Chapter 932: The More Wars Are Fought, the More Prosperity Grows (Please Subscribe)

The ninth year of the Great Ming's Hongxing era, the third month — the Kingdom of Joseon, Hanyang Prefecture.

Along both sides of the imperial way outside Donhwamun Gate of Changdeokgung Palace, a sea of people had gathered today, as though every resident of Hanyang Prefecture had come here. These Joseon officials, commoners, scholars, and ordinary folk had all put on their finest clothes and, according to their respective ranks, crowded into different sections.

Although the Great King of the Jin dynasty, Jin Erbo, had issued a decree that "legitimate sons and sons of concubines shall sit the civil examinations as one," the sense of hierarchy in Joseon society remained extremely strong. A son of a concubine of the yangban class who had not passed the examinations was still a being one or two or three grades lower, and could not stand alongside the legitimate-born — Jin Dodo, being an outsider, still did not fully understand the Joseon class system, which was why he had equated sons of concubines with the illegitimate. In China, even the sons of concubines in noble houses, though their status was not equal to that of the legitimate eldest son, were not so very far apart. But here in Joseon, sons of concubines counted as "middle people," while sons born of baseborn mothers counted as "base people," their status even lower than that of ordinary commoners — they could not be entered in the household register, could not acknowledge their fathers, and their position was little different from that of slaves.

And Jin Dodo himself was legitimate-born, so of course he looked down on his brothers born of concubines and baseborn mothers — but even so, one could not treat proper half-brothers as booi slaves! So he had taken it for granted that sons of concubines and the illegitimate should be ranked together, and placed them all among the scholar-official class... And so the illegitimate-born from all eight provinces of Joseon, every one of them with the means to do so, had come running to Hanyang Prefecture to sit the examinations!

Even those who had not passed were unwilling to leave at once. Today they had all come to the two sides of the imperial way outside Donhwamun Gate of Changdeokgung Palace, waiting to kowtow and give thanks to Jin Dodo and Jin Erbo, who were dearer to them than their own parents — they had not passed the jinshi examination, but their scholar-official status was theirs all the same, so in the land grants to come, they would still enjoy the treatment of the scholar-official class.

So counting from Donhwamun Gate, behind the legitimate-born and concubine-born scholar-officials stood several thousand illegitimate-born scholar-officials, all dressed in white Confucian robes, wearing tall hats in the Joseon style, craning their necks toward Donhwamun Gate.

Today was no ordinary day — today was the day of the "proclamation of names outside Donhwamun Gate"!

The so-called proclamation of names outside Donhwamun Gate was, in fact, the great day when the jinshi who had passed the Joseon civil examinations in the spring of the ninth year of Hongxing paraded in celebration of their offices!

Because this was the first examination of the Jin dynasty, and because, according to the Great King's decree, officials in all eight provinces of Joseon were to be replaced with jinshi of the new dynasty, the number of men selected was especially large — as many as six thousand six hundred had passed, and all of them were to come out for a stroll today.

And to display the solemnity of the occasion, after the jinshi had paraded through the streets, Jin Dodo would also ride out of Donhwamun Gate under the escort of the Anton Army's iron cavalry and make a circuit of the city, to display the awesome might of the Jin dynasty.

Donhwamun Gate had already been thrown wide open. Six thousand six hundred Joseon jinshi, dressed in great red robes and wearing black gauze official caps, were filing out in a vast and mighty procession. Most of them were of illegitimate birth, and every one of them was brimming with pride and satisfaction.

The illegitimate-born had always outnumbered the legitimate-born! Moreover, the Jin dynasty's policies favored the illegitimate-born, so their enthusiasm for sitting the examinations was high as well — which was why the majority of those who had "drawn the winning lot" were illegitimate-born. These men now all held official rank, and no matter how one reckoned it, they had joined the ranks of the yangban. Truly the royal grace was boundless!

These illegitimate-born jinshi were, without question, the pillars of Jin dynasty rule!

When Jin Dodo, Prince of the Great Ming, Grand Protector-General of Anton, and Grand Prince Regent of Joseon, rode out of Donhwamun Gate on an Iberian horse given to him by the Kingdom of Spain, the Joseon scholars and commoners on both sides of the imperial way all prostrated themselves on the ground and shouted at the top of their voices, uniformly in Chinese.

"Ten thousand years to the Great King, ten thousand times ten thousand years! Ten thousand years to the Grand Prince Regent, ten thousand times ten thousand years..."

Listening to the Koreans' hoarse, heartfelt cheers, the smile on Jin Dodo's face simply could not be hidden. He was delighted! Not because of the Joseon scholars' and commoners' sincere support, but because of the tremendous good news that had come from the treaty port of Dagukou — the Great Ming had run into a fiscal crisis again, had no money to fight, and so had no choice but to withdraw its armies and return to court!

The edict ordering the army's withdrawal had already been formally issued, and the date of withdrawal had been set — the eighteenth day of the third month. The choice of the minister to remain behind in Beijing had also been settled: it was that detestable treacherous minister Shi Kefa, who had been appointed Beijing Garrison Minister and Commissioner of Imperial Mausolea, responsible not only for holding Beijing but also for overseeing the repair works of the twelve tombs on Mount Tianshou. It was said that six million taels of silver had been allocated for the imperial tomb repairs...

There were also rumors from the treaty port of Dagukou that the Zhu Emperor had lost his original capital in relocating several garrison commands from the Central Plain and Shaanxi, having already spent twenty or thirty million, and that he would still have to pay out more than ten million taels of silver every year in maintenance costs!

In addition, the Great Ming court had made good on its promise of "three years' tax exemption," remitting all land taxes in Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Hebei, and other places for the seventh through ninth years of Hongxing.

And at the same time as it exempted the land taxes, the Great Ming court had dispatched large numbers of officials to these newly recovered regions, established local governments at every level, and scattered great sums of silver and copper cash on purchases and hired labor.

These newly recovered lands were all expenditure and no income — yet another enormous deficit.

On top of that, the several hundred thousand troops of the northern expedition had been at it for two or three years now! Besides fighting the Qing armies, these troops had also taken on the duties of keeping order and carrying out all manner of public works — building roads and forts, dredging river channels, reinforcing the Yellow River dikes at critical points, and giving the Beijing city walls and fortifications a thorough renovation.

That was yet another great scattering of silver!

Even if the Great Ming court had mountains of gold and silver, it could not withstand spending like this!

But now all was well — the Zhu Emperor's house had no surplus grain left either. With no surplus grain, he ought to be able to settle down for a while.

As long as there were three to five years of stability, the territory under the Anton Protectorate could recover its vitality, and the rule of the Joseon Jin dynasty could be consolidated.

"Withdraw the army and return to court? Why? The remnants of the eastern barbarians have not yet been wiped out — why pull the troops back? Could it be that he intends to send his forces against Our Great Shun dynasty?"

Sichuan, Chongqing Prefecture, Chaotian Palace. Li Guo, the Son of Heaven of the Shun, who had only returned to Chongqing from Kunming in Yunnan at the beginning of the year, had just received the bad news that the Great Ming Emperor was withdrawing his army and returning to court.

This matter was good news for Jin Dodo, but for the Shun it was anything but good.

After the news that Beijing had been recovered by the Ming reached the Shun court, the entire Shun dynasty had immediately felt that things were going badly!

With Beijing recovered, the Great Ming was "just one step" from holding all the Han lands within the passes — and that "one step" seemed to be Sichuan, which was held by the Shun dynasty!

"Imperial Lord," — the news of the Ming Emperor's army withdrawal had been brought to Li Guo by the Grand Military Strategist Song Xiance — "the report this subject has received says that the Ming has no silver left... The Ming Emperor's northern expedition has spent money like water. In less than three years he has spent over a hundred million. The state treasury is now empty, the people's livelihood is in decline, and the source of the southeast's wealth and taxes has been drained to the point that the people can scarcely survive. No more silver can be produced for Zhu Cilang to squander."

"A hundred million?" Liu Zongmin drew a sharp breath. "This Zhu Cilang is too good at ruining a household! To spend a hundred million in under three years!"

"He's also good at amassing wealth!" Sun Kewang put in. "A hundred million taels of silver! Piled together that would make a mountain. How was it squeezed out?"

Niu Jinxing gave a bitter laugh. "Simply that there is enough land! We hold the Land of Abundance plus a Yunnan, and on the books the grain fields paying rent amount to over fifty-three million mu, with a yearly grain rent of a little over ten million shi. The Ming's four rivers, two lakes, Fujian, Guangdong, plus Shandong and Guangxi — the registered grain fields there must be five hundred thirty million mu at the very least. What difficulty is there in taking in a hundred million shi a year? Add the commercial taxes, customs duties, and salt taxes, and another twenty million taels of silver is not hard to come by. Saving up a hundred million taels is not impossible... But the Ming earns a great deal and spends a great deal too! Its yearly expenditures are also above a hundred million. This northern expedition has indeed cost more than usual. I estimate they will need to save for another two or three years before they have the money to attack our Sichuan.

Imperial Lord, this subject reckons we can still have three years of peace. After that, I fear it will be war year after year!"

"If they want a fight, we'll fight!" Liu Zongmin snorted. "Who's afraid of who! The way I see it, we might as well strike first! While the Ming has no military funds, hit them once before anything else — don't let the Zhu family's troops seize the initiative!"