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

When Zhu Jian arrived at the main hall, everyone knew about yesterday's events: the emperor had actually sent troops to crack down on prostitution, which they considered a case of catching the minor offender while letting the major ones go.

"Your Majesty, I, Chen Zhixian, Imperial Censor of the Nanjing Metropolitan Censorate, report: Yesterday, Your Majesty personally led troops to surround the Qinhuai River, which was unbecoming of Your Majesty! I urge Your Majesty to heed the words of the sages, to be strict with yourself and lenient with others!"

Upon hearing this, Prosecutor Zhu was taken aback. Before even discussing the punishment plan, they had already labeled me.

He then asked, "How long have you been in the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate?"

"Your Majesty, I have served in the Censorate for over three years!"

"According to the Great Ming Code, what should be done if an official or clerk patronizes a prostitute?"

Chen Zhixian remained silent upon hearing this and quietly lowered his head.

"I recall that I did not pay salaries last year. Where did these officials get the money to spend lavishly on the Qinhuai River?"

The room fell silent after he finished speaking.

A moment later, Yang Sichang stepped forward: "Your Majesty, many of the tea permits in Jiangnan have been stolen by powerful and influential people. I believe that these officials and their descendants are involved!"

"Your Majesty, a conviction can only be reached after a joint trial by the Court of Judicial Review, the Ministry of Justice, and the Censorate!" Lin Zhengde, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel in Nanjing, stepped forward to argue.

"The tea permit issue concerns the salaries of all officials in the Ming Dynasty. As long as this matter remains unresolved, the tea tax will be suspended, and officials throughout the Ming Dynasty will be without salaries. The sooner it is resolved, the sooner the tea permit tax can be collected, and the sooner the owed salaries can be paid!"

"Therefore, I believe this matter should be handled swiftly!"

Zhu Jian has linked the tea tax to the salaries of local officials; if the tea tax isn't collected, their salaries won't be paid. Anyone who obstructs the tea tax collection is cutting off someone's salary. As the saying goes, cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents, especially when it comes to something like this proposed by an official.

"Your Majesty, the matter of the tea permit cannot be accomplished overnight. We can use the imperial treasury to pay the officials' arrears!" Lin Zhengde, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel in Nanjing, continued.

This is an attempt to pass the buck on the issue of officials' salaries back to Prosecutor Zhu, thereby protecting a group of people behind him.

Zhu Jian nodded slightly after hearing this, realizing this man was a difficult one to deal with. He then said, "That was originally my thought, but upon further reflection, transporting the imperial treasury to the counties below would only increase expenses and take too much time. It would be better to directly distribute tea permits to the provinces and counties! If the tea permit tax revenue exceeds five million taels, it can even raise the salaries of officials throughout the Ming Dynasty!"

As soon as Zhu Jian said this, the room erupted in whispers. This meant that if the annual income of tea merchants exceeded ten million taels, their salaries would double.

"Your Majesty's words are advisable. Our Great Ming's tea tax is already severely deficient. If it is properly rectified, it will surely be able to cover the salaries of all officials of the Great Ming!"

Xue Guoguan wanted to use this tea permit issue to win over the officials below him. After all, who wouldn't want a raise? Currently, the money from the tea permits was being taken by a small group of people, and Zhu Jian planned to distribute that money to officials throughout the Ming Dynasty.

Officials who don't get the tea-selling fee will definitely be very supportive, and those who have taken it will certainly be unwilling to give it up!

"Your Majesty, Grand Secretary Zhang Zhifa, seconded what Grand Secretary Xue said!"

"I second that proposal!"

"I second that proposal!"

In an instant, a large group of people rushed out. These were people who had never even touched tea money before. Now that the salary was right in front of them, they were bound to try to get it. Relying solely on the emperor's private treasury would take forever, and who knew if the emperor would stop paying them in the future?

The revenue from tea permits came from the Ministry of Revenue and local governments, which directly affected their salaries. It was much better than the intangible revenue from the imperial treasury, especially for local officials.

Zhu Jian is using other people's money to do things for himself. Since he can't collect the money now, he might as well give it away and reduce his expenses. After all, officials in the Ming Dynasty can't go without their salaries forever.

Seeing that most people had knelt down, Zhu Jian said, "Then it's settled. Those people on the pleasure boat will be dealt with according to the laws of the Ming Dynasty!"

"Any merchant selling illicit tea shall have their property confiscated and be exiled to Yanzhou to weave cloth!"

"Your Majesty is wise!" the kneeling officials exclaimed in unison.

The power of a single Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel is ultimately insufficient. Currently, most officials are siding with Zhu Jian for their own interests, and no one is paying attention to these vested interest groups. This is tantamount to a divide-and-conquer approach.

The tea commissioner, Qian Zhujian, planned to keep detailed records and give all the money collected to local officials in various provinces and prefectures. As for the officials of the pleasure boats, it was a crackdown on the merchants of Jiangnan.

This involves reducing the number of people supporting officials both inside and outside the court. After all, Jiangnan cannot be allowed to descend into chaos yet. As for the missing officials in the Nanjing team, Zhu Jian does not intend to fill them. Having two sets of administrative teams is inherently problematic, so this drawback needs to be completely eliminated in the future. For now, it's better to leave them vacant, since they are not of much use anyway.

The next morning.

The dismissal of over a hundred officials from the six ministries in Nanjing and local governments due to their involvement in prostitution caused a huge uproar.

This is another large-scale dismissal of officials following the previous issues with the military and political bureaus.

In Zhu Jian’s view, it can be basically determined that none of these people who have money to go on pleasure boats are honest officials; they are all corrupt officials. If they were truly dedicated to public service, how could they afford to go to such places of extravagance?

These officials were mostly local officials from Jiangnan, especially those from the Donglin Party like Qian Qianyi.

It's not time for a large-scale purge of the gentry in Jiangnan yet. Zhu Jian just needs to get back the tea permits and resolve the issue of salaries for all officials in the Ming Dynasty.

The remaining task was to allocate military resources and provide disaster relief to resist the Qing dynasty.

A few days later, all the private tea merchants near Nanjing were captured, nearly a hundred in total, and the proceeds from their confiscations amounted to more than four million taels of silver.

Zhu Jian looked at the bill in his hand and handed it to Cheng Guoxiang beside him: "Look at these parasites!"

Cheng Guoxiang looked at the bill, his hands clenching tighter and tighter. He had spent more than half a year traveling all over Southern Zhili and Zhejiang, and only managed to raise 800,000 taels of silver. And these 100 tea merchants alone amounted to 4 million taels. The total amount in Southern Zhili and Zhejiang must be an astronomical figure!

Cheng Guoxiang said angrily, "Your Majesty, these lawless people should be executed on the spot!"

Zhu Jian shook his head: "I have established a textile bureau in Yanzhou to produce a large quantity of cloth! We are currently short-handed!"

"Why not recruit more refugees? That way, they won't waste food!"

Zhu Jian smiled and said, "The Textile Bureau is still expanding, and we can also recruit displaced people! Governor Zhu Dadian of Huguang currently controls three million mu of land in Huguang, and we can arrange to recruit some of the displaced people!"

"Shanxi still has over two million mu of land, and my imperial estates in Zhili have another two million mu, all of which can be used to employ displaced people for farming! With the three years of tax exemption, many displaced people have returned to their hometowns, but there are still many displaced people in severely affected areas such as Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Beizhili, and Shandong!"

"I am prepared to recruit a large number of people from Huguang to reclaim wasteland!"

Cheng Guoxiang nodded slightly after hearing this: "But these people need unified officials to prevent them from turning into bandits!"

Zhu Jian nodded: "I have already established the Agricultural Reclamation Bureau and implemented the garrison system, but it will not pay salaries, participate in battles, or appoint officers! After the wasteland is reclaimed, the people will receive 60% of the output, the Agricultural Reclamation Bureau 40%, and the land will belong to the Agricultural Reclamation Bureau!"

Upon hearing this, Cheng Guoxiang pondered for a moment, then nodded emphatically: "This way, land annexation is avoided, the displaced people have a way to survive, they can be self-sufficient the following year, and the imperial court will be wealthy—it's a win-win situation!"

"Is there a reliable candidate to serve as the Director of the Agricultural Reclamation Bureau?" Inspector Zhu asked.

"Yes! Yuan Shu, son of Yuan Keli, has inherited his father's talent!"

Zhu Jian pondered for a moment and nodded slightly. Yuan Shu had starved himself to death after Nanjing was captured by the Qing army in 1645. He was a tough nut to crack and could be used.

He said, "Let him be the one! Send him to the capital to serve as the Director of the Agricultural Reclamation Bureau!"

"As you command!" Cheng Guoxiang cupped his hands in greeting.