Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 224: His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is Really Kind

The nobles made easy money by relying on their status and position, and although many of the aristocratic families had children serving as officials in the court, the peak of their official career lasted for only 10 to 20 years at most, or just a few years at least, and the period before and after was a period of little return, so the fluctuations were too great.

Therefore, for the aristocratic families, having several stable and long-term ways to make money is what they really pursue.

At this point I have to praise Lord Ma for his cleverness.

After all, Mr. Qian had known the news for a long time, and he was also sure that the nobles would not have any interest in such "hard-earned money", so after paying attention to Xu Yinjue's movements for a while, he knew that he would be able to win this way of making money for his disciples and their families that could potentially last for a hundred years.

From this, it was reasonable for him to guess what Xu Yinjue was going to report.

But Lord Ma only returned to Yingtian yesterday, and he really knew nothing about this matter.

Under such circumstances, how decisive and astute did he have to be to follow Qian Qianyi and say "This old minister is willing to share the worries of the court" in a flash?
just
This is a trap after all.

Even if this trap is not intended to defraud people, and it is even likely to bring a lot of benefits to the people who fall into it, it is essentially a trap.

Zhu Cilang knew very well that everyone would be very wary of benefits that came for nothing, but if these benefits were snatched from others by one's own schemes, then it would be a different story.

There is a food shortage in Jiangnan.

As long as this deal can be successfully concluded, then even if the war may last for who knows how many years, this deal can continue.

If we think more broadly, even if this war is over, can't we reopen the maritime trade channels with the intact Ming Dynasty?
Of course, it is also possible that after the war, the Ming Dynasty will be gone.

But firstly, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince seems to be a wise ruler, so it should not be a problem for him to protect half of the country; secondly, no matter who seizes the world, he will not have a grudge against money, right?
With this understanding, it is not difficult to guess how the families behind the officials will act.

"Since the ministers are willing to help the court out of its predicament, I will not refuse your kindness," Zhu Cilang paused for a moment, and when he saw that everyone was looking at him eagerly, he continued, "Well, I think Tan Changyuan should also return from Toungoo. Everyone should send someone to Hangzhou to discuss a rule with Baoguo Gong and follow it."

Since his goal had been achieved, Zhu Cilang would not dwell on anything else. After everyone had left happily, he began to secretly plan again.

As long as there is access to food, it makes no difference if there are more or fewer people.

To put it bluntly, he just wanted to use "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince purchasing grain from overseas" to hedge against the expectation of "possible famine" rather than really using massive amounts of grain to forcibly fill the gap.

There is a shortage of food in the south of the Yangtze River, but where in China is there no shortage of food?
After so many years of war, the borders of the Ming Dynasty were already devastated. Even if he could buy enough grain from overseas for his jurisdiction, under the influence of the market, this grain would inevitably flow through various channels to places where the price was higher.

Under such circumstances, even if he could buy back all the food in Toungoo and even Luzon, he might not be able to really put an end to the famine.

From this, it is easy to imagine that his real purpose is to maintain the price of food at a level that is expensive but not extremely expensive, so as to minimize the number of people who starve to death and maintain stability in the area as much as possible.

I'm not capable of that.

Sighing in his heart, Zhu Cilang couldn't help but rub his eye sockets lightly with the back of his hand.

He has a very clear understanding of the current situation. Although he has won victory after victory both internally and externally, fundamentally speaking, this is just that all parties are temporarily avoiding his edge.

Once he shows signs of decline, not to mention whether he will be attacked by a pack of wolves or a tiger, the conflicts within him that have been temporarily suppressed will surely erupt again.

Therefore, it became his top priority to try to alleviate or resolve as many internal problems as possible during this short period of time.

It was for this reason that he even went so far as to resort to military action again over the reorganization.

Indeed, the Ming Dynasty had too many problems, and the shortcomings of the army were merely the superficial symptoms. However, if the army could not be firmly controlled in one's hands, then solving any problem would be nothing but a pipe dream and a mirage.

"Have Li Chaodong and his family moved out?"

"We have moved to the camp in the north of the city."

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince asked this question quite suddenly, but Ji Qingyuan, who was waiting on the side, gave the answer without hesitation.

During the period after returning to Yingtian, Zhu Cilang did a lot of things, such as dealing with local officials who had lost their integrity; tricking certain groups into going to Taungoo to buy grain in some way; and deepening his prestige among the people and militiamen of Yingtian.

All these things were of great significance in the eyes of the officials in the court, but in Zhu Cilang's view, the most important thing he did was to visit the wounded soldiers.

Nearly two months had passed since the Tatars' surprise attack that night. Those with minor injuries had already returned to their teams, but those with serious injuries or even disabilities were still in the infirmary, recovering from injuries that would never be fully recovered.

After leaving the wounded camp, Zhu Cilang was naturally in a low mood, but from the news from his highness's guards, his highness was most worried about the future lives of the wounded.

The value of life!
These four words are His Highness's original words.

Although the wounded have been given a pension sufficient to sustain their lives, His Highness still insists on allowing the wounded who have lost their ability to fight to realize their life value.

As a result, a unit called the Political Work Institute was established under the Advisory Council.

According to your highness, the roads are in turmoil right now and the people in the Advisory Council need someone to protect them as they run around, and the morale of the soldiers is related to the victory or defeat of the war, so they also need someone to encourage them from time to time.

This reason is basically sufficient, but everyone who got the news knew that, to put it bluntly, it was something that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had created in order to provide disabled soldiers with a place to stay for the rest of their lives.

Some people may not agree with this, but even if you ask a thousand people, at least nine hundred and ninety-nine of them will admit that "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is truly kind-hearted."

In short, the affairs of the Political Work Institute became silent after causing a little stir, and the disabled soldiers, led by Li Chaodong, moved to the camp in the north of the city to begin short-term training.

It is conceivable that this system will be popularized one day.
"Your Highness, why don't you take a rest?"

Just when Zhu Cilang's thoughts were drifting away, Ji Qingyuan seemed to sense his mental fatigue.

He had been following His Royal Highness the Crown Prince around these past few days, and although he couldn't see some things clearly, he could still imagine the intricacies involved.

What's more, getting things done costs money. Although all the complications have been sorted out one by one in the work of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, if the rewards for various departments are ignored, the remaining 800,000 taels of silver in the Yingtian Treasury may not be able to last for many days.

Of course, he knew that Ruan Dacheng had made a fortune in Hangzhou, and he also knew that he had received a lot from the Tartar camps. However, after such a war, he could not expect much from the taxes this year. After offsetting the two, the hole might be even bigger.

Zhu Cilang probably had no idea what Ji Qingyuan was thinking.

But to be honest, even if he really knew it, he wouldn't necessarily be that worried.

The total number of troops under his command was nearly 400,000, and he did not intend to ignore the old, weak, sick and disabled who were laid off. In addition, there were normal expenses of local government offices, money and food consumption for disaster relief, weapons and equipment for newly recruited militiamen, and miscellaneous fire consumption.

Taking all these factors into consideration, it would be impossible to sustain the economy without more than 2 million yuan every year.

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This is Jiangnan.

Zhu Cilang once saw an itemized list of expenditures for the Left and Right Departments of the Ministry of Revenue's Military Pay.

In the 16th year of Chongzhen, the Left and Right Military Pay Departments collected a total of 15.84 million taels of silver, of which Zhejiang handed over 1.5 million taels, while Yingtian, Zhenjiang, Suzhou, Changzhou and other prefectures in Southern Zhili handed over a total of 1.58 million taels.

You should know that this is just the additional taxes such as Liao salary paid by various places, but it does not include the regular taxes collected for hundreds of years.

Surrounded by a pile of silver, how could he worry that his small court had no money to spend?
Of course, all parts of Jiangnan have experienced war this year, so it is reasonable to reduce or exempt taxes a little. However, reduction does not mean that taxes will be completely stopped. When combined with the money extorted through various means, how difficult will it be to collect taxes until next year?
Seeing such data, some people may wonder: Since so much silver could be collected every year, how could Chongzhen be so poor?

Hmm. How about just a few hundred words on it?
The Ming Dynasty had a lot of income, but its expenses were even greater.

The Zhu clan had more than 300,000 members, and they had to distribute nearly 10 million shi of grain every year. During the Tianqi period when the financial situation could be barely maintained, the court could only collect 20 million shi of taxes each year.

It seems that this item alone is equivalent to losing half of the life of the Ming Dynasty.

Another is military expenditure.

Do you still remember the 15 million taels of silver from the military pay department? Even if all this silver was added to the nine frontiers, there would still be a gap of more than 6 million!

Having said that, we have to go off topic a little further.

During the Ming Dynasty, soldiers' salaries were not treated equally.

For example, the garrison troops and militiamen under Zhu Cilang, even though His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has improved their treatment, they can only spend four or five taels of silver at most in a year.

On the other hand, the recruitment of soldiers in the nine frontiers cost nearly thirty taels of silver a year to maintain each soldier.

Whether there is any trick here or not, we naturally don't know without evidence, but according to the standards of a strong army in later generations, physical fitness and weapons and equipment are only secondary. What really determines the combat effectiveness of an army is the fighting will and discipline of the soldiers, which do not require much money to maintain.

In short, the tens of millions of money and grain collected by Chongzhen were consumed by these two bottomless pits. Zhu Cilang, who did not have to bear such a deep pit and occupied an important tax-collecting area, naturally had no worries about having no money to spend.

Of course, although this money can easily maintain the operation of the small court, it would be a bit stretched if Zhu Cilang wanted to do something big.

Therefore, for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince at this stage, he has to increase revenue and reduce expenditure at the same time, and both hands must be strong.

"Go and inform Mr. Yue that we will head south tomorrow."

Although Zhu Cilang was in a trance, Ji Qingyuan was right beside him, and his words successfully pulled him out of his thoughts.

But to Ji Qingyuan's surprise, the Crown Prince did not respond to his words after turning around, but instead changed the subject to something completely different.

"Your Highness, this."

"what happened?"

According to common sense, Ji Qingyuan, a mere tutor of little importance, has no right to comment on any decision made by the Crown Prince.

However, it has only been eight or nine days since Zhu Cilang returned to Yingtian. Even though the Tartars have retreated to Jiangbei, they should not leave the center of power just like that.

In this situation, Ji Qingyuan, as Zhu Cilang's die-hard supporter, had to give frank advice even though he was worried.

"Your Highness, please forgive me. Yingtian is the secondary capital of the Ming Dynasty after all. Your long absence from the capital is bound to cause trouble."

Ji Qingyuan's words are of course very reasonable, but it depends on the time of day.

During the Taiping Festival, all military and political affairs had to be gathered in the capital first. Leaving the capital would be tantamount to handing over the center of the empire to others, and whether or not trouble would arise would naturally depend on a single thought.

But it’s different now.

Although Zhu Cilang held the title of the Crown Prince Regent of the Ming Dynasty, to be honest, he was actually doing the work of the Governor-General of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

It was such a small area that a fast horse could travel from north to south in two days at most. Moreover, the cabinet had just been established and the transmission of court affairs was still in the same chaotic state as before.

If you think about it this way, in fact, wherever His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is, that is the real center of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

"It doesn't matter. We still have to go to Zuo Menggeng and Wu Zhikui."

After hearing what Zhu Cilang said, Ji Qingyuan probably knew that it would be useless to persuade him, so after a little hesitation, he bowed and said that he was ready to leave the lobby of the Ministry of War.

But these few days were full of complicated things, and all kinds of thoughts kept surging in Zhu Cilang's mind. After Ji Qingyuan took two steps, he heard the voice of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince coming from behind.

"Only two or three hundred guards will be needed this time. Xiang Rensheng will stay in Yingtian to reorganize the troops."

"Your Highness, no!"

Seeing that Ji Qingyuan was gradually developing in the direction of Master Xu, Zhu Cilang felt a little helpless but had to explain patiently.

"Two or three hundred guards can fight even if there are more than a thousand surrendered soldiers. Moreover, we will have the support of Governor Yuan's troops in Wuhu. Are you still afraid of anything happening?"

"Your Highness! The safety of the Ming Dynasty rests in your hands. You must not act rashly!"

In Zhu Cilang's opinion, taking away too many guards would inevitably affect the progress of its reorganization and expansion. If there really was a change with Ding Kuichu, and the guards had not yet recovered their combat effectiveness, it would delay the progress to some extent.

But Ji Qingyuan's worries were not without reason. After the Battle of Wuhu, there were indeed many stragglers wandering in the wilderness. If they really encountered a large group of them, even the three or two hundred guards, no matter how powerful they were, would not be able to protect Zhu Cilang's safety.

It seems that both of them have their own reasons, but facing such a loyal and rogue minister, Zhu Cilang really has no way to deal with it.

Finally, he increased the number of guards to 500, and finally persuaded Ji Qingyuan, who was ready to die, to wake up. He finally took advantage of this opportunity to consider heading south.

(End of this chapter)