An emperor who controlled the wealth of the world could also be so hardworking and simple. In addition to his petty nature, but also in the economic situation at the time not enough to make ends meet. When Emperor Chongzhen took the throne, the economy was in depression, the country was in decline, and the treasury was empty. The court's annual income of only a few million taels of silver, but the annual expenditure is up to nearly 10,000 taels. When Li Zicheng besieged Beijing, only 402,000 yuan was left in the treasury. After Li Zicheng captured Taiyuan, Emperor Chongzhen urgently enlisted Wu Sangui as king in Beijing, but the fact that he couldn't even hand over 1 million taels of silver made it unfavorable for Wu Sangui to claim the throne, and the capital was in danger.
While the court has no money, but Emperor Chongzhen's own "internal capital" is very rich. Li Zicheng occupation of Beijing, only the palace found more than 37 million taels of silver, gold 1.5 million taels, other jewelry countless. For this private wealth, Emperor Chongzhen see than his own life and the mountains and rivers of the Ming Dynasty are important. From the second year of Chongzhen, the ministers recommended that he use internal funds to relief, but Chongzhen Emperor insisted that "funds hidden in the wash", and even squeezed out a few tears. Beijing was surrounded by layers, he preferred to let the soldiers defending the city starve, rather than use money to encourage the soldiers defending the city. Ministers repeatedly pleaded with him to put up his personal fortune to pay for his army, but he cried to them, "The private funds have run out."
In desperation, Emperor Chongzhen asked the civil and military officials to donate without compensation. To that end, he also asked abbot Zhou Kui to put the country first by taking out 510 million taels of silver and taking the lead in advocating reimbursement of salaries, setting an example for civil and military officials. The richest emperor in the world refused to take money to protect his country, and how many officials were willing to take money out? Zhou Kui's family had more than 500,000 taels of cash, but she even cried poverty. Empress Zhou had no choice but to secretly take out 5,000 taels from the vault and give it to her father. Zhou Kui even deducted 2,000 taels from it and finally took out only 3,000 taels. The richest eunuch-in-chief in the palace only took out 10,000 out of his 120,000 private fortune; all the other rich officials were pretending to be poor. It was the poor people, in a cry, have tearfully donations, many are 300 gold, 400 gold. A city-wide collection finally raised 200,000 taels of silver. Nine oxen and one hair!
Until the city broke down, a life of thrift Chongzhen emperor also refused to take out a penny to defend his country. "The country is at stake, the emperor still spare those outside the body? If the skin does not exist, will the hair still be attached?" This is Li Banghua's last admonition to the Chongzhen emperor, the left capital of the advice, his words can not be understood more clearly. In order to save one million taels of silver, he lost 37 million taels of silver, even his own life and the value of the city of ten thousand. This is a simple account, but from a young smart and studious Chongzhen Emperor, until his death did not think to understand.