Chapter 30: The Troops and Horses Have Not Moved, But the Provisions and Fodder Have Gone First

  Four days have passed and today is August 21st. I found that almost everyone in the United Front Department conference hall had red eyes, and there were more people attending this meeting than before.

  The Emperor received the proposals handed over by the ministers of various departments and listened to their opinions on how to reduce expenditure without disrupting the current situation. In fact, reducing expenditure means eliminating unnecessary personnel from the imperial administrative organs and canceling the purchase of unnecessary materials. If you want to save a considerable amount of money, the departments with the most room for maneuver in the empire are limited, and only the Grand Council, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of War, and Imperial Household Department can do it.

  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs cancelled the budget for changing carriages, replacing decorations in foreign embassies and purchasing new decorations, saving the Empire twenty-three million sestertii. The consistory also made similar arrangements, several officials who were due to retire continued to serve, withholding their retirement pay, cancelling two governorship appointments, a total of seven million sestertii was saved on personnel expenses for carriages.

  It was the turn of the Imperial Household Ministry, and the master there, the Deputy Director of the Imperial Household, said with a red face: "Caesar, after a night's discussion, we think that during this period, the Thanksgiving Palace Ball should be cancelled, and the scale of the Autumn Hunt and the three services on the eve of Thanksgiving, New Year's Eve, and Christmas Eve should be reduced! The Emperor's expenses also need to be cut!"

  "In the second half of the year, all the holidays that can bring joy to people have been ruined by you. This is indeed a bold proposal." The cheap old man stroked his small mustache and smiled, handing over the reduced expenditure proposal to the Minister of Finance, "Eriks, how much money can we save with the suggestion of our royal deputy governor?"

  The Minister of Finance spent three or four minutes roughly scanning the document in his hand: "From past arrangements for various celebrations, the Thanksgiving Palace Ball can save 470,000 Soruds. The three ceremonies from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve can initially save around 220,000 Soruds, the autumn hunt can save us 100,000 Soruds, and if cancelled, it would be 700,000. The New Year's and January Christmas royal banquet can save 520,000, plus the Emperor's expenses reduced by 570,000 until the end of the year, totaling 1,880,000 Soruds."

  "The royal family's expenses were reduced by 570,000. If this plan is carried out, that old man will be offended to death." I couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration - the French really have skills. A company and 50,000 printed papers can produce over 49 million francs, while we, with several major departments' cuts, only managed to get 2.18 million soldees.

  "Hey, don't laugh at others, our expenses will also be cut along with them."

  The old man glanced at us and said nothing, indicating that the heads of various departments should continue.

  As expected, when it comes to other departments, none of them can save more than 10,000 Solars.

  "Your Majesty! Your Majesty! I have a plan that will save the Postal Department a great deal of money!" A stout, decorated minister shifted his massive body. If one were to say which department had the most useless and idle people, it would be this gentleman who bore the title of Minister of Posts.

  I lowered my voice and asked: "What was his name again?"

  "Marcus, our relative, is considered your cousin."

  Older brother, I know he is our relative anyway.

  "There are over 15,000 postal workers across the country, or maybe it's 14,000. Each of them receives a salary of 3 sols every month! After a night of careful consideration, I believe this number is inflated! Local officials are deceiving their superiors and we must thoroughly investigate this matter." The man, who was old enough to be my uncle, waved his hand vigorously with an air of righteous indignation. "The vacant positions that will be eliminated through our investigation will save us a portion of our expenses. Based on the information we have gathered about all postal workers, I believe we must dismiss 7,000 to 8,000 people. The elderly and weak must be excluded! Let's just make sure there are barely enough staff at post offices nationwide. This way, with fewer employees, they won't be idle and won't be able to slack off while receiving their monthly salary!"

  "My god, what a ridiculous conclusion," I said with a wry smile, nudging Alexander, who also shook his head speechlessly: "It's terrifyingly naive."

  Cheap old man smiled and asked: "Only keeping half of the number, how can we maintain the national letter delivery?"

  "Modify the delivery service areas in various places. For some busier post offices, it's better to buy horses from the reduced budget, and that can solve the problem." The old brother said calmly.

  Even Lao Tzu was speechless and rolled his eyes, this elder cousin is purely here to make a joke.

  After much persuasion, he returned to his seat, and Old Lao began to modify the proposal for expenditure reduction in various departments. In the end, it was initially estimated that each department would cut expenses by 1.8 million in the second half of the year.

  The autumn hunt was cancelled, the scale of the sacred rites remained unchanged, the Thanksgiving court banquet was retained but reduced in scale, and the deputy master of the imperial household had to draw up a new list for this. The scale of the royal banquets from New Year's to Christmas was not only not reduced, but increased, even the expenses on the emperor's side were reduced from 570,000 to 330,000.

  At noon, the meeting was almost over when a guard came to the side of the Emperor with a sealed letter.

  "Express letter, from Castile."

  Everyone stretched their necks the moment Cheap Old Dad opened the letter, but everyone knew that they would only see Cheap Old Dad's calm and collected eyes. After dozens of breaths, Cheap Old Dad closed his eyes and handed the letter to the Foreign Minister.

  "I want to know what's going on! Why did I just find out about this now?!"

  Everyone had a bad premonition.

  The Foreign Minister hastily took over the letter and looked at it quickly, his face suddenly changed: "Prince Archduke of Habsburg has passed away!"

  A stone stirred up a thousand layers of waves, and all the officials present couldn't sit still!

  "Is it the one sitting in Aragon?"

  "Could it be murder?"

  "I don't think so, if it was murder, that old devil would have died before the next war, not now."

  "The Kingdom of Aragon is the largest jewel in the Austrian Habsburg crown. Now that the old man from the Austrian Habsburg faction who was stationed there has died, without that old thing being there, his several sons and local dignitaries are making a big fuss."

  "It's one bad news after another! We've just received word that Versailles has no reason to be later than us in receiving the news! By the time we make our move, I'm afraid France will have already successfully bought off those Aragonese nobles!"

  "Where is Aragon? I've never heard of it." My cousin asked someone next to him in a low voice.

  Now all the discussions point to one conclusion: how should the empire respond?

  "Hail!"

  "Caesar!!!"

  The buzzing hall fell silent as I spoke, because usually we just watch from the side and don't speak up. This time making an exception naturally drew everyone's attention.

  "There's one thing I must say, France is expanding its military! In the future, we may not be facing 200,000 French troops, but 300,000 or even 400,000!" Today, I'm also considered to have made a shocking statement. An army of 400,000, do you think that's something from a peasant uprising in China or the million-strong army of the Song Dynasty? Just looking at the numbers is impressive, but in reality, not only three-year-old children and eighty-year-old women, even pregnant women are included. But now, this possibility really exists!"

  "Your Highness, you're not joking, are you?" The Minister of Agriculture said with a twitch at the corner of his eye. "Four hundred thousand troops, that's a huge number."

  Minister of Finance étienne also expressed his disbelief, adding: "France has been at war for years, and its expenses have already exceeded its annual income. If the number of troops is doubled from the current 200,000, won't the entire country go bankrupt?"

  Cheap father still has that calm and composed look: "Tell me your reasons for judging that France is expanding its military."

  "The death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was one reason, another, had Caesar heard of the Mississippi Company of France?" I said slowly.

  Observing the bewildered look on the old man's face, Foreign Minister Leopold reminded him: "That is a company that has monopolized trade rights in the Mississippi Valley of the New Continent for 35 years, with a royal background. I remember that the company owns assets worth 1.2 billion francs, or those Rivere silver coins."

  "I learned some news yesterday, that the stock of that company, which was issued at 240 francs, rose to 1,880 francs a month ago! And this company has 50,000 shares!" Looking at the ministers who all furrowed their brows in thought, I said, "With royal backing and a monopoly on development in the New World. Does developing land there require such a large investment? So I am convinced that France is raising funds for the war that their king is eager to wage! I think that stock can still rise, if all of it is sold, France will be able to extract more than 100 million, no, 200 million livres from every level of society!"

  "Two billion!!!! Are you telling me that selling a few pieces of scrap paper can sell for two billion?!?" The Minister of Finance was extremely excited, his emotions were in turmoil. I could understand his feelings, my old man had worked hard for over a decade, and the national treasury had never exceeded 100 million Solis.

  "It's obvious that this is indeed the case!"

  "Two hundred million francs. Four hundred thousand French troops? No, France can't afford it. But three hundred and fifty thousand is possible." The old man calmly analyzed, then suddenly asked, "My son, if you were in my place, what would you do now?"

  "No one can see the enormous power of this wealth, but when the French army expands to over three million, thirty-five million, everyone will tremble under such a massive military force! So, we must stabilize Austria's Habsburg! We cannot let the death of King Yebili become the fuse that triggers the collapse of Austria-Aragon's Habsburg, there is no other choice! Otherwise, it will trigger a domino effect and a sheep flock effect, evolving from local decline to global weakness! That is to say!" I said word by word, "Rome must also expand its military! Increase the confidence of our future ally!"

  "I object! The expansion of the military will only increase the burden on the people's shoulders. For the nobles, it may not be a big deal, but for the common folk, it's different! Even if we manage to suppress the surge in grain prices, this year's prices are still much higher than usual!" The Minister of Finance immediately gained support from many people.

  "Your Excellency, hear me out. Considering our financial situation and the interests of the imperial people, we don't need to actually expand our military forces on a large scale at present, but make a show of doing so!"

  "How exactly do you plan on doing that?" asked Old Man Cheap.

  "Screening!"