Then, Wang Quan, who made great contributions in the Battle of Julu, was also rewarded and promoted from the third-rank guard commander to the second-rank commander Tongzhi, and was awarded General Zhaowu.

"Thank you Your Majesty! I swear to be loyal to Your Majesty!" Wang Quan also came out to express his gratitude.

Several generals under Li Guodong were awarded the reward, Han Dashan was promoted to general Zhaoyi; Zhang Wei was promoted to deputy general Huaiyuan; He Xing was promoted to deputy general... All the soldiers who made meritorious service were awarded the reward of the imperial court.

The court meeting reached its climax. Emperor Chongzhen issued a series of edicts. The civil and military officials in the square were in high spirits and were extremely excited. At this time, even if someone was dissatisfied with someone, no censor dared to come forward to impeach him. If it disturbed Chongzhen's good mood, he would not know how he died.

Finally, Emperor Chongzhen proposed that he took the lead and mobilized civil and military officials and nobles to donate silver. The court now lacked silver and needed silver to reward the officers and soldiers who had just defeated Jiannu. How much silver is needed for more than 30,000 heads? According to the cheapest price, a head level costs twenty taels of silver, and only silver rewards cost nearly seven hundred thousand taels of silver. Where did Chongzhen get so much silver? This reward was not much. During the Tianqi period, a Jiannu level could reach fifty taels of silver at the highest! What's more, this time, there was a fake prince level, a Beile level, and a bunch of Jiannu's heads. In addition, the court owed the military pay for the army of kings and guards, and all these required silver.

In addition to rewarding silver and military pay, it also helps disaster victims and repairing damaged cities. All this requires silver, but Chongzhen's inner treasury is empty enough to run away mice!

When he heard that Emperor Chongzhen was asking for money, all the civil and military officials and nobles in the court were all dead. They were just talking, and they immediately calmed down and everyone stopped talking.

The ministers secretly complained in their hearts: Shameless and foolish monarch! He asked for money! That's not possible. The country belongs to your Zhu family. If the country is lost, it's all our business? But if the money is kept in our own pocket, it's our own thing. How can we take it out for you, the monarch?

Seeing that everyone was not talking, Wang Chengen, who had already received instructions from Emperor Chongzhen, was the first to stand up: "Your Majesty, I am willing to donate ten thousand taels of silver!"

After saying that, Wang Chengen himself asked the eunuch to record it on a piece of paper.

"Your Majesty, I am willing to donate 50,000 taels of silver!" Li Guodong also stood up and spoke.

"Okay! Li Aiqing is really a loyal and kind person in the Ming Dynasty!" Emperor Chongzhen was so moved that he burst into tears.

"Bah! This treacherous villain! What's the point at this time!"

"I didn't expect that this kid was so rich!"

"I heard that he gave His Majesty a lot of things."

"This person seems to have many industries under his name, and he makes money every day."

Some officials began to whisper and talk, greeting all the women of the 18th generation of Li Guodong's ancestors.

Next, a group of nobles led by the Duke of England had to stand up and expressed their willingness to donate silver, but only a few hundred taels to five thousand taels, not much at all.

Among the civil servants, Lu Xiangsheng stood up and expressed his willingness to donate 10,000 taels of silver.

"This Lu Jiutai is really a great contribution, and he was dismissed from office and had to donate money!"

"Isn't this not giving us face? Taking money is like killing parents!"

Although Lu Xiangsheng was a member of the Donglin Party, he was not popular among civil officials. In real history, he offended too many court officials, so Emperor Chongzhen watched him die.

Seeing that the civil servants could no longer remain silent, they also stood up one after another, some said they were willing to donate dozens of taels of silver, some donated hundreds of taels, and the most was only one thousand taels. To put it bluntly, they were just pretending. In fact, these civil servants had hundreds of thousands of taels of silver at home, and some were rich enough to rival the country. Seeing the donations from those civil servants, Chongzhen's face turned dark.

Seeing that Zhou Kui, the father-in-law Zhou Kui, was not moving, and could not bear to see, Wang Chengen stepped forward and said, "Brother Zhou, I don't want to say something, but you are the father-in-law after all. Although the world of the Ming Dynasty belongs to the emperor, the empress is your daughter. If the world is over and the empress is over, will you bear to see the country of Ming Dynasty lost? The soldiers who came to Beijing to serve the king are still waiting for military pay? Don't you tell me if you don't?"

"Oh, Eunuch Wang, you don't know that the court has not paid any salary for many years. My family is poor and I really can't get any money. However, I always like to farm and have 500 taels of silver in my family. Today I am willing to hand over it all to contribute to the country." Zhou Kui lied without changing his face.

"Okay! I'll write it down to Mr. Zhou, five hundred taels of silver." Wang Chengen snorted coldly and turned his head to shout.

Zhou Kui felt so distressed. The 500 taels of silver in his family had lost it! Although his family only deposited more than 2 million taels of silver, as well as various jewelry, industries, IOUs, etc., the total property was no less than 5 million taels, but who would think that the silver was too much?

"Oh! How could my father be so stingy? He had millions of taels of silver at home, but he actually donated only five hundred taels, but he was forced out by the prince." No one noticed that a figure behind the screen said resentfully, and that person was Queen Zhou.

Yang Sichang and Chen Xinjia were quite loyal. Yang Sichang took out 15,000 taels and the other one took out 10,000 taels. But even so, Li Guodong secretly calculated that he had raised only more than 200,000 taels in total, which was far from the goal of raising one million taels today. In fact, he knew very well that it was impossible to raise funds from those stingy guys to one million taels.

This time, Li Guodong taught Emperor Chongzhen to initiate the fundraising, which in fact led to the fundraising for the 17th year of Chongzhen, so that Emperor Chongzhen could see with his own eyes what the so-called loyal and kind people he trusted were.

The young eunuch registered by Wang Chengen ordered the counting of the results, which made Emperor Chongzhen extremely dissatisfied: "It's only more than 200,000 taels, and even the military pay owed is far from the amount! Among these more than 200,000 taels, Li Aiqing alone accounts for one quarter of the amount! There are also 10,000 taels of Wang's companion, 10,000 taels of Lu Aiqing, 10,000 taels of Yang Aiqing, and 8,000 taels of Chen Aiqing, so what about the others?"

"Your Majesty, I really don't have any money in my family! I am willing to donate fifty taels, but I have to go home and sell it."

"Your Majesty, I have paid 100 taels and it has already lost all my money."

"Your Majesty, you know, how many silver is the salary of the court a year? I have donated eighty taels."

Emperor Chongzhen looked dark: "My dear friends, I have decided to sell the palace items to collect military pay and disaster relief funds. Dear friends, you can write books and go home to find local rich people to raise funds. Some people even have their hometown in Nanzhili. I heard that Nanzhili is rich in the world. It should not be difficult to find someone to raise some money, right?"
Chapter completed!