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

Chapter 217 The Essence of "A State Ruled by Hereditary Rule": The Deep Bond Between the State and the Emperor

The severe drought at the end of the Ming Dynasty developed in cycles of three to five years. The first small cycle of drought was from the seventh year of the Tianqi reign to the second year of the Chongzhen reign. After surviving the minor drought peak in the year of Jisi, the drought began to ease.

Specifically, the most severely drought-stricken areas have shifted northward to southern Mongolia. Although the drought in Shaanxi and Shanxi continues, its severity has been greatly reduced compared to last year, and it is worth trying to plant some drought-resistant plants.

Even more encouraging is that the drought in the Beizhili region has been largely relieved. Moreover, in practice, many local officials who lied about the disaster in order to avoid taxation have been investigated and punished, indicating that the actual disaster situation was less severe than recorded in historical documents.

Heaven has finally granted us a favor, and the court's task is to do everything in its power to prevent man-made disasters.

While it's said that the imperial court abandoned Shaanxi and wasn't actively providing disaster relief, in reality, the court had completely exempted northern Shaanxi from taxes for the past few years. Although taxes continued to be collected in the Guanzhong and southern Shaanxi regions, not a single penny was transferred upwards; it all remained with the local authorities.

In recent years, the tax collection campaign has mainly targeted areas in the south with relatively good natural conditions. Of course, the people in these areas also suffer greatly. This suffering is that they have almost no ability to bear risks. As long as someone in the family gets sick or their hometown is hit by a disaster, they are forced to sell their fields, land, and even their children.

This is not absolute poverty caused by harsh living conditions, but rather the oppression and exploitation of the poor caused by an excessive gap between the rich and the poor, and the exploiters naturally include the imperial court.

The greatest achievement of the reforms was not the increase in tax revenue figures, but the substantial expansion of the tax base. One of the most absurd things at the end of a dynasty was that farmers who owned less than 20% of the land often had to bear 90% of the government's taxes.

Expanding the tax base and diluting tax revenue would undoubtedly lead to significant fiscal growth, as it would not have a major negative impact on the lives of the poor.

Although the imperial court is plagued by numerous problems and lacks the ability to deploy its military force globally, it can still exert overwhelming military force anywhere within the Ming Dynasty's territory.

The South possessed formidable economic and cultural strength, and their influence on public opinion even surpassed that of the central government. However, their military strength was extremely weak, so weak that when Zhu Youjian lost three thousand cavalrymen, they dared not utter a single word of protest.

In the present Ming Dynasty, apart from the officially stipulated tax exemption quotas for privileged classes, namely the tax exemption quotas of 10,000 mu for princes, 3,000 mu for earls, 1,000 mu for Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations), and 300 mu for students, the system of taxation for officials and gentry was nominally implemented.

The specific results were as follows: in the seventh year of the Tianqi reign, 16 million shi of grain were collected; in the first year of the Chongzhen reign, the amount was 20 million shi; and in the second year of the Chongzhen reign, it reached 23 million shi.

Don't be fooled by the seemingly low growth rate; this was achieved despite the debuff of natural disasters becoming more severe year by year.

Of course, there were factors involved in adjusting the proportion of grain collected in kind and in exchange for grain, but the extent to which this could be adjusted was very limited. The transport capacity of the Grand Canal was limited, while sea transport involved directly buying grain, rather than directing Zheng Zhilong to transport grain to the imperial court.

Because the imperial court couldn't control him, and also feared that if it wasn't a cash-on-delivery transaction, he might pull some tricks like "disappearing."

There weren't many areas in the north where it was convenient to transport grain to the capital; in most parts of the south, grain still had to be converted into silver. Of course, relying solely on that paltry "one-thirtieth tax" wouldn't have been enough to collect over 20 million shi of grain and over 20 million taels of silver annually; the Liaodong tax accounted for roughly half of that. The Liaodong tax was added to the land tax and levied per mu (unit of land area), almost doubling the regular tax!
Don't say that the Ming Dynasty didn't collect taxes from landlords. In fact, when the "three taxes" were levied, many small landlords were forced into bankruptcy.

Lack of money was one of the causes of the Ming Dynasty's demise, but not all of this money was embezzled; a large portion was indeed burned during the war.

Reality isn't a video game; there's no progress bar, and you can't save your progress.

Zhu Youjian was relatively satisfied with the current tax revenue situation. Although it did not reach the level of more than 40 million taels during Zhang Juzheng's tenure, it did not necessarily mean that his team was inferior to Zhang Juzheng's; it was simply a matter of different times, and one could not be bound by outdated methods.

During Zhang Juzheng's reign, as regent, he still engaged in numerous political compromises: he couldn't afford to offend powerful regional officials, nor dared to touch the princes; he was essentially dancing in shackles. The only group he could offend was the civil service, and as a result, they faced fierce retaliation after his death.

To be honest, Zhu Youjian was still a little uneasy about these things. It wasn't that he cared about his posthumous reputation, but he was worried that his relatives or ministers whom he valued would be purged after his death.

Fortunately, he was young enough that as long as he wasn't assassinated, he would have no problem surviving the group of ministers; moreover, he hadn't offended these people too badly, and he was just operating within the bounds of political rules.

Ultimately, he lacked a noble character, a willingness to sacrifice himself for the well-being of all people, and a fearlessness in the face of death. His fantasy of saving the world was nothing less than an arrogant disregard for humanity.
But he knew he couldn't let his guard down; officials could become complacent. When a new policy was first introduced, many corrupt officials hadn't yet realized it, hadn't yet grasped the rules, and hadn't yet found loopholes; but as time went on, they would eventually find flaws, empty the system, and siphon off the funds.

For example, Zhu Youjian often had nightmares like this:
He built a large granary in the Forbidden City, storing hundreds of millions of bushels of grain in the books. Even if a major disaster occurred, it could feed the entire city's soldiers and civilians for several years, so he wouldn't panic no matter how severe the disaster was. However, when he happily opened the large granary, what he saw was an empty warehouse, or a pile of burlap sacks filled with mud and sand.

Or, when he sends someone to inspect the warehouse, a fire suddenly breaks out that cannot be extinguished, and the "balancing" method used for thousands of years reappears—clumsy and outdated! And he can only be filled with powerless rage!
To prevent these situations from occurring, Zhu Youjian frequently sent people to inspect the granaries every two weeks. Storing grain was a technical task, as temperature and humidity had a significant impact, so a dedicated team of officials was needed to manage the grain.

There were inspectors above, warehouse managers in the middle, and imperial guards outside. Every cartload of grain had to be registered to prevent smuggling.

Zhu Youjian was simply good-natured, but not a complete fool. He didn't want to kill people and create an adversarial relationship between the emperor and his subjects, so he could only nip problems in the bud and prevent his subordinates from reaching the point where they had to be killed.

Of course, as his seniority as emperor gradually increased and his prestige accumulated, the management of officials would inevitably become increasingly tight and strict.
Perhaps by the time he reaches his prime, the discipline of the court and the strength of the entire country will have reached their peak.
As he ages and his energy declines, officials become eager to find new jobs and lose their loyalty, his control over the court diminishes, and the country declines again.

This is the essence of "rule by family": the state and the emperor are deeply bound together, interacting and profoundly influencing each other.

(End of this chapter)