Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 7: Hurry, hurry up

During the Ming Dynasty, almost all emperors liked to make money, including Jiajing, Wanli, Tianqi, and Chongzhen.

But when Chongzhen's treasury was reduced to only a few thousand taels, didn't he feel ashamed?
Take the imperial banquet for example. Emperor Hongwu Zhu Yuanzhang was a very frugal person, but the breakfast alone had more than 60 dishes, which shows how luxurious it was. Now during the reign of Emperor Chongzhen, there were less than 20 dishes for lunch.

Wang Chengen walked up to Zhu Changgan and whispered, "Your Majesty, has the Earl of Jiading woken up?"

"Show him these two pictures of Tian Hongyu and Yuan You. Don't accuse me of being partial and only letting him donate."

Soon, there were sounds of ghosts howling outside.

"Damn... damn Tian Hongyu and Yuan You, just say it clearly... aren't you pushing me into the fire pit...? Two hundred thousand taels, it would be better to take my life... take it away."

"Gah~"

It came back again.

……

After Wen Tiren finished his lunch, he came over calmly to deal with the memorials from various provinces that the cabinet was handling.

"Mr. Ge!"

"Mr. Ge!"

"..."

Wen Tiren returned the greetings to everyone and then walked towards his own seat.

All memorials sent to Kyoto from the two capitals and thirteen provinces were first summarized in the cabinet, which would then give its opinions on how to solve the problem and attach them to the back of the memorial, which was called the piaoni.

The drafted memorial was sent to the Silijian, who ticked it with a red pen and began to promulgate and implement it.

If the Silijian disagrees, it will be sent back to the Cabinet for a new draft. If the Silijian withholds the memorial, it is called "retaining it in the cabinet without sending it out."

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the emperor, civil officials, and eunuchs served as the troika, with the eunuchs and the cabinet restraining each other and the emperor acting as referee.

Here comes the secret of the power struggle. With mutual checks and balances and internal fighting, no one can dominate alone. The emperor can then sit back and watch the dogs fight each other.

Therefore, people like Jiajing and Wanli could not be overthrown by anyone even if they did not attend court for decades.

The Prime Minister Yang Tinghe, whose mind, ambition and skills were worse than those of Huo Guang in the Western Han Dynasty? Jiajing was not a good person, so why didn't he depose Jiajing and find someone else to take the position?

Yang Tinghe didn't dare to do so. He was already criticized by Jiajing for a mere dispute over etiquette. Besides, Jiajing was an expert in playing the troika. Not to mention Yang Tinghe, even Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng would not dare to do so.

But during the reign of Chongzhen, things took a turn for the better. The emperor killed Wei Zhongxian with one stroke and no longer trusted the eunuch party. The civil servants became the dominant force and could manipulate the government at will.

The Imperial Household Department was now in name only, and the cabinet's submission of memorials was just a formality, and in the blink of an eye, it was delivered to Chongzhen.

Today, Wen Tiren can be said to be second only to the emperor.

He actually played the role of prime minister.

Wen Tiren unfolded the memorials one by one, read them line by line, and then made comments. Suddenly, his eyes lit up.

At the end of his petition, he saw the signature: Zhang Hanru.

"This petition is well written!"

It's not just because the petition was well written, but also because the content of it was well written, because the target of his criticism was Qian Qianyi.

The literary leader of the Donglin Party.

He was considered an old rival of Wen Tihen. When the candidates for cabinet ministers were being nominated in the second year of Chongzhen, Wen Tihen colluded with Zhou Yanru and used the excuse of cheating in the imperial examination to cause Qian Qianyi to be "stripped of his official position and put into idleness."

But Wen Tiren was not going to let him go, he just never found the opportunity.

Now this imperial petition lists 58 false charges, including misappropriation of local taxes and grain, extortion of local wealthy people, seizing government land to build houses, occupying the lake and forcing fishermen to pay taxes, raping wives and daughters of innocent people, selling student quotas, and smuggling with foreigners... It is simply unscrupulous.

He was rubbing his beard when he heard a flurry of footsteps coming in from outside.
He raised his head, smiled and said to the visitor, "Sheng Hu, come and take a look at this imperial petition."

The person who came was the Minister of Rites and Grand Secretary of Wenyuan Pavilion.

Zhang Zhifa, whose courtesy name is Shenghu.

In the 29th year of Wanli, he became a Jinshi. At the court, there was a conflict between the three parties of Qi, Chu and Zhejiang.

He belonged to the Qi Party, but was a close confidant of Wen Tiren.

This is very similar to Wen Tiren.

Wen Tiren came from the Zhejiang Party under the leadership of Shen Yikuan, but his views and opinions in many aspects were very close to those of the Donglin Party.

"Lord, the Earl of Jiading is in trouble."

Wen Tiren put down the memorial in his hand and asked, "What's the matter? Why are you so flustered?"

Zhang Zhifa dismissed his attendants and whispered, "The Marquis of Jiading, Tian Hongyu, and Yuan You were summoned to the palace by His Majesty. When the Marquis of Jiading came out, he was carried back by someone. They said that His Majesty forced him to donate 200,000 taels."

"Tian Hongyu also donated 100,000 taels, and Yuan You donated 80,000 taels."

"Is this true?"

"The two sons of the Marquis of Jiading have already gone to the palace to make trouble with their sister. How could it be a lie?" Zhang Zhifa's face was a little grim. "Your Majesty has not even spared the Marquis of Jiading. What should we do?"

Wen Tiren frowned. Zhou Kui, Tian Hongyu, and Yuan You, these three families donated nearly 400,000 taels.

How did the emperor get these three people to donate?
After thinking for a long time, he still couldn't figure it out, so he turned to Zhang Zhifa and asked, "My one hundred taels has not been written down yet, right?" "Not yet." Zhang Zhifa shook his head. Regarding donations, the emperor's order was to be registered by the Ministry of Rites and then handed over to the Ministry of Revenue.

Wen Tiren thought for a moment and said, "Write me last year's salary."

"One year's salary?"

Zhang Zhifa understood it quickly, and at the same time he was secretly thinking in his mind, is it true that Lord Wen knew nothing as he said this morning?

Is it possible that Wen Tiren and the emperor were playing a double game?

The development of the incident was not much different from the Zhang Wenda case in the fifth year of the Tianqi reign; it was almost exactly the same.

In the Zhang Wenda case, the civil servants only donated one year's salary.

No matter what, how much money do these civil servants have?
For them, being able to donate a year's salary is enough to bleed.

But the Earl of Jiading and his men were able to pay hundreds of thousands of taels at once. What about the other nobles?

"Lord Wen?"

"Wen Tiren?"

Hearing the noise outside, Wen Tiren stopped reviewing the memorial and stood up and walked to the back door, "Sheng Hu, I have something to do. I'll be out for a while."

He stopped halfway and walked in one direction.

Over there is another small courtyard he just bought, but no one else knows about it except the concubine he keeps there.

"Where's Wen Tiren?"

"Duke of England, the Lord has just left."

"Let's go and block his door."

……

Within the palace,

"Wang Chengen, what happened to the person I asked you to keep an eye on?"

Wang Chengen quickly knelt down and said, "As Your Majesty expected, there has been a commotion outside. The Duke of Ying's Mansion and Wen Tiren's Mansion are crowded with people, so many that they can't even walk."

"In the afternoon, Duke of England Zhang Zhiji went to the cabinet again, but did not find Wen Tiren. He must have hidden himself."

Zhu Changgan smiled, "It's good to be in chaos."

"I'm not afraid of them being anxious, I'm afraid of them not being anxious."

"Pass on my order, and let all the nobles, civil and military officials follow the example of Jiading Bo and Tian Hongyu. Those who donate the most, tell them that I want to see who is loyal to the Ming Dynasty and who is just paying lip service."

"Let the East Factory handle this matter."

"Yes, Your Majesty." After Wang Chengen replied, he waved outside.

Several burly eunuchs were brought to the front.

Wang Chengen: "Your Majesty, I have found the person you want."

"Are these the good fighters you mentioned?" Zhu Changgan's eyes suddenly lit up. "Come on, fight me, let me see how good you are."

In an instant, two people fought against each other.

Among them, five or six were unarmed, moving around, hitting and kicking with great force, which dazzled the onlookers. Their fists hit the ground with dull sounds.

The other two pairs were holding swords, with flashing sword lights, waving them like two silver dragons, flying up and down, circling left and right around the body.

"Good! Reward!" Zhu Changgan couldn't help but exclaimed.

"Your Majesty, I have brought these people with me since they were young. Their families all work in my farm, so I know them well."

These were the eunuchs who had high martial arts skills and deep knowledge that Zhu Changgan asked Wang Chengen to select.

"You're still okay with water, right?"

"Your Majesty, we grew up by the lake. We are not good at swimming in the water, but we can stay in the water for two days."

Zhu Changgan nodded with satisfaction, "You guys, stay by my side from now on, and be promoted three levels to wait for use."

"Daytime and night, take turns to arrange the shifts."

As for the original eunuchs and palace maids, he wanted to replace them all.

Today's palace is leakier than a sieve, and any forces from outside can sneak in.

What he had eaten at noon, what he said to the Queen and Earl Jiading,... in less than half an hour, it had spread everywhere.

After arranging a few eunuchs, Zhu Changgan felt a little relieved for the first time.

He raised his eyebrows and whispered to Wang Chengen, "Tell Qiao Yan that it's time to move."

……

　My family is old, so I went back. Today I only have this chapter.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)