Ming Dynasty 1627

Chapter 83 The greatest ill of the world is the perilous rule of government.

An hour is still too short.

These civil officials in the palace have always been given a full day for the provincial, metropolitan, and palace examinations. There's no reason for them to only have an hour!

Not to mention that each group has one clerk and one secretary, and the two may not necessarily agree.

Some of the bolder members of the Imperial Guard were so enraged that they even dared to use their wit and eloquence.

It's laughable that they now try to imitate the Confucian scholars and chime in with their opinions on the state of affairs.

But as time passed, the arguments gradually subsided, and only occasional soft arguing and discussion could be heard in the hall.

Each group nominated someone with good calligraphy skills and they worked diligently to copy and compile the final answers.

Finally, as a bell rang outside the palace, a young eunuch announced loudly:

"The time has come—"

A few groups were not used to the high-intensity pace of answering questions and were just a little short of finishing, but the eunuchs simply snatched their answer sheets away.

The officials and scribes dared not scramble for it; only occasional complaints and sighs of regret could be heard.

Gradually, the once bustling hall returned to silence.

The crowd stood with their hands at their sides, some lost in thought, some with wandering eyes, and some with their fists clenched so tightly that their palms were sweaty.

This question and answer session, seemingly a consultation between the emperor and the emperor, was also a stepping stone to the top.
Apart from a few clueless individuals, everyone else present had some expectations that they couldn't quite explain.

Your Majesty, how will you use them? Will any lucky ones rise to the top in today's questioning?
……

After a moment, once the answer sheets were neatly collected, a crisp crack of a whip sounded from the Imperial Guard, and Zhu Youjian slowly walked out from behind the hall and sat back down behind his desk.

The air in the entire hall seemed to be sucked out the moment he sat down.

Zhu Youjian glanced at everyone in the hall, taking in the eager atmosphere hidden beneath the quiet. He didn't speak, but simply lowered his head and silently reviewed each answer sheet.

He read very quickly, basically only looking at the titles of the world's ills written on the cover of each group.

"Official integrity has been lost, leading to corruption in the bureaucracy..."

"The land is fraudulently leased, and the national tax revenue is dwindling day by day..."

"The garrisons are in disrepair, and border defenses are neglected..."

"Partisan attacks and suppression of dissent have led to the decline of the nation's order..."

"Eunuchs abuse their power, and the scourge of eunuchs is upon us once more..."

"The philosophy of mind has become rampant, and people's hearts have lost their ancient virtues..."

Some of these titles are insightful and address the core of the political situation, while others are incisive and start from small details.

But without exception, they were all within his understanding.

This is normal. Pointing out problems is the easiest thing to do, but solving them is the real challenge.

Even when he saw scathing headlines like "Eunuchs Abuse Power, Eunuch Disaster Returns," he didn't even lift his eyelids.

Young civil servants are always full of passion and can't tolerate the slightest imperfection. It's quite normal for them to write such suicidal words in their remonstrances.

Zhu Youjian's face remained calm and composed throughout.

After all, most of these people were newly appointed Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations), and had not been involved in specific political affairs for several years. They had been sitting on the bench, and their political insights were not necessarily much higher than when they were Juren (successful candidates in the provincial imperial examinations).

Since these titles were as expected, he didn't intend to look at the examples inside in detail.

I'll read it carefully as supplementary material when I get back to the Qianqing Palace.

Until, a special answer sheet appeared before his eyes.

"The greatest ill in the world is... a dangerous government?"

What do you mean by "dying politics"? Wasn't the Wanli Emperor's era already over?

The combination of Tianqi and Wei Zhongxian could be described as a scourge of eunuchs and cruelty, but it certainly couldn't be called a political disaster.
A hint of interest finally appeared on Zhu Youjian's usually calm and composed face.

He raised an eyebrow; that was interesting.

He stopped looking at the other answer sheets and instead unfolded this one, examining it carefully.

The example under this heading is specifically noted to be based on the author's personal experience.

In the autumn of the fifth year of the Tianqi reign, he traveled from Jiangxi to Beijing to take the imperial examination. When he passed through Zhenyang County, Runing Prefecture, Henan Province, he discovered an extremely strange sight.

Along both sides of the road, as far as the eye could see, were the finest farmland, flat and fertile, yet the fields were overgrown with waist-high weeds, indicating they had been abandoned for a long time.

At the time, he was still a scholar who had passed the imperial examinations, and he was puzzled, so he asked the coachman why he was doing that.

The driver sighed and said that most of the fields in Zhenyang County were like this.

He then asked if the area within a hundred miles was always like this.

The driver replied that the neighboring county was slightly better, but four or five out of ten of it was still deserted.

The scholar was puzzled, but he was in a hurry to get to the post station and had no time to ask further questions.

He arrived at the post station just before nightfall. The scholar saw that the postmaster was an elderly man, so he invited him to drink with him and asked him why.

The scholar asked, "What I see along the way is desolate and barren fields, a truly shocking sight. Does the imperial court not collect taxes from these fields?"

The old man replied, "How can we not collect it? Land tax is the foundation of the nation; not a single penny can be missing."

The scholar then asked, "If you're going to collect taxes, why don't you cultivate the land?"

The old man replied, "Without oxen, how can we plow?"

The scholar asked again, "Why are there no oxen?"

The old man then immediately opened up and poured out his grievances:
"Firstly, in recent years, bandits have been rampant, and many cattle in the countryside have been stolen and sold."

"Secondly, the corvée labor of the horse-riding households in this county is harsh and the people fear them like tigers. Once it is a certain household's turn, that household has no choice but to sell the cattle, abandon the land, and flee with the whole family."

“Without an owner, the fields will naturally be left uncultivated. But the land tax cannot be neglected, so it can only be levied on the remaining landowners.”

"As a result, the burden on landowners became heavier and heavier, and more and more people fled, so naturally there was more and more wasteland."

Upon hearing this, the scholar was alarmed, yet still puzzled: "If that's the case, why not sell the land? It would be better than leaving it barren."

Upon hearing this, the old man gave a bitter smile: "Sell? It's easy to say! In this state of affairs, who dares to buy land? If you buy someone's land, you have to pay their taxes. These ever-increasing taxes are something even wealthy families can't afford! So, they can only watch helplessly as these fertile fields lie fallow year after year."

When Zhu Youjian read this, he felt a chill run down his spine.

He always believed that the problems of the Ming Dynasty were corruption, border issues, natural disasters, and factional strife.

In short, these are the same old issues that he often encountered in various novels in later generations.

If this example is true, it means that at least in some parts of Henan, the Ming Dynasty's grassroots governance system has already shown signs of collapse.

In this example, even the landlords who were most fond of annexing land dared not buy the fertile fields beside the main road.

What kind of terrifying entity would be able to curb the greedy appetites of landlords?

He took a deep breath, suppressing the turmoil in his heart, and continued reading.

Finally, we saw the real crux of the matter in this answer sheet.

The scholar in the story remained silent for a long time before asking one last question: "Is the county magistrate aware of this situation?"

The old man replied, "How could I not know? The magistrate of this county is a tribute student, whose official career is over. He only knows how to whip people and urge them to pay taxes every day. He has never cared about the lives of the people."

The scholar asked again, "This is an official road; many officials must be passing through, including imperial inspectors and censors, right?"

Answer: "Yes." Question: "Prefectural and provincial officials must pass through, right?"

Answer: Yes.

The question was asked: "Then, didn't anyone stop their horses and ask why?"

The old man raised his cloudy eyes, looked at the scholar, and slowly shook his head.

"No."

……

Zhu Youjian slammed the answer sheet shut, staring blankly for a long time without uttering a word.

The main hall was deathly silent.

Seeing that his expression was unusual, Gao Shiming quietly stepped forward and asked in a low voice, "Your Majesty, is there something amiss? Should we summon the person who wrote this article to come forward and present it to us?"

Zhu Youjian slowly shook his head.

Even if the examples above are concealed or overlooked—for example, the powerful and corrupt officials' treachery—they are likely important reasons why local tax revenue has fallen into a vicious cycle.

But the other party truly entrusted the worst and most truthful situation to them with utmost sincerity.

If he singles out this person and publicly flaunts and questions him like this, it really has the feel of "This is what Cao Wushang, the Left Sima of Liu Bang, said."

He glanced at the names written on the cover, memorized them, and planned to pay more attention to them later.

"The Liaodong Reward Team consists of: Yuan Jixian, a messenger; Hu Zhifan, a secretary in the Imperial Secretariat; and Ji Chengye, Tian Youguang, Wang Kengcai, Li Jiyou, and Wu Jisi, members of the Embroidered Uniform Guard."

Finally, Zhu Youjian slowly stood up and walked down the steps, looking at the pairs of eyes in the hall that were burning with tension and full of expectation.

After a moment of silence, he finally spoke slowly.

"Reading your articles today is like seeing through the clouds and mist. Only now do I realize that the ills of the world are indeed like a series of overlapping mountains, which cannot be shaken off in a day."

His voice was soft, yet it reached everyone's ears clearly.

Upon hearing this, everyone in the hall was somewhat disappointed.

Many people regarded today's audience as a stepping stone to heaven, but upon hearing the emperor's words, they felt a chill in their hearts, and their enthusiasm dissipated by more than half.

Some of those who had previously spoken out fiercely, after their initial enthusiasm subsided, recalled their bold statements and even felt a sense of lingering fear and inner conflict.

Zhu Youjian took in everyone's expressions, but then abruptly changed the subject.

"However, in this world, things either succeed if you do them, or perish if you don't!"

He didn't take a step, but stood on the steps, his eyes fixed intently on the crowd.

"Move one mountain today, move another tomorrow, and the Taihang and Wangwu Mountains will not hinder our ambition; dig one canal today, dig another tomorrow, and the rivers will change their course!"

He spread his hands out as if to embrace the entire hall.

"But now, where should we begin?"

Zhu Youjian paused, and the slight commotion among the crowd below instantly subsided. Everyone held their breath, waiting for his next words.

"As an ancient saying goes: 'When a ruler governs, he will be well-governed if he understands the feelings of his subjects; otherwise, chaos will ensue.' If I wish to govern the world well, I must first understand the feelings of both the ruler and the subjects!"

"I have specially prepared a list for you all to go to the nine border regions to distribute rewards. Each person will be from your native place of origin and will be sent to your native place of origin to distribute the rewards."

He stopped abruptly, turned to look at Gao Shiming, and asked:
"Gao Shiming, why is it that in this dynasty, the old practice of awarding rewards always applies to people from other places?"

Gao Shiming bowed and said, "Your Majesty, this is to prevent people from the local area from colluding with local officials and military officers to prevent corruption."

Zhu Youjian nodded, turned to look at everyone, and then said something chilling.

"But, are people from other places immune to corruption?"

The crowd below was in an uproar. Among the passersby who had experience with awarding prizes in the past, most of them avoided eye contact, not daring to look directly into Zhu Youjian's burning gaze.

Zhu Youjian sighed softly.

"It will happen."

“The salaries in this Ming Dynasty are meager, and even those who pass the imperial examinations often have to borrow money to make a living.”

"In official circles, it is shameful to have an empty purse, and it is a laughing stock to be able to embezzle but not do so. How can a mere method of avoiding official residence completely eliminate corruption?"

Several of the younger scholars, perhaps having never done such a thing before, were filled with resentment, their faces flushed red, and they were almost about to step forward to defend themselves.

However, most people remained silent.

Zhu Youjian suddenly waved his sleeve.

"But—so what!"

He took a deep breath and raised his voice slightly.

"So what?! How can a temporary crisis outweigh the importance of reporting the situation from below to above?"

"Compared to the benefits of rewarding people from other places, I am more worried that they will be easily fooled because they are unfamiliar with the local conditions!"

He looked around at the crowd, his gaze intense, scanning the people and taking in their expressions.

A moment later, he stepped down the steps, his voice loud and clear, and shouted.

"Ma Maocai!"

At this moment, Ma Maocai was recalling the "faults" in his past award-giving process, and felt somewhat uneasy.

Hearing his own name suddenly, he was startled and quickly stepped forward to bow.

"Your Majesty, it is indeed..."

"A native of Ansai County, Yan'an Prefecture, Shaanxi Province, is that correct?"

Before he could even answer, Zhu Youjian cut him off, his tone becoming increasingly urgent.

“Since you were born in Yan’an Prefecture and have spent more than ten years studying and farming there, you must have a thorough understanding of the local situation and not be fooled or deceived.”

"I am now sending you to Yansui to distribute the rewards. I will not inquire about any so-called favors or wrongdoings, but only about the actual situation and the true state of affairs in the area!"

At this point, he stared intently at Ma Maocai and said, enunciating each word clearly:
"However, when you return from your hometown several months from now, will you still be able to speak to me with the same sincerity as you do today?!"

Ma Maocai was shaken by the provocative question posed by the Ming emperor.

His face, tanned dark from years of business trips, suddenly turned a deep red, as if the anger he had been suppressing was about to burst forth.

All those unspeakable sordid thoughts from just now, and that deep, lingering homesickness from earlier, were instantly cast aside.

He gritted his teeth, his lips trembling slightly, but he still tried to control his voice and replied, word by word:
"Your Majesty is virtuous."

"Your humble servant would not hesitate to die for you!"

Zhu Youjian patted his shoulder forcefully, turned around and looked around, meeting the eager and ardent gazes of each person intently.

"Several months later, it will still be you all, still in this hall, still asking the same question!"

"Are all the people in the hall still as they are today...?"

"—To tell me with utmost sincerity?!"

The crowd in the hall stirred for a moment, then calmed down, as if a storm was brewing.

But almost in a fleeting moment, they seemed to have a magical understanding, and their previous disorganization vanished.

Nearly a hundred officials and flag bearers knelt down in unison, and the roar of their voices was so loud that it almost lifted the roof of the Wuying Hall!
"Your humble servant would not hesitate to die for you!"
-
Attached is the location of the Zhenyang County story in the text (this sentence is free as it is within the word limit, and I will not include this footnote later; I will be careful not to charge extra for any additional information at the end of the text).

(End of this chapter)