Ming Dynasty: Is a mere unruly commoner rebelling against heaven?

Chapter 57: This is outrageous!

In the end, the amount of silver needed was set at five million taels.

Five million taels of silver was more than the entire Ming Dynasty's tax revenue for a year.

But for the civil and military officials in Beijing, it was an amount they could scrape together if they gritted their teeth.

Even if they didn't have the silver on hand, they could write a letter back to their hometown and have their family send it.

Those clansmen back home had been using their names to run rampant in the villages and amass wealth.

Especially for officials whose ancestral homes were in the Jiangnan provinces, five million taels of silver was not a particularly large sum.

But this was, after all, an unexpected expense. If Xu Pu and the other two hadn't stirred things up, they wouldn't have needed to spend money to avoid disaster.

Every high-ranking official present cursed Xu Pu, Liu Jian, and Jia Jun to death in their hearts.

Xu Pu looked at everyone and began to assign tasks.

"Let's allocate these five million taels of silver according to department."

"Our Ministry of Revenue will set an example and take the lead with 300,000 taels."

"Xi Xian, the Ministry of Rites should also state its position."

Liu Jian covered his forehead in pain: "You all know the situation of the Ministry of Rites, a clean and meager department, we'll just... take 100,000 taels of silver."

"Tingjie, what about your Ministry of Works?"

Xu Pu looked at Jia Jun with a meaningful gaze: "Your Ministry of Works has plenty of opportunities for enrichment, you can't take less than our Ministry of Revenue, right?"

Jia Jun opened his mouth, but in the end, he could only accept his fate: "Then our Ministry of Works will also take 300,000 taels."

"Jingming?" Xu Pu nodded and looked at Wang Ji again.

Wang Ji said in a muffled voice: "Our Court of Judicial Review will take 50,000 taels of silver, no more."

"..."

Under Xu Pu's leadership, the five million taels of silver were distributed to the heads of the six ministries, nine courts, and other departments.

These heads would then raise the silver from their subordinates.

Five million taels of silver seemed like a lot, but it was quickly divided up when each department was responsible for tens of thousands of taels.

"Now that you've all received your respective tasks, I won't keep you any longer. Hurry up and raise the silver," Xu Pu waved his hand, looking somewhat tired.

The other officials didn't say anything, cupped their hands to each other, exchanged a few polite words, and then silently left Xu Pu's residence.

Today's events were undoubtedly a huge blow to them.

In the days that followed, the chill of raising silver eventually spread to every official in Beijing.

Under the butcher's knife raised by Zhu You樘 and the pressure from the heads of various departments, every official reluctantly contributed some silver, more or less.

Just three days later, five million taels of silver had been collected, and craftsmen began to enter the Forbidden City to work.

As for the main materials that were not available in the warehouses, such as large Phoebe nanmu wood, they had to be transported from the southwestern provinces to Beijing.

Even by waterway, it would take several months for all of them to arrive.

According to the construction period estimated by Jia Jun, the Minister of Works, the Hall of Mental Cultivation would be the fastest to rebuild, probably ready by next spring.

The three main halls of Fengtian would have to wait until next summer, after all the Phoebe nanmu wood had been transported, before they could be repaired.

As for the reconstruction of the West Garden, it would take at least three years to complete.

...

Qianqing Palace.

Zhu You樘 held a secret letter from the Eastern Depot in his hand, sneering repeatedly.

"Good, Jia Jun dares to ask朕for six million taels for something that can be done with 1.2 million taels."

"He even said, with good reason, that Liu Zhao asked the late Emperor for eight million taels to repair the three main halls of Fengtian."

"This is outrageous!"

Zhu You樘 threw the secret letter in his hand heavily on the ground, his chest seething with murderous intent.

The secret letter thrown on the ground clearly recorded every word spoken by every official in Xu Pu's home that day.

Jia Jun's shameless remarks greatly exceeded Zhu You樘's imagination, and murderous intent had already arisen in his heart.

However, Jia Jun was currently in charge of repairing the palace, so he could not be killed for the time being.

It would not be too late to deal with him after he had finished repairing all the palaces.

The level of corruption in the Ministry of Works was truly appalling; they even dared to embezzle from the Emperor.

And this situation continued until the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

In the twenty-fifth year of the Wanli era, the three main halls, which had been renamed Huangji Hall from Fengtian Hall, were burned down again.

At that time, the Ministry of Works quoted Emperor Shenzong fifteen million taels, but Emperor Shenzong thought it was too expensive, so he never repaired it.

Those dark and dilapidated three main halls were left from the twenty-fifth year of Wanli until the first year of Tianqi.

After Emperor Xizong ascended the throne, he felt that it was unsightly to leave the three main halls in such a state, so he had the intention of repairing them.

As a result, the Ministry of Works had experience this time and was afraid of scaring the Emperor again, so the quoted price was 8.5 million taels of silver.

Emperor Xizong still thought it was expensive. Coincidentally, Emperor Xizong had some carpentry talent, so he found someone to supervise the construction of the three main halls himself.

By the seventh year of Tianqi, after the three main halls were repaired, the total cost was only 3.5 million taels of silver.

The civil officials hated Emperor Xizong for not giving them the opportunity to make money, so they gave him the nickname of carpenter emperor.

This nickname lasted for four hundred years.

In the same year, Emperor Xizong died.

...

Inside Qianqing Palace, the Eastern Depot's Director, Huai En, waited respectfully by the side.

Seeing Zhu You樘 throw the secret letter on the ground, he quickly stepped forward and picked it up.

Zhu You樘 stood with his hands behind his back: "Continue to keep an eye on the Ministry of Works for朕.朕wants to see if they dare to play any more tricks."

"Yes."

After Huai En responded, he carefully looked up at Zhu You樘.

"Your Majesty..."

Huai En brought the words to his lips several times, but he didn't know how to speak.

Zhu You樘 turned his head, his deep and cold eyes falling on Huai En.

"Hmm?"

Huai En quickly lowered his head, not daring to meet his gaze.

Zhu You樘 shifted his gaze again: "Go, summon Wang Zhi for朕."

"Yes."

Huai En quickly retreated from Qianqing Palace, and before long, Wang Zhi walked in.

"This humble servant greets Your Majesty."

"Rise,朕asked you to keep an eye on the Hongzhi Treasure Notes. What's the situation?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, the progress of promoting the Hongzhi Treasure Notes in Beijing is encouraging."

Wang Zhi lowered his head slightly, narrating in detail.

"Because all the officials in Beijing and their families must use the Hongzhi Treasure Notes, the Hongzhi Treasure Notes are forcibly circulating among the officials, and they even have to seek the notes at high prices."

"In addition, the Hongzhi Treasure Notes can be freely exchanged for silver, so the people are not resistant to the Hongzhi Treasure Notes."

"In the beginning, it was just officials using the treasure notes to buy goods from merchants. After the merchants received the treasure notes, they immediately went to the Beijing branch to exchange them for silver."

"But now, there are also some merchants using the treasure notes directly between merchants, and people using them between people."

"And because the treasure notes are convenient to use, many merchants keep some treasure notes themselves and do not immediately exchange them for silver."

"The people of Beijing are gradually accepting the Hongzhi Treasure Notes."

"I believe that after a period of time, more than half of the people in Beijing will be using the Hongzhi Treasure Notes."