Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 214 If You Want Me to Blame Me Again, I'll Kill a Chicken (Part 1)
In the warm spring of March, the capital city was still covered in ice and snow, while the Central Plains were already bathed in the bright sunshine of spring, with grass growing and birds flying.

The people of the Central Plains were overjoyed and ecstatic.

They weren't this happy at this time of year in previous years.

They no longer had to suffer from the cold winter because they had survived it, but they still had nothing to eat and were still hungry.

They're either freezing to death or starving to death, what's there to be happy about?

This year is different, because Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong have already captured Luoyang and Nanyang, and these two guys have started to win over the hearts and minds of the people.

They actually distributed one shi of grain to every person in the Central Plains, regardless of gender or age!

Having finally survived the harsh winter and able to fill their stomachs again, the people of the Central Plains were naturally overjoyed.

Why were Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong so generous? Didn't they need provisions and pay?

Or, to put it another way, don't they need to store more food to expand their forces?

This is naturally impossible.

What they distributed to ordinary people was actually stale grain.

This is recorded in historical materials, but it's not said that way. Most of the historical materials say that the vassal kings would rather let the grain rot in the granary than distribute it to their soldiers as rations, let alone give away a single grain for disaster relief.

The climate in the Central Plains is not humid, so grain stored in granaries can generally be kept for seven or eight years without getting moldy. If the grain starts to get moldy, it means that the grain has been stored for at least eight or nine years.

Historical records contain numerous accounts of this, so the moldy grain must have been distributed to the disaster victims.

Otherwise, we could just leave it in the granary and let it continue to rot, or burn it. Who would know then?

It is precisely because Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong distributed grain that had been stored for many years and even moldy grain to the disaster victims that this grain frequently appears in historical records.

The amount of grain hoarded by the princes and members of the imperial family was extraordinary; the grain hoarded by the Prince of Fu and the Prince of Lu was nothing compared to what they had hoarded.

This is because they were all enfeoffed to the Central Plains during the Wanli era. The Prince of Lu was enfeoffed to the Central Plains for only forty years, and the Prince of Fu was enfeoffed to the Central Plains for only a little over ten years, and the grain produced was also limited.

Their three or four million acres of land are nothing compared to the terrifying grain reserves of the vassal kings like the King of Zheng, the King of Zhou, and the King of Tang. They have been enfeoffed in the Central Plains for over two hundred years, and for those two hundred years they have been using their privileges to annex land.

The Central Plains had more than 100 million mu of farmland, but by the Jiajing reign, only a little over one million shi of grain had been paid in taxes. This proves that only a little over ten million mu of farmland had paid land taxes, while the remaining eighty or ninety million mu had not.

Even if all of these 80 or 90 million mu were annexed by the princes and royal families, even if they only annexed half of it, that would still be more than 40 million mu. More than 40 million mu of land can produce 80 or 90 million shi of grain a year.

Even if all the princes and royal families in the Central Plains were to starve, they still wouldn't be able to consume ten million shi of grain a year. Moreover, they also had their own stipends for the imperial family, so they didn't need to eat the grain produced on their own land. Furthermore, the grain they gave to their tenant farmers was pitifully small, at most two or three tenths of the original amount.

Based on this calculation, the princes and royal families of the Central Plains must have stockpiled at least 50 to 60 million shi of grain a year, and that would amount to 500 to 600 million shi in ten years!

With so much grain, they couldn't eat it all or sell it all, so naturally, it could only be stored in the granary and allowed to mold.

The reason why Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong were so generous was that old or even moldy grain was of little use to them.

If they were to feed their soldiers, the soldiers would certainly complain. They would think, "We risk our lives for you, and you expect us to eat stale or even moldy grain?"
Even a fool knows this is something you shouldn't do; doing it would only incite a mutiny.

If they continue to hoard it, it will be even more useless; the food will only deteriorate the longer it is hoarded.

Therefore, they might as well take out the old grain or even the moldy grain and distribute it to the disaster victims, which would win people's hearts.

The disaster victims were starving to death, so they naturally didn't care about whether the grain was old or not. When they were starving, they would even eat dirt. So what if the grain was moldy? As long as it could fill their stomachs, that was enough.

Besides, how many people are there in the Central Plains? At most, it would be 20 million.

With this number of people, any of the old grain stored in any feudal lord's garrison would be enough to give each person a bushel.

They certainly wouldn't be stingy with this little bit of food.

This distribution of food is just the beginning.

They then burned all the land deeds of the princes and royal family members in front of the common people, and implemented a policy of equal land distribution and tax exemption!

This means that these lands will belong to ordinary people from now on, and each household will be allocated land according to the number of people in the family. Everyone will receive the same amount of land, and there will be no more land taxes to pay. All the grain grown will be theirs.

The people of the Central Plains were overjoyed when they heard the news.

This is not over yet.

Immediately afterwards, they ordered people to spread the word everywhere that all the royal relatives who were rich but heartless and oppressed the common people should be dragged out and beheaded as a warning! This was not as simple as winning people's hearts.

They're putting the young emperor in a difficult position.

The Ming Dynasty is now like a game of chess, with princes, members of the imperial family, and even figures like Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong as pawns.

The three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou had already made their moves, "General!"

Let's see what you, little emperor, will do.

Zhu Jue seemed completely unaware.

He still devoted himself entirely to the shipyard.

That morning, around 9 a.m., after he had just finished reviewing the memorials, he arrived at the shipyard with Zheng Zhilong, Wang Chengen, Fang Zhenghua, and others.

At this time, the outlines of giant ships had already appeared in dozens of waterways to the east of the shipyard, and the hulls of eighty small Weiyuan warships were almost finished.

The hull of the small Zhenyuan warship developed by Wang Zheng has been assembled and is currently being mounted on the ship's side.

He used the same old method: thickening and thickening the hull. He used a full four-inch thick bottom plate, three-inch thick side plates, and the keel frame was thickened by almost twice as much.

Anyway, a ship with a capacity of 1,600 liang has a carrying capacity of more than 200,000 jin. The Zhenyuan warship is not used for hauling cargo, so adding more timber will not have much of an impact.

Zhu Jue glanced at the progress and then asked, "Liangfu, how are the preparations for the five hundred small Zhiyuan merchant ships and the four hundred medium-sized Zhiyuan merchant ships going?"

Uh, I'm currently developing warships, how did you end up talking about merchant ships again?

Wang Zheng said with some helplessness, "Your Majesty, there is no rubber. You have seen the three hundred waterways to the west. We have laid out the supports and set up the scaffolding, but we cannot start construction."

I know, of course, that there is no rubber.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly and said, "The rubber should be on its way. I have already ordered someone to tell Wang Yingchao that once the rubber arrives in Dongfan, we should quickly use a small Zhiyuan merchant ship to transport a batch over to Lingshanwei in Shandong."

I have already sent over a thousand carriages and several thousand warhorses over there. When the rubber arrives, we will use carriages to transport it over, changing horses along the way. It should arrive in the capital in five or six days.

In other words, if the fleet heading to the Americas is not delayed, the rubber should arrive around the 20th.

You need to get those ready quickly. We can't assemble without rubber. You can have someone lift the bottom planks and connecting plates onto the supports and arrange them. When the rubber arrives, we can start assembling immediately, which will save a few days.

This is true.

Wang Zheng nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand."

As they were discussing, Fang Zhenghua suddenly strode in, carrying a memorial, and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, an urgent report from Henan Prefecture, delivered by express messenger from 800 li away."

At this time, someone was still able to send over an urgent report that travels 800 li (approximately 400 kilometers)?

This is obviously not normal.

Henan Prefecture had gathered more than 300,000 rebels. Not only was it completely surrounded, but the post roads were also blocked. Even if some officials loyal to the court escaped, they would not be able to send urgent messages to the capital.

How did this memorial get here?

It was obvious that this was sent by someone arranged by Gao Yingxiang, or by the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou.

This person is probably just an unknown nobody, the kind used as a pawn.

Zhu Jue took the memorial and saw that it was indeed a minor official whom he did not know.

This fellow reported that the rebel Gao Yingxiang had already captured Luoyang and was opening granaries to distribute grain. Moreover, Gao Yingxiang also threatened to burn all the land deeds of the princes and royal family members, distribute land equally and exempt them from taxes, and even threatened to behead all the princes and royal family members and display their heads to the public!
The cabinet's proposed motion simply meant to send troops to the rescue immediately; it didn't seem to have any other meaning.

Pshaw, it's just a little trick.

You think I'd be in a hurry, don't you?
Why would I be in such a hurry!
Anyway, those princes and royal family members aren't my relatives.

Besides, so what if those princes and royal family members are my relatives?

Do you think I would panic and act recklessly like Emperor Chongzhen in history?

Keep dreaming, you guys!
Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then simply handed the memorial to Liu Ruoyu, saying expressionlessly, "Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. The situation in the Central Plains is very important. I will report again."

What do you mean by "invincible in every battle"?
You're messing with them again!
(End of this chapter)