Chapter 1781: Imperial Uncle, We Hear You Were About to Inherit Our Throne?

On the sixteenth day of the twelfth month of the first year of Chongzhen, at the Nanhaizi traveling palace.

The great edict on carrying out land-tax reform in Northern Zhili, Datong, Xuanfu, and other places, implementing the unified payment of grain by officials and gentry alike, passed without the slightest obstruction at the small court session at Nanhaizi.

Of course, the reform was limited to Northern Zhili, Datong, and Xuanfu, and what it harmed was mainly the interests of the Beijing meritorious-noble bloc and a batch of powerful eunuchs. The civil officials, especially the six Supervising Secretaries of the six offices, all of whom came from the south, were not hurt in the least by this reform, so naturally they would not stick their necks out for the nobles and eunuchs and get themselves sent off to Liaoxi by Zhu Youjian to die.

Moreover, Sun Chengzong and Qian Qianyi of the Donglin Faction must have been working behind the scenes — the two of them were only one step away from entering the Grand Secretariat as Grand Secretaries!

Now the Prince of Fu's whole family had already been arrested and brought to Nanhaizi. With just a bit more effort, the Prince of Fu and the eunuch faction that supported him might all be finished. At a time like this, the Donglin Faction had to behave, and behave even more.

"Good, good!" Zhu Youjian looked at the edict, which had already passed through the endorsement and draft-approval procedures, and nodded with satisfaction. "The matter of the Northern Zhili tax reform is settled for now. Next comes implementation, and We shall personally oversee it! Other places We cannot manage, but Northern Zhili is right under Our nose!"

Zhu Youjian now understood the meaning of attending to everything personally. "Everything" was an exaggeration, but there were still many things that required personal attention. For instance, training troops required personal attention. Carrying out tax reform in Northern Zhili, Datong, and Xuanfu could not be done personally, but it could be personally supervised. Northern Zhili had only eight prefectures; adding Datong and Xuanfu made ten prefectures in all, and Zhu Youjian could supervise them one prefecture at a time. He could also conduct irregular spot checks — any official who did not do his job properly would be sent straight to Liaoxi to die!

Zhu Youjian placed the edict on the low table before him, then went on to speak of the matter of the four garrisons of Ji, Liao, Yan, and Yun — the core territory of Zhu Youjian, this Son of Heaven, was "Jing, Chang, Xuan, Da, Ji, Liao, Yan, Yun," plus the eight prefectures of Northern Zhili.

On the territory of Northern Zhili there had originally also been a Baozhen Garrison, which administered the Great Wall defense line directly between Shanxi and Northern Zhili, but it had recently been abolished by Zhu Youjian — this garrison and the Great Wall it defended were actually meant to guard against Mongols who had broken through the defense lines of the Datong and Shanxi garrisons. Now, of course, there was no need to keep it. The Southern Emperor and the Northern Khan were relatives now, and moreover the Northern Khan, Ligdan Batur, clearly could not defeat the Southern Emperor Zhu Youjian, so how could he possibly slip into Baozhen Garrison territory?

So now Zhu Youjian had in hand eight prefectures and eight garrisons. According to plan, the four garrisons of Jing, Chang, Xuan, and Da, plus the eight prefectures of Northern Zhili, would together support 80,000 regular troops and 12,000 headquarters cavalry. A total of 92,000 soldiers! The expenses for these 92,000 soldiers, apart from the 700,000 shi of civilian-transport grain from Shanxi (that is, the civilian-transport grain originally sent to Datong and Xuanfu), would all be provided by the four garrisons of Jing, Chang, Xuan, and Da and the eight prefectures of Northern Zhili — in fact, if the Northern Zhili tax reform could just be implemented, it would be enough to cover the pay and provisions of the 80,000 regular troops. The income from several million mu of office fields and imperial estate properties should also be able to support the 12,000 headquarters cavalry. However, Zhu Youjian also planned to raise 30,000 boy soldiers, so he let the Shanxi people continue providing civilian-transport grain. Having a bit more money and grain in hand was never a loss.

"It is still early today," Zhu Youjian continued, "so let us discuss the military pay and troop quotas of the four garrisons of Yan, Yun, Ji, and Liao!"

His fingers tapped lightly on the low table before him as he said thoughtfully: "Of these four garrisons, the two garrisons of Ji and Yun have no actual territory, and like the Changping Garrison, they are all established on the land of Northern Zhili.

Among them, the provisions and pay of the Ji Garrison are raised through the kaizhong method by the salt-censor yamen under the jurisdiction of the Censorate, while the provisions and pay of the Yun Garrison are provided by the Ministry of Revenue.

The two garrisons of Yan and Liao both have actual territory. But these two garrisons are situated on the frontier, and the land they have acquired requires a great deal of capital and effort to develop. The court's financial resources are limited, and it cannot use only regularly appointed officials, so We have decided to establish 90 military-civilian Guard Commander offices or military-civilian Chiliarch offices. If all 90 of these guard units are successfully opened, that will be 90,000 military households.

In addition, the two garrisons of Yan and Liao must also deploy regular troops to serve as the backbone and garrison key points.

The Ministry of War drew up a plan the other day, saying that the Yan Garrison should have 25,000 regular troops, the Yun Garrison 15,000 regular troops, the Ji Garrison 40,000 regular troops, and the Liao Garrison 40,000 regular troops. Yan, Yun, Ji, and Liao together would have 120,000 regular troops. To support these 120,000 regular troops, including transport costs, would require a total of 5.5 million in provisions and pay per year. Of this, the Yan and Yun regular troops would cost 1.5 million, to be raised by the Ministry of Revenue. The Ji and Liao regular troops would require 4 million: starting from the second year of Chongzhen, 3 million would come from the kaizhong method and 1 million from the Ministry of War. From the third year of Chongzhen onward, it would all be resolved through the kaizhong method.

The two garrisons of Yan and Liao also have 90,000 military households, which also require court subsidies. The Ministry of War's plan is that, including transport costs, each household would be subsidized 20 shi per year; 90,000 households would be subsidized 1.8 million shi, half commuted to silver and half paid in grain. Of this, the 60,000 households of the Yan Garrison would require 1.2 million in subsidies, all raised by the Ministry of Revenue. The 30,000 households of the Liao Garrison would require 600,000 in subsidies: in the second year of Chongzhen, 300,000 would be provided by the Ministry of Revenue, and from the third year onward it would all be raised through the kaizhong method.

Thus the four garrisons of Yan, Yun, Ji, and Liao would require 7.3 million in provisions and pay each year, of which the Ministry of Revenue would need to provide 4 million — 2.7 million, with the remainder all raised through the kaizhong method.

All you ministers go back and do the calculations, and see whether our court can bear these expenses."

The expenses were certainly not small, but they were no greater than during the Tianqi years. The 7.3 million in pay for the four garrisons of Yan, Yun, Ji, and Liao, plus the 3 million for Jing, Chang, Xuan, and Da, came to a total of 10.3 million, supporting 200,000 elite troops and 90,000 military households. But of this, the amount the Ministry of Revenue had to pay out directly — not counting the 3 million obtained from Northern Zhili and the two garrisons of Xuan and Da — was 2.7 million after the third year of Chongzhen. In addition, because of the salt-industry reform, more than 2 million in salt tax was reduced, and on the Northern Zhili side there was at most 500,000 shi of tax grain, so altogether it was just over 5 million.

In the Tianqi years, that would only have supported the Liao Garrison's hundred-some thousand troops (on paper).

Of course, this expenditure was merely the maintenance cost of the elite troops of the eight garrisons. It did not include the "startup" costs of the two garrisons of Yan and Liao, nor of the two ordo of ten thousand households — and that was an enormous one-time expenditure!

Fortunately, right there in Zhu Youjian's Nanhaizi traveling palace was a wealthy "heir to the Ming throne," Zhu Changxun!

After the court session ended, Zhu Youjian set out a banquet in the main hall of the traveling palace to welcome Zhu Changxun, who had arrived at Nanhaizi the previous night.

After three rounds of wine and five courses of dishes, Zhu Youjian, without waiting for Zhu Changxun to get drunk, went straight to the point.

"Imperial Uncle, We hear you came within a hair's breadth of inheriting Our throne?"

At these words, the Prince of Fu, Zhu Changxun, nearly stopped breathing. After he recovered, he said not a word and dropped to his knees before Zhu Youjian.

"Your Majesty, spare my life! This subject would not dare covet the great throne. This subject asks only to be a wealthy commoner — that is enough."

A wealthy commoner? The whole point is that you cannot be allowed to be wealthy!

Zhu Youjian smiled and waved his hand. "Imperial Uncle, do not be like this. We do not mean to blame you! We love war, and We are fond of taking risks. Swords and arrows have no eyes; it is hard to say whether some mishap might occur. And We have no son, so if anything should happen, would the Ming realm not have to go to you? If you do not become emperor, who else could?"

Thud, thud, thud.

The Prince of Fu said nothing more and simply kowtowed.

"Stop kowtowing, stop kowtowing." Zhu Youjian shot a glance at Li Zicheng, who was accompanying the Prince of Fu, and the latter immediately went over and held him down.

Zhu Youjian continued: "Imperial Uncle, the reason We summoned you to the capital this time is that We want you to resign your princely fief and then go to Nanjing to hold the fort. Only once you have gone south can We set out on campaign with peace of mind!"

"Your Majesty, the Empress is about to give birth, and this child is certain to be a son..."

Zhu Youjian laughed. "Even if it is a son, he might still die young, so you must still go to Nanjing!"

"This subject, this subject..." The Prince of Fu, Zhu Changxun, knew perfectly well that Zhu Youjian could not possibly be so agreeable — he must be holding back some mischief!

Zhu Youjian spoke again: "Imperial Uncle, do not decline, and you are not permitted to decline. Even if Our son suffers no illness or disaster, you should still go to Nanjing to hold the fort. If anything should happen, you could still come north to assist in governance. So you should immediately resign your princely fief and go to Nanjing to be a prince-regent in residence!"

(End of Chapter)