Ming Dynasty entry: I am Chongzhen, the greatest emperor of all time!

Chapter 120 requires at least 60 million taels.

"go on."

"Han Zanzhou, the eunuch in charge of Nanjing, secretly allowed ships to enter the Yangtze River." Zhang Huang spoke quickly, "On the eighteenth of last month, three barbarian boats, fully loaded with Japanese swords, docked at Yanziji. The garrison helped unload them all night long."

Zhu Youjian grabbed a teacup and took a sip of cold tea. "What about the Jiangnan Garrison?"

"The commander of Zhenjiang Guard took his ninth concubine last month, and her dowry was ten Fujian boats."

Zhang Huangyan took out an oil paper package from his pocket, which unfolded to reveal half a moldy piece of military rations. "This is the grain from Suzhou Garrison. It can be molded into bricks by mixing it with clay."

"In the second year of Chongzhen's reign, Zheng's merchant ships transported raw silk to Japan, worth a million taels of silver." Zhang Huangyan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. "However, of the thirty percent of the maritime tax, only three percent remained in the Taicang Treasury."

At this point, Zhang Huangyan continued his actions as if he had a bottomless pit in his chest, taking out a glass bead sealed with wax. "I bought this in Ningbo Port. The barbarians used five of these beads to exchange for a shipload of fine porcelain from Jingdezhen."

The candlelight made the beads shimmer and look quite nice.

It's actually just a broken piece of glass.

Don't think that the people of the Ming Dynasty were really ignorant; the tiles on the Forbidden City in both the northern and southern capitals were made of glazed tiles.

How could a few broken glass marbles possibly fool those old foxes?

This isn't a thousand years ago.

It was nothing more than a few big players colluding with the Portuguese and Spanish to drive down the market price of porcelain and, incidentally, evade taxes generated from the buying and selling of porcelain.

Westerners today still live in fear.

The influence of Zheng He's voyages to the Western Ocean still lingers, and Zheng Zhilong's fleet continues to act recklessly in the Strait of Malacca.

The land of gold described by Marco Polo had only been circulating for a short time.

Not to mention Western merchants, even the current maritime traders and the British Empire, which has just begun to show its fangs, dare not provoke this old empire.

So the money earned in this way eventually ended up on the land of the Ming Dynasty.

As long as the money doesn't flow out, there's nothing to worry about.

Zhu Youjian nodded slowly, and then suddenly asked a question.

How much silver is deposited in the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue?

"The account balance is three and a half million taels."

"But the Suzhou Weaving Bureau alone spends 200,000 taels of silver every year on purchasing silk for the palace, and the whereabouts of these taels are unknown."

"The Dongting merchants traded medicinal herbs with the Jurchens. Ginseng and sable fur from Liaodong could be bought in Hangzhou. Last month, ten Portuguese cannons were also found on a smuggling ship!"

"Does the Ministry of War know about this?"

“I know.” Zhang Huangyan’s voice suddenly rose, “But Hou Ming, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, has a cousin who owns the largest pharmacy in Hangzhou!”

"The commander of the Nanjing Five Cities Garrison is this man's son-in-law, and the Imperial Censor of the River is this man's adopted son."

"Even when Minister Shi led the troops, it was only because this person provided 300,000 taels of silver that the Nanjing garrison was able to barely be paid enough."

"Neither Grand Secretary Fan nor Li Lianzheng dared to act rashly."

"Hmm." Zhu Youjian simply nodded.

Is this how it should be? Is this the kind of political struggle he imagined?

It's a complicated and tangled mess.

Is this the true behavior of the Ming Dynasty court?

Before, I was just blindly cutting and chopping, and I didn't really get a feel for this trend.

"Any more?"

"Yes!" Zhang Huangyan continued, "Does Your Majesty know how tenant farmers in Jiangnan pay their taxes?"

Without waiting for a response, he shook out a bundle of rice ears from his sleeve. "The best paddy fields yield two shi per mu. The landlord collects one shi and five dou of rent. After paying the rent, the tenants use three dou to pay taxes. The two dou left for their own food needs to be exchanged for old rice, because two dou of new rice can be exchanged for four dou of old rice. The new rice all goes into the grain merchants' cargo ships and is sold at high prices. Then, they use silver to transfer old rice from the Ever-Normal Granary to continue exchanging it!"

Zhu Youjian picked up a rice stalk and examined it closely, suddenly noticing dark red grains stuck between the grains. "This is..."

“Human blood.” Zhang Huangyan closed his eyes. “On the eve of selling her daughter to the Qinhuai River in Nanjing, a peasant woman from Changshu County, unable to pay her winter taxes, stabbed a grain merchant in the throat with scissors.”

The sound of rain mingled with the creaking of the palace gates opening. The emperor strolled to the palace gate, gazing at the white marble steps washed clean by the downpour, and said, "Go on."

"In the fifteenth year of the Chongzhen reign, the price of brocade and silk rose sharply."

"As a result, Suzhou Prefecture expanded its mulberry fields by 50,000 mu last year and reduced its rice fields by 37,000 mu."

"However, the imperial court's grain requisition quota remained unchanged, and the county magistrate forcibly seized the cotton farmers' rations. When the typhoon passed through in July, the cotton farmers who starved to death floated all over the Huangpu River."

Zhu Youjian nodded again, "How much ice and charcoal do the officials in Nanjing pay each year?"

"countless!"

"The Minister of Personnel received 180,000 taels of silver just from the Dragon Boat Festival gifts last year." Zhang Huangyan gasped as he turned to a page in the register. "The birthday gift that the Prefect of Yingtian sent to Qian Qianyi was an authentic work by Tang Bohu. The silk wrapped around the painting was enough to feed a family of five for three years."

"The Chancellor of the Imperial College in Nanjing rented out the sacrificial fields of the Confucius Temple to brothels to grow peonies, euphemistically calling it 'using beauty to cultivate the spirit of sages'."

"These kinds of examples are too numerous to mention."

"There were officials from six ministries who sold grain from four granaries just to please the top courtesan of Qinhuai; there was a vice minister of the Ministry of War who sent foreign tribute to maritime merchants just to get a concubine; there was a student of the Imperial Academy who spent 100,000 taels of silver to bribe officials and get on the imperial examination list..."

"The Nanjing court has turned officialdom into a business."

"If Your Majesty wants to implement reforms, you must take decisive action; otherwise, it will all be empty talk!"

Zhu Youjian nodded, turned around, and looked at Zhang Huangyan inside the hall.

Calm, resolute, neither arrogant nor impatient, never discouraged or giving up.

In just one month, that once passionate young man disappeared.

He is now increasingly showing signs of becoming a wise and capable minister.

If you follow Fan Jingwen for two years to learn some backbone, follow Li Ruolian to learn some ruthlessness, and follow Ni Yuanlu to learn some tact.

In less than five years, Zhu Youjian was willing to share some of the burden with Zhang Huangyan.

He walked up to Zhang Huangyan with admiration in his eyes and patted him on the shoulder.

"I understand Xuanzhuo's meaning. Go back and rest well. I will need you again in the next couple of days."

"Don't worry about anything else. Like you said, we need to bleed some blood from Nanjing."

"Wang Banban, summon Li Ruolian."

……

The rain in early summer always comes unexpectedly.

The torrential rain that had stopped in the morning was followed by thunderous crashes on the glazed tiles just two hours later.

When Li Ruolian's soap boots rolled over the puddles, dark red bloodstains splashed from the python pattern on the toes.

He removed his soaked cloak outside the hall, revealing a dark black flying fish robe underneath, the cotton cloth wrapped around the hilt of his embroidered spring knife still seeping water.

"Check it out?"

Zhu Youjian stood with his back to the palace gate, his fingertips pinching the glass bead.

The candlelight on the desk flickered in and out due to the draft, casting the emperor's long shadow on the dragon pillar, like a sword hanging from the beam.

Li Ruolian knelt on one knee. “On the seventeenth of last month, the canal workers of Songjiang Prefecture retrieved a floating corpse from the mouth of Wusong. The corpse’s stomach was stuffed with tattered pages of an account book, recording the private salt accounts from the sixth year of the Tianqi reign to the fifteenth year of the Chongzhen reign.” He pulled out a piece of tanned sheepskin from the inner lining of his wrist guard. “Following this line, I found that on the seventh day of each month, when the tide rises, nearly fifty three-masted Fujianese ships would sail out of the port alongside the official salt ships.”

What's on the ship?

“Salt, iron, tea, and porcelain make up forty percent; raw silk and cotton cloth make up thirty percent; and the remaining thirty percent…” Li Ruolian’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “They are from artisans.”

"go on."

"The Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce hired brokers to recruit workers in the three prefectures of Suzhou, Songjiang and Changzhou, ostensibly to grow sugarcane in Luzon, but in reality they stuffed people into the hold and transported them to Taiwan to build warships for Zheng Zhilong."

"Such incidents have occurred in several ports in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang area, and even more further south, but we haven't investigated the smaller ones yet."

Zhu Youjian showed neither joy nor sorrow, and continued to ask, "What about those people in Nanjing?"

“The eunuch in charge of textile manufacturing in Suzhou earns 800,000 taels a year by issuing brochures to maritime merchants. Zhao Dequan, the vice prefect of Yingtian Prefecture, has set up twelve private ports in Jurong County, charging 100 taels of silver from each ship.” Li Ruolian spoke at a steady pace, as if reciting a menu. “The armory of Zhenjiang Guard was ‘smuggled’ last month, and the 1,200 muskets that were burned appeared on a Dutch merchant ship in Quanzhou Port three days later.”

“Zhou Yanru’s brother-in-law runs a security escort agency, specializing in land-based escorts from Suzhou and Hangzhou to Yuegang.” Li Ruolian pulled out a list from the fish-shaped talisman bag. “This is a record of the carriages and horses that have entered and left the Zhou residence in the past three months. The sandalwood box being transported to Fujian has a hidden compartment filled with blueprints for the Lumi Cannon.”

Zhu Youjian suddenly squatted down to be at eye level with Li Ruolian. "You know I don't want to know these trivial things. Just tell me where the thickest vine is?"

Li Ruolian's pupils contracted.

"Seven days ago, the brothers of the Southern Garrison intercepted a secret letter."

Having said that, he unfolded the thin Xue Tao paper in his palm, revealing half of the poem "Linjiang Xian": "Don't ask about the Wang and Xie families of Jinling, just look at the red banners of Fujian."

"This is the handwriting of a scholar from the Tian family. Once this secret letter is sent out, it means that all parties should keep their distance."

"I have already sent people to keep an eye on the Tian family mansion."

Zhu Youjian's fingertips traced the seal on the paper, and a five-petaled plum blossom was branded next to the inscription of Tingyu Tower. "Is Grandfather Tian currently repairing a separate residence?"

Li Ruolian did not reply, but instead took out another ledger. "The thirty carts of granite sent by the Commander of the Left Guard of Fuzhou were transported to Tongzhou Wharf by canal. The steward of Tian Guozhang's mansion received the goods."

"You mean, my father-in-law and brother-in-law are both on this vine?"

"Not only that, Prince Fu Zhu Yousong's estate in Fujian was converted to 3,000 mu of mulberry trees last year."

Li Ruolian's voice remained steady, "Thirty percent of Zuo Liangyu's military rations in Huguang were paid for with old rice by the Prince of Lu's mansion, while the mulberry leaves from the Prince of Fu's mansion were used to feed the raw silk needed by the Zheng family's fleet."

The candlelight suddenly leaped up half a foot, casting the emperor's shadow onto the "Complete Map of the World".

Zhu Youjian stared at the island of Taiwan, which was about the size of a fingernail on the map, and asked, "What does Zheng Zhilong need so much raw silk for?"

“The red-haired barbarians traded spices from Southeast Asia for raw silk, which they could then sell to Japan for twenty times the profit.”

Zhu Youjian nodded. "In other words, the Tian family, the Prince of Fu, and the Prince of Lu are all included."

"Then who are the ones handling the work below them?"

How many people were in the Six Ministries in Nanjing?

"Qian Qianyi, Minister of Revenue, and Zhang Shenyan, Minister of Personnel, repaired the ancestral tombs of the Duke of Wei's family, mobilizing three thousand military households from Xiaolingwei. The nephew-in-law of the Minister of Justice is the head of the Yangzhou Salt Merchants Association."

"In addition, there were the Nanjing garrison eunuch, the river patrol commander, nearly four hundred officials, and more than 1,100 merchants."

"So many people?" Zhu Youjian was taken aback by the sheer size of the network of interests involved.

The emperor's father-in-law, two princes, three ministers of the six ministries, more than 400 officials of various ranks, more than 1,000 merchants used to sell stolen goods, plus two military leaders, Zuo Liangyu and Zheng Zhilong, came to protect him.

What kind of profit-driven industry chain could possibly bind so many people together?!
Li Ruolian still had that deadpan expression, saying the most frightening things in the most indifferent tone.

"They withheld and cut off the imperial court's tax revenue, establishing their own tax collection system and standards."

"Monopolized the markets for salt, iron, tea, medicine, clothing, silk, and porcelain in the Jiangnan region."

"They privately established a maritime trade office, privately lifted the sea ban, and privately traded with foreigners."

"According to Grand Secretary Fan's rough estimate, the annual profit is approximately fifty million taels of silver."

Zhu Youjian almost choked on his breath.

He was prepared, but he never expected that just one chain of interests would amount to a terrifying fifty million taels of silver.

And that doesn't even include the other smaller lines.

All in all, it must amount to over a hundred million taels of silver.
I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down.

Looking down at Li Ruolian, he ordered in a deep voice, "Take all the Jinyiwei you can control and keep a close watch on this line for me. You are not allowed to take any action without my permission."

"Go back and tell Fan Jingwen to stabilize Jiangnan and do everything in his power to protect it. We can't let those idiots destroy Jiangnan on their deathbeds!"

Zhu Youjian already considered the Jiangnan region as his own, and the annual income of hundreds of millions of taels of silver should not be ruined by a few minor issues.

Li Ruolian immediately clasped her hands in a salute, "Your humble servant obeys!"

After Li Ruolian left, Zhu Youjian took out several more sheets of Xuan paper.

He had initially planned to stabilize the North first, but now it seems he needs to work on the South as well.

After dismissing Wang Chengen, Zhu Youjian resumed writing furiously.

This time, I'm writing about his current financial shortfall.

The north side was ravaged; even rats could starve in the Ministry of Revenue's treasury.

The entire Beizhili region had a population of less than two million, and most of the rest migrated south, so the food shortage was not particularly severe.

There are less than two months left until the autumn harvest.

With meat supplied by the Mongol tribes, the grain shortage in Beizhili was only 500,000 shi (a unit of dry measure).

Just collect them casually.

What we really lack right now is money.

From the moment Dorgon entered the pass, nearly half of the Beijing garrison was lost.

Nearly 80,000 soldiers and civilians were killed or wounded. The pensions for these people should be paid, the surviving soldiers should be rewarded, the damaged weapons and armor should be repaired, and the missing ones should be replaced.

The total amount came to a staggering eight million taels, matching the eight million taels that Zhang Huangyan had pressured into paying.

But he can't possibly spend all his money on this.

Zhu Youjian's next plan was to consolidate military power across the country, which made the loyalty stat very necessary.

In addition, with the mission to Jiangnan to make an example of them, elite troops were in dire need.

Zhu Youjian felt that at least 20 million taels would be enough.

The expenses for the newly established Liaodong Fourth Army and the regular army are also extremely high.

It would be impossible to get it down without 20 million taels.

In addition, Beizhili was in dire need of reconstruction, the imperial court needed to be restructured, and military power from various regions needed to be centralized.

He also wanted to develop the navy, establish a heavy cavalry battalion of about 10,000 men, quell Li Zicheng, and fight against the Jurchens.

Each expense makes the money disappear faster than it evaporates.

In total, Zhu Youjian now needs at least 60 million taels of silver to barely cover the fiscal shortfall!

Zhu Youjian sadly put down his brush and looked at the heavy rain outside the palace, muttering to himself, "I absolutely must go to Jiangnan."

(End of this chapter)