I’m the Farmgirl You Can’t Mess With
Chapter 941 - Chapter 941 Angry

Chapter 941: Angry Chapter 941: Angry Editor: Atlas Studios Angry, Qi Xiuyuan directly asked Eunuch Wan to go to the Imperial Study and bring two boxes to the main hall.

“These are the IOUs stating the loans that the Duke of Peaceful State had taken from the commoners for my inner treasury.

And all of the money in my inner treasury had gone to subsidize the national treasury.” The Imperial Court immediately fell silent.

It was no secret that Fan Zijin had written IOUs to borrow money from wealthy merchants to replenish the treasury.

Tears welled up in Qi Xiuyuan’s eyes, and a cold glint flashed across them.

He said word by word, “For Great Qi and for this country, not only did I get my two younger brothers to use their private savings to subsidize the national treasury, but I even used the dowry of the Empress and Madam Mu.

It’s been more than five years since the founding of the country, and the treasury has become gradually abundant.

Still, all the ministers are eyeing my inner treasury covetously.

What use do I have for such incompetent persons in my court?” His fury was felt by everyone present!

The courtiers immediately knelt down.

Seated on the dragon throne, Qi Xiuyuan looked down at them with a cold gaze.

“The Duke of Peaceful State owes huge debts because of me.

I owe him that money, and in turn the treasury owes me money.

When does the Ministry of Revenue plan to return this money?” The ministers lowered their heads deeply.

If they returned this sum of money, the treasury would be empty again.

What would happen to the military expenditure and water conservancy facilities?

“Minister of Revenue, since the first year of Taikang, the Ministry of Revenue has owed Madam Mu’s Harvest Grain Stores grain seeds on credit.

When do you plan to return this sum of money?” Everyone lowered their heads even more.

As everyone knew, the Harvest Grain Stores were Princess Consort Rong’s dowry.

It did not seem right for them to use a woman’s dowry to support the country, but no one dared to say anything at this moment.

Qi Xiuyuan stared at them coldly and asked, anger evident in his voice, “What happened to last year’s salt and iron proceeds, this year’s commercial taxes, road donations, grain taxes, and poll tax?” Rong Xuan took the lead and knelt down.

“Your Majesty, they’re all in the national treasury.

However, because we have to allocate funds to repair water conservancy facilities and dredge the Yellow River, we have to use the money sparingly.” “So you use that money sparingly and target my inner treasury instead?” “We are guilty.” Rong Xuan apologized.

He had long reminded Qi Xiuyuan to make a clear distinction between his inner treasury and the national treasure, to avoid raising the appetites of the officials and lead them to eye the Emperor’s inner treasury for no reason.

However, at that time, Qi Xiuyuan was hot-blooded and felt that the entire country belonged to him.

Thus, there was really no need to distinguish too clearly.

He just didn’t know who it was that made him notice.

Although he was scolded, Rong Xuan did not feel bad.

He had long taken issue with those officials who kept having designs on the Emperor’s inner treasury.

It was good to take the opportunity to give them a good talking-to.

Qi Xiuyuan was livid this time.

He’d never flown into such a rage except for that time when Fan Zijin was in danger when he went out to sea.

This reminded the courtiers of the fact that this Emperor had a military background, unlike Emperor Jingyan of the previous dynasty.

When this Emperor was angry, he would kick someone on the spot.

Qi Xiuyuan punished a few officials from the Ministry of Revenue and got someone to place two large boxes on the left and right sides of the dragon throne.

Every day at court, as long as the ministers looked up, they would be reminded that this country was still in debt.

Their national treasury still owed a lot of money.

The Emperor didn’t care about losing face, and the courtiers below were also very helpless.

Every day, when they went to court, they felt like there was a sword hanging around their necks.

That was especially so for the Minister of Revenue.

The most direct effect of these two large boxes was that the funds for the water conservancy facilities and Yellow River dredging fees applied by the Ministry of Works were reduced by nearly a fifth.

Qi Xiuyuan’s expression remained dark for three consecutive days.

On the fourth day, Head Chief Zhu of the Ministry of Revenue and the inner treasury finally calculated the amount owed by the national treasury.

Qi Xiuyuan forced the Ministry of Revenue to write an IOU for him before announcing that his internal treasury was now completely separated from the national treasury.

As the national treasury was the coffers of the country, the money, grains, and rice could only be used for the people.

The Emperor, the royal family, and various officials were not allowed to borrow money from the national treasury.

On the other hand, the inner treasury was the private property of the Emperor and the royal family.

Expenditures such as the princes’ excursions and the princesses’ weddings would all be paid from the inner treasury.

Qi Xiuyuan had written the order into an imperial edict and stored it in the Royal School’s Imperial Pavilion, which meant that future generations could not change or violate this order.

However, the courtiers were not angry at all.

Instead, they were very happy because the imperial edict clearly stated that all the royal family’s expenses would henceforth be paid from the inner treasury.

This would definitely reduce the pressure on the national treasury.

Even if they could no longer take money from the Emperor’s inner treasury, this would still be more beneficial than harmful to the national treasury and the Ministry of Revenue.

When Emperor Jingyan of the previous dynasty ruled the country, his extravagant spending and the lavish expenses of the royal family members accounted for one-third of the outflow from the national treasury.

This showed that the royal family had very high expenses.

Even though the current Emperor was frugal, it did not mean that his descendants would be frugal too.

His writing the order into an edict would serve to protect the national treasury even a hundred years later.

The courtiers were smug, but they did not know that Qi Xiuyuan was also guarding against the ministers.

In the previous dynasty, the Emperor was not the only one who took money from the national treasury.

The ministers also did the same, often writing IOUs to the Ministry of Revenue to borrow money from the national treasury.

But most of them did not return it.

The muddle-headed Emperor Jingyan did not want to offend the courtiers for the money, in case they criticized him for being extravagant.

However, Qi Xiuyuan wanted to cut off this option for everyone.

The royal family could not use the money in the national treasury, nor could they borrow from it.

It was the same for the courtiers.

Since the money in the national treasury came from the people, it could only be used on the people.

There were some perceptive courtiers in the imperial court who sensed the deeper meaning of the Emperor’s imperial edict, but they did not say anything and simply watched as the other officials remained smug.

After Qi Xiuyuan separated the inner treasury from the national treasury, he found the memorials that requested money.

The first item was Qi Haoran’s memorial asking for funds to buy a cannon.

This time, the Ministry of Revenue no longer kept saying that they were broke.

The officials no longer hinted at the Emperor or Prince Rong to pay for it themselves.

Instead, they began to argue the functionality of this cannon.

From all aspects, they proved that there was no need for Great Qi to spend a huge sum of money to buy just one cannon.

The Ministry of Revenue said that they could only give the Ministry of War so much money, As for whether the Ministry of War had money leftover to buy the cannon after paying military salaries and rations, it was none of their business.

The officials of the Ministry of War looked at each other.

The Minister of War recalled the description in the letter that Prince Rong had given him.

While he wanted to allocate money to buy the cannon, his heart couldn’t help but ache for the money.

Thinking that Prince Rong had already paid the deposit, he vaguely said a few perfunctory words without committing to buy the cannon.

Anyway, Prince Rong didn’t care much about money and was already used to subsidizing the army a lot.

Seeing this, Qi Xiuyuan sneered in his heart.

It didn’t matter if he suffered a loss himself since Great Qi belonged to him.

However, he couldn’t let his younger brother suffer a loss.

If Haoran was a willing party, he could turn a blind eye.

Alas, Haoran was obviously unhappy now.

Since that was the case, there was no reason to continue letting others bully him.

Qi Xiuyuan recalled what the letter said.

If the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue refused to pay, the royal family would build the factory themselves.

In the future, should they successfully develop the cannon, the Ministry of War would have to spend a lot of money buying the cannons from the royal family.

Qi Xiuyuan thought of the third and fourth princes who had just been born.

Thinking that when they moved out to their own residences in the future, it would cost a lot of money, he figured that building a royal munitions factory wasn’t a bad idea.

Seeing that the Emperor no longer pressured them to allocate funds to Prince Rong for the cannon, everyone felt relieved.

Little did they know that after Qi Xiuyuan returned to the Imperial Study, he would write a letter to Qi Haoran and ask him to choose a region to build a munitions factory.

He would fork out the money, and the factory would belong to him, Haoran, and Zijin.

Then, he called Head Chief Zhu over and asked him to sort out the silver in the inner treasury and repay the debt that Fan Zijin owed those wealthy merchants.

He also got someone to send 50,000 taels of silver to Qi Haoran.

This way, one-third of the silver that he had just obtained from the former dynasty’s national treasury was gone.