Chapter 1660: Going to the Princely Households to Eat

Eating, of course, is a major matter!

The present Zhu Youjian only looked like a child emperor; in reality he was already an old fox who could not be any older. Of course he would not fail to consider the food problem of the twenty or thirty thousand men cut from the Pure Army — he must not let another Pure Army version of the Roving King Li be created by the cuts!

"Sister-in-law, set your mind at ease," Zhu Youjian said with a smile. "We have already considered the food problem for these twenty or thirty thousand men. Does our Great Ming not still have twenty-seven princely estates? The court is now without money, but every princely household has money! Moreover, when our founding ancestor enfeoffed the princes, he assigned each of them a guard, and later these guards were gradually disbanded. By now, all these princes of our Great Ming have land and money but no guards, while the realm is not at peace and bandits rise everywhere — who knows but that some princely estate may be robbed. So We have been thinking: why not assign the Pure Army men cut from Nanhaizi to the various princely estates to serve as guards? Although these Pure Army men are eunuchs, they have all been trained, and they should be sufficient for guarding homes and protecting estates."

So Zhu Youjian's solution was to send the eunuchs cut from the imperial palace to eat at the various princely households — he now knew how rich the princely households were!

The Great Ming dynasty was poor, but what was poor was the court and the common people at the bottom. The princes, the scholar-officials, the officials, and of course the great eunuchs of the palace — not one of them was poor. Especially those twenty-seven princely houses that idled about waiting to die, every one of them was dripping with wealth! In Henan and Shanxi, the two provinces where the princely estates were concentrated, the tax grain collected by the government each year was not even enough to pay the stipends of rice owed to the princely estates and the imperial clan!

What was even more hateful was that these princely estates, relying on their exalted status and tax-exemption privileges, engaged in large-scale "fraudulent registration" — that is, letting common landowners register their fields under the names of the princely estates in order to evade taxes and corvée labor.

By the Tianqi and Chongzhen reigns, the land in Henan and Shanxi was already "half in the princely estates." Henan and Shanxi together had nearly one hundred million mu of land! And that did not even count hidden fields. Half of one hundred million mu was fifty million mu — how fat had the princely estates of Henan and Shanxi grown?

Later, when the roving bandits rebelled and fought their way to the gates of the various princely estates, a few princes with greater style were willing to bring out the silver from their households to recruit soldiers. But most were the sort who would not pull out a single hair even with death at their door, and in the end the silver hidden in their cellars all went to benefit the roving bandits!

The moment Zhu Youjian thought of this, his anger surged uncontrollably, but he could not, because of anger and things that had not yet happened, abolish all twenty-seven princely houses. He could not even abolish one! If he abolished one, would the remaining princely households not all rise up in protest together? And when the fox dies, the hare grieves — if princely estates could be abolished, then could those ducal, marquis, and count households, and those useless military nobles, not also be abolished?

The present Zhu Youjian was not that Zhu Cilang who had re-forged the realm — the latter was practically a founding sovereign, unconstrained by the ancestral laws of the house. But Zhu Youjian did not have that much authority. The source of his throne was precisely the ancestral laws. Therefore he could not go against the ancestral system — at least not now — or else his authority as sovereign would be greatly diminished.

So Zhu Youjian could only change his approach — since he could not confiscate the princely estates' property, then let the princely estates help the court support idle men!

Twenty or thirty thousand eunuch soldiers distributed among twenty-seven princely households came to only about one thousand men per household. Given the financial resources of each princely household, supporting an extra one thousand eunuchs was more than ample!

Moreover, the princely households already had eunuchs. At most, they would simply not recruit new eunuchs for some years to come, and when the old eunuchs of the princely households became useless, they would use these Pure Army eunuchs to fill the vacancies.

Once all the idle Pure Army men had been sent off, he would then find a way to cut half of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and send them to the princely estates in the various regions to serve as guards as well!

The princely households had so much money and so much land — they certainly ought to send more people to protect them!

This was Emperor Zhu showing concern for the safety of the princely estates — it was boundless imperial grace!

"This is indeed a solution." Empress Zhang furrowed her brows, thought for a long while, then nodded lightly and said, "Cutting twenty or thirty thousand men at once — on monthly rice alone, that saves several hundred thousand shi a year. Add in clothing, food, salt, vegetables, and the festival and holiday rewards, and quite a bit of silver can be saved each year."

The statutory salaries of Ming eunuchs were not high. According to Zhu Yuanzhang's ancestral system, "The inner servants are clothed and fed within the palace, with fixed quotas of their own; what use would they have for salaries? A monthly allowance of one shi of grain is sufficient." That is to say, apart from clothing and food, the basic pay of a Ming eunuch was one shi of grain per month. It was indeed not high, but it could not withstand the sheer number of people! Tens of thousands of eunuchs — on the most basic monthly rice alone, that came to seven or eight hundred thousand shi a year. Add in more than ten thousand palace maids and female officials, and over a million shi of rice could be paid out in a single year.

Add to that the clothing, food, salt, vegetables, and rewards for this crowd of eunuchs and palace maids who no one knew what they were doing, and converted into grain, that was another million shi a year!

Even giving them all the income from the imperial estates and imperial shops in the Northern Metropolitan Area might not be enough to cover the expenses!

Now that Zhu Youjian wanted to distribute the imperial estates to the knights before the tent, he had to cut at least forty or fifty thousand eunuchs and palace maids. According to Zhu Youjian's private plan, in the future, the eunuchs and palace maids in the palace combined — a few thousand people would be enough.

The rest would all have to be sent out, one batch after another!

The palace maids were somewhat easier to cut — at worst, they could be given to the knights before the tent as wives. The knights before the tent were all fine men; surely that was better than forming mock "paired meals" with eunuchs? And the knights were all landowners — if a palace maid married one, she would become a landowner's wife. However one looked at it, this was a good thing.

So dismissing the palace maids was not very difficult. The difficulty in cutting palace staff lay in cutting the eunuchs!

Because Zhu Youjian's own life was still held in the hands of the eunuchs — if handled improperly, he might well die young.

To minimize the risk of dying young, it was best that the villain who advocated cutting the eunuchs be played by Empress Zhang.

Seeing that Empress Zhang approved of the plan to send the Pure Army military eunuchs to eat at the princely households, Zhu Youjian continued, "Sister-in-law, the Pure Army military eunuchs at Nanhaizi are all remnants of the traitor Wei's faction, and moreover they all took turns entering the palace on duty, so they are very familiar with conditions inside the palace. It is hard to guarantee that among them there are not a few eunuchs who received great favor from the traitor Wei and Madam Ke and who wish to repay it with their lives. If they were to secretly infiltrate the palace to assassinate... although the palace has the warriors of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses standing guard, one fears that no defense can be perfect!"

Empress Zhang considered it and also found it reasonable. She nodded and said, "What Uncle says is right. Better to send away the military eunuchs of Nanhaizi as quickly as possible, to set people's minds at ease. Moreover, there are likely remnants of the traitor Wei's faction in the palace as well — best to send them all away too. Only then will people's minds be at ease."

Zhu Youjian nodded and said, "Sister-in-law, We have only just ascended the throne and have no foundation in the palace. If We rashly propose sending away the Nanhaizi military eunuchs, We fear it will stir up unrest among the people."

The moment Empress Zhang heard this, she understood — the Emperor wanted her to play the villain!

"Uncle," Empress Zhang said after weighing it, "I can indeed issue an empress dowager's decree asking Uncle to dismiss the Nanhaizi military eunuchs. But the remnants of the traitor Wei's faction are not only in the palace — they are also in the court!"

"This younger brother knows everything Sister-in-law says," Zhu Youjian said. "But one must first put one's own house in order before one can govern the realm! If the remnants of the traitor Wei's faction in the palace are not purged, the traitorous faction in the court cannot be cleaned out. So this younger brother intends to first deal with the traitorous faction in the palace and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and then deal with the traitorous faction in the court and in the provinces!"

There were so many treacherous sycophants in the Great Ming — of course they would have to line up one by one to buy indulgences. Zhu Youjian would not let them off.

Empress Zhang was not satisfied with Zhu Youjian's answer. She looked at Zhu Youjian. "Even if Uncle wishes to put his own house in order before governing the realm, he should still recall a few upright, loyal, and prudent old ministers to set the hearts of the realm right!"

"We have already recalled Wang Zaijin, Yuan Keli, and Xu Guangqi." Zhu Youjian smiled. "They will soon be arriving in the capital!"

"What about Master Sun?" Empress Zhang looked at Zhu Youjian. "He was the late Emperor's teacher, and he also has the merit of reorganizing the Liao garrison and opening up the frontier. Does Uncle not wish to summon him back to court?"

Zhu Youjian understood that this was Empress Zhang bargaining with him!

Empress Zhang could step forward and play the villain who advocated dismissing the Nanhaizi military eunuchs — on the condition that Zhu Youjian recall Sun Chengzong.

Zhu Youjian looked down on Sun Chengzong. The man was no good at fighting, and he liked hearing flattery too much, making him easy for the military officers below him to deceive.

But Zhu Youjian could not let Empress Zhang play the villain for nothing! And Sun Chengzong, that Donglin leader, was not entirely without use — he could keep an eye on the eunuch faction filling the court, making the eunuch faction feel a sense of guilt! That way the indulgences would sell better!

"Very well," Zhu Youjian said, having thought it through. "Then let us invite Master Sun back to serve as Left Chief Censor!"

(End of Chapter)