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

Chapter 46 The Ming Dynasty's continued existence is an injustice!
"Change your clothes and come with me to court," Zhu Youjian said, stuffing a set of eunuch's robes into Sun Shiwan's arms.

Sun Shiwan's eyes widened in surprise.

Before long, a delicate-looking eunuch made a dazzling appearance, following closely behind Zhu Youjian.

However, today's court assembly was far from peaceful. Zhu Youjian had barely settled in when he was subjected to criticism and denunciation.

"Your Majesty! How can we so easily abandon this ancestral land?! We urge Your Majesty to reconsider!!!"

"Liaodong has been part of our Chinese land since ancient times, but now it has fallen into the hands of bandits. Does Your Majesty not feel heartbroken?!"

"Liaodong is close to the capital. Cavalry can cover two hundred li in a day and be at the city gates in three days! How can we allow others to snore beside our bed?! Your Majesty must not abandon Liaodong!"

"Huh?! When did I say I was going to abandon Liaodong?" Zhu Youjian looked innocent, then continued with a stern face, "Fine! You're forging an imperial edict, aren't you?"

"Imperial Censor Li, did you send this message?!"

"Wang, the Censor-in-Chief, could it be you?!"

The two officials who led the charge began to sweat, speechless.

"Your Majesty, it is inevitable that the remonstrating officials will make mistakes when they report based on hearsay. I hope Your Majesty will forgive them." The Left Censor-in-Chief stood up to defend his subordinate.

However, Zhu Youjian did not let them off easily, and continued, "So you're reporting things based on hearsay? Very well! Where did you gather this information? From whom did you hear it? Speak, answer me!"

"Did the emperor eat gunpowder today? Why is he so angry?!" The Left Censor-in-Chief was also getting impatient and looked to the cabinet ministers for help. However, these men kept their eyes down and ignored him completely.

This whole affair was just their own speculation; the emperor never publicly stated he wanted to abandon Liaodong. Even if they were right, so what? Without evidence, the emperor could easily deny everything, and they'd just have to accept their bad luck.

"Your Majesty, I remember now. I heard this rumor from him." Imperial Censor Li pointed towards the entrance of the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The crowd parted slightly, revealing a pale-faced minor official in blue robes.

"Did you do it?" Zhu Youjian asked.

Thump! The young scholar in blue knelt on the ground, kowtowing and crying out, "Your Majesty, spare my life!"

He was filled with remorse. Yesterday, he had only spoken carelessly, but he never expected it would turn into a death sentence! Falsely conveying an imperial edict is punishable by death and implicates one's entire family!
"Drag him out and give him three lashes," Zhu Youjian said.

The minor official looked up in astonishment, and after realizing what was happening, he prostrated himself in a deep bow and exclaimed, "Thank you, Your Majesty!"

The golden-armored warriors emerged from both sides of the main hall, flanking the young scholar on either side as they walked out.

Zhu Youjian frowned slightly, thinking, "Is he crazy? He has to say thank you after getting beaten up?"

However, as soon as one ladle is pressed down, another floats up.

"Your Majesty, I hereby report: Recently, several hundred imperial artifacts were seized in the market. The imperial seals were verified to be genuine. They were stolen by eunuchs under the command of Wei Zhongxian, the Grand Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial. I request that Wei Zhongxian be executed!"

"This was ordered to be sold by my decree," Zhu Youjian said calmly.

"Your Majesty, please do not protect the guilty eunuch!" the censor retorted directly. "I impeach Sun Chuanting, former Director of the Verification and Sealing Department of the Ministry of Personnel, for offering a woman to curry favor with Your Majesty!"

"Your Majesty, I impeach Governor-General Sun Chengzong of the Three Border Regions for his improper personnel selection and incompetent military leadership!"

"Your Majesty, I impeach Zhu Xieyuan, the Governor-General of Five Provinces, for killing innocent people and falsely claiming credit!"

"Your Ma Xianglin, Commander of the White-Pole Guard, is hereby impeached!"

……

"Hiss, this is rebellion!" Zhu Youjian said expressionlessly. This wasn't impeaching a minister; it was clearly impeaching him, the emperor! Was this retaliation for his suspension of court yesterday?! Or was it settling old scores and new grievances, a deliberate warning that he, the emperor, was out of control?!
When Zhu Youjian's gaze swept over the cabinet members, Huang Lijie lowered his head slightly, Li Guozhu looked completely at ease, and the other two were complete idiots.

Bi Ziyan, the Minister of Revenue in Nanjing, watched the scene unfold in the court with a grim expression. He had originally planned to propose his reform plan at the court assembly to garner more support, but he never expected to encounter officials clashing with the emperor today. How could things have come to this?

Zhu Youjian was holding back, fearing he might lose control and order the White-Pole Guards to massacre the court. He couldn't understand how these people dared to do it. Were they spoiled by the previous emperors, or did they think he, Zhu Youjian, was weak and easily bullied?!
"Hoo!" Zhu Youjian exhaled a breath of stale air and ordered the Directorate of Ceremonial to accept all the impeachment memorials. No matter how much these people barked, he only needed to keep them in the palace without issuing any notice. He still didn't want to kill anyone because he was kind.

But he was so disgusted that he really wanted to quit. He locked the palace gates and, like his grandfather, the Wanli Emperor, simply suspended court! This is how the ambition of successive Ming emperors was worn down by these vermin.

However disgusting it may be, the court session had to continue. Bi Ziyan formally proposed his "Eight Reforms" in the court: increase salt permits, streamline the army, strictly investigate ghost employees, reclaim wasteland in the capital region, investigate hidden land, establish military farms, standardize taxation, and transport grain to the border areas.

Guo Yunhou, the Minister of Revenue, was ashen-faced as he and his trusted confidants refuted each point one by one in a final desperate attempt. However, the outcome of a debate is never determined by the arguments themselves, but by the attitude of those in power.

Zhu Youjian had long disliked Guo Yunhou, so he retained his title of Minister of Revenue, transferred him to the Grand Secretariat, a promotion in name only, and appointed Bi Ziyan as the new Minister of Revenue.

The current cabinet is no longer being called the lackeys of the eunuch faction, but unfortunately, like the eunuch faction, they have lost power. The emperor neither uses the eunuchs to approve imperial edicts nor takes the cabinet seriously; this generation of cabinet ministers are practically paper tigers.

Regarding Bi Ziyan's reform plan, Zhu Youjian felt it was utter nonsense and didn't believe the entire plan could succeed. However, he was selective in his approach, choosing people over tasks; he lacked expertise in the subject matter, and he couldn't directly apply later experiences to the present. Barring unforeseen circumstances, he intended to use Bi Ziyan until his death.

Bi Ziyan was indeed remarkable. For half of the Chongzhen era, he was in charge of the Ministry of Revenue, dragging the Ming Dynasty along in its broken state, and managed to increase tax revenue year by year. Although there was an element of unsustainable practices involved, his contributions cannot be denied. It is no exaggeration to call him the greatest financial manager of the Ming Dynasty.

Contrary to intuition, the national fiscal revenue during the Chongzhen reign was significantly better than that during the Tianqi reign, with the figures almost doubling.

Tax revenue increased, and the army's combat effectiveness slowly improved. If it weren't for the drought that swept across half the empire, the Ming Dynasty might have actually been able to hold out until the very last moment.

In the imperial court, Zhu Youjian and Bi Ziyan looked at each other across the distance.

Bi Ziyan felt sorry for the emperor. He was just a teenager, yet he had to face such a group of seasoned officials. It was truly remarkable that he could hold on.

Zhu Youjian felt sorry for Bi Ziyan. In the winter of the second year of Chongzhen's reign, during the Jisi Incident, when the Jurchens besieged Beijing, he worked so hard to maintain the logistics of the loyalist army that he became "swollen in the face and coughed up blood." He served as the Minister of Revenue for many years, but when he retired, he had no money left in his family.

None of the reform measures proposed now will be without offending anyone. In the foreseeable future, there will certainly be no shortage of impeachments against Bi Ziyan. Such a talent must be protected at all costs.

I'm recommending the book "Hindsight is 20/20: My Prime Minister Came from Wuzhang Plains," by a Level 4 veteran author with four million-word epics. Holy crap, I saw his video on Bilibili, saying it was on the new book chart, so I bragged about being number one and asked if he wanted a chapter to promote it. Then I realized I'd made a fool of myself, but since I'd already boasted, I figured I'd give it a push. It's like a Qi Refining cultivator putting on airs in front of a Dao Integration master, who then chuckles and says, "Alright, then I'll leave it to you, fellow Daoist."

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(End of this chapter)