The empire's terminal disease is not just this piece of bread!
When the prince heard these words, he was dumbfounded, as if the life in the cloud for the previous twenty years had been pushed down and fell directly into hell.
Senior officials in the Ministry of Finance also want to save their lives. They have just seen the hostility in the prince. If they continue to be dishonest, they may not be able to save their lives today.
Everyone in the political world understands this unspoken rule. It is better to offend the old youtiao than the stupid young man, because even if the old youtiao is ruthless, he at least understands the rules, and even if he offends them, he can use money or interests to redeem them.
To put it bluntly, while the old youtiao is fighting you, he will not close the door to negotiations. As long as there is an exchange of interests, he will not get things done.
Leng Tou Qing doesn't understand these rules, especially for a young man like the Crown Prince of the Empire, who has a status as high as the Crown Prince and the future Emperor of the Empire, but he still pretends to be idealistic.
The most terrible thing is that this empire belongs to others, and you can't bribe such people!
Faced with the wrath of such a person, one should not step forward to cause trouble. The so-called dead Taoist friend is not dead to the poor Taoist. At this critical moment, it is better to sell others to share a little of the prince's anger.
The filth under the imperial red velvet carpet is all exposed today!
Corruption is rampant throughout France, and all kinds of incompetent people are entrenched in important positions. Together, they weave a protective network for mutual benefit and jointly suck the blood of the empire.
Countless government expenditures are covered by corruption, and almost all arms orders have high-ranking officials taking kickbacks!
The largest group of loan sharks in Paris have no support from the nobility!
The empire's finances are in chaos, and whenever there is a little fiscal surplus, someone will try to dismantle it. On the surface, these funds are still in the treasury, but in fact they have been secretly withdrawn by those in power and put into the capital market to earn interest.
This is a white wolf's game. As long as hundreds of millions of gold francs can be loaned out for ten days, the final interest can reach tens of millions!
Ten days is just a matter of time without anyone noticing, and the interest will naturally be shared by many powerful people in the end.
Human beings always have unsatisfied desires. It takes ten days to dismantle something, then a month or even half a year later, and in the end, it may even be dismantled forever without returning it.
The prince couldn't help but be confused. The funds were dismantled and never returned. Aren't they afraid of being discovered?
The corrupt officials in the Ministry of Finance who were trying to save their lives said with tears, "Your Highness! Governing the country is not as simple as the textbooks say!"
"The water here is too deep! The empire is not short of money. The taxes it gets from the colonies every year are enough for the empire's expenses!"
"The empire's financial surplus is the fat that those people like! They borrow it boldly and earn interest, and then the emperor doesn't even know!"
"Anyway, those same people will be checking the accounts at that time. If you just give them a little bit of help, you will be able to hide the truth!"
"But! But what if the empire needs to use those funds? For example, if a big war breaks out, just for example, the current preparations for war!"
"Financial surplus must be used after all! At that time, can we still cheat by making false accounts?" the prince roared angrily.
"Of course not! Your Highness the Prince! Of course they can't cheat! But you can't underestimate the greed of these people!"
"This is a game of demolishing the east wall to pay for the west wall. When the empire needs to spend the surplus on their books, they will quickly collect it from the capital market!"
"Find those borrowers to force them to repay their debts, and try every means possible to collect the funds back! If there is not enough time, they can also go to the capital market to dismantle the funds and temporarily plug the deficit in the national treasury!"
"As long as the treasury doesn't spend too much money and doesn't use up all the surplus at once, then they can keep tearing down the east wall to make up for the west wall!"
There were two quarreling officials in the crowd who choked and asked, "Why is it so difficult to dismantle funds in the capital market across France this year? Money shortages are starting to happen everywhere?"
"It's not because of this war! Since the war is imminent, the empire has begun to use a large amount of funds from the treasury, and the fiscal surplus is simply not enough!"
"We continue to press for debts from them every day, and those people are also afraid and press for debts from borrowers every day! Just this year, how many factory owners were forced to death? Countless!"
"Why have the workers been so violent in riots in the past two years? Their bosses are also under tremendous pressure. How can any factory owner not borrow money these days to operate?"
"Now the creditors have no choice but to collect their debts from them. These people are almost committing suicide. Who can give the workers a wage increase? God bless them if they don't withhold money!"
"If factory owners want to survive, they can't afford to offend the big money lenders, so they can only reduce workers' income, lay off workers, work overtime indefinitely, or even directly withhold wages in arrears!"
"Your Highness! This is the empire's chronic and terminal disease... Why are you still bothering with a few pieces of bread? This empire cannot be saved by just a few pieces of bread!"
The prince was completely dumbfounded. He never thought that what he would take over in the future would be such a mess!
"Oh my God! Is the situation serious enough? Is the entire country making false accounts and trying to make up for the West?"
"Is this also the case in the military? Tell me, is there a phenomenon of empty pay in the military? Is there a discrepancy between the actual number of troops and the statistical figures?"
When the military was mentioned, these senior officials of the Ministry of Finance were all afraid to speak, and they were all silent!
"Speak! Are you all mute? Speak! Speak..."
The prince scolded loudly with red eyes, until finally the military attaché who had studied with him since childhood came forward to smooth things over.
"Your Highness...it's useless to ask them. The water at the military headquarters is deeper!"
"I only heard about it below, but I didn't really see it... Why is the efficiency of this overseas troop deployment so slow? Do you know what the crux is?"
"Since this is a peacetime troop deployment, the Navy Ministry will not send warships! And the empire does not have many troop transport ships, so such tasks are outsourced to private merchant ships!"
"You just heard that the Marseille Military Port's IOU from 1864 has not yet been paid, and there is indeed a situation where logistics officials and some ship owners colluded to make false accounts and cheat freight!"
"Now that we finally have this opportunity, those corrupt criminals must try their best to make up for their false accounts first! God knows how many non-existent merchant ships are riding the waves in our accounts at this moment!"
"On the other hand, it's in the colonies! My Royal Highness! As far as I know, there is no such thing as empty pay, but the equipment in the hands of colonial soldiers is different from what is shown in the accounts!"
"You are transferring a regiment back from North Africa. What you are transferring back is not just the strength of a regiment, but also the weapons and equipment of a regiment!"
"Damn it, God knows if those colonial officials still have that much equipment. You know, if a rifle issued by our military department is traded with the indigenous people in the colonies, it will be twenty or thirty times the profit!"
Note: There will be another update soon!
