In the past, the silver in the national treasury was really quite loose; any member of the royal family could take it away as a token of support.
Moreover, so many officials made contributions during the founding of the country, and several princes were enfeoffed. None of those officials could be offended, so as long as they wrote an IOU to the national treasury, they could easily withdraw a lot of hard-earned money.
Not to mention that there are also many parasites in the Aisin Gioro clan. They are just spoiled brats who have risen to prominence simply because of the merits of their ancestors or their surname. They spend their days chasing after cats and dogs.
But where did that silver come from? Naturally, many people set their sights on the national treasury.
However, this problem was already discovered during the reign of Emperor Shunzhi. The diligent and ambitious young emperor also established regulations, and gradually the amount of silver withdrawn decreased significantly. However, this loophole was still open.
It wasn't until Emperor Kangxi assumed personal rule and replaced several officials in turn, with each new official employing an iron fist and managing the situation several times, that the loophole was finally tightened.
Getting those people to stop lending is relatively easy, but getting the debt back is much harder.
At first, most people thought that they were struggling financially, so they would borrow some money to cover the shortfall and then pay it back later.
But once you have the money in your hands, you want to return it. How can you bear to part with it?
Over time, some people's appetites grew, and seeing that the emperor didn't seem to care much at first, they gradually became bolder, and the amount of money they didn't return increased, with some even taking pride in it.
The official in charge of the national treasury today can be considered diligent and hardworking. He had already reported the problem of the national treasury deficit to Emperor Kangxi before the end of this year, and he had even listed the accounting problems of some people in advance.
Even just this simple list, which wasn't entirely clear, was enough to make Emperor Kangxi's blood pressure soar. He hadn't expected that so many people had borrowed so much money right under his nose over the past few years.
Seeing a few of the names in particular gave Emperor Kangxi a terrible headache, because he really didn't want to deal with them.
Not to mention that some members of the Aisin Gioro clan are of a higher generation than him. How could he, an emperor, offend his aunts or even his grandparents if he had to go to their door to collect debts?
Therefore, Emperor Kangxi had no way to deal with this matter for the time being. However, he used it to threaten those people and let them weigh the consequences of these two things.
It's important to understand that the reforms you're considering might infringe on the interests of certain groups. However, if it involves collecting debts from the national treasury, then it won't just affect that group; the scope will be much broader.
Let's see who wins the arm wrestling match. At this moment, Lord Ma Jia's steps became somewhat heavy. The Emperor's move was truly brilliant!
However, he was also alarmed, because his own family also owed money to the national treasury. Especially after that trend started, almost no official could remain unscathed, unless they were exceptionally honest and basically dirt poor...
However, it should be noted that the cost of living in the capital is high. If someone were to become an official in the capital, they probably wouldn't last long. So, if we really want to calculate, there aren't many officials in the capital who are completely innocent; it's just a matter of how much or how little they owe the national treasury.
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