Fu Shanhe

Chapter 546 A Superficial Alliance

As the year draws to a close, the entire city of Nanjing is filled with festive joy, but the officials of the court are all frowning.

The escalation of the factional struggle took everyone by surprise.

Initially, everyone joined in the commotion, essentially to put pressure on the cabinet in hopes of gaining more power.

Decades ago, a trend of thought emerged in the Jiangnan region to limit the power of the monarch.

It circulated widely among scholars in the south, but everyone just treated it as a joke.

At that time, the imperial power was at its peak, and it was fine for people to complain in private, but no one dared to bring it up in the imperial court.

As the nation declined, the situation gradually changed.

Hoping for wise rulers to emerge generation after generation, even if the smoke from the ancestral graves rises dry, is probably impossible.

Since the quality of the emperor cannot be guaranteed, then we should find ways to limit imperial power so that the empire can be passed down forever.

As beneficiaries, everyone can also enjoy wealth and prosperity forever.

Emperor Yongning's reckless actions created favorable conditions for the spread of this central idea.

After the officials deposed the emperor, some scholars began to sell "theories on limiting imperial power" to the cabinet, and these theories gained the support of some court officials.

The biggest supporter of this group is the Jiangnan Gentry Group.

If the country continues to be peaceful and prosperous, allowing the previous cabinet to govern for more than a decade.

When the emperor takes personal control of the government, in order to avoid being purged, those cabinet ministers might actually come up with a "Great Yu version of constitutional monarchy".

The suppression of the Jiangnan gentry group by the noble faction, in conjunction with various factions in the court, brought this movement to its lowest point.

The rebellion of the Liaodong army further jeopardized the "movement to restrict imperial power".

As the imperial court moved south, the situation gradually changed again.

Everyone suddenly realized that the current situation in the Great Yu Dynasty was similar to that before.

Both involved young monarchs and cabinet regents.

If one wants to limit imperial power, now is undoubtedly the best opportunity.

Once the young emperor comes of age, it will be impossible to promote this movement again.

Moreover, the cabinet members are also motivated to push this matter forward.

If rules could be established to weaken the emperor's power, the biggest beneficiaries would be the cabinet members who assisted in governing the court, followed by the officials in the court.

After all, the struggle between imperial power and the power of the prime minister has never stopped over the past few thousand years.

The idea was a bit unconventional, but the potential benefits were too great.

What was supposed to be a win-win situation turned into a major setback when it reached the cabinet.

It wasn't that the cabinet ministers were determined to uphold imperial power, but rather that the current situation simply didn't warrant doing so.

It's easy to give away power, but it's incredibly difficult to take it back.

The imperial court already struggled to control local powers; if the sanctity of imperial authority were further undermined, it would be even more helpless against local governors and viceroys.

Light grants officials greater power without requiring them to bear corresponding obligations; any normal person knows that this kind of system cannot be sustained in the long run.

The cabinet's concerns stem from a holistic perspective, but individual officials clearly do not share this view.

In their view, once they came up with a new way to put the imperial power in a cage, they would be invincible.

No matter how corrupt you are, you don't need to worry about losing your head.

Even the biggest mess can be resolved through connections and relationships.

With their first-mover advantage, they have woven a vast network that will ensure their endless wealth and prosperity as long as the Great Yu Dynasty exists.

If one day the empire is ruined, we can simply replace it with a new emperor.

It's difficult to fool the founding monarch with this incomplete theory, but there were bound to be a few emperors who weren't quite right in the head afterward.

The cabinet's unwillingness to take risks led the faction that sought to limit imperial power to side with local governors and viceroys.

In addition to following the central government's route, a major policy can also be promoted through local channels.

Bottom-up reforms, though difficult, ultimately offer hope for success.

From the perspective of these officials, they believed that if the reform succeeded, the empire would gain strong support from the feudal landlord class.

The nation's current decline will be reborn as the ruling group reunites.

As for deeper social contradictions, because they involve personal interests, people choose to ignore them.

……

The governors of Sichuan, Fujian, Huguang, Yunnan, and Guizhou jointly submitted a memorial to resist the imperial court's personnel transfers.

Although the governors of Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Southern Zhili did not explicitly oppose the move, they did raise their concerns.

The rotation of military commanders also encountered setbacks.

Local generals presented a host of reasons to reject the imperial court's personnel reshuffle.

He Zhengze said with a gloomy expression.

This was the first large-scale personnel reshuffle led by the cabinet since Li Mu stepped down as prime minister, and it ended up being a major setback.

Not only did the cabinet's reputation suffer, but the Ministry of Personnel, which was in charge of personnel appointments, was put in a very difficult position.

The Ministry of Personnel's transfer order could not determine the whereabouts of officials, which was the first time since the founding of the Great Yu Dynasty.

In the past, even if officials were dissatisfied with the court's personnel appointments, they would only resort to underhanded tactics.

Putting things out in the open and openly confronting the cabinet was something that would have been completely unimaginable before.

Unfortunately, these people all wield real power, and without sufficient justification, the cabinet cannot easily remove them.

"As expected, who would want to leave their stronghold so easily when they're doing so well as local tyrants?"
Our personnel adjustments, while seemingly in accordance with regulations, are essentially a diversionary tactic.

With the experience of those old foxes, they can easily see through our scheme.

I just didn't expect these guys to dare to jump out and openly oppose the imperial court!

Shi Qingchen said calmly.

Compared to other cabinet ministers, he, as the head of the Ministry of War, encountered similar situations more often.

As early as the period of suppressing the White Lotus Rebellion, the government troops at the front often outwardly complied with the imperial court's orders but inwardly defied them, selectively carrying them out.

However, these problems were overshadowed by a series of good news reports.

The battlefield is ever-changing, and frontline commanders can adapt to changing circumstances, which is theoretically entirely plausible.

With such a distinguished record, the imperial court couldn't say anything.

As the aristocratic faction grew in power and gradually gained dominance in the court, they redefined these seemingly insignificant old scores.

His dark past has been completely whitewashed, and his disobedience back then has become a celebrated story.

However, once a bad precedent is set, there will be a second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth...

When it happens too often, it becomes the norm.

"If the personnel transfer fails, then all our previous plans will be meaningless."

For a short time, everyone's attention was drawn to the personnel changes, but it won't be long before they turn their attention back to the "return of the capital to Beijing".

Public opinion, both within and outside the government, is very unfavorable to us.

If we forcefully suppress this matter, I'm afraid we won't be able to explain it to all parties!

Bai Jinwen said with a worried expression.

Being able to offer sacrifices to Heaven in Beijing is definitely better than in Nanjing.

Even though Dayu adopted a dual-capital strategy, Nanjing ultimately played the role of a secondary capital, and its political appeal was always inferior to that of Beijing.

The Ministry of Rites was in a very awkward position on this issue.

As the government office in charge of rites and sacrifices, their support for establishing the capital in Nanjing was itself a violation of the established ritual system.

However, one's position is determined by one's status; this is the norm in officialdom.

If he were merely the Minister of Rites, he would certainly be the one to lead the petition demanding the return of the capital to Beijing.

But now Bai Jinwen's identity is first and foremost that of a cabinet minister, and only secondly that of the Minister of Rites. So politically, he naturally has to prioritize the overall strategy.

"No matter how much pressure there is, we must persevere."

If the capital were to be moved back to Beijing, the annual defense expenditure alone would need to increase by at least 15 million taels of silver.

If the northern barbarians invade the south, the imperial court's military expenditures will increase even more.

Moreover, the reconstruction of the northern provinces also requires a large investment of money and grain.

In a short period of time, the imperial court simply could not come up with that much money and grain.

Rather than blindly returning the capital, it would be better to stay in Nanjing and build up strength.

As for the northern provinces, we only need to cooperate with the Annam Protectorate's immigration work.

With the local population decreasing, the amount of disaster relief grain and post-war reconstruction funds required from the imperial court naturally decreased.

Given the current state of the north's weakened economy, I reckon the northern barbarians have no interest in plundering!

Wan Huaijin said with a serious expression, "Managing the affairs of the Great Yu Dynasty is not easy, especially for the Ministry of Revenue, which controls the purse strings; they always feel that there isn't enough money or grain."

Since Emperor Yongning ascended the throne, the imperial treasury has never had a surplus; deficits have become the norm.

In order to cut spending on food and grain, the Ministry of Revenue often used paper money to cover the salaries of members of the imperial family, nobles, and local officials.

Fortunately, no one was relying on their salaries for food, otherwise they would have starved to death.

In this process, the most miserable were the lower-ranking members of the royal family.

Constrained by the clan management system, there were not many things they could do.

When the family divided their property, they didn't receive any real estate and relied on the government's salary to survive.

When paper money replaced silver, salaries became practically worthless.

In order to survive, many members of the imperial clan had to use connections to change their imperial clan status to civilian status.

Faced with heavy financial pressure, neither the emperor nor his ministers paid any attention to these petty tricks.

As a result, in just over a decade, the number of members of the Great Yu imperial family plummeted from over 800,000 at its peak to less than 100,000.

And this number is continuing to decline.

Of course, only the number of people registered in government offices has decreased; the actual population decline is not that dramatic.

No matter how down on their luck a member of the imperial clan may be, they still have several prominent relatives.

They could sell themselves into servitude to the royal court, or find a job through relatives, or if all else failed, they could join the ranks of immigrants.

Compared to ordinary people, their overall lives are still a little better.

Having cut the budget to this extent, the path of cost-cutting has essentially come to an end.

Open source? Just listen to it, don't take it too seriously.

Apart from the successful tax reform that was forcibly implemented when the aristocratic faction was in power, all subsequent measures have ended in failure.

Seeing the enormous profits from maritime trade, the imperial court also organized fleets to sail to Southeast Asia.

They did a lot of business, but when it came time to settle accounts at the end of the year, they were found to have lost a fortune.

It was either the silk that got moldy, the tea that got damp, or the porcelain that was broken by the wind and waves.

Regardless of whether the imperial court believed it or not, the officially organized overseas trade ultimately ended in failure.

It wasn't just trade that lost money; even the renowned textile bureaus and imperial kilns became money-losing businesses.

The mines, large and small, suffered devastating losses.

After several fruitless investigations, the imperial court was forced to abandon its plan to open up new avenues of revenue.

Income is not growing, but expenses are continuing to increase.

Whether they like it or not, the cost of ruling the Great Yu in various regions continues to rise.

Against this backdrop, allowing Li Mu to recruit immigrants became the only option for the cabinet to resolve internal conflicts.

With a smaller population, fewer people share resources, and social conflicts will be alleviated accordingly.

The aftermath was that land annexation in Dayu became increasingly severe.

Even though the imperial court purged the Jiangnan gentry group, it only temporarily curbed the wave of land annexation and did not change its core nature.

Once new interest groups form, they will continue down the same old path and continue to engage in mergers and acquisitions.

There was no way around it; the ruling class was expanding at a rate far exceeding the rate at which the people were creating wealth.

In an era that valued having many children and good fortune, families who didn't have several children were embarrassed to go out and meet others.

Some powerful and wealthy families even had dozens of sons.

You can't expect the next generation to be left to starve just because the father is powerful and wealthy!

To ensure their comfortable lives, it is necessary to acquire more resources and wealth.

Compared to developing other industries, land was the most stable asset in the agricultural era.

If you lack the confidence to solve the fundamental problems, you can only try to maintain the status quo.

The current cabinet is just a bunch of plasterers; they patch up wherever the Great Yu Dynasty leaks air.

……

Kingdom of Myanmar.

"Why are there so few people?"

Looking at the mercenary group in front of him, the Burmese king questioned them with a displeased expression.

To counter the Annam Protectorate, the Kingdom of Burma mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops.

The European colonists, who were allies, only sent a force of a little over a thousand men, and they even had to pay for it.

Such pettiness made it hard for him to believe that this was the full support of European allies.

"Your Majesty, Europe is far away, and these are merely reinforcements from the colonies."

Further reinforcements are still en route, and the total force is expected to be no less than 10,000.

Dutch representative Denberg replied with a serious expression.

For a colonial empire, being able to deploy a force of 10,000 men overseas was an absolute major undertaking at the time.

It took the combined efforts of several major colonial empires to assemble this team.

If it were just the Kingdom of the Netherlands, sending a thousand-strong force to reinforce Burma would be considered a major undertaking.

Unfortunately, the definitions of "grand scale" are completely different between the East and the West.

The Kingdom of Myanmar has a unique geographical location, with two neighboring behemoth empires.

Both the Great Yu Empire and the Mughal Empire could easily mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops.

These colonists from Europe were so arrogant from the start that the Burmese king regarded them as equals to the two behemoth empires.

Even if they launch a long and arduous expedition, they don't need to solve the logistical problems from home.

It's not unreasonable for one family to send tens of thousands of troops to help!

When there is a significant gap between psychological expectations and reality, a sense of disappointment arises immediately.

"Sir Fendenberge only has a force of ten thousand men; that's far too small a force."

You should know that after receiving news of the invasion of the Great Yu, we sent people to persuade the Mughal Empire, and they agreed to send 100,000 reinforcements.

As your most sincere allies, you can't be worse than a mere neighbor!

The Burmese king's words put the European colonists in a very awkward position.

They sent 100,000 troops from continental Europe to fight a war in Asia that had no direct interest to them.

Anyone who dares to make such a suggestion to the domestic authorities would probably be treated like a madman by the nobles and gentry.

Even if the cost is shared among five families, each family would still have to send 20,000 troops on average.

Great European powers like Britain, France, and Spain could barely manage to endure it if they gritted their teeth.

Neither the Netherlands nor Portugal, these two small countries, have a combined standing army strength of 20,000 on their own soil.

In theory, mercenaries can be used.

The problem is that there aren't many mercenary groups willing to take on these bizarre missions.

Even if someone were to take the job, they would have to pay a high premium, which the Kingdom of Myanmar simply couldn't afford.

"Your Majesty, there is an old saying among the people of the Yu Dynasty: 'The quality of an army is more important than its quantity.'"

Don't underestimate this force of just over a thousand men; on the battlefield, they are capable of defeating enemy forces ten times their size.

Antonio began to explain.

The disdain in his eyes betrayed his contempt for the King of Burma.

Focusing solely on the quantity of troops while completely ignoring quality is a typical example of indigenous thinking.

Ten thousand European colonial troops would have difficulty defeating the Great Yu Dynasty, but they would be qualified to contend with a regional power like the Kingdom of Burma.

If it weren't for a common enemy, he wouldn't bother wasting his breath on such a bumpkin.

"I hope so!"

The King of Burma responded with a displeased expression.

Deep down, his expectations of these European allies plummeted.

He'd seen people brag before, but he'd never seen anyone so shameless.

To claim you can defeat ten times your number of enemies on the battlefield? You really dare to say that!

As neighbors, they had already experienced Yu Jun's fighting prowess firsthand.

Without several times the number of troops, the frontline commanders lacked the courage to launch an attack.

Let these Westerners have a go, let them know what's what, and stop them from being so arrogant.

(End of this chapter)