Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 116 Internal Treasury Money
You can get some money from fines and confiscations, but it takes time.

However, the border army's salary arrears need to be resolved immediately, especially in Yansui Town, which has been in arrears for twenty-seven months.

If the dissemination does not continue, Zhu Youjian suspects that the soldiers in Yansui Town will either starve to death or flee. They will probably be the main force of the refugee army in the future.

"Yansui Town owes more than 1.5 million taels in wages. How should we solve it?" 』

Thinking about this problem, Zhu Youjian knew the difficulty of the matter.

As an emperor, he can give names and powers, but money and food cannot be conjured, and it is impossible to come up with it out of thin air.

Wei Zhongxian's family property and the money and food collected by the officials had been scheduled to be used for the Tianqi Emperor's Mausoleum. His throne was passed down from Emperor Tianqi, and the construction of the imperial mausoleum with two million taels was considered frugal, but he could not continue to be frugal.

The five hundred thousand reward he had previously given to the border troops was obtained from Li Yongzhen and other eunuchs by ransacking their homes.

It is not impossible to allocate money from the inner treasury, but the money and food from the inner treasury are the foundation for the emperor to rule the world. They cannot be allocated at will unless it is absolutely necessary.

At that time, Emperor Wanli levied mining taxes and sent eunuchs to various places to search for money, which made people angry and left more than 20 million taels of silver in the inner treasury.

After Emperor Taichang came to power, this money was spent in amounts of hundreds of thousands, one or two million taels at a time, and 9.45 million taels were spent that year.

In the first year of Tianqi, Emperor Tianqi was young and careless. At the request of civil servants, he allocated another 10.65 million taels.

In the second year of Tianqi, there was not much money left in the inner treasury, and only 4,130,000 taels were allocated.

In the third year of Tianqi, only 500,000 yuan was allocated from the inner treasury. Emperor Tianqi had come to his senses and became suspicious of civil servants.

Wei Zhongxian began to be reused and became a powerful man in the world.

Recalling the internal treasury expenditures that he had ordered to be counted, Zhu Youjian knew that this matter seemed inconspicuous, but in fact it was closely related to the situation in the DPRK.

Emperor Tianqi had allocated so much money and food, but the situation in the court was not improving at all. Not only was Liaodong retreating steadily, there was also chaos in the southwest, and even in Shandong, there was chaos caused by the White Lotus Sect. This made him have doubts about the loyalty and ability of civil servants.

Therefore, in the fourth year of Tianqi, the inner treasury only allocated 6,000 taels to the outer court. Wei Zhongxian also launched a struggle between the Eunuch Party and the Donglin Party in this year and persecuted Yang Lian and others. Xu Xianchun took charge of Beizhen Fusi in May of the fourth year of Tianqi.

The reason why Zhu Youjian could not severely punish Xu Xianchun was not only because of his status as a relative of the emperor, but also because he knew that Xu Xianchun's killing might really be the order of Emperor Tianqi, venting the dissatisfaction of civil servants for bullying him.

The imperial preface in front of "Three Dynasties Essential Codes" may really be the meaning of Emperor Tianqi. It is believed that Yang Lian and others "borrowed the merits of moving the palace to make decisions", while others "borrowed the stile to claim the first merit" and "borrowed the red pill to expedite personal grudges".

Therefore, in Zhu Youjian's view, "Three Dynasties Essential Codes" is not a big mistake. So far, he has not included the crime of compiling "Three Dynasties Essential Codes" when convicting the eunuch party.

"The economic base determines the superstructure. This statement is true." 』

"Money is a person's strength, even if the emperor has no money, he must be restrained. 』

"So the money in the inner treasury cannot be spent easily. 』

Knowing this truth well, after Zhu Youjian ascended to power, he was extremely cautious about allocating money and food from the inner treasury.

After overthrowing Wei Zhongxian and taking full control of the palace, he also knew that the internal treasury did not have much money at all:

The money in the inner treasury was accumulated by Emperor Tianqi since the fourth year of Tianqi, but because he had to build three major halls, not much was left -

Otherwise, Prince Xin’s Mansion would not have been built like that, and the reward given by the three kings to the vassal would not have been underestimated.

Whether it is the construction of a royal palace or the appointment of a prince as a vassal, the emperor needs to spend money to decorate the appearance. Emperor Apocalypse has to save money on these two points. How much money can be left in the inner treasury?

After Zhu Youjian counted the expenses of the harem and eunuchs, he estimated that the money and food he could use was approximately one million.

He has already used this money for Jinyiwei and other inner court offices. This money is related to his safety and his power, and must not be misappropriated to other places.

So now, after Zhu Youjian spent 500,000 taels of silver to reward the border troops, he could no longer spend more money.

At the same time, he was equally dissatisfied with the civil servants, because counting the time, the border army's salary arrears probably started when Emperor Tianqi reduced the internal treasury allocation.

In other words, without the money from the inner treasury, the outer court can only default on the side payments: "When something happens, the inner treasury will allocate money. What do I want you to do?" 』

"Now the internal treasury is out of money, how do you solve it?" 』

Feeling really angry, Zhu Youjian said to the ministers:

"Yansui Town owes wages for twenty-seven months and must be repaid immediately."

"This money must be squeezed out no matter what."

If Guo Yunhou could come up with this money, he would not be forced to leave office by the emperor. At this time, he said with a bitter face:

"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Revenue really has no money and cannot settle the payment arrears."

"The Ministry of Industry may have some cash and can squeeze out some."

When Xue Fengxiang, the Minister of Industry and Industry, heard this, he hurriedly said to the emperor:

"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Industry has no money and still needs to build the imperial mausoleum."

Zhu Youjian thought of the money he had reserved for building the imperial mausoleum and said:

"Excluding the expenses for the imperial mausoleum, how much money can the Ministry of Industry squeeze out?"

"There is also the Ministry of Accounts, whatever you can squeeze out!"

Guo Yunhou and Xue Fengxiang calculated for a long time and finally squeezed out 500,000 taels of silver.

Zhu Youjian was overjoyed when he heard this and said:
"Immediately reissue these five hundred thousand taels to Yansui Town."

"From now on, the expenses for the imperial mausoleum will be entirely allocated by the inner court."

"I have prepared two million taels of silver for the imperial mausoleum. I will first use one million taels to provide additional military pay to Yansui Town."

"The Ministry of Industry and Engineering must make up for these one million and two households in the future, otherwise if something goes wrong in the imperial mausoleum, the person in charge will be held accountable."

Guo Yunhou is about to leave office, and this is not touched at all.

Xue Fengxiang looked bitter, knowing that the responsibility for collecting the money from the Ministry of Household Affairs would fall on the Ministry of Works——

The construction of the imperial mausoleum is of great importance. If something goes wrong, he, the Minister of Industry, will be held accountable even if he leaves office. No matter what happens, the money must be recovered from the Ministry of Household Affairs.

After successfully solving the salary arrears in Yansui Town, Zhu Youjian really had no choice but to deal with the other towns in Shaanxi.

Thinking of King Qin, King Su, King Qing, King Han and King Rui in Shaanxi, Zhu Youjian said:
"The five kings of Shaanxi, except King Rui who just joined the vassal, the other vassal kings have been there for a long time."

"Can I borrow money from them to tide over the difficulties temporarily?"

Hearing that the emperor was targeting the vassal king, the ministers looked at each other in shock.

The feudal kings had been accumulating money for many years and could save some money even in poor places, but it was extremely difficult to borrow money from them.

In particular, the reputation of the Ming Dynasty in the clan was not high, and the money that was owed to the clan was often not paid. Some lower-level clans are so poor that they are begging for food.

The court borrowing money from the feudal king was probably a money grab in the eyes of the feudal king. If they mobilized the lower-level clan members to go begging on the streets, it would be a slap in the face of the imperial court.

Zhu Youjian, the emperor, will be doubted by the people of the world, thinking that he cannot govern the family, let alone the world.

The ministers in the court will also be impeached, thinking that they are incompetent and can only oppress the vassal.

(End of this chapter)