Ming Dynasty: Moral blackmail? I, Emperor Chongzhen, have no morals!

Chapter 90 Yuan Chonghuan's so-called great victory at Ningyuan

Half a month later, in the Wuying Hall of the Forbidden City, Zhu Jian got up and stretched. During this period, it seemed that the Ming Dynasty had pressed the pause button. From Liaodong to the Northwest, everything was in a stable state, which gave him a real break. It seemed that as long as the court could provide military funds, the various places would be stable. Once the funds were cut off, war would break out again.

"Your Majesty! The memorial from Liaodong!" Wang Chengen said as he walked.

Zhu Jian decreed that memorials from the Dengzhou Navy, Liaodong, Shaanxi, and other military forces should be submitted directly to the emperor, bypassing the Office of Transmission, the Grand Secretariat, and the Military and Political Bureau.

Although it did not conform to ancestral rules and procedures, no one cared, and no one offered advice... The main reason was that power had been decentralized. These people saw that Emperor Chongzhen was different from Emperors Wanli and Tianqi, so they stopped offering advice. The factional struggles of the Donglin Party, Zhejiang Party, Chu Party, Qi Party, and Wen Party had all gone underground. Now, the system of reporting rumors to the censors had been abolished. The censors of the Six Ministries and some of the supervising censors were all Wang Dehua's people. As a result, it was indeed much quieter.

Zhu Jian turned around, took the memorial, and read it. After a moment, he slowly closed the memorial.

Holding the memorial in his right hand, he repeatedly clapped it against his left, and slowly said, "Go and summon Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangshan!"

"As you command!"

After Wang Chengen left, Zhu Jian opened the memorial again and read it over, thinking to himself: This Huang Taiji is quite clever; he knows to use tea, porcelain, silk, etc. to exchange for grain and ironware in Korea.

Before long, Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangshan hurried to the Wuying Hall, bowed, and said, "Your Majesty, we pay our respects!"

"This is a memorial from Liaodong! Huang Taiji took tea, porcelain, and silk from the Ming Dynasty to Korea to exchange for a large amount of grain and ironware!" Zhu Jian said, handing the memorial to Sun Chuanting.

The two men took the memorial, glanced at it quickly, and Lu Xiangshan stepped forward: "Your Majesty, Huang Taiji is stockpiling grain, preparing to launch a war!"

Zhu Jian nodded slightly. It seemed that his strategy of dragging Huang Taiji out of control had failed, and Huang Taiji was very anxious.

"Your Majesty, Huang Taiji is using these goods to exchange for grain in Korea, which is detrimental to the Ming Dynasty!" Sun Chuanting said. He wanted to suggest stopping the trade with the Jurchens, but the Jurchens' warhorses were indeed in short supply in the army.

"Let Huang Taiji pass it around as he pleases; let's leave it at that for now!"

"From now on, transport grain to Ningyuan and Denglai!"

"Denglai?" Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangshan exchanged a glance and asked in confusion.

"Yes, Denglai!"

"At Zheng Sen and Li Dingguo's place."

"Is Your Majesty planning to use the navy to transport grain to Guan Ning Jin?" Sun Chuanting asked.

"We have this plan. We will first transport the goods from the south to Dengzhou and Laizhou by ship. Whether to transfer them later will be discussed later."

Zhu Jian did not intend to transport grain to Ningyuan by land indefinitely, as that would consume too much resources. From Hangzhou, the grain could be transported via the Grand Canal to Tianjin, and then from Tianjin to Ningyuan, the land route would begin. The same principle applied to transporting grain to Dengzhou and Laizhou by water. If the cargo ship capacity was sufficient, the grain could be transported by both sea and land to Juehua Island in Ningyuan, and then from Juehua Island to Ningyuan. This would reduce the consumption of grain.

"Your Majesty, in the sixth year of the Tianqi reign, Nurhaci only conquered Juehua Island. More than 7,000 people on the island were massacred, more than 2,000 warships were burned, and more than 100,000 shi of grain were burned. Is it not appropriate to use Juehua Island as a key logistics base for Ningyuan again?" Sun Chuanting said.

In the sixth year of the Tianqi reign, Nurhaci led his army to attack Yuan Chonghuan, who was defending Ningyuan, but failed to penetrate the defenses. Instead, he attacked Juehua Island, where Yuan Chonghuan had stored grain. This battle resulted in heavy losses for the Ming court. Grain was even more precious than it was then. If Huang Taiji were to launch a similar attack, the Ming Dynasty would be in dire straits.

"I know about this. Yuan Chonghuan's great victory at Ningyuan was built on the deaths and injuries of more than 10,000 soldiers and civilians on Juehua Island, and the loss of more than 100,000 shi of grain."

"My brother even rewarded Yuan Chonghuan for that battle!"

"At the walls of Ningyuan, the Jurchens lost fewer than a thousand men. On Juehua Island, they killed more than ten thousand men and burned over one hundred thousand shi of grain. This is what is known as a great victory."

Prosecutor Zhu was deeply impressed by this kind of self-deception, this Ah Q mentality—no matter what, you've won; you've never lost...

"I believe that given the losses suffered in the Battle of Juehua Island, it is inappropriate to establish Juehua Island as a key grain supply base again," said Lu Xiang-sheng, who was standing to the side. In his opinion, using Juehua Island as a logistics base for Ningyuan City was a mistake. Juehua Island freezes over in winter, so personnel, artillery, and horses can be attacked. Without the water advantage of Juehua Island, it would be better to use Ningyuan as a place to store grain.

"Juehua Island is a transit point. Once the grain supplies arrive at Juehua Island, they will be transported to Ningyuan City. I have already instructed Sun Chengzong to build a city in Guangning Zhonghou and a dock next to it, to serve as a transit center for grain transport in the future."

Ningyuan Zhonghousuo was roughly located in present-day Suizhong County. There was a wharf there, called Suizhong Wharf, which was suitable for mooring ships and transporting goods.

This pier is located between Ningyuan and Shanhaiguan, which is extremely convenient. It is further back than Juehua Island and is less likely to be attacked by large armies.

However, from the Wanli era to the tenth year of the Chongzhen era, for more than twenty years, no dock was built here. Instead, Juehua Island was used as a major grain storage site. Zhu Jian did not know why. In short, in Zhu Jian's eyes, Guan Ningjin was full of strange people and strange things, without any so-called common sense. He did not know what those military purposes were for.

Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangshan were taken aback upon hearing this, and then they nodded heavily. It was indeed a prudent idea to build a city and wharf in Guangning as a grain and fodder transshipment base in Liaodong.

However, such a large-scale construction project would inevitably increase costs. Lu Xiang-sheng asked, "The construction of Guangning City and the wharf must have been quite expensive. I wonder if the imperial court's military funds are sufficient?"

"Currently, the imperial treasury still has 60 million taels of silver. The Yanzhou Textile Bureau, the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln in Jiangxi, and the Jiangning Textile Bureau in Southern Zhili are producing goods in a steady stream for trade and to supplement the grain and salary!"

"It is estimated that by the end of this year, the Chongzhou Textile Bureau will be able to produce eight million bolts of cotton cloth, and by the end of next year, that number will double, enough to supply the entire needs of the imperial court."

Currently, the imperial court needs approximately 15 to 16 million bolts of cotton cloth per year. Previously, only a small portion of this cotton cloth was produced by the weaving bureau, while the rest was purchased.

This massive silver transaction caused all the silver in the market to flow to the gentry families of Jiangnan, resulting in a decrease in the silver supply. Meanwhile, ordinary people needed to sell grain to pay taxes in silver, which created huge social conflicts.

Zhu Jian directly purchased cotton raw materials from farmers and recruited refugees and exiled officials' families to weave cloth, thus forming an internal economic cycle that greatly slowed down the flow of silver into the hoard.

"An annual production of 16 million horses!" Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng exclaimed in unison, both astonished by the output and scale.

"This is broad white cotton cloth, the most common kind on the market!" Zhu Jian explained, "Currently, the Chongzhou Textile Bureau can only increase production, but in terms of quality, it is far inferior to Songjiang."