister, would not be able to use a portion of the money in the account.

This kind of visible, but intangible, almost drove all the ministers crazy, but Ma Shiying and Hubu ministers were more frustrated and depressed.

It sounds good, the money is all public, and the cabinet has the full power to dispose of it, but in fact, it’s all in the bank’s treasury. It’s nothing more than a string of numbers in the name of the Ministry of Accounts, real money I have never seen it at all, even the salary and annual funds are treasures.

Now all the civil servants are aware of the horror of Emperor Zhu. A royal bank has completely emptied all levels of yamen financially, making it impossible for yamen everywhere to directly handle taxes.

Even though the customs duties of the municipal bureaus in various places are directly collected by the officials, each municipal bureau 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. In theory, although the bureaus of the various cities are directly under the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Households has no hand at all.

Originally, everyone thought that the diversion of the Yellow River and the widening of the canal could take advantage of the opportunity to make a lot of money, but the facts once again made everyone dumbfounded.

After those contractors finished the first phase of the project, the project funds were directly transferred to their accounts by the Ministry of Accounts. The foreman's pocket, and he personally drew up the list and submitted it to Zhang Yan.

In fact, there are still many loopholes in the financial operation system formulated by Zhu Cihuang, but these civil servants are used to the previous method of directly floating away, and now they cannot directly embezzle it directly. At this moment, I was at a loss what to do, I could only be in a hurry.

However, with the ingenuity of these civil servants, I believe that it will not be long before their thinking will change, and they will 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 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 very patient and willing to play with them. If Zhu Cihong directly ordered them to go on, she would not care about it, and would only see the result at that time.

In the end, Zhang Yan waved her hand and allocated a total of 1000 million taels of silver to build the new Songjiang Shipyard. After completion, there will be more than 200 berths, and there will be 10 shipbuilders and craftsmen in charge.

The shipyard will also adopt the contracting method, and those contractors will first pay for the construction, and after completion, the Ministry of Industry and the Royal Construction Supervisor will jointly inspect and accept it, and only after passing the pass can they get the project payment.

Therefore, the 1000 million taels allocated by Zhang Yan were used to purchase the wood needed for shipbuilding and recruit craftsmen, not to build the shipyard.

"Wang Shangshu, the Ministry of Works is solely responsible for purchasing wood and recruiting craftsmen. However, Ai Jia said beforehand that all accounts must be clear. When the time comes, the Audit Supervisory Committee will audit from beginning to end. If something goes wrong, not only your account The Secretary of the Ministry bears the brunt, and the officials involved, no matter how big or small, will be held accountable one by one, I hope you will take care of yourself, and don't let the Ministry of Industry fail the trust of His Majesty and the Ai family."

Zhang Yan glanced at the excited Hubu Shangshu and said sternly.

Of course, she is clear about the minds of these civil servants, and it is almost impossible for them not to be corrupted and drift away, but Hong'er insists on letting the Ministry of Industry be responsible for procurement and recruitment.

In fact, she also understood what lang'er meant. It was no way to guard against thieves like this. It was impossible to worry about the corruption of civil officials and prevent them from handling money. In the future, the royal family would not be able to arrange everything, so they could only strengthen supervision.

And this time the Ministry of Industry was used to establish its prestige, so she knew without thinking that if the hands and feet of these civil servants were not clean, Lang'er would definitely kill a lot of people, and even the entire Ministry of Industry might be killed.

Because from the demeanor of the minister of the Ministry of Industry, it can be seen that he absolutely wants money and life, not to mention that even if he is not greedy, he can't control the officials under him.

"I will keep in mind the teachings of the Empress Dowager, and I will be honest and honest in my duties, handle my duties with heart, strictly restrain my subordinates, and live up to the trust of Your Majesty and the Empress Dowager."

The Minister of the Ministry of Industry replied solemnly, as for what was in his heart, he had no way of knowing.

"I hope you can do what you say!"

Zhang Yan nodded, but anyone could hear the suspicion and disbelief in that tone.

"Liu Aiqing, the Ministry of Households allocated 1000 million taels of silver to the account of the Ministry of Industry. The required documents must be submitted after returning to the court. They must arrive within three days without delay."

Although she didn't trust the Ministry of Industry and was reluctant to part with it, Zhang Yan still decisively allocated the money to the Ministry of Industry. They insisted on embezzling and killing themselves, and she had no choice but to do so.

"The minister obeys the order!"

The Minister of the Household Department hurriedly replied, thinking that the bastard was only delaying, if there was time, he would go to the bank to transfer the money today.

The Minister of the Ministry of Industry was equally excited, 1000 million taels of silver, I am afraid that no dynasty of the Ministry of Industry has had such a large amount of funds since ancient times.

The account of the Ministry of Industry is not comparable to that of the Ministry of Households. With his official seal, he can withdraw the money from the account of the transfer user. Originally, there is no need for the Queen Mother to nod. If he does not give Ma Shiying face, he does not even need to ask for instructions from the cabinet, and he can make his own decisions .

The rest of the ministers are full of envy and jealousy, there is no way, the queen mother is too stingy, such a small amount of funds for a year is not enough, and it can't be used indiscriminately. On weekdays, everyone applies to renovate the yamen or something, don't even think about it Thinking about it, and saying that the funds are not enough, asking them to take a loan from the princess and repay it next year is simply more stingy than the emperor Taizu.

The key is to choose a show for the dog emperor without even frowning. He doesn't take money seriously at all. Not only did he allocate 100 million taels of silver to build a show palace, but he also scattered money everywhere to buy girls and hired famous teachers to specialize in it. nourish.

(End of this chapter)