Chapter 1306: Great Shun! Where Lies the Road Ahead?

The first year of Dongping Daxing was, for Wuhua Mountain in Kunming, truly a run of ill luck — the Shun was not going smoothly at all.

The near-success that ended in failure in the Southern Shaanxi campaign and the uprising at Great Sword Mountain stripped the Shun, that "peasant dynasty," of its fine facade in one stroke. If on the battlefield the heads of Shang Kexi and his son Shang Zhixin, along with the news that Wu Sangui had died of wounds before the lines, had let the Shun court's rulers glimpse a sliver of hope for victory, then the defection of the Southern Shaanxi populace, the uprising at Great Sword Mountain, and the ceaseless disturbances breaking out across Sichuan smashed the gilded signboard of "Welcoming the Roving King" to pieces, thoroughly and completely.

The people of Southern Shaanxi and Sichuan no longer supported the Shun dynasty. They were longing for the Ming, longing for a Ming king! Longing for someone who could shatter the rule of the Shun Celestial Dynasty, drive out the garrison-landlord class that had oppressed them for more than twenty years, and launch another earth-shaking land reform.

According to the research of some later historians, the cyclical pattern of China's feudal dynasties was in fact closely linked to the intensification and easing of the contradiction between people and land — not necessarily in perfect correspondence, but the connection absolutely existed.

To make a vivid analogy, the inevitable corruption, incompetence, external threats, and natural disasters of a feudal dynasty were the various bacteria and viruses, while the people-land contradiction determined whether the feudal dynasty's immune system was strong or not.

If there were few people and much land, the land's output was enough to keep the vast majority fed and clothed, and enough to support a land-based military service system that defended the feudal dynasty. Then as long as the dynasty's upper stratum did not thrash about recklessly (idiocy is a terminal illness anywhere), the dynasty's lifespan could still be sustained.

If the people-land contradiction accumulated to a certain degree, then the feudal dynasty's immune system was already on the verge of collapse, and disturbances that originally would not have been fatal could take the dynasty's old life.

And in the process of dynastic succession, fierce contention and population loss usually accompanied it. After massive population loss, land naturally appeared relatively ample, the people-land contradiction was resolved to a certain extent, and the new feudal dynasty could easily become stable and prosperous.

And this round of external threats and internal troubles that began in the late Wanli years of the Ming dynasty happened to arrive right at the point when the people-land contradiction was intensifying. Moreover, it collided with a Little Ice Age that caused a massive decline in grain output — falling grain yields meant the land could support fewer people, and the people-land contradiction was suddenly sharpened!

Of course, if the politics of the Tianqi and Chongzhen reigns had been sufficiently clean and the monarchs sufficiently wise, perhaps they could have held out a while longer and postponed the coming of troubled times. But that would only have been postponement. To truly solve the problem, there were only two paths: one, a reduction in population; two, an increase in land.

Unfortunately, neither Tianqi nor Chongzhen was any sort of enlightened ruler, and the Ming bureaucratic system had also reached a time of corruption and rigidity. Hence the rise of the Manchu and the ceaseless growth of the peasant rebel armies.

But the appearance of Zhu Cilang, and the Age of Discovery that had already been underway for nearly two hundred years, saved the life of the Ming, that dying feudal dynasty. By temporarily abandoning the northern regions, which the Little Ice Age had rendered incapable of supporting enough population, Zhu Cilang gave the moribund Ming a brief respite. And after the Great Ming embraced the Age of Discovery, it gained a tonic that continuously strengthened the dynasty's immunity!

So the troubled age was forcibly cut short halfway through!

And this troubled age, which had only been in chaos for half a round, did not completely resolve the sharpened people-land contradiction. In particular, it did not resolve the people-land contradiction in the insufficiently chaotic regions of southern China — including the people-land contradiction in the Sichuan base area that the Shun peasant dynasty had seized during the chaos.

Although in the early period after the Shun entered Sichuan, a land reform had greatly alleviated the suffering that the intensifying people-land contradiction brought to the masses, land reform could not cure the root of the people-land contradiction; it could only treat the symptoms.

And the land-based military service system on which the Shun dynasty relied for its survival would in turn aggravate the suffering that the land contradiction brought to the people — because the garrison-landlord class that bore military service had too intense a demand for land, and their ability to seize land was even stronger than that of the former scholar-official landlord class!

One seized land with the writing brush; the other used both the knife-handle and the writing brush together!

So by the first year of Dongping Daxing, the Shun dynasty, which had risen because of the Ming's intensifying people-land contradiction, was likewise facing the fury of thirty or forty million laboring people in Sichuan and Southern Shaanxi who had lost their land. Of course, the Shun dynasty had, after all, been established for only twenty-five years; its first generation of founders had not yet disappeared, and the second-generation Shun men they had trained were all extremely capable fighters.

As a ruling group, the Shun dynasty was still quite vigorous!

Now, great numbers of vigorous garrison households from the three prefectures of Hanzhong, Yunyang, and Gongchang were pouring into Sichuan like a tide, surging toward Yunnan.

"Imperial Lord, the memorial of Prince Li of Jin states that at least forty thousand households, over two hundred thousand persons, are currently on the road south to Yunnan, and asks that the court make every effort to arrange for their settlement!"

"Imperial Lord, the military governors of the three prefectures of Baoning, Kuizhou, and Long'an report that in recent days large numbers of northern garrison households have been passing through. Some of these garrison households are without food or clothing, and along the way they harass the civilian households, demanding food and drink, and at the slightest refusal they resort to swords. In many prefectures and counties, civilian households, fearing the northern garrison households, have fled in droves into the mountains and forests. Moreover, White Lotus sect sorcerers are stirring up trouble among them, inciting popular uprisings. The situation is extremely chaotic."

"Imperial Lord, the military governors of the three prefectures of Chengdu, Tongchuan, and Shunqing, and the garrison commissioner of Chongqing, report that in recent days silver and coin have flooded every locality, prices have soared, the people's livelihood is distressed, the common folk suffer from levies, the garrison households suffer from military service, and with popular sentiment unsettled, White Lotus sect sorcerers are causing mischief everywhere. The situation is extremely chaotic."

"Imperial Lord, the military governors of the Songpan and Xichuan armies report that in recent days the native peoples in the prefectures and counties under their jurisdiction are in turmoil, resisting rent and resisting levies, gathering in the mountains and forests, and some have even raised the banner of the remnant Ming, attempting to resist the celestial troops. They request that a large force be dispatched to suppress them!"

"Imperial Lord, in recent days prices in Kunming Prefecture have begun rising again. A dou of rice has risen to three hundred cash, and military supplies such as cloth, ironware, and gunpowder are in short supply."

The Shun's Dongxing Emperor, Li Laiheng, listened as the ministers below reported one piece of bad news after another, pacing irritably back and forth in the golden throne hall. He wore only a blue cloth robe washed so pale it had turned white — this was to promote frugality. Ever since Li Jicheng had returned in triumph from India, Kunming, the Shun's southern capital, which had already shown signs of luxury, had suddenly become extravagantly fashionable. The upper stratum all pursued Hu horses, Hu beauties, and all manner of Western playthings. The middle stratum took pleasure in feasting and drinking, and the demand for all kinds of meat and alcohol surged, thereby increasing the consumption of grain.

At the same time, the industrial and commercial activities of Kunming Prefecture, Dali Prefecture, and Qujing Prefecture had also intensified because of the "Indian gold and silver" and the "second expedition to India," further driving up prices. And the rising prices and enormous demand in turn forced the Shun court to draw supplies from Chengdu, Jiading, Xuzhou, and other prefectures, which aggravated inflation in those regions. And inflation in turn caused hardship for the middle and lower ranks of garrison households, and the middle and lower garrison households did everything they could to shift their losses onto the peasants at the bottom, which in turn intensified the already severe "garrison-peasant contradiction."

At this juncture, the three prefectures of Hanzhong, Yunyang, and Gongchang were occupied by the Ming army.

The Shun dynasty suddenly had the feeling of being buffeted by wind and rain, on the verge of collapse!

"Damn it all," Li Laiheng cursed, cutting off the minister who was in the middle of his report. "Is there not a single piece of good news?"

"There is, there is, there is good news!" Left Assistant Niu Jinxing hastened to respond. "Imperial Lord, the Crown Prince, Commander of the Pacification Army, reports that in mid-first-month the southern expeditionary army crossed the sea to Madras in southern India and besieged Fort St. George, the stronghold of the western barbarian kingdom of England in southern India, for more than twenty days, forcing the English troops to surrender."

Madras was the later Chennai, the earliest foothold of the English East India Company in India. It was not on the territory of the Timurid Empire of India, but on the territory of the Kingdom of Ramnad in southern India. Because the fortress Li Jicheng had left on the territory of the Timurid Empire's Orissa province had been stormed and taken by Aurangzeb's troops at the end of the previous year, Li Jicheng and his Dutch friends had decided to pick on a "weakling," and at the Dutchmen's suggestion, Li Jicheng had chosen the English.

"Don't mention India!" Li Laiheng now grew angry at the very mention of India, and waved his hand. "Say something useful!"

"Imperial Lord, the Chongqing garrison office reports that a popular uprising has recently broken out in the bandit Zhu's Jiannan Division, which borders Shizhu Prefecture and Wan Prefecture. The righteous army of the Jiannan Division has raised the banner of 'Welcoming the Roving King,' and has sent men to Wan Prefecture and Shizhu to seek aid!"

(End of Chapter)