Dongchang's work efficiency is very high. Regarding the scale of Wu Mengming's family wealth, preliminary statistical results were obtained the next afternoon, and the amount was astonishing.
Fan Zigong obtained more than 337,000 taels of silver, more than 6,500 taels of gold, a box of pearls, a box of agate, a box of gems, two boxes of emeralds, five boxes of corals, and 82 paintings of celebrities. calligraphy, paintings, and one hundred and fifty-four antiques.
There are five properties in the capital, three properties outside the city, and two properties in other places, with a land deed area of up to 13,000 acres. Other assets include a wife, twelve concubines, thirty-one family members, fifty-six servants, seventeen carriages, and thirty-nine livestock.
A certain prince didn't know what Wu Mengming wanted to do with accumulating so much wealth, but now, none of these things belong to him. With a shake of his hand, he lost everything!
The wealth of other large and small borers has also been revealed, and the total exceeds Wu Mengming's. It can be seen that Jin Yiwei is rotten to the core. If he doesn't take care of himself, he won't even be able to complete his normal tasks, and he may be enriched at any time.
Not all the shortfalls in the accounts of Shanxi merchants went into their pockets. Some of them were still in the hands of wanted Shanxi merchants. However, the 720,000 taels of silver owed to the Ministry of Revenue had to be made up first, and the rest belonged to a certain prince. .
Regarding the confiscation of Dongchang and Jinyiwei personnel, a certain prince had reached an agreement with his ministers. After filling up the money they owed the court, the rest could be kept for himself.
Moreover, the Ministry of Accounts can give priority to whether they want silver coins or other luxury goods. The valuable items here of a certain prince are only sold for 30% of the market price, and the Ministry of Accounts lists the external prices at 50%, so it is very cost-effective to buy them in advance, even if you resell them later, they are very worthwhile. .
Even Li Shiwen, the Minister of Household Affairs, used this method to buy many masterpieces by famous people. It was impossible to buy them on the market at the same price. This was one of the few special benefits given by a certain prince to his ministers.
According to this calculation, the total supply was 5.47 million taels of silver sent to Taicang. The initial minimum estimate of the value of luxury goods was 2 million taels, and the value of the delivered materials was approximately the same.
Therefore, this operation to annihilate Shanxi merchants brought in at least about 9 million taels to the Ministry of Revenue. This was the net profit after Yang Wenyue killed Wang Pu and rewarded the three armies.
Although there are at least two million taels of silver in it that belong to the local tycoons in the south of the Yangtze River, as long as the Shanxi merchants dare to defy the imperial ban and export strategic materials to the pigtails, these silvers will be regarded as serious dirty money.
Excluding the two million taels of silver that have been allocated to the Ministry of Industry to build the new city, the cash and equivalents stored in Taicang, the Ministry of Revenue, have climbed to a whopping 21 million taels of silver!
This was achieved on the premise of providing relief to various parts of the north, encircling and suppressing the southern bandits on a large scale, and exempting the whole country from three wages. Civil servants and military generals all believed that a certain prince had made money in a wise way.
If you include the part that has been spent, then before summer this year, the annual income in half a year will be as high as at least 25 million taels of silver. This is something that was unimaginable in previous dynasties.
If five million taels of silver can be collected from various places in the south in the second half of the year, then the total annual income this year will exceed 30 million taels of silver, setting a record for the highest annual income since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty!
All ministers believed that achieving this goal was not a big problem, because taxes from the south had always been the foundation of the imperial court's fiscal revenue, especially Jiangnan and Guangdong and Guangxi, which were two large and fertile areas.
For the officials who had been in office, they finally got through the hard work for so many years. Although the political orders implemented by the prince since he took charge of the country were very different from those of Emperor Chongzhen, the effects were obvious.
Not to say that everyone can have enough food and clothing, but the number of beggars in the market has been greatly reduced. With the big project of the new city, the displaced disaster people can support themselves and will not starve to death.
The censors have been sparing no effort to criticize the prince's seemingly arbitrary behavior, but with little success.
First, Prince Mo deprived him of the right to speak in the palace on the grounds that he was not of sufficient rank. Not to mention sparse words, after two hours in the sun, I lost all my thoughts and almost suffered from heat stroke.
Secondly, the censors' proposals did not receive support from their colleagues. Who knows if they are moths? If they implicated themselves, wouldn't they be eating big fat fried locusts?
Thirdly, it would be easier for the censors to be arrogant. Once they become arrogant and offend a certain prince, the prince will confiscate the family property of some censors on the pretext of getting a tip.
Although these censors are full of benevolence and morality, there are many hypocritical people. They are also good at making money, and some of them have a fortune of several thousand taels.
There were examples like Chen Biqian and Li Juesi before. Whenever censors want to be in the limelight, they have to think carefully before speaking. Once disaster comes out of mouth, the result is obvious. The best outcome is to eat all you can eat locusts...
But no matter how hard the prince tried, the censors did not dare to propose abdicating the throne and letting one of the prince's younger brothers exercise the power of supervising the country. This involved the most sensitive national foundation of the Ming Empire.
Lin Yuji, the former Minister of Rites, said such treasonous words. As a result, he was first "rewarded" by the prince to eat locusts for his whole family, and then was escorted by the Jinyi Guards to the mountain to mine.
To this day, no one in the civil or military dynasties has complained about it. They believe that the foundation of the Ming Empire is that the eldest son inherits the rule, and the prince is the foundation of the country, which cannot be questioned, let alone changed.
Anyone who dares to touch the foundation of the Yao Kingdom is an enemy of all the scholars in the world. Regardless of whether they are in court or not, they must unite to punish them with words and writings, just like the "Battle of the Country" back then.
Perhaps on other issues, hundreds of officials will have different opinions and hold their own opinions, but on "national" matters, it can be said that more than 90% of officials support the prince's supervision of the country.
Except for some people with ulterior motives, no one from Xue Guoguan, the chief minister of the dynasty, to the ninth-rank Zhima official dared to publicly say that the crown prince's position was unfair.
In return, a certain prince did not hesitate to reward the officials who supported him, and the rewards were all public. That was a substantial increase in the salary of officials, which also set a historical record in the more than two hundred years since the founding of the dynasty.
Although it is not as much as receiving gifts in private, it is still much higher than the previous income, especially since the monthly salary is in cash, which is much better than the garbage-like rice salary.
After blocking everyone's mouths with money, of course everyone would not ask for trouble, and they all looked on coldly at the censors who were trying to mess up the court like a catfish.
There are people who seek death, and they have been fighting since the first day the prince took charge of the country. But now a month has passed, and the prince's position has become more and more stable.
Those officials who wanted to gain power and benefits from the prince were either directly promoted to official positions and are now retiring in their hometowns. Either their homes will be confiscated and their heads will be confiscated, the happiest people will be those who go to Shandong to mine and experience a happy life...
With the national treasury being unprecedentedly full, the situation in the past where a million taels of silver would make you worry about growing old has been fundamentally reversed. Even if the prince's actions are inappropriate, he still serves the country and the min.
As long as there is money, the state of Zuo, which has lasted for more than two hundred years in the Ming Dynasty, can be saved, because it can prepare for war on a large scale. With money, all the troops can naturally serve the court with peace of mind.
Right now, money is everything!
With the money, Yang Wenyue could conquer Wang Pu in the north and wipe out the rebels in Datong City in one fell swoop.
With money, Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting in the south could carry out large-scale suppression operations.
"Today is April 24th. The day before yesterday and yesterday, I received flying pigeon letters from Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting respectively. The two troops have arrived at the scheduled location. After integrating all the troops, the plan is to resume the battle tomorrow. The rebellious bandits launch a full-scale attack!"
There were no problems on the road. Hong Chengchou defeated Liu Zeqing in Jining. Although he did not catch up with Liu Liangzuo, it was not until the army arrived in Xiangyang that he got a tip that Zhang Xianzhong's troops were about to make a move.
This shows that the plan is still strictly confidential, otherwise "Big Zongzi" will definitely strike first. In other words, the various bandits are still discussing the specific time for the rebellion, and have not yet reached an agreement on whether to advance it.
If it is rushed ten days in advance, there may be problems in terms of wages, food, weapons, horses, etc., and the ministries are not stationed in the same place, so time can be coordinated.
Regarding the sudden arrival of Hong Chengchou, Zhang Xianzhong, who lives in Gucheng, will definitely be very "happy". The two of them are old acquaintances and can take this opportunity to "renew their relationship"...
Taking this opportunity, Hong Chengchou also counted the troops under the control of the twelve generals. Naturally, the one with the largest number of troops was Liu Guoneng, who surrendered, with a total of more than 28,000 troops. Li Wanqing's troops followed, with nearly 18,000 people.
The ice-snow and smart Hong Chengchou was moved to understand and express his feelings, and with the commendation order personally signed by a certain prince, the two agreed without much thought.
Luo Dai, who had the smallest number of troops, was originally Zuo Liangyu's lieutenant. After being separated, his number of troops was only more than a thousand. After Hong Chengchou added troops and horses that belonged to Liu Zeqing, it only reached about four thousand.
The total number of twelve troops reached more than 90,000. Although it did not reach the level expected by a certain prince, it was already the upper limit of what was possible at the moment, and most of them were soldiers who were good at fighting.
According to the roster submitted by the various commanders, there were originally nearly 160,000, but Hong Chengchou squeezed out all the water. Everyone was unwilling to accept it, but Hong Shaobao's "good reputation" for killing people without batting an eye also left the commanders with lingering fears. .
This time, with Shang Fang's sword and the imperial edict that he had the power to kill first and report later, the generals had no choice but to bow their heads and accept their fate. Who would let this person have the power of supporting three hundred thousand taels of silver per month.
Wang Jiayan, Minister of the Ministry of War, had already known that the prince had not announced it at the court meeting, so he ordered troops to encircle and suppress the surrendered bandits. He was worried and said: "Your Highness, if the bandits have not yet launched a rebellion, wouldn't this mean that the officers and soldiers would be put in an unjust situation?" ?”
Wang Jiayan still didn't believe that these bandits who had surrendered to the imperial court dared to launch a revolt. However, Liu Bowen, the military adviser of the Immortal Realm, was sure that the prince had already issued the order, and Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting had already led their troops southward. It was too late to say anything.
At this point, Yaoji no longer wanted to keep a low profile and told everyone present directly: "If I had not gone to the fairy world, Liu Bowen's military calculations said that this rebellion would be unexpected by the court. Huguang would be in chaos, and Li Ni would follow Shangluo. He rushed into Henan from the mountains and stirred up disasters to fight against the imperial court, resulting in the defeat of the army. Five years later, the Ming Dynasty was destroyed at the hands of rogue bandits, and my father committed suicide in Meishan, which is now Hongshan!"
As soon as these words came out, all the officials attending the small meeting in the East Palace were horrified. Five years later, the Ming Dynasty was destroyed. This was like a thunder strike that frightened everyone. They were so frightened that cold wind started to run down their spines.
Even the usually calm Second Assistant Wu Zong took a long time to recover and asked in a trembling voice: "Your Highness, doesn't the imperial court still have at least 200,000 troops in various places? With Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou in charge, it should be fine, right?" "
He was determined not to believe that the Ming Dynasty would be destroyed because of this, but everything the prince said before seemed to be fulfilled, which made him extremely confused about the future of the Ming Dynasty.
Yaoji looked at the people around him with the same expression and said calmly: "If this palace hadn't arranged it like this, on the fifth day of May, these bandits would have rebelled on a large scale, and the Huguang area would have fallen into the hands of bandits within half a month. Li Ni will occupy half of Henan next year, and then Sun Chuanting will march from Shaanxi, and will be defeated and killed in Tongguan. The Donglu will encircle Jinzhou next year, and Hong Chengchou will lead an army of 100,000 to relieve the siege, but the Donglu will gather and annihilate the outskirts of Jinzhou. Chongzhen In March of the seventeenth year, Li Ni led 400,000 rogue bandits to attack the capital, and the Ming Dynasty was destroyed!"
After finishing speaking, there was silence in the courtyard, and everyone, including Yang Jinchao and Xi'er, were extremely shocked.
No one thought that the great Ming Dynasty would be wiped out in five years, and that it would be destroyed by Li Zicheng, who had become a lost dog.
Moreover, Emperor Chongzhen actually committed suicide in Hongshan when the bandits broke into the city. This was an extremely tragic national tragedy...
Wang Jiayan still couldn't believe everything the prince said, and asked tentatively: "Your Highness, didn't the imperial court deploy a large number of troops and horses in Huguang? Especially when there was General Chen Hongfan's troops near Gucheng, how could they be defeated? At the hands of rogue bandits?"
What he meant also represented what most people meant. Everyone didn't believe that the officers and soldiers who had beaten the bandits to surrender before were defeated by a group of defeated generals. Isn't it too ridiculous?
Yao Ji looked at the Minister of War meaningfully, sighed and said: "If nothing else happens, Chen Hongfan's troops have been bribed by Zhang Xianzhong. In a few days, news will come that they have either been annihilated by Zhang Xianzhong or have surrendered." The rogue bandits launched a counter-attack against Hong Chengchou's troops. Aiqing thought Zhang Xianzhong had been honest in Gucheng these past six months? The money Xiong Wencan received could pile up into a mountain! Ninety percent of the officials near Gucheng accepted Zhang Xianzhong's money. They have all become people's spies. So as soon as Hong Chengchou arrives in Xiangyang, or even enters the Huguang area, Zhang Xianzhong will get the news. Why does the palace send troops and horses from outside Huguang to rush to help? It is because the troops and horses in the Huguang area have no combat power at all, let alone Unable to withstand the sudden attack launched by Zhang Xianzhong! And he is not the only bandit to rebel this time. In addition to Liu Guoneng, Li Wanqing, Wang Guangen and others, the rest of the bandits recruited by the imperial court will participate in the resumption operation, numbering no less than 60,000 to 70,000 people. So many!"
If I hadn't taken a preemptive strike, even if they knew that "Big Zongzi" was going to be celebrated, the officers and soldiers in the south would not have been able to stop the counterattack.
"So many?"
Even Xue Guoguan, the first assistant, was a little shocked. This amount was beyond his imagination.
"Zhang Xianzhong's troops alone are as high as 30,000, and the total strength of the rest of the bandits is not less than this number, so the actual number of people who rebelled is only a lot more!"
Yao Ji had given up any hope for the local officers and soldiers. Without surrendering to the bandits, it would be a miracle that they could survive. If they expected them to defeat the bandits, they might as well count on the Tokugawa general to send troops to assist.
