On June 15, the 20th year of Chongzhen, official documents from Yunnan were sent to the capital.
The Ministry of War was the first to receive the news.
"Sha Dingzhou has been captured alive, Yunnan has been pacified, and the Ming Dynasty has no more internal troubles!"
"What a great event! Hurry up and send this good news to His Majesty!"
The Ministry of War sent the official document to the Imperial Household Department, and the eunuchs there presented it to Chongzhen.
After reading the document, Chongzhen stood up and breathed a sigh of relief.
Since he traveled through time, he has never been so happy.
After the death of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, the only internal threat to the Ming Dynasty was Yunnan.
Now that the Yunnan rebellion has been put down, a brief peace has finally arrived within the Ming Dynasty.
So rare!
"Your Majesty, Duke of Qian Mu Tianbo, Governor Wen Anzhi, and General Li Dingguo asked in the official document how to deal with the prisoners, as well as the whereabouts of the army and the spoils of war." Wang Chengen reminded while standing beside him.
Chongzhen closed his eyes and thought for a while, then opened his eyes and said, "All the main criminals will be executed, and the remaining captives will be decided by Mu Tianbo himself. After all, he is most familiar with the local situation in Yunnan."
"As for whether the army should stay or go..." Chongzhen began to think again.
The army had been fighting in Yunnan for a year and a half, had suffered heavy losses and was already exhausted. Logically, they should have withdrawn and returned to their hometown to rest and recuperate.
But the situation in Yunnan is still unclear, and the Tusi may rebel again.
"How about this," Chongzhen made up his mind: "The army to suppress the rebellion will be divided into two, and Li Dingguo will lead 23,000 main forces to retreat to Huguang to cultivate land and rest."
"Wen Anzhi and Sun Kewang took the remaining 5,000 elite soldiers to stay in Yunnan to restore production while deterring the local chieftains and preventing them from rebelling again."
"Also, secretly find some censors to impeach Mu Tianbo. He is guilty of losing the city and the land!"
Wang Chengen quickly wrote it down and asked, "May I ask how the emperor will deal with the spoils?"
The spoils of war that Wang Chengen mentioned were not only people and animals, weapons, and armor, but also a large amount of gold, silver, and jewelry.
Most of these gold, silver and jewelry came from Prince Mu’s Palace, and some of them were Sha Dingzhou’s own savings.
"Let the three of them discuss the spoils..." Chongzhen issued an order with a very vague concept.
Why is it blurry?
Just be blurry!
The total amount of silver spent on suppressing the rebellion was about one million!
No.
If the soldiers' salaries are added, the total is nearly two million!
Chongzhen meant to let Mu Tianbo bear part of the responsibility, but he couldn't say it openly, otherwise he would be suspected of robbing money...
Two million was a considerable expense for Chongzhen.
If this was the only expense, Chongzhen would not care.
but...
There were too many places to spend money in the Ming Dynasty.
After regaining Guanzhong, he exempted taxes for one year in order to stabilize the local situation.
However, the salaries of officials and the wages of soldiers must be paid as usual.
In other words, regaining Guanzhong was a losing deal.
Secondly, it also costs money to immigrate from Shanxi and Zhejiang to Henan.
In order to ensure smooth immigration, the imperial court formulated favorable policies, including providing clothing, travel expenses, money for settling down (building houses), and purchasing farm tools.
In addition, taxes were exempted for three years.
According to the standard of 20 taels of silver per household, it would cost one million taels of silver to immigrate 50,000 households!
This was another huge expense for the court.
The court needs to spend money on military expenses in the nine border areas.
Li Xingzhong and Liu Zhaoji’s cavalry cannot be spared from purchasing horses and daily expenses.
The training costs for Huang Fei’s new warships must be paid.
Since the bandits had the habit of tearing down city walls, after the bandits were defeated, local governments had an additional fee to repair the cities.
There were also vassal kings and princes who built mausoleums.
Building a mausoleum is a huge project that is both time-consuming and expensive.
(In history, Chongzhen did not build a mausoleum for himself because he had no money. After his death, he was buried in the tomb of Concubine Tian by Li Zicheng. After the Manchus entered Beijing, in order to win over the common people and gentry, they allocated half of the money and called on the surrendered officials to donate the other half, and simply transformed the tomb of Concubine Tian into an imperial mausoleum.)
(After Shunzhi took power, for unknown reasons, he ordered the reconstruction of the Chongzhen Emperor's Mausoleum in the 16th year of Shunzhi's reign, and personally wrote the inscription and sacrificial text, and named the mausoleum Mingsi Mausoleum.)
All these expenses add up to an astronomical figure.
Chongzhen asked the Ministry of Revenue to do the calculation.
The tax revenue in the 20th year of Chongzhen was about 15 million taels of silver, while the estimated expenditure was 30 million taels!
The fiscal deficit ratio is as high as 100 percent!
If Li Banghua hadn't collected the unpaid taxes to replenish the national treasury, the treasury would have been empty long ago!
But even so, the national treasury is still somewhat stretched.
"We have to find a way to make money!" Chongzhen stood up and looked outside the hall, his eyes gradually becoming cold.
While Chongzhen was thinking about how to make money, official documents from the imperial court were sent from Beijing to Yunnan.
In early July, an official document and a secret letter were delivered to the Duke of Qian's Mansion.
Official documents are about official matters.
The secret letter recorded the recent situation in the Beijing court.
Mu Tianbo felt uneasy after reading the secret letter.
His spies in the capital told him that the censors in Beijing sent him a letter almost every day, impeaching him for losing cities and territories and causing unrest in Yunnan.
They demanded that he be stripped of his title and imprisoned.
Mu Tianbo was terrified, fearing that Chongzhen would be bewitched and strip him of his title.
For this reason, he found Wen Anzhi and began to discuss official matters, trying to make up for his mistakes in this regard.
"Excuse me, Duke Mu, how much gold, silver and jewelry did Sha Dingzhou steal from you?" Wen Anzhi asked cautiously.
Mu Tianbo didn't know how to answer.
There was so much money in the mansion that he hadn’t counted it!
There is a limit to gold and silver, but there is no limit to jewelry, antiques, calligraphy and paintings.
"What does Governor Wen mean?" Mu Tianbo tried to find out Wen Anzhi's background.
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