The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 529: The warehouse is full of money and grain, but the deficit is serious
"The Master said: 'Riches and honor are what men desire, but if they are not obtained by proper means, they should not be kept; poverty and humbleness are what men abhor, but if they are not obtained by proper means, they should not be abandoned.

If a gentleman abandons benevolence, how can he achieve fame? A gentleman will never violate benevolence even for a moment; he will always do so in times of haste and in times of hardship.

At about noon that day, Luo Sigong, the deputy commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, had just arrived at the door of the imperial study when he heard the high-pitched and rhythmic recitation of Emperor Wanli from inside.

He knew very well that Wanli was not reading it to him on purpose. His Majesty was teaching the future Crown Prince.

This corruption in the Ministry of Revenue has nothing to do with him. His Majesty just happened to teach him this.

However, he still felt inexplicably emotional.

There are really not many gentlemen in the court these days.

Wealth and honor are what everyone desires, but there are too many people who obtain them by improper means.

He sighed inwardly, then quickly walked into the imperial study, bowed and said, "Your humble servant greets His Majesty, and His Royal Highness the Third Prince."

Wanli nodded slightly, and then put the Analects in Zhu Changxun's hand. Then he asked, "How is the inspection of all the officials and warehouses in the Ministry of Revenue going?"

This is not that easy to check. In such a short time, I only did a rough check.

Luo Sigong thought for a moment, then said carefully, "There are rumors among the people that the officials of the Ministry of Revenue are extremely wealthy. I have secretly investigated and the rumors are basically true.

Not every official in the Ministry of Revenue was filthy rich, but most of them lived better than ordinary officials.

Moreover, they like to boast about their own achievements, saying that the Ministry of Revenue's treasuries are almost full of money, grain, cloth, cotton, steel, pigments, etc., and the surplus has already exceeded that of the Prime Minister in his day.

As for the situation inside the Ministry of Revenue's warehouse, I also ordered people to investigate secretly. However, it is difficult for outsiders to enter the Ministry of Revenue's warehouse, so the situation inside is unknown.

Your Majesty, I dare to ask you to sneak into the Ministry of Revenue's warehouses at night to investigate the situation.

Are the warehouses full of money and grain?
It is indeed difficult for outsiders to enter the Ministry of Revenue warehouse, and it seems inappropriate to let the secret guards investigate.

It is obvious that the officials of the Ministry of Revenue are seriously corrupt now, and there is a high probability that there are problems with the Ministry of Revenue’s warehouses. They will definitely guard it strictly, and if you are not one of them, you will definitely not be able to enter.

There seems to be no other way for the secret guards to sneak in like a thief.

If he allowed the secret guards to do this, it would be tantamount to condoning the secret guards' lawlessness.

If they are allowed to sneak into the Ministry of Revenue warehouse, then what else can’t they do?

This definitely won't work.

Wanli thought about it carefully, and then said decisively: "Forget it, don't check the various treasuries of the Ministry of Revenue, you should focus on checking the officials of the Ministry of Revenue.

"Dripping with fat" is just a generalization. To what extent, how much fat is there, who is the fattest, etc., you should have people thoroughly investigate these."

It is really difficult to find out what is going on inside the Ministry of Revenue warehouse.

Fortunately, His Majesty did not let me investigate forcefully.

Luo Sigong bowed repeatedly and said, "Your humble servant understands."

Wanli nodded slightly and then waved his hand.

Luo Sigong quickly bowed and took his leave.

Little Zhu Changxun watched his back disappear through the doorway and immediately couldn't help asking, "Father, aren't you going to check the various treasuries at the Ministry of Revenue?"

This naturally needs to be checked.

Now the Nurgan Regional Administration has already started purchasing grain. The money in the inner treasury is only enough to last for three months. If the Ministry of Revenue does not have enough money and grain, the Nurgan Regional Administration may run out of food.

That's more than 15 million men, women, young and old. It would be a disaster if they ran out of food.

There is also the Jiannu, who is a hidden danger that could lead to the demise of the Ming Dynasty. They must be completely wiped out. The problem is that wiping out the Jiannu requires a large amount of money and food.

Wanli shook his head slowly and said, "Of course the various treasuries of the Ministry of Revenue must be checked. Father originally didn't want to do it openly because it would cause too much noise.

So, my father asked the secret guards to investigate secretly. Now it seems that the secret guards are not omnipotent. There are some places where they cannot place people, let alone go in to investigate.

This is a good thing. If the secret guards were omnipotent, it would be troublesome. If a problematic person were to take charge, we would all be in danger.

Xun'er, you must remember not to give the secret guards too much power in the future. Their main responsibility is to investigate secretly, and they don't need any power.

At most, you can give them the power to arrest people when necessary, but never give them the power to torture, punish, or even execute people without authorization."

Uh, aren’t we talking about investigating the Ministry of Revenue? Why are we talking about the secret guards now?
Upon hearing this, little Zhu Changxun was stunned for a moment, then slowly nodded and said, "Your Highness, I've remembered this. Father, do you mean that we should openly investigate the Ministry of Revenue?"

This is indeed a big deal, and we have to investigate the problem.

He could no longer tolerate corruption among officials like the previous emperor Jiajing did.

The atmosphere in the Ming Dynasty officialdom is already as bad as it can be. If he continues to condone corruption among officials, the atmosphere in the officialdom will completely collapse and it will be difficult to reverse it.

Wanli thought about it carefully, then nodded slowly and said, "That's right, we will investigate it clearly."

Then why haven't you made any movement?

Little Zhu Changxun looked back curiously, and couldn't help asking, "Father, how can we investigate this?"

This is something that needs to be thought about carefully.

Wanli frowned and pondered for a while, then said in a loud voice: "Send it to the Minister of Revenue, Chen Sheng."

The Minister of Revenue, Chen Sheng, was definitely a member of Zhang Juzheng's old party.

He and his cousin Chen Rui were both close confidants of Zhang Juzheng.

Censors from Zhang Siwei's and Shen Shixing's factions had already impeached Chen Sheng and Chen Rui, alleging that they had both risen to power by currying favor with Zhang Juzheng. Rumor had it that when Chen Rui was serving as Governor of Huguang, Zhang Juzheng lost his father. He immediately dropped all his duties and went to Zhang's residence to help him deal with his father's afterlife, acting like a truly filial son. Zhang Juzheng was deeply moved and from then on, he promoted both Chen Rui and Chen Sheng vigorously.

There is no way to verify whether this matter is true or not.

However, there is no doubt that the brothers Chen Sheng and Chen Rui were Zhang Juzheng's confidants.

At this time, Chen Rui had already died of illness, leaving only Chen Sheng.

The reason why Wanli used them was to use Zhang Juzheng's party to deal with Zhang Siwei's party and Shen Shixing's party.

Chen Sheng also made contributions at that time and can be considered a meritorious official.

He originally didn't want to embarrass these people. After all, his real target was not Zhang Juzheng's old party. He just wanted to take back the power from these people.

Xin Zixiu allowed him to retire with dignity.

However, Chen Sheng seemed to be different from Xin Zixiu. At this moment, this guy looked really fat.

Is this because he got fat from corruption and abuse of power or because he lived too well?

Wanli stared at the seemingly respectful Chen Sheng for a while, and said with a fake sigh: "Kong Zhen, your face is so round that I can hardly recognize you."

The little emperor said that I was very fat!

It is not a good thing for an emperor to say that his ministers are very rich.

When Chen Sheng heard this, a trace of panic flashed in his eyes.

He pretended to be calm and said, "Your Majesty, I like to eat fatty meat. This is indeed not a good habit. I will definitely change it."

Is the fat you are talking about real fat?

Wanli nodded slightly, then said solemnly: "Kong Zhen, you should know that the Nurgan Regional Command is preparing to open up wasteland.

I have mobilized more than three million garrison troops to turn all the wasteland over there into fertile fields. Now that place cannot produce grain, and the food for more than 15 million men, women, old and young has to be purchased from the Liaodong Regional Military Commission.

The consumption is really huge, and I can hardly bear it anymore, so I want to allocate some money and food from the Ministry of Revenue.

The Ministry of Revenue should be fully stocked with money and grain by now, so allocating some of it shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Oh, so this is why you came to me.

Even if the Ministry of Revenue had full warehouses of money and grain, it could not withstand the consumption of more than 15 million men, women, young and old.

Upon hearing this, Chen Sheng thought about it carefully, then said cautiously: "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Revenue's treasuries are indeed almost full.

However, Your Majesty, I dare to say that the Ministry of Revenue's warehouses were originally built to store officials' salaries and food wages for border troops, which is far from enough to support more than 15 million men, women, young and old.

Even if all the thirteen warehouses in the capital were filled, they could only store 8.9 million dan of grain, which is not enough to feed more than 15 million men, women, young and old for a month.

As for silver and money, after various expenditures over the years and the replenishment of various treasuries, the surplus is only more than 7 million taels. Even if calculated at one tael of silver equals three dan, it can only purchase more than 21 million dan of grain.

If we add in the losses from the grain transport, the amount that could be delivered to the Nurgan Regional Administration would probably be less than 10 million dan, not even enough to feed over 15 million men, women, young and old for a month."

There seems to be nothing wrong with what he said.

The various treasuries of the Ministry of Revenue were not intended to store food rations for the more than 15 million garrison troops. The total number of Ming officials and all border troops could not possibly reach more than 15 million.

However, Wanli heard the problem in these words.

This is a serious problem. The Ministry of Revenue is in serious deficit!

It's okay to have food, but you can't force it in if it can't fit.

The problem of money is serious.

Are you kidding? The surplus is only over 7 million taels?

If calculated based on the current tax revenue and official salary expenditures of the Ming Dynasty, the surplus in three years would be more than 7 million taels!
The Neiku has been solely responsible for providing food and wages for all the troops for more than three years.

How much money did these guys embezzle?
Upon hearing this, Wanli nodded slightly and said, "Well, this amount of money and grain is more than enough. I don't mean to let the Ministry of Revenue bear the entire cost of feeding more than 15 million men, women, old and young.

The money in the inner treasury can last for a few months. By then, perhaps only five or six million taels of silver will be needed from the Ministry of Revenue. Is this amount of money enough? "

This little money?
Is this a little money?
Never mind, the money isn't mine anyway.

Just don't make the Ministry of Revenue spend more than it earns.

Chen Sheng nodded repeatedly and said, "No problem, no problem."

Wanli actually confirmed: "Is it really okay?"

What does this question mean?
Chen Sheng didn't understand it at all.

However, he still nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, it's really no problem."

Wanli nodded slightly and then waved his hand.

Chen Sheng quickly bowed and took his leave.

Wanli watched the guy disappear through the doorway. Without waiting for Xiao Zhu Changxun to ask, he tested him, "Xun'er, do you think there's anything wrong with Chen Sheng?"

Is there something wrong with this guy?
Little Zhu Changxun thought about it carefully, then shook his head slightly and said, "I can't see it."

(End of this chapter)