Chapter 1347: Surround the Cities from the Countryside (Please Subscribe)

Fengdu.

This small city famed for its ghosts had now completely become the base depot for the eastern-route Ming army entering Sichuan. Grain and supplies from all of Kuizhou Prefecture, Shizhou Guard, and even Jingzhou Prefecture and Hanzhong Prefecture, along with every kind of weapon and armor that could equip local militia and trained bands, were all being shipped here. Eight brigade-level detachments, sized between divisions and regiments, had long since been dispatched to begin clearing all of Kuizhou Prefecture and the counties and districts in the eastern parts of Chongqing Prefecture and Shunqing Prefecture.

Wushan, Dachang, Daning, Fengjie (Qutang), Jianshi, Yunyang, Kai County, Wanzhou, Taiping, Dazhou, Dongxiang, Xinning, Liangshan, Dazhu, Linshui, Dianjiang, Zhongzhou, Shizhu, Fuzhou, Wulong, Pengshui, Youyang, Nanchuan — the people of more than twenty counties and districts, in just over a month, all welcomed the royal army they had been longing for.

This time the royal army truly seemed to be a real royal army, and it did not disappoint the Sichuan people who had waited over ten years in the slightest. Wherever the royal army went, it committed no offense against the people — completely unlike the old royal armies that looted wherever they struck. Of course, the few bolts of hemp cloth in a Sichuan peasant's home were worth nothing in the eyes of the newly arrived royal army! What was there to loot?

Besides committing no offense, the newly arrived royal army also satisfied, to the greatest possible extent, the Sichuan people's need for examinations and land! Wherever the royal army went, the civil examinations followed — the royal army was now educated. The young soldiers of the Guards Army at least had the cultural level of a new-style primary school graduate. The officers were uniformly products of the Military Academy, and many of them had even served as instructors there (the Military Academy's instructors were not full-time; they were elite officers serving in rotation), so they knew how to organize examinations.

Thus there was no need for the Ministry of Personnel or the Ministry of Rites to send people down — they ran the civil examinations themselves! As for what to do next, Ma Wanchun's experience in Shizhu could be popularized — Zhu Cilang had the mobile palace and the Eastern Sichuan Command issue directives guiding each county and district, after the examinations concluded, to carry out household registration and land equalization, form trained bands, and exterminate the remnants of the roving bandits. With ready-made work guidelines, a batch of highly motivated officials, and the Emperor himself stationed in Fengdu, what could possibly go wrong?

In just one or two short months, the hearts of the people in more than twenty counties and districts of eastern Sichuan had all been won over by Emperor Zhu — won over by deception, of course! Zhu Cilang was, after all, a semi-feudal, semi-capitalist emperor, and could not truly represent Sichuan's peasants, nor could his regime maintain long-term efficiency. Take controlling the trade routes into Sichuan, for instance — maintaining it for a few months to a year might be possible. Controlling them for five or ten years was impossible.

What Emperor Zhu could not do was not limited to controlling trade routes — he also could not suppress commerce and industry!

The Shun dynasty had done quite well at suppressing commerce and industry, and it had brought real, tangible benefits to the people of Sichuan — the Sichuan people looked poor, but their population growth rate over the past twenty years had been higher than that of the Ming's eight southeastern provinces! Considering that Sichuan's per capita arable land was about the same as the average of the eight southeastern provinces, one could see that the Shun dynasty's suppression of commerce and industry had actually benefited the Sichuan people.

Because the development of commerce and industry causes private wealth to concentrate more and more, making the rich richer and the poor poorer. That was why not only China's ancient feudal dynasties had policies restraining merchants — most feudal dynasties throughout the world restrained commerce and industry to some degree.

And Zhu Cilang's dynasty actually also engaged in restraining commerce and industry — for example, using the northern army to suppress the southern gentry was itself a policy of restraining commerce and industry.

But Zhu Cilang's merchant-restraining policies only went so far, because he had no way to feudalize the army. His new army had been built on the highly commercialized territory of Yingtian Prefecture and the two provinces of Jiangnan and Jiangbei. From the day of its birth, it had been very difficult for it to develop in the direction of feudal land-based soldiery.

So Zhu Cilang could only settle for second best, using a central military aristocracy to control elite mercenary troops. Such an army was extremely expensive, so while suppressing the political power of the southern commercial and industrial landlords, Zhu Cilang could only promote various policies that encouraged commercial and industrial development within his domain.

His foundations being what they were, it was impossible for him to pursue long-term policies of suppressing commerce and industry in Sichuan — to suppress commerce and industry over the long term required a feudal military class, such as the Shun's garrison-farm soldiers, the Ming's hereditary military households, or the Qing's Eight Banners troops. And establishing a feudal military class in Sichuan would in turn seize the Sichuan people's land, just like the Shun's garrison-farm households!

And without such a feudal military class rooted in the countryside to continually suppress commerce and industry and maintain the feudal order of the villages, once the land equalization work in eastern Sichuan was completed, the rural economy of eastern Sichuan had in fact already completed its transformation toward marketization.

All the peasants of eastern Sichuan had become market-oriented operators. In a sense, they were all merchants now!

So marketization was in fact the greatest pro-commerce policy of all!

And market-oriented operations would inevitably cause some farming households to go bankrupt and land to be consolidated! So Sichuan's poor peasants would sooner or later, just like the poor peasants of the southeast, leave the countryside in large numbers, enter the cities, and even be forced to cross the ocean to seek a living in the New World — what a miserable world it was!

But in the winter of the twentieth year of Hongxing of the Great Ming, the peasants of eastern Sichuan did not yet know the fate that awaited them, so they were all immersed in the joy of receiving land and meeting a wise lord.

And with their support, the Ming army entering eastern Sichuan had already shown signs of being invincible — wherever the great army went, the Shun's defending troops could only flee at the sight of them.

By the eleventh month of the twentieth year of Hongxing, apart from the prefectural city of Chongqing, Luzhou, Hezhou, and Nanchong (the seat of Shunqing Prefecture), there were no more cities in the entire eastern Sichuan region where the Shun dynasty had heavy troops garrisoned. Even where the Roving King's great banner still flew atop the walls, there were only a handful of garrison-farm soldiers inside, and they had all long since packed their bags, ready to leave at any moment.

And the Shun dynasty's root in Sichuan, the prefectural city of Chongqing, was now about to be exposed to the edge of the Ming army's blades!

Zhu Cilang stood atop the walls of Fengdu by the banks of the Yangtze, hands clasped behind his back, gazing at the river surface crowded with wooden boats and the countless laborers coming and going, carrying all manner of supplies down from the laden wooden boats on their shoulders and in their arms. The corners of his mouth curled upward in satisfaction, revealing a smile.

The hearts of eastern Sichuan's people had been won over by deception, just as he had wished. Although the nature of a feudal dynasty meant that the Ming's Emperor Zhu ultimately stood in opposition to the broad masses, the Shun dynasty was likewise a feudal dynasty that had lost the people's hearts — and it had been harming the Sichuan people for nearly twenty years. Now the time had come when it had utterly lost the people's support.

By contrast, the new Ming, transformed through Emperor Zhu's efforts, could still, for the time being, keep its fox's tail tucked away.

So the outcome of this war for Sichuan was no longer in doubt.

"They want to hold Chongqing Prefecture to the death? Fine — We shall surround the cities from the countryside."

Emperor Zhu, hands behind his back, muttered this to himself. Zhu Hexing and Ding Yuying, who were attending him, thought their Imperial Father was instructing them again, and both pricked up their ears to listen, turning their gazes toward him.

Ding Yuying asked softly, "Imperial Father, what did you say?"

These days, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess had been supporting each other in managing the affairs of Fengdu County. The Crown Prince handled external matters, leading troops around the various townships under Fengdu County and wiping out quite a few Shun garrison-farm soldiers who had turned bandit — good practice for him.

Ding Yuying, the Crown Princess, handled internal matters, staying in Fengdu County seat to process all sorts of miscellaneous official documents, and also convening meetings with the county vice magistrate, the registrar, and the six county commandants — Zhu Hexing and Ding Yuying's identities were public in Fengdu! The officials below all knew that this woman with the large belly was the Ming Crown Princess, and none dared handle matters carelessly. Still, two people had botched their work and been dismissed by Ding Yuying. Emperor Zhu was very satisfied with her stern-faced approach to firing people — those in high positions must make those below feel a measure of fear. Better to be strict than lenient!

As for Zhu Hexing's performance — how to put it — he had handled the county's military affairs quite well. Whether organizing local militia or suppressing bandits, he did it properly. But he was very inattentive to civil administration!

Emperor Zhu turned to look at his son and daughter-in-law and said with a smile, "We shall test you two. What should the next move be?"

The old group has exploded again. Welcome, everyone, to join the book's new group. Group number: 635667889

(End of Chapter)