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

Chapter 17 Your factory supervisor is back!
Wang Zhi stood up quickly, and a hint of excitement finally appeared on his originally calm face.

He strode forward and knelt down to receive the order.

"Your Highness, Wang Zhi, will obey the Imperial Order!"

Wang Zhi's heart was in turmoil when he took the bright yellow imperial edict from the East Factory guard.

After years of waiting and hibernation, all it takes is for the rebirth and wings to spread today!

The old subordinates around him knelt on the ground to congratulate him, all with happy expressions on their faces.

"Congratulations, Factory Supervisor! Congratulations, Factory Supervisor!"

"Return to the capital, and supervise the Western Factory!"

Even the East Depot guards who came to deliver orders bowed and saluted to the legendary factory director who was feared by all officials.

"Congratulations to Governor Wang on his reinstatement!"

Wang Zhi stroked the imperial edict bestowed by Zhu Youtang. The joy on his face disappeared, and was replaced by a hint of cruel murderous intent.

"Everyone in the West Factory, follow me back to the capital!"

"Yes, Mr. Factory Supervisor!"

Wang Zhi turned around, without even taking his luggage with him, and mounted his horse, galloping towards the capital.

Dozens of former members of the Western Factory who stayed behind followed closely behind, rushing to the capital city under day and night!

Corrupt officials who deceive their superiors and subordinates, form cliques for personal gain, fight for power and profit, and sell official positions and titles.

Your factory supervisor is back!
……

a few days later.

Forbidden City.

Qianqing Palace.

Mou Bin, the commander-in-chief of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, was reporting to Zhu Youtang about the Embroidered Uniform Guard's house raids.

"Your Majesty, the Jinyiwei have raided 34 houses in the past few days, including the Zhou family of the Marquis of Qingyun, the Zhang family of the Left Secretary of the Ministry of Personnel, and the Liu family of the Junior Secretary of the Honglu Temple."

"In total, 670,000 strings of banknotes, more than 47,000 taels of silver, 14 boxes of jewelry, antiques, calligraphy and paintings were seized."

"Two hundred and seventy-six people, old and young, and their families."

Zhu Youtang sneered and slammed the memorial in his hand on the table.

"Okay, you are all my good lovers!"

Zhu Youtang was so angry that he laughed. He was really disgusted with these civil servants to the extreme.

Even though it's only 40,000 silver pieces, it's already a sky-high price.

In the early and middle period of the Ming Dynasty, before the opening of the port in Longqing, when a large amount of silver had not yet flowed into the Ming Dynasty, silver was still relatively precious.

A peasant family only has five taels of silver for clothing and food a year.

Officials who embezzled 10,000 taels of silver were considered extremely corrupt.

During the Zhengde reign, when the property of Liu Jin, one of the most corrupt officials in the country, was searched, only 13,000 taels of gold and 1.5 million taels of silver were seized.

During the Jiajing period, Yan Song and his son, who were powerful and known as the most corrupt people in the world, had their property searched and only 30,000 taels of gold and 2,000,000 taels of silver were seized.

It is a fantasy that the Ming Dynasty officials would confiscate the property of hundreds of thousands or even millions of taels of silver.

Even after the Wanli period, there were almost no officials who could confiscate millions of taels of silver in one go.

When Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he tortured all the officials, nobles, relatives of the emperor, and wealthy businessmen in the capital, and looted the imperial treasury and the Ministry of Revenue's warehouse, but he only managed to extort 70 million taels of silver.

During the Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty, the annual tax converted into silver was only more than 4 million taels.

A total of 47,000 taels of silver and 670,000 strings of banknotes were seized from the homes of these more than 30 officials.

It was truly unscrupulous corruption.

At the same time, Zhu Youtang also thought of another problem, which was about the household registration banknotes.

During the Hongwu period, Emperor Taizu Gao issued the Ming Baochao in order to ease the financial problems of the court.

Because there is no reserve, the issuance is unlimited and the denomination of Baochao issued is huge.

Moreover, the imperial court only issued banknotes but did not collect the Ming treasure notes.

Ordinary people can exchange gold, silver and copper coins with the state for banknotes, but they cannot exchange banknotes for gold, silver and copper coins with the state.

Therefore, after the Ming Baochao was circulated, it quickly depreciated, and the people went back to using silver and money, or simply bartered.

In order to alleviate the depreciation of Baochao, Emperor Taizu Gao issued an order prohibiting the circulation of silver and money among the people and prohibiting barter.

But it did not have much effect. During the Hongwu period, the Ming Dynasty's treasure notes had depreciated to one-sixth of their original value.

Eighty percent of the people's wealth was wiped out.

During the Yongle period, the current Emperor Taizong, later Emperor Chengzu, implemented the "Household Salt Law" in order to alleviate the depreciation of Ming Baochao.

Rich households purchased one pound of salt every month and paid one string of treasure notes.

Salt was rationed according to household registration and salt tax was collected.

When the Hukou Salt Notes were first introduced, they did suppress the depreciation of the Ming Baochao in a short period of time.

However, the depreciation of Baochao was the fundamental problem of the issuance system, because the court stipulated that it could not be exchanged for gold or silver, which was unacceptable to the people and still could not stabilize the price of the banknote. In April of the 19th year of Yongle, Emperor Taizong ordered a temporary suspension of the production of Daming Baochao.

In the tenth year of Chenghua, salt notes were withdrawn and coins were collected together.

The household registration banknotes are in name only.

But until the Hongzhi period, the official currency of the Ming Dynasty was the Ming Baochao.

However, the imperial court had relaxed its control over silver, and silver and copper coins had become the de facto currency of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youtang felt that his reform should start with currency.

The economy is the lifeblood of a country. If one wants to save the Ming Dynasty, the most important thing is to get enough money for the court and the Zhu family.

Currency is the foundation of the economy. Starting with currency reform, the Ming Dynasty increased its tax revenue.

The taxation in the Ming Dynasty could not be any lower.

It can be said that the Ming Dynasty died of poverty.

Taking the Hongzhi period as an example, the tax revenue in the first year of Hongzhi was roughly divided into two parts.

Part of it was tax in kind: about 1987 million dan of rice, about 896 million dan of wheat, about 3600 jin of silk, about 265 million jin of cotton...

Part of it is monetary taxation: about 52380 taels of gold and silver, about 8843 million strings of household notes, and about 7393 million strings of miscellaneous taxes.

Converted into silver, the total is about four million taels.

Terribly poor.

Now that Zhu Youtang is in power, the most important thing is to give our Ming Dynasty more money to spend...

When Zhu Youtang was thinking about the currency reform of the Ming Dynasty, a young eunuch from the Imperial Household Department hurried over and leaned over to whisper.

"Your Majesty, Wang Zhi requests an audience."

"Xuan."

A moment later, Wang Zhi strode into the Qianqing Palace and walked towards Zhu Youtang.

An expression of excitement that was difficult to conceal emerged on his feminine and handsome face.

"Your Majesty, I, Wang Zhi, pay my respects to you!"

Wang Zhi walked up to Zhu Youtang and knelt down to salute with great respect.

When he saw Wang Zhi, a smile finally appeared on Zhu Youtang's gloomy face.

Zhu Youtang raised his hand, held Wang Zhi's arm, and helped him up.

"Wang Zhi, thank you for your hard work over the years."

"His Majesty!"

"The late emperor has treated me with great kindness. I have no way to repay you, but to die for your majesty!"

Wang Zhi's face was moved and he looked excited.

He is a descendant of the Yao people who were abducted to the capital during the Tengxia Rebellion.

In the third year of Chenghua, she entered the palace after being castrated.

He had no foundation in the court and could only cling to the imperial power, becoming a mad dog under Emperor Xianzong, biting whoever he caught and often confiscating property and exterminating the clan.

Zhu Youtang's biological mother, Ji, was also a Yao ethnic group from Datongxia and was abducted into the palace by the Ming army.

As fellow villagers, Wang Zhi and Ji had the same experiences, so they felt close to each other naturally.

After Zhu Youtang's identity was exposed, Wang Zhi did his best to secretly protect Zhu Youtang in the palace.

It was not until the 18th year of Chenghua that Wang Zhi was deposed by Emperor Xianzong and exiled to Nanzhili.

Emperor Xianzong demoted Wang Zhi not to harm him but to protect him.

And they were also ready to reinstate Wang Zhi at any time.

Unfortunately, Emperor Xianzong died suddenly for no apparent reason just five years after he lost the protection of the Western Factory.

At this time, how could Wang Zhi not be excited when he saw Zhu Youtang again?

Zhu Youtang smiled slightly and turned to look at Mou Bin.

"The contaminated silver was put into the treasury, and as for the family members, the males were sent to the frontiers and were not allowed to leave the border towns. The females were sent to the Jiaofang Bureau and became slaves forever."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Wei Chen retire."

Mou Bin secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He was really afraid that Zhu Youtang would confiscate his property and exterminate his clan again.

Mou Bin bowed and took his leave.

Wang Zhi glanced at the Feiyu suit on Mou Bin, frowned slightly, and felt a sense of crisis in his heart.

No!

We must never let the Imperial Guards take away all of His Majesty’s favors.

He wants to let His Majesty know that the Western Factory is His Majesty's most loyal and ferocious lackey!
(End of this chapter)