Chapter 152 Tell me your reasons
Although Shi Fenglai tried his best to outlast the group of scholars, after all, two fists cannot defeat four hands, and two lips cannot defeat seven mouths. Although he was not at a disadvantage in momentum, his voice was gradually drowned out by the chattering of hundreds of officials.

Seeing that Shi Fenglai was about to be defeated, Chongzhen glanced at the other cabinet ministers.

When Shi Fenglai was talking with everyone last night, he had already implicitly stated that with everyone's current political stance, it would be difficult to avoid getting into trouble, let alone having a successful career.

If one wants to escape unscathed or even go further, one has to follow the emperor closely and wholeheartedly.

Everyone knew this was the fact. Seeing Chongzhen looking at them with a bad expression, they gritted their teeth and rushed into the battle group to support Shi Fenglai.

After all, they were all cabinet ministers, and now they came out in full force to argue for Chongzhen's decrees, and even went against the civil and military officials in the court. This shocked all the officials.

Besides, he was also a scholar of the Cabinet. Before the Hongwu period, he was the "Prime Minister".

For a moment, the morale of all officials gradually weakened.

Firstly, the status of the cabinet ministers was suppressed, and Erlai was just shocked that the cabinet ministers actually overwhelmingly supported the emperor's intention.

This kind of situation had never happened before in the Ming Dynasty.

Gradually, some low-level officials began to withdraw from the battle group due to the suppression of the cabinet ministers. After a while, even the vice minister-level officials of the six ministries began to feel dry in the mouth.

Of course, on the cabinet side, Yang Jingchen and Zhang Ruitu were not good at quarreling due to their age, and they were "killed" due to lack of energy.

However, among the hundreds of officials, the Minister of Revenue Bi Ziyan, the Vice Minister of Rites Qian Qianyi, and a small number of Donglin Party members were still criticizing the cabinet ministers for being unworthy of their positions and just sitting there doing nothing.

Suddenly, Chongzhen, who was sitting high on the dragon throne, coughed a few times. Shi Fenglai, Bi Ziyan and others were also a little tired. Hearing the sound, they immediately stopped talking and looked at the emperor.

Chongzhen's face was not looking good at this time. He had expected the opposition from all officials, but he did not expect that almost everyone would be excited about the policy of equalizing the land tax.

Anyone who is not a fool can see that the land-based tax system has only benefits and no harm for the country and society. It is a major benefit for the poor people at the bottom of the society. Many farmers who are on the brink of life and death may even be saved from starvation because of this.

There are also countless originally honest people who, if forced to pay grain by the government once, might become bandits wreaking havoc in the heartland of the Ming Dynasty.

If the land tax can be implemented in time, perhaps many people who were originally prepared to join the bandits will give up the idea of ​​plotting to disrupt the government.

However, these so-called loyal ministers, high-ranking civil and military officials who were deeply favored by the emperor, were so eager to stop this national policy that benefited the country and the people that they did not hesitate to speak out in the Golden Palace. They quarreled like shrews in the market, spitting and even resorting to violence.

It is more than just a laughing stock, it is simply absurd, the ugliest thing that has not been seen in the 200 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty!
Seeing that all the officials were looking at him, Chongzhen curled his lips into a sneer, stood up from the dragon throne and walked down the stone steps.

Seeing the young emperor, who had ascended the throne not long ago, actually walking directly towards them, all the officials remembered the court etiquette they should observe and immediately returned to their seats.

Many people were secretly saying in their hearts that the emperor must be enraged by the opposition of the officials. Even some stupid censors were secretly excited, thinking that the chance to leave their names in history was coming.

As soon as Chongzhen walked in front of him, he would kneel before him and persuade the emperor to take back his order. If the emperor did not listen, he would bang his head against the wall, or directly kneel on the ground and bang his head against the ground. As long as he got a slight scratch and bleed, his current form would definitely be recorded in history and he would gain countless reputations!
However, to their disappointment, Chongzhen first came to the Minister of Revenue Bi Ziyan, staring at him without blinking, and saw cold sweat on Bi Ziyan's forehead. Bi Ziyan offended Wei Zhongxian in the fifth year of Tianqi and was forced to retire and return home.

The fact that he can now stand in the court as the Minister of Revenue and even has the qualification to enter the cabinet and become a prime minister is entirely due to the promotion of Emperor Chongzhen.

Although Chongzhen promoted him only out of public interest and because he saw his ability in handling economic affairs, it cannot be denied that Chongzhen was grateful to him for his recognition and support.

The reason why he opposed the equalization of land tax was not because his family was a big landlord, but out of public interest.

Given the current financial situation of the Ming Dynasty, the consequences would be disastrous if the Liao salary was abolished.

It can even be said that the military pay for the entire Liaodong region will be cut off immediately next month.

In the first year of Chongzhen, the fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty was less than six million taels of silver, and these six million taels were needed to meet the financial needs of the entire Ming Dynasty. Just thinking about it would show that it was not enough.

Normally, Bi Ziyan could also find a way to free up some of the Liao salary for other purposes to fill the gap and deal with emergencies.

Not to mention that the entire Liaodong would not be able to operate without the Liao salary. Therefore, as the Minister of Revenue, it is understandable that he took the lead in opposing the abolition of the Liao salary before the Ming Dynasty had a better way to make money.

Chongzhen Dao was quite familiar with Bi Ziyan and knew that the main reason why he opposed the abolition of Liao salary was out of public interest, so his expression was not too ugly.

He just said coldly: "Why do you oppose Liao's tribute, Bi Aiqing? Explain it to me in one sentence."

Upon hearing this, Bi Ziyan was about to say a lot of words, but when he met Chongzhen's cold eyes, the words immediately stopped.

After a brief moment of contemplation, Bi Ziyan concluded: "Your Majesty, once the Liao salary is abolished, our 590,000 soldiers in the nine borders will be left without food and clothing in an instant!"

After Bi Ziyan came to power, he advocated cutting down on redundant soldiers and redundant labor and checking the fraudulent military pay. Therefore, the Ministry of Revenue actually had a figure for the actual military strength of the Nine Frontiers, which was less than 300,000.

Moreover, among these 300,000 people, there are quite a few elderly, weak, sick and disabled people, as well as imaginary numbers that have not been fully accounted for.

However, the imperial court had no way to deal with this, and the annual military pay had to be paid according to the standard of 590,000 people.

Chongzhen nodded and said, "Is this the reason why Minister Bi objects?"

After getting Bi Ziyan's confirmation again, Chongzhen said with disdain, "From now on, the military pay for the nine frontiers will all be paid from the treasury. As for whether the treasury has that much silver, you don't have to worry about it. Anyway, I'm putting my words here today!"

All the officials were shocked when they heard this. The nine important border towns required more than five million taels of military pay each year. The annual expenditure for Liaodong alone exceeded two million taels.

They couldn't understand why the young emperor had lost his mind and had the courage to say such bold words.

(End of this chapter)