Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 285 The Silver Robbers Are Coming
Although Xu Yinjue knew from the books that most of the foreign relatives would not have a good ending, he was unable to have a clear understanding of the current political situation without anyone reminding him, so he could not understand Zheng Zhilong's reaction.

In his opinion, the current Ming Dynasty court is a collective united around His Majesty. Although there are various disputes and infighting within it, these struggles are all within the controllable range at the root, and they will never ignore the overall situation as they did in the past.

After all, the current head of the Ming Dynasty not only has prestige and control in the army that far exceeds that of previous generations through the Battle of Jiangnan, but also has almost wiped out all the local forces that dared to jump out through the Ruan Dacheng case.

Under such circumstances, if there is still someone who dares to challenge the authority of the emperor in various overt or covert ways as he did in the past, the only thing that awaits him is probably the confiscation of property and the destruction of his clan.

This understanding is certainly not wrong, but if one has a deep understanding of the nature of imperial society, one will find that it is too superficial.

The reason why Zhu Cilang was able to act almost perfectly in accordance with his words when handling the Ruan Dacheng case was that he used one faction to fight against another, instead of rushing for quick success and bringing everyone down with one blow.

Take the arrest of Wu Zhikui for example, would things have gone so smoothly without Huang Fei’s cooperation?

At this point, some people may ask, how dare he not cooperate? Is it just relying on the small number of navy that escaped from Wuhu?
Well, he certainly would not disobey His Majesty's decree openly, but if the arrest of Wu Zhikui came into serious conflict with his own interests, given the complicated relationships in Jiangnan, it was not impossible that some people who seemed to have nothing to do with him would accidentally leak the news.

Therefore, after deciding to arrest Wu Zhikui, Zhu Cilang carefully identified the surrounding forces before deciding to hand the matter over to Huang Fei.

After the war, Zhu Cilang appointed Huang Fei as the military commander of the Suzhou and Songjiang areas. However, Huang Fei was far inferior to Wu Zhikui, the general of Wusong, in terms of strength and influence. Over the past few months, he had accumulated a lot of conflicts, big and small. It was naturally most appropriate to use him to capture Wu Zhikui.

Xu Yinjue did not have this logic in his mind, and his understanding of power was still quite superficial. However, Zheng Zhilong, the pirate leader, had understood the essence of power through years of practice, and he had carefully thought about the political situation several times because of the crisis contained in this audience with the emperor.

Therefore, when Xu Yinjue pointed out the relationship between Zheng Sen and Qian Qianyi, he hurriedly defended himself and did not hesitate to use money to cover it with a thick layer of disguise.

Closer to home.

No matter what, Zheng Zhilong finally saved his life, and Xu Yinjue continued to act as a "guide" with confusion in his heart.

But for Zhu Cilang, this was just one of the many things he had to deal with every day. After the two left, he had to focus his attention on the thick stack of questions.

These memorials included not only Yue Qijie's report on war preparations and Shen Tingyang's suggestions on the reorganization of the navy, but also the cabinet ministers' suggestions on the candidate for the Minister of Justice and the Ministry of Revenue's plan for dividing the spoils.

I have to mention that sentence again, everyone should mind his own business.

Since Zhang Guowei took office as the Minister of Revenue, his eyes have never left places where he can make money.

There is no way around it. Although the Ming Dynasty now basically occupies seven and a half provinces south of the Yangtze River, among these provinces, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Jiangxi are still in the midst of war; only a small half of Nanzhili remains; Fujian is almost semi-independent; Hunan is only half alive; and the only provinces that can actually pay taxes to the court are Zhejiang and Guangdong.

The situation in these two places should be the best. Guangdong and Zhejiang are already heavy tax areas, and only a small part of them have experienced the disaster of war. If calculated based on the situation in previous years, even if they were affected, it would not be difficult to pay more than 3 million.

Just one cannon shot and a fortune of gold.

The Ming Dynasty is now not only facing the pressure of fighting on multiple fronts, but even in places where stability has been achieved, it cannot completely let the army go.

Even if all that little bit of silver was poured into this bottomless pit, there wouldn't be any sound at all, not to mention that the huge court had more than one place to spend money.

Under such circumstances, how could Zhang Guowei not be obsessed with money?
Fortunately.
"Your Majesty, Zhang Butang requests to see you."

"Ah~~~~~~, let him in."

When Zhu Cilang heard the three words "Zhang Butang", his head began to ache.

Almost all the silver and money seized from the Xincheng Earl's Mansion was spent by him. Later, the proceeds confiscated from several large families in Hangzhou were divided up by his officials after just one battle.

Now, look what happened, before he even finished summarizing how much he had copied, Zhang Guowei rushed over as if he had smelled blood, and it was obvious that he wasn't going to let him even touch it.

"This old minister, ahem, this old minister greets Your Majesty."

As soon as he entered the warm room, Zhang Guowei bowed directly. However, he had just said a sentence when his words were interrupted by a violent cough. After the cough subsided a little, he completed the etiquette according to the regulations.

At first, Zhu Cilang thought that this minister, who was barely fifty years old, was putting on an act, but when Zhang Guowei stood up, he could see clearly his haggard face.

As a result, he couldn't help but worry about Zhang Guowei's health.

"Has Mr. Zhang seen the imperial physician?"

"I checked it out. They said it was just a cold. It's nothing serious."

"Zhou Quan, when you're done, have Doctor Zheng check Mr. Zhang's pulse. If there's any wind evil in the body, use the old mustard greens marinade to suppress it."

"Yes."

After hearing the words "feeling a cold", Zhu Cilang couldn't help but become a little worried.

After all, we cannot produce antibiotics of sufficient concentration now. Once an infection occurs, there is probably no way out. However, the old mustard pickle can still be used. Even if the output is extremely limited, it can save the lives of one or two important officials from pneumonia.

After treating the wounded soldiers of the day, it was proven that the old mustard pickle had a certain effect on infection. Although it was simple to make and only needed to be buried in the ground, it took several years to make a jar, and the success rate was less than half, so large-scale production was not possible at the current time.

"Your Majesty, the doctor said that this old minister is just worried too much. If I can calm down and rest for a while, I will be fine."

You haven't even finished the plan yet, but the dagger has already appeared?
Zhu Cilang felt helpless when hearing the words, but when his eyes fell on Zhang Guowei's haggard face again, he had to smile bitterly and said, "Mr. Zhang, it is still unknown how much silver has been seized. I want to relieve your worries but I can't do anything."

"Your Majesty, I have calculated that, similar to the incident in Hangzhou, this time we should be able to confiscate five to six million taels of silver, if we also add in the proceeds from the sale of the enemy's property." "Wait, I don't plan to sell the land."

According to Zhang Guowei, the court's gains this time could be called huge, so he planned to test Zhu Cilang's attitude to see if he could raise the 37% profit split to 28% or 19%.

But who would have thought that His Majesty interrupted him before he even finished the calculation. It was unknown whether he really did not intend to sell the land or had other considerations.

"Your Majesty, do you want to use it as a royal estate?"

"There is a similar plan, but it is not used as an imperial estate."

As soon as he finished speaking, a look of confusion immediately appeared on Zhang Guowei's face.

According to common sense, the source of the emperor's treasury was not only the allocation from the Ministry of Revenue, but also the income from the imperial farm.

However, after hundreds of years of accumulation, most of the imperial farms of the Ming emperors were concentrated in the capital area. When all the property north of the Yangtze River was lost, the imperial treasury naturally could not rely on the income from the imperial farms. It was foreseeable that Zhu Cilang proposed to turn the counter-revolutionary property into imperial farms.

just
"I have the support of the state, so there is no point in having so much money. However, this property is too huge after all. Selling it hastily will inevitably have a huge impact on the market price, so I have an idea."

Having said this, Zhu Cilang paused for a moment, not sure if he was considering his words or organizing his thoughts. Zhang Guowei, who was standing about ten feet away, couldn't help feeling a little nervous.

The imperial court had only two options for dealing with pirate property: either sell it all and put the proceeds into the national treasury and the imperial coffers, or simply transfer it directly to the imperial farm to be used for royal expenses.

Honestly speaking, if it was the late emperor who had a new idea, he would not be so nervous. After all, under the instruction of several teachers, the late emperor had always been accustomed to doing things within the rules, and he would not deviate from them no matter what. Even if he had some strange ideas, they would not be unacceptable to others.

But this Majesty is different. Maybe it’s because of his wandering life or because he was locked up in jail for too long, but although he never does things out of the ordinary, they always make people feel a little unexpected.

Under such circumstances, even an old minister like him really found it difficult to cope.

Zhang Guowei's idea is not an isolated case.

No matter what, among all the civil and military officials in the court, there are only a few people who truly have a deep understanding of Zhu Cilang and have experienced his methods. The other noble ministers are either confused by the superficial phenomena or simply know nothing about it. It is extremely rare for Zhang Guowei to be able to taste something.

"The imperial property has always been managed by the inner court alone, and there have been many problems, so I thought of having the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Justice review the accounts once a year."

As soon as the words fell, Zhang Guowei breathed a sigh of relief. He thought that His Majesty would come up with some new ideas, but after being worried for a long time, His Majesty only said this one thing, which made his anxiety for a while seem unnecessary.

"Your Majesty is wise."

After a compliment, Zhang Guowei was about to bring the topic back to the distribution of the confiscated property. But before he could figure out how to start, Zhu Cilang continued, "Oh, by the way, the Ministry of Industry seems to be running out of minerals, so I plan to open a few mines, and the specific operations will be handled as the royal property."

"This"

After hearing what Zhu Cilang said, Zhang Guowei, who had thought that this was the whole story, suddenly became confused.

Although most of the taxes collected by the Ministry of Revenue come from the population, Zhang Guowei, as an official who has worked in the local area for many years, has a much better understanding of the difficulty of handling mineral resources than his colleagues.

So when Zhu Cilang expressed his plan to open a mine, his first reaction was "this can't be done."

According to common sense, the task assigned to him by His Majesty was just to check the accounts. As for whether the mine could be opened or not, and what level of trouble it would encounter when it was opened, it had nothing to do with him. But Zhang Guowei was carefully selected by Zhu Cilang after all. How could he watch His Majesty jump into such a pit?
"Your Majesty, please forgive me for speaking frankly, but opening a mine is a bit like competing with the people for profits. It is better for the royal property to be mainly farmland."

Although Zhang Guowei did not say it directly, how could Zhu Cilang not know what he meant?
In the mouths of some court officials, imposing commercial taxes is competing with the people for profits, and imposing mining taxes is competing with the people for profits. On the contrary, imposing taxes on ordinary people who work hard in the fields is the right way.

There is no need to elaborate on the interests involved here. It can be said that it is nothing more than an official in the court speaking for the aristocratic family.

It just so happened that a large number of "rebels" were about to be dealt with during this period, so Zhu Cilang naturally had to take advantage of the temporary dormancy of local forces to extend his hands to this place that had been untouchable for so many years.

The case of Ruan Dacheng's death in an attack has not yet been concluded. If there is really someone so blind, Wang Fuping will naturally lead to new progress in the case and discover new clues.

"Well, I understand what Mr. Zhang said, but the Ming Dynasty is in constant war, and the existing mineral resources are indeed a bit stretched. I have no choice but to do this."

Since Zhu Cilang had said this, Zhang Guowei was quite worried about the matter but he could not say anything more. After thinking for a while, he finally changed the topic to the distribution of the confiscated proceeds.

To his surprise, Zhu Cilang not only did not show dissatisfaction with his idea of ​​transferring more money to the national treasury, but he also generously stated that the proceeds from the sale of things such as antiques, calligraphy and paintings could also be transferred to the national treasury.

Zhang Guowei was naturally a little surprised at first about His Majesty's behavior. After all, the Emperor's wedding was approaching, and there would definitely be a lot of things that would require money. If all the money was transferred to the national treasury, then the wedding would definitely seem a lot more shabby.

But this surprise actually only lasted for a moment in his mind. Although this Majesty was different from the previous emperor in many aspects, his frugality was something he inherited from Emperor Chongzhen.

Although the court's situation is much better now than before, His Majesty only has one or two dishes per meal, and there are only a few hundred people in the palace.

This number of people is not only incomparable to the grandeur of the mansions of the nobles in Yingtian, but even the servants in the homes of many ministers have much more than this.

Under such circumstances, even though Zhang Guowei had already made up his mind to deduct more money, he couldn't help but feel a little guilty towards His Majesty.

"Your Majesty"

"Mr. Zhang, according to your calculations, can the remaining silver allow me to fight a naval battle?"

(End of this chapter)