The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Wei Guangde naturally knew about the financial dilemma. After all, it was related to the pockets of civil and military officials in Beijing, but he could not afford to be careless.

As the end of the year approaches, officials are naturally most concerned about this, because it involves not only their own salaries, but also rewards from the palace.

That day, I made an appointment with Chen Ju for a drink in a restaurant, and unexpectedly the conversation came up about the court's lack of money.

Relying on his drunkenness, Wei Guangde also asked.

Chen Ju is in charge of the ceremonial department. Although he may not know everything about the household affairs department, no matter what, the palace must be involved in money matters.

Don’t forget that Emperor Jiajing of Xiyuan would reach out to the treasury to get money whenever he had something to do.

In the six months since Wei Guangde came back from Baoan Prefecture, he only knew that he had withdrawn more than 300,000 taels of silver from the Ministry of Household Affairs twice.

Everyone knows what it is used for, and it is really a waste of money to practice.

Emperor Jiajing practiced Taoism. Taoism is a local religion founded by the Eastern Han Dynasty Master Zhang Daoling who inherited the thoughts of Huang Lao and combined with the primitive worship of ghosts and gods.

Taoism adheres to the teaching that "the immortal way cherishes life and cannot measure people." While practicing Taoism in order to live a long life, we also have the responsibility to save others.

However, as the saying goes, "Save others first, save yourself." If you want to save others, you first need to practice your own Taoism to a certain extent.

Cultivation is not an easy task. Sincerity alone is not enough. It also requires four factors: "wealth couple, law and ground".

Since it is called the Dharma Land of the Wealthy Couple, and wealth is placed first, it naturally makes sense.

Wealth: It means money. To practice Taoism requires certain economic conditions. Without a certain material foundation, it will be difficult to practice Taoism.

The ancients said: No money is not enough to cultivate the Tao.

Some people will say that "Dharma" comes first. If there is no real Dharma, your cultivation will be in vain.

The Dharma is very important, but if you want to practice it, you must become a disciple. You need to pay to become a disciple. Why?

Because the master also needs to spend money to practice, otherwise there is the above sentence, "No money is not enough to cultivate the Tao."

Each master teaches a different method, so you need to find a reliable master who can teach you a good method so that you can continue practicing smoothly. If you don't have money, you won't be able to find a good master.

As for other couples and places, they seem to be very common for the emperor who is the ninth emperor.

A partner refers to a partner who practices Taoism together. In the process of practice, without the support or encouragement of a partner, it will be difficult for you to continue practicing for a long time, because it is easy to get tired, your heart will feel lonely, and it will not be easy to persist. Go down.

But as long as you have an extraordinary and persistent heart, it doesn't matter whether you have a partner or not.

It's just that this couple doesn't represent a man and woman, but a person who practices Taoism together.

The last land, according to an imperial edict, as long as this land is within the control of the Ming Empire, no matter who belonged to it before, it belongs to the emperor now.

Wealth couple, Dharma ground, are the four elements of spiritual practice. They are not just mentioned casually. Even the order is not randomly arranged. There is a certain reason for them.

"Brother, it's the end of the year. The salary and New Year's rewards are over there with the Ministry of Household Affairs."

Wei Guangde didn't finish his words, he just started. Chen Ju naturally knew what he meant.

"The salary is easy to talk about. The Ministry of Finance and various yamen have already raised and retained it. The annual reward is a little more troublesome. It is said to be a reward from the emperor, but it all falls on the head of the Ministry of Finance. Now Fang Blunt's hair is almost gone, haha."

Chen Ju didn't hide anything, and told everything he knew, "But having said that, if you really have no money, you can just get it from Taipu Temple. Anyway, it's all the money of the imperial court."

Speaking of the financial system of the Ming Dynasty, it is also quite unique. When Wei Guangde first started to study the Ming court system, he was blinded by the complicated financial system. When he encountered a similar situation, he only had to study the tax system and he was confused. , and still only have a rough understanding of it.

Different from the unified management of national revenue by the Ministry of Finance in later generations, a major feature of the central fiscal system in the Ming Dynasty was the decentralized nature of fiscal management.

Although the Ministry of Revenue was the most important component of the central financial management system, it did not manage all the finances of the Ming Empire.

In addition to the Ministry of Household Affairs, the central departments of the Ming Dynasty such as the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of War, Taipu Temple, Neifu, and Guanglu Temple all had financial management functions.

Although the Ministry of Revenue can supervise the income of most yamen, because the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of War, and the Taipus Temple have independent financial resources, their revenue and expenditure have their own systems and are not subject to management interference by the Ministry of Revenue.

The finances of the Ministry of Industry mainly come from the income from the silver exchange for work materials and bamboo and wood extraction from various places; the income of the Ministry of War mainly comes from the firewood and direct silver of officials in Beijing, which are collected and stored in the Arsenal Department of the Ministry of War, and distributed by the Ministry of War to officials in Beijing; Taipu The temple's income mainly comes from horse-priced silver obtained from trotting horses from various places.

The financial revenue of the Neifu and Guanglu Temple is mainly managed by the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Works, but their expenditures are not subject to the management restrictions of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

Among them, Taipu Temple has the most generous income among all the yamen, and it is also the department with the largest advance funds. After all, your yamen has such a huge consumption, and a large amount of financial surplus is generated every year, which is then borrowed by the emperor and other yamen for various reasons. , and the consequence was that the Ming Dynasty frontier army did not have enough horses available.

Taipu Temple was the institution responsible for horse administration and animal husbandry in the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the important financial resources controlled by Taipus Temple were horse households, pastures, horses and other large horse administration resources.

According to statistics during the Hongzhi period, Taipu Temple had more than 680,000 horse breeders and more than 160,000 hectares of land.

Since the Central Plains Dynasty has always been deeply invaded by grassland tribes, Ma Zheng is a military state and has been highly valued by rulers of all generations. Zhu Yuanzhang once said: "Ma Zheng is the most important thing in the country."

So how did Taipu Temple, as an institution specializing in horse administration, transform into a financial management institution, and how did it become the richest department in the Ming Dynasty?

The Ming Dynasty implemented the dual-capital system, so there were two Taipu Temples. The Taipu Temple in Beijing managed the horse administration in Zhili, Henan, Shandong and other places. The Taipus Temple in Nanjing was located in Chuzhou and managed the horse administration in southern Zhili.

According to the system, Taipu Temple is an institution that provides horses for the imperial court and does not actually have financial management functions.

It's just that there is a huge gap between the horses bred in the northern and southern provinces of the Ming Dynasty. The horses bred in the south are not suitable as war horses, so their natural value has dropped significantly, and they are actually losing money.

As a result, raising war horses in the south became a loss-making business. Not only the horse owners, but also the Taipus Temple in Nanjing were unwilling to continue doing it. So with the horse discount, the Taipus Temple in Nanjing no longer provided horses to the court, but changed its name to "horse racing". silver".

The sources of this horse silver are also complex, including not only the color of the horses, but also fodder silver, horse farm rentals, etc.

The number of horse silver also increased from only 30,000 taels in the second year of Chenghua to 180,000 taels a year in the eighth year of Zhengde. It continued to increase thereafter, reaching 360,000 taels a year in the seventh year of Jiajing. Now, it is said that in the third year of Jiajing In fourteen years, Ma Yin earned 460,000 taels of silver.

It can be said that the Changying Treasury of Taipu Temple was the last reserve fund of the Ming Dynasty.

As for how much money Chang Ying had in his treasury, Chen Ju shook his head, he really didn't know.

Perhaps, only Minister Taipusi knows the exact number.

But Chen Ju also quietly told Wei Guangde, "Although all officials in the court are worried that the court will not be able to issue annual gifts because of lack of money, in fact, Taipu Temple has too much money in its Changying Treasury.

The old treasury in the Ministry of Revenue is empty and gone, but there is still an old treasury in Taipus Temple that has not been touched. The old treasury was sealed in the 13th year of Jiajing's reign. Now the horse silver in Taipus Temple is piled in the new treasury. This is why the emperor is not worried about lack of money at all. "

Wei Guangde blinked when he heard this and understood a little.

No wonder they all lost to the imperial court and had no money, but Emperor Jiajing still went his own way and asked for money from the Ministry of Household Affairs. I dare you to know that the imperial court still has a small treasury there.

"Where can I keep this money so it won't be spent? Also, not many people know about this, right?"

Wei Guangde asked curiously.

"The Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household Affairs must know that the Ministry of War is still in charge of Taipu Temple, but they can't ask for money directly. It's useless to ask for money. They won't give it. They will only allocate more than 100,000 taels of silver to the border town every year according to the annual rules. Used to purchase horses or supplement insufficient military pay.

The emperor could ask for it, but it would be very troublesome. The cabinet and the Ministry of War would resist it, so the emperor only asked the Ministry of Household Affairs for money. If the Ministry of Household Affairs was empty, Taipu Temple would naturally have to lend out the money.

It's just that this is borrowing money, and you will have to pay it back later.

There shouldn't be many people in the six ministries and nine ministers who know about this matter. It's okay if it spreads. Each ministry has arrears. The elders in the small cabinet don't dare to talk about it. After all, the money is military expenditure intercepted by the imperial court. Do not dare to spend the military expenditures prepared for the war that may occur after the war.

The princes of the previous dynasties could only work out small things, and they would not take too much. They still had to save a lot of money. The court had to be tight, as long as they could survive. "

Chen Ju felt he had made a mistake as he spoke, and hurriedly reminded Wei Guangde: "I only knew it after my godfather mentioned it. Don't tell anyone."

Come to think of it, Yan Shifan is such a greedy person, wouldn't he know about Taipu Temple's treasury?

The answer is of course no.

His position may not touch the core of Taipus Temple, but it is impossible for his father, Yan Song, not to know, the chief assistant.

But the money in Taipu Temple was, to put it bluntly, the war reserves that the Ming Dynasty had saved since the Chenghua period. Apart from military expenditures, there was really no reasonable reason to use the money in it.

Neither can Yan Shifan.

When the household department is short of money, it will also go to Taipu Temple to borrow cash, but it must be repaid.

Wei Guangde nodded hurriedly in understanding, picked up the wine glass on the table and walked away from Chen Ju, then picked up the wine jug and filled it, and smacked his lips when he put the wine jug down.

At this moment, Wei Guangde was a little confused. Since the imperial court had always had a backup warehouse called Taipu Temple, it was strange why Emperor Chongzhen could not even get out one hundred thousand taels of silver at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

However, Wei Guangde's smacking of the lips changed in Chen Ju's eyes. He thought Wei Guangde had some ideas because the court was short of money.

Wei Guangde still had a great reputation for writing policy papers and coming up with ideas. After King Hui's rebuke, many officials in the capital remembered his ability to write policy papers.

"Do you have any ideas for finding money for the court?"

Wei Guangde didn't tell, but Chen Ju didn't ask.

Hearing this, Wei Guangde hurriedly shook his head and denied, "No, no, I was worried about being an official before and whether I could still get the annual gift in my first year, hehe."

He had a way to temporarily raise money, which was a bad trick of later generations. At that time, because the court really had no money at this time, he thought about raising some money and taking the money that should be distributed. Say it again.

Wei Guangde calculated his expenses in the year since he left Jiujiang and arrived in the capital, and the little salary he received from the court was a huge loss.

Others have to make money as officials, but he has been an official for half a year and is still losing money.

Now we know that the imperial court actually has a reserve fund, but it cannot be made public. Anyone who knows about this has consciously kept his mouth shut. Wei Guangde is not someone who does not know the importance of it.

If he could really say it casually, all the civil and military officials in the capital would surely know it by now, and their eyes would probably be fixed on Taipu Temple.

Since the news has been kept hidden until now, it shows the importance of this matter.

"Outsiders only know that Taipu Temple has a small amount of money. No one knows the exact amount. They all think it is a fraction of a few thousand taels, so no one has made any plans. Taipus Temple itself has kept the news secret. It has not been passed down for so many years and generations. open."

Chen Ju sighed, this is really not easy.

The Hongzhi Dynasty was pretty good at that time, and the royal court's revenue and expenditure could generally cope with it. Although there was a deficit, it was not much.

The deficit of the Zhengde Dynasty increased a lot, mainly because Emperor Zhengde's expenditures for the border troops increased significantly, and the money spent on wars, but the effect was also significant. In the years of Emperor Zhengde alone, there were few Tatar attacks along the Great Wall.

"Our Lord wanted to work hard at the beginning to reduce the imperial court's deficit, but things didn't work out. There were disasters in the provinces every year, and he couldn't cope with them at all. Alas."

Chen Ju shook his head and said a few words, then sighed.

After having enough wine and food, he put Chen Ju on the carriage, and then Wei Guangde staggered back to his carriage.

The sound of the horse whip sounded loudly, and the carriage moved forward slowly. It was a little bumpy, but it could not stop Wei Guangde from thinking about the problem. Taipu Temple prepared war funds, but why did the Ming Dynasty finally collapse due to financial collapse, directly because of the lack of military pay and the inability to recruit enough The powerful army was defeated by the refugee army and the wild boar skin of Liaodong?

How did Wei Guangde know that a certain emperor who ascended the throne more than 20 years later took away tens of millions of taels of silver from the Taipu Temple to use for the prince's marriage and vassal expenses, almost all of which had been silently accumulated by countless generations of emperors? The family's financial resources have been drained.

During his reign, a total of 22 million taels of silver were spent from Taipu Temple's ever-surplus treasury. In addition to about 4 million taels of silver used for purchasing war horses, military pay and recruiting troops, the emperor's expenses for soldiers participating in the war should have been borne by the inner court. The reward of one million taels of silver was also paid out of the Changying treasury of Taipu Temple.

To this end, he also specifically decreed that rewards of less than 10,000 taels should be paid by the inner court, and rewards of more than 10,000 taels should be paid from the permanent surplus treasury.

After learning about the existence of Chang Yingku in Taipu Temple, Wei Guangde actually didn't panic much because the court was still rich.

According to Chen Ju, the worst case scenario is that the Ministry of Accounts will borrow money from the Changying Treasury, and it will be paid back next year when the tax bank collects it.

However, Governor Lu Binglu has not seen him take action against Li Bin for more than a month, which is also strange. It is not known whether he is waiting for the opportunity to impeach or collecting evidence.

At this time, in a heavily guarded yard not far from his carriage, Lu Bing sat on a chair and asked with a serious expression: "Have you prepared all the evidence? Have you determined the location of the money?"