Great Song Dynasty Bianliang Palace.
Song Renzong, who was sitting on the dragon chair in the main hall, was very happy, and was very satisfied with the peace attitude of Li Liangzuo, the lord of the Western Xia Kingdom.
Song Renzong put the national letter on the dragon case, sat on the dragon chair and looked down at Wei Ge Ning Ling and said with a smile: "Aiqing has worked hard all the way, I have read the national letter of Lord Li, before the Western Xia was originally a vassal of my Great Song Dynasty, and now that the Western Xia is in trouble, I will naturally not stand by as the emperor; I agreed to what Lord Li had asked for in his letter of state; I immediately decreed the resumption of tributary trade and border relations between the two countries, and the restoration of the annual currency system of the Qingli Peace Treaty; In addition, Li Liangzuo, the lord of Xia, was rewarded with 100,000 taels of silver, 50,000 horses of silk, 20,000 horses of silk, and 30,000 catties of tea."
Wei Ge Ning Ling, who was standing below, was beaten on the spot by Song Renzong's words, Wei Ge Ning Ling did not expect that Song Renzong not only agreed to make peace, but also gave so much property to Western Xia, Wei Ge Ning Ling knelt on the ground on the spot and said: "Foreign minister, take my lord to thank His Majesty the Great Song Emperor, long live, long live, long live." ” In fact, in Song Renzong's view, these things are trivial, at this time, the financial income of the Great Song Dynasty is 70.72 million yuan, which is converted into more than 30 million taels of silver, in Song Renzong's opinion, as long as you don't come to harass me, it doesn't matter if you give you a little money; After all, if the two countries were to go to war, it would cost more than that.
In fact, the Song Dynasty's annual coin system was not a humiliating expression of peace at that time, whether it was the Liao State in the north or the Western Xia in the northwest, they were all part of ancient China, and the contradictions between the three kingdoms were actually similar to those of the Three Kingdoms period; And the Song Dynasty can be said to be very cost-effective to spend only a little money in exchange for border peace, which is a drop in the bucket for the Great Song Dynasty.
Just when Song Renzong received the Wei Ge Ning Ling, Li Liangzuo was summoning Zhou Wentai, who was appointed by Li Liangzuo as the director of the Finance Department, in charge of the financial and taxation of Western Xia, to put it bluntly, Li Liangzuo's big housekeeper money bag; Now Li Liangzuo wants to form a new army, establish education, and reform the political system, all of which require a large amount of money, which shows Li Liangzuo's importance and trust in Zhou Wentai.
"Zhou Aiqing, how much grain is in the treasury now," Li Liangzuo asked Zhou Wentai.
Zhou Wentai opened his mouth and replied: "Your Majesty, first there are 300,000 taels of gold in the treasury, a total of 21,376,321 taels of silver, and 700,000 stones of grain stored in various places. ” Li Liangzuo frowned and said, "That's how much money I have in my treasury."
Zhou Wentai smiled bitterly: "Your Majesty, most of the money and grain were robbed by you in Datong, and there were also traitors who searched from the houses, and it would be good if the treasury could have millions of taels of silver before." ” "I'm afraid this money is not enough, it seems that we have to find a way to get some money and food first."
Li Liangzuo said with a sad face.
"Your Majesty, after the autumn harvest there will be taxes to the treasury."
Zhou Wentai said to Li Liangzuo.
"How much money," Li Liangzuo asked.
Zhou Wentai immediately replied: "According to Your Majesty's newly promulgated tax law, the tax this time is much less than before, about more than 10 million yuan, that is, more than 5 million. ” Li Liangzuo shook his head and said, "It's still not enough."
Zhou Wentai couldn't help it now, what is the emperor going to do, nearly more than 30 million taels of silver, the emperor still said that it is not enough, whether the money is placed in the Great Song Dynasty, it is also a huge amount of money Zhou Wentai is now even a little skeptical that Li Liangzuo's brain is burned out.
Li Liangzuo looked at Zhou Wentai's expression and said, "Sir, don't look at me with such a gaze, my brain has not been burned out, this money is really not enough, I don't believe you look at this." ” Zhou Wentai took over an account book from Li Liangzuo's hand, this account book recorded all the expenses required by Li Liangzuo to train the new army, when Zhou Wentai saw the expenses of one item, his face turned green all of a sudden, and said to Li Liangzuo: "Your Majesty, according to your method, even the finances of the Great Song Dynasty can't afford it, the cost of this new army is too great, I am afraid to pay such a big price, and the army trained by the time will be flashy."
"Not really, this new army will be trained by me myself."
Li Liangzuo smiled and said; "You'll know when the new army is done."
Zhou Wentai has been following Li Liangzuo for so long, and he also knows Li Liangzuo's temper, Li Liangzuo has always said the same, since Li Liangzuo said so, the huge cost of training the new army cannot be saved.
"Wechen can only try his best to raise money and food for His Majesty."
Zhou Wentai said with a bitter face.
Li Liangzuo thought for a while and said, "In this way, you can transfer 20 million taels of silver from the treasury to me, and I will figure out the rest of the money myself." ” "Your Majesty, according to the equipment that Your Majesty has equipped for the new army, the 100,000 troops will cost 39.5 million taels in their entirety, which is still nearly 20 million taels," Zhou Wentai said to Li Liangzuo.
Li Liangzuo said with a wry smile: "This I know that the equipment of the new army cannot be built in a moment and a half, and the upfront cost of 20 million taels should be about the same, and the rest of me is trying to figure out a way; Now that the entire Great Xia Kingdom is in ruins, I know that you, the financial director, are not easy to do, and all departments are reaching out to you for money; I just want to tell you one thing, you can't spend a penny less than you should spend, and you can't spend more money that shouldn't be spent, understand?"
"Weichen understands, please rest assured."
Zhou Wentai replied.
Li Liangzuo patted Zhou Wentai on the shoulder and said: "The Finance Department is my money bag, I put you in this position because I trust you, you don't want to live up to my trust in you."
"Your Majesty has a life-saving grace to the minister, and the minister's death will not be rewarded," Zhou Wentai knelt on the ground and said.
"Get up," Li Liangzuo said to Zhou Wentai; "I heard that Gao Zhiyao asked you to approve the education funds, didn't you approve such a thing?"
"Yes."
Zhou Wentai said; "Your Majesty, it's not that Weichen is unwilling to approve it, but Master Gao wants too much, and when he opens his mouth, one tael of silver is equal to two guan when he opens his mouth, which is too much."
"Five million guan is indeed a lot, but even if I am poor, I can't be poor in education, you can go back and approve it, tell those students, study hard, now the entire Great Xia Kingdom needs talents everywhere."
Li Liangzuo said to Zhou Wentai.
"Yes, Weichen takes the order."
Zhou Wentai replied.
Now Zhou Wentai's position as the financial director is really not easy to do, and the financial revenue of the entire Western Xia in the early years of assimilation is only 30 million yuan, according to the provisions of Li Liangzuo's assimilation reform; The expenses in the early years of assimilation were roughly as follows: 5 million guan for education, 4 million guan for the construction and maintenance of farmland and water conservancy, 8 million guan for the border army, 2 million guan for officials, 1 million guan for the palace and government, and 2 million yuan for disaster relief.
The current Western Xia finances can be said to be beyond their means, and the military spending of the new army has not yet been added to it, if it were not for the dividends obtained in the previous war against Liao, plus the finances copied from the traitors' homes, the Western Xia Kingdom has now gone bankrupt due to excessive deficits.
In the early days of the assimilation reform, Li Liangzuo could be said to be the poorest emperor in the world, and in order to save costs, Li Liangzuo had to decide to cut the expenses needed in his palace
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