Late Ming Dynasty: So what if Emperor Chongzhen was inactive?!

Chapter 124 Eldest Daughter's Nickname: Ugly

In the west warm pavilion of Qianqing Palace, Zhu Youjian took his daughter from Imperial Physician Tan and knelt beside the bed, holding her in his arms. Sun Shiwan wearily opened her eyes, stared at her daughter for a long while, and suddenly said with a bitter face, "So ugly!"

"Uh!" Zhu Youjian was speechless upon hearing this. "Ugly? Isn't it quite good-looking? It has a nose and eyes."

This baby might be the first child born in the Qianqing Palace in the two hundred years since the Forbidden City was built. It must be said that Zhu Youjian's favoritism was so blatant and self-righteous that many concubines in the harem implicitly regarded Consort Xian as their leader. As for the two empresses, they were not on the same level; their relationship was that of manager and managed.

They kept their distance from the Empress, while Wanwan, who arrived earlier and held a higher position, had a fairly good relationship with Empress Zhou. Empress Zhou, in turn, was closest to Empress Yi'an and her sister-in-law Zhang Yan.

During the Ming Dynasty, princes were required to have their names chosen according to generational naming conventions and the principles of the Five Elements, while princesses were given names more freely. Traditionally, Ming princesses would only receive their formal names before marriage; officially, they were referred to as "eldest imperial daughter" or "third imperial daughter," while in private they were called by their childhood nicknames.

Because the mother thought her daughter was ugly, Zhu Youjian named his eldest daughter "Chou Chou" (meaning "ugly"). People in the Ming Dynasty also liked to use reduplicated words, and the imperial family also had a tradition of giving children humble names, as the saying goes, "humble names are easier to raise."

The birth of a daughter by the emperor would normally elicit little reaction from the court, but it did demonstrate the emperor's fertility, something to celebrate. Ming emperors were never lacking in their ability to impregnate, but starting with one emperor, it became extremely difficult to give birth to a healthy child, with many stillborn.

Ugly weighs six pounds and three ounces, cries loudly, eats and sleeps well, and needs two wet nurses.

The reaction from the outer court was lukewarm, but Zhu Youjian, under the pretext of celebration, gave each of the three thousand officials in the capital a red envelope containing twenty taels of silver. This was mainly because during the tax collection period, those who were working were under immense pressure from their colleagues, while those who weren't working were under immense pressure from the emperor and the prime ministers, leading to widespread grievances and resentment.

Zhu Youjian had amassed a fortune from collecting summer taxes, but he also needed to appease his subordinates. Aren't officials also prone to disrespect when approached too closely, and resentment when kept at a distance? Being too kind to them wouldn't work, and being too harsh on them would lead to mutual enmity, making it impossible to carry out any work.

The twenty-tael red envelope was given by Zhu Youjian privately. Not only did the harvest in Taicang be gratifying, with half a year's tax revenue exceeding the amount of a whole year in previous years, but Zhu Youjian's private treasury also recovered. His private treasury currently has 2.428 million taels of silver and 4 million shi of grain in the granary.

In addition to personal red envelopes, Zhu Youjian also ordered the Ministry of Revenue to issue a full month's salary to all officials. This was a common practice for both central and local officials in the Ming Dynasty. However, while local salaries were nominally issued by the imperial court, in practice they were actually funded by local government appropriations.

The imperial court was in dire need of funds due to the war. In previous years, local taxes had been reduced to 10%, and honest local officials who handed over their taxes starved to death, while others concealed the truth. Zhu Youjian has now restored the tax rate to the normal 30%, with the imperial court and local governments splitting the revenue 30/70. All he has done is to collect more taxes. The Ming Dynasty is dying of poverty.

After the massive irrigation campaign, it was time to reward those who had performed well. Zhu Youjian had said that rewards and punishments should be clearly defined, otherwise officials would not be motivated to work. Zhu Youjian ordered Bi Ziyan to compile a list of his capable and well-performing subordinates, which was an open instruction for him to form cliques and cultivate his own faction.

If he had selfish motives, he could use this method to gain immense power and even eventually usurp the emperor's authority. Many powerful ministers in history have risen to power in this way.

Of course, everyone has selfish desires, and Bi Ziyan was no exception. However, the separation of civil and military officials could be avoided to some extent. He became the emperor's henchman and cut himself off from the officials. It would be somewhat difficult for him to become a powerful minister.

According to the tradition of the Ming Dynasty, the Grand Secretary was supposed to take the lead in opposing the capricious Ming Emperor. It is easy to imagine how hated a Grand Secretary who sided with the Emperor would be.

After a major inspection, many local officials were dismissed, creating numerous vacant positions. While the official authorized number of officials in Beijing was only around 1,400, there were actually 3,000. Key, operational positions were vacant, but there were many idle personnel, such as nobles and those with patronage. These people couldn't be hastily dismissed; otherwise, who knew if a Li Zicheng might emerge?

The postal stations were expensive but inefficient; those in the north were barely usable, while those in the south were simply unacceptable. Often, local official documents had to be escorted by hired escorts. Bi Ziyan consistently pursued reforms to the postal system, following the path of Zhang Juzheng, but he lacked Zhang Juzheng's prestige and political acumen.

Zhang Juzheng's reform of the postal system prohibited unauthorized personnel from using the post stations, and those who disobeyed were severely punished. He even imprisoned local governors and other officials, which finally had some effect and reduced the expenses of the post stations.

But seeing how well Bi Ziyan was doing, how could anyone be willing to let him monopolize the limelight? Since everyone saw that the emperor was determined to support Bi Ziyan's reforms and had no way to stop him, they had no choice but to join in.

In his memorial to the throne, Liu Mao, a supervising secretary of the Ministry of Justice, pointed out that the post stations cost millions of taels of silver every year, and that officials were seriously abusing their power and extorting money from the post stations. He suggested that redundant post stations be abolished and expenses reduced.

"Hmm, that's a good suggestion," Zhu Youjian thought to himself. "I suggest he refrain from making such suggestions next time."

In reality, tax reforms and the restoration of Zhang Juzheng's performance evaluation system are all superficial. The real, in-depth reform should be the reform of the chaotic and utterly disorganized official system of the Ming Dynasty, where responsibilities and powers are unclear, and officials are constantly hindering each other. Those who want to do things are obstructed, and those who want people to do things can pass the buck.

Despite being a mere censor in the Ministry of Justice, he was allowed to offer opinions on the reform of the postal system; officials from different departments could not focus on their duties, jumping between the six ministries, resulting in a complete lack of professionalism. The only ones who could truly do the work were the subordinate clerks, who had no hope of promotion and could only desperately try to make money.

This part is the underlying code, the code of the Ming Dynasty, which Zhu Youjian dared not touch, because it could really lead to the collapse of the entire Ming Dynasty. He could only grit his teeth and use it reluctantly, relying on a small number of capable ministers and generals to drag the entire bloated and inefficient Ming Dynasty court along.

Lu Xiang-sheng did a great job. All the prefectures under his jurisdiction paid their summer taxes in full, and he personally escorted the tax silver to the capital without missing a single penny. Unlike the tax silver from other provinces, which was reduced by 20-30% during transport, and even that was only because the emperor had won the war and the Ming Dynasty would not be finished anytime soon.

If bandits were rampant, they would have even more reason to let the tax revenue disappear. Zhu Youjian was simply putting on a brave face and clinging to life.

A nation doesn't weaken gradually; it suddenly collapses with a "crack." Why did the Ming Dynasty's tax revenue plummet after the Wanli Emperor's reign? Wasn't it because of the defeat at the Battle of Sarhu?!
She Chongming and An Bangyan rebelled after witnessing the court's defeat in Liaodong. Ironically, they launched their rebellion under the pretext of heading north to support Liaodong.

In the eyes of some officials in the imperial court, Qin Liangyu was no different from these rebellious chieftains; they were all chieftains. Therefore, they disliked Qin Liangyu and did not understand why several emperors had trusted her so much.

Lu Xiang-sheng had only been promoted for less than half a year, and he was not used to being promoted again in such a short time. It was not that Zhu You-jian was reluctant to let him go, but that it was not advisable for officials who had been assigned to positions to be transferred frequently. Instead, they could be promoted based on their accumulated merits.

Zhu Youjian originally wanted to reward Lu Xiang-sheng with two palace maids with large buttocks, but then he remembered that this guy was a pure-hearted war god who didn't even take concubines, so he had to give up. He rummaged through his chests and found a waist knife belonging to the Yongle Emperor and gave it to him as encouragement.

(End of this chapter)