Chapter 192: The Treasury Is Empty, Chongzhen Persuades Donations
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.
The imperial court could only choose to increase agricultural taxes. In the Jiangnan and Guangxi regions, there were more gentry and wealthy households, so they did not need to pay taxes.
Ordinary people will definitely be forced to rebel if they bear higher taxes.
And we cannot collect taxes from the gentry. With this decree, the Ming Dynasty will immediately fall.
Raising taxes will really lead to irreversible events. He, the chief minister, will definitely have to retire, and even the Ming Dynasty may not be able to survive it.
Emperor Chongzhen stared at Wen Tiren and said angrily: "If you can't increase taxes, where will the money come from for the court?
Do we still want to wipe out the rebels in Henan and Huguang?
You can't just sit back and watch the rebels make trouble."
Wen Tiren had beads of sweat streaming down his forehead. His mind was racing, trying to think of a way to deal with the difficulty.
"Your Majesty, the court is short of money now, so we can only increase revenue and reduce expenditure.
There is no way to open source, now we can only reduce expenditures.
The clan's annual expenditures accounted for a large share of the imperial court's expenditures.
The color was converted into silver taels, and every year the court had to pay millions of taels of silver to the clan.
If this amount of money is stopped and the clan is allowed to make a living on its own, it will be enough to wipe out the rebels.
They must be loyal to the emperor and the country and tide over the difficulties with the Ming Dynasty."
Emperor Chongzhen repeatedly chanted the four words "loyalty to the emperor and support to the country".
"You must all be loyal to the emperor and the country and tide over the difficulties with Ming Dynasty.
The salary of the clan and court officials are all owed, and they will be repaid after the court gets through the difficulties.
The money saved will be used to suppress bandits."
After Emperor Chongzhen finished speaking, he began to write the imperial edict.
Lu Xiang was promoted to governor of five provinces and mobilized troops from Huguang, Henan, North Zhili, South Zhili, and Shanxi provinces to encircle and suppress the rebels led by Li Zicheng.
Emperor Chongzhen asked Wen Tiren to sign the imperial edict on behalf of the cabinet.
He called the eunuch and immediately sent the imperial edict to Lu Xiangsheng, asking him to set out as soon as possible to deal with the rebels in the two provinces as soon as possible.
Emperor Chongzhen wrote another imperial edict and asked the eunuchs to spread it.
The royal family's salary and the court officials' salaries are all owed starting from this month.
Tomorrow the imperial court will hold a meeting to call on all officials to be loyal to the emperor and the country, and to donate money to the imperial court to help the imperial court tide over this difficult time.
Wen Tiren stood aside and wanted to admonish the emperor.
He thought for a while but didn't say anything.
…………………………
The next day there was a court meeting, and all the civil and military officials came to attend the court.
After coming to court, many officials advised Emperor Chongzhen to withdraw his orders.
Many courtiers depended on their salaries to survive, and the court should not cut off their salaries.
Emperor Chongzhen's face immediately turned cold.
"Everyone should be loyal to the emperor and the country.
The country is in trouble. You have enjoyed the treatment given by the country before, but now you must also be considerate of the country's difficulties.
We need more silver coins to suppress the bandits, please ask civil and military officials to donate money to the court."
During this court meeting, nothing was discussed and only donations from officials were accepted.
Every official complained about poverty, and most of them donated several hundred taels of silver, just to show their appreciation.
Wen Tiren, the first assistant, donated five hundred taels of silver.
Zhou Kui, the head of the state, was very stingy and only donated one hundred taels of silver.
A small number of British nobles and ministers donated several thousand taels.
These people did not dare to donate too much, and the salary in the imperial court was very low.
If you donate too much, you will be criticized by other officials. They believe that all the money is the result of corruption and bribery.
The eunuchs donated the most, with Cao Huachun, Wang Zhixin and other great eunuchs all donating 10,000 taels of silver.
Chongzhen looked at it and saw that the civil and military officials only donated hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.
His eyes were filled with disappointment.
After the court officials came to court, they behaved in many ugly ways.
Some took out the pots and pans at home and hawked them on the street.
Zhou Kui, the head of the state, and others are still putting the house up for sale on the mansion.
…………………………
After Yang Sichang and other officials went to court, they met at a brothel to drink wine.
Li Zhengwen, a Hanlin scholar from Sichuan, sighed and said: "It's really hard to make a living as an official now. The court stopped paying salaries and asked us to donate money.
Nowadays, the rebellion is getting more and more evil, and the thieves in yellow occupy the southwest and northwest regions.
Other rebels started to gain momentum in Huguang, Henan.
When Hou Xun was the governor of Chu, Yungui and other provinces, he caught the thieves in yellow clothes and questioned them.
'Why don't you just starve to death at home, but come out to cause trouble for the court? Do you think you won't die if you rebel?'
These stinky mud-legged people deserve to be killed. Kill them all and the world will be at peace."
Yang Sichang said with deep agreement: "I also wrote a poem.
'If you don't die of hunger and peace of mind, be like the mantis with its arms stretched out.'
They actually caused chaos to the imperial court, and they really deserved to die.
In order for the imperial court to wipe out the rebels as soon as possible, I donated fifty taels of silver to the imperial court."
"Brother Yang donated so much, I think the thieves in yellow are now the biggest enemies of the court.
If Sichuan was in the hands of the imperial court first, with the grain, grass and taxes provided by Sichuan, how could the imperial court have reached this point?"
Yang Sichang took a sip of wine and said depressedly: "The great enemy of the imperial court is the thief in yellow.
Now we should negotiate peace with Hou Jin to reduce the pressure on the north.
Exterminate the thieves in yellow with all your strength, this is the right path.
The thieves in yellow are the thorn in the side of Ming Dynasty and the mortal enemy of our gentry.
The expansion nature of the thieves in yellow is there, and they will never be quiet for long.
The next time the thieves in yellow start fighting again, I don't know where they will be killed again.
Now that the traitors in the imperial court are in power, I don’t know when the people will be able to rectify the imperial court.”
…………………………
Jiading Bofu.
Zhou Kui, the head of the state, was hosting a banquet at home for Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Cheng.
An oiran was dancing in the living room, and a band was playing music in the mansion.
Zhu Chunchen looked at the people dancing in the field.
"This is Miss Peony of Yihe Building. She was originally ransomed by Uncle Jiading, and now she is hiding in the golden house.
Miss Peony is a well-known courtesan in the capital, and her ransom price is as high as twelve thousand taels of silver."
Zhou Kui smiled and said: "It's nothing, it's nothing.
Which of our distinguished families doesn't have a few courtesans?
Duke Cheng Guo is satisfied. After discussing the matter in a while, he can take Miss Peony to the side room."
"Drink, drink." Zhu Chunchen picked up the wine glass and started drinking.
While they were drinking happily, Zhu Chunchen suggested: "Uncle Jiading, skilled craftsmen are very scarce now. For a good craftsman in Huguang, their family can be sold for five thousand taels of silver."
You have connections in the palace, and there are many skilled craftsmen in the palace. Come up with some.
You are responsible for finding the craftsmen, and I am responsible for bringing them to Huguang for trading.
When the time comes, we will split the money from selling the craftsmen half and half."
Of course Zhou Kui knew that the craftsman sold five thousand taels of silver in Huguang, and it was obvious to whom he sold it to.
Some time ago, Shanxi merchants came to him and offered two hundred taels for each craftsman, and he was a little tempted.
Now it seems that Shanxi merchants are still too poor, and the Chengguogong trade route can make more profits.
He immediately picked up the wine glass and toasted Zhu Chunchen a glass of wine.
"Mr. Cheng, we have a happy cooperation."
The servant knocked on the door, the oiran stopped dancing, and the musicians stopped playing.
An unhappy look appeared on Zhou Kui's face, who was interrupting his big business discussion.
"Sir, the Queen has sent word that you should come to the palace."
Zhou Kui stood up. He knew that it was the donation from the Dachao Society that made his daughter dissatisfied.
Emperor Chongzhen's rewards over the years have amounted to tens of thousands of taels of silver.
This is all his own money, how can he donate it to the court?
My daughter is very soft-hearted and can avoid it if she cries about poverty. I just want to talk to my daughter about poaching some craftsmen from the palace.
"Then play music, then dance."
"Please treat Duke Cheng well and I will be back soon."
Zhou Kui packed up his clothes and rushed to the palace. He would never give out a penny more.
