Chapter 1049: Why Does This Look a Bit Like a Revolution! (Please Subscribe)

"We want to fight! We want to join the army! We want to fight!"

The sea-like roar of shouts had already crossed the high walls of Laoshan Palace and reached the ears of the Zhu Emperor, who was in the Hall of Imperial Supremacy listening to reports from Hao Yaoqi, head of the Military Academy, and Feng Sizhong, Guard Commander of the Young Guards, on the petitions of the troops under their command.

Zhu Cilang abruptly stood up and said in a deep voice, "Come, follow Us to take a look."

With that, he strode out of the Hall of Imperial Supremacy. Hao Yaoqi, Feng Sizhong, Pan Shuchen, the Eastern Depot eunuch in charge of guarding Laoshan Palace, Zhang Chaoyong, son of the Duke of Ying and captain of the guards, and a number of guards and eunuchs all followed the Zhu Emperor with their weapons.

The Gate of Imperial Supremacy was already tightly shut. The imperial guards and Eastern Depot guards at the gate — Zhu Cilang's security was the joint responsibility of the imperial guards and the Eastern Depot guards — were all on high alert, and had gone up onto the gate tower with their flintlock muskets.

Outside the gate tower at this moment was a sea of people, packing the entire square outside the Gate of Imperial Supremacy, numbering perhaps ten thousand! Everyone wore narrow-sleeved military dress; they should be military academy students and ordinary school students from Pukou and Laoshan, plus some "slacker knights," and perhaps some sons of northern loyalist families who had come over from the eastern part of Nanjing.

These people had all come to petition — more precisely, they had all come to demand to fight!

They were all watching the imminent Battle of Andong with envy, wanting to go along and win merit and land certificates.

"Your Majesty, there is also some restlessness in the Young Army's main camp. Everyone is eager for battle. This subject has strictly ordered suppression, and calm has now been restored." Feng Sizhong, walking beside the Zhu Emperor, reported on the situation of the Nine Borders Young Army under his command, which seemed somewhat better than the military academy managed by Hao Yaoqi.

The officer cadets of the Military Academy were mostly Nth-generation, bold by nature to begin with, and now that they had attended the military academy, and had been raised by the Zhu Emperor like wolf cubs from childhood to stir up their ferocity and maintain their fighting spirit, they had become somewhat difficult to control.

The Nine Borders youths, by contrast, were poor and without support, confined in military camps where they trained and received education at the same time, taking the camp as their home and the Zhu Emperor as their father, so their obedience was considerably stronger than that of the academy's officer cadets.

But Zhu Cilang also knew that if this bunch of young soldiers really kicked up a fuss, they would be even more ferocious. However much the aristocratic officer cadets acted up, they were still heirs of feudalism; the Ming realm had a share for them — would they smash their own realm with their own hands?

"This looks a bit like a revolution," the Zhu Emperor suddenly muttered to himself.

"Your Majesty, you mean... revolution?" Hao Yaoqi did not understand the word and asked.

"'The revolution of Tang and Wu, obeying Heaven and responding to men' — it is from the Commentary on the Hexagram Ge in the Book of Changes." Feng Sizhong had read many books and immediately gave the source of the word "revolution."

Hao Yaoqi understood now too. For him to serve as head of the Military Academy, Li Yan had naturally forced him to make up many lessons, and he was now half a man of culture.

"Your Majesty, they — they don't mean it that way..."

Zhu Cilang smiled. "We know, We know. We know they are all loyal subjects! They are eager for battle — that is very good!"

Right now the Zhu Emperor had sufficient resources to distribute. Whether they were Nth-generation officer cadets, or the hard-up Nine Borders youths, or the sons of loyalist families, all could obtain benefits from him, so of course they would not make a revolution — these people, to put it plainly, were all members of the Zhu-Ming ruling group.

As long as the New World could keep absorbing the surplus among them, the Ming realm should be able to remain stable by relying on their military force.

Thinking of this, the Zhu Emperor finally let out a breath and said to those around him: "Transmit Our decree: third-year officer cadets are permitted to graduate early; second-year officer cadets are permitted to join the army with the temporary rank of Colonel, and are to be incorporated into the Nine Borders Young Army regiments going on campaign.

Further, grant the northern loyalists of Nanjing and Pukou fifteen thousand places to join the army as volunteers and stout volunteers.

In addition, all able-bodied men who provide their own good horses and muskets to join the army shall be granted the temporary rank of Colonel, and are permitted to enlist and accompany the campaign!"

Since people wanted to follow and fight, the Zhu Emperor naturally could not refuse them. In any case, there were land certificates with a face value of one hundred fifty million taels to issue, so there was no fear of being unable to pay military wages.

As Zhu Cilang's verbal decree was loudly relayed by the proclamation officers to the young men in the square shouting that they wanted to fight, cries of "Long live His Majesty" replaced the original din, and the square outside the Gate of Imperial Supremacy boiled over once again.

"Land... certificates? What does that mean?"

In Kunming, within Wuhua Palace, Li Guo, who had just arrived in Kunming, received in the first ten days of the sixth month of the tenth year of Joint Rule the intelligence reported by his spies that the Ming had again issued land certificates — this was no secret; something that was going to be listed and traded could hardly be kept confidential.

Moreover, in order to support the economic development of Wuhan Prefecture, Zhu Cilang had not imposed a strict economic blockade on Sichuan under Shun rule. Instead, he allowed merchant ships from Sichuan to proceed to Hankou for trade after passing inspection at Badong Pass and paying customs duties. Thus every year several hundred Sichuan River wooden boats loaded with Sichuan-produced lacquerware, Qingcheng tea, porcelain-bodied bamboo weaving, Shu embroidery, silverware, Sichuan pepper, silk carpets, and other products went to Hankou.

At present the Shun's industry and commerce were primarily state-run; private small industrial and commercial operators were not permitted to leave their own prefecture to trade on their own — the Shun was a feudal state, so the Shun's state-run enterprises were not the same concept as later state-owned enterprises. The biggest difference between the two was that most of the craftsmen in the Shun's state-run handicraft industry were unpaid corvée artisans, that is, small handicraftsmen performing labor service. Without private handicraft industry providing corvée artisans, the state-run handicraft industry could not operate.

Because the Shun's industrial and commercial operators could not leave their own prefecture without authorization, those who "went abroad" to Hankou to trade were all "imperial merchants" dispatched by the Shun's Ministry of Works and Ministry of Revenue, who of course also bore the responsibility of gathering intelligence on the Ming.

Gu Junen, Minister of the Ministry of Works, who also oversaw intelligence gathering, hurriedly explained to Li Guo: "Imperial Lord, the Zhu family emperor has converted the land beyond the passes that he has not yet obtained into fifty million mu, and at a price of three taels of silver per mu has converted it into one hundred fifty million taels of land certificates, to be used to pay military wages."

"That means the Ming has no silver either." Li Guo nodded. "Still, this land certificate idea is not bad — painting a big pie for the people below to look at. Do the people below believe it?"

"They should... they should believe it, right?" Gu Junen said. "The land beyond the passes is so vast; fifty million mu certainly exists. And last time the Zhu Emperor converted one hundred million mu of Central Plains land and issued land certificates, it seems most were redeemed, with only a portion of the land certificates for the three northern garrisons still trading on the market."

The land certificates issued in the previous round were not of one kind, but were divided into twenty-one types according to the location and quality of the land: three grades each — upper, middle, and lower — for Shanxi, three for Hebei, three for Henan, three for Shandong, three for Shuofang, three for Anbei, and three for Beiping. All twenty-one types of land certificates were negotiable and tradable. People wanting to invest in large northern farms could purchase the corresponding land certificates through the salt merchant houses and maritime merchant houses at the exchanges in Nanjing, Shanghai, and Wuhan, while those who had been allocated land certificates but did not want to farm could sell their land certificates for cash.

In order to get the northern lands effectively developed as quickly as possible, all twenty-one types of land certificates had deadlines. The land certificates for the four inner provinces had short deadlines and were now almost all due, so they had basically all been redeemed for land. The land certificates for the three outer garrisons had longer terms, so many were still trading on the market.

"This time's land certificates are different," said Sun Kewang, Prince of Qin and one of the eight deliberative princes, with a smile. "This time it is eating next year's grain. As long as next year's grain can be supplied, it's fine. Imperial Lord, we can do the same — issue some land certificates too, and give the brothers below something to look forward to."

"Prince of Qin, you want us to learn from the Zhu Emperor and eat next year's grain?" Li Guo felt it was somewhat improper. "What if next year's grain cannot be supplied for a while? What then?"

"Hey," Sun Kewang waved a hand, "Imperial Lord, a three-year-old brat can eat his father to death. Which of the brothers below doesn't have a houseful of brats? Every one of them is being eaten to the point of desperation, all longing for land, their eyes red. If we put out some land certificates, it will exactly stir up their courage. Once morale rises, the northern expedition to the Central Plains will be a matter of one push."

(End of Chapter)