Chapter 558: Chongzhen Has Come to His Senses

"My son, are you talking nonsense?" Empress Zhou looked at her son Zhu Cilang with heartache. "Have you been overworking yourself for the country and the people these days?"

"Yes, yes!" The Chongzhen Emperor also nodded repeatedly. "Why don't you take a good few months off, Dachun?"

He only said half of what he meant; the other half was: let your father take care of the country and the people! Your father now knows how to be a somewhat craftier wise ruler!

It turned out that after more than two years of study — studying under his son — the Chongzhen Emperor felt he had improved tremendously in governing the state. If he had possessed his current level of skill in the first year of Chongzhen, he would long ago have brought the Great Ming realm into perfect order.

Back then he had been far too naive, actually believing that all the troubles of the Great Ming were the fault of a pack of corrupt officials and treacherous ministers!

So after he took the throne and began governing, he busied himself looking for honest, incorrupt, and loyal officials to handle affairs and save the situation. But he never imagined that this approach was entirely wrong. The Great Ming's problems did not lie with corrupt officials and treacherous ministers at all, but with the scholar-officials, the hereditary military officers and ennobled families, and the imperial clan — these three groups had carved up the state among themselves!

The imperial clan goes without saying: their numbers multiplied day by day, with Princes, Commandery Princes, generals, and commandants too many to count, every one of them drawing a stipend — a veritable black hole in the treasury!

Yet however vast the clan's black hole, it was nothing compared to the black hole of the Great Ming's several hundred military garrisons! On paper there were so many military households and military fields, but in reality how many men could actually take the field and kill the enemy?

Pitifully few!

The several hundred garrisons must have held over a hundred million mu of land, surely? And all of that land belonged to the state! Since it could not support soldiers, collecting some rent ought to have been possible, right?

Still impossible!

Why was this so? Because the ennobled families and hereditary military officers had carved up the military colony lands of the guard posts. The Great Ming's military system was to support troops with land; once the land was gone, the troops became hard to support.

The hereditary ennobled military officers fed on the military households and military colonies, while the scholar-officials who read the sage's books and sat the civil examinations fed on private fields, official fields, concealed fields, and commercial taxes!

Through buying and selling, seizure, fraudulent registration, and other means, these scholar-officials — chiefly those who held degrees but had not yet entered office — swallowed up more than half the land under heaven, and paid no taxes on it, bore no levies, and paid no rent. Worse still, some shielded merchants and profited by helping them evade taxes!

The small privileges the founding ancestors had granted to juren and xiucai had all been exploited by them to carve up the court's sources of revenue and taxation!

The Chongzhen Emperor had originally believed the greatest problem in officialdom was too many corrupt officials. Now he finally understood that corruption after taking office was no problem at all; the real problem was that they were already corrupt before taking office — that was the true problem!

If one could only be corrupt after taking office, and before taking office there was nothing to embezzle — if one could only be a poor, shabby scholar, staring at those corrupt officials and drooling — then the Great Ming would never have become so impoverished.

Because if only after taking office did one have the chance to be corrupt, that meant the wealth and glory of the literati were all held in the emperor's hand!

If the emperor gave, only then could they be rich and honored! If the emperor did not give, they were nothing but impoverished wretches!

With so many impoverished wretches all across the realm craning their necks and red-eyed to come and be corrupt officials, would there not be some willing to rake in money for the imperial house? Would they care only for their own fortunes and ignore their master dying of poverty?

But the tax exemptions the Great Ming granted to the literati, and the privileges of xiucai and juren, had been expanded by them again and again, until in the end they became tools for carving up the state's tax sources and undermining the foundations of Great Ming feudalism.

The civil officials of the Great Ming all grew rich before ever taking office!

And moreover, the benefits of this "rich before office" were often greater than those of being a corrupt official.

Take that Qian Qianyi, for example — he did not hold office for many years! And he never landed any lucrative post, so how was he still so wealthy?

Did he not make his fortune precisely by using his fame as a celebrated scholar and his examination honors to gain tax exemptions, extend protection to others, and register lands fraudulently?

If one can enjoy wealth and glory even after losing office, can there still be anyone willing to serve properly in office?

So the problem with the Great Ming's official discipline was not at all that officials were corrupt, but that corrupt officials would not properly take office!

Why could that unfilial wretch Zhu Cilang command a hundred responses with a single call? Was it not because he led a pack of empty-handed northern ennobled corrupt officials into Jiangnan? Could they afford not to obey? If they did not obey, there would be nothing left for them to embezzle. These fellows did not even have money for food — how could they survive without corruption? So they were all Zhu Cilang's dogs! More obedient than dogs!

The unfilial wretch used empty-handed northern ennobled corrupt officials on one side, while on the other he tried every means to strip the southeastern scholar-officials of their "rich before office" privileges. This path was entirely correct.

The Chongzhen Emperor had already made up his mind: if he ever had another chance to hold power, he would certainly be even more ruthless than the unfilial wretch, and would absolutely work the southeastern scholar-officials to utter ruin!

The only question now was whether he would ever have that chance.

The Chongzhen Emperor looked at his son expectantly. Dark and swarthy, much thinner — he really did somewhat resemble a beggar! Was it possible he truly was exhausted out of his wits?

"Imperial Father, your son is filial. A little weariness, a little hardship — I can endure it all," Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "I will absolutely not let Imperial Father be burdened again by worldly affairs, so Imperial Father need only rest and enjoy his retirement. It is only that the abdication ceremony must be postponed slightly, until after your son returns from begging. There will be no twentieth year of Chongzhen!"

Why? The Chongzhen Emperor's face darkened at once. You unfilial wretch, you will not even give your father a round number!

Empress Zhou only knew to ache for her son, and pressed him: "Chun, are you really going—"

"To beg!" Zhu Cilang explained with a smile. "In the southeast there are at least two million refugees from the north who cannot get food. Your son intends to follow the example of the 'food-seeking Son of Heaven' of the Sui and Tang, and lead them to Huguang, Jiangxi, and Guangdong to seek sustenance."

A food-seeking Son of Heaven? The Chongzhen Emperor thought: that ought to be Us going! But how does one go about begging? The founding ancestors had this craft, but it was not passed down!

"So that is how it is." Empress Zhou's fine brows furrowed slightly. "Chun, will the gentry of Huguang, Jiangxi, and Guangdong be willing to bring out grain?"

"They will!" Zhu Cilang smiled, but his tone had already turned cold. "They are all enlightened gentry. Seeing so many people without food, they will surely offer up their grain!"

That was certain! Faced with two million refugees led by His Highness the Crown Prince, hauling cannons and riding warships to feast on the great households, the gentry of the Great Ming would surely become very enlightened — grain given, people at peace, all in joy!

You mean to lead refugees to seize grain!

How the Chongzhen Emperor hated it in his heart! Such a fine idea — how had We never thought of it? Back when We sent Yang He to pacify the roving bandits, We should have used this very method! We suffered so — We took one hundred thousand taels of silver from Our own purse, then begged several princes to contribute fifty thousand taels of silver and twenty thousand shi of grain — but what damn use was that! With so many roving bandits, they could not possibly be fed, and in the end it all went down the drain!

Had We known, We should have used the unfilial wretch's method and personally led the roving bandits that Yang He had pacified to Jiangnan to feast on the great households!

Make the great households bring out money and grain — the refugees eat thirty percent, We eat seventy percent. With money and grain in hand, We could then raise troops to fight the eastern barbarians, and the realm would have been pacified long ago!

Truly stupid to death!

The Chongzhen Emperor looked at his son and thought: how fine it would be if the two of us could trade places? You be the Imperial Father and take over the mess left by the Xi Temple; We will be the son, and inherit the throne later as a benevolent ruler.

Empress Zhou looked at her husband's look of remorse and anguish, and her heart ached too. She now knew her son was not confused, so she said in a consultative tone: "Chun, if you go to Huguang, you will not be back for several months, will you? It is already autumn now. Why not ascend the throne after the new year? Surely Chongzhen should have a twentieth year?"

"Very well, very well," Zhu Cilang said, glancing at the Chongzhen Emperor. "Then let us give Imperial Father a round number!"

At last there would be a twentieth year. The Chongzhen Emperor sighed.

Empress Zhou, seeing the Chongzhen Emperor sigh, thought he still had some other knot in his heart — surely he was worried about the safety of his two sons born of concubines. So she said to Zhu Cilang: "Chun, that child Cizhao is still young, and was captured by the roving bandits and badly frightened. Saying some wrong things is forgivable. You are the eldest brother; do not take it too much to heart."

The Chongzhen Emperor also remembered at that moment and nodded repeatedly: "Right, right, and there is also Cihuan. Dachun, do you know Cihuan's whereabouts?"

Zhu Cilang smiled: "Imperial Father, Imperial Mother, rest assured. Your son will not hold anything against Fourth Brother. Not only will I not hold it against him, I will even enfeoff him with Yunnan. His escort is now being reorganized, and by the time your son goes to Huguang again, he should be about ready to set out for Yunnan."

"As for Fifth Brother, your son does not know his whereabouts."

(End of Chapter)