Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 150 The Industrial and Commercial Bureau is established!

On June 30, the four major camps left Zhangjiakou to the north, crossed the Great Wall and entered the territory of Mongolia south of the desert.

The first to enter was the Chahar tribe, which was the area where Ligdan Khan's son Ezhe lived after his death.

After the death of his father Ligdan Khan, his mother Su Tai was forcibly taken away by Prince Zheng Jirgalang, while Ezhe was named Prince of Chahar by Huang Taiji and married Huang Taiji's second daughter, Princess Gulun Wenzhuang Makata.

As soon as the four camps came out of the border, they looked at everything in front of them and fell silent.

The grass is withered and the willows are dead. Summer should be the time when all things grow, but now there is nothing to be seen. There is very little green on the grassland, and in many places even the grass roots have disappeared.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, it was not just the Central Plains that suffered from small ice ages, droughts, and locust plagues... The disasters on the grasslands were no less than those in the Central Plains. The dried corpses of cattle and sheep, baby skeletons, and vultures rising and falling in the sky could be seen everywhere.

This is also one of the reasons why Lindan Khan frequently invaded the border of the Ming Dynasty. On the one hand, the Chahar tribe wanted to restore the glory of their ancestors, and on the other hand, life on the grassland was too bitter and cold.

As the saying goes, "You can't have both loyalty and filial piety, you can only have one side, civil and military". Lin Danhan had not received any cultural education and only knew how to judge people, so he was also called "Tiger Dun Tu Han". It was precisely because of his short-sightedness that he was only concerned with exploiting the various tribes on the grassland, which led to their turning to the Later Jin.

The four camps looked at the scene before them in silence; the people of the Ming Dynasty were like this, and so were the people of the grassland.

During the 14 years of Chongzhen's reign, there were recorded severe droughts, with people starving and cannibalism everywhere.

The ecology on the grassland suffered an extinction-level blow, as even in Fujian there were records of snow accumulation of five feet. Documents from the late Ming Dynasty included records of hail as big as bowls and hail as big as bowls, which are not exaggerations at all.

It is precisely because of this that nomadic peoples had no choice but to migrate south to seek opportunities for survival, and invading the Ming Dynasty was almost an inevitable choice.

When Nurhaci started his army with only 18 sets of armor and established the Later Jin Dynasty, the biggest threat was the food crisis. His initial motivation was to plunder resources and food in order to survive the famine.

Amid the chain reactions of natural disasters, peasant uprisings, the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the Mongol invasion, Chongzhen's situation was sliding further into the abyss...

What the Ming army did not expect was that the first troops they encountered were from the Tumed Left Banner.

Cao Huachun gritted his teeth and said angrily, "Attack!"

We must fight. His Majesty once said that what cannot be achieved on the battlefield will be even more impossible to achieve at the negotiation table.

Li Banghua's heart was as hard as iron, "Kill!"

"It is advisable to hang the head of the barbarian in the street and in the residence of the barbarians to show the thousands of miles away.

Anyone who offends the Ming Dynasty will be punished no matter how far away they are! "

The loyalty to the emperor and patriotism he learned since childhood made him not have much empathy for other races.

Instead, they believe that Heaven and Earth created all things to feed humans, that the Ming Dynasty used to open trade with the grasslands and gave you money and food every year, but you don't know how to be grateful, so you should all be killed.

The soldiers looked at everything around them and all stopped, especially the soldiers who joined the four major camps later. Many of them fled to Beijing from Shanxi, Henan, Northern Zhili and other places. They saw the scenes of the past as if they happened yesterday.

There was sympathy in their eyes, but more of it was determination. If it weren't for Your Majesty, the whole family wouldn't have survived. Now the only option was to die for His Majesty, with no other options.

"kill!"

"kill……"

The cavalry rushed towards the Tumed Left Banner like a torrent. The Tumed Left Banner was usually disorganized, and suddenly realized that the Ming army was coming, but they were only panicked for a moment, and quickly organized thousands of people to fight.

Before the Mongolian tribes south of the desert surrendered to Huang Taiji, what they despised the most was the Ming court's troops.

So there was no fear on their faces, but instead excitement and cruelty. They shouted and screamed, charging towards the Ming army.

"Boom boom boom..."

With the roar of artillery, the air was filled with smoke. During this month, the Armament Department made many improvements to the artillery and muskets. Although the barrel was still the original, rifling was added.

Therefore, the accuracy was much higher, and the shells fell densely among the Mongolian crowd, causing a burst of ghosts howling in an instant.

In just one round, more than hundreds of people were killed or injured. Compared with the three-layer armor of the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia that had entered the pass before, these people's equipment was just like a layer of paper. Some of them didn't even have armor on them.

These Tumed Left Banner Mongols had never seen such a scene before. They were isolated from information and didn't even know that Huang Taiji was defeated in this invasion. Therefore, they were stunned after just one round.

Before they could react, they saw the Ming army's command flag waving, and thousands of musketeers raised their loaded muskets and began to harvest.

"Boom bang bang..."

The air was filled with smoke, and thousands of Mongolian soldiers fell down in rows like harvested rice. In less than a cigarette break time, more than 50% of their soldiers were killed. There were shrill shouts, painful curses, and roars. The remaining people were completely frightened and collapsed like a flood.

He started to mount his horse and flee back.

On the Ming side, the command flag also changed again.

"Boom~~"

The cavalry from the four major camps finally moved.

"Kill!" Huang Degong took the lead and rode out on his horse, followed closely by the people from the Yongwei Camp.

"Kill~"

The White Spear Soldiers, the Beijing Camp, and the Qi Family Army were not far behind and chased after the enemy.

Not long after, the soldiers returned dragging scarlet bags, some of which still had hair sticking out of them...

……

At this time, Chongzhen continued to move northward under the cover of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot.

It took three days to walk a hundred miles, but in these hundred miles, Chongzhen saw killing people everywhere. Brutal officers and soldiers were killing people, peasant rebels were killing people, bureaucrats and gentry were killing people, and the whole land was scarlet.

They walked through villages and towns, and found that nine out of ten houses were empty. They walked through the wilderness, which was littered with graves, stripped trees, corpses, and bones... There were no babies, because they had been eaten long ago. If they were seen occasionally, they were only tiny skeletons.

"Da Ming... Is this the Daming?!"

Chongzhen knelt on the ground with tears streaming down his face, his shoulders twitching.

Before, he had only heard it from the people in Sanniangzi Village, but now that he had seen it with his own eyes, he realized that the real situation was much more horrific than he had imagined.

"Sir, drink some water first. Our people have already gone out to look for food to fill their stomachs." The captain of the Imperial Guards handed him a small bag of water with cracked lips, "Be frugal. It's the same for a thousand miles north."

Prince Xiang Zhu Yiming signaled the Jinyiwei to leave for a while, and then he took the water bag and said, "My son, I know you are upset. Seeing our ancestors' country in ruins, no one would feel good."

"But that is why you must protect your health. We must go to the capital, pass the imperial examinations, enter the court, and report everything to His Majesty."

Prince Xiang patted Chongzhen on the back, but he suddenly turned his head and laid on his chest and cried, "But... but even if he knew, he couldn't change it. Wouldn't that make him even more desperate?"

"How is that possible? Who is your majesty? Your majesty is the ruler of the rejuvenation of the country. I believe that these situations are only temporary. Your majesty will definitely find a solution..."

Chongzhen raised his head, "Really?"

Prince Xiang nodded solemnly at him, and Chongzhen's expression eased a little. He stood up stiffly and said, "I can still walk. Let's continue while it's still light."

……

In the capital of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Changgan's strategy of "changing the crown prince" finally met with backlash from court officials again, and at this time, Zhu Changgan finally put forward his own ideas.

Of course, it was not proposed by himself, but by Liu Zhifeng, the Minister of Punishment, Xu Cifu, the Director of the Department of Integrity, and others: the taxes from Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other places would be evenly distributed among several provinces such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

However, it still aroused opposition from many ministers in the court, because the poor peasants in Nanzhili, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces had already been overwhelmed, and even maintaining the current taxes and corvées was already shaky. If more taxes were levied, the officials would inevitably force the people to rebel.

And almost all the land was in the hands of bureaucrats and gentry, so it was naturally impossible for them to move out.

Wen Jinzhong, the right assistant minister promoted by the Ministry of Revenue, stood up and said, "I think we can collect business taxes from merchants all over the world to make up for the deficit in the Ming Dynasty's finances."

Upon hearing this, Xue Guoguan quickly stood up and said, "This is absolutely not possible. Not collecting commercial taxes is the ancestral system of our Ming Dynasty. How can it be abolished so easily?" There was another round of noise at the small court meeting, with people arguing with each other and even shouting at each other.

Zhu Changgan looked at everyone and said, "Let's get back to the first question. Zhu Cilang is unworthy of his position. Sun Chengzong, draft a plan to depose the crown prince. He will be confined to the palace for 30 days and no one is allowed to see him."

As soon as these words were spoken, all the officials were shocked and stopped arguing. Instead, they focused all their attention on the affairs of the crown prince again.

The discussion continued until the sun was about to set.

In the end, the ministers agreed to the emperor's plan to levy "commercial tax".

The Industry and Commerce Bureau was officially established.

The first Si Zheng was Wen Jinzhong, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.

The overall structure is similar to the integration of the Industrial and Commercial Bureau and the Tax Bureau in later generations.

……

The so-called ancestral system was actually a trap dug by Zhu Yuanzhang.

When Zhu Yuanzhang founded the country, his first priority was to stabilize finances and consolidate financial resources, but his small peasant economy focused only on agricultural taxes.

Zhu Yuanzhang emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce. Any farmers who left their hometowns and did not farm to engage in business would be treated as idle vagrants. The government must catch them and punish them before they continue to farm.

Zhu Yuanzhang's "ancestral system" of "promoting agriculture and suppressing commerce" was mainly reflected in status. The social hierarchy was scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans. Merchants were at the bottom of society, and their descendants were not allowed to take the imperial examinations.

Farmers can wear silk, but merchants can only wear silk cloth.

At that time, there was no problem for Zhu Yuanzhang to make such a law, because too many people died in the founding war, the country had too much land that needed to be reclaimed, and restoring production was above all else.

Zhu Yuanzhang also collected very low taxes on industry and commerce, fearing that heavy taxes would lead to high prices and increase the burden on the people.

As a result, the early commercial tax was 15% or even 130%, while daily necessities were simply tax-free.

He also strictly prohibited overseas trade and changed the trade system to a tribute system.

This tribute system actually means that people from poor places like Japan, Zhenla, Ryukyu, and Annan come to the rich households to beg for food. They come to our door with even the smallest thing, and we have to give them watermelons and peaches in return. It's a losing business.

Until the sixth year of the Wanli reign, the total fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty was 26,527,000 taels, of which agricultural taxes accounted for 20,820,000 taels, industrial and commercial taxes accounted for 22,380,000 taels, and miscellaneous income accounted for 3,487,000 taels.

But when Chongzhen ascended the throne, agricultural taxes rose to 81 percent, and industrial and commercial taxes were even lower.

But everyone knows that capital developed rapidly in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, especially in the Jiangnan region, where there was a large surplus of labor and handicrafts, industry and commerce developed very well.

During the Little Ice Age, farmers lived a hard life and could not even get enough to eat. Further taxation would only force them to rebel, and the only solution was to collect taxes from industry and commerce.

"Ancestor's rules..." Zhu Changgan shook his head helplessly after leaving the court.

The demise of the Ming Dynasty to a certain extent was related to Zhu Yuanzhang's restraint.

These ancestral systems established by Zhu Yuanzhang were implemented very harshly in the early stage, often taking people's lives, confiscating their properties and exterminating their clans, but most of them collapsed later.

As the saying goes, the stricter the rules, the more rebellious they become.

The emperors of the middle and late Ming Dynasty practiced Taoism, relied heavily on eunuchs, wore luxurious clothes, established a cabinet, indulged in fine wine and beautiful women, practiced carpentry, etc., all of which violated the ancestral system.

Each one was more innovative than the last, and this ancestral system... later developed into a weapon for civil servants.

Everyone believes selectively and uses what is in their own interests.

If it is not in your own interest, don't use it.

It was originally used to establish the emperor's supreme authority, construct the operation of power and check and balance the court. However, it was eventually used by the civil service group to check and balance the imperial power.

"Wang Chengen, let Si Zhengwen from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce come to see me!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Zhu Changgan watched Wang Chengen run out, and the corners of his mouth finally curled up.

He prepared two plans. One was that the civil officials agreed to increase agricultural taxes in the areas of Southern Zhili, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the other was to increase industrial and commercial taxes.

Zhu Changgan had long expected that this group of civil servants would agree to the second proposal because they felt that the emperor would not be able to collect the so-called industrial and commercial taxes.

Because throughout history, the so-called industrial and commercial taxes have been difficult to collect.

"I will show you how I collected industrial and commercial taxes in Jiangnan." Zhu Changgan smiled and took out a letter, signed to Sun Chuanting.

"Can we change the crown prince a few more times?" Zhu Changgan waved his hand and asked the eunuch to tell the people in the imperial kitchen to serve the dishes.

……

Zhu Changgan had a habit that no matter how big the matter was, he would never miss time for meals.

The palace maids came in one after another carrying the imperial meal and placed it in front of Zhu Changgan. Zhu Changgan was in high spirits, and just as he was about to pick up his chopsticks, he discovered that the hand of a palace maid holding the plate was shaking violently.

He frowned and glanced at the other person, then found that the other person's hands were shaking even more violently, so he put down the chopsticks in his hand and said, "Forget it, I won't eat anymore, Wang Chengen, Wang Chengen?"

"Your Majesty, I'm here!"

Zhu Changgan pointed at the maid, and Wang Chengen immediately understood. He rushed over and grabbed the maid's arm, "Why are you shaking?"

“I… I…” The palace maid’s face turned pale instantly, her whole body trembled, and her legs were so weak that she couldn’t stand straight.

Wang Chengen called two eunuchs over and took the palace maid away. Less than an incense stick of time later, Wang Chengen ran in again and whispered a few words in the emperor's ear.

"Feed this food to her."

"Yes!"

Zhu Changgan moved to the execution site in the palace. At this time, the palace maid had been beaten to a pulp. Several eunuchs pinched her mouth and forced food into her mouth. After a few minutes, she foamed at the mouth and passed out.

poison!
And it is highly poisonous.

The sun had set at this time, but the Jinyiwei and Dongchang in the capital were all in action, in addition to people from the Five Cities Military Department.

"Do you know the personnel list?"

Ma Shiwei, the deputy commander of the Jinyiwei, knelt on the ground and said, "Your Majesty, we have obtained the list of personnel."

"Do it!"

……

The emperor was poisoned?
The news spread among the nobles, civil and military officials in the court, and they were all shocked that someone had poisoned His Majesty. Originally, after today's small court meeting, some ministers wanted to move around, but now when they suddenly heard about this, they all closed the doors and no one dared to come out.

"Who did it?" Tian Weijia, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, was so angry that he smashed his favorite purple clay teapot to the ground. "How could such a big thing be left to a palace maid?"

He was not angry about the poisoning, but the person who did it was simply a fool. "In this case, wouldn't the boat trip on the lake next month be completely ruined?"

Tian Weijia has already contacted several nobles and will go boating in Shichahai Lake early next month. The Queen has already been persuaded, and the Emperor will probably go as well.

Now that this has happened...

The entire capital city was filled with the sounds of horse hooves, whips, and footsteps. The people were in a state of panic and were all terrified.

……

(End of this chapter)