1002 Faction Within Faction, Group Within Group (1/2)

Chapter 1002 – Faction Within Faction, Group Within Group

When it was time for Internal Affairs Minister Wei Yang to report, Ouyang Shuo added a reminder.

”Tell Pei Yun that the Civil Affairs Department needs to quickly do the preparation work for the grain for natural disasters. This would become one of the evaluation components of the civil affair officials. Apart from that, the Imperial Court will take out one million gold to start up the disaster relief fund; this would be under the Civil Affairs Department.”

Since Gaia released the disaster system, they would obviously make use of it.

In the previous four years, the wilderness weather was great, and there were basically no natural disasters. As a result, Great Xia neglected disaster relief and did not have any preparations for that.

Which was why Ouyang Shuo especially raised the matter.

”Understood!”

Although Wei Yang was a little confused, he nodded.

Following which, Financial Minister Fan Li mainly spoke about the problems with financial liquidity. Luckily, the Imperial Court was not going to purposely start up internal wars during the 5th year, so this problem would not grow.

The main thing would still be iron ore purchases.

Before this, the iron ores in the country only had profit considerations. As for the purchases from Australia, that needed actual gold. If one considered coal and special metals, they needed to prepare eight million gold.

Although this sum would mainly be paid for by the Shu Mountain Iron Corporation and the Canglong Military Works Group, the gold that they had to prepare was real.

The China region was only left with eight territories. The Yanhuang Alliance and Fallen Phoenix City were self-sufficient, so they would not order from Great Xia. Basically, they could only digest internally.

Of course, the main one would still be the Privy Court.

The huge military expenditure had always been the worry of Fan Li. Military Affairs Minister had developed a thin face, and he directly said, ”We have a few foreseeable wars next year, including the wars against Annan, Japan, and Hawaii.”

”There are also a few that might happen like Zhenla and Nanzhang. There's also Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Algeria where the Moroccan king is hiding.”

”Next would be internally. If the Yanhuang Alliance starts a war against West Chu, we might be dragged into it. As for the extent to which we would be dragged in, it would depend on the moment.”

”There's also Tibet, Turkic Khanate, as well as the three imperial cities. One could foresee the West Xia and Mongol problems. There are too many uncertain factors.”

Du Ruhui rambled on and on, causing Fan Li's face to turn darker and darker. If they really fought all those wars, no matter how much money the Finacial Court had, it would not be enough.

However, Du Ruhui's words made sense, which made it impossible for Fan Li to retort.

He was not finished.

”One can foresee that during the Gaia 5th year, we are going to expand by 300 thousand troops. At least the Guards Legion Corps is lacking a legion and the three from the Bear Legion Corps would need to be filled up. Next would be the navy, especially the three voyage ones, which would be huge expenditure.”

”Based on the Privy Court calculations, their estimated expenditure would be above 28 million.”

Du Ruhui's words were not nonsense. However, how did military expenditure increase by 10 million when they only needed to expand by 300 thousand troops?

In truth, the Eagle Legion Corps and the Bear Legion Corps were both formed in the 4th year. The Guards Legion Corps and the City Protection Legion Corps were both fully filled in the latter half of the year.

Hence, these troops did not occupy a full year of salary. Of the 18.5 million expenditure in the 4th year, a small portion was used in military reorganization and war reparations.

In the 5th year, the huge military expenditure would start to show.

When Fan Li and the others heard that, they could not help but suck in a deep breath. If they considered all that, even if the financial earnings crossed 100 million, they would not have too much extra gold.

Even to say that if they did not do well, they might exceed the budget and have a shortage of gold. As a result, Fan Li's face was really dark, as all of this pressure was on him.

Ouyang Shuo was unmoved and added, ”Every year, the navy also needs to purchase above two million gold of magic crystals from Lemuria; this amount must be listed in the military budget.”

”....”

Fan Li was numb to the point where he had no words.

If one counted the ores as part of military expenditure, then their military budget would take up 40% of the total.

However, this was unavoidable.

The world was not peaceful and war was unavoidable. Even in a peaceful era, during the 21st century, Russia's military budget was 14% of its early budget.

Speaking of which, Ouyang Shuo had tried his best to control the scale of the army. Not only did he remove the garrison forces, but he also eliminated a large number of soldiers.

If not, the Guards Legion Corps and the Bear Legion Corps would be full now.

Settling the Financial Budget, Ouyang Shuo concluded, ”For the Imperial Court to have our achievements, it is due to all of you and your loyalty. The road to the top is one that we will fall off if we do not advance. I need all of you to continue working hard and try to make specific plans for the budget before the New Year.”

”Yes my king!”

The ministers all nodded, looking really pumped up.

”Meeting over!”

Ouyang Shuo got up and walked toward the back hall.

Only when Ouyang Shuo was gone did the ministers leave. On the way, they gathered together in groups of twos and threes.

Amongst all of them, Yan Song was the loneliest, walking on the Dali stone steps slowly.