Top Scholar

Chapter 505 Liu Jin's Counterattack (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
Bang bang bang!
Inside Tengxi Palace, the palace lanterns were bright, but the floor was a mess.

This is the emperor's bedroom, so it's impossible for it to have been burgled. Therefore, it could only have been the emperor himself who smashed it.

Zhu Houzhao, wearing boots, lay sprawled on the dragon bed, coldly staring at Liu Jin with lingering anger.

"Your Majesty, kill this old servant! As long as Your Majesty can appease your anger, this old servant will die willingly..." Liu Jin lay on the ground, his forehead pounding heavily against the gold bricks, and soon his forehead bled.

"Would killing you fill the national treasury with silver?" Zhu Houzhao snorted.

"That won't do. This old servant is just a skinny old man. Even if you dismembered me and sold me off piece by piece, you wouldn't get much money back." Liu Jin hurriedly shook his head timidly, fearing that the emperor might actually try it.

"Why did you keep this from me?!" Zhu Houzhao suddenly raised his voice, his eyes blazing as he stared at Liu Jin. His anxiety about the 'doom of the Ming Dynasty,' compounded by the deception he had inflicted upon his most trusted advisor, finally broke him down.

"Your Majesty, this old servant deserves to die..." Liu Jin sobbed, "This old servant is afraid, afraid that these troubling matters will disturb Your Majesty's peace, and even more afraid of seeing Your Majesty so enraged as you are now!"

He crawled a few steps on his knees, clutching the corner of the dragon robe with tears and blood streaming down his face, and choked out, "Since Your Majesty was three years old, this old servant has stayed by Your Majesty's side, watching you grow up day by day. My greatest wish in this life is to let Your Majesty be as happy and carefree as you were when you were a child!"

"..." Upon hearing this, Zhu Houzhao's icy gaze thawed slightly. He tossed a handkerchief to Liu Jin, telling him to wipe the blood and tears from his face.

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Liu Jin said, wiping his face as he sobbed.

"Back then, Liu Jian, Xie Qian, and their ilk saw that the court was in such a mess that they just left and abandoned their responsibilities! Your Majesty trusted this old servant and let me take over. In fact, I was dumbfounded after only a few days of taking over—the national treasury was so empty that rats could run in it! But Your Majesty was about to get married, which is the most important event of your life, and those damned civil officials wanted to make it simple! In the end, I had to force the eunuchs guarding the various regions to contribute so that Your Majesty could have a grand wedding!"

"Hmm." Zhu Houzhao nodded. The wedding was indeed very grand, but it was a pity that the Empress was an utterly boring young girl. It was like going to Fuxinglou Restaurant for a meal: the most lavish reception, the most luxurious private room, and the most expensive tableware, and guess what? A plate of simple steamed buns was served!
How can anyone eat something so bland and tasteless?!

Seeing that the emperor's expression was becoming more varied, Liu Jin seized the opportunity and said:

"These past two years, the entire country has been in dire need of money, both inside and out. This old servant has been struggling to make ends meet, and I've been so worried I can't sleep. To be honest, this old servant doesn't have any great abilities. I'd like to follow Liu Jian and Xie Qian's example and leave this wretched burden behind, to comfortably serve the Emperor. Even just serving tea and water would be a hundred times better than this, at least I could live a couple more years and avoid this infamy!" Liu Jin had just wiped the blood and tears from his face when tears streamed down his face again.
"Your Majesty, in the past two years, in order to replenish the national treasury and cut expenses, I have conducted land surveys, abolished post stations, reduced expenses for the imperial clan, and eliminated redundant officials... I have offended far too many people. The way they curse me is so vicious, and the rumors they spread are so frightening! They say I am some kind of emperor, a 'Nine Thousand Years Old.' It's as if I could cause the heavens and earth to collapse with a flick of my finger. But I am clearly just Your Majesty's dog. If Your Majesty is unhappy, you can crush me with a flick of your finger. They are all shrewd people; how could they not know that?"

"Then why do they still say that?" Zhu Houzhao asked, his brows furrowed.

"They just want this old servant to die!" Liu Jin said bitterly. "They always say that this old servant persecuted loyal officials, but they never talk about the so-called loyal officials. They oppose the emperor like madmen, bully the emperor, and force the emperor to submit by pressing his head down!"

"Alright, what's past is past. Those scoundrels have all been fired, haven't they?" Zhu Houzhao's tone softened. "You still need to be careful to unite these newly promoted officials."

"Yes, this old servant obeys." Liu Jin hurriedly replied respectfully.

"Then tell me, after all these years of hard work and offending so many people, why is the national treasury still completely empty?" Zhu Houzhao leaned forward, scrutinizing Liu Jin. "Is it because you're incompetent? Shouldn't you return power to the cabinet?"

"Yes, this old servant is foolish and dares not claim to have any ability." Liu Jin's heart skipped a beat. He had guessed the emperor would react this way, but fortunately, after a secret discussion with Jiao Fang, he already had a plan. So he calmly said:

"But to say that returning power to the cabinet will fill the national treasury is something I, this old servant, absolutely do not believe—who left this mess behind? Wasn't it the invincible combination of 'Li Gongmou, Liu Gongduan, and Xie Gongyou Kankan' back then? Now that only one of the three leaders remains, how could they possibly do a better job?"

"Hmm..." Zhu Houzhao thought that what he said made a lot of sense, so he asked in confusion, "Then how did it come to this? The empire of our ancestors is still the same empire, so why was our ancestor able to launch eight expeditions to the northern deserts and seven voyages to the Western Ocean, while I am so poor that I only have eight hundred taels of silver?!"

"This old servant will show Your Majesty something, and Your Majesty will know." Liu Jin took out a thin report from his sleeve and raised it high with both hands.

Zhu Houzhao took it and saw that it was a yellow register general ledger comparison issued by the Ministry of Revenue. It contained statistics on household registration and land area for the twenty-fourth year of the Hongwu reign—

The total number of households is 10,652,870, with 60,545,812 people and 8,507,623 hectares.

Below is the latest data from the fifteenth year of the Hongzhi reign—

The number of households was 9,144,056, a decrease of 1,508,814 households.

The population was 55,906,806, a decrease of 4,639,006.

The most outrageous figure is for farmland, which is 4,697,233 hectares, a decrease of 3,813,390 hectares, or a full 45%!

Zhu Houzhao's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets!

After a moment of stunned silence, he jumped up, his roar echoing throughout the bedchamber:
"Who the hell made up these numbers?! I'll tear them to pieces!"

If it weren't for the official seal of the Ministry of Revenue and the signature of Gu Zuo, the Minister of Revenue, which fully demonstrated its authority, he could have easily killed Liu Jin in his rage.

"This is the Yellow Register data reported by the two capitals and thirteen provinces. It's not something anyone made up arbitrarily, Your Majesty! It's a system established by the Taizu Emperor to regulate taxes and corvée labor! Starting from the fourteenth year of Hongwu, it's compiled every ten years, organized by the lijia (village/township). Every household must truthfully report the number of people, the amount of land they own, where it is located, and how much tax they owe. Each Yellow Register is made in four copies, submitted to the Ministry of Revenue, the Provincial Administration Commission, the prefecture, and the county. The copy for the Ministry of Revenue has a yellow cover, hence the name 'Yellow Register'!"

It's quite remarkable that Eunuch Liu could memorize the words so well after practicing for such a short time. It shows that when people are pushed to the limit, they can unleash unlimited potential.

"All the Yellow Registers are carefully stored in the Yellow Register Archives at Houhu Lake in Xuanwu Lake, Nanjing. The most recent compilation was in the fifteenth year of the Hongzhi reign. If His Majesty does not believe the Ministry of Revenue's statistics, he can issue an edict to have the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue send them to the capital. We can examine them carefully and then we will know whether they are true or false!"

"..." Zhu Houzhao knew this couldn't be fake. He lay down weakly on the dragon bed, looking at the magnificent coffered ceiling above him, and murmured:
"This land still belongs to the Ming Dynasty, not an inch of land has been lost. And after more than a hundred years of peace, the population should only be increasing. So why have the numbers on the Yellow Register decreased so drastically? Isn't this blatant fraud?"

"Your Majesty is wise! It is indeed a forgery, and it's happening nationwide, in every province, prefecture, and county!" Liu Jin secretly breathed a sigh of relief, finally turning the tide again, and pressed his advantage, saying:
"Those officials in the capital only know how to whitewash the truth and deceive the Emperor with this distorted Yellow Register! This old minister has tried to find out the truth, and the actual situation is just as the Emperor expected—after a long period of peace, the population has gradually increased, and the actual population of our Great Ming has now exceeded 100 million! The same goes for the land. With the increase in population, the people will naturally try to reclaim wasteland, so the actual cultivated land is definitely more than that, and it is impossible for it to be only half of what it was in Hongwu's time!"

"Absolutely! Even a fool could figure that out!" Emperor Zhengde remained paralyzed, weakly asking, "Have you investigated who was behind this?"

"Of course I've checked." Liu Jin nodded emphatically, then continued:
"In short, wealthy households colluded with officials and gentry, using methods such as 'deceptive registration' and 'flying off' to register their land and people under the names of officials who were exempt from taxes and corvée labor. In this way, all taxes and corvée labor fell on the shoulders of ordinary people. Unable to bear the burden, the people had no choice but to sell their land to officials, gentry, and wealthy households and become servants or slaves. At the same time, they underreported the number of able-bodied men, or even reported males as females, just to avoid corvée labor. There were also those vagrants who migrated everywhere, and their household registrations had long since escaped the control of the government... The accounts of military households and artisan households were even more of a mess, with countless omissions!"

"What's even more hateful is that the estates of princes and nobles are expanding day by day. They encroach on the people's land but never report it, and local officials also collude to cover it up! The Yellow Register, which is compiled once every ten years, has long become a mere decoration to appease superiors. Village chiefs and powerful families collude to change the data at will. Corruption in officialdom has reached its root! Once the Yellow Register collapses, the country will naturally not be able to collect taxes, the military pay will not be issued, and the people will not be able to receive disaster relief... This is the mess I left when I took over, Your Majesty!"

"So this old servant, bearing the condemnation of the world, gritted his teeth and pushed forward the new policies, wanting to re-measure the land!" Liu Jin said, his voice tinged with genuine helplessness.

"But that's like a hornet's nest, it'll explode at the slightest touch! Officials and gentry all shirk their responsibilities, and the common people are also misled into thinking that the eunuchs are here to extort and plunder the land. Not only do they not cooperate, but they are also used as pawns against us. Little do they know that once we have surveyed the land, their burden will definitely be lighter!"

As he spoke, he truly exuded the spirit of a loyal and courageous man:
"The reason I initially wanted to appoint the garrison eunuch as governor was because the new policies were failing to be implemented! Those local officials are learned and capable, but they are too self-serving. They can't collect the taxes that should be collected, and they can't uncover the hidden land that should be investigated. Only the Emperor's servants will truly keep an eye on these matters for the Emperor, and expose the unreported households and hidden land one by one. Only in this way can the national treasury be replenished again, so that the Emperor can realize his grand ambitions!"

P.S. The story has officially entered the main plot, please vote with your monthly tickets!!

(End of this chapter)