Who killed the Ming Dynasty?

The Wuying Hall is where the regular court sessions are held.

As dawn broke, the sandalwood incense in the gilded bronze incense burner filled the air silently.

Han Zanzhou swept his whisk across the steps of the palace, and a wisp of spider silk clung to the crack between the gold bricks, so fine it was almost imperceptible.

The new emperor, Zhu Cilang, sat upright on the dragon throne, his heavy dragon robe and the jade ornaments hanging from his crown remaining perfectly still.

"Begin the grand worship ceremony!"

The voice of Han Zanzhou, the Grand Master of Ceremonies, pierced the silence.

"Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor!"

The cheers were like a tidal wave, the prostrate bodies of the officials rose and fell, and the backs of the officials merged into a surging wave.

Zhu Cilang sat motionless, feeling the coolness of the gold bricks seeping through the soles of his boots.

For the first time, the weight of that supreme power pressed so realistically onto his young shoulders, and also onto this vast and turbulent land.

"Officials, if you have matters to report, do so now; otherwise, the court may adjourn!"

Before the final note of the Grand Master of Ceremonies' chant had even faded, Gao Hongtu, the Minister of Revenue, stumbled out, clearly in a great hurry.

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty, I deserve to die!"

His hat was askew, his belt askew, his lips trembled, and he held a scepter as he reported:

"Your Majesty...this year's fiscal expenditure has reached a dead end."

He looked at the line of numbers on the tablet.

"Annual military pay...7.8 million taels!"

"The salaries and stipends of the imperial family and officials... exceed one million in silver... but various miscellaneous expenses... result in a total deficit in the reported expenditures—"

His voice was hoarse with despair:

"Three million eight hundred thousand taels!"

"This amount...this amount is enough to equal half the annual revenue of the entire Jiangnan province! Your Majesty...your Majesty..."

He could no longer hold on, and his whole body collapsed to the ground, his shoulder blades heaving violently as he let out a suppressed sob.

A deficit of 3.8 million taels!

The air seemed to freeze instantly, pressing heavily on everyone's chest.

Even the sound of the bronze bells at the corners of the palace had disappeared, leaving only the faint echo of Gao Hongtu's desperate sobs.

A minister, a pillar of the state, was reduced to behaving like a child before the palace.

The sobbing told Zhu Cilang more clearly than any grand speech just how bad the mess had become.

The jeweled crown trembled slightly, revealing the shock in Zhu Cilang's heart.

A deficit of 3.8 million taels!

Is this country just an empty shell?

The illusory glory of his ascension to the throne was shattered in an instant by this number—

Has the Ming Dynasty really fallen to such a state of poverty?

He suppressed his turbulent emotions, his voice lower than expected:

"Gentlemen...do you have any good ideas?"

Gao Hongtu looked up dejectedly, tears streaming down his face:

"Your Majesty, increasing revenue and reducing expenditure are of paramount importance... however, taxes cannot be increased abruptly, nor can military pay be reduced hastily."

Shi Kefa immediately followed, his voice resolute:

"The flames of war have not yet been extinguished in Jiangbei, and the poison of the rebels still lingers! If we cut military pay now, it may cause internal strife and shake the foundation of the nation."

Zhang Youyu, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, presented a yellowed scroll:

"Your Majesty, when the border was in dire need of attention, a special levy was imposed, and the national treasury was immediately replenished."

"Only extraordinary measures can resolve this crisis!"

After a brief silence, a clear, melodious jade chime rang out from the ranks, and Qian Qianyi, the Vice Minister of Rites, stepped forward.

Herons sway gently in their robes, and the fragrance of plum blossoms and purses wafts through the air.

"I observe that the fertile land north of the Yangtze River stretches for thousands of miles, yet the taxes levied are as light as a feather!"

"The Zheng family of Yangzhou falsely reported their 10,000 mu of fertile land as mudflats! The Liu family of Sizhou falsely claimed their 1,000 hectares of fertile land as sacrificial land, exempting them from taxation."

He then proposed,

"Your Majesty, I urge you to follow the wise policies of the previous dynasty and thoroughly investigate the powerful clans in Jiangbei. This is the best way to resolve this predicament."

Qian Qianyi had barely finished speaking when Ma Shiying stepped forward. He stroked the jade belt at his waist, his voice steady:

"The Junior Minister of Rites (a respectful title for the Vice Minister of Rites) has calculated things very clearly."

"Have you considered that Huang Degong's 30,000 troops stationed in Luzhou Prefecture were eating stale rice from the Sizhou granary?"

He shook an old book out of his sleeve:

"Your Majesty, I beg you to grant me mercy! Allocate the abandoned official lands of Xiaolingwei to the four garrisons to support the troops!"

"When the Jingnan Rebellion was first quelled, 100,000 mu of land were cultivated to support the army. Now, the imperial fields around the mausoleum are overgrown with weeds up to waist-high—"

He turned abruptly to look at Qian Qianyi:

"To send soldiers to fight the rebels on empty stomachs—is this the strategy for maintaining peace and stability proposed by the virtuous officials of the Donglin Academy?"

"I utterly disagree!"

Shi Kefa stepped forward again to vehemently oppose the proposal.

"The so-called restoration of military settlements by Ma Gebu is nothing but a case of drinking poison to quench thirst!"

"At the end of the Tang Dynasty, which regional warlord regime didn't begin by seizing government-owned land?"

"If such military settlements are restored, not only will the laws and regulations of our ancestors be completely disrupted, but I fear that the area between the Huai and Si rivers will soon be filled with military governors."

Shi Ke's French statement astonished everyone present and immediately aroused the dissatisfaction of the military officers.

Liu Kongzhao, the Earl of Chengyi, suddenly stepped forward, his words filled with indignation:

"When my ancestors followed Emperor Taizu to drive out the Tartars, they did not allow civil officials to calculate on the battlefield."

He pointed his scepter diagonally at Shi Kefa.

"If Minister Shi is so aloof, why doesn't he weave the weeds from the Fengyang Imperial Mausoleum into his court robes?"

"Was the disastrous defeat at Sarhu in the 47th year of the Wanli reign due to the generals' inability to farm?"

"Was the mutiny in Jizhou in the seventh year of the Tianqi reign due to the border troops' unwillingness to cultivate the land?"

His voice was filled with hostility:

"With a slight tilt of the pen, a civil official can portray blood-soaked soldiers as arrogant and fierce warriors."

"Your Majesty, if we were to adopt the Song Dynasty's approach of suppressing the military with civil officials—"

His gaze, sharp as a wolf's, swept across the ranks of civil servants:

"I fear that before the Jurchens even breach the gates, the lament of a fallen kingdom, 'The Lament of Yai Mountain,' will soon be sung in the Wuying Hall!"

These words shocked the entire court.

A collective gasp rippled through the ranks of civil officials, and countless gazes were fixed on Liu Kongzhao.

Shi Kefa, his beard and hair bristling, stepped forward, refusing to back down:

"Lord Chengyi, you are mistaken!"

"The foundation of a nation lies in the balance between civil and military affairs!"

"When Yuan Chonghuan defended Ningyuan with his lone army, it was the civil officials who donned armor and climbed the city walls; when Lu Xiangshan died for his country at Jiazhuang, it was the civil officials who charged into battle with swords in hand."

He invoked the name of Liu Bowen.

"The ancestor of the Earl of Chengyi, Liu Wencheng, wielded the brush of a Hanlin scholar, but he did not use a Mo Dao (a type of long-handled sword) to defeat Chen Youliang's 600,000-strong army."

"This great Ming Dynasty—"

He pointed in the direction of Zijin Mountain.

"It was the founding emperor who struck it down with his sword, but it was also civil officials like Liu Wencheng who secured it with the beads of an abacus."

Liu Kongzhao snorted coldly, ready to argue again:

"Your Majesty, in these chaotic times, military prowess should come first, followed by civil administration; military strength should be prioritized over civil administration..."

"That's enough!"

Zhu Cilang suddenly shouted, interrupting Liu Kongzhao.

"The matter currently under discussion in court concerns a deficit of 3.8 million taels of silver in the treasury!"

The young emperor's gaze swept over the group of trusted ministers below, and a sense of powerlessness welled up in his heart.

When disaster strikes, all they do is attack each other.

He suppressed his anger and steered the discussion back to the fiscal crisis itself:

"What I want to hear is a solution to this urgent problem, not for you to dredge up old grievances and settle personal scores."

He suppressed his surging anger into a cold, scathing question, which he hurled at the entire court, striking directly at the heart of the matter:

"Three million eight hundred thousand taels!"

"Ministry of Revenue, Ministry of War, cabinet ministers, meritorious elders... tell me, where will this enormous deficit be made up?"

The hall fell into a brief silence once again. The lingering heat of the argument had not yet dissipated, but it was completely frozen by this final question.

After a moment, Ma Shiying straightened his robes, as if the fierce argument had never happened.

He bowed and reported:

"Your Majesty! I request that the old practice be reinstated, and that land taxes and transaction taxes be increased universally throughout the land!"

Ma Shiying's words were like a floodgate opening, and several officials rushed forward to speak:

"I second that proposal! I request that an additional tax be levied on lakes and marshes!"

"I second that! I request a thorough investigation into any omissions in salt contract tax collection!"

......

In the blink of an eye, everyone in the imperial court seemed to be speaking with one voice.

The ministers presented their proposals one after another, offering a variety of strategies, but all of them revolved around the core idea of ​​"addition"!

Their strategies all aimed to extract money from the people in order to alleviate the crisis of an empty national treasury.