How can one be Emperor Chongzhen without money?

Chapter 64 We are the Emperor's most zealous dogs for confiscating property! (Please add to your favorites and read on!)
Inside Yihai Hall.

Emperor Chongzhen sat behind his desk, slowly flipping through several "confessions" whose ink had barely dried.

The Duke of Dingguo, Xu Xigao, the Earl of Xiangcheng, Li Shouqi, the Marquis of Funing, Zhu Guobi, and other nobles stood respectfully below the hall like lambs to the slaughter, not daring to breathe loudly. They could only hear the pounding of their hearts and the occasional faint popping of sparks from the charcoal brazier.

Emperor Chongzhen read very slowly, his finger tracing lines across the paper.

Xu Xigao's complaint stated: He had embezzled 258,000 mu of military farmland and civilian land, more than 120 shops and residences in the capital region, and had embezzled funds from the Beijing garrison over the years, accepted bribes from Shanxi merchants, and stolen military funds, totaling approximately 900,000 taels of silver...

Li Shouqi's complaint admitted that he forcibly seized shares in the canal wharves in Tongzhou and Zhangjiawan, embezzled the profits from the Datong horse market, and also owned 108,000 mu of military farmland in Baoding and Zhengding, as well as approximately 700,000 taels of silver in various properties...

Zhu Guobi's amount was slightly smaller, but he still confessed that he had interfered in the Tianjin salt monopoly and Huai salt transportation, acquired 78 residences and shops in Nanjing and Yangzhou, seized 85,000 mu of military farmland north of the Yangtze River, and embezzled a total of about 500,000 taels of silver...

The marquises and earls who followed also had their own messy accounts, ranging from two to three hundred thousand taels of silver, as well as various fields and shops.

Emperor Chongzhen was quite satisfied, but he showed no sign of it. Even disregarding Zhu Chunchen's wealth, these corrupt nobles could contribute at least three or four million taels of silver for their crimes! The amount of land they could use for redemption was approximately one million mu. There were also seventy or eighty mid- to high-ranking officers in the Beijing garrison, who had undoubtedly embezzled a significant number of positions and exploited many soldiers; they too would have to contribute silver for their crimes! Add to that Zhu Chunchen's wealth and the wealthy Shanxi merchants he had dragged into the schemes—that was enough, more than enough to deal with the Jisi Rebellion!

"Very good, very good indeed!" Chongzhen's voice was not loud, but it carried a sense of impending doom. "The wharves of Tongzhou, the horse market of Datong, the salt permits of Tianjin, the transshipment of Huai salt, the military farms of Jizhou, Changping, Baoding, Zhengding, and Jiangbei... as well as the shops and residences of the two capitals, Yangzhou, and Tianjin..."

He slammed his hand on the imperial desk!
"Snapped!"

The blue-and-white porcelain teacup was jolted and jumped up, spilling tea onto the paper on the table.

"What a vast fortune! What a huge appetite!" Chongzhen suddenly stood up, pointing at the stack of repentance letters, his chest heaving, his face flushed with "anger," and his eyes seemed to be burning with two balls of fire!
"My trusted ministers? The nobles who share the fate of the nation? They are actually such treacherous rats undermining the Ming Dynasty! Embezzling military funds! Seizing military farmland! Competing with merchants for profits! Which one of these is not a capital offense?! Which one is not punishable by beheading and confiscation of property?! One by one, do you have any respect for your ancestors? Do you have any respect for the salaries paid by the court?!"

Chongzhen's rebuke echoed in the hall, so loud that Xu Xigao and the others' legs trembled and they could barely stand. Cold sweat instantly soaked through their inner clothes.

"Your Majesty, please calm your anger! Your Majesty, please calm your anger!" Xu Xigao knelt down with a thud, kowtowing repeatedly. "We deserve to die! We deserve to die! We beg Your Majesty to give us a chance to repent and atone for our crimes!"

"Your Majesty, we are willing to give up everything we own to make up for the deficit, we only beg Your Majesty to spare our lives!" Li Shouqi also knelt down, his voice trembling with sobs.

"Your Majesty, please have mercy! Please have mercy!" Zhu Guobi and the other nobles also hurriedly knelt down, their kowtows making a loud thud.

Emperor Chongzhen's chest heaved, seemingly quite angry. He took a deep breath, suppressing his rage, and coldly swept his gaze over the group of nobles kneeling and begging for mercy at his feet.

"Make up for the deficit? Atone for your crimes with meritorious service?" Chongzhen's voice returned to calm, yet it was chilling. "You should make up for it! And you must perform meritorious service! But how to make up for it and how to perform meritorious service will be determined by me based on your performance!"

He paused, his gaze sharp as a knife, first fixing on Xu Xigao's face, then on Li Shouqi and Zhu Guobi:

"Duke of Dingguo Xu Xigao! Earl of Xiangcheng Li Shouqi! Marquis of Funing Zhu Guobi!"

"Your Majesty, I am here!" The three men trembled and quickly responded.

“You,” Chongzhen’s finger traced over them, “you probably know more about the Chengguo Duke’s estate and those illegal activities than you do about your own family, don’t you? The granaries in Tongzhou, the military farms in Changping, the vacancies in the Beijing garrison, the regulations of the Shanxi merchants… you know every single detail, every single thing!”

Xu Xigao and the others felt a chill on the back of their necks, and their cold sweat poured down even more profusely.

"Since you are so clear about this..." Chongzhen's tone suddenly softened, "then here is an opportunity for you to redeem yourselves."

"Huh?" The three of them looked up abruptly, their faces full of astonishment.

Emperor Chongzhen gave them no time to think. His voice suddenly turned stern: "Set off immediately! Return to Beijing! With my imperial edict, together with the Northern Garrison of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot, surround the Chengguo Duke's Mansion! Inside and out, up and down, dig three feet into the ground! Don't let me miss a single grain of rice, a single coin, or an inch of land!" He slammed his hand on the stack of confessions: "What's written on this! All the properties of the Chengguo Duke's Mansion that you've spouted! Find them all, one by one! Register them! Seal them and put them in the treasury! If anything is missing..."

Chongzhen's gaze pierced the three men's faces, which turned deathly pale: "I'm going to hold you accountable! I remember all the mess you've made! This is your chance to atone! Do a good job of confiscating your property! Confiscate it cleanly! Confiscate it thoroughly! Only then will I allow you to atone for your crimes with silver and land!"

God!

Paying off the money for sins and giving up the land for atonement has now become an immense blessing!

Only if they handle the task of copying the Duke's mansion flawlessly will they be qualified to talk about paying money and land to atone for their sins!
"Your Majesty... Your Majesty, we obey your decree! We will do our utmost! We will not dare to be negligent in the slightest! We will not dare to have any selfish thoughts!" Xu Xigao, Li Shouqi, and Zhu Guobi were so frightened that their souls almost flew out of their bodies. They hurriedly kowtowed, their foreheads hitting the floor tiles heavily.

"Furthermore," Chongzhen said, pointing to Xu Xigao and the other two, "the regulations collected by the Duke of Cheng's mansion from Shanxi merchants and salt merchants, the commissions from the Tongzhou canal wharf, the Datong horse market, the mines in Jizhou, and all kinds of business in the two capitals (Beijing and Nanjing), Tianjin, Zhangjiakou, and Xuanfu, including the lending and interest collection business, will be managed by you three for me! My demands are not high; whatever the Duke of Cheng's mansion takes in a year, I will see in a year!"

"Your Majesty, we obey your decree and will do our utmost to manage these incomes properly." Xu Xigao, Li Shouqi, and Zhu Guobi were inwardly groaning. The Emperor wasn't just confiscating their property; he was taking away their future sources of income! These few items alone would bring in at least 100,000 taels of silver every year!
"Xu Yingyuan!"

"The slave is here!"

"Bring me pen and ink! I will write this edict now! Affix the seal!" Chongzhen said, his icy gaze sweeping over Xu Xigao, Li Shouqi, and Zhu Guobi. "Have them take this! Immediately! Right now! Back to Beijing! Don't let the people of the Duke of Cheng's mansion... have a peaceful New Year!"

"According to the order!"

……

A moment later, outside Tsinghua University.

A cold wind swirled with snowflakes as several carriages covered with dark blue cotton cloth sashes creaked and groaned as they drove out of the garden gate, "escorted" by dozens of imperial guards.

Xu Xigao, Li Shouqi, and Zhu Guobi squeezed into the front carriage. The heavy curtains blocked the wind and cold, but they couldn't keep out the chill in their hearts.

The three of them looked at each other, their faces ashen, their eyes glazed over, as if they had just slipped back from the clutches of the King of Hell.

“Duke Ding…Duke Dingguo…” Li Shouqi’s voice trembled violently, “This…this assignment…”

Xu Xigao gave a bitter laugh, his eyes vacant: "An errand? This is a death warrant! Confiscating the Duke's mansion? Digging three feet into the ground? Not a single grain of rice or a single coin can be missing? And we have to work with those living devils from the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard!"

Zhu Guobi wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, his voice hoarse: "Then...what do we do? If we can't clean it up...our heads..."

"Copy!" Xu Xigao gritted his teeth, his eyes flashing with ferocity. "Copy it all! Make it cleaner than a dog licked a plate! Zhu Chunchen... I'm sorry, old brother! Better to die than to die! We brothers will take stock of your assets for you!"

He abruptly lifted a corner of the carriage curtain and roared at the Imperial Guard flag bearer riding alongside him, "Hurry! Get the hell back to Beijing before the city gates close!"

"Drive! Drive!"

The coachman raised his whip and lashed it hard across the horse's rump. The strong horse neighed and galloped off. The wheels rolled over the frozen, hard road with a dull thud, kicking up a plume of snow.

Inside the carriage, Xu Xigao, Li Shouqi, and Zhu Guobi swayed and bounced, their faces ashen. They knew perfectly well that from this moment on, they were no longer dukes, marquises, or earls, but rather the Emperor's most zealous and vicious dogs, the ones confiscating property!

This skill of confiscating property will surely be very useful under this emperor!

(End of this chapter)