Prime Minister

Chapter 147, Section 146: [Looking South of the Yangtze River]

In the sweltering heat of July, even the northern capital city of Beijing was experiencing unbearable heat.

The emperor preferred coolness and disliked heat, so every year around this time, ice blocks would be used to cool down some palaces in the imperial palace.

This expenditure was extremely wasteful, but since the emperor possessed the vast territory of the Great Yan, no one felt there was anything wrong with it.

Inside the imperial study, a cool breeze blew. Emperor Jiang Chen of the Great Yan sat behind his desk, while Wang Xu, the Minister of Revenue, stood below, reporting to the emperor on the general situation of the national treasury's revenue and expenditure over the past six months.

This Minister Wang was from Puzhou, Pingyang Prefecture, Shanxi Province. He was not tall, and his thin, sturdy body seemed as heavy as if it were covered with yellow earth. Occasionally, a shrewd glint would appear in his eyes.

Wang Xu served in government for nearly forty years, spending most of that time in the Ministry of Revenue. He was promoted to Minister of Revenue in the fifteenth year of the Taihe era. During those four years, he was able to barely satisfy the emperor, while the average tenure of the Minister of Revenue before him was no more than three years.

Besides his ability to amass wealth, another important reason why the emperor valued him so much was that he did not participate in the power struggles between the chief minister and the second chief minister. After all, the Ministry of Revenue controlled the court's purse strings and, along with the Ministry of Personnel, was one of the most powerful government departments that the emperor cared about most. Naturally, the emperor did not want to see these two ministers become subordinates of the chief minister or the second chief minister.

"Your Majesty, the inflows and outflows of the national treasury in the first half of the year are roughly as described."

Wang Xu spoke with a distinct Shanxi accent, but fortunately the emperor was already used to it. He continued carefully, "There are several important expenditures that need to be prepared for in the second half of the year, namely the border army's salary, the expenditure on the transfer of grain transport, the supplementary payment of official salaries, and the imperial family's New Year's expenses. According to past practice, these expenditures will be around ten million taels."

Upon hearing this, the emperor frowned.

The affairs of such a large country are complex, and the most troublesome of them for him is the financial issue.

In recent years, Wang Xu has been careful with his finances and has barely managed to break even, which has relieved the emperor of a lot of worries. However, the great floods in Jiangnan last year, the drought and locust plague in Shandong this spring, and the earthquake in parts of Shaanxi have caused a series of natural and man-made disasters that have strained the national treasury.

Shen Wang confiscated millions of taels of silver from the homes of corrupt officials in the Ministry of Works at the end of last year, but this still could not completely resolve the court's deficit.

Before entering the palace today, Wang Xu personally took stock of the funds. The Ministry of Revenue only had a little over 1.6 million taels of silver in its coffers. Even including the autumn tax, salt tax, and gold flower silver that had not yet been deposited into the treasury, it was not enough to cover those fixed expenses. If any unexpected situation were to occur, the court might not even be able to come up with the funds for disaster relief.

The Emperor pondered for a moment and slowly said, "Minister Wang, the court is in dire straits, and some expenditures should be cut back where possible."

"I understand."

Wang Xu had considered these issues repeatedly. He said with some difficulty, "Your Majesty, I have carefully calculated that the court should have at least eight million taels of revenue in the second half of the year."

"I understand. You may leave now."

The emperor remained noncommittal. After Wang Xu bowed and took his leave, he looked at the Grand Secretary Ning Hengzhi, who was standing on the other side, and said to Zeng Min, "Give the Grand Secretary a seat."

In the early years of the Great Yan Dynasty, important military and political officials all had seats in the Imperial Study. However, starting from the middle of the reign of the fourth emperor, Emperor Xuanzong, the bestowal of a seat before the emperor gradually became an honor, and generally only highly respected senior officials were qualified to enjoy this favor.

Ning Hengzhi knew that this seat was not cheap. After thanking the emperor and taking his seat, he said directly, "Your Majesty, Minister Wang is a capable minister. He would not speak carelessly in front of the emperor. I believe that the amount of eight million taels can only be more and not less."

The emperor pondered for a moment and asked, "What good plan does the Grand Secretary have?"

"Your Majesty, the people of Great Yan are already burdened with heavy taxes. For the sake of social stability, it is not advisable to hastily increase taxes."

Ning Hengzhi said calmly, "However, Your Majesty, please rest assured. I have thought about this issue long ago. Nowadays, salt merchants in the private sector are extremely wealthy. If the major salt fields open an additional salt deposit, the salt merchants will enthusiastically support it, which will greatly alleviate the difficulties of the court."

"Salt merchants..."

When talking about salt merchants, one cannot help but mention the Lianghuai Salt Transport Office, as everyone knows that Yangzhou salt merchants were the richest.

After a moment's thought, the emperor nodded slightly and said, "With the Grand Secretary here, I will be much more relaxed. I will leave this matter to you."

"I accept the decree."

Ning Hengzhi lowered his head and responded.

The emperor immediately thought of a young man's name. He glanced at Ning Hengzhi's hesitant expression and said clearly, "I will issue an imperial edict to Chen Yan, the governor of Jiangsu, and Dou Xian, the provincial treasurer, instructing them to restrain Xue Huai. Now is the time when the court needs the salt merchants to contribute, so there is no need to be so petty about some things."

Ning Hengzhi respectfully said, "Your Majesty is wise."

The emperor smiled faintly and said no more.

……

Green Villa.

Princess Yun'an, Jiang Li, leaned listlessly against the couch, looking rather unhappy.

Seeing this, Su Erniang sighed silently. Just now, the Fifth Prince, Prince Dai, came to the villa, and he couldn't stop talking about Xue Huai, who was far away in Jiangnan. This made Jiang Li spend a lot of effort to appease the arrogant prince.

From the end of last year to June of this year, the Prince of Dai was confined to his palace, but this does not mean that he was unaware of what was happening outside.

He knew that Xue Huai was becoming famous and riding high, having become the Assistant Magistrate of Yangzhou Prefecture at a young age. He also knew that the relationship between Jiang Li and Xue Huai had aroused speculation among many people in the capital, which made him even angrier.

He certainly didn't think it was Jiang Li's fault. He believed it must be that shameless scholar who had used sweet words to deceive Jiang Li, while his cousin simply couldn't recognize his true character and hadn't seen through his hypocrisy.

Fortunately, he wasn't very perceptive, and Jiang Li managed to send him away with a few words of persuasion. "Your Highness, it's been more than four months since Xue Tongzhi left. I wonder how he's doing in Yangzhou."

Su Erniang couldn't bear to trouble Jiang Li, so she took the initiative to start a conversation.

To her surprise, Jiang Li changed her usual attitude and said somewhat coldly, "What does it matter to me how he is doing?"

Su Erniang was slightly taken aback.

As one of Jiang Li's most trusted people, she knew very well how much the princess valued that young Tongzhi. In fact, Jiang Li had never given so much help to a young and promising man before. Moreover, through several subtle inquiries, she gradually realized that Jiang Li's attitude towards Xue Huai was more than just that of an ally.

In particular, she would take out the poem that Xue Huai gave to Jiang Li before he left and study it every two or three days.

Thinking of that poem, Su Erniang suddenly remembered that it seemed like only five or six days ago that Jiang Li had last appreciated it.

Jiang Li, draped in a gauze dress, changed her lying position. Although she lacked the charm of a mature woman, her outstanding appearance and figure still inadvertently created a beautiful picture.

She snorted coldly and said, "He's been gone for several months, and I haven't even received a single letter from him. It's a good thing I told him so many secrets before he left and sent someone to Jiangnan to look after him."

Su Erniang then understood. She suppressed a smile and said, "Your Highness, Xue Tongzhi is not a subordinate of the Princess's residence. Moreover, he has just arrived in Jiangnan and is facing a multitude of tasks. He will find it difficult to relax for the time being. After a while, once he has settled into his position as Tongzhi in Yangzhou Prefecture, he will surely write to Your Highness to tell you about the details since we parted."

Jiang Li wasn't unaware of this principle, but she still felt very unhappy. Previously, the Prince of Dai had threatened Xue Huai in front of her, and she had to rack her brains to mediate for Xue Huai. Yet, that guy hadn't even sent a greeting in months. It was simply outrageous.

"Forget it, I won't stoop to his level."

Jiang Li sat up and looked at Su Erniang, asking, "Has there been any unusual activity in the capital lately?"

Su Erniang also suppressed her reverie and briefly recounted a few important pieces of news, adding, "By the way, the matter His Highness instructed has been completed. The son of the Marquis of Zhenyuan spent the night in a brothel and got into a fight with someone over a woman, causing a huge mess. He was impeached by the Censor. It is said that after the young marquis returned to his residence, he was tied to a tree and whipped by the Marquis of Zhenyuan. Next, he is to be sent to the Nine Borders for training."

"The Marquis of Zhenyuan is a smart man."

Jiang Li said leisurely, "Back then, Qin Zhang made Xue Huai kowtow until his forehead was broken. Now, I'll give him a good whipping to settle things. Let's leave it at that."

"Yes."

Su Erniang thought to herself, "His Highness is indeed a vengeful person. Xue Tongzhi can only pray for good luck."

Just then, a female official walked in slowly and bowed, saying, "Your Highness, a letter has arrived from Jiangnan."

Jiang Li's eyes lit up suddenly, then she coughed lightly and said, "Is it a letter from Xue Huai?"

"Your Highness, it's not a letter from Xue Tongzhi, but a secret letter from Lu Xunshi."

Although the female official was one of Jiang Li's confidantes, she was ultimately not as close to Jiang Li as Su Erniang, who had been by Jiang Li's side for so long, and knew very little about the princess's thoughts.

She didn't understand why Jiang Li's expression seemed to darken after she said that, and she could only nervously hand over the secret letter from Lu Zhixuan, the Jiangsu Provincial Inspector.

"You may leave."

Jiang Li casually placed the secret letter on the table, clearly showing no interest in opening it.

Su Erniang advised, "Your Highness should take a look. Perhaps Inspector Lu's secret letter is related to Assistant Magistrate Xue."

Jiang Li paused for a moment, then picked up the secret letter again and opened the sealing wax.

As time passed, Su Erniang clearly felt that the depression on Jiang Li's body was quietly dissipating, which made her quite curious about the contents of the secret letter.

A moment later, Jiang Li handed the secret letter to Su Erniang and said calmly, "He's had a tough time too."

Su Erniang took the letter and read it. She saw that the letter described a series of events that had occurred in the two months since Xue Huai arrived in Yangzhou. It was written in great detail, from the Yangzhou officials’ feigned compliance to his inspection and breakthrough. The thick stack of letters contained a lot of information.

She noticed a passage in the letter stating that Xue Huai had only visited Shen Garden once in Yangzhou and had never met Shen Bingwen.

The secret letter concluded by stating that after Xue Huai dealt with the Hu family in Qingshan Town, Yizhen County, he continued his inspection tour northwards.

Su Erniang carefully put the secret letter away again, and then burned it in the brazier later. She sighed and said, "After all this running around, Xue Tongzhi will probably lose a lot of money."

Jiang Li remained silent, got up and slowly walked to the window, gazing at the southern sky, and murmured, "Considering how hard you've worked, I won't hold it against you."

Xinghua County, Yangzhou, is a thousand miles away.

Xue Huai was writing furiously at his desk when the door was suddenly pushed open, and the next moment Shen Qingluan's charming voice rang out.

"Brother Huai, are you busy?"

(End of this chapter)