The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 12 You Don’t Give Me My Money

On July 25, the tenth year of the Wanli reign, the emperor held court.

At around the hour of Mao, a ray of light appeared in the sky, and the entire palace seemed to be covered with a veil, making it unclear.

The current political situation is hazy and difficult to see clearly.

Zhang Siwei had clearly become the Prime Minister, and the other two cabinet ministers had also been won over by him. Empress Dowager Li seemed to listen to him completely, but he wanted to purge the court of Zhang Juzheng's old party but was unable to do so.

It seemed that all this was because the young emperor was too rebellious and refused to obey and cooperate.

Last time, the young emperor scolded Shen Shixing in court.

Why did the young emperor summon everyone to court today?
In front of the Huangji Hall, Wanli slowly walked up the steps amid cheers of "Long live the emperor" and sat down majestically.

This time, he didn't even ask the civil and military officials to stand up!

He glanced around coldly, then shouted angrily, "You all pretend to be very respectful by shouting 'Long live the emperor', but my imperial edicts are like waste paper, and are repeatedly rejected by the cabinet.

Do you really think I am the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty? Kneel down and reflect for a quarter of an hour. Think carefully about whether you will be struck by lightning for deceiving the emperor like this.

Alas, the little emperor was angry again.

This unlucky guy actually has to kneel down as punishment!

Zhang Siwei, Shen Shixing, aren't you fucking cheating us?

The ground is made of stone slabs, and we are wearing thin pants in such a hot day. It hurts to kneel down!

We have the Emperor in our eyes, but you don’t. You are really harming people.

At this time, most of the officials kneeling on the ground were secretly greeting Zhang Siwei and Shen Shixing's elders in their hearts.

Wanli was actually using a strategy of sowing discord.

Historically, Zhang Siwei and Shen Shixing took advantage of his rebelliousness to induce him to betray his teacher and ancestors, leaving him alone.

Now he wants to do the opposite and use his rebellious appearance to make Zhang Siwei and Shen Shixing, the two bastards, isolated and helpless.

He knew that most of the officials in the court were not in the same group as Zhang Siwei and Shen Shixing.

Zhang Siwei and Shen Shixing pissed him off, so everyone was punished to kneel down together. These people must have had some opinions in their minds.

He has used this strategy of sowing discord more than once. The last time Qi Jiguang was made a marquis and transferred to be the general of the Beijing Camp was actually a strategy of sowing discord.

Zhang Siwei was definitely unwilling to confer a title of nobility on Qi Jiguang, and even less willing to transfer Qi Jiguang to the position of general of the Beijing camp.

However, in the eyes of others, he was an extremely rebellious young emperor. If someone was angered, he would really order someone to be beheaded.

In order to save his life, Shen Shixing had to go against Zhang Siwei and forcibly confer the title of marquis on Qi Jiguang and transfer him to be the general of the Beijing camp.

It would be strange if this incident didn't create a rift between them.

He just wanted to let these two dogs fight each other.

Wanli pretended to sit there and catch his breath for a quarter of an hour, then said with lingering anger, "No need to be polite, stand up."

"Thank you, Lord Long Live."

Civil and military officials hurriedly got up from the ground.

Unexpectedly, Wanli roared again: "Zhang Siwei, why didn't you approve my imperial edict? And you even accused me of warmongering. How unreasonable!"

You're forcing me to do it, right?

The problem is that taking action is the worst option and should not be done unless it is absolutely necessary.

Zhang Siwei narrowed his triangular eyes slightly, then quickly stepped out of the train, clasped his hands and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, the Beijing camp garrison troops must be mobilised for training, and they need to be paid. There are eight regimental camps and forty-eight garrisons, which means there are 268,800 garrison troops.

This month's food and wages total over 530,000 taels, which is over 6.3 million taels a year. The total taxes the court can collect now are only over 5 million taels. Such excessive military spending is something the court cannot afford."

Do you think I don't know how much food and money are needed for 200,000 or 300,000 troops?

Wanli roared in disregard, "Who are you calling warmongering? How dare you insult our ancestor, the Hongwu Emperor?"

Are you crazy, kid? What are you biting?

Zhang Siwei quickly denied it, "I dare not. I did not insult the Hongwu Emperor."

Wanli roared in disregard of the matter, "Didn't you read my imperial edict? If you didn't read my imperial edict, how do you know that I must first fill the eight regimental battalions and forty-eight garrisons? My imperial edict is the original words of our ancestor, the Hongwu Emperor. It was our ancestor, the Hongwu Emperor, who said to gather all the garrison troops in the world to train and select the best. The Beijing battalion that our ancestor, the Hongwu Emperor, selected the best garrison troops to form is the forty-eight garrisons.

If you're not scolding our ancestor, the Hongwu Emperor, for his excessive military spending, who are you scolding?"

Zhang Siwei was stunned when he heard this.

He really didn't expect that the little emperor's edict was copied from the original words of Emperor Hongwu. He didn't even notice that the Hongwu Dynasty's Beijing Garrison consisted of forty-eight garrisons.

After the Yongle Dynasty, the Beijing Garrison was divided into seventy-two garrisons.

It has been more than a hundred years, almost two hundred years, how could he possibly think about the Hongwu Dynasty!
His triangular eyes rolled as he simply continued to deny, "Your Majesty, please forgive me. I really didn't know that Your Majesty's edict was the original words of the Hongwu Emperor."

Is it enough for you to just deny it?
Wanli continued to roar: "I want to confer a title on my teacher, but you bring out the Imperial Ming Ancestor's Instructions and accuse me of treason.

I wrote the imperial edict according to the original words of our ancestor, the Hongwu Emperor, and the number of garrison troops in the capital was also replenished according to the number in the Hongwu Dynasty. Yet you accuse me of being warmongering.

Do you still have me in your eyes? Do you still have our ancestor, the Hongwu Emperor, in your eyes? If I don't follow the ancestor's teachings, you curse me. If I follow the ancestor's teachings, you still curse me. You have the final say in everything. Who is the emperor of the Ming Dynasty? Do you want to rebel? "

rebel?

This is the charge!
The little guy won’t go crazy and chop people, right?

Don't force me to rebel!
Forget it, let's just try to appease him first. Unless it's absolutely necessary, we really can't resort to rebellion.

Zhang Siwei thought about it carefully and explained carefully: "Your Majesty, please calm down. I did not intentionally refuse to approve your imperial edict. It is simply that the tax revenue of the court cannot afford to support so many troops.

Your Majesty, I cannot allow the court to run out of money. How about we recruit as many soldiers as we can according to the court's income and expenditure? Is that okay with you?"

Are you scared?
I am just a rebellious teenager, I will do whatever I want without caring about anything. If I get angry and order you to be beheaded, what's the problem?

Although it may not be possible to cut it off, it will definitely give you a scare.

Wanli also tried to find out, but Zhang Siwei didn't dare to turn against him at this moment.

Now that he has control over the three military forces of the Beijing Camp, the Imperial Guards, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he has the confidence to speak with confidence.

He could just pretend to be extremely rebellious, do whatever he wants, curse when he wants, lose his temper when he wants, and chop people when he wants!

As the saying goes, a random punch can kill a master. No matter whether it was Zhang Siwei, the old bastard, or Shen Shixing, the two-faced bastard, he would attack them with a random punch.

In this way, after Zhang Siwei and Shen Shixing were punched, they would still think that he was just an ignorant and rebellious teenager.

He pretended to be still angry and said, "Then tell me, how much money has the court provided for the Beijing army's food and wages in the past year?"

Zhang Siwei calculated carefully and said, "Prime Minister Zhang has been carrying out reforms for ten years, and the court's taxes have increased, but the increase is not very large.

Let's calculate based on the surplus that Prime Minister Zhang has added to the national treasury over the past ten years. It is about 8 million taels in ten years, and the annual surplus is 800,000 taels. The surplus of grain is about the same.

We also have to consider disaster relief. We must set aside at least 300,000 taels of silver and 300,000 shi of grain each year. In other words, the court can provide 500,000 taels of silver and 500,000 shi of grain each year as food and wages for the Beijing camp."

What the hell are you doing, sending away a beggar?
Five hundred thousand taels of silver and five hundred thousand dan of grain are not enough to feed and pay fifty thousand troops.

The current Beijing Army has just over 40,000 to nearly 50,000 troops.

You mean that the current number of troops in the Beijing Camp is enough, and you won’t give us any more, right?
You won't let me use my money, right?
Okay, you wait.

Wanli pretended to frown and ponder for a while, then said unhappily, "This is too little. If we add a little more, we should at least have enough food and wages for 50,000 troops, right?"

Okay, fifty thousand is fifty thousand. What’s the use of more than forty thousand old, weak, sick and disabled people plus a few thousand strong and healthy people?

Zhang Siwei heard this and pretended to be embarrassed: "Your Majesty has said it, how dare I disobey? Then I will give you 600,000 taels of silver and 600,000 dan of grain a year."

Do you think I really selected 50,000 elite garrison troops?
Wanli raised the corner of his mouth slightly and smiled evilly to himself.

Zhang Siwei was fooled. What he wanted was not money and food, but the cabinet to pass his imperial edict.

As soon as the court meeting ended, he ordered the imperial edict of repentance to be sent to the cabinet.

This time, the imperial edict still contained the original words of Emperor Hongwu at the beginning, but the sentence about eight regiments and forty-eight garrisons was missing.

Zhang Siwei was unaware of the trick and actually approved the imperial edict.

He really didn't expect that little Wanli would play such a trick on him. This little guy looked like an ignorant and rebellious teenager.

(End of this chapter)