readx; Seeing that the emperor refused to make up for the arrears from the inner treasury, the ministers had no choice but to retreat from the court with regret. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

It turns out that the full name of this inner treasury is "Inner Carrier Warehouse", which is opposite to the "Tai Warehouse" of the household department, which is equivalent to one is the emperor's "small treasury" and the other is the treasury of the entire Ming Empire. However, the strength of this "small treasury" is much stronger than that of the national treasury.

Because at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang banned the circulation of gold and silver, and the taxes were all in kind, mainly grain. Later, in the orthodox years, the imperial court found that it was impossible to prohibit the circulation of gold and silver, so it opened the "Tai Warehouse" to collect "converted silver", that is, the tax paid by converting grain into silver. All of this silver was in the emperor's personal possession, and taxes in kind remained under the management of the household department.

Later, as silver became more and more popular, taxes in kind became less and less, and the household department began to collect taxes on silver, and the "Tai Warehouse" was renamed the "Inner Carrier Depot", and the treasury of the Household Department was renamed "Tai Warehouse".

However, the only source of income for the Tai Warehouse is taxes, while the sources of income for the Inner Carrier Depot are relatively rich, including salt tax, mining tax, imperial estate, and the property of the innocent in addition to a part of the tax.

In terms of expenditures, all officials' salaries, official and military salaries, and disaster relief were paid by the state treasury, and the internal transport treasury was only responsible for the expenses of the royal family, and from time to time it had to squeeze out the treasury money. Therefore, although the royal family was extravagant, the silver taels in the inner treasury were still accumulating more and more. In contrast, the treasury is depleting day by day, and now it is completely unable to make ends meet.

But before, the inner treasury was in the hands of the eunuchs, and the emperor only cared about pleasure, and rarely cared about how much money he had in his private house. Many eunuchs took advantage of their positions to embezzle the inner treasury of silver, and even unknowingly transferred 30 million taels of silver to the outside of the palace. If it weren't for Zhu Youzhen's complete abolition of the eunuch system and a thorough investigation of them one by one by thunderous means, I am afraid that the 30 million taels of silver would disappear sooner or later.

Now, of course, Zhu Youzhen got rich overnight, and recovered 30 million taels of internal money, plus the original 2 or 3 million taels in the palace, as well as the silver taels confiscated from Wei Zhongxian and various eunuchs, which is as much as 50 million taels. In contrast, there was not even 100,000 taels of silver stored in the Tai warehouse, and some of the silver was even confiscated, and it had already been promised somewhere.

For the household officials, the request for the emperor to use the treasury for emergency relief has also been for a long time, because the gradual depletion of the treasury has been occurring since the Jiajing period. Generally speaking, although the emperor is stingy, when it comes to military affairs, there will always be some of them, because soldiers don't know what benevolence, righteousness and shame are, and if they can't get paid, they will immediately make trouble, or even mutiny. Bi Ziyan originally thought that although the emperor might not be willing to take out 100,000 taels, 30,000 or 40,000 taels should not be a big problem, but he didn't expect Zhu Youzhen to be a dime.

At this time, the ministers were talking a lot, and after the dispersal of the dynasty, they gathered in groups, all of them felt that the emperor was too stingy, holding 50 million taels of silver, but he refused to pay tens of thousands of taels of arrears. Bi Ziyan was even more anxious and spread his hands and said: "The border army has been eating empty salaries for a long time, if it can be investigated, it will be checked early in the morning." The Holy One did not specify how to investigate the Fa, so if it was delayed for a few more days and a mutiny would be provoked, what would it be? ”

Sun Chengzong muttered: "I returned to my hometown two years ago to relax, and at that time, the saint was still in Shaanxi. According to folk rumors, the saint is exempted from Jingyang conscription, and he is building a city, and he has repeatedly sent money and two labor troops, not like a greedy person..."

Wang Zaijin also nodded and said: "The saint's concern is also reasonable, and it is indeed too unreasonable for the border army to eat empty salaries. Brother Baiyang (Bi Ziyan Baiyang), we are ministers, and we should share our worries as the Lord. Since the Holy Lord did not say how to verify it, our household department should first come up with a plan and ask the Holy Lord for approval in the morning tomorrow. Brother Jiehuan, your military department must also vigorously cooperate. ”

"That's natural," Yuan Keli frowned, "but the student also has the same worries as Brother Bai Yang, but he is afraid that he will not have time." It's better for us to play together tomorrow, or have to temporarily borrow 30,000 taels of internal money, Brother Baiyang worked hard, personally escorted to Jizhou, and distributed it while checking the empty salary, so that it may be able to relieve the worries of the saint a little. ”

Several important ministers slowly walked out of the imperial city while talking, but found that the atmosphere on the street was not as good as in the past, and the fact that Emperor Chongzhen personally killed the traitors who took refuge in Jianyu had spread ten or ten hundred and quickly spread throughout the city. If it weren't for the fact that the Nine Gates had been locked, I was afraid that the news had already spread to Tongzhou and even farther away.

The common people are not like those ministers, who have to pay attention to the etiquette of the enemy country. What they have is only the most simple patriotism, they only know that the Tartars kill the Han people indiscriminately, and the traitors help the Tartars to kill their compatriots is especially hateful, and they should be killed! Now the emperor is a traitor, but the common people who are accustomed to hearing the news of the battlefield defeat have a great bad breath, they run everywhere to tell each other, and some of them spontaneously gather together on the street to shout long live!

Sun Chengzong and the others were also moved when they saw it, thinking that the emperor beheaded the envoys in front of everyone, although it was too unorthodox, but it did play a role in boosting the morale of the army and the people. The emperor is young and vigorous, and he hates Jianyu to the core, but it is understandable, and he will have to persuade more when he speaks in the future, and this situation will not occur next time.

A few people said goodbye outside the Chengtian Gate, Sun Chengzong was about to return to the house, when he suddenly saw his protégé, Ni Yuanlu, the right commander of the Zhan Mansion, running out of breath, panting and saying: "Teacher, the saint is out... out..."

Sun Chengzong and several other important ministers originally agreed that in order to prevent the emperor from leaving the palace again, they would send several officials to "keep an eye" at the four gates every day, and it would be Ni Yuanlu's turn today. Seeing that he came in a hurry to report the news, Sun Chengzong changed color and said, "What's the matter, the saint is out of the palace again?" ”

It took Ni Yuanlu a long time to catch this breath, and she was so anxious that her face was red and said: "It's not out of the palace, it's out of the city!" ”

"What!" Sun Chengzong "buzzed" in his head, and asked sharply, "When did you leave the city, and from which gate?" ”

"Just now, at Deshengmen!"

Sun Chengzong didn't say a word, immediately stopped a horse from the street, and galloped straight to Desheng Gate. When he was about to arrive at the city gate, he saw that hundreds of cavalry and light cavalry were rushing out of the city, and it was Li Laiheng, the emperor's trusted general and the new commander of the soldiers and horses of the five cities.

Sun Chengzong's official residence as the Taishi, the official secretary, and the veteran of the Three Dynasties, did not take Li Laiheng in his eyes, and shouted: "General Li, where is the saint?" ”

Li Laiheng said with a hippie smile: "Lord Shangshu, the saint is naturally in the palace, where else can he be?" ”

"Nonsense!" Sun Chengzong was so angry that he pointed at Li Laiheng's nose and scolded, "Just now, someone obviously saw the saint go out of the city!" You are so bold, you dare to instigate the saint to leave Beijing at will, do you want to repeat the change of Tumu Fort! Hurry up and get out of the way, I'm going to chase the Holy One back! ”

Li Laiheng sank his face and said in a low voice: "According to the holy decree, anyone who leaks the saint will be arrested regardless of the officials and the people!" Lord Shangshu, the last general is offended, come with us! ”