Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 56: How can we let down our sage king?

What Zhu Houcong found was a memorial from Chen Jin, the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate.

According to Chen Jin's report, the border towns of the Ming Dynasty were seriously short of military pay and the people needed relief, so he requested that the property confiscated from the two rebels Qian Ning and Jiang Bin be used to give each town 500,000 taels of silver, and double the amount to Xuanfu.

The Ming Dynasty had nine border towns.

This means that five million taels of silver will have to be issued all at once as military pay.

This is a huge expense.

It’s almost to the point of emptying the national treasury’s silver reserves.

and…

This will undoubtedly require replenishment from the internal treasury.

It was obvious that they were targeting Zhu Houcong's treasury!
Because according to Zhu Houcong's understanding of history, the Chen and Jin dynasties' demands for military pay were not because the various border areas were really in serious need of military pay, but they were actually taking the opportunity to blackmail the imperial court.

After all, he was a small vassal who had just succeeded to the throne and had no foundation in the military, so it was a perfect time to blackmail him.

According to the cases of wage shortages in Ming Dynasty history, when the various sides were really short of money to the point where they needed hundreds of thousands of taels to solve the problem, they would have mutinied long ago.

Either the governor or the general will be killed.

That's right.

The border soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were never so docile.

There were many rebellions and killings of officials due to problems such as lack of pay.

Historically, there was a Datong Incident in the early Jiajing period.

However, the Datong Incident was not caused by unpaid wages, but by the officers' harsh treatment of border soldiers.

In short.

The border troops of the Ming Dynasty are no better than the garrison troops in the interior.

They could tolerate a temporary lack of pay, but a group of soldiers on the frontier would never endure being owed hundreds of thousands of taels of military pay without saying a word.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong was very sure that Chen Jin was extorting protection money from him on behalf of the civil officials of various border governors and even the military generals who were bribed by the civil officials.

However, Zhu Houcong had only been on the throne for less than a month and did not yet have a strong central army of his own.

The Beijing camp does not have enough troops.

What's more, he hasn't really taken control of the Beijing camp yet.

Therefore, he had to pay the money no matter how reluctant he was. Otherwise, what might be waiting for him was that Altan Khan would successfully enter the pass ahead of schedule, plunder the capital ahead of schedule, and eliminate the more than 200,000 soldiers and civilians he had just resettled.

That is the foundation of his future.

Naturally, he would not accept the premature annihilation of more than 200,000 soldiers and civilians.

But Zhu Houcong did not intend to give it away for free. He had to take this opportunity to make Liang Chu make some compromises with him.

After all, Liang Chu is easier to talk to than Yang Tinghe, and there are many things they can discuss.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong wanted to see Liang Chu again.

However, Liang Chu was not in the cabinet at this time, but went to Yang's house.

Liang Chu already knew about this because Chen Jin had submitted a memorial asking for money on behalf of the governors and civil officials in charge of military defense in various border areas.

After all, the memorial must first be approved by the cabinet.

The governors and governors-general who were in charge of military defense in each border area, that is, the civil officials who held the military power in each border area, were all officials holding the title of Chief Censor or Deputy Chief Censor of the Censorate, so Chen Jin could ask for money on behalf of these governors and governors-general.

However, Chen Jin asked for five million taels of silver for these governors and civil servants at once.

Liang Chu and other central government officials were reluctant to let him go.

You have to know that after the salt administration reform in the Hongzhi Dynasty, the annual income of the Taicang warehouse silver planned to be used for military pay was only two million taels.

But now military expenditures have soared to more than three million taels.

The deficit amounted to more than one million taels every year!

Every year the imperial court had to struggle to make up for the shortfall by transferring funds from other treasuries.

But if this happens, other departments will also be short of money, and the execution of other government affairs will be delayed.

For example, controlling floods and building river embankments, providing disaster relief and preventing pirates.

Especially water control.

In the Ming Empire, where agricultural production is the main focus, this is a civil affair that cannot be delayed.

As important as border defense!
Any delay will lead to a sharp drop in productivity and cause large-scale famine. If natural disasters and man-made disasters are added, civil unrest will be common.

In the 15th year of Zhengde, there was a flood in the 15 prefectures of Huguang and the Yellow River in Huaiyang, which caused widespread famine and even cannibalism. This was because investment in public infrastructure such as water conservancy projects had not kept up in previous years, resulting in large-scale bankruptcy of the fragile small peasant economy when there were floods and droughts.

Therefore, Liang Chu originally thought that the silver obtained after the confiscation of property, even if part of it was used to supplement the national treasury, should be saved first to make up for the deficit, control the river, and provide disaster relief.

But now, the property of Jiang Bin and others has not been confiscated yet, and Chen Jin is asking for 5 million taels on behalf of all the border areas at once, which means that the national treasury is still in an empty state, and there is still no question of allowing the court to have more financial resources to repair people's livelihood.

Normally, every time a new emperor ascended the throne, the officials would ask for money on behalf of the various factions. After all, when a new emperor ascended the throne, he had to give some gifts to win the hearts of the troops.

However, when Zhu Houcong ascended the throne, Chen Jin's demands were too harsh, so harsh that even the cabinet ministers, who were also civil officials, felt that it was excessive.

Of course, this is also related to Chen Jin’s own greed.

Historically, when he was in charge of military affairs in Guangdong and Jiangxi, he was impeached for being extremely greedy. In order to make money, he allowed local soldiers to slaughter and plunder the people of Guangdong and Guangxi in the name of suppressing bandits, and then divided the looted money. Chen Jin also used the money he robbed from the local people to bribe the ruling officials in the court, and then he was promoted step by step. Now he is the chief censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and one of the nine ministers.

Chen Jin also knew that he was too greedy for fame and would be dismissed from office, so he thought about making a fortune before leaving office.

Therefore, Liang Chu had to come to Yang Tinghe, hoping that Yang Tinghe would come forward and persuade Chen Jin and the Three Borders General Peng Ze to ask for less military pay.

Because Chen Jin and Peng Ze were both Yang Tinghe's disciples.

"The treasury is empty, and there are still so many disaster victims who need relief. You know this, Master. How can it be appropriate for them to ask for so much at this time?"

"You should write to Lord Peng and ask them to show some sympathy for the imperial court."

Liang Chu said to Yang Tinghe with a sad face.

Yang Tinghe looked at Liang Chu and said without hesitation: "You should agree to them!"

Liang Chu was startled after hearing this: "Why?"

"To decide on a great gift!"

Yang Tinghe suddenly looked at Liang Chu seriously.

Liang Chu couldn't help but ask, "Just for the sake of discussing the grand ceremony, are you really going to sit back and watch them split the five million taels of silver?"

"You should know the priorities clearly. The key at this moment is to agree on the grand ceremony, so the Nine Frontiers cannot be in chaos. We must stabilize them!"

Yang Tinghe said.

Liang Chu clapped his hands and said, "But now the Ministry of Revenue has also requested to reduce the grain tax in Jiangnan by 1.5 million dan to relieve the people's hardship. The nine frontiers are going to take another 5 million taels. Do we still need to provide relief to the victims in Huaiyang and Huguang? Do we still need to control the Yellow River that has flooded Henan, Huguang, and Huaiyang?"

Without waiting for Yang Tinghe's answer, Liang Chu took the initiative to say, "It seems that we can only agree to Jiangnan's request to reduce the grain tax."

Yang Tinghe immediately replied: "No!"

Then, Yang Tinghe looked at Liang Chu and said, "As I said before, the ceremony is the most important thing, and it is not advisable to cause trouble in the north or the south!"

"Then should the court still continue to live, and should the people of the world still be taken care of?"

Liang Chu looked up at Yang Tinghe, trying his best to suppress the anger in his heart.

"Can you please transfer the money from the treasury?"

Yang Tinghe said with a smile.

When Liang Chu heard what Yang Tinghe said, he couldn't help but think of the scene where Zhu Houcong had questioned in front of their cabinet ministers, saying that they did not care about people's livelihood and only cared about whether they could get the emperor's treasury.

"The treasury is also taken from the people's blood and sweat. How can we spend it at will? As long as Your Majesty does not squander the treasury and keeps it for emergency use, shouldn't we in the outer court not demand it from the emperor and father?"

Liang Chu asked.

Yang Tinghe suddenly frowned: "Your Majesty is a saintly and benevolent ruler. How could you sit back and watch the common people suffer? Therefore, this move will only cause the palace's favorites to resent. If you dare not offend the palace's favorites, you can stay here. When I recover from my illness and return to the cabinet, I will fight for the people of the world!"

"That's fine."

Liang Chu sighed secretly, then left Yang's house.

Yang Tinghe looked at Liang Chu's back and smiled.

After Liang Chu returned to the cabinet, he saw Jiang Mian and Mao Ji coming here.

Liang Chu then asked Jiang Mian, "How was your attempt to persuade Ling Weng?"

Jiang Mian is Chen Jin's son-in-law, so Liang Chu also asked Jiang Mian to persuade Chen Jin.

Jiang Mian shook his head and said, "My father-in-law said that he had no other options. The governors and generals of the frontiers were all appointed by the former Grand Marshal Lu Wanshi, and they are all greedy people. So my father-in-law had no other options. He also said that fortunately, Your Majesty is kind and benevolent. He only hopes that the ministers will persuade Your Majesty to spend the treasury and endure the difficulties for a while."

Snapped!
Liang Chu suddenly slapped the table, stood up, and said in a trembling voice: "I knew that they would all target Your Majesty!"

"It's the same old trick of making good people suffer."

"Because Your Majesty is kind, let Your Majesty suffer more injustice."

"Will Your Majesty continue to be a benevolent ruler in the future?!"

Liang Chu then began to question Jiang Mian and Mao Ji.

Jiang Mian and Mao Ji both remained silent.

Liang Chu sat back down, took off his official hat, placed it on the table, picked up a fan, fanned himself and panted: "I lost my composure."

"But the teachings of the sages really don't apply in this way. A minister is like a son, and a monarch is like a father. There is no reason in the world for a son to let his parents suffer injustice!"

"We cannot always let benevolent rulers and loyal ministers suffer losses. If we do so, who will be willing to be a benevolent ruler and loyal minister? It will only encourage evildoers to wreak havoc on the country and the people."

"We have finally met such a holy emperor who loves his people like a son, works hard to govern the country, and trusts us civil officials. How can we treat him like this!"

Liang Chu said rather unfairly.

Mao Ji came over at this time and said, "His Majesty just ordered you to come to the palace to see the emperor. I had no choice but to tell you the truth. You went to see the Grand Tutor, so I ordered him to come back and let us ministers see the emperor together."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

Liang Chu reprimanded him, then immediately put down his fan, took the official hat from Jiang Mian, put it on, and said, "Go and see the emperor."

"Prince, be careful!"

Mao Ji saw Liang Chu almost fell down because of the threshold, so he hurried over to help him.

(End of this chapter)