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

Chapter 317 Zhu Youjian: Was I really such a beast?!
When Zhu Youjian first arrived in Hequ County, he saw an old farmer leading the people in reinforcing the river embankment and excavating the ice dam. Upon inquiry, he learned that the old farmer was actually Zhang Tiande, the magistrate of Hequ County. Zhu Youjian looked at the ice dam, which was more than ten meters high, and the pitiful river embankment, which was only a little over one meter high, and fell into deep thought.

Zhang Tiande told him that ice breaches occur every year in Hequ, with the river overflowing its banks and flooding the farmland and riverbanks in the west and north of the city. This year marks the third time he has led people to break through the ice to prevent disasters.

I thought the situation would improve after spring, but it has become even worse. At this rate, the river embankment will probably not be able to hold up. Given the current water depth, the county town may be flooded.

When Zhu Youjian saw Zhang Tiande roll up his sleeves and join the ordinary people in trying to break through the thick ice wall with chisels and fire, but with little success, he couldn't help but marvel. He never expected that there was such a county magistrate in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Tiande was sweating profusely from his work, so anxious that he didn't care about the emperor "watching the show" on the sidelines. As he worked, he finally came to his senses, dropped the iron rod, and ran towards the emperor.

Zhu Youjian said, "You don't mean to make my army chisel the ice with you, do you?"

Zhang Tiande knelt down and said that he dared not have such thoughts, but only hoped that if the emperor had firearms, he would ask the emperor to use gunpowder and cannonballs to blast open the ice wall.

Zhu Youjian shook his head and told him that although he had brought some light firearms and a lot of ammunition, he had not brought any behemoths like the Hongyi Cannon. Smaller cannons would probably not be very effective against such thick ice.

Zhang Tiande said that holes could be drilled in the ice, gunpowder could be buried inside to blast the ice open, and county records show that magistrates in the past did this.

Zhu Youjian continued to shake his head: "If we use gunpowder here, then the firearms in the hands of my army will become nothing more than fire sticks. Which is more important?! Since you know this method, why didn't you prepare gunpowder beforehand?"

Zhang Tiande told him that the gunpowder used by ordinary people to make fireworks was different from the gunpowder used by the military. In the sixth year of Zhengde's reign, when the riverbank was breached by ice jams, the magistrate of Hequ County urgently requested 20 jin of gunpowder from the Hequ Thousand Household Office to blast the ice dam that was blocking the river in order to quickly clear the waterway.

Following the example of his predecessors, he applied to the Hequ Thousand-Household Office for gunpowder, but was refused by the Hequ Thousand-Household Office on the grounds that "ammunition is in short supply, and we need to guard against surprise attacks by refugees in northern Shaanxi and invasions by various Mongol tribes, and there is no surplus gunpowder available."

Looking at Zhang Tiande's coarse cotton-padded jacket with holes in it, Zhu Youjian seriously suspected that the Hequ Thousand-Household Garrison was unwilling to provide gunpowder because Zhang Tiande was unwilling to pay and only wanted to get their military supplies for free. Given the nature of these Thousand-Household Garrisons and Hundred-Household Garrisons in the interior, as long as you were willing to spend the money, there was nothing they wouldn't sell.

Zhu Youjian looked at Zhang Tiande and asked, "Are you sure that twenty catties of gunpowder will be enough to blow this thing up? If it's just this much gunpowder, I can still spare some for you."

Zhang Tiande dared not hide the truth. He said that under the current circumstances, it would probably take 200 jin (100 kg) to blast open such a thick ice dam, and they would have to keep watch day and night, coming over from time to time to prevent the ice floes upstream from accumulating and freezing again.

Then there's nothing more to discuss. Zhu Youjian asked Zhang Tiande, "Judging from your appearance, if you didn't gather information beforehand and put on a show for me, you're quite incorruptible. But why do the people under your rule still look emaciated and poorly clothed? It's worse than what I've seen elsewhere!"

Furthermore, I don't recall ever seeing your name on the list of those who passed the "top-tier" examinations in the Ministry of Personnel over the past few years. Are the officials in the central Ministry of Personnel falsifying information and deceiving me?!

Despite his many years of diligent work, Zhang Tiande still couldn't help but shed tears when asked about his painful experiences. He said that the Ministry of Revenue's failure to give him a "positive evaluation" wasn't intentionally targeting him, but rather because his performance in collecting taxes was indeed poor.

Hequ County is located in a low-lying area, prone to ice jams in spring and winter, and floods in summer and autumn. Despite its size, Hequ County has a population of less than 20,000, and taxes are levied on each county individually. Although Hequ was designated as a lower-level county, its tax burden was still relatively small, making it an unbearable burden.

According to population classification, Hequ County had fewer than 5,000 households; geographically, it could be classified as an important county. Hequ County was required to provide 50 shi (a unit of dry measure) of military rations to the Hequ Thousand Households each month, and annually conscript men for labor service to reinforce outposts and fortifications.

With constant natural disasters and heavy taxes, life was already unbearable before. In recent years, natural disasters have become increasingly frequent, and despite his best efforts, people are still fleeing the county. With fewer people but still high taxes, he truly doesn't know how they will survive!
Zhu Youjian had also heard that ancient courts often used such methods to punish people. Every dynasty had an assessment system for local officials, but this system was very imperfect.

If a newly appointed scholar offends a powerful figure, or if he offends no one but simply lacks the money to bribe officials, he will be assigned to the most remote and impoverished county.

Once you go there, you might never come out, wasting half your life and achieving nothing; even worse, if you go to a county town with a fierce local culture and bandits, you might die on the job.

If one is unwilling to stay in such a place and hopes to continue climbing the social ladder, then one can only collude with the local gentry and bullies, exploit the poor even more, and use the money accumulated to gain advancement.

This is why the poorer the place, the more corrupt it is, and the more corrupt it is, the poorer it becomes. Besides the low visibility and weak supervision, the impact of this systemic trap is considerable, and it may even be a man-made suffering.

Such practices included separating married couples working in the same government office, sending one to a prefectural office and the other to a county office, causing family members to become estranged and unable to care for each other; abandoning young people who had just passed the imperial examinations to villages where they could not even speak the local language; and then openly charging prices for normal job transfers.

With proper management, even a lowly department like the Provincial Education Commissioner can be made to produce results. There are always more solutions than problems; if there are no problems, create them. Zhu Youjian told Zhang Tiande that what he needed to do now was not to continue struggling with the ice dam, because given the current water level difference, Hequ was destined to be flooded, and even if the ice dam were breached now, the result would be the same.

What he needs to do now is to relocate the people in low-lying areas to higher ground. As long as the fields and houses are flooded, that's fine, as long as the people are safe.

Zhang Tiande was filled with despair. He knew the emperor was right, but with the fields and houses flooded, how could people possibly be safe?! The wheat was destroyed, and not only would replanting result in a reduced yield, but the delay might also prevent him from paying this year's taxes and additional taxes levied on Liaodong.

Nowadays, the Ming Dynasty regards tax payment as a top priority. The imperial court has repeatedly issued orders to urge the payment of taxes. If a county magistrate defaults on taxes, he will be punished, and the people under his jurisdiction will eventually have no choice but to borrow money to pay taxes, which will only slow down his death a little.

The people aren't stupid. Knowing their tragic fate, it's hard to say whether they would still be willing to move away.

People are reluctant to leave their homeland, and they may take a chance, thinking that the flood will not reach their homes, or that the flood will not be too big. They may wade through the mud and water to reinforce the area around their houses, and maybe they can save a lot of livestock and household items. It may just be the difference between whether their two thatched huts collapse or not.

The worst-case scenario is death. If one isn't afraid of poverty, why would one be afraid of death?!

Zhang Tiande had often heard that the current emperor was of pure and virtuous character, but now it seemed he was no better than Emperor Hui of Jin. How could the people of an entire county be moved away so easily? This was a chaotic order, and Zhang Tiande refused to obey!
Zhang Tiande bid farewell to Zhu Youjian and went down to the riverbed to continue breaking ice. Zhu Youjian was furious and ordered his men to tie him up and take him away.

"Your Majesty, release me! I and the people will first chisel a few holes in the ice to release the water and prevent flooding!" Zhang Tiande shouted as he struggled.

Zhu Youjian told him to get out, saying, "I will have the ice dam blown up again in a few days. The relocation of the people is a military order, not something to be negotiated with you! If you stay here any longer, you will be spying on military operations and missing opportunities. If I chop you into pieces, you will deserve it!"

Zhang Tiande cried and pleaded, hoping the emperor would have mercy on the people and not issue such an order. Zhu Youjian said, "What's all the fuss about? At worst, I'll just exempt your Hequ County from taxes for a year!"

As a result, Zhu Xieyuan reminded him that if the taxes in Hequ County were waived, the money would not disappear but would be distributed to other counties. Taxes in various places were already being collected to the limit; any more and many families would be ruined.

As an emperor, one should have the well-being of all people in mind. If saving the people of Hequ leads to the deaths of people elsewhere, can this be considered a benevolent policy?
"So the best course of action would be for me to directly advance a sum of tax money to Hequ County?" Zhu Youjian suddenly realized.

Zhu Xieyuan stroked his beard and said, "Indeed."

Zhu Youjian questioned the meaning of life, saying, "So I pay the people to pay my taxes, and yet I still have to be manipulated by officials at all levels?"

Zhu Xieyuan suddenly tugged at his beard, baring his teeth in shock, speechless. He really hadn't expected this!

"Fine, I'll pay," Zhu Youjian decided to compromise, thinking that since a province used to pay only ten thousand taels of tax, a county should be able to handle it easily.

Zhu Youjian dragged Zhang Tiande over and told him that he, the emperor, would help the people of Hequ pay their taxes. Zhang Tiande was dumbfounded: "Is that even possible?"

After verification by both parties, it was found that Hequ County needed to pay 1,795 shi and 1 dou (equivalent to 6 shao) of unprocessed grain this year, equivalent to 1,325 liang and 7 qian of silver in tax, 2,943 liang and 2 qian of silver in corvée labor, and an additional 7,663 liang of Liaodong tax, totaling 12,000 liang of silver plus tax on a little over 2,000 shi of grain.

Zhu Youjian was completely shocked. He pointed to his own nose and asked, "So, I, the emperor, am such a beast?!" Zhang Tiande remained silent.

Zhu Youjian asked him, "Can you pay so much tax?"

Zhang Tiande said, "Yes."

He remained silent for a moment, then, with tears in his eyes, he smiled and said, "As long as I am here, we will surely succeed!"

(End of this chapter)