In the 46th year of the Wanli reign, after Nurhaci established the Later Jin in Liaodong, he sent troops to Fushun. The Liaodong military pay suddenly increased by 3 million taels. Although the palace had reserves at the time, it refused to allocate them.

To address the shortage of military pay, the imperial court decided to levy an additional 3.5 li per mu, a total increase of more than 2 million taels of silver. This additional levy was known as the "Liao Tax," one of the three taxes that drove the people to revolt in the late Ming Dynasty.

Isn’t it strange that the emperor, who is a time traveler, has never issued an order to abolish such a harsh policy?

In fact, the records in history books cannot be fully trusted. Zhu Youxiao believed in science and based his decisions on data. He did not draw conclusions easily, nor did he easily deny or affirm a policy.

According to the price of goods at the time, 3.5 cents was equivalent to about one or two kilograms of rice. The extra kilograms per mu was not enough to make life difficult for ordinary people.

Moreover, we haven't yet reached the peak of the Little Ice Age disasters. Although there are disasters in various places, they are not very severe or widespread. This is different from the Chongzhen period in history.

Therefore, although the increase in Liao taxes increased the burden on the people, it was not unbearable, nor was it the main cause of the civil unrest in the late Ming Dynasty.

Furthermore, a closer look at the imperial court's tax increase reveals that it wasn't based on per capita tax, but rather on land. With a small increase per mu, whoever owned more land paid more tax. In theory, this should have been the cause of the landlords' bitter complaints.

Yang Sichang, during the reign of Emperor Chongzhen, expressed support for the court's tax increase, citing the same reasoning: "The increased taxes come from the land, and the land will all belong to the powerful families. The increase of three or four coins per hundred mu will slightly curb annexation."

That makes sense, doesn't it? Increasing taxes can also curb land annexation and control social polarization.

But in reality, in the process of collecting taxes, the officials in charge will always try their best to transfer the taxes of the vested interest groups to the grassroots people; they may even take this opportunity to make a fortune from the national crisis.

This was by no means new, nor did it only occur after the Liao tribute appeared. It was an open secret, how could Yang Sichang not know it? He was just lying with open eyes to deceive Emperor Chongzhen.

In this way, the court only added 3.5 cents per mu, but the common people had to pay 3.5 cents, which was dozens or even hundreds of times more.

Therefore, the root cause of cruel and oppressive policies does not lie in the tax increase itself, but in the deviations in implementation and the greed and shamelessness of the vested beneficiary groups.

There was also the distribution of Liao salaries. From the imperial court to the front lines, officials and military generals at all levels were corrupt and embezzled the money at every level. By the time it reached the lower-level officers and soldiers, they never received the full amount and were as poor as beggars.

When Bi Ziyan was sent to supervise the Liao military expenditure, he was deeply moved and wrote in his memorial: "Even if the Eastern slaves were to hide in the caves of the fortresses and not fire a single arrow towards the West, our world would have been destroyed."

To put it simply, even if the Jiannu did not launch an offensive, the Ming Empire would have been dragged down sooner or later by supporting those officials, generals, and beggar soldiers.

However, Zhu Youxiao saw through the key point and did not rashly cancel the Liao salary. Instead, he took harsh measures against corrupt officials.

Haven't the civil servants become a group? Don't they treat corruption as commonplace? Don't they protect each other and only deceive me?

Then I will make full use of the imperial guards, and kill those who should be killed, and will not hesitate to confiscate their property and exile them. I will start with those who embezzle military pay, and then bring them down from the Ministry of War to the local areas.

Then he replaced the Minister of War and promoted the iron-faced and ruthless Bi Zisu. From the Inspectorate to the Factory Guards, he took a two-pronged approach to expand the fight against corruption from the court to the local areas.

Zhu Youxiao considered the second year of the Tianqi reign the most difficult and frustrating. There were too few capable people, and if you overthrew one, the successor would still be of the same character.

But by the third year of the Tianqi reign, Zhu Youxiao felt much more relaxed. A large number of corrupt and clique-forming officials had been removed, and more and more new officials were able to be used by him, and the power of the court had undergone a fundamental reversal.

The situation at the local level also improved significantly. Officials such as Yang Lian and Sun Chuanting were used to vigorously implement the policy of clearing out abandoned military pay. Taking advantage of Xu Hongru's rebellion, a group of gentry and landlords who concealed and evaded taxes were severely punished, which shocked people's hearts and greatly changed the atmosphere.

Improvement and change were still not the emperor's ultimate goal. The cleansing of the officialdom and the punishment of officials continued like waves crashing against the shore.

The Inspectorate established an inspection mechanism in accordance with the emperor's will, and the provincial governments appointed commissioners, but this was merely a strengthening of the system. Relying on the secret investigations of the Imperial Household Department made officials feel even more apprehensive and cautious, as if they were walking on thin ice.

Officials are brought down every year, and the number is increasingly concentrated at the local level, especially at the county level.

The reason was simple: the county magistrates were the most basic level of government in the Ming Dynasty, and all tax collection passed through their hands. Their corruption and abuse of power harmed the people, and this was also their most direct contact with the people.

A relatively minor tax increase ultimately became a catastrophic disaster. Wasn't it these grassroots officials who were responsible? The imperial court and the emperor were merely scapegoats for their corruption and the harm they inflicted on the people.

The emperor showed his usual ruthlessness and cruelty towards the bastards who dared to let him take the blame, and also created several governors and governors-general who were like cruel officials. Wei Guangwei and Ni Wenhuan, the governors of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, were the most prominent.

Wei Guangwei had been in office for a long time, and he had investigated and understood the local situation. With the help of intelligence gathered by the factory guards, he was unambiguous in carrying out the emperor's will.

The taxes set by the imperial court are what they are. If the local governments dare to add even a penny, they are considered corrupt, no matter what excuses or reasons they give.

First, the family would be confiscated and the person would be detained, and then the punishment would be determined based on the amount of property. If the property was less than 5,000 yuan, the entire family would be exiled; if the property was more than 5,000 yuan, the person would be beheaded and publicly displayed, and the rest of the family would be exiled.

Zhu Youxiao had already relaxed this standard, but when it came to actual punishment, most of the corrupt officials who were caught lost their lives.

Minister of Justice Xue Zhen presented the list of criminals to be sentenced to death with some trepidation. He glanced at the emperor who was reading the verdict, and felt much more at ease.

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!