Chapter 1303: There Is a Fruit Called Sichuan

"Since Your Majesty has said the selection will be based on ability, then we needn't think too much about it—just let the girls study their lessons well. In truth, Your Majesty's health is so good and your years are still few; even if the Crown Princess is selected, she'll still have to wait many years before she can advance another step! In this old man's view, the contest for Crown Princess should be left to the girls themselves to handle. What our older generation should be fighting for is the profit right before our eyes!"

Old Ma Shiying lay back in a reclining chair, his aged eyes half-closed, gently waving a folding fan. The clear tea on the side table beside him had long since lost its steam.

The place where he was staying was still that old painted pleasure boat belonging to the wealthiest man Zheng. There were only three people inside the boat: one was Zheng Zhilong, one was Shen Tingyang. Among these three, Zheng Zhilong was already a retired old minister, while Shen Tingyang and Ma Shiying were both in their seventies, all waiting to be "ranked among the Three Dukes and Three Solitaries"—this was in fact the treatment for retired high ministers: holding an honorary title, drawing a generous stipend, offering a bit of guidance on affairs of state—what could be more carefree!

Of course, none of the three was a solitary minister; each had a huge clan behind him, plus disciples and former subordinates spread across the realm.

If this had been in the time of the Exalted Emperor, the dynastic founder, all three would have had to worry about being put on a blacklist, and would never have dared to meet privately like this, still less scheme over how to contend for profit.

But Zhu Cilang was not Zhu Yuanzhang. His throne came from bloodline succession, not from contending among heroes, and this year was already the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Great Ming. This 300-year-old state, which not long ago had turned from decline to prosperity, achieved an evolution, and beat the two enemies who sought to replace it until one was dead and one crippled—the foundation of this semi-feudal, semi-capitalist dynasty was naturally far more solid than when Zhu Yuanzhang first founded the Great Ming, and far more deeply rooted in the people's hearts.

If the Great Ming could, on the occasion of its 300th anniversary, thoroughly drive the false dynasty of "Shun" off the great stage of contending for the realm, then the Great Ming's hold on the empire would appear all the more secure, and perhaps it could be passed down for another two hundred and eighty-one years. And driving the Shun out of Sichuan was precisely the "profit before one's eyes" that Ma Shiying spoke of.

Moreover, this was a great profit that could be had for the mere reaching out of a hand!

Because after the Battle of Lüeyang, the Shun state could no longer hold a foothold in southern Shaanxi. When Li Dingguo led his army in retreat from Lüeyang, fighting as he withdrew into Yangping Pass, the Shun troops holding Nanzheng and Dingjun Mountain also received orders to abandon their fortresses and retreat into Sichuan via the Micang Road and the Lizhi Road. And the Shun troops in Yunyang Prefecture abandoned Yun County and Yunxi in the Han River valley, withdrawing to Yunyang and then into the mountains to continue holding out.

After losing Hanzhong and the vast mountain region in the southern part of Gongchang Prefecture, the rich plains of Sichuan Province lost most of their protective screen. Although some mountain regions still stretched across the north of the Sichuan Basin, the strategic depth was already gone.

Originally, from the Guanzhong Plain via the Sanguan Road to Jianmen Pass there were seven or eight hundred li of continuous mountain roads, and a normal march would take more than twenty days!

But from Yangping Pass to Jianmen Pass there were only a mere two hundred li of mountain road, and its degree of ruggedness could not compare with the road between Yangping Pass and Sanguan.

Moreover, the nine densely fought battles—the Battle of Lüeyang, the Battle of Mian County, the Battle of the Bao River, the Battle of the Sanguan Road, the Battle of the Baoxie Road, the Battle of the Ziwu Road, the Battle of the Tangluo Road, the Battle of the Qishan Road, and the Battle to Pacify Hanzhong Prefecture—had also enormously drained the strength of Li Dingguo's forces.

According to the memorial of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Governor-General's Office (with Yan Yingyuan as acting Governor-General), not counting the Battle of Mian County and the Battle of the Bao River, which the Ming army lost, in the remaining seven battles the Ming army killed and captured a total of more than thirty thousand officers and men of the roving bandit army!

Among them, the buried corpses of Shun army officers and men alone exceeded fifteen thousand, and the prisoners numbered more than sixteen thousand—these were all very hard to fake! So the Shun army's true losses must certainly have been far greater than thirty thousand, and might even have doubled.

That is to say, ten percent of the Shun's six hundred thousand fubing had already been wiped out, and the ten percent wiped out was their elite!

Of course, the Ming army's losses were not small either. The two armies of Shang Kexi and Wu Guogui lost thirty thousand men! Wu Sangui lost more than four thousand more at Lüeyang. Liu Sheng also lost more than three thousand on the Qishan Road. Yan Yingyuan commanded three Guards regiments in a series of fierce engagements against the more than forty thousand Shun troops Li Dingguo had left in Hanzhong Prefecture and on the Baoxie, Ziwu, and Tangluo Roads, which also caused more than four thousand casualties on his own side. And when Shi Dewei led his troops to attack Qiuchi Mountain, it turned into a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood—a full eight thousand men were lost. Adding it all up, it came to nearly fifty thousand! And this still did not count the righteous militia lost at Lüeyang.

However, the Shun side's losses were real, with men actually gone, while the Great Ming side's were casualties—the wounded could still be saved—so the final losses should be less than fifty thousand. Moreover, the Ming army's total strength was several hundred thousand more than the Shun's, so the same losses were much easier to replenish.

Besides, the common people of southern Shaanxi, for some unknown reason, were especially devoted to the Great Ming dynasty, all weeping and shouting to join the army and fight the roving bandits, so replenishing battle losses was rather easy.

If every part of Sichuan was like this too, then this fruit would truly be ripe to bursting!

"This fruit won't fall into our hands, will it?" Zheng Zhilong shook his head. "Wu Sangui staked his very life on it. The next Sichuan-Shaanxi Governor-General will never be replaced by a southerner. I reckon either Wu Sanfu will step forward, or one will be chosen from among Wu Guogui, Wu Guoyong, and Wu Guozheng."

Ma Shiying said: "The Sichuan-Shaanxi Governor-Generalship is of course not our turn—but isn't there still the Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan Governor-General?"

Shen Tingyang frowned and said: "Brother Yaocao means Qin Zhongzhou? Can he pacify the roving bandits in Sichuan?"

Qin Zhongzhou referred to Qin Liangyu's nephew Qin Yiming. After Qin Liangyu's death, he had followed Ma Shiying in fighting the roving bandits in Sichuan, Guizhou, and other places. If he had no merit, he at least had toil, so when Ma Shiying's second term as Governor-General expired, he recommended him to take over the post.

"How could he not?" Ma Shiying laughed. "Although His Majesty relied on the northern armies to revive the Great Ming, when has this dynasty's southern army ever been inferior to the northern army? And among the southern armies, the Zhejiang and Sichuan troops have always been the strongest. Now, although the Zhejiang troops have been in decline for many years, the Sichuan troops are growing braver with every battle! And do you two still remember the Tiger Tooth Mountain uprising at the beginning of the month?"

"The Tiger Tooth Mountain uprising?" Zheng Zhilong nodded. "I know of it. What does that have to do with taking Sichuan?"

Ma Shiying smiled: "The rebels of Tiger Tooth Mountain are in fact the key for our Sichuan troops to enter Sichuan! Right now, southern Shaanxi has lost its commander, and the army urgently needs reorganization and replenishment—it will be at least two or three months before they can advance. If the Sichuan troops can strike by surprise, they needn't take all of Sichuan; if they can just take Chongqing Prefecture—no, if they can just take Kuizhou Prefecture—then the northerners' greatest reliance, the army, will lose much of its luster!"

"This..."

"There is such a thing?"

Zheng Zhilong and Shen Tingyang exchanged glances, both showing a spark of interest.

"Yaocao," Zheng Zhilong asked, "you old sir are telling Zheng and Master Wumei such confidential matters—is there something you want this old man and Old Mei to help with?"

Ma Shiying nodded and said: "Although the Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan Governor-General's Office has the authority to make decisions on the spot, the rebels of Tiger Tooth Mountain are under the control of the Depot and the Guard. Without His Majesty's permission, this merit will never fall into the hands of the Sichuan troops!"

"Will His Majesty nod?" Zheng Zhilong asked.

Ma Shiying laughed: "That depends on whether the money bag is stronger, or the knife handle is stronger!"

Zheng Zhilong nodded. "This old man understands!" He glanced at Shen Tingyang again: "Old Mei, this is now a fine opportunity for a surprise move! Should we... give it a push?"

"What? The Ministry of Revenue has no money?"

Zhu Cilang had not heard the story of "the Ministry of Revenue has no money" for a very long time! How could the Ministry of Revenue possibly have no money? And Wu Sangui had just died, and now your Ministry of Revenue suddenly had no money—wasn't that a little too coincidental?

He looked at Chief Grand Secretary Wei Zaode and asked: "Minister Wei, how is it that there is no money?"

The one reporting this matter was Chief Grand Secretary Wei Zaode, and it was not a formal memorial either; he had stayed behind after the noon court session and mentioned it privately.

"It is not that there is completely no money, only that funds are a little tight," Wei Zaode said. "Originally, the Ministry of Revenue's budget was about enough to finish southern Shaanxi this year. We did not expect the campaign to proceed so smoothly, nor did we expect the losses to be so great, still less did we expect southern Shaanxi to be so poor under the roving bandits' governance, and what we least expected of all was that the people of southern Shaanxi would so support the Great Ming, so support Your Majesty, and that so many righteous militia would want to join the army..."

What kind of talk is this? Zhu Cilang thought to himself: How can you, the Chief Grand Secretary, be so lacking in foresight? Such obvious things you failed to anticipate—nowadays the Great Ming is prosperous and the people at peace, a sage Son of Heaven sits on the throne, so is it not perfectly normal for the people of southern Shaanxi to show their support?

"Approximately how much money is lacking?" Zhu Cilang asked.

Wei Zaode said: "That is hard to say. If the campaign to pacify Sichuan can be finished quickly, the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works may perhaps be able to shift some silver around."

(End of Chapter)