Ming Dynasty: Moral blackmail? I, Emperor Chongzhen, have no morals!

"Your Majesty is wise!" Lu Xiang-sheng and Sun Chuanting stood up and said.

Although the Beijing Garrison had been without pay for a long time, this matter had been dragging on without being resolved. Representatives from the Beijing Garrison and the Five Military Commands had repeatedly petitioned the Ministry of Revenue, the Military Affairs Bureau, and the Cabinet for payment, but their efforts were always suppressed. Now, finally, this matter has been settled…

"Sun Chuanting has taken over the Beijing Garrison. Lu Xiangshan, go and pay the back wages to the old and weak soldiers in the camp! Let them fend for themselves! After you've paid them, let them leave the camp!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Lu Xiang-sheng replied without hesitation.

In his view, Zhu Jian had simply paid the old and weak soldiers their wages and then laid them off! Those on the books wouldn't get a penny... This was more than enough!

"Li Banghua and Cheng Guoxiang, you two must confiscate all the mansions of the two dukes and four marquises in the capital! Send all the spoils to the imperial treasury!"

"As you command!"

Zhu Jian felt that these dukes and marquises' mansions, which had lasted for more than two hundred years, must have a lot of wealth. The current Ming Dynasty had money and soldiers, so how could it be overthrown by the Jurchen bandits?

Zhu Jian waved his hand: "Gentlemen, go and carry out your duties!"

"yes!"

..........

A few days later, Li Banghua brought the accounts to the Wuying Hall and reported the accounts of the two dukes and four marquises that had been confiscated. The land, money, grain, antiques, paintings and calligraphy, shops and other items were worth nearly ten million taels of silver!

Zhu Jian took the bill, looked at it carefully, and then calculated the silver reserves in the imperial treasury, the recovered salt and tea taxes from various provinces, and the land output. He nodded slightly.

The Ming Dynasty is no longer short of money. The Shanxi merchants, the Three Feudatories, the Two Dukes and Four Marquises are all important sources of funds, but these resources can only be used once…

The land, and the portion of the salt and tea taxes recovered, continued to generate revenue. The tea tax covered the salaries of Ming officials, and the remainder could be used for military expenses. In Jiangxi, there were also imperial kiln porcelains and silks, which Zheng Zhilong exported overseas…

"Banghua, how much sustainable revenue do we have now?" Prosecutor Zhu asked.

After a moment's thought, Li Banghua said, "Currently, the tax revenue from the Military and Political Bureau's tax projects is nearly four million taels annually! The annual revenue from imperial kilns and silk production in Jiangxi and other places is approximately two million taels! And this is still expanding!"

"The Agricultural Reclamation Bureau originally had 12 million mu of land, and an additional 4 million mu were confiscated! The total is 16 million mu. Due to severe disasters in some areas, the annual grain output is approximately 12 million shi (a unit of dry measure). The imperial court collects 20%, approximately 2.4 million shi, equivalent to about 2 million taels of silver!"

"The current military and political bureau's total annual revenue is equivalent to eight million taels of silver!"

All of these combined are still less than the Liaodong military tax alone, but since they are considered external revenue, they will not cause social conflicts.

"How much silver is left in the imperial treasury?" Prosecutor Zhu asked again.

"Including the newly recovered wealth, the total is still 67 million taels! Last year's military expenditure and arms consumption were nearly 20 million taels! Disaster relief expenditure was 7 million taels!"

After listening, Prosecutor Zhu nodded slightly: "At the current rate of consumption, it will be completely depleted in three years at most!"

But then I thought it wasn't a big deal. With hundreds of thousands of fully paid elite troops in hand, would I be short of money?

"Your Majesty! The Ministry of Revenue still has some revenue! The tea tax from Jiangnan and other places is about two million taels!" Li Banghua reminded him.

Zhu Jian shook his head: "Those are the officials' salaries; we can't just withhold them all, can we?"

"Yes! Only the Ministry of Revenue has money right now! The Ministry of War and the Ministry of Works have run out of funding!"

After listening, Zhu Jian remained silent, tapping his fingers lightly on the table. After a while, he spoke, "Banghua, go to Yanzhou and tell Wu Jun to increase the Yanzhou Textile Bureau's annual production capacity from the current 500,000 bolts of cloth to 5 million bolts this year!"

"Then, under the guise of the Military and Political Bureau, transfer kiln workers from Jiangxi to establish an imperial kiln in Yanzhou! Recruit refugees to fire porcelain!"

Li Banghua was taken aback, then reminded him, "Your Majesty, if that happens, the Shandong Textile Bureau will squeeze out the cotton cloth market in Songjiang and Suzhou!"

"The priority is to resettle the displaced people! Currently, besides Shaanxi, Henan and Shanxi are the hardest hit by natural disasters and have the largest number of displaced people! Yanzhou Prefecture is adjacent to Henan and is suitable for resettling them!"

Zhu Jiancai didn't care about the fate of the Songjiang Cotton Market. The Songjiang Cotton Market belonged to the gentry of Jiangnan. As for the Donglin Party and Fushe Society, if they tried to stop him under the pretext of competing with the people for profit, he wouldn't mind using the charge of treason to start another large-scale prison war!

Li Banghua looked troubled: "But the sales channels for our goods and the consumption of grain are also problems!"

"Issue an imperial edict to Xiong Wencan, the Governor of Fujian, and Chen Xinjia, the Governor of Guangdong, ordering them to transport grain northwards by sea! As for defense, give it to Zheng Zhilong, the General of Fujian! Instruct him to open up maritime trade routes; I have already granted him an exclusive channel for overseas sales!"

Prosecutor Zhu plans to cut off the commercial network in Jiangnan by cutting off raw materials and trade routes, and move some of the commercial focus to the north! This is to alleviate the problem of displaced people caused by natural disasters.

"Yes!" Li Banghua cupped his hands in greeting. At present, using commerce to settle the refugees is the best way. It can increase the court's revenue and stabilize social order. The only troublesome problem is the resistance from the court!

"You can take care of it! Don't worry about matters of state!" Zhu Jian reassured Li Banghua.

"As you command!"

Li Banghua got up and prepared to head to Yanzhou. The natural disaster was worsening, affecting an increasingly wider area. The sooner the situation in Yanzhou was addressed, the more refugees could be resettled. He naturally wouldn't delay...

After Li Banghua left, Wang Huamin slowly approached Zhu Jian's side: "Your Majesty!"

Zhu Jian handed a partial list of members of the Jiangnan Fushe Society to Wang Huamin: "Unexpected!"

"yes!"

The Tongzhou granary project handled by Wang Huamin last time was quite perfect, but now there is no need for some of the spokespeople for the gentry in Jiangnan to exist. After these people die, the period of chaos that follows will be a period of instability for the court.

After Wang Huamin left, Zhu Jian looked at the half-finished model of the main hall on the table. It was a wooden model that his younger brother, a carpenter, hadn't finished. Then, he accidentally fell into the water in the West Garden and died soon after...

He didn't want to repeat his carpenter brother's mistake, so he had to strike first... Whether it was a real accident or a staged one, only heaven knows...

As evening fell, the golden afterglow bathed the Forbidden City, which has stood for over two centuries.

As Zhu Jian was reviewing the Tianqi Emperor's daily records in the Wuying Hall, a young eunuch rushed in: "Your Majesty! Bi Maokang, the Director of the Ordnance Department, is requesting an audience outside the hall!"

"please!"

A moment later, Bi Maokang entered the Wuying Hall, accompanied by a young eunuch holding a musket: "Your subject Bi Maokang pays his respects to Your Majesty!"

"No need for formalities!" Zhu Jian said, rising to take the musket from the eunuch's hand. "Is this the self-propelled musket from your weaponry drawings?"

"Your Majesty! That's right! This gun was made by me by dismantling the self-propelled flintlock gun left by Zheng Zhilong and combining it with my own writings!" Bi Maokang said truthfully.

"How long does it take the Ordnance Department to manufacture a self-propelled musket?"

"A skilled craftsman can make one in twenty days!"

"How much does it cost?"

Bi Maokang said with a pained expression, "Five taels each! If we mass-produce them, we can reduce the price to four taels and five mace!"

A three-eyed flintlock musket costs seven qian of silver, a bird gun costs less than three taels of silver, but this thing costs five taels!

Zhu Jian nodded slightly after hearing this, thinking to himself: As long as it can be made, even if it's five taels each, a million units would be five million taels! That's enough! If we don't have enough money, we can just find a pretext to execute two more princes! The power bank left by Zhu Yuanzhang is really useful!