Chapter 931: What? The Ming Has a Fiscal Crisis? (Please Subscribe)

In the third month we break camp and march south to make money!

This was not something Zhu Cilang said casually — he was laying the groundwork for the permanent relocation of the Ming capital to the south.

Beijing had been the imperial capital for over two hundred and several decades! Moreover, it lay in what was called the northern land of martial prowess, and establishing the capital there seemed on the surface to be advantageous for controlling the realm's finest troops. And only by controlling those finest troops could imperial power be made secure forever!

So as early as when Emperor Zhu launched this Northern Expedition into the Central Plains, voices had arisen at the Ming court calling for a triumphant return to the old capital — and those voices were loud!

Not only did many of the northern merit-noble military men who had followed Emperor Zhu south wish to return after the war to the Beijing they knew so well. Even many officials from the prosperous southeastern regions also advocated returning to the capital. Only the northern and southern maritime faction officials, represented by Zheng Zhilong, Zheng Sen, Zheng Jiangong, and Shen Tingyang, along with a small number of southern officials such as Huang Zongxi and Luo Dagong, advocated making Nanjing and Wuhan the Ming's permanent eastern and western capitals.

And on the question of whether to return to the capital, Zhu Cilang had for a time wavered somewhat, so much so that he had not renamed Beijing to Beiping and had kept Beijing's status as the imperial capital.

But the astronomical bills that landed one after another in Emperor Zhu's hands in the spring of the ninth year of Hongxing made him realize that the foundation of the Ming Empire no longer lay in Beijing, but in Nanjing!

No matter how the dynasties that had historically made Nanjing their capital had ended, Emperor Zhu had no way to move the Ming dynasty's center of rule back to Beijing.

Even if the dark cloud of "the royal aura of Jinling has dimmed and faded" hovered over the head of the Celestial Empire, he had no choice but to return to Nanjing.

Because his Celestial Empire was turning into a gold-devouring beast, and there were still plenty of places ahead where money would flow like water!

"My son, do you truly intend to break camp in the third month and return to Nanjing?"

Within Shuntian Prefecture, in Changping County, the Chongzhen Retired Emperor — already surrounded by several thousand imperial guards and officials and having entered the Tianshou Mountain tomb district — finally could not hold back and brought up the matter of breaking camp and returning to Nanjing with Zhu Cilang.

Zhu Cilang's brows were knitted, as though his mind were weighed down with cares. He was mentally calculating the cost of repairing the twelve tombs of Tianshou Mountain, as well as the future upkeep — yet another astronomical figure!

The twelve tombs of Tianshou Mountain had been in the hands of Dorgon, that "tomb-raiding Imperial Ama," for so many years, and before that Li Zicheng had set them on fire, so one can imagine the state of ruin they had been reduced to. The only consoling thing was that the tomb-raiding Imperial Ama had left a thread of restraint: after digging up the tombs and plundering the treasures, he had not left the Ming emperors' corpses exposed in the wilderness, but had put the bodies back into their coffins and left them in the underground palaces, and had even sent troops to guard the tomb district to prevent others from looting in the chaos.

So although the imperial tombs of Tianshou Mountain had been badly damaged, they were still there in the end!

But Zhu Cilang would not thank Dorgon for that, because as long as the tombs were still there and the former emperors' bones were still there, Zhu Cilang, this "Twenty-Five Acts of Filial Piety" emperor of the Ming, would have to pay out of his own pocket to rebuild the imperial tombs.

Back then he had only promised to rebuild the imperial tomb of Zhu Yuanzhang — how had it now become twelve more former emperors' tombs to repair?

Even if each former emperor cost only five hundred thousand, twelve former emperors would be six million! And after the repairs, there would still be upkeep to pay, with annual sweeping and sacrifices — another huge fixed expense!

Just thinking about it made him want to vomit blood!

Just as he was brooding, he heard that spendthrift Chongzhen Retired Emperor bring up the matter of breaking camp and returning to court. His mood at that moment was certainly not good, but he could not show a sour face to Chongzhen — there was a whole crowd of loyal ministers following behind, and everyone knew how filial Zhu Cilang was; that persona could not be allowed to collapse.

"Yes, Imperial Father, we have been away from Nanjing for so long, it is time to go back and take a look." Zhu Cilang smiled. "Besides, this Northern Expedition of ours has gone over budget! We spent too much money, and the finances are somewhat strained. We must return to Nanjing to find money."

Find money?

When the Chongzhen Retired Emperor heard those two words, he shuddered. This Retired Emperor's private purse does not have much saved up in it!

Zhu Cilang had not thought of emptying Chongzhen's pockets — he was already at Twenty-Five Acts of Filial Piety, how could he have the face to do such a thing? But he still needed to tell Chongzhen just how enormous the Ming court's expenditures in the Northern Expedition had been!

Not only to tell Chongzhen, but also to tell the crowd of loyal ministers who had followed Emperor Zhu to Tianshou Mountain to offer incense and kowtow to the former emperors.

"The expenses for the three frontier commands of Anbei, Beiping, and Daning to relocate their garrisons and send troops into Mobei and Khorchin come to seventeen million sixty thousand taels. That does not even include the cost of the Huaibei command relocating its garrison to Daning — if that is counted, it would be more than twenty million taels! After the garrison relocations and military operations are complete, the court will still have to pay five million a year to maintain the operations of the three commands. In addition, the Chahar and Tumed tribes have already received more than eight hundred thousand taels in rewards, and once they take Mobei, they will receive seven hundred forty thousand more each year.

That is the expenditure in the northeast direction: a one-time outlay of about twenty-one million, and future upkeep of at least five million seven hundred thousand a year!

The northwest direction is even worse! Duke of Liang, Ping'anxi, has run up a deficit, and the court must make up more than three million taels to him; relocating one hundred twenty Chiliarchs to Anxi will cost ten million taels. The Anxi and Hexi garrisons will also need subsidies of two million five hundred thousand each year.

The Prince of Tang paid for his own garrison relocation to Shuofang, but from now on the court must still subsidize Shuofang three hundred thousand taels a year.

Beiting has also spent more than five hundred thousand in the Western Regions, and the court must reimburse them as well; in the future, the court must also give the Dzungar tribe four hundred fifty thousand each year. In addition, the court must build new cities on Beiting's territory — New Suyab, Yining, Tingzhou, and others — which will also require enormous funds.

Generals Shang and Kong and the Prince of Chongqing going up onto the plateau will also cost money: boiling tea, inviting the Dharma King, and repairing monasteries will cost at least a million; sending fifteen thousand troops to show sincerity will cost another five hundred thousand; if Gushri Khan is easy to talk to, he must be rewarded two hundred thousand, and if he is not easy to talk to, then it will cost over a million.

All of this added together comes to a one-time outlay of seventeen or eighteen million, plus three or four million in annual subsidies. And that still does not include the cost of building fortresses and stationing troops in Beiting!"

The Chongzhen Retired Emperor's heart and liver cramped as he listened. "How can it be so much? The one-time expenditures alone are close to forty million, and every year another nine to ten million must be spent! Th-this — does the court really have that much money?"

"This is only the beginning," Zhu Cilang said with a bitter smile. "Does Imperial Father think retaking the Central Plains cost nothing? The Northern Expedition began in the sixth year of Hongxing, and it is now the ninth year of Hongxing! Several hundred thousand troops have been in the field for two years and six months and more, and the silver spent has reached forty to fifty million! Moreover, the recovered lands of Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Hebei, and Shuntian Prefecture must be exempt from taxation for three years, so the court must provide additional subsidies to maintain the local governments of the recovered territories — the subsidies alone come to another four to five million a year!"

"That means over a hundred million taels already spent? And another fourteen or fifteen million more to spend every year!" The Chongzhen Emperor drew a sharp breath. "Where does the court get so much money?"

"It is not over yet!" Zhu Cilang shook his head. "Liaodong has still not been recovered, and the Andong Protectorate remains too big to control. The Northern Expedition has in fact only fought half its battles; once the remaining half is fought, another two hundred million could well be spent!"

Zhu Cilang deliberately raised his voice: "If the court moves back to Beijing, it certainly will not have that much money! Only by going to Nanjing can it have that much money, because the southeast has flourishing commerce, thriving crafts and industries, and seagoing ships that can travel to and from the whole world. Half of all the wealth under heaven is gathered there.

And most of that money merely passes through the account books; what is actually transported to the northern front is goods — grain, armor, weapons, cloth and silk, and all manner of implements. Eight or nine tenths of these goods come from the lands of the Four Rivers, the Two Lakes, Fujian, and Guangdong, and the carts and boats that carry them also mostly come from the southeast.

Therefore the foundation of the state already lies in the southeast, not in Yan and Yun! However brave the warriors of Yan and Yun may be, without the southeast's muskets, cannons, plate armor, grain, silk and cloth, gold and silver, they cannot become an invincible army. And in the world of today, one can no longer look only at the bitter cold lands beyond the passes and the northern frontier while ignoring the vast blue waves of the boundless ocean!

Gold, silver, guns, cannon, rice, grain, and horses can all come by sea and travel by sea. The gain or loss of sea power is in truth the key to a nation's rise or fall!

We wish to build a Celestial Empire and secure a hundred generations of good fortune for our descendants — how can We sit trapped in the cold, arid land of Yan and Yun and ignore the prosperous and fertile soil of the southeast?

The proposal to return the capital to Beijing may now be put to rest!"