Chapter 281: 279【Thriving and Flourishing vs. Decaying and Rotting】(For Penguin

Lu Xiangsheng was stripped of his posts, but not all the way to the bottom.

He was stripped of the title Supreme Commander of All Armies Coming to the King's Aid, and his imperial sword of authority was revoked. His honorary Minister of War title was also stripped, and he was demoted to Left Vice Minister of War. He could still command troops, but only his own five thousand crack guards.

The two impeachment memorials from Gao Qiqian were merely the catalyst.

The real reason was that Chongzhen was utterly disillusioned with Lu Xiangsheng. The Manchu Qing had breached the passes several times, but never like this — they had actually fought all the way from Beijing to Jinan!

Yang Sichang, Hong Chengchou, and Sun Chuanting were urgently summoned back to Beijing.

Before the three of them reached the capital, there still had to be a supreme commander. So the Chief Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat, Liu Yuliang, was thrown to the front by Chongzhen, assuming full responsibility for the war situation with the dignity of Chief Grand Secretary.

Liu Yuliang was a Sichuan man.

His native place alone tells you he was promoted by Yang Sichang. Xiong Wencan is a Sichuan man, Xie Wenjin is a Sichuan man — all of them are Yang Sichang's trusted confidants.

In any case, so long as they were not officials from the Southern Metropolitan Region or Zhejiang, Yang Sichang was more than willing to promote them.

Or rather, Chongzhen was more than willing to promote them!

The Donglin Faction truly was finished, crushed too brutally by the Emperor.

In the Donglin Roll Call of Heroes, Xie Wenjin was listed as "Earthly Majesty Star, the Hundred-Victory General." As for Sun Bixian, he was "Earthly Wisdom Star, the Ten-Foot Green." Both men betrayed the Donglin Faction and were promoted by Yang Sichang to Left Vice Minister and Right Vice Minister of War.

The Minister of War, Yang Sichang, could promote a Chief Grand Secretary!

This man Liu Yuliang entered the Grand Secretariat in the eighth month of last year, and became Chief Grand Secretary in the sixth month of this year.

Chongzhen had grown desperate, dismissing two Chief Grand Secretaries in succession, along with other grand secretaries. This led to Liu Yuliang, having just entered the Grand Secretariat, becoming Chief Grand Secretary within ten months.

Dispatched by Chongzhen to direct the entire campaign, Liu Yuliang was terrified to death, but dared not refuse to go.

The moment this fellow reached Anping and heard the Qing troops were approaching, without even verifying whether it was true, he fled in terror straight to Jinzhou.

The Prefect of Jinzhou, Chen Hongxu, shut the city gates and rebuked the Chief Grand Secretary: "The Supreme Commander came to resist the enemy. The rebels are about to arrive — why are you busy fleeing? You say you have come to requisition grain; go find the Ministry of Revenue yourself. As for entering this city, I dare not obey!"

Liu Yuliang flew into a rage, sent a fast courier to impeach him, and had Chen Hongxu arrested and thrown into prison.

The common people blocked the way and refused to let him be taken, saying they were willing to go to prison in the prefect's place. Some even threatened to go to Beijing to seek justice. There was no way around it — they could not take the man away, and could only have the Ministry of Personnel demote and transfer him.

Faced with such an outcome, Chen Hongxu was filled with fury and despair, and simply went home to join Zhao Han!

He was a Jiangxi man to begin with.

Liu Yuliang then drifted all the way to Tianjin, not daring to go south. He himself dared not face the Tartars directly, yet he impeached military officers for fearing the enemy and refusing to advance, offending a whole host of generals.

At last, Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting brought their troops to the King's aid, joining forces with Liu Yuliang to make over a hundred thousand men.

Over a hundred thousand men, frozen in place, not daring to move — because Liu Yuliang forbade underestimating the enemy and rashly advancing.

When Yang Sichang returned to Beijing, he was extremely displeased with Liu Yuliang.

Xue Guoguan wanted to rise and become Chief Grand Secretary, so he sought Yang Sichang's help to have Liu Yuliang arrested and imprisoned. Yet another Chief Grand Secretary of the Chongzhen reign was finished.

Dorgon saw that the Ming army would not divide its forces — over a hundred thousand men huddled into a single mass, impossible to devour. So Dorgon ordered a withdrawal, and with countless captives, livestock, and plundered goods, swaggered back to Liaodong.

Next, the internal strife began.

Yang Sichang wanted to keep the troops of Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting to defend Ji and Liao, to prevent the Tartars from breaching the passes again.

Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting firmly opposed this. After a round of maneuvering, Yang Sichang threw them both into prison.

The change brought by Zhao Han, it seemed, was merely to make Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting cellmates…

Of course, it was far more than that!

The Great Ming's finances grew even more dire. Fallen soldiers could not be compensated, and meritorious soldiers had no money for rewards.

Barely three months after the Tartars left, a mutiny erupted in Baoding, and immediately after, another mutiny erupted in Henan.

The Henan mutiny grew enormously. Faced with government troops sent to suppress them, the mutineers simply turned into roving bandits and fled to Shaanxi to join Li Zicheng.

Li Zicheng, who had been beaten to a pulp, thereby recovered his strength. He led the government troops on a wide loop, then returned to Henan to recruit famine victims, and in an instant had over a hundred thousand people again (mostly frail famine victims).

When the roving bandits passed through, there was no longer any need to forcibly conscript — the common people came to join of their own accord.

Because the court attacked proactively, Zhang Xianzhong fled early. It did not quite count as surrendering and then rebelling again, and Xiong Wencan was not punished for it.

While the government troops were encircling Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong leaped out of the encirclement and went roaming around the Southern Metropolitan Region again, nearly digging up the ancestral tombs of the old Zhu clan at Fengyang one more time.

The roving bandits of the northwest swelled far more rapidly than in history!

Faced with such a situation, the court could only impose an additional training levy. Jiangxi, Hunan, and Guangdong, occupied by Zhao Han, naturally could not be assessed, yet the total amount of the training levy was barely reduced at all, making it even harder for the common people to bear.

Not even speaking of the war-torn provinces of the north, even Sichuan saw the emergence of several peasant armies!

A full two years ahead of schedule, Shandong rose in revolt, cutting off the grain tribute route, and grain prices in the north skyrocketed. Some of the government troops besieging Li Zicheng, along with the Ji-Liao troops guarding against the Manchu Qing, were redeployed to Shandong to suppress the rebel army.

Due to the additional levies, civil unrest erupted again in Guangxi and Fujian.

As for the rebellious chieftains of Guizhou from before, because Zhu Xieyuan had been transferred to Jiangxi to campaign against Zhao Han, a remnant force had hidden in the mountains and not yet been exterminated. Now they reemerged and seized multiple counties and prefectures in Shuixi.

In the entire Great Ming, only Zhejiang and Yunnan were free of military disaster. Every other province was experiencing war.

The butterfly effect brought by Zhao Han detonated completely in the twelfth year of Chongzhen!

Even if you brought a Ming history expert through time, they would surely be unable to make sense of the situation — it has all gone completely fucking insane.

The Great Ming right now is a pot of paste.

No matter how great a commotion Zhao Han stirs up in the south, Chongzhen can no longer spare the attention, because the entire north is at war.

……

Jiangxi, however, was very stable, and Zhao Han was living quite a comfortable little life.

Let us pull the timeline back to the winter of the eleventh year of Chongzhen. The Manchu Qing were still rampaging, and Zhao Han ordered institutional reforms.

Jiangxi, Hunan, and Guangdong were formally established as provinces, and offices such as the Bureau of Industry and Commerce were added. All merchants in the three provinces were required to obtain industry and commerce licenses, scheduled to take effect on the first day of the first lunar month. After that date, anyone without a license would be forbidden from conducting any kind of business.

Brothels also had to obtain licenses.

Moreover, sexual services were forbidden; the permitted business category was "singing halls and dance pavilions." Scheduled inspections would occur twice a month, with surprise inspections depending on the situation. If caught, heavy fines would be imposed. Colloquially known as a vice sweep.

It certainly could not be completely eradicated — no country can achieve that. Even if suppressed for a time, it would flare back up.

Whether it can be banned is one matter; whether to ban it is another matter entirely.

Even in later-era Japan, selling that sort of thing was illegal, and vice sweeps were conducted every few days.

Once it is legalized, it will inevitably spawn a great deal of crime — abduction, imprisonment, the abuse of women.

While political reform proceeds, the army is also being reformed.

The Great Unity Army has expanded from 16,000 men to 23,000.

The Southern Division Army, 5,000 strong, is temporarily stationed in Guangdong.

The Northern Division Army, 5,000 strong, is temporarily stationed in Hunan.

The Central Division Army, 5,000 strong, is temporarily stationed in Jiangxi.

Zhao Han's personal guard of 1,000 men is stationed at Ji'an Prefecture.

The Jiangxi River Fleet has expanded to 4,000 men and is stationed at Lake Poyang.

The Guangdong Navy has expanded to 2,000 men (including crew) and is stationed at Guangzhou.

The Guangzhou Coastal Guard has been newly established, with a troop strength of 1,000 (incorporating the Guangzhou Patrol Office and the Xiangshan Patrol Office), temporarily under the command of the dismissed Fei Ruhe.

Zhao Han's 1,000 personal guards were drawn from the Central Division Army. The Central Division's shortfall in strength is to be filled by selection from the Jiangxi peasant soldiers.

The remaining units are to recruit soldiers locally.

For example, the Guangdong Navy recruits from coastal fishermen. The Southern Division Army, stationed in Guangdong, when replenishing its ranks, recruits Guangdong mountain folk. The Northern Division Army in Huguang recruits the insurgent miners.

These measures are likewise intended to maintain balance.

Otherwise, not only would there be a multitude of Jiangxi-born officials, but the army would also consist entirely of Jiangxi soldiers.

In addition, there are internal army reforms.

The Ming military system has been in constant flux, and in the late Ming, the system in the south differs from that in the north.

The basic units of Zhao Han's army previously were divided into: squad, file, company, picket, regiment, and battalion.

If one compares them to the People's Liberation Army, a file is a squad, a company is a platoon, a picket is a company — even the numbers of men are exactly the same.

These are not to be changed, but the regiment level is to be abolished, and brigade and division levels added — that is: squad (5 men), file (10 men), company (30 men), picket (90 men), battalion (450 men), brigade (1,350 men), division (4,050 men).

Including various other personnel, a battalion's strength is roughly 500 men, a brigade's roughly 1,500 men, and a division's roughly 5,000 men (including the medical corps and cooks).

These terms — division, brigade, battalion — Zhao Han simply adopted and used them, and they were easily accepted by the officers and men.

"Righteous host," "crack division" — these were originally military terms.

The reforms in the three provinces flourish with vigor, standing in stark contrast to the Ming's decay.

……

"Our respects to the Regional Commander!"

Several scholars from Guangdong and Hunan, having arrived one after another, came together to pay their respects to Zhao Han.

Wang Zhiliang, the Governor of Southern Hunan, had been unwilling to surrender out of concern for his five sons. A man of considerable depth in Guan learning and practical statecraft, he was sent off to teach at White Egret Isle Academy.

Wang Qisheng, Prefect of Changsha, and Yang Guanji, County Magistrate of Changsha, for their meritorious assistance in governing Changsha, were assigned to serve as town chiefs there, spared from having to start at the very bottom as minor clerks.

The four Tao brothers all rendered great service by surrendering their city.

Their merits have been recorded for the time being. Because they are too young, the second, third, and fourth brothers have been placed in school in Ji'an Prefecture.

The eldest, Tao Aizhi, has been recruited as a secretary at the Regional Commander's headquarters.

Wang Dai, who surrendered the city at Xiangtan, has also been summoned to Zhao Han's side.

In addition, there are Zhang Jiayu, Chen Zisheng, and Kuang Lu from Guangdong — all now serving as Zhao Han's secretaries.

Hu Mengtai has been sent out to the field, dispatched to Hunan as a county registrar.

Half of Zhao Han's former secretaries have been directly assigned to field posts; officials and clerks are needed everywhere now.

"You have all been looking around Ji'an, I take it?" Zhao Han asked with a smile.

Wang Dai cupped his hands and said, "This junior first went to White Egret Isle, then to the Luling County middle school, and then visited within the city walls and without, and even went out to the countryside villages. What I heard and saw left me marveling. Though it cannot yet be called the Great Unity, it is not far off. The Regional Commander is a sovereign of rare brilliance for all the ages!"

"Why can it not be called the Great Unity? In my view, Ji'an Prefecture has already attained it!" Tao Aizhi immediately objected.

Zhang Jiayu laughed. "In the Luling countryside, everyone esteems martial valor. The peasant soldiers of the villages and towns alone could sweep through the south."

Chen Zisheng sighed. "Everything is excellent, but the pleasure quarters… let us not speak of them."

Because the pleasure quarters were compelled to obtain commercial and industrial licenses, they publicly declared themselves to be song and dance halls. Consequently, in their operations, they now focus mainly on song and dance; if one wishes to go to bed, one must pay extra.

Zhao Han asked Kuang Lu with a smile, "Why does Mr. Kuang not speak?"

Kuang Lu sighed. "I have wasted my years until now and only wish to accomplish things, yet the Regional Commander insists on making me a secretary."

"Is being a secretary not good? It is equivalent to a Secretariat Drafter in the Grand Secretariat — every day's documents concern the great affairs of the realm," said Zhao Han. "If you were sent to a field post, what would you want to do?"

Kuang Lu, instead, looked troubled. "I do not know. I know a little of everything."

This fellow was accomplished in both civil and martial arts. Having spent years abroad evading trouble, he had traveled half of China, and his once-wild temperament had been greatly tempered.

Zhao Han asked, "In traveling through every province, what did you see?"

Kuang Lu answered, "The people with no means of livelihood, a dynasty in its final days."

"Follow me and work diligently. I will take this dynasty in its final days and make it everywhere as stable and prosperous as Ji'an Prefecture," said Zhao Han.

"If it could be so, that would be excellent indeed," Kuang Lu said with a smile.

Zhao Han suddenly remembered someone. "Why did Zheng Sen not come today?"

Zhang Jiayu answered, "He has gone to the mathematics society."

(End of chapter)