I was compiling the daily records during the Wanli reign

Chapter 244 Street Robbery! Whose 50,000 taels of silver is this?

Early in the morning on the 27th day of the first lunar month.

Emperor Wanli (the young emperor) ordered the Ministry of Rites to investigate the unauthorized marriage of members of the imperial clan in Jinan Prefecture. He demanded that the false imperial clan members be stripped of their titles and names, and that the genuine imperial clan members be reprimanded, with severe punishment for any further offenses.

at the same time.

Under the pretext of revising the "Regulations on Imperial Clan Affairs," Emperor Wanli ordered the Ministry of Rites to select senior members of the imperial clan who were well-regarded among the people to gather in Beijing from April 25th to May 1st to address the current problems faced by the imperial clan.

Some members of the imperial family near the capital were both happy and worried upon hearing the news.

Some wealthy emperors felt that the court might once again strip them of their privileges and benefits, while some poor emperors felt that relying on the court's gradually decreasing annual stipends was no longer enough to make a living, and that it would be better to let them openly and honestly make a living on their own.

The current royal family members are all tigers whose teeth and claws have been worn down.

They dared to act arrogantly in the provinces, but when they came to the capital, no one dared to bare their teeth at the imperial court.

Shen Nian believed that, in order to avoid the number of imperial clan members reaching one million in the future, the young Wanli Emperor would definitely be inclined to approve the three strategies proposed by Wang Xijue.

……

Early morning, the first day of the second lunar month.

In the capital, the spring chill lingered.

Shen Nian sat in the lecture hall of the Hanlin Academy, preparing lecture notes for the young Wanli Emperor and the Prince of Lu.

At the beginning of the new year, officials in the capital were very serious and hardworking in their work.

The story of Wang Xijue presenting a line graph during a court debate, leaving all the officials speechless, has become a popular anecdote throughout the court and among the public.

This is the difference between putting in a lot of effort and not putting in any effort.

In future court debates, many officials will surely slip in such notes, since facts speak louder than words, and solid evidence is enough to shut up the stubborn mouths of countless officials who are harder than a dead duck.

Near noon.

Just as Shen Nian was busy, she suddenly received a notification from the cabinet.

Because both the young Wanli Emperor and the Prince of Lu developed rashes and needed to take medicine and rest, the regular court sessions and daily lectures on scriptures in February were all cancelled.

After making inquiries, Shen Nian learned that the rash on the young Wanli Emperor and the Prince of Lu was not serious and was not life-threatening. However, it was prone to recurrence and contagion, so the two needed to rest.

The young Wanli Emperor was not only forbidden from leaving his home and attending to state affairs, but even his sexual relations had to be suspended.

at the same time.

The traditional spring plowing ceremony, originally scheduled for the second day of the second lunar month, will also be cancelled.

In his memorial to the throne, Zhang Juzheng stated that the ceremony of spring plowing at the imperial field required Emperor Wanli to plow the field and then sit on an open-air platform to watch officials and commoners finish plowing the field. However, the fields were now empty and the spring chill had not yet dissipated. This practice would worsen Emperor Wanli's condition, so it was canceled.

Little Wanli readily agreed.

At this time, some sycophantic officials claimed that the ceremony of spring plowing at the imperial field symbolized a year of favorable weather and abundant harvests, and should not be canceled. They suggested that if the young Wanli Emperor was unable to attend due to a rash, the Grand Secretary should be appointed to attend in his place.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Juzheng directly reprimanded these officials in the draft resolution.

Zhang Juzheng could perform some court rituals on behalf of the emperor, but this ancient imperial spring plowing ceremony had never been performed by any minister since the Zhou Dynasty.

These officials, whose flattery backfired, quickly submitted memorials to apologize, their attitude so sincere that Emperor Wanli and Zhang Juzheng did not pursue the matter further.

……

February 5th.

Empress Dowager Li, deeply devoted to her son, ordered the drafting of an imperial edict to gather eminent monks from across the land in the capital to establish an ordination platform for the young Wanli Emperor and the Prince of Lu to pray for their well-being.

This left the court officials feeling helpless.

It's hard to say whether these methods will help with Xiao Wanli's condition, but they will certainly cost a huge amount of money.

Empress Dowager Li was so devoted to Buddhism that she was almost obsessed with it. She firmly believed that as long as she was sincere, Buddha could fulfill all her requests.

This time, Zhang Juzheng's performance was very tough.

He directly submitted a memorial stating that Emperor Shizong had explicitly prohibited the establishment of ordination platforms, which violated ancestral rules. Furthermore, he argued that many monks were currently idle and that there might even be treacherous individuals taking advantage of the situation to cause trouble, which would be detrimental to the imperial family. He asserted that the young Wanli Emperor could be protected by Heaven and his ancestors.

In short: setting up a monastic ordination platform is pure nonsense.

Empress Dowager Li had no choice but to withdraw the imperial edict.

This demonstrates Zhang Juzheng's influence in the imperial court.

If he were still in mourning at home at this time, the officials probably wouldn't have been able to stop Empress Dowager Li, and even if Yin Zhengmao jumped into the Jade River again, it might not have been effective.

After the young Wanli Emperor and Prince Lu retired to recuperate, Shen Nian's responsibilities became much lighter.

In recent days, I have spent most of my time working at the Ministry of Revenue.

……

February 9th, near dusk.

Chaoyangmen Street is about 300 steps away from Chaoyangmen on the east side.

Ten enclosed two-horse carriages with canopies were lined up in a row, heading towards Chaoyang Gate.

At this time, there were many pedestrians on the street.

But the carriage was going very fast, and the coachman kept whipping the horses while shouting: Make way! Make way, everyone!
Ten carriages sped along, raising clouds of dust.

"Rushing off to a funeral, are you?" a street vendor couldn't help but curse.

A passing merchant noticed that the carriages' frames were bent very low.

"There must not be anyone sitting inside, but rather someone pulling some kind of heavy object, otherwise the carriage wouldn't be compressed so low, and the horse wouldn't be running with such difficulty!"

Just as the first of the ten carriages was passing through an intersection, three flatbed oxcarts suddenly emerged from an alley.

On each oxcart, besides the driver, stood three young men.

The oxcart was very fast.

The three flatbed oxcarts drove diagonally towards the oncoming horse-drawn carriage with its windows closed.

Although oxen are slower than horses, their impact force is far greater.

boom! boom! boom!
The three oxcarts crashed precisely into the three horse-drawn carriages at the front.

In that instant, both horse-drawn carriages and oxcarts overturned.

The seven carriages behind were traveling too fast and were too close together, so the drivers were unable to hold the reins tightly to stop the horses, causing all seven carriages to collide.

A large red wooden crate rolled out from the shed of the overturned carriage.

boom! boom! boom!
Due to the excessive impact, five or six old mahogany boxes were smashed open.

Splash! Splash! Whoosh!

Silver ingots weighing one, two, five, or ten taels rolled out of the mahogany box and scattered all over the ground in the blink of an eye, some even rolling directly under the feet of pedestrians on the street.

At this moment, everyone was dumbfounded.

Many people have never seen so much money in their lives.

A mahogany chest is worth about a thousand taels of silver, and there are about four or five mahogany chests in each carriage.

After the crowd was stunned for about three or four breaths, someone on the street suddenly shouted excitedly, "Private bank! This is a private bank!"

Upon hearing this sound, the people on the street had their eyes light up and began frantically picking up the silver.

Silver in the Ming Dynasty was divided into official silver and private silver.

Official silver was produced under the supervision of the government and engraved with official inscriptions. It was mainly used for military pay, inner court expenses, and public construction funds. Its circulation among the common people was prohibited. Using official silver for consumption was a capital offense. Ordinary people did not have the ability to melt down the official inscriptions, so they dared not rob official silver.

But private silver is different. It is privately minted by private banks, money shops, and craftsmen. It has no official inscription and can be used at will.

If you find it, as long as no one notices, it's yours. *Splash! Splash! Splash!*

Just like the owner of the steamed bun shop on the street not far away picking up steamed buns from the cage, he reached out and grabbed one.

The silver-handling tools used by ordinary people on the street are varied and diverse.

Some carried the boxes in clothes, some in food boxes, some in bamboo baskets, and some even carried a mahogany box together by two people to their own carriage.

The people's eyes were burning with fervor.

No one picked up about twenty taels and left quickly; they all counted their troops like Han Xin, the more the better.

at this time.

Someone set their sights on the unopened mahogany box, picked up a stone from the side, and smashed it open.

boom! boom! boom!
After several mahogany chests were smashed open, they contained not only silver ingots, but also gold-inlaid and jade-inlaid wine pots and bottles, gold chopsticks, and gold leaves.

"We've struck it rich! We've struck it rich!"

"This is mine, it's all mine, it's a gift from God!"

The surrounding people went crazy, desperately grabbing at the loot, and some even started fighting each other.

Meanwhile, the coaches in the ten carriages were all stunned.

They were unaware that the mahogany box contained gold and silver.

If it were gold or silver, they wouldn't dare transport it by one person in one cart; they would have to send at least a hundred guards.

Seeing that it was impossible to get the gold and silver back and continue on their way, they immediately joined the scramble for the gold and silver like madmen.

Meanwhile, the group of people driving the oxcarts and ramming the horse-drawn carriages were also frantically looting.

They had a clear division of labor: some watched the oxcart, others carried the gold and silver, and they were ready to rush into the alley.

This looting lasted for about fifteen minutes.

More than ten soldiers from the Five Cities Garrison finally arrived.

When they saw the glittering gold and silver, they were all stunned.

If you can steal a few gold-plated valuables, you'll never have to worry about food or drink for the rest of your life.

Immediately, they rushed over with their weapons in hand.

While driving away the looting people around him, he picked out valuable items and stuffed them into his arms.

Their approach clearly wouldn't drive the people away.

Before long, more than two hundred people had gathered around.

Just then, the main force of the Embroidered Uniform Guard finally arrived.

"Surround all these people, and kill anyone still looting!" said a commander of the Imperial Guards.

The commander walked up to a civilian who was looting frantically and stabbed him in the stomach.

"Pfft!"

The gold and silver he had stuffed in his arms immediately scattered all over the ground.

"Who dares to rob again!" the commander of the Imperial Guard shouted, brandishing his blood-stained broadsword.

Immediately, the looting people panicked and fled in all directions with their gold and silver.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard only had about thirty men, which was far from enough to capture them all. They could only arrest those nearby and keep as much gold and silver as they could.

Meanwhile, the oxcart drivers took advantage of the chaos to flee into the alley with the gold and silver.

About a quarter of an hour later.

More than 300 soldiers from the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Shuntian Prefecture, and the Five Cities Garrison were gathered around the ten carriages.

After the three government departments discussed the matter...

The Embroidered Uniform Guard arrested all the gold and silver, along with those who escorted and robbed them, and brought them to the imperial prison for interrogation. The Shuntian Prefecture and the Five City Garrison Command each sent two officials to accompany them to ensure that the gold and silver would not be lost elsewhere.

As for the others, they did their utmost to recover the lost gold and silver, and quickly apprehended the fleeing horse drivers and people on the oxcarts.

……

Ten carriages, each carriage containing five or six chests, each chest containing at least one thousand taels of silver.

Conservative estimates suggest that there are at least 50,000 taels of silver in the ten carriages.

Fifty thousand taels of silver was an astronomical figure, not to mention for ordinary people, but also for officials.

A street vendor selling oil earns about 20 taels of silver a year, and 50,000 taels of silver is equivalent to the annual profit of 2,500 oil vendors.

A county magistrate of the seventh rank earns about 45 taels of silver a year, and 50,000 taels of silver is equivalent to the total annual income of 1,111 county magistrates.

Fifty thousand taels of silver could buy five thousand two-story, four-room houses, twenty-five bolts of white cloth, or over three million catties of mutton…

What's truly baffling is—

The 50,000 taels of silver were transported by simply stuffing them into wooden crates, and each person was on a separate cart without a single guard.

……

The news spread like wildfire throughout the streets and alleys of the capital.

When the common people found out, they gritted their teeth and blamed themselves for not being on Chaoyangmen Street at the time, otherwise they would have become rich overnight.

People rushed to Chaoyangmen Street, hoping to find a few more silver ingots in some corner.

Some people sat on the street discussing what methods they could use to collect gold and silver in order to collect the most while leaving safely.

Some bolder people would wander through the alleys, looking for shifty-eyed individuals, and would approach them to question whether they had found gold or silver on Chaoyangmen Street. If the person was tricked into revealing themselves and refused to share half, they would report the matter to the authorities.

……

Although the officials had already left for the day when this happened, many were working overtime, and the officials quickly learned of the incident.

Cabinet value.

When Zhang Juzheng, Yin Zhengmao, and Shen Shixing heard about the robbery of silver in the street, they were all puzzled and could not believe that such a ridiculous thing could happen in the capital.

Even within the capital, only a very small number of people possess such enormous wealth.

But someone who possesses such wealth wouldn't be foolish enough to transport so much gold and silver by himself and his cart.

Yin Zhengmao curled his lip and said, "Gentlemen, I think this gold and silver is definitely not clean. The people on the oxcart should know that the carriage is carrying gold and silver, so they bumped the carriage. Could it be that some official retired and returned to his hometown, and in order to avoid arousing suspicion, he secretly transported the silver out of the city, and his opponent found out and wanted to expose him?"

Shen Shixing thought about the officials who had recently retired and shook his head slightly.

"Grand Secretary Yin, to be able to embezzle so much money, he must still own land and shops, and his official rank is definitely no lower than the fifth grade. At present, I can't think of any retired official in the capital who would dare to embezzle like this. If he is caught, it will probably shake the court and the public!"

Zhang Ju's face was gloomy.

"Let the Embroidered Uniform Guard and Shuntian Prefecture investigate first. If this matter is truly related to the court, then we will be the ones who lose face!" Zhang Juzheng flicked his beard and walked outside.

Against the backdrop of the new policies and reforms, Zhang Juzheng turned a blind eye to officials' corruption, especially their acceptance of routine bribes.

Because he knew that the current government's salary was indeed too low.

Not everyone can be like Hai Rui, who would rather grow his own vegetables than embezzle a single penny, nor can everyone be like Shen Nian, who came from a wealthy family and could support himself without receiving a salary from the imperial court.

However, if an official truly embezzled 50,000 taels, he should not be let off lightly.

If the truth is not thoroughly investigated, it will inevitably cause public resentment to boil over, and the credibility of the imperial court will decline again.

(End of this chapter)