Ming Dynasty Emperor Chat Group: Zhu Qizhen Quits The Group At The Beginning

15: Zhu Yuanzhang was confused. Is there something wrong with our garrison system?

Zhu Di was scolded by Zhu Yuanzhang for a while, and temporarily forgot about the matter of”Chengzu” and turned his attention to Zhu Youjian.

After Zhu Yuanzhang spoke, Zhu Di took over the conversation and pointed out the source of the problem,”How many soldiers can fight in the Chongzhen Dynasty? Is there enough food and money?……”

At this point, Zhu Di realized that he was stupid. If there were enough food and grass, how could Zhu Youjian not have the confidence to resist the thief Li Zicheng.

He patted his forehead and continued,”Just tell me whether the Chongzhen Dynasty is still capable of fighting.”

Zhu Youjian was silent about this. He sat on the throne all day, and heard that there was a shortage of food and money here, or there was a war in another place.

As for how much combat power the Chongzhen Dynasty could mobilize at this time, Zhu Youjian actually had no idea.

Otherwise, Zhu Youjian would not have chosen to hang himself after Li Zicheng broke the capital, but should have thought about how to break the situation and save the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Gaoyi took Zhu Youjian’s expression into his eyes and knew how poor Zhu Youjian’s control over the grassroots and officials was.

People in later generations often say that Zhu Youjian’s killing of Wei Zhongxian was a bad move, but the key to the problem is not whether Zhu Youjian killed Wei Zhongxian or not.

It is whether someone can take over Wei Zhongxian’s position and have the ability of Wei Zhongxian.

Zhu Youjian killed Wei Zhongxian so quickly and so ruthlessly that the imperial guards, who represented the imperial power, were abolished, creating a huge power vacuum.

Without the dirty knife of the imperial guards hanging over their heads, wouldn’t the Donglin Party be lawless and would have fooled Zhu Youjian?

Moreover,……It would be fine if he just killed Wei Zhongxian, but he was stupid enough to abolish the Jinyiwei.

Jinyiwei had a bad reputation among civil officials. Why was that? Because Jinyiwei was the emperor’s eyes and ears, and could monitor the world!

The existence of Jinyiwei made officials tremble with fear, and they had to be careful in doing things, and they could not be too presumptuous.

After losing the factory guards and abolishing Jinyiwei, Zhu Youjian had to sit on the dragon throne like a deaf and blind man.

Zhu Youjian, who abolished Jinyiwei, actually realized the seriousness of the problem, and tried to reorganize it afterwards, but the Jinyiwei he organized was just an empty shell, without any deterrent effect.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxun shook his head and sighed:”At this time, in the Chongzhen Dynasty of Ming Dynasty, if we talk about combat power, the Manqing should be the first.” Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at the map and wondered:”Isn’t this Manqing located in the bitter cold land of Liaodong, why can it be the first in combat power in the Chongzhen era?”

“According to what you said, the Ming Dynasty should have many firearms at this time, and these things are not something that the Tartars can make…….”

At this point, Zhu Yuanzhang shuddered and asked in a low voice:”Could it be that……”

“That’s right.”

Zhu Gaoxun sighed,”In the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty, the most famous merchants were the Shanxi merchants. There were eight of these merchants who funded the enemy. After the Qing Dynasty took over the country, these people were named the Eight Great Merchants by the Tartar Emperor.”

“It was these people who sold food, weapons, and clothing to the Tartars for many years…….As long as you can think of it, there is nothing they dare not sell”

“Shameless!” Zhu Di shouted angrily:”Is it because the Ming Dynasty is too harsh on them and doesn’t allow them to do business?”

In response, Zhu Gaoxun just shook his head and didn’t dwell too much on the issue of businessmen.

In his opinion, traitors are traitors, and these people will be killed anyway, so there is no point in saying more.

Talking too much will only deepen Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di’s aversion to businessmen.

You know, if you want a rich country and a strong people, commercial development is essential.

“Of course. Zhu Gaoxun shook his head and said,”We can’t blame the merchants for the strength of the Qing Dynasty. During the Chongzhen period, the corrupt border troops of the Ming Dynasty also sold a lot of things to the Qing Dynasty Tartars, including important weapons such as the Red Cannon.”

“What!?”Zhu Youjian was dumbfounded,”These people dare to sell even the red cannon?”

In Zhu Youjian’s mind, most of the red cannons of the Jiannu Tartars were captured in the war. Unexpectedly, they were sold by the border troops! Zhu Yuanzhang’s brows were already furrowed. It was not good news that the border troops were so corrupt. He looked at Zhu Gaoxun and said,”Is the entire border army corrupt?”

This question involved the issue of the Wei Suo system set by Zhu Yuanzhang, but Zhu Gaoxun decided to speak out.

“Grandfather Emperor, the guard system you established actually began to decay after the Yongle reign.”

“By the time of the Chongzhen Emperor, the middle and high-level officials of the northern garrisons and even the border troops had become rotten. The food and wages allocated by the court first passed through the hands of the major generals, then the middle-level officials, and finally the remaining soup was left for the soldiers below.”

“Not only that, these soldiers also had to plant crops during the limited time for planting crops. It would be fine if all the crops they planted belonged to the soldiers themselves, but even these crops had to pass through the hands of the generals.”

“As for the Man Qing, in fact, with the strength of the Ming Dynasty during the Chongzhen period, they could have dealt with them long ago. The reason why they could not be destroyed was nothing more than four words – raising the enemy to protect themselves!”

“As for the garrisons in the south and other places, there is no need to mention them. Most of the capable soldiers chose to become refugees under the oppression and exploitation of middle and high-level generals. Those who could not escape could only be exploited to death!”

In fact, the problems Zhu Gaoxun talked about have existed since ancient times. The corruption of the army has always started with corruption.

And corruption is in human nature, and the corruption of the garrison system is an inevitable outcome.

From the moment this system came out, it was destined to be adaptable only for a period of time and not suitable for long-term implementation.

Zhu Yuanzhang’s face turned black when he heard the words. The garrison system was his pride, and he did not expect it to be so corrupt.

And in Zhu Gaoxun’s words, Zhu Yuanzhang also tasted other flavors.

Although Zhu Gaoxun did not say it explicitly, Zhu Yuanzhang could understand it.

The corruption of the garrison system is also related to the household registration system. Even……It is also related to the official rules he set.

Zhu Di looked at Zhu Gaoxun thoughtfully, and couldn’t help but sigh at Zhu Gaoxun’s boldness.

It’s not that no one has noticed the problems with the garrisons and household registration, but no one dared to mention it in front of the old man in the Hongwu Dynasty.

Regardless of Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di’s emotions, Zhu Gaoxun’s words continued,”After talking about the army, let’s talk about the group of civil officials in the Chongzhen Dynasty. Except for a few civil officials who can be counted on, most of the civil officials only care about their own interests.”

“In the eyes of these people, the destruction of the country and the family is just another change of power. They can still be officials no matter what emperor or master they have.”

Zhu Gaoxun had already talked about the issue of civil officials before, so he did not elaborate on it here.

He changed the subject and said,”As for the money and grain that you mentioned just now, it is actually very easy to solve.”

“How to solve it?”

Upon hearing this, Zhu Di became interested.

As the saying goes, without money, everything is difficult, and the same is true at the national level.

The army can be so corrupt, not to mention the administration of the Chongzhen Dynasty. Under such circumstances, there is no way to collect money and grain.

Let this group of already corrupt people collect money and grain. Not to mention that they will definitely embezzle, these people even dare to use the imperial edict to make a fortune!

Imposing corvée and increasing taxes are all considered light. In severe cases, the people are forced to sell their land and buy their children.

Most of the”dog emperors” scolded by the people in the last years of the dynasty came from this.

Of course, it is not ruled out that some emperors were really incompetent, such as Wanyan Gou.

When Zhu Di was thinking about it, Zhu Gaoyi said coldly in a faint tone:”Search the houses! As long as there is an army with strong execution ability, start from controlling Shuntian Prefecture and confiscate the homes of those corrupt officials and parasites!”

“This is a good idea!” Zhu Yuanzhang clapped his hands in agreement,”To deal with corrupt officials, we should strike hard, these bastards are just cheapskates!”

The two emperors were in full force, and the hall was filled with a chilling atmosphere for a while.

Zhu Youjian was a little confused, and said in a stammering voice:”But there is almost no army in the capital that my grandchildren can fully trust, how can we confiscate their homes? Even if we confiscate their homes, the money we seized will be distributed and will still go into the pockets of those corrupt officials…….”

“Stupid! So stupid!”

Before Zhu Youjian could finish his words, Zhu Di scolded him,”You don’t have one, don’t we three have one? You think your help button is vegetarian!”