Chapter 192: 190 The Supreme Commander

Zhu Xieyuan, Governor-General of the five provinces of Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, and southern Huguang, concurrently serving as Governor of Jiangxi, finally arrived in Nanchang in early the fifth month.

And he brought a thousand Guizhou troops with him!

This gentleman, already over seventy years old, quartered his personal troops in the seat of Nankang Prefecture while he himself pretended to be drilling soldiers in camp; secretly, he took a few trusted followers and traveled incognito, mainly investigating the conditions of the gentry, merchants, and peasants.

Making private inquiries all the way from Nankang Prefecture to Nanchang Prefecture, Zhu Xieyuan suddenly revealed himself in the prefectural seat of Nanchang and summoned the Jiangxi Regional Inspector, Censor Chen Yuding.

At the same time, the thousand personal troops stationed at Nankang swiftly appeared outside the city of Nanchang.

These guest troops from Guizhou, remarkably, committed not the slightest offense against the people along their entire march.

Two days later, Zhu Xieyuan summoned the officials of the Jiangxi Three Provincial Offices. Left Provincial Administration Commissioner Ding Kuichu, Right Provincial Administration Commissioner Zhang Bingwen, Provincial Surveillance Commissioner Wu Shiliang, and Guard Regional Commander Chen Guozhong all came in succession to pay their respects.

The four men sat on folding chairs and did not wait long before Zhu Xieyuan walked in.

"This is the Imperial Sword, bestowed by His Majesty." Zhu Xieyuan spoke his opening line, slapping the Imperial Sword down onto the table.

The chief officials of the Jiangxi Three Offices hurriedly rose, adjusted their robes, and knelt in obeisance toward the Imperial Sword.

That object was meant for dealing with military officers, but Zhu Xieyuan's bringing it out now — his meaning needed no explanation.

Zhu Xieyuan then spoke his second line: "With bandits running rampant in Jiangxi, I, as Governor-General of Five Provinces, bear the imperial mandate to act at my discretion."

The Three Offices chiefs hastily assented, their hearts beginning to pound with unease; even Wu Shiliang, over eighty years old, grew alert.

Zhu Xieyuan spoke his third line: "Suppressing bandits and pacifying the people — these two cannot be discussed separately. If you only suppress bandits and do not pacify the people, then the more bandits you suppress, the more they multiply."

"The Supreme Commander's insight is profound, every word is true," Ding Kuichu hastened to flatter.

Zhu Xieyuan spoke his fourth line: "The privately established customs checkpoints are to be abolished immediately. The surtax silver already collected this year need not be transported to the capital, and the surtax silver not yet collected need not be pressed upon the common people. As for His Majesty, I shall submit a memorial reporting the true situation. Either transfer me away, or let me handle affairs according to my own methods."

Jiangxi's surtax silver for this year, at full quota, was three hundred sixty thousand taels. Due to the rebel uprising, it had been specially reduced to two hundred thousand taels.

By comparison, that was not very much; it was the common people of Henan who truly suffered, being assessed a surtax of six hundred sixty thousand taels this year.

"However," Ding Kuichu said with difficulty, "suppressing bandits in the north is funded by court allocations, but suppressing bandits in Jiangxi relies entirely on self-financing. If we abolish the additional customs checkpoints, I fear there will not be enough funds and grain to train troops."

Bang!

Zhu Xieyuan lifted the Imperial Sword and slammed it onto the table again: "How much customs revenue and market tax the Provincial Administration Commission has collected — I do not wish to investigate personally. The two Provincial Administration Commissioners are requested to do their utmost to raise provisions and pay."

Ding Kuichu's head jerked back sharply; together with Zhang Bingwen, he cupped his fists: "We shall certainly cooperate with full effort!"

Zhu Xieyuan spoke a while longer, then dismissed the Three Offices officials, telling them to get lost.

Three days later, he formally opened his headquarters and recruited assistant officials and staff advisors; all these advisors were recommended by the Regional Inspector, Censor Chen Yuding.

Zhao Han had three inside agents in Nanchang; among them, Xu Ying and Wang Tingshi both entered the Supreme Commander's staff.

Of course, Xu Ying was only a peripheral member, without even a temporary worker's salary. Like Liu Tongsheng, Xiao Puyun, Zuo Xiaocheng, and other refugee scholars, his sole duty was to provide Zhu Xieyuan with relevant intelligence and information.

Wang Tingshi was the one who became Zhu Xieyuan's honored guest and was relied upon as his right-hand man.

However, Wang Tingshi's military authority was stripped away; all two thousand of his local militia were placed under Zhu Xieyuan's training and command.

At the Governor-General's headquarters.

A host of staff advisors gathered together in the hall.

"I have only just arrived in Jiangxi, and in all matters I must rely upon you gentlemen," Zhu Xieyuan said, cupping his fists. "If anything is amiss, I beg you not to stint your instruction."

"We dare not!"

The assembled scholars hastened to bow with clasped hands.

Zhu Xieyuan took out a copy of The Great Unity Collection and said: "I have been an official for several decades. I have pacified riots by over ten thousand weavers protesting taxes, exterminated White Lotus sectarians, and also quelled the rebellions of native chieftains in Sichuan and Guizhou. But a rebel like the Luling Zhao has never been encountered before. All of you, tell me — what else has this Zhao rebel done?"

The refugee scholar Chen Heming said: "Reporting to the Supreme Commander, that Zhao rebel is truly detestable. The fields my Chen family accumulated over several generations — without distinguishing right from wrong, he distributed them all to cunning and crafty small folk. Such a reversal of proper order is certain, sooner or later, to incur Heaven's punishment!"

"This matter I already know," Zhu Xieyuan said. "What else?"

Xiao Puyun cupped his fists and said: "This rebel abolished the household registration distinctions set down by the Hongwu Emperor, mixing commoner households, artisan households, musician households, and military households all together indiscriminately. He even forced great clans to release their household slaves."

Zhu Xieyuan asked again: "What else?"

Zuo Xiaocheng said: "This rebel has created something called a propaganda corps, even filling it with prostitutes, household slaves, and pimps, all serving as propagandists, spreading his set of Great Unity heresies that twist the words of the sages. He has also organized some damned peasant associations, built irrigation works, opened up wasteland for cultivation — it looks like he is benefiting the common people, but in truth he is merely beguiling their hearts with petty favors."

"What else? The good, the bad — speak of it all, let me hear it," Zhu Xieyuan continued to ask.

Lu Yu said: "This rebel is brutal beyond measure; he will not even allow beggars to scrape out a living, forcibly seizing beggars and sending them to labor."

Liu Tongsheng sighed and said: "Were he not a rebel, this man could be a fine minister. He has also rectified local governance, banned gambling, and broadly established schools. Even in remote villages and towns, children under twelve, whether boy or girl, must all attend school. Schooling charges no tuition or teacher's fees, and if a child of school age does not attend, both parents are to be judged and punished."

"This is moral degeneracy," Zuo Xiaocheng sneered. "This Zhao rebel understands nothing at all, foolishly imitating the sages in broadly promoting moral instruction, yet he fails to distinguish the impropriety between the sexes, placing boys and girls together in the same schoolroom!"

Xiao Puyun said: "I, for one, feel that if they are mere children, having boys and girls study together is not unacceptable."

"Brother Xiao is confused," Xu Ying also chimed in. "Even as children, they ought to know that males and females are separate!"

Xiong Xuecui, a xiucai from Fengcheng who had only fled to Nanchang at the end of the previous year, said: "Supreme Commander, permit me to report. Since the Nanchang customs checkpoint was established and Guangdong salt was banned from going north, salt prices in Ji'an and Linjiang prefectures have soared. That Zhao rebel, in order to drive down salt prices, actually allocated funds to subsidize salt merchants. The Nanchang customs checkpoint absolutely must not be abolished; given time, the salt price subsidies alone can drag the Zhao rebel's finances to collapse."

"Utter nonsense!"

Zhou Yixuan, a Nanchang juren whose family was in trade, rebuked him angrily: "Privately establishing customs checkpoints to fleece the common people — that is a tyrannical policy that brutalizes the people!"

Xiong Xuecui also said angrily: "At a time like this, you are still thinking of your business! If the Zhao rebel is not swiftly put down, Jiangxi is in peril, and your family's property will sooner or later be seized by the rebels!"

The Nanchang juren Zhang Zhaojing joined the dispute: "The Nanchang customs checkpoints must not be re-established, and the market taxes must also be reduced to their original fixed amounts!"

As they talked, the discussion veered wildly off course; they were no longer debating the Luling Zhao rebel, but arguing over whether taxes should be increased.

Zhu Xieyuan, astonishingly, did not speak up to stop them, but listened quietly to their quarreling. The information gleaned from such quarrels, once teased apart thread by thread, could yield a true understanding of the people's condition.

At the same time, Zhu Xieyuan was inwardly alarmed. The governance of the Luling Zhao rebel was nothing at all like the conduct of a rebel; he was practically treating himself as the official government.

What he now had to exterminate was not a rebel, but a small imperial court holding the territory of two prefectures!

The Zhao rebel had already thoroughly won the hearts of the common folk. Even if he could be killed, should the government hereafter fail to implement benevolent policies, the common people, having tasted the sweetness, would likely rebel again.

When the scholars had argued themselves nearly to exhaustion, Zhu Xieyuan finally asked again: "Who among you has met the Zhao rebel face to face?"

"This junior has," Liu Tongsheng, Xiao Puyun, Chen Heming, and others answered one after another.

Zhu Xieyuan asked: "What is this man's character like?"

The crowd fell into deep thought.

Xiao Puyun said: "Utterly treacherous, and habitually skilled at buying people's hearts."

Liu Tongsheng then recounted the story of Zhao Han seizing Jishui County, saying: "This rebel's methods are extraordinary — upright yet slippery, acting with great method and order, and able to see into men's hearts."

Xu Ying said: "This rebel is remarkably incorruptible. Word has it that after he usurped Yongyang Town, with funds and grain running short, he ate only thin gruel and pickled vegetables for all three meals a day. Though he seized so much territory, he never built grand mansions. He even sets an example himself — takes no concubines, keeps no slaves or servants, and has only a few hired helpers on short-term contracts in his household."

Zhu Xieyuan's headache immediately worsened. When suppressing bandits in Sichuan and Guizhou, he had always begun by thoroughly understanding the character of the rebellious chieftains.

Those rebel chieftains were variously cruel, stupid, rash, greedy — the list went on, all with some flaw of character.

But what the devil was this Luling rebel Zhao?

At first hearing, one might take him for some upright, great Confucian scholar come from who knows where.

Zhu Xieyuan spoke again: "I know the rebel Zhao has three great generals under him — one is Huang Yao, who holds Linjiang; one is Zhao Yaonian, who holds Ji'an; and one is Gu Jianshan, who commands the entire naval force. Does anyone know the backgrounds of these three?"

Regional Inspector Censor Chen Yuding said: "I once traveled incognito into the rebel territory and know a little of these three. Huang Yao was a stonemason by trade, skilled in lightning raids — Fengcheng's first fall was his doing. Zhao Yaonian is nominally a kinsman of the rebel Zhao, but in truth he is the rebel Zhao's brother-in-law; that name and status are most likely fabricated. As for Gu Jianshan, he is simply a Poyang Lake water bandit."

"What are the temperaments of these three? Is there any possibility of sowing discord or enticing them to surrender?" Zhu Xieyuan asked.

Chen Yuding frowned. "As for that, I fear we must still send spies to inquire."

Zhu Xieyuan asked further: "What of the civil officials under his command?"

Chen Yuding said: "The rebel Zhao has presumptuously styled himself Regional Commander. His Regional Commander's yamen has eight bureaus and two courts. There is one Pang Dongxin — Pang Chunlai — who oversees personnel administration. His origins are unknown; he may be an old xiucai who repeatedly failed the examinations. There is Li Banghua, who oversees military affairs; he was formerly the Minister of War of the Great Ming. There is Tian Younian, acting overseer of public works; he was formerly the Prefect of Yuanzhou in the Great Ming. The remaining officials are either promoted locals or officials who have changed their names."

Zuo Xiaocheng said: "The man who handles justice and law for the rebel Zhao is called Zuo Xiaoliang, a distant kinsman of mine. This man is nothing but an impoverished xiucai. In classical learning he is my inferior, and I can see no particular talent in him. That the rebel Zhao relies on him as a right-hand man shows he has no true talents at his disposal."

After that, more than ten scholars came forward, each reporting the names of rebel officials they knew personally.

Zhu Xieyuan listened with brows tightly knit, then suddenly said: "Who is willing to slip back into the rebel Zhao's territory and, by whatever means, win over your old acquaintances to serve as inside agents?"

A deathly silence filled the hall. No one spoke.

After a long silence, Xiao Puyun said: "We could send household slaves back."

"It can be tried." Zhu Xieyuan held out no hope. Sending household slaves to carry out subversion work was far too insincere — only a fool would believe it.

Half a month later.

Zhu Xieyuan simultaneously placed the Prefect of Nanchang and the Prefect of Nankang under house arrest. After confiscating a great quantity of wealth, he jointly submitted a memorial with Censor Chen Yuding reporting the amount of silver seized to the court.

The affairs of those two prefectures were temporarily handled by their Vice Prefects.

At the same time, he issued orders to all prefectures of Jiangxi: each county's name was to be listed in the prefectural treasury ledgers. County tax grain must be delivered to the treasury in person by the County Magistrate, sealed with official strips, and transported to the Provincial Administration Commission for Zhu Xieyuan to personally break the seals and inspect. Prefecture-level officials were only responsible for transporting the tax grain and could not truly handle the funds and grain — if they wanted to embezzle silver, the only method left was falsifying losses.

After rectifying official discipline and stabilizing funds and grain, Zhu Xieyuan then began reorganizing the army. Soldiers' pay and rations had to be distributed under the Governor-General's personal supervision.

He also drew up several dozen military regulations and made a few examples to warn the rest, bringing a solemn order to the officers and troops of Jiangxi.

Next, Zhu Xieyuan suddenly vanished, giving outsiders the false impression that he was drilling troops. In truth, he had taken trusted aides and guides and gone into the rebel Zhao's territory to personally survey every kind of terrain and environment. Zhu Xieyuan never fought a battle unprepared.

Zhao Han received one secret report after another from Xu Ying and Wang Tingshi, and felt that this time he had met real trouble.

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(End of Chapter)