I really don't want to be emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 354 Destroying the Great Wall and cutting off both arms
Chapter 354

Just when Cheng Shijie left Yanqing and went south, Emperor Chongzhen was meeting with the new Ninghai Navy Supervisor Li Guofu.Emperor Chongzhen still believed that the whole world was his private property, and he could take whatever he wanted. The wealth in Liaodong not only made the civil servants salivate, but he himself was also jealous.

There are large-scale steel plants there, there are fine salt fields there, there are extremely well-run farms and factories, and most importantly, there is an invincible iron army there. These are the assets of a king. As long as If he can win the Liaodong area, he will be able to reinvigorate his glory, and it will be so difficult to reproduce the majesty of Taizu and Chengzu!

Although Cheng Shijie is his brother-in-law, the problem is that he doesn't trust anyone else to take control of it. He might as well take it directly into his own hands!

He talked with Li Guofu for four or five hours. Li Guofu was extremely eloquent. Under his eloquent description, he decided to take three steps. First, he divided Ning Haijun's internal conflicts, and first he provoked Zhou Yandong, the nominal enemy. The deputy commander, the chief steward, and Cheng Shijie were fighting. Of course, Zhou Yandong, who was red-mouthed and white-fanged, would not be fooled. This required the cooperation of Emperor Chongzhen, who needed to come up with something that could win over Zhou Yandong.

In Li Guofu's view, Zhou Yandong, as the deputy commander of the Ning Navy, does not have any military power. He will definitely complain. The title of the Grand Governor of the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion.

In other words, everything Cheng Shijie has now is equivalent to being put on Zhou Yandong's head. The first step is to offer a temptation that Zhou Yandong cannot refuse.As long as Zhou Yandong's ambitions are stirred up, Zhou Yandong has two sons, who hold important positions in the Ninghai Navy. His second son Zhou Zi serves as the chief of general staff of the Ninghai Navy, and his eldest son Zhou An currently serves as a garrison in the Guangning Garrison Department.

Brothers fighting tigers, father and son soldiers, as long as Zhou Yandong's heart is moved, he has a great chance to win over several of Cheng Shijie's close generals, such as Chang Yu, Chen Dayong and Liu Qingsong, who are all from the same faction of Dengzhou Weizuo Qianhu Institute , and the leader of this faction is Zhou Yandong.

As long as Ning Haijun is internally divided, Cheng Shijie will definitely need the help of Emperor Chongzhen. No matter how he helps Cheng Shijie, or whether he is promoted or demoted, as long as Cheng Shijie stays in the capital, everything will be settled.

There are naturally no secrets in the palace. When Emperor Chongzhen was discussing the matter with Li Guofu, Concubine Li Kang, Cheng Shijie's cheap mother-in-law, got the news immediately.

Concubine Li Kang was the person that Emperor Chongzhen wanted to strangle to death in his dreams, but the problem was that Emperor Chongzhen could not do this because Concubine Li Kang was his mother, and the adoptive mother had the grace to raise her. If Emperor Chongzhen dealt with Concubine Li, even if she died unexpectedly, or if she was engraved with If it happens, it’s Emperor Chongzhen’s fault, and this debt will be settled on Emperor Chongzhen’s head.

In this case, the more arrogant Li Kangfei became, the more helpless Emperor Chongzhen was. After Zhu Weiti married Cheng Shijie, Cheng Shijie would also use Zhu Weiti's name to send some property to Li Kangfei. With money, Li Kangfei would The energy in the inner palace is very strong.

Concubine Li Kang knew that writing letters was unreliable, so she secretly ordered the eunuch Yang Shizhong beside her to leave the palace quietly and immediately came to Cheng Shijie's residence in Dongzhimen. Lin Xuwen hurriedly told the news to Chen Guodong, who was about to set off.

Chen Guodong did not dare to be careless now and hurriedly turned around to intercept Cheng Shijie. He was really afraid that Cheng Shijie would go to the capital.

Although Cheng Shijie did not go to the capital, his resignation memorial was in the hands of Emperor Chongzhen. Looking at Cheng Shijie's resignation memorial, Cheng Shijie's tone was very sincere in the memorial. He explained to Emperor Chongzhen that he had become ill due to overwork due to physical reasons. This time, he was tired after repeated hard work, old injuries recurred, and he could no longer bear the important responsibilities of the country. He hoped that Emperor Chongzhen would choose a good minister to go out to Liaodong and serve as the commander-in-chief of the Ning Navy and the prime minister of the Nine Borders.

Cheng Shijie was very straightforward this time and directly resigned from all his positions.

Emperor Chongzhen jumped up excitedly when he saw this memorial: "God is really helping me!"

Seeing that Emperor Chongzhen was so happy and had so much energy despite not sleeping for two consecutive days, Queen Zhou frowned and said, "Your Majesty, is this a good thing?"

"A good thing? Why isn't it a good thing?"

"Your Majesty, have you forgotten what happened a few years ago?"

Chongzhen frowned and asked, "What happened a few years ago? How could I ever forget it?"

Empress Zhou smiled bitterly and sighed repeatedly: "You must have forgotten... Your Majesty captured Wei Zhongxian as soon as he ascended the throne. His decisiveness and careful deployment were praised by the world, and Your Majesty was called a wise king. However, after he captured What about after Wei Zhongxian?"

Chongzhen's expression suddenly became strange: "After taking him down?"

After Wei Zhongxian was captured, the Donglin Party successfully joined the party. The eunuchs were like rats crossing the street, and everyone shouted for beatings. For a time, Emperor Chongzhen's reputation as a virtuous man was known all over the world.During that time, Emperor Chongzhen lived quite comfortably every day, but then the problem was... the national affairs became increasingly difficult, wars broke out in Shanxi and Shaanxi, slaves broke into the country, and the people in the capital were in ruins.

Empress Zhou continued: "Wei Zhongxian died unjustly, but as long as he is here, the world's taxes can still be collected. Although the border wars continue and fierce battles continue, and money is flowing like water, the border troops have never been short of food and wages, and the people have not paid much." Because the salt tax, tea tax, mining tax, and commercial tax collected by various shipping companies are all large, the burden on the people is not so heavy."

Having said this, Emperor Chongzhen's eyes turned slightly red. Emperor Tianqi, his brother, suddenly passed away. Although the treasury had no money and was in deficit of 1207 million taels of silver, he left more than 700 in the inner treasury. Ten thousand taels of silver, and at the same time, he also gave Emperor Chongzhen a large number of elite soldiers and generals.

In order to solve the financial crisis, Chongzhen adopted two methods to reduce the military pay of ordinary soldiers.Send additional troops to the common people.

As for the additional payment during the Chongzhen Dynasty, the main ones were the additional payment from Liao Dynasty and the additional payment for suppression and training.The key point is that Emperor Chongzhen forced the 800-strong army of Ji, Miyun and Yongping Prefectures to surrender to Jiannu. When these [-] troops saw the arrival of Jiannu, they surrendered to Jiannu. Fan Wencheng left [-] troops to guard Zunhua, and the Great Wall However, the fourteenth pass of the defense line surrendered to Jiannu.

Emperor Chongzhen could not get rid of this pot.

Empress Zhou continued: "But. After Wei Zhongxian was captured, these taxes could no longer be collected. We could only increase taxes on the people again and again, eventually causing people to be homeless everywhere. If Cheng Qing hadn't turned the tide, we wouldn't have been able to collect taxes anymore." He knew what trouble was going to happen. Moreover, Wei Wei had been in power for more than ten years. All civil and military officials had paid tribute to him, and he himself did not know how much wealth he had accumulated through his own plundering. However, After killing Wei Xie, how much money will actually be handed over to the treasury?"

Emperor Chongzhen's expression became increasingly weird...

The answer is not much, really not much.At that time, he was shocked when he looked at the list handed over by the official responsible for confiscating the house. He couldn't believe that Wei Zhongxian had been greedy for more than ten years and only counted his wealth like this. However, all the officials agreed that Wei Zhongxian's followers might have transferred the property long ago and copied it. Very little came out.

At first, he really believed this nonsense and ordered a strict investigation. As a result, he implicated a lot of officials and ransacked many people's homes, but the property handed over was still pitiful!He finally figured out that what was handed over to the treasury was the leftovers of the ministers. If Wei Zhongxian was taken down, the beneficiary would not be him, but the ministers who were suppressed by Wei Zongxian!
Seeing that his expression was changing, Empress Zhou softened her tone and said: "This is still in the capital, under your Majesty's eyes. From Beijing to Liaodong, it is more than 1000 miles away. Your Majesty, can you guarantee that these old things will not happen again?" Is it going to happen again? Do you have any trusted ministers who can take over the assets of the entire Heluo area for you, hand them over to you, and take care of them for you?"

Emperor Chongzhen's expression kept changing, and finally he sighed: "I didn't expect that I couldn't even get the property that I took from the courtier's house!"

If an emperor gets so messed up that he can't even collect the money from his ministers' houses, he is a coward.Although he was very reluctant, Chongzhen had to admit that if he really wanted to copy Cheng Shijie's property by hand, he might not even get any scum, and all the officials rushed over.

Then, with his mouth full of fat, he turned around and told him: "I didn't expect that Duke Hai was an upright official and his family had no money. He was a great and good official. We all wronged him. We are guilty!"

When he thought of this, Emperor Chongzhen felt as disgusted as if he had swallowed a hundred flies.According to Queen Zhou's analysis, although Cheng Shijie had a strong army and a high position, with his temperament, how could he swallow this bad breath? He had to rebel!And with his prestige, if he ascends to the top and shouts, hundreds of thousands of people will gather in an instant, sweeping the world, so what's the difficulty?

Queen Zhou sighed and said: "In these years, it is not that the civil and military officials in the court are tolerating Duke Hai and Cheng Qing, but Cheng Qing is tolerating the civil and military officials in the court!"

Emperor Chongzhen was shocked and completely gave up the idea of ​​taking advantage of Cheng Shijie's resignation to make a fortune.

Emperor Chongzhen naturally would not admit his mistake, he pointed to the memorial and said, "This is Cheng Qing's resignation..."

"Why is Cheng Qing resigning? Your Majesty has no idea why?"

Empress Zhou couldn't help but think about Emperor Chongzhen's thinking. If we put the whole world aside, who would be of the same mind as Emperor Chongzhen?It's not Cheng Shijie. When others are officials, they try every means to make money. Only Cheng Shijie, after making money, wants to hand it over to the national treasury and give money to Emperor Chongzhen.

Cheng Shijie is Emperor Chongzhen's right-hand man. No matter how hungry he is, he can't cut off his own arm to eat, right?However, Emperor Chongzhen actually wanted to cut off his right-hand man.

Emperor Chongzhen calmed down now and thought about what had happened over the years. The more he thought about it, the more frightened he became.Cheng Shijie, at least the commercial taxes in Liaodong and Jiangnan can be collected, and there are 400 million more shi and 700 million taels of silver. The taxes are mainly collected from merchants. The merchants are quite conscious. It can be said that Liaodong and Wusongkou have become The most important source of taxation in the Ming Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)