Bringing the Railway to Daming

The telegram was quite long and it took Liu Kuan a while to finish reading it.

The telegram mainly talked about two things.

First, Barquq led 50,000 troops to attack, how the Jin vassal and Xihaiwei fought a beautiful defensive counterattack, and how Zhu Gang personally led nearly 3,000 elite cavalry to pursue the Mamluk defeated troops and killed Barquq in battle.

Secondly, it tells how corrupt the high-ranking Mamluk bureaucrats and nobles were - how much gold, silver, jewelry, grain, cloth, etc. they confiscated, and even mentions Xie Yu's strategy of "torturing Mamluk bureaucrats and dignitaries with a pair of tongs".

Seeing this, Liu Kuan almost couldn't help laughing out loud.

Old Zhu and Zhu Biao had been paying attention to Liu Kuan's expression. Seeing that Liu Kuan finally smiled a rather strange smile, Zhu Biao couldn't help but ask curiously, "Why is my brother-in-law smiling so strangely?"

Liu Kuan said, "I just saw Xie Yu propose the torture method of using a clamp to interrogate people to His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin, and it made me think of something."

In Zhu Biao's view, although the torture of Mamluk bureaucrats and dignitaries with rods was a bit cruel, it was what they deserved - the telegram mentioned that many Mamluk civilians were forced into slavery by the dignitaries.

Old Zhu didn't think too much about it and asked directly out of curiosity: "What did you think of?"

Liu Kuan thought it was okay to talk to Old Zhu about that matter, so he said, "I was thinking of some of the things that Li Zicheng did after he led the peasant army to attack Beijing in history."

Upon hearing this, both Old Zhu and Zhu Biao immediately had a premonition that this was probably one or even several things that were not glorious for the Old Zhu family.

But Lao Zhu couldn't help but say, "Tell me about it."

"Yes." Seeing that Old Zhu seemed mentally prepared, Liu Kuan spoke confidently, "When Li Zicheng attacked Beijing, he had already swept across northern Ming Dynasty. Including the peasant armies from various places that joined his Shun Army and the Ming Dynasty's official troops, the total number of Shun Army troops should have exceeded 500,000."

"Since he had captured the city, forced Emperor Chongzhen to hang himself, and ascended the throne, he naturally rewarded his soldiers lavishly."

"Not only will he have to reward the hundreds of thousands of troops that followed him into the capital, but he will also have to reward the Shun troops stationed in various places. Add to that the food and even military pay for these troops and their families, and a huge amount of money will be needed."

"Li Zicheng fully expected that after conquering the capital, he would be able to seize a large amount of money and grain from the Ming treasury and the emperor's private treasury to provide for his army—or at the very least, a large amount of silver to cover his military expenses and purchase grain."

"Who would have thought that many warehouses belonging to the national treasury were empty, even the sight of rats would bring tears to their eyes. In the end, only a few thousand taels of silver were found."

"Emperor Chongzhen's treasury in the palace only consisted of three thousand taels of gold, tens of thousands of taels of silver, a small amount of treasures, and some insignificant copper coins, which together were only worth a few hundred thousand taels of silver."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao both looked grim.

Although Liu Kuan had repeatedly mentioned before that the Ming Dynasty died of poverty, Chongzhen was the poorest emperor of a unified dynasty in the history of China.

But no matter how mentally prepared they were, they had never imagined that the Chongzhen Dynasty would be so poor - not to mention the national treasury, which was empty as it was running out of money; but it was unbelievable that the treasury of the great Ming Emperor had only tens of thousands of taels of silver.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, silver flowed in in large quantities and was used as money. If you were to pick a large landowner at that time, he would probably have more than tens of thousands of taels of silver hidden in his home, and his net worth would definitely be more than hundreds of thousands of taels.

In other words, the wealth of their descendant, Emperor Chongzhen, may not be as great as that of an ordinary landlord!

Liu Kuan then shook his head and sighed, "Later, a late Ming scholar who defected to the Qing wrote a book claiming that Li Zicheng had seized 37 million ingots of silver and 10 million ingots of gold from Chongzhen's treasury. Surprisingly, some people believed it."

"No matter how much Chongzhen loved money or how stingy he was, if the treasury really had so much money, how could he not use it for military expenses when the Ming Dynasty was about to fall?"

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted angrily, "To write something as ridiculous as this in a book must be both stupid and evil. He deserves to be cut into pieces!"

Zhu Biao also said angrily, "This kind of person really has no bottom line when it comes to making up lies, and he treats everyone in the world as fools."

Zhu Yuanzhang felt that this fabrication of the previous dynasty by the new dynasty's scholars was not worth discussing, so he asked: "Since Li Zicheng didn't find much money or food from the national treasury, how did he solve the problem of military funds?"

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "This is what I was thinking about earlier. Li Zicheng had a great general named Liu Zongmin. He was a blacksmith by birth and had followed Li Zicheng for a long time. He even saved Li Zicheng's life."

"After Li Zicheng ascended the throne in Xi'an and established the Dashun Dynasty, he conferred the title of Marquis of Ru on him."

"After capturing the capital, they didn't seize much money or grain. Not only is Li Zicheng worried, but so are his subordinates, both civil and military. If this matter isn't resolved properly, at least 100,000 or 200,000 soldiers won't be appeased, and their wealth and status will be ruined."

"In the past, whenever the Shun army conquered a place, they would confiscate the property of the local gentry and landlords, use their money and grain for military use, and distribute the land to the people."

"We ate wherever we fought, so we never had to worry about money or food."

"But later, Li Zicheng repeatedly defeated the Ming army and ascended the throne to establish the Great Shun. Many Ming officials, gentry, and landlords surrendered. Under such circumstances, it was naturally difficult for the Shun army to continue its previous banditry."

"But Liu Zongmin had been bullied by officials and gentry before, so he disliked seeing these people."

"After the Shun army entered the capital, many Ming officials and nobles surrendered to greet them. Some of them had even become Shun officials, so it would definitely not be easy to just confiscate their property."

"So Liu Zongmin proposed that these Ming officials and nobles must have embezzled a lot of dirty silver, so he asked them to pay silver according to their rank, calling it 'recovering the stolen goods to help with military expenses.'" "The original quota was not high. For example, the cabinet ministers had to pay 100,000 taels of silver, and the heads of various ministries and agencies had to pay 70,000 taels."

"When Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin raided the homes of any large landowner in the local area, they could seize property worth over 100,000 taels. If they had served as a county magistrate or higher, they could confiscate even more. Naturally, they assumed the high-ranking officials and dignitaries in the capital had more money and felt the price they set was not high."

"However, on the one hand, some high-ranking officials in the capital at that time were indeed poor, and even if they had family wealth, it was all in their hometowns, not in the capital."

"Secondly, many wealthy officials and nobles are reluctant to part with their wealth. Your Majesty should remember what I said. Before the Shun army attacked the capital, Chongzhen borrowed money from his ministers, but only managed to borrow a few hundred thousand taels."

"If they were unwilling to lend money to Chongzhen, how could they be willing to use their own money to pay the Shun army?"

"Finally, and most importantly: Even if they have money and are willing to take it, if they really hand over that much silver, wouldn't that prove they are corrupt officials in the Ming Dynasty?"

"Therefore, there are very few Ming officials and nobles who are willing to take the initiative to give money to the Shun army as required."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao and even Li Gui, who had no sense of presence under the side pillar, were all extremely focused, wanting to know how things would develop next.

Liu Kuan smiled mockingly and continued, "This has irritated Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin, and a large number of Dashun generals. They think these Ming officials and nobles who surrendered are just refusing to accept our toast and are just drinking a penalty."

"So Liu Zongmin, who was in charge of this matter, ordered people to rush to make 5,000 pairs of tongs overnight, and then sent elite soldiers from the Shun army to arrest people according to the 'list of financial supporters'."

"Some officials and nobles were so arrogant that they refused to pay even when they were captured and tortured in Liu Zongmin's camp. Or perhaps they simply couldn't come up with that much money, so even their families were arrested."

"Of course, by this point, the Shun forces, led by Li Zicheng, had already broken off relations with the surrendered Ming officials and nobles, and even torn their relations apart."

"So, when Liu Zongmin's men began to torture them, they wanted more than just the dirty silver they had originally stipulated for military aid. They also wanted these people to voluntarily hand over all their stolen property."

"The one most laughed at by later generations was Chongzhen's father-in-law, Zhou Kui, who was granted the title of Earl of Jiading."

"When Chongzhen was preparing to borrow money from his ministers, he was afraid that no one would take the lead, so he sent a eunuch to convey a message to Zhou Kui, asking him to take the lead in donating money."

"Zhou Kui said he had no money and begged Empress Zhou for help. Empress Zhou offered him five thousand taels. However, Zhou Kui only donated three thousand taels and embezzled two thousand taels."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao both looked incredulous.

Zhu Yuanzhang then asked angrily and suspiciously, "How could someone like Zhou Kui become the emperor's father-in-law? How could such a person raise the mother of a nation?"

Liu Kuan said, "Although Zhou Kui was not a good person, Empress Zhou was still quite virtuous. During the impoverished Chongzhen period, it was said that Empress Zhou not only led the harem in frugality, but also led the princesses and palace maids in weaving and embroidery, which she then had the palace maids sell to supplement the palace's expenses."

Zhu Yuanzhang was speechless.

Although Empress Ma also wove and embroidered, she made clothes for him or his children. Although Empress Ma was relatively frugal, she would not weave cloth for people to sell outside the palace.

Even at the end of a dynasty, it was not easy for a queen to achieve this.

Zhu Biao also sighed, "With such actions, she deserves to be called a virtuous queen."

Liu Kuan continued, "Before Zhou Kui became a relative of the emperor, he was actually a fortune teller in Beijing. When Chongzhen was still the Prince of Xin, he used his connections to have his daughter participate in the imperial selection and become the Princess of Xin."

"Also, it seems that since the reigns of Emperors Renzong and Xuanzong, the Ming Dynasty has only selected daughters of low-ranking officials or even commoners from respectable families as concubines in order to prevent the rise of powerful relatives. Later, most of the emperors' concubines and the wives of princes also came from small families."

"Although such a family may not be able to become a powerful in-law interfering in government affairs, they certainly can't help the royal family in any way. Moreover, most empresses are women of ordinary knowledge, and few have far-sighted vision and broad knowledge."

"Of course, Zhou Kui's character was considered poor among the imperial relatives throughout the Ming Dynasty. After the Shun army invaded the capital, Zhou Kui was one of the first nobles to surrender, and he even treated the Shun army soldiers who entered his palace well."

"However, later on, Liu Zongmin launched a campaign to recover stolen goods to support military spending, but Zhou Kui was still reluctant to part with the money. He watched his eldest son being tortured to death and refused to speak. Even when his wife and daughter committed suicide due to the humiliation, he still refused to speak."

"It was not until the Shun army tortured him three times and threatened to kill his youngest son that he finally gave in and revealed where he had hidden the gold and silver."

"In total, the Shun army confiscated over 500,000 taels of gold and silver from Zhou Kui's home. If you include other property, the total value exceeds one million taels."

"Zhou Kui was actually just a slightly unusual example of recovering stolen goods to support military expenses in Beijing at the time. The Shun army also obtained a considerable amount of money from other officials and nobles through torture."

"Later, some said the Shun army obtained more than 70 million taels of silver from Beijing, while others said it was more than 30 million taels."

"Although the former figure is likely untrue according to the speculation of later historians, and the latter figure is also debatable, it does show that Li Zicheng definitely obtained a considerable amount of gold, silver, and other valuables from Beijing."

After Liu Kuan finished speaking, he stole a glance and found that Old Zhu's face didn't show much anger, but his eyes were so cold that they seemed to freeze. (End of this chapter)