Chapter 203

Tian Long Zhang Jie: "Actually, it's that Zhu Yunwen didn't use it, so there was no chance to use it,

that group of princes had no worries about food and drink, had nothing to do, and the further they went, the more useless they were raised.

Of course, this should be the purpose of the Ming emperors,

giving those princes who also had the right to inherit the throne wealth and glory,

so as to ensure that they had no ambition for power.

Of course, the princes were not born as useless people who were no threat to imperial power.

In order to turn them into useless people, the best thing is to implement a pig-raising policy."

"This set of policies, except for encountering the bug of Zhu Di, ran well at other times.

The vassal rebellions that occurred in the Great Ming for more than two hundred years could be counted on one's fingers,

and only the Ning King Rebellion that occurred during the time of Ming Wu Sect caused a little disturbance.

Then he encountered the founder of Mindset, Wang Yangming, and hit GG amidst laughter and laughter.

Wu Sect Zhu Houcong, who wanted to go on a personal expedition, was very unhappy when he saw the Ning King being escorted to the capital.

This emperor, who built the Leopard House and acted, how should I put it, very jumpy, also wanted to release the Ning King,

and then go on a personal expedition himself, to have a war game of whoever wins is the Great Ming emperor.

Of course, this very unreliable idea had no feasibility in any way.

In the end, under the remonstrance of the ministers, Wu Sect Zhu Houzhao gave up this idea."

"The biggest flaw in this pig-raising plan is that the designer couldn't solve the problem of the increasingly expanding Zhu family descendants.

With the passage of time, the royal population expanded from Zhu Yuanzhang's dozen sons and dozens of grandsons to hundreds of thousands.

The royal population was getting larger and larger, and the salary that needed to be paid was getting more and more,

while fiscal revenue was decreasing as the dynasty entered its end,

and the contradiction between the two was getting bigger and bigger, increasingly difficult to reconcile.

This is like a person carrying a package on the road:

Every time a person carrying the package is changed, a stone is put into the package,

and as more people handle it, the package will become heavier, until the person carrying the package cannot carry it at all.

To say that the Ming Dynasty completely perished because of pig-raising is definitely not objective,

but that the royal family was a big burden on the Ming Dynasty is an undeniable fact.

What makes me a bit confused is, the Ming emperors were not fools,

why didn't they try to solve the problem after seeing it?"

Pirate Zhang Jie spread his hands: "You have to ask Chongzhen about this; there is Huang Taiji in the east, and Chuang King Li Zicheng in the west,

even if it's burning his eyebrows, he has to ensure that the 200-year pig-raising national policy does not waver."

Shui Hu Zhang Jie then analyzed:

"Let's not talk about Chongzhen, who, like the old Daoist Jiajing, was a vassal king who accidentally inherited the throne,

and whether he had the idea, motivation, or reason to move against other vassal kings who were also vassal kings like him.

Just talking about the Great Ming Dynasty's policy, the Great Ming Dynasty had been raising pigs for two hundred years,

if Chongzhen said that he wouldn't pay money for nothing in the future, and you come to work to get a salary,

the vast majority of those vassal kings wouldn't be willing either.

This is actually similar to the iron-clad crops of the Eight Banners in the late Manchu Qing Dynasty.

The thoughts of those bannermen were: 'Work? What work?

Which one of my father, or my father's father, didn't fight and bleed for the Great Qing Dynasty?

My work, they had already finished it for me!'

"Although the vassal kings of the Great Ming didn't bleed or fight for the Great Ming,

their common ancestor was Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, who founded the Great Ming Dynasty!

In their view, their work, the ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang had already finished it for them!

If you want them to work, unless the enfeoffment remains unchanged, and then they can work in politics and the military;

but this would not only possibly cause the vassal kings to hold real power,

leading to the consequence of being unable to be controlled, but also wouldn't reduce the fiscal burden at all.

As such, Chongzhen had no motivation to reform the vassal kings.

However, for Chongzhen to be so short of money that he couldn't even pay the military expenses for the front line,

yet not take action against the vassal kings who were rich as oil, I really can't understand."

"What you said makes sense."

Other Zhang Jies all expressed agreement with Shui Hu Zhang Jie's analysis.

As for why Chongzhen didn't take action against the vassal kings?

It's probably because he was really fooled by the Donglin Party's set of "only if the emperor himself becomes diligent,

then the Great Ming will get better."

After all, he was a vassal king who hadn't experienced orthodox imperial power education and became a monk halfway.

It could also be that their brother, the carpenter emperor, died in his 20s,

and had no heirs, otherwise the throne wouldn't have been his turn anyway.

And our Great Ming's policy toward vassal kings was already very clear,

wealth and glory were all there, but education, which can improve personal ability,

and things that might be a threat to the throne, should be avoided if possible.

In later generations, the Zhang Jies once heard a very interesting theory, that is, if Wei Zhongxian doesn't die, the Great Ming won't perish.

The basis of this theory is that even if the Nine Thousand Years Old is greedy,

he will still ensure the military pay of the soldiers in the Nine Borders and Liaodong who are resisting the Qing army.

This theory has some truth, but not entirely.

The truth is that although the Nine Thousand Years Old is called Nine Thousand Nine Hundred Years Old, only one hundred years away from ten thousand years,

he is ultimately just a eunuch who relies on imperial power, and he will not watch the Great Ming Dynasty collapse directly.

After all, without the Great Ming, or more accurately, without the emperor who favored him, he is nothing.

This can be seen from the fact that shortly after the carpenter emperor Zhu Youjian died and Chongzhen inherited the throne,

this arrogant and domineering Nine Thousand Years Old lost all his power,

was first sent to Fengyang, and later, because he was afraid of being liquidated,

hanged himself after drinking heavily with his accomplice Li Chaoqin in an inn in Fucheng, Hebei.

The lack of truth is that the Great Ming Dynasty was indeed already terminally ill,

let alone Chongzhen, even Zhu Yuanzhang would probably be unable to save it.

This can be seen from the actions of Chongzhen's father-in-law, Zhou Kui:

In 1644, when Li Zicheng approached Beijing, Chongzhen sent the eunuch Xu Gao to persuade him to donate, and Zhou Kui cried poor and only donated 10,000 taels;

Chongzhen requested an increase to 20,000 taels, and Zhou Kui asked his daughter, Empress Zhou, for help, and the Empress privately gave 5,000 taels,

but Zhou Kui deducted 2,000 taels and only handed over 3,000 taels, totaling 13,000 taels.

This greed even for his daughter's money can only be said that he had reached a certain level of greed.

His grandson was the future Great Ming emperor.

Of course, this premise is that the Great Ming Dynasty still existed.

After Chuang King Li Zicheng entered the capital, Zhou Kui was tortured,

and was forced to hand over 520,000—530,000 taels of silver, plus countless treasures and silks...

"Alright, brothers, the Great Ming and such are still far away from us, so let's not talk too much."

Tian Long Zhang Jie clapped his hands and ended the topic.

"Exactly, exactly."

Among the four Zhang Jies, Tian Long Zhang Jie and Shui Hu Zhang Jie are in the Song Dynasty,

and Pirate Zhang Jie is in the Pirate King world where the historical background is completely fictional.

Only Yi Tian Zhang Jie's late Yuan period is closest to the Great Ming,

but looking at his current actions, the Zhu Ming will not appear in the Yi Tian world.

Since that is the case, the matter about the Great Ming can temporarily come to an end.

Pirate Zhang Jie propped his chin with his hand and asked:

"Speaking of which, why didn't Lu Qian in Shui Hu Zhuan directly use poison to kill Lin Chong,

but instead set fire to the fodder depot, wanting to burn him to death?"