Late Ming Dynasty: So what if Emperor Chongzhen was inactive?!

Chapter 26 OMG, how did my Great Ming Dynasty fall?!
The Ming court resumed its daily routine of arguing.

Zhu Youjian felt that he might have misunderstood the civil officials of the Ming Dynasty. He found that these people were very good at theoretical warfare, and at least he, a military idiot, could not understand them very well.

Both sides had their own reasons, and he felt they both made sense. If he didn't have some knowledge of later historical materials, he wouldn't know who to listen to.

It's no wonder that emperors often faced the predicament of being sidelined, because apart from the first emperors who were chosen from among mountains of corpses and seas of blood, later emperors were unlikely to reach the same level. They might not understand, but things still had to be done, and power was thus gradually distributed among them.

Finally, the consensus reached by the six ministries and the cabinet was that it would be best to first dispatch troops from Yansui to rescue Yan'an Prefecture. General Du Wenhuan would need to remain in Yansui to deal with the invasion of the Ordos tribe, and Du Wenhuan's son, Deputy General Du Hongyu, could be sent to suppress the invasion by drawing some elite troops.

Zhu Youjian was dumbfounded again. What was this about father and son serving as the commander-in-chief and deputy commander-in-chief of a town respectively? Wasn't this just being warlords? But seeing that these ministers were all used to it and didn't think there was anything wrong with it at all.

"Am I the one who's acting strangely?" Zhu Youjian was starting to doubt his own existence.

One of the focal points of the debate among the court officials was whether or not to transfer the most elite Yulin Guard from Yansui Town to suppress this group of rebels.

Some people think that these are just a bunch of rioters, and it's unnecessary to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut; the elite troops should be used to defend against the invasion of the enemy. Others, however, think that these rioters should not be underestimated. The uprising has been dragging on for a long time, growing from a few hundred people at the beginning to several thousand now. When the government troops arrive to suppress it, they may have to face tens of thousands of people.

When it comes to popular uprisings, the imperial court must react swiftly and decisively, making a final decision. If the court fails, it will lose its authority, and more wavering people will join the rebels, making them even more difficult to suppress.

Zhu Youjian finally found an opportunity to interject. He suggested that the decision should not be made by the court, but rather that the Yansui garrison should decide who to send and how many men to send, based on its own actual situation.

Then he got roasted.

The court officials were very resentful of his obvious decentralization. Some offered tactful advice, while others spoke frankly, but they all shared the same sentiment: "Your Majesty, this idea is unacceptable; it will breed warlords. Your Majesty, you are still too young and naive. You should listen to the opinions of us old ministers!"

There is another debate about whether to focus on "suppression" or "appeasement".

Local officials in Shaanxi, in particular, vehemently opposed the imperial court's iron-fisted crackdown, practically ready to fight any other official: "If you dare harm the people of my hometown, I'll fight you to the death! There are no rebels, just starving people. The imperial court is providing disaster relief grain to the people, and things will be fine once the drought is over!"

Zhu Youjian was completely stunned. "Is he really that much of a lover of the people?!"

Of course, given the still unclear situation in Shaanxi, it was impossible to rely solely on information from the prefect of Yan'an and the Yansui garrison; the imperial court should also make more comprehensive preparations. Yansui was already stretched thin, barely able to aid Yan'an; expecting Yansui to launch a full-scale campaign to pacify Shaanxi was impossible.

Therefore, it was suggested that the Governor-General of the Three Border Regions of Shaanxi should handle this matter.

This is quite a coincidence, as the previous Governor-General of Shaanxi, Wu Zhiwang, is still in a state of "requesting retirement," and the current Governor-General of the Three Border Regions is in a vacancy.

Now it seems that his claim of seeking leave due to illness was a pretense; this old bastard clearly knew something, so he made up an excuse to run away.

Immediately, officials, as if sensing an opportunity, rushed forward to impeach Wu Zhiwang. However, because he was a 75-year-old veteran, requesting leave was perfectly reasonable, and the matter was ultimately dropped. Some felt that while the court wouldn't investigate the specifics of Wu Zhiwang's leave, as the Governor-General of the Three Border Regions, he still had to go back and clean up the mess he had created. So what if he was 75? Lian Po could still fight at 80!

As for Yang He, who later succeeded Wu Zhiwang as the governor of the three border regions, there is no sign of him now, and he has not appeared in the court.

This brings us back to Zhu Youjian's familiar territory. According to historical records, the veteran official Wu Zhiwang died of illness before he could take office. After his death, none of the court officials were willing to go, so Yang He was recommended to succeed him.

However, at that time, Yang He was merely a Left Vice Censor-in-Chief who proposed a theory of "cultivating vitality," believing that the country needed to restore the "vitality" of the people, the border regions, and the literati through recuperation and rest, and opposing the violent suppression of popular uprisings. In short, he was just a "talking big" player with no experience in leading troops, yet he was pushed into this position, a victim of factional strife.

The ending was also tragic; Yang He failed in his attempt to suppress the bandits and was dismissed from his post and investigated.

Then Hong Chengchou made a grand entrance, succeeding Yang He as the third Governor-General of the Three Border Regions during the Chongzhen reign. He killed the first rebel leader, Chuang Wang, and successfully suppressed the first large-scale rebellion in Shaanxi.

Therefore, the known situation is that we cannot let the veteran Wu Zhiwang continue to serve as the governor of the three border regions, otherwise it would be a waste of time.

Zhu Youjian rejected the court's recommendation on the grounds that "Wu Zhiwang is too old, and the Ming Dynasty's foundation lies in treating its senior officials with leniency and kindness." He then asked everyone to make a new recommendation.

"Your Majesty, how can you lie through your teeth? Your Zhu family is so kind to its ministers?!" The ministers were astonished by Zhu Youjian's words, but they all loved hearing them and no one risked being beaten up by their colleagues to expose his lies.

After much back and forth, Sun Chengzong and Yuan Chonghuan were brought out again.

Zhu Youjian could not repeatedly reject the results of the court deliberations, since he himself had not appointed a candidate.

"Let Yuan Dudu continue selling timber back in his hometown of Teng County," Zhu Youjian thought to himself, ultimately choosing his teacher, Sun Chengzong.

The officials had no objections, after all, Sun Chengzong's experience and fighting skills were indeed impressive. The reason he was brought down back then was truly absurd. It was just a probing attack that resulted in the loss of a few hundred men, but it was written in great detail as a disastrous defeat at Liuhe. They even accused Sun Chengzong of embezzling and receiving salaries without actually fighting, saying that the Guan Ning Army was supposed to have 110,000 troops, but in reality, there were less than 60,000 troops.

Sun Chengzong retorted: "If you think I'm receiving salaries for no work, then pay the salaries of 60,000 men and go to Liaodong as governor."

These reasons did indeed bring down Sun Chengzong, but afterwards there was no evidence to convict him. His successor, Gao Di, the Liaodong military commander, outwardly disingenuous but inwardly honest, still requested provisions for 100,000 men from the court. In factional strife, one can't be so concerned with such details, but when it comes to personnel, everyone knows what's going on.

After the discussion, the court drafted an edict, which was sent to Yansui by express courier. Sun Chengzong was to go to court to meet the emperor and be officially appointed as the Governor-General of the Three Border Regions after receiving his title.

After the court session, Zhu Youjian couldn't help but ask a thought-provoking question: "Hiss, none of them are confused at all. Their response and arrangements are quite appropriate. So the question is, how exactly did my Great Ming Dynasty perish?!"

(End of this chapter)