After all, Liu Zongzhou was already in his twilight years. He was tired from traveling and traveling all the way. After talking to Chongzhen for a while, he couldn't hold on any longer. He was soon sent by Chongzhen to take him to a posthouse in the city to rest.
However, before leaving, he repeatedly advised Chongzhen to return to Nanjing and stay there.
He also made serious criticism of Chongzhen, believing that as an emperor, he should not hang out with the head of Guizhou in the streets. Doing so was against the dignity of the king and was not in line with the rules of the monarch and his ministers.
After sending Liu Zongzhou away, Zhu Cihong looked like he was hesitant to speak.
"Hong'er, do you have anything you want to say to your father?"
"Father, my son is indeed unhappy about something he has not said."
"you say."
"My son also thinks that Mr. Jishan is right. My father should maintain his majesty as a king and should not associate with the head of Guizhou, let alone eat, live and train with the soldiers in the border towns."
After Zhu Cixiang finished speaking, the tent became quiet for a moment.
Several eunuchs standing around immediately became alarmed.
Since ancient times, the most difficult people to get along with are the emperor and the prince.
In the past, the prince was young, so Long live the Lord only loved him.
But now that the prince is about to come of age, he has already made his own opinions and has unintentionally challenged the monarchy. This is very troublesome for the servants like them.
Sure enough, Long live the Lord began to chase people away.
"Gao Banban, Han Banban, you all go out."
"Wang Daban, guard the tent door. No one is allowed to come within ten steps."
After sending several eunuchs away, Chongzhen asked the three brothers Zhu Cihong: "My father is testing you today. Why do you think the Ming Dynasty fell to this situation?"
Zhu Cizheng looked confused, obviously he had never thought about this problem.
Zhu Cixiang looked thoughtful, obviously he hadn't thought about it yet, or he might have made a new discovery.
Only Zhu Cijiong said with great certainty: "Father, I know that the reason why our Ming Dynasty became what it is today is because of the corruption of civil servants, the cowardice of military officers and the fear of war, and the continuous natural disasters."
Chongzhen turned to Zhu Cixiang and asked, "Xian'er, what's your opinion?"
Zhu Cixiang raised his head and looked at Chongzhen and said: "Father, I think the biggest problem of our Ming Dynasty is the lack of state funds, and the expenses are becoming increasingly heavy, so we have no choice but to impose an additional three rates, which ultimately damages the foundation of the country."
"That's right." Chongzhen nodded happily, "The problems of our Ming Dynasty are ultimately financial problems. As long as the financial problems are solved, all problems will be solved."
After a pause, he asked again: "Then how to solve this dilemma?"
Zhu Cixiang said without thinking: "It's nothing more than increasing revenue and reducing expenditure, and increasing revenue means raising taxes. At present, the tax burden on the people of Ming Dynasty is already extremely heavy, and we can't impose more taxes, so we can only reduce expenditure."
Chongzhen said noncommittally: "Then tell me, how should we reduce expenditures?"
Zhu Cixi thought for a while and said: "One time when I was serving a Sutra banquet, my son once heard an official from the Ministry of Household Affairs tell me that our Ming Dynasty's state expenditure in that year totaled more than 18 million taels of silver, of which more than 9 million taels of silver were used to recruit soldiers. Officials
The salary is more than 4 million taels, and the royal family expenses are more than 5 million taels, mainly these three items."
Chongzhen nodded slightly, it was basically this number from the middle of Wanli period to now.
The only exception was the year before King Fu Zhu Changxun ascended the feudal clan. The royal family's expenses suddenly increased to more than 10 million taels. However, this was not the norm. After that, it fell back to more than 5 million taels in the second year.
Zhu Cixiang went on to say: "Among these three items, the salary for recruiting soldiers can only be increased but not reduced, and the salary of officials cannot be reduced. Therefore, the only item that can be reduced is the clan expenditure."
"Then you have been deceived by the civil service group."
"Ah? Have you been tricked by the civil service group? What do you mean by what my father said?"
"Father, I want to ask you, how do you get the 3 million taels of internal funds every year?"
"Internal money? Didn't the money from the internal money come from the palace servants through the tax inspector, the mine inspector and the weaving bureau?"
"The tax supervisor, the mine supervisor, and the weaving bureau? Yes, the tax supervisor has just been restored. In the first few years, the mine supervisor added some money to the internal funds, but now there are only three melons and two dates left, and sometimes he even cannot make ends meet.
Especially for the Weaving Bureau, since the seventh year of Chongzhen's reign, there has never been a profit of one tael of silver from internal funds."
"Ah? So the money in the internal funds comes from..."
"Yes, the 3 million taels of internal funds each year are deducted from the clan's expenses. If it were not supported by the 3 million taels of internal funds each year, we would have died early tomorrow."
At this time, Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong's three views were shattered.
It is said that officials in the Ming Dynasty were corrupt, but it turned out that the most corrupt official was their father?
Only Zhu Cizheng had dozed off and was not interested in the topic of his father and the two royal brothers at all. Chongzhen did not criticize him harshly. People don't like politics, so don't force it.
The most taboo thing about choosing a heir apparent is to rush the duck to the top.
Chongzhen asked again: "Then do you know where the 3 million taels of silver from the internal funds were used?"
"My son knows this," Zhu Cixiang said without hesitation, "Firstly, it will be used to provide relief to the victims in various provinces, and secondly, it will be used to recruit soldiers in border towns and provide additional military pay and silver rewards."
"Brother Imperial, isn't it?" Zhu Cijiong couldn't help but retort, "Don't we already have 9 million taels for recruiting soldiers in Bian Town? Isn't this much money enough? Do you still need the money from your father's internal funds to make up the hole?"
Zhu Cixiang sighed: "Second brother, do you know how much the monthly salary is for recruiting soldiers? The Guan Ning Army only has a discount of 2 taels, and the rest of the recruits only have a discount of 1 tael! Even according to the standards of the Guan Ning Army, a recruit
It only takes 24 taels of salary a year, and 9 million taels of salary is enough to maintain an army of nearly 400,000 people!"
"Ah?" Zhu Cijiong exclaimed in disbelief, "But Guan Ning's army only had 120,000 troops at its peak, and only 60,000 before the capital fell."
Zhu Cixiang continued: "But the salary has not been reduced by one tael!"
Chongzhen then asked: "Then the question is, where did the 9 million taels of salary go? And where did the 3 million taels of internal money that I filled in go?"
"Yes, where have you gone?" Zhu Cijiong said blankly.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Zhu Cixiang frowned, as if he had already thought of it, but couldn't grasp the point.
At this time, Zhu Cizheng next to him yawned: "Where else can I go? I must have been corrupted."
"No, it's corruption!" Zhu Cixi finally figured out the key. "This is not corruption as we usually call it, because the entire civil servant group has benefited."
"Yes, it just disappeared."
Chongzhen said: "Of the 9 million salary and silver, together with the 3 million filled in internal funds, only a little more than half can be handed over to the border town governor and the commander-in-chief. Then, it will be deducted by military attaches at all levels to divide the benefits. In the end, it can be
The actual amount of money used to raise soldiers is less than one-third, do you know now?"
Zhu Cijiong asked with a shocked look on his face: "So 9 million plus 3 million taels, half of it was sent to the border town, and the remaining 6 million taels were lost to the civil servants?"
Zhu Cizheng: "Why don't you arrest all these corrupt officials?"
"Haha, that's a good question. Why doesn't Emperor Father arrest these corrupt officials? Because it's simply impossible." Chongzhen sighed softly and said, "Take Liao's salary as an example. Five million taels of Liao's salary have not been paid out yet.
The Household Department was wiped out by the Cabinet by 10%, and when it left the Household Department, it was wiped out by another 10%. The Ministry of War was wiped out by another 10%, and when they arrived in Shandong, they were wiped out by another 10%, and when they arrived at Ji Town, they were wiped out by another 10%.
If it’s done, then 50% of it has been lost.”
"If the central government has a strong backing, and there are chief ministers or ministers to say hello, there will be less trouble."
"But no matter how little it is, it will never be less than 30%. If Bianzhen can get 70% of the salary, it is extremely high. Most of the time, it can only get 60% or even 50%."
"So, has this money been embezzled by officials at all levels?"
"There is certainly corruption, but not all of it has been corrupted."
"Let's just say that the 10% of the money lost by the cabinet was actually used to provide benefits to officials in the capital."
"Welfare?" Zhu Cihong, Zhu Cijiong and Zhu Cijiang all looked confused. What do you mean?
"It's just all kinds of festivals and respects." Chongzhen said, "You also know that the salary standards set by Emperor Taizu Gao for officials at all levels are very low, and the prices in the capital are so expensive that it is impossible to support them with just that meager salary.
Living family members, such as officials in the six ministries and other real-power departments, are fine, but officials in the Qingshui Yamen such as the Hanlin Academy and Zhan Shifu would have starved to death if they did not pay homage to the annual festival. They all say that the Hanlin Academy is a reserve.
It is a place where Xiang looks up, but who knows the hardship in it."
Zhu Cixi finally understood: "The cabinet is like this, the six ministries are like this, the local chief envoys, inspection envoys and general commanders are like this, and even the government offices, state offices and county offices are like it."
"Yes." Chongzhen nodded, "How else can I support all the subordinate officials and government servants in the world?"
Zhu Cixiang said angrily: "So the official salary expenditure is much more than 4 million taels?"
"Of course it's more than 4 million taels, even more than 10 million taels. The official salary is the big one." Chongzhen sighed, "Emperor Taizu Gao dug a big hole for us descendants."
"He set official salaries low, and his intentions were good."
"We are afraid that officials will erode the people's wealth and support, and we want to reduce the burden on the people. This original intention is worthy of recognition."
"But his approach is too simple and crude. Officials have power in their hands. Will they not seek benefits for themselves? Expect them to supervise themselves? Isn't this nonsense?"
"The result is that administrative expenses are reduced on the surface,"
"But all kinds of hidden expenses are flooding like a floodgate."
"In the last accounting, the expenses have more than doubled! The losses are huge!"
"Father, we absolutely cannot sit idly by and watch this matter." Zhu Cixiang said urgently, "We must reform!"
"Reform?" Chongzhen said quietly, "You are going against the civil servants all over the world. You are trying to usurp the financial rights of the entire civil servant group. As the saying goes, blocking someone's financial path is like killing his parents. Have you thought about the consequences?"
"Ah this?" Zhu Cixiang was speechless for a moment. He had never thought about the consequences.
But he knew that his great-great-grandfather, Emperor Wanli, and his great-grandfather, Emperor Jiajing, had fought with civil servants, and in the end they seemed to win and lose? Anyway, he didn't dare to think about it.