For a face-saving king like Emperor Chongzhen, it is an extreme embarrassment to be able to put down his dignity and raise money from ministers. However, in the face of the emperor's crying, the officials of civil and military affairs and the royal family were indifferent, crying for poverty collectively, and didn't care about the emperor's face, and didn't care that Li Zicheng's rebel army was approaching Beijing.
Wei Zaode, a cabinet official at that time, donated 520 yuan. Wang Zhixin, the richest eunuch, donated 12,000 yuan. What is even more exaggerated is that the most powerful people in Beijing began to cry for poverty, some pretended to sell houses, and some simply set up stalls in the street to hit Emperor Chongzhen in the face.
The funniest is Zhou Kui, father-in-law of Chongzhen, a corrupt official. Everyone knows that his family is worth millions, even Chongzhen knows. Chongzhen naively thought woe to him. As the ruler of the country, he and * * * shared the interests of the Ming royal family. How can he get more and set an example?
So Chongzhen asked the eunuch to tell Zhou Kui that he hoped he would donate 102,000 yuan. Hearing this, Zhou Kui cried her eyes out at once, and immediately began to perform, demolish houses and sell furniture in the market. Chongzhen was depressed, and the queen couldn't stand it. She quietly sold her jewelry and gave it to her father Zhou Kui, hoping that Zhou Kui would donate money.
What makes people laugh and cry is that Zhou Kui embezzled 2,200 yuan and only donated 3,200 yuan. Other civil and military officials are the same, and most of them are penniless. Finally, Chongzhen failed to raise money. Soon, Li Zicheng hit Beijing at the gates. Chongzhen had no money to recruit soldiers to defend the city, and even the salaries of the original soldiers were not paid, which led to the low morale of the soldiers guarding the city and the rapid fall of Beijing.
Why are officials, officials, royalty all broke? Is it because they have no money? No, they are all rich. Later, Li Zicheng plundered the officials of Beijing civil and military officials and got 7,200 pieces of silver. Zhang Guo Zhou Kui alone tortured more than 500,000 pieces of silver, as well as a large number of antique calligraphy and painting and real estate shops.
Nanjing, which is not influenced by Li Zicheng, is richer. Later, the Qing Dynasty invaded Jiangnan and plundered tens of millions of silver from these families. Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, hundreds of civil and military officials and relatives held more than 100 million taels of silver. Even if they donate 1%, Chongzhen may survive.
Then why don't they donate? For many civil servants, with the demise of the Ming Dynasty, they can change to a new master. As for the distinguished officials who share the rest of the country, there is no way for them to change to a new owner, because no new dynasty in history will retain the distinguished officials of the previous dynasty. In that case, why are those distinguished officials, waiters and uncles reluctant to donate?
The first is the reason of Emperor Chongzhen himself. He is not like a politician, but more like a literary youth full of ideals. He has always been extremely demanding of officials' virtue and capricious. In the face of Chongzhen's fundraising, some conscientious officials dare not donate even if they are willing to donate.
Because they are afraid of donating too much, Chongzhen will suspect them of corruption. And according to Chongzhen's temper, even if he didn't pursue it at that time, he would settle accounts with them later. So they dare not donate, and donating is to dig a hole for themselves. In short, Chongzhen's acting style more than ten years ago made officials unable to believe him. There is a lack of trust between monarch and minister, and the team cohesion is weak. When the disaster comes, everyone can't help each other, so they can only watch the ship sink together.
Coupled with the civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty and their relatives, they are the masters who take advantage of the country every day. They all donate land, do not pay taxes, occupy the land of military households and so on. It has become a habit that everyone has been taking advantage of it for hundreds of years. Suddenly one day, not only can we not take advantage, but we also have to pay for the country. Naturally, we are not used to it, and we are even more reluctant.
Finally, in the face of the catastrophe of national destruction, many people thought that they could land safely before the collapse of the Ming Dynasty, or found a new ship, and were unwilling to contribute to saving the Ming Dynasty. There are still many people who expect others not to save, thinking that they are no worse than themselves.
In fact, many dynasties have this scene when they die. For example, before the demise of the Qing dynasty, the family wealth of the Qing prince exceeded 100 million. He would rather bribe Yuan Shikai with money than support other Eight Banners nobles to save the country. During the period of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Kong Xiangxi, the premier of the National Government, had hundreds of millions of possessions. In the face of the tragic situation in China, he was not only unwilling to donate money, but also embezzled donations from overseas Chinese and sold military supplies.
These things are understood by the royalty of every dynasty, but once they happen, they are all on the old road of the previous generation. As the Qin dynasty said, future generations are overwhelmed with self-pity, and let future generations mourn for future generations. After Li Zicheng invaded Beijing, these penniless misers not only failed to keep their money, but also died. Later, when the Qing Dynasty set foot in China, wealthy businessmen who evaded taxes and embezzled state land paid the price for their greed with their own blood and lives.