There are only two reasons. The first is that the money from Duke Wei every year is cut off.
Article 2: After Chongzhen came to power, he launched a campaign to eliminate the eunuchs. After a year of hard work, one-third of the officials in the country were affected, resulting in the failure to collect the land tax normally in the first year of Chongzhen.
If taxes are confiscated, there will naturally be no money to pay wages.
After the political struggle became fierce, all officials stopped doing their jobs. At this time, the political struggle overwhelmed everything else. If you are not careful, you may lose your official position, or you may be imprisoned. Whoever has the heart to do this will all join in the raging struggle.
In fact, many officials have different views on this. It is enough to bring down Duke Wei, but it is not appropriate to escalate the situation. If Chongzhen was not in a hurry and dealt with things slowly, things would go smoothly if things were slow, and there would never be such serious consequences. There were many sensible people in the court, but no one gave Chongzhen advice, and some of them did not dare. Some are just trying to protect themselves, or even have ulterior motives.
Donglin was aware of this, but they did not try their best to stop it. They were just unwilling to come forward to settle the matter according to Chongzhen's wishes. After all, the power of the eunuchs is still there, and it might be easy for them to die together.
However, they are willing to see the emperor embarrassed. Their ideal is for the emperor to return to the harem and create villains. Don't cause trouble to the cabinet. They like an emperor who has little prestige and presence. Therefore, they knew that something would happen if the young emperor was so impatient, but they pretended to be deaf and dumb.
Wang Yingzhi had no choice but to report the actual situation to Li Banghua. He hoped that the Ministry of War would see the seriousness of the problem and find a way to solve the problem of unpaid wages first, rather than disarmament at this time.
The reason why Chongzhen looked ugly was because he had just received a letter from Li Banghua.
"I would like to refer to the number of entries and exits in Taicang and read it in the imperial concise book. The annual income of the province's direct field tax and miscellaneous subjects is more than 3.1 million taels. If you add examples, you can get more than 100,000 taels of silver. In addition, 200,000 taels of old Liaodong salary will be cut off. The annual income is only 3 million taels."
"The nine-border military pay was 3,278,373 taels of silver, including official salaries, Beijing branch, Beijing management, rice and cloth flowers, and rewards from each town, a total of 1,235,850 taels of silver, and an additional 226,254 taels of salt and vegetable silver from four towns were added. A total of this silver 4,740,478 taels. In addition to the elimination of salt and vegetables in the four towns, and a reduction of two months of rice, the silver is 240,000 taels, which is 4,274,223 taels. Based on the income compared with the expenditure, the actual debt is more than 1,274,220 taels."
Jiubian actually owed so much money that the emperor almost fainted. More than twelve million taels!
How the hell do you owe so much!
Li Banghua's intention was to scare the emperor and make him decide to disarm. Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue of more than 4 million yuan a year can no longer support these Qiuba.
The emperor felt his heart ached. He had melted all the gold utensils accumulated in the palace and exchanged them for silver at Yang Fan's Xinghe Bank. In addition, the empress had made money from investing in Yang Fan's business in the past two years, and the inner treasury was finally saved. Ten million pieces of silver.
But now it seems that even the arrears to Jiubian are not enough.
Looking at the shocking situation in Jizhen, no matter how slow he was, he could see that the resentment of the officers and soldiers in Jizhen was about to reach an uncontrollable level.
Chongzhen closed his eyes, suppressed his irritation, and his expression returned to normal.
He thought in his mind that there were only two options for his current plan. Sudden layoffs require that wages must be paid, otherwise there may be a big mess if people are kicked out like this. We can only lower wages first, so that we can spend less. The other is to continue to follow Sun Chengzong's method and send more troops to the people.
In this way, the people will suffer a little more and share their worries with me. They can endure the hardship for a few years and get through this. At the same time, let the soldiers at the border also be patient. Press both ends and maintain it first.
"Wang Cheng'en, draw up the decree!"
Wang Chengen immediately stepped forward, took out a pen and paper, and prepared to listen to His Majesty's dictation and then record it.
"The first is that Dongjiang's salary quota is reduced from 1 million taels to 240,000 taels. The second is that Jimiyong Sanxie will eliminate the new army. The third is that Guanning Jindenjin's military expenditure is reduced from more than 6 million to 4.8 million. .”
Wang Chengen's brows jumped, his hand shook, and the pen and paper almost fell to the ground.
"Long live, abolishing military pay is not a trivial matter, you must think twice." Wang Chengen said anxiously.
Don't look at it, His Majesty has now firmly sat on the throne and established a firm footing. However, the abolition of five million taels of military pay may cause serious problems. Of the 12 million owed, only 7 million have been repaid. What can the people below do?
Chongzhen sighed and said: "Although I still have some internal money, it is emergency money and cannot be touched no matter what. In this current situation, the border army can only suffer a little loss. It is better to give less than Don't force it. I also know that this matter cannot be dragged on like this."
"Your Majesty, even if it is reduced by five million, where will the remaining money come from? Rather than not being able to pay, it is better not to abolish the system. It takes one day to delay. There is no need to cause trouble in vain." Wang Chengen persuaded.
"In the 46th year of Wanli, the Ming Dynasty increased the Liao salary and the land tax by 3 cents and 5 cents per mu, adding a total of more than 2 million taels of silver. By the end of the 48th year of the Ming Dynasty, except for a few areas such as Guizhou, the average land tax per mu of land in the country was increased by 3 cents and 5 cents. Nine cents, totaling 5,200,620 taels. I plan to follow the old rules and settle more than 5 million taels first. The Ministry of Household Affairs wants to cut off the recruits from the third town of Jimiyong. I can save hundreds of thousands more taels. I will try again. Give some subsidies and solve the problem first.”
Wang Chengen thought for a long time and finally summoned up the courage to ask: "I wonder what the local governor's opinion is."
Chongzhen sighed and said: "There is no unified opinion in Ji Town. Wang Yingzhi, the governor of Shuntian, assured the Ministry of War that after careful verification, he had found a large number of vacant soldiers in Ji Town, enough to save 500,000 taels of military pay. But Ji Town The Governor of Liao, Wang Zhichen, has different opinions. Yuan Chonghuan, the Governor of Jiliao, has not replied, and I don’t know what he thinks."
Wang Chengen knew about the disbandment of the New Army. In fact, the idea of disbanding the Ji Miyong New Army did not come up after Chongzhen came to power. It was proposed by the Ministry of Household Affairs at the end of December in the fifth year of Tianqi. The Minister of Household Affairs at that time was Li Qiyuan.
Li Qiyuan is both an upright official and a talented person. After Tianqi served as Minister of Household Affairs for four years, he played a great role in the financial operation of the imperial court. Appointing him is also a reflection of Wei Zhongxian's consideration of the overall interests of the Ming Dynasty in major matters.
After Li Qiyuan took charge of the Ministry of Household Affairs, he convened a meeting of the Nine Qing Dynasty and the Thirteen Kedao, and made thirteen reform measures in response to the Tianqi Dynasty's financial chaos, serious tax arrears and unreasonable taxation.
Without his financial management, Tianqi Dynasty would not be financially stable. Bi Zisu, who later took over the household department, was also a talent in financial management. The hard support of these two people is an important reason why Da Mingqi and Chongzhen can still maintain their finances in the early stage.
Wang Chengen said: "Jizhen is located in the outskirts of the capital. Uncle Dingyuan has also eliminated the tribes of Haraqin and Duoyan, so he is not afraid of their resentment and communicating with foreign enemies. Governor Yuan can probably suppress Guan Ningjin. However, Dongjiang Town is isolated overseas, and if Mao Wenlong is dissatisfied and colludes with Jiannu, it may cause serious problems."
