Emperor Chongzhen stood outside the gate of Qianqing Palace with a smile on his face.

This time, the Jin army invaded the Ming Dynasty and caused great trauma to the Ming Dynasty.

But this time, Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting and others won several hearty victories.

There were more than 3,000 real Tatar heads severed.

He took over the Ming Dynasty from his brother. The Ming army had never achieved such a great victory as this one.

These victories were not entirely due to the ability of the military officials.

One thing they have in common is that the victorious armies all used new muskets.

This proves the combat effectiveness of the musketeers. The army of the Later Jin Dynasty was afraid of muskets and cannons.

This kind of victory can be replicated. As long as a few more troops using firearms are built, the Ming Dynasty will not have to fear the threat of Hou Jin at all.

They can concentrate on solving the threat of the thieves in yellow, which is Ming's innermost concern.

Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting and others made great achievements this time.

Chongzhen had already received them, and both of them were promoted to governors and censors of the right capital.

Their subordinates also received corresponding rewards.

Zhu Dadian, the governor of Shandong, blocked the long-term offensive of the Hou Jin army and preserved the vitality of Shandong and the important city of Jinan.

Chongzhen did not hold Zhu Dadian accountable for the loss of most of Shandong.

He also gave Zhu Dadian corresponding rewards and asked him to govern Shandong as soon as possible.

Wang Chengen came over in a panic, holding a question book.

He walked to Chongzhen and said softly: "Your Majesty, something big happened in Henan. This is the inscription written by Kong Zhen, the governor of Huguang."

Chongzhen picked up the title book written by Fang Kongzheng and looked at the contents of the title book carefully.

After only seeing most of it, Chongzhen threw the question book to the ground in anger.

"The intruder has gone too far. I must destroy the intruder."

The content in the question book is very simple.

Lu Xiang, the governor of Henan, was promoted to King Qin of Beijing, leaving Henan's local military power empty.

The rebel king Li Zicheng took the opportunity to cause chaos in Henan.

He captured Nanyang and Luoyang along the way and attacked Kaifeng.

Fang Kongzhen wrote in the title book that Luoyang had been captured, and King Fu Zhu Changxun was cooked in a big cauldron by Li Zicheng.

Chen Hongfan, the commander-in-chief of Henan Province, was defeated and died.

Now that the officialdom in Henan is in chaos, there is no way to stop Li Zicheng's attack.

The rebels Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai saw Li Zicheng's rebellion, and they also took the opportunity to rebel in Huguang.

Huguang's local military strength was held back by two rebels and was unable to support Henan.

Huguang was hit by a locust plague this time, causing heavy losses in young crops. A lot of food in the government granaries was used to help the people.

The grain and grass used to suppress the bandits is insufficient. Please ask the court to allocate the silver and grain to suppress the bandits.

After Chongzhen read it, he was extremely angry.

After Jin was beaten away, the rebels rose up again.

This matter must be resolved as soon as possible. If there is another large-scale rebellion like the thief in yellow, the Ming Dynasty will really be in danger.

His Uncle Fu Wang was also cooked by the rebels.

The rebel Li Zicheng trampled the face of the Ming Dynasty clan repeatedly with his feet.

King Fu was killed by rebels, which would cause great shock to the clan and make Chongzhen very passive.

We must eliminate the rebels, capture Li Zicheng, and cut him to pieces like Gao Yingxiang, only then can we relieve the hatred in our hearts.

"I want to see Shoufu Wen Tiren."

After receiving Chongzhen's order, the eunuch immediately left the palace and notified the first assistant, Wen Tiren, to pay an audience.

Wen Tiren had just finished dinner and heard the summons from Emperor Chongzhen. He immediately rushed to Qianqing Palace.

"Wen Aiqing, these are troubled times!"

Emperor Chongzhen sighed and handed Fang Kongzhen's title book to Wen Tiren.

Wen Tiren quickly read the contents of the question book and frowned.

"Your Majesty, the rebellion broke out again in Henan and Huguang.

A governor must be sent to unite the military forces of multiple provinces to encircle and suppress the rebels and prevent them from wandering around.

Wei Chen recommended Lu Xiangsheng to handle this matter.

Sun Chuanting also wanted to return to Liaodong to prevent Hou Jin from seizing Ningjin and other cities.

With the strength of the Tianxiong Army, it is not difficult to exterminate the rebels, but now the court is encountering difficulties.

If this problem is not solved, the imperial court will not be able to exterminate the rebels..."

"You are talking about the treasury being empty. To be honest, my inner treasury has long been empty.

Now the imperial court can't even get the money to suppress the bandits?"

Emperor Chongzhen directly interrupted Wen Tiren.

Of course he knows, what is the biggest difficulty facing the Ming Dynasty now?

The treasury was completely depleted and the Ming court had no money.

The mining tax collected by Xu Guangqi before his death, and the salt tax collected by Wen Tiren sent people to Jiangnan.

Mine tax and salt tax, both taxes have been collected.

The more than four million taels of silver collected were all used to build a firearms army.

There is a little money left in the inner treasury, and all the generals have been rewarded for their meritorious service this time.

Firearms armies are very powerful, but they are also extremely expensive.

A musket cost nearly twenty taels of silver, and a cannon cost thousands of taels of silver.

Ammunition for muskets and cannons is not cheap either.

The army wins battles entirely with money.

Wen Tiren said bravely: "Your Majesty, it's not just that the money for suppressing the bandits cannot be obtained.

We can't even come up with money for disaster relief now.

Large-scale locust plagues occurred in Huguang, Henan and other places, and most areas had no food harvests.

The court must provide disaster relief, but now there is no money to buy food for disaster relief.

Northern Zhili and Shandong suffered from war and the people were displaced.

To allow the people to recuperate and cultivate the land destroyed by the war, this also requires a large amount of expenditure.

In places such as Huguang, Henan, banditry is now serious, and suppressing bandits also requires a huge amount of expenditure.

Now there are only 400,000 taels of silver left in the treasury that can be used to pay officials' salaries, and the court really can't come up with other money."

"The taxes collected this year are enough to cover the expenses of suppressing bandits.

If it’s not enough, the court will increase taxes.”

Emperor Chongzhen thought for a long time, but there was no way to solve the problem of the court's lack of money.

If the court wants money, it can only rely on tax increases.

Chongzhen did not want to raise taxes, as every tax increase would cause civil unrest.

But the court had no idea where to get the money without raising taxes.

When Wen Tiren heard the words "tax increase", he immediately knelt down in fear.

"Your Majesty, you must not raise taxes.

If the imperial court raises taxes again, the world will definitely become more chaotic.

The four provinces of Henan, Huguang, Beizhili, and Shandong cannot produce food. They still need relief from the court, and they will certainly not be able to increase taxes.

Taxes will fall on Jiangnan and Guangdong and Guangxi, although these places are rich.

The people here already bear high taxes and can no longer bear the imperial tax increase.

Mining tax and salt tax have aroused public dissatisfaction in the Jiangnan area.

The Jiangnan region cannot continue to increase taxes, otherwise there will be big problems."

Wen Tiren knew that the salt merchants had given in, so the court allowed the court to collect an additional one million taels of salt tax.

If the imperial court increases mineral and salt taxes to Jiangnan, the gentry of Jiangnan will definitely make a big move to prevent the imperial court from increasing taxes.
To be continued...