The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 332: Time is running out for the Qing Dynasty! (Please vote and subscribe)
"Xuan Duanhua and Du Han are coming to Haiyan Hall!"

As soon as Prince Gong left, Emperor Xianfeng ordered his attendants to summon Prince Zheng Duanhua, who was in charge of the Ministry of Revenue, and Du Han, who had just been transferred to the Ministry of Revenue as Minister of the Han Dynasty.

Duanhua and Du Han were the Manchu and Han ministers of the Ministry of Revenue respectively, and both worked in the Grand Council and were Emperor Xianfeng's confidants. It can be seen that what was giving Emperor Xianfeng the biggest headache at the moment was not the military affairs at the front, but the lack of money in the court.

He had just discussed a way to save money with Prince Gong Yixin, and now he called his two trusted ministers to hear their ideas.

"Your Majesty, you said that Prince Gong meant to make Luo Xueyan, Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, Jiang Zhongyuan and other Han officials who led the army outside the country the villains and reduce the salary of the Eight Banners? I wonder how this matter should be handled specifically?"

After listening to Emperor Xianfeng's explanation of the method they had discussed with Prince Gong, Du Han, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, seemed a little confused, so he asked a question.

"Duanhua, what do you think?"

Xianfeng knew that Du Han must have understood and was just playing dumb with him - he was a Han minister after all! How could he not be confused when it came to cutting down the crops of the Eight Banners?

But Prince Zheng is an iron-hat prince, and an iron-hat prince with real power, he can't pretend to be confused!
Duan Hua frowned slightly and said, "Your Majesty, I thought that Prince Gong meant to ask Luo Xueyan, Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, Jiang Zhongyuan and others to submit a petition to ask the Eight Banners Army to come south to help!"

Xianfeng nodded slightly. This Duanhua is indeed a loyal minister! Prince Gong did not dare to say that he would ask the Eight Banners soldiers to help in the battle, but Duanhua dared to say it!
The Qing Dynasty needs men like him!
Xianfeng looked at Du Han again.

Duanhua broke the window paper, so Du Han could naturally continue: "Your Majesty, I think we should let Luo Xueyan, Zeng Guofan, and Zuo Zongtang submit a petition together. Now Luo Xueyan is in charge of the Jianghai Customs, Zeng Guofan is in charge of the Lianghuai Salt Transport Office, and Zuo Zongtang is in charge of the Zhejiang Customs. If the three of them are willing to submit a petition to invite the Eight Banners to go south, it will be possible to reduce the banner salaries and rice subsidies.

If the three of them are unwilling to be the bad guys, they should at least pay hundreds of thousands of taels of tribute to the court, which can at least alleviate the court’s predicament. However.”

He hesitated again.

Xianfeng glanced at him and said, "Du Han, just tell me what you want to say. I will tell you everything I know!"

"Your Majesty is wise," Du Han kowtowed, "I think that even if the court can save millions of banner salaries, the national expenditure is still far from enough. Now the Taiping rebels have already taken over most of Jiangsu, most of Hunan, most of Jiangxi, part of Hubei and part of Anhui, all of which are fertile lands. I'm afraid their power has been established!

In the future, there may be a situation of Northern and Southern Dynasties."

"Duhan, what nonsense are you talking about?"

Duanhua yelled as usual.

"Duanhua!" Xianfeng waved his hand, "Let Duhan continue."

In fact, it’s good to have the Northern and Southern Dynasties!
Today's Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is not like the "Heavenly Kingdom inside the city, Qing Dynasty outside the city" in history. They know how to manage the countryside! The half of Hunan Province that was first taken by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has been divided into fields. Although industry and commerce have suffered a great blow, the grassroots of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom have really been established.

In Hubei and Jiangsu territories that were later taken over by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the distribution of land and the fight against local tyrants were also underway. Although the process was not as fast and violent as in Hunan, it was still progressing.

With the redistribution of rural land, a grassroots loyal to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was slowly forming. In fact, it was not too slow, but the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom grew too fast. There were too many places that needed to be divided into fields and built grassroots, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom’s cadre reserve could not keep up, so they could only do a small piece at first. While doing it, they selected and trained cadres. When there were more cadres, the process of dividing the land would naturally accelerate.

Once a new regime has a large number of grassroots followers, it has a broad foundation.

In addition, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was a newly established regime after all, and the authority of the kings at the top was still very great, and the execution ability was still guaranteed - historically, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had always had extremely strong execution capabilities before the Tianjing Incident, but the execution route was not necessarily correct.

Therefore, as long as the current Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can implement part of the correct route, even just part of it, then its development will be faster than the Qing Dynasty, which is plagued by serious problems.

Even if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not replace the Yuan Dynasty, the situation at the end of the Yuan Dynasty would occur, with the strongest of the Red Turban Army emerging and establishing a new country to replace the Yuan Dynasty. The current Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is clearly showing such a trend.

There may not be much time left for the Qing Dynasty to save itself!

"Your Majesty," Du Han said, "I am worried that once a confrontation between the North and the South is formed, if the Northern Dynasty cannot cheer up, reform politics, and expand financial resources, then the annual income of the Southern Dynasty may greatly exceed that of the Northern Dynasty. And nowadays, we rely on foreign guns and cannons to fight wars, and foreign guns and cannons are expensive, and they are fought with silver!"

Xianfeng sighed, "Du Han, you are right. Only with money can we have an army and foreign guns and cannons! But where can I get money?"

"Only. The new policy!" Du Han said carefully.

Xianfeng nodded and said, "I know. I have been thinking of a way these days. The opening of Tianjin, Yantai, Busan and Vladivostok is already in progress. The contracts for purchasing foreign guns and cannons from Britain and hiring foreign generals and soldiers have all been asked to be handled by Yi Xin!
In addition, I also sent Sushun, Yuanbao, Bai Siwen, Li Hongzhang and others to Europe. The next step is to open a factory in Tianjin that can manufacture foreign guns and cannons, and to set up Tongwenguan to translate Western books. But these new policies all cost money. But the court is really short of money now!

Duanhua, Duhan, think carefully, what new policies can bring in money?"

Come for money?
Duanhua and Duhan certainly knew how to make money because both of them had plenty of it in their families!

However, this way of getting money may not have much to do with the new policy. It is all old policy, and it may not be very glorious.
Seeing that the two men were silent, Xianfeng actually understood a little: "Go ahead, I am not the kind of person who cannot tolerate any sand in my eyes. As long as there is money and it can save the Qing Dynasty, I don't care about the bad reputation."

"Your Majesty is wise."

"Your Majesty is truly a holy ruler!"

Xianfeng smiled bitterly: "Go ahead, tell me what you have to say."

"Your Majesty, let me speak first," Duanhua said, "This court, to put it bluntly, is just a government shop. If Your Majesty wants to make a quick buck, then he can only sell official positions and titles!"

"Selling official positions and titles?" Xianfeng frowned. "Hasn't it been sold for a long time?"

Du Han said: "Your Majesty, what is being sold now is not in great demand, and it is not being sold to the right people, so it does not fetch much money."

"Oh?" Xianfeng asked, "How did you say that?"

Du Han said: "For example, the governors of Shanghai, Baoshan, Chongming, Jiading, Fengxian, Nanhui and Chuansha Hall, the governor of Ryukyu Kingdom, the governor of Lanfang Kingdom, the prefect of Songjiang Prefecture, and the general of Susong Town can all be sold at a good price if they are sold to the right people!"

"This..." Xianfeng narrowed his eyes and said in an inaudible voice, "This is not selling official positions? This is clearly selling the name and power of the vassal state!"

"Your Majesty is wise!" Du Han said, "Anyway, it's difficult for officials sent by the court to take up posts in those vassal states. Why not go with the flow and sell the official positions to earn some money?"

Duan Hua added: "Your Majesty, the positions of the Governor-General of the Canal Transport, the Lianghuai Salt Transport Commissioner, the Governor of Jiangsu, the Prefect of Xuzhou, the Prefect of Haizhou, the Prefect of Huai'an, as well as the subordinate prefectures and counties of Xu, Hai, and Huai, the Admiral of Jiangsu, the General of Xuzhou, etc., although they cannot be sold for much money, they can be used to pay military pay. Now the court still owes a lot of military pay to several militia commanders who have gone out of the province to fight. We can give them some local official assignments and let them earn it themselves."

Xianfeng nodded gently: "That's a good idea! Is there any other solution?"

"And more." Du Han hesitated.

(End of this chapter)