Volume One: The Young Dragon Opens Its Eyes - Chapter 126: City Patrol (Part Two)

Chapter 126: Inspecting the City, Part Two

Zhu Qizhen uncovered one sum after another, each amounting to roughly a million taels.

At last, when he reached the final page and looked only at the balance, he found that it exceeded thirty-two million taels.

For a moment, Zhu Qizhen was utterly stunned.

He was not ignorant of the realities of statecraft. The annual tax revenue of the court amounted to no more than twenty-seven or twenty-eight million piculs of grain, along with several million taels of silver.

These thirty-two million taels alone exceeded the Ming court’s entire annual tax revenue.

“This…” Zhu Qizhen began.

“This is the balance of the Inner Treasury,” said the Grand Empress Dowager.

“In the final years of Emperor Taizong’s reign, both the inner and outer treasuries were depleted, and the Inner Treasury contained no more than several million taels. This fortune was accumulated over more than a decade by Emperor Renzong and your father.”

Zhu Qizhen leafed carefully through the records, and a sudden sourness rose in his heart. This was a general ledger. It recorded that during the Yongle era, when the Grand Secretariat had reached its peak, the Inner Treasury had held more than sixty million taels.

Yet Emperor Taizong truly had not left much wealth to his descendants.

During the reigns of Emperor Renzong and Emperor Xuanzong, the treasury had hovered around ten million taels. Only after the Xuande era, and after the abandonment of Annam, had large sums begun to flow in—but even in the tenth year of Xuande, the balance had amounted to only around fifteen million taels.

What had truly caused the Inner Treasury to swell was the period from the tenth year of Xuande, when the Grand Empress Dowager began directing state affairs, to the present day.

Zhu Qizhen’s heart was deeply moved.

This was the kind of affection unique to a grandmother. For a moment, the Grand Empress Dowager and his grandmother from a later age seemed to merge into one.

When he had been young, he had heard his father speak of his grandmother.

In those days, everyone had lived in hardship, and no one had any money to spare. Yet whenever trouble arose, his grandmother could still somehow produce several hundred yuan, pieced together coin by coin and bit by bit.

With that money, she had carried the family through its difficulties.

The Grand Empress Dowager was much the same.

Though her governance might have had shortcomings of one kind or another, it had to be admitted that while the military strength of the Ming had declined considerably, the country’s overall power was still in a period of growth—or, more accurately, recovery.

And during the years in which the Grand Empress Dowager had directed the government, that recovery had been especially rapid.

Otherwise, she would never have continued to enjoy such honor throughout the reign of a celebrated emperor.

“Your Majesty…” Zhu Qizhen said, but for a moment he did not know what else to say.

Of course, he understood what this meant.

By handing over the Inner Treasury to Zhu Qizhen, the Grand Empress Dowager was effectively surrendering control over the palace itself.

During this period, Wang Zhen had already become the de facto chief superintendent of the inner court. Although Jin Ying was capable of standing against him, Wang Zhen still held the upper hand in practice.

Authority over appointments and personnel was already in Zhu Qizhen’s grasp.

Now that control of the Inner Treasury had also been handed over, financial authority within the palace had fallen into Zhu Qizhen’s hands as well. If the Grand Empress Dowager wished to restrain him in the future, it would no longer be easy.

The Grand Empress Dowager naturally understood the implications. She smiled faintly.

“My son has grown up. This was meant to be given to you eventually. But there is one thing you must remember.”

“Please instruct me, Your Majesty.”

“The amount held in the Inner Treasury is a state secret. Under no circumstances may the civil officials outside the palace learn of it—not even Yu Qian.”

“Your grandson understands.”

“You truly understand?” There was a trace of doubt in her voice.

“One coin can bring even a hero to his knees. Even when the imperial household employs people, it cannot do without rewards. With sufficient financial strength, I can bypass the Grand Secretariat when necessary. But if I have no money, I will have to consult the Grand Secretariat on everything. Once that happens, the initiative will belong to them.”

“Oh?” said the Grand Empress Dowager. “Then if the Inner Treasury is so well supplied, why should the officials not know?”

Zhu Qizhen gave a cold laugh.

“All the officials of the realm believe that what belongs to the imperial house belongs to the empire, but they do not believe that what belongs to the empire belongs to the imperial house. Floods, droughts, and locust plagues occur constantly throughout the realm. If the officials learn that the imperial family is wealthy, then whenever trouble arises, they will first request funds from the Inner Treasury. But no matter how much money the treasury contains, how could it withstand endless demands?”

“Moreover, I know perfectly well what the people below are like. They regard anyone who collects taxes as a harsh official, and anyone who does not as a model of integrity. Even if I possessed mountains of gold and silver, how could the treasury endure such waste?”

Zhu Qizhen understood this only too well.

Ever since becoming emperor of the Ming, he had continually pondered the reasons for the dynasty’s eventual downfall.

He had to admit that the Ming had died from complications brought on by a wasting disease. Finance was the lifeblood of a dynasty. Thus, the more clearly he understood the Ming system, and the more closely he compared it with the realities before him, the more new insights he gained.

Why had the Wanli Emperor been so greedy for money? Because he had discovered, again and again, that the power he controlled was inseparable from the financial resources at his disposal.

The Grand Empress Dowager sighed after hearing this and was even more pleased with Zhu Qizhen.

“So long as you understand. It is not that the imperial family lacks compassion. It is simply that some matters cannot be solved with money from the Inner Treasury.”

“Your grandson understands. I will not touch this thirty-two million taels lightly.”

“How you use it is your concern,” said the Grand Empress Dowager. “From now on, you need not consult me about affairs at court. Handle them as you see fit.”

Then, with a faint smile, she added, “There is only one matter I care about now: your marriage. Surely you will let me hold my great-grandson before I depart this world.”

When Zhu Qizhen left the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility, he still felt as though he were walking through a dream.

He had truly never imagined that the inner court possessed so much money.

Thirty-two million taels was enough to accomplish a great many things.

Zhu Qizhen estimated that the warehouses throughout Beijing contained more than ten million piculs of grain. Large quantities were also stored outside the capital, in places such as Huai'an and Nanjing, where there were numerous granaries.

Then there were the warehouses in the various prefectures and counties.

Most of these warehouses were full.

How full were they?

During the Tumu Crisis, Tongzhou might have come under attack. The city contained a considerable amount of grain. Some people proposed burning it, while others suggested distributing it in advance as pay to the troops stationed along the nine frontiers.

In the end, two years’ worth of grain was issued to the frontier garrisons in a single operation, and only then were the warehouses of Tongzhou emptied.

Yet under the system established by the founding emperor, the taxes collected by each county did not all go to the central government. Instead, they were sent to different destinations according to the distance involved. Grain from the north was sent to the armies at the front, while grain from the south was sent to Nanjing, and so forth.

As a result, the financial resources directly controlled by the Ming central government were extremely limited.

In practice, all it truly received was the four million piculs of grain transported to the capital by the Grand Canal.

Zhu Qizhen could not think too long about the Ming’s financial problems. The moment he did, his head began to ache.

The whole system was a tangled mess.

It involved the political structure, fiscal doctrine, transportation conditions, the effectiveness of official administration, geographical circumstances, and countless other factors—all of them intertwined.

Zhu Qizhen had no idea where to begin.

In the end, he simply stopped thinking about it.

For now, he would deal with the matter before him.

By the time Zhu Qizhen left the inner palace, Wang Zhen had already prepared the procession. It was a somewhat reduced version, but there were still at least three thousand soldiers marching before and behind him in ceremonial formation. The three hundred guards from the Palace of Heavenly Purity had also been mobilized in full.

Zhu Qizhen had grown accustomed to such arrangements.

All his efforts had achieved was ensuring that no one stood beside him while he slept.

At every other time, there had never been any shortage of people around him. Even when he secretly left the palace in disguise—his so-called private inspection—there were still no fewer than a hundred guards at his side.

Those hundred men were merely the guards accompanying him directly. At a short distance away, more than a thousand others were always waiting.

Whatever might happen to Zhu Qizhen, a single signal arrow sent soaring into the clouds would immediately bring a large force rushing to protect him.

Such treatment was even more excessive than the old custom of clearing the streets for a passing dignitary. It had led Zhu Qizhen to develop the habit of staying inside unless absolutely necessary. Ordinarily, he learned what was happening outside from the eunuchs and guards around him.

In truth, the so-called private inspection was almost impossible.

After all, when a white dragon disguises itself as a fish, it risks being toyed with by shrimp.

Zhu Qizhen glanced over and saw that all five members of the Grand Secretariat were ready.

“Duke of England, return home and rest,” Zhu Qizhen said to Zhang Fu. “I was deeply saddened by your brother’s misfortune. I grant you one month’s leave.”

The Duke of England replied in a trembling voice, “I obey, Your Majesty.”

After sending the duke away, Zhu Qizhen mounted his horse. He had the senior members of the Grand Secretariat ride in carriages, for they were all advanced in years. He also summoned Yu Qian forward so that he could ride almost abreast of him, falling only half a horse’s length behind.

Both men had attendants holding umbrellas over them, and both wore conical hats and straw rain capes. Together, they possessed a certain air of the wandering martial world.

Perhaps Heaven took pity on them, for at that moment the heavy rain eased slightly.

The first thing Zhu Qizhen noticed after leaving the palace was the water covering the roads.

He did not know how many open and concealed drainage channels there were within the imperial palace, but no matter how heavily it rained, most parts of the palace grounds did not retain water.

Outside the palace, however, things were different.

Zhu Qizhen looked at the street before him. He could not bring himself to think of it as a street at all.

It looked more like a river—albeit a rather shallow one.