Insufficient balance

  For financial matters, Chen Jingyun specially convened a military government meeting, with nine ministers and Lin Chengkun in attendance. At the opening sentence, Chen Jingyun said: "The military government is currently short of money, what do you think we should do?"

  These people had also heard about Chen Jingyun's previous purchase of a large quantity of military supplies, but because Chen Jingyun said that the military and politics were separate, they didn't dare to say much. An Hualin, the Minister of Finance, always followed Chen Jingyun's instructions, giving him as much money as he asked for, and not giving any to others without Chen Jingyun's permission. Moreover, they understood Chen Jingyun's purchase of a large quantity of military equipment, after all, Fujian did not produce guns and cannons internally, and the military government had just been established, with possible attacks from the Qing army on all sides, so it was necessary to maintain a certain scale of troops.

  Actually, Lin Wenyin and others are slightly dissatisfied with Chen Jingyun's current military expansion speed, thinking that Chen Jingyun's steps are too small. Haven't you seen Li Yuanhong of Hubei and Jiao Dafeng of Hunan, they exploded with tens of thousands of troops in just a few days? And Fujian, no matter how you count it, has only over 10,000 troops now.

  Training the army and purchasing military equipment costs money, Chen Jingyun told them to think of a way, these people could only be deep in thought. Lin Wenyin was the first to speak: "I think we can start a donation campaign, there are many wealthy merchants in Fuzhou City, one family with 100,000 or 200,000 yuan, finding a dozen families should be able to raise tens of millions, which should be enough to fill the gap for the time being!"

  As soon as the words fell, everyone present cast their eyes on him. Why? Because among those present, including Chen Jingyun, Zheng Zuyin, and An Hualin, were all wealthy merchants from Fuzhou. This fundraising wasn't aimed at them, was it? Moreover, although Lin Wenyin's tone made it sound good, it was actually a free handout. Even if he himself held a position in the military government, who would be willing to be a scapegoat? After speaking, Lin Wenyin seemed to have realized that his words were not suitable for the current occasion and muttered something under his breath before falling silent.

  "Haha, Lin Wenyin's words are also a way of doing things, but now Fuzhou has just stabilized, and we are not bandits, so taking something for nothing is not good!" Chen Jingyun quietly criticized Lin Wenyin with one sentence, then shifted his gaze to An Hualin: "What about the situation in the Ministry of Finance? How's the investigation into the remnants of Qing Yu going?"

  An Hualin was naturally clear about how much money he had on hand: "After paying the advance payment for military procurement, the Ministry of Finance still has 3.9 million yuan left. Among the confiscated property, there are still approximately 3 million yuan worth of assets that have not been sold yet and are being auctioned off one by one, which will take some time. As for taxes, they are currently being reorganized and cleaned up according to the governor's orders, but not much has been obtained. In terms of expenditures, there are significant expenses expected in the near future, excluding military equipment and ammunition. Currently, the 4th Traveling Brigade spends around 400,000 yuan per month, and the Military Government also spends around 100,000 yuan. With the current amount of silver on hand, it's unlikely to last long. Additionally, within three months, a payment of 33 million yuan for military equipment will be due!"

  Although everyone knew that the military government was having financial difficulties, they did not expect it to be so severe. According to An Hualin's words, let alone talk about fiscal deficits and the like, I'm afraid even the tail end of the military equipment payment can't be made!

  Zheng Zu-yin sighed and said: "It wasn't until today that I realized how difficult it is to govern a country!"

  Chen Jingyun smiled and said: "As Mr. Zheng said, if governing the country were that easy, there wouldn't be so many dynasties rising and falling!"

  At this time, Foreign Minister Lin Changming was also thinking: "Can't Fuzhou Bank think of a way?"

  Anhualin shook his head and said, "The silver stored in the Fuzhou Bank is all deposited by others. If we use it, they won't be able to withdraw it when they need to! Moreover, I plan to issue banknotes based on this batch of silver!"

  "Paper money!" Others did not understand: "Now that the situation is unstable, issuing paper money hastily will probably cause panic in the market!"

  "This is what I ordered!" Chen Jingyun interrupted the inquiry of others and took the initiative to say: "This paper currency is for saving silver, alleviating financial pressure. As long as the exchange rate is maintained well and there is no bank run, it should be feasible."

  Everyone knows that a bank is not just a mud-legged thing, and they also understand that the most important thing about this paper currency is to maintain the exchange rate. As long as the exchange rate is maintained, it's like exchanging one or two silver coins for two taels of silver!

  When it comes to banks, An Hualin also said: "The paper currency is almost ready and will be issued in two days after verification. At that time, all government revenue and expenditure will use paper currency. However, the current scale is still too small, and it's difficult for outsiders to recognize it. Moreover, in order to stabilize the market and calm the people's minds, we won't force its promotion. Therefore, in the short term, it can only be used near Fuzhou, and if you want to trade with outsiders, you still need to use gold and silver. So, this paper currency will not have too much impact on the market in the short term!"

  At this time, Minister of Commerce Hong Zitai said loudly: "How about everyone looking at the copper coin?"

  As soon as this was said, it immediately got a response from An Hualin: "Right! Tongyuan, how come I didn't think of that!"

  Chen Jingyun asked in puzzlement: "What's the trick with this copper coin?"

  Hong Zitai immediately explained, and after half a day's effort, Chen Jingyun finally roughly understood that this copper coin was even more wicked than paper currency. In daily life, people used to use copper coins, and with the rise of copper coins in recent years, some people also used copper coins. According to the Ministry of Revenue's original intention, it was natural to manufacture sufficient copper coins. However, various local governments manufactured inferior coins with insufficient copper content to seek profits, which led to the devaluation of copper coins over time, causing ordinary people to suffer from increasingly high inflation. In general, local governments were profiteering on the basis of rising inflation.

  Chen Jingyun listened and thought that this method was a bit damaging, but now the lack of money is severe. Printing copper coins is better than those warlords printing military tickets as silver in the future. Moreover, many places across the country are making poor-quality copper coins, so it doesn't matter if we make one ourselves. Immediately, he decided to let Hong Zitai manage it and ordered Fuzhou's Fujing Bureau to officially print copper coins. In order to gain benefits, they naturally made some adjustments to the copper content, which was slightly less than that of the copper coins on the market. Although the difference is not much, it can't be denied that a little bit adds up! With the production capacity of the machines at Fujing Bureau, a large number of copper coins were printed and exchanged for a large amount of silver coins every month!

  According to Hong Zitai's estimate, this month alone can earn at least 300,000 silver coins!

  Chen Jingyun also couldn't help but be slightly amazed after hearing this, no wonder it was said that many local governments issued copper coins, it turned out to be such a profitable business.

  For the sake of the military government's reputation and personal fame, Hong Zitai suggested that before printing the old Qing currency in advance, after a while, print the Republican copper coins issued by Hubei Province. In short, it is not to print the imprint of the Fujian Military Government on the copper coin, so as not to be scolded by future generations.

  With this method of making money from copper coins, although it is possible to earn tens of millions per month in the future, it still cannot solve the current financial crisis. After all, the current shortfall is not just tens of millions, but hundreds of millions or even billions. To truly resolve the financial crisis, we must start by addressing the root cause of taxation.

  The Fujian military government, although nominally in charge of the entire province, actually only controls Fuzhou and surrounding areas. As the three armies advanced to the northeast coast, north, and south coast over the past few days, various counties either surrendered or were captured, causing many counties to gradually join the military government's jurisdiction. However, these newly incorporated counties cannot be thoroughly controlled for the time being, and their contribution to tax revenue is almost zero in the short term. According to Zheng Zuyin's estimate, even if military operations go smoothly, it will take one to three months to control the entire province of Fujian, but it will take another two months to concentrate the province's tax revenue.

  In short, it is hopeless to rely on the financial resources of the whole province of Fujian to support the army and run factories in the next three to five months.

  In order to increase revenue within the controlled areas as much as possible, various department heads spoke out. At this time, Zheng Zuyin, who was the Minister of Civil Affairs, said: "At present, our tax collection is mainly concentrated on likin, but these likin are mostly collected by local governments. If we can also concentrate the likin from local governments into provincial finances, I think it's not a problem to increase it by several times!"

  After that, Lin Changming said: "This place also needs to use money, if all are collected, the local government below will probably make a big fuss!"

  Chen Jingyun was moved by Zheng Zuoyin's suggestion! Anyway, the tax revenue is only so much. If the provincial government collects more, the lower-level governments will naturally collect less. By concentrating the tax revenue on their own, they can also prevent the lower-level corrupt officials from embezzling it. However, this matter of taxation is not trivial. It's not facing ordinary people but rather subordinate officials. If handled improperly, it could lead to chaos!

  "After some thought, he said: 'The current tax system has fallen behind the revolutionary situation. The tax system of the Manchu feudal dynasty cannot be simply inherited. For example, there were too many and too miscellaneous tax categories in the Qing Dynasty. Some should be classified and merged, some should be abolished, and some should be added. There is also the problem of the entire tax collection system. My intention is to separate the tax collection system from the county government, have the Ministry of Finance uniformly dispatch officials and tax clerks to take charge of tax collection work, and not be subject to local county government jurisdiction. At the same time, in order to prevent corruption, the Supervision Department should also play its due role and strictly supervise! Of course, how to specifically reform it still needs to be grasped by the Ministry of Finance. An Zhonglang, you need to implement this within a few days, and I want to see results within a month!'"

  As for Chen Jingyun's words with revolutionary and other grandiose phrases, everyone has heard them many times before. The current tax system is indeed chaotic, the burden on the people is heavy, but in reality, most of the taxes collected are embezzled by corrupt officials. Chen Jingyun does not expect this tax reform to completely reverse this trend, but hopes that it can be used as an opportunity to thoroughly rectify the situation and increase tax revenue.

  An Hualin listened and knew that he had taken on another heavy burden, but he didn't decline at all. Instead, he was beaming with joy and said, "Hualin knows!"

  In An Hualin's view, Chen Jingyun assigned tasks to himself and gave himself a heavy burden, which is a sign of self-respect. Looking carefully at the plan for paper currency in his hand, whether it is tax reform or any other matter, they are all important tasks. The fact that the governor entrusted such important matters to him shows that he trusts himself.

  Almost half a month after joining the military government, An Hualin felt that he had truly gained Chen Jingyun's trust for the first time.

  "After the tax reform is settled, Chen Jingyun continued: "Whether it's copper coin printing or tax reform, they are all long-term plans, but they can't solve our huge fiscal deficit in the short term. So, I decided to issue recovery bonds."

  As soon as Chen Jingyun uttered the two words "bond", everyone present understood that he was going to borrow money. Although there were many wealthy businessmen in Fuzhou, it seemed that borrowing this sum of money wouldn't be easy!