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

Chapter 603 Asking for Advice from Xue Guoguan

After receiving the order, Cao Huachun did not delay and bid farewell to Emperor Chongzhen the next day and left Beijing for Nanjing.

Because of Gao Yingxiang, Cao Huachun did not take the land route or go south along the Grand Canal to Nanjing this time. Instead, he went to Tianjin first and then took a ship south from Tianjin, first to Leiden, then along the coast to the mouth of the Yangtze River, passing Chongming Island and Songjiang Prefecture, and all the way to Nanjing.

Although this route is a bit bumpy at sea, it is relatively safe. Moreover, taking a boat is much faster than traveling by land, and it can also avoid bandits.

He asked Wang Chengen to escort Cao Huachun out of Beijing on his behalf. After the two left, Emperor Chongzhen frowned, not knowing what he was thinking. After a long time, he stood up, walked back and forth in the side hall a few times, then turned around and asked someone to call Xue Guoguan, the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet.

Xue Guoguan was a Jinshi in the late Wanli period and served as a Censor in the Household Department during the Tianqi period. However, as a censor at the time, he attached himself to Wei Zhongxian and cheered for him.

Later, Xue Guoguan was transferred to the Ministry of Justice and was promoted by Wei Zhongxian for his contribution in impeaching the Donglin Party. After the death of Emperor Tianqi and the ascension of Emperor Chongzhen, Xue Guoguan's good days were over. At that time, the eunuch party was being purged, and Xue Guoguan voluntarily resigned and returned home to save his life. Since he did not do many evil things under Wei Zhongxian and his official position was not high, and with the protection of his fellow townsmen and friends, he escaped the subsequent crisis.

In the third year of Chongzhen, the purge of the eunuch party came to an end. At this time, Emperor Chongzhen had come to his senses. He had been fooled by the Donglin Party and civil servants. As soon as he ascended the throne, he took action against Wei Zhongxian and eliminated a large number of officials in the name of purge of the eunuch party.

On the surface, it seemed to be a cleansing of the court and a solution to the eunuch party's scourge, but in reality it was an attack by the Donglin Party and other parties on the imperial party during the Tianqi period, and this attack was carried out with the help of the emperor.

The so-called eunuch party was the emperor's party. With the complete destruction of the eunuch party, the power of the emperor's party in the court shrank sharply. The Donglin Party and other parties that were severely cracked down by Wei Zhongxian revived, which led to the subsequent situation.

Emperor Chongzhen was not stupid. After being fooled, he thought he was a wise ruler. But after a long time, he realized what stupid things he had done.

But at this time Emperor Chongzhen was no longer able to do anything, because he had already killed Wei Zhongxian, and also killed or demoted Wei Zhongxian's followers. In addition, the power of the factory and the guards was greatly weakened, the imperial party had been suppressed by the Donglin Party and other parties, and the Silijian was not worthy of being used and could not be fully trusted. In desperation, Emperor Chongzhen could only go into battle himself.

Although he understood his mistake, Emperor Chongzhen's character made him unwilling to admit it. This is what it means to be stubborn and resistant.

In order to change these situations, Emperor Chongzhen could only use his imperial power to constantly adjust the cabinet, intending to rebuild a team of the imperial party to replace the Donglin Party and other parties in the court, but how easy is it to do so? After searching for a long time, Emperor Chongzhen finally took a fancy to Wen Tiren. Not long ago, he appointed Wen Tiren as the chief minister of the cabinet. Wen Tiren did not belong to the Donglin Party, nor did he have much connection with other parties. Moreover, Wen Tiren had always been a loner in the court, so he caught the eye of Emperor Chongzhen.

After Wen Tiren became the chief minister of the cabinet, Emperor Chongzhen did feel some changes. At least Wen Tiren agreed with him on many things and basically did not contradict him, which made Emperor Chongzhen somewhat relieved.

After Wen Tihen entered the cabinet, he recommended Xue Guoguan to Emperor Chongzhen. After learning about Xue Guoguan's situation, Emperor Chongzhen felt that this person could be used, so he recalled Xue Guoguan and then promoted him. Soon after, he was appointed as the Minister of Rites and concurrently the Grand Secretary of the Eastern Pavilion, and entered the cabinet as a cabinet minister.

About an hour later, Xue Guoguan arrived.

Emperor Chongzhen had Xue Guoguan brought in. Xue Guoguan entered the side hall and saluted Emperor Chongzhen first. Emperor Chongzhen offered him a seat. After he sat down, Emperor Chongzhen did not beat around the bush and directly asked him if he had any solutions to the current financial problems, especially the urgent issue of military expenditures.

This problem was the most urgent for Emperor Chongzhen. Cao Huachun brought 10,000 taels of silver to Nanjing, which was taken out by Emperor Chongzhen from the inner treasury. In recent years, the court was short of money everywhere. In order to maintain turnover, Emperor Chongzhen had taken several million taels of silver from the inner treasury one after another. In theory, this money should have been allocated by the Ministry of Revenue, but the Ministry of Revenue really had no money, so Emperor Chongzhen had to solve it himself.

The solution is to keep taking money out of the inner treasury, which will cause the originally rich inner treasury to shrink sharply. If this continues, even a mountain of gold and silver will be used up! What's more terrible is that the money is nominally lent to the Ministry of Revenue, but the problem is that the Ministry of Revenue will really return the money? This is simply impossible. Therefore, the money that Emperor Chongzhen took out is like a meat bun hitting a dog, and it will never come back. How can this continue?

Xue Guoguan never thought that Emperor Chongzhen called him here because of this matter. After hearing what he said, Xue Guoguan secretly groaned and felt like he was sitting on pins and needles.

"Your Majesty, although I am in the cabinet, I am only the Minister of Rites. Regarding the financial and taxation issues, why don't you invite Prime Minister Sun Ju to consult with him?" "Prince Sun Ju is busy with the Xiangyu incident and is not in the capital for the time being. I am talking to you about this matter in the same way. I know that you have been working in the Ministry of Revenue during the Tianqi period and are quite proficient in taxation. Now that you are a cabinet minister, you should take up the responsibility..."

As soon as these words were spoken, Xue Guoguan wanted to curse on the spot. As the Minister of Revenue, Sun Juxiang should be responsible for the court's lack of money. However, the emperor did not ask him but asked himself instead. He also flattered himself and said that he was a cabinet minister and should relieve the emperor's worries and take on this responsibility. It was simply outrageous.

Xue Guoguan did work in the Ministry of Revenue during the Tianqi period, but at that time he worked under Wei Zhongxian. Eunuch Wei was able to get the money because of his ability, and who in the world dared not give face to Eunuch Wei? The minions of the factory guards under Eunuch Wei were not for show. The gentry in Jiangnan, merchants from all over the country, including some aristocratic families, asked Eunuch Wei for money. If you gave it to him, it would be fine. If you didn't, haha, you would have to bear the consequences.

It was precisely because of Wei Zhongxian's strength and the support of Emperor Tianqi that he was able to collect taxes and get money. Xue Guoguan knew this situation too well when he was in the Ministry of Revenue, especially because Wei Zhongxian never attacked ordinary people, his targets were all rich people. This is why the aristocratic families hated Wei Zhongxian during the Tianqi period, but the common people remembered the good things about Eunuch Wei and even took the initiative to build a shrine for him.

Now Emperor Chongzhen brought this matter to him. Although he did not directly ask him to follow Wei Zhongxian's example and help the emperor get money, the meaning was the same. This kind of thing did not say whether Xue Guoguan could do it, but whether he could do it at all.

Xue Guoguan was not Wei Zhongxian, and Emperor Chongzhen was not Emperor Tianqi. Xue Guoguan could neither do nor dare to do such an offensive job! Thinking of Wei Zhongxian's miserable end, Xue Guoguan was frightened. But when he looked up, he saw Emperor Chongzhen looking at him expectantly. As a cabinet minister, he could not refuse. Once he refused directly, Emperor Chongzhen might get angry on the spot, and his official position would be over.

For a moment, beads of sweat oozed from Xue Guoguan's forehead. He even complained about why he had to enter the palace today. If he had known this would happen, he should have pretended to be sick when the palace sent a message asking him to enter the palace, and avoided it by saying that he was too sick to get up. But now, he has arrived at the Qianqing Palace and there is no way to hide.

"My dear Minister Xue! What's the matter? You don't want to do it? Or are you not capable of doing it?" After waiting for a while, seeing that Xue Guoguan still didn't speak, Emperor Chongzhen became a little unhappy and asked coldly.

Xue Guoguan came to his senses with a sudden realization and quickly stood up and said, "As a cabinet minister, I should serve Your Majesty. Moreover, finance is a national issue, so how can I refuse..."

After hearing his answer, Emperor Chongzhen's expression softened and he nodded slightly.

Xue Guoguan continued, "Since Your Majesty has asked, I would like to express my personal opinion. I absolutely support this matter. The current financial problem has indeed reached a very serious moment. At present, the military expenditure alone is not enough to cover the expenditure. The fact that we have been able to maintain it until now is completely supported by Your Majesty's inner treasury. However, if we continue like this, this is not the solution to the problem. I think we must reform taxes, save money and increase revenue to ease the current financial difficulties."

"Well, Mr. Xue, what you said makes sense. I also think so." Emperor Chongzhen's mood improved. He praised Xue Guoguan and then asked, "I wonder if Mr. Xue, what method do you have to relieve my worries?"

After saying this, Xue Guoguan knew that he had no way out. He now had only one choice, which was to come up with a solution according to the Emperor Chongzhen's wishes. But the solution was not so easy to come by. It was impossible to restore the tax collection to the period of Wei Zhongxian. The situation was different now. Even if the Emperor Tianqi and Wei Zhongxian were resurrected, it would take time to do this, not to mention that the Emperor Chongzhen was in power. It was Xue Guoguan who had to implement this matter.

The foundation and ability are different, it is impossible to do it. Moreover, this matter offended too many people, almost all the noble families of the Ming Dynasty, and the gentry and merchants in Jiangnan would also hate him to the core. The reason why Wei Zhongxian died and the eunuch party was destroyed was not because too many people were offended? Otherwise, why would so many people wish that Emperor Chongzhen would kill Wei Zhongxian to eliminate future troubles?

So Xue Guoguan knew very well that he would never do such a thing even if he was beaten to death. He did not want to become the second Wei Zhongxian.

But if he didn't do this, Xue Guoguan would not be able to explain to Emperor Chongzhen, especially since Emperor Chongzhen was a man of short temper and must have immediate results. It would not work to find excuses to shirk responsibility. Once Emperor Chongzhen felt that someone had deceived him, the consequences would be equally serious.

These thoughts kept turning around in Xue Guoguan's mind, but he couldn't think of a proper solution, and he became so anxious that more sweat appeared on his forehead.

"Someone come here!" Emperor Chongzhen suddenly shouted when he saw his appearance, and Xue Guoguan was so scared that he thought the emperor was impatient and wanted to punish him.

Just when he was feeling uneasy, the eunuch who was serving him responded, and Emperor Chongzhen said, "My dear Xue, don't worry. Just think about this matter slowly. I see that my dear Xue seems to be a little unwell due to his busy work on state affairs recently. I will give you a bowl of ginseng soup. My dear Xue, think about it carefully and answer it carefully..."

"Yes... yes... I thank Your Majesty..." Xue Guoguan felt bitter in his mouth. This ginseng soup was not tasty. It was obvious that Emperor Chongzhen was forcing him. If he didn't tell the truth today, not only would his career end, but he might also face a disaster. What should he do?
(End of this chapter)