How can one be Emperor Chongzhen without money?

Chapter 318 What?! The Emperor is going to rebel?!
Deep within Huai'an, there was a small hall. The doors and windows were tightly closed, and the curtains were drawn. Only a few oil lamps were lit inside, casting a yellowish glow that barely illuminated the group of people sitting around.

Emperor Chongzhen wasn't wearing his imperial robes, but rather an indigo cotton robe, sitting in an ordinary armchair. Before him sat Xu Chengye, Chang Yansi, and about twenty students selected from the second cohort of the "Grand Canal Transportation Tax Training Institute." These young men sat ramrod straight, their faces tense, their eyes filled with a mixture of nervousness and curiosity.

Most of them came from Huaibei, Fengyang, Xuzhou, Suzhou, Sizhou, and other places. Their families were either military households or ordinary farmers. They had received a few years of schooling, could read and write, and could do arithmetic. They were selected here because they excelled in the training institute.

Chongzhen's gaze slowly swept over these young faces. The palace was quiet, with only the occasional pop of the lamp wick.

"Do you know why I summoned you all here?" Emperor Chongzhen asked, his voice low but heavy.

No one said a word.

"Because of you," Chongzhen gestured around the city, "you are fellow villagers with those refugees who are now crammed outside Nanjing, starving and freezing. Has the floodwaters in Fengyang receded completely? Are the walls of Xuzhou still submerged? And Sizhou... is it still habitable now?"

A few words, like hooks, pulled out the deepest pain in everyone's hearts. Some people lowered their heads, their eyes a little red.

"This tragedy is not entirely due to natural disasters," Emperor Chongzhen's voice deepened. "It is a man-made calamity! It is the culmination of two hundred years of corrupt river administration, embezzlement by officials, and land grabbing by powerful clans!"

He stood up and walked to a huge map of the Huai River waterway hanging on the wall. On the map, the Yellow River, the Huai River, and the Grand Canal were all mixed together, a scene of utter chaos.

"The imperial court has been working on river management every year, spending vast sums of money! But what has been the result? The riverbed has only risen higher, and the people have only become poorer! Why?" He turned sharply, his gaze piercing. "Because the benefits of river management haven't reached your fellow villagers! They haven't enriched your hometown fields! Don't you know in your hearts that they've all flowed into the pockets of those who benefit from it?"

Xu Chengye and Chang Yansi began to breathe rapidly and instinctively straightened their backs.

"I am not here for a minor matter!" Emperor Chongzhen pressed his finger heavily on the map. "I want a complete cure! I want to 'divide the Yellow River and the Huai River,' to open another route for the Huai River to flow into the sea, so that the Huai River basin will be forever free from floods!"

He paused, looking at everyone: "But this momentous undertaking cannot be accomplished by me alone, or by a few officials!"

He returned to his seat, his gaze falling on Xu Chengye and Chang Yansi: "Someone needs to go to Nanjing! Go to those refugee camps and organize our fellow villagers from Jiangbei! Tell them what I want to do! What can they expect!"

Xu Chengye and Chang Yansi stood up abruptly and knelt on one knee: "Your subjects... would gladly die ten thousand times over!"

"Rise." Emperor Chongzhen gestured for everyone to stand up, then addressed them, "I want you to form an organization. You've already decided on a name—'The One Bowl Society'!"

The name was a bit rustic, and someone in the hall was taken aback—no one in the Ming Dynasty was talking about the "starting with a bowl" joke at this time.

"The name may be rustic, but the principle is sound!" Chongzhen explained, "It means that we want every one of our fellow villagers in Huaiyou to have a bowl that can be filled with rice!"

Without saying anything more, he pulled two thin booklets from his sleeve. The covers were blue, and the words "Sharing Food and Farming Land" were written in black ink on them. He solemnly handed them to Xu Chengye and Chang Yansi.

“This book contains your principles and your courage!” Chongzhen said. “It doesn’t contain many grand theories, but rather a few practical matters.”

He began to speak, his tone calm and casual, as if he were having a casual conversation:

"First, equal distribution of land and taxes." He looked at these young men from Huaibei. "Tell me, who should all these official fields, imperial estates, and military farms in Southern Zhili belong to? Shouldn't they be distributed to those farmers who have little or no land to cultivate? I'm thinking that in the future, each family will be allocated twenty or thirty mu, which will be considered 'imperial land' or 'official land.' You just need to cultivate them, and you only need to pay ten percent of the harvest to the court! Apart from that, all other exorbitant taxes and levies will be waived! Tell me, isn't this better than working for landlords and paying five or six tenths of the rent?"

A suppressed gasp rose from below. "Equal land distribution and equal taxes, one-tenth the rent!" This sounded more like an incitement to rebellion than anything else! If the speaker wasn't the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, they would have truly suspected they'd been tricked!
"The second matter is river control and survival," Chongzhen continued. "Why must we control the river? It's not for my sake! It's to ensure that the land allocated to you in the future will not be flooded again! Once the river is controlled, Huaibei can become a land of fish and rice again! Right now, this large-scale river control project can itself serve as a form of work relief! Let the displaced villagers have work to do, food to eat, and save their lives!"

"The third thing is, who is our enemy?" Chongzhen's tone turned cold. "Right now, there are people who don't want us to succeed! Those dukes, ministers, and unscrupulous merchants in Nanjing are afraid that once our people have land, they won't serve them like cattle and horses anymore! They are hoarding grain and raising grain prices, hoping to starve everyone and force me to abandon the river management project! So that they can continue to ride roughshod over us!"

It sounds like they're still going to rebel! They're just rebelling against corrupt officials, not the emperor, because the emperor is the leader of the rebels!
Xu Chengye shouted aptly, "They dare!"

"Shouting won't do!" Emperor Chongzhen gestured with his hand. "Therefore, we must rely on you! Take the principles in this booklet and infiltrate the refugee camps outside Nanjing! Like seeds, take root for me!"

He began to assign specific tasks, in a clear and organized manner:

"When you arrive, don't reveal your true identity yet. You can call it a 'Hometown Association' or a 'Mutual Aid Association.' The most important thing is to gain their trust. I will provide you with funds and provisions to set up several soup kitchens among the refugees. First, make the promise of 'sharing food' a reality! Even if you can't feed all the disaster victims, at least let them see your sincerity." "Find those with integrity and the courage to speak out, and develop them into core members. Ten people per 'group,' five groups per 'team,' with layered responsibility and single-line communication. Discipline must be strict; no disturbing the people is allowed!"

"Initially, the slogans should be directed at unscrupulous merchants! Shout 'We need to eat!' 'The Emperor governs the river for the people!' 'Severely punish hoarders!' Organize displaced people to peacefully petition in front of the Ministry of Revenue in Nanjing and those large grain stores! We must keep the truth in our hands! As for what to do next, wait for my instructions. Do you understand?"

Everyone in the room nodded repeatedly, but their hearts were pounding: if the emperor hadn't personally arranged this, it seemed like they would have gathered a crowd and raised their flags next!
For the next three days, Emperor Chongzhen took time out of his busy schedule to personally "teach" these twenty-odd people in this small hall.

He explained how to deal with refugees: "Put aside your airs, speak your local dialect, listen to their complaints, and help them solve their most urgent problems."

He explained how to identify key personnel: "Look at who is fair, who has prestige among the crowd, and who is not afraid of trouble."

He explained how to spread the message: "Don't just read from the book. Use casual conversation and storytelling to gradually introduce the benefits of land redistribution and river management."

He even talked about the most basic secrecy and counter-surveillance: "Keep your eyes open, remember suspicious people, and make secretive meetings."

These young people, who were getting so close to the emperor for the first time, listened to him talk about these real "skills," and their eyes lit up. They wished they could swallow every single word.

On the night before his departure, Chongzhen secretly summoned Xu Chengye and Chang Yansi once again.

Under the oil lamp, Emperor Chongzhen's face was unusually solemn.

"Remember, Nanjing is a den of dragons and tigers. Your enemies are the local tyrants who have been entrenched there for two hundred years, ruthless and vicious." He stared into their eyes. "But behind you is me, and hundreds of thousands of Jiangbei compatriots who want to live! The 'One Bowl Society' is not about rebellion, but about fighting for a way to survive for the people and for a future for the Ming Dynasty!"

He pointed to the booklet: "The ideas in this booklet may take ten or twenty years to realize. But for now, it is a banner that can unite people's hearts! Go and sow the seeds. I am in Huai'an, waiting for your letter."

Xu Chengye and Chang Yansi kowtowed heavily, their throats tightening: "Your subjects... will certainly not fail in your mission!"

The next day, before dawn, the Huai'an wharf was shrouded in morning mist.

Xu Chengye and Chang Yansi, along with their twenty-odd capable trainees, all dressed in coarse cloth and disguised themselves as merchants, shop assistants, and fleeing scholars. Several inconspicuous awning boats were waiting on the riverbank.

Emperor Chongzhen did not come to see him off. But Wei Zhongxian came quietly, handed Xu Chengye a heavy bundle, and whispered, "Here are the travel expenses and emergency funds given by His Majesty. Keep them safe. I have already arranged for someone to meet you in Nanjing. The code word is 'ask about the price of rice in Huai'an.'"

Xu Chengye gripped the bundle tightly, exchanged a glance with Chang Yansi, and nodded vigorously.

The group silently boarded the boat. The boatman pushed off with his bamboo pole, and the awning boat glided into the thick fog, heading silently towards Nanjing.

At the bow of the ship, Xu Chengye faced the cold wind and touched the hard little booklet in his arms.

He silently vowed to himself: One bowl... This bowl of rice must be served to the villagers!
From a high vantage point in Huai'an, Emperor Chongzhen gazed out the window at the misty river to the south, remaining motionless for a long time.

He knew that this move was somewhat risky and also somewhat unpredictable.

Perhaps we can really pull off a surprise attack and win against all odds!

Meanwhile, in the western part of Huai'an City, the "Fengyu" rice shop was packed with a large crowd.

"The price has gone up again! A dou of rice costs three qian of silver! This morning it was two qian and five qian!" An old man said, his voice trembling as he clutched his shrunken money bag.

"You unscrupulous merchants! You're trying to force us to our deaths!" a woman said, her eyes red with anger, as she held her crying, starving child.

The portly manager of the rice shop stood behind the high counter, holding an abacus, not even bothering to lift his eyelids, and slowly said, "Think it's too expensive? If you think it's too expensive, then don't buy it! The imperial court suffered a defeat in Liaoxi, and will have to conscript soldiers and requisition grain again. There are also disasters everywhere in the north, so they'll have to requisition grain from Nanzhili. All the grain has gone to the north, so this is the price we have here! Buy it or don't, tomorrow... it'll go up again!"

A commotion erupted in the crowd, filled with curses and cries. Cold snowflakes fell on the despairing faces of the people, and also on Chongzhen's perilous path of "rebellion."
(End of this chapter)