Lord Moyu was forced to open

Funing Palace.

"Your Majesty! Mr. Zhang has left Huaihe Tower."

"Oh? Left?"

Zhao Jun, who had just laid down, sat up again, opened the yellow curtain and asked:
"how?"

Wang Huaien said with a smile on his face:
"After Zhang Shilang left, there were shouts and curses in the Huaihe Tower Restaurant, and there were sounds of things being smashed. Many officials who went to the Huaihe Tower to attend the banquet left with dark faces.

I guess they didn't reach an agreement. "

Zhao Jun also showed a smile: "That's natural, Wang Daban, you should be relieved, right?"

Wang Huai'en said with a face full of shame: "It's my servant who judges a gentleman's heart with a villain's heart. If Shilang Zhang can win His Majesty's favor, he must not be an ordinary person like that. It's my servant who made a mistake."

"Hahahaha! You! You! Do you dare to look down on others in the future?"

Zhao Jun smiled and shook his head.

The night passed quietly.

Time is also gradually entering late autumn with the autumn leaves turning yellow.

October 18th, the fourth year of Xingwu.

The army, which had been out for several months, finally returned to the court.

The imperial court held a grand celebration party for the Baizhu Army and others who returned from victory.

In addition, the imperial court did not delay at all, and all the rewards that were due were distributed to those who had made contributions in this war of annihilation.

All those who should be promoted were promoted.

As for the old prince Zhao Chongguo, as the head coach, the old man naturally wanted rewards. However, the old man was already a prince and could not be promoted. However, the old man offered to give him money.

Zhao Jun duly rewarded the old man with a large sum of money.

What he lacks the most now is money. In Zhao Jun's eyes, anything that can be solved with money is no big deal. After the celebration banquet, the court began to get busy.

By late autumn of one year.

The annual autumn tax collection was the most important event in the Song Dynasty.

Everyone attaches great importance to it.

The Ministry of Household Affairs is waiting for the autumn tax to be collected to fill the treasury, while other ministries of the imperial court are all staring at the autumn tax, wondering whether they can get more shares this year.

The Privy Council is the highest military institution in the Song Dynasty. Several military bosses in the Privy Council are looking forward to collecting more taxes and increasing military expenditures next year.

It can be said that everyone from top to bottom is staring at this tax money.

This year, we first dealt with smuggling, and then started a war with the country.

Two big things happened, and these are big things that could have tax implications.

As winter approached, after the tax money from each county was escorted to Beijing, the tax revenue finally reported by the Ministry of Household Affairs after half a month of calculations shocked the Manchu Dynasty.

Last year, the entire Song Dynasty collected more than 400 million taels of taxes and silver.

Among them, 150 million taels is the same as in previous years, which is the conversion of grain taxes and other things such as tea, iron, salt, etc.

Of the remaining 250 million taels, a full 200 million were income from sea trade last year.

Although smuggling occurred last year, smuggling also made the entire maritime trade more prosperous due to taxation, and the transaction volume of each household hit a new high.

After the imperial court suppressed smuggling in various places, those who paid back the money were paid back, and those who paid the money were ransacked and beheaded.

In the end, this year's sea trade revenue was directly increased to about 200 million taels.

The remaining 50 million and more are the benefits gained from destroying the country.

Although Biguo's royalties were quite high due to the previous years of war, it was still a country. In addition, the Song Dynasty did not spend much effort in attacking Biguo. The largest consumption of military expenditures was the consumption of food and grass.

After capturing Biguo, a lot of money was collected from the local yamen and those wealthy families who resisted.

During the autumn tax period, a wave of taxes was collected, resulting in a total income of 50 million taels.

This is a one-time income. After learning about this year's tax revenue, all ministries' plans and budgets for next year were immediately brought up in the court, for fear that if they were too late, their money would be robbed.

Listening to their eloquent division of taxes, Cui Shangshu Quanchen of the Ministry of Revenue had a dark face.

I wish I could rush forward and give them a kick on the spot, which would save them from having to worry about the tax money they put into the treasury.

A large court always has to spend money in many places, but some are necessary and some are unnecessary.

Zhao Jun knew very well that despite the eloquent words of various ministers, in fact the numbers they reported were very fictitious, just to get more budget.

But if we really allocate funds to them according to their budget, then no matter how much tax the court has, it will not be enough.

In the end, after discussions in the court, compromises and cuts among the ministries, Zhao Jun finally cut off some projects that had been used by ministries to fill up the budget. The final statistics showed that next year's budget for each ministry plus military expenditures and official salaries, etc. would be included.

The imperial court's tax revenue of 400 million taels this year will use a total of 250 million taels.

The main focus is on infrastructure construction and military spending in various places.

Just these two items already account for half of the budget.

But Zhao Jun was willing to spend money on these two points.

The infrastructure construction in various places, especially roads, can speed up the march of the court to mobilize troops to transport grain and grass, and also allow businessmen from various places to communicate more frequently, which is good for commerce and economic construction.

It's worth the investment.

And military spending is also necessary.

The reason why a country can enjoy peace is not because it is lucky. The environment around it keeps it at peace.

Peaceful affairs are ancillary to strong military power.

When your strength is the strongest around you, you can be peaceful no matter what chaos happens around you.

But if your strength is the weakest, no matter how peaceful your surroundings are, you will never be able to achieve peace, because countries that are uniquely powerful will miss everything about you.

Having strong military power is the foundation for maintaining peace.

As a result, investment in military spending is essential.

Zhao Jun has always believed in a saying: If you have money, don't use it to increase funding. Is it possible that you should keep it and wait for the defeat to make war reparations?

Therefore, investment in military expenditure is essential.

Of the remaining half, only half was used for official salaries and necessary expenditures for the operation of the court.

The other half is to be invested in the three counties of Biguo.

Three counties were newly established, and after a war before that, it would be no exaggeration to say that the country was in ruins.

Since it is now the land of the Song Dynasty, it naturally needs to be rebuilt.

At the same time, in order to strengthen the Song Dynasty's control over Biguo, the Song Dynasty also moved a group of people from the interior to Biguo to fill the population of Biguo.

This also costs money.

Zhao Jun knew that large-scale population migration would inevitably cause the relocated people to suffer, but since the imperial court had already taken over the three counties, it was impossible to let it go.

Sometimes necessary sacrifices are unavoidable.

All Zhao Jun can do is to provide more compensation to the people who have been classified as migrating, so as to make them feel better.

This will require a lot of money.

Things like this constitute next year's spending budget. In the end, if everything goes smoothly according to the plan, Song Dynasty will be able to save 150 million taels of tax revenue this year and save a little bit of money.

After the construction of the three counties of Biguo is completed, Zhao Jun also believes that the tax revenue of the Song Dynasty will be increased again next year.

It can be said that everything is developing prosperously.

until……

(End of this chapter)