Chapter 1259: What? Money Can Be Used to Fight Wars Too?

When Li Dingguo hurried back to Kunming, hoping to shore up the Shun court, his rival Wu Sangui had already arrived at the Ming western capital, Wuhan Prefecture.

The one who had summoned Wu Sangui to Wuhan Prefecture was, of course, the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming, Zhu Cilang, personally leading the imperial campaign. Although Zhu Cilang felt the time to destroy the Shun dynasty might have come, he did not intend to strike while they were in mourning — he would still give Li Laiheng some time to give his Ada, Li Guo, a grand funeral.

It was not that Emperor Zhu was soft-hearted; rather, he knew Li Laiheng was a formidable figure too! At first glance this fellow looked like a third-generation Shun ruler, but in fact he was still a first-generation one. He had fought in the armies of Li Zicheng and Li Guo since childhood, and his combat experience was extremely rich. Moreover, on the Shun side the Emperor reigned with folded hands, the Crown Prince oversaw the army, and the Eight Princes deliberated on policy. This Emperor Li Guo was no autocratic monarch, and Li Laiheng, the Crown Prince who oversaw the army, was no Li Adou raised deep within the palace.

So even with Li Guo gone, the Shun army's fighting power would not collapse immediately, nor was internal strife very likely — according to reliable reports, Li Laiheng's son Li Jicheng had plundered India on a grand scale, scooping up eight million taels of silver in one go, and had also brought back quite a few foreign beauties and famous horses. With that much silver, fine goods, and lovely women in hand, even if Chongzhen himself went to serve as the third-generation Shun Emperor on Li Laiheng's behalf, there would be no difficulty in smoothing things over.

But in Zhu Cilang's view, the Shun dynasty's military strength was still inevitably going to decline. Not because Li Guo was gone, but because the nature of the fubing system and Li Jicheng's Indian Ocean wealth meant the Shun fubing were doomed.

The Shun fubing system, to put it plainly, was sixty thousand military contractors who contracted military service in exchange for land, paid the costs of their service from the income of working that land, and if anything was left over, that was profit.

In reality, this was simply a business!

Although the Shun dynasty despised merchants most of all and was single-mindedly bent on suppressing commerce, the fubing households that formed the foundation of Shun rule were in fact a bunch of small-time war merchants.

Since they were merchants, they had to think about profit!

Fighting Wu Sangui to the death — how much profit could that possibly bring? Not going bankrupt would already be good enough!

But fighting in India, whether or not they could take the throne there, getting rich was certain. That place had weak soldiers and plenty of money, and there was also such a capable partner as the Dutch East India Company to join in invading and seizing wealth by sea — they were sure to fill their bowls to overflowing.

So the profit-seeking nature of merchants meant these Shun fubing households would inevitably weep and wail and clamor to go south and plunder India.

And with India as a destination of weak soldiers and abundant money, what morale could the Shun fubing sent to the Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Huguang fronts to fight the Ming army to the death possibly have?

It is not scarcity they fear, but inequality!

Of course, Li Laiheng could still scatter money and bestow rewards to boost morale. However, his bandit son could go plunder money in India, but he had no way to transport India's grain, cotton cloth, and other miscellaneous supplies back to the Shun homeland.

The roads from Syriam in Burma to Sichuan and Shaanxi were not easy to travel even in the 21st century, let alone now, in the 17th century, when even the steam engine had not yet been invented!

Therefore, the gold and silver that Li Jicheng plundered back to Yunnan and Sichuan were not merely money — they were also weapons for the Great Ming to wage a currency war against the Shun!

"Changbo, come in, come in quickly. The wind is strong outside; come inside and talk!"

At Wuhan, outside the Cool Breeze Pavilion in East Lake Palace, the Great Ming Emperor Zhu Cilang personally came out through the courtyard gate to welcome Wu Sangui, who had traveled from afar. With Emperor Zhu were also Wu Sanmei, Wu Sanfu, and Wu Yingxiong.

Inside the Cool Breeze Pavilion, a copper pot of boiling water, steaming hot, had already been set out, along with plates of mutton slices and vegetables — today Zhu Cilang was treating Wu Sangui to instant-boiled mutton to welcome him and wash off the dust of travel.

Wu Sangui was already old — fifty-five this year — but Old Wu, long accustomed to campaigning on the battlefield, was still in robust health. After seven or eight straight days of hard riding, he showed not the slightest trace of fatigue. His figure, too, was still well kept, with no sign of putting on weight. Wu Sanfu, by contrast, who had spent these past few years living in comfort and ease at the Ministry of War, had grown into a fat man, panting a little even when walking. It seemed life truly lay in exercise!

Zhu Cilang and Wu Sanmei were the same age, both thirty-seven or thirty-eight, clearly on the verge of forty. But both had kept their figures well, neither fat nor thin, and looked full of vigor.

Wu Sangui's son Wu Yingxiong was now Zhu Cilang's chief of the guard, and he too was tall, broad-shouldered, and handsome. He was also a graduate of the Military Academy, had commanded troops on the northwest front, and had served as commander of the Black Cavalry Battalion, fighting more than a dozen battles against the roving bandits — all victories!

Of course, his victories were not because his own abilities were so great, but because the Shun cavalry was too weak. Wherever cavalry could be used, the Ming Black Cavalry had almost no rivals.

The father of Wu Sangui, Wu Sanfu, and Wu Sanmei, Wu Xiang, had passed away last year and been given a grand funeral. Emperor Zhu had even suspended court for three days as a sign of mourning.

But the request of Wu Sangui and Wu Sanfu to return home and observe the three-year mourning period as filial sons was rejected by Zhu Cilang — in the early years of Hongxing, Zhu Cilang had already abolished the "three-year mourning leave" system for officials on the grounds that the country was in a state of war, replacing it with a three-month "short mourning leave."

The country is at war! Everyone should turn grief into strength, kill more Tartars and roving bandits, and be loyal subjects of the Great Ming! You cannot mourn your father for three years and your mother for three years — and if you were raised by a concubine, you would also have to observe three years of mourning for your birth mother. How long was the average lifespan of a Ming person? Observing mourning for that long was truly a waste of life.

"Changbo," Zhu Cilang said with a smile as he led Wu Sangui to his seat, "We shall not return east until Sichuan is recovered. It seems We shall be staying in Wuhan for a long while. You are supervising the army in Shaanxi, not far from Wuhan, so you can come by often!"

Wu Sangui was taken aback. "Your Majesty, are you serious?"

"Why?" Zhu Cilang laughed. "You don't believe We can defeat the roving bandits and recover the lost territory of Sichuan?"

Wu Sangui truly did not believe it! The Great Ming had lost Sichuan for nearly twenty years. Emperor Zhu had personally led campaigns several times, but it was always much thunder and little rain. Had he changed his nature this time?

Zhu Cilang smiled, picked up a plate of mutton tail fat, scraped the whole thing into the boiling water, and said while stirring it with his chopsticks: "This time is different from before. Before, the roving bandits were desperate bandits, and desperate bandits are hard to destroy! This time the desperate bandits have struck it rich and become wealthy bandits — and wealthy bandits are easy to deal with!"

As he spoke, Zhu Cilang had already fished out the scalded mutton tail fat, placed it on his plate, then spooned on a ladle of mixed sesame sauce, and finally picked it up with his chopsticks and ate it in one bite.

"How is it that being rich makes them easy to deal with?" Wu Sanfu asked with a smile.

"Yes," Wu Sanmei chimed in, "Your Majesty, once those desperate bandits have silver, they can buy guns and cannons. They should be harder to fight, surely!"

The Wu family basically had no economic sense and no international perspective — they were just a family of provincial warlords.

Zhu Cilang smiled and said, "What is silver? Silver is nothing but stone. Only when our Great Ming supplies them with goods does silver become money. Without that, silver is just stone!

These years, the trade routes from Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Huguang into bandit territory have never been cut off. Each year the two great banks have received more than two million strings of Gongzhi Tongbao coins. From now on, there will be no more!"

Zhu Cilang had already decided to cut off the trade routes to Sichuan and Yunnan. Once the routes were cut, the gold and silver Li Jicheng had plundered from India, and the copper coins minted by the Shun state itself, would all become surplus currency on the Sichuan-Yunnan market. This was inflation!

"But Sichuan is also a land of abundance!" Wu Sangui shook his head. "It can supply quite a lot of goods too, can't it?"

Zhu Cilang smiled. "Of course. Sichuan has wine, meat, silk, cloth, and grain. The bandit officials and fake nobles who got the money can eat, drink, and make merry all they want. But those who got none of it will suffer! Everything rises except military pay — they can only serve Li Laiheng as soldiers for nothing. Changbo, do you think those bandit fubing households will still be willing to risk their lives?"

Wu Sangui and Wu Sanfu exchanged a glance, their brows still slightly furrowed.

Wu Sanfu said in a low voice, "Your Majesty, money can make even ghosts turn the millstone. Can we really cut off the trade routes to the roving bandits?"

(End of Chapter)