pappabearbooks Chapter 38 Your servants are willing to donate 5 taels of silver.
Chapter 38 Your servants are willing to donate 5 taels of silver.
The atmosphere in the Hall of Supreme Harmony was somewhat somber.
Gao Panlong opened his mouth, then closed it again.
"...Well..."
"Translate, Censor Gao," Wei Zhongxian's voice shrilly, "What the hell do you mean by 'malicious disaster relief'?"
Gao Panlong looked around.
The Donglin Party members behind him all lowered their heads, looking either at their feet or at their official tablets; no one dared to come out and explain.
He swallowed hard.
"Malicious...malicious disaster relief...it's just..." He coughed dryly, forcing a lie, "Disaster relief is just disaster relief!"
"Translate, translate!" Wei Zhongxian continued, raising his voice.
Zhu Ming held his teacup, watching the people below trembling with fear, a slight smile playing on his lips.
However, sweat beaded on Gao Panlong's forehead.
"Translate it!" Wei Zhongxian urged, "His Majesty is waiting to hear it."
Gao Panlong gritted his teeth, "Evil... evil has two meanings: fierce and ruthless. The Shuowen Jiezi says, 'Evil means fierce. Intention means will.' Intentional evil... means fierce and powerful!"
He spoke faster and faster, as if he himself had been convinced: "Malicious disaster relief means fierce and intense disaster relief! It means disregarding common sense and old rules, and doing extraordinary things with overwhelming force! This is our true intention!"
After he finished speaking, he was stunned for a moment, then straightened his back.
"Yes! That's exactly what I mean!" The Donglin Party members behind him echoed, "What's wrong with vigorous and forceful disaster relief?"
Wei Zhongxian tilted his head, watching them as if they were watching a monkey show.
This is ridiculous! Can scholars really play word games like this?
"Is this what they call malicious disaster relief? Or," Wei Zhongxian took a step forward, "did you spend all that time criticizing 'malicious disaster relief' actually to praise His Majesty's wisdom, decisiveness, and swiftness?"
Gao Panlong's face turned pale and then flushed.
"Eunuch Wei..." he began with difficulty, "That's not what I meant..."
"So what do you mean?"
The air in the hall felt as if it had been slammed shut.
Zhu Ming put down his teacup and coughed softly.
"Censor Gao means that we are willing to contribute to the 'malicious disaster relief'! We are willing to donate 50,000 taels of silver for flood relief in the capital!" Li Yingsheng stepped forward and explained righteously.
"Yes! That's exactly what we mean!" Gao Panlong breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, someone stood up for him, which put his mind at ease.
It was only 50,000 taels of silver. If these Donglin Party members scraped together every penny, they could barely afford to feed Emperor Tianqi, Zhu Ming.
Seeing that things were almost done, Wei Zhongxian turned to Zhu Ming and said, "Your Majesty, Imperial Censor Gao and the others have finished translating. They are willing to donate 50,000 taels of silver or 500,000 strings of new Ming Dynasty banknotes to help with the floods in the capital and to comfort the affected people."
Five hundred thousand taels?
Gao Panlong and the others were speechless. The amount had increased tenfold all at once. It wouldn't be enough to just take some scraps now. They would have to use up the money they had spent on visiting brothels this month!
"Five hundred thousand taels?!" Gao Panlong practically jumped up. "Wei Zhongxian, you—!"
"Hmm?" Zhu Ming turned his head slightly to look at Gao Panlong. "Minister Gao, did Wei Daban translate it incorrectly? Didn't you say that we should carry out fierce disaster relief, strong disaster relief? Five hundred thousand taels, that's fierce enough, strong enough."
Gao Panlong opened his mouth, but the sound was stuck in his throat.
The Donglin Party members behind him turned pale.
"Your Majesty..." Gao Panlong's voice trembled, "What we just said was..."
"What is it?" Zhu Ming asked gently.
The hall was completely silent.
Sun Chengzong stood to the side, his lips moved, but he ultimately said nothing.
He simply looked at Gao Panlong, his gaze complex.
Gao Panlong stood with his hands hanging down, but sweat still dripped from his chin onto the gold bricks, pattering.
He suddenly realized that he had already lost the game the moment he uttered the words "malicious disaster relief."
He looked back at the equally bewildered Donglin Party members, who could only nod in agreement.
"...Yes." He then bowed and asked for permission, "Your subject...is willing to donate 500,000 taels."
"Good," Zhu Ming nodded, his tone calm. "You ministers are quite resourceful. I don't need to worry about it, and the funds for disaster relief are readily available without any government funding."
Then, Zhu Ming paused for a moment and said to Sun Chengzong, "Grand Secretary Sun!"
"Your subject is here!"
"Therefore, Grand Secretary Sun will take the lead in organizing the flood relief efforts!"
"I obey your decree!"
"Then let's move on to the next thing."
Before the atmosphere in the Hall of Supreme Harmony had recovered from the previous incident, Zhu Ming had already opened another report.
"On the first day of the sixth lunar month, urgent reports came from Jiangbei and Shandong that the drought was incessant, locusts covered the fields, the seedlings were devoured, and the land was barren for thousands of miles."
He read very slowly, uttering each word one by one, "It's been a drought for two years. It was a drought in the fourth year of the Tianqi reign, a drought in the fifth year of the Tianqi reign, and this year is the sixth year of the Tianqi reign, and it's still a drought."
He slammed the report onto the imperial desk.
"At the beginning of the year, I instructed officials in various regions to pay close attention to agricultural conditions and weather, and to prepare for drought and disaster prevention. Canals that needed repairing should be repaired, seeds that needed to be stored should be stored, and timely information should be provided to the people. Did I not say that?"
No one answered.
"I'm asking you, did I say it?" Zhu Ming raised his voice slightly.
Guo Yunhou, the Minister of Revenue, stepped forward with a stiff upper lip and said, "Your Majesty, I have spoken."
"Then why are Shandong and other places still suffering from this severe drought?"
Guo Yunhou opened his mouth, but was speechless and choked with emotion!
Zhu Ming sneered.
He was a time traveler, so of course he knew that the late Ming Dynasty was during the Little Ice Age, with natural disasters occurring one after another.
But knowing this is one thing, but the necessary preparations are still essential. As long as we respond properly and take adequate precautions, we may be able to get through this.
The problem is that these people didn't take it seriously at all.
The imperial decree was issued, the official gazette was copied, and it was circulated to various government offices. Then what?
Then there is no more.
The provincial government pushed it to the prefectural government, the prefectural government pushed it to the county government, the county government pushed it to... where did it end up? In the fields?
"I remember,"
Zhu Ming said leisurely, "At this time last year, some people also told me about the drought, saying it was a natural disaster that human power could not overcome. They asked me to allocate funds, to exempt taxes, and to open the granaries. I granted them all. And then what? They're doing it all again this year."
He stood up, rose from his throne, and slowly walked down the steps.
The boots trod on the gold bricks, one step at a time, neither too fast nor too slow.
"I was just thinking," he said as he walked, "that the officials of the Ming Dynasty only know two things: to play dead before trouble happens, and to cry poverty after trouble happens?"
No one dared to speak.
Zhu Ming walked to the middle of the officials, suddenly stopped, turned around, and looked at the group of terrified faces behind him.
"How about I issue an edict of self-reproach?"
"Absolutely not!" Sun Chengzong stepped forward and said, "The drought and locust plague are not His Majesty's fault!"
"Natural disasters and calamities are beyond human control. What crime has Your Majesty committed?" Zhou Qiyuan chimed in, trying to flatter him.
"What crime is that?" Zhu Ming asked.
Silence fell over the hall once more.
Then, someone whispered, "Natural disasters are unavoidable, but there are treacherous officials in the court..."
The sound wasn't loud, but the hall was so quiet that everyone could hear it clearly.
"A treacherous minister?" Zhu Ming raised an eyebrow. "Who is the treacherous minister? Tell me."
Nobody dared to say it.
But all eyes began to drift in one direction.
Wei Zhongxian stood there, his face ashen.
He was the head of the eunuch faction, he was the "Nine Thousand Years Old," he was the eunuch Wei who struck fear into the hearts of the people.
But at this moment, he felt more wronged than Dou E.
Is he to blame for the drought? Is he to blame for the locust plague? Is he to blame for the Yellow River breach?
He took a deep breath and refrained from cursing.
"Your Majesty," Wei Zhongxian began, his voice unusually serious, "I was originally an ordinary citizen of Hebei. I have farmed, gone to the market, and endured all kinds of hardships. I am well aware of the extent of the drought."
He glanced at the Donglin Party members and curled his lip.
"There was a drought, the ground cracked, and the seedlings withered. Not to mention people, even livestock couldn't survive. When people had nothing to eat, they had to flee the famine; when they fled, they became refugees; and when there were too many refugees, they either rebelled or died. This is a real situation, and it can't be fooled by reciting a few words like 'Heaven does not mourn.'"
Zhu Ming nodded, looking at Wei Zhongxian with unusual seriousness.
"Then tell me, what should we do?"
"Your Majesty," Wei Zhongxian paused, "Your Majesty only knows how to buy grain, transport grain, and set up soup kitchens. If you really want to know how to prevent drought, Your Majesty has no ability."
"Then who has the ability?" Zhu Ming asked.
The hall was quiet for a moment.
Zhu Ming turned around, walked back to the throne, but did not sit down.
He leaned on the imperial desk, his gaze falling on a person in the third row on the left.
"Xu Guangqi".
From the crowd, an elderly man with gray hair stepped forward, bowed, and said, "Your subject is here."
"You are the Vice Minister of Revenue, in charge of agricultural affairs. I ask you, the Ming Dynasty is vast and rich in resources, yet you have no drought-resistant crops? No methods to deal with locusts?"
Xu Guangqi raised his head, his eyes clear and bright.
"Yes, Your Majesty."