Daming: I can’t kill such a greedy prince-in-law?

Chapter 598 Lan Yu went to the Ministry of Revenue to seek justice (Please subscribe!!)

They are the princes guarding the borders. The retired emperor Zhu Yuanzhang and the emperor Zhu Biao made it very clear in the imperial edict that the princes also have the responsibility to destroy the Northern Yuan Dynasty. The wording and sentences in it are also very meaningful, that is, the princes guarding the borders are to assist and cooperate with Lan Yu in destroying the Northern Yuan Dynasty, rather than obey Lan Yu's command!
In other words, as long as the princes can resolve the Northern Yuan Dynasty, the credit will belong to them alone, and Lan Yu will not even be qualified to get a share of it.

Of course, under normal circumstances, Lan Yu would simply disdain to compete with the vassal kings. After all, in Lan Yu's eyes, these vassal kings were just juniors. Only Zhu Biao could convince Lan Yu, and the rest, such as Zhu Di, Zhu Quan, etc., were just children!

But the situation is a little different now. Lan Yu’s army is nowhere to be seen!

The armies of the princes were at the border. As the saying goes, those who are close to the water get to see the moon first. If his army had not arrived yet and the armies of the princes had destroyed the Northern Yuan Dynasty, wouldn't he, the great general who broke the enemy line, be so embarrassed that he could dig his toes into the ground? !
So now Lan Yu is anxious, anxious to quickly form an army and anxious to lead the army to the northern border.

"Brothers, please don't worry. Go back and prepare well. Just wait for news from me!"

Although Lan Yu was extremely anxious, as a general he still pretended to be calm and tried to comfort his generals first.

"Your responsibility is to lead your troops to charge at this great general on the battlefield and defeat the Northern Yuan army as quickly as possible. Don't consider other things that you shouldn't consider!"

"When our army returns victorious, I will celebrate with you for three days and three nights!"

Lan Yu said loudly.

These words were very useful. All the Huaixi generals were like being injected with chicken blood. There was nothing but excitement in their eyes, and there was no trace of worry as before.

"Great victory over the Northern Yuan Dynasty!"

"Return victorious!"

The Huaixi generals left the Duke of Liang's Mansion shouting slogans excitedly.

After all the Huaixi generals left, Lan Yu's face immediately fell, his brows furrowed into a "川" shape, and after thinking for a long time, he finally said in a deep voice: "No, I can't just sit there and wait, I have to do something!"

"I absolutely cannot let those vassal kings get ahead of me!"

"Are you going to see Prime Minister Li?"

When faced with this problem, the first thing Lan Yu thought of was to go to Li Shanchang to discuss it, but this time he quickly gave up the idea.

"Old Prime Minister Li doesn't care about the army or logistics. It won't make much sense for me to go to him at this time. I might as well go to Ouyang Lun directly!" Lan Yu thought about it and decided to face Ouyang Lun directly. After all, Ouyang Lun was the party involved. As long as Ouyang Lun was dealt with, the military expenses and supplies would not be a problem at all.

"Are we going to the Zongrenfu or the Hububu?"

Lan Yu thought again, "Let's go to the Ministry of Revenue! Although it is possible that Ouyang Lun is not in the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Revenue is in charge of money and grain. Even if I can't find Ouyang Lun, I can put pressure on the Ministry of Revenue and ask them to solve the problems of military expenditure and supplies as soon as possible."

"As long as the military expenditure and material issues are resolved, my army can set out!"

Having made the decision, Lan Yu immediately dressed himself, got on his sedan chair and headed towards the Ministry of Revenue.

The capital, the imperial palace, the Ministry of Revenue.

The Ministry of Revenue is also very busy at this moment.

The Ministry of Revenue was the busiest department in the development of projects such as the Beijing-Pingcheng Railway, because they had to mobilize the money of the entire Ming Dynasty and spend every penny in the national treasury.

It's busy enough already.

As a result, now there is an additional war to be fought against the Northern Yuan Dynasty, which makes him extremely busy!
Guo Zi, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue, had been working for several days in a row. He had been sleeping in the yamen during these days and had not returned home at all.

At this moment, officials at all levels of the Ministry of Revenue are reporting to Guo Zi. This is the first time that the Ministry of Revenue has encountered such a situation. They all want to perform well, at least not to embarrass the Prince Consort!

Ever since Li Shanchang managed the Ministry of Revenue, the officials of the Ministry of Revenue realized that only when Ouyang Lun was the head of the Ministry of Revenue could they live a good life. You must know that Ouyang Lun was in charge of the Ministry of Revenue and gave great authority to officials at all levels below. This was not to allow them to embezzle, but to give full play to their abilities!
Who doesn’t have ideals when being an official?
At the beginning, they all wanted to achieve something and have a career, but in the end their edges were smoothed out. However, Ouyang Lun was able to give many officials the ability to make their own decisions. More importantly, he would support them if they had good ideas. Even if they did a bad job or failed to accomplish their goals, he would never let the people below take the blame.

As for other benefits and status, let alone that, the status of the Ministry of Revenue officials now far exceeds that of officials in other government offices, and they are the God of Wealth wherever they go!

If officials from the capital go to the countryside, they are treated three ranks higher, then officials from the Ministry of Revenue go at least four ranks higher when they leave the capital! !

It is precisely because of this that the officials of the Ministry of Revenue are extremely loyal to Ouyang Lun. In addition, the Ministry of Revenue is led by his trusted subordinate Guo Zi. The Ministry of Revenue is Ouyang Lun's basic iron base and no one can shake it.

Therefore, even if Ouyang Lun did not show up, there was no sign of chaos in the Ministry of Revenue.

"Master Guo, I have already counted the food supplies in all the warehouses of the Ming Dynasty according to your instructions!"

As soon as one official finished speaking, another official stepped forward and said, "Sir Guo, I have counted the supplies currently available in all the provinces of the Ming Dynasty. Here is the detailed account!"

"In addition, I have also counted the materials and funds needed for the major projects in Daming. Taking everything into consideration, the situation is not good!"

Guo Zi picked up the statistical analysis documents and read them carefully. After reading them, Guo Zi closed them, thought for a moment, and asked in a deep voice: "If we want to gather the supplies and military funds for the expeditionary army in a short period of time, how long will it take?!"

"Master Guo, please allow me to say something that may not be pleasant to the ear. Before the construction of the Beijing-Pinggu Railway, the supplies and military expenses of the expeditionary army were not a big problem. A little redeployment would have been enough. But now that the Beijing-Pinggu Railway has been fully started, and multiple sections are being built simultaneously, this is equivalent to starting ten Great Wall construction projects at the same time. The supplies and funds consumed every day are enormous!"

"To be honest, none of us in the household department have had a break these days, but we still haven't finished it! It's really hard to finish this in a short time!"

Another official immediately spoke up, "Sir Guo, speaking of this, I can't help but feel sorry for the Prince Consort. His Majesty and the Emperor Emeritus threw such a difficult task to the Prince Consort, but in the end, someone else took the credit! Alas."

"We can't discuss the above matters. The task we received from the Prince Consort is to solve the problem of materials and military expenses. If we can't do it, it will be a disgrace to the Prince Consort!" Guo Zi spoke in a deep voice and continued to ask: "I think the provinces of Northern Zhili, Liaodong Province, and Shaanxi Province, which are close to the northern border, have sufficient supplies and are also close to the northern border. Can we allocate the supplies of these three provinces to the expeditionary army first?"

"Master Guo, the supplies in these three provinces are indeed quite large, but this is mainly because the population in the northern border is increasing, and there are many workshops, armies, and large construction sites. The court has never stopped repairing the Great Wall!"

"If the materials of these three provinces are moved, not to mention that the workshops, armies, and construction sites will be affected, I'm afraid even the construction project of the northern line of the Beijing-Pingcheng Railway will be affected and stopped. The northern line project is currently under the charge of the Huaixi Party, and I'm afraid there will be a lot of trouble by then!"

The officials from the Ministry of Revenue quickly spoke up to dissuade him.

After hearing these words, Guo Zi immediately fell into deep thought. Just when Guo Zi couldn't think of a better solution for a while, Zhou Bao walked in.

"Didn't I tell you that there's an important meeting going on inside and no outsiders are allowed in?"

Guo Zi said in a deep voice.

"Master Guo, you're not allowing me to come in even?" Zhou Bao said indifferently.

Ah!
Hearing this voice, Guo Zi quickly raised his head and looked. When he saw that the person coming was Guo Zi, he immediately stood up and walked quickly to Zhou Bao, "Brother Zhou, what you said is serious. I didn't see it was you just now. If I saw it was you, I would naturally not say that just now. You must not take it to heart!"

"I'm not that stingy." Zhou Bao smiled and shook his head, then handed Guo Zi a golden bag, "I came here to give you this thing on the orders of the master."

"Is this a sachet?!" Guo Zi took the sachet and asked with some confusion.

"This is a magic bag. It contains the method that the master wrote for you. If you really can't think of a good method, just do it according to the record in the magic bag!" Zhou Bao said speechlessly: "But from the looks of you, most of you probably haven't thought of any good method. Take a look yourself!"

"I'm leaving!"

Zhou Bao shook his head and left.

"Brother Zhou, take care! Next time I'll invite you to relax in Paradise on Earth!"

After saying that, Guo Zi quickly opened the brocade bag and started reading it.

"Sir, what solution does the Prince Consort have for us!?"

A group of Ministry of Revenue officials immediately surrounded them.

Seeing everyone gathering around, Guo Zi quickly put away the brocade bag, as if afraid of being seen by others, and then coughed twice, "Ahem, I've read the method given by the Prince Consort!"

"Pass the order down, order the three provinces of Northern Zhili, Liaodong, and Shaanxi to immediately raise supplies and make sure to guarantee the expenses of the 500,000-man army for three months!"

"The four southern provinces must also prepare and immediately mobilize supplies and transport them to the capital. We must do this as quickly as possible!"

"The rest of the provinces must also not sit idle. Except for the projects approved by the court, all other major projects must be stopped and resources must be supplied to the major projects first. The importance of the Beijing-Pinggu Railway is self-evident, and there must be no problems with its supply!"

"In short, we need to gather supplies for the expeditionary army, and also prepare supplies for the Beijing-Ping Railway. We can't afford to miss any of those!"

After hearing Guo Zi's words, everyone at the scene was stunned. They didn't expect that the prince consort would be so determined to perform the duties of the chief logistics manager.

It can be said that this arrangement is to mobilize all the materials and funds of the entire Ming Dynasty and to protect all aspects. It can certainly be done, but the risks are relatively high. If something goes wrong in the middle, such as a natural disaster, it is likely to cause a chain reaction and eventually lead to the collapse of the Ming Dynasty's economy. In the end, the one who will be blamed will undoubtedly be the son-in-law Ouyang Lun!
"Master Guo, even if we follow the arrangements made by the Prince Consort, I'm afraid it won't be enough!"

"Just supplying the Beijing-Pingcheng Railway is already stretched to the limit in terms of supplies, and now we have to pay for the expenses of an additional 500,000 troops. What the government has prepared is far from enough."

"That's right. Due to increased consumption, the prices of grain and other materials in the Ming Dynasty are on the rise. The grain hoarded by the court is used to suppress grain prices. Now all the hoarded grain is withdrawn. If some merchants hoard grain to drive up prices, it will be a big deal!"

"I've heard that some businessmen are planning to do this!"

"This is normal. The news that the court was going to war had already been leaked by the Huaixi Party. They were afraid that others would not know that Lan Yu had become the General of Breaking the Enemy Army this time, and that the Huaixi Party was going to rise again."

"Master Guo, I really don't understand. The Huaixi Party has been making things difficult for us. Many brothers who wanted to do something were suppressed by them. If it weren't for the Prince Consort supporting us, we wouldn't have achieved what we have today!"

"Now, the Huaixi Party has become the main force to destroy the Northern Yuan Dynasty. We have to manage their logistics. Even if we don't retaliate against them, we can't let them get too comfortable!"

The officials in the Ministry of Revenue were somewhat dissatisfied.

Seeing this, Guo Zi sighed and continued, "I think the same as you do, but what I just read was the arrangement made by the Prince Consort. Don't you even listen to the Prince Consort's words?!"

"This"

Upon hearing this, all the officials in the Ministry of Revenue fell silent.

"Regarding the matter of raising military funds and supplies for the expeditionary army, I know it is difficult, and the Prince Consort also knows it is difficult, but this is our mission!"

"We can't let the Huaixi Party look down on us!"

Guo Zi continued, "Regarding the problem of insufficient supplies, the Prince Consort has already thought of a solution for us!"

"Send a message to the best merchants in the Ming Dynasty. First of all, they are not allowed to hoard goods. If anyone messes up at this time, the iron fist of the imperial court will hit them. Don't cry when the time comes!"

"Secondly, if there are merchants who have a lot of food supplies, the court is willing to buy them at a price 10% higher than the market price, but let them remember that this is the highest price the court has offered, and it will only get higher in the future!"

"For those who take the initiative to sell the court's grain and other supplies, the court will issue a commendation order, which will be signed by the emperor and the emperor emeritus!"

Upon hearing this proposal, the eyes of the officials in the Ministry of Revenue suddenly lit up.

"This is a good idea!"

"In this case, those officials who want to hoard goods will have to think twice!"

"Great! The price offered by the court is getting lower and lower. The people see this and are naturally unwilling to pay a high price for food. However, the merchants are anxious. They have to hoard so much food in a short period of time, which will cost a lot of money. The longer it takes, the greater the pressure on them!"

"Maybe in the end, the businessmen themselves will be unable to hold on any longer."

(End of this chapter)