As soon as Fan Jingwen died, and the Chu thieves had already entered the city, and a large number of Chu thieves had circled around the west city wall and even the north city wall, the remaining civil servants and generals in the city had no way to escape, and a large number of civil and military generals had no choice but to surrender one after another!
Of course, even at this time, there are still many people who are unwilling to surrender.
Some of them still tried to resist, some committed suicide in various ways in despair, and some of them disguised themselves and changed clothes, trying to hide and then escape from the city.
Many officials of the Ming court in the city made various choices and staged a statue of hundreds of officials and sentient beings.
But at this time, whether it was the various Chu army units entering the city, Luo Zhixue outside the city, or even the civilian officials such as Chen Xingkai who came with them, their focus was not on these Ming court officials.
Even if Fan Jingwen committed suicide or Zhang Guowei died in battle, they could not be moved at all.
They didn't even care much about how many enemy soldiers they killed or how many prisoners they captured.
At this moment, they only care about one thing, and that is how much money they can make this time.
"This is Jinling City!"
"It is not only the capital of the pseudo-Ming Dynasty, but also a prosperous city that brings together the money and food of the entire Jiangnan!"
"Including Waiguo City, there are more than 300,000 people in the city, including countless dignitaries and gentry!"
"There are also many noble mansions in the city, including the Duke of Wei's mansion, which has accumulated countless wealth!"
"This time we seized the official money and food in the city, and also confiscated a large number of noble gentry such as Wei Guogong, so the money and food we obtained from it may be beyond imagination!"
"This time, we're going to make a fortune!"
When Chen Xingkai, Minister of Counselor and Secretary of the Ministry of Taxation, said this, his mouth was almost watering!
As the Minister of Counselor, Chen Xingkai is not just the Minister of Taxation. In fact, the scope of work he is in charge of also includes the Finance Department. Whether it is tidying up or budget expenditure, he is basically in charge of it.
It was Luo Zhixue’s money bag, the veritable God of Wealth in the Chu Empire.
But while Chen Xingkai holds a high position, he also faces tremendous pressure.
The empire spends money in all aspects, not only huge military expenditures, but also administrative expenses and other livelihood expenses.
Other departments, whether it was the military, other administrative agencies, or provinces, all approached Chen Xingkai to ask for money.
However, the financial revenue of the Dachu Empire is absolutely unable to meet such huge financial expenditures.
For more than a year, Chen Xingkai had tried every means to keep the empire's finances from going bankrupt. He had tried various ways to increase revenue and reduce expenditure.
Even at the beginning of the year, middle- and senior-level officials were called upon to take the initiative to suspend their salary payments to reduce financial pressure.
Well, it's a call in name, but it's actually enforced. But when officials above the eighth rank receive their salary, they can only get 80% to 30% of their salary, depending on their level. The lower the level, the higher the cash share they receive. , the higher the level, the less cash share you get.
The remaining part is a slow release method.
It’s not that I won’t give it, I’m just waiting until the financial pressure has eased before giving it to me. Now I’ll do the accounting first…
This measure actually made many people dissatisfied, but there was nothing they could do if they were dissatisfied. After all, everyone knew that the Dachu Empire was under huge financial pressure. In addition, it was currently undergoing rapid expansion, and the room for advancement for officials was also very large, so many people even I am dissatisfied with the delay in salary payment, but I can only hold it in.
Just because wages are delayed, we can't make a fuss and undermine the overall plan of the Eastern Expedition.
If you really do this, if you are labeled as sabotaging the overall plan of the Eastern Expedition, your political future will be ruined in minutes.
However, this measure of delaying the payment of part of the salary is only limited to officials of the eighth rank and above. In fact, these people are not many, and their salaries are high. Delaying part of the payment will not affect their lives.
As for the grassroots officials who have the largest number and a higher proportion, who also have relatively low income and poor ability to withstand risks, they are a large number of officers and grassroots patrol officers at the three levels of ninth grade, positive ninth grade, and eighth grade. etc., their salaries will still be paid in full.
In addition, even if the payment of mid- and high-level officials is delayed, the actual impact will not be great.
After all, the salaries of officials in the Dachu Empire are relatively high. They are not like the Ming court who only gave officials a few taels of silver. The annual salary of high-ranking officials was only a few dozen taels of silver.
For the salaries set by the Dachu Empire for officials, the central government will set a minimum salary uniformly stipulated by the central government.
In addition to the minimum wage, each locality will fluctuate upward by a certain percentage based on local consumption levels and, most importantly, local fiscal revenue levels.
Then, certain job allowances will be subsidized for more dangerous positions. This is mainly for more dangerous positions such as patrol police and inspectorate investigators.
In the final analysis, the salary income of a ninth-grade ordinary clerk is roughly equivalent to that of a local middle-level clerical worker.
Taking the official salary of the Han Tianfu in the capital as an example, the monthly income of an ordinary clerk from the ninth rank is about 4 taels of silver, and the monthly income of a patrol officer from the ninth rank is about 5 taels of silver.
The higher the grade, the higher the income will be accordingly.
For example, for the position of Zheng Qipin, which is already at the level of a town magistrate or a county section chief, his monthly income is about fifteen taels of silver, and his monthly income is about one hundred and eighty taels of silver. This income Probably on the same level as the shopkeepers of large commercial firms and senior craftsmen in arsenals.
If you are in the sixth grade, it is the level of county magistrate or director of various departments at the prefectural level. Its monthly income is about 20 taels of silver, and the annual income is more than 240 taels of silver.
The fourth grade, that is, the level of the prefect or the director of the provincial department, has a monthly income of about twenty-five taels of silver, and an annual income of about three hundred taels.
However, another situation is that often after an official reaches a certain level, his own expenses are already very small. The official uniforms he wears for eating, drinking and traveling are basically provided directly by the government. He does not need to spend any money to enjoy things that are difficult for ordinary people to do. Enjoy the treatment.
Overall, the salaries of officials in the Chu Empire were higher than those in the Ming court, much higher.
As for illegal income, let’s not talk about it for now. After all, there will be corrupt officials no matter what era or dynasty they are, and there are quite a lot of them.
Therefore, in order to save financial expenditures, the Dachu Empire implemented measures to delay the payment of some salaries to officials above a certain level, but it did not actually affect the lives of these officials.
As for the ordinary staff members who would be affected, the Chu Empire did not touch them.
Chen Xingkai relied on various messy methods to tear down the east wall and repair the west wall to barely maintain the financial operation of the Da Chu Empire, so as not to go bankrupt in an instant.
This situation reached the most difficult time before the Eastern Expedition was launched.
At that time, the Great Chu Empire even defaulted on the payment of goods to a large number of private merchants... After all, in order to prepare for the Eastern Expedition, the Great Chu Empire spent millions and millions...
This situation was initially relieved after the Eastern Expedition was launched, Jiujiang City was captured, and then a large area of northern Jiangxi was captured, and a large amount of money and grain were obtained.
In the following months, the Da Chu Empire obtained a large amount of money and food from the Chizhou Prefecture, Anqing Prefecture and other areas in the west of Jiangxi, central Jiangxi, and southern Zhili. Only then did the Da Chu Empire's finances get rid of its past difficulties.
The Ministry of Finance has money to maintain the war and at the same time, it can also pay some administrative expenses. For example, it has repaid some of the arrears of salary to some middle and low-level officials, and to several strategic suppliers of the Ministry of Commerce and Trade, that is, Fenghe Trading Company and others supported part of the arrears... If the money is not paid at that time, Fenghe Trading Company and other trading firms that have strategic cooperation with the Da Chu Empire and are extremely important to the Da Chu Empire will be completely dragged down. …
And some funds were allocated to the Ministry of Industry to continue to support the expansion of Hantian Arsenal, mainly the construction of flintlock production lines, artillery production lines, especially the production line construction of large-caliber heavy artillery.
Other important factories such as Hantian Machinery Factory and Da Smelting Iron Factory also received funding one after another.
Anyway, these factories are fully invested and controlled by the Ministry of Industry, so direct capital injection will be enough.
It's just that although the financial situation of the Da Chu Empire has been greatly alleviated, in fact it can only quench the thirst for a short time.
The Great Chu Empire's annual military expenditures exceed 20 million, and other administrative expenses exceed 30 million, and the tax revenue is only tens of thousands. However, it has to wait until the Great Chu Empire controls the Pan-Jiangnan area, that is, A large area along the Yangtze River to the east of Jiangxi and south of the Yangtze River.
The area south of the Yangtze River under the governorship of Anlu, the area under the governorship of Yingtian, and northern Zhejiang. These three large areas are Jiangnan in the traditional sense. Only by capturing these areas can the tax revenue of the Chu Empire be greatly increased, and then completely Reversal of the embarrassing situation of financial inability to make ends meet.
But this takes time, not just military operations but also tax collection.
But the great beginning of the Chu Empire could not wait for a moment.
There will be a gap, and it can easily reach tens of millions. How to solve this gap?
Naturally, it depends on various seizures and confiscations during the war.
This is something that the Chu Empire has done well.
I have already gained a lot when I was in Jiangxi, Chizhou Prefecture, Taiping Prefecture and other areas.
However, there are more in Jinling City now.
The tax department estimates that the confiscated income in Jinling City alone is at least tens of millions.
Not 10 million, but at least 10 million!
At about nine o'clock in the morning on October 17, Chen Xingkai personally led the armed tax policemen affiliated with the Taxation Department into the city. At this time, the fighting in the city had not completely stopped, and there were still some recalcitrants, but the armed tax policemen showed no signs of fighting. Not afraid, he followed the army directly into the city.
The purpose is to be able to seize and confiscate it as soon as possible!
For a time, armed tax policemen in black uniforms were welcomed one after another to the residences of Ming court dignitaries and wealthy gentry families all over the city.
Among these armed tax police, there will also be a number of tax department officials wearing civilian robes.
At this time, the Chu army actually had complete control over the four city walls and all important places and government offices in the city, and had eliminated the organized resistance in the city.
However, the sound of gunfire in the city still did not stop, but continued for several days.
Luo Zhixue patiently waited for the armed tax police operation to end at Yuhuatai.
In the afternoon of October 20th, Chen Xingkai, who looked tired but excited, came to see him. Before the man came in, he was already shouting outside: "Your Majesty, we are rich. This time we are really rich... "
