Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 208 Scolding
A side hall of the Qianqing Palace.

The Tianqi Emperor, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was doing carpentry work with great interest. The eunuch Wei Zhongxian, the number one person in the inner court, was busy like a handyman, helping to pass things here and there.

Finally, the last mortise and tenon was connected, and a smile appeared on Emperor Tianqi's face. He put down the tools in his hands, took a few steps back, and admired the finished product in front of him with great joy.

This is a bed, but it is different from ordinary beds. It is not as tall as a bunk bed, nor as exquisite as other beds in the palace. Instead, it is somewhat similar to two low tables put together, with six legs underneath and the upper bed board can be moved left and right, and it is placed there steadily.

"Wei Banban, how is my cooking skill?" Emperor Tianqi looked around and asked Wei Zhongxian with a smile.

"Your Majesty's craftsmanship is truly impeccable. Only Your Majesty can make this bed. I think Your Majesty's skills are no less than those of the ancient Lu Ban, and even better." Wei Zhongxian gave a thumbs up and flattered him, making clicking sounds in his mouth. He walked around the bed, looking left and right, and sighed.

"Hahaha, how can I compare to the ancient Gongshu? I just had a sudden idea to try it out, but I didn't really make it." Emperor Tianqi laughed and was in a good mood. He was not wrong. A few days ago, when he was fiddling with woodworking, he suddenly thought of a way. The more he thought about it, the more he thought it was worth a try. So, he asked someone to find the wood, and after two days of hard work, he finally made what he wanted to make.

"I don't think so. I have never seen Lu Ban, but I have seen the emperor's craftsmanship clearly. This bed may look inconspicuous, but it is the first bed in the world with this function. If Lu Ban could make it, why hasn't it been seen for thousands of years, but was created by the emperor? This is enough to show that the emperor's ability has surpassed Lu Ban." Wei Zhongxian continued to flatter him with a smile.

Emperor Tianqi was even happier after hearing this, but he still spoke a few humble words.

But Wei Zhongxian knew what Emperor Tianqi was thinking. Over the years, he had already understood Tianqi's character very well. He immediately added, "The bed made by Your Majesty is not simple. It is exquisite and unique. More importantly, it can be folded and easily moved away by one person. It is very convenient for home use or traveling. In addition, I think it can also be used in the army. After all, marching and fighting are inconvenient, but with this bed it will be different. It seems that the things made by Your Majesty can also be used in the military. Your Majesty is kind and cares about the soldiers in the army. He specially developed this thing for the army. I, on behalf of the millions of soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, thank Your Majesty for your kindness..." As he spoke, Wei Zhongxian knelt down directly in front of Emperor Tianqi and kowtowed.

"You, you only know how to say nice things to make me happy." Emperor Tianqi was overjoyed and shook his head repeatedly, pointing at Wei Zhongxian who was kneeling in front of him.

However, even though he said this, the smile on his face became even wider. People always like to hear nice things. Even though Emperor Tianqi knew in his heart that Wei Zhongxian's words were just flattery to him, the key was that he felt comfortable listening to them.

In addition, what Wei Zhongxian said just now was also true. The folding bed he designed was indeed very useful. It was easier to carry and use than ordinary beds. Although it was definitely not as comfortable as traditional beds such as bunk beds, it was very practical to use in the wild.

Even in the army, it can be carried during the march, and when setting up camp, it can be unfolded and turned into a bed for sleeping without much effort. However, Emperor Tianqi was not ignorant. In the army, such a bed can be used, but it is not for ordinary soldiers. At best, only generals can use it. In addition, once the war is tense, who cares about these things? Usually, they just sleep on the floor and rest casually. Who would specially get a bed?

Emperor Tianqi also thought of this. This bed did have its uses, but he was clear about it, as Wei Zhongxian had said.

"Since Wei Banban likes it, I will give you this bed as a reward."

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your reward..." Wei Zhongxian was overjoyed and kowtowed to Emperor Tianqi again. Seeing that he was kowtowing endlessly, Tianqi waved his hand for him to get up and told him to take the bed with him when he left.

After working for a long time, Tianqi was a little tired. He wiped the sweat off his face with a towel, drank some tea, and asked Wei Zhongxian about some political affairs.

Wei Zhongxian was waiting on the side, answering the questions of Emperor Tianqi fluently, which made Emperor Tianqi very satisfied. However, when asked about financial issues, after listening to Wei Zhongxian's answer, Emperor Tianqi frowned slightly.

The Ming Dynasty's finances had always been tight, and this had always been a problem. During the Ming Dynasty's 200-year period, when Zhang Juzheng was the Prime Minister, he carried out reforms that reversed the financial problems and made the Ming treasury more abundant.

But after Zhang Juzheng's death, the new policy was shelved and finances soon became tight again. In order to solve this problem, the Wanli Emperor dispatched mine supervisors and tax supervisors from the palace to the local areas, using eunuchs to collect taxes to alleviate financial problems.

Although this approach was effective and did greatly alleviate the financial problems faced, Wanli's actions actually affected the interests of the civil service group and local gentry, and was therefore called "competing with the people for profits."

Because of this, the Wanli Emperor had always had conflicts with the civil service group. The civil service group repeatedly asked the Wanli Emperor to abolish the mining and tax supervision, but how could the Wanli Emperor give up? Although he agreed verbally, he actually kept delaying it until the Wanli Emperor passed away, when the system was completely abolished.

After Emperor Taichang ascended the throne, he directly abolished the mining and taxation supervisors, which was applauded by the court. But the problem was that after the mining and taxation supervisors were abolished, the finances of the Ming court plummeted. The reason was simple. The tax rate of the Ming Dynasty was originally low, especially the commercial tax was even lower. In addition, the interests of the civil service group and the local gentry group colluded, and tax exemption, tax evasion, and tax evasion were everywhere.

In the past, because there were mining supervisors and tax supervisors, these taxes could be collected, but now this system has been abolished, and naturally there are no taxes. The amount of money in and out is a huge amount, it would be strange if the finances are not tight. Apart from the tax problem, there is the military expenditure of Liaodong and the nine borders.

Because the Later Jin and Jiannu rose in Liaodong, Liaodong had been at war for years, and had suffered three major defeats in succession. Now it has lost all the Liaodong territory east of Shanhaiguan. In order to deal with the Later Jin and Jiannu, the Ming Dynasty had to spend a lot of money to reorganize the army in order to wipe out the Later Jin and Jiannu and recover Liaodong.

Xiong Tingbi and Wang Huazhen were not up to the task, and the Tianqi Emperor had sent his teacher Sun Chengzong to Liaodong to supervise the army. Because of the previous defeat, the Liaodong army also needed to be reorganized. In addition, Sun Chengzong had a private talk with the Tianqi Emperor before leaving Beijing, suggesting that the current defense should be taken as defense, and the defense line should be arranged at Shanhaiguan, and then military forts should be gradually built east of Shanhaiguan, so as to steadily advance and change the situation in Liaodong.

This suggestion was approved by Emperor Tianqi, but it would require a large amount of military funding to achieve this. Zang Er, the left assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue, estimated that the annual military expenditure in Liaodong would be as high as 10 million taels of silver, with 300,000 troops stationed and military forts built. How could the court afford such a large sum of money?
Emperor Tianqi did not have much silver at his disposal. Last year, which was the first year of the Tianqi reign, the fiscal revenue of the entire Ming Dynasty was 7.55 million taels. According to the estimate of the Ministry of Revenue, Liaodong alone would require 10 million taels of military expenditure and other expenses. Even if the entire fiscal revenue was used to fill the gap, there would still be a shortfall of 2.73 million taels.

For this purpose, Emperor Tianqi had taken out 1.3 million taels from the treasury for emergency relief and allocated it to the Ministry of Revenue. However, the money in the treasury was the emperor's private money, which was accumulated by Emperor Wanli over many years. If the financial problem was not solved, Emperor Tianqi could not always pay for it himself, right?

"Does the Ministry of Revenue have any solution to this problem?" asked Emperor Tianqi.

Wei Zhongxian said: "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Revenue did give some advice."

"Oh, tell me about it."

Wei Zhongxian immediately reported the Ministry of Revenue's plan to solve the financial problem to Emperor Tianqi. The Ministry of Revenue proposed a total of ten solutions.

It would be too long to list these ten methods one by one, so they can be summarized into just a few aspects.

It involves the inner treasury, increasing taxes, collecting overdue taxes, checking farmland, soliciting donations from royal family members, nobles and relatives, and reaching out to local authorities, etc.

After listening to Wei Zhongxian's report, Emperor Tianqi looked very ugly. Among the ten suggestions given by the Ministry of Revenue, except for the ones about recovering old local taxes, tax deeds, and checking military farms, grasslands, and reed taxes, the rest were nonsense.

In particular, they directly put most of the pressure on him as the emperor, stared at his inner treasury and palace treasury, and tricked him into using his private money to fill the gap in the Ministry of Revenue, which was extremely unscrupulous.

As for asking everyone to contribute money for fundraising, it is even more impossible. No matter whether it is donations from royal family members, nobles, or prefectures and counties, this method is impossible to do. Once this is done, will he still have the face to be the emperor?
As for increasing tariffs, it also has both advantages and disadvantages. Emperor Tianqi knew very well what kind of people the officials in the court were like and what they were thinking. Once the emperor issued an order to increase the local tariff by one tael, those people below would dare to collect ten taels, and most of the money would be embezzled by them. In addition, with the "embezzlement" practice of various government offices, it would be good if they could finally get any of the money.

Moreover, once this was done, his reputation as an emperor would be ruined. Tianqi did not want to do this unless it was absolutely necessary.

"Apart from these, is there no other way?"

"Your Majesty, these are the ten points proposed by the Ministry of Revenue, but I do have some other ideas..."

"Oh, what can you do?"

Wei Zhongxian approached Emperor Tianqi like a lackey and suggested that since it was difficult to collect taxes at the lower levels and the local officials including the court officials were all aware of the situation, it would be better to follow the example of the Wanli period and send tax inspectors to solve the problem.

In addition, mining can also solve the tax problem. As long as more mines are opened, the court will have more income, so there is no need to use the emperor's private money and increase tariffs. The Ming Dynasty is not short of money, the key problem is that it cannot collect money. As long as this problem is solved, it will not be difficult to fill the fiscal gap.

After hearing what Wei Zhongxian said, the Emperor Tianqi's face darkened. He looked at Wei Zhongxian and asked, "How did you come up with these ideas? Don't you know that the mining and taxation supervisors harm the people and are evil policies? The previous emperor had already issued an order to abolish them. Now you are bringing up the old matter again. Wei Zhongxian, you are so bold!"

(End of this chapter)