At the beginning of the succession of the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian, natural disasters in the north were continuous, either a major drought or a major epidemic, and they were in urgent need of assistance from the imperial court. Coupled with the tense situation in Eastern Liaoning, it is also constantly urging for military salaries.
When the Chongzhen Emperor received the news, he immediately ordered the Donglin Party to allocate funds for rescue, but the Donglin Party always had the same tone: no money.
Later, the Donglin Party added some rhetoric: You have so much private money (internal money), should you take a part of it for disaster relief and pay?
Initially, the Chongzhen Emperor repeatedly said that he had no money. Later, the bureaucracy asked the Chongzhen Emperor to take the private money, and the Chongzhen Emperor simply did not say a word.
When the bureaucracy saw that the emperor had nothing to say, it was as if it had mastered nuclear weapons. As long as the Chongzhen Emperor dared to rebuke them with economic problems, they asked the emperor to take private money, and the Chongzhen Emperor was dumbfounded by them every time.
When people talk about the financial crisis of the Ming Empire, they will naturally blame the Chongzhen Emperor for the root cause of the financial crisis: a dime should be destroyed.
This gives people the illusion that as long as the Chongzhen Emperor is willing to take private money, he can solve all the problems of the Ming Empire, but the truth is obviously not so simple.
Did the Chongzhen Emperor have any private money? Definitely. But who among the bureaucrats, the great eunuchs, the gentry, the big landlords, and the great merchants, did not have money? The Ming Empire was not only the Zhu family, but also theirs.
If you put the reason on the table: Since you think that the Ming Empire is only the Zhu family, then does the Chongzhen Emperor want to pay money from whom, and who must give the money unconditionally? Because this is the country of the Zhu family.
Anyone who understands a little history should understand that the Zhu Ming royal family and the above-mentioned major interest groups are the masters of that land, but the power is divided into sizes.
From this point of view, the Chongzhen Emperor was reluctant to take money from his private house, and the major interest groups were reluctant to take money from his family, which was essentially no different.
When it is necessary to pay, everyone says that the emperor is the emperor of the empire; when it comes to interests, everyone says that the emperor should respect our interests. If this is not a double standard, then what is it?
If the anti-thieves or the Manchu Qing dynasty entered Beijing, the Zhu Ming royal family would certainly be doomed to death, and the major interest groups would inevitably be reshuffled. However, in this context, neither the Donglin Party nor other bureaucrats dared to put forward the slogan of "harmony and mutual assistance". In other words, if we don't have money, don't do things, we don't have any money to donate to the country anyway.
Later, a man who was not afraid of death proposed that the rich should be called on to pay money to help the imperial court tide over the difficulties. However, this kind of remark was violently attacked by the Donglin Party, and the representative figure was Qian Shisheng.
Wu He, Wusheng Li Jin asked the rich households in Jiangnan to sign up for the loss of officials, and there was no way to do the first real registration. Shi Sheng was evil, and he proposed to ask questions from the Punishment Department, but the emperor did not allow it, and the same official Wen Tiren changed it to a light plan. Shi Sheng said, "This chaotic book should also be fought over when it is gone." -----------------
Look at What Qian Shisheng said, this is "chaotic". If such alarmist people were not put in prison for interrogation, the entire Ming Empire would be in chaos in an instant.
Saying that others are alarmist, in fact, Qian Shisheng himself is alarmist. However, due to the support of Many People, the Chongzhen Emperor did not dare to take a stand for a while.
In the face of the Donglin Party with its teeth and claws, The First Assistant Wen Tiren gave his own opinion: Although The statement of Wusheng Li Zhen is a fallacy, His Majesty should learn from the Wanli Emperor.
The meaning of this is that when the Donglin Party was in the opposition, it often scolded this and that, but the Wanli Emperor did not hold them responsible, and the speaker was not guilty. Now li jin is just saying his own views, and we should also maintain a democratic style, and those who speak are not guilty.
These words are directly stabbed into the heart socket of the Donglin Party: What did you want to say at the beginning, and now that others say something, you will retaliate. This is called "giving to the other in the way of the other."
I have to say that people don't have to face to a certain extent, that is really invincible in the world.
As soon as Qian Shisheng and the Donglin Party heard Wen Tiren's remarks, they burst out in a hurry and scolded on the spot: Our Donglin Party serves the country and the people, and what qualifications does a small person like Li Jin have to compare with the sages of our Donglin Party? Wen Tiren is a traitor, please your majesty even punish him!
When the Chongzhen Emperor saw this situation, his heart was not happy: All day long, your Donglin Party is loyal to the party, and everyone else is a traitor? If this is not partisanship, if this is not the exclusion of dissidents, what is it?
The Chongzhen Emperor, who had a good idea, made up his mind, no matter what you Donglin Party said, I would not punish Li Zhen, let alone Wen Tiren.
When Qian Shisheng saw that the Chongzhen Emperor was so eccentric, he threatened to resign his official position: If I do not punish Li YanWen Tiren, I will resign immediately!
The Chongzhen Emperor listened: You resigned? I'd love to hurry up and roll! In this way, Qian Shisheng not only failed to kill Li Zhen, but also failed to force the Chongzhen Emperor to punish Wen Tiren, but he himself lost the official.
The emperor reported: "That is, if you want to sell your name, the former neglect is enough, and there is no need to draw it." "The former shu said "Four Proverbs" also. Shi Sheng was afraid, and he begs for forgiveness, and the emperor promised it. ——History of the Ming Dynasty, vol. 251, Liechuan 139
Later generations of readers who were deeply influenced by the relevant history books gritted their teeth and scolded Emperor Chongzhen and Wen Tiren (Li Yan's weight was too light to be scolded), as if this pair of treacherous ministers joined hands to persecute loyal subjects, how could this Daming not die?
In my opinion, people are always accustomed to "standing and talking without waist pain", not involving their own interests, that is what a big truth dare to say; once it involves their own interests, it is immediately another ugly face.
Everyone says that the appearance of the Chongzhen Emperor protecting food is disgusting, but if you look at the appearance of the bureaucratic clique protecting food, is it very good? The emperor's income is legitimate income, but what about the income of the bureaucracy? Who would dare to pat themselves on the chest and guarantee that the income of the bureaucracy is legitimate income?
The Chongzhen Emperor was reluctant to pay for his private money, which was certainly problematic. But to blame all the problems on the Chongzhen Emperor's unwillingness to pay for his private house, that is, the obvious act of throwing pots.
We can also analyze from another perspective, how much private money did the Chongzhen Emperor have?
It is said that after the fall of the Ming Empire, Li Zicheng retrieved 37 million taels of silver (also said to be 37 million silver ingots) from the imperial palace, but in my opinion, the credibility of this figure is very low.
Whether it's 37 million taels of silver or 37 million spindles of silver, that's an astronomical number. Managing such a large amount of silver is by no means enough for a concierge old man, but a professional financial management organization is needed.
In other words, if the Chongzhen Emperor really had so much private money, it would certainly not be something he could hide if he wanted to. But when the Ming Dynasty was not extinguished, we had no idea how much private money the Chongzhen Emperor had.
Some people may say that financial issues are very sensitive, and it is normal for people not to know. But the problem is: in the imperial era, there was a distinction between the emperor's private money and the treasury's money. When the government sets the emperor's annual income, it will certainly have a budget. As long as there is the power to make a budget for the emperor, it is natural to speculate about how much money the emperor has in private room.
With officials as the budget, how could the emperor's private money be allowed to grow indefinitely, so that it had an astronomical figure of 37 million?
Some people may ask: When the emperor is short of money, will he take money from the national treasury? I think that is very unlikely.
If the emperor takes money from the treasury, then the bureaucrat can bring the matter to the table and say: "The emperor took a large amount of money from the treasury, so that our work could not be carried out." Once the words were spoken, the Chongzhen Emperor was moved.
During the Wanli years, there was a fire in the three great halls, and if the Wanli Emperor wanted to rebuild the three great halls, he had to find a way to raise money, but he could not withdraw money from the national treasury at will.
Later, the Wanli Emperor managed to make a fortune through Zhang Juzheng's reform (a whip law), but was unanimously denounced by all the good men and had to abolish this system immediately after Zhang Juzheng's death.
How much money did the Wanli Emperor make through the mining tax? That's more than five million taels. But when the relevant bureaucrats talked about this matter, they thought that the economic losses caused to the country by the mining tax were at least 50 or 60 million taels, or 560 million taels, so how can you reason with him? It was you who reached out first, not to reason.
Theoretically, the emperor has nearly unlimited power; in practice, the game of interests is involved by countless people, and the emperor cannot do whatever he wants.
The Chongzhen Emperor had high expectations of himself, and he hoped that he would be able to save Daming. We can say that the Chongzhen Emperor did not do well, but we cannot say that the Chongzhen Emperor's self-discipline was poor, and the emperor with the strongest self-discipline in the Ming Dynasty was probably Zhu Yuanzhang and the Chongzhen Emperor.
Since the Chongzhen Emperor was self-disciplined enough, it was impossible for him to cross the line, and his private money was all saved by his own hard work, so the amount must not be very large.
If you add together the treasures in the palace and convert them to about 37 million taels of silver or 37 million silver ingots, there may be some credibility. But to say that there is so much silver alone is also too bizarre.
This raises another question: Since the palace has many treasures, why not sell some of them? The money you get can also subsidize the state!
This statement is very reasonable, but even if the Chongzhen Emperor is willing, this plan is not enforceable.
In a huge empire, the emperor was forced to sell treasures to solve the crisis, and the public opinion at that time must have fried the pan: forcing the emperor to this position, the bureaucracy is too much, right?
From the perspective of the bureaucracy: you (the emperor) are obviously rich, but you use this way to pretend to be pitiful, so that we are caught up in the condemnation of public opinion, which is a bit excessive, right?
Even if the question of public opinion is not considered, and now that the emperor is taking the lead in selling treasures for money to solve the imperial crisis, should you bureaucrats learn from His Majesty the Great Emperor?
For all these reasons, the bureaucracy simply did not want to understand how much money the emperor had. They just wanted to use this way to shut the emperor's mouth when he asked for money.
At that time, the Ming Empire did not rely on millions or tens of millions of two to solve the problem.
All vested interests know this, but they are indifferent and can drag on every day.
Daming ushered in his end in the delay of day after day.