Chapter 1766: No Understanding of Finance, So Confiscation It Is

Zhu Youjian actually did not care whether his own elder brother and his father had been murdered by the eunuch-faction traitors who supported the Prince of Fu — although both of their deaths were indeed highly suspicious! But if they had not died, how could Zhu Youjian have become Emperor? Being a Prince of Xin with a father and an elder brother still alive — how could that compare with being the Emperor of the Great Ming with no father and no elder brother?

Moreover, Zhu Youjian had never been favored by the Taichang Emperor since childhood — his birth mother had been beaten to death by order of the Taichang Emperor, who was then still the Crown Prince! A father like that — well, if he died, he died.

Of course, because the deaths of his father and elder brother were riddled with suspicion, Zhu Youjian also had a bit of a psychological shadow about the Forbidden City. In his previous life he had had no choice; it was only after the Jiashen Incident that he completely escaped the encirclement of the inner court and the meritorious nobles — but at the same time he also lost power.

But in this life, Zhu Youjian could fight. The skills he had painstakingly cultivated over decades were no joke! That was why he had so easily shaken off the inner court and the meritorious nobles, and even strolled out of Beijing — that city like a dragon-trapping pool or a tiger-lurking den — to display his abilities on the outside.

However, the reason Zhu Youjian kept delaying his return home until the winter of the first year of Chongzhen was not that he feared following in the footsteps of his father and elder brother. It was because his funds were running short again. The little Ming Emperor Zhu Youjian was out of money again — after being busy for more than half a year, he had not earned any money, and he did not dare go home for the New Year!

And the reason he was out of money again was, of course, that he had been fighting wars for several months straight. Once real weapons were drawn, ten thousand taels of gold went out the door!

From the sixth month, when he personally led the army out of Beijing, until now, it had been less than six months at the very most. Zhu Youjian had merely defeated one Mongol Great Khan, forced back one Later Jin Great Khan, and seized the territory of three prefectures plus two ordo camps — and that had already emptied a completely full Inner Bearing Treasury.

And it was precisely because the Inner Bearing Treasury was empty again that Zhu Youjian, that good nephew, suddenly remembered His Highness the Prince of Fu in Luoyang!

Who could blame him? Zhu Youjian was simply an enlightened monarch who did not understand finance and only knew how to confiscate estates.

In his previous life he had studied under that unfilial son for fifty years. He had learned every skill there was, and in martial arts he had far surpassed that unfilial son — yet he had somehow never learned how to do finance or how to run a bank. Of course, the economy around Beijing also could not compare with Jiangnan, and the demand for financial services was not strong either. If there was any demand at all, it was nothing more than helping corrupt officials remit silver back to their hometowns.

That kind of financial business could not possibly go through a bank controlled by the imperial house!

So in that unfilial son's hands, this money was numbers in the accounts of the salt-merchant banks and sea-merchant banks; in Zhu Youjian's hands, it was "stones" in the Inner Bearing Treasury.

"Your Majesty, this subject has checked the Inner Bearing Treasury's accounts entry by entry, all income and expenditure since the sixth month. I dare not say there is not a single problem, but on the whole everything tallies."

The one reporting the audit results to Zhu Youjian in the Bearing Hall of the Xuanfu Imperial Palace (formerly the Prince of Gu's mansion, the State-Guarding Residence) was the newly appointed Right Deputy Commissioner of the Inner Bearing Treasury, Shen Tingyang.

This "Chief Helmsman Shen" (actually he was not yet the chief helmsman — his father was) had come north together with Qian Qianyi. His original purpose had been to help Qian Qianyi maneuver for a Grand Secretary post — only once Qian Qianyi became a Grand Secretary could the sea transport of tribute grain be pushed forward, and only then could the Sea Sand Gang steal the business away from the grain-transport troops (the Grain Transport Gang)!

The grain transport itself was of course not profitable, but money could be made by carrying goods along and evading taxes. If the tribute grain went north by the Grand Canal, then all that was evaded was the twelve tax posts along the canal. But if the tribute grain went north by sea, the benefits would be enormous — not only would the maritime customs tax be evaded, but Tianjin would in effect be opened as a port! From then on, rare goods from all the countries of the Eastern and Western Oceans could be shipped directly to the gates of Tianjin by the Sea Sand Gang's merchant vessels!

In addition, under the pretext of transporting grain for the court, the Sea Sand Gang could legitimately build up its own armed merchant fleet. It could also sail its armed merchant ships into Zheng Yiguan's territory — and without paying protection money!

Zheng Yiguan had recently been pursuing the path of accepting amnesty. He had sent people to negotiate again and again with Governor Xiong Wencan of Fujian and the Nanjing garrison eunuch Pang Tianshou, and the matter was probably close to being settled.

Once Zheng Yiguan received the amnesty, he would no longer have to live on that miasma-ridden island of Dayuan; he could return to his hometown of Quanzhou and develop legitimately. At that point, would he still dare collect protection money from the court's grain ships? If it was not paid, would he dare rob the court's grain ships?

So for the Sea Sand Gang, the benefits of sea transport of tribute grain were simply too great!

Of course, the Sea Sand Gang alone could not push this matter through. Also thinking about sea transport of tribute grain were the gentry and unscrupulous merchants of several prefectures along the middle and lower Huai River — especially the gentry and unscrupulous merchants of the two great prefectures of Huai'an and Yangzhou.

Because the southward-flowing channel of the Yellow River could not intersect with the Grand Canal's waterway (otherwise it would silt up within a few years), the Yellow River could not be artificially channeled to the sea north of the Huai; it could only seize the Huai's course to the sea. But this in turn caused the riverbeds of the lower Huai and Hongze Lake to rise year after year. By now Hongze Lake had already become a "hanging lake" — if it ever flooded, the fertile lands of the two prefectures of Huai'an and Yangzhou would all be finished.

Moreover, because the mouth of the Huai River was severely silted up, Huai'an's channel to the sea was almost about to disappear! This was extremely disadvantageous for Huai'an Prefecture — not only could overseas trade not be developed, but once the Huai's outlet to the sea silted up, where would the Huai's waters go?

This matter was truly enough to drive people to death with worry!

But there were also quite a lot of people who relied on the Grand Canal to get rich and make a living!

Once the canal stopped at the Huai (the section south of the Huai had no problems), would the prefectures along the canal north of the Huai agree? Would the officials who relied on the canal to make money agree? Would the hundred thousand or more grain-transport troops agree?

So this matter was not easy to accomplish. A man like Shen Tingyang could only pin his hopes on the Donglin Faction, which was based in the southeast, to maneuver for it.

And the result of that maneuvering was that Qian Qianyi only got a Hanlin Academician post, while Shen Tingyang soared to the sky in a single bound and became Right Deputy Commissioner of the Inner Bearing Treasury — a high official of the lower fifth rank, only half a rank below Qian Qianyi's Hanlin Academician.

"Everything tallies?" Zhu Youjian was still somewhat suspicious of this great profiteer Shen. He frowned. "The Inner Bearing Treasury held several million taels in silver. How could it all be spent in such a short time?"

"Your Majesty," the great profiteer Shen said with a bitter smile, "in the sixth month, the Inner Bearing Treasury still held more than 6,525,000 taels of silver. Now only a little over 1,500,000 taels remain."

"Spent that much!" Zhu Youjian snorted. "How did it get spent so fast?"

"It was mainly spent away by the war." Shen Tingyang said, "Your Majesty, once a war begins, silver truly is never enough! Especially since Your Majesty uses troops with divine skill, leading your officers and men to cut off so many barbarian heads, winning so many victories, and seizing so much territory."

"You—" Zhu Youjian grew angry the moment he heard this. "Are you saying that We fought victories and impoverished the state?"

"Your Majesty," the great profiteer Shen shook his head, "the state has not been impoverished — it is the Inner Bearing Treasury that has been impoverished. Because the state was poor to begin with. The Ministry of Revenue simply could not produce that much silver for rewards, for marching rations, for the subsidies to relocate the three prefectures, and for the expenses of establishing two ten-thousand-household ordo camps — all of this had to be filled with silver from the Inner Bearing Treasury!"

"Th-this—this—" Zhu Youjian was so agitated he could barely speak. "Why is the Inner Bearing Treasury paying for all of it? Whose idea was this?"

"Your Majesty, it seems it was by your own decree."

"What? It was Us—" Zhu Youjian thought it over. It did seem that he had issued the decree!

For a while now he had kept thinking that the Inner Bearing Treasury had silver, while the Grand Secretariat kept crying poverty to him — the Grand Secretariat really was poor! Moreover, the Grand Secretariat's taxes and grain had not yet been collected, while its expenditures had already been itemized one by one!

And expenditures were mostly greater than income! Because the current Ming dynasty had no financial system capable of supporting the issuance of national debt, the Ministry of Revenue's deficits could only be realized by delaying officials' salaries and soldiers' pay.

And Zhu Youjian had suffered enough from mutinies over pay in his previous life, so he strictly forbade the Ministry of Revenue from delaying payments, and he did not dare abolish the post-station runners either. Even if the first year of Chongzhen could produce a small surplus, it still had to be used to fill the holes of previous years — so the Ministry of Revenue simply could not pay for Zhu Youjian's personal expedition; only the Inner Bearing Treasury could advance the funds.

If Zhu Youjian had won a few fewer victories, killed a few fewer Tartars, and seized a little less territory, the silver in the inner treasury might still have been enough. But the problem was that he was simply too good at fighting!

And his "being good at fighting," to put it plainly, meant spending money exactly where it mattered most!

And Zhu Youjian was still planning to continue sparring with Hong Taiji in the coming year — the money would still have to be spent in great quantities!

(End of Chapter)