Chapter 187: Fight Shi Kefa, March on Jiangnan! (Bonus Chapter, Seeking Subscriptions)

"Cheat you? You poor, hard-up fellows — why don't you take a piss and look at yourselves? What is there about you worth cheating?"

"Right — they've already put ten taels of settling-in money in your hands. What's left to be afraid of? Afraid Thousand Years will sell you off?"

"Sell you to whom? Look at you, every one of you dumb as a post — probably nobody would even buy you."

"Get lost, get lost, get lost! If you haven't got the guts to earn this money, then get lost! Spots are limited. You lot can just stay stuck in Weihai Guard! No way out your whole lives!"

The poor fellows of Weihai Guard thought it over and figured it was true — what future did they have in Weihai Guard? Weihai Guard was said to have eighteen Guard Commanders!

That is to say, there were eighteen hereditary commander families. That was really too much! How many military households did one Weihai Guard even have? Eighteen hereditary Guard Commanders! And below them there were Assistant Commanders, Provosts, Chiliarchs, Centurions — all clusters of hereditary families.

The guard-battalion system Zhu Yuanzhang set up was not actually ruined by the civil officials; it was ruined by the ceaseless multiplication of hereditary military officers and by military-register scholar-officials who converted from military to civil status.

In the Hongwu years, Weihai Guard had just one Guard Commander, one Assistant Regional Commander, and two Assistant Commanders. Now there were eighteen families alone qualified to inherit the Guard Commander post!

Moreover, among the families that could inherit offices, there were quite a few xiucai, juren, and even jinshi!

This was no small matter! How much land did Weihai Guard have to divide up? There wasn't even enough for the hereditary military officers and military-register scholar-officials — where was there surplus land for the military households?

So the several thousand military households here were now all fishermen and tenant farmers. Sturdy, strong men worked a whole year and couldn't save even one tael of silver. Now Zhu Cilang was giving ten taels just as settling-in money! And they were military-register anyway — "good men don't become soldiers" was not something they considered. With such good treatment now, what was there left to hesitate about?

"Right — this military officer, sir, who does the Crown Prince want us to go fight?"

"Fight Shi Kefa — fight Shi Kefa, the Nanjing Minister of War. He's a great treacherous minister! He opposes the Crown Prince!"

"What? We're going to fight Nanjing?"

"What's the matter? Scared?"

"Not scared!"

"I'll go!"

"What's so scary about fighting Nanjing? It's not like fighting Tartars!"

"I'm going no matter what."

"We're off to fight Nanjing!"

The people who had still been hesitating all boiled over the moment they heard they were going to fight the treacherous minister Shi Kefa and march on Nanjing!

This shows how thoroughly Shi Kefa had lost the people's hearts! This is what it means that he who loses the Way has few to help him!

"Duke, is there really such a good deal?"

"Duke, ten taels for every man recruited."

"This, this, this—"

In the main hall of the Weihai Guard Command, the Duke of Ying, Zhang Shize, sat high in the seat of honor with an air of great authority, while below him a pack of Guard Commanders, Vice Commanders, and Assistant Commanders — all cowed like grandsons — stared at the Duke of Ying with faces full of disbelief.

Ten taels for every able-bodied man recruited!

Don't imagine these guard officers had much money. A palm-sized Weihai Guard had eighteen Guard Commander families — what sort of people they were, you could figure out with your heel!

They wished they could send their own sons and nephews off to be soldiers. Ten taels of "introduction fee" plus ten taels of "settling-in money" — that was twenty taels! Enough for a man's bride-price!

"There is!" Zhang Shize gritted his teeth. "Do you know Shi Kefa?"

"We know him — the Nanjing Ministry of War, right!"

Zhang Shize snorted: "He opposes Thousand Years!"

"What?"

"Is there such a thing?"

Zhang Shize nodded: "Indeed! He's a treacherous minister, a living Cao Cao!

He brought an army of tens of thousands up from Nanjing to make trouble for Thousand Years. Right now Thousand Years has only thirty thousand men — not as many as him — so he needs to recruit some hands. He's prepared to put out six hundred thousand taels and raise thirty thousand brave men in the two prefectures of Deng and Lai! That way Thousand Years will have sixty thousand men, and sixty thousand men will march south together on Jiangnan! To punish the rebels!"

"March south on Jiangnan!"

"We'll get rich!"

"Is it true?"

Zhang Shize nodded. "Of course it's true. If Thousand Years doesn't march south on Jiangnan now, is he supposed to go to Beijing? The Tartars are there!"

"Duke, do you think I could go?"

"You — you're an Assistant Guard Commander!"

"I can resign my post. As long as I can fight that treacherous villain Shi Kefa, I don't care about keeping office!"

"Right! This humble official will no longer be a Vice Guard Commander either. This humble official is resolved to sacrifice himself for the country!"

"Fight Shi Kefa! Fight Jiangnan!"

The moment they heard about marching south on Jiangnan, several of the younger senior guard officers' eyes went red! They were poor officials too — Weihai Guard had only this much territory, and with so many people dividing it up, how much could they actually keep in their own hands?

If they were asked to fight the Tartars, they wouldn't dare — they wouldn't throw their lives away for twenty taels of silver.

But marching south on Jiangnan — heh. Shandong's guard troops, rotten as they were, were still stronger than Jiangnan's rotation troops (guard troops)!

These Shandong men, poor to the point of madness and daring to fight like hell, would thrash the Jiangnan rotation troops.

Besides, Jiangnan had money. Once taken, they could loot it — that meant getting rich! The drive to fight Jiangnan was not the same as the drive to fight Liaodong! Back then, if that pack of bastards under Kong Youde had been ordered to fight Jiangnan, they would never have mutinied!

Why were the Ming troops in history who went over to the Tartars so formidable? Because there was profit in it! Try sending them to fight the Cossack Russians in Siberia and see if they're still formidable.

Zhang Shize clearly had not expected the guard officers of Weihai Guard to be so loyal. He frowned and said: "You want to go? Well, then — then it's still only twenty taels of silver."

"Fine, fine! All eight brothers of my family will go!"

"My family will send six brothers too."

The matter had greatly exceeded the Duke of Ying Zhang Shize's expectations! Not only did the poor men of Weihai Guard eagerly join the army, but even men from Guard Commander, Chiliarch, and Centurion families — and not a few serving Guard Commanders, Vice Commanders, and Assistant Commanders — all wanted to go fight the treacherous minister Shi Kefa!

Just how had this Shi Kefa offended them?

And the same thing was happening not only in Weihai Guard — within a few days, all seven guards of Deng and Lai had boiled over. The zeal to join the army and serve the country had never been so great.

Shandong, Yanzhou Prefecture.

This great city, located in southwestern Shandong and right next to Xuzhou Prefecture in the Southern Metropolitan Region, had once been abandoned by the Ming army when Li Zicheng was at the height of his power. But now the troops of the Great Ming court had not only returned, they were pouring in from all directions in an endless stream, as if they meant to fill the huge city of Yanzhou Prefecture to bursting!

By mid-June of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, gathered inside Yanzhou city were one Minister, two Governors-General, one Governor, four Regional Commanders, plus a garrison eunuch, a noble military superintendent, and a great host of other high officials and dignitaries — along with no fewer than a hundred thousand men of the so-called army rallying to the throne that they had brought with them.

Among them, the one ministry official was of course Shi Kefa, Minister of War of Nanjing; the two Governors-General were Ma Shiying, Governor-General of Fengyang, and Lu Zhenfei, Governor-General of the grain transport; the one Governor was Wang Gongbi, Governor of Shandong; the four Regional Commanders were Gao Jie, Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo, and Liu Zeqing; the one garrison eunuch was Lu Jiude, garrison eunuch of Fengyang; and the one Regional Commander was Zhu Guobi, Duke Who Protects the State and Regional Commander of the grain transport.

So many high officials and dignitaries that Yanzhou City was nearly bursting at the seams!

And this crowd of high officials and dignitaries was, without question, headed by Shi Kefa, Minister of War of Nanjing.

Whether these men would rally to the king, Chongzhen, or to Zhu Cilang, the Crown Prince who soothed the army, all hung on a single word from Shi Kefa — though of course, even if Shi Kefa spoke, they might not necessarily listen!

They were all foxes who had become spirits; who among them was not working his own little abacus with cunning precision?

So Shi Kefa could not casually declare a position either. If he did not declare one, everyone treated him as their leader and paid him homage; if he did, perhaps it would be time to split into factions.

"Third Brother, this matter of forcing the throne at the Gate of Imperial Supremacy — is it absolutely true?"

"Elder Brother, this matter is absolutely true. Though I did not witness it myself, many people saw it with their own eyes."

"Then besides the Crown Prince, does His Majesty have any other sons by his side?"

"None. The Dai princely line is far off in Datong. Prince Yong and the Fifth Prince are trapped among the roving bandits, their fates unknown. His Majesty has only the Crown Prince at his side."

Shi Kefa's headquarters occupied the former Chief Minister's Office of the Prince of Lu's estate, and it was very spacious. Shi Kefa chose one of its quiet rooms for a secret talk with Shi Kecheng, who had only arrived that morning.

When Shi Kecheng mentioned that Chongzhen had only Zhu Cilang, his one son, by his side, Shi Kefa's brows knitted deeply, and he wore the look of a man caught between two hard choices.

Seeing his expression, Shi Kecheng at once showed a nervous look. "Elder Brother, you are not thinking of shaking the foundation of the state, are you?"

"The foundation of the state" was a euphemism for the Crown Prince; "shaking the foundation of the state" meant replacing the Crown Prince.

Shi Kefa looked at his younger brother, his face full of rectitude. "What the Crown Prince has done — is it not unfilial defiance?"

(End of Chapter)