Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 19 The next one is the Imperial Stables

As Zhu Houzhao spoke, he looked at Liu Jin and the other eight tigers.

Liu Jin and the other eight tigers were also looking at Zhu Houzhao with eager eyes. Ever since the Minister of War Liu Daxia was successfully killed in a bomb, they were now more and more convinced of the ability of Emperor Zhu Houzhao.

As for the next goal of overthrowing the eunuch Zhang Zhao of the Imperial Stables, it made them even more excited.

Because blowing up the Minister of War would only benefit another civil servant, which was tantamount to making wedding clothes for others. And now, if Zhang Zhao, the seal holder of the Imperial Stables, was overthrown, it would mean that he could take his place and become a powerful eunuch!
The Ming Dynasty's inner court was divided into twenty-four yamen, namely twelve offices, four departments and eight bureaus.

The Imperial Stables were a key department second only to the Imperial Household Department, in charge of the military orders for the imperial stables. In fact, the Imperial Stables were the direct office that commanded the imperial guards.

The so-called imperial guards are the Four Guards Battalion and the Warrior Battalion. They are the troops stationed in the palace and together with the Twelve Regiments Battalion they constitute the military system of the capital.

In addition, the eunuchs in charge of the 12th Regiment were often the eunuchs of the Imperial Stables.

It can be seen that the temptation of the eunuchs in the Imperial Stables to the eunuchs in the palace is no less than the temptation of the Minister of War to the civil officials outside the palace.

The current eunuch Zhang Zhao, who holds the seal of the Imperial Stables, is the eunuch in charge of the 12th Battalion and is also the actual leader of the Imperial Guards.

Zhu Houzhao only knew from his memory that Zhang Zhao and Zhang Yu had a close relationship, and were both promoted by their ancestor Wang Yue, so Zhu Houzhao naturally pointed his gun at Zhang Zhao.

At this time, Liu Jin only said: "Your Majesty, are we going to blow up this eunuch Zhang Zhao, the seal holder of the Imperial Stables?"

"The eunuch Zhang Zhao who is in charge of the Imperial Stables is very honest now and never leaves the palace. The palace is under strict control. Moreover, Liu Daxia has just been killed in a bomb explosion and he is being strictly interrogated. It is impossible for him to be bombed a second time," said Gao Feng, who is in charge of investigating the palace guards.

Zhu Houzhao nodded and said, "We don't need to murder Zhang Zhao this time, but we need to create a fake murder case, and it's the murder of me! Gu Dayong, you are in charge of this matter this time. You must put on a good show for our ancestor Wang Gonggong of the Imperial Household Department. Liu Jin will cooperate with Gu Dayong at that time! Here's how to do it."

As Zhu Houzhao spoke, he pulled Liu Jin and Gu Dayong over and whispered a few words in their ears.

Then, Gu Dayong nodded hurriedly: "Your Majesty, rest assured, I will definitely handle this matter!"

Here, Liu Jin also nodded: "Then the eunuchs will definitely follow your majesty's arrangements!"

Zhu Houzhao nodded, and then looked at Gao Feng, Zhang Yong and others who were responsible for investigating the internal situation of the army: "How is the morale of the army now? How many meritorious officials and generals are willing to join the Loyal Emperor Society?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, the commanders of the regiment camp, Duke Ying Zhang Mao and Xia Ming, as well as the junior supervisor Li Tang, the commanders Tian Zhong and Gui Yong, are interested in joining the Loyal Emperor Society. Zhang Zhao is now only providing rations to the guards led by the military officers who have a good relationship with him. Now the Imperial Guards and the regiment camp, the military officers who are unwilling to make friends with him and their soldiers have been owed rice for three months, and they are very resentful."

Zhang Yong replied at this time.

"The eunuch Li Chun, the supervisor of the Four Guards Camp, Zhang Hong, the right governor of the Warrior Camp, Jia Jian, Li Long and others are interested in joining the Loyalty Society. Like Zhang Yong, the Four Guards Camp and the Warrior Camp have also owed their salary for three months!

Gao Feng replied. Zhu Houzhao knew that the circulation of silver was not large at present, and the court paid the officers and soldiers mostly in kind, such as food and cloth, and of course there were also treasure notes, which were the same as the future salary silver.

But after listening to what Zhang Yong and Gao Feng said, Zhu Houzhao was quite surprised. The court's failure to pay rice salaries, especially the military camp in the capital, was a common phenomenon when the dynasty was in financial difficulties. Just like the salaries of all officials would be in arrears, what about the wages of military generals and soldiers?

But what Zhu Houzhao didn't understand was that it was the 18th year of the Hongzhi Restoration era, which had just ended! The Ming Dynasty, which was in the Restoration era, couldn't even pay the soldiers' salaries? Was the empire's finances really that bad?

In this case, it is no wonder that the military is in disarray, allowing the little prince of the Tartars to make trouble in the border town as if he were back home. If the court does not pay the soldiers, why would they fight for their lives?

But no matter what, Zhu Houzhao knew that this was a good opportunity to win over the hearts of the army and regain military power. He decided that he, as the emperor, would take the initiative to ask for rice and salary from these soldiers who defended the capital and the palace for the Ming Dynasty.

The Ministry of War was in charge of distributing rice and salary to the army. Now Xu Jin, the Minister of War, was a candidate member of his Zhongjun Society. Zhu Houzhao could now intervene in the affairs of the Ministry of War. He decisively instructed Liu Jin, "Liu Jin, go ask Xu Jin, the Minister of War, when will the rice salary of the soldiers who guard the capital and the palace of the Ming Dynasty be owed?"

Liu Jin went to the Ministry of War with Zhu Houzhao's order, and the other seven tigers also withdrew one after another.

Zhu Houzhao began to think about how to take advantage of the problem of unpaid rice and salary for officers and soldiers to achieve his goal of controlling the army.

Minister of War Xu Jin had already placed his chair in the first place. When he was about to reorganize the Ministry of War with high spirits, he saw Liu Jin coming and asked, "Eunuch Liu, did you bring a message from the organization?"

"That's right. The organization hopes that you can help His Majesty win over the hearts of the troops and overthrow the current eunuch Zhang Zhao who is in charge of the Imperial Stables. Because of this, His Majesty has also issued an oral order asking me to ask you, when will the Ministry of War end the payment of the rice salary owed to the officers and soldiers?" Liu Jin asked.

Minister of War Xu Jin sighed and explained, "Please tell your majesty and the organization, it's not that I don't want to pay out the rice, but I don't have the money to pay out. The Ministry of Revenue said that they haven't even raised enough money to build the Qianqing Palace and bury the late emperor. Your majesty still needs money for the wedding, so our Ministry of War can only wait. In short, the court has no money!"

After listening to Xu Jin's explanation, Liu Jin told Zhu Houzhao what Xu Jin had said. Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but laugh: "Tell Xu Jin that the Ministry of Revenue can't afford to pay the money, so leave this matter to me. It's just 200,000 taels of silver, is it worth going so broke?"

Then Zhu Houzhao asked Wei Bin: "How much money has the Royal Industrial Company earned now?"

"Your Majesty, it's over ten thousand taels. Now the order quantity has decreased and the growth is slower," Wei Bin replied.

Zhu Houzhao nodded. Tens of thousands of taels was already a huge sum of money for ordinary people, not to mention that silver had not depreciated yet. But for the emperor Zhu Houzhao, it was indeed a little less. He also didn't want to touch the silver in the Royal Industrial Experimental Base. After all, he still had to rely on this money to support the development of his Ming Dynasty's industrial base.

What's more, this money was collected by the "Eight Tigers" around him, and the purpose of using it was not to spend but to make money. Zhu Houzhao felt that he needed to continue to increase the ways to make money. As the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he had to change the situation of Ming Dynasty's lack of money.

"Qiu Ju, take out all the handicrafts currently in stock at the Royal Industrial Experimental Base and give them to Wei Bin! In addition, Ma Yongcheng and Gu Dayong should go to Qipan Street outside Daming Gate and choose a place to build a high platform. I will hold a royal exposition there tomorrow! Liu Jin will host the exposition tomorrow."

Zhu Houzhao then explained in detail what an expo was.

(End of this chapter)