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

Chapter 291 Keep up the good work, better days are ahead!
Zhu Youjian discovered he was broke again. This year's fiscal revenue was actually quite good, with taxes in kind and in kind totaling around 35 million taels. Adding in his small business ventures, the imperial treasury could barely manage 5 million taels in revenue this year.

However, there were only two million taels of silver; the rest were goods of secondary value, such as grain and cloth.

When he ran out of money, his first instinct was that someone had stolen it. But when he checked the accounts, he discovered that every single transaction had been approved after he signed and stamped the documents. It was truly bizarre!

The opportunity for him to discover this was that the Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture reported a locust plague in Shuntian Prefecture and other prefectures in Beizhili. The locusts had devoured the newly sprouted winter wheat of the people; they had even eaten the emperor's estates and the empress's fields, which was truly abhorrent. Zhu Youjian then approved an order for the Ministry of Revenue to allocate funds to collect locusts and locust eggs, but this was rejected by Bi Ziyan.

He said that in the past, the government had indeed paid to buy grasshoppers, but this approach had little effect. The main reason was that the imperial treasury could not afford such spending.

The imperial court actually received 18 million taels of silver, which should be enough to last until at least next summer's harvest. This year's military pay was a mix of money and grain, but it still required at least 10 million taels of silver. There was a drought at the beginning of the year when planting began, with the disaster in northern Shaanxi being particularly severe. The imperial court allocated 400,000 taels in installments for the repair of irrigation canals.

Water was manually carried or irrigated using waterwheels to fill irrigation ditches and then directly to the fields to alleviate the immediate crisis. By spring and summer, the drought had subsided, but floods had arrived. Summer brought torrential rains to the north, and in June of the fourth year, Shandong was hit by massive floods, inundating vast areas of farmland and homes.

I heard that some remnants of the White Lotus Sect took the opportunity to cause trouble. Zhu Youjian sent troops to suppress them, allocated grain for disaster relief, and also allocated 200,000 taels of silver and 300,000 shi of grain.

In his previous life, he never felt that the land beneath his feet was so vast; it felt like he could cross a border in just a few steps. Since becoming emperor, Zhu Youjian frequently lamented how immense the Ming Dynasty was. At first, he would be shocked by natural disasters, but later he became numb to them, treating these minor calamities as routine tasks to be dealt with.

Whether it was a year of disaster or a year of good fortune, almost every month in the Ming Dynasty, some place would experience some kind of disaster. As long as it wasn't a nationwide, large-scale natural disaster, he felt that Heaven still favored him. However, compared to last year, or even the year of the Jisi Incident, this year's natural and man-made disasters seemed to be coming far too frequently.

While there's flooding here, a massive hailstorm struck Xiangyuan, Shanxi Province in May. The hailstones ranged in size from as large as a rolled-up ox to as small as a fist, killing countless people and livestock.

In June of the same year, an earthquake struck Lintao and Gongchang in Gansu Province, which is also the Longxi and Tianshui area, causing more than 3,000 houses to collapse. Due to missing household registration records, even the number of deaths was unclear, but a shocking report came in that 300,000 disaster victims urgently needed relief. This made Zhu Youjian somewhat uneasy.

He sent Hong Chengchou, the governor-general of the three border regions, to inspect the disaster area, and also sent him an imperial sword, instructing him to execute corrupt officials first and then report back. At the time, a war was raging in Liaodong, and Zhu Youjian was in a very bad mood. The war was fierce, victory seemed far away, and there were constant troubles at home.

The fact that he can get angry means he's in a relatively good situation. If he couldn't handle the pressure and his nerves snapped, he'd probably be hiding under the covers crying.

After autumn arrived, the disaster situation in the north eased slightly. The north entered the harvest season, and the people who had survived the drought in spring and the floods in summer were immersed in the joy of the harvest.

The so-called bumper harvest was just a normal yield, but in the context of the persistent drought at the end of the Ming Dynasty, it was considered a rare bumper harvest. Logically, Zhu Youjian should have been happy, but then disaster struck the south again.

The floods in the north were mainly caused by problems with the Yellow River system. Due to the huge amount of rainfall upstream, the water level in the confluence of the Yellow River and the Huai River rose sharply, flooding Xinghua and Yancheng, with water depths reaching two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters), and destroying all the villages.

Chang Ziyu, a supervising secretary of the Ministry of Justice, submitted a memorial stating: "This year, disasters and anomalies have occurred one after another. The Yellow River breached its banks, flooding the four counties of Yuanwu, Yangwu, Fengqiu, and Yanjin, turning them into lakes and marshes, and the people became fish and turtles. In June, the Yellow River and the Huai River rose together... The river breached its banks at Jianyi and other outlets, flooding Xinghua and Yancheng, with water reaching a depth of two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters), and all the villages were submerged."

The Yellow River's breach made Zhu Youjian feel the intense love of Mother Yellow River. The Ministry of Works seized the opportunity to retaliate, claiming that the breach was caused by the emperor's neglect of flood control and his embezzlement of the Ministry's annual river maintenance funds. They acted as if they wanted the emperor to repent.

Zhu Youjian retorted, "Then I'll divert all the military funds for the nine border regions to you for river repairs. You can use the money to dredge the main and tributary channels of the Yellow River. If there's another breach in the dikes in the next ten years, I'll have you all executed, okay?!"

When Zhu Youjian said this, no one dared to respond, and the officials of the Ministry of Works immediately fell silent.

The Ministry of Works is quite peculiar; the Minister of Works is currently toiling away in Liaonan, painstakingly building military fortresses. He's submitted countless reports requesting to return to the capital, but all have gone unanswered. Recently, he's stopped requesting to return and has even started praying for his own death. This is because they fear he might run away like Ye Xianggao, and knowing Zhu Youjian's understanding of him, he certainly wouldn't be able to bring himself to execute him. After all, if he finds the job unbearable, resigning is a perfectly reasonable thing to do; why should he need a report and someone's approval to resign?!

So Zhu Youjian began to manipulate Xue Fengxiang, replying: "The sage said that when Heaven is about to place a great responsibility on a person, it will first test their mind and body. Whether in the court or in the local area, it is all about serving the people. How can you be so oblivious? Work hard, the rewards are yet to come!"

Zhu Youjian promised to consider him for a cabinet position next year. If he causes trouble again, we'll have to settle old scores with him.

On the night of the 11th day of the 7th month of the fourth year of the Chongzhen reign (1644), an earthquake occurred at the border of Lixian County and Anfu County in Changde Prefecture, Huguang Province.

The Huguang region hadn't experienced an earthquake for thousands of years before and hundreds of years after, but then one happened during the Chongzhen era. Who can we complain to about this?!
Reports from Huguang indicated that the earthquake caused houses to collapse, killing over sixty men and women. Aftershocks continued, and people dared not return to their homes to sleep. Huguang was known as a land of plenty, a region famous for its rice and fish. This earthquake was just the beginning. In September, Huangzhou Prefecture in Huguang, which later became Huanggang in Hubei, experienced severe flooding.

Zhang Heming, the Imperial Inspector of Huguang, reported: "In September, Huangzhou was hit by heavy rain for ten days. The river overflowed, flooding fields and houses, destroying more than a thousand houses, and causing famine among the people. Many people fled and gathered wild vegetables to eat."

The prefect of Changde petitioned the court to exempt him from taxes. The governor of Huguang seized the opportunity to apply for a reduction in this year's grain tribute to aid earthquake relief. Indeed, the earthquake in Huguang had persisted for three months, though not of high magnitude, it was remarkably prolonged. Huguang accounted for 20% of the annual 4 million shi (a unit of dry measure) of grain tribute. This tax exemption would save 800,000 shi of grain.

Zhu Youjian preferred to allocate 800,000 taels of silver for disaster relief rather than allow them to be exempt from taxes. Because tax exemption is addictive; it's enjoyable in the short term, but difficult to collect it again later.

Furthermore, the key point is that the Governor of Huguang didn't say he would reduce or exempt taxes for the people of Huguang. He said he would intercept the imperial grain tribute for disaster relief. But the question is, will this grain actually be used for disaster relief?! To put it more extremely, the government might have enough disaster relief grain but wouldn't distribute it. If the government distributed the grain, how could others manipulate grain prices?

Often, natural disasters are merely an excuse for some to make money. Between natural disasters and man-made calamities, human destructive power is often more terrifying than the natural disasters themselves.

Floods struck Huguang (Hubei and Hunan provinces), and at the same time, heavy rains fell in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, causing the Gan River to overflow, damaging crops, and leading to locust infestations and famine. The government distributed grain from the granaries to provide relief, but it was insufficient, and some people starved to death.

If Huguang was the granary of the Ming Dynasty, then Jiangxi was its talent pool.

The Jiangyou Wang School of thought swept the nation. During the Zhengde era, Wang Yangming served as the governor of southern Jiangxi, stationed in Ganzhou, Jiangxi. While in office, Wang Yangming was busy suppressing bandits and also incidentally eliminated the local Prince Ning, Zhu Chenhao. Although Wang Yangming died, his teachings have indeed survived.

During Zhu Youjian's five-year reign, two imperial examinations were held. The number of successful candidates from Jiangxi was second only to that from Zhejiang. Furthermore, in subsequent evaluations of officials, more than sixty newly appointed officials from Jiangxi even surpassed those from Zhejiang, achieving the best evaluation results.

Besides newly appointed officials, the number of officials from Jiangxi province within the court ranks among the top three. Few of them reach the top ranks, but a large number hold middle and upper positions. For example, Yang Sichang, the Left Vice Minister of War, is from Jiangxi. He's capable, but always falls short. With the court teeming with talent, it's not his turn to shoulder major responsibilities.

However, the officials from Jiangxi are renowned for their diligence and competence, forming the backbone of the current court. Jiangxi officials are also very united. When Jiangxi suffered a disaster, these hardworking officials, who usually bury themselves in their work, finally couldn't sit still any longer, allowing Zhu Youjian to feel the voice of the lower and middle-ranking officials.

Jiangxi is not only known for its strong examinations, but also for its large official and civilian populations, with nearly seven million registered residents and an actual population exceeding ten million.

The granaries were flooded, and Jiangxi, a populous province, was struck by both floods and locusts. Zhu Youjian was truly exhausted and even felt a sense of fear. He knew that these natural disasters were just the appetizer; the real calamities were yet to come!

By October of this year, the imperial court had spent over three million taels of silver on disaster relief and suppressing the victims. Now, only four million eight hundred thousand taels remained in the imperial treasury. Next, there were still the annual snowstorms to deal with, the salaries to be paid to officials, and the three major court assemblies to be held at the end of the year and next year. This money was truly at its limit; it couldn't be touched again!

(End of this chapter)