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

After the others left, Zhu Jian sat alone by the stove, warming himself by the fire.

He stared at the flickering flames in the stove, lost in thought for a long time.

Zhu Jian hadn't expected that besides the two princes and a dozen or so dukes, the Jin and Dai vassal states also had nearly 20,000 members of the imperial clan, all of whom needed to be supported by the court, even though Zhu Jian had now stopped their stipends...

We still need to find a way out for them... We can't just kill all 20,000 of them...

After a long silence, Zhu Jian slowly rose. He hadn't yet come up with a perfect solution, so he decided to send these people to Yanzhou Prefecture to weave cloth, and deal with them later...

"Bring in the Prince of Jin and the Prince of Dai!"

Before long, the two were bound and brought before Prosecutor Zhu.

Upon seeing Zhu Jian, the two kings were truly terrified. They had not expected the emperor before them to be so ruthless. Nearly 100,000 people, including gentry, officials, relatives, and servants from various households, were arrested without hesitation... More than 2,000 members of the eight merchant families and nine clans were beheaded without a second thought... without even blinking an eye.

"Your Majesty, we are guilty... Your Majesty, we pay our respects..." the Prince of Jin and the Prince of Dai said in unison.

"The descendants of the two powerful clans during the Jin Dynasty were ten times that of the eight merchant families and their nine clans..."

"We beg Your Majesty for mercy..."

"Please, Your Majesty, have mercy on behalf of the founding emperor..." The two princes knelt on the ground, their voices trembling as they pleaded.

"Zhu Chuan, are you recruiting refugees in an attempt to launch a rebellion against me?"

"Your Majesty... I dare not..."

Prince Zhu Chuanyi had this idea. Datong was less than 200 li from Taiyuan. If they launched a surprise attack, it might not be impossible to succeed. However, he was captured before he could carry it out. He died before he could even begin his campaign. Back then, Zhu Di defeated 500,000 with 30,000 troops. He thought he could also defeat Zhu Jian's 50,000 troops in Taiyuan with only 3,000.

But unexpectedly, before they could recruit three thousand men, they were ambushed by Zhou Yuji with a thousand soldiers, and the entire force was scattered...

Zhu Jian glanced at the Prince of Dai and said disdainfully, "I fought with Dorgon and Yue Fei's armies of over 200,000 men in Shuntian Prefecture for more than half a month. Do you think I would do the same as Zhu Yunwen?"

The two men lowered their heads and pleaded repeatedly.

They had also heard about the Battle of Shuntian, where over 200,000 troops from both sides clashed in Yutian, fighting to the point of near-total brain damage. Finally, Zhu Jian personally led his army to charge Dorgon, directly breaching the Qing army's defenses and causing a complete Qing rout, forcing them to retreat beyond the Great Wall...

The two of them felt that this incident might have directly led to the emperor's purge of the Tongqing case in Shanxi...

After a long silence, Zhu Jian, seeing that the two remained silent, slowly spoke: "I will grant you both some dignity. The two princes of Jin and Dai will both be sent to Yanzhou Prefecture to weave cloth for me! Your families and more than a dozen princes will be sent to their ancestral home in Fengyang!"

"Your Majesty...Your Majesty...Even a guilty prince can go weave cloth..." Prince Zhu Shenxuan of Jin cried.

Zhu Jian waved his hand.

The fact that the two kings of the Jin Dynasty did not kill them did not deter the other feudal lords, but the fact that the two lords were not exterminated also sent a signal of harmony.

"After you leave, your families and descendants will live ordinary lives in Fengyang!"

"The premise is that the Ming Dynasty still exists. If it doesn't, not only you, but even I cannot survive!"

Upon hearing this, the two cried out in unison, "Your Majesty, weeping in gratitude..."

........

Several days later, at dawn, an imperial edict was issued from Taiyuan.

Prince Zhu Shenxuan of Jin and Prince Zhu Chuanyi of Dai committed suicide due to their crimes! All members of the imperial family of both princes were exiled! The Jin princely domain was abolished! The Dai princely domain was abolished!

The world was shaken.

"Your Majesty, we must be wary of the other vassal kings rebelling!" Hong Chengchou reminded him from the side.

Upon hearing this, Prosecutor Zhu nodded slightly without saying a word.

The princes of today are not like those of Zhu Di's time; they have no ability to rebel, not to mention that the Eastern Depot has already planted spies among the princes... As soon as there is any sign of recruiting soldiers or stockpiling grain, the Eastern Depot will report it back immediately...

Just then, Li Banghua, carrying a thick stack of papers, strode up to Zhu Jian and said, "Your Majesty, I have completed the calculations. The total value of the confiscated land, gold, silver, grain, cloth, salt, tea, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, and residences from the two vassal states and eight merchant families of the Jin Dynasty, as well as related gentry and officials, is 103,732,430 taels of silver!"

He then let out a long sigh: "It's equivalent to five years' worth of taxes and military provisions for Liaodong!"

Zhu Jian nodded slightly: "Also, the salt and tea taxes currently held by the Jin and Dai princes will be taken over by the Military and Political Bureau! A tax bureau will be established under the Military and Political Bureau! In addition, a statistics bureau will be established, and all the accountants will be transferred to the statistics bureau!"

Zhu Jian is gradually increasing the functions of the Military and Political Bureau in order to cope with the subsequent transfer of tax authority to the central government.

Li Banghua bowed and said, "Yes!"

"Apart from the Prince of Jin's residence and the Prince of Dai's residence, all other antiques, paintings, calligraphy, shops, furniture, etc., are for sale. Exchange must be for grain, cloth, iron ore, etc., and silver should be avoided if possible!"

As Zhu Jian finished speaking, Li Banghua, Lu Xiangshan, and Hong Chengchou, who were standing beside him, were taken aback:

Lu Xiang-sheng stepped forward and asked curiously, "Why don't you want money?"

"The disaster is worsening. Initially, one tael of silver could buy one shi (a unit of dry measure) of grain, but after a while, it might cost two taels! Therefore, we should try our best to exchange our silver for supplies, especially grain and cloth!"

After Zhu Jian's reminder, the three suddenly realized that with the natural disasters becoming increasingly severe, the value of grain would far exceed that of silver in a short time, not to mention antique shops and the like...

"Your Majesty is right!" Lu Xiang-sheng bowed slightly.

"Now that we've seized so much property, it's time to reassure the people!"

After Zhu Jian finished speaking, his gaze fell on Li Banghua: "There are still more than half a month until the twelfth year of Chongzhen's reign. I have decided that, starting from the twelfth year of Chongzhen's reign, all regular taxes, Liaodong military service, and corvée labor in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty will be exempted for three years!"

The three years from the twelfth year of Chongzhen (1639), the thirteenth year (1640), to the fourteenth year (1641) were the peak of natural disasters. If the Ming Dynasty could have survived these three years smoothly, it would have been able to recover a great deal of its losses.

Although tax exemption cannot directly help ordinary people, it may enable them to help their neighbors. Nowadays, neighbors are mostly related by blood, and most of them are ancestors of the same surname. Therefore, the power of grassroots clans should be utilized.

This would prevent officials from continuing to levy more taxes and oppress the people, and it would also directly destroy the base of the peasant army. As long as the government stopped levying more taxes, the number of people in the area who followed the peasant army in rebellion could be reduced by more than half.

"On behalf of all the people of the world, I thank Your Majesty!" Li Banghua bowed and knelt down.

"Your Majesty's actions truly demonstrate your wisdom and sagacity!" Lu Xiang-sheng echoed.

Zhu Jian waved his hand, pouring cold water on the three of them: "Don't be too happy yet!"

"There are many instances of local authorities outwardly complying while inwardly resisting!"

Zhu Jian was not so arrogant as to think that he could remove the mountains weighing on the common people with just a tax exemption decree! He had just obtained the highest level of power by dismissing the Vice Minister and more than forty other officials!

As for local control, it hasn't extended that quickly yet...

Upon hearing this, Lu Xiang-sheng snorted lightly: "Any local official who disobeys His Majesty's decree shall be executed!"

Hong Chengchou said in a deep voice, "Can you kill all of them?"

"Xiang Sheng, organize 2,600 soldiers, 200 from each of the thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty, and have them ride horses to each county and township to deliver this message directly to the local people!"

"Any local official who obstructs this will have their entire family executed!"

After finishing his sentence, Zhu Jian thought for a moment, then turned around and said, "Didn't they find some bright yellow cloth specially supplied to the royal family at the Prince of Jin's residence?"

"We made 2,600 small triangular flags in the past two days, one for each person!"

"As one of the two thousand six hundred flag bearers!"

"Furthermore, the tax exemption policy was issued by the Military and Political Bureau, requiring all provinces to oversee its implementation!"

Zhu Jian was very clear that one of the problems of the Ming Dynasty in the history books was taxation. During the Wanli era, the Liaodong tax was increased by nine million taels, the anti-suppression tax in the tenth year of Chongzhen was increased by three million three hundred thousand taels, and the training tax in the twelfth year of Chongzhen was increased by seven million three hundred thousand taels. The three taxes totaled twenty million taels, not including taxes.

These taxes directly crippled the self-sufficient farmers, which was also the reason why Li Zicheng broke out of the Shangluo Mountains in the twelfth year of the Chongzhen Emperor's reign and gained widespread support.

The imperial court adds 20 million taels, while the local governments may collect 40 million taels. This forces the people to rebel, leaving them with no choice but to do so!