This was also the reason why the late Ming Dynasty could not afford to fight. In this half a year, the army had spent five million taels.
In the end of the Ming Dynasty, the annual income of the national treasury was only about three million taels, which was not even enough for a big war.
Why did Zhu Youxiao of the Ming Dynasty put Wei Zhongxian in an important position? It was because Wei Zhongxian could get him money. Although Wei Zhongxian was a powerful official, he had never deducted a single copper from the border guards.
Even if he didn't have money, Wei Zhongxian extorted money to pay the army. Therefore, Zhu Youxiao warned Zhu Youjian before his death that Wei Zhongxian could not kill him.
However, after Emperor Sizong of the Ming Dynasty and Emperor Chongzhen, Zhu Youjian, succeeded to the throne, he listened to the Donglin Party. Although he didn't kill Wei Zhongxian, he demoted him to Xiaoling.
After that, the Great Ming Dynasty quickly fell.
It was because the imperial court had no money. When Li Zicheng attacked Beijing, there were only 2,300 gold left in the national treasury. This gold meant copper coins.
There were only 2,300 copper coins in the national treasury. One could imagine how poor they were. How poor was Zhu Youjian?
Zhu Youjian was so poor that he exchanged everything in the palace for money. He even sold the copper pot. However, it was still a drop in the bucket!
However, the officials were filthy rich. However, he did not give a single cent and just sat there and watched the Ming Empire perish.
While the country was in ruins, Li Zicheng had almost reached Beijing. Zhu Youjian had no choice but to personally borrow 200,000 taels from the officials to pay the army.
At that time, even a prostitute and an old man donated all their belongings. Zhu Youjian even conferred the title of Zuo Yude to the old man!
However, the stingy officials were reluctant to donate money.
In the end, when Beijing was breached, Li Zicheng managed to plunder 20 to 30 million taels of silver from the homes of various officials. All kinds of jewelry, paintings, and antiques added up to more than 70 million taels.
Even so, there were still many officials who directly defected to Li Zicheng and did not plunder everything.
Otherwise, there would be more!
For example, this time, they had directly plundered 300 million taels of silver, and the antique calligraphy and paintings were worth 170 million taels of silver. It was a total of seventy years of Great Ming's national treasury income.
This was not even considered land!
Sometimes, Zhu Houzhao really felt that the Emperor of Great Ming was really stupid. Sometimes, he had to use a knife.
It was very necessary to use heavy punishment in troubled times.
If it really didn't work, they could just push it back to rebuilding! This was also the reason why Zhu Houzhao dared to do so.
"Sigh…By the way, I asked you to draft the imperial edict to reform the six departments. Have you finished drafting it?”Zhu Houzhao sighed and then remembered something else.
"Reporting to the emperor, it has been drafted. However, this would cause a huge earthquake in the officialdom.”Liu Jin was a little worried.
It couldn't be helped. The six reform edicts drafted by Zhu Houzhao were too scary. However, Zhu Houzhao said that the three provinces and six departments were created by Qin Shihuang.
Now that he felt that there was something more suitable, he naturally had to change it.
Three provinces and six departments, three of which represented Shangshu Province, Zhongshu Province, and Menxia Province. The six departments were the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Works.
Among them, Zhu Houzhao felt that the Ministry of Rites was useless and directly abolished it. A new Department of Commerce was added to manage merchants and businesses!
As for the Ministry of Works, it was undergoing a reform and no longer only managed the Imperial Court's departments like the Weaponry Division. Instead, the Ministry of Works had to manage all the crafts in the world.
Similarly, there was also the Ministry of Personnel, which was directly changed to the Inspectorate. He supervised the officials, but he no longer had the power to appoint, dismiss, and promote officials.
The Bureau of Military Personnel had also undergone a reform. From now on, the Ministry of War no longer had the right to mobilize troops. The right to mobilize troops directly returned to the emperor.
Although the Ministry of Justice didn't change much, it was changed to the Ministry of Justice. The county magistrate, Zhizhou, and other officials no longer had the authority to be responsible for the audit of all cases.
In this way, the three powers were separated. The county magistrate and other political officials only had political power. The Ministry of Justice had the power to review and decide, while the emperor held military power.
The Ministry of Revenue also made some minor changes. It was no longer just about taxes. There was also a thorough investigation of the land and population every ten years.
At the same time, there were officials from all walks of life who entered the corresponding departments. In the future, it would no longer be the scholarly faction that dominated.
Although there were still very few of them now, as long as they worked hard enough, they would slowly grow up in the future.
While Zhu Houzhao was planning the reform, Zhu Bujue and Cao Zhengchun were also taking action.
"I asked you to hurry up and investigate the Ten Great Generals. How is it going?”Cao Zhengchun sat in the East Chamber and asked his subordinates.
"Reporting to the superintendent, we already have something on four of the ten great generals. However, the remaining six needed some time!”The iron-clawed eagle replied.
"Trash, now that the emperor has already cleaned up the officialdom, the suppression of the rebellion is about to end. We must seize the time. Otherwise, once the emperor has completely stabilized, we will have no chance at all.”Cao Zhengchun cursed in dissatisfaction.
If it was in the past, Cao Zhengchun would not be in such a hurry. Because he needed to be completely confident.
Moreover, it was already very good to be able to get hold of the four generals in such a short time.
But Cao Zhengchun didn't have time. He knew that if he didn't act now, he wouldn't have another chance. The Emperor's recent actions made him feel unprecedented pressure.
He didn't understand how the Emperor could be so bold and resourceful when he was only fifteen years old.
However, no matter how much he did not understand, he had to accept this fact. Therefore, he had to act as soon as possible.
"Yes, Supervisor. This subordinate will seize the Ten Great Generals as soon as possible and make them work for the superintendent!”The iron-clawed eagle quickly knelt down and lowered its head to apologize.
However, no one saw the sneer on his face.
However, the iron-clawed eagle and Cao Zhengchun thought that they had the situation under control. They did not notice that a young eunuch beside them also sneered.
On the other side, Zhu Budian was also moving!
"Tian Ya, have you prepared the things I asked you to prepare?”Zhu Budian stood in front of the main hall of the Guarding Dragon Mountain Villa and asked Duan Tianya behind him.
Yes, it was Duan Tianya. Previously, he had returned to the Dragon Guarding Mountain Villa from Japan to investigate the truth.
Duan Tianya was a smart person, so he chose to investigate in secret after receiving Zhu Houzhao's hint.
"Yes, foster father!" Duan Tianya cupped his hands and said.
He was already on guard against Zhu Bujue. After such a long investigation, he had indeed found that there was something wrong with Zhu Bujue.
"Yidao, Haitang, you have to be prepared as well!”Zhu Budian said indifferently.
"Yes, Godfather (Deity Overlord)!" Shangguan Haitang and Guihai Yidao nodded.
"Wu Wan, this king needs you and your disciple to pretend to be two people. Can you do it?”
"Divine Overlord, please instruct me!"
Yes, Karasuma and his disciple. Back then, he had followed Zhu Houzhao's orders to come to the Guarding Dragon Mountain Villa and became the number one Yellow character in the villa.
"Very good!"
Zhu Budian nodded and looked up at the sky!
"Zhu Houzhao, oh Zhu Houzhao, this king didn't expect you to have such ambition, courage, and ability. In this aspect, this king cannot compare to you. However, our game has just begun!”
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