The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 202 Zong Lu’s Dilemma
Wanli was preparing to conquer the Tumed tribe of Tatars.

No one doubts this. Given his rebellious temper, it would be strange if he didn't fight back.

When the Tumed tribe gathered a large army to attack Datong Town last year, many people guessed that he would definitely take revenge.

The Ming Dynasty is now powerful in terms of military strength. The Beijing Camp alone has a terrifying number of 360,000. With such strength, can it still be bullied by the Tumed tribe with only tens of thousands of troops?
This is naturally impossible.

After the imperial edict was issued, the Beijing camp began to use chariots and food carts to recruit new soldiers to the Yanshan River Valley.

The convoy, which stretched for more than 200 miles, took two days to complete.

Next came the supplies for building the Acropolis. The navy warships were sent to Nanzhili to transport timber, most of the military garrisons in Xuanfu Town were sent to the mountains to quarry stones, and most of the military garrisons in Jizhou Town were also sent to dig mud and make bricks.

To the east of Shuntian Prefecture and throughout Yongping Prefecture, there are tall brick kilns everywhere, just like beacon towers, with smoke everywhere.

However, this time it was not the Northern Tartars who attacked, but they were going to conquer the Northern Tartars.

This time, the Ming Dynasty will send at least 200,000 to 300,000 troops, and the Tumed tribe seems unable to withstand it at all.

However, as expected, an accident happened and problems soon arose in the Ming Dynasty court.

Early in the morning at about noon, Wanli arrived at the study in the second hall of the palace on time to prepare to review memorials.

Unexpectedly, this time it was Yu Youcai who delivered the memorial personally, and the Minister of War Liang Menglong also came with him.

This guy doesn't look very well.

After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, Wanli couldn't help but ask, "Qianji, what's wrong?"

Minister of War Liang Menglong said with some shame, "Your Majesty, I am incompetent. I couldn't even gather enough food and fodder for an army of 400,000 men for half a year. Now I'm having trouble even gathering food and fodder for the 120,000 new recruits from the Beijing camp in Yanshan."

The food and fodder required for an army of 400,000 for half a year is indeed quite terrifying. Not to mention anything else, the food alone would require 2.4 million dan.

This is not food and wages, but food rations for the army.

He was afraid that the army would not have enough food after arriving, so he ordered the Ministry of War to go to Datong Town in advance to mobilize food and fodder.

Unexpectedly, the Ministry of War could not be transferred.

Upon hearing this, Wanli frowned slightly and asked, "What's going on? The Imperial Treasury is providing the food and wages for the Beijing and border troops. The court can't even get some rations for the army? Isn't there plenty of grain stored in the Ministry of Revenue's Taicang Warehouse?"

This one.

Liang Menglong was so ashamed that he didn't know what to say. He could only look at Yu Youcai standing beside him.

Yu Youcai sighed slightly and said, "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Revenue are both arguing over the issue of clan salaries. Previously, it was just their officials bickering with each other, but now the Minister of Rites Sun Yu and the Minister of Revenue Chen Sheng have both submitted memorials impeaching each other. Your Majesty, why don't you take a look first?"

Zonglu issue?

Wanli finally received the memorial, opened the two copies and took a closer look, his eyes narrowed slightly.

The Minister of Rites Sun Yu impeached the Minister of Revenue Chen Sheng for not providing enough rice to the princes and vassal states, and the princes and royal families in various places were about to make a fuss.

The Minister of Revenue Chen Sheng impeached the Minister of Rites Sun Yu for not exercising restraint and agreeing to give the princes and royal family members as much rice as they asked for. The court could no longer bear it.

The problem of rice salaries from the royal family and vassal states is indeed very serious. If it is not dealt with, the Ming Dynasty will sooner or later be dragged down by these vassal states!
This did not start during the Wanli period. During the Jiajing period, the Ming Dynasty court was already beginning to struggle.

To put it bluntly, this is what Emperor Hongwu did.

Emperor Hongwu was probably afraid of being poor and hungry, so he was extremely good to his descendants, fearing that they would not have enough to eat.

For this purpose, he specifically set a set of rice allowances for his descendants, that is, the amount of grain to be distributed to each descendant every year.

The annual rice salary of the royal family and vassal was quite terrifying. According to the standards promulgated in the 28th year of Hongwu, the prince was given 10,000 dan of rice, the prince of a county was given 2,000 dan, the general guarding the country was given 1,000 dan, the general assisting the country was given 800 dan, the general serving the country was given 600 dan, the lieutenant guarding the country was given 400 dan, the lieutenant assisting the country was 300 dan, the lieutenant serving the country was given 200 dan, the princess and the consort were given 2,000 dan, the princess and her hostess was given 800 dan, the county lady and her hostess was given 600 dan, the lady of a county and her hostess was given 400 dan, the lady of a county and her hostess was given 300 dan, and the lady of a county and her hostess was given 200 dan.

Emperor Hongwu seemed to have this problem, always looking at things with a stagnant perspective.

He felt that at that time he had only more than twenty sons, more than ten daughters, and dozens of grandchildren, so this amount of vassalage and rice was nothing.

Considering the number of royal relatives at that time, there was indeed nothing wrong with the standards he set.

At that time, only a few hundred thousand dan of rice were needed to be distributed to the royal family and vassal states each year, which was nothing compared to the land tax of the entire Ming Dynasty.

The question is, if he can have more than 20 sons and more than 10 daughters, can't his sons and grandsons have the same number?
If we continue to give birth like this, the growth will be geometric!
By the Jiajing period, the issue of royal salary had become a headache. There was no other way, as the descendants of the Zhu family were simply too fertile.

By the time of the Jiajing reign, the number of princes and royal family members had reached tens of thousands.

The lowest allowance for these tens of thousands of tons of rice is only two hundred dan per year.

Even if we take the lowest rate of 200 dan per person per year, if the number of princes and royal family members reaches 20,000, then the salary of the princes and royal family will need to be 4 million dan. If the number of princes and royal family members reaches 40,000, then the salary of the princes and royal family will need to be 8 million dan!
This is not a joke.

In the 41st year of the Jiajing reign, the censor Lin Run submitted a famous memorial, which specifically discussed the issue of clan salaries.

The memorial stated: The land tax in the world only provides 4 million dan of rice to the capital every year, but the total amount of rice salaries for princes and royal families in various places is a huge 8.53 million dan, which is more than twice the land tax income of the Ming Dynasty court.

The most serious problems were in Shanxi and Henan. Shanxi could only collect 1.52 million dan of land tax each year, but the rice salary for the princes and royal family of Shanxi was 3.12 million dan; Henan could only collect 843,000 dan of land tax each year, but the rice salary for the princes of Henan was 1.92 million dan.

In other words, the land taxes in Shanxi and Henan were not enough to pay the rice stipends to the vassal states. Even if all the land taxes collected in these two places were counted together, it was not even half of the rice stipends to the vassal states. To pay the full amount of rice stipends to the vassal states, they had to mobilize funds from other provinces!
In this situation, what should the Ming Dynasty court do?
If the problem of clan salary is not solved, it won't take many years before all the land taxes in the entire Ming Dynasty are used to pay the clan and vassal rice salaries.

What do soldiers at the border eat?
What do court officials eat?
Whenever Wanli thought of the Zonglu issue, he couldn't help but frown.

This is just a problem of clan salary. The problem of vassal kings and royal family members annexing land is even more serious.

Shanxi has more than 40 million mu, nearly 50 million mu of farmland. Why can it only collect 1.52 million shi of land tax every year?
Why is it that Henan, with more than 90 million mu of farmland, can only collect 843,000 dan of land tax every year!
Most of the farmland in these two provinces was annexed by the princes and royal families.

Emperor Jiajing could not solve the vassal issue, so he had to leave it to Emperor Longqing. Emperor Longqing could not solve it, so he had to leave it to him.

This problem has never been solved in history. It was not solved by Wanli, Taichang, Tianqi, or Chongzhen.

This was also one of the reasons that led to the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

The princes and royal family members seized 70% to 80% of the profits of the Ming Dynasty court, and the remaining amount was not enough to pay food and wages to the soldiers at the border.

This problem must be solved.

Wanli originally wanted to solve the problem by expanding territory. As long as he took over enough territory, he could just throw those vassal kings over.

He didn't want to be distracted by this troublesome matter, so when Shen Shixing deliberately reported to him and asked him to deal with the vassal kings, he directly dealt with Shen Shixing.

Now, Shen Yikuan actually wants to use the Zonglu issue to clean up the Qingliu!
This is just adding fuel to the fire.

There are more than 60,000 princes and royal family members now. If the rice and salary for the princes and royal family are paid in full, then all the land taxes in the Ming Dynasty would not be enough to pay them.

Therefore, the imperial court has been using the tactic of procrastination, trying to give as little rice and salary as possible to the royal family and vassal states.

This guy Shen Yikuan actually asked the Minister of Rites Sun Yu to use the issue of clan salary to embarrass the Minister of Revenue Chen Sheng, so as to seize the key Ministry of Revenue.

The biggest problem of the Qi, Chu and Zhejiang parties was that they only cared about their own interests and ignored the survival of the Ming Dynasty.

These guys are not good people either. When the imperial party grows stronger, I will deal with you, Donglin, and the three major families of Puzhou together.

Wanli snorted inwardly, then sighed slowly, "The vassal state is a big problem, Bingzhong, have you considered how to solve the vassal state problem?"

Don’t ask me this question!
Those princes cannot be provoked.

Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng are a lesson for us. If you provoke those vassal kings, you may be killed along with your entire clan.

Yu Youcai subconsciously shrank his neck and said, "Your Majesty, this, I dare not speak rashly about matters concerning the royal family."

You are just a coward.

However, I just saw that you are timid and dare not cause trouble.

It seems that I have to solve the problem of the vassal state myself.

Wanli nodded rather helplessly, then waved his hand and said, "Alright, don't worry about this. Qianji, there's no need to rush. Just gather as much food and fodder as you can. I'll figure out the rest."

Yu Youcai and Liang Menglong quickly bowed and took their leave.

Wanli picked up the remaining memorials, walked to the imperial desk and sat down, quickly reviewed them, then took out the information about the royal family and vassal states from the bookshelf, frowned and began to ponder.

He frowned and pondered for a while, then said decisively: "Send Luo Sigong to see you."

(End of this chapter)