Chapter 29: The Cabinet Minister

  In the Wenhua Hall, on top of the golden stage, Emperor Chongzhen was flipping through the reports in his hand at a flying speed... Not one piece of good news, not one report that could lift spirits and boost morale.

  There are only a few days left before the New Year, but the Ministry of Revenue's treasury is empty, and the inner and outer warehouses are all empty. The entire imperial court cannot scrape together 100,000 taels of silver.

  For many years, both civil and military awards have been issued as usual, but it's really impossible to come up with any money.

  As the emperor of this vast empire, he felt an unprecedented sense of distress and pressure. Even in previous years when things were tough, there had never been such a dismal scene.

  Moreover, Guanzhong has been lost, Shanxi is empty, and there is no way to do it next year. Now, he himself has no way out, and the group of ministers in front of him are also helpless.

  Several cabinet heavyweights, like wooden puppets, enraged Chongzhen just by looking at them. Unconsciously, he tapped his foot lightly on the golden stage and asked, "The treasury is empty, does anyone have anything to say?"

  Chancellor Chen was startled and looked like he had just woken up from sleep. He stared blankly for a moment before responding, "Yes, please have the Emperor issue an imperial decree."

  "Please, Your Majesty, issue relief funds to support the army, aid the people and alleviate the disaster."

  "The treasury is empty, only by requesting His Majesty to use the inner treasury to relieve the urgent need, and when the outer treasury is abundant, it will be replenished again."

  Chongzhen heard this and was deeply moved, almost to the point of tears. After a moment's pause, he slowly said: "The imperial treasury is really empty, and the remaining amount cannot be told to you gentlemen... Now that national affairs are like this, I want to raise donations from the royal relatives and ministers, what do you gentlemen think?"

  It's called fundraising, but it's actually just apportioning.

  This time the emperor made up his mind on a larger scale, and it was clear that he had to get help from all the officials.

  This time is different from last time, last time was just feeling difficult, so start with Xun Qi, hoping to get a few million silver coins to block it.

  This time, however, even the annual stipend for the Imperial Guards in the capital could not be paid out, and it was truly a case of "the last struggle".

  Chongzhen did not consult with anyone this time either, and directly brought it up at the cabinet meeting, also clearly showing his determination.

  The last time was Wu Qing Hou's stubbornness, several times of urging him to hand over 20,000 silver coins, Chongzhen insisted on not letting him go for 200,000, and as a result, both sides were at an impasse, in the end, the imperial relatives won, and Chongzhen suffered a crushing defeat.

  A new round begins... This time, Chongzhen decided to reason with the imperial relatives and suddenly declare to the ministers, beating them with a stick to force them to hand over their money.

  As long as the cabinet takes the lead, each person takes out a few tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of silver... Chongzhen still has a good grasp of his ministers' moral character. Under his rule, the more he governs, the more corrupt they become. Why does he always have such confidence in organizing donations? It's also because he has strong faith in the integrity of his ministers... Hmm, that is to say, the emperor knows that all officials under his rule are corrupt.

  "My family really has no money!"

  After a moment of embarrassing silence, the Prime Minister Chen Yan suddenly knelt down on the ground and wept: "I memorialize to Your Majesty, I am the chief minister of the state, always clean and honest, my salary is only enough for self-use, there is no surplus. Now it's approaching the New Year, my family has only more than ten taels of silver left... If Your Majesty wants..."

  "Enough!" Chongzhen shouted, interrupting the chief minister who was in the midst of a passionate speech, and turned his gaze to the other several ministers.

  Wei Zhongxian, stuttering, could only say: "My situation is slightly better than that of the Grand Preceptor... I am willing to donate 200 taels of white silver for military use."

  These two cabinet ministers are really making a fuss over everything, and at this juncture, they are still openly and secretly vying with each other in such matters.

  Chen Yan looked at Wei Dezhou with his eyes: "You're so ruthless!"

  Wei Dezao smiled slightly, and everything was self-evident: "You're not bad either!"

  The two cabinet ministers at this time were indeed in a state of mind, but only for a moment later, it seemed that they had thought of something again, and the eyes of the two suddenly became dull.

  "Alas, two hundred taels..." Chongzhen knew that there was no way to deal with these old officials in the imperial court. At most, they would just withdraw from the cabinet, but not a single coin of silver would be taken out."

  Because of going against the emperor, at most it's just not getting an official position. If you really take out tens of thousands of silver coins, that would make you a public enemy of all the imperial guards, royal relatives and civil and military officials, and in the future, who knows how miserable your death will be.

  He is stingy with his favors and only cares about his own interests, of course, this interest is not a small one, but rather what Chongzhen thinks will benefit the country, even if it means disregarding rules and morality. Like Chen Xinyi, who was in charge of state affairs, but only carried out the emperor's intentions, when things went wrong, the emperor would not take responsibility, instead of helping his ministers, he used Chen Xinyi as a scapegoat to appease public anger... If the emperor is like this, which minister will be willing to work hard and risk their life for him?

  "Alright, let's disperse for now."

  Since we have discussed but cannot make a decision, we can only ask the ministers to withdraw.

  After Chen Yan and several others left, Chongzhen angrily stamped his foot and said: "The civil officials have misled the country, they are selfish, lazy and incompetent, all of them should be killed!"

  The emperor's irrational outburst was not the first time, so the eunuchs present all lowered their heads and remained silent. After a long while, a eunuch wearing a crimson round collar, with a black hat and jade belt on his feet, hurried over and knelt down in front of Chongzhen, saying: "Your slave deserves to die, making Your Majesty wait for so long."

  "How come it's so late?" Chongzhen also looked very impatient and shouted: "I left the palace at 7am, and now I'm back!"

  "I, a humble servant, sat in the old emperor's palace for four whole quarters of an hour, thinking that the imperial errand was urgent and didn't dare to move. Even so, I still couldn't complete the task...I really deserve to die."

  The eunuch sent to deliver the decree was Xu Gao from the Imperial Guard, a high-ranking figure in the palace. This time, the emperor asked all officials for financial assistance, and naturally, members of the royal family could not escape either. As the first in line among the imperial relatives, the Marquis of Jiading, Zhou's family, sent this eunuch to their doorstep.

  "Anyway, there should be tens of thousands, right?"

  As soon as he heard that things hadn't gone well, Chongzhen's heart skipped a beat and he was somewhat flustered. He forced himself to calm down and asked, "What happened? What did the old emperor say?"

  Although Zhou Kui was only an earl, he was after all the emperor's father-in-law, so even if the emperor addressed him in private, he still spoke very politely.

  "As soon as I arrived, I spoke to the old emperor about the matter of assisting with the imperial allowance, and again explained the difficulties in the palace and the court. Moreover, I made it clear that the emperor said that as long as national affairs showed some improvement, he would definitely repay double. Besides, everything the old emperor has now was bestowed by the emperor, and over these ten or more years, his family property should be at least tens of millions... who knows how much more? But the old emperor refused to budge, my mouth was dry from speaking, in the end, he only gave 2,000 silver coins. In this way, I could only return and report back."

  In the end, Xu Gao knocked his head on the ground, with a look of despair, and only said: "Please, Your Majesty, heavily punish this slave."

  "Alas, I understand..."

  Chongzhen only felt weak all over, and even the strength to lift a finger was lacking. To be honest, he wasn't bad to this old father-in-law, granting titles, bestowing land, giving away precious items from the imperial treasury, and in previous years when his hands were more generous, gold, silver, pearls, jade, calligraphy, and antiques weren't spared either. The Zhou Kui family was originally a poor and humble official household, but now? Just the land alone is probably worth tens of thousands of hectares!

  But now things have gotten so bad that I had to swallow my pride and ask this old man for help, and the result is still like this!

  Xu Gao knelt on the ground, also stealing glances at Chongzhen's face.

  He had some words that he didn't dare to report truthfully. For example, when the Zhou family was pressing him, they tore their faces and spoke badly. Zhou Kui didn't have to be polite, saying that eunuchs were richer, whether it was Wang Dehua or Zhang or Fang from the Ministry of Rites, their families were all worth tens of millions... why should he come out and take a share?

  He was so anxious that this old imperial relative would directly petition the emperor or enter the palace to see the empress, asking the emperor to call out the eunuchs first to provide assistance!

  Of course, there are rumors in the palace that this time several senior eunuchs are afraid of not being able to afford it. Wang Dehua and Wang Chengen each acknowledged 50,000, and the remaining 20,000 or 30,000 or a few thousand, they have to take out some... Can't let the emperor not spend the New Year, right?

  But that was after the entire imperial court had refused, and the emperor had hit a dead end everywhere. Now it's too early to take it out, and the effect won't be very obvious. It has to wait until the emperor feels utterly desperate before taking it out, at which point the faces of the household slaves will shine with glory.

  This matter is extremely secretive, Xu Gao wants to keep his own head on his shoulders and absolutely dare not reveal half a word.

  Although looking at His Majesty is quite pitiful, however... thinking about it, one's own life is more important, Xu Gao, who was lying on the ground, lowered his head and didn't dare say another word.

  ……

  ……

  "Old sir!"

  "Old gentleman?"

  At around three o'clock in the afternoon, two high-ranking officials from the Cabinet emerged from the hall, one after the other. They were both men of status, and a large group of servants, slaves, and sedan chair bearers waited for them outside the East Flower Gate.

  Two university students who normally ignored each other were today walking together in perfect sync.

  It's just that the posture is still a bit particular, Chen Yan's pace intentionally or unintentionally wants to be faster than Wei Dezuo by one step, and although old Wei is advanced in years, his movements are also very agile... In any case, at most, he allows Chen Yan half a step of distance... The two people rushed for a while, then slowed down with great tacit understanding, and then Chen Yan spoke up, followed by Wei Dezuo, which can be considered as formally going through the motions.

  It was just a greeting, and then fell silent again.

  Half a moment later, Chen Yan was the first to speak up. He looked at Wei Decao and asked slowly, "I heard that your family has also suffered from the tyranny of the torture camp?"

  At the mention of this, a large cloud of gloom flashed across Wei De's face... If one had to use words to describe the expression on Wei University Scholar's face at this moment... it would be beyond the ability of ordinary writers, and could only be said to be abnormal, abnormally painful.

  "It's true, it was just three days ago."

  "Hmm, the prefecture cried and made a fuss for a whole night, can't deceive people anymore."

  "That day when the governor's mansion was robbed, it was quite a commotion."

  "Hum!" Chen Yan's face burst with anger, and he shouted: "The students have already found Rong Yangxing. This group of thieves must be caught and severely punished!"

  "The students also think so......" Wei Dezao's face turned iron-green with rage, and he shouted: "Robbing the imperial relatives is a matter of course, and even the students will be tortured... Li Chuang wants to conquer the world, but he can't do it like this. Even if he enters the capital, how much talent does Niu have? To govern the world, we still need our generation!"

  The sun sets in the west, and the two people who have been in charge of national affairs and dominated the world have finally reached a consensus on this matter... This group of reckless bandits must be stopped from continuing their evil ways!

  "What calamity has befallen the old gentleman's family?"

  "This... isn't much, isn't much."

  "Haha, I've always been poor and honest, those robbers were mistaken about me too."

  "Uh-huh!"

  Two men dressed in crimson and purple, with jade belts around their waists, exchanged a glance, both seeing the mocking intention in each other's eyes.

  Chen Yan's family lost at least 50,000, and Wei Dezhou's family was indeed not wealthy. After being tossed around for half a night, they finally coughed up more than 20,000. For the two officials, this amount of silver was an extremely huge loss... The bandits actually committed a crime against them, which made those who had always been detached from the matter extremely angry... National affairs and official business could be put aside, but their own family's losses must be compensated!

  Moreover, the two are now in subtle contact with each other. According to reliable sources, some big shots within the imperial court have already denied sending out the torture squad. Although the two university scholars are still suspicious, they at least have the guts to investigate further. If these bandits are indeed bandits... well, it's really awkward... if they were real, they wouldn't dare make such a move at this time!