The Ming Dynasty: Starting with the border troops, it was overthrown and the Qing Dynasty was destro

Chapter 332 The Jiajing Emperor's Family Cleansing, the Chongzhen Emperor's Re-conquest

With the strong support of the emperor and the Minister of War, the edict to increase the tax on the suppression of the rebellion quickly spread to every corner of the empire.

Upon receiving this order, officials throughout the Ming Dynasty were overjoyed.

If you were to ask these gentlemen what their favorite official duty is, it would undoubtedly be collecting taxes.

If the imperial court doesn't levy taxes, where will they get the money to make a profit?
The prefectural government office of Zhen Ding Prefecture in Beizhili.

A lean, seemingly refined official was sitting upright in the main hall of the government office, carefully studying the court's gazette.

"The imperial court only adds nine li per mu, how can that be acceptable?"

This man was none other than Yu Wenjie, the prefect of Zhengding Prefecture. He looked at the official gazette in his hand with great impatience.
"The people below mostly paid in small pieces of silver, of varying purity."

"The government office still has to melt it down into ingots and hand them over to the Ministry of Revenue. Doesn't that incur losses?"

The aide beside him understood immediately and bowed, saying:

"Your Excellency is wise."

"The tax levied on fire loss has existed since ancient times and is a necessary tax to maintain the operation of the local area."

"Now that the war effort is urgent, the costs of smelting, casting, and transportation are enormous."

"In my opinion, the fire loss... could perhaps be set at 20%?"

Yu Wenjie didn't even lift his eyelids, but simply said:
"Twenty percent? You've recently switched to vegetarianism and Buddhist practices?"

"We must be considerate of the court's difficulties and ensure that the funds are delivered in full and on time; but we must also take into account the difficulties of the prefectural government and our colleagues in various counties, right?"

"Change it to 30%!"

"It is imperative to inform all counties that the full amount of grain must be collected this autumn!"

Thus, before the emperor's order even left the government office, it was already bound by its first layer of constraints.

In the official report issued by the court, Zhu Youjian clearly ordered that only nine li of silver should be collected per mu in various places. However, when it passed through the hands of the local government of Zhengding Prefecture, it became at least one fen and one li per mu, or even one fen and two li!
The extra 30% fire loss becomes a form of disguised plunder.

It will follow the tone set by Prefect Yu Wenjie, escalating the measures layer by layer until all the common people at the bottom are hanged.

However, it must be said that officials like Yu Wenjie, who only accept 30% of the profits as a tax, still have some conscience left.

In the more remote and impoverished Yan'an Prefecture of Shaanxi, the local prefect even raised the fire loss rate to 50%.

The reason is simple: silver is expensive and goods are cheap in border areas, and the losses from melting and casting are enormous.

Upon hearing this shameless excuse, Governor Sun Chuanting was so enraged that he nearly drew his sword and beheaded the Prefect of Yan'an.

His painstaking efforts to reform the bureaucracy over the past six months are about to be rendered meaningless by the arrival of this tax collection report.

The long-suppressed corruption in various parts of Shaanxi has begun to resurface like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.

Coincidentally, in Xuanfu and Datong, where Governor-General Lu Xiang-sheng was stationed, officials carrying imperial edicts acted with impunity, using the pretext of "collecting taxes and relieving the burden on the court" to plunder the people on a large scale.

Last year, when the Qing army entered the pass, the officials of Xuanfu and Datong lost a lot of property, and now they can make up for it by taking it out on the common people.

Lu Xiang-sheng was helpless in this regard. Although he loved the people like his own children, the emperor was the sovereign and father, and how could he disobey the sovereign and father's orders?

The upper echelons set an example for the lower echelons, and the foundation of the Ming Dynasty was gradually eroded.

Soon, the decree was issued to Huolu County in Zhending Prefecture, and the county magistrate, Du Yifan, had his own methods for increasing the tax.

He knew all too well that without money to pave the way in officialdom, it would be impossible to move an inch.

His superior, Prefect Yu, set a 30% fire loss limit, and he couldn't openly disobey, so he had to increase it.

In the Ming Dynasty, the collection of specific military pay ultimately fell to the head of each village (里甲).

Therefore, Du Yifan sent someone to notify the village chiefs of each village, his attitude being very firm:

"The imperial court's increased levies for suppressing the bandits are urgently needed to quell the rebellion and bring peace to the people!"

"As the heads of the group, you are responsible for collecting taxes and must ensure that the full amount is collected on time!"

"If any troublemakers resist paying, or are unable to pay, you shall compensate them according to the law. This is the law of the land and cannot be tolerated for personal gain!"

The so-called compensation guarantee is very simple; it is a kind of joint liability for basic-level taxation.

If anyone in the village evades taxes, the village head will be responsible for the shortfall.

This system is like a sword hanging over the heads of all the neighborhood chiefs.

Although they owned some land and had considerable wealth in the countryside, they were not considered extremely rich or powerful, and naturally refused to pay taxes to others.

In order to shift the pressure, these neighborhood chiefs began to use all sorts of tricks to extort money from their subordinates.

In Sanyuanli, Huolu County, the village chief He Lang stipulated that all farmers who came to pay taxes had to pay an extra "errand fee" in addition to the regular tax and the fire loss tax.

In response, he even went so far as to justify it by saying that the work of urging, registering, summarizing, and delivering all requires handover and bribery at various levels, so charging some interest is not unreasonable.

If a farmer refused to pay the errand fee, He Lang would deliberately delay, either not registering the farmer's ticket or registering it but withholding the report.

If farmers cannot obtain a tax payment certificate stamped by the government, it is considered that they owe wages and they may be arrested and questioned by the yamen runners at any time.

Many people, eager to learn about this calamity as soon as possible, had no choice but to grit their teeth and scrape together whatever they could, even resorting to borrowing money with a monthly interest rate of five percent, just to pay the debt.

In truth, the errand fee was only thirty or fifty coins, which might be insignificant in the eyes of the officials, but it was the last straw that broke the camel's back for ordinary people.

But that wasn't the end of it. The final step in the tax collection process was already waiting in the county government's household registration office.

After paying their taxes, people need to obtain a "Tax Payment Receipt" to complete the entire process.

The stuffy, sweltering house was filled with the sounds of abacuses and other noises.

Those who actually handled the registration and verification of money were low-ranking but powerful clerks.

They have been entrenched here for years, are familiar with all sorts of loopholes in the rules, and are experts at exploitation.

Farmer Xu Kaitian, a thin and sallow-faced man, clutched the silver he had painstakingly borrowed and nervously put it into the silver box.

He only owned ten acres of poor land. According to the imperial court's calculations, his regular salary plus the fire loss should amount to more than one qian and one fen of silver.

But when he received the slip of paper from the clerk, he found that it required him to pay one and four cents!
"Officer...Officer, is there a mistake in this amount?"

"The smallest one is only ten acres..."

Looking at the voucher in his hand, Xu Kaitian mustered his courage and asked a question cautiously.

The clerk in charge of counting the silver ingots didn't even look up, and coldly snorted:

"What's wrong?"

"The inventory of the military expenditures was compiled according to the records of each household and house, and it is written in black and white. How could there be any error?"

"The regular tax is nine li per mu, the fire loss is thirty percent, and there is also a registration fee of two wen!"

"You have ten acres of land, so the registration fee is twenty coins, which is equivalent to one fen of silver. Doesn't that add up to exactly one qian and four fen?"

Xu Kaitian was stunned.
"Book fee? What's a book fee?"

Seeing that he was being persistent, the clerk impatiently waved his hand away:
"Does creating a register not require pen, ink, paper, or manual calculations?"

"Do you expect the county magistrate to pay for this for you?"

"Pay now if you're going to pay, or get out and don't hold up the people behind you!"

"Let me make this clear from the start: if you have any questions about the inventory and want to check it again, it will take a long time, and you'll also have to pay an additional verification fee!"

Xu Kaitian wanted to argue, but the clerk simply took the form and said:
"Next!"

She then ignored him.

Xu Kaitian lingered outside the county government office for three days, but to no avail.

With the deadline fast approaching, he had no choice but to sell the laying hens he raised at home with tears in his eyes, barely managing to scrape together the extra three cents of silver.

However, the clerk in charge of the household registration office was relentless and demanded so-called "service fees" and "express fees" and other miscellaneous items from him.

Xu Kaitian spent nearly two qian of silver to get a measly tax payment certificate.

Even with favorable weather throughout the year, the ten acres of land under his name yielded only a little over one tael of silver after deducting the cost of seeds, oxen, and taxes.

With disasters raging everywhere and severe crop losses, these extra exploitations have robbed him of almost half a year's harvest.

In the various prefectures and counties where the taxes were levied, there were many farmers like Xu Kaitian who were deliberately made difficult and delayed, and ultimately had to pay several times more "regular taxes" to escape.

Some were even more unfortunate, losing everything after being dragged on for two or three months and having no choice but to sell their children.

At the same time, in order to cater to the emperor's wishes and further plunder the people's wealth, Cheng Guoxiang, the Minister of Revenue, came up with another plan.

In his memorial, he cited classical texts, using the example of the "building frame tax" levied in the Tang Dynasty, and suggested levying a "house and storefront tax" on urban residents.

Zhu Youjian naturally followed suit and proposed "temporarily borrowing rent from private households for one year".

After discussion by the Ministry of Revenue, the imperial court issued a notice stipulating that regardless of whether a household is large or small, each storefront facing the street would be taxed one qian of silver.

When this order reached the local level, it gave officials at all levels an excuse to act recklessly.

Some local officials took advantage of the situation and arbitrarily increased the tax, stipulating that as long as there was a room in each storefront, a tax of one qian of silver would be levied.

Even if it was just a small stall selling steamed buns on the street, people still had to pay taxes based on their "shopfront". Countless ordinary people, including peddlers, were driven to desperation and ruined by this sudden "shopfront tax".

Even in the capital city, which was hailed as the most virtuous place, the people were full of complaints.

They dared not openly curse the emperor, so they could only change the reign title "Jiajing" to "Jiajing" during the reign of Emperor Shizong of Ming.

Privately, they changed "Chongzhen" to "Chongzheng" and spread it as a children's rhyme.

During the Jiajing reign, the family was named Jingguang.

During the Chongzhen era, the campaigns were launched again.

The dragon flag is replaced by a horse-faced banner, and the bottom of the pot reflects the sunlight.

Despite the widespread suffering among the people, Zhu Youjian, sitting in the Forbidden City, turned a deaf ear to it all, indulging only in his dream of "pacifying the rebels in three months."

The hard-earned money from people across the country was successively escorted to the capital, and Yang Sichang's meticulously planned strategic operation finally received its initial funding.

As per his plan, more than two million taels of silver were successively transported to various provinces to carry out recruitment and training campaigns.

Fengyang, Sizhou, and Chengtian were given special status because they were the ancestral tombs of the Zhu family, and each received a salary for 5,000 soldiers.

Their mission was to remain steadfast and ensure that the feng shui of the place where the Ming Dynasty rose to power was not disrupted.

Most of this money was used to reinforce the city walls, repair the mausoleum and garrison, and maintain the daily expenses of the local garrison, and had little to do with mobile operations.

Hong Chengchou, the governor-general of five provinces, was given a salary of 30,000 soldiers because he directly faced the peasant army's stronghold and the threat from beyond the Great Wall.
Wang Jiazhen, the governor of seven provinces, was also allocated 30,000 soldiers and their salaries because he was in charge of coordinating the suppression of bandits in the Central Plains.

Because Yang Sichang intended to replace the commander, the salary was temporarily kept in the capital and would be distributed after Xiong Wencan took office.

These two units were the main force planned for the pursuit and suppression, and the funds were mainly used to recruit, train, and equip an elite force capable of field operations.

In addition, the governors of Fengyang and Shaanxi each received the salary for 10,000 soldiers;
The governors of Huguang and Henan, whose regions were located in the heart of the Central Plains and were the areas where banditry was most rampant, were each allocated a military pay quota of 15,000 men.

The main task of the officers and soldiers under the governor's command was to assist in defense and interception, and to cooperate with the main force in combat.

Yang Sichang allocated the 2.8 million taels of silver for military service in an orderly manner, but the situation was quite different when it came to the local level.

This money, stained with the blood and tears of the people, was subject to repeated embezzlement as it flowed into various military camps.

These days, it's common for people to be paid without working and exploit soldiers.

If a general is nominally entitled to 10,000 soldiers, but actually has 7,000 in full, then he can be considered an honest and upright commander.

The funds used to purchase military equipment, armor, and horses were also skimmed off by the officials and officers in charge.

The military camp was filled with all sorts of inferior weapons. Not only were the swords rusted and dull, but even the wooden shafts of the spears were junk.

As for armor, it goes without saying that a piece of cloth armor with dozens of iron plates is considered to be well-made.

But the ordinary soldiers at the lowest level all expressed their satisfaction.

How bad can the equipment be? It's still much better than those old relics in the garrison, right?
Besides, we brothers can finally receive our pay and eat the government's rice.

For once, smoke rose from the camp's kitchen, and occasionally a few drops of oil could be seen.

Although various forms of embezzlement existed, this time, perhaps it was due to Zhu Youjian's strict orders or Yang Sichang's pressure.

In short, nearly half of the pay was indeed paid to the Ming army.

Although the grain was all old rice, at least it was enough to fill everyone's stomachs and prevent them from engaging in petty theft.

These seemingly insignificant benefits were like a shot of adrenaline for the lowly soldiers who had long been on the verge of hunger and unpaid wages.

"Brothers! The imperial court hasn't forgotten us!"

"The silver and grain have been delivered!"

"Only when we have enough to eat and have honed our skills can we kill the enemy, earn merit, and repay the Emperor's grace!"

Sensing the rising morale in the barracks, officers at all levels stepped forward to take turns boosting morale.

As a result, the military training grounds were bustling with activity, a sight unseen for many years.

The officers and soldiers chanted slogans, repeatedly practiced their formations, and fought each other fiercely.

The newly recruited guards, in particular, cherished their good life and trained with extra effort.

There's finally some hope; hopefully, I can survive.
While the provincial governors and viceroys were recruiting and training soldiers, a small, elite team of seven or eight people secretly traveled from the capital to Guangdong and Guangxi.

Their purpose in coming here was to examine Xiong Wencan, the candidate recommended by Yang Sichang for the position of chief of the anti-bandit campaign.

Xiong Wencan, courtesy name Taimeng, was a native of Luzhou, Sichuan.

This man claimed to be knowledgeable in military affairs, but in reality, he was an ambitious but incompetent person who talked big but lacked substance.

His main achievement was that during his tenure as Governor of Fujian, he pacified the pirate Zheng Zhilong, and was promoted to Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi as a result.

With Zheng Zhilong's help, Xiong Wencan successively quelled bandits and pirates in various places, and even wiped out the pirate Liu Xiang in one fell swoop.

That's why he earned the title of "military expert" in the imperial court.

The two provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi are rich in resources and are important ports for foreign trade, making them a gathering place for all kinds of rare treasures and novelties from overseas.

Xiong Wencan was well-versed in the ways of officialdom and often collected various rare and precious local products to bribe powerful officials in the court, with his only wish being to hold onto the lucrative position of Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi for a long time.

However, due to his suspicious nature, Zhu Youjian always harbored doubts about Xiong Wencan's "military achievements".

After all, he had been branded as a "heavy tax collector" for his efforts in collecting the military tax, so Zhu Youjian was extremely cautious in choosing the prime minister.

To dispel any doubts, he specially dispatched a trusted eunuch under the pretext of procuring medicinal herbs in Guangxi, but in reality, he secretly infiltrated Guangdong to investigate Xiong Wencan's true abilities.

Xiong Wencan, unaware of the situation, only knew that the eunuch who came was a favorite of the emperor, so he used his usual tactics of winning him over.

He offered lavish gifts and held grand banquets, doing everything he could to curry favor with the angel.

For ten days straight, the feasting continued, with all sorts of delicacies and entertainment, keeping the spies sent by Emperor Chongzhen completely at ease and forgetting all about home.

One day, after several rounds of drinks and several dishes, the atmosphere was quite lively.

The eunuch deliberately steered the conversation to the war situation in the Central Plains, lamenting:

"Nowadays, bandits are rampant in the Central Plains, causing immense suffering and death. It's a pity that none of the civil and military officials in the court can do their best to share the Emperor's burdens!"

Xiong Wencan was already flushed from drinking, and was somewhat drunk and carried away.

Upon hearing this, he was overcome with emotion and slammed his fist on the table, shouting angrily:
"You corrupt officials have misled the country and its people!"

"The frontline commanders and officers are even more incompetent and shirk their responsibilities, which has led to the rampant corruption of the bandits!"

"If I, Xiong, were to go, I would surely be able to wipe them out in one fell swoop!"

Upon hearing this, the eunuch's eyes flashed with a sharp light. He immediately dismissed his attendants, stood up, grasped Xiong Wencan's hands, and said sincerely:

"Master Xiong, to be honest, my family is not in the business of procuring medicinal herbs."

"I came here on the Emperor's secret orders to specifically investigate you!"

"From my observation over the past few days, I can see that you indeed possess great talent and ambition, and what's even more commendable is your willingness to take on responsibilities!"

"Judging from this, only Lord Xiong is capable of quelling the rebellion!"

"I'll return to the capital to report immediately. The Emperor's decree will likely arrive soon, so you'd better make preparations as soon as possible!"

Upon hearing this, Xiong Wencan felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head, and he instantly sobered up considerably.

He then realized that he had spoken carelessly while drunk and had caused a great disaster.

He knows his own situation best. The Central Plains is a mess, with various bandits being fierce and cunning, and the government army divided into factions. How could he possibly solve it easily?

Xiong Wencan was filled with remorse, his face turning red and then pale.

In desperation, he changed the subject and began to explain the difficulties, hoping that the eunuch would report back.

He said that although he had a heart full of patriotism, there were still "five difficulties and four impossibilities" in reality, such as insufficient food and supplies, constraints from all sides, and the overwhelming strength of the enemy.

The main point was to emphasize that he was not unwilling to suppress the bandits, but was simply limited by circumstances and unable to do so.

The eunuch thought he was being modest and declined, so he interrupted with a smile:
"Regarding the difficulties that Lord Xiong mentioned, once I have an audience with His Majesty, I will certainly plead for your assistance immediately."

"As long as the Lord agrees, we will support you with all our might and without reservation."

Having said all that, Xiong Wencan couldn't refuse any longer and could only reluctantly agree.

When the eunuch returned to the capital, he indeed boasted extensively about Xiong Wencan's "talent" and "ambition" in front of Zhu Youjian.

They described him as deeply distressed by national affairs and as eagerly volunteering for the mission, as if he were a buried pillar of strength and a beam of gold supporting the sea.

After hearing this description, Zhu Youjian's doubts gradually dissipated, and he quickly made up his mind.

In October, he officially appointed Xiong Wencan as the Premier of Six Provinces, concurrently holding the titles of Minister of War and Right Vice Censor-in-Chief, giving him full authority over the suppression of bandits in the Central Plains.

Xiong Wencan, who rose to power through boasting and bribery, was thrust into the center of the historical stage and given the heavy responsibility of suppressing the bandits simply because of a drinking party.

This was undoubtedly a huge irony for the entire Ming Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)