I don’t want to be the protagonist of a melodramatic novel!

"Lord Hu, does the Ministry of Revenue have enough money now?"

Yun Ze suddenly asked the Minister of Revenue in the morning court.

The Minister of Revenue sighed when he heard this question:"Your Majesty, please forgive me for being blunt.

Now that the war in the northwest has just ended, we need to calculate and distribute pensions to the soldiers, and the Japanese pirates in the coastal areas need to be dealt with.

The Gunpowder Department is also researching fire guns, not to mention the water conservancy projects in Jiangnan and the post-war weapons replenishment.

So now the Ministry of Revenue has only two million silver taels in its account.

"

This money sounds like a lot, but it is too little for Da Rui's huge machine.

Although there are not many royal relatives in the court, after six generations of development, they have already reached a scale of thousands, and this is the result of the Yun family's lack of descendants.

You know, this is already considered a small number. In other dynasties, there may even be tens of thousands of people.

And the salaries of these relatives are not a small amount.

And there are also salaries for officials and hundreds of thousands of soldiers to be paid.

And with Yun Ze's level of squandering, it is estimated that this amount of money will not last more than a year.

The Minister of Revenue saw Yunze's unhappy expression, thought for a moment, and said to Yunze cautiously:"Your Majesty, if you want to increase the income of the national treasury, I'm afraid the only way now is to increase taxes."

If Yunze was really the kind of emperor who was high and mighty, and didn't understand the suffering of the people, he might really agree to this decision and make the national treasury abundant.

The words"increase taxes" are simple to say, and it's just a matter of Yunze's lips, but for the vast majority of people, this is undoubtedly a huge mountain pressing on them.

What's more, Yunze's development and consumption of silver and money are for the sake of the people, so he will never increase taxes, and he will even think about when to start reducing taxes when the national treasury is abundant.

"Your Majesty, you must not increase taxes. Now the people live and work in peace and contentment. If you suddenly increase taxes, I am afraid that the people of the world will suffer."

At this time, a middle-aged man came out, knelt on one knee and advised Yunze.

Yunze did not say whose suggestion was good, but said to the Minister of Revenue:"Lord Hu can change his clothes and go for a walk in the suburbs, maybe he will change his mind."

The reason why the Minister of Revenue can make this suggestion is that he is a child of aristocratic family and does not understand the lives of the lower-class people.

Even the ministers are like this, then it is not surprising that the emperors who have been in the temple for a long time in history would say something like why not eat meat porridge.

After speaking, Yunze glanced at the middle-aged man. He remembered that this person seemed to be the left assistant minister of the Ministry of Justice, and he was considered a wise man.

Although Yunze did not reprimand the Minister of Revenue, he also made the Minister of Revenue tremble in his heart, and then lowered his head:"I am a humble minister."

Yun Ze didn't say much. He looked at his confidant, Chen Yujin, the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue.

Chen Yujin immediately understood what Yun Ze meant and immediately bent down and said to Yun Ze:"Your Majesty, I have an idea."

"explain"

"That is to open up the northwest border trade and exchange what we have with Wala."

When this was said, all the civil and military officials in the court were shocked.

"Your Majesty, no! The Oirat people are cunning and treacherous, and have no credibility at all. How can we trade with them?"

"Moreover, the two tribes are enemies for generations. Our Great Qi is vast and rich in resources, so why should we trade with those barbarians?"

The Imperial Censor even knelt down to give advice, and other ministers thought the same.

Many people in Darui still maintain a superior mentality towards the Wala, looking down on their primitive and barbaric lifestyle, and simply disdain to trade with them.

This represents the views of many Darui ethnic groups.

Merchants are happy to see the opening of border trade, but they have no right to speak.

"Why not? Isn't the Ministry of Revenue short of money? Open a few trade markets, controlled by the court, send soldiers to protect both sides of the trade, and impose heavy taxes on the goods brought in to ease the Ministry of Revenue's difficulties."

Chen Yujin heard the opposition from all the civil and military officials in the court, but still looked at Yunze with a firm gaze and said.

The Wala people's need for trade was more urgent. Because they had just been defeated, they must be lacking a lot of daily necessities and winter supplies. On the contrary, the demand for their products on the Da Rui side was mostly replaceable, so the heavy taxes were transferred to the goods, and in the end the money was also paid by the Wala people, which did not have much impact on the people of Da Rui.

"This is a good plan, my dear, please tell me in detail."

The civil and military officials in the court are all people who can read people's faces. When they saw Yunze agreed, they understood that this matter was not proposed by a small minister, but Yunze had been planning it for a long time.

"There are several benefits to opening the Northwest Mutual Trade. First, it can increase tax revenue. In recent years, there have been many things to do in various departments, and there have been many wars, which have consumed a lot of money and made the treasury empty. Fortunately, people's lives are peaceful, but if taxes are increased rashly, people's lives will be miserable. The opening of the Northwest Mutual Trade and levying heavy taxes can increase part of the treasury revenue.

Second, the Wala people robbed the south mostly in winter, when they lacked food and clothing. When their survival was challenged, at the critical moment of life and death, even if they were defeated and had nothing to eat, they would still go south. Instead of letting them rob, it is better to open the mutual trade and sell to them at a high price to divide them and reduce the risk of large-scale war on the border."

The Wala people are not a monolithic group, and not everyone wants to fight. If there is a chance to exchange for the items needed for survival, some peace-loving people can stand on the anti-war position. As soon as Chen Yujin finished speaking, the Minister of Revenue immediately agreed:"Your Majesty, I think this plan is feasible. If we can dig some silver from the Wala people to subsidize the treasury, increasing the tax source can make the treasury a little more abundant."

The Ministry of Works has been spending a lot of money in the past two years because of gunpowder. At this moment, the Minister of Works also agreed,"If we can collect heavy taxes and use the money of the Oirat people to research weapons to deal with the Oirat people, it would be a good thing."

But at this time, the Minister of War stood up and said,"What Lord Chen said makes sense. We fought with the Oirat for five months in the spring of this year. Da Rui suffered heavy losses. Now the national treasury may no longer be able to afford the war.

However, the Oirat people lack iron tools. If they melt the pots we sell to them to make swords, doesn't this give the Huns a chance to grow stronger?"

"Lord Wang's concern is reasonable, but I have a solution. If the Wala people want to buy an iron pot, they have to exchange it for an old and broken iron pot, and then pay a sum of money before they can sell it to them. This way, we can ensure that no excess ironware will flow into the Wala."

The Minister of Works laughed. Their Ministry of Works has collected many broken swords and knives and re-smelted them.

The eyes of the Minister of War lit up:"Lord Kong, this plan is very good, I have no problem."

Yunze then said:"Don't worry, my lords, the things sold to the Wala people will be screened and only used for their lives, and will not cause any harm to my Da Rui."

"Minister Chen will take the lead in this matter. Please draw up a list and we will make a decision."

"I accept your order."