The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 77 Empress Dowager Li was terrified

Empress Dowager Li's squandering of money can be said to be unprecedented.

Historically, the marriage and enfeoffment of Prince Lu alone cost the Ming Dynasty court no less than 10 million taels of silver.

There was also the Ming Dynasty's Imperial Master Miaofeng who encouraged her to fund the construction of the temple. No one knows how much money the Ming Dynasty court spent.

Later generations have preserved the Datayuan Temple, Xiantong Temple, Yongming Temple in Wutai Mountain, the Da Huayan Temple, the Ten Thousand Buddhas Iron Pagoda in Ningwu, the Ten Thousand Buddha Caves in Ninghua, the Shuangta Temple in Taiyuan, and the three bronze halls in Emei Mountain, Huashan Mountain and Wutai Mountain, etc.

She also funded the renovation and construction of more than 20 temples in the capital, including Haihui Temple, Cheng'en Temple, Pu'an Temple, Cishou Temple, Cishan Temple, Wanshou Temple, etc.

People just want to use her to make money for the Ming Dynasty court. The construction and renovation of these temples require a lot of money.

This cost can be referred to the cost of repairing the Wanshou Palace by Yan Song and his son. Yan Song and his son spent more than three million taels just to repair the Wanshou Palace. Even if the cost of repairing a temple is half, it will still cost more than one million taels. It is unknown how much it will cost to build a new one.

Perhaps this expense seems a bit ridiculous to later generations. More than one million taels is equivalent to several hundred million in later generations.

However, corrupt officials these days are so bold and absurd when it comes to corruption. They deceived Empress Dowager Li not to do charity. If they really wanted to do charity, they would not use the money to help the victims.

Their purpose in deceiving Empress Dowager Li was to make money from the Ming Dynasty court.

How much tax did the Ming Dynasty court collect in a year?

If Empress Dowager Li continues to spend like this, she will squander all her money!

The key point is that she spent all her money in vain and it was of no use at all.

Can Prince Lu save the Ming Dynasty?

Can temples save the Ming Dynasty?

If this money was used as food and wages to train troops, would the Ming Dynasty perish?

The more Wanli thought about it, the angrier he became.

He simply ordered people to move the dragon throne to the steps at the gate of the Qianqing Palace and sat there waiting.

This time he really couldn't help but curse.

Empress Dowager Li also wanted to curse.

She arrived at the gate of the Qianqing Palace in a sedan chair carried by eight people. When she saw it, she was so angry that she almost smoked.

Wanli actually sat at the door blocking her way and refused to let her in.

She immediately sat in the sedan chair and angrily scolded him, "You unfilial son! Prince Lu is your own brother. He's getting married, and you're not even paying for it. Do you have any conscience?"

Wanli said coldly: "Didn't I say to give you 500,000 taels? Why don't you pay?"

What can you do with this little money?
Empress Dowager Li was furious and asked, "Five hundred thousand taels? Are you sending away beggars?"
I was talking about five million taels. How could you treat your own brother so badly?

Also, you asked the Ministry of Revenue to allocate 500,000 taels to build the Prince Lu's Palace?

Only one thousand hectares of land were requisitioned?

How do you want Prince Lu to live in the future?
Let me tell you, building the Prince Lu's Palace will require at least three million taels of silver, and you must requisition at least ten thousand hectares of land for your brother."

You think money comes from the wind, right?
Wanli was also furious and said: "Five hundred thousand taels are you giving to beggars?
Is there such a big beggar in this world?
If you go among the people, you will see how many families can afford fifty taels.

It was considered good for an ordinary person to have five taels of silver in his home.

Now that you've become the Queen Mother, you've forgotten what your life was like before, right?

You want five million taels to marry Prince Lu, three million taels to build a palace, and you also need to requisition ten thousand hectares of land!

Do the math yourself. Based on your family's current situation, how much money can your family spend in a year?

I'll give you a little more. Is fifty taels enough?
Do you know how many civilians can be fed with eight million taels?
Have you ever calculated how many people one million acres of land can support?"

You mean I come from a poor family, right?
Upon hearing this, Empress Dowager Li angrily scolded, "What are you talking about before?

Now you are the emperor, and Prince Lu is your biological brother. He is your only brother, so how can you be so heartless? "

I have no conscience?

Do you have a conscience?
Wanli couldn't help but cursed: "Prince Lu is a human being, but the millions of people of the Ming Dynasty are not human beings, right?

You keep talking about compassion every day, but is that fake compassion?

Do you know how many disaster victims there were in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty?

And five hundred thousand taels is just to feed beggars!

Let me tell you, you can save a disaster victim without spending five taels of silver.

Do you know how many victims will starve to death if you spend these eight million taels?
If you can't calculate, I'll do it for you. You're going to kill 1.6 million disaster victims!

And we need at least ten thousand acres of fertile land?

Do you know how many people in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty lost their land and became refugees, searching for grass roots and tree bark to eat?

Did you know that if these one million acres of land were forcibly expropriated, at least 100,000 civilian households would starve to death?

You call this compassion?

You are compassionate to yourself.

You are merciful to Prince Lu.

You are going to kill millions of people just to make life comfortable for yourself and Prince Lu!
Are you still talking to me about conscience?
Where is your conscience?" What nonsense are you talking about?

Empress Dowager Li said unreasonably, "Are you going to give me the money or not? If you don't give me the money today, I won't leave."

How dare you act tough with me?

Wanli roared, "Alright, you wait here. I'll have Li Wenquan brought here and behead him in public. Right here!"

what?
Upon hearing this, Empress Dowager Li howled, "You beast, that's your own uncle!"

How dare you call me a beast?
Wanli didn't care and howled, "You are the beast, your whole family are beasts.

You pretended to be compassionate in order to build temples, and you wanted to kill millions of civilians in order to allow Prince Lu to live a life of luxury.

In order to make some dirty money, Li Wenquan used waste cotton to make military uniforms, which not only froze the border soldiers to death, but he also deliberately allowed the northern barbarians to invade Liaodong to silence the border soldiers.

Do you know how many Liaodong border soldiers he killed?
I'm letting him off easy by beheading him.

Don't push me, I'll do anything if you push me any further."

what?
Would it be too easy for him to be beheaded?
This little bastard is so inhumane!

Upon hearing this, Empress Dowager Li said with a rather timid expression, "What do you want to do?"

I want you to get out.

Wanli said coldly: "Li Wenquan is guilty of treason, he shall be executed by slow slicing, and his entire clan shall be implicated!"

Upon hearing this, Empress Dowager Li was horrified and said, "How dare you, you tyrant!"

tyrant?

I dare not?
Please don't force me.

Wanli's rebellious temper suddenly emerged.

He said with a crazy look on his face: “What’s wrong with the tyrant?
A tyrant is always better than a king who destroys his country!
Do you want to try it? I will order someone to bring Li Wenquan here and chop him into pieces. Do you think I dare to do it? "

This little bastard is crazy!
Empress Dowager Li was terrified.

What if this little bastard really goes crazy and drags Li Wenquan over to cut him into pieces?
She can't stop it at all!
That's her own brother!

Does she dare to bet?

This little bastard seems to be able to do anything!

She thought about it with a panicked look on her face, then asked in a trembling voice, "What do you want?"

You also know how to be afraid.

Wanli said coldly: "I have said that for Prince Lu's marriage, I will give him 500,000 taels. The Ministry of Revenue will allocate 500,000 taels for the Prince Lu's Mansion in Hengzhou and requisition 1,000 hectares of land."

You beast, you have such a cruel heart!
Upon hearing this, Empress Dowager Li couldn't help crying and said, "How are you going to let your brother live in the future?"

Are you playing the crying, making a fuss, and then threatening to hang yourself game with me again?

This trick is useless to me.

Wanli continued coldly, "You can ask Wu Qinghou if someone had given him a house worth fifty taels of silver and fifty taels of silver, would he have survived? Would he have been forced to sell his children?"

Your family is descended from bricklayers. Back then, the father-in-law Li Wei was so poor that he was forced to sell his daughter to Prince Yu's mansion as a maid and sent his son to the palace to be a eunuch.

Now that you are living a good life, it’s amazing that you don’t care about hundreds of thousands or even millions of taels of silver?

When Empress Dowager Li heard this, she didn't know what to say.

It seems that it is impossible to get this unfilial son to pay more money for his precious youngest child.

Oh, and there’s Wenquan.

She wiped away her tears and then asked in a trembling voice, "What do you want to do with Wenquan?"

It depends on what you want.

Wanli said coldly, "His life or death depends on your decision.

If you want him to die, just wait here. I will immediately order someone to bring him over and chop him off for you to see.

If you want him to be cut into pieces, then keep making trouble. Do you think I dare to cut him into pieces?

If you want him to live, go back and prepare a wedding for Prince Lu and have him go to his fiefdom as soon as possible."

This rebellious son has absolutely no humanity at all!

Empress Dowager Li was really frightened when she heard this.

Could she kill her own brother?
No way.

There was no choice but to go back crying.

Seeing this, Wanli couldn't help but snort inwardly.

I have to find a way to deal with this stupid woman, and I have to clean up the twenty-four prisons in the inner palace.

(End of this chapter)