Chapter 338: Why Are We So Miserable?

Waaah—

The descendants of Zhu Yuanzhang's founding heroes and the heroes of the Jingnan campaign were all gathered in the Palace of Self-Reflection, weeping!

Who knows whether Zhu Yuanzhang, buried in the underground palace of the Xiao Mausoleum, might be angered enough to manifest his spirit?

Seeing this scene, Zhu Cilang could only sigh endlessly. What ruthless men all their ancestors had been! Pick any one of them at random, and he was a figure who killed without blinking, a man drenched in blood!

Yet their descendants were so utterly useless.

"Stop crying!" At last someone roared — it was Zhang Shize, Duke of Ying. He was now Right Chief Censor, and the hereditary "guard-post lords" of the southeast hated no one more than the right-bench censors under his command.

They were all the sons of the most vicious Beijing nobles and hereditary military officers!

Originally they had been class brothers with the southeastern "guard-post lords" — they should have looked after one another and together embezzled the Great Ming into ruin. But now they turned their backs and refused to recognize their own. For a ten percent reward, they had all become fierce as tigers and vicious as wolves. The guard-post masters of the southeast — whether hereditary Guard Commanders of however many generations, or hereditary Chiliarchs — once they fell into these men's hands, if they didn't die they'd still be skinned alive. Those who knew what was good for them voluntarily handed over their land and could still take their movable wealth into the city to live as rich men. Those who didn't — every last one of them got their property seized and confiscated, and the men themselves were exiled to offshore islands!

And Zhang Shize had not offended people for nothing — he had his own cut of that "ten percent" reward.

In the few months he had spent as "Skinflint Zhang," he had already raked in several hundred thousand!

But even as he grew rich, he had not forgotten to reflect — there was not a single guard post left in the southeast that could still support troops. And as for the garrison troops in the various southeastern regions, apart from the two commands of Gao Jie and Huang Degong, which were still passable, the rest were almost all paper tigers, utterly useless.

"It's all our own damn doing!" Zhang Shize said with a dark face, beating his chest. "These past months I, Skinflint Zhang, have been investigating guard posts everywhere. I've brought down I don't know how many households — but was a single one of them wronged? Is there a single guard post left in the southeast that can still support troops? None! And it's not just the southeast — the north has none either! And the guard-post land wasn't squandered by our generation; it was already like this in our great-grandfathers' time! Land that was supposed to support troops was all leased out at dirt-cheap prices to officials, and the officials subleased it to the small military households. Land that should have been used to build up military readiness, to support troops — it all became a way for people like us to make money! Every household among us got rich, but the state was left without soldiers or generals, and nearly perished!"

What he said was a little too sensitive. After he finished, everyone present, including the Chongzhen Emperor, wore uncertain expressions.

At this point Zhu Cilang nodded and said: "The Duke of Ying speaks well! Today's discussion is to diagnose the nation's illness and reflect on our own faults. Naturally, we should speak freely and hold nothing back. As for the nation's illness, if anyone has thoughts, let them all speak. This realm is not Ours alone — everyone has a share in it! What is there that cannot be said?"

"Indeed!" Chief Grand Secretary Wei Zaode also sighed. He came from a military-register background in the three guards of Tongzhou, and was himself a young prodigy. "It's not only the guard-post land across the realm that has been stolen. The government fields of every prefecture and subprefecture have likewise been leased out for a pittance to the gentry and great houses. The gentry originally were not exempt from taxes; later the exemption was granted; and later still, the already meager rents on government fields were also remitted just like the land tax. Government fields all across the realm have become private fields for the gentry to enrich themselves on!

Then there is the commercial tax. Hang up the sign of a juren or xiucai, and the tax stations below no longer dare collect. If anyone dares break the rule, the local gentry stir up tax resistance, while the officials do absolutely nothing. Most of the many tax revolts in the Wanli era started exactly this way!"

The Chongzhen Emperor suddenly interjected: "Was it not said that the tax eunuchs were lawless, extorting and levying at will, until they drove the people to revolt?"

Zhu Cilang smiled. "When the officials won't do their jobs, the eunuchs sent out — heh — naturally take the chance to line their own pockets a bit more. That's only human. And eunuchs are all solitary, destitute men with no ability to govern the people or manage finances. To carry out the late emperor's edicts, they had to recruit underlings to do the work. Those underlings, of course, also had to make money — and knowing their source of income wouldn't last, they had to grab all the harder while they could. It's hardly surprising that they stirred up popular resentment. But at root, the matter is still that the gentry — those families of poetry and propriety — abused the court's privileges to evade commercial taxes and land taxes. And the officials who came up through the examinations were in league with them, unwilling to collect taxes seriously. Otherwise, why would His Late Majesty the Shenmiao Emperor have sent eunuchs to collect taxes?"

By this time the Prince of Fu had finished weeping. Wiping his tears, he said: "The nobles and military officers fed off the military guards; the civil officials and gentry evaded taxes; and we princes were no better! Didn't we just the same accept the land entrustments of the great households? Throughout Henan, everywhere there are Prince of Fu fields, Prince of Fu shops, Prince of Fu properties stretching across Henan. Some were granted by the late emperor, but many came through entrustment and fraudulent registration.

And Henan's government fields and military fields — tens of thousands, even millions of mu were granted to the princely establishments. Now they're all gone. The home is gone, the people are gone, everything is gone! If we'd known earlier, wouldn't it have been better to use it all to support troops?"

Zhu Lunkui, who had just inherited the title of Prince of Zhou, took up the Prince of Fu's words and sighed: "There were simply too many of us. Before the great calamity struck, our Prince of Zhou line alone had several dozen Commandery Prince establishments! As for generals and commandants, they were as numerous as hairs on an ox. Every one of them had to be fed by the people of Henan — truly a hardship for the common folk!"

Zhu Cilang nodded and took up the topic: "The court is also to blame for this. It never trusted the imperial princes, was unwilling to let princes and commandery princes take up duties, and likewise distrusted the generals and commandants below them. If they weren't allowed to take up duties, then they had to be supported! As a result, the population multiplied, the numbers grew day by day, until in the end even supporting them became impossible!"

He paused, then counted off on his fingers: "First, the nobles and military officers swallowed up the military guard lands; second, the scholar-officials relied on court privileges to evade taxes; third, the restrictions on princes were severe while the imperial clan multiplied, its numbers far too great. These three are indeed the keys to the ruin of our Great Ming.

Beyond these three, We have also summed up several other faults, which We shall now put forward for discussion. First, the maritime ban; second, the tributary system for vassal princes; third, the fifteen countries not to be attacked!"

The moment Zhu Cilang's words left his mouth, everyone in the great hall froze.

What was His Highness the Crown Prince trying to do? Had he come to the Xiao Mausoleum to confess his sins, or to indict the sins of Zhu Yuanzhang buried beneath the earth?

The maritime ban, the tributary system for vassal princes, and the fifteen countries not to be attacked were all founding institutions of the Great Ming — institutions created by Zhu Yuanzhang himself!

Chongzhen glanced at Zhu Cilang, then at the princes and ministers in the hall, as if reminding everyone: the Crown Prince was openly criticizing the Great Ancestor — a gross act of unfilial defiance!

Zhu Cilang cleared his throat. "How little of the Great Ancestor and Exalted Emperor's system has been left unchanged? Weren't the nine frontier princes simply penned up to do nothing at all? Since the late emperors could change things, can we not change them a little too? To amend one's faults when one recognizes them — there is no greater good!"

(End of Chapter)