Li Banghua was about to draft an imperial edict when he suddenly thought of a very serious problem.

money!

The emperor exempted the entire country from land tax for one year. Although the pressure on the common people was reduced, the pressure on the local governments increased.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were three taxation systems: shipment, retention and surplus.

The process of transporting the collected money and grain was to be transported to Beijing and the nine border warehouses for use by the imperial court and the nine borders.

Retention means that the local government will retain a part of the collected taxes and store it in the warehouses of the prefectures, counties, and garrisons to pay the princes, officials, soldiers, etc. When using the retained money and grain, it must be distributed strictly in accordance with the amount and time stipulated by the Ministry of Revenue.

The sources of the surplus include land tax, fines, commercial taxes, corvee labor, etc.

The expenditure items of Xianyu are quite interesting, including office expenses, disaster relief, construction, water conservancy, official banquets, etc. (called "gongfu banquets" in the Ming Dynasty).

Now that land tax is no longer required, if the local treasury has no money, then officials and soldiers will have no money to use.

This is more terrifying than bandits!

but...

The armies in the nine borders were all in arrears of wages, and the local officials and soldiers must have also been owed salaries.

Even if they are in a hurry, they are not in a hurry now.

Moreover, some places must have already collected summer grain, but because the capital was besieged, it was not shipped to the court.

After thinking for a while, Li Banghua put his heart back in his stomach and slowly asked the question in front of him: "Your Majesty... How to prepare the military pay for Sichuan? Although there is money in the Taicang silver treasury in the capital, the war is in turmoil and the money cannot be escorted to Sichuan in a short time."

"If there is enough money and food, Qin Liangyu can still fight Zhang Xianzhong. If there is no money, Qin Liangyu will be in trouble."

Chongzhen smiled nonchalantly, he had already thought of a countermeasure.

Who is rich in Sichuan?

The common people certainly don’t have it, they have already become paupers.

Although merchants and wealthy gentry also have money, they cannot be touched for the sake of the overall situation.

Historically, the key factor in the Ming Dynasty's ability to fight against bandits in the south was the gentry and wealthy families. They formed private armed forces to fight against the bandits. When the bandits came and they couldn't defeat them, they would run away. When the main force of the bandits left, they would immediately counterattack.

So we can’t touch these people’s money.

The only ones who can move... are the princes and royal family members.

This might have been Lao Zhu's idea back then, to raise pigs... and then kill them when they are fat.

"Prince Rui Zhu Changhao is now in Chongqing, and Prince Shu Zhu Zhishu is in Chengdu. Especially Prince Shu, his descendants are good at the art of gold and silver, and Prince Shu is the richest among the princes. I estimate that he has at least tens of millions of silver in his family! The two of them don't need to pool more, as long as they take out two or three million taels of silver, they can reward the three armies and recruit soldiers to defend the city!"

"Let them pay for the war!"

It would have been better if Li Banghua hadn't listened. After listening, his face turned black and he cursed in his heart: This little emperor is trying to harm me!

No matter how powerful the cabinet is, it dare not think about the money of the princes.

This is the bottom line!

After all, the Ming Dynasty belonged to the Zhu family, and Li Banghua would not touch it no matter how stupid he was. Although he wanted to be Zhang Juzheng, Zhang Juzheng only touched one vassal king in his life: the King of Liao.

What's more, he had been the Prime Minister for less than a month, and some remote places didn't even know the news.

"Your Majesty...The King of Shu is a member of the royal family, so it is inconvenient for the cabinet to get involved."

Chongzhen smiled coldly: "Why did Emperor Taizu establish a vassal state back then? It was to prepare for today!"

"I have three ways. Please think about which one is suitable."

In front of all the cabinet members, Chongzhen said: "The first way is to come to the Ming Dynasty and order the King of Shu to donate money. If he does not donate, he will be investigated for disobeying the imperial order. At worst, his fiefdom will be abolished."

The four Wenyuan Pavilion Grand Secretaries looked at each other and said at the same time: "Your Majesty, this is not right."

This is forced fundraising.

Officials are all shrewd people. Now it seems that the emperor is forcing the King of Shu to donate money. If they agree, the next time the court forces officials to donate money, will they donate or not?

Why can the cabinet control the court?

To put it bluntly, while they are doing their jobs for the emperor, they also have to consider the officials!

Officials will only recognize the cabinet if their interests are protected.

A court without interests has never been a court.

Chongzhen did not ask why they disagreed, and directly proposed the second method: "I write a promissory note to borrow three million taels of silver from the King of Shu for two years, and repay it on the due date. How about that?"

Borrow money?

After everyone pondered for a moment, Fang Yuegong reminded them, "Your Majesty, I think there is no problem with writing a promissory note, but I am afraid that the King of Shu has money and will cry poor and refuse to lend the money."

"Then let the Jinyiwei Dongchang investigate. If they find anything inconsistent with the facts, they will be charged with deceiving the emperor. They will be detained first, their property will be confiscated, and then they will be taken to the capital."

Fang Yuegong felt his heart pounding as he listened to Chongzhen's remarks.

The Ming emperor in front of him was too cruel to attack members of the royal family. The status of these court officials was no more noble than that of the royal family. If they were convicted one day, their fate would be miserable.

When he thought of this, there was a hint of fear in his eyes when he looked at Chongzhen.

Seeing Chongzhen's firm attitude, Li Banghua thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty...The King of Shu is a member of the royal family. If you want to convict him, you need clear evidence."

"He didn't want to borrow money, so he was charged with deceiving the emperor... I'm afraid it will be difficult to stop everyone from talking. I think it's inappropriate!"

Since Chongzhen wanted to deal with the princes, as the chief minister of the cabinet, he had to help the emperor find a solution. It would have been fine if the princes of the Ming Dynasty just ate and did not work, but the problem was that they were thinking about what was in the pot while eating what was in the bowl.

Chongzhen sighed, and it seemed that he had returned to the situation at the beginning of his time travel.

At that time, he asked the court to borrow money, but all the civil and military officials, powerful ministers and nobles either had no money or refused to lend him money.

Then they used corruption as a breakthrough point to solve the problem of the source of money.

When facing the King of Shu, the word "corruption" is no longer appropriate.

The first King of Shu came to Chengdu to be enfeoffed in the 23rd year of Hongwu. Successive emperors rewarded the King of Shu generously. In addition, the King of Shu's descendants were good at making money, so there were tens of millions of dollars in his mansion!

Therefore, corruption cannot be used as a breakthrough point.

"Then we can only use underhanded tactics!" Chongzhen's eyes sparkled.

He likes this feeling, being upright in front of people and insidious behind their backs.

In fact, this has been the case for kings of all dynasties, but it is not known to the public.

Only by being worse than the court officials can you control them.

When Fan Jingwen, Fang Yuegong and Qiu Yu heard these two words from the emperor's mouth for the first time, they felt a chill on their backs.

The emperor in front of me is so terrifying.

Chongzhen continued, "Lord Li, draft two imperial edicts for Qin Liangyu. The first is to appoint her as the governor-general of Sichuan, Hubei, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, and to control the troops of the four provinces."

"Your Majesty's move..."

"Don't be impatient, Mr. Li. Wait until I finish what I have to say!"

Before Li Banghua could finish speaking, Chongzhen interrupted him.

"I will send someone to deliver a message to the King of Shu."

"It means that Zhang Xianzhong is coming with great force. Chongqing is not safe and Chengdu is difficult to defend! I asked Qin Liangyu to send troops to escort the King of Shu to the chieftain of Yunnan to temporarily avoid the chaos."

"If you were the King of Shu, what would you do after receiving the news?"