Chapter 51: Old Debts Not Yet Gone, New Debts Arrive

The brief awkwardness was finally broken by Zhu Youjian himself: "Ahem."

"Minister Guo," he suddenly spoke, "but regarding the distribution of civilian-transport silver, the Ministry of Revenue doesn't actually know the details, does it?"

Guo Yunhou let out a long sigh at these words, then bowed and said:

"Your Majesty is wise... civilian-transport silver is all shipped directly from the localities. The money never passes through the Ministry of Revenue's hands, so whether there are shortfalls—the Ministry truly has no way of knowing."

"Thus, the so-called notion that the border troops can rely on civilian transport is, in truth, nothing more than covering one's ears to steal a bell—self-deception."

Zhu Youjian nodded, and did not press the point further.

After all, according to Zhu Yuanzhang's fiscal design, the Ministry of Revenue was an incomplete department to begin with—never, as its name might suggest, actually controlling the empire's taxes and revenues.

"At the last Platform Summons, the Chief Grand Secretary already spoke to Us of this matter, and a direct palace edict was issued at that time," Zhu Youjian continued. "Once the registers arrive, the Ministry of Revenue can begin its audit."

Guo Yunhou spoke with difficulty: "Your Majesty, the Ministry's current manpower..."

Zhu Youjian cut him off before he could finish. "Rest assured. Once the order is issued, it will take the localities at least ten days to a month to deliver the account books. Before then, We will certainly provide you with sufficient personnel."

Guo Yunhou breathed a sigh of relief and continued.

"Through the method of using new funds to repay old debts, the amount involved each year is actually only about half of the annual quota of 3,280,000 taels—roughly 1,500,000 taels or so."

"At that point, the method of 'balancing before and after' must be employed."

"For instance, at the Ningxia Garrison, in the sixth year of Tianqi, only one-tenth of the pay was issued."

"So this year, the Ministry of Revenue will allocate somewhat more, and ultimately issue one and seven-tenths of the amount."

"Adding the two years together, it roughly amounts to one full year's pay issued, which at least allows the troops to scrape by."

Hearing this, Zhu Youjian's mind suddenly stirred—something felt off.

He immediately pressed: "Do you mean that for the seventh year of Tianqi—that is, this year—the Nine Border Garrisons' pay has already all been distributed?"

Fearing a misunderstanding, he added: "Distributed according to this balancing method you described—it's all been issued?"

"Replying to Your Majesty, precisely so." Guo Yunhou cupped his hands. "This year, each garrison's situation differs. In total, 1,270,000 taels of old pay have been issued, roughly... four-tenths of the total."

At these words, Zhu Youjian felt as if a great stone had fallen from his heart.

His taut nerves finally loosened a fraction in this moment.

His Tianqi elder brother, after all, had not left him a completely rotten mess.

He had thought not a single tael of this year's Nine Border pay had been issued—so it turned out nearly half had already been distributed.

Combined with Guo Yunhou's explanation just now, those 9,680,000 taels could actually all be set aside for now—at least ignored for the next month or two.

This news was excellent. In an instant, the debt structure transformed into:

Long-term liabilities: 9,680,000.

Short-term liabilities: zero.

Wonderful! Any friend who has worked in finance knows that long-term liabilities and short-term liabilities are not the same thing at all.

Once liabilities become long-term, they automatically discount themselves, liquidity becomes far more ample, and the room to maneuver naturally expands greatly.

Yet before he could fully exhale that breath of relief, Guo Yunhou's next words plunged him into an ice pit.

Guo Yunhou continued: "This year, Your Majesty ascends the throne—a new reign, a new beginning. By precedent, rewards must be bestowed upon all the border troops and civil and military officials."

"Among these, once the border troops' reward silver is allocated, by convention, five-tenths may serve as reward and five-tenths as pay."

"In this way, the Nine Border old pay arrears, at least for this year, can actually be considered barely settled in full."

The expression on Zhu Youjian's face instantly froze.

Rewarding the border troops?

Precedent?

His mind frantically searched through the original Chongzhen's memories, finally unearthing a vague recollection.

When the Tianqi Emperor ascended the throne, he had indeed issued funds from the privy purse to reward all the border troops and civil and military officials of the realm—and that sum was: 1,800,000 taels!

Zhu Youjian's heart felt as though someone had seized it and squeezed hard—a sudden stab of pain.

If he truly disbursed this entire 1,800,000 taels now, his family fortune would instantly shrink to just 800,000 taels.

After setting aside reserves for the palace's various expenses, his liquid funds would probably be down to only 300,000...

Zhu Youjian's expression flickered, but in a mere instant, he forcibly suppressed the storm raging in his heart.

He raised his eyes, his face already restored to that inscrutable calm, as if he had known of this matter all along.

"This matter, We were also just about to discuss with all Our ministers," he said in a level tone. "But there is no urgency—it can be set aside and discussed later."

He turned his gaze back to Guo Yunhou and asked: "My minister, aside from these two methods, are there any others?"

Guo Yunhou's face showed a trace of shame. He bowed and said: "Ever since this subject assumed the post of Minister of Revenue in the sixth year of Tianqi, I have relied solely on these two methods, patching things up left and right, struggling to hold on. I have truly failed Your Majesty's sacred trust."

He sighed and said:

"In the fifth month of this year, this subject held a joint conference with the supervising censors and drafted ten strategies together, many of which concern increasing revenue and reducing expenditure."

"If Your Majesty is interested, this subject may attempt to outline them for you."

Zhu Youjian's spirits lifted slightly at these words, and he forced the great crisis of the 1,800,000 taels to one side.

Ten strategies? That sounded rather impressive.

He assumed an attitude of attentive listening and gestured for Guo Yunhou to continue.

Guo Yunhou cleared his throat and spoke in a grave tone:

"The so-called ten strategies—first among them is auditing military pay! The ruin of border affairs lies in nothing greater than the disruption of troop pay..."

"The second lies in performance evaluation! Throughout the realm, tax grain arrears have become customary; the court's orders go unenforced below..."

"The third..."

At first, Zhu Youjian listened quite attentively, nodding repeatedly.

But as he listened on, his brow furrowed involuntarily, his gaze gradually drifting, his thoughts flying far beyond the clouds.

It was not that Guo Yunhou was speaking incorrectly.

On the contrary, he was absolutely right — every single point was pure gold, and any one of them could actually be put into practice.

The problem, however, was that these solutions were all far too grand in scale.

Take "clearing military payrolls," for example. Who doesn't know that the nine border garrisons are rife with fraudulent salary claims that need cleaning up?

But the crux is: how do you clear them? Who does the clearing? Where do you start? And to what extent is it considered done?

The intricacies involved are far more complicated than those three words suggest.

The man who did a decent job of it was Yuan Chonghuan — he squeezed 5.2 million taels down to 4.8 million, cutting the silver while still raising combat effectiveness and without seriously damaging army morale.

A botched clearance was the Ji Garrison troop reduction, which directly led to the Yisi Incident, where the troops surrendered at the mere sight of the enemy.

As for "performance evaluations" and "military farmland," those are the same old platitudes. Everyone understands the principle, but when it comes to actual implementation, how much can truly be put into practice is genuinely uncertain.

The direction of these strategies is correct, but the organization and personnel tasked with executing them likely have problems.

Otherwise, it's been nearly four months since the fifth month of Tianqi — why hasn't there been the slightest improvement?

Zhu Youjian grew sleepier the more he listened, his thoughts circling back again to that 1.8 million taels of reward silver.

Compared to these ten perfectly correct strategies, what concerned him more right now was that far more practical question:

How exactly could he, with dignity and without discourtesy... protect his own purse?

Or, put another way, if it was ultimately going to be lost, where could he go to recoup it?