Take control of Wei Zhongxian at the start and confiscate 100 million from him!

Chapter 37 The Identical Dilemma
The carriage returning to the palace traveled along the official road as dusk settled.

The wheels rolled over the frozen, hard earth, making a "crunch, crunch" sound, like a tireless metronome counting down the last beats for this desolate landscape.

The carriage was dark, with only a ram's horn lantern covered with gauze emitting a dim, yellowish glow in the corner.

The light was scarce, barely illuminating the blurry outlines of the two people sitting opposite each other.

Duke Zhang Weixian of England, an old nobleman who had stood firm through three dynasties, sat upright like a clay Bodhisattva, his hands on his knees, his eyes closed, even his breathing was extremely soft.

Sitting opposite him was the master of this carriage and indeed the entire world, the Emperor Zhu Youjian of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youjian did not look at Zhang Weixian. He leaned against the thick cushion, tilted his head back slightly, and closed his eyes as if he were dozing.

His face, still bearing the marks of youthful immaturity, appeared sharply defined and hard-edged in the dim light, devoid of any unnecessary expression, leaving only a profound silence.

Zhu Youjian did not fall asleep.

He was more clear-headed than ever before.

His thoughts, like a wild horse, galloped wildly from the murderous training ground, across the desolate land surrounding the capital, through the thick walls of the Forbidden City, and finally hovered over the map in his mind called "China," which spanned hundreds of years.

Let China stand at the top of the world.

This is a lonely soul from four hundred years in the future. After taking over this body called "Young," he set himself the ultimate goal. There was no particularly noble reason, because Zhu Youjian never hid that he was a nationalist.

This goal sounds grand and inspiring, much like the lofty ambitions of those chosen ones in traditional storytelling and literature.

But only he knew that in order to achieve this seemingly vague goal, he devised a set of strategies that could even be described as ruthless as soon as he arrived after transmigrating.

Step 1: Survival.

Beyond his own survival and personal safety, it was also about the survival of the Ming Dynasty, which was already terminally ill and on the verge of collapse.

In a desperate situation where bandits are rampant within and powerful enemies are knocking on the gates from the outside, and the imperial court and the national treasury are rotten and infested with maggots, the first thing to do is not to expand the territory or to achieve civil and military achievements, but to survive!
Like a starving wolf dying in the dead of winter, it will stop at nothing to find anything to fill its stomach and catch its breath.

Step Two: Centralization of Power.

Once the basic survival issue is resolved, all the power that has been scattered, out of control, and stolen must be brought back to the emperor's hands as quickly as possible, including financial power, military power, and personnel power!
Because he knew better than anyone else that in such a chaotic world, any form of separation of powers and checks and balances would only degenerate into endless infighting and wrangling between different interest groups.

To push forward any real reform, one must possess unquestionable autocratic power.

He must be the only voice that can decide everything!

The third step: reform.

With absolute power guaranteed, a thorough and radical overhaul of the country's politics, economy, military, and people's livelihood will be carried out.

Implement new policies, rectify official corruption, survey land, reform taxes, and reshape the military system... ruthlessly excise those corrupt and decaying organizations and systems, and then try to transplant healthy organs into the country that can adapt to future competition.

Step 4: Counterattack.

Once Da Ming's weakened body regained its vitality through internal surgery, possessing strong muscles and abundant blood, it turned its gaze back to the white mountains and black waters, to the vast grasslands, and to the azure sea!
We will take back everything we have lost and repay all the humiliations we have suffered tenfold!
First, seek survival; then, centralize power; then, reform; and finally, launch a counterattack.

Zhu Youjian believed it to be his clearest logic and most perfect plan.

In fact, in his previous life, in that era of information overload, any keyboard warrior with even a slight knowledge of history could have written a more detailed and brilliant strategy for saving the country than this.

But when he actually sat in that position and personally pushed things forward, he realized how difficult and absurd the reality was!

This first step of survival alone almost exhausted all his energy.

He thought of the real Chongzhen Emperor in history.

That arrogant and self-important yet diligent ruler, who ultimately ended his own life and the fate of his entire dynasty with a rope on Coal Hill, was a doomed monarch.

It's not that he hasn't tried.

He was involved in the New Army.

He promoted Sun Yuanhua, a technical bureaucrat who was well-versed in Western learning, knowledgeable about firearms, and full of ambition, and sent him to Dengzhou and Laizhou to train a new army, attempting to create a firearms force capable of countering the Later Jin cavalry.

The results of it?
Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming, two generals he had personally promoted, rebelled brazenly due to disputes over supplies and factionalism. They led the best cannons and most skilled gunners that Sun Yuanhua had painstakingly built to defect to the Later Jin.

The Denglai New Army, a rising star on which high hopes were placed, instantly became the sharpest knife piercing the heart of the Ming Dynasty.

Emperor Chongzhen also reformed the Beijing Garrison.

He heavily relied on Li Banghua, a capable minister known for his integrity, incorruptibility, and uprightness, and sent him to reorganize the three major military camps in the capital that had long been rotten.

The results of it?
No matter how capable Li Banghua was, or how powerful he was, with the emperor as his backer, he was facing a deeply entrenched and interconnected elite group, and countless hereditary military officers who were siphoning off salaries and exploiting soldiers. To touch the vested interests of any one of them was tantamount to declaring war on the entire corrupt system.

Obstruction, double-dealing, and sabotage... In the end, the reform of the Beijing Garrison failed. When Li Zicheng's army approached the city, the Beijing Garrison, which claimed to number in the hundreds of thousands, was easily defeated and collapsed at the first touch.

Is it because Sun Yuanhua and Li Banghua are incompetent?

No.

Zhu Youjian knew better than anyone that these two people, in terms of both ability and character, were among the most outstanding talents of that era.

So why did they all fail?
In his previous life, Zhu Youjian might have blamed it on luck, the political situation, the stupidity of a certain general, or the shortsightedness of a certain civil official.

But now he can clearly see the inevitable logic hidden beneath countless coincidences.

The personnel of any regime, or any social group, from tribes to nations, from businesses to courts, can generally be clearly divided into three types.

The first type of person is a builder who has the ability and willingness to drive the team forward and achieve something.

They are the engine, the navigator. They may have their own selfish motives, but their personal pursuits and the overall interests of the team are aligned in the big picture.

The second type of person is the bystander who has neither great ability nor great willingness. They are indifferent to matters that do not concern them and seek to avoid mistakes rather than make contributions.

They are the silent majority, opportunists who sway whichever way the wind blows.

They are the ballast of the team, neither good nor bad, just... heavy.

The third type of person is the parasite who puts personal interests above the public good of the team. They may or may not be capable, but that doesn't matter.

Importantly, their sole purpose is to exploit or break the team's rules for their own benefit.

Their purpose is to continuously transform the team's public resources into their own private property.

They are like cancer cells attached to the body of the team, only knowing how to take and never giving!

When a feudal dynasty rises like the rising sun, the number of its builders and their influence will far exceed those of the latter two.

They were full of vigor and innovation, leading the whole society to become better and better.

At that time, the second type of people will naturally follow them, while the third type of people will be suppressed by the harsh laws and high morale and unable to lift their heads!
However, when a feudal dynasty reaches its twilight years and declines, the situation can be completely reversed.

The third type of people are parasites. Their numbers and influence will multiply and spread like a plague, eventually far exceeding those of the first type of people.

The entire imperial court and society as a whole have become a huge arena for fame and fortune.

Everyone had red eyes and was waving their arms, trying to pry off as many planks as possible from the sinking ship to put in their pockets!
They didn't care where the ship would eventually sink or whether it would drown everyone.

In such an environment, the builders became outcasts.

They became isolated officials, lone travelers.

Their numbers were few and far between, and their voices were pitifully weak.

They wanted to do something, but found that everyone around them was hindering and restraining them in various visible or invisible ways.

You want to reorganize the military? Sorry, cutting off the money-making opportunities of countless generals who are drawing salaries without working and selling weapons will cause them to band together and make it impossible for you to move an inch.

You want to reform the tax system? Sorry, you're touching the tax-exempt privileges of all the gentry and bureaucrats in the land. They will use every reason that is in accordance with ancestral rules to nip your new policies in the bud.

You want to enforce the law? Sorry, everyone you arrest is connected to a huge network of relationships. If you punish him today, countless censors will drown you in a sea of ​​spittle tomorrow with accusations of being a cruel official and abusing power.

This was the true predicament that Emperor Chongzhen faced in history.

His downfall was inevitable from the moment he ascended the throne.

In Zhu Youjian's view, he did not lose to Huang Taiji or Li Zicheng, but to that huge bureaucratic system that was rotten to the core.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian slowly opened his eyes.

The light inside the carriage seemed even dimmer.

The small palace lantern swayed gently as the carriage bumped along, casting his and Zhang Weixian's shadows onto the carriage wall, elongating and distorting them.

Zhu Youjian was well aware that he was now facing the same predicament as Emperor Chongzhen in history!

　Thank you so much for your support, everyone!
　　I will strive to update it and ensure its quality!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)