Chapter 46 Chongzhen spends money like flowing water
Beijing.
During the recent period, Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian's life was pretty good.
I ate well three meals a day, slept well, and gained several pounds.
Although the country is in decline, the situation in various parts of the Ming Dynasty has not improved significantly, and there is still more bad news than good news.
But the most difficult moment was barely overcome. The bandits raging in Shanxi were resisted by governors from various places, and there was no movement among the slaves outside the customs. This year, we can live a little more peacefully.
Of course, in fact, the most important reason is that Chongzhen has a little spare money, and he is no longer in such a tight situation. Even if he encounters something bad, he can still eat something delicious or spend money to hire a troupe to give Liu Taifei
After singing a few plays, Chongzhen also listened and joined in the fun.
There is no way, the pressure on Chongzhen is too great, he is also a human being! He also needs some positive stimulation or encouragement, just like many people in modern society often use alcohol to relieve their sorrows, or have serious addiction to smoking.
He occasionally eats a delicious meal, invites a troupe to sing for Concubine Liu to show his filial piety, and brings the queen and concubines together to have a good time and improve his own mood. Is this too much?
Besides, it doesn’t cost much.
However, this relatively relaxed life may have lasted less than a month, and the ministers who Chongzhen was most worried about did not appear to advise him not to be excessively extravagant.
However, Bi Ziyan, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, went to the palace to see him, and Chongzhen was startled as soon as he opened his mouth.
"I heard that a businessman lent your Majesty a large sum of money, as much as a million taels?"
"No, it's impossible. How could I borrow money from a merchant?"
Zhu Youjian immediately denied it three times, waving his hands and saying: "This is purely a false rumor, there is absolutely no such thing!"
The reason why he subconsciously denied it was that, on the one hand, he was a relatively decent king, and borrowing money from businessmen was really detrimental to the royal family's face; secondly, the court was short of money everywhere, and once the officials knew that he had some money, they would immediately ask for it.
Go and use it to fill in the holes everywhere.
However, faced with the emperor's denial.
Bi Ziyan did not continue to ask, but knelt down on the ground and wailed: "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Revenue has no money. It has owed more than 7,874,000 taels of military expenses to the Nine Borders and 2,000 taels of clan salary.
More than 1.43 million taels. The salaries of officials in the capital have been owed for three months to half a year. Many honest ministers have no rice to cook in their homes. In addition, there is still a shortage of more than 500,000 taels of pension money for fallen soldiers...
…Your Majesty, please allocate some money to me from your internal funds. I can no longer serve as the Minister of Household Affairs."
Faced with this series of data thrown out by Bi Ziyan.
Zhu Youjian was almost beaten on the spot, he hesitated and said: "I, I don't have any money left in my inner bag."
"Your Majesty, on September 28th, the convoy carrying money and grain from Xujiazhuang came to Beijing. Many people in the capital saw it. I don't want much, 800,000 taels. As long as I give you 800,000 taels, I can barely support it for a while.
That’s it.” Bi Ziyan said.
"I really don't."
Zhu Youjian still denied it.
"Your Majesty has gained strength recently and looks very good. Your dragon robes have been replaced with brand new ones. How can you convince the ministers that your Majesty has no money? Your Majesty, please be a wise and holy king. If you have millions of taels of silver in your pocket, you will put your country at risk."
Regardless, using the interests of the Ming Dynasty and the country to exchange money from merchants will cause hundreds of officials to gather together to admonish you."
Bi Ziyan had no choice but to give advice or make veiled threats.
Zhu Youjian was shocked by his shamelessness. If he ate some meat with him, wore a dragon robe without patches, and had a little money in his hand, he would become an unprincipled and ignorant king? This would trigger the remonstrance of the ministers.
?What kind of truth is this? The standard for becoming a wise king is too high. If you relax a little bit, he will become a faint king?
"I have no money..."
Zhu Youjian still used the same denial rhetoric, but he really couldn't stand Bi Ziyan's eloquent words, quoting from other sources, and pouring all kinds of saintly principles into his ears.
Finally he had to compromise.
After some haggling, Bi Ziyan left the palace with 500,000 taels of silver.
Zhu Youjian's cash flow was immediately cut in half.
But this is not the end, just the beginning.
The next day, Liang Tingdong, Secretary of the Ministry of War, and Li Shouqi, Admiral of the Beijing Camp, came together to request an audience. Zhu Youjian vaguely guessed their purpose and did not want to see them. However, they waited from morning to afternoon and had no intention of leaving.
Zhu Youjian had no choice but to see them, and asked with a straight face: "Why are you two here?"
Liang Tingdong knelt down and said: "Your Majesty, the bandits in Shanxi are raging and can't be suppressed. The governors of various places are in urgent need of money and food from the court!"
Li Shouqi also knelt down and said: "Your Majesty, the capital camp is weak and its combat power is worrying. It is difficult to use it. It is urgently needed to supplement young soldiers and good horses and weapons to enhance the defense ability of the capital. However, this requires a large amount of silver.
!”
"I don't have money, so you go to Bi Ziyan, the Minister of Household Affairs, and ask for money." Zhu Youjian said with a stern face.
"Not a cent of Bi Shangshu's five hundred thousand taels has been spent. It's useless for me to look for him."
"Your Majesty, the Beijing Camp is the force that protects the center of the Ming Dynasty. No matter what, the money and food used to strengthen the Beijing Camp cannot be saved. Three hundred thousand taels. As long as you give me three hundred thousand taels and give me half a year, the one hundred thousand taels in the Beijing Camp will be weak.
Our troops will surely turn into hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers. If Jiannu dares to join the invaders again, the capital camp will be able to defeat them without the need for loyal kings from all over the country! This will make Jiannu dare not despise our Ming Dynasty again."
Li Shouqi drew a big cake for the young king.
Zhu Youjian immediately stared at him fiercely: "Uncle Xiangcheng, do you also want to imitate Yuan Chonghuan?"
"I don't dare!"
Li Shouqi knelt on the ground in fear, trembling, but still insisted: "Your Majesty, no matter what, we must spare some money to strengthen the strength of the Beijing camp."
More than an hour later.
After some indiscriminate bombardment by these two courtiers, Zhu Youjian had to compromise again and gave each of them 150,000 taels.
The cash flow in hand is reduced by another 300,000 taels.
In the next month, Zhu Youjian of Chongzhen barely had a day to live in peace. Every once in a while, ministers would come to the palace to ask for an audience. No matter what major matters were discussed, they would end up asking him for the silver in the treasure, often asking for five hundred thousand taels.
, three hundred thousand taels, if not given, he would kneel down to remonstrate, or drag many officials together to report, or even try to anger the emperor and get slapped, with only one purpose: Zhu You inspected the silver in the treasure.
Fifty thousand taels.
Thirty thousand taels.
Twenty thousand taels.
Ten thousand taels...
Adding up one after another, 200,000 taels of his concubine were confiscated by the ministers this month.
Adding in the 500,000 given by Bi Ziyan, the Minister of Household Affairs, and the 300,000 given by Liang Tingdong and Li Shouqi, it is exactly one million.
That is to say, all the one million taels lent to him by Xujiazhuang were spent and taken away by officials and ministers. Zhu Youjian did not spend a cent.
By the way, there is also a batch of lazy rice from Xujiazhuang with only a little over 40,000 dan left, and 6,000 taels of silver.
The six thousand taels of silver had been spent long ago, and the remaining tens of thousands of taels of rice, except for a small amount, were all sold through the imperial shop at the market price of one stone and three taels, and the final profit was about 100,000 taels of silver.
And Zhu Youjian can no longer compromise on this money! He will not let the ministers have any illusions anymore.
He wants to spend this money for himself and the people he loves!
The troupe hired for Concubine Liu will cost one month at a time and cost 5,000 taels of silver.
The gold and silver jewelry I bought for Queen Zhou, a custom-made Fengguan Xiapei, cost about 20,000 taels of silver.
There is also the Xujiazhuang life-size glass mirror that Tian Guifei has always been thinking about. Buy it! There are also soaps, shower gels and other products, which cost 25,000 taels of silver.
And I bought a bicycle for Prince Zhu Cixiang, which cost 10,000 taels of silver. Although my son is still young and can’t use it for the time being, he will use it when he grows up.
Wait wait wait.
Anyway, after a period of crazy consumption.
By mid-December, the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian, who was spending money like water, began to live a frugal life of eating meat only once every two or three days, wearing patches on his dragon robe, and became a pauper again.