"Shou Dao, do you know where this thing came from?"
After taking several deep breaths, Zhao Ji immediately looked at Liang Shicheng beside him.
"Reporting to Your Majesty, this item was presented by Han Mo, the secretary of the Southeast Six Circuits Pacification Commissioner's Office. Here is his memorial. Your Majesty, please read it!"
After seeing the demonstration of the actual item, Zhao Ji was indeed a little impatient to see the memorial submitted by Han Mo.
As soon as Liang Shicheng took it out of his sleeve, he personally stood up, pushed away the young eunuch who was about to receive the memorial, and took it himself.
After reading the entire memorial, Zhao Ji couldn't help but let out a long sigh of turbid air.
He, the dignified emperor, had been driven almost mad by the court affairs for more than a month.
This Li Bangyan was really incapable of bearing great responsibility. Ever since he saw the Gengyue construction site resume work, he had directly pushed all the documents requiring money to the emperor.
Moreover, among these documents, either some place needed disaster relief or military expenses were being requested.
No matter which one it was, the reason was absolutely impeccable. In the end, it all boiled down to one sentence: the Ministry of Revenue had no money, and Your Majesty would have to deal with it yourself.
Once or twice, he, the emperor, could still deflect them, but after so many times, even a foolish emperor like him couldn't withstand the pressure.
In the past, when encountering such a situation, he would either borrow from wealthy merchants and great families or directly forcibly allocate the funds to the local areas.
However, it just so happened that at this critical juncture, there was a large army on the Hebei road to attack Liao, and the southeast six circuits were in flames everywhere. Although the court had won a victory and temporarily stabilized the situation, it would take at least a few more months to completely recover the southeast.
The military pay for the southern expedition had already been donated by wealthy merchants and noble families. At this time, asking for more, even the emperor felt a little embarrassed.
Not to mention forcibly allocating funds at this time, if the common people in other areas were to revolt, then things would become truly serious.
Even daring and audacious individuals like Li Bangyan and Wang Fu did not dare to propose such opinions at this time.
After all, at this moment, the court had no usable troops. If rebels were to appear again at this time, they would probably have to watch helplessly as the situation escalated.
Fighting on two fronts had already made the court extremely stretched. If anything else were to happen at this time, a single mistake could lead to the downfall of the nation!
Under such internal and external troubles, even Zhao Ji, an emperor who had never taken the ancestral empire seriously, found the past month exceptionally torturous.
Everyone in the court was thinking of digging money out of his pocket, but not a single person thought about how to help him get some money back.
Against this backdrop, looking at Han Mo's memorial, he, the emperor, felt like shedding tears of joy.
Other than mentioning the need to reorganize the Maritime Trade Bureau at the beginning of the memorial, he only occasionally mentioned in the middle that the navy needed to be mobilized.
As for the source of military pay, he even thoughtfully stated that it could be raised locally.
Moreover, if the emperor agreed to the opinions proposed in his memorial, he could raise one million strings of copper coins within a month and increase the court's revenue by four million strings within three months.
After a year, he could increase the court's annual revenue by at least eight million strings!
After three years, he could bring the court a profit of at least ten million strings annually.
It should be known that at this time, the entire annual revenue of the Great Song Dynasty was only a little over 58 million.
He was directly proposing to increase the court's annual revenue by one-fifth, and he could also achieve immediate results by supplementing one million strings within a month. This was truly solving the worries of the ruler and father!
"You two, take a look!"
After Zhao Ji carefully read it three times, he directly handed it to the young eunuch beside him, signaling him to pass it directly to Wang Fu and Li Bangyan.
"Yes!"
Li Bangyan and Wang Fu exchanged a glance before reaching out and taking Han Mo's memorial.
However, the more they looked, the more they saw the fear in each other's eyes.
After all, both Li Bangyan and Wang Fu were highly wary of Liang Shicheng's influence.
Li Bangyan himself had shallow roots and naturally feared the expansion of Liang Shicheng's power.
As for Wang Fu, although he had a good relationship with Liang Shicheng before, and even called him adoptive father at one point.
However, now, he had already broken ties with Liang Shicheng. Because of his betrayal, Liang Shicheng's power had indeed begun to shrink significantly.
Now, Han Mo had directly sent this item to Liang Shicheng first, which clearly indicated his own stance.
If Liang Shicheng could nurture one Wang Fu, why couldn't he nurture a second one?
Thinking of his own rocket-like ascent at that time, Wang Fu now felt his scalp tingle.
If he were to regain his strength, would Wang Fu still have a way to survive?
Of course, there was another deeper reason, which was that the money provided by the Pu family to Wang Fu every year basically accounted for the vast majority of his annual income.
In his memorial, Han Mo clearly elaborated on his vision for the Maritime Trade Bureau.
It would transform from a department solely responsible for management into an institution that was half-management and half-operation, using the court's power to directly monopolize the high-end market of foreign trade.
To put it bluntly, this was snatching meat from the mouths of the eight great families. Among the eight great families, the first to be targeted was naturally the Pu family, the largest among the four seafaring families.
Once the emperor made the final decision, this memorial would become the national policy of the Great Song.
He had benefited greatly from the Pu family over the years, and now it was time to put it to use. If he retreated now, who knew if those foreigners would fight to the death with him...
"What do you two Prime Ministers think?"
Seeing that they had put down their memorials, Zhao Ji asked them indifferently.
"Reporting to Your Majesty, I believe this matter is greatly inappropriate. Thinking of the vast and turbulent sea, if the large ships built with the court's effort and expenditure were to capsize in the storm, wouldn't it affect the national destiny? Moreover, if the Maritime Trade Bureau were to directly trade with those foreigners, wouldn't it lose the court's dignity?"
After a moment of silence, Li Bangyan was the first to speak.
Hearing his words, Wang Fu, who had been pondering how to speak, almost burst out laughing.
Why had he not realized before that Prime Minister Li was so reliable? When there was a matter, he truly stepped up!