Eagle-eyed and wolf-watching

Chapter 1546 Daqian’s financial situation!

Now that Chen Changgui has made it clear, Su Junjie simply stopped pretending and confronted Chen Changgui directly:
"I am very panicked in this situation. Brother Chen, if you can help me at this time, I, Su Junjie, will be very grateful to you!"

Although Su Junjie did not make it clear, Chen Changgui's expression was a little complicated. He knew what Su Junjie meant.

After a moment's silence, Chen Changgui finally nodded under Su Junjie's sincere gaze and said:
"Junjie, you are my good brother. Now that you are able to get promoted, I am also happy for you. Don't worry, as long as I can help you, I will definitely help you!"

"I will greet Liu Fei and the others and ask them to work for you just like they work for me!"

When Chen Changgui said this, Su Junjie was overjoyed. He immediately stood up and bowed respectfully to Chen Changgui and said:

"Thank you for your help, Brother Chen! I feel much more at ease with your words. I will remember your kindness in my heart, but if you have any request, I, Su Junjie, will never refuse!"

Although he is about to take over the throne of the Minister of Works, Su Junjie knows that this does not mean that everything will be fine for him. This is just the beginning!

The reason why Your Majesty chose me to take over as the Minister of Works is because he wanted stability and did not want some changes within the Ministry of Works to affect several ongoing projects in the Ministry of Works. This was the fundamental reason for my ascension!

If I want to secure my position as the Minister of Industry, I must complete those projects. Otherwise, His Majesty can let me take the position as well as dethrone me...
Su Junjie made a statistics and found that there were seven important projects, namely Furen Palace, Tao Port, steam engine and other four projects. Among them, Furen Palace and Tao Port were led by Chen Fu himself, and the remaining five projects including the steam engine were all led by the First Manufacturing Bureau under Chen Changgui!
When the First Manufacturing General Administration was established, Chen Changgui was one of its backbone members. After succeeding Zhang Dehui as director, Chen Changgui relied on his strong working ability and management style full of gangsterism to win over all the people in the First Manufacturing General Administration to his side.

The technical backbones of the First Manufacturing Bureau, such as Zhao Fei, Zhang Pengju and others, were all promoted by Chen Changgui, and they are very grateful to Chen Changgui.

Therefore, even though Chen Changgui has been demoted, he still has a significant influence on the First Manufacturing Bureau.

Su Junjie is very clear about his own capabilities. During his tenure over the years, although the Second Manufacturing Bureau has achieved some results, such as developing cement, glass, improving textile machines, etc., these are all in the civilian field. If you want to make money with these products, Su Junjie has rich experience.

But the problem is that the projects under Chen Changgui, except for the steam engine, are all related to armaments. This is the area that Su Junjie is not good at. Su Junjie is very clear that different fields have different worlds. If he directs the research and development, there will probably be no good results.

Therefore, if I want to continue to advance those projects, I must deal with Zhao Fei, Zhang Pengju and other technical backbones. These people are Chen Changgui's people. The best way to deal with them is to deal with Chen Changgui first...

Otherwise, with Chen Changgui's petty style, if he played any tricks on me, I would be in big trouble!

On the contrary, as long as Chen Changgui endorses me, Zhao Fei, Zhang Pengju and others will listen to me. These technical backbones will not cause any trouble, and the progress of the key projects that His Majesty is concerned about will be guaranteed. Then I will be able to do my job as the Minister of Works steadily!
Although Chen Changgui agreed to Su Junjie's request, he felt uncomfortable when he thought about handing over his years of hard work to Su Junjie. However, when he saw Su Junjie being so sincere and so humble in front of him, a demoted official, he felt better.

Chen Changgui pondered for a while and said:
"Junjie, I do need your help with a few things!"

Su Junjie also knew that Chen Changgui would not help him just by listening to a few words from him. He must have conditions, so at this time Su Junjie also spoke very straightforwardly:
"Brother Chen, just say whatever you want. As long as I can do it, I will never refuse!"

"Deputy Director Zhang Pengju is a talented person. He has been with me for many years and has helped me a lot. I also promised him that I would help him find a future if I had the chance. Now that I'm in trouble, I can only entrust you to my brother!"

"Junjie, if you think Zhang Pengju is capable, then give him a hand. If you think he is not capable, then forget it..."

Although Chen Changgui's words were euphemistic, Su Junjie knew what he meant, so he started preaching immediately;
"Zhang Pengju's talents are obvious to all colleagues in the Ministry of Industry. In my opinion, there is absolutely no problem for him to be the head of the First Manufacturing Bureau. In addition, I will recommend Zhao Fei to take over the position of deputy director. Your Majesty has always admired him!"

Seeing Su Junjie being so sensible, Chen Changgui was secretly delighted, but he still said:
"Junjie, you can handle these matters on your own. I, a sinner, will not get involved. I will just help you connect them and build a bridge. They will work hard under your command from now on!"

"Brother Chen, please don't keep calling me a criminal. As the old saying goes, a blessing in disguise. Although you have fallen this time, I think it is also an opportunity for a career in the government. Your Majesty values ​​grassroots experience so much that when promoting people, the first thing to look at is whether they have served as county magistrates or prefects, and how they performed as county magistrates and prefects!"

"If you have been a county magistrate or prefect and have achieved results, you are superior to others. So in my opinion, it may not be a bad thing for you to be a prefect now, Brother Chen. This may be a training for you by His Majesty!"

"His Majesty's appreciation and love for you, Brother Chen, is well known in the court. If you can make achievements in the local area, I believe you will make achievements soon. By then, with the blessing of this resume, not to mention becoming a Minister of Works, it is not impossible to go a step further!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Changgui glanced at Su Junjie and said meaningfully:
"If I want to achieve success locally, I can't do without your help, brother!"

Su Junjie was shocked when he heard this and asked tentatively, "Brother Chen, do you have any idea in mind?"

"Junjie, I know you have a good relationship with the Ministry of Personnel. Can you help me see if there is any vacancy in Jiangnan for me to fill? It would be best if you could introduce some of your friends in Jiangnan to me..."

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March 10th, Daqian Palace,
After Ye Mingsheng became emperor, in order to adapt to the change of Ye Mingsheng's status, the Ye Mansion was renamed the Imperial Palace and expanded, and some adjustments were made to the internal structure. Among these adjustments, the original Zhongyong Hall was also moved to the ground and a new building was built. The high-level meetings of Daqian were also held in Tiande Pavilion instead.
At 9 o'clock in the morning, Su Junjie, who had just been promoted to Minister of Works by Ye Mingsheng two days ago, was the first to arrive at Tiande Pavilion.

After him, Minister of Rites Su Yi, Minister of Punishments Liu Ning, Chief of Staff of Daqian Zhao Han, Deputy Chief of Staff Ma Zhongjun, Minister of Revenue Cui Shao, Left Vice Minister of Revenue Zhang Juning, Minister of Personnel Gu Sansi, Left Vice Minister of Personnel Shen Changhong, Left Censor-in-Chief Wang Huaiyi, Duke of Qi Yuan Song and others also came to Tiande Pavilion one after another.

At 1:00 pm, Ye Mingsheng walked into Tiande Pavilion with a cry of "Your Majesty has arrived!" Seeing this, all the civil and military officials of Daqian knelt down and saluted:
"I'll wait to see your Majesty!"

Ye Mingsheng sat in the main seat and looked around at everyone present. Seeing that everyone was present, he nodded slightly and said:

"Everyone, sit down!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

After everyone sat down, Ye Cheng distributed reports one by one to the civil and military officials of Daqian. After everyone received the report, Ye Mingsheng said:
"The first item of today's meeting is to review the Ministry of Revenue's work report! Minister Zhang, please tell us what you think!"

As Ye Mingsheng called the names, everyone's eyes were focused on Zhang Juning, who was sitting at the end. The Left Vice Minister of Daqian immediately stood up and introduced:

"Your Majesty and all the gentlemen, in the past year, our Daqian fiscal revenue was approximately 3,976,000 taels of silver..."

"Among them, the Jiangnan Provincial Government received 1.51 million taels of silver, the Youyan Provincial Government received 650,000 taels of silver, and the Jiyu Provincial Government received 500,000 taels of silver. These are the three regions that contributed the most to fiscal revenue. The tax revenue from these three regions exceeded three-fifths of the total tax revenue of the court."

"In addition, in terms of expenditure, the salaries of officials still dominate. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Personnel, after the previous layoffs, there are about 69,000 officials with ranks in Daqian, and the total number of people working in government offices such as runners is about 283,000!"

"For this, the court needs to pay a salary of 2.09 million taels of silver every year. It is worth noting that this is only the expenditure in silver. Welfare benefits such as food, cloth, meat, etc. are not included!"

"And our Daqian field army currently has a total of more than 290,000 soldiers, and their salaries total 970,000 taels of silver. Again, this is just the silver expenditure. Welfare benefits such as food, cloth, meat, etc. are not included in the calculation!"

"In addition to the expenses other than salaries, and the silver left by the provincial governors, the Ministry of Revenue's treasury received a total of 90 taels of silver. According to your majesty's arrangement, the Ministry of Revenue allocated 200,000 taels of silver for special funds for naval construction, and a total of 110,000 taels of silver were spent on disaster relief in various places. The interest on the bonds of the Dadongsheng Bank was 390,000 taels of silver!"

"Therefore, the court's current fiscal surplus is about 200,000 taels of silver. Adding to some of the previous surpluses, there are currently a total of about 350,000 taels of silver in the Ministry of Revenue's treasury..."

Hearing this number, the civil and military officials in Tiande Pavilion all had different expressions. Among them, there was basically no big change on the civil servant side. After all, the financial situation of the Ministry of Revenue was not a big secret in the court.

Although everyone did not know the exact figures, they had a general idea of ​​the situation, so the figures reported by Zhang Juning were completely within everyone's expectations.

But the expressions of the three generals present were very different. Among them, Duke of Qi Yuan Song looked normal. After all, he was now in a semi-retired state. Apart from the title of Duke of Qi, he no longer held any position in the army. All court affairs had nothing to do with him now, and he didn't care about them anymore!

Yuan Song was also very clear that the reason why Ye Mingsheng called him to the Tiande Pavilion meeting was not to let him express his opinions, but entirely out of respect for him as a person. So when he came to attend the meeting today, Yuan Song came with his ears and eyes!
In addition to Yuan Song, Chief of Staff Zhao Han and Deputy Chief of Staff Ma Zhongjun frowned. After all, the General Staff had been planning to send troops to the grassland after the spring to repel the eager Cumans!

Going to war means burning money, and it will cost at least 100,000 taels of silver every month. With the 350,000 taels of silver in the Ministry of Revenue, it will only take three months at most...

Ye Mingsheng also noticed the frown on the general's face. He did not say anything but continued to ask Zhang Juning:

"How is the debt problem of Dadongsheng Bank going?"

Facing Ye Mingsheng's question, Zhang Juning said without hesitation:
"Your Majesty, the total debt of the Dadongsheng Bank is 5.31 million taels of silver. However, according to some previous adjustments, these 5.31 million taels of silver are basically some medium- and long-term bonds that will be paid in ten years. The bonds that will be paid in the short term are all small-value bonds. There is basically no great repayment pressure in the next three years!"

Ye Mingsheng nodded with satisfaction when he heard this. The silver he brought back from his southern tour that year basically solved Daqian's short-term debt crisis, and also maintained the credibility of Dadongsheng Bank's bonds. So overall, the finances were still healthy and could afford the interest of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver every year!
In the absence of much repayment pressure in the short term, as long as the interest can be paid, Dadongsheng Bank can also raise money by issuing bonds. This is also a trump card of Daqian’s finances at present. However, as the total debt increases, Ye Mingsheng must be cautious in using this trump card!
After all, a debt is a debt and must be repaid. Moreover, as the total amount of debt increases, the interest will also increase. Now it is already 390,000 taels of silver. If I borrow more, I may have to pay back 500,000 taels of silver every year...