Ming Dynasty: I am truly not the Emperor of Longevity

In Lu Chen's view, the biggest problem of the Ming Dynasty was actually its economy.

While the fall of the Ming Dynasty may appear to be due to peasant uprisings and the Manchu conquest, the real cause was the bankruptcy of the national treasury.

With the arrival of the Little Ice Age at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the north suffered from severe droughts for years. If the imperial court had sufficient financial resources, although it could not contend with the power of nature, it would have been fully capable of preventing a large-scale famine.

The north is suffering from drought and water shortages, resulting in a significant reduction in grain production or even complete crop failure, but the south has plenty.

Although the south was also affected by the disaster, resulting in reduced production, it still had the capacity to produce enough food to ensure basic survival. If it was still not enough, it could be purchased from vassal states in Southeast Asia.

Given the transportation capacity of the Ming Dynasty, it was indeed impossible to transport grain to the entire north, but it was highly likely that it could still be transported along official roads and rivers to most of the northern counties.

If even the county seat can't be guaranteed, surely all the prefectural cities can be guaranteed?

As long as each prefecture and some county towns in the north have large-scale soup kitchens organized by the government for disaster relief, although it still cannot guarantee that people will not starve to death, large-scale peasant uprisings will certainly not break out.

If you can survive by running to the county town or the area around the prefectural city, who would be willing to risk their life by rebelling?

As long as the imperial court can provide sufficient food and pay, the border troops will not mutini.

With ample funds, there was no reason to abolish the post station system.

Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, and others would never rebel. Even small groups of rebels that had already rebelled could be easily quelled by the imperial court, whether through pacification or suppression.

If no major upheaval occurs domestically, the Manchus will have no opportunity to conquer the Central Plains.

Moreover, if the Ming border army could consistently maintain sufficient food and pay, and be well-equipped, the Later Jin would have had no chance of rising to power.

As soon as Yezhupi raised the banner of "Seven Grievances" to rebel against the Ming Dynasty, the Jianzhou tribe would face another crushing defeat by the Ming border army.

Even if the Ming army in Liaodong was caught off guard and lost the initiative, allowing the Jurchens to cross the border and invade Liaodong, the tens of thousands of Later Jin troops in the early period would not be able to gain a foothold in Liaodong. Before long, they would be wiped out by the Ming army continuously transferred from the Nine Garrisons and the interior.

In another dimension, Wild Boar Skin had also carefully considered the matter and even personally visited the capital. He clearly knew that the Ming army was outwardly strong but inwardly weak, which is why he dared to rebel against the Ming.

Even if the Ming army still had the strength of the Wanli Three Great Expeditions, he would not dare to take risks and would only honestly serve as the Jianzhou Left Guard Commander and Dragon Tiger General of the Ming Dynasty.

Raising an army against the Ming Dynasty would be the same dead end that Yang Yinglong walked. Wouldn't it be better to be a hereditary chieftain?

As long as the Ming Dynasty is strong, its treasury is full, and its border troops have sufficient provisions and pay, there is no way a war will break out in Liaodong.

If a war hadn't broken out in Liaodong, there wouldn't have been the subsequent Liaodong military pay and various additional levies, thus avoiding a vicious cycle.

Before his time travel, Lu Chen believed that if the Ming Dynasty's finances could remain healthy, with a certain surplus in revenue and expenditure without defaulting on military pay, and with financial reserves to cope with various emergencies, the chaotic world at the end of the Ming Dynasty would never have occurred.

Even if there were no breakthroughs in productivity, the Little Ice Age would still arrive as scheduled.

Now that he is a prince of the Ming Dynasty, second only to Prince Yu Zhu Zaiji in the line of succession, he also has a chance to ascend the throne.

Crown Prince Zhu Zaiyi and Prince Jing Zhu Zaizhen will both die young and have no children, so they have already been excluded by Lu Chen.

Even if he remained a vassal king, if the Ming Dynasty perished a few decades later like in another dimension, his descendants would hardly have a good end.

Lu Chen absolutely did not want to see this happen.

Soon, the imperial carriage entered the Xingwang Mansion through the Xishun Gate.

At this time, all the buildings on the central axis of the Xingwang Mansion had been changed to the style of the imperial palace. The front palace was renamed Qingyun Palace, which was the residence of the emperor, and the rear palace was renamed Fengxiang Palace, which was the residence of the empress.

As a prince, Lu Chen was not allowed to stay in either of these places.

However, on the east and west sides of the front and rear palaces of the Prince of Xing's Mansion, there are two large courtyards called the East Third Palace and the West Third Palace, which correspond to the East and West Six Palaces of the Forbidden City in Beijing. They are half the size of the palaces and are the harem of the Prince's Mansion.

Normally, there would be a prince's residence in the East Third Palace, but when Prince Xingxian died, Zhu Houcong was not yet twelve years old and had not yet been given a separate residence.

King Heung-heon was also the first King Heung, so the Crown Prince's residence, which should have been in the East Three Palaces, was never built.

When Emperor Jiajing returned to Chengtian Prefecture during his southern tour, he ordered the construction of the Prince's Mansion in the Eastern Three Palaces. Although no one would live there, the Prince of Xing's Mansion, as the emperor's former residence, had to have all the necessary features.

This also made up for the regrets of Emperor Jiajing himself in his youth.

The East Third Residence will soon become a construction site, leaving only the West Third Residence as a place for Lu Chen to stay during his stay in Chengtian Prefecture.

After being bestowed the title of Prince yesterday, Lu Chen even went to the Ministry of Rites to inquire about it.

The West Third Palace was originally the residence of a prince's concubines and underage princes. Now that the Prince of Xing's Mansion has been renovated to the standards of the imperial palace, this place should be the residence of the emperor's concubines and princes.

The Prince of Xingxian has been posthumously honored as Emperor Ruizong Xian. As a son of Emperor Ruizong, Prince Ying Zhu Houyu is of course also a prince, and it is not considered an overreach of regulations for him to reside in the Western Three Palaces.

"Yang Ban".

After lunch, Lu Chen called Yang Bingzhong to his side.

"Where are the estates Your Majesty bestowed upon me?"

In addition to specifying the annual stipend of 5,000 shi (a unit of dry measure) in yesterday's imperial edict, there was another major detail: 2,000 qing (another unit of land measurement) of farmland in Chengtian Prefecture and 1,500 qing (another unit of land measurement) of farmland in De'an Prefecture.

This is 350,000 mu of land. If managed properly, the annual income can be quite considerable, much higher than a prince's salary.

"Your Highness, the imperial edict clearly states that Chengtian Prefecture and De'an Prefecture will allocate sufficient farmland to our Prince Ying's residence."

However, allocating so much land will probably take some time.

"Your Highness, please rest assured, it is their problem if the local authorities are slow to act. They will definitely deliver the rent payment to the Prince's residence when it is time to collect it."

"What? Aren't these fields managed by people sent by the Prince's Mansion?"

Lu Chen turned to look at Yang Bingzhong.

"Your Highness, since the second year of the Jiajing reign, in order to curb the abuse of local areas by the imperial family and their relatives, the court has stipulated that farmland must be managed by the relevant officials and rented at three fen of silver per mu."

Yang Bingzhong quickly replied,

"Our Prince Ying's estate has 3,500 hectares of bestowed land, which will generate 10,500 taels of silver in rent each year."

This output ratio is way too low!

Lu Chen secretly complained to himself that Chengtian Prefecture and De'an Prefecture were both in Huguang, a land of fish and rice. Although they couldn't compare with later generations, the average yield per mu was at least two or three hundred jin.

The rent is only three cents per mu, that's too low.

When Lu Chen was in Linqing, he also visited rice shops, where the price of rice was close to one fen of silver per jin.

Of course, Linqing is a big city with high logistics costs, so rice prices would definitely be much cheaper in major grain-producing areas like Hubei and Hunan.

Even so, three cents could only buy ten catties of rice at most, no more.

The annual rent for one mu of land is only ten jin of rice?

How is that possible!

If that were true, then the burden on farmers in the Ming Dynasty should have been very light!