"Let's start a war, okay, okay, I don't have any objections. Anyway, I, the Minister of the Ministry of Finance, are not needed for the knife. But let me tell you, the treasury has already been riddled with rats, and all the money used to suppress the treasury has been spent..."
"It doesn't matter whether I have money or my life. If it doesn't work out, I will give you a free note. You can give the free notes to the soldiers as military pay."
"What about money? How did you manage the Ministry of Household Affairs? The Qing Dynasty's annual income of more than ten million taels was all gone. How much did you embezzle?"
"You fart, I work and sit upright, every penny in my house is clean, you can check the accounts if you want..."
…
No wonder the saying goes, don’t talk about money, because talking about money hurts feelings. When the meeting unanimously agreed to treat Japan tough, it involved the issue of spending money.
Whether it is negotiation or mobilizing troops, money is necessary. Negotiators are equivalent to imperial envoys sent abroad. They represent the face of the Qing Dynasty, and a full set of honor guards are indispensable.
Whether it is renting just one warship from the United States or the United Kingdom, the rent is not a small amount. The food and clothing expenses of the imperial envoys traveling through these small countries cannot be compromised, otherwise it will not be able to reflect the prestige of the superior country.
After all, I can't afford this trip to Japan without a small sum of two hundred thousand taels.
Lao Lin from the Ministry of Husbandry suddenly went crazy. What are you talking about? It would cost two hundred thousand taels to send an imperial envoy to negotiate. You, the Ministry of Rites, are shameless and have no money. Anyway, I don’t have any money.
They were asking for money and talking about not having money, and the two sides started arguing. In the end, it was mixed with Jing's curses, and the surrounding eunuchs and maids were stunned.
Looking at Zai Ling, Minister of the Ministry of War, this guy is even more irritating. Without saying a word, he actually took out a small and extremely small ivory abacus from his sleeve, placed it on the coffee table, clicked it, and started calculating accounts.
Yi? Turned his head to look at his distant nephew and asked in surprise, "Who do you think you are?"
"Oh, uncle, if we mobilize troops, I have to calculate the money and food. According to the intelligence, the Japanese shogunate and the southwest rebels have a total of 60,000 soldiers. Even if Xiao Letian is crippled, there will only be 60,000 soldiers left. Half of them still have 30,000 elites..."
"I heard that these soldiers are all Western-style troops formed by Japan with all its strength. The penetration rate of Western rifles has reached 80%. Coupled with the garrison troops in various places in Japan, I think we should mobilize the troops without bringing out 40,000 new troops. I am sure It’s not possible…”
"Forty thousand rifles, bullets, military uniforms, wages for departure, money for officer rewards...the cost of renting civilian ships, the cost of escorting Western warships, and the cost of sea supplies..."
"Oops, let me do the math again, and I missed the cost of medicine..." Zai Ling explained to Uncle Yi and Wang while calculating. On the surface, he was explaining to the prince. In fact, the people in the room Everybody can hear it.
Gradually, people stopped making noise, and everyone stood upright to listen to the Secretary of the Ministry of War calculating the accounts. "Okay, the total is finally out..."
At this moment, there was a sudden flash of lightning in the sky, followed by a burst of thunder. The entire Qiwang Tower even shook, and the two queen mothers turned pale with fright.
After the thunder, several Hanlins who were sitting on the edge stood up and asked, "How much is it? I didn't hear it just now. Please speak louder..."
There was a loud crash outside the window, and raindrops as big as soybeans fell down. Looking at the princes sitting next to Zai Ling, their faces were all pale now.
"Nonsense, 40,000 soldiers actually cost 7 million taels of military expenses. Zuo Jigao led 60,000 Hunan troops across the entire Qing Dynasty tens of thousands of miles to Xinjiang, and the court only approved 10 million taels of military expenses. You 40,000 taels It costs seven million taels per person.”
There was a loud bang and the whole hall exploded. Everyone looked at Zai Ling as if they were crazy.
At this time, Zai Ling shrugged, "There's nothing we can do about it. Who makes our Qing Dynasty not have a navy? All the way from Zuo Jigao to Xinjiang is our Qing Dynasty's territory. We can raise food and other things locally and cross the sea." How to raise money."'
"Civilian ships must be rented, and warships must be escorted. We don't rely on foreigners. To put it bluntly, we rely on the navy before the Qing Dynasty to cross the sea. Let alone fight the Japanese navy. It is estimated that the wind and waves can destroy the ship. It fell apart."
At this point, everyone felt a little sad. The situation was stronger than the people. This could not be made up for by words.
Just when the atmosphere in the palace was extremely depressing, a young eunuch suddenly rushed in from outside the palace. His whole body was soaked by the rain. He knelt on the ground and panted heavily.
"Queen Mother Qi... Your Majesty and all the ministers... no... it's not good."
"What's wrong? Tell me quickly...why are you gasping for breath?" Yi? slammed the table with a bang.
"It's not good. A group of imperial students surrounded the Lifanyuan. Some kind of Japanese official stationed in the Qing Dynasty, I think his name was Shintaro... was beaten to death by the imperial students. The Japanese rented it for a long time. People’s houses were also burned down..."
"Ah." The whole hall exclaimed. Prince Chun Yixuan quickly picked up his hat and walked out. "I went to see, and I turned against them." Yixuan is the admiral of the Nine Sects, and he is the most suitable person to intervene in this kind of matter.
Weng Tonghe couldn't sit still anymore. He is the leader of Qingliu. He has to protect these imperial students. "I will also go and have a look and try to persuade them..." Then he chased after them.
Taixue in the capital is actually the Imperial College, and its specific location is a little west of Yonghe Temple. Since the Western Zhou Dynasty, Taixue has been the country's highest institution for cultivating intellectuals.
In the late Qing Dynasty, the importance of Taixue was no longer as important as before. Due to the spread of Western learning to the east and the increasingly serious phenomenon of selling out official positions and titles, it was difficult for students of Taixue in the capital to get good positions.
Not only that, the rise of the power of local governors has led to the revival of staff politics in ancient China. Even if you get involved in Futai or Daotai, your influence may not be greater than that of a staff member around Zeng Guofan. These opposition politicians are attached to the Han Dynasty. It is extremely easy to become an official if you want to supervise the power.
The official path for the country to obtain scholars is getting narrower and narrower, so it is becoming more and more difficult for scholars to take the old path of imperial examination. Today’s number of Taixue students is no longer one-third of what it was during the Kangxi and Qianlong periods, and their presence in the capital is very strong. Low.
However, even if there was only one person in this group of imperial students, they still had the character of a scholar. When the news came that Emperor Tongzhi was assassinated in Japan, they asked for troops to be sent to Japan, and the call for severe punishment of the shogunate came out of their mouths.
These students gathered together and wrote letters to the ministers. They were so indignant that they wanted to kick Japan upside down. In the end, even Xiao Letian and the others refused to let go, demanding that the court punish them severely for the crime of insufficient protection.
The students shouted fiercely, but it was impossible for the court to listen to their opinions. Almost all yamen and senior officials kept them at a distance.
The students who couldn't vent their emotions were like a volcano about to erupt, and they began to think about making trouble.
Note: This is the second update today. I hope everyone will subscribe.
