Chapter 153 The Bastard Who Distorted the Classics

Of course, they didn't know that Wei Zhongxian had raided the Huizhou salt merchants' lair for Chongzhen.

Moreover, the assets of the eight major Shanxi merchants were also included in Zheng Shiyi's search and seizure. According to the information reported by Zheng Shiyi by the Jinyiwei cavalry, it was initially estimated that their assets would not be less than 8 million taels of silver.

Chongzhen kept these two things secret and did not dare to reveal them at all, even though civil and military officials had already guessed about them. After all, taking down the entire Huizhou Salt Merchant Group would cause quite a stir.

However, outsiders would never imagine that the Huizhou salt merchants would be so wealthy.

Although he had received Chongzhen's assurance, Bi Ziyan was still hesitant. After all, although he had vaguely heard that Chunzhen had confiscated African salt merchants, and perhaps there were indeed millions of taels of silver in the treasury at this time, so what?
How long can it support the nine important border towns, one year or two years?
Moreover, the places where the Ming Dynasty needed silver were far more than the nine borders. There were also various garrisons in the hinterland, government offices at all levels, disaster victims in various places, and the suppression of bandits in various places. Which place was not opening its mouth wide to ask for silver?
Seeing Bi Ziyan's hesitation and disbelief, Chongzhen sneered and shook his head, saying, "Why, you don't even believe my promise?"

Bi Ziyan quickly pleaded guilty, "I dare not, please forgive me, Your Majesty!"

Chongzhen sneered and his impression of Bi Ziyan suddenly became much worse.

Bi Ziyan actually dared to question the promise he made personally as the king of a country!
However, Chongzhen was wrong to blame Bi Ziyan. After all, there were many emperors in ancient and modern times, both in China and abroad, who went back on their words. Even Chongzhen himself had done such things many times.

It was clearly his idea, but when things went wrong he pushed the blame onto the ministers in order to maintain his image as a wise ruler.

Of course, this is not wrong from Chongzhen's perspective. After all, being good at passing the buck is also a kind of imperial mentality.

However, Chongzhen had just ascended the throne at that time and was full of ambitions. In addition, his wallet was full, so he could not sympathize with Bi Ziyan at all.

After sneering for a while, the wealthy Chongzhen asked directly: "How much is the shortfall in wages owed by the nine frontiers now?"

Bi Ziyan was stunned for a moment, then he had a premonition and became excited. He calculated in his mind for a while and replied nervously, "Counting the accumulated salary and military rewards over the years, it's about 1.2 million taels!"

In fact, before Chongzhen wiped out the entire Huizhou merchants, the amount was far more than 1.2 million taels.

It's just that Chongzhen became rich during this period, and basically all the memorials from various places requesting the allocation of arrears were paid off, as long as the debts were not too serious.

The main reason why Bi Ziyan was hesitant about Chongzhen's promise before was because of this. He thought that Emperor Chongzhen had been so generous during this period, and even if there was some money in the treasury, it should have been almost spent.

However, Bi Ziyan never expected that upon hearing the figure of 1.2 million taels, Chongzhen would still be full of confidence. He waved his hand and said, "Wang Chengen, immediately transfer 1.2 million taels from the treasury to the Taicang warehouse to replenish the military funds!"

Wang Chengen walked up to Chongzhen with his head held high and chest puffed out. He glanced at Bi Ziyan with high spirits and said in a pinched voice, "I obey your orders!"

After saying that, he looked at Bi Ziyan and said with a smile: "Sir Bi, when the court is over, please be ready to receive it! Your Majesty's treasury is all official silver of high quality..."

hiss~
As soon as these words were spoken, all the civil and military officials in the court took a deep breath!
During this period, Chongzhen behaved in a rather domineering manner. All officials had heard about it, and some even experienced it personally. When they submitted petitions to the emperor requesting certain funds, they were immediately approved as long as the funds were not excessive.

If this had happened in the past, unless it was an extremely urgent matter, it would take three or five attempts to get it.

Even if they got the approval, it was usually at a discount. But now, Chongzhen was like a local tycoon shopping, waving his hands and not even asking for the price.

Although everyone had some vague guesses that Chongzhen seemed to have become rich, they did not expect that the emperor was actually so rich!
But where did this silver come from? Are those salt merchants really so rich?

Everyone thought of Wei Zhongxian, who should have died but was still alive and well at this time. They couldn't help but wonder, could it be that Wei Zhongxian donated all his life savings to Chongzhen in order to save his life?

Thinking of this, everyone couldn't help but curse in their hearts, "The dog eunuch party is so rich, I can't coexist with you!"

However, Bi Ziyan no longer cared about what the officials thought. At this moment, his heart was already filled with excitement.

Since the Tianqi reign, the nine important border towns have all had wage arrears, ranging from a few months to more than ten months. As soon as he took office as the Minister of Revenue, he was almost buried in documents complaining about wage payments.

The intermittent payment of military pay by Chongzhen before had already relieved his pressure greatly. Now it was an even more magnanimous payment. Bi Ziyan suddenly felt that both shoulders were relaxed, and the things he saw became more colorful.

At the same time, it also made Bi Ziyan believe that Emperor Chongzhen was not just talking nonsense, but he really had the confidence to supply military pay for the nine frontiers.

Since his biggest reason for opposition had been rejected, Bi Ziyan certainly had no reason to continue opposing the abolition of Liao salary.

On the contrary, as a capable minister and the head of the Ministry of Revenue.

In fact, the restart of the Single Whip System and even the implementation of the land-based tax system to simplify the court's tax system, from a public affairs perspective, the biggest beneficiary was the Ministry of Revenue.

While greatly reducing the workload of the Ministry of Revenue, it will also significantly increase the court's fiscal and tax revenue, so that money will not have to be so tight everywhere.

After no longer having any worries, Bi Ziyan immediately became a staunch supporter of the policy of equalizing the land tax.

Bi Ziyan immediately expressed his opinion: "In ancient times, there were Shang Yang's and Guan Zhong's reforms. Now our Ming Dynasty has a wise ruler who is also carrying out reforms. Why should we worry that the Ming Dynasty will not prosper? Moreover, the land tax is a great benefit to the people. Once this order is issued, it will be supported by the people of the world!"

After Bi Ziyan's half-true, half-false flattery, Chongzhen, who originally had a slightly bad impression of Bi Ziyan, had a better impression of him.

At the same time, due to Bi Ziyan's change of position, some officials close to Bi Ziyan are also slowly changing their positions.

However, Chongzhen did not return to the throne, but continued to walk towards another person.

"Qian Qianyi," Chongzhen walked straight to Qian Qianyi, the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Rites, and did not address him as Qian Aiqing, but called him by his name, "Tell me in one sentence why you oppose the abolition of Liaozhang."

Qian Qianyi could clearly feel the emperor's hostility towards him from Chongzhen's words. Naturally, he scratched his head and could not imagine that Wang An once mentioned the famous saying of this Donglin leader who is famous in history books during a casual chat with Chongzhen: "The water is too cold and my scalp itches."

If it were not for Qian Qianyi's change of heart after surrendering to the Qing Dynasty, and his active efforts in the anti-Qing and restoration of the Ming Dynasty, even spending all his family wealth for this, he would have died in depression.

(End of this chapter)