Seeing everyone sitting upright, Long Han first spoke: "Since all my dear friends have arrived, then the meeting will begin."

When everyone heard the meeting begin, their expressions became serious. The meeting discussed military and national affairs, mixed with open and secret struggles of power, and everyone cheered up.

Long Han first turned his attention to Zhou Rulin, the chief minister of the cabinet on the left: "Zhou Aiqing, do you have any proposals to come up with, and everyone will discuss it."

"As for your order." Zhou Rulin responded, distributed the proposals that had been prepared to everyone, and began to talk.

"Your Majesty, my lords, the first proposal of our cabinet is to increase taxes. Now all departments and regions need money, and our treasury has bottomed out, with less than 90 million gold coins left. If we do not increase taxes, we will not have the money to pay the salaries of officials and pay military salaries, and the consequences are very serious."

Zhou Rulin paused and said: "According to our cabinet calculations, at least 20% of the tax can be increased to make up for the deficit and gap."

Before Zhou Rulin finished speaking, Long Han could not help but ask: "Zhou Aiqing, isn't it right? It's only been less than a month. I remember that Lin Aiqing added a full 1.5 billion gold coins to the national treasury, why is there only 90 million left?"

Minister of Finance Asus explained: "Your Majesty, I am in charge of the treasury, I think I can answer this question."

Long Han didn't say a word, looking at the Minister of Finance, hoping to give a reasonable explanation. After all, 1.5 billion gold coins are not a small amount, and it is impossible to use them up in less than a month.

"Your Majesty, my sirs, I am the one who is in charge of the treasury and knows the use of this money." The Minister of Finance Asus took out a small notebook from his arms and opened it, and began to explain the purpose of the money.

"On November 3, the Minister of Personnel applied for 300 million gold coins to be reissue the salary of 15 provincial officials in September and 2 months."

"On November 4, the Chief of Military Affairs, Mr. Yang, applied for 800 million military funds, of which 300 million was used for the reconstruction of the Southern Army, 300 million was used as funds to wipe out the rebel army in various places, and the remaining 200 million was used to purchase weapons and equipment, and distribute the military pay of each legion..."

"On November 5, the Minister of State applied for 100 million gold coins to buy grain for three million refugees around the Wangjing area and set up a porridge shed."

"On November 6, 50 million gold coins were allocated to repair the imperial palace..."

"Okay, stop talking." Before the Chancellor of Finance Asus finished speaking, he was interrupted by Long Han's interruption.

Although every entry and exit of the Minister of Finance has records, Lin Chuan, as an observer, this account is a big problem. Just like a local tycoon, he is not very careful in calculating, but spends whatever he wants, and how can he manage the treasury well in this way.

Long Han is also having a headache now. He doesn’t know that the firewood and rice are expensive if he is not in charge. Faced with all the necessary expenses, he has no choice but to express his opinion first: "I will order people to send them back to the treasury for the 50 million gold coins of repairing the imperial palace. Now is a difficult time, so there is no need to waste it like this."

"Your Majesty is wise," everyone praised them all.

Long Han threw out the problem: "Now everyone will discuss the issue of increasing taxes first."

"Our cabinet suggested starting to increase the collection of winter taxes, with five copper coins per acre of land." Zhou Rulin presented the plan that their cabinet had already discussed.

But it was immediately subjected to strong opposition from the military. Yang Yanxu, the Chief of Military Affairs, took the lead in refuting: "I firmly oppose the collection of winter taxes. Now uprisings are on the rise and our army is running around. If winter taxes are increased, it will further push those people to the rebels, strengthen the rebels, put our military under greater pressure and increase our casualties. Therefore, not only can we not increase taxes now, I suggest lowering the tax immediately."

Lin Nuoyan is also a wise man and stands up to support the Chief of Military Affairs' opinion: "Only by lowering taxes can those rebels who take risks can put down their weapons and return home to farm, and our military expenditure will be reduced, otherwise our military expenditure will continue to increase and form a vicious cycle."

"But how can we make up for the huge deficit without increasing taxes?" the Chancellor of the Finance Minister asked.

Yang Yanxu spread his hands and acted like a scoundrel: "That's not about our army's business, you can find a way for yourself."

"Since you oppose increasing taxes, then the future military expenditure should not be allocated from the national treasury." The Minister of Personnel snorted coldly and expressed his opinion.

"It is a delusion to cut our military expenditure. The soldiers fought bloody battles on the front line, killing the enemy and defending their country, and they all sacrificed their lives. If they want to cut military expenditure, you have to ask the millions of soldiers whether they agree."

"Hmph, I think the most important thing to reduce the cost is your Ministry of Personnel. It has raised hundreds of thousands of corpses and free food, and it doesn't even look at what the disaster in various parts of the dynasty will be like." Yang Yanxu said without any mercy, and every sentence hits the key point.

"You——" the minister of the Ministry of Personnel had a grim expression, but he was unable to refute.

Their Ministry of Personnel has hundreds of thousands of officials, and the expenses are very high, but there are too many corrupt officials. They all know how to make money and make local governance messes. Because of the incompetence and corruption of civil servants, the uprisings continued, and eventually the army would wipe their butts. This is also the main reason for the military's dissatisfaction.

Hearing that the military and civil servants had already had a lot of gunpowder before they could discuss it, they began to quarrel with each other, Long Han could only turn his eyes to Lin Chuan, who was sitting there without saying a word.

"Lin Aiqing, what about your opinion?"

"Ah?" Lin Chuan's eyes were wandering, and he was not at the meeting at all. He was most disdainful of participating in such a quarrel, so he was drowsy. He was too tired last night, so when he heard Long Han's question, he looked confused and didn't know what he was saying.

Seeing Lin Chuan's confused face, some officials laughed sneeringly, and the tense atmosphere in the conference room eased a lot.

"I asked you about your proposal to increase taxes, what do you think?"

Long Han was also patient and was not angry, so he asked again.

Lin Chuan sat upright, glanced at the two officials who refused to give in to each other, and slowly spoke: "Your Majesty, sirs, our Supervision Office does not understand the issue of taxes, but since Your Majesty asked me to say my thoughts, I still have a little bit."

Seeing Lin Chuan speak seriously, the cabinet officials disdained and thought to themselves: You are a rude soldier, and you have no idea.

The military is full of hope. After all, Lin Chuan is also a military leader. Now he is in charge of the Supervision Office and plays an important role. If Lin Chuan supports tax cuts, then they can severely suppress the civil service group.
Chapter completed!