Chapter 3
The three ministers of the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Ministry of Rites successively submitted memorials to express their poverty, which had both practical and subjective reasons.
In reality, the largest source of income for the national treasury is the court's monopoly on business, including official salt, official iron, etc., as well as various tax items such as land tax, head tax, and commercial tax. The income is not small.
In recent years, due to natural disasters and wars, the national treasury has not had much surplus. Coupled with this year's disaster relief and corruption, more than 6 million taels have been spent, and the treasury is suddenly a little stretched.
Subjectively speaking: They wanted to arouse the curiosity of Chu Huan and the system by crying poor, and get clues about the treasures of the previous dynasty through a one-on-one conversation, so as to dig them out as soon as possible to fill the national treasury.
They didn't expect that even after they had discussed and prepared everything, the system would not go as they had envisioned.
Chu Hua: [The poverty of the national treasury is well known, so let's not discuss it for now.]
emperor:? ? ?
Officials: ???
Why, why don't you talk about it for now?!
Some impatient civil and military officials could no longer hold back and wanted to speak up to change the subject.
At this moment, they heard Chu Huan's curious question: [Is the emperor's private treasury also out of money? ]
Baiguan: Hmm——???
It doesn't seem that urgent. Take your time.
The emperor sat on the high platform, taking in the many expressions and small movements of the civil and military ministers below, especially their anxiety when they heard "let's not talk about it for now" and their interest when they heard "there is no money in the private treasury".
These are the loyal ministers of the Great Sheng Dynasty! Every one of them wants to see me make a fool of myself!
The system did not reply immediately, apparently it went to dig melons to eat.
Chu Huan was not in a hurry. Going to court was so boring, so she just had to wait.
The emperor is still not sure about the system's capabilities. He wants to test the system's capabilities through this incident, but he is also afraid that Chu Huan and the system will spread the news that he has no money in his private treasury to everyone.
"Regarding the insufficient state treasury, what suggestions do you have?"
Even at the risk of everyone knowing that the "emperor is poor", he still wants to change the subject!
The treasury has only a few fixed sources of income, and the ministers can only find ways to make use of the existing ones.
Someone suggested: "Issue more salt permits."
The salt in Dasheng was a monopoly of the imperial court, commonly known as official salt. When the imperial court was short of money, it would issue additional salt permits. Salt merchants would purchase the salt permits and then use them to go to the salt fields to collect and sell salt. This was a relatively common and fixed method.
Because they were familiar with it and knew the exact revenue that the additional issuance of salt permits could bring and the current state of the national treasury, many officials agreed and echoed it.
"I agree."
"I second the motion."
"No!" objected the Minister of Revenue. "We just increased the issuance four years ago. How much are you going to give out again? Do you think those salt merchants are stupid?"
The system heard this scolding as soon as it came back from eating melon. It saw that the Minister of Revenue's face was red from scolding, and he was almost mad with anger. It seemed that other people had opinions but did not dare to refute them.
[Sister Huan, what happened? ]
Chu Hua: [It happened the year my brother wasn't robbed.]
System: [Hmm, what happened next?]
Chu Hua: [Can't you eat the melon by yourself?]
System: [Searching also requires melon energy. I can eat what's already there, why should I spend more melon energy?]
Chu Huan: “…” What you said makes a lot of sense.
The Minister of Revenue, who was originally so angry that he was blowing his beard and glaring, was stunned when he heard this. It turned out that the system did not know everything.
All the officials have their own thoughts, so they have many loopholes to exploit.
Chu Huan explained: "That year, before the Lunar New Year was even over, we received news of a snowstorm in the north. The national treasury allocated funds for disaster relief and organized subsequent reconstruction work. Just as we were catching our breath, torrential rains hit, causing floods. The national treasury allocated more funds for disaster relief, rebuilding homes, and building dams. The weather kept getting hotter, and there was a drought here, and a typhoon there. Didn't that mean more money was needed?
The system gasped: [No matter how much money you have, you can't afford to spend it like this.]
The emperor and all the officials nodded silently, that’s right!
No matter how wise and powerful the emperor is, or how good the ministers are at saving money, they cannot resist asking for money everywhere and finding so many ways to spend it.
Chu Huan continued, "With the weather so extreme, many civilians have lost their lives. Who has time to farm? Droughts and floods are common, and the harvest is failing. Land taxes and head taxes still have to be paid. To prevent the tragedy of people eating their own children, the Dasheng treasury, staring at its starving state, can only reluctantly issue an additional five million salt permits. Note that this is an additional issuance, meaning it's an increase on top of the existing ones."
One salt permit was issued for 200 kilograms of salt. This meant a total of 1 billion kilograms of salt had been issued. The salt fields throughout Dasheng could only produce 200 million kilograms of salt annually, meaning they were effectively selling off the next five years' worth of salt in advance. Salt merchants bought salt permits to conduct business. Who would want to spend their money and then wait so long?
In order to sell so much salt, they used all 36 strategies. Although they saved countless civilians, they also tried to find wealthy salt merchants to minimize the impact. However, 10 billion kilograms of salt was too much. The large salt merchants had their own sources of information and were unwilling to buy so much. This led to many small salt merchants coming to buy, and later they were ruined due to various factors.
The emperor and all the officials were silent.
Some of them did not expect that Chu Huan, a girl from the boudoir, was so well-informed about the affairs of the court. Others felt that Chu Huan explained it clearly. There were even a few less intelligent generals who showed an expression of "So this is what the Minister of Revenue is angry about" after listening to her.
The system sighed: [They are trying to save more people and have done their best.]
So many people in the court have been silent for such a long time, and no one has spoken. Chu Huan and the system might notice something is wrong.
The officials exchanged glances, and someone suggested, "Issue more tea vouchers."
Chu Hua: [Change to another sheep.]
emperor:"……"
Officials: "..."
Ahem, what truth are you talking about!
Next, officials discussed how to issue more tea permits.
The initial one-time issuance of so much additional funds was a helpless move, and we are still cleaning up the mess caused by the action taken four years ago. The national treasury is not yet at the point of exhaustion, so they have to proceed slowly and carefully.
They wanted the treasures of the previous dynasty that the system mentioned, but they couldn't pin all their hopes on them. What if the treasures were small? What if digging was difficult? What if someone else had dug it up?
Chu Hua yawned as she listened. [System, this is a wake-up call.]
System: [Alright!]
Everyone was so engrossed in eating melons that they didn't notice that the ministers who were discussing the matter had lowered their voices, and the emperor on the platform shifted his butt uncomfortably.
The system deliberately used the UC announcement tone: [Shock! The current emperor is actually poorer than the Minister of Revenue! Is this a distortion of human nature, or a decline in morality?!]
emperor:? ? ?
What? You're richer than me?
The Minister of Revenue was very happy to have a piece of the emperor's melon, but unexpectedly it was eaten on his own head, and he was immediately in a state of extreme shock.
It's okay! He told himself that the system was only gone for a short while and wouldn't find out everything he had hidden outside.
Chu Huan immediately perked up: [Didn't you go to the Emperor's private treasury? Why did you go to see the Minister of Revenue?]
System: [I dug out the melons from the emperor's private vault. They were targeted. Just looking at them, you can tell how much stuff there was. I don't have a specific idea of whether he was rich or poor during the Great Prosperity. So, I came back and wanted to ask who you could compare it to.]
[After I came back, I saw the Minister of Revenue so excited. I went to see him. He was so poor that he wore his underwear inside out and even though it had several holes in it, he still didn't throw it away. Out of curiosity, I went to see his boss, and then I found out he was greedy.]
emperor:"……"
Officials: "..."
Not really, really. How about giving the Minister of Revenue two pairs of underwear as a friendly gift after leaving the court?
The old face of the Minister of Revenue turned red with shame. He felt that all his colleagues were looking through his official uniform to see if his underwear was worn inside out and how many holes it had. His lower body was freezing cold.
Chu Hua: [Very greedy?]
System: [Too greedy! There's a hot spring resort outside Beijing, and the entire wall of the study is covered in gold. Add to that a garden in Jiangnan, and the gold, jade, antiques, calligraphy, and paintings people sent him. All in all, two million taels is still too little.]
Instantly, the eyes of the emperor and the minister of finance lit up, and they agreed: "Copy!" With these two million, the national treasury could issue a lot less tea vouchers.
Upon hearing that the system knew so much detail, the Minister of Revenue's face turned paler than the wall. His legs went weak and he was about to kneel down and beg for mercy, but was forcibly lifted up by his colleagues on both sides.
Then, the emperor's threatening look arrived.
If you dare to reveal your true identity in public and get discovered by Chu Huan and the system, you’re dead!
Outside the palace, there was a Jinyiwei guard who happened to be stuck within a fifty-meter radius of Chu Huan, constantly listening and recording the conversation between the two men.
Upon hearing this, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard quickly assigned personnel.
Dozens of Jinyiwei rode out on horseback and rushed to the hot spring resort outside the capital.
There is no conclusive evidence as to whether the Third Prince is a remnant of the previous dynasty or where he has colluded with the general of the previous dynasty, but this entire wall of gold can immediately confirm whether everything the system says is correct.
An hour later, the Embroidered Uniform Guards handed over the list of items confiscated from the hot spring villa to the imperial study.
The emperor also had a specific list in his hand.
He compared this list with the two that the Jinyiwei had confiscated, and found that most of them matched.
The reason why it is not all of them is because the list in his hand was made by Chu Huan, who was bored with attending court and wanted to know how many good things the Minister of Revenue had. She asked the system to report them one by one, and it also has the function of identifying whether calligraphy and paintings are authentic, which is very useful.
Emperor: "Lin You."
Jinyiwei Commander Lin You: "I am here."
Emperor: "Copy it cleanly."
The next day, Chu Huan went to court with her father and was surprised to find that most of the officials passing by them were very happy.
How can I not be happy?
The house of the Minister of Revenue was raided overnight. It contained two million taels of silver. The national treasury was immediately replenished, and they finally had a good night's sleep.
Only the Minister of Revenue looked at Chu Huan with a slightly resentful look, and was a little amused.
His integrity was proven together with the corruption of the Minister of Revenue, so his reputation is good, but... everyone knows that he is so honest that his underwear will have holes when he wears it inside out!
Chu Huan:?
[System, why does the Minister of Revenue look at me like this? ]
Minister of Revenue:!!!
Other officials: !!!
Oh no! Now I'm exposed!
The Minister of Revenue was extremely anxious. If this matter were to be exposed to him, who knows how much loss it would cause to Dasheng.
The system laughed heartily: "He's probably not looking at you, he's looking at the person behind you. Yesterday, the Minister of Revenue was in a hurry to go to the bathroom, and the small door to the toilet wasn't closed properly. He pushed it open, and happened to see the Minister of Revenue's underwear, which was wearing inside out and had several holes in it. Then everyone in the Ministry of Revenue knew about it!"
Chu Huan: [Hahahaha…]
System: [Hahahahaha…]
The man laughed wildly, and all the officials laughed as they breathed a sigh of relief.
Although it was not very kind, they were indeed curious about whether the underwear of the Minister of Revenue was real... ahem, camaraderie among colleagues, camaraderie among colleagues.
But it’s really funny hahahaha!
Minister of Revenue: “…” So, I’m the only one injured?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
