Chapter 1785: Sun the Big Cannon

The first year of Chongzhen, the sixth day of the second month, the imperial city of Xuanfu, the Chengyun Hall.

Right now, Zhu Cilang was definitely not happy!

Because he had just been born and had done nothing wrong at all, yet people kept calling him "unfilial son, unfilial son" — who would be happy about that?

Moreover, as a little baby, Zhu Cilang should have been eating and sleeping, sleeping and eating, so that he could grow up strong and healthy. But today his father Zhu Youjian had carried him off to morning court. Although a wet nurse was following along, ready to feed him a full meal at any time, the court was still very noisy, with a great crowd of uncles and old gentlemen discussing affairs of state, disturbing the little baby's sleep and growth!

What made Zhu Cilang even more miserable was that his inexplicable father would sometimes solicit the opinion of him, a little baby, and sometimes would show off in front of him, boasting about how awesome, how brave and martial, how wise and brilliant he was.

This was clearly not a reliable father!

The Great Ming Dynasty wasn't going to be driven to ruin all over again, was it?

Just after the baby Zhu Cilang fell asleep huffily once more, Zhu Youjian finally found his conscience and had Zhu Cilang's wet nurse and personal eunuch carry his son back to the rear palace and hand him over to Empress Zhou to look after.

Watching his son being taken away, Zhu Youjian's mind finally returned to affairs of state. His gaze swept left and right and found that the full set of important ministers in Xuanfu had all arrived.

Although Zhu Youjian already had the "New Capital Camps" and controlled Shuntian Prefecture, the Military Government Office, the West City Troop Command, and the sixteen gates of the outer seven and inner nine within Beijing, Zhu Youjian still refused to return to the Forbidden City. Instead, he had split both the outer court and the Directorate of Ceremonial in two, and he himself stayed permanently in Xuanfu with a rather streamlined little court.

Of course, the court still had to be centered on the one in Beijing. All the Grand Secretaries and the chief officials of the Six Ministries, the Censorate, and other critical offices remained in Beijing to manage the daily affairs of their respective offices. Those who had come to Zhu Youjian's side were only the heads of the Directorate of Ceremonial and the Directorate of the Imperial Horses, plus six Vice Ministers, one Right Chief Censor, and some key personnel from the Household of the Heir Apparent, the Military Government Office, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard — now basically all standing in the Chengyun Hall.

"Good, good, everyone is here," Zhu Youjian said with a smile. "We have neglected court affairs for some days now. If this continues, We will become a fatuous ruler! Why not begin properly handling government affairs today? What urgent matters are there? Let all you ministers tell Us!"

"Your Majesty," Bi Ziyan, Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, stepped out of line and reported, "Recently the eight prefectures of Northern Zhili have been unstable. In many prefectures and counties the common people are resisting the land survey and household registration, and disturbances have even broken out."

Bi Ziyan had been one of Zhu Youjian's pillars in his previous life. In the early Chongzhen years he had served as Minister of Revenue, managing the finances of the entire realm. With the treasury exhausted and expenses exceeding income, he had relied on meticulous coordination and careful calculation to hold on bitterly for nearly ten years.

But in this life, Zhu Youjian had not appointed him Minister of Revenue, giving him only the post of Right Vice Minister of Revenue. The vacancy in the Ministry of Revenue left by Feng Quan's transfer had been given to Wen Tiren, who had sold out the noble houses, while Qian Qianyi was sent to fill the vacancy Wen Tiren had left as Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites. Qian Qianyi's disciple Qu Shisi then succeeded to the post of Hanlin Academician.

In the two months since taking office as Vice Minister of Revenue, only one major matter had occurred on the Ministry of Revenue and fiscal-taxation front: the fiscal and tax reform of the eight prefectures of Northern Zhili. And this reform, of course, could not possibly go smoothly — the struggle had been extremely fierce almost from the very beginning.

"The land survey and household registration bear on the survival of the state, and must be carried out no matter what!" Zhu Youjian's attitude toward the land-tax reform of the eight prefectures of Northern Zhili was extremely resolute. "The people making trouble now are merely deceived or put up to it by others. Over the matter of paying a few extra jin of grain per mu of land, there will always be people who make trouble for Us, but they cannot amount to anything. Because the Prefects of the eight prefectures have each brought 1,000 elite troops, enough to overawe petty villains. If the matter grows serious, We will personally lead a great army to fight them!"

As far as Zhu Youjian was concerned, it would be best if it really did blow up!

If it blew up, the matter would be easier to resolve, and the effect would be best.

Although Bi Ziyan leaned toward the Donglin faction, he still approved of Zhu Youjian's resolute rectification of the land tax in the eight prefectures of Zhili. He had done the same in his previous life, but he had not had Zhu Youjian's hard methods, and the results had not been ideal — though it had still slightly relieved the fiscal pressure.

Seeing that Bi Ziyan had fallen silent, Zhu Youjian nodded approvingly — the reason he was not letting Bi Ziyan stand at the front now was to protect this pillar. The rectification of the eight prefectures of Northern Zhili was only the beginning! There would be many places in the future where Bi Ziyan would be needed.

"Your Majesty," Zhang Fengyi, Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, stepped out of line and reported, "The Governor-General of the Three Frontiers and the Governor of Shaanxi have again sent urgent dispatches. The Shaanxi popular uprising is growing ever more intense and already has the force of a spreading prairie fire. This subject believes the court should quickly dispatch a great army, and appoint officials versed in military affairs as Governor-General of the Three Frontiers and Governor of Shaanxi."

"No hurry," Zhu Youjian said. "Wait until We have finished fighting Ma Mengshan, then We will personally lead elite troops into Shaanxi."

The reason he was not in a hurry was that Li Zicheng was already in his hands!

Moreover, after the New Year festival, he had sent Sun Chuanting and Liu Yingkun together to Shaanxi to recruit troops — now the four garrisons of Jing, Chang, Xuan, and Da had 60,000 of their 80,000 troop quota filled, and the remaining 20,000 were all to be recruited in Shaanxi.

Zhu Youjian had offered the high salary of 30 taels (shi) a year, which absolutely could recruit strong soldiers in bitterly poor Shaanxi, and the man handling the matter was the extremely reliable Sun Chuanting — in his previous life, Sun Chuanting had twice organized the Qin troops under extremely difficult circumstances and become the mainstay of the Great Ming Dynasty.

As long as these Qin troops could be raised again this time, there would be no fear of failing to wipe out the roving bandits of Shaanxi!

Moreover, roving bandits feared armored cavalry, and Zhu Youjian had extreme confidence in his own front-tent armored cavalry. Although there were only 12,000 riders, that was enough to deal with ten times their number of bandits.

And the reason he wanted to personally lead a great army into Shaanxi, besides personally commanding the front-tent army, was to relieve the natural disasters of the northwest. If the disasters were not properly relieved, the bandits could not be pacified.

And to relieve the disaster in Shaanxi — to be precise, to relieve the disaster victims of Shaanxi — Zhu Youjian had to control a great amount of wealth, especially grain. How could one relieve a disaster empty-handed?

"Your Majesty," Zhang Fengyi continued, "the Ministry of War has also received a report from the Tianjin naval forces, saying that a great Western barbarian ship arrived in port a few days ago, carrying several hundred barbarian soldiers and officers, as well as several court officials, headed by Sun Yuanhua, Advisor of the Front-Tent Army."

"Good! They have finally arrived!" Zhu Youjian clapped his hands. "We have long been waiting with straining eyes. Sun Yuanhua should have brought back many 3-pounder battalion guns and Portuguese gunners this time. With cannon that can be used in field battle, Our campaign against Ma Mengshan will be all but assured!"

So it was Sun Yuanhua returning with foreign soldiers, foreign officers, foreign muskets, and foreign cannon — a full load indeed! With this "Sun the Big Cannon" joining in, the upcoming "second march from Qishan" — no, it should be the second march from Yanshan — would have an extremely high chance of victory.

This time it would not be firing black muskets, but firing black cannon. Perhaps one cannon shot could blast Hong Taiji to death. If We really had that luck, then all under heaven would be at peace.

Among all the items Sun Yuanhua had brought back, the most valuable were the 36 3-pounder battalion guns fitted with field carriages that could be deployed and maneuvered in the field — if not for these 36 cannon, Sun Yuanhua would have returned long ago. But Chongzhen had specifically demanded 3-pounder battalion guns, not 12-pounder Hongyi cannon. The 12-pounder Hongyi cannon was actually a naval gun; after being converted into a land artillery piece, it was too cumbersome and hard to transport, and could only be used for defending or attacking cities. The Ming army did not need that for the time being.

But the Bocarro cannon foundry had no 3-pounder guns in stock, so Sun Yuanhua had no choice but to have the Bocarro foundry in Macau make them to order. He also hired a group of young craftsmen from Foshan, a major iron-smelting center, to go to Macau to learn how to cast 3-pounder battalion guns, and additionally hired one hundred apprentice workers from Foshan to go to Macau to learn gunnery. He himself also studied together with the foreigners.

And by the second month of the second year of Chongzhen, when Sun Yuanhua came north to Tianjin with foreign soldiers, foreign officers, foreign muskets, and foreign cannon, plus over a hundred Guangdong cannon-craftsmen and gunners, it was no exaggeration to say that he had become the second greatest artillery expert in the Great Ming. As for the person in the Great Ming who understood cannon best, that was of course the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming, Zhu Youjian himself.

(End of Chapter)