Li Banghua, the chief minister of the cabinet, came out and said, "Your Majesty, the prince has been away from the capital for a day and a night, and Liu Fangliang will definitely not be able to catch up with him. The most urgent task is to pay attention to Liu Fangliang's main force. Once they are found heading towards Juyongguan, we should immediately send troops to intercept them, otherwise Tangtong and Juyongguan will be lost."
What Li Banghua said was exactly what Chongzhen was worried about.
The problem is that the capital is already short of soldiers and generals. Who can stop Liu Fangliang's tens of thousands of troops?
If he could have stopped it, he would not have given the order to escape when he summoned Tang Tong.
After Li Banghua finished speaking, the court fell silent.
All officials seemed to have reached a tacit understanding, neither supporting nor opposing.
Li Banghua glanced at the court officials behind him, his eyes bloodshot.
These people...are not worthy of being my subjects.
Chongzhen smiled faintly: "It doesn't matter. If Liu Fangliang attacks Juyongguan, Tang Tong will abandon the pass and return to Beijing as I wish to help defend the city."
Li Banghua continued helplessly: "Although the Guanning Army is moving slowly, it will definitely reach the capital before the bandits attack the city."
Although Chongzhen smiled faintly, he was sneering in his heart.
He knew he couldn't wait for Wu Sangui!
Wu Sangui was not a good man. He was a serious speculator who would do anything to preserve his strength.
In name, he was serving the king, but in reality, he was just waiting.
Wait until Li Zicheng besieges Beijing, and then make a choice based on how the situation develops.
If Li Zicheng failed, he would lead his troops to chase after Li Zicheng. If Li Zicheng captured Beijing, Wu Sangui would have two options: one, surrender to Li Zicheng; two, surrender to Jian Nu.
Historically, Chongzhen's death made him choose the second option. The request to borrow troops for revenge made the Guanning Army put aside their years of hatred with the Eight Banners Army and devote all their efforts to encircling and suppressing Li Zicheng.
"Good, the bandits from the Guanning Army retreated on their own!" Chongzhen seemed to be comforting himself, and also seemed to be comforting his ministers.
Seeing that no one was talking, Chongzhen stood up and asked Li Banghua: "Why did the bandits start?"
"It was a natural disaster. They were hungry and cold, so they rebelled against the imperial court."
"Which provinces are most affected by the disaster?"
All the ministers raised their heads silently and looked at Chongzhen as if he were a fool.
Is there any need to ask?
The provinces that were severely affected by the disaster were also severely affected by banditry. Except for Shaanxi, Shanxi and Sichuan, drought also occurred in northern Zhili, Shandong, Henan and Guizhou.
The Minister of Revenue Fang Yuegong said: "Your Majesty, except for Guangdong, Fujian, and Yunnan, all other provinces have suffered from drought. The worst are Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Sichuan."
The Ministry of Revenue is responsible for the national taxation, and it knows which places have more taxes and which places have less taxes. In addition, the Ministry of Revenue is also responsible for disaster relief, and it knows the disaster situation very well.
Chongzhen nodded and began to recall his memory of the drought in the late Ming Dynasty.
There were two rounds of severe drought in the late Ming Dynasty.
The first round of drought was the severe drought in Shaanxi in the seventh year of the Tianqi reign. By the sixth year of the Chongzhen reign, the drought had spread to northern Zhili, Shanxi, and Shandong.
The second round of drought was from the tenth year to the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, and this round of drought spread almost all over the country from north to south.
However, the drought in the northwest has eased at this time, but the drought in northern Zhili, Jiangnan, western Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou and Sichuan is extremely serious.
The only areas in the country that were not affected by the drought were Guangdong, Fujian and Yunnan (which happened to be the three regions where the Southern Ming Dynasty persisted the longest).
After the establishment of the Southern Ming Dynasty, the drought in other places was alleviated, but Guangdong, Fujian and Yunnan began to experience drought.
It's just weird!
Chongzhen thought about it and realized that there was drought in all places this year, but the drought would be gone next year.
In that case, let’s do something big.
He looked at his ministers and said, "Since drought is spreading everywhere, I have decided to exempt the entire country from land tax for one year starting today."
All the civil and military officials in the court were shocked by Chongzhen’s words!
Their first reaction was that Chongzhen was crazy!
How much is the land tax in a year?
For example, in the 16th year of Chongzhen, the Ministry of Revenue should have received 20 million taels of silver a year, but 4.2 million taels were exempted (all of which were land taxes), and the actual income was 15.8 million taels. The total annual expenditure was 21.22 million taels, with a total shortfall of 5.42 million taels.
Land tax revenue accounted for 70% to 80% of the court’s total revenue.
That is eighty percent of twenty million: sixteen million!
This money includes not only the salaries of royal family members, officials, and scholars, but also the military pay and food wages of the nine frontier armies.
The government was already short of money, so not increasing taxes was a blessing from heaven. After all, natural disasters continued, grain production decreased, and the people were suffering.
But what does it mean to exempt the land tax for one year? Will the Ming Dynasty still do this?
In the past, there was a gap of five million taels of silver every year, but now it’s a direct deficit of sixteen million!
No, we have to add the previous gap, the total is twenty-one million taels!
Fang Yuegong's mouth twitched uncontrollably, and he knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, you are joking. I am not in good health, so I cannot make such jokes."
"I'm not kidding! Since there are disasters all over the country, why not exempt the land tax for a year and let the people recuperate!"
Li Banghua wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said, "Your Majesty, this is absolutely not possible!"
"The court still has a shortage of more than 5 million taels of silver every year. If the land tax is exempted, the shortage of silver this year will reach 21 million taels!"
"The land tax is the foundation of the country and the pillar of the court. Once it is exempted, the court will be unable to make ends meet. Soldiers will have no pay, generals will have no food, let alone fighting, there will be no money even to recruit soldiers."
"Now there are bandits causing chaos everywhere, and the Jiannu are eyeing us covetously. The army in the nine borders is short of money and food. It is normal. Not increasing taxes at this time is a great favor from the emperor. Exempting the land tax for one year is absolutely not feasible!"
Although Li Banghua had only been the cabinet chief for two days, he was already well aware of the court's money and grain. Although his words were unpleasant to hear, they were all from his heart.
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