Late Ming Dynasty: So what if Emperor Chongzhen was inactive?!

Chapter 29 The Night of September 7th, the Seventh Year of the Tianqi Reign (Part 1)
On the seventh day of the ninth month of the seventh year of the Tianqi reign (1627), at the hour of Yin (3-5 AM).

The moon was about to set, and Beijing was exceptionally dark.

Inside the Kunning Palace, the white candles on the lotus-shaped lampposts were almost burned out, leaving only a faint, firefly-like glow. In the darkness, a pair of green-glowing eyes floated in mid-air, appearing even brighter than the lamplight.

"Girl, why aren't you asleep yet? It's so late." Zhang Yan asked helplessly, looking at those eyes.

However, her words received no response, because Ya Tou was a lion cat from Linqing. She was one of the many cats of Emperor Tianqi, Zhu Youxiao. There were so many cats in the palace that their names were impossible to remember, but all the female cats were called Ya Tou and the male cats were called Xiao Si. Those who made military contributions by catching mice could be appointed as stewards and receive a salary.

The girl tilted her head, seemingly dissatisfied with Zhang Yan's slander, then turned her back and ran away in a flash.

Zhang Yan only felt herself being stepped on a few times before the girl disappeared. Turning her head to look out the window, she saw a cat-like silhouette indeed appearing on the windowsill.

"Sigh..." Zhang Yan sighed softly. It wasn't the cat that couldn't sleep; it was clearly her who couldn't sleep. The emperor hadn't come to see her for several days. The sage's saying, "To get too close is to become disrespectful, to keep too far away is to become resentful," must be describing her just like that.

Inside the Hall of Mental Cultivation, Zhu Youjian lay alone on the bed, unable to sleep for nights on end.

He hadn't thought much of it when he learned that the Ming Dynasty's tax revenue was only a few million taels, since he was already mentally prepared. But when he suddenly decided to look at the tax details of the two capitals and thirteen provinces for this year and last year, he was shocked to realize just how absurd this country had become.

Let's not even talk about the year before it's over, but it'll only get worse than last year. In the sixth year of the Tianqi reign, Guangxi didn't have a single tael of silver in tax revenue, Fujian had 10,000 taels, Shaanxi 20,000 taels, Beizhili 50,000 taels, and Guangdong 30,000 taels. The only ones that seemed to be doing reasonably well were Nanzhili and Zhejiang, with 800,000 and 500,000 taels respectively. More than half of the thirteen provinces had single-digit figures.

"What is all this nonsense? Is this something a human being could think of or do?!" Zhu Youjian felt like he was going to vomit blood. The tax revenue of an entire province was less than the wealth of a random landlord. "So everyone was just putting on an act for me."

If this money were a surplus after meeting local fiscal needs, he could accept it. However, the Ming Dynasty's "transportation and retention" system stipulated that local governments could only retain a maximum of 30% of their tax revenue, with 70% to be handed over to the imperial court. In recent years, due to the escalating war, nearly 90% of the tax revenue had been transported out.

In other words, these millions of taels, and the tens of thousands of taels from each province, were practically all the tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty. Neither the imperial court nor the local governments had any money...

"During the Wanli era, annual tax revenue rarely fell below 20 million taels, peaking at over 40 million taels. The Qing Dynasty actually paid 8.21 million taels of silver in reparations, which shows the country was wealthy. So where did the money go?!"

Zhu Youjian now just wanted to find a shroud from one of the fallen soldiers of the Battle of Sarhu and hang himself from the rafters. How could a country like this have lasted seventeen years?!
Don't even mention the Ministry of Revenue not understanding it; he's been calculating it all night and still can't figure it out!

Inside Xuanwu Gate on the west side, a group of Imperial Guards stayed up all night.

Radana was pregnant for one year and nine months and finally went into labor. She screamed all night but couldn't give birth and was exhausted.

Her husband was pacing anxiously nearby, his eyes bloodshot. The onlookers were horrified by the sight and quietly moved away.

"Why did you come back alone? Where is the doctor I told you to find?" the Jinyiwei vice commander roared.

"My lord, the doctors refuse to come," the Imperial Guard captain said aggrievedly, while the assistant commander looked up at the sky in silence.

"Radana, keep going, you can do it!" the officer encouraged her as he fed her to replenish her energy.

Outside the city of Zunyi, Sichuan Province, a fierce westerly wind howled. The braziers, whipped by the gale, roared and crackled like battle flags being torn back.

Under Qin Liangyu's command, the White-Spear Soldiers connected the small branches at the top of the wall, quickly piecing them together to form a grid-like structure that stretched from the corner of the wall all the way to the top of the city wall.

This wasn't the first time the White-Clad Soldiers had used such tactics, but She Chongming's rebel army didn't seem to learn their lesson.

They thought that with such strong winds, they would be able to get a good night's sleep, but little did they know that the city wall had a leeward side.

Dozens of White-Clad Soldiers, with small wooden sticks in their mouths and wearing heavy armor weighing dozens of kilograms, waited silently beneath the city wall. They were veterans who had crawled back from the piles of corpses in the bloody battle of Hunhe, absolute ruthless characters capable of hand-to-hand combat with the Manchu White-Clad Warriors. Tonight, they would serve as the vanguard, opening the city gates for the main army.

She Chongming's army is of even lower quality than before. His elite troops have long been wiped out. Having lost his territory, he can only rely on An Bangyan and be at his beck and call. Otherwise, he wouldn't have personally led his troops to attack the city.

Affected by the strong winds, the fire in the brazier burned very fiercely and quickly, and was not replenished until it went out.

One, two, three—the braziers on the city wall went out one by one, and darkness gradually enveloped the top of the wall.

"Crack, crack," the sound of armor rubbing together rang out, and in the darkness, the noise was more chilling than the silence.

The rebels' siege of the city was not smooth. Although the city was small, they suffered three times the casualties in order to conquer the fortified city, including hundreds of people who were executed by the supervising officer.

Inside the She'an rebel camp, a soldier with his eyes closed gesticulated wildly and shouted, "No, don't kill me, spare my life, I was forced to do it!"

"Tsk! He's having another nightmare. What a coward, so timid." An old soldier rolled over irritably and covered his head with a tattered cloth, which he had taken from the Ming soldiers during the day.

The city was left with only a group of soldiers, not even a woman. They were poor, and the Ming army was even poorer.

They paid a huge price to conquer cities, but they didn't even know why.

The promised reward from the general has been delayed, and while official positions are being conferred arbitrarily, what good are they since they're not officials of the Ming Dynasty?

"Don't touch me!" the old soldier shouted irritably, thinking it was that young man who had been out at night who had wandered over there.

"What's going on?" The others were awakened by his shout, but they were too tired to even open their eyes.

"Ah ...

The veteran instantly snapped to attention. He hurriedly grabbed the spear that was under his head and assumed a defensive stance. However, his belt had slipped down because it wasn't fastened properly. He felt a chill underneath and quickly bent down to pull it up, only to see a dark figure bump into him.

"Stop!" the veteran shouted, but the man seemed not to hear him and suddenly accelerated and rushed over.

(End of this chapter)