Chapter 958 Murong and Jiangnan!

Looking at the memorial sent by the Financial Secretary, An Miaoyi's expression gradually became serious.
According to the contents of this memorial, the total debt of the Fengwu Army has now exceeded 4.2 million taels of silver. The total interest on various bonds is close to 300,000 taels of silver a year. There are 700,000 taels of silver in bonds that will mature at the end of the year, and nearly one million taels of silver in bonds will mature next year.

Before today, although An Miaoyi had always heard that the financial situation of Fengwu Army was not very good, due to Ye Mingsheng's restrictions, she never knew the specific situation. Therefore, An Miaoyi only now realized that Fengwu Army actually owed so much money!

The huge number of 4.2 million really shocked An Miaoyi. You know, according to her understanding, the annual administrative budget of the government in Fengwu Army is only about 1.1 million taels of silver, and the tax silver collected from various places in a year will not exceed 2.3 million taels.

The principal of 4.2 million, plus the interest payable, is almost equivalent to the tax revenue of the Fengwu Army for two years!

Thinking of this, An Miaoyi couldn't help but understand why the officials of the Central Council generally emphasized that the Fengwu Army had been borrowing money to fight the war!
After putting down the memorial, An Miaoyi fell into deep thought. She was a very smart person and now seeing these detailed data, she immediately understood the original intention of many of Ye Mingsheng's policies!

In the past, although An Miaoyi seemed to follow her husband and always stood on Ye Mingsheng's side, maintaining the political correctness that a Fengwu Army mistress should have·······················
However, because she came from a powerful family, she actually found it difficult to understand in her heart why Ye Mingsheng had to target the aristocratic families and why he had to snatch meat from the mouths of these big families!

But now An Miaoyi had a vague answer in her heart. The reason why the Fengwu Army was able to rise quickly was ostensibly because of its powerful firearms that made it invincible in wars.

But the deeper reason is that the Fengwu Army has been going with the flow, and this flow is the people's hope to end wars and conflicts and restore the court's stable development!

It was precisely because the Fengwu Army complied with public opinion and won the hearts of the people that it was able to sweep across the country in just a few short years!
Ye Mingsheng obviously understood this, so he also adopted a series of policies to benefit the people, such as reducing taxes and fees, optimizing the administration of officials, etc. The essence of these policies is to stabilize the people's hearts and minds and maintain this trend for the benefit of the Fengwu Army!
However, everything has its pros and cons. War is always the most expensive thing. In the past, in order to support the war, the imperial court generally chose to increase taxes and transfer the cost of war to the people!
But in order to maintain the general trend of public opinion, Ye Mingsheng could not do this, so Ye Mingsheng chose to chop the knife on the aristocratic families!
Although you have to get money from these ruling classes, they are not pushovers. They are definitely not willing to give up their own interests and cut their own flesh to feed you···························
Therefore, this would be a great test of Ye Mingsheng's political skills. On the one hand, he had to get the money to ensure that the Fengwu Army's foreign war could continue. On the other hand, for the sake of his own internal stability, he had to fight without breaking it and not allow the struggle to escalate.

Therefore, Ye Mingsheng raised the big stick of threatening with force, and then used policies and systems to test the bottom line of these aristocratic families bit by bit.

An Miaoyi had heard that Ye Mingsheng called this strategy the sausage-cutting tactic. Although she didn't know why Ye Mingsheng gave it this name, judging from the current results, Ye Mingsheng did a very good job of cutting the sausages of the aristocratic families.

Although the aristocratic families felt very uncomfortable when Ye Mingsheng's blunt knife cut their flesh, they still had illusions about Ye Mingsheng, and their courage and determination to break up with Ye Mingsheng by smashing cups were gradually worn away.

Of course, although Ye Mingsheng's methods were powerful, the most important reason why these aristocratic families allowed Ye Mingsheng to manipulate them was that the Fengwu Army was very strong on the battlefield, continuously defeating powerful enemies and occupying land, leaving them no opportunity to take advantage.

Although the Fengwu Army as a whole remains stable and controllable, and all parties are closely united around Ye Mingsheng, An Miaoyi believes that the Fengwu Army also has its own problems!

The problem is that the Fengwu Army’s military expenditure is too high, and military expenditure is still increasing································
Take the present for example. Although the Fengwu Army has a debt of 4.2 million taels of silver, the vast majority of its financial revenue is used to fight the war.

But those people in the General Staff Department kept calling for an increase in military spending, especially now that they had taken over Jingchu, some people in the General Staff Department had even called for simultaneous wars in the North and the South!
Judging from the memorial from the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Finance is currently preparing to issue at least one million taels of silver in bonds with a term of ten years. In addition to this large amount of bonds, the Dadongsheng Company will also issue at least two hundred thousand taels of bonds for the development of the company itself.

In order to increase the attractiveness of the bonds, it is said that the Financial Secretary and Da Dong Sheng Trading Company are also considering increasing the interest on the bonds!
Therefore, it is foreseeable that the total debt of Fengwu Army will continue to rise. The worst possibility is that the total debt will rise to 5 million taels of silver before this year, and reach 6 million taels of silver next year. In this case, 20% of Fengwu Army’s fiscal revenue may have to be used to pay the interest on bonds!

If things continue to develop in this downward trend, the Fengwu Army may go bankrupt in name only within a few years!
Because of this matter, all the civil servants in the Central Court have been reminding An Miaoyi overtly and covertly during this period of time to ask her to persuade Ye Mingsheng to slow down the pace of external expansion, alleviate the financial problems of the Fengwu Army, and not let the finances continue to deteriorate...

Although she understood that this was indeed a fatal problem, An Miaoyi had no good solution. She knew that Ye Mingsheng had always been on guard against her.

It is already very valuable that she has been given the right to know this time. If she does not intervene in political affairs without knowing the situation, Ye Mingsheng may take back her right to know at any time.

After hesitating for a moment, An Miaoyi instructed Qiqige:

"Go to the Central Court and invite Elder Cui over. I want to discuss with him about holding a birthday party for the old lady!"

"Yes!"

An hour later, Cui Shao arrived at the Ye Mansion. Qiqige personally welcomed him to the reception room. At this time, An Miaoyi had been waiting in the reception room for a long time. When he saw An Miaoyi, Cui Shao bowed politely and said:

"Cui Shao greets the Madam!"

To this, An Miaoyi also smiled and said:

"Uncle, you are so polite! Qiqige, please bring a chair to uncle!"

Cui Shao pretended to decline An Miaoyi's offer of a seat, then said thank you, Madam, for the seat and sat down with peace of mind.

After a brief greeting, An Miaoyi started discussing with Cui Shao about celebrating Ye Cui's birthday next month.

Now it’s less than a month away from next month’s birthday. To be honest, all the preparations have been made. The money from the Bai family and Jiang Yuyan has already been in place, and some birthday ceremonies have also begun to rehearse...

So now An Miaoyi is also discussing some government coordination issues with Cui Shao. Originally, Cui Shao wanted to mobilize all the resources of the government. But before Ye Mingsheng left, he also instructed that although the birthday party should be grand, it should not take up too many government resources, and it should not have too much impact on people's livelihood.

In order to fulfill Ye Mingsheng's request, some details still need to be implemented. An Miaoyi and Cui Shao's communication was very smooth, which was also within An Miaoyi's expectations. So after An Miaoyi finished discussing the details of the birthday party, she pondered for a moment and then changed the subject and asked:
"Uncle, have you read the report from the Finance Department?"

Cui Shao was not surprised to hear this. When he received the news that An Miaoyi wanted to see him at the Central Institute, he knew that An Miaoyi's so-called discussion of birthday celebrations was just an excuse.

As the commander-in-chief of the Fengwu Army, he was already busy with official duties. Now that Ye Mingsheng had left, all the government affairs of the Fengwu Army fell on his shoulders, and he became even busier!

Therefore, if An Miaoyi really wanted to discuss birthday matters, she would only go directly to the people below to discuss it, and would not call herself over!

Facing An Miaoyi's question, Cui Shao nodded calmly. He was the Central Envoy and the Director of the Political Affairs Bureau. The Political Affairs Bureau also had jurisdiction over the Finance Department. Therefore, as his immediate superior, he must have read the memorial from the Finance Department...
Seeing Cui Shao nod, An Miaoyi decided to get straight to the point:

"Uncle, what do you think about the financial problem? I don't think we can sustain this for long!"

Hearing An Miaoyi say this, Cui Shao also understood that his extremely smart niece had checked the memorials from the Central Council and the General Staff over the past few days and had discovered the financial problems of the Fengwu Army.

Cui Shao hesitated for a moment and said:
"There are some financial problems, but General Yuan Song has gained a lot of money in Guanzhong, which can improve the financial difficulties!"

An Miaoyi said immediately after hearing this:

"Uncle, I know that General Yuan Song has gained a lot of wealth in Guanzhong, but this can only solve the immediate problem, not the long-term problem!"

Looking at An Miaoyi who had a serious expression, Cui Shao was silent for a while and said quietly:

"That's why we have to race against time, unify the world before any problems arise, and use the wealth of the entire world to solve the problems of the Fengwu Army!"

An Miaoyi was stunned when these words came out. Seeing this, Cui Shao continued:

“Miaoyi, in the words of the Marshal, the Fengwu Army rose too fast. Many internal problems were covered up by its rapid rise. Therefore, once the Fengwu Army slows down, these problems will be exposed all at once. By then, the Fengwu Army will not be able to maintain this positive and enterprising momentum…”

Upon hearing this, An Miaoyi realized that Ye Mingsheng and Cui Shao had long been aware of the problems of the Fengwu Army and had already come up with a plan to deal with them.

After thinking carefully, An Miaoyi asked Cui Shao seriously:

"Uncle, do you agree with his idea?"

Cui Shao was silent for a while and said:
"I originally thought that the Marshal's idea was a little too idealistic, so I was a little skeptical. However, seeing that we have taken over Jingchu this time, I feel that maybe we can really take over the south quickly and unify the world of the Great Zhou!"

After listening to Cui Shao's answer, An Miaoyi couldn't help but feel a little longing. She had heard about the prosperity of Jiangnan since she was a child and had a yearning for it, but unfortunately she had never been to Jiangnan, which was a regret in her life.

But if the Fengwu Army can quickly capture Jiangnan, then maybe one day in the future she will be able to travel to Jiangnan with Ye Mingsheng.

Cui Shao looked at An Miaoyi and continued to instruct:
"Miao Yi, please don't get too involved in government affairs. The Marshal has always been very averse to such things. Although the Murong family has suffered a heavy blow, the family foundation is still there, and after this incident, they have no other choice, so I think they will focus on developing the Fengwu Army!"

At this point, Cui Shao preached solemnly:
“The Murong family still has a trump card in their hands. Although Murong Lun is dead, his friendship with Lu Jianchao is still there. They were close friends. Back then, Lu Jianchao almost died in prison, and it was Murong Lun who actively worked to rescue him and used his family connections to rescue him…”

"Later, when Lu Jianchao was able to become the governor of Jiangnan, it was Murong Lun who helped him behind the scenes. Lu Jianchao also returned the favor and always listened to the Murong family. Moreover, Murong Lun's son Murong Zhengshan is still alive, and he married Lu Jianchao's precious daughter!"

"Lu Jianchao's son Lu Houde also married Murong Lun's daughter Murong Qiaoyun. And I heard that although Lu Jianchao and Murong Yuliang's relationship was not as deep as Murong Lun's, it was also very good. They even slept in the same bed!"

"So the relationship between the two families can be said to be very close! I have met this old guy Lu Jianchao in Luoan before. Although we are not close friends and not particularly familiar with each other, I can see that he is not an ambitious person!"

"Otherwise, with the wealth of Jiangnan, it would not be difficult to arm hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses to unify the south, but in the end this old guy just guards his little piece of land in Jiangnan!"

"He is now at war with Xu Zhaojie! In my opinion, as long as we defeat Xu Zhaojie, the Murong family can do enough for Lu Jianchao and even take over Jiangnan without any soldiers!"

After hearing Cui Shao's analysis, An Miaoyi's expression became serious. She had never expected this from Lu Jianchao!
Although for the identity of the mistress of Fengwu Army, it is definitely what she hopes to see that the Murong family takes over Jiangnan for Fengwu Army, but once the Murong family really makes such a great contribution, then Murong Qingwu's status will naturally rise...
(End of this chapter)