The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 30 The Emperor Has No Money

Not only Liu Zhaosun, everyone wanted to get money from the emperor.

If you keep thinking about it, there will be a great effect.

The Battle of Sarhu was a disastrous defeat. The city defenses in Liaodong required money, the recruitment of new soldiers required money, and the food, drink, and toilet expenses of the foreign soldiers in Shenyang required even more money.

The Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue said that they had just collected the Liao tribute and had no more money. After everyone discussed it, they slapped their foreheads and said:
@朱翊均. Your Majesty, you still have some private money!
Emperor Wanli: "It's impossible to distribute money, not in this lifetime. We don't know how to engage in maritime trade, so we can only maintain the Ming Dynasty by sending mining supervisors to deal with corrupt officials."

A long time ago, when Emperor Wanli was still a child, he witnessed with his own eyes the extravagant life of Mr. Zhang under his honesty, which left a great shadow on Zhu Yijun's young mind.

It turns out that family affection, friendship, and the relationship between me and Mr. Zhang as a teacher and disciple are like beautiful bubbles, though they only last for a moment.

There are only two things in this life that interest the emperor:

Make money, make money.

Some people say that Emperor Wanli fought and won many battles, which shows that he liked military affairs.

In fact, many times, wars are also fought for money.

For example, the suppression of Guizhou chieftain Yang Yinglong.

The chieftains surnamed Yang have been entrenched in Guizhou for hundreds of years, and their ancestors can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty.

Although he was a chieftain, he had actually been completely sinicized. The prosperity of Bozhou where Yang Yinglong was located was in no way inferior to that of other major cities.

In the 12th year of the Chenghua reign, Governor Zhang Zan led the government troops to suppress the Miao Rebellion and passed through Bozhou:

"Arriving at Bozhou, it was the Xiangchuan Post. The road was passable, the residents were prosperous, and there was a sense of the Jiangnan atmosphere. Yang Xuanwei and his son led 1 local soldiers to set up camp in the suburbs of ten miles, with artillery and horses firing, and the military appearance was very impressive..." ()

Even the governor who came from the capital was dumbfounded. It can be seen that Bozhou is very prosperous and people with the surname Yang are very rich.

In fact, among the three major expeditions of the Wanli Emperor, only the Korean campaign was a failure because the Ming army was deceived by that bastard Yi Sun, and ended up losing a lot of money in Korea because of the lack of money and food.

The remaining two major expeditions were actually profitable.

As for where the looted money ended up, we can only ask the generals and governors who participated in suppressing the rebellion.

It is said that when Liu Jing was in Sichuan, he was also involved in these things.

Perhaps because of the uneven distribution of spoils, he was impeached by the censors after the war, who accused him of being corrupt and accepting bribes, and of embezzling more than 8 million taels of silver from Yang Yinglong.

Although there was no evidence, Wanli still severely punished Liu Jing, dismissed him from office and deprived him of his military merits.

In Zhu Yijun's view, having an army and being powerful is not a big deal, what is hateful is that this bastard dared to covet his money!
According to this logic, there should be millions of silver seized by General Liu hidden in a cave in the southwest.

It’s a pity that Liu Zhaosun didn’t understand this history.

Liu Jing mentioned Yang Hao before his death, which actually has a profound meaning.

In the Pingbo War, Kang Yingqian and Yang Hao both participated...

Unfortunately, the Liaodong Governor is now in a precarious situation.

The two things that Emperor Wanli cared about most were messed up by Yang Hao.

Zhu Yijun really wanted to swing a pickaxe to smash Yang Hao's head, and then drag this killer to Caishikou and behead him for half an hour.

What made the emperor speechless was that after such a long time since Juniper and Marin were defeated, no one had come up with a more reliable strategy, but instead they were all asking the emperor for money.

Even Xuan Da in the west was asking for money, saying that the Mongols were going to take advantage of the situation and asked the court to give them more money to build the border wall.

Emperor Wanli has been having a lot of trouble lately, and it seems like everyone is short of money.

We are indeed short of money.

If Emperor Wanli had basic knowledge of modern economics and some understanding of concepts such as silver circulation and inflation, he might have understood why the Ming Dynasty was so short of money.

The sprouts of capitalism in the middle and late Ming Dynasty were slow to develop because they lacked a means of payment such as silver.

The Ming Dynasty used silver as its currency, and when there was a shortage of silver, payment would become a problem.

The entire industry chain dependent on payments is in danger of collapse. One can refer to the financial chaos in the late Kuomintang-controlled areas in 49. Of course, that was more complicated.

In short, the more advanced and complex the industrial chain is, the less likely it is to use barter.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty cannot do without silver.

So, where does the silver come from?

There are three main sources of silver in the country. Not to mention self-production, the mine supervisors dispatched by Emperor Wanli "from the 2th year to the rd year, the mining tax collected by various mines amounted to nearly million taels" (). This caused public outrage, as only more than taels were collected each year. This drizzle was not even as much as the amount buried in the cellars of several Shanxi merchants.

The second source was Japan. After Tokugawa Kamegune's successful peach theft, Japan implemented strict currency controls on foreign trade. Silver exports to China plummeted from over 1603 million taels per year before 1620 to less than taels per year after , a mere one-fifth of the original level.

At the end of the 1620th century, the tulip bubble burst, and the amount of silver flowing into China from Europe dropped from a peak of 1640 million taels per year in to a low of taels per year in , a decrease of %.

Insufficient silver circulation can cause various troubles, such as famine.

The Ming Dynasty did not lack supplies, but lacked the means to pay for the transportation of supplies.

The more money you lack, the higher the price.

The sudden reduction in silver imports dealt a heavy blow to the economy, seriously affecting the Ming Dynasty's finances and causing them to deteriorate further.

So everyone is short of money.

If Emperor Wanli were sold by the pound, at 100,000 taels per pound, I believe many officials would try it.

The emperor was very unhappy because Yang Hao was still asking him for money.

It is a bit hard to understand why Du Song was inexplicably defeated in Liaozhen's territory, but Li Rubai, who was not far from the Jiannu, was able to return safely.

If someone is unhappy, someone will lose their head.

Liaodong is still at war. Killing a general on the battlefield will not only be detrimental to the war situation, but will also make the soldiers in Liaozhen laugh at him.

Because of his long absence from court, when he grew up, Zhu Yijun became Zhu Houcong, his grandfather.

Fortunately, Emperor Wanli did not have the refined hobbies of Emperor Shizong. He just liked to build palaces, which did not cost much.
But the Ming Dynasty seemed to have always been short of money, at least the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was always short of money.

The Anlu Xingwang Mansion where my grandfather Zhu Houcong was born was actually not very prosperous, and was even not as good as some wealthy families in Huguang.

Zhu Yijun's biological mother, Empress Xiaoding, was originally a palace maid and was later promoted to a concubine. She came from a humble background. From a genetic point of view, Zhu Yijun's family's desire for money can be said to be deep-rooted.

That’s why there were all these troubles later, such as the mining supervisor and the people’s riot.

The mine supervisors had been causing trouble in various places for more than ten years, causing public resentment. From governors and generals to ordinary people, everyone hated the mine supervisors and mine blockades.

In addition to the more famous Gao Huai's rebellion in Liao and Yang Rong's rebellion in Yunnan, these mining supervisors can be found in every place across the country, whether with or without mines.

Although the pressure is great, we still have to continue making money.

What bad intentions could the old emperor have?

At worst, there will be a flood after I die.

To a certain extent, Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian were the perfect scapegoats.

Both of them are highly recognizable. One likes carpentry, and the other is mean and ungrateful. Compared with their grandfather, the brothers' actions are more likely to be remembered by future generations.

The two scapegoats took the blame for their grandfather, Emperor Wanli, and led the Ming Dynasty down a dark path, which became increasingly dire, until everyone was finally crushed to death by the big iron pot.

In the spring of the 47th year of the Wanli reign, faced with a flood of memorials and reports, the old emperor, who had not asked about state affairs for a long time, finally spoke.

Emperor Wanli simply replied to the report sent by Yang Hao. First, he put all the blame for the defeat on Du Song. After all, this guy was dead and the dead could not refute.

Wanli did not forget to remind Yang Hao that he could not make the same mistake again. The matter of mobilizing troops should be handed over to the Ministry of War, and Yang Hao could not make decisions on his own again.

After receiving this imperial edict, Yang Hao felt even more depressed, because he heard that the emperor's reply to Chen Yuting had also arrived, and the edict contained content that was unfavorable to him, which made the general nervous.

The emperor has always attached great importance to wealth, even more so than the Zhu family's kingdom and country.

You can ask for your life, but you absolutely cannot ask for money.

The four armies spent more than three million taels of silver to suppress Nurhaci. The Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War had long been emptied, so they had to temporarily increase the Liao salary. I don’t know whether the emperor used his own treasury to fill the hole.

If the emperor were allowed to spend his own money, these defeated generals and governors would definitely be in trouble.

Yang Hao knew that the old emperor did not kill him now not because of the relationship between the monarch and his subject, but because he was still in Shenyang and could still be of some use to the war.

Yang Hao's only hope lies in Liu Jing. He only hopes that Liu Jing can hold on and not collapse at the first touch like Du Song and Ma Lin.

Even if he could escape safely like Li Rubai, he would still have room to play in the memorial.

There was no news from the Sichuan soldiers and the Wolf soldiers. The guest soldiers and the Liao soldiers continued to confront each other in Shenyang. It was heard that the Mongols in the west also began to make trouble and showed signs of joining forces with the Jiannu.

Yang Jinglie is now regretting that he took this job in the first place. It would have been much better if he had handed this mess to Xiong Tingbi!

"Jinglüe! The Eastern Army is back!"

Note: (1) Records of the Eastern Expedition by Zhang Zan, Ming Dynasty
(2) Ming Shilu: Shenzong Shilu, Volume
(End of this chapter)