After a moment of silence, the minister of the western province, known for its trade, generating the second highest tax revenue and having the main ministry of the Ministry of Commerce, spoke up.
"Since all ministers have already contributed so much, I will fill the number to the next million. We will contribute 800.000 gold taels." The minister said generously, but everyone present knew that this was slightly beyond the budget they would usually contribute.
Everyone guessed that the west likely had a big project upcoming in the future, which would require spending more this time to get more next time.
The Grand Minister was extremely satisfied and nodded, "Four million gold taels, this should be enough to cover the plague’s problem!
In addition, the local nobles and wealthy families should also donate one million gold taels, which brings the number to five million...
The budget should be enough, but we need more people to solve the issue."
When Yunyin heard about asking the local nobles and wealthy families for help, he smiled wryly. His own family...
Well, they were only a wealthy family, so they should only have to pay around 1.000 gold taels.
Generally, one can expect to gain around 100.000 gold taels per prefecture, and the rest will probably be contributed by the higher or older nobles in the province. If it weren’t for such contributions, would the provincial magistrate allow for these people to remain in his province?
His thoughts returned to the council and he heard that the two neighbouring ministers would personally make a trip to the Qingling Province.
"I will naturally also come to aid the Grand Minister." Duan said, his responsibility as General Minister being to participate in such disasters.
After their words fell, the other provinces considered the situation...
Each person had their strengths and weaknesses. Some are better at calculating commercial tax, others are better at creating tax laws.
Among the remaining ones, no one was specialised in this situation. Even the two neighbouring ones were barely able to match it – the south-eastern province housed the Ministry of Households and the Yangling Province housed the Ministry of Officials, so they were somewhat good at managing people and provinces.
After a short moment of hesitation, Minister Ruan spoke up, "I can also come to aid."
Following right after him was the Heling Province’s minister, who didn’t want to be left out when the three other spirit provinces helped each other out.
The Minister of the western province thought about joining the other five inner provinces, but he didn’t do so in the end.
If he joined it, then that meant all inner provinces helped each other, while the outer provinces stood aside in such a moment of disaster...
Anyways, he was busy and wouldn’t be able to stay for long even if he went.
Grand Minister Fa knew all of this and spoke up, "You five ministers, combined with me and Minister Hu should be enough to solve this issue. I hope that everyone can come together with an apt number of officials to assist us."
The Minister Hu he spoke of was the Ministry of Revenue’s Minister of the Qingling Province. As stated, the Grand Minister had to oversee all twelve ministries, so he couldn’t additionally take care of a ministry from the bottom up.
That’s why there were a total of fourteen ministers present – one minister per province and an additional General Minister.
"The discussions of this and the specific planning will take place after this meeting. I will now continue with our Ministry of Revenue’s Council –
Our second point on the agenda is to discuss the plan of the upcoming year for our Ministry of Revenue."
First and foremost is the decision whether to hold the council meeting in the middle of the year again, or whether we should discuss the whole year’s plans in this council meeting, and whether the next meeting will be held in spring or summer."
After speaking, Duan looked over to the Grand Minister, who shook his head, conveying to him the message that he didn’t have a particular opinion in this regard.
Since this was the case, Duan directly asked for votes from the present Ministers and Assistant Ministers – the vote of the former counted as 3 points, the latter’s vote as 1 point.
In addition, the vote of all officials present counted as 10 votes, 4 from the lower officials, 6 from the higher officials.
The voting of officials was done first – this vote had three options, so one of the officials behind the General Minister took out four bowls – one bowl had red pebbles, one had white pebbles and one had black pebbles.
He explained as he walked among the officials, "White Pebbles stand for discussing it in the next meeting. Black pebbles are to discuss the plan this meeting, and red pebbles stand for discussing it now and holding the council in spring next year. Take a pebble and place it in this bowl."
His explanation was mainly for the new officials who had entered the ministry this year and other officials who never participated in either the council or a vote.
Yunyin was curious and looked into the bowl as the official came to him – most pebbles were black, a third was red, and only a few were white.
He analysed it for a moment before he understood it. After all, everyone was present, so why hold the council again in three months? As for the next council meeting... most officials probably thought that they shouldn’t be the ones deciding it, while a few simply thought it was the most logical.
Those casting white pebbles... maybe they simply wanted to have more meetings?
But looking at the ministers, how could they allow such a waste of time?
He himself took a red pebble and put it into the voting bowl.
A few minutes later, several officials carried the voting bowls to the centre of the table and poured them on the table. A map of black, red and white spread.
Among the officials, a director stood up and bowed to Minister Duan, "Minister, the officials’ votes have been counted – 7 points to black, 3 points to red!"