Although Emperor Zhu returned to the DPRK on the pretext of lack of money, and ruined the Beijing Project that all the confused officials in the DPRK had been waiting for, the lack of money was just an excuse!
How could the Ming Dynasty have no money now? Don't you want to see who is the Minister of Household Affairs? The man who is known as the richest man in the Ming Dynasty is actually the richest man in the world, and he is also Zheng Zhilong, who built a wealth empire worth hundreds of millions from scratch!
How could Emperor Zhu's Ming Dynasty have no money when he was the head of household affairs in Nanjing?
"You have money, you have money, of course you have money! Don't worry, Your Majesty, a family with ministers as household ministers will never let the court suffer poverty. In fact, since the rise of the Northern Expedition, the court's financial income has increased year by year. In my opinion, the debt plan is a bit redundant. There are still hundreds of millions in the account of the Ministry of Revenue, which is enough to meet the military needs of the North..."
In the Yanshan Hall of Laoshan Palace, the one who patted his chest and assured Emperor Zhu that he had money to spend was of course the richest man, Zheng Zhilong.
Zhu Cixiang returned to Laoshan Palace on March 25th, and then issued an edict, saying that he was tired from the journey and needed to rest for a few days and prepare for the victory parade on April 1st. Therefore, the large and small court meetings continued to be suspended and were not officially resumed until April 3rd.
However, no matter how hard he worked, he still had to see his father-in-law, so the day after Emperor Zhu returned to Laoshan Palace, he issued an order to summon Wu Xiang and Zheng Zhilong. Because Wu Xiang was released from the position of governor of Jiangbei, he was in Yangzhou, so he didn't arrive so soon. It was Zheng Zhilong who entered the palace to see him on March 26th.
"etc!"
On the second floor of Dongnuan Pavilion in Yanshan Hall, in a Chinese-style living room, Emperor Zhu interrupted Zheng Zhilong who was "showing off his wealth".
Of course Emperor Zhu knew that the court was rich. He was known as the most money-loving emperor in the Ming Dynasty for more than two hundred years. Wouldn't he know that the court was rich?
Before the Northern Expedition was launched, he knew that he would get richer as he fought more and more! Not only because war stimulates demand, but also because victory in war brings many spoils. Of course, the chattels and floating wealth in the spoils of war are easily lost, and it is difficult for them to fall into the hands of the Ming court. However, real estate such as land, cities, ports, canals, mines, salt fields, forests, pastures, etc. has no place to hide.
If the industry and commerce in the southeast were underdeveloped and there was no financial system that could support a large number of real estate transactions, there would be no way to cash in or mortgage the real estate acquired during the Northern Expedition.
The industrial, commercial and financial industries in the southeast of the Ming Dynasty are already developed enough, so the real estate grabbed by the Northern Expedition can be turned into money on the two banks' books.
Even taking into account that most of the acquired cultivated land (flag land) would be distributed to meritorious officials, the Ming court could still obtain hundreds of millions of wealth from the remaining assets.
So what Emperor Zhu lacks most now is money!
But now is not the time to show off wealth. Now the Ming court must pretend to be poor - the backbone of the court are the exiled northerners, and they have only been away from home for more than ten years. They are all homesick and wish they could move back to Beijing! Although the gentry and wealthy merchants in the southeast benefited hugely from Emperor Zhu's rule, they did not necessarily want the court to stay in Nanjing.
With the imperial court staying in Nanjing, it would be less easy for them to evade taxes!
Don't let a financial expert like Zhu Cixi become the emperor. An emperor like Chongzhen, who grew up in a deep palace and didn't know much about the outside world, would only know that there are many evil gentry and profiteers like you in the south of the Yangtze River if you go out of the Forbidden City in Nanjing and conduct a private visit on the Qinhuai River incognito. Got money.
Why was the Song Dynasty so rich in history? Isn't it because Bianliang itself was the economic center during the Northern Song Dynasty, and the Jiangnan region where Lin'an was located was the most prosperous and wealthy region in the world during the Southern Song Dynasty.
If you still can't get paid like this, the emperor is really a fool!
"Mr. Quan Guo," Zhu Cixiang lowered his voice and looked at Zheng Zhilong with a solemn expression, "Does Prime Minister Wei know that we are rich? Do the other ministers in the cabinet know that the imperial court is extremely rich?"
Zheng Zhilong was stunned for a moment, then understood what Emperor Zhu meant, and immediately smiled and said: "Your Majesty, of course they know that the income of the imperial court is enough to cover expenses, but they don't know how much money they have... The account books of the imperial court are arranged In front of them, they don’t know where the money is!”
They are all great Confucians who are familiar with the books of sages! How do you know that profiteers are capable of making false accounts?
And Zheng Zhilong is not stupid, and he is not worried about being fired as the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue - this job is a burden to him, so it would be better if he was fired! Therefore, he will not sugarcoat the report to put pressure on himself.
Therefore, the famous prime minister Zhu Cixiang used, Wei Zaode, who was "even better than Zhuge Liang", was a prime minister who didn't even know that the cabinet office he was in charge of was rich... and Zhu Cixiang was also bad, and he didn't tell the famous prime minister Wei that the court had money. money.
"That's good," Zhu Cixiang smiled, "Old Taishan, you have to hide the court's money and don't let them find it. We can't show our wealth, we have to pretend to be poor!"
"Pretending to be poor?" Zheng Zhilong thought about it and understood again, "Is the Emperor worried about the proposal to move north?"
Zheng Zhilong was one of the few important ministers who opposed the move of the imperial court to the north. The reason for his opposition was not that he was willing to pay more taxes, but that he hoped that the imperial court could work harder at sea!
With the full development of exchanges between China and the West, Zheng Zhilong, who always looked at the world with his eyes wide open, has fully understood the importance of the ocean.
In his opinion, Zhu Cixiang invested too many resources in the Mongolian territory of the Yellow Sect. If these resources were used to develop the navy at sea, there would be an "Invincible Fleet".
With the "Invincible Fleet" as the backing, the Zheng family can expand maritime trade to the Spice Islands, India and the Ottoman Empire!
This is a big business that brings in huge amounts of money!
Zhu Cixiang nodded: "In the next ten or twenty years, the theory of moving north will not go away. After all, the homesickness of people moving south is not so easy to resolve. They will have to wait until their children grow up in the southeast before they can truly integrate. Southeast, you won’t be able to leave by then!”
In fact, for many years after Zhu Di moved north, moving south had been a hot topic in the Ming Dynasty. Until one month before the death of Ming Renzong Zhu Gaochi, he wanted to move the capital back to Nanjing.
Zhu Cihong paused and then asked: "Does the Ministry of Revenue have any thoughts on the unofficial property in the north? Should we set up a yamen and send a smarter official to take charge of this matter?"
Zheng Zhilong thought for a while and said: "Your Majesty, there is a large amount of unofficial property in the north, and it must be dealt with carefully. If it is done well, hundreds of millions can be recovered! But ordinary officials may not be able to do such a job... .I do have a candidate."
"Who?" Zhu Cixiang looked at Zheng Zhilong with interest - he wanted to know who Zheng Zhilong wanted to dump this blame on?
Zheng Zhilong said: "Minister of Beiyang, Marquis of Chongming Shen Tingyang!"
This is the "Second Rich Man of the Ming Dynasty" (not counting Zhu Cixiang), and he will be the next after Zheng Zhilong!
Zheng Zhilong benefited from maritime trade and finance, while this one benefited from manufacturing. Because of the demand created by the three-year Northern Expedition, large handicraft factories such as Shanghai Sunken Steel, Shanghai Sunken Vehicle, Shanghai Sunken Ship, and Shanghai Sunken Powder (Gunpowder) all made huge profits!
Moreover, in order to open a handicraft workshop in Shanghai, Shen Tingyang also purchased a large area of land located in or near the Shanghai Commercial Port. In recent years, land prices in Shanghai Commercial Port have continued to rise, and the Commercial Port itself has expanded again and again, including a lot of land near the Commercial Port. So Shen Tingyang issued another vote in the process of land appreciation.
"Shen Tingyang..." Zhu Cixiang actually thought of this man, because he was the only one among the super capitalists of the Ming Dynasty who had a large amount of investment in the north and was successful.
"Is he willing to take this job?" Zhu Cixiang asked, "It seems like he doesn't even want to be the Minister of Beiyang anymore, right?"
Shen Tingyang is now a great meritorious official. He has been granted the title of Marquis of Chongming and is now a first-class noble. With or without the actual position of Beiyang Minister, it will not have a negative impact on the Shen family's business activities.
So he submitted his resignation before leaving, wanting to retire and return home to concentrate on business. He also suggested abolishing the outdated Nanbeiyang Yamen.
