Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 34 The Princes Launch an Uprising, the Donglin Party Seizes Power
In September, the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty turned golden in succession from south to north.

The harvest season has finally arrived.

The disaster victims in the Northwest were on the verge of receiving some life-saving food.

The grain and salary arrears in Yansui Town and Gansu Town can be gradually paid out.

Wu Xiang and Zu Dashou were also tricked by Yang He into pursuing and suppressing the rebels.

After receiving the secret decree, Sun Chuanting began to slowly promote Cao Wenzhao and his nephew Cao Bianjiao, gradually gaining control of the Guan Ning cavalry.

With Liaodong initially pacified, the situation in the Northwest would gradually come under control, and the perilous state of the Ming Dynasty seemed to be beginning to turn around.

Unfortunately, the Donglin faction and the Qi-Chu-Zhe faction in the court are a real headache.

Early that morning, around 7 a.m., Zhu Jue had just arrived at the main hall of Yu Xi Palace and opened the first memorial when his brows furrowed.

The Minister of Rites, Wen Tiren, submitted a memorial stating that princes and members of the imperial clan in various regions were urging for their stipends, but the Minister of Revenue, Guo Yunhou, only listened to Wei Zhongxian and was holding back the stipends. He feared that this would eventually lead to unrest among the princes and members of the imperial clan.

Wen Tiren is just like that. He never cares about important matters, only about fighting for power and profit. Whenever there is a problem, he will report it to the authorities, but he will not give any advice. He seems to be indifferent to matters that do not concern him.

This may seem like respecting the emperor's authority, but in reality it's inaction.

Historically, Emperor Chongzhen actually liked Wen Tiren's temperament!
After reading the memorial, Zhu Jue couldn't help but let out a cold snort.

If it weren't for the fact that it's not the right time to take action, I would have had Wei Zhongxian kill you!

You're most likely trying to take advantage of this situation.

Shen Yiguan once accepted bribes from Zhu Huakui, the Prince of Chu. Your Zhejiang faction has a history of such behavior!
The imperial court has barely obtained some grain, and you're already pressuring the princes and royal families for their stipends. I'm not going to give them a damn thing!

Are there few lands that the princes and members of the imperial family have annexed? In Henan alone, the land surveyed during the Hongwu reign amounted to more than 90 million mu. At a tax rate of one-twentieth, that would amount to nearly 10 million shi of tax revenue.

Nowadays, the annual tax grain from the Central Plains is less than one million shi. If we want to distribute all the stipends and rice to all the princes and royal families in Henan, we have to transfer nearly two million shi of grain from other places.

In other words, during the Hongwu reign, Henan alone paid nearly ten million shi of tax grain to the imperial court. Now, the tax grain from Henan is not even enough to pay the royal stipends to the local princes and members of the imperial family, and they have to pay out of their own pockets more than a million shi!

This positive and negative balance amounts to a deficit of eleven million shi (a unit of dry measure), a burden the Ming Dynasty could not bear.

If calculated based on tax revenue, over 90% of the land in Henan has been annexed by princes and members of the imperial family!
That's over 80 million mu of land. Even if there were as many as 8 million princes and nobles in Henan, they wouldn't go hungry. Besides, the princes and nobles in Henan would only number around 80,000 at most.

These guys are insatiable and live a life of extravagance!
I even gave them stipends of rice as imperial tribute?

I ordered the rebellious disaster victims to kill them!

Zhu Jue threw the memorial on the table and said coldly, "Keep it in the archives, don't send it."

This means ignoring those treacherous officials in the outer court.

Unexpectedly, these guys submitted more than one memorial.

Then, there was another one.

Fan Weicheng, the clerk of the Shanglin Garden, impeached Wu Chunfu, the Minister of Works.

In the second year of the Tianqi reign, Wu Chunfu was appointed as the Vice Military Commissioner of Shaanxi. He was dismissed from office and stripped of his official rank for falsely reporting troop numbers and embezzling grain and salary. In the fifth year of the Tianqi reign, Wu Chunfu shamelessly became the adopted father of Wei Dang. After that, he rose rapidly through the ranks. He was promoted to Minister of Works in less than two years after being reinstated. After that, Wu Chunfu returned to his old ways and began to engage in rampant corruption.
Who were the people Wei Zhongxian used?
No wonder Wei Zhongxian suffered a crushing defeat once he fell out of favor in history. He was no match for the Donglin Party and the Qi-Chu-Zhe Party. One reason why Chongzhen listened to the Donglin Party and the Qi-Chu-Zhe Party was that, but the more crucial reason was probably that Wei Zhongxian's confidants, apart from those with ulterior motives, were just a bunch of rubbish!
Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then simply announced loudly, "Summon Wei Zhongxian to come and pay his respects."

Soon, Wei Zhongxian came running over eagerly.

Zhu Jue didn't say a word, and directly picked up two memorials and had Wang Chengen read them to him.

Wei Zhongxian didn't react at all, as if he hadn't heard it at all.

This guy's probably become numb to all the impeachments. Seeing this, Zhu Jue couldn't help but ask irritably, "What do you have to say?"

Does this need to be explained?

Wei Zhongxian said with a fawning expression, "Your Majesty, didn't you say that I was to order people to withhold the stipends of the imperial princes? It was indeed I who instructed Guo Yunhou not to distribute the stipends of the imperial princes."

Oh, you think this is a credit?

No wonder you didn't withhold the memorial; you just ordered it to be sent over directly.

This is indeed a merit.

You've taken the blame for me, so I can't scold you. In fact, I'll encourage you instead.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue nodded slightly and said, "Yes, you did a good job. Let's leave Guo Yunhou's matter aside for now. What about Wu Chunfu? What do you have to say?"

They're clearly trying to seize power!

How do I say?
Wei Zhongxian rolled his eyes and simply flattered, "This servant will obey Your Majesty's will. Whatever Your Majesty says, this servant will do."

You really know how to film; no wonder Apocalypse was so confusing when you filmed it.

However, no matter how good you are at taking pictures, you can't possibly capture something that leaves me completely confused.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then said sternly, "You shouldn't have used a corrupt official like Wu Chunfu in the first place, do you understand?"

"If we want the Donglin and Qi-Chu-Zhe factions to all come out and die, we need to make room for them. Perfect, Wu Chunfu is very corrupt, so you can throw him into prison to hand over his ill-gotten gains."

Well, this is my godson, and he's relatively obedient.

Wei Zhongxian hesitated for a moment before bowing repeatedly and saying, "Your humble servant obeys the decree."

You're quite sensible, but your godson and godson are a bit ungrateful, you know?
If they were sensible, they would have already made their escape like Gu Bingqian.

Why aren't you running away now? Are you waiting to be thrown into prison and forced to hand over your stolen goods?
Do you think a selfish and petty person like you would even talk about family ties with them?

Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then waved his hand slightly, signaling Wei Zhongxian to step down.

The reason he didn't remind Wei Zhongxian was because he really had no one else available at the moment.

Once Wei Zhongxian's adopted sons and grandsons have been alerted and fled, the Donglin Party and the Qi-Chu-Zhe Party will all flood into the court.

When they take action and clear out the entire outer court, who will be sent to take their place?

At this time, the number of capable people in the entire Ming Dynasty was truly limited. The inner court was not enough, let alone the outer court. There were thousands of officials in the capital alone, and tens of thousands of local officials.

He cannot hastily purge the Donglin Party and the Qi-Chu-Zhe Party and then haphazardly promote some officials to fill the gaps.

How many officials today are not connected to the Donglin Party and the Qi-Chu-Zhe Party?

If he does that, it will all be for nothing.

At that time, the entire court will still be controlled by the Donglin Party and the Qi-Chu-Zhe Party.

Emperor Chongzhen in history did not understand this point. He fought hard against the officials of the outer court for seventeen years, and in the end, he ruined himself!

He would certainly not repeat the mistakes of Emperor Chongzhen. He would either not take action at all, or if he did, he would thoroughly purge the Donglin Party and the Qi-Chu-Zhe Party, and take control of the entire outer court.

He didn't have many people he could use right now, so he wasn't in a hurry to make a move.

(End of this chapter)