Ming Dynasty: A mere unruly commoner is rebelling against the heaven?

Chapter 57 It’s really outrageous!

In the end, the amount of silver that needed to be raised was set at five million taels.

Five million taels of silver, this is more than the annual tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty.

But for the civil and military officials in the capital, they could still make up the amount by gritting their teeth and pooling their money.

Even if I don't have any money now, I can write a letter back to my hometown and ask people there to send the money to me.

The group of clan members in my hometown clan often used their name to run rampant in the village and make a lot of money.

Especially for officials whose hometowns are from several provinces in the south of the Yangtze River, five million silver is not a particularly large sum of money.

But this was an unexpected expense after all. If Xu Pu and the other two hadn't caused trouble, there would have been no need for them to spend money to avoid disaster.

Every senior official present was cursing Xu Pu, Liu Jian and Jia Jun to death in their hearts.

Xu Pu looked at everyone and began to distribute tasks.

"Let's distribute these five million taels of silver according to the departments."

"Our Ministry of Revenue will set an example and take 300,000 taels."

"Xixian, your Ministry of Rites should also express its stance."

Liu Jian covered his forehead in pain and said, "You all know the situation of the Ministry of Rites. It's a government office with little money. We will just... take 100,000 taels of silver."

"Tingjie, where is your Ministry of Industry?"

Xu Pu looked at Jia Jun, his eyes full of meaning: "Your Ministry of Industry is very lucrative, at least it can't be lower than our Ministry of Revenue, right?"

Jia Jun opened his mouth, but finally accepted his fate: "Then our Ministry of Industry will also receive 300,000 taels."

"Jingming?" Xu Pu nodded and looked at Wang Ji again.

Wang Ji said in a muffled voice: "We in the Dali Temple received 50,000 taels of silver, is there any more?"

"..."

Under the leadership of Xu Pu, five million taels of silver were distributed to the heads of the six ministries, nine ministers and other departments.

These chief officers would then raise money from their subordinates.

Five million taels of silver may seem like a lot, but each department was responsible for tens of thousands of taels, so it was quickly divided up.

"Since you have all received your respective tasks, I will not keep you here any longer. Go and collect the money quickly."

Xu Pu waved his hand, looking a little tired.

The other officials didn't say anything. They bowed to each other, exchanged a few polite words, and then left Xu Pu's house in silence.

What happened today was undoubtedly a huge blow to them.

In the following days, the chill of raising silver finally reached every official in the capital.

Under the butcher knife raised by Zhu Youtang and the pressure from the heads of various departments, every official reluctantly contributed some silver, more or less.

In just three days, five million taels of silver were collected and craftsmen began to work in the Forbidden City.

The main materials that are not available in the warehouse, such as large nanmu trees, have to be transported to the capital from the southwestern provinces.

Even if it is transported by water, it will take several months to transport all of it.

According to the construction schedule estimated by the Minister of Works Jia Jun, the Hall of Mental Cultivation will be built the fastest and will probably be completed in the early spring of next year.

The repair of the three main halls of Fengtian will have to wait until next summer, when all the nanmu wood has been transported.

The reconstruction of Xiyuan will take at least three years to complete.

……

Qianqing Palace.

Zhu Youtang held the secret letter from Dongchang in his hand and sneered.

"Okay, Jia Jun dared to ask me for 6 million taels for something that could be done with 1.2 million taels of silver."

"He even said confidently that Liu Zhao asked the late emperor for eight million taels to repair the three main halls of Fengtian."

"It's really outrageous!"

Zhu Youtang threw the secret letter in his hand heavily to the ground, with murderous intent boiling in his heart.

The secret letter thrown on the ground clearly recorded every word that every official said at Xu Pu's house that day. Jia Jun's shameless remarks were beyond Zhu Youtang's imagination, and he had already started to kill him.

However, Jia Jun is currently in charge of the construction of the imperial palace, so he cannot be killed for the time being.

It won’t be too late to take action against him until he has finished repairing the palace.

The level of corruption in the Ministry of Works is truly outrageous. They even dared to embezzle money from the emperor.

And this situation continued until the end of the Ming Dynasty.

In the 25th year of the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty, the three main halls, which had been renamed from the Fengtian Hall to the Huangji Hall, were burned down again.

At that time, the Ministry of Works quoted Emperor Shenzong a price of 15 million taels, but Emperor Shenzong thought it was too expensive and the bridge was never repaired.

The three dark halls lasted from the 25th year of Wanli to the first year of Tianqi.

After Emperor Xizong ascended the throne, he felt that the three main halls looked ugly in such a dilapidated state, so he decided to renovate them.

As a result, the Ministry of Works had experience this time and was afraid of scaring the emperor again, so it offered a price of 8.5 million taels of silver.

Emperor Xizong still felt it was expensive. Coincidentally, Emperor Xizong had some talent in carpentry, so he hired someone to supervise the construction of the three main halls.

By the seventh year of the Tianqi reign, after the three main halls were completed, the cost was only 3.5 million taels of silver.

The civil officials hated Emperor Xizong for not giving them the opportunity to make money, so they gave him the nickname "Carpenter Emperor".

This peace lasted for four hundred years.

In the same year, Emperor Xizong passed away.

……

In the Qianqing Palace, Huai En, the director of the East Factory, was waiting respectfully.

Seeing Zhu Youtang throw the secret letter to the ground, he hurried forward and picked up the secret letter.

Zhu Youtang stood with his hands behind his back: "Keep watching the Ministry of Works. I want to see if they dare to play any tricks."

"Here."

After Huai En agreed, he raised his eyes and looked at Zhu Youtang carefully.

"His Majesty……"

Huai En had words on his lips several times, but he didn't know how to start.

Zhu Youtang turned his head and his deep and cold eyes fell on Huai En.

"Ok?"

Huai En lowered his head quickly, not daring to look him in the eye.

Zhu Youtang looked away again: "Go, call Wang Zhi to me."

"Here."

Huai'en quickly left the Qianqing Palace, and soon Wang Zhi walked in.

"I am here to see you, Your Majesty."

"Get up, I asked you to keep an eye on the Hongzhi treasure notes, how is the situation?"

"Your Majesty, the progress of the promotion of Hongzhi Baochao in the capital is encouraging."

Wang Zhi lowered his head slightly and told the story slowly.

"Because all officials in the capital and their families had to use Hongzhi Baochao, Hongzhi Baochao was circulated rigidly in the hands of officials, and they even had to pay a high price to buy the notes."

"In addition, Hongzhi Baochao can be exchanged for silver at will, so the people have no objection to Hongzhi Baochao."

"In the beginning, only officials used treasure notes to buy goods from merchants. After the merchants received the treasure notes, they immediately went to the branch in the capital to exchange them for silver."

"But now, some businesses and people are directly using treasure notes for transactions."

"Because the treasure notes are easy to use, many merchants keep some of them and do not immediately exchange them for silver."

"The people of the capital are gradually accepting the Hongzhi treasure notes."

"I believe that after a while, more than half of the people in the capital will use Hongzhi Baochao."

(End of this chapter)