Chapter 1427: Abolishing the Fiefs, Transferring the Fiefs, Contracting the Fiefs

"Your foolish younger brother only knows how to shut himself in and read books — I truly have no talent for official duties! Once I got to Yining, all I knew was to listen to Third Brother and let him arrange everything as he pleased. Wuwu, Third Brother has set me up!"

In the quiet eastern warm chamber of the Hall of Imperial Supremacy, the only sound was Luo Shan Commandery Prince Zhu Ci'en sobbing in fits and starts, looking utterly aggrieved. Even as he wept, he kept shifting the blame, pushing all responsibility onto his third brother, Zhu Cijiong. Zhu Cilang sat fuming on the dragon throne, watching this disappointing brother of his. Just as he was about to feign anger and deliver a scolding, the Chongzhen Retired Emperor, seated to one side, spoke up in a tone that was neither warm nor cold.

"Eldest, you and Third were born of the same mother, look exactly alike, and are much the same in temperament and disposition — so don't go blaming Third."

What kind of talk is that? What's wrong with the two of us brothers? Zhu Cilang snorted, thinking to himself: The Ming dynasty survives only because the two of us brothers are working ourselves to the bone! Otherwise it would have been gone long ago. Would you, Chongzhen, still be able to sit so happily as Retired Emperor? You'd have been strung up on a crooked-neck tree long ago — you wouldn't even have gotten to be Emperor Huizong of Ming!

Zhu Ci'en still had a bit of quick wit about him. Seeing his elder brother's face darken into a look that could devour a man, he hastily changed the subject and brought out the memorial on "abolishing the fiefs and transferring the fiefs" that Zhu the Third Crown Prince had given him.

"Imperial Elder Brother, this is the memorial Third Brother submitted to you on abolishing and transferring the fiefs. Your younger brother has also signed his name to it."

Zhu Cilang took the memorial and, flipping through it as he spoke, asked, "You signed it too? Then do you know what Third wrote? And you just put your name on it?"

"I know — of course I know," Zhu Ci'en said. "Would I dare put my name on something blindly? Imperial Elder Brother, Third Brother's method of abolishing and transferring the fiefs is truly brilliant. After reading it, your younger brother was filled with admiration, which is why I signed in support."

"Oh, is that so?" Zhu Cilang asked offhandedly. "Then tell me — where exactly does the brilliance of Third's method of abolishing and transferring the fiefs lie?"

Zhu Ci'en smiled. "Elder Brother is testing me, isn't he? Though your younger brother is muddle-headed, I can still see where Third Brother's method is good. Third Brother's approach is actually to transform the abolition of fiefs into the transfer of fiefs — and moreover, not to move an entire garrison command, but only to move its upper stratum, thereby separating the upper stratum of the garrison from its middle and lower strata. Barring special circumstances, the middle and lower strata of a garrison command would not move between the various fiefs.

"The heads of each garrison command, along with their retainers and household troops, would form a governing body for administering the fief, contracting from the court the military and civil administration of a fief for a set term, and governing that fief's military and civil affairs within that term. The court, meanwhile, would conduct periodic inspections of each fief's military and civil administration. If the inspection is passed, then at the term's end the fief is transferred. If the inspection is failed, then at the term's end the fief is abolished.

"If the court can implement Third Brother's method, then the military governors of the inner-subject fiefs will find it hard to hold office long in any one fief, and hard to build up separatist power. At the same time, the court can continue to make use of their strength to command troops and govern the people in the borderlands, suppressing the disloyal.

"The heads of the various fiefs also gain a path of advancement and retreat, as well as a channel for profit. Moreover, after their transfer, they will no longer be as tightly bound to the middle and lower strata of their fiefs as they are now; instead, they will have to rely on the court's authority to govern their domains. In the future, there can be no recurrence of the garrison-command calamities of the late Tang and Five Dynasties.

"Furthermore, with the military governors rotating office on a fixed schedule, one can achieve the effect of 'running water never stagnates, and a door-hinge never gets worm-eaten.' In the future, the border fiefs will not likely rot into uselessness the way the old Regional Military Commissions, Branch Regional Military Commissions, Military-Civilian Commissions, and Guard Commissions did."

He really had read Zhu the Third Crown Prince's memorial — from Yining to Yingtian is a journey of over ten thousand li! It was so boring along the way that he read a bit. But after reading too much of the traditional classic Jin Ping Mei, it lost its flavor, and Hani wasn't by his side — so he took out Zhu the Third Crown Prince's memorial and read it for amusement.

Once he got into it, Zhu Ci'en suddenly discovered that his third brother really did have some skill!

Zhu the Third Crown Prince had long been in charge of border garrison commands, so of course he knew how to manage one properly. And he was also very clear about the fatal weakness of the Ming's original military household system — the greatest problem with the Ming military household system lay not in the "serf soldiers," but in the fact that the officials of the Regional Military Commissions and Guard stations mostly came from hereditary lines and rarely circulated.

Hereditary officials who seldom moved about would inevitably rot over time. Once rotten, their standard of management grew worse and worse, and the combat readiness of the Ming's Regional Military Commissions and Guard stations sank lower and lower. The lower ranks, to be sure, became miserable serfs, while the middle and upper ranks supported by those lower ranks likewise lost their fighting capacity.

Otherwise, with the Ming's three or four hundred guard units — each guard averaging 5,600 households — if even one-twentieth of the military households (surely those would be the middle and upper ranks) had maintained strong fighting power, that would have been over a hundred thousand elite troops. What Tartars, what roving bandits — they would all have been chopped into mincemeat long ago.

As for the problem of the garrison commands' (the Regional Military Commissions' and Guard stations') decay, Zhu Cilang had in fact already put forward his own solution: essentially tear it all down and start over. He had almost entirely abolished the original Regional Military Commissions and Guard stations, then placed directly under the central government those territories that were easy to control and relatively lucrative. Using the profits skimmed from those territories, he established a new army (a mercenary army), and at the same time built an officer-training system centered on the sons of the hard-struggle ennobled families, supplemented by the elite of the Nine Borders Youth Army.

And in territories that the court could not yet manage directly, where the profits were not particularly rich, and which were unsuitable for establishing princely states, Zhu Cilang established a number of new garrison commands with a higher degree of centralized authority.

However, he had not carefully considered how to maintain these new garrison commands over the long term. As emperor, he often just took things one step at a time.

"Crown Prince, Yuying — the two of you take a look at the Prince of Dai's memorial as well." Zhu Cilang had already finished reading Zhu the Third Crown Prince's memorial. He did not state his position immediately, but instead handed the memorial to the Crown Prince Zhu Hexing and the Crown Princess Ding Yuying, who were present.

Zhu Hexing would graduate from the Military Academy by year's end, and Ding Yuying had not long ago borne Zhu Cilang another granddaughter. She now had both a son and a daughter, and her position grew ever more secure.

Zhu Hexing and Ding Yuying read the memorial in turn. Zhu Hexing had read it first, so he spoke first.

"Imperial Father," Zhu Hexing replied, "Third Uncle's method is workable. At present we have in total Heilongjiang, Andong, Anbei, Daning, Shuofang, Hexi, Anxi, Beiting, Chuanxi, Chuandong, Guizhou, Shizhou, Xining (western Guangxi), Dongning, Jin'ou, Xiyang, U-Tsang, Do-Kham, and Ngari — nineteen garrison commands in all. The number of garrison commands exceeds the number of directly administered provinces, the registered households under their jurisdiction number in the tens of millions (mainly because of Sichuan's large population), and the territory they administer is extraordinarily vast. If so many military governors are allowed to hold office for long terms, or even to pass their posts down hereditarily without replacement — then in the future either there will be trouble, or they will repeat the rot of the old Regional Military Commissions and Guard stations.

"But if all those fiefs were abolished in one stroke, even if it did not provoke rebellion, it would cause the borderlands to slip out of control. Among the places where these nineteen garrison commands are located, the only ones where conditions exist to establish directly administered provinces or to assign them to directly administered provincial management are Guizhou, Shizhou, Xining, and Dongning. The other commands will likely have to be maintained for a long time. Third Uncle's method of transferring the fiefs is indeed usable!"

Zhu Cilang nodded repeatedly. The boy was a bit muddled about other matters, but when it came to military affairs, he was thoroughly versed!

This was a very important ability!

If he was too lazy to manage civil affairs, he could just throw them to Ding Yuying — that Crown Princess was very capable. But military affairs he had to manage himself, and he also had to keep that pack of military second- and third-generation officers in line. That way, the Great Ming would not be ruined in the hands of a lucky Crown Prince.

"Yuying, speak." Zhu Cilang put the question to his daughter-in-law.

"Imperial Father," Ding Yuying said with a smile, "your daughter-in-law believes that since the court wants to use the garrison commands and to govern them, it should not fear the garrison commands rebelling! Third Uncle's method is certainly good, but it is inevitable that some garrison commands will still rebel. The three fiefs of the Snowlands and the two fiefs of Heilongjiang and Andong, I fear, will not obediently agree to the transfer."

Zhu Cilang nodded. "Yuying, how do you think We should deal with them?"

Ding Yuying said, "Your Majesty can take advantage of this recent capture of Shunzhi to move against the five fiefs of Heilongjiang, Andong, Duoyan, U-Tsang, and Ngari. Order the two fiefs of Heilongjiang and Andong to exchange places with the two fiefs of Ngari and U-Tsang. At the same time, order Li Dingguo of Duoyan to go to Chuandong to serve as military governor."

Zhu Cilang looked at Ding Yuying. "Yuying, do you want the Crown Prince to win merit and establish his authority in putting down the garrison-command rebellions?"

(End of Chapter)