My father is Chongzhen? Then I have no choice but to rebel.

Chapter 27 It was Chongzhen who did the bad things, and it has nothing to do with me, the prince!
Sure enough, the next second, he heard Ni Yuanlu continue to say:
"I heard that the Imperial Guards raided the residences of many nobles yesterday. May I ask how much silver was seized, Your Highness?"

According to previous rules, the money obtained from the house search would go directly into the imperial treasury, and the Ministry of Revenue was not allowed to interfere.

But now that the Ming Dynasty has become like this, Ni Yuanlu can no longer care about so many things.

Anyway, no matter whether it's the money from the Ministry of Revenue or the Imperial Treasury, it's all for the purpose of doing things for your Zhu family. It's reasonable for you to pay some money, right?
Zhu Cilang pretended to think for a moment before saying:

"About thirty million taels of silver!"

Zhu Cilang did not lie. The silver seized from the house was indeed only 30 million taels.

The remaining 20 million taels were voluntarily handed over by the nobles. They should be treated separately and cannot be counted together!
so much?
When they heard this number, all the ministers were a little surprised.

Obviously they didn't expect those nobles to be so rich!
Ni Yuanlu was also a little surprised, but he quickly reacted and spoke again:

"Since this is the case, I request that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince allocate some silver to the Ministry of Revenue to cover the military pay owed to various regions in recent years, as well as the salaries owed to officials in various regions."

"Besides that, there's also some other money for disaster relief!"

Zhu Cilang asked expressionlessly:

"How much silver do these cost in total?"

He was prepared for heavy bleeding yesterday, so it didn't matter.

Ni Yuanlu seemed to have been prepared, and then he bowed and said:

"I've already calculated it! The unpaid salaries in various places require 4.3 million taels of silver, the unpaid salaries of officials in various places require 2.8 million taels of silver, and disaster relief requires 2 million taels of silver!"

"Adding some other matters, the total cost is 10 million taels of silver!"

"Also, the Ministry of Revenue is truly out of money. I request that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince allocate another five million taels to the Ministry of Revenue to prepare for any emergency!"

When Zhu Cilang heard this, he was so angry that he almost vomited blood!
Good guy!
I finally confiscated 30 million taels of silver from the house, and you just asked for half of it!
Are you too dark-hearted?

You can be angry, but after all, the money should be spent!
Besides, isn’t money meant to be spent?
Zhu Cilang had previously investigated tax collection during the Chongzhen period, and the results were very unsatisfactory.

Take last year for example.

In the 960th year of Chongzhen, there were 5643 million households, a population of 783 million, 1900 million hectares of farmland, 330 million dan of rice and million dan of wheat.

Zhejiang and Nanzhili transported 330 million taels of silver, 2300 million copper coins, and 350 million dan of leftover grain to the Taicang warehouse in the capital.

The prefectures of Northern Zhili and Shandong sent 115 million taels of silver to the Ministry of War, and other provinces sent 430 million taels of silver as military pay.

This also includes salt tax, mining tax, tea tax and all other tax silver!

Seems like a lot, right? If all that money were converted into silver, it would be at least 20 million taels.

But the fact is that 70% of them could never be transported to the capital. After being collected, they were often sent directly to various places as military pay and food.

The actual annual income of the national treasury was only more than 3 million taels, but even this was still not enough to cover the expenses, and the country was in debt every year.

If Zhu Cilang had not confiscated so much silver during the house search, the debt would still have continued to be owed.

According to the current expenditure, the tax revenue of Ming Dynasty must be raised to at least 3500 million taels to barely maintain the basic expenditure of the country.
Add to that various natural and man-made disasters, and the actual need may be even greater!

Headache!

What a headache!

Money is becoming less and less worth spending
Zhu Cilang sighed in his heart, and then said:

"In that case, it's approved!"

When Ni Yuanlu heard this, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

He originally thought that he would not be able to get the money today, and was ready to risk his reputation to get it, but he did not expect Zhu Cilang to agree directly.

If it were Chongzhen, even if he agreed, he would probably give a 30% discount at least.

From this point of view, it is still beneficial for the crown prince to govern the country.

But before he could completely relax, Zhu Cilang's voice rang out again. "The silver can be allocated to the Ministry of Revenue, but given the large number of nobles who embezzled military pay in the past, it's difficult to guarantee that the money won't be embezzled again."

"So, in order to maintain a clean and honest administration, Father is reopening the East and West Factories to supervise all officials!"

"The various uses and distribution of this silver require the supervision of the East and West Factories. Any corruption will be severely punished!"

what?
Upon hearing this, all the civil and military officials present looked at Zhu Cilang in astonishment, their faces full of disbelief!
It was like seeing a ghost!
You should know that since Chongzhen became emperor, the Western Factory had been abolished long ago, and the Eastern Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guard were also in a half-dead state.

Why are we suddenly going to reset the East and West Factories when everything is fine now?

Isn't this going to cost them their lives?
They have become accustomed to a free and unrestrained life without supervision. If they are suddenly given the entire East-West Factory, how will they survive?

Thinking of this, the Prime Minister Zhou Yanru quickly stood up and advised:
"Your Highness, this is absolutely unacceptable!"

"The East and West Factories brought disaster to the country and the people. The events of Wei Zhongxian's eunuch cholera disrupting government affairs are still fresh in our memory. How can we allow such a thing to happen again?"

Ni Yuanlu also hurriedly said:

"Your Highness! I second your motion. This is absolutely not allowed at this time!"

"I also appeal! I beg Your Majesty to revoke your order!"

"I will review the matter!"

"I will also review this!"

"I will also review this!"

At once, most of the ministers in the court stood up and indignantly demanded the cancellation of the order.

There's no way, they are really scared!

If the East and West Factories were really to be re-established, how could they still control the government and commit corruption and bribery?
The ministers' reactions were completely within Zhu Cilang's expectations. After all, he knew what these guys were most afraid of.

But no matter what they are afraid of, Zhu Cilang is going to do it!
Thinking of this, Zhu Cilang pretended to be embarrassed and said:

"I know what you are all worried about, so I don't agree with this either!"

"To be honest, I have been trying to persuade His Majesty to retract his order yesterday!"

"But His Majesty was so enraged by the nobles' corruption and rebellion that he refused to agree and insisted on re-establishing the East and West fields!"

"There's nothing this prince can do about this!"

Look!

It was Chongzhen who did the bad things, and it has nothing to do with me, the prince.

This prince has tried to persuade Chongzhen, but he won’t listen!
There is nothing the prince can do.
Although things had been said to this point and even the emperor had brought it up, there were still ministers who refused to give up.

"Your Highness, I, the Chief Minister of the Cabinet, Zhou Yanru, request an audience with His Majesty!"

"I will report the interests involved to His Majesty!"

Zhou Yanru spoke first.

"I, Cabinet Minister Li Biao, request an audience with His Majesty!"

"I, Cabinet Minister Qian Longxi, request an audience with His Majesty!"

"Your Highness, I, the Minister of Justice, Xu Shiqi, request an audience with His Majesty!"

Several powerful ministers stood up and clamored to see Chongzhen.

There's nothing they can do, they're really scared!

After all, who doesn’t have some shit under their butt to get to their current position?

If the East and West Factories were really established, they would be finished!

(End of this chapter)