Ming Dynasty 1627

Chapter 96 The Jade Tortoise Was Destroyed in Its Box
……

The second piece of bad news concerns Dongjiang Town.

Mao Wenlong, the General Commander-in-Chief of Pingliao, submitted another memorial.

Shortly after submitting his five memorials on grievances, he added another memorial demanding payment of the outstanding amount of money.

The memorial stated that Dongjiang Town was now in arrears of military pay amounting to 500,000 to 600,000 taels of silver, causing hardship for the soldiers and destabilizing morale. The army urgently needed funds from the imperial court.

The Ministry of Revenue and the Cabinet responded quickly, their words filled with helplessness: the original annual military pay for the Dongjiang Garrison was 570,000 taels, but it had been increased to 1 million taels, and the national treasury simply could not afford to cover it all. They suggested that the court issue an edict calling on merchants in Liaodong to donate silver to help with the military pay, and that the donated money and grain could be used to offset the commercial taxes owed to the court.

Strictly speaking, this isn't bad news; it's just unpaid wages.

For him, who is currently burdened with nearly ten million taels of debt from the Nine Borders, fifty thousand taels is nothing. If all else fails, he still has one million three hundred thousand taels in his private treasury, which can help him out.

The real bad news came from the results of his all-night struggle.

He roughly understood the situation in western Liaoning, Lushun, Dengzhou-Laizhou, and Tianjin.

But the matter of Dongjiang is unique...

He couldn't understand it.

Zhu Youjian's long fingers slowly traced the mountain of memorials.

Finally, I picked up a few newspapers from Dongjiang.

absurd.

It’s ridiculous.

The report was filled with lengthy accounts of "great victory".

Dongjiang repeatedly reported major victories, many of which resulted in significant gains.

He had the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs compile statistics, and based solely on the reports found, the number of Later Jin soldiers killed in Dongjiang Town alone was no less than 66,000.

This doesn't even include the vaguely described "countless victories."

How many people did the Later Jin dynasty have in total?
At this rate of killing, Huang Taiji would probably be all alone by now, and Liaodong should be pacified by now.

The most ridiculous of them all was the "Victory at Manpu and Changcheng" in August of the third year of the Tianqi reign.

Zhu Youjian still remembers the fascinating expression on his face when he unearthed this memorial from the pile of old papers.

"The number of soldiers employed was less than a thousand, while more than 20,000 bandits died and more than 30,000 horses perished."

He understood Mao Wenlong's situation and the difficulties faced by Dongjiang Town.

Without money and food, you can't train a strong army, you can't earn military merits, and so you'll have no money and no food.

To break out of this vicious cycle, fabricating achievements is the best way.

Otherwise, living in seclusion overseas, isolated in a corner of the world, how could they possibly extract real money and provisions from the court if they did not report some sensational "great victories"?

While understandable, this disregard for the emperor and father, and this attitude of treating national affairs as a joke, truly chilled him to the bone.

How can matters of national importance be built on lies?

Secondly, the number of troops is unclear.

The number of troops in Dongjiang Town fluctuated constantly, sometimes said to be 100,000, sometimes 150,000, and then later set at 27,000.

The civil officials who were ordered to review the number of people always happened to encounter a serf's alarm every time they were about to conduct the review, and had to end the review hastily.

What a coincidence!

Is it that they can't find the mark, or that someone is unwilling to find the mark?
Zhu Youjian understood that receiving salaries without working was a normal practice for military leaders in the late Ming Dynasty, but you can't just report the number of soldiers without actually working, can you?

In addition, there were a series of seemingly minor issues, such as embezzlement of military pay by southern soldiers, corruption in recruiting merchants, and smuggling in the Dongjiang River.

What truly chilled Zhu Youjian to the bone was the report on the "conquest of the Later Jin" that took place at the beginning of the year.

His memory is infallible.

Huang Taiji personally led the expedition, and Korea was forced to surrender to the Jin Dynasty. Dongjiang Town also suffered heavy losses in places such as Tieshan and Pidao.

It was through this battle that Huang Taiji reversed the food shortage crisis of the Later Jin Dynasty and greatly enhanced his prestige, which led to the attack on Ningjin in April of the seventh year of the Tianqi reign.

This was absolutely a battle that would change the landscape of Liaodong and even the entire world!
However, what was a completely different scene that appeared before his eyes?

He laid out the three related memorials side by side, as if examining three completely different faces.

The first document was a memorial written by Mao Wenlong himself, his handwriting flowing and bold, brimming with heroic spirit: "...the enemy has been trapped for many days, unable to advance, and has returned in a sorry state..."

The second document was a victory report copied by the military department, written in ornate language and full of praise: "...the enemy, with an army of 100,000, ravaged Dongjiang, but Mao Wenlong was able to launch a swift and decisive attack amidst the raging flames of war, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy chieftain..."

The third document, also submitted by Mao Wenlong, stated unequivocally: "...The beautiful official and the beautiful woman recruited slaves to harm the official, but the official remained steadfast and unyielding, resulting in fewer than a thousand injuries and countless captures..."

Zhu Youjian stretched out his finger and pointed to the three memorials in turn.

His fingertips were icy cold, just like his mood at that moment.

In the report, the Later Jin dynasty appeared to have suffered an unprecedented defeat and fled in disarray.

But if it was a major defeat, why did the defeated Jin dynasty force Korea to form a "brotherly alliance"?
lie!

The whole thing is a lie!

Zhu Youjian closed his eyes, as if he could see Mao Wenlong's ever-changing face.

Sometimes he is the unparalleled, loyal, and courageous war god of the Ming Dynasty, who repeatedly defeated powerful enemies, as described in reports.

At other times, he was the impoverished border general, full of resentment and complaining about being poor, when it came time to collect his wages.

Zhu Youjian gently put down the memorial, his heart filled with unspeakable depression.

Which one is the real you?

Or rather, neither of these two is the real you.

What is the real you, and what does the Ming Dynasty truly mean to you? Are you still the same Mao Wenlong, the righteous man who single-handedly ventured out to conquer the seas with unwavering resolve?
The demand for payment from Dongjiang was nothing more than a minor ailment, not worth getting angry about.

His indignation stemmed from the fact that the appearance of General Mao at this moment was vastly different from the image he was known to posterity.

He originally intended to make good use of Dongjiang because he had the memories of the future, but now how could he dare to use him?
In a military group, from the commander-in-chief to the clerk, not a single word of truth was found in their reports.

So what will a monarch thousands of miles away rely on to implement rewards and punishments and formulate national policies?
Is it really just based on his so-called "unwavering loyalty"?

Is this military group, with its unclear military achievements and troop numbers, the Dongjiang of the Ming Dynasty or Mao Wenlong's Dongjiang?!
……

Besides these two pieces of bad news, Zhu Youjian also discovered some other less busy details in the vast sea of ​​memorials.

A report from Wang Zhichen, the military governor of Liaodong, dated August 15th, was submitted before his ascension to the throne, so he was completely unaware of it beforehand.

The report stated that due to continuous heavy rains in Liaodong, many parts of Jinzhou city were damaged by floodwaters, and the city walls were in danger of collapsing. The garrison had to temporarily retreat and relocate to Xingshan, which was a little further away.

Well, in later generations, the debate over whether or not to defend Jinzhou raged on.

There's no need to argue anymore. In August of the seventh year of the Tianqi reign, the Ming Dynasty temporarily lost Jinzhou.

As for why it was lost, ask the craftsmen and laborers who built the city how much material and food they actually received.

The other document is a memorial entitled "On the Relocation of the Eastern River Garrison" submitted by Yan Mingtai, the former Governor-General of Jiliao, in May of the sixth year of the Tianqi reign.

A few sentences inside piqued Zhu Youjian's interest.

"...Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, we have experienced countless major battles, but never before has the Liaodong matter been so costly and protracted."

"...The root of the problem lies in the fact that there are people who want to kill slaves, and people who do not want to kill slaves."

"...Those who want to kill the slaves fear that the Later Jin dynasty will not be destroyed; those who do not want to kill the slaves fear that the Later Jin dynasty will perish quickly."

"...Since the establishment of the Dongjiang Garrison, the slave chieftain's firearms and cannons have become increasingly sophisticated, comparable to ours. The source of their gunpowder and iron is unknown..."

The implication was clear: the target was smuggling in the Dongjiang River area.

Zhu Youjian neither confirmed nor denied this.

Is there smuggling in Dongjiang? Absolutely.

Even if Mao Wenlong hadn't actively engaged in smuggling, he absolutely couldn't control his men.

The Later Jin state was exhausted; a shi (a unit of dry measure) of grain was worth 100 taels of silver, and a bolt of python-patterned silk was worth 150 taels of silver.

Such enormous profits are enough to drive anyone to take risks and trample on all laws.

Mao Wenlong may not have acted on his own initiative, but how could he possibly control all of his arrogant and fierce subordinates?

But the question is, is it only Dongjiang that is involved in smuggling?

What about Korea across the river? What about the Liaoxi border army, which was intertwined with the Later Jin? And what about the Dengzhou-Laizhou navy, which patrolled the seas?

I'm afraid no one's bottom is clean.

Zhu Youjian rubbed his throbbing temples.

As a time traveler, he knew better than anyone where the giant ship named "Da Ming" was headed.

But only now, when countless reports, both true and false, greedy demands, and lies that painted a rosy picture of peace and prosperity flooded in like a tide, did he truly feel the lingering atmosphere of a dynasty's impending doom.

Greed is everywhere, and corruption is everywhere.

Everyone on this sinking ship was frantically eating away at the last few intact planks, but no one really cared about the ship's fate.

He put down the memorial and gently closed his eyes.

In my mind, the jumbled clues gradually became clear.

Externally, there was the Later Jin, which was about to break free from its constraints and transform into a dragon. This is what is meant by "a tiger or rhinoceros escaping its cage".

Inside, there are lies, corruption, and pervasive selfishness. This can be described as "a tortoise shell and jade destroyed in their box."

If a tiger or rhinoceros escapes from its cage, or a tortoise or jade is destroyed in its box, whose fault is it?

Of course, it's the fault of the person in charge!

And he, Zhu Youjian, was the greatest guardian of this land.

"He who bears the nation's disgrace is called the master of the state; he who bears the nation's misfortune is called the king of the world."

Zhu Youjian silently recited these words in his heart, and a flame ignited in his chest.

This world belongs to him.

He should bear the blame for this crime alone.

Ultimately, it will be up to him to make the move in this game!
……

Inside the Qianqing Palace, it was so quiet that you could hear the rustling of autumn leaves being swept up by the wind outside the window.

After a long while, Zhu Youjian's tightly furrowed brows finally relaxed.

He had already made up his mind.

Zhu Youjian opened his eyes, and those eyes, which were originally full of fatigue and depression, now shone with a sharp, razor-like light.

His bloodshot eyes looked at Gao Shiming, who had been standing by his side.

"Gao Shiming, where is Master Sun?"

Gao Shiming bowed and replied, "Your Majesty, we have arrived near the capital. The messenger reported that Mr. Sun is currently bathing and changing at the guesthouse and will soon enter the palace for an audience."

Zhu Youjian nodded, his gaze returning to the simple sand table, his eyes filled with a mixture of scrutiny and anticipation.

Sun Chengzong, later generations called you the most outstanding strategist of the Ming Dynasty.

Come! Let me test your talents!
(End of this chapter)