Chapter 272: Huang Taichong, How Did You Defect Too?

By the Qinhuai River, at the White Gate Pavilion, faint strains of string and bamboo music drifted down from the second floor. After the clamor of the day, night had fallen, and the Qinhuai had grown unusually tranquil. The late-autumn evening breeze blew gently, putting everyone at ease.

Zhu Cilang, going by the alias Zhu Yaofei, sat quite naturally beside Kou Baimen, drinking fine wine, eating the small dishes Kou Baimen had personally cooked, and from time to time exchanging a few jokes — yet he showed not the slightest sign of being captivated by this Qinhuai beauty. This level of playacting was nothing to him; in his previous life, Zhu Cilang had seen far more than this.

And that a beardless youth like him could withstand Kou Baimen's charms truly exceeded the expectations of these several southeastern talents.

Among them, only Luo Dagong knew the true identity of "Zhu Yaofei." As for Hou Fangyu, Huang Zongxi, Mao Xiang, and Zhang Huangyan, they too knew that "Zhu Yaofei's" status was extraordinary — one only had to look at Zheng Sen's fawning attitude. Who was Zheng Sen? The son of the richest man in the Great Ming! And his fabulously wealthy father was no fat pig that officials could slaughter for meat at will. Even the Great Ming's Army-Supervising Crown Prince could only win over the Zheng family, never suppress or bully them.

But these few did not know that this youth before them was the true master of half the Great Ming's realm!

After three rounds of wine and five courses of dishes, and after they had heard enough of the languid music, the men gathered here began to speak freely and at length — this was how the Donglin and Restoration Society, these southeastern "pure streams," conducted their political life.

It was still Luo Dagong who raised the topic, and of course the topic still concerned the recent sufferings of the people of Beijing.

And the one who followed his lead and delivered a lofty discourse was Huang Zongxi. Among these several talents, the one with the greatest ideas was probably this Huang Zongxi, author of Waiting for the Dawn. And yet the one whose reputation in later ages would stink the worst was also this same Huang Zongxi! For he had been branded a "public intellectual" of the late Ming, and his name had become utterly foul.

"The loss of Yanjing was the fault of the Son of Heaven guarding the national gate, and the crime of abolishing the feudatory princes! The so-called Son of Heaven guarding the gate was in truth the gate guarding the Son of Heaven. Nine frontier garrisons were established, squandering millions, all to ring the Son of Heaven with soldiers. The moment Yanjing was in danger, the troops of the nine frontiers would be mobilized for it, exhausting themselves on the march. And the imperial capital, with its hundreds of thousands, even a million, inhabitants, consumed untold grain daily. The barren lands of Northern Zhili could not supply it, so 120,000 grain-transport troops had to haul provisions from ten thousand li away — truly a policy that wore out the realm! If one weighs the merits of guarding the frontier, it was far inferior to the nine fortress princes established by the Great Ancestor, Emperor Gao. Had the nine fortresses remained, the calamity of the Jianzhou caitiffs could have been quelled by the Liao and Ning princes alone. How then would today's great disaster have come?"

"Well said! Well said! The utility of the Son of Heaven guarding the gate is indeed inferior to the nine fortress princes!" Zhu Cilang clapped his hands and said with a smile. "It is only that Emperor Chengzu, the Cultured Emperor, seized the realm as a prince and set a bad precedent himself. Fearing that among his descendants someone would imitate him, he had no choice but to move the capital to Beijing. At root, the blame lies with the Jianwen Emperor's reduction of the feudatories! Jianwen esteemed Confucian officials and slighted the princes, seeking to imitate the governance of the Zhao Song, yet lacking Zhao Kuangyin's skill. In the end, he ruined the arrangement laid down by the Great Ancestor, Emperor Gao, and planted hidden dangers for the state. Though even if Jianwen had been able to relieve the princes of their power with a cup of wine, and then practiced civil control of the military, it would still have been nothing more than a feeble Song."

Hearing Zhu Cilang's words, Hou Fangyu, Huang Zongxi, Mao Xiang, Zhang Huangyan, and the others present were all startled.

This youth truly dares to speak! He is... could he be His Highness the Crown Prince?!

Zhu Cilang swept his gaze across the room, then smiled again and said: "In my view, the gate guarding the Son of Heaven was only one of the two great evils of moving the capital to Beijing. The other great evil is that the capital was moved far from the wealthy southeast, placing the wealth of the southeast beyond the long whip of the court!

Under a court of enlightened sovereigns and loyal ministers, one could still strive to make do, so that state revenues would not run short. But should there come a weak sovereign and treacherous ministers, then the fertile waters of the southeast would flow into other men's fields. Over time, the state would grow daily poorer and weaker, and the soldiers of the nine frontiers would naturally sink into poverty, unable to bear military service. The rampancy of the barbarians would then become inevitable!"

By this point, his gaze had settled on Huang Zongxi's prominent-cheekboned face. Smiling, he said: "Brother Taichong, what do you make of the Army-Supervising Crown Prince's conduct?"

Huang Zongxi stroked his beard, fixed his eyes on Zhu Cilang, and was silent for a long while before saying: "The Army-Supervising Crown Prince has great talent but little benevolence — a heroic sovereign for troubled times, a tyrant for times of peace!"

"Huang Taichong!" Luo Dagong growled in a low voice. "Watch your words!"

Huang Zongxi laughed. "These are frank words! The realm today is in chaos! To have a heroic sovereign at the helm is the fortune of the Great Ming, and the fortune of the scholarly world! If instead we had a sovereign with benevolence but no talent, the realm would face the calamity of collapse!"

So he must know this Crown Prince's identity! Zhu Cilang smiled faintly, thinking to himself: Weren't you, Huang Taichong, supposed to rush out and play the bold dissenter? Aren't you one of the three great public intellectuals of the late Ming? How come you're flattering Us too? Could it be you also want to throw in your lot and take office?

Huang Zongxi looked at Zhu Cilang's smiling face, feeling immensely pleased with himself — it seemed he would surely pass this special examination with flying colors. As for "public intellectual" and such, Huang Zongxi knew nothing of that. All he knew was that this youth before him could give him an official post, and was his sovereign-father... his dear Papa Zhu! And this Papa Zhu was so fierce, commanding a hundred thousand troops, that the southeastern gentry could never contend with him. This was a wise and mighty Papa Zhu! Huang Zongxi was a public intellectual, not a brainless fool — why would he jump out to get himself killed?

Zhu Cilang asked again: "In your view, sir, what should take priority in southeastern affairs?"

"In southeastern affairs, financial management must come first, of course!" Huang Zongxi said with a smile. "The southeast is where wealth gathers. If a court residing in the southeast cannot even manage its finances well, what else could it possibly do well?"

"In financial management, what comes first?"

Huang Zongxi said: "In financial management, abolishing gold and silver should come first!"

Zhu Cilang smiled. "Changing the currency system must be done with great caution. Brother Taichong, why not speak of other measures."

Zhu Cilang knew that Huang Zongxi was voicing the views of the "Finance" chapter in Waiting for the Dawn: abolish gold and silver, cast copper coins, and also impose a copper prohibition and mint good coinage — it looked fine on paper, but it was not feasible.

Because bad money driving out good is an economic phenomenon, and a copper prohibition would inevitably drive copper prices sky-high, while minting good coins would invert the value of copper and coin, whereupon the destruction of good coins for their copper and the private minting of debased coins would run rampant. Of course, these problems would all be solved after the mid-eighteenth century. For after that, Europeans employed more efficient copper-smelting techniques and simultaneously discovered enormous copper deposits in the Americas. If after that point the Great Ming continued to use copper cash as its primary circulating currency, and could not close its borders and shut itself off, then copper cash would surely depreciate drastically!

Huang Zongxi thought for a moment, then said: "If gold and silver cannot be abolished all at once, then the method of taxation should be changed. In antiquity, taxes were levied on what was dear and what was cheap, with grain and cloth as the measure. Thus the public taxes above included levies of grain and levies of cloth."

Zhu Cilang said: "The court's collection of silver on farmland does indeed cause hardship to the people, and must be changed."

In truth, collecting silver on farmland posed no great problem for the commercially developed southeast; the problem was that the northwest and the Central Plains had too little silver, so collecting silver on farmland became a burden for the peasants. The late-Ming uprisings began in the northwest largely because of the silver levy on farmland.

Huang Zongxi spoke again: "Second in financial management should be the survey of fields and the granting of fields!"

So he's actually bringing out substantive proposals! Zhu Cilang was taken aback, then smiled. "I would be glad to hear the details."

Huang Zongxi said: "First, the survey of fields. The realm's farmland falls into four categories: first, military colony fields; second, official fields; third, private fields; fourth, hidden fields.

Take, for example, the registers compiled after the Wanli-era land survey. The realm's actual farmland amounted to over seven million qing, of which military colony fields made up less than one-tenth, roughly 640,000 qing, while official fields accounted for three-tenths, some two million qing. Official fields plus military colony fields together occupied four-tenths of the realm's actual farmland! If one further counts hidden fields not yet discovered, then over half the realm's farmland is not privately owned, but is official land that can be granted.

Private fields belong to wealthy households and the gentry, and for the sake of winning over the scholarly world, the court may leave them alone. But official fields are the property of the court, and what is collected on them is not tax, but rent! Wealthy households and gentry all approve of tax exemptions, but surely none would approve of rent exemptions?

If the court can survey the official fields of the southeast, and then grant them to the people — fifty mu per household, with rent set at one-tenth — collecting only field rent, no poll tax or other levies, and collecting only grain, not silver or cash.

With no less than one hundred million mu of official fields in Southern Zhili, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong combined, a one-tenth rent of two or three dou of grain per mu would yield at the very least 25 million shi annually. And neither the common people, the gentry, nor the wealthy households would find it burdensome. If one then adds the salt tax of 10 million taels of silver and customs duties of over one million, the court would take in 25 million shi of grain and 11 million taels of silver each year — how could state revenues possibly fall short?

Moreover, at fifty mu per household, one hundred million mu of official fields would provide for two million households of common people. Two million households, one hundred million mu of land — all of it would be in the grasp of a heroic sovereign!

And this is merely the farmland of the southeast. If one adds the more than two hundred million mu of Huguang, it would be enough to fund the northern expedition to recover the Central Plains!"

When he finished, not only were the three upright gentlemen Hou Fangyu, Mao Xiang, and Zhang Huangyan dumbfounded, but even Luo Dagong, who was so eager for office, was stunned.

This Huang Zongxi, who all day long railed against heaven and earth as if he feared no authority — today, face to face with the Army-Supervising Crown Prince himself, not only did he not rail, he piled one flattering compliment upon another, and even presented a plan for surveying and granting fields... You're selling out the southeastern gentry! This is defection! You're a traitor!

"Hahaha!" Zhu Cilang burst out laughing. "What a Huang Taichong! You have the talent of a top-ranked jinshi!"

(End of Chapter)