1905: Beer Hall Speaker

Page 121

While post-incident anti-corruption efforts can indeed recover lost fiscal funds, the precious construction time lost cannot be recovered. Moreover, the infrastructure plans planned by the central government are interconnected, and if any link goes wrong, it will affect the overall progress.

"Do your best and leave the rest to fate! As long as things get done, we can settle scores later, but the big picture must come first!" Zhao Yan earnestly advised.

Zhan Tianyou nodded, sensing that the conversation was almost over. He could tell that Zhao Yan wanted to see him off, since Zhao Yan didn't have time to chat with Zhan Tianyou all day.

Zhan Tianyou remembered the little scheme of the four northeastern provinces and quickly said, "Your Majesty, several provinces in the Northeast saw me off before I left."

They were also eager to achieve something, so they asked me for help.

Zhao Yan waved his hand: "You asked me to pass on a message, right? You go first, I'll definitely listen."

Zhan Tianyou laid out all the little schemes and hidden agendas of the four northeastern provinces, and Zhao Yan pondered for a moment after listening.

“Financial allocations can be provided, and it is only right for the Northeast region to develop industrial projects. Since the four provincial governors have all spoken up, the central government cannot be stingy.”

"Two hundred million is definitely outrageous, but twenty million is too little. If foreigners see this, they'll think we're poor. We'll just give it to them."

Zhan Tianyou's eyes lit up when he heard this.

"Forty million! Ten million for each province!"

The light in Zhan Tianyou's eyes disappeared again.

What a ridiculous demand! I thought they were going to give a hundred million, but in the end it was just double.

But Zhao Yan didn't finish his sentence: "This money isn't really a gift, it's more like the central hub is investing. Once the industrial park is built and profitable, the central hub will receive dividends according to its investment ratio!"

"But if we lose money, this amount will be deducted from next year's tax revenue share. Let the Northeast know that my money isn't so easy to take, and don't even think about freeloading!"

Zhan Tianyou: "Huh? Would they agree to that here? What kind of logic is it for a son or father to ask for pocket money and then demand an IOU? It's not just an IOU, there's interest too! Your Excellency, this is going too far!"

Zhao Yan sneered, "Things that are given away for free are always the most worthless and the least cherished. Believe it or not, if the central government gives you 40 million for free, they'll only do the work worth 30 million at most."

But if you say the money is a loan, and you'll have to collect interest in the future, then with 40 million, they'd have to do 80 million worth of work, otherwise they'd have to subsidize it out of their own pockets!

"Everyone in the world says I am the emperor and they are the sons. It's nice to hear that, but don't take it seriously!"

"Old LeBron, when someone calls you 'Dad,' even if it's your own son, you should be on your guard, because he might be broke!"

"The rich call me a tyrant, while the poor call me a father!"

Zhan Tianyou's expression was complicated; he was unsure how to comment, and in the end, he could only say dryly, "Your Excellency's insight is brilliant!"

Zhao Yan continued, "It's definitely impossible for the Northeast to increase the proportion of local tax revenue retained; we can't set that precedent!"

“Tell them that the central government has agreed in principle, but local taxes must be paid in full. What is due will still be given, but not in cash, but in policy.”

"I will speak to the finance and taxation departments, and they will authorize the four northeastern provinces to issue bonds in Yingkou. The amount is tentatively set at 80 million yuan, and they will set the interest rate themselves."

"If they can't be sold, the central bank will buy them, but the annual interest rate cannot be lower than five percent!"

Old Zhan didn't want to talk anymore. When the topic of money came up, Zhao Yan turned into Huang Shiren (a notorious landlord in Chinese folklore), completely losing his previous image of saving the world.

The four northeastern provinces thought they could get a good deal from the central government, but they didn't expect Zhao Yan to want to earn their dividends and interest. Anyone else would definitely not dare to do this, for fear of losing their principal. But Zhao Yan wasn't afraid. No one in the world would dare to steal his principal! Not even foreigners!

Zhan Tianyou was also at a loss as to how to respond to the people of Northeast China; this outcome was truly unexpected.

In the end, LeBron left the Imperial Study with mixed feelings, but he wasn't particularly disappointed; as long as there were results, that was enough.

Zhan Tianyou himself also had some selfish motives. After all, he was the cabinet's chief infrastructure official certified by the head of state. He was a high-ranking official of the second rank in the capital. How could he do without a base of support in the local areas?

He has been deeply involved in the Northeast for the past two or three years, and the Northeast has become his preferred base. Apart from Du Qingwu, who is a special case and difficult to control, the governors of the other three provinces in the Northeast have all expressed their support for him. Even Zhao Yangchun is playing both sides, keeping on good terms with the Minister of Education on one hand and serving Zhan Tianyou on the other.

Zhan Tianyou saw this operation very clearly, but he didn't say anything.

The officialdom is not a battlefield. There are no clear-cut camps. It is usually a matter of mutual influence. Everyone is an official of the Republic, not an opposing camp on the battlefield where you fight to the death.

In officialdom, it's common practice to have connections with multiple parties while maintaining good relations with several people. Zhao Yangchun was from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but that didn't stop him from serving Zhan Tianyou, since Zhan Tianyou was also from Jiangxi.

The competition for the position of head of etiquette and morality, previously held by Zhao Yangchun's superior Ding Anmin, is still unresolved, but Zhan Tianyou's appointment as head of infrastructure is a foregone conclusion.

However, Zhan Tianyou was somewhat troubled by the restlessness of the four northeastern provinces. These four provinces were quite troublesome; young provinces were different, they always seemed to have inexhaustible energy.

North Korea is now biding its time, single-mindedly aiming to unify the peninsula by moving south. Du Qingwu is also seething with anger. After the Imjin River massacre, he has become increasingly active, increasing his infiltration and influence on South Korea, and engaging in numerous underhanded maneuvers.

The higher-ups turned a blind eye, after all, for the sake of the overall interests, the central government was also putting pressure on North Korea, so they didn't make too many demands on Du Qingwu in other aspects.

Liaoning Province's current focus is on building the Anshan Coal and Iron Complex and the Yingkou Financial Center. The goal is to make Liaoning the economic and industrial leader of the four northeastern provinces and occupy the top position among them.

After all, Liaoning is the province with the best foundation. They originally wanted to plan Lushun as an economic development zone and vigorously develop there, but the military did not agree. The Ministry of National Defense planned the area around Lushun as a military fortress area. In the future, this will be the core military stronghold for the army and navy to control Northeast Asia.

Jilin Province was originally an inland province, but later the central government decided to include more than 10,000 square kilometers of land in the northeastern part of North Korea, including Rajin Port and its surrounding area, into Jilin Province.

Jilin has also become a coastal province with its own port and outlet to the sea. Jilin Province is also vigorously developing its own industry, but they know that they can't compete with Liaoning, so they have taken a different approach and started maritime smuggling.

The central government announced comprehensive sanctions against Japan, but local authorities in Jilin Province continued to export goods to the Japanese market privately. The huge Chinese export market to Japan was almost monopolized by Jilin.

All goods are produced locally or shipped from within the Great Wall at a base price, and then sold to the Japanese at a markup of several times, yet the Japanese have no choice but to pay up.

They not only accepted orders from the Japanese government, but also took orders from Japanese rebels. They were willing to do anything as long as it was profitable.

Jilin's smuggling trade with Japan attracted a large number of merchants from within the Great Wall, and a large amount of capital poured into Jilin, forming a new trading center around Rajin Port.

The higher-ups saw it all, but they couldn't say much. It was like having your own son doing shady business, but you, the father, were also the police chief. Did you arrest him or not?

Moreover, the local authorities in Jilin were very perceptive, ensuring that all taxes were paid in full. The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Taxation were bribed, and Yu Jingqian helped cover it up.

Only the North Korean province was seething with resentment. Rajin Port clearly belonged to them, yet Jilin had managed to snag such a huge advantage. Du Qingwu now gritted his teeth whenever he saw officials from Jilin.

They had a blood feud with the Japanese, but a neighboring province occupied their land and even did business with their enemy. Who wouldn't be angry in that situation?

However, the only problem is that North Koreans still don't have a good political standing in the country. If the people who died in the Imjin River massacre were all old men, the army would probably have marched south long ago.

Heilongjiang Province, the last of the four northeastern provinces, is the last province in Northeast China without a sea outlet or port. While the other three provinces can all have sea-view properties, Heilongjiang Province can only gaze at the distant coastline.

Therefore, Heilongjiang Province was the most aggressive, single-mindedly infiltrating the Russian Far East. While it did not openly allow war, Heilongjiang Province secretly formed armed reclamation teams, providing subsidies and training for farmers and merchants to purchase weapons, and helping them cross the Heilongjiang River into the Russian territory on the other side to carry out agricultural and trade activities.

The Heilongjiang Provincial Government also established Overseas Chinese Associations in major cities in the Far East, such as Khabarovsk, Hailanpao, Shuangchengzi, and Vladivostok, organizing hundreds of thousands of Chinese in Tsarist Russia and using the name of the Overseas Chinese Associations to exercise rule.

The Russian Far East Governor-General's Office buried its head in the sand like an ostrich, pretending not to see anything as long as the Chinese didn't launch a full-scale invasion.

Heilongjiang Province has already claimed the entire territory north of the Tsarist Russian border as its own. There is also a voice within the provincial government advocating that the capital of Heilongjiang be moved from Harbin to Vladivostok in the future.

Seeing that other provinces have their own ports and outlets to the sea, Heilongjiang Province was green with envy. They didn't want to be ridiculed by their brothers as "old farmers of the black soil." They also wanted to set sail and embrace the blue ocean.

Everyone knows that the return of Outer Manchuria is only a matter of time; Tsarist Russia was just a passerby in this region.

In terms of population, economy, industry, military, culture, and history, Tsarist Russia was at a comprehensive disadvantage in the Far East; it was just that the Chinese did not have the opportunity to start a war at that time.

This land is only temporarily in the hands of the Russians, and they will definitely take it back in the future.

The only thought of the people of Heilongjiang is that after Outer Northeast is recovered and incorporated into the province, Heilongjiang will be the big brother of Northeast China in terms of territory, population, economy, transportation (Trans-Siberian Railway), industry, and shipping.

But nobody can say for sure. It's quite normal for the authorities to re-establish a province in the Outer Northeast, and it would also create an extra position.

What Heilongjiang is doing now is to quickly make the situation irreversible and not give others a chance to take advantage!

Chapter 203 Zhao Yan Couldn't Be Sting Anymore

The New Year's Day holiday in 1910, which included National Day, lasted for three days and ended quickly.

The founding date of the People's Republic of China was January 1, 1906, in Changsha. This date was quite cunning, as it fell on the same day as New Year's Day and was celebrated together with it.

The new system of the Republican government stipulates national holidays, and there are regulations on how many days each holiday will last. If two holidays overlap, then unfortunately, they will be celebrated together, and the longer date will be used. But if they are the same length, then it will be three days.

January 1st has three holidays: New Year's Day, National Day, and Zhao Yan's birthday.

There are only a few national statutory holidays: New Year's Day, Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Labor Day (this was added by Zhao Yan), and Mid-Autumn Festival.

Apart from the Spring Festival, which is a ten-day holiday, all other holidays are three days long. The subordinates even tried to be clever and asked Zhao Yan what day his birthday was, since according to the old tradition, it was normal for the emperor to have a holiday on his birthday.

But how could Zhao Yan allow his subordinates to take advantage of a loophole? He directly said that his birthday was also January 1st, leaving everyone speechless.

In fact, Zhao Yan himself did not know his actual birthday. He had been living a life of constant wandering since childhood, and he did not know the exact date or place of his birth.

Now when people ask, he simply sets it for January 1st. His registered place of origin on his citizen ID card is also Shanghai, because Shanghai was the first place he came to here.

The historians of the National History Department of the Ministry of Culture were speechless at Zhao Yan's bizarre actions. In the five thousand years of Chinese history, there has never been such an emperor of unknown origin.

His birthday was obviously made up, and his place of origin was completely unknown. Zhao Yan said that he had been wandering around abroad in his early years, so he couldn't possibly register his head of state's place of origin as Paris, Europe, could he? The French wouldn't mind, but the Chinese would.

Zhao Yan was so good at deceiving that he even fooled his own family historian. The historian couldn't trace Zhao Yan's place of origin because Zhao Yan claimed that his grandfather had never mentioned it and that his parents were deceased.

The historians probed indirectly, but in the end they could only come up with Shanghai as the answer. Zhao Yan meant that he first set foot on the land of his motherland in Shanghai, so Shanghai was his place of origin.

The historian also inquired about the burial locations of Zhao Yan's parents and grandfather, since there were rules governing these matters, and it couldn't be that Zhao Yan's ancestral graves were all abroad.

However, Zhao Yan only vaguely said that his grandfather's grave should be in the suburbs of Paris, but the exact location was unknown, and that his parents died from arson and robbery by thieves, and their remains were never found.

The historian was at a loss for words, completely stumped by Zhao Yan, and could only write, "The early experiences of the head of state were quite fantastical and can no longer be verified."

At the end of last year, the central government went to great lengths to establish an ancestral temple for its eldest son, Zhao Yan, who couldn't even remember the names of his grandfather and parents.

The historians could only fabricate stories out of thin air. Zhao Yan's grandfather was given the name Zhao Yi, and his father was given the name Zhao Yan. His grandfather had four fires, his father had three fires, and he had two fires. His two sons each had one fire.

The Ministry of Culture also wanted to build mausoleums for Zhao Yan's father and grandfather, and searched everywhere for an auspicious burial site to ensure that Zhao Yan's ancestral graves were located in China, so as to avoid future disputes.

However, Zhao Yan was unwilling to spend money to rebuild the mausoleum, so he simply used the tombs of Kangxi and Qianlong that had been blown open, a classic example of plagiarism.

No sooner had Yuan Shikai's "archaeological team" taken away the coffin than Zhao Yan sent in two sets of his own clothes, then sealed it with cement, erected two stone tablets engraved with the names of Zhao Yi and Zhao Yan, and that was his ancestral grave.

This move left even the usually unrefined military officers dumbfounded, the civil officials wept silently, and the common people shook their heads in disbelief. They had never seen anything so stingy, even going so far as to share a mausoleum; it was simply too ahead of its time.

Besides, there were countless other similar operations. Many plaques in the Forbidden City had Manchu script, and Zhao Yan had to replace them all after he moved in. After all, it was really inappropriate for the power center of the Han people to have Manchu script engraved on it.

But Zhao Yan's money-saving trick is to flip it over and recarve the words, since the wood and processing costs for this kind of plaque are not low.

When the craftsmen turned the plaques over to begin their work, they were speechless. Their predecessors had used the same trick before, and many of the plaques had characters from the Ming Dynasty carved on the back.

Zhao Yan was even happier after hearing this. He decided not to replace it, but to just flip it over and continue using it, thus saving the cost of engraving.

The renovation of the sewer system within the Forbidden City mainly followed the old methods. There were very few toilets in the palace, and Zhao Yan could only approve funds to build public toilets at most.

How could those ministers and bigwigs possibly be willing to lose face by squeezing into public toilets? They could only helplessly pay for the construction of toilets in their office spaces themselves.

Now, with the central government becoming more and more sophisticated, and with more and more departments and staff, it's almost overflowing.

The central government had 21 ministries, plus the three major government agencies: the Presidential Office, the Prime Minister's Office, and the Ministry of National Defense. All these included more than 2,000 officials, plus low-level non-leadership civil servants, totaling about 6,000 people. In addition, there were service personnel such as palace maids and eunuchs from the previous dynasty who were responsible for serving the emperor. The palace was crammed with more than 10,000 people.

Moreover, there is a growing trend that the area is becoming too crowded, since this is not a residential area but an office area.

Many places are unsuitable for offices, and the remaining places suitable for institutions are mostly occupied by important departments. Even the rooms for minor institutions have been converted into offices.

Zhang Mingqi approached Zhao Yan several times, saying that they needed to split up the offices and that funds needed to be allocated to repair the office building, but Zhao Yan just wouldn't approve the money.

Zhang Mingqi had no choice but to ask Zhao Yan for some existing properties for office use. The mansions and courtyards of former high-ranking officials and nobles held by Liu Shangsheng of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission were not going to produce any offspring, so it would be better to use them for office use.

But Zhao Yan still wouldn't budge. He was so stingy with even his own ancestral graves, not letting his subordinates take advantage of him even for a day off. How could he possibly give away those properties with huge appreciation potential to officials as offices?

It wasn't until after the New Year's Day holiday, when the government began preparations for the year-end government report summary meeting, that the pent-up resentment of central government officials towards Zhao Yan's stingy and miserly lifestyle finally broke down and erupted all at once.

The officials realized that if they didn't erupt in silence, they would perish in silence. It was impossible to expect Zhao Yan, a leader who wouldn't even bother to repair his own ancestral graves, to show mercy and generosity.

The preparations for the year-end government report meeting are a continuation of Zhao Yan's report to the nation last year. Although the government report meeting is just a speech of an hour or two, it requires countless meetings and preparations from the central government to the grassroots level.

In 1910, the government report meeting will be delivered by the Prime Minister Zhang Mingqi, and this will continue to be the case thereafter. The head of state will only be responsible for the report meeting at the beginning of each five-year plan, while the prime minister will be responsible for the report in other ordinary years.

In the preparatory meeting prior to this report meeting, the central government discussed the salary and welfare system for civil servants and military personnel of the Republic. At the meeting, Zhao Yan once again displayed the style of an Eastern miser, being extremely stingy and once again demonstrating his strictness towards others while being lenient with himself.

The newly appointed cabinet members and ministers finally couldn't hold back any longer and united to rebel.

You, as the head of state, set yourself a monthly salary of over 1,100 yuan, plus a monthly food allowance of 250 yuan, and other benefits. Your monthly income is almost 2,000 yuan!

But after that, there was a precipitous drop. The Premier's monthly salary was only a little over 330 yuan, the Grand Secretary's was a little over 300 yuan, and the minister's salary was only equivalent to Zhao Yan's monthly food allowance.

Unfortunately, Zhao Yan was quite good at catching embezzlers. He could find out who had embezzled how much by looking at the accounts at the end of the year, and then send them to a reformatory.

Not enough pay, so much work, so much pressure, and no room for corruption—who can stand that?

As a result, there was overwhelming opposition at the meeting, with the meaning being very clear: Boss, this amount of money is making things very difficult for me!

The top officials at the central level felt they couldn't make ends meet, and the middle and lower-level officials felt even worse. The most pitiful were the clerks who only received a salary of three and a half yuan per month after they started working.

The reason why central government officials brought up the salary and welfare system for civil servants and military personnel at the meeting this time is because the pressure is too great, not only the pressure on themselves, but also the enormous pressure transmitted from the middle and lower levels.

The lowest-ranking clerk's monthly salary was only enough to buy about 50 kilograms of white rice, or more than 100 kilograms of coarse grains. Even a high-ranking official like the Grand Secretary, whose salary was equivalent to a thousand bushels of grain, could only buy four tons of fine grains.

Zhao Yan felt that the income of civil servants was very reasonable compared to the current national standard of living. There are still ordinary people in local areas who may starve to death at any time, so it is already good that civil servants can eat their fill.

In reality, a civil servant's salary is not just enough to feed himself; he also has to support his family, even servants, as well as other expenses related to entertaining guests.

Zhang Mingqi pointed out at the meeting that the current civil servant salary and welfare system is essentially forcing officials to embezzle, and once they embezzle, they end up in a reformatory, so they might as well embezzle even more.

Local corruption cases are rampant, and the root cause is that lower-level civil servants are under too much pressure. They can only try every means to skim off the top, and even higher-ranking officials are involved, thinking that the law will not punish the masses.

Zhang Mingqi advised Zhao Yan that even if they didn't implement the anti-corruption fund system, they should at least establish a basic security system so that officials would have no worries about their future.

The official system of the Republic remains the same as before, with lifelong tenure. Once you enter the system, you work there for life; there are no contract workers or temporary workers.