How can one be Emperor Chongzhen without money?

Chapter 190 Confucius, I'm going to take you in! (Please subscribe)
The wind from beyond the Great Wall whipped up sand and gravel, lashing against the flags of the Later Jin army with a crackling sound. Huang Taiji, mounted on his horse, had a face even more somber than the sky. Yang Guli's military report had just arrived: Su Taifu's wife had Yuan Chonghuan escort her into that strangely shaped "Zhenhai Fortress," which had held its ground due to its strategic location and couldn't be taken anytime soon.

"That Yuan barbarian! He's quick on his feet!" Huang Taiji snorted, his fingers tightening around the riding whip. If Su Tai and her unborn child hid in the Ming army's fortress, things would be in serious trouble. If the Ming Dynasty firmly grasped the banner of the "Golden Family," his newly proclaimed "New Lord of Southern Mongolia" would become a joke, and the hearts of the Mongol tribes would be hard to contain.

After a moment's thought, he had an idea.

"Turgh!" he called out to Eidu's son, a fierce general.

"Your subject is here!" Turgh spurred his horse forward.

"I'm giving you a thousand cavalrymen. Go to Angganor immediately and join forces with Yangguli! Surround that Zhenhai Fortress tightly! Don't let a bird fly in, and don't let a beast run out! Don't fight head-on, but don't let a single one escape! Especially Sutai!"

"Yes, Your Majesty! I will certainly turn that fortress into a living coffin!" Turgh accepted the order and turned to muster his troops.

"Hifford!"

“Your servant is here!” Xifu, who understood both Mongolian and Chinese, quickly stepped forward.

"Find a few people and immediately spread the word around Kuku and Tun, as well as along all the roads leading to the Hetao region: say that Su Taifujin is grateful for the Khan's benevolence and has already submitted to the Great Jin with the Khan's seal, and that the announcement will be made to the grasslands in a few days! Make it sound like the truth, so that those Taijis who are still watching can hear it!"

"Your servant understands! I guarantee this news will spread like wildfire across the grasslands!" Xifu understood immediately; this was a psychological tactic.

Surrounded and unable to speak, Su Taiji seized the opportunity of his great victory in killing Hudun Tuhan to recruit the Mongol nobles from the grasslands. Even if Su Tai escaped to the heart of the Ming Dynasty in the future, those Mongol nobles on the grasslands would already be largely under the control of the Jin Dynasty.

Having dealt with Su Tai, Huang Taiji looked westward. The silhouettes of Kuku and Tun (Guihua City) were already visible.

"Tong Yangxing!"

"Chen is here!"

"Push your artillery forward! The walls of Kuku and Tun are strong; the Tumet people might not surrender willingly! If you can't persuade them, then blast open the city gates for me! This battle must be swift!"

"Yes, sir! The artillery battalion is ready!"

Huang Taiji thought for a moment. The most important thing right now was to take down the Tumed tribe. Although the forces of Nangnang Fujin were a tempting target, he couldn't afford to disperse his forces too much. He issued another order:

"Send another fast horse to catch up with Abatai! Tell him to stop chasing the Nangnang tribe and turn around immediately, go around to the west of Kuku and Tun, and meet up with me! After we take this city and deal with most of the southern desert tribes, it's not too late to deal with those scattered troops!"

As orders were passed down, the Later Jin's war machine spun even faster. Huang Taiji wanted speed; he wanted to firmly grasp southern Mongolia before the Ming Dynasty could react.

Tongzhou Wharf, near the capital. The canal is usually bustling with boats crammed together and people chattering on the banks. But today, a newly installed "lijin water checkpoint" is completely blocked.

A group of tax collectors in blue uniforms and several clean-shaven eunuchs blocked a large merchant caravan. The banners at the front of the caravan clearly read – “Duke Yansheng’s Residence!”
The leading tax officer, a minor official from the old Beijing garrison, smiled obsequiously at the caravan manager and said, "Sir, according to the 'Regulations for Militia Donations' set by the Shuntian Governor's Office, it is a fixed rule that one percent of the value of the goods is taxed. For your dozen or so ships of goods, you should pay two hundred taels of silver before you can pass."

The steward of the Confucius family rolled his eyes: "What bullshit militia tax? My Duke Yansheng's mansion is ordered to worship Confucius and has been exempt from corvée labor for generations! Don't even mention your little water card, even the Tongzhou Customs wouldn't dare to collect taxes from the Confucius family! Get out of the way!"

The committee member's face flushed red, but he still held back his anger: "Sir, this is a new policy set forth by the Emperor, intended to train troops to fight bandits and protect the people. The regulations are posted here; all merchants have been paying according to them. Please do me a favor..."

"Convenient?" The manager scoffed, then abruptly waved his hand. "Beat them! Smash these bone-sucking, blood-sucking eunuchs!"

Dozens of fierce-looking servants from the Confucius Mansion rushed out from behind him, wielding clubs and beating the tax collectors and eunuchs. These tax collectors and eunuchs were mostly old soldiers discarded by the Beijing Garrison or disgraced eunuchs; how could they be a match for the strong and powerful servants raised by the Confucius Mansion? They were immediately beaten and fled in terror, crying for their parents. The water gate fence collapsed, and abacuses and account books were scattered all over the ground.

The boatmen moored nearby, the passing merchants, and the dockworkers, who had suffered enough from layers of exploitation, did not stop the tax collection point from being smashed. Instead, they cheered and laughed in unison!

"Well done! Confucius is truly a man of principle!"

"This bloodsucking checkpoint should have been smashed long ago!"

"Let's see if they dare to overcharge us again!"

Chaos erupted. News traveled like wildfire to Beijing. In the Forbidden City, at the Qianqing Palace, Emperor Chongzhen was reviewing reports from Lu Xiangshan regarding local militias and likin taxes sent from Shuntian Prefecture when Xu Yingyuan rushed in, his face grim, and quietly reported on the "Confucius family's tax resistance" in Tongzhou.

Emperor Chongzhen's hand, holding the vermilion brush, stopped. His face betrayed no emotion, but a cold glint flashed in his eyes.

"The Duke of Yansheng's mansion... enjoys preferential treatment and exemption from corvée labor..." he repeated in a low voice, a cold smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

He put down his pen and said to Xu Yingyuan, "Go and summon Wei Zhongxian and Tian Ergeng to see me."

Before long, the three knelt before the emperor. Chongzhen briefly explained the situation in Tongzhou and asked them for their opinions.

Tian Ergeng spoke first, his voice as firm as iron: "Your Majesty, although the Confucius family is revered, they are still subjects of the Great Ming. Resisting taxes and assaulting officials is tantamount to treason. According to the Great Ming Code, they should be severely punished without exception. I request Your Majesty to immediately arrest these criminals to uphold the law!"

Xu Yingyuan, however, looked worried: "Your Majesty, Commander Tian's words make sense. But... that is the Duke of Yansheng's residence. If we forcibly arrest him, I'm afraid the upright officials in the court and the public will be in an uproar, which will be detrimental to the overall situation of the new policies. Should we... issue an imperial edict to reprimand him first and see what happens?"

All eyes turned to Wei Zhongxian, who had remained silent. The old eunuch frowned, and after a long while, he slowly said, "Your Majesty, this matter... is indeed thorny. The Duke of Yansheng's mansion is a powerful and deeply rooted institution, with a thousand-year-old reputation, and all scholars in the land are eyeing it. If it is not handled properly, it will be a catastrophe. This old servant thinks we must plan carefully and think it through before taking action."

As Chongzhen listened to the three men talking, he suddenly laughed. The laughter wasn't loud, but it made the three kneeling men below tense up.

“You all,” Chongzhen stood up and walked to the window to look at the twilight, “you’ve all overcomplicated things.” He turned around and glanced at the three of them. “This matter is not difficult. Because… I know that the current Duke Yansheng, Kong Yinzhi, is a spineless coward.”

He strolled back to his desk, tapping his fingers lightly on the surface, and said with clear thought:
"The first step is to arrest people, but not on charges of tax evasion." Chongzhen looked at Wei Zhongxian. "Wei, didn't the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard investigate a group of unscrupulous merchants in Shandong and Southern Zhili who used the name of the Confucius family and even impersonated descendants of the sage, but in reality were smuggling contraband and causing chaos in the local area?"

"Your Majesty, this is indeed the case, and the records are all there."

"Alright. Tian Ergeng, under the pretext of investigating 'impersonating Confucian descendants and tarnishing the reputation of the Confucian school,' add those guys from Tongzhou who assaulted people and resisted taxes to the case of impersonating Confucian descendants, arrest them all, and throw them into the Shuntian Prefecture prison. Remember, the Shuntian Prefecture prison, not the imperial prison. Make a big fuss, let the whole world know that I am cleaning house for the Confucian school and protecting the reputation of the Duke Yansheng's mansion!"

"Your subject obeys the decree!" Tian Ergeng accepted the decree without hesitation.

"The second step," Chongzhen turned to Xu Yingyuan, "Xu Yingyuan, you now draft a secret edict for Duke Yansheng Kong Yinzhi, and send it by express courier. Say that there has been an incident at a water checkpoint in Tongzhou where tax officials have been assaulted and people have resisted the new policies of the court. The troublemakers all claim to be from the Kong family and have been detained by the government on suspicion of impersonation. Ask him whether these people are actually from his Kong family. Make sure he reports the truth in a secret report and sends it directly to the Emperor."

Chongzhen paused, a meaningful sneer appearing on his lips: "The wording of the secret edict must be 'considerate,' making it seem as if I am 'protecting' the reputation of his Confucius family and helping him expose the 'imposter.' But within those words, two traps must be left for him."

Xu Yingyuan bowed and listened attentively: "Please enlighten me, Your Majesty."

"Firstly, if he reports back saying, 'Those people are indeed imposters and have nothing to do with my Confucius Mansion,' then their crime of impersonation will be confirmed. I can then rightfully bring those villains who resisted taxes and assaulted officials to justice, confiscate their goods, and make an example of them! The people of the world will only praise me for upholding justice and eliminating a scourge for the Confucius Mansion."

"Secondly," Chongzhen's voice turned cold, "if he reports back that 'those people are indeed members of my Confucius family,' then the Duke of Yansheng's mansion will be openly admitting to resisting taxes and assaulting officials! I will then issue an edict summoning him to the capital immediately to personally take the people away! Once he arrives in Beijing... he will naturally pledge his loyalty to me! At that time, not to mention the likin tax in Shuntian Prefecture and Yongping Prefecture, I might even be able to collect the likin tax in Jiangnan! With the likin tax from Jiangnan, I will not lack military funds or the expenses of Huang Taiji!"

"This servant understands!" Xu Yingyuan had finally grasped Emperor Chongzhen's methods. "This servant will definitely draft the secret edict flawlessly, showing both the Emperor's protective intentions and putting the Duke of Yansheng in a dilemma!"

The three men received their orders and left. Only Emperor Chongzhen remained in the Qianqing Palace. He walked to the huge map, his gaze shifting between the southern desert and the capital region. Huang Taiji's fierce attack and the arrogance of the Kong family seemed like two separate issues, but they both pointed to the same root cause—who truly ruled the Ming Dynasty? Dealing with Kong Yinzhi was only the first step.

He had just picked up his pen to approve another memorial when a flurry of footsteps suddenly came from outside the hall, accompanied by Wang Chengen's low shout, filled with both surprise and anger: "What's the panic! You've startled His Majesty..."

"What is it?!" Emperor Chongzhen's heart tightened, and he raised his voice.

Wang Chengen scrambled in, his face pale, holding aloft an urgent military report: "Your Majesty! Datong Town, urgent dispatch from 600 li! The garrison eunuch Wang Kun and General Li Huaixin jointly report: A large force of Jurchen elite cavalry has launched a surprise attack on Chahar, and Hudun Tu Khan... has been killed in battle! Datong Governor Yuan Chonghuan led troops to rescue them, and they met up with Su Tai's wife and the others. They are now surrounded by a large Jurchen force at Zhenhai Fort near Angganor! The fort is small and has little food, and it looks like it will fall!"

Emperor Chongzhen abruptly stood up, snatched the military report, and read it quickly. In the candlelight, his face grew increasingly pale as he read, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the report.

“Huang Taiji… Zhenhaibao… Yuan Chonghuan…” He murmured these names, as if squeezing them out from between his teeth.

The scheme they'd set up at home had barely begun when a formidable enemy arrived from the outside. They'd caught their own people completely off guard!
He took a deep breath: "Very well... let the external and internal troubles come at once! I want to see whether the fists from beyond the Great Wall are harder, or my knife is faster!"

(End of this chapter)