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

Chapter 311 The Shanxi Governor's Frequent Outbursts: The Historical Curve Strains Geng Ruqi

Niangziguan was a small pass with only 360 soldiers stationed there, commanded by a single general. The pass was inscribed with the words "Niangziguan" on a horizontal plaque, and above it was a pavilion inscribed with "The Garrison Site of Princess Pingyang of the Tang Dynasty".

Centuries later, an electrician in the area wrote about the death of humanity, but he insisted that he was depicting an optimistic and hopeful world.

Zhu Youjian was not as optimistic as him. Death is death, there is no going to paradise; a country or a nation is dead, even if it is reborn hundreds of years later, it is just a country that has been destroyed and then restored. The Ming Dynasty itself was a country established by a group of people who were the remnants of a destroyed country.

According to regulations, the garrison at Niangziguan should consist of two infantrymen and one cavalryman, totaling 112 mounted soldiers. However, upon inspection, there were only twelve cavalrymen present, and the number of infantrymen was also insufficient.

Because Niangziguan Pass was part of the outer defense system of Shanxi Town, and in this historical timeline, northern Shaanxi was suppressed, Li Zicheng did not exist, and there was no peasant uprising in Shanxi at the time, so Niangziguan Pass was not reinforced as originally intended. Every brick in the pass was fired during the Jiajing era and has not been repaired for over a hundred years.

The commander of Niangziguan Pass was ashen-faced, believing he was doomed. However, Zhu Youjian ultimately did not pursue the matter. Through questioning the other soldiers separately, he learned that the commander had actually done a decent job; at least in the eyes of his men, he was a good leader.

After Anda was granted tribute, history records that the borders were peaceful, and Liaodong was the only place where the war was fought. The Ming Dynasty and the Right Wing Mongols maintained peace for half a century. The importance of Shanxi Garrison, which served as the southwestern barrier of the capital, gradually declined. Moreover, the main defensive force of Shanxi Garrison was set up in the three northern passes of Yanmen, Ningwu, and Piantouwai, so Niangziguan, the eastern pass, naturally received less attention.

Zhu Youjian never embezzled the military pay of the Nine Garrisons. Even if it meant selling everything he owned, he still managed to distribute the money and provisions. However, the reality was that the pay and provisions for Niangziguan Pass were being withheld, and the area was currently being maintained only by exploiting passing merchants to subsidize the military. In fact, Zhu Youjian also received a share of the money they plundered.

The imperial court stipulated that the customs duties collected in various regions should be divided equally between the imperial court and the imperial treasury. This year, the Ming Dynasty collected more than three million taels of customs duties in various regions, of which one and a half million taels were transferred to the imperial court. Zhu Youjian received seven hundred thousand taels, an increase of six hundred percent compared to the Wanli and Tianqi periods.

This was mainly due to the rise of border trade, but it also abolished the original inland trade, and the original tax revenue from these trades disappeared. However, Zhu Youjian still made a fortune because the original trade tax revenue was somehow handled by those below, and the level of humiliation was beyond description.

The revenue from the Liaodong horse market was as high as 12,000 taels per year, and the customs duty at Yuegang in Fujian was as high as 3,000 taels when the sea was opened during the Longqing reign, and increased to more than 20,000 taels per year during the Wanli reign! No matter how much money there was, it was as good as nothing if the imperial court could not collect it.

No wonder that emperors of the Ming Dynasty, whenever they were short of money, would try to bleed the peasants dry, because peasants were easy to bully. They could collect taxes from peasants, but the emperor couldn't even get a whiff of the tens of millions of taels of trade volume each year! Zhu Xieyuan said, "Your Majesty, you are celebrating too soon. The taxes collected at Niangziguan are not included in the total amount of the customs.

The garrison commander of Niangziguan said that he was required to hand over 70% of the customs revenue every year, but this money did not go to the central government and he didn't know where it went. His soldiers said that the garrison commander was only greedy, indulging in a little wine and occasionally visiting a brothel, but most of the money was used to buy food and weapons to maintain the army.

Since there were still over two hundred soldiers stationed at Niangziguan, Zhu Youjian chose to believe they hadn't colluded. If a general mistreated his soldiers too much, his subordinates had no reason to cover it up for him. After all, the opportunity to see the emperor was extremely rare, even rarer than seeing a central inspection team. If they didn't report it, they would never have another chance.

However, this situation still worried Zhu Youjian. These were still under the jurisdiction of the Nine Garrisons system. Although they were being embezzled, they would still receive some money. They also controlled one of the main trade routes between Shanxi and Hebei. What about the defense system outside the Nine Garrisons? Zhu Youjian knew that the local armies of the Ming Dynasty were corrupt, but he had never personally investigated the situation.

On paper, the Ming Dynasty boasted a million-strong army, which led Emperor Zhu to proudly declare, "I maintain a million soldiers without costing the people a single penny." However, the true state of the Ming army today is likely far from convincing.

Zhu Youjian said to Zhu Xieyuan, "You are the Minister of War, in charge of all the troops in the country. Did you know about the situation at Niangziguan Pass beforehand? Logically speaking, you, as the Minister of War, should be held responsible for such an incident! You didn't let me come out. Do you think I could have seen this situation if I hadn't come down?!"

Zhu Xieyuan remained silent for a moment, then stubbornly insisted, "If Your Majesty wants to inspect the troops throughout the country, you can send a border inspector or a supervising eunuch. Just find a few trustworthy officials to come down. Why must you come down in person? If Your Majesty is not in the capital, how will the central government function?"
If the central government is paralyzed and the court is blocked, wouldn't the resulting negative impact be far more severe than the decay of a few small military strongholds in the region? The court has long been aware of the deterioration of military preparedness in the regions, and the officials in charge of military affairs are well aware of it. I do not believe Your Majesty would be unaware of it.

Now that Your Majesty has discovered the inadequacy of military supplies at Niangziguan, special measures might be taken to temporarily restore the garrison's strength. However, there are garrisons all over the land with similar or even weaker conditions than Niangziguan. What will Your Majesty do then?!

Zhu Youjian said, "Although I cannot restore all the garrisons in the country to their peak condition all at once, the state of military preparedness must be changed. Now that we have seen this, let's solve the immediate problem first. If I can't do it now, as long as I am alive, I can still make a lot of progress over ten or twenty years. If I die, then it doesn't matter, and the fate of the Ming Dynasty will be up to you."

Zhu Xieyuan was both amused and exasperated. He comforted the emperor, saying, "Your Majesty, you are in the prime of your life, strong and healthy, able to ride a horse and draw a strong bow, and full of energy. You have taken so many concubines but have not favored them. It has been five years and you only have three children. Your family is so small that it is not even comparable to that of an ordinary family. Your self-cultivation is even more excessive than that of the Daoist Emperor. Why do you say such ominous things, Your Majesty? I am already this old and will definitely pass away before you."

Zhu Youjian smiled mysteriously and said, "That's not necessarily true."

Before leaving Niangziguan, Zhu Youjian lavishly distributed money, providing the garrison at Niangziguan with three months' worth of back pay and a simple reward of dried meat porridge for the weary soldiers. He then ordered the Minister of War to draft an official document, written in the voice of the Niangziguan commander and bearing the imperial seal and Zhu Xieyuan's personal seal, requesting the provision of horses, weapons, money, and provisions.

This official document will eventually reach Geng Ruqi, and it will probably scare the guy so much that he wets his pants. This is also one of Zhu Youjian's little wicked pleasures.

Two days later, Zhu Youjian and his entourage finally arrived at their destination, Taiyuan Town, also known as Shanxi Town. The Ming army excelled in both cavalry and infantry, with the infantry's marching speed approaching the pinnacle of human light infantry. Li Chengliang frequently led infantry-based troops on nighttime raids of two hundred li (approximately 100 kilometers) and annihilated the enemy.

In fact, humans are the most endurance-bearing creatures. During long, continuous marches, the average daily marching distance of infantry is usually no less than that of cavalry, and may even exceed that of cavalry under certain conditions. The Red Army's record is 120 kilometers in one day and night, and the 113th Division of the 38th Army of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army carried heavy loads down mountains for 72.5 kilometers in 14 hours in freezing cold.

Zhu Youjian was accompanied by 2,700 infantrymen and 3,300 cavalrymen. During the day, the cavalry would spread out for dozens of miles, and by evening, the infantry would always catch up and rejoin them. Zhu Youjian himself rode a horse. Zhu Xieyuan was right; he couldn't linger too long, for who knew what kind of trouble might arise in the capital.

Even if he had taken relevant measures, there was no guarantee that unexpected events wouldn't occur. After all, sometimes so-called political maneuvering is actually quite simple and straightforward. Zhu Youjian was the flagship of the existentialist fleet; his greatest contribution to the country wasn't so-called reforms, but his very existence. Even if he spent his days sleeping in the palace, how badly could the Ming Dynasty have fallen? The straight-line distance from the capital to Niangziguan was 800 li, while the marching distance was 1200 li, taking Zhu Youjian seven and a half days. From Niangziguan to Taiyuan, a distance of 300 li, it took two days, almost like a forced march.

The Guan Ning Iron Cavalry goes without saying, and the fact that the White-Spear Soldiers, who have been raised in the Imperial City for so many years, can keep up proves that his efforts over the years have not been in vain. However, the quality of these three thousand White-Spear Soldiers is still among the best in the world.

Zhu Youjian's army marched along the way, suppressing all garrisons along the route, effectively paralyzing the intelligence system of Shanxi. Therefore, when he appeared at the gates of Taiyuan, the Taiyuan garrison commander, Zhang Honggong, was unaware of his presence beforehand. If he were to ask who he least wanted to see at that moment, the emperor would undoubtedly be on the list.

Zhang Honggong was previously the garrison commander of Shanxi, but after suffering a defeat, he was stripped of his entire rank. Logically speaking, Qu Jiazhen, the garrison commander of Datong, was also breached by Ligdan Khan, and his guilt was no less than Zhang Honggong's. However, they were different people, and Qu Jiazhen managed to reverse his fate by redeeming himself with his merits and remaining in his original position.

The emperor couldn't bestow too many rewards upon him. Although he hadn't been promoted, he had definitely won the emperor's favor and had a bright future ahead of him. The fact that Zhang Honggong was now serving as a garrison commander in Taiyuan, instead of being a lowly soldier carrying a red-tasseled spear on the frontier, was tantamount to disobeying an imperial decree.

Zhang Honggong neither had the courage nor the means to rebel. Even within the army, a defeated general was despised by his own men. Left with no other choice, he could only open the east gate of Taiyuan City and kneel to welcome the imperial carriage.

"Your subject, Zhang Honggong, the garrison commander of Taiyuan, pays his respects to Your Majesty!" Zhang Honggong shouted in a trembling voice.

"What are you panicking about?!" Zhu Youjian noticed the cold sweat dripping down the man's forehead, which seemed strange given the freezing weather. In truth, he didn't remember Zhang Honggong at all. He might have remembered him as the General of Shanxi, but he had absolutely no recollection of the name.

From Zhu Youjian's perspective, his name had only appeared once in a memorial to the throne, and Zhu Youjian wasn't some kind of genius with a photographic memory. Zhu Youjian didn't remember, but Zhu Xieyuan did. A scholar who passed the imperial examination in his twenties—no ordinary person could do that, and not everyone is a fool like Sun Chengzong! Zhu Xieyuan truly did have a photographic memory, and he was in charge of the Ministry of War.

"Zhang Honggong?! Weren't you dismissed from your post? When, where, and what merit did you make to qualify for the garrison commander position?!" Zhu Xieyuan said with an unfriendly expression.

Zhang Honggong had no merit whatsoever, and faced with Zhu Xieyuan's questioning, he stammered and could not speak. In fact, the old man did not take him seriously at all, and was even too lazy to deal with him, but Geng Ruqi really offended the old man terribly. If this fellow had not made a mountain out of a molehill and come to the capital, the emperor would not have found an excuse to suppress Buddhism, would not have fallen out with Sun Chengzong, and would not have led his troops to flee.

Regardless of his reasons, he caused such a terrible outcome, and Zhu Xieyuan, being a man of temper, had to teach Geng Ruqi a lesson! He said quietly, "Your Majesty, it seems that Geng Ruqi isn't entirely clean either!"

Now it was Zhu Youjian's turn to be silenced. Is this the tragic hero who is so vividly portrayed in history books? Zhu Youjian really didn't want to punish him and let him repeat the same mistakes, but the closing line of history seemed unwilling to let him go!
"Why are you in Taiyuan, and where is Geng Ruqi?!" Zhu Youjian asked in a deep voice.

Zhang Honggong lay prostrate on the ground, not daring to raise his head: "Your Majesty, after returning from the capital, the Governor rushed to Datong Town, only informing us by letter, and has not returned to Taiyuan. Lord Geng said that the northern barbarians along the Datong line are somewhat unruly, and there is also an outbreak of epidemic near Datong, which I heard came from beyond the Great Wall. Your Majesty, Your Majesty should not risk your life."

Just then, a commotion arose near the city gate. It turned out that Prince Jin, a distant relative of Zhu Youjian, had arrived. The white-haired, plump Prince Jin, Zhu Qiugui, pulled his eldest son, Zhu Shenxuan, along as they jogged over, followed by a ceremonial guard carrying a bright yellow canopy, which looked particularly comical.

"Your subjects Zhu Qiugui and Zhu Shenxuan pay their respects to Your Majesty!"

"Uncle, you may dispense with the formalities!" Zhu Youjian said, making a gesture of support.

In fact, Zhu Qiugui was the twelfth Prince of Jin, a contemporary of Wanli Emperor. According to seniority, he should have been Zhu Youjian's great-uncle. However, Zhu Youjian was too lazy to analyze the generational relationships of the vast Zhu family lineage; he couldn't even remember the nursery rhyme "My father's father is my grandfather!" Therefore, everyone older than him was addressed as Imperial Uncle. As emperor, Zhu Youjian was known for his free will, and others generally wouldn't be so tactless as to point out his mistakes in such matters.

This was the first time Zhu Youjian had met the Prince of Jin, and he only had two interactions with the Prince of Jin. One was when he was so poor that he was urinating blood and begging from all the local princes for money. In fact, he wasn't the only one doing this; local princes were supposed to pay tribute. However, Zhu Youjian was the most shameless and directly asked for money. At that time, Zhu Qiugui colluded with other princes and only gave Zhu Youjian five hundred taels of silver.

The second intersection was when Zhu Qiugui requested the court to bestow the title of heir apparent upon his eldest son. There were far too many treacherous things among the princes, and the Ministry of Rites should have been secretly pleased to have an eldest son who was in line to inherit the throne. However, Zhu Youjian rejected the imperial edict submitted by the Ministry of Rites, mainly because he wanted to extort a little money from the Jin prince.

The Ming emperor's decrees rarely left the Forbidden City, and thanks to Zhu Jiemen's influence, he was essentially trapped within the capital. The situation for the princes was even more dire. They spent most of their lives confined to their own palaces, requiring reports to leave, and attempts to leave the city were often blocked. Without the court's permission, they couldn't even leave the city where their fiefdoms were located, and even if a prince submitted an application to leave, the court generally wouldn't approve it.

So what's the use of having a lot of land in name only, or a large fiefdom? They're just being bullied to death, and even now they're like fleas raised in a jar. Zhu Youjian clearly allowed the princes of various regions to travel freely as a condition for collecting taxes from them.

Love is precious, money is even more valuable, but for the sake of freedom, both can be given up. If Zhu Youjian were in Zhu's shoes, he would have agreed to this very generous exchange. If he were a prince, he would definitely have agreed. The result was that taxes were collected, and most princes still preferred to stay at home and dared not go out.

The Prince of Jin smiled on the surface, but who knows how foul he cursed in private! Sometimes people take themselves too seriously. He thought the emperor was coming for them, perhaps because the emperor was short of money and wanted to extort them, these poor princes who only had money left.

With tears in his eyes, he said, "Your Majesty, I did not know beforehand that Your Majesty would be coming, so I did not have time to build a temporary residence for Your Majesty. I can only ask that Your Majesty stay in my palace for the time being."

Zhu Youjian hadn't originally planned to inquire about the Prince of Jin's affairs, but this remark piqued his curiosity. The Prince of Xin's residence wasn't a typical princely mansion; he'd never actually seen any proper princely mansions in the provinces before, and now he had the chance to take a look!
Zhu Youjian said, "Very well, I will visit my uncle's house tonight. However, I have other matters to attend to, so my uncle need not accompany me. Please return home first!"

(End of this chapter)