prosperous age

"Has the Grand Secretary not arrived yet?"

Outside Wei Guangde's office in the cabinet, Zhang Siwei walked quickly with a memorial in his hand. Seeing Lu Bu standing idly in front of the door, he asked him a question.

"Your Excellency, the master may be delayed by something today and has not yet arrived."

Upon seeing that it was Zhang Siwei, Lu Bu hurriedly bowed and replied.

Did the Grand Secretary mention yesterday that he would be taking a day off today?

Zhang Siwei simply frowned and pressed on with the question.

"I haven't heard of it. The master should have arrived by now."

Lu Bu answered honestly, then looked at Zhang Siwei and said, "Your Excellency may come in and rest for a while. The master should be on his way."

"No need, I will still be on duty at the room, there's a lot of work there."

The Grand Secretary has arrived. Please inform me that he has urgent business to discuss.

Zhang Siwei said, "If, well, if the Grand Secretary hasn't arrived by 9:00 AM, please let me know as well."

"Yes."

Lu Bu immediately agreed.

After finishing his sentence, Zhang Siwei turned and walked back to his duty room.

About half an hour later, Wei Guangde finally appeared outside the duty room.

"Master, you've arrived."

Upon finally seeing Wei Guangde appear, Lu Bu hurriedly stepped forward to greet him.

"Yes, something came up and I was delayed."

Wei Guangde smiled, in a very pleasant mood.

Just now in the Qianqing Palace, not only was Feng Bao's problem resolved, but I also took the opportunity to discuss the issue of sending troops to Japan with the Wanli Emperor.

From his conversation with the emperor, Wei Guangde realized that the Wanli Emperor was no longer one of those emperors who knew nothing about military affairs, and that he could speak eloquently about strategies against Japanese pirates.

Well, this is all thanks to my teaching.

In fact, Emperor Yingzong, one of the emperors in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, did actually go to the battlefield. Although his record was not glorious, he must have had his own views on military strategy.

The Chenghua Emperor, under the tutelage of the Yingzong Emperor, was also a knowledgeable emperor in military affairs, as evidenced by his promotion of the "Chenghua Plowing the Court".

However, the Hongzhi Emperor may have lacked in this respect, as he did not even receive a complete imperial education.

His son, the Zhengde Emperor, whose temple name was "Wuzong," was naturally knowledgeable in military affairs and could be considered a truly capable emperor in warfare.

The emperors after Zhengde, namely Jiajing and Longqing, clearly had limited military talent. In particular, under Jiajing, the Ming Dynasty faced numerous crises in both the north and south, and he was completely ignorant of military affairs.

In fact, in the thirtieth year of the Jiajing reign, he even considered launching a northern expedition with the Ming army to retaliate against Altan Khan.

It should be noted that it was more than ten years later that the Ming army was able to barely compete with Altan Khan. Fortunately, there was no real battle at that time, otherwise it might have been another "Tumu Crisis", and the capital might have been besieged or even captured.

Fortunately, by presenting the battlefield events to the emperor in the form of stories, the current Wanli Emperor at least knows what war is all about, how to strategize, and what factors need to be considered.

Now it seems that even if I retire, there is no risk in the "Three Great Expeditions of Wanli".

As for the Liaodong matter, I have already resolved the hidden danger for the Ming Dynasty, and there will be no situation like Li Chengliang raising bandits to enhance his own power.

In particular, the Taining tribe, one of the hidden dangers of the Ming Dynasty, was attacked by the Liaodong army when they launched a surprise attack on the Liaoxi grasslands after the Bansheng City incident. During the encirclement and annihilation of a tribe of the Taining tribe, they accidentally killed Subahai, a member of the Taining tribe.

This achievement was only confirmed in the last half month, with evidence including the armor, flags, and weapons brought back by Qi Jiguang, as well as intelligence gathered by the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

It's a pity that although the main target, the Tuman tribe, suffered heavy losses, most of its leaders escaped with the remnants of their forces and fled westward into the depths of the grasslands.

Regarding Emperor Wanli's desire to mobilize more elite troops to fight against Japan, Wei Guangde agreed to discuss it with the Ministry of War later.

In fact, this was just a perfunctory remark to Emperor Wanli. The Ming Dynasty had a limited number of elite troops, and mobilizing more would not only have a huge impact but also be a heavy financial burden.

"Preparing funds and supplies before deploying troops" had become the norm for military mobilization in the Ming Dynasty.

Without sufficient funds, it is impossible to mobilize more elite troops.

Wei Guangde had thought about it on his way back. He would pass the message on to the Ministry of War, but whether they had the capacity to mobilize more troops was another matter.

In order to maintain the current balance of defensive forces, it is highly likely that troop strength will not be increased.

If necessary, then the only option would be to recruit local soldiers again to assist in the battle, including wolf soldiers and white-spear soldiers from the southwest, archers from the northwest, and firearm soldiers from Zhejiang. These are all places where the Ming Dynasty can gather strong troops.

Wei Guangde stepped into the duty room, followed closely by Lu Bu, who then whispered, "Master, Prime Minister Zhang has come here twice, saying he has important official business to discuss with you."

"Do you know what important memorial has been sent today?"

Wei Guangde was taken aback and stood there asking the question.

"The most important things are sent here first. Oh, right, a memorial has been submitted from Shanxi. It says that Shanxi has suffered from severe drought for the past three years. In the past two years, the people managed to have some harvest thanks to their hard work, but this year there is fear that there will be no harvest at all, which may lead to famine. They are requesting the court to allocate grain for disaster relief."

The memorials sent to the emperor would be read by the Zhongshu officials in charge of receiving them before being distributed to the offices of the various Grand Secretaries.

The memorial from Shanxi was probably assigned to Zhang Siwei because the Secretariat considered that he was from Shanxi.

Wei Guangde nodded. If his hometown were to suffer a disaster, he would definitely treat it as a matter of utmost importance.

The method used by the Imperial Secretary is not wrong.

"Go arrange for someone to come over and summon Commander Liu of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. I need to inquire about the situation in Shanxi."

Two years ago, Shanxi had reported disasters, and after the imperial court verified the reports through the Embroidered Uniform Guard, it reduced some taxes.

This practice has now become standard practice in the cabinet.

Local officials would report the disaster situation, which would be verified by the emperor's personal guards, and then relief orders would be issued quickly.

This was also because the imperial court had silver available for disaster relief after Zhang Juzheng's reforms.

If it were during the Jiajing reign, the national treasury would be so empty that mice could run around in it. Faced with such a disaster, both the local governments and the imperial court could only turn a blind eye and try every means to delay the inevitable.

Therefore, Gao Gong repeatedly said that governing the country is about governing officials, while Zhang Juzheng made improving the efficiency of the officialdom and collecting taxes the top priority, which fully demonstrated its practical effect.

If you have no money, what good is it to govern officials when this happens? Are you suggesting that officials sell their property to provide relief to disaster victims?
impossible.

Ultimately, to ensure local safety, the imperial court needs to be wealthy enough to allocate funds for relief in a timely manner after the disaster is confirmed.

As for how much the common people can actually receive, that's the art of governing officials.

If the local authorities can maintain stability, needless to say, even if they are corrupt, the imperial court will reluctantly accept it.

However, if something happens in a local area and the imperial court provides relief, all the blame is shifted to the local officials. Even the layers of "floating" funds from the national treasury are attributed to the local officials, who are then publicly shamed to appease public anger.

This is how Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde rectified official corruption over the years.

However, Wei Guangde frowned considerably, because after three consecutive years of drought in Shanxi, he feared...
"Sigh, life is hard for everyone. Why have there been so many problems these past few years?"

Wei Guangde sighed.

"Grand Secretary Zhang asked me to see you, so please go and inform him."

"I said in a low voice," Lu Bu said.

"No need, I'll go directly there."

"Wei Guangde said. Wei Guangde turned around and went out, not even sitting down in his own duty room, and went straight to Zhang Siwei's duty room.

Along the way, Wei Guangde was also calculating the various disasters, large and small, reported by local authorities over the past ten years.

I don't know, I was taken aback.

The reason why it is said that the Ming Dynasty has enjoyed relatively good weather since the Wanli era is because there have been no large-scale disasters that have crossed provinces.

The disaster was small in scope, often involving two or three prefectures within a province. Each province would allocate a batch of grain and fodder, and the imperial court would provide some more, which would quell the situation.

However, this is indeed too many times.

Compared to previous dynasties, the Ming Dynasty experienced far more severe famines and disasters than ever before. Under such circumstances, it was truly remarkable that the Ming Dynasty was able to maintain a unified state for 276 years.

According to historian Deng Tuo's statistics, there were as many as 1,011 disasters during the Ming Dynasty, which is an unprecedented record, averaging three and a half disasters per year.

At that time, the most frequent disasters were floods, totaling 196 times; followed by droughts, totaling 174 times; then earthquakes, totaling 156 times; then hailstorms, totaling 112 times; then windstorms, totaling 97 times; and finally locust plagues, totaling 94 times.

In addition, there were 93 famines, 64 epidemics, and 16 frost and snow disasters. At that time, various disasters occurred simultaneously and intertwined, resulting in an extremely complex situation.

This is not all; some scholars have compiled statistics more than 1,200 times, mainly due to differences in the statistical methods used to report disasters across provinces.

It's not that local officials are exaggerating or lying; the disaster is just that severe.

When Wei Guangde was studying, not only were there Japanese pirates invading the southwest coast, but the entire Ming Dynasty was also plagued by frequent floods and droughts, not just three or four times a year, but as many as ten places reported disasters.

When Yan Song was in power, it was true that two bottle caps had to cover five bottles. He could only rob Peter to pay Paul, and he also had to meet the expenses of Emperor Jiajing's cultivation in the palace.

Thus, during the Chongzhen reign, the three northern provinces suffered from prolonged drought for several years. Coupled with unrest in Liaodong, the imperial treasury collapsed completely, ultimately dragging down the Ming Empire.

"Ziwei, I heard there are reports of disaster in Shanxi?"

The distance wasn't far; Wei Guangde arrived at the destination in just a few steps.

When Zhang Siwei's men greeted Wei Guangde, he had already strode into the duty room and said something inside.

"Your Excellency, the Grand Secretary, you have arrived."

Behind the desk, Zhang Siwei put down the memorial in his hand, stood up, picked up a memorial that was placed next to him, and came over.

After Wei Guangde sat down, he handed over the memorial in his hand.

Wei Guangde took it and glanced at it, his brows furrowing even deeper.

The memorial was submitted by the Shanxi Provincial Governor, who reported that "Shanxi has suffered from severe drought for years, resulting in the deaths of many people. Thirty to fifty large pits have been dug outside Pingliang and Guyuan cities, and they are all full. At that time, the weather was hot, and the pits were filled with a foul stench."

"Why is it taking so long to report this?"

Wei Guangde was furious. Two years ago, the government had allocated silver, but now they were reporting deaths, and many of them. This clearly showed that Shanxi had been covering up the matter, and it also indicated that most of the disaster relief funds and grain allocated by the court had not actually arrived.

"Ziwei, what do you think?"

Wei Guangde put down the memorial, looked up at Zhang Siwei and said.

"The Censorate and the Embroidered Uniform Guard should be dispatched immediately to investigate and prosecute all officials who have neglected their duties."

We must send an imperial envoy to provide relief to the disaster victims as soon as possible, otherwise Shanxi may descend into chaos.

Zhang Siwei spoke up.

"You, go and invite Elder Shen over immediately."

Wei Guangde pointed at the clerk at the door and said.

After the clerk left, Wei Guangde said to Zhang Siwei, "Ziwei, you are from Shanxi. How could you not know about such a disaster in your hometown beforehand?"

Wei Guangde was furious at this point. The method he and Zhang Juzheng devised should have been able to prevent such a large-scale mass death toll.

If you report the disaster and the imperial court provides relief, even if you only give them a bite to eat, it wouldn't be this bad.

But in some places, this is exactly what happened.

The key point is that this matter is still in Zhang Siwei's hometown. As a senior official, he is really incompetent. Doesn't he care about being cursed by his neighbors and elders when he goes back?

Don't think that cabinet ministers are so powerful when they return to their hometowns; they still have to bow their heads and be scolded when they meet clan elders.

In a rural community, you are only a high-ranking official when you go out, but when you are at home, you must abide by the clan rules.

Of course, unless it's a huge mistake, clan elders wouldn't treat promising young members of the clan this way.

However, someone like Zhang Siwei would probably have to kneel in the ancestral hall when he got back.

if so.

“My family has always said that everything is fine, and this matter was not mentioned in the letters.”

My close friends and brothers mostly do business in various places, so they probably don't know much about our hometown.

Zhang Siwei sighed.

The Zhang family is wealthy from their business dealings, so they naturally won't go hungry, and they won't be affected even if there's no harvest in the fields.

Naturally, they don't care about local disasters.

It's even possible that the Zhang family is using this opportunity to aggressively acquire land.

Even if land taxes are collected in full now, as long as there is a harvest from the land, there will always be income.

Moreover, when buying land, people often don't look at short-term gains, but rather at the long term of ten, thirty or even more years, as that represents the family's wealth and resources.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde glanced at Zhang Siwei and said nothing more.

People must have died in many parts of Shanxi, causing widespread public discontent. That's why the local authorities dared not cover it up and could only report it and request relief.

Before long, Shen Shi Xing arrived.

After reading the memorial, he only glanced at Zhang Siwei before the three of them began discussing disaster relief in Shanxi.

Naturally, Zhang Xueyan, the Minister of Revenue, and Chen Kai, the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, were also summoned.

When Zhang Xueyan arrived, Liu Shouyou was already there answering questions from the cabinet.

Fortunately, the Embroidered Uniform Guard had not yet received news of the rebellion in Shanxi, and everything seemed to be under control.

"Lord Zhang, can Zhili and Henan urgently investigate how much grain they can provide to Shanxi?"

When one comes, let them read the report from Shanxi first, and then start asking questions.

Wei Guangde automatically overlooked Shaanxi, where grain supplies were also scarce. In fact, the same was true for Henan, although there were always some grain supplies in the government granaries that could be allocated.

At worst, we can borrow it first and then raise the money to repay it later.

While Zhang Xueyan was calculating the amount of grain that could be mobilized, Wei Guangde was already discussing with Chen Kai and Liu Shouyou about sending someone to Shanxi as an imperial inspector.

"We must catch a few big rats and thoroughly clean up the Shanxi officialdom."

Wei Guangde was now really determined. "If the provincial governor is involved in this matter, arrest him as well. I will go to the Qianqing Palace to report this matter shortly."

The cabinet did not present problems to embarrass the emperor, but rather, after discovering a problem, it devised a solution and then submitted it to the emperor for review.

"They may think that since Zhang Jiangling is no longer here, some things are not so strict, but the imperial court will never tolerate such matters of great importance."

Chen Kai and Liu Shouyou both nodded slightly, acknowledging Wei Guangde's opinion. Now they awaited the imperial decree. (End of Chapter)