Video spoilers history, starting with the blitzkrieg on Poland

[The emperor did not attend court and avoided too much contact with ministers.]

[In fact, it already existed in the Ming Dynasty. ]

【Emperor Jiajing did not attend court for more than 20 years.】

【However, the fact that Emperor Jiajing did not attend court did not mean that he did not take care of things. 】

[Jiajing did not attend court, but he still took care of the emperor's affairs.]

[To some extent, it can be regarded as a change of office location. ]

【And Wanli didn't attend court, which means he really didn't care about anything. 】

【It’s not even just not caring. 】

【It is an act of obstructing government affairs. 】

[The emperor did not attend court and did not take care of affairs, resulting in a large number of memorials falling on deaf ears.]

[Officials reported many things to the emperor but received no response, nor did they receive the emperor's approval of their policies.]

[Except that the memorial fell on deaf ears.]

【What’s more important is that vacancies are not filled. 】

[Normally, when officials in the court grow old or die, new officials will be appointed.]

【But Wanli wants you to be an official. 】

【When you retire or die. 】

【This position is now vacant.】

【There is only retirement, no replacement. 】

【The personnel appointment and dismissal work has almost come to a standstill.】

[Whether you are a high-ranking official or a low-ranking official, you can continue to work, resign, or run away, but you will not receive a new appointment letter.]

[In the 29th year of Wanli, the Ming Dynasty's northern and southern capitals were short of three Shangshu and ten Shilang.]

[There are three provinces without a governor, and 25 prefectures without a prefect. ]

[There are 66 vacancies for various provincial-level senior officials. ]

[There are countless other vacancies for officials of all levels.]

[By the 31st year of the Wanli reign, half of the local officials were vacant.]

[In the 34th year of Wanli, the new cabinet minister Li Tingji discovered this after taking office. ]

[Only 31 people were left in the 7 important positions of the imperial court. ]

[Only three people are left out of more than 100 officials. ]

[The Ming Dynasty court was essentially in a semi-paralyzed state.]

[The imperial court was really unable to continue, and even the cabinet chief Li Tingji wrote a lot of resignation letters, and finally even sold his house and lived in a dilapidated temple to show his determination. ]

【Wanli still did not reply.】

[In the end, Li Tingji, as the chief minister of the cabinet, simply left his post and ran away.]

【So, Grand Secretary Ye Xianggao was the only one left in the cabinet. 】

[When Ye Xiangguan was in office, only the Ministry of Justice had a Shangshu among the six ministries of the imperial court.]

[Ye Xianggao wrote more than 60 letters of resignation before he managed to escape.]

[In the end, in the anarchic state of the Wanli court, five of the six central departments had no chief officials.]

[Among the nine government offices, only the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Public Security have chief officials.]

[The Dali Temple of the Inspectorate had been without anyone in charge for a long time, and even lost its official seal. ]

……

Seeing that Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty was offline, netizens started to respond with comments.

《Anren is ecstatic! 》

"Wang Anshi: I think it's a bit too extreme."

"It is really unfortunate to have such a ridiculous emperor. Other emperors would have outlasted powerful ministers and empress dowagers, and then worked hard to govern the country."

"This gentleman is so good, he outlasted the powerful ministers and started directly. "

"Li Tingji was famous for writing an average of one resignation letter per day."

"Wanli: Why did you resign again? Aren't you tired enough yet?"

"During the reign of Ye Xianggao, because there was no one else, he was called the sole prime minister."

Early anarchists, eh?

"Woc...Is it okay if the Dali Temple official seal is lost?"

"When Nurhaci led his army to capture Fushun, the Ministry of War had no chief officer."

"The military commander system only added the Liaodong general, and this general is Li Chengliang, who is already 76 years old."

《Suddenly I understand where Toyotomi Hideyoshi got the courage to attack the Ming Dynasty.》

"Why didn't anyone think of changing the emperor this time? I feel like the civil servants are a bit lame."

Outside the sky.

During the Hongwu period of the early Ming Dynasty.

"Ridiculous!" "Outrageous! It's really outrageous!"

Zhu Yuanzhang, who started out as a bowl and rose to become emperor.

His diligence in government is among the best among the emperors of China over thousands of years.

Zhu Yuanzhang was very diligent.

Seeing the Wanli Emperor who succeeded the Ming Dynasty throne, it's okay if he's not as diligent as me.

Even such a lazy government!

It can't even be described as simply lazy.

"This is ridiculous! This is not laziness, nor is it just enjoying yourself!"

"This is harming the court and the country!"

"If you really don't want to take care of things, just hand it over to a trusted minister!"

"At worst you can just re-establish the position of Prime Minister!"

"Just stay in the harem and enjoy yourself."

"This is no longer just letting it go, this is directly sabotage!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was furious.

Even his beard flew up in anger.

Zhu Biao, who was standing by, saw his father so angry and was afraid that Zhu Yuanzhang would get sick from the anger, so he quickly consoled him:
"Father, the dragon's body is the most important!"

"Perhaps it's not that the Wanli Emperor of later generations didn't want to be in charge, but that he might have some unspeakable secrets."

"Unable to govern the country."

"And he couldn't find a suitable person to entrust him to."

"That's why the affairs of the court came to a standstill."

Zhu Biao made a casual guess and used it as a reason to whitewash Wanli in later generations.

However, the next content of the sky curtain.

Zhu Biao's guess was instantly shattered.

[The reason why Wanli was said to be deliberately playing badly was not because he was unable to manage things. 】

[That’s because in many ways, this emperor’s presence is quite strong.]

[Except for the political struggles of the imperial court and the war in Liaodong. ]

[When it comes to making money, Wanli is very active. ]

[He bypassed the government and sent eunuchs to various parts of the country to collect money in the name of collecting mining taxes.]

[These eunuchs, who were directly appointed by the emperor, took a group of ruffians to various provinces across the country to plunder local people and merchants.]

[It caused many people to lose their jobs and the world became desolate. ]

[They also gathered a huge amount of wealth for Wanli.]

[The treasury of Emperor Wanli was estimated to be at least 700 million taels.]

[It is said that the amount is as high as 9000 million taels. ]

[But it is a huge number anyway.]

[No matter how much private money Wanli had. ]

[These private funds belong to the emperor personally and will not be used to aid the country. ]

[Even when the war in Liaodong was tense, the ministers asked Wanli to use his private money to subsidize the state expenditure, but Wanli completely ignored it.]

【So the ministers had no choice but to apply for an increase in land tax across the country to make the people suffer and to deal with the war in Liaodong.】

[The result was immediately approved by Wanli.]

[The Ming Dynasty's government was at a standstill, a large number of official positions were vacant, and a power vacuum appeared. ]

[But there is a saying that goes, if you don’t care, there will be people who will. ]

[Most of the people who took over the court and left a power vacuum had no conscience. ]

【With the imperial court taking the lead, each party is doing its own thing. 】

[The land annexation situation throughout the Ming Dynasty has become extremely serious. ]

[The fiscal and taxation situation is close to collapse.]

【Land annexation has caused a large number of ordinary civilians to be displaced, lose their land, and lose their source of livelihood.】

[The collapse of the fiscal and taxation system caused the Ming Dynasty's court to be extremely poor. ]

[They can neither support a strong army nor provide relief to the victims.]

[Especially after Wanli's reign, when local tyrants seized control of the grassroots governance.]

[They took advantage of the Ming Dynasty's preferential treatment for gentry and obtained a large number of unlimited tax-free privileges. ]

[The taxes that should have been collected from these powerful people are no longer collected. ]

[We can only collect from ordinary people. 】

[In order to avoid bankruptcy, ordinary people can only rely on these powerful people. ]

[The population that the court could control further decreased, further squeezing the government's financial resources.] (End of this chapter)