The Ming Dynasty's Five Hundred Years

Chapter 190 Five Years
In May of the thirteenth year of the Yongle reign, Zhang Wan gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. The boy belonged to the "Fu" generation and was named Li Fusheng by Li Xianmu. The girl belonged to the "Shu" generation and was named Li Shuxia.

At the end of the year, the finishing touches on the imperial mausoleum were completed. After the inspection, Zhu Di was very pleased and rewarded him. Afterwards, Li Xianmu devoted all his energy to several other projects.

In addition to these projects, he also kept in mind the news of a severe drought in Shandong in the sixteenth year of the Yongle reign, and repeatedly urged Shandong to build water conservancy facilities. He also renovated the section of the canal from the capital to Shandong.

If anything changes in Shandong, the imperial army can quickly head there.

Li Xianmu served as Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works for four years, from the twelfth to the fifteenth year of the Yongle reign. The reason for this long period was that he systematically reviewed all the projects and equipment that the Ministry of Works had previously been responsible for constructing.

This included the manufacture of military equipment, especially firearms. He remembered his father saying that firearms were the future. He didn't understand at the time, but his father made it clear with just one sentence.

"Armor, swords, spears, bows and crossbows—the power of these weapons relies too heavily on manpower, and manpower is finite. Firearms, on the other hand, are weapons that rely less on manpower. They have a brighter future and will surely dominate future wars."

Li Xianmu separated the Weapons Manufacturing Bureau from the Ministry of Works, and appointed a fourth-rank official from the Ministry of Works to be in charge of the manufacture, improvement, and testing of weapons.

Another extremely important task was in the fourteenth year of the Yongle reign, when he wrote to the emperor requesting that the bureau in the Ministry of Works responsible for minting copper coins be separated and established as a fourth-rank official office specifically responsible for manufacturing subsequent silver coins.

At the end of the thirteenth year of the Yongle reign, after four years of arduous and remarkable war, Japan finally restored stability, and King Minamoto no Yoshimochi basically eliminated all the daimyo who opposed him.

This four-year war came at a tremendous cost.

According to rough estimates, two million people in Japan died as a result, which is roughly one-sixth of the country's population.

During these four years, in addition to the 25,000 people who went with Zheng He's fleet at the beginning, the Ming Dynasty sent more than 50,000 soldiers to Japan. Over the four years, the total number of casualties was about 10,000, and the total amount of grain and fodder supplied to Minamoto no Yoshimochi was about 12 million shi, averaging 3 million shi per year.

How huge is this number?

The amount transported from Jiangnan to the capital each year was less than double this, amounting to one-tenth of the Ming Dynasty's annual grain tax. Because of this huge expense, Zhu Di, the extremely warlike emperor, never mentioned the northern expedition again.

But it was all worth it. In the fourteenth year of Yongle, according to preliminary exploration, the silver mine at Iwami Silver Mine was very easy to mine. In the early stages alone, it could bring in at least several million taels of silver a year. If it were to be mined at full capacity in the future, reaching tens of millions of taels would not be a problem.

When this news reached the Ming Dynasty, almost everyone was speechless. Just how scarce was silver in the Ming Dynasty?

During the Ming Dynasty, the emperor would bestow only a few hundred taels of silver upon countries that came to pay tribute. Gold, silver, and copper were all resources controlled by the Ming Dynasty and strictly prohibited from flowing out.

Anyone with common sense knows that once the silver mines in Japan are transported back to the Ming Dynasty, the court can resume minting coins, and the Ming Dynasty's financial difficulties will be a thing of the past.

In this situation, Li Xianmu suggested to the emperor that the Minting Bureau be separated from the Ministry of Works. Zhu Di also saw the huge profits of the Minting Bureau and quickly issued an edict to make it independent. He originally wanted to bring it under the control of the inner court, but in the end he compromised and the inner court and outer court jointly supervised it, and two supervisors were set up.

In the fifteenth year of the Yongle reign, the first batch of silver arrived in the Ming Dynasty from Japan.

When a ship full of gleaming silver appeared before the eyes of the powerful and wealthy of the Ming Dynasty, the shock was indescribable.

Because of his past merits, Li Xianmu was appointed acting head of the Ministry of Works in the autumn of the fifteenth year of the Yongle reign. It was obvious to everyone that he would be promoted to Minister of Works within a year and a half at the latest.

But there are unforeseen circumstances.

The sixteenth year of the Yongle reign.

The severe drought that Li Qi had predicted finally broke out, and it was far more terrible than he had imagined.

There's only one word to describe it—a desolate wasteland!
This severe drought affected almost every prefecture in Shandong. The earth cracked, and not a drop of rain fell for months. Along with the drought, a locust plague also appeared. According to scientific analysis, when insects gather, they secrete a toxic substance that can be fatal in just a small amount.

In addition to natural disasters, there are also man-made disasters.

Several years ago, after Li Xianmu returned from Jiangnan for the first time, the court, at Li Xianmu's suggestion, increased its attention to Shandong and even sent a Shandong governor to be stationed there permanently. However, as the court's various affairs progressed, its attention to Shandong naturally gradually diminished.

Li Xianmu couldn't possibly tell others that there would be a severe drought in the sixteenth year of Yongle's reign, so he could only make some preparations in advance in his own way. But as it turned out, those preparations he made were useless.

When the drought was just beginning to show signs, the officials in Shandong were not thinking about solving the problem quickly, but rather about making a fortune off the national disaster. They probably didn't expect the drought in Shandong to be so severe.

When the severe drought actually arrived, they dared not report it, because the matter had become too big; if they reported it, at the very least they would lose their jobs.

……

The blazing sun showered the earth with boundless light and heat. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky, not a drop of moisture in the air, and not a single patch of green on the ground.

Countless hungry and ragged people walked numbly across the cracked earth, like walking corpses.

Someone climbed up a high place and called out, and countless people gathered around him.

Thousands of years ago, someone pulled a piece of paper from the belly of a fish. It read, "The Great Chu will rise, and Chen Sheng will be king." So countless people rose up and overthrew the Qin Dynasty.

Decades ago, someone unearthed a stone figure on the banks of the Yellow River with the inscription, "The stone figure has one eye, stirring up the Yellow River and causing the world to rebel." As a result, countless people rose up and overthrew the Yuan Dynasty.

Poverty, chaos, and suffering were the breeding ground for the White Lotus Rebellion. On the vast land of Shandong, countless people claiming to be the reincarnation of the Bright King appeared.

He shouted, "Since we can't survive, why don't we rebel?"
The Eternal Mother is about to descend upon the world, and she calls upon us all to unite and overthrow the Ming Dynasty's rule.

When the first person stands up, countless others will follow: "Being a refugee means death, rebelling also means death, kill those corrupt officials who only know how to exploit!" The people are not stupid.

They all knew that there was enough food to keep them alive in the granaries of the prefectural and provincial capitals, and that the landlords and rich people who usually exploited them were all alive and well.

This was a natural disaster, but it was also a man-made catastrophe.

An uprising caused by brutality and mistreatment in the absence of war.

Kill those corrupt officials who exploit others!

This is not an instigation by one person, but a thought that exists in the hearts of countless people. Most of these people walking slowly under the sun have blood on their hands.

A man stood on a high place, shouting loudly, and countless refugees gathered together.

The flames of war have been ignited in Shandong!

Li Xianmu had been paying close attention to news from Shandong. In the early stages, when there were only some minor issues, he was relatively reassured and thought that the problems would not be difficult to resolve.

But to his utter surprise, the Shandong Provincial Governor turned a blind eye and even fueled the flames, so that when he turned his attention back to Shandong, the province was already engulfed in flames of war in a short period of time.

If we wait any longer, they will probably all need a leader to unite them.

While cursing the Shandong officials for being incompetent and lazy, Li Xianmu hurried to the palace, as the emperor needed to know about this matter immediately.

……

"what?"

After listening to the brief explanation, Zhu Di smashed the inkstone on the table to the ground, as angry as a lion whose territory had been invaded on the grassland.

"Deserves to be killed!"

"Deserves to be killed!"

Zhu Di gritted his teeth and said "should be killed" twice, which showed that he was extremely angry.

Li Xianmu said urgently, "Does Your Majesty still remember what I said before, that Shandong must not be lost? I never expected that something would actually happen today."

Zhu Di was stunned, and then felt deep regret. Li Xianmu had clearly warned him about the anomalies in Shandong, but after the initial handling, he felt that was enough and did not pay more attention, which led to the current outcome.

Knowing that Li Xianmu had long been concerned about the Shandong matter and that this was his first time reporting to the emperor, he instructed Hong Bao to summon the other ministers to the palace while asking Li Xianmu directly, "Xianmu, what are your thoughts on the Shandong matter?"

Li Xianmu said in a deep voice without hesitation: "Your Majesty, I believe that we should first select a mature and prudent general to go to Shandong to quell the rebellion."

However, suppressing the rebellion was merely a temporary measure and did not address the root cause. The root of the chaos in Shandong lay in the extreme failure of the government to govern. They were incompetent and even oppressed the people. Despite it being a year of famine, they took advantage of the famine to confiscate the people's land, forcing them onto the dangerous path of rebellion.

His Majesty!

Your Majesty, I request to be appointed Governor of Shandong to protect the territory and ensure the safety of the people!

Li Xianmu volunteered again, as he was indeed extremely worried about the situation in Shandong.

The approach should combine suppression and appeasement, with appeasement as the primary method.

Li Xianmu's advice can be summarized in these eight characters, which have been the methods used by the Central Plains dynasties to deal with rebellions throughout history. However, the same eight characters can have completely different effects depending on who uses them.

Sending an incompetent person would only worsen the situation.

Only with capable officials in charge can the situation be brought under control, and Li Xianmu was undoubtedly the most outstanding capable official in the Ming Dynasty.

Think of this.

Zhu Di did not wait for the other ministers to arrive and said in a deep voice, "Li Xianmu, listen to the decree!"

"The minister is here."

"I hereby appoint you as the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, and as the Governor of Shandong. All officials below the third rank shall be executed first and reported later, while those above the third rank shall be escorted to the capital."

"I'm entrusting the Shandong officialdom to you."

Zhu Di spoke these words through gritted teeth, his words filled with a bloody undertone.

Li Xianmu suddenly raised his head, his eyes filled with undisguised killing intent. "Your Majesty, I obey your decree!"

(End of this chapter)