prosperous age

Chapter 267 Chapter 266

Naturally, Wei Guangde was aware of the financial difficulties. After all, it was related to the wallets of civil and military officials in Beijing, so it must not be sloppy.

As the end of the year approaches, officials are naturally most concerned about this, because not only their own salaries are involved, but also rewards from the palace.

This day, I made an appointment with Chen Ju for a drink at a restaurant, and it was no surprise that they talked about the court's lack of money.

Relying on his drunkenness, Wei Guangde also asked.

Chen Ju is in the Supervisor of Rituals, although he may not know everything about the Ministry of Household Affairs, but no matter what, the palace must be involved in money matters.

Don't forget that Emperor Jiajing of Xiyuan would reach out to the treasury for money if he had nothing to do.

In the six months since Wei Guangde came back from Baoanzhou, he knew twice that he had withdrawn more than 30 taels of silver from the household department.

Everyone knows what it is used for, and it really consumes money for cultivation.

Emperor Jiajing practiced Taoism, which is a local religion founded by Master Zhang Daoling of the Eastern Han Dynasty who inherited the thoughts of Huang Lao and combined with the original worship of ghosts and gods.

Taoism adheres to the teaching that "immortals value life, and there is no measure to save people". While practicing Taoism in order to live a long life, we also have the responsibility to save others.

However, as the saying goes, "to save others first, to save yourself", if you want to save others, you first need to cultivate to a certain extent in your own practice.

Cultivation is not an easy task, sincerity alone is not enough, it also needs four factors of "wealth, partner, law and land".

Since it is called the land of the law of the couple, it makes sense that wealth is placed first.

Wealth: It means money. Cultivating the Tao requires certain financial conditions. Without a certain material foundation, it is difficult to cultivate the Tao.

The ancients said: No wealth is not enough to cultivate the Tao.

Some people would say that the "Dharma" comes first. If there is no true Dharma, your cultivation will be in vain.

The Dharma is very important, but if you want to cultivate, you must learn from a teacher, and you need to collect money to learn from a teacher. Why?
Because the master also needs to spend money to cultivate, otherwise there is the above sentence, "No wealth is not enough to cultivate the Tao".

The methods taught by each master are different, so you need to find a reliable master who can teach you a good method, so that you can practice smoothly. If you don’t have money, you can’t find a good master.

As for other companions and lands, for the emperor who is the Ninth Five-Year Emperor, it seems to be very common.

A couple refers to a partner who practices together. In the process of practice, if there is no support or encouragement from your partner, it is difficult for you to practice for a long time, because it is easy to get tired, and your heart will feel lonely, so it is not easy to persevere go down.

But as long as you have an extraordinary and persistent heart, it is the same whether you have a partner or not.

It's just that this couple is not the kind that represents the masculinity, but a person who cultivates together.

The last land, an imperial decree, as long as this land is within the control of the Ming Empire, no matter who it used to be, it is now the emperor's.

Wealth, law, land, and land are the four elements of practice. They are not just talked about casually, and even the order is not randomly arranged. There is a certain reason for it.

"Brother, it's the end of the year, the salary and New Year's rewards will be given to the household department"

Wei Guangde didn't finish his sentence, he just started, and Chen Ju naturally knew what it meant.

"It's easy to talk about the salary. The household department and the yamen have already reserved it. The annual reward is a little more troublesome. It is said that it is a reward from the emperor, but it all falls on the household department. Now Fangbun's hair is almost gone, haha"

Chen Ju didn't hide it, and said everything he knew, "But then again, if you really don't have money, you can just get it from the Taipu Temple. Anyway, it's all money from the court."

Speaking of the financial system of the Ming Dynasty, it also has its own characteristics. When Wei Guangde first started learning the Ming court system, he was once blinded by the complicated financial system. , is only roughly understood.

Unlike the unified management of national revenue by the Ministry of Finance in later generations, a major feature of the central fiscal system in the Ming Dynasty was the decentralized nature of financial management.

Although the Ministry of Household Affairs is the most important part of the central financial management system, it does not manage all the finances of the Ming Empire.

In addition to the Ministry of Households, the central departments of the Ming Dynasty, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of War, Taipu Temple, Neifu, and Guanglu Temple all had financial management functions.

Although the Ministry of Households can supervise the income of most yamen, but because the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of War, and the Taipu Temple have independent financial resources, their income and expenditure are self-contained and are not subject to management interference by the Ministry of Households.

The finance of the Ministry of Industry mainly comes from the income from labor and materials and the income from bamboo and wood; the income of the Ministry of War is mainly firewood and silver for officials in Beijing, which are collected and stored in the Arsenal Department of the Ministry of War, and distributed to officials in Beijing by the Ministry of War; The income of the temple is mainly the horse-priced silver from tamarinds from all over the country.

The fiscal revenues of the Neifu and Guanglu Temple were mainly managed by the Ministry of Households and the Ministry of Industry, but their expenditures were not restricted by the management of the Ministry of Households.

Among them, Taipu Temple has the richest income among all the yamen, and it is also the department with the most advances. After all, your yamen has such a large consumption, and it will generate a large amount of financial surplus every year, which is then borrowed by the emperor and other yamen for various reasons. , and the consequence was that the frontier army of the Ming Dynasty did not have enough horses available.

Taipu Temple was the institution responsible for horse administration and animal husbandry in the Ming Dynasty, so the important financial resources mastered by Taipu Temple are horse households, pastures, horses and other horse administration resources.

According to statistics during the Hongzhi period, Taipu Temple has more than 68 horse breeders and more than 16 hectares of land.

Because the Central Plains Dynasty has always been infested by grassland tribes, horse politics is a military state and has been valued by the rulers of all dynasties. Zhu Yuanzhang once said: "The horse government is the most important thing in the country."

So how did Taipu Temple, as an institution in charge of horse affairs, turn into a financial management institution, and how did it become the richest department in the Ming Dynasty?
The Ming Dynasty implemented a two-capital system, so there were also two Taipu Temples. The Taipu Temple in Beijing managed the horse administration in Zhili, Henan, Shandong and other places. The Nanjing Taipu Temple was located in Chuzhou and managed the horse administration in Southern Zhili.

According to the system, the Taipu Temple is an institution dedicated to providing horses for the imperial court, but it does not actually have financial management functions.

It's just that there is a huge gap between the horses bred in the northern and southern provinces of Ming Dynasty. The horses bred in the south are not suitable for war horses, and their natural value has dropped sharply. In fact, they are in a state of loss.

As a result, raising war horses in the south has become a loss-making business. Not only horse households, but Nanjing Taipu Temple is also unwilling to continue to do so, so there are horses. Nanjing Taipu Temple no longer provides horses to the court, but instead "horse silver".

The source of this horse silver is also complicated, not only the horse color, but also the forage silver, the rent of the horse farm, and so on.

And the quantity of Ma Yin also rose from only 3 taels in the second year of Chenghua to 18 taels a year in the eighth year of Zhengde, and continued to increase thereafter, reaching 36 taels a year in the seventh year of Jiajing. Now, it is said that Jiajing 34 The annual income of May Silver is 46 taels of silver.

It can be said that the Taipu Temple Changying Treasury is already the last reserve fund of the Ming court.

As for how much money Chang Ying had in his treasury, Chen Ju shook his head, he really didn't know.

Perhaps, only Tai Pu Siqing knows the exact number.

But Chen Ju also quietly told Wei Guangde, "Don't look at the fact that all the officials in the court are worried that the court will not be able to distribute the yearly gifts because they have no money, but in fact there is too much money in the Changying treasury of Taipu Temple.

The old treasury of the household department is already empty, there is no more, but there is still an old treasury in Taipu Temple, which was closed in the 13th year of Jiajing. It is also the reason why the emperor is not worried about the lack of money at all. "

Wei Guangde blinked his eyes when he heard the words, and understood a little bit.

No wonder the imperial court had no money, but Emperor Jiajing still went his own way and asked for envoys from the household department. Those who dare to love knew that the imperial court still had a small treasury there.

"Where does this money exist so it won't be spent? Also, don't many people know about this?"

Wei Guangde asked curiously.

"The Ministry of War and the Ministry of Households must know that the Ministry of War still manages the Taipu Temple, but they can't ask for money directly, and it's useless to open their mouths. They won't give it, and they will only allocate more than [-] taels of silver to the border town every year according to the annual regulations. It is used to buy horses or supplement the lack of military pay.

The emperor can ask for it, but it is very troublesome. The cabinet and the Ministry of war will resist it, so the emperor only asks the household department for money.

It's just that this is borrowing money, and it will be repaid later.

Those who know this matter, there should not be many of the six ministries and nine ministers. If it spreads, it will be fine. All the ministries have outstanding debts. The elder Xiaoge dare not talk about this matter. The military expenditures prepared for possible wars after the war should not be spent indiscriminately.

The emperors of the previous dynasties could only make some small deals, and they would not take too much, and they still had to save their big heads. The imperial court should be tighter, as long as they can make it through. "

While talking, Chen Ju felt that he had made a slip of the tongue, and hastily reminded Wei Guangde: "I only heard about it from my godfather, so please don't say it."

Thinking about it, Yan Shifan is a greedy person, wouldn't he know about the bank of the Taipu Temple?

The answer is of course no.

His position may not be able to touch the core of Taipu Temple, but his father Yan Song cannot possibly not know about it, Master Shoufu.

But the silver in the Taipu Temple, to put it bluntly, is the war reserve fund that the Ming Dynasty has deposited since the Chenghua period. Apart from military expenditures, there is really no reasonable reason to use the stored silver.

Neither can Yan Shifan.

The Ministry of Household Affairs will also go to Taipu Temple to borrow money when there is insufficient money, but it has to be repaid.

Wei Guangde nodded hastily with interest, picked up the wine glass on the table and walked away with Chen Ju, then picked up the jug to fill it up, and only smacked his lips when he put down the jug.

Wei Guangde was a little confused at the moment. Since the imperial court had always had Taipu Temple as a backup storehouse, why did Emperor Chongzhen not even have 10 taels of silver at the end of the Ming Dynasty? It was really strange.

However, Wei Guangde's smacking action changed his taste in Chen Ju's eyes. He thought that Wei Guangde had something to do with the lack of money in the court.

Wei Guangde still has a great reputation for writing strategies and ideas. After King Hui's attack, many Beijing officials remembered his ability to write strategies and theories.

"Do you have an idea for finding money for the court?"

Wei Guangde didn't say anything, but Chen Ju wouldn't stop asking.

Hearing this, Wei Guangde hurriedly shook his head and denied it, "No, no, I was worried about being an official before, whether I can get the first year's gift, hehe."

He has a way to raise money temporarily, which is a bad trick for later generations. At that time, he was thinking about raising some money to take the money that should be distributed because the court really had no money by this time. Besides.

Wei Guangde calculated the accounts, the expenses he had spent in the past year from leaving Jiujiang to the capital, and the little salary he received from the imperial court, he was definitely at a loss.

Others have to make money when they are officials, but he has been an official for half a year and still loses money.

Now I know that the imperial court actually has a reserve fund, but it cannot be made public. Those who know this matter consciously keep their mouths shut. Wei Guangde is not a person who does not know the importance.

If he could say it casually, all civil and military officials in the capital must know about it now, and their eyes are probably fixed on the Taipu Temple.

Since the news has been concealed until now, it can be seen the importance of this matter.

"The outside world only knows that Taipusi has a small amount of money. No one knows the exact amount. They think it is a decimal of a few thousand taels, so no one makes any decisions. Taipusi also keeps the news tightly. It has not been passed on for so many years and generations. open."

Chen Ju sighed, this is really not easy.

The Hongzhi Dynasty was not bad at that time, and the revenue and expenditure of the court were generally able to carry through. Although there was a deficit, it was not much.

The deficit of the Zhengde Dynasty increased a lot, mainly because the Emperor Zhengde's expenditure on the frontier army increased greatly, and the money spent in the war, but the effect was also significant. In the years of Emperor Zhengde alone, there were few Tatars along the Great Wall.

"Our lord, at the beginning, also wanted to work hard to reduce the deficit of the imperial court, but God failed to fulfill his wishes, and the provinces were plagued by disasters every year, so we couldn't support it at all, alas"

Chen Ju shook his head and said a few words, then sighed.

Satiated with wine and food, he sent Chen Ju to the carriage, and Wei Guangde staggered back to his own carriage.

The sound of the horsewhip sounded crisply, and the carriage moved forward slowly, a little bumpy, but it could not stop the question Wei Guangde was still thinking about. The Taipu Temple had prepared war funds, but why did the Ming Dynasty finally collapse because of the financial collapse, directly because of the lack of military pay? The powerful army was defeated by the army of refugees and the wild boar skin in Liaodong?

How did Wei Guangde know that a certain emperor who came to the throne more than 20 years later took away tens of millions of taels of silver from the Taipu Temple during his reign to use for the prince's marriage and the expenses of the vassal. Evacuated.

During his reign, a total of 2200 million taels of silver was spent from the Changying treasury of Taipu Temple, except about 400 million taels were used to purchase war horses, military salaries and recruit troops. The emperor’s rewards to soldiers who participated in the war should have been assumed by the inner court One million taels of silver was also disbursed from the Changying treasury of Taipu Temple.

For this reason, he also specifically decreed that rewards below [-] taels will be paid by the inner court, and rewards above [-] taels will be paid by the Changying Treasury.

Knowing the existence of Chang Ying Kuo in Taipu Temple, Wei Guangde is not in a panic anymore, the court is still rich.

According to Chen Ju, at worst, the household department would go to the Changying Treasury to borrow, and then pay back when the tax money comes up next year.

However, it has been more than a month since the governor Lu Binglu was there, and he has not seen him take action against Li Bin.

At this time, in a heavily guarded yard not far from his carriage, Lu Bing sat on a chair and asked solemnly: "The evidence is ready, have you determined the location of the money?"

(End of this chapter)