Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 59 The Princes' Grain Robbery: Wei Gong's Madness (Part 1)

The situation in the Ming Dynasty has indeed improved somewhat.

The disaster victims in the Northwest now have at least two to three million shi of life-saving grain. While this may not stop many people from rebelling, it can at least save the lives of many ordinary people.

In the southeast, Xiong Wencan also received a tip: as long as he could gradually lure Zheng Zhilong to the capital, the profits from overseas trade could nourish the Ming Dynasty.

With Qin Liangyu's 50,000 troops, the predicament in the southwest could not only completely extinguish the chieftains' thoughts of rebellion, but at least with the balance of power shifting, the chieftain rebellion would no longer be as large-scale as in history.

Although the Jurchens in Liaodong have not yet been contained, the 60,000 troops of the Beijing Garrison, once trained, will be enough to give them a run for their money.

If there were no traitors in the imperial court, then achieving this much would have been enough to revitalize the Ming Dynasty, making its demise impossible.

The problem is that without traitors within the imperial court, the Ming Dynasty could not possibly prosper.

The Wanli era is clear evidence of this. At the beginning of the Wanli era, the Ming Dynasty was thriving and was even close to entering a golden age. However, after Zhang Juzheng died, Zhang Siwei abolished the reform and inexplicably transferred Qi Jiguang to the south to be dismissed and investigated!
The Ming Dynasty is now thriving, and it's unlikely that the emperor will be killed. These guys have no choice but to rely on external forces to accelerate their betrayal of the country!
The most likely thing these guys would do is lure the Jurchens into invading the capital region in advance.

He hasn't even started building up the defenses around the capital yet. If the Jurchens suddenly attack, the capital region will definitely be in chaos!
Zhu Jue realized this problem after seeing Cao Huachun off.

He immediately ordered someone to summon Lu Xiang-sheng.

Lu Xiang-sheng was just waiting to accompany the emperor to the eastern city, and he arrived quite quickly.

Shortly after, Lu Xiang-sheng strode in, cupped his hands, and bowed, saying, "Your humble servant greets Your Majesty."

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then solemnly said, "Jiandou, the rice and wheat in the capital region are almost harvested now, and we must hurry up and build up the defense line for the capital region, especially the defense line along the grain transport river."

Our newly opened iron and coal mines are all over there. Once the Jurchens break through the grain transport canal defense line, the steel mills will have to shut down. Once the steel mills shut down, everything that uses steel will have to stop production.

Uh, aren't they currently focusing on building up the East City?
Upon hearing this, Lu Xiang-sheng cautiously said, "Your Majesty, we need to transfer all the able-bodied men from the Jingying Garrison to build the city wall of the East City. I'm afraid we don't have enough manpower to build the grain transport canal defense line."

If there aren't enough people, then recruit more.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue decisively said, "Isn't there more than 30,000 garrison households in Jizhou Town? There are at least 100,000 farming households in the grain transport river basin east of Yongping Prefecture and Shuntian Prefecture, and at least 100,000 ordinary people in so many cities in Jizhou Town."

"These can all be conscripted. The rice and wheat are almost harvested anyway. The drying can be handled by the elderly, women, and children. We can recruit all the able-bodied men to build the grain transport canal defense line."

How much grain would that cost?

Lu Xiang-sheng reminded him: "Your Majesty, I dare to say that conscripting able-bodied men to build the defense line requires money and food. Considering the cost of building the East City, each able-bodied man's monthly wage is one tael of silver, but their monthly food expenses are more than one tael of silver."

Even if we conscript over 200,000 able-bodied men to build the grain transport canal defense line, it would still take at least two months, and the cost in grain and money would be at least 500,000 to 600,000 taels per month. That's over a million taels in two months!

Money and provisions!

The grain is easy to handle. The more than 2.6 million shi of grain that Cao Huachun transported from Southern Zhili will arrive soon, and the more than 2 million shi of grain from Shandong will definitely arrive within two months.

Originally, the capital city consumed only about four million shi of tax grain each year. Starting from now, there will be less than half a year until next spring, at most two million shi of grain will be consumed. The remaining two million shi of grain can be used to conscript young men to build defenses. At worst, Cao Huachun can bring over two million shi from Southern Zhili next year.

The problem is that we don't have enough money.

The original imperial treasury held only a little over three million taels of silver, and with the additional five million taels that Wei Zhongxian collected from the more than twenty officials who refused to sell their land, the total amount was only a little over five million taels.

He had already allocated one million taels to Cao Huachun to take to the Northwest, and also gave six hundred thousand taels to Qin Liangyu as provisions. In addition, with the expenses incurred in purchasing land and conscripting artisans to build cities and factories during this period, the silver reserves in the imperial treasury were less than three million taels.

Furthermore, if all the military households, farmers, and artisans in the eastern part of the city were recruited to work together on the construction, even one million taels a month wouldn't be enough. The money in the imperial treasury would barely last until the New Year.

Where did the money for building the grain transport canal defense line come from? Was it to be robbed by Wei Zhongxian again?
Wei Zhongxian has already robbed him an extra four or five million taels this month!
Besides, robbery takes time; you can't just steal money as soon as it comes to you.

Zhu Jue frowned and pondered for a while, then suddenly remembered that the Donglin Party and the Qi-Chu-Zhe Party had sent people to collect salt and commercial taxes in order to create a false sense of prosperity.

However, both the salt tax and the commercial tax went into the Ministry of Revenue's treasury, and he didn't know how much he had collected.

Moreover, the money from the Donglin and Qi-Chu-Zhe parties is not so easy to obtain; if he were to issue an edict ordering the Ministry of Revenue to allocate funds, it would likely be blocked by the cabinet.

These guys are really cunning. If he doesn't take action against Wei Zhongxian, he probably won't be able to use a single penny of the salt and commercial taxes that have been collected!
You guys are playing dirty tricks, aren't you?
Fine, I'll play dirty tricks with you guys too!
He thought for a moment, then announced loudly, "Summon Wei Zhongxian to come to an audience." Wei Zhongxian was mainly responsible for catching spies at the moment, so he naturally didn't need to go personally; he was waiting for news in the palace.

Before long, this fellow came running over, bowing respectfully and saying, "This servant greets Your Majesty."

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "How's the capture of the traitor going? Have you found the mole?"

Those guys are too cunning!
Wei Zhongxian said rather awkwardly, "Your Majesty, we have caught a few spies, but we haven't found a single traitor. Those guys are very cautious. Once, the secret guards even saw a masked man in black, but as soon as they surrounded him, he disappeared into the dark alleyway like a flying centipede."

Alright, there's no rush to find the mole.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly and then asked, "Do you know how much silver is currently stored in the Ministry of Revenue's treasury?"

Guo Yunhou was actually quite obedient.

Wei Zhongxian said cautiously, "I've heard that a lot of salt and commercial taxes have been collected these days, and the Ministry of Revenue's treasury has more than two million taels of silver in its coffers."

well.

Zhu Jue then asked, "Can you secretly transfer silver from the Ministry of Revenue's treasury to the Imperial Treasury?"

I have indeed done such a thing.

Question: What does Your Majesty mean by asking this?

The meaning of this seems unimportant; what matters is that one must not deceive the emperor.

Wei Zhongxian's eyes darted around, but he still forced a smile and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, this servant can secretly transfer silver from the Ministry of Revenue's treasury to the Imperial Treasury."

You're really something.

Zhu Jue pressed for details, asking, "What method did you use?"

His main goal was to see if this method could truly be done without anyone noticing.

Wei Zhongxian was a little worried, as stealing silver from the Ministry of Revenue's treasury was a capital offense!

However, it seems His Majesty has no intention of beheading me.

He thought for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, “Your Majesty, this is actually not difficult. Just choose a dark and windy night, wrap the horse hooves and cart wheels with thick cloth, and then have the Embroidered Uniform Guard seal off the entire line from the Ministry of Revenue to the Right Chang’an Gate. Then we can go to the Ministry of Revenue’s treasury to withdraw silver. By the way, the guards of the treasury must also be replaced with our own people.”

Hmm, this method should work.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then decisively said, "Alright, pick a dark and windy night and bring 1.2 million taels from the Ministry of Revenue's treasury to the Imperial Treasury first. If we need money later, we'll bring more."

what?
So you want me to steal silver from the Ministry of Revenue's treasury for you!

Why don't you just issue an imperial decree?

No, the imperial edict won't pass the cabinet's approval!
The Donglin and Qi-Chu-Zhe factions will definitely take this opportunity to obstruct His Majesty.

Wei Zhongxian thought about it carefully before nodding and saying, "This servant obeys the decree."

They were discussing stealing silver from the Ministry of Revenue's treasury when Fang Zhenghua suddenly strode in, holding a memorial and bowing, saying, "Your Majesty, an urgent report from Datong Prefecture."

Datong Prefecture?
He didn't send anyone to Datong Prefecture.

Zhu Jue took the memorial and glanced at it, and couldn't help but let out a cold snort of anger.

The prefect of Datong reported that members of the Dai princely clan had suddenly gathered a crowd to plunder tax grain, and nearly all of the hundreds of thousands of shi of tax grain in the four prefectures and seven counties of Datong Prefecture had been looted!
These princes and royal family members, you rob tax grain when I withhold your stipends, is that it?

You guys have gone completely mad!
(End of this chapter)