Chapter 267 266 Changying Library

Wei Guangde naturally knew about the financial dilemma. After all, it was related to the pockets of civil and military officials in Beijing, but he could not afford to be careless.

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

That day, I made an appointment with Chen Ju for a drink in a restaurant, and unexpectedly the conversation came up about the court's lack of money.

Relying on his drunkenness, Wei Guangde also asked.

Chen Ju is in charge of rites, and although he may not know everything about the household department, no matter what, the palace will definitely have to take care of money matters.

Don't forget that Emperor Jiajing of Xiyuan would reach out to the treasury to get money whenever he had something to do.

In the six months since Wei Guangde came back from Baoan Prefecture, he only knew that he had withdrawn more than 300,000 taels of silver from the Ministry of Household Affairs twice.

Everyone knows what it is used for, and practicing it is really a waste of money.

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

Taoism adheres to the teaching that "immortals cherish lives and cannot measure people." While cultivating Taoism for your own longevity, you must also have the responsibility to save others.

However, as the saying goes, "Save others first, save yourself." If you want to save others, you first need to practice your own Taoism to a certain extent.

Cultivation is not an easy task. Sincerity alone is not enough. It also requires four factors: "wealth couple, law and ground".

Since it is called the Dharma Land of the Wealthy Couple, and wealth is put first, it naturally makes sense.

Wealth: It means money. To practice Taoism requires certain economic conditions. Without a certain material foundation, it will be difficult to practice Taoism.

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

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

The Dharma is very important, but if you want to practice it, you must become a disciple. You need to pay to become a disciple. Why?

Because the master also needs to spend money to practice, otherwise there is the above sentence, "No money is not enough to cultivate the Tao."

Each master teaches a different method, so you need to find a reliable master who can teach you a good method so that you can continue practicing smoothly. If you don't have money, you won't be able to find a good master.

As for other couples and places, they seem to be very common for the emperor who is the ninth emperor.

A partner refers to a partner who practices Taoism together. In the process of practice, without the support or encouragement of a partner, it will be difficult for you to continue practicing for a long time, because it is easy to get tired, your heart will feel lonely, and it will not be easy to persist. Go down.

But as long as you have an extraordinary and persistent heart, it doesn't matter whether you have a partner or not.

It's just that this couple doesn't represent a man and woman, but a person who practices Taoism together.

The last land, an imperial edict, as long as this land is within the control of the Ming Empire, no matter who it was before, it belongs to the emperor now.

Wealth couple, Dharma ground, are the four elements of spiritual practice. They are not just mentioned casually. Even the order is not randomly arranged. There is a certain reason for them.

"Brother, it's the end of the year. The salary and New Year's rewards are over there at the Ministry of Household Affairs."

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

"The salary is easy to talk about. The Ministry of Finance and various yamen have already raised and retained it. The annual reward is a little more troublesome. It is said to be a reward from the emperor, but it all falls on the head of the Ministry of Finance. Now Fang Blunt's hair is almost gone, haha."

Chen Ju didn't hide anything, and told everything he knew, "But having said that, if you really have no money, you can just get it from Taipu Temple. Anyway, it's all the money of the imperial court."

Speaking of the financial system of the Ming Dynasty, it is also quite unique. When Wei Guangde first started to study the Ming court system, he was blinded by the complicated financial system. When he encountered a similar situation, he only had to study the tax system and he was confused. , and still only have a rough understanding of it.

Different from 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 fiscal management.

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

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

Although the Ministry of Revenue can supervise the income of most yamen, because the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of War, and the Taipus Temple have independent financial resources, their revenue and expenditure have their own systems and are not subject to management interference by the Ministry of Revenue.

The finances of the Ministry of Industry mainly come from the income from the silver exchange for work materials and bamboo and wood extraction from various places; the income of the Ministry of War mainly comes from the firewood and direct silver of officials in Beijing, which are collected and stored in the Arsenal Department of the Ministry of War, and distributed by the Ministry of War to officials in Beijing; Taipu The income of the temple mainly comes from the horse price silver obtained from the horses from various places.

The financial revenue of the Neifu and Guanglu Temple is mainly managed by the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Works, but their expenditures are not subject to the management restrictions of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

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

Taipu Temple was the institution responsible for horse administration and animal husbandry in the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the important financial resources controlled by Taipus Temple were horse households, pastures, horses and other horse administration resources.

According to statistics during the Hongzhi period, Taipu Temple had more than 680,000 horse breeders and more than 160,000 hectares of land.

Since the Central Plains dynasty has always been deeply disturbed by grassland tribes, horse politics is a major military and national policy, and has been highly valued by rulers of all dynasties. Zhu Yuanzhang once said: "Horse politics is what the country values."

So how did the Taifu Temple, as an institution specializing in horse politics, transform into a financial management institution, and how did it become the richest department in the Ming Dynasty?

The Ming Dynasty implemented a dual-capital system, so there were two Taifu Temples. The Taifu Temple in Beijing managed the horse politics in Zhili, Henan, Shandong and other places, and the Taifu Temple in Nanjing was located in Chuzhou, managing the horse politics in Nanzhili.

According to the system, the Taifu Temple is an institution that specializes in providing horses for the court, and it does not actually have financial management functions.

It's just that the gap between the horses raised in the north and south provinces of the Ming Dynasty is huge. The horses raised in the south are not suitable as war horses, so the value naturally drops greatly, and it is actually a loss-making state.

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

The source of the horse silver is also complicated. It not only includes the horse discount, but also the fodder silver, the horse farm rent, etc.

The amount of horse silver also increased from only 30,000 taels in the second year of Chenghua to 180,000 taels a year in the eighth year of Zhengde, and then continued to increase, reaching 360,000 taels a year in the seventh year of Jiajing. Now, it is said that the horse silver income in the thirty-fourth year of Jiajing is 460,000 taels of silver.

It can be said that the Changying Treasury of the Imperial Household Department is the last reserve fund of the Ming Dynasty court.

As for how much silver is in the Changying Treasury, Chen Ju shook his head. He really didn't know.

Perhaps only the Minister of the Imperial Household Department knew the exact number.

But Chen Ju also quietly told Wei Guangde, "Although all the officials in the court are worried that the court cannot issue annual gifts because of lack of money, there is actually a lot of silver in the Taifu Temple's Changying Treasury.

The old treasury of the Ministry of Revenue is empty, but the Taifu Temple still has an old treasury that has not been moved. The old treasury was sealed in the 13th year of Jiajing. Now the horse silver of the Taifu Temple is piled up in the new treasury. This is why the emperor is not worried about the lack of silver and money at all."

Wei Guangde blinked when he heard it and understood a little.

No wonder the court has no money, but Emperor Jiajing still goes his own way and asks the Ministry of Revenue for silver. It turns out that they knew that the court still has a small treasury there.

"Will this silver not be spent if it is stored there? And, not many people know about this, right?"

Wei Guangde asked curiously.

"The Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue must know about it. The Ministry of War also manages the Imperial Household Department. However, he cannot ask for silver directly. It is useless to ask for it. They will not give it. They will only allocate more than 100,000 taels of silver to the border towns every year according to the annual rules to buy horses or supplement the shortage of military pay.

The emperor can ask for it, but it is also very troublesome. The cabinet and the Ministry of War will resist. Therefore, the emperor only asks the Ministry of Revenue for silver. If the Ministry of Revenue is empty, the silver of the Imperial Household Department will naturally be borrowed.

But this is borrowing silver, and it will be repaid later.

There should not be many people who know this among the six ministries and nine officials. If it gets out, it will be terrible. Each ministry has a debt. The young cabinet elders will be in trouble. No one dared to say this. After all, the silver was the military expenses intercepted by the court, and it was also the military expenses prepared by the court for possible wars in the future. They dared not spend it recklessly.

The emperors of the previous dynasties could only get a little bit of it, and they would not take too much. The big part had to be saved. The court was tight, so they had to tighten their belts. As long as they could get by, it would be fine. "

Chen Ju realized that he had said something wrong, and hurriedly reminded Wei Guangde: "I only knew about it after hearing it from my godfather. Don't tell anyone."

Come to think of it, Yan Shifan is such a greedy person, how could he not know the silver vault of the Imperial Household Department?

The answer is of course no.

His position may not touch the core of the Imperial Household Department, but his father Yan Song could not have been unaware of it, the Prime Minister.

But the silver of the Imperial Household Department, to put it bluntly, is the war reserve that the Ming Dynasty has saved since the Chenghua period. In addition to military expenditures, there is really no reasonable reason to use the deposited silver.

Yan Shifan can't do it either.

When the Ministry of Revenue is short of money, it will also go to the Imperial Household Department to borrow money for circulation, but it has to be repaid.

Wei Guangde nodded quickly and took the wine glass on the table and walked with Chen Ju, then picked up the wine pot and filled it up, and smacked his lips when he put down the wine pot.

Wei Guangde was a little confused at this moment. Since the court has always had the Imperial Household Department as a backup warehouse, how could Emperor Chongzhen not even take out 100,000 taels of silver at the end of the Ming Dynasty? It was really strange.

However, Wei Guangde's smacking action changed the meaning in Chen Ju's eyes. He thought Wei Guangde had some ideas because the court was short of money.

Wei Guangde's reputation for writing policy papers is still very big. After the King of Hui's shot, many Beijing officials remembered his ability to write policy papers.

"Do you have any ideas to find money for the court?"

Wei Guangde didn't say it, but Chen Ju would not stop asking.

Hearing this, Wei Guangde hurriedly shook his head and denied, "No, no, I was just worried about whether I could get the annual bonus in my first year as an official, hehe."

He had a way to temporarily raise money, which was a trick that was played out in later generations. At that time, he was thinking about raising some money to get the money that should be paid because the court really had no money at that time.

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

Others have to make money as officials, but he is still losing money after being an official for half a year.

Now we 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 someone who does not know the importance of it.

If he could really say it casually, all the civil and military officials in the capital would surely know it by now, and their eyes would probably be fixed on Taipu Temple.

Since the news has been kept hidden until now, it shows the importance of this matter.

"Outsiders only know that Taipu Temple has a small amount of money. No one knows the exact amount. They all think it is a fraction of a few thousand taels, so no one has made any plans. Taipus Temple itself has kept the news secret. It has not been passed down for so many years and generations. open."

Chen Ju sighed, this is really not easy.

The Hongzhi Dynasty was pretty good at that time, and the royal court's revenue and expenditure could generally cope with it. Although there was a deficit, it was not much.

The deficit of the Zhengde Dynasty increased a lot, mainly because Emperor Zhengde's expenditures for the border troops increased significantly, and the money spent on wars, but the effect was also significant. In the years of Emperor Zhengde alone, there were few Tatar attacks along the Great Wall.

"Our master wanted to work hard at the beginning to reduce the imperial court's deficit, but things didn't work out. There were disasters in the provinces every year, and he couldn't cope with them at all. Alas."

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

After having enough wine and food, he put Chen Ju on the carriage, and then Wei Guangde staggered back to his carriage.

The sound of the horse whip sounded loudly, and the carriage moved forward slowly, a little bumpy, but it could not stop Wei Guangde from thinking about the problem. Taipu Temple prepared war funds, but why did the Ming Dynasty finally collapse due to financial collapse, directly because of the lack of military pay and the inability to recruit enough The powerful army was defeated by the refugee army and the wild boar skin of Liaodong?

How did Wei Guangde know that a certain emperor who ascended the throne more than 20 years later took away tens of millions of taels of silver from the Taipu Temple for the prince's marriage and vassal expenses, almost all of which had been silently accumulated by countless generations of emperors? The family's financial resources have been drained.

During his reign, a total of 22 million taels of silver were spent from Taipu Temple's ever-excessive treasury. In addition to about 4 million taels of silver used for purchasing war horses, military pay and recruiting troops, the emperor's expenditure on soldiers participating in the war should have been borne by the inner court. The reward of one million taels of silver was also paid out of the Changying treasury of Taipu Temple.

To this end, he also specifically decreed that rewards of less than 10,000 taels should be paid by the inner court, and rewards of more than 10,000 taels should be paid from the permanent surplus treasury.

After learning about the existence of Chang Yingku in Taipu Temple, Wei Guangde actually didn't panic much because the court was still rich.

According to Chen Ju, the worst case scenario is that the Ministry of Accounts will borrow money from Changying Treasury, and it will be paid back next year when the tax bank collects it.

However, Governor Lu Binglu has not seen him take action against Li Bin for more than a month, which is also strange. It is not known whether he is waiting for the opportunity to impeach or collecting evidence.

At this time, in a heavily guarded yard not far from his carriage, Lu Bing sat on a chair and asked with a serious expression: "Have you prepared all the evidence? Have you determined the location of the money?"