Zhu Yuanzhang Returns from Modern Times

Chapter 243 Zhu Yuanzhang grinned...

Empress Ma was completely stunned by what Zhu Yuanzhang said, and her heart was filled with great turmoil.

How did it turn out like this?
How did military generals end up like this?

How spirited and vigorous these generals and nobles of the Ming Dynasty are now!

Empress Ma felt this deeply.

That's why scholars would feel inferior to military generals.

The difference between what Chongba said and what he said was enormous.

It reached a point that was simply unimaginable.

Could it be that Chongba later took over the military power of the generals, or that the fourth prince later took over the military power of the generals?

Should we follow the example of the Song Dynasty and use civil officials to control the military?
After such a thought crossed Empress Ma's mind, she immediately shook her head and rejected it.

That's impossible; it shouldn't be like that.

With the painful lessons of the Song Dynasty in mind, who would dare to do such a thing again?
Who would be so bold as to risk their life?
If that's the case, then why does this situation still occur?
He put it down and wanted to speak, asking his own Chongba.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang's voice rang out first.

"Girl, you have no idea what our Great Ming Dynasty became like later on!"
Anything that's been ruined is unusable!
Those people are truly beasts!

Zhu Yuanzhang's voice was filled with indignation; he wanted to curse whenever these things were mentioned.

"When the Tartars entered the pass, they called on all armies to come to the capital to defend the emperor."

For example, the group that Li Zicheng followed hadn't even reached the capital when the Tartars dispersed, so another order came in, telling them to go back to where they came from.

After all that trouble with the large number of soldiers, they not only received no pay or rations, but were also left without food.

It's infuriating just thinking about it.

Shanxi and other regions have experienced consecutive years of severe drought, leaving people destitute.

The imperial court not only refused to provide relief, but also continued to levy taxes, and even planned to increase them.

While levying taxes, they also sent troops to suppress rebellions, and the number of people rebelling grew larger and larger.

Are all those ordinary people really troublemakers?
Do they all really deserve to be killed?
In our opinion, that's not the case.

Many of them have been driven to desperation by the ways of the world, unable to survive.

Shouldn't they rebel?
Honestly, we're not angry that they rebelled.

On the contrary, we can understand it. Weren't we also unable to survive, so we joined the rebellion?
If they rebel at this time, they are justified in their rebellion!
High-ranking officials in the imperial court, the emperor, and local government officials cannot expect the common people to starve to death one by one.
Why don't they just stay home and wait to starve to death, instead of rebelling and causing trouble?

This is clearly incorrect.

If someone is completely inhuman, they deserve to be beheaded!

When Zhu Yuanzhang said this, his eyes involuntarily turned a little red.

He was truly furious about this.

"The fields were littered with corpses of the starving, people were exchanging their own children to eat, and there was no sign of human habitation for thousands of miles..."

"Girl, this has happened again, and it happened right here in our Great Ming Dynasty!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's voice was filled with sorrow, and his fists clenched involuntarily.

Gnashing teeth in hatred.

Upon hearing this, Empress Ma reached out and grasped Zhu Yuanzhang's hand.

She could understand why Chongba would react this way.

My family, led by Chongba, lived through the chaos of the late Yuan Dynasty.

He struggled out of that cannibalistic era and became emperor.

Having endured much hardship, he longed to change the Ming Dynasty and prevent such things from happening again.

But the result was still the same.

It appeared in the Ming Dynasty, which was founded by Chongba himself!
How could Chongba possibly endure it?
“Chongba, this…this is the scene at the end of every dynasty.”

If that weren't the case, how could the Ming Dynasty have possibly perished?
The other dynasties also managed to persist for a long time.

Upon hearing Empress Ma's words, Zhu Yuanzhang took a deep breath and nodded: "Sister, you are right. If everyone can survive, who would have nothing better to do than risk their life and rebel with a knife?"

Isn't that just asking for trouble?

The people did the right thing, but the thought that such a thing happened in our Great Ming still makes me feel uneasy…

"The imperial court was short of money, so Emperor Chongzhen implemented measures to increase revenue and reduce expenditure in order to solve this problem."

One way to cut costs was to massively reduce the number of postal workers in our Great Ming Dynasty.

The secure jobs of those courier workers were thus suddenly gone.

Many people who could not survive joined the rebellion.

This included Li Zicheng.

When Zhu Yuanzhang talked about this, he felt complicated and even wanted to curse.

When things get to that point, instead of trying to collect taxes, they're resorting to this kind of cost-cutting.

This is clearly not a wise move.

Cutting costs is fine, but to do it by cutting into the post stations and rendering them useless is incredibly foolish.

He's so stupid that you just want to give him a good beating.

Is this something that can be eliminated?

From local areas to the imperial court, and from the imperial court to local areas, the vast majority of information exchange and the transmission of orders relied on this system.

It was the most important way to maintain contact between the imperial court and the local areas.

By that time, due to various reasons, the connection between the imperial court and the local governments had already become very weak.

The transmission of commands, as well as other aspects, have been greatly affected.

At that moment, Emperor Chongzhen chopped it down with a knife.

Isn't that just asking for trouble?
This is no different from suicide.

The Ming Dynasty was already a broken-down vehicle, on the verge of collapse.

As a result, Emperor Chongzhen, who was driving the carriage, swung his axe and chopped the carriage several times.

If you really want to cut costs, this isn't how you do it.

There are so many incompetent and corrupt officials, why not crack down on a whole bunch of them?

Dealing with those people will not only not harm the foundation of the Ming Dynasty, but will also make the Ming Dynasty more relaxed.

However, he didn't dare to take action in that direction, but instead went to target the seemingly easy target, which was actually very important.

With one stroke of the knife, Li Zicheng was revealed, and he felt satisfied.

It can only be said that those who become rulers of fallen kingdoms are either puppet emperors or child emperors.

As for the others, they each had their own reasons.

"As for open source, Chongzhen also did the same."

However, his open-source projects, while not exactly unexpected, were enough to make people grit their teeth in anger.

The region was in chaos, the people were suffering, and the imperial court had no money.

What can we do if we don't even have the money to fight a war?

Additional taxes were levied, such as the additional Liaodong tax.

They demand even more money from the already impoverished people.

Many people were already living a life of unbearable hardship.

This incident made it impossible for even more people to survive.

Thus, he joined the ranks of the rebels.

When Zhu Yuanzhang talked about this, his eyes reddened.

He died because of the constant natural disasters at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Instead of providing disaster relief, the Yuan Dynasty increased taxes one after another, leading to the destruction of his family.

He desperately didn't want the Ming Dynasty to go down that same path.

But things didn't go as planned. He single-handedly created the Ming Dynasty, but later on, he followed the same path.

How many people have been forced to the point of losing their families and lives, just like their own?
All these things are infuriating to think about.

"Girl, do you think he's stupid or not?"
The most important reason why the imperial court was short of money was that it could no longer afford to collect taxes from various sources.

If the court wants to have money, shouldn't it be collecting the taxes that couldn't be collected?

Shouldn't the focus be on these numerous high-ranking officials, gentry, and wealthy merchants?
They are the ones with money; the common people have long been squeezed dry, leaving them with nothing but bones.

But they still wouldn't let it go; they still wanted to get rid of even the last bit of bone marrow!

They all thought that ordinary people were easy to bully, that they could only submit to whatever came their way, and that they were pushovers.

Trying to get close to those high-ranking officials and dignitaries would face too much resistance.

However, they had no idea that simply beheading those dignitaries was enough.

Even if things get messy, it won't be that big of a deal.

Only by relentlessly pressuring the people will real trouble arise, causing many to lose their positions and even their lives.

It even led to our Zhu family losing our empire!
Those who can do all this are the people they feel they can bully and exploit at will!

"The ruler is the boat, and the people are the water; water can carry the boat, but it can also capsize it."

This was said a long time ago, but even now, so many people still don't care.

They always felt that the common people could suffer even more, and that the common people were easy to bully.

They were all wrong; the common people are the ones who are truly not to be trifled with.

If you really anger them, it could lead to a regime change, a complete upheaval!

Empress Ma naturally knew her son, Chongba, and what he said made sense; that was the gist of the matter.

But how many people can keep these things in mind?
And can it be put into action?

For many people, taking action against officials is extremely difficult.

But when it comes to taking action against ordinary people, it's very easy—just a matter of a few words.

We can't always think about making the people suffer.

People like Chongba, who possess both great courage and ability, are ultimately few and far between.

As a result, the people eventually suffered greatly.

"Besides those high-ranking officials and nobles who frantically seized land and engaged in large-scale land annexation, the imperial family of our Great Ming Dynasty also faced a host of problems in the later stages. Ordinary members of the imperial family lived a miserable life, subjected to all kinds of exploitation and restrictions."

Some even returned to their family's profession of begging.

However, many direct descendants of the main clans live incredibly carefree and comfortable lives.

They annexed vast amounts of land, harmed the people, and still received large salaries every year.

It became a giant bloodsucking worm.

Of course, the salaries of those numerous princes and vassals cannot be calculated solely based on the figures on paper.

On paper, it seems like a lot, but in reality, the amount they actually receive is not that much.

The imperial court was short of money and couldn't even afford to eat.

How could we possibly pay them the full amount?
Therefore, it was perfectly normal for the princes and vassals to be owed their salaries.

The greatest threat posed by the royal families came from the major royal families.

They engaged in large-scale land annexation, oppressed the people, and refused to pay taxes to the imperial court.

For example, illegally opening mines, casting weapons and armor, and minting coins for resale.

These were perfectly normal practices for the feudal lords.

Later on, the vassal kings not only failed to protect the royal family, but instead became a major cancer.

It posed too many dangers to the Ming Dynasty.

For example, Prince Fu, the son of Emperor Wanli, was like that.

That person is truly inhuman in every way.

Emperor Wanli bestowed upon him numerous lands and riches, granting him a vast fortune.

This person has a particularly short-sighted perspective.

The bandits have already reached our doorstep, but we have no money to pay our soldiers. We asked him to contribute some money to pay the army so that we could use it to defend the city, but he refused.

The subsequent result was equally pleasing to the eye.

The bandits breached the city and swept away all its wealth.

As for myself, I was also arrested and made into a kind of porridge, which was then distributed to the people.

To this, all we can say is, they deserved it!

Zhu Yuanzhang was furious when he brought this up again.

The shortsightedness of the feudal princes, who are parasites on the country, is evident from this example.

However, if you put yourself in their shoes, it's not impossible to understand.

After all, the world doesn't belong to these vassal kings.

Since the emperor ruled the country, the emperor should naturally be the one to pay for it.

These people, unable to obtain the throne, are already suffering enough as vassal kings, forced to live a life of meager hardship. To expect them to contribute money, grain, and manpower to help quell the rebellion is unacceptable.

How could that possibly work?

Something's not right with this account.

"So, Chongba, you want to solve this problem by enfeoffing the princes of my Great Ming Dynasty overseas?"

Empress Ma paused for a moment, then looked at Zhu Yuanzhang and said.

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded: "Sister, that's exactly right."

The problem with the vassal kings was enormous; it remained serious from the beginning until later.
It is unrealistic to expect vassal kings to protect the royal family; it will only bring many troubles in the future.

Therefore, it's better to enfeoff them outside the region.

Empress Ma nodded in understanding.

"The corruption is even more appalling."

From top to bottom, it's almost fair to say that there's no one who isn't greedy.

Back then, greed was the norm, and those who weren't greedy were extremely rare.

They are greedy for everything; they only care about money and not their lives.

The situation at the front was urgent, and Emperor Chongzhen had to sell everything he owned to scrape together some money to distribute to the soldiers.

As a result, before the money even left the capital, half of it was gone.

When they arrived in Liaodong, the distribution went down layer by layer, and by the time it reached the soldiers, less than one tenth of the original amount was actually distributed.

Tell me, how could the Ming Dynasty not perish?

How can you expect so many soldiers to willingly risk their lives for the court and fight against those enemies?

"These people... these people..."

Empress Ma was so angry that she didn't know what to say for a moment.

There isn't a single one with foresight!

"Zhongba, where are your 'skin-peeling and straw-packing' policies? Where are your strict regulations against corrupt officials? Why are they all useless now?"

Empress Ma could naturally guess a lot, but she still couldn't help but ask.

What I heard was infuriating: the fighting at the front was intense, but there was no food or pay to be distributed.

The emperor finally managed to raise some money, only to have it embezzled layer by layer...

This was something that Empress Ma truly found hard to accept!

Compared to the strict regulations and methods used by the Chongba clan to deal with corrupt officials, this is even more unacceptable.

The impact was too great!
Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang laughed and said, "Sister, she's long gone. She was deposed long ago by those many honest and upright people who were ashamed to mention money."

By the time of Zhu Youcheng, it had been abolished.

Even if you embezzle too much, you won't die.

Girl, all the ancestral precepts we established have also been ruined by these scoundrels.

If it's in their interest, they'll absolutely not mention it.

But if anything doesn't align with their interests, a whole host of scoundrels immediately jump out, bringing up ancestral laws and various other arguments.

That's truly inhuman!

I really want to chop all these bastards up, one by one!

Speaking of these things, Zhu Yuanzhang gritted his teeth in hatred.

These people have gone too far!
They try every means to erode our interests and act inhumanely.

They single-handedly brought down the Ming Dynasty.

Empress Ma also appeared heavy-hearted and couldn't help but sigh again.

That's how it is in governing a country; there are many things that leave people helpless.

If Chongba had been emperor, he would naturally have been able to manage many things.

The key point is that all of these things happened later.

All one can do is get angry; there's nothing else one can do about it.

She understood Chongba's feelings all too well.

Even I, upon hearing what Chongba said, became so angry.

Not to mention Chongba, who single-handedly founded the Ming Dynasty, hated evil as if it were his enemy, and could not tolerate any injustice.

It's normal to feel an urge to curse when these things are brought up.

"Girl, you have no idea what kind of state those people's sons have become."

Leaving aside Liaodong and other such areas, and not even mentioning the vassal kings for now.

Just considering the urgent situation that followed, Li Zicheng led his troops all the way to Beiping (Beijing).

They shouted things like, "Eat its mother, drink its mother, those who come from the rebel king will not pay taxes."

Wherever it went, the people lined the streets in response, and it was invincible.

They were closing in on the capital.

The situation is extremely critical; it is as urgent as it gets.

However, there weren't enough troops in the capital, and the imperial court still lacked funds.

Emperor Chongzhen called on everyone to donate money to recruit soldiers and provide them with food and pay to defend the city.

But in the end, no one was willing to pay.

Emperor Chongzhen sought out Zhou Kui, the emperor's father-in-law at the time, and wanted Zhou Kui to take the lead in donating 100,000 taels of silver.

But Zhou Kui kept complaining about being poor and was only willing to take 10,000 taels.

Later, the Empress couldn't stand it anymore and squeezed out five thousand taels from her and gave it to Zhou Kui in private, asking Zhou Kui to donate fifteen thousand taels.

As it turned out, that bastard only donated 13,000 taels.

They withheld another two thousand taels.

The rest of the people donated in small amounts, such as five hundred taels here, ten taels there, or several tens of taels there.

It wasn't even as much as the eunuchs took out.

Many people have come up with all sorts of ways to deal with this, including all sorts of pleading poverty.

As soon as the news of the imperial court's fundraising campaign came out, many officials and others immediately brought out their furniture and other belongings from their homes.

They sell them on the street.

This was to highlight that they were truly broke, showing how desperate they had been forced into this situation by the imperial court.

Even with the emperor personally intervening and the army closing in, only 200,000 taels of silver were raised in total…

Empress Ma was stunned once again upon hearing this, astonished by the actions of these people.

If those officials could still hope for a change of dynasty...

But what did those imperial relatives think?
Do you really think that those people will treat them well after they capture the capital?
They still have such good days to live?

"and after?"

Empress Ma inquired.

Zhu Yuanzhang grinned...

(End of this chapter)