Daming: Apocalypse of Longevity

Chapter 132 Donations
When Xu Guangqi heard this, he had to stand up and salute, saying, "That's not true."

"Did you hear that?" Zhu Tianqi pretended to smile relaxedly and said, "I am the king of a country. State affairs are my family affairs and my private affairs. Whether it is the money in the treasury or the money in the internal funds, it is not all Is it my money? Are you talking about whether to borrow it or not?"

"Your majesty is wise!" Everyone saluted in unison.

Zhu Tianqi had no choice but to admit defeat. He had no way to get the money back. He couldn't really follow Xu Guangqi's words and said that he lent the money to the Ministry of Revenue. Not only would he not be able to save Zhang Guoji, he might even lose his money. Xu Guangqi has to get in. Qian Qianyi, Qian Longxi, and the civil servants behind them must not pounce on Xu Guangqi like flies seeing blood!
So in the face of Zhu Tianqi's compromise, are Qian Qianyi and Qian Longxi satisfied with the result?

Of course they are satisfied, because their goal has been achieved, and it is no longer important whether they can bring down Zhang Guoji. After all, their goal has never been to bring down Zhang Guoji!

So what is their purpose?Is it just to disgust the emperor and confiscate the food he bought with nearly tens of millions of taels of private money, so that the emperor will fall into ruin in their hands?

Of course not. In fact, Zhu Tianqi's method of allocating money to collect grain this time was not very clever, so Qian Longxi thought about it carefully and figured out the reason behind it. It was simply that the emperor was providing money for Zhang Guoji to purchase large quantities of grain. As for the emperor's purpose of doing this, it is naturally to ensure the smooth implementation of the tax reform and the new tax law. This is obvious.

Although Qian Longxi knew that the tax reform and the new tax law were good governance for the Ming Dynasty, the emperor's actions did cut off everyone's financial resources. Even if he himself could tolerate this loss, the people under him might not If you can bear it, if you want to be a boss, you must never let the people under you starve!

Therefore, the real purpose of Qian Qianyi and Qian Longxi was to hinder the imperial court from collecting grain and to provide a way for their subordinates to make money.

To prevent the imperial court from collecting grain, if you just want to overthrow Zhang Guoji, it will not actually solve the problem, because the person who wants to do this is the emperor, not Zhang Guoji, so even if Zhang Guoji is overthrown, the emperor will definitely do it immediately Find someone else to do this.

Therefore, we still have to start from the root knot of this matter, which is "silver".

Therefore, their impeachment of Zhang Guoji was very targeted this time, targeting the issue of money and food. It was precisely because of this that Zhu Tianqi had to take the initiative to admit that the money was paid by himself in order to protect Zhang Guoji. But what Zhu Tianqi did not expect was that In the past, I spent my own money on doing things with confidence, but I didn’t expect that this time, they would use their high hats to put me in trouble!

In fact, whether it is Qian Qianyi or Qian Longxi, are they willing to offend the emperor and be hated by the emperor?Of course they don't want to, but the people below them need to eat. If they let the people below them starve and lose their support, and no one will support them anymore, then can they still be "big bosses"?

So they could only bite the bullet and press on Zhu Tianqi step by step. They must force Zhu Tianqi to confiscate the 1000 million taels of silver he took out of his internal funds. Of course, now this money has been turned into food.But no matter how you say it, it absolutely cannot be calculated based on the Ministry of Household's borrowing from the emperor as Xu Guangqi said, because if it is a loan, then all the summer tax money just collected by the court will have to be returned to the emperor, and the result will be the same The emperor's wish was fulfilled. It was as if the emperor had not spent any money, and the court had not collected any money. Instead, as in previous years, what he had collected was food.

Of course, it doesn't really matter whether the imperial court's summer tax is for food or silver. When collecting taxes, continue to use this money to buy food. If they are allowed to go back and forth like this, there is no chance for others to intervene. Isn't the people's financial resources cut off?

Therefore, they must cut off this cycle. The grain bought by the emperor with money will be confiscated, and the money the emperor pays cannot be regarded as a loan. The summer tax money collected by the court this year must be returned to the national treasury. After entering the national treasury, no one wants to use this money again. , it’s not the emperor alone who has the final say.

As a result, he lost nearly ten million taels of silver at once. Even if he is the emperor, how much private money can he have?How much more money can he come up with?Without money, what else would Zhang Guoji do to collect food?
Qian Qianyi and Qian Longxi were very good at their calculations, but Zhu Tianqi would not just admit defeat. Seeing the unconcealed pride on Qian Qianyi and his friends' faces, Zhu Tianqi immediately came up with a new idea. Come.

Zhu Tianqi slowly said: "Although I have asked Taikang Hou to purchase thousands of dan of grain, it is still not enough to support the disaster relief work of the chief envoys. Now the disasters in Shanxi, Henan, Shandong and other places have begun to take shape. However, once the disaster spreads and the situation expands, the food may not last long.

Therefore, the imperial court has to continue to collect grain, but now I have no money in my internal funds, so I hope that all of you, dear ministers, can set an example for the officials in the imperial court, be generous and donate more money and grain, and save all the people from disaster! "

When everyone heard this, they were stunned. How could they have imagined that the emperor could say such a thing?But what the emperor said was not exaggerated. The emperor had already used all the money in his own funds to buy food for the court to provide relief. They had just praised the emperor for buying food and expressed their full affirmation. , so since they approve of the imperial court's purchase of grain for disaster relief, and the emperor has taken the lead in donating money, they can't just show no signs at this time, right?

Besides, now they have forced the emperor to this position. The emperor has suffered such a big loss and it is impossible not to let the emperor vent his anger. Therefore, Qian Qianyi and Qian Longxi immediately said: "Your Majesty, please don't worry. Now in order to save all the people, Due to the fire and water, the emperor has even spent all the money in his internal funds, how dare we not follow the emperor as an example and actively donate money and food to relieve the disaster!"

After hearing what they said, Lai Zongdao and Zhou Daodeng, who had been silent all the time, cursed in their hearts. They didn't provoke anyone, and they ended up having to follow Qian Qianyi and the others. Bleeding is really bad luck!

Since Zhu Tianqi planned to let them bleed, he would not let them fool them so easily by just giving out some money. Since they dared to let their money be confiscated, he had to bleed them properly!

(End of this chapter)