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

Chapter 89 Rats are running rampant in Taicang! Emperor, are you ready to face the impending drought and the Jisi Incident?

The favor of such a recommendation was immense. After Zhu Youjian rejected Zhu Xieyuan, whose qualifications were practically nonexistent, everyone recommended candidates who aligned with their own interests. Yuan Chonghuan, an old acquaintance of Zhu Youjian, was prominently listed, but many more were complete strangers whose names Zhu Youjian had never even heard of.

A common reason used by both the court and the public to criticize emperors for their incompetence is their poor judgment of character. Whether other emperors were like that or not, Zhu Youjian certainly couldn't judge people, and it's no wonder that taxes were frequently uncollected in the southeast and southwest.

Zhu Youjian now wants to find someone to fight Zheng Zhilong, but he doesn't know which army he can deploy.

The Ming Dynasty's strongest army was mostly stationed on the northern border, making the south a truly difficult place. The once-renowned Zhejiang army had been continuously drained of its resources by the court and was now essentially rendered useless.

The Fujian Navy had just been annihilated. The Guangdong Navy was in better shape, but it was too small and certainly couldn't defeat Zheng Zhilong.

I've heard that the Guangxi wolf soldiers aren't very disciplined and they really do use the heads of their fellow villagers.

The only force that was certain to be formidable was the Sichuan Army, but it didn't seem like a wise move to send southwestern troops to the southeast to fight Japanese pirates and suppress bandits.

Since he lacked sufficient judgment, Zhu Youjian could only heed the advice of his elders. If he entrusted the wrong person, he would be no different from Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and Li Linfu, or Wanyan Jiu Mei and Qin Hui. Zhu Youjian felt himself becoming increasingly aligned with this era, merging into his role. His slight pride as a time traveler vanished, and he had become docile.

"Birds of a feather flock together," as the saying goes. Isn't there a legend that knowing six people allows you to connect with the whole world through their network? Zhu Youjian figured that anyone favored by the capable ministers around him couldn't be too bad. However, to his dismay, Yuan Chonghuan was also among those recognized by these ministers.

Zhu Youjian currently recognizes the most capable ministers. Those in the court include Zhu Xieyuan, Bi Ziyan, Li Guoyu, Qin Liangyu, Wang Zaijin, Wang Xiangqian, and Wei Zhongxian. Those outside the court include Sun Chengzong, Sun Chuanting, Hong Chengchou, Lu Xiangshan, Yuan Keli, Man Gui, Zhao Shuaijiao, Cao Wenzhao, Zu Dashou, and Mao Wenlong. Unfortunately, this group is currently mostly concentrated in the north.

After careful consideration, Zhu Youjian decided to appoint Xiong Wencan as the governor of Fujian, who would be responsible for the pacification of the pirates in the southeast.

Zhu Xieyuan suggested: Since the goal is to appease, don't just apprehend Zheng Zhilong alone; apprehend several others to create a system of checks and balances. However, this approach could also lead to collapse. Ultimately, the court needs to cultivate its own new generation of naval commanders; otherwise, it will truly be at the mercy of these pirates, with naval power completely controlled by a group of pirates.

There was considerable discontent among the people that the emperor did not execute Yu Zigao; the fact that the Ministry of Justice sentenced Yu Zigao to immediate execution already revealed the opinions of the court officials.

The defeat of the Fujian Navy had extremely dire consequences. Even though everyone knew the imperial navy was incompetent, as long as no action was taken, people would still show some respect and a degree of awe, given the relatively impressive victories the imperial navy had achieved a decade or so prior. However, after the annihilation of the Fujian Navy, the waters around Penghu truly became a paradise for Japanese pirates and Western barbarians; the vast coastal region was forever devoid of the Ming Dynasty's navy.

Zhu Youjian agreed with Zhu Xieyuan's suggestion and requested that the court have more contact with Westerners and cooperate with them.

The rather unfortunate thing was that while the Ming Dynasty had the capability to imitate advanced Western cannons—a process that had begun as early as the reign of Emperor Wuzong—the cost and quality of these imitations were appalling. In short, to ensure quality and quantity while minimizing costs, it was better to import them directly than to manufacture them ourselves.

Western European cannons and breech-loading cannons, Middle Eastern firearms... Although the imitations of Western firearms were not very good, this at least shows that the Ming Dynasty was still very open-minded and tolerant, and pragmatism prevailed.

Politics can be complex, but it can also be simple. In essence, politics is about maximizing our own numbers and minimizing our enemies. It's about identifying the true enemies and then uniting to defeat them.

Compared to the Jurchens, Zhu Youjian felt that foreigners and pirates could cooperate, and even the Mongols, who were not exactly human, were more amiable than the Jurchens at this stage. The Mongols operated on a bandit logic, while the Jurchens were outright anti-human; surrendering to the Mongols might guarantee survival, but surrendering to the Jurchens was uncertain.

Of course, none of these people were good people. If he could, Zhu Youjian would like to crush them all, but he didn't have the power to do so, so he could only deal with them slowly.

The candidate for the Fujian General Commander must be skilled in naval warfare, as he bears the heavy responsibility of rebuilding the Fujian Navy. Such a person is hard to find in the entire Ming Dynasty.

Ultimately, Zhu Youjian decided to remove Chen Jisheng, Mao Wenlong's deputy commander-in-chief, and send him south to take over as the commander-in-chief of Fujian. He also placed eight sons of Shen Yourong, the former pillar of the Ming Dynasty, under Chen's command, hoping to find a talent capable of inheriting his father's will.

Shen Yourong died in May of the seventh year of the Tianqi reign. He was posthumously awarded the title of Vice Commander-in-Chief and granted a state funeral. His son should have been able to inherit his position, but unfortunately, his family offended the eunuch faction, and the matter was put on hold.

Zhu Youjian knew about their family because when he had asked Wei Zhongxian to find eligible daughters from the families of ministers, one of Shen Yourong's granddaughters happened to be on the list. As for why they were chosen by Wei Zhongxian despite offending the eunuch faction, it was because they had offended the eunuch faction but not Wei Zhongxian himself! Wei Zhongxian had no idea that their family had conflicts with the eunuch faction, and knowing that the emperor particularly favored capable ministers and fierce generals, he naturally included renowned generals like Shen Yourong in his considerations, aiming to curry favor with the emperor.

In fact, if it weren't for one mess after another that was suffocating Zhu Youjian, he would have started a new round of harem expansion by now.

Because of the overwhelming public support for Yuan Chonghuan, Zhu Youjian began to doubt whether his own bias was too strong. Ultimately, he yielded to public opinion and decided to appoint Yuan Chonghuan as Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, ordering him to lead the Guangxi guerrillas and the Guangdong navy northward to support Fujian. He was also tasked with combining the forces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, and Zhejiang provinces to cooperate with Fujian Governor Xiong Wencan in a campaign to appease the notorious bandit Zheng Zhilong.

As for the imperial sword, Zhu Youjian would never dare to bestow it upon him. Perhaps Yuan Chonghuan still had a childlike heart, liking to chop flowers and plants even with a wooden stick; who knows who he might indiscriminately chop at someone if he received the imperial sword.

No matter how powerful Zheng Zhilong was, he was still just a pirate at heart. He could gather 20,000 followers, but that didn't mean he had 20,000 soldiers. The power structure of pirates was too loose; he was merely the leader of a gang, not the emperor of the sea. He could only truly rely on the few thousand loyal followers of the Zheng family.

At sea, the Ming Dynasty's weak navy is no match for him; but on land, they are only slightly stronger than peasant rebels. If he were truly that powerful, he would have already conquered Fujian and become a mountain king. The elite troops drawn from four provinces should be more than enough to give him a run for his money.

However, deploying troops requires money!

In the seventh year of the Tianqi reign, the fiscal revenue was 5,964,873 taels of silver, and the total amount of grain transported from the Grand Canal and the north was 4 million shi (a unit of dry measure). According to the grain price in Beijing, this was worth 2 million taels. However, if Zhu Youjian really dared to sell this grain, it was hard to say whether he could even get back 100 taels!
The military expenditure for the nine border regions was 2.3 million taels, covering 90% of last year's military pay, but 6.98 million taels of back pay from previous years remained unpaid. The construction of the imperial mausoleum and the imperial granary cost 1 million taels. Other expenditures, including officials' salaries, disaster relief, and grand court assemblies, amounted to approximately 4 million taels, split equally between money and grain, with only half of the salaries being paid.

After the reign title was changed, Bi Ziyan required the court to summarize the financial and tax situation at the end of each month, and this became a fixed system. On February 28th of the first year of Chongzhen's reign, Bi Ziyan presided over the reporting of the court's financial and tax situation for February.

With the summer harvest yet to arrive and last year's expenditures so high, Taicang is already experiencing financial difficulties.

Currently, there are 900,000 taels of silver remaining in Taicang and 3 million shi of grain stored in Jingtong Granary.

Zhu Youjian still owed the Shanxi reinforcements money and grain, only allocating 100,000 taels of silver to the Jizhou garrison. This money was intended for Yu Zigao to repair the old equipment of the wagon camp and to provide soldiers with start-up and resettlement allowances.

Although Bi Ziyan did not complete his reform of merging finance and taxation, he still successfully "broke the window" and secured a system that made the finances and taxes of each warehouse public.

The Ministry of Works' Treasury, General Treasury, and Arsenal Treasury held 700,000 taels of silver; the Ministry of War's Armory and Carriage and Cavalry Treasury held 400,000 taels of silver; the Ministry of Rites' Hall Treasury and Court of Imperial Sacrifices Treasury held 270,000 taels of silver; the Ministry of Justice's Prison Treasury and Corruption Treasury held 450,000 taels of silver; and the Ministry of Personnel's Archives Treasury held 180,000 taels of silver.
The Emperor’s Imperial Treasury currently holds 1.3 million taels of silver and 4 million shi of grain!

What a wealthy Ministry of Works!

Actually, these warehouses, as their names suggest, were not originally used to store silver, but rather to store the supplies needed for the daily operation of the Six Ministries. Similarly, the Inner Transport Treasury was not initially the emperor's private treasury; it was used to store gold, silver, jewels, and other valuables. However, as time went on, the Six Ministries began to hoard money, finding various ways to intercept funds and supplies to enrich their own private coffers.

Zhu Xieyuan, along with a group of military officials, drafted a military strategy to deal with the banditry in the southeast, but the meager 900,000 taels of silver in Taicang were far from enough.

Bi Ziyan spread his hands and said: "Your Majesty, you either cut flesh from your own private treasury or apportion it to the southeastern provinces to collect the 'anti-Japanese tax'."

Zhu Youjian did not want to sacrifice his own flesh or impose a quota, so he asked Bi Ziyan if there were any other solutions.

He said there are many, and that completing his ten tax reform measures would suffice.

Zhu Youjian said: Then you should change it!!!

(End of this chapter)