Chapter 143: Collecting Debts (Seeking Favorites, Seeking Recommendations)

The news that the Chongzhen Emperor and the Crown Prince Zhu Cilang "might be dead" was delivered to Dagukou on the morning of the twelfth day of the fourth month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen by secret agents of the Embroidered Uniform Guard's Northern Pacification Office.

"Thousand Years, word has spread all through Beijing that your and His Majesty's ship was burned and destroyed by Hongniangzi's fire attack. The rebel Li Zicheng has even enfeoffed Hongniangzi as the false Earl of Zhigu to reward her for the deed."

Inside the main hall of the Grand Marshal's Office for Pacifying the Army, Li Ruolian, Guard Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, was reporting the news from Beijing to Zhu Cilang.

"Has that rebel Li lost his mind?" Wu Xiang cut in. "How could he let his underlings make such a fool of him?"

Cao Youyi laughed as well. "That Hongniangzi certainly has nerve! She's not afraid of bursting her own boast!"

Zhu Cilang frowned slightly, then turned his gaze to the four civil officials: Wei Zaode, Hou Xun, Fang Yuegong, and Chen Rui. He wanted to hear their opinions first.

In these past few days, the court in exile at Dagukou had begun to reorganize. The four Grand Secretaries—Wei Zaode, Fang Yuegong, Qiu Yu, and Fan Jingwen—were of course retained. Those four had no real ability, to be sure, but they made excellent decorative vases. They were all Grand Secretaries appointed by Chongzhen, and moreover they had supported Zhu Cilang during the Incident at the Gate of Supreme Pole.

Keeping them on served to prove the legitimacy of Zhu Cilang's Grand Marshal's Office for Pacifying the Army!

Beyond those four, Zhu Cilang added Hou Xun to the Grand Secretariat, with Hou Xun serving as Grand Secretary of the Eastern Pavilion and concurrently Minister of Revenue. Each of the other four Grand Secretaries was also assigned a ministry: Wei Zaode concurrently served as Minister of Personnel, Fang Yuegong as Minister of Rites, Qiu Yu as Minister of Works, and Fan Jingwen as Minister of Justice.

Besides each overseeing one ministry, these five Grand Secretaries also had to send two of their number every day to "amuse" Chongzhen, so that he could still feel somewhat like an emperor. The remaining three would come to the Grand Marshal's Office to work. Although Zhu Cilang now had a Grand Marshal's Office for Pacifying the Army, he would not kick the court aside, because the routine of drafting, red-ink endorsement, and referral to the ministries symbolized legitimacy.

Without that routine, and with orders issued directly from the Grand Marshal's Office, many local officials would likely refuse to recognize them.

The central authority of the Great Ming had already fallen sharply; it could not afford to smash its own signboard any further.

So Zhu Cilang simply had the Grand Secretaries work in his own marshal's office. Whenever something needed to be processed through the bureaucratic system, Bi Jiucheng would draft the edict on the spot, then the Grand Secretaries would draft their endorsements, then Zhu Cilang himself would apply the red ink, and finally the Supervising Secretaries of the Six Offices would add their signatures before the document was issued with full formality.

The procedure was flawless. Only one Grand Secretary had been replaced, and not on Zhu Cilang's initiative—it was because the former Grand Secretary of the Eastern Pavilion, Li Jiantai, had surrendered to Li Zicheng. Of the six Grand Secretary posts across the Four Halls and Two Pavilions, one had already been vacant and remained unfilled. The only change was that the one applying the red ink had gone from Chongzhen to Zhu Cilang.

Besides the three Grand Secretaries, Zhu Cilang's former teacher Chen Rui also came to the Grand Marshal's Office every day to work. His current post had been changed to Minister of War.

Because of the appearance of the Grand Marshal's Office for Pacifying the Army, the Ministry of War's authority had been almost entirely usurped, but that did not mean Zhu Cilang no longer needed the Ministry of War's signboard.

Orders issued through the Military Command Office of the Grand Marshal's Office were only effective within the New Army of Adversity and the Grand Marshal's Office's naval system. For other Ming military units, for the time being, they still had to be moved through Ministry of War documents or in the name of imperial edicts. So the Ministry of War remained important—it had simply changed from the office that commanded all the realm's soldiers into the office that relayed Zhu Cilang's orders.

With this series of arrangements, the Grand Secretariat and the Six Ministries were practically merged into one.

Apart from the Minister of War, the other five ministers were all Grand Secretaries. And although the Minister of War lacked the title of Grand Secretary, he still attended the Grand Secretariat—Grand Marshal's Office conferences, could still offer counsel, and had in practice become a Grand Secretary as well.

And Zhu Cilang, the Crown Prince who pacified the army, now somewhat resembled the founding emperor, the Exalted Ancestor, in the days when he abolished the chancellor and grasped all power in his own hands—turning the Grand Secretaries and ministers into his personal staff!

At least during these few days at Dagukou, no civil official had yet challenged Zhu Cilang's authority!

"Thousand Years," the Chief Grand Secretary Wei Zaode said thoughtfully to Zhu Cilang, "the rebel Li is spreading rumors in the capital surely to calm the people, to cut off any lingering hope for the righteous, and to stabilize the situation in the capital."

Zhu Cilang smiled, thinking to himself: Those unruly folk in the capital must have learned their lesson these past days! But their days of misfortune have only just begun!

Li Zicheng is still the good one—later on, "Our Great Qing" will be coming!

The Minister of Rites, Fang Yuegong, continued from Wei Zaode's words: "The rebels are stabilizing the capital likely in preparation for a major campaign. The Embroidered Uniform Guard's dispatches say the rebels have been torturing and extorting funds in the capital, already seizing the enormous sum of thirty to forty million taels. With that silver, the rebel Li should be able to reward his three armies, and once the rewards are distributed, he will most likely set out on campaign."

Fang Yu tensed at once and said, "Will they come to Dagukou? Your Highness, the Left Division has already marched off with Su Guansheng, leaving only the Center and Right Divisions to hold the position. If the rebel Li personally leads a great army here, I fear—"

"There is no need to fear!" Chen Rui interjected. "Dagukou's walls are reasonably strong, and with water on two sides, it is easy to defend and hard to attack. The terrain of Haisha Island is even more perilous; without a navy, no one can land there at all. Moreover, the Right Division is on the island building an earthen fort according to the design for an outer-sea bastion in the Complete Book of Defense. Once the earthen fort is finished, before the Wei River freezes, Haisha Island will be absolutely secure."

The Complete Book of Defense was a military treatise in eight volumes written in the eighth year of Chongzhen by Han Lin, a renowned scholar of Jiangzhou in Shanxi—a Catholic—who drew on knowledge he had learned from Western missionaries. It chiefly introduced Western firearms and fortification techniques, and a large portion of it was devoted to bastion forts!

This work circulated widely among scholar-officials keen on fortification. So when Zhu Cilang proposed yesterday to build a bastion fort on Haisha Island, several civil officials actually volunteered to help. Zhu Cilang at first did not believe they understood bastion forts, and had Johann Adam Schall von Bell examine them. Only after the examination did he discover that these men had all carefully studied the Complete Book of Defense! Their understanding of bastion forts far exceeded Zhu Cilang's own.

So Zhu Cilang selected a few of them and sent his own teacher, Li Shichun—who had likewise studied the Complete Book of Defense thoroughly—to lead them in the fortification work under the title of Left Vice Minister of Works. There were no good materials to speak of; they simply packed earth into straw sacks and shaped it into the form of a bastion fort.

Zhu Cilang narrowed his eyes and pondered for a moment, then shook his head lightly and said in a low voice, "They will not come to Dagukou. If Li the Roving King did come to Dagukou, that would be fine—We would not fear him. What We fear is that he will not come to Dagukou, but will head straight for Shanhai Pass!"

"To Shanhai Pass?" Wu Xiang was slightly startled to hear Zhu Cilang's words. This Crown Prince Zhu really had a crow's beak of a mouth—he hoped he had not hit the mark again.

"What would he go to Shanhai Pass for?" Wu Xiang asked.

Zhu Cilang glanced at his old father-in-law, thinking: Going to Shanhai Pass is, of course, to beat up your son!

He let out a breath. "Shanhai Pass is a fine place. If only Li the Roving King's faction were going there, it would be manageable. But if Dorgon is going too, then there will be trouble!"

If only Li's faction went, Wu Sangui might not necessarily fall into the water and become a traitor; Zhu Cilang, that fine brother-in-law of the Great Ming, could still save him. But if Dorgon went as well, could Wu Sangui really hold off the roving bandits in the west and fight the Eight Banners in the east at the same time?

When the time came, he would most likely choose the worst option Zhu Cilang had laid out—or perhaps not even be able to choose that, and simply shave his head and become a traitor outright.

"Grand Secretary Chen, how goes it? Is your injury any better?"

"C-Commander Luo, th-this old man is still trying to find a way. Could you grant a few more days?"

It was now the early morning of the thirteenth day of the fourth month of the first year of Yongchang of the Shun dynasty. In a residence somewhere in the inner city of Beijing, guarded by Shun soldiers in blue clothes and white caps, a scene resembling a loan shark collecting a debt was playing out.

The early-morning visitor was Luo Xiushen, who had now been assigned by the Marquis of Ru, Liu Zongmin, to the post of Commander of the Northern Pacification Office—in truth, an official in charge of collecting debts.

He collected the debts of those former Ming officials and ennobled nobles who could not endure the torture and were willing to pay money in exchange for their lives. Only when he collected the debts would those people escape further torture.

Of course, that did not mean they would be allowed to live.

If they were civil officials or eunuchs, paying enough money could buy their lives. If they were ennobled nobles, they would lose both their wealth and their lives—at best, they would get a decent death.

The man Luo Xiushen had come to see today was a civil official: Chen Yan, the former Chief Grand Secretary of the Great Ming. He owed Liu Zongmin a devil's debt of sixty thousand taels, and it was already overdue.

(End of Chapter)