Ming Dynasty entry: I am Chongzhen, the greatest emperor of all time!

Chapter 118 Rebuilding the Liaodong Defense Line
The new policy framework is clearly outlined, with the most significant being the abolition of the cabinet system that had been in place for 240 years since the Ming Dynasty!

It was reorganized into the Government Administration Council, which was divided into six departments: Personnel Administration, Civil Administration, Finance, Public Works and Construction, Education, and Foreign Affairs.

The Grand Council was established to hold overall military power, and its members were to jointly decide on matters involving nobles, border generals, and officials of the Censorate.

The Integrity Council was expanded into three councils and sixteen circuits, with additional Integrity Commissioners appointed for Maritime Trade, Salt and Iron, and Land Reclamation.

A separate Advisory Council was established, composed of retired senior officials and local elders. All policies proposed by the State Council required the approval of half of the Advisory Council members before they could be implemented.

The State Council was in charge of administration and major strategies, the Grand Council was in charge of military affairs, and the Anti-Corruption Bureau had become a steel knife hanging over the heads of all walks of life in the Ming Dynasty.

The Zizheng Yuan was a result of Zhu Youjian's compromise. At present, the Ming Dynasty was unable to carry out any form of reform, whether in terms of ideology or domestic production capacity.

Therefore, the landlord class and the scholar-official class would inevitably exist.

Moreover, their strength is formidable, and they cannot be resolved overnight.

Rather than becoming enemies with these people, it's better to give them a taste of Master Huang's moves.

Inviting guests, beheading, and taking in servants as dogs.

The establishment of the Advisory Council is essentially a banquet.

The emperor allows people like you to enter the court as officials and keep an eye on the government affairs bureau, forming four pillars to support the court.

You still dare to say that the emperor treats you badly?

Moreover, the reason why landlords and capitalists are so arrogant is simply because the higher authorities can't directly control them.

Now everyone's going to be in the system, constantly watched by the Anti-Corruption Bureau, who can kill them whenever they want.

None of the four major departments mentioned above have the authority to execute the orders; in the end, all execution is carried out by the Sixth Department.

While it slowed down the efficiency of government operations to some extent, it greatly reduced the level of corruption.

Those who are capable of corruption cannot act on it, while those who are easy to act on it lack the ability.

However, separating implementation and governance into two parts presents a major problem: those at the top are unaware of the difficulties of implementation, which can easily lead to various forms of incompetent and superficial governance.

To solve this problem, Ni Yuanlu came up with a solution.

The Premier of the State Council serves a five-year term and cannot be reappointed. All officials of the State Council are promoted from the six ministries.

The imperial examination system was also initially reformed. The traditional eight-legged essay system was changed to a six-subject system. As long as you excelled in any one of the six subjects, you could become an official in the corresponding six ministries.

Moreover, the scope of the examination was expanded from several hundred people to five hundred people for each of the six examinations, totaling three thousand people.

At the same time, starting from the provincial examinations, they tried their best to attract scholars to the extreme.

You think you won't pass the exam after you finish the test at your college?

It's alright. You can apply for a civil service position in a nearby county, become a minor official, or a teacher in the education department. Aren't these all viable options?

The provincial examination could lead to a position in the prefectural government, while the metropolitan examination could lead to a position in the provincial administration.

There's no need to fight tooth and nail with the officials in Beijing.

Scholars were incredibly valuable in this era. The Ming Dynasty supported millions of scholars until its demise, yet only employed fewer than ten thousand.
To minimize the opposition from ordinary scholars.

In this way, the promotion channels in the Ming Dynasty's officialdom were clearly defined.

Even civil servants who graduate from academia can rise from a small county town to a provincial capital.

Ultimately, the central administrative body must consist of officials with real administrative experience.

Under this system, the influence of nepotism is minimized.

Of course, it's not just the State Council.

Officials in the Grand Council were required to have experience in frontier regions, and those serving as anti-corruption officials were required to be transferred to prefectures or counties upon completion of their terms. Half of the seats in the National Advisory Council were nominated by local authorities each year.

This would both prevent powerful ministers from gaining power and ensure the continuous flow of vitality within the Ming Dynasty.

However, there is a prerequisite: the emperor must have complete control over the Anti-Corruption Bureau, and the Anti-Corruption Bureau must have extremely strong deterrent power.

Otherwise, the whole framework is just empty talk.

This barely adequate administrative structure nearly emptied Zhu Youjian's mind.

With the groundwork laid earlier, all that's left is to chop off a few dog heads.

He casually handed the memorial to Wang Chengen, who was standing next to him.

Zhu Youjian waved his hand and said, "Read it, and let the ministers discuss it as well."

Wang Chengen took the memorial, and his hands began to tremble uncontrollably as soon as he read the first sentence.

"This...Your Majesty..."

"I command you to read it!" The voice wasn't loud, but it carried an unquestionable imperial majesty.

Wang Chengen had no choice but to read the contents of the memorial aloud.

Outside the palace, dark clouds had gathered, and thunder rumbled, sounding as if Wang Chengen were speaking inside.

The early summer downpour made the glazed tiles crackle and pop.

As Zhu Youjian gazed at the splashing water on the steps, he vaguely saw the old, crooked tree on Coal Hill in another time and space.

However, the shadows of the trees became increasingly blurred, and in their place appeared a large banner with dragon patterns, beneath which stood orderly military formations.

The memorial was not short; it took Wang Chengen a full quarter of an hour to finish reading it.

From Ni Yuanlu onwards, no one made a sound.

Zhu Youjian overestimated the abilities of Ming Dynasty officials.

There were very few ministers who would step forward to refute him on this occasion.

Capable ministers and royalists had already spoken with Ni Yuanlu yesterday and would not object.

Those who were willing to oppose him were killed as early as when Li Zicheng besieged the city.

Even those who dared to object were suppressed by a series of rewards and pressure from the imperial court.

After a long silence, thousands of officials could only manage to utter one sentence: "Your Majesty is wise."

Zhu Youjian felt as if he had punched a cotton ball. He really hoped that a few of them could come out, so that he could make an example of them.

But it was a good thing that no one objected, so Zhu Youjian stood up and waved his sleeves.

"Draft an imperial edict."

"The cabinet election is suspended immediately, and the State Council is established."

“Ni Yuanlu became the prime minister, Huang Degong entered the Grand Council, and Zheng Chenggong concurrently took charge of the Maritime Affairs Department.”

"After the establishment of the State Council, the State Council drafted the documents, the six ministries implemented them, and the remaining departments were newly built."

"No mistakes!"

The officials kowtowed and shouted "Long live the Emperor!"

The reforms, which Zhu Youjian considered the biggest variable, were thus hastily implemented.

Even though the imperial edict had been written, Zhu Youjian still couldn't quite believe it.

He always felt that this matter would definitely not be so easy to accomplish.

It just hasn't shown up yet. Zhu Youjian could certainly suppress it, but he really didn't want to.

No matter how much trouble he causes, it will only damage the foundation of the Central Plains. He still needs the Central Plains to cause trouble elsewhere!
I let my mind wander.

After everyone rose again, the final point of the grand assembly was reached.

Huang Degong stepped forward from the front of the military officers, holding the memorial in his hand, and spoke loudly.

"Your Majesty, I have a script!"

Zhu Youjian nodded. "What is it?"

"Your Majesty, I request that the Liaodong defense line be reopened and the four armies of Guanning, Xuanfu, Jizhou, and Liaohe be re-established to defend against the Jurchens!"

It was said that a memorial was submitted to rebuild the Liaodong defense line, but in reality, this was already a fact.

Zhang Shize and Zheng Chenggong pursued relentlessly, and could not only destroy the previous Liaodong defense line, but even rebuild one of the three Jianzhou guards.

The current memorial is merely a pretext to lay the groundwork for the later establishment of war zones.

Neither Ni Yuanlu nor Huang Degong had expected anyone to object.

Zhu Youjian nodded in agreement without even thinking.

Who would have thought that such a trivial matter would cause such a commotion among the court officials?

"What?! Rebuilding the Liaodong defense line?! This is a disastrous path for the country and its people! Huang Chuangzi, what are your intentions?!"

"The Guan Ning Army alone has already caused the Ming Dynasty's finances to be in deficit, and Huang Zizi, you actually want to establish the Liaodong Four Armies?!"

"No! Never!"

"Huang Degong, you have failed to live up to the Emperor's grace!"

"Your Majesty, I request that Huang Degong be executed!"

As a thunderbolt struck the sky, the Left Censor-in-Chief shook off the Hanlin scholar who was supporting him and stumbled out of the ranks of civil officials.

The three-beamed court hat hung askew among his white hair, and the hem of his official robe trailed behind gold bricks, leaving dark red bloodstain-like marks in the puddles.

"His Majesty!"

The old minister knelt before the imperial steps, rain streaming down his wrinkled face and into his hoarse throat. "In the 46th year of the Wanli reign, the additional tax levied on Liaodong was only nine li per mu! During the Tianqi reign, it tripled! By the second year of the Chongzhen reign, the tax levied on Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces alone..."

He suddenly coughed violently, and when he wiped his sleeve, there were scarlet spots.

Behind him, the censor from the Ministry of Revenue crawled forward on his knees, his bamboo memorial rustling in the rain. "From the third to the seventeenth year of Chongzhen's reign, Liaodong spent 64.72 million taels of silver! On average, it cost 6,000 taels of silver to kill one Jian slave!"

“You can’t kill them all!” The censor’s withered finger poked Huang Degong’s nose. “Huang Chuangzi, do you know about the White Bone Tower outside Liaoyang? Of the 300,000 laborers transporting grain, less than 30% came back alive! The Guan Ning cavalry are eating human blood buns.”

"You actually want His Majesty to establish the Four Armies in Liaodong? Have you considered how many people in our Great Ming Dynasty would starve to death just to feed these soldiers?!"

"Insolence!" Huang Degong's leopard eyes widened. Outside the hall, the Xuanjia Guards simultaneously drew their crossbows, their cold gleam piercing through the rain curtain and pointing directly at the ranks of civil officials.

"Let him speak."

Zhu Youjian's voice was as soft as a snowflake, yet it instantly froze the tense atmosphere in the hall.

Wang Chengen noticed that the veins on the back of the emperor's hand, which was resting on the dragon throne, were bulging, and five dents were visible on the dark yellow satin.

Zhu Youjian never expected that the civil officials' reason for opposing the movement would be that they were afraid of being oppressed by Liao Xiang.

But thinking about it, it makes sense. From the moment Nurhaci rose to power, the Ming Dynasty spent more and more money on Liaodong year after year, but in the end, it had no effect whatsoever.

Even civil officials should be afraid.

The Left Censor-in-Chief's cloudy eyes turned to the throne, and he suddenly kowtowed heavily. "Your Majesty, this old minister dares to ask: Last year, when Taiyuan Prefecture was filled with starving corpses, why did the county magistrate embezzle disaster relief grain? Because he needed to gather enough beans for half a month in Jizhou Town! Last year, why did the locust plague in Henan linger? Because all the conscripted laborers were transporting gunpowder to Shanhaiguan!"

"Nonsense!" Wang Jiayan couldn't help but step out of the classroom and angrily rebuke.

"What was the result of abandoning the six forts of Kuandian during the Wanli reign? The Jurchens captured Fushun and Qinghe within two years! During the Tianqi reign, Xiong Tingbi made three incursions into and out of Liaodong, and how did Shenyang and Liaoyang fall?"

"If you gentlemen abandon Liaodong today, the Jurchens will be able to drink from the Yellow River tomorrow!"

"Don't forget that the Jurchens invaded Henan a few days ago!"

"So what!?"

“The Jurchens came for money and grain. Regardless of the fact that the Zhou king and the Nanjing Minister of the Imperial Secretariat had already driven the Jurchens away, the Jurchens were not tolerant of the heat and could only move south during the spring and autumn seasons, so they could not possibly become a force to be reckoned with.”

Wang Jiayan was so angry that he laughed instead, and was about to refute him.

But Shi Bangyao, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, interrupted him quietly, "Minister Wang seems to have forgotten that Li Zicheng proclaimed himself emperor in Xi'an last year, and Zhang Xianzhong just entered Sichuan last month. By the time the four towns of Liaodong are completed, the bandits will probably have already chopped up the ancestral temple tablets and burned them for firewood."

The civil officials murmured in agreement.

A cold laugh came from somewhere, "It's no secret that the Guan Ning Army harbors bandits to maintain its own power; just like Yuan Chonghuan did back then."

"General Yuan's head is still hanging on the flagpole!" Huang Degong suddenly shouted, startling Shi Bangyao into taking three steps back.

This fierce general tore off his court robes in the palace, revealing a dozen gruesome arrow wounds on his bronze chest. "Look! This is a Tartar arrow from Zunhua in the second year of Chongzhen's reign! And this is a stray arrow I took at Xifengkou a few days ago!"

Before the civil officials could react, Huang Degong turned around and knelt heavily before the imperial steps. "Your Majesty, I beg you to consider the Tumu Crisis! The Oirats, with only tens of thousands of cavalry, were able to drive straight in and capture Emperor Yingzong! Now the Jurchens have two hundred thousand archers."

"General Huang is quite the show-off," Zhang Xin, the Minister of Justice, interjected sinisterly. "According to the Great Ming Code, military officers are not allowed to interfere in politics. Besides," he deliberately drew out his words, "the harsh and cold land of Liaodong is nowhere near as fertile as the Central Plains."

"Minister Zhang, you might as well explain yourself clearly." Ni Yuanlu's python-patterned robe swept over the kneeling officials, his aged body standing ramrod straight. "In the tenth year of the Jianyuan era, Japanese pirates landed in Liaodong seven times. In the thirty-eighth year of the Jiajing era, Korean envoys were ambushed and killed by the Jurchens while crossing the Yalu River. And in the twenty-third year of the Wanli era..."

"Why does the Grand Secretary have to bring up old grievances!" the Director of the Agricultural Reclamation Department of the Ministry of Works suddenly shouted, his neck stiff. "Let's talk about the present! The monthly salary of the Beijing garrison has been a month overdue, and yesterday Minister Shi from Nanjing came to demand 30,000 sets of summer armor! Where will the money come from? From increased taxes in Jiangnan? From conscripting laborers in Shaanxi?"

"Shortsighted!" Zhu Youjian, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly slammed his hand on the table.

The gilded paperweight jumped up and smashed into the dragon pillar, startling the copper bells on the eaves into a cacophony of ringing.

The young emperor slowly rose, his twelve-tasseled jade ornaments gleaming with a bluish light amidst the lightning.

"In the fourteenth year of the Zhengtong reign, how many days did it take Esen to break through Zijing Pass?"

"How many days did it take Altan Khan's army to besiege Beijing in the 29th year of the Jiajing reign? How many days did it take Huang Taiji to breach the Great Wall in the 7th year of the Tianqi reign?!"

With each question, he took a step closer to the ranks of civil officials, until finally he was almost touching Shi Bangyao's white hair. "Minister Shi, you are learned and knowledgeable; do you remember these numbers?"

The old minister's lips trembled as he uttered, "The fifteenth day. The seventh and ninth days."

"How many li is it from Shanhaiguan to Beijing?" Zhu Youjian turned around abruptly, his dragon robe sweeping away the incense burner. "Six hundred and thirty li! The Jurchen light cavalry can reach it in two days!"

He suddenly grabbed Huang Degong's sword, and with a clang, the cold light flashed as it was drawn from its sheath.

Amidst the exclamations of the assembled officials, the tip of a sword sliced ​​through the gold bricks, sparks flying. "Back then, we abandoned Damingwei, and as a result, the defenses built by Emperor Yongle retreated all the way to the Great Wall! We abandoned Kaipingwei, and the Tartars can raid Xuanfu every year! Today we abandon Liaodong, but tomorrow should we abandon Jizhou? The day after tomorrow should we abandon the Yellow River?!"

A thunderclap boomed atop the Hall of Supreme Harmony, and lightning illuminated the emperor's bloodshot eyes. "The silver from Jiangnan, the grain from Shaanxi, the soldiers from Huguang—aren't they all the flesh and blood of the people of the Ming Dynasty? You ministers want me to cut flesh to feed tigers, have you even asked the two hundred thousand people of Kaifeng who still haven't closed their eyes in peace?!"

"Your Majesty!" Shi Bangyao was forced to kneel, his face brimming with tears. "My cousin, a veteran of the Chongzhen era, served as the garrison commander of Jinzhou in the seventh year of the Chongzhen reign. When the city fell, he was turned into a human pig and displayed at the entrance of the government office! But the world is already in turmoil; if we don't quell the bandits soon..."

"Who says internal and external troubles cannot be eliminated simultaneously?" Zhu Youjian threw his sword into the ground, the dragon carved on the hilt facing the twelve imperial symbols on the dragon throne. "The root of the peasant uprising in Shaanxi lies in land annexation, the locust plague in Henan stems from corruption in river works, and the floods in Huguang originate from the collapse of the military garrison system. Can these ailments be cured simply by reducing the number of border troops?"

"During the Wanli reign, 70% of the additional Liaodong military levies went into whose pockets? During the Tianqi reign, the border walls were repaired at a cost of 5,000 taels of silver per mile, yet why did they crumble under the hooves of Huang Taiji's horses?!"

The torrential rain poured down like a celestial river overflowing its banks, yet it could not extinguish the flames in the emperor's eyes. "You gentlemen want to save money, fine! Last month, the Anti-Corruption Bureau seized 31 Zhejiang merchants in Jiangnan who were colluding with the enemy, and 60 corrupt officials, obtaining 8 million taels of silver! The Ministry of War dismissed military leaders who were drawing salaries without working, saving 90,000 shi of grain! The Court of Imperial Sacrifices reduced palace expenses, saving 280,000 taels annually!"

As the thunder subsided, Zhu Youjian's voice grew clearer, "This silver is enough to support ten Liaodong garrisons! But I'll make this clear today..."

"At the beginning of the month, during the Battle of Feihu Ridge, there was a junior officer by my side who was shouting 'We can't let the Tartars pass' even with his intestines spilling out."

"I remember his name was Ma Erzhu, from Qingyuan County, Baoding Prefecture. He only had a six-year-old sister left in his family. Before he died, he clutched my armor and said, 'Please, Your Majesty, don't abandon Liaodong. I don't want my sister to be a slave to the Jurchens.'"

(End of this chapter)