Chapter 180: Bi Ziyan Is About to Rise Up!

The white-haired Minister of Revenue, Guo Yunhou, slowly rose and bowed with clasped hands.

His movements were somewhat sluggish, and his heart was even more a tangle of emotions, uneasy and apprehensive.

Unlike the other ministries, the Ministry of Revenue faced the harshest reality.

Men's hearts can be reshaped; talent can be selected through examinations.

But money... if it isn't there, it isn't there.

Even the cleverest housewife cannot cook without rice — this truth has never changed since ancient times.

He could only hope that this new sovereign, who acted with such thunderous resolve, would show a little more patience in matters of revenue and grain.

Zhu Youjian quietly watched Guo Yunhou below the dais, noting his graying hair and slightly disheveled official robes, and could not help feeling a touch of emotion.

The position of Minister of Revenue in the Great Ming truly was a life-shortening post.

Half a month ago, he had ordered the Directorate of Ceremonial to compile the history of the the the Taicang treasury treasury treasury, wanting to see where to begin fiscal reforms.

Incidentally, he had also ordered the Directorate of Ceremonial to compile a roster of past Ministers of Revenue, intending for the Hanlin Academy to follow the trail, categorize their memorials, and then come give him a lesson.

The result, however, was his discovery of just how cursed this position of Minister of Revenue was.

In the mere two hundred and fifty-nine years since the founding of the Great Ming, the office of Minister of Revenue had changed hands one hundred and ten times!

Zhu Youjian really wanted to call the police...

On average, that was a new man every two years and change.

The KPI pressure was even greater than that of a Fortune 500 CEO in later ages.

The most horrifying period of all was the Hongwu reign.

From the first year of Hongwu to the twelfth year of Hongwu, in a short span of twelve years, thirty Ministers of Revenue took office, and then... there was no then.

He did not need to guess; Zhu Youjian knew exactly what his old ancestor had done to these "money bags."

Nothing more than frying, sautéing, boiling, and deep-frying them, that was all.

The Guo Yunhou before him had been in office barely over a year, and his head of black hair had already turned white — truly miserable enough.

He hoped the man could hold on a while longer.

Zhu Youjian gathered his thoughts, and his emotion resolved into a gentle inquiry:

"Minister Guo, fiscal matters are the very bloodline of the state, the foundation of the realm."

"The reason I have left them for last is precisely because they are of such grave importance — pull one hair and the whole body moves. I have made you wait."

Without giving Guo Yunhou a chance for pleasantries, he continued:

"Before issuing any orders, I would like to first hear Minister Guo's views."

"In your opinion... where does the core difficulty of the realm's finances lie today?"

At these words, a complex emotion flickered through Guo Yunhou's clouded eyes.

There was gratitude, there was bitterness, but more than anything, a heaviness that had been pent up for far too long.

He pondered for a moment, gathered his words, and spoke:

"Since taking office, what this subject has pondered day and night are these two words: revenue and taxes. Today, receiving Your Majesty's inquiry, this subject dares not hold back."

"This subject believes the foremost difficulty of the realm's finances lies in the collapse of the tax base."

"The realm's population has multiplied, yet the Yellow Registers have long gone unupdated. Vast tracts of land under heaven have been gifted or fraudulently registered under the names of gentry households to evade the imperial grain tax."

"Dragging on day after day, the taxable acreage shrinks by the day. The realm's tax base is now like a dike riddled with ant nests."

"The second difficulty lies in the growing hardship of collection."

"The tax quotas of various provinces are either petitioned for remission due to famine and disaster, as in Shandong and Henan; or they claim to have dispatched the funds while the grain and silver have never moved, as in Zhejiang; or the dispatched sums fall short of the quota, as in Huguang and other regions."

"Those that can truly complete delivery in full are few and far between. The figures on the books are a far cry from what the the the Taicang treasury treasury treasury actually receives."

"The third difficulty lies in the crushing weight of military pay."

"The old pay amounts to three million three hundred thousand taels; the new pay for Liaodong is four million one hundred thousand; the Denglai and island pay is six hundred thirty thousand; the new pay for Ji, Mi, Yong, and Tian is nine hundred fifty thousand. Thus, the annual expenditure on new pay alone is already close to five million seven hundred thousand taels. Old and new combined, it exceeds nine million taels. Yet the old pay for the the the Taicang treasury treasury treasury does not arrive, the new pay is incomplete, there is no door to open for new revenue, and the demands grow daily more urgent. This subject... truly does not know how to carry on."

"The fourth difficulty lies in the daily exhaustion of the common people."

"Since the Liaodong campaign began, the three surtaxes have been imposed, and every possible means of extraction has been used. The people under heaven have long been crushed beyond endurance."

"Taxes are heaped upon them, and those unable to bear the burden have no choice but to flee and scatter. And after they flee, their tax quota is apportioned among their neighbors, causing even more to flee and scatter."

"Round and round it goes; the people's strength can never catch a breath, while their burdens grow heavier by the day."

With each point Guo Yunhou made, the candlelight in the hall seemed to dim a fraction.

The expressions on the assembled officials' faces grew ever more somber.

Finally, he let out a long sigh and bowed deeply toward the throne.

"Your Majesty, to clarify the realm's finances, we must first allow the people to rest and recover. Yet the border crisis is urgent and will not permit our Great Ming even a moment's respite."

"The affairs of the realm are now like a bowstring drawn to its limit, liable to snap at any moment."

At this point, he cupped his hands and said:

"It is a supreme fortune that Heaven has sent us a wise sovereign to implement the New Policies. One imagines that if we simply proceed slowly, these problems can eventually be resolved."

This flattery was delivered so feebly that even Guo Yunhou himself found it hollow.

Zhu Youjian raised an eyebrow, inwardly amused.

No wonder you ended up as this Minister of Revenue, Minister Guo.

Your skill at bootlicking is far, far inferior to Huo Weihua's.

He fell silent for a moment. The entire great hall was so quiet one could hear a pin drop, broken only by the occasional crackle of the candle flames.

Just as Guo Yunhou thought the Emperor would offer a few words of reassurance or directly issue some concrete order, Zhu Youjian slowly spoke.

"What Minister Guo has described — the tax base, administrative negligence, military pay, and popular exhaustion — every single point is the unvarnished truth."

Guo Yunhou had just begun to relax inwardly when he heard the Emperor's tone shift.

"However, it still remains on the surface."

At these words, Guo Yunhou jerked his head up, his face full of shock.

The assembled ministers in the hall also erupted in an uproar, a buzz of whispered exchanges rising.

In their view, what Guo Yunhou had presented was already the seasoned, statecraft-minded counsel of an elder statesman, laying bare the Great Ming's fiscal plight with exhaustive clarity — how could it be dismissed as "superficial"?

Zhu Youjian paid no heed to their reaction and said calmly:

"The Great Learning states: 'Things have their roots and branches, affairs have their end and beginning. When you know what comes first and what comes last, then you are near the Way.'"

"What Minister Guo has presented is knowing the effects, but not knowing the causes that produce them."

"This is like a physician who recognizes the symptoms but not the root of the disease — in the end, he treats the head when the head aches, and treats the foot when the foot aches."

The cold words echoed through the Hall of Fengtian.

Guo Yunhou opened his mouth, but not a single word came out.

He felt that this young Emperor was perhaps a touch too idealistic, even... arrogant.

Matters of taxation and revenue — pull one thread and the whole fabric moves. The four points he had just laid out were already the fundamentals; how could one get more fundamental than that?

Yet he still bowed and said, "This subject is dull-witted, and listens with cleansed ears for Your Majesty's sagely instruction."

Zhu Youjian shifted his posture slightly. The dim candlelight cast deep shadows across his young face, making his gaze seem extraordinarily profound.

"The tax quotas of our dynasty — over these two hundred-odd years, have there been any major increases?"

Guo Yunhou was briefly stunned before realizing the question was directed at him.

He steadied himself and replied:

"The dynasty's tax revenues are, broadly speaking, the summer tax and autumn grain, totaling over twenty-seven million shi, the salt tax at one million taels, and various other items likewise around one million taels."

"Since the Wanli era, when the Liaodong levy was first imposed, after repeated increases it now stands at nine li per mu, with a fixed quota of 5.2 million taels."

"However, due to the southwestern border campaigns diverting the shares of Huguang, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou provinces, along with disaster relief exemptions in various regions, the actual collection from this land tax amounts to no more than 3.6 million."

"Thereafter, miscellaneous taxes, salt levies, and customs duties were successively added, totaling 1.84 million taels in silver."

"At present, the actual collected amount is 5.44 million."

"But as this subject stated earlier, the quota is one thing; actual collection and remittance are another matter entirely. In the end, income falls short of expenditure."

Zhu Youjian nodded and asked further: "Then, were it not for the Liaodong campaigns, in times of peace under heaven, what would be the annual fiscal surplus of our dynasty?"

Guo Yunhou rapidly calculated in his head, then shook his head with a bitter expression:

"Your Majesty, were it not for the Liaodong campaigns, the the the Taicang treasury treasury treasury's annual revenue would be 3.3 million taels, which barely balances against the old military stipends for the border garrisons. The notion of a surplus has not existed since the Zhengde and Jiajing eras."

"Good," Zhu Youjian nodded slightly.

"Then, if next summer or autumn, the Yellow River breaches its banks in the Henan sector, flooding over ten prefectures and counties, requiring a million taels of silver for disaster relief and breach repair — where would this silver come from?"

Guo Yunhou's face paled, and cold sweat seeped from his forehead.

Without waiting for his answer, Zhu Youjian pressed on:

"If next year the disaster victims in Shandong rise in revolt, and the Shaanxi border troops mutiny over unpaid wages — like the White Lotus sect affair in the second year of Tianqi — laying waste to an entire province, how should that be handled? Where would the pay and provisions for the suppression troops come from?"

"If the She-An rebellion in the southwest remains unresolved, and the rebel army flees into Huguang, destroying that province's tax base — what then?"

"If upon the Southern Sea, the red-haired barbarians and Folangji cannons invade, raiding the coasts of Jiangnan and Fujian — what then?"

The relentless barrage of questions struck like hammer blow after hammer blow, pounding hard upon the hearts of Guo Yunhou and every minister in the hall.

They had never considered — or rather, had never dared to consider — the terrifying scenario of all these "what-ifs" happening at once.

Guo Yunhou's mouth hung open, dumbstruck, unable to answer a single word.

Zhu Youjian looked at his ashen face, let out a long sigh, and his tone carried a thread of ruthless finality.

"A state without surplus wealth is like a man without surplus strength — a chance chill then becomes a grave illness. The affairs of the realm are often ruined by a loss in one corner, and then collapse across a thousand li!"

"One region erupts in chaos, and the whole empire raises taxes. Before one region is pacified, yet another erupts. Taxes are raised again and again, the people's strength is drained again and again, until in the end, even the wealthiest and most peaceful provinces will erupt in chaos too! Every dynasty, every era — it has never been otherwise!"

His voice reverberated through the empty great hall, carrying a coldness that seemed to pierce through history itself.

Guo Yunhou swallowed hard, a deeply ominous premonition flashing through his heart.

Sure enough, Zhu Youjian slowly pronounced his conclusion, each word heavy as a thousand jun:

"Therefore, from this day forward, the fiscal policy of our dynasty can no longer take barely balancing annual revenue as its goal. It must take 'income exceeding expenditure, with annual reserves accumulated' as its sole objective!"

At these words, the entire hall fell into dead silence.

Guo Yunhou's face was bitter, his lips quivering. He instinctively glanced left and right, but saw his colleagues either frowning deeply, or hanging their heads in silence, or staring expressionlessly at the floor before them.

Not a single person stepped forward to second the motion, nor did anyone step forward to refute it.

He could only face the gaze of the sovereign upon the throne alone. He cupped his hands, about to explain just how utterly impractical this objective was.

But he saw Zhu Youjian wave his hand, and a faint smile suddenly appeared on his face, as if the crushing, mountain-like pressure of moments before had never existed.

"Minister Guo, do not be alarmed. We are not asking you to conjure silver out of thin air, nor to achieve this within the year. Opening new revenue sources and cutting expenditures, purging the bureaucracy — We understand all these principles."

He paused, and his tone became gentle yet brooked no dissent:

"It is simply that whatever is planned in advance succeeds; whatever is not planned in advance fails. This fundamental principle must first be settled. Does Minister Guo agree with this objective of Ours?"

With the matter put in such terms, what more could Guo Yunhou say?

Every argument he had was thoroughly blocked. He could only bow deeply, his frame seeming to stoop even further: "This subject... this reasoning is indeed sound."

Zhu Youjian nodded with satisfaction.

This was precisely the attitude he wanted.

Then, he once again posed a question — one sharper than all the previous questions combined.

"In that case, has this realm truly reached the point where no more taxes can be levied? And from where should these taxes come?"

"Minister Guo just stated that annual expenditures now exceed nine million taels, while the common people across the land are weary and exhausted."

"But We wish to ask all of you: the Liaodong levy increase — nine extra wen per mu of land — can that truly drive a farming household to ruin, to abandon their home and wander destitute?"

The cold sweat on Guo Yunhou's forehead instantly burst forth.

This question cut far too close to the bone!

Zhu Youjian swept his gaze across the assembled ministers and said slowly:

"This question bears on the great essentials of our dynasty's new governance. Whoever can resolve this doubt for Us — though it is no concrete deed of merit — We are willing to make an exception and add a red tally for him!"

With that, he looked at the men below the throne, a trace of expectation in his eyes.

Our Hai Rui — where are you?

Inside the great hall, dead silence still reigned.

After all this time stirring men's hearts, can it be that not even one Hai Rui is to be had?

Just as the expectation in Zhu Youjian's eyes was about to turn to disappointment —

Clatter. A soft sound.

Bi Ziyan, seated in the front row, had pushed against the desk before him! He was about to rise!

Before Zhu Youjian's smile could bloom —

"Your subject (replying to Your Majesty)..." Ni Yuanlu and Qi Xinxiao also stood up!

Yet neither of them succeeded.

A burst of hearty laughter suddenly broke through.

"Many thanks, Your Majesty — this red tally, your humble subject accepts it with shame!"