How can one be Emperor Chongzhen without money?

Chapter 306 I will stay in Nanjing and keep a close watch on things myself!

The rain outside the window hadn't stopped, dripping and pattering on the leaves of the trees outside the study of the Duke of Wei's mansion.

The room was brightly lit by candlelight, but it couldn't dispel the gloomy atmosphere on the faces of the people inside.

Xu Hongji, the garrison commander of Nanjing and Duke of Wei, sat in the main seat, holding a cup of tea that had long since gone cold, his face so dark it was almost dripping with water.

Zheng Sanjun, the Minister of Revenue in Nanjing, had a taut face. Recalling the events in Huguang, he still seemed shaken: "...Governor Tang was dismissed, Grand Secretary He almost jumped into the lake, and now Hong Hengjiu is in Wuchang, with Hou Xun taking over as governor. The Emperor has even set up a new 'Grain and Salary Management Office' in Huguang, using some new method of 'officials and gentry paying taxes together' and 'integrating land tax into poll tax.' All the clerks in the prefectures and counties who have joined have been granted official positions! The original Huguang garrison troops have been reorganized into the Huguang Tax Army, a full 20,000 men! The Emperor is... he's completely excluding us scholar-officials, using clerks and soldiers to collect taxes!"

Zhang Pu, a young member of the Fushe Society, couldn't sit still. He slammed his fist on the tea table, making the teacup clatter: "Outrageous! To compete with the people for profit like this is no different from the tyrannical Qin! How could those gentry in Huguang... how could they be so spineless!"

“It’s not that he’s spineless,” Xu Hongji finally spoke, his voice slow and deliberate. “It’s that the Emperor’s knife is too swift. The 1,500 ‘disciples of the Emperor’ at the Military Academy, and the 20,000-strong tax army, were distributed among 78 prefectures and counties. Each county had 20 military officers with powerful backers and 200-300 soldiers who only obeyed the Emperor’s orders. That was more than enough to suppress bandits, collect taxes, and quell local rebellions. He Duiyang even wanted to use the method of ‘paying lip service’ to get the lower levels to muddy the waters. But the Emperor issued an edict summoning all the chief officials of the 78 prefectures and counties, along with their secretaries, to Wuchang for ‘study.’ Without anyone to manage the lower levels, how can you muddy the waters?”

He raised his eyelids and swept his gaze across the crowd: "The lesson from Huguang is just one: don't wait for the emperor to set up his facade. Once his people are in place and he has a firm grip on the knife, we'll all be meat on the chopping block."

Zheng Sanjun took a deep breath: "What Lord Wei said is right. Therefore, we must never allow the Emperor to create another 'Southern Zhili Treasury Office' in Southern Zhili! We must keep the money and grain matters in our own hands! Our Southern Zhili Ministry of Revenue is in charge of the money and grain of Southern Zhili! We must never hand over this power, even if it means death!"

"But how can we stop them?" Marquis Zhao Zhilong of Xincheng asked in a muffled voice. "His Majesty has made up his mind and has brought the elite of the Imperial Guard. Are we just going to fight them head-on?" He paused, then added, "Even if we're willing to risk everything, there's still the Duke of Yingguo in Nanjing!"

At present, Nanjing is guarded by two noble families. One is Xu Hongji, and the other is Zhang Zhiji, who has already inherited the title of Duke of England. Zhang Zhiji has long since pledged his loyalty to Emperor Chongzhen!

Of course, even without Zhang Zhiji, the Nanjing garrison's strength was insufficient against the 20,000 Imperial Guards.

“To stand firm is suicide.” Xu Hongji, who still had some self-awareness, put down his teacup. “We have to let the Emperor know that Southern Zhili is different from Huguang. This place is a mess, a pit of fire. If he insists on going against us, it will explode.”

Zhang Pu immediately chimed in: "That's right! We have to lay out all the difficulties! The devastation in Huaibei is a perfect example! The Yellow River and Huai River have both flooded, and Xuzhou is still submerged! Countless miles of the Grand Canal have been washed away! The grain transport north of Huai'an has long been cut off! Not a single grain of rice from Jiangnan can get through! And there are hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Huaibei, crying for food!"

Wu Tianxing, the head of the Huizhou salt merchants who had been sitting in the shadows and hadn't spoken until now, added quietly, "Grain prices in the city are skyrocketing. If there are more displaced people, Nanjing... I'm afraid things will get out of hand."

Zheng Sanjun sighed, looking helpless: "It seems that tomorrow's welcoming ceremony will require the Emperor to see for himself! To see if this Jiangnan is the gold and silver mountain he's thinking of! We'll submit a memorial together, and the most important tasks right now are river management, disaster relief, and dredging of the canals! We need money and grain, and these matters must be addressed first! If we can take on these tasks and delay them for a year or two, how will the Emperor have the spare energy to carry out any land surveys or tax increases?"

Xu Hongji nodded slightly: "That makes sense. The north is not stable either. The report we received today said that the Jurchen army has launched two attacks while we are busy with disaster relief. One attack is on Xiaoling River Valley and the other is on Fuzhou. The emperor cannot stay in Nanjing for long."

He then turned to Zheng Sanjun and said, "Minister Zheng, you take the lead and make sure the budget for the disaster situation in Huaibei and the river works is solid. Mr. Zhang, it's time to make some changes to the writing staff of the Fushe Society. Lord Zhao, you must keep an eye on the city defenses and the displaced people. We must not let any real chaos occur, but we must also let the Emperor see the signs of 'chaos'."

He concluded by saying, "We are not defying the imperial decree; we are helping the emperor to see the truth. The power over finances and provisions in Southern Zhili can only be in the hands of the Six Ministries in Nanjing, and only in the hands of our own people."

……

The weather cleared up the next day. But the rotten wood and grass floating on the Yangtze River, and the faint fishy smell, were more unsettling than the rainy day.

Emperor Chongzhen's dragon boat docked at the pier. The ceremonial guard was set up, and officials from the Six Ministries of Nanjing, nobles, and representatives of the gentry knelt on the ground according to their ranks. The shouts of "Long live the Emperor!" were loud, but if you listened carefully, there was little warmth in them.

Emperor Chongzhen was dressed in a plain blue robe, his face expressionless. His gaze swept over the kneeling figures—Duke of Wei, Xu Hongji; Duke of Ying, Zhang Zhiji; and Minister of War of Nanjing, Lü Weiqi—pausing for a moment on Zheng Sanjun.

Zheng Sanjun wore the scarlet official robe of a second-rank minister, his head bowed low, but his back straight.

Emperor Chongzhen didn't say much and boarded the imperial carriage. The carriage slowly made its way into the city.

At first, the road was relatively quiet. But just after passing Yifeng Gate, before even seeing the inner city wall, chaos broke out ahead.

A dense, dark mass of people, perhaps over a thousand, dressed in tattered clothes, knelt listlessly in the middle of the official road, completely blocking the way. Cries and shouts mingled together.

"Your Majesty, save me!"

"Have mercy and give me a way to live!"

"The riverbank collapsed, my home is gone, and I'm starving..."

The imperial guards rushed forward, forming a human wall to desperately block them. The scene became somewhat chaotic for a moment.

The imperial carriage came to a stop. Xu Hongji, Zheng Sanjun, and several others rushed to the carriage, knelt down, and begged for forgiveness: "We deserve to die a thousand deaths! We have alarmed Your Majesty! These are refugees fleeing from Huaibei. We have tried our best to appease them, but there are simply too many of them..."

Emperor Chongzhen ignored them and lifted the carriage curtain himself. He looked at the emaciated disaster victims who were still surging forward despite the soldiers' attempts to stop them, and at the bewildered and fearful eyes of the children in the mud. His face was so dark it could be wrung out.

He suddenly stood up and stepped down from the imperial carriage.

"Your Majesty!" Wei Zhongxian was startled and quickly followed.

Emperor Chongzhen walked step by step toward the group of refugees. His guards surrounded him nervously. Seeing this, the refugees' cries subsided, and they all stared blankly at the young man in the blue robe.

Emperor Chongzhen walked up to an old farmer kneeling on the ground, his hair gray, bent down, and reached out to help him up. The old farmer was trembling all over and could barely speak.

Emperor Chongzhen looked at him, then at the desperate faces around him, remained silent for a few seconds, and then spoke, his voice not loud, but clear: "I have come to save you."

He turned his head and glared at Zheng Sanjun's face: "Zheng Sanjun."

"Your subject is here!" Zheng Sanjun's heart tightened.

"Set up a soup kitchen here immediately! Use grain from your Nanjing Ministry of Revenue's granaries! If even one person starves to death," Chongzhen paused, "I will hold you responsible!"

"Your subject... obeys the decree!" Zheng Sanjun, sweating profusely, quickly kowtowed.

Chongzhen then said to Xu Hongji, "Duke of Wei, summon all the nobles and officials of the Six Ministries in Nanjing, as well as the Nanjing Garrison, the Nanjing Naval Force, and the Grain Transport Army, to the Wenhua Hall. I want to hear what's going on in Southern Zhili!"

After saying this, he turned around and climbed back onto the imperial carriage, no longer looking at the officials kneeling on the ground.

Xu Hongji and Zheng Sanjun exchanged a glance. Hmm, it seems this "show of force" has had some effect!

Let's bring more disaster victims to Nanjing later!
……

The Wenhua Hall in the Forbidden City of Nanjing. It hasn't been lived in for a long time, and although it was hastily cleaned, it still smells musty.

Emperor Chongzhen did not sit on the dragon throne, but stood in front of a huge map of Southern Zhili in the hall. Several important officials, including Xu Hongji, Zhang Zhiji, Shi Fenglai, Qian Qianyi, Zheng Sanjun, and Lü Weiqi, stood below with their hands at their sides.

Zheng Sanjun was presenting a report, holding a thick account book in his hands, his tone somber: "...Your Majesty, in early autumn this year, the Yellow River and the Huai River successively breached their banks, turning Huaibei into a vast expanse of water. Xuzhou, Suzhou, Taoyuan, and other prefectures and counties were all submerged. The city walls of Xuzhou are still submerged. The Qingkou section of the Grand Canal was silted up and destroyed for more than thirty miles, completely cutting off the grain transport north of Huai'an. Millions of shi of rice from Jiangnan were trapped in Huai'an and could not be transported north. At present, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Huaibei have gathered in Huai'an and Yangzhou, where epidemics are rampant and corpses of the starved lie everywhere... Although we have tried our best to provide relief, the treasury is empty, and it is truly... truly unsustainable!"

He knelt down with a thud, his voice trembling with sobs: "Your Majesty! The most urgent tasks are to control the river! To provide disaster relief! To dredge the canal! These are the lifelines connecting the north and south, and the very survival of millions of people! I beg Your Majesty to set aside other matters and save the people from this dire situation!"

Lü Weiqi also knelt down: "Your subject seconds the motion! If the canal transport is cut off, the food and provisions for the capital and the nine border regions will immediately be in danger! The matter of the river works cannot be delayed!"

Xu Hongji also bowed and said, "I also believe that what Minister Zheng and Minister Lü said is a wise and experienced way of governing the country. If the southeast is unstable, the whole country will be in turmoil."

The group kept talking about river management and canal transport, exaggerating the difficulties, but the core message was the same: they had no money, no manpower, and couldn't do anything else, so their new policy should be put on hold for now.

Emperor Chongzhen listened quietly, his face expressionless. He walked to the map, pointed to Xuzhou, and then traced the broken canal line to Huai'an.

At this moment, Wei Zhongxian quietly stepped forward, whispered a few words, and handed over an urgent report. It came from Liaodong.

Chongzhen opened the report and quickly glanced at it. It was news from Liaoxi: Zu Dashou was struggling, his supply lines were about to be cut off, and Lu Xiangshan was at a loss. Furthermore, large numbers of Jurchens had appeared near Fuzhou, indicating that the "Second Battle of Fuzhou" was about to begin. He closed the urgent report, casually tossing it aside, his expression remaining unchanged.

He turned around and looked at Zheng Sanjun and the others kneeling on the ground. He remained silent.

These men are far more astute than He Fengsheng and Tang Hui. They certainly found a good excuse; with the Southern Zhili region facing the greatest disaster relief, establishing a "Ministerial Office for Finance and Grain" would be rather unseemly.

But does the name of the government office matter?

"The disaster must be addressed." After a long pause, Emperor Chongzhen finally spoke. "The river must be dredged. The Grand Canal must be restored. These are matters of paramount importance, and I know this."

Zheng Sanjun and his group had just breathed a sigh of relief.

Chongzhen's tone suddenly shifted, and his voice turned cold: "Look at you all! The river works are neglected, and the grain transport administration is corrupt, leading to this disaster! The Ministry of Works in Nanjing, the Grand Canal Transport Office, and the river officials in various places are all rotten to the core! If we rely on them, when will the river be repaired? When will the grain transport be restored?"

His gaze swept across the crowd like lightning: "If we can't rely on the old methods, then let's try a new one."

Emperor Chongzhen took a deep breath and said decisively, "Issue my decree!"

Everyone inside the hall, including Wei Zhongxian, held their breath.

"The 'Grand Canal Transport Office' shall be established immediately, directly under my command! It shall oversee all matters related to the management of the Grand Canal and the transport of grain in Southern Zhili, Shandong, Henan and other regions, and shall have the authority to mobilize funds, grain and manpower from the provinces along the canal! All officials of the former Grand Canal Transport Commissioner and the River Conservancy Office shall temporarily be under its control and command! As for the position of Grand Canal Transport Commissioner, the Duke of England, Zhang Zhiji, shall be appointed!"

"And I will remain in Nanjing to personally oversee the situation until the river management is successful!"

The imperial decree caused a stir throughout the hall.

Zheng Sanjun suddenly raised his head, his face drained of color. Xu Hongji's pupils also contracted.

Emperor Chongzhen didn't look at them again, but turned back to look at the huge map, leaving only a cold silhouette.

(End of this chapter)