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

Chapter 52 The situation is excellent, and the revival of the Ming Dynasty is imminent.

Having extorted another 200,000 taels of silver, Zhu Youjian was in high spirits. Bi Ziyan also brought him good news: the salt tax reform was showing initial results, with salt tax revenue increasing by 200,000 taels, and the court's expenditures reduced by more than 500,000 taels. In addition, with the autumn harvest silver arriving, the court's fiscal deficit had been reduced to less than 2 million taels.

Ninety percent of the soldiers' salaries for this year have already been paid out. Of course, the arrears from last year have not yet been paid and may never be paid. Although it's not fair, this has at least temporarily stabilized the soldiers in the Nine Garrisons and prevented them from mutiny.

It seemed that everything in the Ming Dynasty was slowly improving, but Zhu Youjian understood that it was all just an illusion. He could try to change the people's situation, but the timing of events would definitely arrive as scheduled according to history. When that time came, what was bound to happen would still happen, and this was not something that could be reversed by human power.

The Tang King's fiefdom was in Nanyang, which was known as the "granary of Central China." Zhu Youjian discussed with Zhu Shuohuang that he did not want the Tang King's silver, but instead asked him to exchange it for grain and transport it over.

"Uncle Tang, do you want to reinstate the Three Laws for Princes?!" Zhu Youjian said mischievously.

Zhu Shuohuang was breathing heavily, but he knew the emperor would definitely want more money from him, so he didn't respond immediately.

"Uncle, how about I grant you the right to leave your fiefdom and travel freely?! Uncle, how about I grant your Tang imperial relatives the right to take the imperial examinations and enter officialdom?! Uncle, how about I grant you the right to participate in maritime trade?!"

"Uncle, you were impeached during the Jiajing era for leaving your fiefdom without permission and almost got deposed, didn't you? Don't you feel frustrated? Being trapped in Nanyang all the time must be very painful, Uncle. Don't you want to travel around and see the vast rivers and mountains of my Great Ming Dynasty?" Zhu Youjian's voice was full of seduction.

Zhu Shuohuang finally couldn't hold back any longer, but still asked in bewilderment, "What exactly is Your Majesty's intention in doing this?! Aren't you afraid that the regional princes will rebel? Aren't you afraid that the ministers will be in uproar?!"

Zhu Youjian sighed deeply, patted the old Tang King on the shoulder, and said sadly, "Uncle, the world is about to descend into chaos!"

A thunderbolt struck Zhu Shuohuang's mind, leaving him stunned on the spot.

He forced a smile and said, "Your Majesty, it's just a petty thief causing trouble, why make such a fuss?!"

Zhu Youjian shook his head and asked in return, "Where did the thieves come from?! Is it Heaven that wants the people to die? Uncle, the imperial family shares the fate of the country. These officials can change their ways when dynasties change, but you and I absolutely cannot! Uncle is imprisoned in Nanyang, and how can I not be imprisoned in this small place in Beijing? I hope Uncle will think this through!"

"I am old, and wealth is like fleeting clouds to me," Zhu Shuohuang said with a smile. "Since Your Majesty is willing to open your heart to me, I can't be too stingy, can I? I still have 300,000 shi of grain stored at home. I will send someone to transport it to Your Majesty as soon as I get back."

"Good, we are all one family, we should face the national crisis together!" Zhu Youjian grasped Zhu Shuohuang's hand with great excitement.

Zhu Youjian reciprocated by immediately issuing an imperial edict allowing Zhu Shuohuang to train his own palace guards, travel freely, engage in overseas trade, and participate in the imperial examinations. Whether this edict would be effective depended on the Prince of Tang's own abilities. In any case, if anyone impeached the Prince of Tang, Zhu Youjian would simply ignore it. No one in the Ming Dynasty would dare to arbitrarily kill a prince; as long as he remained steadfast and the emperor didn't interfere, no one could do anything to him.

Prince Zhu Shuohuang of Tang was overjoyed after receiving the imperial edict from Zhu Youjian. From leaving his fiefdom without permission in his youth to resisting the court's arrangements and wanting to replace the heir in his old age, it is clear that Prince Zhu was never a peaceful person.

Back in the day, Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang started his rebellion at the age of forty-eight, slaying a white snake and achieving great success. He was only eight years older than Liu Bang back then. He felt that his body was still quite healthy and that he might be able to accomplish something great.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard numbered in the tens of thousands, two-thirds of whom were craftsmen. Zhu Youjian ordered the bricklayers among them to begin constructing several large granaries within the imperial city. Previously, the imperial treasury's reserves were mainly gold and silver, and the grain produced by the imperial estates was generally sold for gold and silver. From now on, Zhu Youjian forbade the imperial estates from selling grain; all grain collected must be stored in the imperial city's granaries.

He also instructed Bi Ziyan, the Minister of Revenue, to reform the tax system, aiming to change the tax system from a cash-based system back to a tax in kind, thereby increasing the volume of grain transported from the south to the north, without causing major upheaval to the court.

Nowadays, grain prices in the south are very low, even to the point that low grain prices are hurting farmers. In fact, absorbing more grain from the south would be beneficial to the people of the south.

However, Bi Ziyan reminded him that there had been incidents of mutiny in the Nine Garrisons because the court distributed grain but not silver, and he hoped that the emperor would be cautious.

Zhu Youjian, however, chose to go his own way, because he knew that even if people didn't understand his actions now, they would realize in the future that he was right.

A severe drought that has lasted for more than a decade and swept across the entire north has arrived, but the people living in the midst of this disaster are still unaware of it.

Both the common people and the court officials thought this was just another year of occasional disaster, and they continued to handle it in the same old way, always believing that if they could just hold on for a year or two, everything would get better. But things didn't get better.

This is already the best time of the next few decades; the disasters continued even after the change of dynasties. The only difference is that the Manchus could alleviate the survival pressure on their own people through indiscriminate massacres—a method the Ming Dynasty could not emulate.

At the end of the year, good news came again from the southwest: the rebellious chieftain An Bangyan was beheaded, the Sichuan and Guizhou regions were pacified by a proclamation, and all the occupied cities were restored. This great rebellion, which lasted for almost the entire Tianqi year, finally came to an end.

In fact, the She-An Rebellion was very similar to Nurhaci's rebellion. In the early stages of the rebellion, they also forced Han people to shave their heads and change their clothes. The rebellion was equally powerful and unstoppable. The She-An rebels once captured Guiyang and besieged Chengdu.

At the time, the Chengdu garrison consisted of only two thousand men. If it weren't for the efforts of Zhu Xieyuan, the then Sichuan Provincial Governor, and Qin Liangyu, the chieftain of Shizhu, to turn the tide, Chengdu would probably have fallen, and She Chongming's idea of ​​establishing a separatist state would likely have come true.

This rebellion affected four provinces: Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Guangxi, resulting in over a million deaths and injuries. A significant portion of the tax revenue from the entire southwest and southeast was diverted to the rebellion.
Although Zhu Youjian still doesn't know why the rebellion was quelled three years ahead of schedule, and he feels that he didn't do much, and didn't even pay much attention to the southwest, the pacification of the southwest was very meaningful for him to deal with the drastic changes that followed.

After the rebellion in the southwest is quelled, the imperial court's tax revenue situation will improve to some extent, allowing it to mobilize southern troops to march north, so that it will not have to fight against the Jurchens with fewer troops and be short of manpower in every battle.

Zhu Youjian lavishly praised Zhu Xieyuan, the governor-general of five provinces, bestowing upon him the title of Junior Guardian and granting him gold and land. He also instructed him that the policy towards the Tusi (local chieftains) should focus on appeasement and avoid excessive provocation.

The second greatest contributor, Qin Liangyu, was also granted the title of Marquis, officially becoming the Marquis of Loyalty of the Ming Dynasty, Qin Liangyu.

Zhu Youjian wanted to meet these two, so he asked them to come to the capital for an audience after the New Year.

(End of this chapter)