Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

The words of Emperor Chongzhen were like a bolt from the blue. Except for a few insiders and a large number of victims, most of the officials present were stunned.

Five million taels! You have to know how much the Ming Dynasty's annual revenue was.

The suppression levy collected last year was only three million taels for the entire year.

Most of the civil officials showed joy on their faces, many cheered, and some even whispered to each other about the good news.

The nobles and relatives were so upset that Zhu Chunchen would have wanted to swear at the civil officials if someone hadn't stopped him.

That's all his money! His money!

Yang Sichang was exceptionally calm. He learned the news yesterday evening and he had no opinion on the matter.

In his opinion, as long as the military pay was resolved, it would be fine, whether it was levying three taxes or anything else. As long as he had the money, he could go and suppress the bandits. As for where the money came from, it didn't matter.

He was just a little curious about how His Majesty persuaded the nobles to donate their property. It was very strange. Yang Sichang believed that he knew the emperor well and this did not seem like something the emperor could do.

Emperor Chongzhen waved his hand to signal his ministers to be quiet.

"Yesterday evening, I made a special trip to the Imperial Ancestral Temple to pay homage to the Emperor Gao and the ancestors of the nobles and relatives, and to inform them that their descendants have not brought shame upon them and that they all have a sincere heart to serve the country.

I left in a hurry yesterday, so I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all of you while you are all here today.

In addition, we also discussed the destination of the money."

Emperor Chongzhen certainly knew that five million taels of silver could not fill the current deficit of the court, so he could only focus on the key points.

As soon as these words were spoken, many court officials became excited, and Yang Sichang, the Grand Secretary of the Dongke and Minister of War, was the first to stand up.

“Your Majesty, the 100,000 soldiers on the front line of suppressing the bandits have been owed wages for more than half a year, which has had a great impact on morale.

In order to wipe out the bandits as soon as possible and restore peace to the people and the court, Your Majesty is requested to disburse the funds as soon as possible."

Yang Sichang was already very trusted by Emperor Chongzhen, so he naturally did not beat around the bush when speaking. Moreover, no matter how urgent other places were, they were not as important as military pay. This was a consensus among almost everyone.

But these words had a completely different meaning to the ears of the current Emperor Chongzhen. The current Emperor Chongzhen was very disappointed with Yang Sichang.

He was almost about to break the promise of the people because of Yang Sichang. At this time last year, Yang Sichang solemnly promised him that as long as he collected the suppression pay for one year, he could wipe out all the bandits.

But Yang Sichang spoke out of turn, but Emperor Chongzhen did not blame him at the time. Thinking about it now, Emperor Chongzhen felt that he was stupid.

It was clearly Yang Sichang's own fault for speaking out of turn, but he was asked to bear the crime of breaking his promise to the people. Not only that, Yang Sichang went even further, not only continuing to collect 3 million taels of suppression pay, but also levying an additional 7.8 million taels of training pay.

What's even more outrageous is that if it weren't for the fight between Duke Yingguo and Duke Chengguo, Emperor Chongzhen would have almost agreed.

Although he was very disappointed with Yang Sichang, Emperor Chongzhen still chose to trust him temporarily because the military preparations of the Beijing camp were in disrepair and the only ones who could intimidate the villains were the 100,000 troops under Yang Sichang.

Now that the war with the bandits has reached a critical moment, it is inappropriate to change the commander in the middle of a battle, and he currently has no more suitable candidate.

Although he trusted Zhang Shikang very much, the boy was too young after all and would soon be busy with the affairs of the Beijing camp. Emperor Chongzhen was very skeptical that if he was really given the burden of suppressing the bandits, the boy would give up.

After thinking for a while, Emperor Chongzhen said gently:

"How much military pay does Mr. Yang need?"

"Your Majesty, the total amount of silver owed is 1.38 million taels. In addition, the war is imminent, and the expenses for departure and resettlement, etc., totaling 260,000 taels, are required. This is assuming that the Ministry of Revenue has sufficient food and grass supply. If the supply of food and grass is insufficient, I can only purchase food and grass locally, and I will also need to allocate additional silver taels."

Yang Sichang had calculated these accounts many times. The monthly salary of the infantry was one tael and five cents, and the monthly salary of the cavalry plus the fodder consumption was three taels. This was the consumption for camping. If it was necessary to march and fight, the consumption of food and fodder would increase dramatically, especially for war horses. The food and fodder consumption of one horse during war could be equivalent to that of several soldiers.

If Yang Sichang asked for military pay under normal circumstances, Emperor Chongzhen would pay it without hesitation as long as he had money.

But for some reason, Emperor Chongzhen remained silent for a long while before asking the Minister of Finance Cai Guoyong:

"How is the Ministry of Revenue's grain?"

Cai Guoyong hurried out and said:

"Your Majesty, there is not much left, but as long as Your Majesty allocates silver, I can buy food immediately and will not delay Lord Yang's military affairs."

Yang Sichang frowned slightly when he heard this. He thought that Emperor Chongzhen would directly hand over the silver to him, but he did not expect that Emperor Chongzhen wanted to go through the Ministry of Revenue. He said anxiously:

"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Revenue will suffer a lot of losses when purchasing grain during transportation. It would be better for me to collect grain locally in Huguang and other places, and I will pay silver according to the market price."

Emperor Chongzhen thought about it and agreed to Yang Sichang's request, because he remembered Zhang Shikang's words: trust people when you employ them, and don't employ people if you don't trust them. Even if he was disappointed, he should not let Yang Sichang know, that would be too stupid.

Yang Sichang finally returned the train with satisfaction, and finally allocated 2.06 million taels of silver for the suppression of the bandits alone.

As soon as Yang Sichang stepped down, Fan Jingwen, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, stepped forward.

"Your Majesty, in addition to the troops of Yang Ge's army, there are also many border troops that are seriously in arrears of pay. Please make a decision, Your Majesty."

Although the Ministry of War was under the control of Yang Sichang, he was always on the outside suppressing bandits, and all matters of the Ministry of War were basically discussed by the Left Vice Minister Fan Jingwen and the Right Vice Minister Xiong Mingyu.

Apart from the issue of suppressing bandits, Yang Sichang didn't say anything about it.

Fan Jingwen was not as direct as Yang Sichang. He simply stated the facts and left the decision to Emperor Chongzhen.

Emperor Chongzhen replied:

"How much is owed in total? Has the Ministry of Revenue verified it?"

"Your Majesty, the total amount of wages owed is 2.14 million taels. I have verified this with the Ministry of Revenue."

After Fan Jingwen replied, the Minister of Revenue Cai Guoyong hurried out to confirm.

Emperor Chongzhen rubbed his temples. He had known that the border troops owed wages, but he did not expect that they owed so much in just a few months.

Compared with Yang Sichang, Emperor Chongzhen had more complaints about the border troops. From the time he ascended the throne to the present, he allocated a large amount of food and military pay to the border troops every year, but the Jiannu army still broke through the Great Wall four times.

Especially the incident two years ago, when the Jiannu army broke through several cities and reached Changping, ravaging the capital area and leaving nine out of ten households empty.

What’s even more hateful is that several generals on the Guanningjin front, such as Zu Dashou and Wu Sangui, obeyed orders but not announcements. Emperor Chongzhen issued several decrees asking them to come to Beijing to report on their work, but they all refused for various reasons.

But Emperor Chongzhen had no choice. The Guanningjin Defense Line was so important that no problems could occur.

He remembered Zhang Shikang's words again. Only when the Beijing Army became strong could it deter the scoundrels. He must now calm those guys down.

After thinking it over again, Emperor Chongzhen finally said:

"Approve the payment. The Ministry of Revenue, the Censorate, and the eunuchs will each send officials to ensure that the silver is distributed to every soldier."

Fan Jingwen and Xiong Mingyu both breathed a sigh of relief, but the latter seemed to have some opinions about the eunuch's decree sent by the emperor. Xiong Mingyu just frowned and said nothing.

Border troops and the army to suppress bandits were both top priorities. After all, the civil and military officials in the court had no objections. Seeing that the military affairs had been dealt with, many officials roughly calculated that there were still 800,000 taels left out of the 5 million taels.

Minister of Personnel Zheng Sanjun stood up and said:

"Your Majesty, the salaries of officials in the two capitals and thirteen provinces, as well as in Beijing, have been in arrears for a long time. I hope Your Majesty will be aware of this."

The implication is very clear, in one word, transfer money!