Chapter 42: Inner Warehouse and People

  Just as the whole nation was busy selecting a consort for Emperor Tianqi, this new emperor was doing something else. After so much thinking, Emperor Tianqi felt it was time to do something.

  Now that it's been decided to do something, the first thing that comes to mind is talent. In this era, there are actually many talented people, but they haven't been able to fully utilize their abilities. Although Emperor Taizong didn't know about the talents and loyalty of most of his civil and military officials, a large part of history's famous figures were indeed aware of them. To do things, apart from talent, there is another very important thing - money. Whether in past lives or this life, money is omnipotent, not crossing over!

  He glanced at Chen Hong standing behind him, and Emperor Tianqi ordered faintly: "Go and bring Wang An here." As for how much money he had, Emperor Tianqi really wasn't clear, and could only ask Wang An, who was the Grand Supervisor of the Imperial Household.

  Before long, Wang An walked in under Chen Hong's lead. Looking at Wang An standing before him, the Tianqi Emperor asked indifferently: "How much silver is left in my inner treasury?"

  King An was slightly stunned, and he really knew about this issue. When Emperor Taichang ascended to the throne, he had ordered him to check the silver in the inner treasury. It seemed that the emperor in front of him also wanted to spend money. At this time, the national treasury of the Ming Dynasty was empty, and the annual military expenses, disaster relief, and various expenditures made the national treasury deficit every year. King An understood that it was not easy for the emperor either, so he sighed and replied softly: "Your Majesty, there are still 37 million taels of white silver and 1 million catties of gold in the inner treasury."

  Upon hearing this number, Emperor Tianqi suddenly spat out a mouthful of tea. This number was indeed frightening, and he hadn't expected there to be so many.

  Actually, the Tianqi Emperor did not know that this number was already very small. In the 36th year of Qianlong's reign, the annual revenue of the national treasury was 37 million taels, which was only one year. This is the accumulation of Wanli Emperor's life. To know that at this time, the annual income of the Ming Dynasty was only 8 million taels. The trade and capital of the Ming Dynasty at this time were much stronger than those of the Qing Dynasty, but the annual revenue was so different, and the only reason is that many people did not pay taxes. If it weren't for this Wanli Emperor, there might not be these silver coins in the inner treasury now, all of which were saved by that Wanli master.

  Since Zhang Juzheng's reform, the Ming dynasty's treasury had been gradually filling up. Although the people were exhausted and the government was in a state of collapse, they still left behind a large sum of silver. Later on, Wanli conducted three major campaigns, waging war for over a decade and spending an enormous amount, depleting the national treasury. However, this Wanli's personal treasury remained untouched. This emperor, during his 48-year reign, solely from the mining taxes in the south, added 500,000 taels of white silver and over 10,000 taels of gold to his personal treasury every year. Although it only lasted for ten years before being forced to stop, this single event reveals just how greedy this emperor was.

  The opposite of being greedy is being stingy, and this emperor was notoriously a tight-fisted rooster. It's harder than climbing to heaven to get silver out of his inner treasury. Once when the local chieftains in Yunnan rebelled, there really wasn't any silver in the national treasury, so the emperor only took out 100,000 taels from his inner treasury. The Ministry of Revenue came up with 100,000 taels and the province of Yunnan scraped together another 100,000 taels - this shows just how stingy the emperor was.

  Many emperors had wanted to impose taxes on merchants, but there were strong objections. What's the harm in competing with the people for profit? What about hiding wealth among the people?! In fact, most officials of the Ming dynasty were from scholar families. Who are they? They are the largest landlords and wealthy men under heaven. Every high-ranking official in the imperial court has thousands of hectares of good land and countless businesses back in their hometown.

  After more than 200 years of development, the gentry of the Ming Dynasty were countless and mostly said one thing and did another. They were full of righteousness and morality on the surface, but privately they were all debauched and corrupt. In their daily lives, they also committed many evils and bullied the common people. This can be used to illustrate that apart from external pressures, the downfall of the Ming Dynasty was mainly due to the mistakes of these people.

  These people not only evade taxes but also, due to their immense power, are even more unscrupulous, doing almost anything. If these people aren't gotten rid of, the Ming dynasty has no hope. On the other hand, these people are all high-ranking officials in the imperial court or former officials with connections all over the country. Trying to move against them would be like cutting one's own flesh. At this point, these people are like a poison, and the Ming Empire is the addict who can't go a day without it but knows that continuing down this path will ultimately lead to death.

  He suppressed the chaotic thoughts in his mind, and Emperor Tianqi could only think about it in his heart. There was no way to deal with these people for the time being. In Emperor Tianqi's heart, he knew that there were too many officials in the Ming Dynasty. At this time, the Ming Dynasty implemented a four-level system of central government, province, prefecture and county, as well as various roads and government offices. The number of officials was unprecedented in history.

  If you want to rectify the official system, the first step is to use a strong hand to eliminate these bureaucratic groups, and the second step is to reform the official system and cut redundant personnel. Both of these things require a prerequisite, which is military power.

  At this time, the Ming army didn't need to be said, except for a small part that could fight, most of them had already collapsed. The fu bing system adopted by the Ming dynasty was good in theory, but at this time, most of these fu bing were unable to fight. Also, because corrupt officials embezzled military pay, very little of it reached the soldiers' hands, resulting in a large number of deserters. This phenomenon was particularly severe in Qin territory, which is why Li Zicheng could quickly gather troops when he rebelled later, as most of these people were former military households.

  To have an army that can fight, the system of hereditary military households must be changed to a system of recruiting soldiers. This is the only way to fundamentally solve this problem. However, this involves the interests of too many people, and most of them are generals who lead troops outside, so it's not easy to do. If there's any carelessness, it will lead to war and chaos throughout the country.

  If there are no soldiers in hand, it is impossible to clarify the official governance with an iron fist and reform the official system. As for other things, let alone. All of this should be on one thing, that is, military power. However, as for military power, Emperor Tianqi is now a tiger eating a hedgehog, unable to speak.

  Looking at Wang An still standing there, Emperor Tianqi said with some embarrassment: "Wang Gonggong is so old and still working so hard, it's my fault. From now on, you don't have to attend the ceremony in front of the palace, come, take a seat." For this old eunuch, Emperor Tianqi couldn't help but feel affectionate, without him, things wouldn't be so orderly.

  "The old slave thanks Your Majesty." With a deep bow to the Tianqi Emperor, Wang An slowly sat down on the stool, but didn't dare sit firmly.

  Seeing Wang An sit down, Emperor Tianqi slowly said: "I really want to ask you one person, if you know, tell me."

  Hearing Tianqi Emperor's question, Wang An hastily stood up and respectfully said: "I will answer Your Majesty, please ask the prince, I will tell you everything I know."

  This is the last chapter for today, I encountered some things today and my mood is very complicated, so I can only update two chapters, sorry everyone.