People who have seen "Towards the Republic" may recall that there is a passage in it that has some impressions. After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, Yuan Shikai was revived as prime minister, and when the imperial court officials and Empress Longyu discussed sending troops to suppress it, Yuan Shikai proposed that the troops should have money to fight in war, and now that the national treasury is empty and it is impossible to continue fighting, Empress Longyu must find a way to raise money.
Empress Dowager Longyu asked Yuan Shikai on the spot how much money he needed, and Yuan Shikai said that he needed six million taels of silver. Empress Dowager Longyu asked where the money came from, and Yuan Shikai said that it was possible to issue treasury bonds, let the imperial relatives take the lead in subscribing, and then let the common people subscribe. Empress Longyu said that the palace could pay three million taels, and then the other princes also paid some, and the princes immediately refused, claiming that they had no money.
Those who have read this paragraph may think for the first time that before the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the Chongzhen Emperor asked the emperor's relatives and ministers at the imperial court to take the initiative to donate funds to support the state finances, continue to fight with Li Zicheng, and also fight with the Qing army. However, the relatives of the emperor and the state said that they had no money, and they could only pay a few hundred taels, and there was no more. Empress Zhou couldn't see it, and she gave her father ten thousand taels of silver and asked him to donate it to the imperial court in his name, and as a result, the five thousand taels of the ten thousand taels of silver were also embezzled, and only five thousand taels were paid to the emperor.
Everyone has heard about the latter things. When Chongzhen first asked these imperial relatives and state relatives who were in solidarity with the state to pay money, they all said that they had no money, and as a result, when Li Zicheng came, he was arrested one by one and tortured, and soon he raised a huge amount of silver, which was often a number of millions of taels. When they were beaten by Li Zicheng, did they ever regret it, or did they take the initiative to donate money to Chongzhen and continue to suppress Li Zicheng? At least you can save your life, but now that the money is gone, you can't save your life.
Chongzhen's incident was recorded in the "History of Ming" compiled by the Qing Dynasty, of course, it is not without irony, on the one hand, it shows that Chongzhen and the relatives of the emperor and the state have long been separated from each other and do not trust each other, on the other hand, of course, it is also a mockery of the imperial relatives of the Ming Dynasty who love silver and do not love Jiangshan, and when Li Zicheng comes, Jiangshan is gone, these people not only have no money, but also their lives. That is to say, the historians of the Qing Dynasty who compiled the history of the Ming Dynasty were naturally mocking these imperial relatives and relatives for not knowing the truth, and even they did not know whether they had a good or bad relationship with the imperial court.
The ming dynasty fell out of the financial problem, the state's ability to absorb financial resources gradually deteriorated, to the point of complete degradation to the point where taxes could no longer be levied, and the taxes levied were simply a drop in the bucket compared to expenditures, and the Ming Dynasty came to an end. However, the historians of the Qing Dynasty who compiled the history of the Ming Dynasty probably did not expect that the Qing Dynasty would also encounter the same problem on this day. Although this segment of "Toward the Republic" is only a deliberate mockery of the Qing Dynasty, the financial crisis at the time of the final demise of the Qing Dynasty is real, and the performance of the princes and nobles when the country is in danger is not much better than the imperial relatives of the Ming Dynasty.
In fact, the situation at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the end of the Ming Dynasty was similar, not that the whole country had no money, but that the country's financial system had collapsed, spending more and more, and the ability to absorb was not only not improved, but constantly deteriorating. That is to say, it is not that the country has no money, but that the state cannot expropriate and cannot convert the advantages of resources into actual combat effectiveness, and everyone in his position is trying in every possible way to dig the corners of the country, thinking that the ship sinks them, and these rats can be left alone, but the result is that they are under the nest and there is no end to the egg.