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Chapter 153 Seventy million taels of silver
  Chongzhen was not unaware that some officials were corrupt, but he always thought that it was only some officials.

Now after listening to what the anchor said, he finally understood how terrible the corruption of officials was. It was even shocking enough to describe it.

But for a moment, he couldn't believe that the officials in the court could be so corrupt, especially the Donglin Party members who had a good impression on him.

Integrity and integrity, a moral model, serving the country and the people, these are what he sees, otherwise he would not use Donglin Party officials so highly.

The anchor has just said that the Donglin Party members, like Wei Zhongxian, are traitors who bring disaster to the country and the people.

This made him suddenly realize that he might have been deceived by the Donglin Party members.

Now the anchor says that corruption in officialdom is the main culprit that caused the demise of the Ming Dynasty, and 80% of it includes the corruption of Donglin Party members.

Chongzhen: Anchor, is official corruption really so serious that it became the root cause of the demise of the Ming Dynasty?

It was hard for him to imagine that even if officials were corrupt and how much they could corrupt, how could the Ming Dynasty collapse all of a sudden!
  To be honest, Su Chen felt deep pity for Chongzhen.

Even now, he still doesn't want to believe the facts, which shows how deeply he has been deceived by the officials in the court.

"Corruption can no longer be described as serious. The anchor will tell a short story to His Majesty Chongzhen, and you will know how corrupt Ming officials are."

As soon as these words came out, Chongzhen was still fine, but the expressions of all the civil and military ministers around him changed drastically.

Especially the officials who had evil thoughts in their hearts, now they were looking frightened and sweating profusely.

"According to historical records, it is said that in the last few years of the Ming Dynasty, wars were going on all over the country, but wars required money, but Chongzhen had no money at that time."

"When the rebels were about to reach Beijing, Chongzhen, who was desperate, finally put down his dignity and asked the ministers for donations in sad words."

"At that time, Chongzhen said that he only needed to collect the military expenditures to defend the city of Beijing. It would not cost the ministers much money. He also told everyone not to be nervous and kept his attitude very low."

"After the news of the call for donations came out, an old man in his sixties came forward and donated the four hundred taels of silver he had accumulated throughout his life. When Chongzhen learned about it, his eyes filled with tears, and he named the old man Jinyiwei Qianhu on the spot."

"Compared to this old man, many ministers are wealthy, but their performance is very embarrassing."

"It's not wrong to say that the minister didn't pay a penny, but each person donated probably tens or hundreds of taels."

"As the chief minister of the cabinet at that time, Wei Zaode donated a relatively large amount of money, but it was only a mere five hundred taels."

"In comparison, the eunuchs are much more generous. The great eunuch of Dongchang has a bad reputation. He is rich and stingy, but he still donated at least ten thousand taels, which is almost as much as the ministers combined."

"When all the donations were taken together, Chongzhen became angry on the spot. The amount of money donated by everyone was too small, and it was not enough to fill the gap between his teeth. He asked everyone to donate more."

"The result is good. Those important officials in the imperial court, who usually look like dogs, are now wearing tattered clothes. Some of them were afraid that their clothes were not tattered enough, so they even dug a few holes in them."

"What's more, some people hang up a sign saying 'This house is for sale urgently' in front of their house, indicating that the owner is in urgent need of money and the house is on sale."

When Chongzhen heard this, he suddenly became furious and wanted to kill someone.

The enemies were all under the city of Beijing. He called on everyone to collect donations, but he only had 20,000 taels of silver, of which 10,000 taels of silver were donated by the eunuch of Dongchang alone.

How could it be possible for 20,000 taels of silver to defend the city of Beijing? He never believed that the minister could only scrape together 10,000 taels of silver.

Those ministers usually shouted loud slogans about protecting their homes and the country, but when it came to a critical moment, when they really needed to contribute, they were so perfunctory and dismissed him with just three melons and two dates.

At this moment, he truly felt the hypocrisy of the court ministers.

Perhaps sensing His Majesty's anger, the ministers lowered their heads and trembled with guilt.

Although there has not been any fundraising for military expenses yet, if it ever comes to that, they will donate a few hundred taels of silver just like the anchor said.

Your Majesty asked their ministers to donate military expenses. Only those who have lost their minds would donate tens of thousands of taels to tens of thousands of taels. Doesn't this clearly tell your majesty that all this money was obtained through corruption?
  If everyone raised tens of thousands of taels of silver, they could finally successfully defend the city of Beijing.

I'm afraid that His Majesty will have to settle accounts with their descendants next, and may have their homes confiscated on charges of corruption.

After all, no minister knows how mean and ungrateful His Majesty is. Isn't Yuan Chonghuan the best example?
  Yuan Chonghuan successfully repulsed the Jin soldiers and defended the city of Beijing, but he was still executed by His Majesty Lingchi.

And there is a more important point. The Ming Dynasty is already on the verge of destruction. If Ladu cannot pull it back, the Ming Dynasty is destined to be overthrown.

Even if they raise money, it is just like a meat bun beating a dog, and it is useless at all.

It is better to keep the money and continue to enjoy the glory and wealth.

Even if the Ming Dynasty was overthrown, it would just be a change of ruler and it would have nothing to do with them.

As ministers, they are still ministers of the next dynasty.

They don't care who the emperor is, as long as they can keep their wealth, it makes no difference to them who becomes the emperor.

"The ministers were unwilling to raise funds, so Chongzhen had no choice but to find his father-in-law Zhou Kui. He wanted his father-in-law to set an example and take the lead in donating more."

"This Zhou Kui turned out to be a street fortune teller. His daughter became a queen, and he followed suit and became a millionaire. He is also ranked among the richest people in Beijing."

"However, when the emperor's son-in-law asked Zhou Kui for money, he showed off his acting skills. The dignified father-in-law, completely regardless of his identity, lay on the ground crying and rolling on the ground, and also cried out in mourning. Frankly speaking, The family is so poor that they can only eat moldy rice.”

"Empress Zhou felt that my father was really embarrassed, so she secretly sold her jewelry and collected five thousand taels of silver and gave it to my father so that he could save some face for Chongzhen."

"With the money, Zhou Kui went, but the five thousand taels turned into three thousand taels, and he took the other two thousand as kickbacks."

"If even the high-ranking monarch's performance is so poor, it can be imagined that the other ministers will do the same."

"Chongzhen tried his best and mobilized hundreds of civil and military officials as well as eunuchs, but in the end he only managed to collect 200,000 taels of silver."

Chongzhen: Abbot, okay, you are fine.

Chongzhen almost said this through gritted teeth, and the anger in his eyes was about to burst out.

He didn't expect that his father-in-law, the majestic father-in-law, would be so shameless.

Even if he doesn't help him, he even wants to deduct money from the queen.

Speaking of which, as a relative of the emperor, his father-in-law should strongly support him in raising donations.

After all, if the nest is overturned, the eggs will not be intact. If the Ming Dynasty dies, will he, the head of the country, still have a good life?
  Zhou Kui was named and criticized by the anchor in public. His face was completely disgraced and he wanted to find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

It's not that he is unwilling to pay to save Daming, but that Daming has reached a point where there is no cure. At this time, he spent money to save the country, but it was all in vain.

"Although I finally collected 200,000 taels of silver, these 200,000 taels of silver were not even a fraction of what the minister had embezzled."

Su Chen's words seemed to be shocking, making Chongzhen tremble in his heart, and also made all the ministers' hearts beat wildly.

Chongzhen felt incredible. Two hundred thousand taels of silver was already a lot in his eyes, but it was not even a fraction. How much money had his ministers embezzled?

Before Chongzhen could ask, Su Chen took the initiative to explain.

"It is said that after Li Zicheng entered Beijing, his general Liu Zongmin imprisoned more than 800 ministers of the Ming Dynasty, tortured them, and sought money."

"Liu Zongmin used torture to blackmail these officials into paying money according to their official positions, otherwise they would be punished with severe punishment. After some torture, guess how much money was confiscated in total by His Majesty Chongzhen?"

Chongzhen: Five million taels of silver?
  Su Chen smiled and shook his head, giving it a small pass.

"After Liu Zongmin gained power, he began to torture Ming Dynasty officials crazily and asked them to pay according to the size of their official positions."

"The regulations are as follows: one hundred thousand for the cabinet, 70,000 or 53,000 for the ministers and ministers, 50,000 to 10,000 for ministers, censors, officials, and officials, and 1,000 for subordinates below."

"More than 800 Ming Dynasty officials were sent to Liu Zongmin's camp. Liu Zongmin tortured them severely, using cruel methods such as burning muscles and breaking tibias to force them to pay money."

"That's not all. Five families were ordered to provide for one soldier. They looted and acted recklessly. The people couldn't survive and many committed suicide."

"And some ministers who paid enough money still couldn't die a good death, and many of them were killed."

"In addition, Liu Zongmin also ordered people to rush to make 5,000 pairs of clamping sticks. The clamping sticks had ribs and iron nails. Anyone who did not pay would have their hands and feet crushed to force the officials of the Ming Dynasty to pay."

"Liu Zongmin didn't think it was enough, so he ordered two pillars to be built at the door for Ling Chi's exclusive use. If he didn't pay, he would be cut into pieces. The cruelty of the method was shocking."

"Wei Zaode, the chief minister of the Ming Dynasty at that time, handed over tens of thousands of taels of silver when his fingers were cut off by a stick. But Liu Zongmin didn't believe that a chief minister of the cabinet only had such a small amount of money, so he continued to torture him. Wei Zaode suffered five days and five nights. After being tortured, his head was crushed and he died in prison."

"There are records that Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin tortured Ming Dynasty officials and confiscated a total of 70 million taels of silver."

Zhu Yuanzhang: What? Seventy million taels of silver? These dog officials really deserve to die. We can't wait to strip these corrupt officials off.

Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry that his chest kept rising and falling, and he kicked the desk in front of him fiercely.

His eyes were red at the moment, and he wished he could rip off all the officials from the late Ming Dynasty and turn them into idiots to relieve the hatred in his heart.

That's 70 million taels of silver. He knows exactly what this concept is.

Today, the Ming Dynasty's annual treasury revenue is less than 10 million taels, and the 70 million taels that those officials embezzled is seven times as much.

These 70 million taels of silver were all donated by the people of the Ming Dynasty. As a result, they all enriched the bellies of corrupt officials.

At first, when the anchor said that official corruption was the root cause of the Ming Dynasty's demise, he thought it was just an exaggeration.

But now that the figure of 70 million taels of silver was clearly in front of his eyes, he finally realized the meaning behind the words "official corruption".

No wonder the Ming Dynasty perished. Just by looking at this number, he understood everything.

As soon as the figure of seventy million taels of silver came out, ancient people from all dynasties were horrified.

These are all the money of corrupt officials, and they are all the money of the common people. It shows how shocking the corruption of officials in the late Ming Dynasty was.

Liu Che: Corrupt officials in the Ming Dynasty can really make money. If you give me so much money, I can kill the Huns.

Li Shimin: Hey, 70 million taels of silver, all of which are the people's fat and the people's anointment, which shows how drained the people of the Ming Dynasty have been.

Although it was not the officials of the Tang Dynasty who were corrupt, it was the common people who suffered.

He could no longer imagine how miserable the people's lives were in the late Ming Dynasty, and they were almost driven to death.

Life was already hard enough with severe drought and years of war, but corrupt officials were still trying their best to squeeze the people dry.
  He secretly warned himself in his heart that he must learn the lessons of the demise of the Ming Dynasty and not let such a tragedy happen to the people of the Tang Dynasty.

The officials of the Chongzhen Dynasty all looked ashen, as if they had a sense of despair that the end was coming.

Now the anchor has exposed 70 million taels of silver in public. Even if they did not embezzle that much, His Majesty will definitely not take it easy.

Everyone secretly took a look at His Majesty, and found that His Majesty was staring at them expressionlessly, which made everyone's heart skip a beat.

Your Majesty doesn't want to imitate Li Zicheng and torture them severely, right?

As soon as this thought came out, everyone's hearts instantly went cold.

When Chongzhen heard about 70 million taels of silver, his mind exploded. Even now, his mind is still in a daze.

Five million taels of silver was already overestimated by him, but he didn't expect that he would be like a fool being played by everyone.

These ministers embezzled 70 million taels under their noses, but as the emperor, he knew nothing about it. How ridiculous he was.

Chongzhen: You are very good!
  Chongzhen looked around with cold eyes, scanning the faces of every minister below, as if he wanted to keep their appearance in mind.

He treated these ministers well and promoted them to sit in the court.

And this is how they repaid themselves. Not only could they not solve his problems, but what was even more disgusting was that they plundered 70 million taels of money from the people.

Qian Qianyi: Your Majesty, please don’t listen to the anchor’s nonsense. I am dedicated to serving the country and the people and have never committed such evil deeds.

Li Biao: Your Majesty...

Chongzhen: Shut up, I don’t want to listen to you right now.

Chongzhen looked at these ministers with disgust, as if he had eaten flies.

He was suppressing his anger now, and was already on the verge of rage. He wanted to order all the ministers in front of him to be put into cells and tortured, but he knew that he could not act rashly.

Whether there is corruption or not, he will send people to investigate thoroughly. There is no need to listen to these people's sophistry.

The ministers present were immediately shocked. They could hear the determination in His Majesty's tone that he would not give up easily.

(End of this chapter)