Chapter 145: The Imperial Brother Sent a Dream — He Has Something to Say

With the aim of mixing sand into the mix, Chongzhen had set examination questions for the Ming Law, Ming Calculation, and Investigation of Things tracks, but in the eyes of the shrewd old foxes at court, this was quite clearly a signal Chongzhen was sending: I'm planning to bring a bunch of different people into court to stir things up!

But even if the people at court were discontented, it didn't matter a damn. Think about it with your ass — the Great Ming had far too many scholars, but the civil examinations only came once every three years.

Even if you added an extra grace examination every year, you'd still only admit three hundred or so people a year at most. What about all the rest?

Everyone wants to be an official, but there are only so many posts. Are those who can't pass the jinshi exam supposed to just go die?

Now that Chongzhen has come up with these Ming Law, Ming Calculation, and Investigation of Things tracks, at least there's another path out, and the number of admitted candidates has increased. At the very least, isn't this giving the vast body of examinees a way out?

It's just like the college entrance exams of later ages — what was it like before the great expansion of admissions? Only a tiny handful of slots each year.

From the very first day of school, you were already in the cadre pipeline. From job assignment to housing, the state took care of everything.

Everyone fought tooth and nail to get into university — a thousand troops and ten thousand horses crossing a single log bridge. That description was truly spot-on.

Of course, that kind of policy wasn't without its merits. Judging by overall quality, university students from before the admissions expansion left those from after the expansion eating dust by who knows how many streets.

If the original quality was rated a ten, the overall quality after the expansion — well, you'd have your overnight motel crowd, your hotel-room hookup crowd, your novel-writers and novel-readers, all running wild like sheep set loose…

But when you shift the situation to the Chongzhen period, it's a completely different matter. Even if these students ran as wild as sheep, they were basically all university graduates coming to take the civil service exam. Admitting a few more would have absolutely zero goddamn impact.

If you absolutely had to say there was an impact, it would only be that there were too many officials and too few posts, making assignments a bit awkward.

But as far as Chongzhen was concerned, just killing corrupt officials was already more than enough to free up space for these fresh-faced little rookie officials in reserve. Where would the problem of difficult assignments even come from?

And even if assignments were hard, no big deal — once the realm was stable later on, he'd just push outward expansion, grab a bit more territory, and then assignments would be easy, right?

In short, toward this blatant sand-mixing maneuver of Chongzhen's, the only ones dissatisfied were the big shots at court.

As for the examinees and the common people, once the news spread, there would be nothing but a chorus of cheers — exactly like the later-era college entrance exam expansion. As for what came after, that could be dealt with later.

Chongzhen certainly wasn't going to think that far ahead.

Once all the spring examination matters had been arranged, Chongzhen finally spoke: "Where is the Director of the Directorate of Astronomy?"

The Director of the Directorate of Astronomy, Wu Jingshan (a fictional character, no such person found in records), who had never imagined he would be called upon, stepped out from the ranks in utter bewilderment and said, "Your servant is here."

A barely perceptible smile tugged at the corner of Chongzhen's mouth as he said, "Last night We dreamed of Our imperial brother. We know not what omen this may be, and therefore require Our beloved minister to elucidate it for Us."

The Director of the Directorate of Astronomy bowed and said, "Your servant requests that Your Majesty recount the events of the dream in detail."

Chongzhen gave an assenting grunt, then covered his face with his sleeve and wiped away tears that did not exist, before finally speaking: "Last night We suddenly had a dream, in which We saw Our imperial brother speaking with Us."

The Director of the Directorate of Astronomy remained bowed in proper ritual form and replied, "Reporting to Your Majesty, to dream of the late departed former Emperor is an auspicious omen.

In your servant's humble opinion, it signifies the former Emperor admonishing Your Majesty to be receptive to remonstrance. Or perhaps the former Emperor had words he wished to convey to Your Majesty.

Only, may I ask what it was that the former Emperor said?"

Chongzhen said, "Our imperial brother told Us that when he dispatched tax eunuchs to the Suzhou and Hangzhou textile administrations to collect taxes, he was somewhat negligent in oversight, with the result that popular resentment in the Suzhou and Hangzhou regions ran rather deep.

Our imperial brother regretted this greatly, and therefore entrusted this dream to Us."

At this, it was not only the Director of the Directorate of Astronomy — among all the assembled ministers at court, aside from Wen Tiren and Shi Fenglai, who remained as imperturbable as ever, the hearts of every other official felt as though trampled by tens of thousands of divine beasts.

Setting aside whether your brother would even feel regret — even if he did, he wouldn't entrust a dream to you. And even if he did entrust a dream to you, would you, you bastard, be so kind-hearted as to announce it openly in court?

Wasn't this slapping your own brother's face? And by extension, slapping your own face as well?

Though the assembled ministers dearly wished to ask Chongzhen whether his face hurt, they were not idiots — having been toyed with by Chongzhen so often, they all sensed he had more to say.

For the moment, they all held their tongues, wanting to see what other fine words Chongzhen could manage to squeeze out.

The Director of the Directorate of Astronomy, however, could only steel himself and say, "Reporting to Your Majesty, your servant finds this difficult to interpret. It may be that this matter was something the former Emperor spoke of solely to Your Majesty."

Chongzhen grunted again, then continued, "Our imperial brother said he deeply regretted it, and so enjoined Us, bidding Us to relocate some of the common people of the Suzhou and Hangzhou regions to the vicinity of the De Mausoleum, to accompany the king and attend his carriage, as an act of grace.

We believe this stems from Our imperial brother's longing for the common people of Suzhou and Hangzhou. Only, We know not how this should properly be handled, and therefore require Our beloved minister to interpret this dream for Us."

Having said this, without even waiting for the Director of the Directorate of Astronomy to reply, he then addressed the assembled ministers: "If any of Our beloved ministers are skilled in dream interpretation, you may also offer an explanation for Us.

Whether correct or incorrect, We shall take no offense."

The Director of the Directorate of Astronomy was groaning inwardly — this was a goddamn landmine. If he played along with the Chongzhen Emperor's implication, it was clearly a proposal to relocate people to guard the mausoleum. But did he dare not play along with Chongzhen's implication?

The assembled ministers all had their moment of dawning realization — sure enough, Chongzhen hadn't been holding back anything good! This bastard wanted to emulate the old stratagem of the mighty Han dynasty: relocating wealthy households to guard the imperial tombs!

Where was this De Mausoleum? Changping!

Right on the outskirts of the capital, on Tianshou Mountain in Changping.

This little patch of land, originally called Huangtu Mountain, had ever since the Chengzu Emperor selected it as the tomb site for Empress Xu, become the place where the Great Ming dynasty buried its successive emperors.

If they really followed Chongzhen's intent and relocated the wealthy households of Suzhou and Hangzhou over here, then in this godforsaken place, aside from the original tomb-guarding personnel, everyone left would be people of immense family fortunes.

When no one has money, money is money. But what happens when everyone has money?

A tiny county seat, packed entirely with the wealthy households of Suzhou and Hangzhou — you could figure it out with your ass just how terrifyingly high prices would soar. It wasn't as if any of them were short on cash!

Son of a bitch! Many of the court officials cursed inwardly. This was plainly and simply fleece-shearing — and the fleece being sheared was on their own backs, or on the backs of their family members, or on the backs of all manner of people connected to them!

But Chongzhen had made it perfectly clear that this was something the former Emperor had said in a dream. Even if the many court officials wanted to oppose it, they couldn't come up with any particularly good grounds.

They could only all look at the Director of the Directorate of Astronomy, to see if he had any decent argument to offer.

For a moment, the atmosphere in the great hall grew rather strange. Whether it was Chongzhen seated high upon the dragon throne, or the multitude of high officials below, the gazes of over a hundred people were all concentrated on the Director of the Directorate of Astronomy.

In that moment, cold sweat began to bead upon the Director's forehead.

Earnestly recommending the great author Chen Ji Tang Hong Dou's new book "Blowing God." Only just discovered that the tyrant and the great author are fellow townsmen — their homes are no more than a few dozen li apart.

(End of chapter)