All right! Even though Wei Wen was the Prime Minister with a high status above that of one person and ten thousand people at this time, he was helpless for a while against an arrogant person like Chen Xiaomu, who was the husband of the current emperor and also had great military exploits! As long as Queen Su Xingran didn't divorce him for a day, she had to try not to fall out with him.
Next, he calculated an account for Chen Xiaomu. That is, the Zhengguo court received 2.2 million taels of silver from farmers alone in one year. It also received 2.2 million taels of silver from merchants every year, including salt tax. There are about 1.8 million taels of silver. The total of the two is about 4 million taels of silver. This is the total annual income of the Zhengguo court. However, the court also has a lot of annual expenses. If there is no war, the weather will be smooth. In recent years, there could still be a balance of two to three hundred thousand taels in the national treasury. However, in the more than 100 years since the founding of Zheng State, the total number of such good years did not exceed ten years! In the rest of the years, it is hard to make ends meet!
Just say that now, in the more than 20 days since Su Chengxuan returned to the country, the palace manager Wang Gonggong has been owed more than 100,000 taels of silver to merchants in the new capital. With the borrowed military ration money, the emperors of other countries had fine clothes and fine food every day, and wine pools and meat forests. Only the poor emperor of Zheng State was only better fed and clothed than some wealthy households in the city!
After listening to Wei Wen's complaint-like explanation, Chen Xiaomu looked at Su Xingran and smiled slightly: "Honey, how about we make a bet?"
Su Xingran frowned, said "Oh" and asked, "What do you want to bet on?"
Chen Xiaomu said: "Just bet on the tax reduction and exemption I just said. If you do what I said, we will limit it to five years. You first reduce and reduce the taxes of the people of Zheng for five years according to the method I said. I can guarantee that in addition to the previous In addition to a slight decrease in tax revenue in the two years, the tax revenue in the third year will catch up with the total tax revenue before the tax reduction, and from the fourth year onwards it will far exceed the previous tax revenue of four million taels per year!"
Su Xingran couldn't help but change his face when he heard this, and said angrily: "I'm confused, how can I gamble on national affairs? No matter what you say today, the national taxes cannot be reduced!"
Chen Xiaomu's stubborn temper was suddenly aroused by Su Xingran. He felt his heart go up in his neck and asked stiffly: "Why can't it be reduced? I have already said that I can use money to make up for whatever expenditure the court has lacked in the past few years! "
Su Xingran said coldly: "Everything you talk about is money. The court spends millions of taels of silver a year, and 20 million taels in five years. Can you afford it?"
"So what if I can afford it?" Chen Xiaomu immediately seized the opportunity and asked.
Su Xingran said angrily: "You can really spend 20 million taels of silver to finance the five years of the imperial court. After I ascend the throne tomorrow morning, I will issue an edict to reduce the national tax for five years as you said!"
"Okay, it's a deal!" Chen Xiaomu said excitedly: "Then you write the edict now, and as long as I bring the money into the treasury in the palace tomorrow morning, you have to announce the edict to the whole country!"
Su Xingran didn't believe that her husband could give out 20 million taels of silver at once. The reason why she said this was entirely to let Chen Xiaomu retreat and stop wasting his time on these unrealistic things. At the moment, she Instruct people to get paper and pen, and write the tax exemption edict in advance according to what Chen Xiaomu said.
Regarding the matter of tax reduction and exemption for the imperial court, they argued for a long time and finally got it over with. Then Su Xingran looked at Wei Wen's memorial again. When she saw the proposal to establish the imperial council in the memorial, she raised her head and asked who was standing in front of her. Wei Wen said, "Prime Minister Wei, don't the officials in the imperial court retire and return to their hometowns when they get older? Why do we need to set up a council to keep them here?"
Wei Wen hesitated for a moment, then read what Chen Xiaomu said that morning in front of Su Xingran. Su Xingran glanced at Chen Xiaomu after listening, and said with a chuckle: "I didn't expect that you, Chen Duwei, had only been an official for a few days, and you were so arrogant. You have to be perfect!"
Chen Xiaomu quickly cupped his hands and said: "There, there, it's all thanks to my wife's usual guidance!"
Su Xingran suppressed laughter and said seriously: "Captain Chen, tell me, who will be responsible for investigating the major rebellion that happened last night?"
Chen Xiaomu shook his head and said: "As you said, I have only been an official in the imperial court for a few days, and I am not familiar with the officials in the imperial court. Asking me to recommend them is like a blind man touching a horse!"
Su Xingran nodded slightly, then turned to Wei Wen and asked, "Prime Minister Wei, do you have a suitable candidate?"
"This...!" Wei Wenwen originally didn't want to get involved in this matter. His usual principle of doing things was to keep to himself and not to get involved in other people's affairs. But now that Su Xingran asked, he had to speak again, So after pondering for a long time, he said: "Your Highness, I believe that someone in the court must be involved in this rebellion case, so it is best not to select people from the court to investigate!"
"Yes." Su Xingran nodded, and then said: "Prime Minister Wei, what do you think if I transfer two people, Bai Zhifu and Jia Tongpuan from Xinjing Prefecture, to be responsible for investigating this case?"
Wei Wen stretched out his hand to stroke his beard and said with a smile: "That's good, that's good, but the level of these two people is too low at the moment. If they come to investigate and deal with this case, I'm afraid there will be a lot of resistance!"
"This is easy to handle." Chen Xiaomu couldn't help but interjected: "Both Magistrate Bai and Jia Tongpan made great contributions in suppressing the rebellion. In short, the court will give rewards in the future. In order to facilitate the investigation, I don't think it is better to do it now." Just give the reward to both of them!"
Su Xingran looked at Chen Xiaomu and said, "Oh, what kind of reward do you think is appropriate for them?"
At this moment, Chen Xiaomu suddenly remembered his promise to upgrade Bai Zhifu and Jia Gui to three levels two days ago, so he said, "How about giving them three promotions each?"
Su Xingran was stunned for a moment and thought to himself: "Upgraded to three levels at once! Isn't this too much?" So he didn't say anything.
Wei Wen agreed: "The third level is just right. Bai Zhifu will be appointed as a minister in the Ministry of Punishment, and Jia Tongfen will be appointed as a Shaoqing in Dali Temple. One will be promoted to the third grade and the other to the fourth grade!"
Seeing that Wei Wen, the prime minister, agreed, Su Xingran had nothing to say. In short, there were too many staff shortages in the court, and almost every yamen staff was missing. What's more, according to Chen Xiaomu, the two of them were due to work this time. Rebellion has great achievements, now it is better to follow the trend and help these two people.
But after these two people were promoted, the positions of magistrate and general magistrate of Xinjing Prefecture became vacant again. This Xinjing Prefecture is the capital of Zheng State, and the yamen cannot be closed for a day, so who else can be allowed to serve as prefect and general magistrate in Xinjing Prefecture? What about the office of general judge!
At this time, Chen Xiaomu suddenly raised his hand and said: "I recommend someone to be the new magistrate of Xinjing Prefecture!"
The eyes of everyone in the room were instantly attracted to Chen Xiaomu, but no one answered his words. Chen Xiaomu put down his hand and said humbly: "I do think of a suitable candidate to be the new prefect of Xinjing Prefecture."
Wei Wen smiled and said: "Captain Chen, who you plan to recommend, you might as well talk about it first."
Chen Xiaomu took a deep breath and said as calmly as possible: "I recommend the second princess Su Xingchen to be the new prefect of Xinjing Prefecture!"
"What?" Su Xingran thought she had heard wrong, and looked at Chen Xiaomu with a blank look on her face. The other people were directly confused. Su Xingchen never expected that Chen Xiaomu would come up with such a bad idea in order to keep her. Let's not talk about it for now. Is it appropriate for her as a princess to serve as the prefect of Xinjing Prefecture? She has almost never left the palace this year, and someone with no social experience or officialdom experience suddenly becomes the prefect of Xinjing Prefecture. It would be weird not to make a lot of jokes!
Su Xingchen was about to decline when she saw Chen Xiaomu turn his head and wink at her quietly. Thinking of what he had promised him just now, he had to swallow his refusal again.
Su Xingran was so angry that he reached out and slapped the dragon case, called him by name and shouted angrily: "Chen Xiaomu, please listen clearly, I have recruited you here to discuss matters, not for you to talk nonsense! "
"Your Highness, why am I talking nonsense?" Chen Xiaomu said in dissatisfaction: "Does recommending talents to the imperial court count as a matter of discussion?"
"Huh huh." Su Xingran snorted coldly: "Don't think that if you don't tell me, I won't know what's going on in your belly. Let me ask you, since you recommended Xingchen, you have to find a reason that can be explained, right?"
Chen Xiaomu argued: "There is no need to find any reasons at all. First of all, the new capital is the important place of Zheng's capital. Under the emperor's feet, an official who is loyal to the imperial court must be selected to govern. The second princess is loyal to the imperial court. You don't have to Do you doubt it? Moreover, before this rebellion is thoroughly investigated, if the wrong person is appointed to such an important position, the consequences will be serious. The second princess has been raised in the palace for so many years. At this time of national crisis, the court officials are in short supply. Nowadays, it’s time to come out and do something for the country!”
Chen Xiaomu finished all the reasons in one breath, but Wei Wen was confused at this moment: "Chen Duwei, you are right, but the second princess has no political experience at all, so I'm afraid there will be trouble!"
Chen Xiaomu smiled brightly and said: "What are you afraid of? Just give her a good general judge to help her, and he can learn and do it himself!"
"This...!" Wei Wen paused for a moment, then turned to look at Su Xingran, "Your Highness, what Captain Chen said is not unreasonable. Please make your decision."
Su Xingran said awkwardly: "I have decided that Xingchen and Xingyu will escort the father, the emperor, the queen, the queen, and the emperor's brother back to their hometown of Yunyang City for rest. It's hard to change this!"
Chen Xiaomu tried to ask: "I don't know how you plan to escort my father and the others back to their hometown for rest. I heard that there is a distance of more than 500 miles from Xinjing City to Yunyang City. This road is full of high mountains and long rivers. You must be more careful on the way. !”
Su Xingran glanced at him and said: "I plan to ask my uncle to lead five thousand imperial guards to escort them all the way to Yunyang City, and station them there for a long time to protect them!"
Hearing this, Chen Xiaomu shook his head repeatedly and said: "No, no, such a large formation is tantamount to announcing to the world that the father, the queen, and the queen have returned to Yunyang City. Although Yunyang City is now bordering Chen State, Chen State is in the process of Wu and Zhou were at war, and Wu had a good relationship with Qi. During the war between Chen and Wu, as a third-party mediator between the two countries, he often acted as a rift for Wu. If the two countries were conspiring, It would be bad if Wu State increases its offensive on the battlefield to hold back Chen State's army, and then Qi State sends troops to take advantage of Wu State and take Yunyang City directly!"
Su Xingran was shocked when he heard this, and couldn't help but said nervously: "What should I do? My father is determined not to stay in Xinjing City to rest. Currently, only Yunyang City in Zheng State is the farthest from Qi State."
Chen Xiaomu thought for a while and said: "It would be better to do this. Fortunately, now that the new year is approaching, it is announced to the public that the father is ill because of the dragon's body, so he sends people back to his hometown to worship his ancestors, and then asks his uncle to select hundreds of strong soldiers from the Royal Forest Army to form a group to worship the ancestors. Team, secretly hide the father, emperor, mother and queen in this team, and return to Yunyang City without anyone noticing."
As soon as he finished speaking, Wei Wen nodded frequently and said in praise: "Your Highness, Captain Chen, this is a good idea! Firstly, it will make people think that the emperor is still in the new capital, and secondly, it can prevent the people of Qi from making plans in Yunyang City. , then we will be attacked from both sides."
Su Xingran nodded, "Okay, let's do it this way. I'll discuss it with my uncle later."
Then she said to Chen Xiaomu: "You insist on recommending Xingchen to be the prefect of Xinjing Prefecture, then you can recommend me a general judge to assist her!"
Chen Xiaomu quickly said to Wei Wen: "Prime Minister Wei, I am not familiar with Zheng's court and local officials, so I have to help you with this matter!"
Wei Wen stood there and thought for a long time, and finally shook his head and said helplessly: "Captain Chen, at this moment I really can't think of a suitable person to be the general judge! Why don't I ask the official department in the morning?" Yuan Shangshu?"
Su Xingran smiled and said, "Prime Minister Wei, you don't need to ask Yuan Shangshu tomorrow morning. The post of general judge of the new capital will be filled by him before Duwei Chen recommends me a suitable candidate!"
"Ah!" Chen Xiaomu was startled and begged with a grimace: "Honey, can we stop joking? I have never sat in court to try a case. Aren't you making me look embarrassed?"
It would be better if he didn't say this. As soon as he said this, Su Xingran wanted to attack his arrogance and make herself feel better at the same time, so she immediately lowered her face and said, "That's it, I'll let him know later." I have prepared a decree and sent it to Magistrate Bai and Jia Tongpan. After you bring the money into the palace tomorrow morning, you and Xingchen will go to Xingjing Mansion to handle the handover!"
"But I..." Chen Xiaomu wanted to refuse, but Su Xingran didn't give him a chance to speak at all. He waved his hand at him and said, "You should step back and prepare. Prime Minister Wei and I have important matters to discuss."
