Chapter 50: Sun Chuanting

"Master, grant this slave thirty thousand troops, and come next spring, I shall unquestionably trample the entire Dongjiang Island and bring you Mao Wenlong's head!"

Hong Taiji looked at his trusted general, Wunage, and nodded with a trace of satisfaction.

Last year, when the Great Jin marched south to attack Ningyuan, it was Wunage who successfully captured Juehua Island, slaughtering tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians there, and seizing countless provisions and military supplies for the Great Jin.

When it came to assaulting islands, Wunage was a professional.

Hong Taiji had absolute confidence in him.

Moreover, the number of troops Wunage requested was not large.

Although Wunage asked for thirty thousand men, only about three thousand of them were truly elite warriors belonging to the Great Jin.

The rest were mostly logistical personnel and disposable bondservant slaves; no matter how many of them died, they were ultimately just numbers.

However, although Hong Taiji's mind was already firmly inclined toward shifting his next strategic focus to the capture of Dongjiang Island, he did not immediately agree to Wunage's request.

Military affairs were of paramount importance to the state.

Decisions could not be made in a moment of heated impulse; they required careful and prolonged deliberation.

Facing the array of generals and strategists inside the command tent, Hong Taiji stood up, his gaze sharp and piercing, and said:

"Mr. Fan's words have already moved me, but such a major affair requires careful consideration. After you all return, ponder deeply upon the specific details of attacking Dongjiang Island, and we shall discuss it again in ten days."

Seeing that the Khan had spoken, the gathered men all rose and bowed in assent.

They slowly departed, leaving only Hong Taiji and Fan Wencheng inside the tent.

The two exchanged a glance, and then quietly began to formulate strategies over a map detailing Korea and Dongjiang Island.

...

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away from Shengjing, the capital of Later Jin, stood the imperial palace of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youjian sat in a side chamber of the Palace of Heavenly Purity.

On the table before him lay piles of documents concerning Shaanxi.

At that moment, Wei Zhongxian walked in with a bow and reported:

"Reporting to Your Majesty, after interrogation throughout the night, the gold and silver confessed by Li Guorui to have been embezzled over the years exceeds two million in total."

"There are also countless agricultural lands, houses, and commercial shops."

Zhu Youjian said calmly, "Confiscate them into the inner treasury."

"This slave obeys the decree." Wei Zhongxian bowed and backed out of the room.

Although there was an increase of several million taels of silver in revenue, this wealth did not bring Zhu Youjian even a fleeting wave of emotional fluctuation.

The various problems currently plaguing the Ming Dynasty could not be resolved by silver alone.

Shaanxi, where he was soon to focus, was the prime example.

At this thought, Zhu Youjian's gaze slowly drifted to the several roster books resting on the table.

One of them was the roster of the Ming imperial clan.

To Zhu Youjian, everyone on that roster was destined to die, and Shaanxi was merely the first step.

The Prince of Qin in Shaanxi had a household population exceeding tens of thousands, producing nothing while monopolizing vast expanses of arable land.

The Prince of Rui of Hanzhong, who had just been enfeoffed this year, sat upon more than two million mu of fertile land, with over one million mu of that burden borne by Shaanxi alone.

The Prince of Han, the Prince of Su, and a succession of lower-ranking commandery princes...

To the empire, these people were all useless garbage and parasites.

And whoever obstructed the empire's forward march must offer their life to the empire as nourishment.

Even Zhu Youjian himself had to abide by this iron law.

Right now, how to make these people die in a way that was most valuable to the Ming Dynasty was his sole consideration.

Aside from the imperial clan roster, other documents regarding Shaanxi were also laid out on the desk.

Officials' rosters, border defense maps, alien tribes repeatedly encroaching upon the borders...

Looking at these volumes, Zhu Youjian narrowed his eyes.

All who block the path of the empire must die.

...

At the same time, within the Shaanxi Administration Commissioner's Office, in Yan'an Prefecture:

Sun Tingting, thirty-four years of age, walked along the road accompanied by a few attendants, his eyes glazed and his expression dull.

Seven years ago, Sun Tingting had passed the imperial examinations at the young age of twenty-seven, full of ambition and high spirits.

He had imagined that upon entering the imperial court, he would be able to stretch his talents to the fullest and sweep away all the accumulated corruption and ills of the Ming Dynasty.

Yet back then, aside from a chest full of fervent passion, he possessed little practical experience.

Thus, the outcome could be readily imagined.

Before he could even clench his fist to stretch his talents, a few incited remarks regarding Wei Zhongxian's usurpation of power in the court caused him to resign in anger and return to his hometown.

Looking back now, how could there be so much tyrannical monopoly of power?

How could there be so much ability to blot out the sky with one hand?

Was it nothing more than various factions attacking one another for the sake of seizing power?

However, with the passing years, the fiery loyalty within Sun Tingting's breast had not slowly cooled; instead, it had grown increasingly intense.

Over the past seven years, though nominally living in retirement at home, his footsteps had actually traversed many provinces and prefectures of the Ming Dynasty.

To every place he went, Sun Tingting would personally investigate the local conditions and livelihood of the people, earnestly pondering how, if he were the chief magistrate, he might practically and effectively resolve those chronic ills.

Such experiences endowed Sun Tingting with a vast accumulation of grassroots experience.

Journeying onward in this manner, his steps finally brought him to Yan'an Prefecture in Shaanxi, not far from his hometown of Daizhou in Shanxi.

Upon first entering the borders of Shaanxi, Sun Tingting was profoundly shocked by the sights before him.

Although over the years Sun Tingting had visited many places and witnessed much of the people's suffering, the sheer multitude of starving and wandering refugees within Shaanxi still astounded him.

Upon reaching Yan'an Prefecture, which suffered the most severe devastation, he witnessed the "people consuming one another" so often read about in books.

Could the misery of the people's livelihood truly reach such an extreme degree?

This dealt a tremendous shock to Sun Tingting, who had grown up in an affluent household and had never once worried about survival.

Facing the swarms of starving refugees, he emptied all the money he had carried with him on this journey.

Yet for the famished populace of all Shaanxi, this was no different than a single drop in the ocean, entirely inadequate to quench the thirst.

Sun Tingting knew that if Shaanxi was to be saved, relying solely on the strength of one man was sheer fantasy.

Only if the entire Ming Dynasty united as one and concentrated its forces would it be possible to revive the dead game of Shaanxi.

Before coming to Shaanxi, he had heard that the new emperor, who had ascended the throne for barely a month, had just begun his reign by employing iron-fisted methods to purge a group of officials.

Though he had not yet learned the specific details, he felt that such actions upon ascending the throne indicated a ruler determined to govern vigorously and accomplish great things for the country and the people.

At this thought, Sun Tingting knew he could wait no longer.

He had to do something for these starving wretches on the brink of death, and for the country of the Ming Dynasty.

Upon returning home, he would pull every string to submit a memorial to the new emperor, detailing the critical stakes in Shaanxi.

Regardless of whether the new emperor listened to or employed his plans, at the very least, he would have taken action.

Sun Tingting looked back at the road behind him.

There lay corpses strewn across the earth, starving wretches on the verge of death with skin and bones, and individuals still possessing a shred of strength fighting over corpses...

His eyes took in many things, yet he saw very little hope of survival for these people.

Shaanxi, oh Shaanxi...

Sun Tingting cast one last glance, then turned and strode away.