Rise From the Humble

"To report to Your Majesty, I have been ordered to inspect Taicang. Today has been completed, and I came here to report to Your Majesty." After Zhu Pingan stood up, he took out a memorial from his sleeves and held it respectfully on his head with both hands.

Huang Jin walked down from Emperor Jiajing, took the memorial from Zhu Pingan's hand, and presented it to Emperor Jiajing with both hands.

Emperor Jiajing took the memorial but did not open it. He placed it on the dragon table in front of him, looked at Zhu Pingan and said, "Tell me what the results of the inspection are."

"Reporting to your Majesty, I was ordered to inspect Taicang. I focused on inspecting Taicang's account books for the past three years and taking stock of the gold and silver in the bank. Taicang's books recorded a deposit of 2,127,200 taels of silver. The gold amount was 720,000 taels. However, the minister checked the account books for several days and found that there were 367,543 taels of silver in the account books, which were deficient and false. The accounts could not be reconciled. Chen Panku, the Taicang Bank only has 1,237,250 taels of silver and 316,500 taels of gold, of which there are 903,800 taels of silver. It's not pure silver, there's one hundred and twenty-five thousand five hundred taels of gold that's not pure gold." Zhu Ping'an stood respectfully in front of the hall and replied seriously.

"How much?" Emperor Jiajing's expression suddenly changed. He stood up from the dragon chair and looked at Zhu Pingan angrily and asked.

When Emperor Jiajing heard the number Zhu Pingan said, he almost suspected that his ears had heard it wrong. He pressed Pingan's words and found that half of the Taicang was empty! ! ! ! !

This kind of deficit has never happened thousands of years ago in so many dynasties from the Shang and Zhou dynasties to the Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties!

If it is true, it would be the biggest case of all time in the world!

Emperor Jiajing thought he was a wise king, but he didn't expect to be fooled by his subordinates, and even half of the treasury was emptied!

This was a bolt from the blue for Emperor Jiajing.

One of the biggest problems he faces in power now is that finances are tight. There are pirates from the north and Japanese from the south, natural and man-made disasters. Money is needed everywhere. In recent years, money has been flowing like water. This has made Emperor Jiajing even frugal in practicing Taoism and refining elixirs. .

You can imagine how devastated Emperor Jiajing was when he heard that half of his treasury had been depleted. How could Emperor Jiajing endure this?

Emperor Jiajing's rage was unexpected by Zhu Ping'an.

However, even though he had expected Emperor Jiajing's anger, and although he also knew that Emperor Jiajing's anger was not directed at him, Zhu Ping'an still couldn't help but feel a chill down his back when he faced the emperor's anger. The emperor's wrath, with millions of corpses lying on the ground and blood floating in the oars, is no joke.

"Going back to your Majesty, there is a deficit and false accounts of 367,543 taels of silver in Taicang's accounts. There is a deficit of 889,950 taels of silver and 400,000 taels of gold in the Taicang warehouse. In addition, There are 903,800 taels of silver that are not pure silver, and there are 125,500 taels of gold that are not pure gold..." After calming down, Zhu Pingan repeated again.

"Are you sure? How come the account is in deficit?" Emperor Jiajing's voice came out from between his teeth, and his face was gloomy, like the sky before a violent storm.

"Wei Chen is sure that we can use the head on the item as a guarantee. For example, the salary received by the Ministry of War recorded in Taicang's account book is an obvious one. The salary received by the Ministry of War the year before last was one hundred and eight thousand taels, and with the reward of 32,000 taels, it was not much more. 140,000 taels, but last year Taicang's account showed that the Ministry of War had withdrawn 199,000 taels of salary, which was almost double. According to my investigation, last year the Ministry of War only had three new vacancies for officials. How could this be done? The salary was nearly doubled. There are still many falsehoods and shortcomings. This is a record reviewed by Wei Chen, and the falsehoods and shortcomings have been recorded."

Zhu Pingan raised his head and replied eloquently, and then gave an example of false accounting. After speaking, he took out a roll of thick rice paper sewn with needle thread from his sleeve, and raised his hands respectfully above his head.

This stack of rice paper is exactly the Taicang Bank account books that Zhu Pingan re-calculated using the re-examination accounting table. It is a thick stack, densely packed with tables and small characters. Zhu Pingan also specially marked the deficiencies and falsehoods.

When Emperor Jiajing heard the example given by Zhu Pingan, his face was full of anger and clouds were gathering in his face. However, this false account resulted in a loss of more than 90,000 silver! ! More than 90,000 silver dollars are enough to relieve drought and flood disasters in several prefectures!

Huang Jin came down and took the double-entry accounting form from Zhu Pingan's hand, and handed it to Emperor Jiajing respectfully with both hands.

Emperor Jiajing opened a page and saw a completely different accounting method from today's. He was startled when he first saw it. However, Emperor Jiajing was also a person whose talent determines his intelligence. He understood Zhu Ping'an's re-examination accounting form after just a moment. Then I discovered the advantages of this kind of retest accounting table, in which the false accounts and shortcomings were very obvious.

everywhere

One eye

Shocked and frightened, Emperor Jiajing's face became darker and darker as he looked at it, and the temperature around him dropped again and again, all the way down to below zero. It was like being in an ice cellar within a three-meter radius.

After reading it, Emperor Jiajing suddenly kicked over the cases in front of him and said with murderous intent: "I'm so angry! I'm so angry! These rats! Silverfish! They are eating in and out! They are stealing! It's a waste of my trust! Come here!" , pass on my decree and escort all Taicang officials to the Criminal Department, under strict supervision with the help of factory guards!"

"According to the order."

A chamberlain serving in the main hall responded to the order and hurried outside the hall to announce the order.

"Huang Ban, prepare an edict. Since I came to the throne, all the ministers in charge of the treasury and the ministers who have been dispatched to the king of the treasury are all close and trusted officials. They have also followed the lead and followed the rules without realizing it. No one can reveal his treachery or even be responsible for the commission. . I wonder if all the kings and ministers feel guilty. I blame myself for being ignorant and deeply regretful. I have handed it over to the Ministry of Personnel to investigate the job titles and strictly discuss the case. The case is written by Yan Song, a bachelor of Huagaidian, and Xu, a bachelor of Wenyuange. Li Mo, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and He Ao, the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, jointly tried the case of Taicang's bank deficit. The factory guards and other government offices were dispatched to verify and investigate the case. All Taicang's successive treasurer and treasury censors and Ding Shu , Kubing people are waiting to find out in detail, and all officials involved in the case, regardless of their rank or merit, will be severely punished. All officials of third rank or above in Beijing should attend the trial. All officials from the Ministry of Revenue below the Minister of Finance shall evade in accordance with the law and shall not Participate, and if there is any violation, you will be punished as a party member involved in the case."

After issuing the oral edict, Emperor Jiajing ordered Huang Jin to draft an imperial edict and submit it to Wuyi Hall for distribution to various government offices.

The imperial edict was transmitted to Wuyi Hall, and all the ministers in the hall were shocked. The impact was comparable to that of a great ceremony, and soon the entire court and the public were shaken.

So far

The biggest treasury deficit case in history has begun.

The rut of history has also deflected here. Originally, there was no such case of treasury deficit in the history of the Ming Dynasty. Of course, treasury deficit must have existed, and it must have been so serious, but this lid has never been covered by all parties. Be untied. However, now Zhu Pingan has fanned the butterfly wings, lifted the lid, and exposed this major case to the world.

perhaps

After this case, the Ming Dynasty's treasury deficit will be curbed, and the treasury will be richer than in history.

perhaps

When natural and man-made disasters occurred, the Ming Dynasty had the financial resources to provide disaster relief; when foreign enemies invaded, the Ming Dynasty had the financial resources to organize its army to defend against the enemy.

perhaps

Emperor Chongzhen did not need to hang himself on Meishan, but became the master of ZTE.

Of course, who can say for sure in the future.

In fact, when His Highness Zhu Pingan heard Emperor Jiajing dictate the imperial edict, he felt somewhat unwilling to do so.

Zhu Pingan also knew that he was not qualified to hear the case, but when he heard that Emperor Jiajing handed over the case to Yan Song for trial, Zhu Pingan still felt a little helpless.

Emperor Jiajing still trusted Yan Song in his heart.

However, in Zhu Pingan's view, this case has a lot to do with the strict Party, and this is certainly the case. But if Yan Song presides over the trial, it is destined to not get to the root of the matter.

Fortunately, Xu Jie, Li Mo and others participated in the main trial. Although the root cause could not be found, some big fish could not escape.