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

Chapter 193 The relationship between ruler and subject needs to be aligned in terms of granularity.
Zhu Youjian sensed something amiss with the behavior of the three generals, and before formally summoning them, he met with Yuan Keli first. Since the war situation between the Ming Dynasty and the Jurchens had changed, the previously agreed-upon strategy for pacifying Liaodong needed adjustment, and the emperor and his ministers needed to align their approaches.

Having not seen him for just over a year, Zhu Youjian felt that Yuan Keli had aged considerably, which made him somewhat sad. He sighed, "My dear minister, you have been adrift at sea for a long time and have certainly taken on a lot of hardships."

Yuan Keli noticed the emperor's change in mood and felt a warmth in his heart. If the emperor's demeanor was somewhat exaggerated when they first met, his current behavior was much more natural. Although his mind was clear and insightful, he still felt a sense of pride, like watching a child grow up.

Yuan Keli smiled and said, "Your Majesty, rest assured, I can still accompany you for some time. Just don't think I'm old and decrepit, and send me away."

Zhu Youjian was somewhat amused and exasperated upon hearing this. He was surrounded by intelligent people; fools were hard to find, but those as insightful as Yuan Keli were rare. The old man's poor relationship with the court officials wasn't due to low emotional intelligence, but rather a disdain born from seeing through everything. He was fundamentally different from Xiong Manzi.

When the court officials could no longer tolerate him and were preparing to launch a collective attack against him, the old man quickly wrote his resignation and fled. When Zhu Youjian initially offered him a second job, he hesitated and refused, only to be kidnapped by Wei Zhongxian.

Through a single face-to-face meeting, infrequent correspondence, and the emperor's usual behavior, Yuan Keli gradually figured out the emperor's personality and now even dared to joke with him.

It is said that power and position can corrupt a person, but Zhu Youjian felt that he was not so badly affected. Although he was sometimes treated like a fool and criticized for being naive and lacking political acumen, he still preferred to be honest and hoped to maintain a relatively relaxed way of getting along with people.

As an emperor, he naturally wanted others to obey his orders, but he only wanted his subordinates to do things, not to kowtow to him every day, nor was he bored enough to torture people for his own amusement.

The Ming Dynasty was a normal empire, not a heretical state that combined politics and religion, so it did not need subordinates to serve it with extreme humility. This often made him feel very awkward. After all, he was just an ordinary person wearing the shell of an aristocrat, not a truly pampered and despicable nobleman who did not treat people as human beings.

This is the difference between high-intelligence and low-intelligence positioning. Low-intelligence positioning actually has a higher posture, while high-intelligence positioning has a lower posture.

Those with low intelligence take a low-level view of the world, thinking that everyone else is a fool. They may have kindness, or more accurately, pity, but they still do not place themselves on an equal footing with others.

High intelligence, on the other hand, stems from a deep-seated belief that one is no different from others, and that there are many people who are smarter and more outstanding than oneself, allowing for normal communication between the two parties.

The emperor often lamented his loneliness, and Zhu Youjian feared he too would become this inhuman being, so he always consciously maintained his human nature. He knew it might be a bit shameless, but when others removed their masks in his presence and acted relaxed and unpretentious, it genuinely brought him joy.

Zhu Youjian then brought over a chair and invited Yuan Keli to sit opposite him. He also instructed the eunuchs of the Imperial Kitchen to prepare some snacks so they could eat and chat. The Ming emperors' diets were heavy on oil, salt, and sugar. Traditional pastries were so sweet they were almost tooth-rotting, and even eating them directly would cause them to get stuck in their throats. They couldn't swallow even a small piece of pastry without having to drink a pot of tea to go down with it.

Zhu Youjian felt that snacks were supposed to be enjoyable, so why did this feel like taking medicine?! Therefore, his snacks were mostly fried meats, or rather, side dishes to accompany drinks, such as fried shredded eel and dried small fish, paired with fresh fruits.

He urged Yuan Keli to eat more, saying that Liaodong was bitterly cold and life must be hard there. Yuan Keli scorned him, calling him a bumpkin, saying his food was worse than the banquets of wealthy landowners. Zhu Youjian asked somewhat angrily, "I've heard that rich people use carp whiskers in their dishes and only eat duck tongues. Is that true?!"

Yuan Keli said that although it is not common, it is indeed real. Moreover, although it looks luxurious, it does not cost much money. The scraps can be used instead of being thrown away. Most importantly, this thing does not taste good!

"Fine, you've eaten it all, but I haven't!" Zhu Youjian felt wronged. After his initial grievance, he asked, "This kind of extravagance cannot be allowed to continue. Is there any way to curb it?!"

The old man shook his head, a look of bewilderment on his face.

Zhu Youjian was somewhat helpless. Their extravagance was tolerable, but the problem was that even if they indulged themselves to the extreme, it wouldn't cost much money; the money would simply be transferred from one hand to the other, not flowing to the lower classes. Imposing personal income tax, inheritance tax, and property tax could curb this situation, but these were still too advanced for the Ming Dynasty.

Resistance is secondary; the most difficult part is that even officials within the imperial faction might not understand these things. A phrase like "since ancient times" can kill most institutional innovations. Being one step ahead is genius; being a hundred steps ahead is Wang Mang.

Zhu Youjian shook his head, clearing his mind of distracting thoughts. This wasn't the topic for today, and these matters couldn't be pondered too deeply. Thinking about them too much would only lead to the despairing conclusion that humanity was doomed and the country and society were destined for destruction. He'd let Bi Ziyan practice his swordsmanship; he was just a harmless little emperor, after all. Next, Zhu Youjian inquired about the situation of the Dengzhou-Laizhou navy and Liaodong, asking if they needed the court's support. The old man replied that the Dengzhou-Laizhou navy was recovering quickly because the artisans and sailors who had been disbanded for various reasons were still alive. As long as these people were found and given sufficient resources, they could be reorganized quickly.

Currently, Dengzhou Town has a population of 40,000, of which nearly 30,000 are assigned to the Dengzhou-Laizhou Navy. The Dengzhou-Laizhou Navy has 12,000 regular soldiers and 8,000 auxiliary soldiers. The rest usually do not go on expeditions with ships and are responsible for maintaining the operation of the port.

The entire Dengzhou-Laizhou Navy had over a thousand ships, including more than a hundred large ships of two thousand liang (a unit of weight), making it the most powerful naval force in the north. However, it was still far inferior to Zheng Zhilong's fleet, mainly because it had no adversaries in naval battles and its naval combat experience was close to zero.

The Dengzhou-Laizhou Navy was not built with naval warfare as its goal. Its main focus was on developing transport capacity and amphibious warfare capabilities. Therefore, the Dengzhou-Laizhou Navy was essentially the Dengzhou-Laizhou Marine Corps! As for the support from the imperial court, he did not expect any greater material support. He only hoped to maintain the current situation, which would be good enough.

Although the Jurchens did not actually clash with the Dengzhou and Laizhou navies when they entered the pass, they actually had a negative impact on the Dengzhou and Laizhou navies. Fighting this war almost emptied the imperial treasury and also affected subsequent revenue.

Yuan Keli was worried that the court officials would cut military spending in Dengzhou and Laizhou due to financial difficulties and changing circumstances, thus wasting all his efforts in building the navy. Zhu Youjian reassured Yuan Keli that he would firmly support him in continuing to develop the navy, as this was a long-term plan for the Ming Dynasty and the only way out of its predicament.

When the land can no longer sustain the life on it, the only way out is to turn to the sea. A navy of 20,000 is still too few. Two hundred thousand is enough. If we have a navy of two hundred thousand, that will be just right. When that day comes, the Ming Dynasty will officially usher in a period of revival and once again move towards greatness.

"Just now in the court, I saw several generals who were trembling with fear. Why is that?!" Zhu Youjian asked.

Yuan Keli briefly recounted Zu Dashou's actions to the emperor. In truth, the severity of his deeds depended entirely on the emperor's mood. Without weighing the matter, it was a joke; but once weighed, it was a matter of immense weight, enough to wipe out Zu Dashou's entire clan. That's why the emperor was so afraid. It should be noted that Zu Dashou was a ruthless man who dared to lead troops into battle in his younger days; he wasn't a coward.

After hearing Yuan Keli's words, Zhu Youjian was a little stunned. He originally thought that at the beginning of the year, the city defense battle was a sure thing, but he did not expect that Jinzhou City was only a thought away from falling? It seems that Zu Dashou really can no longer stay in Liaodong.

Seeing that the emperor's expression was not good, Yuan Keli was afraid that the emperor would kill Zu Dashou in a fit of anger. So he advised, "Zu Dashou does have rebellious intentions, but he has not actually rebelled. If he is executed, I'm afraid it will not win the hearts of the people. The other soldiers will be terrified and will also become disloyal. It would be better to give him a warning and transfer him elsewhere."

Zhu Youjian nodded. He did have this simple method. Yuan Keli was probably just worried that he was young and impetuous and might be blinded by his own ambition, hence his statement.

Since the emperor also values ​​the navy, and the old man himself rose to power through the navy, Yuan Keli plans to continue to be stationed in Dengzhou and Laizhou. The emperor cannot govern the country with just documents, so he sends high-ranking officials to govern the people and secure the borders. Yuan Keli cannot make his subordinates obey with just a written order, so he needs to personally keep an eye on the Dengzhou and Laizhou naval forces to feel at ease.

It's quite ironic that he, as the Liaodong military commissioner, focused his efforts on Shandong. While Dengzhou and Laizhou ports offered relatively high security, they were still far from Liaodong. Therefore, he also planned to expand Lushun port, making it the second port for the Dengzhou-Laizhou naval forces.

Meanwhile, Mao Wenlong's main Dongjiang naval force was also stationed in Lushun Port. The Dongjiang naval force could serve as a second maritime force in the north and grow stronger. The emperor's goal of a 200,000-strong navy could not be achieved by relying solely on Dengzhou and Laizhou.

Now that the war has achieved a phased victory, all sorts of charlatans have emerged. Some are urging us to seize Liaodong in one fell swoop, while others, having taken the promises made by the King of Korea, suggest that the court help Korea restore its kingdom. In short, they feel that the roles of offense and defense have been reversed, and the conservative strategy initially devised by the emperor is no longer suitable for the times.

Yuan Keli also felt that they could not just watch the Jurchens recover their strength. They could send troops to harass them appropriately, but it was not the right time for a large-scale invasion. At the current stage, the main goal of the work in Liaodong should be to defend Liaonan. If they could digest the benefits they had gained and withstand the Jurchens' counterattack, that would be a victory.

Zhu Youjian shared the same thought: the Ming Dynasty was too weak. This year's great battle with the Jurchens was nothing more than a seriously ill patient getting an adrenaline injection and taking advantage of the drug's effects to catch the Jurchens and give them a good beating. But after the effects wore off, it still couldn't change the fact that the Ming Dynasty was a two-hundred-year-old man who was terminally ill.

Even if he recklessly fought and killed the Jurchens despite his illness, he would still be dragged down with them. He must proceed cautiously; this is crucial. Zhu Youjian is still young and there's no need to rush.

(End of this chapter)