Chapter 309: I Wish to Pacify the Realm

After hearing Yuan Keli's words, Sun Chengzong turned to look at him and said with a smile: "You're something else—even at a time like this, you're still working your little schemes."

Yuan Keli let out a sigh and said somewhat helplessly: "I'm not like you. Sometimes such scheming is unavoidable."

"Fine, I'll listen to you." Sun Chengzong thought for a moment and said: "This Sun Chuanting will be recommended by you then."

Seeing that Sun Chengzong had grasped his meaning, Yuan Keli smiled and said: "That would naturally be for the best."

After the two finished their discussion, Yuan Keli left. It was already late, and he was not suited to remain there any longer.

By the time Yuan Keli departed, Sun Chengzong also went to rest.

By the next day, the news had spread completely.

Throughout the court, officials great and small were all discussing this matter. Regarding this newly established staff office, quite a few people had designs on it, clearly wanting a piece of the pie.

At the same time, Zhu Youxiao was summoning Chen Sihai at the Western Park.

Glancing at the somewhat weary Chen Sihai, Zhu Youxiao said: "You look very tired. You've been busy these past days, haven't you? You must also remember to rest—your health is important."

"Your Majesty, I thank you for your concern, but I am not tired." Chen Sihai quickly said, though of course these words were only spoken for show.

During this period, Chen Sihai could be said to have been busier than ever—how could he not be tired?

Chen Sihai, having received Zhu Youxiao's imperial decree, had begun surveying the guard stations across the realm, running himself ragged.

Zhu Youxiao glanced at Chen Sihai and asked: "Then tell me, how do things stand?"

Hearing Zhu Youxiao's words, Chen Sihai's expression also turned grave, and he said in a low voice: "To report to Your Majesty, it can only be described as shocking. The Ming's guard stations, I fear, have already rotted to the very core."

After saying this, Chen Sihai did not continue speaking, but instead raised his head and looked at Zhu Youxiao.

Having muddled through officialdom for so many years, Chen Sihai knew very well that there was an extremely important principle of conduct in officialdom—report the good news, not the bad.

If you report good news, you might well receive rewards; but if you report bad news, not only will you receive no reward, you might very well drag yourself down with it.

What he had uncovered in this investigation was simply shocking—those people below were utterly insane.

Under such circumstances, if he spoke the truth before His Majesty, it was very likely His Majesty would not be able to accept it.

If it had not been for His Majesty previously having the Office of Transmission investigate several major cases, even punishing the Prince of Fu and thoroughly investigating the Henan officialdom, Chen Sihai would not have dared to even think of such things.

Even if he dared to speak, it could only be as a cautious probe.

Seeing that Chen Sihai was not speaking, Zhu Youxiao raised his head and glanced at him, saying in a very casual tone: "Go on, why have you stopped? Don't dare to speak?"

After saying this, Zhu Youxiao laughed himself.

Then he waved his hand and said: "No need to hold back. In this deep palace, if I want to know something, there's no one who will tell me the truth. I had you investigate precisely because I want to hear the truth."

"So say whatever you have to say—speak freely. It's not as if you committed the misdeeds, so why be guilty?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

With these words from Zhu Youxiao, Chen Sihai's heart settled considerably.

Since His Majesty had ascended the throne, he had killed quite a few people, and his reputation outside was not very good—some even called him a fatuous ruler and a tyrant.

But those who served him closely all knew in their hearts that although His Majesty did things without much method and killed no small number of people, there was one thing—His Majesty never blamed people without cause, and even if something truly happened, he would never use his ministers as shields.

Those of them who served knew this well in their hearts. As for whether the Duke of Chengguo and his ilk had been set up, it simply did not matter. Those people occupied their posts without doing anything—they were not material for getting things done.

So upon hearing Zhu Youxiao say this, Chen Sihai could still feel at ease. He then said: "Your Majesty, the time has been short—I have only investigated the guard stations of two provinces, Shandong and Henan, and what I have discovered has already made my heart tremble with fear. These people truly have far too much audacity."

Zhu Youxiao was unconcerned. He leaned back in his chair, gently rocking, and said: "Go on then, let's see what fine deeds these people have done."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Chen Sihai quickly said: "After my survey, I discovered that the thing these people did most was embezzling public farmland."

The lands of the Great Ming were divided into public land and private land.

Public land belonged to the court—local governments held a portion, but the vast majority was in the hands of the military, because this was a system invented by Zhu Yuanzhang, called the military farmland system.

Upon the military farmland system was implemented the guard station system—it could be said that military farmland was the foundation of the guard stations.

Every military unit had a large amount of land—fighting in wartime, farming in peacetime. A portion of the land's produce was turned over to the court, and a portion was kept for the military's own use.

In this way, the court did not need to allocate military grain to the army—this was a good thing. In peacetime, the military could also reclaim wasteland on its own, expanding the scale of its landholdings.

It seemed like a mutually beneficial arrangement—the court increased revenue and reduced burdens, while the military could be self-sufficient. At the same time, it was paired with the hereditary military household system, so that both the military population and land did not flow, ensuring sufficient stability.

But then the problems came.

Farming was something that required a great deal of effort. With many years of no warfare, most hereditary military households only knew how to farm.

And those hereditary military officers could manipulate matters from within this grain supply, even turning public land into their own family's fields—such things were common occurrences.

And since the court also needed people to fight, this evolved into two types of soldiers: hereditary military households and private troops. Although nominally both were Great Ming's armies, in reality that was not quite the case.

The so-called private troops were actually armies raised by those hereditary generals. They used the produce of the land and the money they had embezzled to support a portion of elite soldiers. If the court needed to fight, then these men would be used.

Since whoever was chosen was a choice anyway, naturally one would choose one's own people, one's confidants—hence private troops.

After several generations of development, even the court's deployment orders sometimes did not work well. This was also why the late-Ming armies sometimes would not heed commands—because they were all the generals' private troops. When fighting external enemies, the generals also did not want to sacrifice their private troops, and would shy away from battle.

As for the remaining hereditary military households, all they had left was farming. But the grain they grew did not belong to them either. Every day they were even ragged-clothed and starving, and a massive number of deserters appeared.

These deserters became refugees. Later, when the Shaanxi peasant uprising grew so powerful, it was precisely because of the large number of deserters.

It could be said that this system had completely collapsed.

Zhu Youxiao knew very well in his heart that he had sent Chen Sihai to investigate precisely to take stock of the situation. So no matter how bad the situation was, he could accept it.

"Aside from embezzling public farmland?" Zhu Youxiao looked at Chen Sihai and asked.

"To report to Your Majesty, these people embezzled grain and pay. Essentially every unit had cases of drawing salaries for nonexistent soldiers. The most severe case was a guard station in Shandong—it was supposed to have a complement of twelve thousand men, but actually had only a little over four thousand."

"Shocking, insane—these people all deserve death."

"What about the others?" Zhu Youxiao looked at Chen Sihai and asked slowly.

One had to understand that these quotas were all full—meaning there were supposed to be that many people. Now those people were gone—where had they all gone?

"They all fled." Chen Sihai said somewhat awkwardly: "I sent people to investigate. Jingxiang and other places see tens of thousands of refugees flooding in every year. This even extends all the way to Shaanxi—the mountains are full of refugees, and all of these people are escaped households."

"Most of them are commoners who lost their land, and a very large portion are also hereditary military households. After these military households fled, the local generals concealed the matter and did not report it, directly pocketing the salaries for the missing men. Every one of them ate themselves fat and sleek—you can see the corruption."

Zhu Youxiao looked at Chen Sihai, nodded, and said: "I had already anticipated this."

In fact, this situation had always existed.

Back in those days, why couldn't the southeast win against the Japanese pirates?

Was it really because the Japanese pirates were highly skilled in combat?

No, that wasn't it. The reason was right here. On one hand, the generals' private troops wouldn't fight — those hereditary military households had long since become farmers tilling the land. What kind of fighting could they do?

They couldn't eat their fill every day, had no warm clothes, went hungry, and were bullied by their superiors on top of that. How could they live like that?

They had elders above and children below. Asking them to risk their lives was simply unrealistic.

Even Qi Jiguang had padded the payroll with ghost soldiers at one point, let alone everyone else.

It was just that Qi Jiguang padded the payroll in order to support his troops. Even with pay meant for a hundred thousand men, by the time it reached Qi Jiguang's hands, not even pay for fifty thousand remained.

So he simply requested an establishment of two hundred thousand men while receiving pay for a hundred thousand. That way, he could embezzle the pay of a hundred thousand men, and officials at every level were all delighted.

That the Great Ming had decayed to this extent, and the military had rotted to this degree, showed it all.

Listening to Chen Sihai report to him item by item — appointing people by favoritism, oppressing the common people, treating hereditary military households as slaves — every single matter was enough to make the Emperor vomit blood with rage. It was plain to see just how rotten the Great Ming's military had become.

This was also why the Great Ming's armies couldn't even defeat the peasant rebels. Because as they fought, the armies simply turned into peasant armies themselves. There was nothing more to say about it.

As Chen Sihai spoke, he stole glances at Zhu Youxiao, his expression hesitant.

He had originally thought His Majesty would fly into a rage, but to his surprise, His Majesty seemed to have no reaction at all, his expression still as calm as ever. This made Chen Sihai somewhat uncertain whether he should continue.

"Is there nothing more?" Zhu Youxiao looked at Chen Sihai and asked slowly.

Hearing these words from Zhu Youxiao, Chen Sihai hastily said, "To answer Your Majesty, there is more. The hereditary military households in the localities have colluded with the local gentry, jointly carving up the public fields. The situation is very serious."

"At the same time, they make the hereditary military households farm for the gentry. The grain those households grow is divided up between the generals and the gentry."

"They pay the hereditary military households even less grain for farming than ordinary tenant farmers would receive. Even so, that grain never reaches the hands of the hereditary military households. It all goes into the hands of those generals."

After hearing this, Zhu Youxiao slowly sat up straight and said with a smile, "This really does treat our Great Ming's hereditary military households as slaves. Well done!"

Although His Majesty was smiling and his tone was quite reflective, Chen Sihai could still hear the coldness beneath it — but this was precisely what Chen Sihai had hoped for.

When he saw the report handed up by his subordinates, Chen Sihai's entire body trembled with rage!

These people were practically digging out the roots of the Great Ming!

Zhu Youxiao looked at Chen Sihai and said with a smile, "The Confucians stress the doctrine of the mean — nothing should be done in haste; one must proceed gradually."

"Reform is the same. It cannot be rushed; it must be carried out through fine adjustments. As the saying goes, three years new, three years old, patch and mend for three more — I just wonder how many more years this Great Ming realm of ours can keep being patched and mended?"

Hearing these words from Zhu Youxiao, Chen Sihai fell to his knees with a thud and said, "Your Majesty, we can no longer patch and mend! One day patching and mending will no longer work, and by then it will be too late!"

"Your servant begs Your Majesty to allow me to conduct a thorough investigation." As he spoke, Chen Sihai pressed his forehead to the ground.

"You will lose your life." Zhu Youxiao looked at Chen Sihai with a piercing gaze and said, "Do you know how many people are implicated in this? If it truly blows up, I'm afraid even I won't be able to handle it."

"Someone once told me that the fight against corruption cannot be rushed. If we don't fight corruption, perhaps we can hold on for a few more years; but if we do fight corruption, it might bring about the fall of the dynasty. Do you think I should make this resolve or not?"

"Your Majesty, the Great Ming has reached a critical moment of life and death. We cannot wait any longer." Chen Sihai spoke again.

"Yes, we cannot wait any longer." Zhu Youxiao looked at Chen Sihai and asked with a smile, "You're not afraid of death?"

"First there was Hai Gangfeng, now there is Chen Sihai." Chen Sihai said, his tone resolute.

"Then I cannot let you go throw your life away either." Zhu Youxiao walked up to Chen Sihai, reached out and patted his shoulder, saying, "Come take a walk with me."

Chen Sihai didn't know what Zhu Youxiao intended to do, but he still followed Zhu Youxiao as they walked out.

The two men walked out of the palace gates.

Zhu Youxiao looked at Chen Sihai and said with a smile, "This Great Ming realm of ours has lasted over two hundred years. If you count carefully, it's been over two hundred and forty years."

"Looking across all the dynasties, three hundred years counts as long, doesn't it? The Han dynasty lasted over four hundred years — that counts as long, doesn't it? And even that was split into the Former Han and the Later Han. The Great Ming by this day has already fallen gravely ill, bedridden and lingering, with little time left."

"Your Majesty." Hearing these words from Zhu Youxiao, Chen Sihai hastily spoke up.

Zhu Youxiao waved his hand to interrupt him and said, "I understand it all. No one dares say such things to me, and no one would say them to me. Usually they just talk about happy events and sing songs of praise — who would dare speak such words?"

"Chen Sihai, go back and investigate thoroughly. Prepare everything well. I want to sweep clean the realm and restore a bright and clear world to the Great Ming — to build a new golden age for the Great Ming!"

"Though the road ahead is long and fraught with hardship, I do not fear it. If someone rebels because of this, or the dynasty falls because of it, then that is the Great Ming's fate."

"With Your Majesty at its helm, the Great Ming is certain to prosper! The revival of the Great Ming is within reach!" Chen Sihai hastily said, "If Your Majesty has any command, your servant will not begrudge this life. I am willing to be Chao Cuo!"

Zhu Youxiao glanced at Chen Sihai, and then he smiled.

Chao Cuo died a miserable death. By invoking Chao Cuo here, Chen Sihai's meaning was perfectly clear — he would go do this thing, and in the end he was willing to offer his own head to appease the masses. Once the matter was done, Zhu Youxiao could cut him down with a single stroke.

Zhu Youxiao glanced at Chen Sihai and said with a smile, "You are not Chao Cuo, I am not Emperor Jing of Han, and those people are not worthy of making me execute my own loyal minister."