Top Scholar

Chapter 503 The Grand Secretary of the Ming Dynasty (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

Li Dongyang's death knell-like voice echoed deep within the Dragon and Tiger Hall, making Zhu Houzhao's head buzz.

He gripped the armrests of the dragon throne in frustration, wishing he could cover his ears on the spot or yell at Li Dongyang, completely forgetting that this was in his classroom...

"Since you know there will be problems, you should find a way to prevent them!" Zhu Houzhao's voice carried a hint of impatient urgency. "We can't just sit idly by and watch the building collapse!"

"If His Majesty had inquired two years ago, this old minister might have had a plan to offer," Li Dongyang sighed. "Now that His Majesty is asking, this old minister can only reply with shame that he has no plan left!"

"Why?!" Zhu Houzhao asked incredulously.

“To avoid large-scale civil unrest, we must provide disaster relief and comfort to the people, but this requires a lot of money and grain! I have already stated this—the national treasury is empty, and the government has no surplus funds available.” Li Dongyang said dejectedly.

"If you don't have money, find a way to get it!" Zhu Houzhao said, raising his voice.

“Raising taxes will only exacerbate the rebellion caused by oppression… As for cutting spending, all expenditures have already been reduced to the limit. Princes and officials are already receiving half their salaries. Further cuts may cause princes to become disloyal, and officials may also slack off or resign, which will only make the situation more chaotic,” Li Dongyang sighed.

The emperor gritted his teeth and asked again, "If a civil uprising really breaks out, can it be suppressed?"

"Your Majesty, we are powerless to suppress him." Li Dongyang had finally caught Zhengde, and he was determined to give him a good cold shower.

"Our ancestors established the garrison system, originally with a force of over 2.7 million officers and soldiers. Now, only 896,000 remain in the entire country. In the northern border regions, desertion among the garrison households has reached 40%, and in Shandong and other places, the garrisons have less than half their original strength. The remaining soldiers are mostly old and weak, and their training has deteriorated." His tone grew increasingly grave as he continued:
"The military households in the southern garrisons are in better condition, but their fighting strength is extremely weak. They would probably collapse at the first sign of a civilian uprising..."

"Does the mighty Ming Dynasty have no capable troops?!" Zhu Houzhao broke down. He could still hold his tongue when Su Lu told him that no one paid the blood tax, after all, Su Lu was his peer and had not yet become an official. But now that the Grand Secretary of the Ming Dynasty had said the same thing, it dealt him a devastating blow.

"Yes, Your Majesty, yes," Li Dongyang hurriedly reassured him, "The only force in the court that still has fighting power is the northern border army."

Just as Zhu Houzhao was about to breathe a sigh of relief, the damned Grand Secretary abruptly changed the subject, saying, "But we can't move the troops here! If we don't move them now, the little prince has been invading us frequently, and the capital is in constant turmoil. If we rashly transfer the border troops, wouldn't he be able to march straight in as if he were in an empty land?"

"..." Zhu Houzhao swallowed hard, and after a long pause, said in a muffled voice, "What about the three major military camps in the capital?"

"Your Majesty, the same situation applies: more than half of the personnel are missing, and salaries have been owed for a long time. Their combat strength is no different from that of local garrisons." Li Dongyang replied, "If we want to restore our combat strength, we need to pay the back wages, replenish the personnel, reorganize the equipment, and train for more than half a year. This cost would be at least one million taels of silver. The court simply cannot afford this amount of money. Therefore, the Beijing Garrison can only guard the capital at most and cannot be mobilized at all."

"Zhang Yong, is that so?!" Zhu Houzhao asked Zhang Erban with a dark face.

Zhang Yong knelt down with a thud, his face contorted in a grimace, and said, "This old servant dares not lie. What the Grand Secretary said is basically true."

"Then why didn't you report it?!" Zhu Houzhao glared at him fiercely.

"Your Majesty, reporting this won't solve the problem," Zhang Yong said. "Your Majesty can't conjure up any silver, so this old servant can only repeatedly urge the relevant departments to allocate funds. Unfortunately, they just keep making excuses. Only today did this old servant realize that the national treasury is truly empty."

"Ugh, go away, go away!" Zhu Houzhao waved his hand irritably. Zhang Yong felt like he had been granted a pardon, and Su Lu gave him a reassuring look.

"What we're talking about now is all hypothetical. Is it possible that nothing will happen?" When he realized he had no other options, Zhu Houzhao could only hope for divine intervention.

"Absolutely impossible." Li Dongyang left him no room for wishful thinking, stating resolutely:

"In reality, bandits are rampant in the local areas, and their influence has spread like wildfire. In Liuzhou and Qingyuan in Guangxi, Linqing and Caozhou in Shandong, Ganzhou and Yaoyuan in Jiangxi, Pingyang and Liaozhou in Shanxi, Baoning and Hanzhong in Sichuan... almost every province has seen uprisings, ranging from several thousand to tens of thousands."

"Are all local officials incompetent?!" Emperor Zhengde, having lost his composure, cursed so filthyly, I wonder where he learned it from.

Li Dongyang replied, "Local officials are powerless to suppress the bandits and can only retreat to their county towns, frequently reporting the situation to the provincial government. The provincial governor has been dismissed, and the three provincial departments are passing the buck among themselves, leaving no one to coordinate the suppression of the bandits. If this continues, by this autumn, it may lead to nationwide chaos!"

He couldn't resist stabbing Liu Jin in the back again. He then concluded his speech, knowing when to stop:
"Your Majesty, gentlemen, this is the true state of affairs in our Great Ming Dynasty in the third year of the Zhengde reign—financial depletion, military disarray, impoverished people, widespread refugees, rampant bandits, and impending chaos!" Li Dongyang's gaze swept over Zhu Houzhao, who sat on the throne looking as if he had just eaten a dead rat, before settling on the newly appointed scholars below the steps. His tone was heavy with sorrow as he spoke:
"These crises did not arise overnight. The world has now reached a point where it must be destroyed before it can be rebuilt. If we do not resolutely reform, rectify officialdom, strengthen the military, and appease the people, the foundation laid by our ancestors will be in grave danger!"

Having said that, he turned and knelt before the steps, kowtowing and weeping as he pleaded, “I speak frankly today not because I dare to offend Your Majesty, but because the ‘state of affairs in the Great Ming’ has reached its most dangerous point. As the Grand Secretary, I dare not utter a single falsehood to deceive Your Majesty, nor can I allow newly appointed officials to make the slightest misjudgment of the ‘state of affairs in the Great Ming’!”

His words were all focused on the "state of affairs in the Ming Dynasty," essentially reminding the Emperor that he was here to teach by imperial decree, that it was they who had ordered him to speak on these matters...

"No, no! You've already said it all, what else is there to be afraid of?" Zhu Houzhao suddenly stood up, his imperial face flushed red, his guard completely broken. "get out of class dismissed! get out of class dismissed!" he angrily threw down the words, then hurriedly left, his only thought being to find the panda to calm himself down.

"Send His Majesty off!" The Duke of England, who was dozing off, immediately sprang to his feet and led his men to respectfully see the Emperor off.

~~
After seeing the emperor off, the Duke of Yingguo turned to look at the newly appointed scholars who were exchanging bewildered glances, and sighed, "Then let them rest for a while, have some mung bean soup to cool down, sigh..."

The servants then brought in a large wooden tub and served soup to the scholars. This time, everyone was very quiet, slurping their soup from their bowls. The atmosphere in the hall was quite oppressive.

The words spoken by the Grand Secretary weighed heavily on everyone's hearts like a mountain, making it hard for them to breathe.

Li Dongyang also drank a bowl of mung bean soup, took out a handkerchief to wipe his mouth, and said to everyone, "There's no need for you to do this. Suppressing the rebellion, providing disaster relief, and pacifying the people are not things for you to worry about. I'm telling you all this simply to make you aware of the crisis, so you won't be too carefree, and you won't just think about your own little families. If this ship sinks, no one can escape."

"Yes, we will keep in mind Master Yuan's teachings." The scholars quickly put down their bowls and respectfully accepted the instruction.

"Alright, I'll head back now. You can continue your lessons." Li Dongyang handed the bowl to the little eunuch.

"Send the Grand Secretary away!" the Duke of England shouted again.

"No need, no need, don't get up. Please stay, sir." Li Dongyang waved his hand, indicating that everyone should stay, and then smiled at Su Lu, "The top scholar can see this old man off."

“Alright, Hongzhi, you can see the Grand Secretary off on my behalf.” The Duke of England readily agreed.

"Yes," Su Lu replied, and saw Li Dongyang out of the Dragon Tiger Hall.

~~
In the palace garden, a warm afternoon breeze was blowing, but the atmosphere between the two was somewhat cold.

Li Dongyang glanced back at the Tengxi Palace in the distance and sighed softly, "Alas, I spoke too harshly today, and I'm afraid I've caused trouble for my grand-disciple."

Su Lu glanced at him with a half-smile: "So yesterday, Master pretended to be pitiful in front of me, just to trick me?"

The two spoke in hushed tones, barely audible to each other, yet they still managed to express a wealth of emotions—truly befitting someone from the same school.

"Yes, Master, you've lost all sense of propriety." Li Dongyang readily admitted, but then said solemnly, "It's just that the affairs of state are in such a state of disarray, yet the Emperor hides in this Leopard Chamber and refuses to face the situation, not giving us any chance to present our arguments!"

Then, with a shameless smile, he said, "Hongzhi, didn't you open this 'Dragon and Tiger Lecture Hall' hoping that the Emperor would learn the truth and have a change of heart?"

"I wanted the newly appointed scholars to understand the situation, but I didn't intend to provoke the Emperor like this." Su Lu spread his hands, his tone tinged with helplessness. "I thought my master was so experienced that he would know what to do, but who would have thought he would pull such a stunt."

"Making sure the Emperor knows is of utmost importance!" Li Dongyang said in a deep voice, then added with a hint of worry, "But... won't the Emperor hold a grudge against you for this?"

"There's nothing I can do if the Emperor wants to take his anger out on me. At worst, I'll just become a postmaster like my teacher. I just don't know if Eunuch Liu will also have assassins planted along the way." Su Lu rolled her eyes without any politeness. This was beyond just being a bitch…

"Don't worry, nothing will happen! After today, not only will you be fine, but your master will also have a chance to be reinstated!" Li Dongyang said with a smile, "You just need to appease the Emperor again."

"I'm neither a concubine nor a eunuch, how could I possibly flatter the Emperor?" Su Lu snorted, his expression softening slightly. "But Master, the pit you dug for Eunuch Liu today is truly deep—you didn't mention 'eunuch' once, yet you shifted the blame onto them in every sentence. Are you planning to make Eunuch Liu take the fall for the whole world?"

"Heh..." A sharp glint flashed in Li Dongyang's eyes as he said frankly, "Am I wrong? He sent eunuchs everywhere to plunder the people's wealth, amassing more than ten million in just three years. He also seized imperial estates across the country and annexed millions of hectares of land. As the popular uprising intensified, they could not escape blame!"

“They were merely adding fuel to the fire, accelerating and exacerbating the civil unrest.” Su Lu shook his head, his tone becoming more somber. “But the real arsonist was someone else entirely.”

P.S. I'll revise this later, please vote with monthly tickets!!!

I see, everyone's opinion is unanimous, so I'll add another chapter. However, it's already this late after I finished writing at midnight, so the extra chapter will take two days to write. I'll post it on the 3rd.

(End of this chapter)