Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 25: The Ming Dynasty died of poverty?! [Please read more]

Liu Kuan paused for a moment and said, "I come from a later era, so I don't fully understand the current situation of the Ming Dynasty. If I were to blindly follow the system of later times, it would definitely not work."

Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang nodded.

He was thinking that if Liu Kuan blindly brought out the systems of later generations, he must be cautious and choose the ones that are suitable for the Ming Dynasty.

I didn't expect that Liu Kuan already had this kind of understanding - this is not something that someone of Liu Kuan's age can have.

I don’t know whether Liu Kuan was gifted or benefited from education in later generations.

Liu Kuan continued, "However, I can offer a few suggestions. For example, the Ministry of Revenue, which is in charge of the entire country's population, land, and finances, not only has too much power, but its affairs will inevitably become increasingly complicated."

"Let's not even talk about whether officials can do good things. Just talking about household registration, land, finance and taxation, they are all prone to corruption, which makes it very easy for the Ministry of Revenue to breed pests that go abroad."

"Furthermore, finance and taxation are second only to the military in importance to the nation. Your Majesty must exercise meticulous control over them."

"Speaking of this, I am reminded of a quote from later generations about the cause of the Ming Dynasty's demise."

Zhu Yuanzhang had a feeling it was not a good thing, but he still asked, "What is it?"

Zhu Biao also showed a curious look.

Liu Kuan almost couldn't help laughing when he thought of that sentence, but fortunately he finally controlled his facial muscles and said without any expression: "The Ming Dynasty died of poverty."

Did the Ming Dynasty die of poverty?

Daming died of poverty?!

Just like yesterday when he heard "Zhu Biao died of exhaustion" on the Loujiang Gate Tower, the words "Ming Dynasty died of poverty" at this moment were like a thunderbolt, making Zhu Yuanzhang's brain go blank for a moment.

Zhu Yuanzhang was born into a poor peasant family and suffered from poverty since childhood.

Especially later, when his hometown suffered from drought, locust plague and epidemic one after another, the former Yuan court not only did not provide relief, but increased taxes.

Under such circumstances, many people lost their lives. His father, elder brother, and mother all died in the plague.

Because the family was so poor that they had nothing, the parents and brothers did not even have a straw mat to wrap the body. They could only cover the body with tattered clothes and asked their neighbor Liu Jizu for a piece of land to bury the three of them together.

Afterwards, in order to survive, he and his second brother had to go their separate ways to seek survival.

Not long after he entered Huangjue Temple, he was forced to travel around and beg for food due to famine - begging for food is a Buddhist term, which actually means begging for food.

After being a beggar monk for several years, he experienced the suffering of poverty more deeply.

Later, by chance, he became emperor and founded the Ming Dynasty. He thought that the Zhu family would never again suffer from poverty.

But now Liu Kuan actually said that the Ming Dynasty died of poverty!

How could he accept this?

Could it be that even though the Zhu family became a royal family, they couldn’t get rid of the word “poverty”?

After coming to his senses, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but shake his head and said, "Impossible! How could our Ming Dynasty die of poverty? Absolutely impossible!"

Compared with Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao was much calmer, but he also found it difficult to accept this statement.

He pondered and said, "It is impossible to verify the events before the Qin Dynasty. As for the Qin Dynasty, it was destroyed by tyranny; and the Han Dynasty was destroyed by the influence of relatives of the emperor and eunuchs."

"The Jin dynasty fell due to internal strife within the imperial family; the Sui dynasty also fell due to tyranny; and the Tang dynasty fell due to feudal lords."

"The Song Dynasty was born with deficiencies and overly suppressed its military commanders, so its military power grew weaker and weaker, and it was successively defeated by the Liao, Xia, and Jin dynasties, and finally perished at the hands of the Mongols."

"Looking through history books, all the Han Chinese dynasties that unified the country fell for a variety of reasons, but I've never heard of any falling due to poverty. Could what Master Liu just said be a joke from later generations?"

Liu Kuan said, "It seems that Your Highness has read a lot of history books. His assessment of the causes of the fall of dynasties is not entirely accurate, but it does make some sense."

"Leaving aside the Qin and Sui dynasties, which all perished in their second generation, even if the reasons for the fall of the Han, Jin, Tang, and Song dynasties were as Your Highness has stated, is there a single common cause?"

"So why couldn't the Ming Dynasty be the first dynasty to perish due to poverty?"

Hearing this, Zhu Biao was speechless for a moment.

Zhu Yuanzhang finally came to his senses and asked directly: "How can the Ming Dynasty die of poverty?"

Liu Kuan said, "The Ming Dynasty fell into poverty. This was due to both favorable timing and favorable location, but the main cause was your Majesty."

"Blame me again?" Zhu Yuanzhang's defenses were a little broken. He stood up and pointed at Liu Kuan and said, "Boy, I won't let anyone put the blame on me. If you don't explain yourself today, I won't let you off easily!"

If you were familiar with Zhu Yuanzhang, you would know that his tone showed that he was not really angry, or at least he did not have murderous intent because of his anger.

But Liu Kuan didn't know Zhu Yuanzhang's temper very well.

Seeing that Lao Zhu was angry, he was really a little scared.

After all, he was in the Ming Dynasty, not the future. Even if Zhu Yuanzhang was reluctant to kill him, it would still hurt if he was beaten with a few sticks.

He immediately explained, "Your Majesty, this is something that was discussed by everyone in later generations, not something I said." Zhu Yuanzhang got angry and said, "Don't worry about who said it. Since you let me know this, you must explain it to me clearly!"

"I'll explain it," Liu Kuan muttered, then said, "Let's first talk about the situation at the end of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty had been established for over two hundred years, and there had been serious land annexation, and the population had grown to nearly 200 million."

"Add to that the rampant corruption and the evil deeds of evil gentry, and many people are so poor that they have no place to live."

"Unfortunately, the weather wasn't right for the Ming Dynasty. It coincided with the Little Ice Age, and natural disasters hit most of the country year after year. The people were even living in a worse situation than at the end of the Yuan Dynasty."

"The people could no longer survive. Your Majesty must have known what they would do. Therefore, at the end of the Wanli reign, some people rose up in rebellion. Less than a decade later, after the Chongzhen Emperor ascended the throne, the peasant uprising reached its peak."

Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang could not help but interrupt Liu Kuan and asked, "You said that our Ming Dynasty would eventually have a population of 200 million?"

Zhu Biao couldn't help but ask, "What is the Little Ice Age? Why are there so many natural disasters?"

Liu Kuan said helplessly, "Your Majesty, Your Highness, please listen to me before asking."

"Okay, go on." Zhu Yuanzhang suppressed the urge to immediately dispel his doubts.

Liu Kuan must simplify his language to avoid being kept in the Fengtian Hall by Old Zhu and Little Zhu to lecture on history all day.

He said: "For several years after Chongzhen ascended the throne, due to various reasons, the peasant uprising was not only not suppressed, but intensified."

"At the time, the northeast was also plagued by the Later Jin. Of course, the Later Jin didn't rebel because they couldn't survive like the peasant army did. Instead, they saw the weakness of the Ming Dynasty and developed a rebellious mind, so they rebelled at the end of the Wanli period."

"Add to that the constant rebellions by the chieftains in the southwest and border troubles, so in the last twenty years of the Ming Dynasty, we actually had to deal with three wars: the southwest, the northeast, and the suppression of internal peasant uprisings."

"Even the southwestern chieftain rebellion, which was eventually quelled, took ten years and cost an enormous amount of money and grain."

"As for suppressing the rebels and dealing with the Later Jin, it became a bottomless pit for the Ming Dynasty's finances, costing millions or even tens of millions of taels of silver every year."

"But the gentry and landlords exploited the policy loopholes left by Your Majesty and the subsequent Ming emperors in the early Ming Dynasty to evade taxes."

"Some even colluded with local officials to shift the tax burden onto ordinary people, or even simply refused to pay taxes."

"By the late Chongzhen period, the imperial court was unable to collect taxes. Not only was military pay in arrears, but even the salaries of officials were often delayed."

"Under such circumstances, how many officials and soldiers are still willing to be loyal to the Ming Dynasty and even risk their lives for it?"

"The most typical incident was when the peasant army was about to attack the capital in the 17th year of Chongzhen's reign. Emperor Chongzhen had no money to pay the soldiers or encourage them, so he had no choice but to borrow money from nobles and civil and military officials. In the end, he only borrowed a few hundred thousand taels of silver."

"At the time, the Beijing garrison was a useless army, incapable of fighting, and short of money and food. Plague was also raging in the capital. Even with its high and deep walls, it couldn't hold out. The peasant army overran it in less than three days."

Having said that, Liu Kuan paused.

"In fact, over the previous decade or so, the Ming army had consistently crushed the peasant army. Even when facing the militarily powerful Later Jin, they were able to win numerous small-scale battles."

"However, due to insufficient funds and food, the elite Ming army was constantly being depleted without being replenished, and the number of available soldiers was dwindling."

"At the same time, the gap in equipment and the quality of the troops between the Ming army and the Later Jin army became increasingly larger, making it increasingly difficult for the Ming army to defeat the Later Jin army."

"Later, because the imperial court could not pay the soldiers, Ming soldiers began to join the peasant army, either voluntarily or under duress, making the peasant army even stronger."

"As one side gained strength while the other lost, the Ming Dynasty could no longer suppress the peasant armies. The strongest of these armies finally broke through the capital and destroyed the Ming Dynasty."

"In the end, both the Ming army that surrendered to the peasant army and the Ming army that later surrendered to the Qing became more capable of fighting than before."

"Therefore, when later generations evaluated the Ming army, they also referred to the ancient saying about the Jurchens: 'If the Jurchens are under 10,000, they are invincible, but if they are over 10,000, they are invincible.' They came up with this saying: The Ming army is invincible if they are underpaid, but they are invincible if they are fully paid!"

"So, later generations believed that although there were many reasons for the fall of the Ming Dynasty, one of the main reasons was financial problems."

"If the supply of money and grain had been guaranteed to be sufficient during Chongzhen's reign, the Ming Dynasty might have been able to hold on for another twenty or thirty years."

After Liu Kuan finished speaking, he felt dry mouth and wanted to drink some water.

He did have some drinks in his backpack, but it was difficult to take them out and drink them.

Zhu Yuanzhang and his son Zhu Biao were speechless for a moment.

On the one hand, they were digesting the information revealed in Liu Kuan's words, and on the other hand, they were trying to determine whether they were true or false, or whether they were reasonable.

One of them was the founding emperor, and the other was a prince who had been trained for many years. They knew that they could not believe everything others said.

It’s not that the two of them thought Liu Kuan would lie to them.

Rather, they knew that the later generations represented by Liu Kuan might not be able to understand the truth of the events that happened six hundred years ago, and their evaluation of the causes of the Ming Dynasty's demise might not be completely correct.

Of course, even if there are some mistakes and omissions in it, it still has great reference value for them to govern the Ming Dynasty at that time.

　This is the second update today, the next one will be tomorrow morning.

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(End of this chapter)