Ming Dynasty: Traveling through the harem, Zhu Yuanzhang was dumbfounded

Chapter 65 Seventy million taels of silver
As Yang Chen explained in detail, Zhu Yuanzhang and others were greatly shocked.

A wall of silver might not be all of his property. There must be even greater wealth behind the wall.

All these things are the property of a father-in-law of the emperor.

Gold, jewelry, valuable calligraphy and paintings, thousands of acres of fertile land, if all these things were converted into silver, I'm afraid it would definitely reach several million taels!

This money is enough to build an army of tens of thousands of people!

However, such a guy was unwilling to give even one percent of it when faced with Emperor Chongzhen's kneeling begging.

This is enough to show how bad the situation of the Ming Dynasty was at that time.

It vividly shows the demise of a government.

"Damn it! These guys all deserve to die!"

A cruel expression appeared on Zhu Yuanzhang's gloomy face. He hated rebels like Li Zicheng, but he hated people like Zhou Kui who abused their power to embezzle and accept bribes even more.

"So how much money did Li Zicheng get from these corrupt officials after being tortured?"

Things have come to this point and the overall situation is difficult to change. Zhu Yuanzhang did not want to know the rest of the story. He only wanted to know why those officials pretended to be pitiful when facing his descendants.

In front of a ruthless man like Li Zicheng, is there anyone who would hide the truth?

Yang Chen looked at the three people, his mouth corners slightly raised, and said with a smile:

"A father-in-law of the emperor has collected several million taels of silver. So guess how much money Li Zicheng got?"

"Could it be that the total is thirty million taels of silver?"

Zhu Biao gave his answer in confusion. In his opinion, this number was already very large.

During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, from the founding of the country to the present, some areas have indeed suffered from drought. For example, their hometown Fengyang has experienced drought nine out of ten years.

I don’t know what the special reason is, but the climate in these places is very extreme, resulting in a not very satisfactory harvest.

Fortunately, after Zhu Yuanzhang came to power, he built water conservancy projects in his hometown and, by digging wells and diverting canals, many disasters were alleviated.

Since the founding of the country, the Ming Dynasty's treasury income, including taxes and so on, has fluctuated around an average of 30 million taels of silver each year.

Therefore, the number Zhu Biao mentioned was within his scope of knowledge.

Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Di and Zhu Biao himself looked at Yang Chen, wanting to know whether this answer was correct.

But I got a negative response from the other party.

"wrong."

"Did I say too little? Could it be that it's not thirty million, but fifty million taels?"

Zhu Biao subconsciously increased the amount by nearly half. Such a large amount of money was already considered quite huge.

If we are unlucky, the treasury’s revenue may not reach 50 million in two years.

Seeing that the other party still hadn't guessed the correct answer, Yang Chen could only smile and say:

“Prince, you really underestimate the corruption capabilities of these ministers. As far as I know, the Ming Dynasty already allowed maritime trade at that time.

Therefore, the land of Ming Dynasty became a place where many Westerners came to seek gold. They coveted our porcelain, silk, tea, lacquerware and other items.

Any one of these things would be exclusive to the royal family in their country, and the price would be more than ten times higher if they were resold.

Long-term trade exchanges allowed all the silver in the world to flow into the Ming Dynasty.

However, it was obvious that these silvers were circumvented through loopholes and successfully avoided taxation, and eventually flowed into the hands of officials and wealthy classes.

The amount of silver that Li Zicheng extracted from the officials by torture alone reached an astonishing 70 million taels of silver! This is still an underestimate. "When Yang Chen said the amount of silver, three hissing sounds of people gasping for air suddenly appeared in the room.

Zhu Di was completely surprised by this number.

Not to mention 70 million taels of silver, as a vassal king, he didn't even have 700,000 taels of silver on hand. If he really wanted to get so much money, he had to sell land.

But without land, he is no longer a vassal king.

Zhu Biao and Lao Zhu were already shocked.

They were not surprised that 70 million taels of silver was too much, but that the gap between this 70 million and the 200,000 that Chongzhen obtained was too huge.

As his emotions accumulated, Zhu Yuanzhang's face became increasingly ferocious.

"Did these people get their money by taking advantage of our loopholes?"

Looking at Zhu Yuanzhang's still unbelieving expression, Yang Chen spread his hands.

"Although I know that Your Majesty is reluctant to believe it, this is the fact. In the late Ming Dynasty, after years of practical experience, the ministers and officials have already found all the problems in your ancestral precepts.

If Chongzhen had been smarter, bolder, and not afraid of going against his ancestors’ teachings and changing their ancestral precepts, then perhaps there might have been hope.

But Chongzhen was weak in character. He had never learned how to handle state affairs, so he could only believe whoever told him to do something, like the last prime minister Wei Zaode.

This guy has no ability at all, but he became the Prime Minister of the Cabinet by relying on his eloquence.

Chongzhen was stunned, but the others were in trouble. Once they were suspected, they would be imprisoned and eventually die unjustly. "

Having said this, Zhu Yuanzhang felt extremely depressed. He didn't know who to blame for a while.

Blame Chongzhen?
He was forced to become emperor, and no one taught him anything about how to be an emperor. It was a miracle that he could last for seventeen years.

Blame yourself?
If he had not established ancestral precepts, perhaps his descendants would not have suffered so much, but in his opinion, he was doing it for the good of future generations.

Plus it was just his personality, how could he possibly blame himself?

After calming down a little, Zhu Yuanzhang quickly changed the subject.

"If that's the case, then after Li Zicheng enters the capital, will he replace the Ming Dynasty and become the next dynasty?"

After saying this, Zhu Yuanzhang had already exhausted all his strength.

Tired, too tired, he had never felt so exhausted communicating with others.

But when he actually said it, he felt it was very normal.

Because he could feel through Yang Chen's narration that the Ming Dynasty during the Chongzhen period was really terrible.

It's rotten to the core, and a drastic measure must be taken to save it. To put it bluntly, unless a wise and powerful founding emperor sits in Chongzhen's position.

Otherwise, no one can save the Ming Dynasty.

The people can’t even get enough food to eat. It’s better for such a country to perish on the spot than to linger on.

"After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng did establish his own regime in the capital. However, within less than a month, his regime was destroyed by others."

When Yang Chen said this, he realized that after Li Zicheng captured Beijing, it was not long before the Qing army entered the pass.

Before this guy had time to consolidate his position, Wu Sangui and Dorgon led a coalition of Mongolian, Manchu and Han peoples who broke into Beijing from the north.

Then Li Zicheng was killed, and the fruits of victory in overthrowing the Ming Dynasty were stolen by the Qing army. Yang Chen answered while thinking, causing his voice to sound a little incoherent.

This aroused Zhu Yuanzhang's doubts.

(End of this chapter)