Chapter 1773: The Real Situation

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Inside the Ministry of Revenue, Zhou Changshou and Zhou Ping'an stood at the door of Xu Changqing's office. Looking at the piles of official documents and letters inside, they felt overwhelmed and had no place to put their feet. They could only politely decline Xu Changqing's enthusiastic invitation.

“Excuse me for being forward, haha.”

Xu Changqing gave an awkward smile and spread his hands, saying: "There's really no way. Right now, out of the six major departments in the imperial court, the Ministry of Revenue is the busiest. It needs money everywhere. Every day I wake up to urgent requests for money from various places. Even at night, my dreams are filled with hands reaching out to me for funds. It's simply too chaotic. These official documents, I have already dealt with a portion of them. The rest, I am truly helpless. The two of you, why don't we go to the next tea room and chat"

Seen a haggard Xu Changqing emerge with difficulty from the pile of official documents, Zhou Ping’an said: “Mr. Xu, while official duties are important, your health is equally crucial. Looking at your complexion, it's much worse than when I left for the capital a few months ago. You seem to have aged two years in just a few short months. Please take good care of yourself.”

Xu Changqing bowed to Zhou Ping'an and said, "Thank you for your concern, Zhou sir, but there's nothing I can do about it."

Sighing, Xu Changqing said: “Right now, the national treasury only has so much silver, but there are too many places where it needs to be spent. The officials below aren’t unaware of my worries, but unfortunately, the amount of silver they can allocate is limited. With a smaller total sum, their actions naturally become more stingy and cautious. In the past, when times were prosperous, disbursements of tens of thousands of taels of silver could be handled by them independently without me needing to intervene personally. But now, with only so much silver in the imperial court, even disbursements of a few thousand taels require me to discuss it with the two assistant ministers before a decision can be made. Naturally, this slows down the efficiency.”

"As for things that need money, they don't care about that. They just keep sending official letters to the capital, either urging them or changing the budget. This side can't get anything done efficiently, and the other side becomes even more impatient because of the slow pace, so the problem just piles up."

While they were talking, Xu Changqing had already led the two of them to the tea room. After ordering someone to bring tea, Xu Changqing quickly asked, "Your Highness, are you alright"

Zhou Ping'an nodded and said, "Your Highness, everything is fine. The war is also going relatively smoothly. In fact, if it wasn't for the sudden trouble with the money house here, Your Highness intended to return in person to handle it. But the current situation seems unsustainable, so we decided to come back first."

Xu Changqing said happily, "Did you two bring back any silver"

Zhou Ping'an looked at Xu Changqing strangely and said, "Of course we brought silver. Otherwise, wouldn't our two brothers have to beg along the streets all the way here We arrived in the capital and still have about thirty or fifty taels left. What does Master Xu want to know this for"

Xu Changqing was taken aback for a moment and chuckled wryly, "I was being hasty and didn't make it clear. Now the national treasury... is empty!"

"Besides, the money lender’s side has a huge funding gap that needs to be filled. If we don't have the silver, things are going to be very, very troublesome."

“Speaking of this, Xu Changqing gritted his teeth and said, “To be honest, this squeeze was instigated by the Jingji region. In fact, provinces like the South, Southwest, and Huanan have already started it, but because they are far away, news reached the capital with a delay. What we can confirm now is that there has been some unrest in the Jingji region, as for those more remote and impoverished areas… the situation is probably much worse.”Chapter 1410: Was That a Monk or a Thief