Chapter 190: On Protracted War! (Seeking Subscriptions)

"The Tartar bandits are about to reach Denglai, and their strength is great. How will you resist them?"

Ma Shiying, in his fifties, slightly stout, with a rather refined, scholarly face, stood outside the main gate of Penglai Pavilion, gazing at the examination question posted on the wall, his brow faintly furrowed.

He had come together with Lu Zhenfei and Lu Jiude, arriving at Dengzhou city a day earlier. After arriving, they had not gone to the army headquarters to present their name cards, but instead found a quiet inn and settled in.

Then they went to find people to ask about the "equal fields and tax exemption" matter in the seven guards of Denglai. This matter was not difficult to learn about, because among the seven guards of Denglai was Dengzhou Guard, located near the prefectural seat of Dengzhou, and the Dengzhou water fortress was also the guard city of Dengzhou Guard.

Therefore, quite a few of the residents living in Dengzhou city had some connection or other with Dengzhou Guard.

As for Zhu Cilang's reorganization of the seven guards of Denglai, the scholars in Dengzhou city were also split into two factions. One faction cheered!

To be honest, the guard posts here in Denglai were practically a cage! Whether serving as an officer or as a soldier, there was no way out. The only hope one could see was a military-register xiucai or a military-register juren. But Zhu Cilang adopted Li Yan's method, on the one hand seizing the lands that the seven guards' officers had encroached upon, and on the other giving hope to the able-bodied men of the seven guards of Denglai.

Of the thirty thousand men recruited, ten thousand would remain in the seven guards of Denglai, each man receiving about two hundred mu of land — the land here in Denglai is mostly dry fields and cannot compare with the paddy fields of Jiangnan. Moreover, after receiving the two hundred mu, those below the rank of Squad Leader would receive no military pay, and they would also have to provide their own equipment and rations!

As for those at the rank of Squad Leader and above, they would receive military pay reduced by two grades, the pay being issued by the Grand Marshal's Office of the Pacifying Army through the Denglai Regional Command headquarters established at Dengzhou — after the reorganization of the seven guards was completed, the Coastal Defense Commission had been abolished and replaced by the Denglai Regional Command, with Li Ruolian serving as Regional Commander.

And the remaining twenty thousand men would all be incorporated into the New Army of Overcoming Hardship. A portion would be assigned to the New Army's five divisions (the New Army now had five divisions), and a portion would be directly controlled by the New Army of Overcoming Hardship's command office to serve as baggage troops.

Thus, the strength of the New Army of Overcoming Hardship (not including the ten thousand guard troops in Denglai) had increased to as many as forty-eight thousand! Of these, eight thousand would remain in Dengzhou to hold firm, while the remaining forty thousand would follow Zhu Cilang in his operations.

To have raised an army of forty thousand in such a short time — leaving aside whether it could fight — the mere skill in gathering manpower was enough to make Ma Shiying and Lu Zhenfei deeply admire him.

However, there were also quite a few people in Dengzhou singing the opposite tune! They were mainly military-register scholar-officials who had lost their lands in the "reform."

They were unwilling to serve in the army, yet powerless to oppose Zhu Cilang's forty thousand troops and his clever methods — if Li Yan's approach had not been so brilliant, these military-register scholar-officials would certainly have incited the ordinary military households to resist. But now not only the ordinary military households, but even a portion of the military-register officers who still had some fighting ability were eagerly rubbing their hands, ready to go south to Jiangnan to make their fortunes. Who would still follow them in resistance? Even if they resisted, they could not win!

As for Ma Shiying, Lu Zhenfei, and Lu Jiude, who had come incognito, they both feared and respected Zhu Cilang's methods.

But the three of them still did not quite understand — there was still the Grand Secretariat and the Ministry of War! How was it that no one had stopped Zhu Cilang from acting recklessly? Could it be that the grand secretaries at the traveling court and the supervising secretaries of the six offices all believed that Crown Prince Zhu was the reincarnation of Zhu Yuanzhang?

However, the three of them did not immediately go to find the five grand secretaries at the traveling court, but instead came to Penglai Pavilion today to look at the special examination questions.

Beyond the expectations of Ma Shiying and Lu Zhenfei, both veteran jinshi, they saw only one examination question outside the main gate of Penglai Pavilion — a policy question. The question was: "The Tartar bandits are about to reach Denglai, and their strength is great. How will you resist them?"

Lu Jiude also saw the question. The old eunuch frowned deeply and said in a low voice to Ma Shiying beside him, "Why is there only one policy question?"

By this time he had already noticed that Ma Shiying was frowning deeply, apparently lost in hard thought.

What was the matter? Could he not answer it?

He then looked at Lu Zhenfei. Lu Zhenfei was a man of Hebei, about the same age as Ma Shiying, both in their fifties, though because he was tall and fair-skinned, he looked younger. At this moment he too, like Ma Shiying, was stroking his large beard and staring at the examination question posted at the main gate of Penglai Pavilion.

It seemed... he could not answer it either!

Was this question really that difficult?

At that moment Lu Zhenfei suddenly turned his head to look at Ma Shiying. "Yaocao, have you found a solution?"

Ma Shiying smiled bitterly and shook his head. "How could a question like this have a solution? I don't believe the person who set it could answer it well himself."

Lu Zhenfei smiled. "Then let us go and seek instruction from the one who set the question!"

Ma Shiying nodded. "Good! Brother Jianbai, let us go at once to the Grand Marshal's Office of the Pacifying Army to have an audience with the Crown Prince, His Thousand Years!"

In the main hall of the Grand Marshal's Office of the Pacifying Army, Zhu Cilang sat upright on an imperial seat, with several chairs arranged on either side, occupied by seven men: Hou Xun, Chen Rui, Wu Xiang, Cao Youyi, Su Guansheng, Li Ruolian, and Li Yan.

Ma Shiying, Lu Zhenfei, and Lu Jiude had all changed into python robes and had just performed the grand ceremony of obeisance to Crown Prince Zhu, and Zhu Cilang had courteously granted each of them an embroidered stool, then said half-jokingly, "Two Governors-General, and Lu Jiude — you have finally come. We have been waiting here for you for quite some time."

As it turned out, their party had long been under the surveillance of the Embroidered Uniform Guard!

"Your Highness, this subject, together with Governor Lu and Eunuch Lu, went to the examination ground at Penglai Pavilion, and so was delayed for some time."

As Ma Shiying explained, he stole a glance at Zhu Cilang. He found that Zhu Cilang's face was suffused with a brilliant smile, appearing very amiable, completely unlike Chongzhen, who wore a look of constant worry for the state and the people all day long.

"Oh, did you see the examination question?" Zhu Cilang asked with a smile. "Can you answer it?"

Ma Shiying shook his head. "This old subject cannot."

Lu Zhenfei also shook his head. "This old subject is of meager learning and shallow talent, and cannot answer it either. I would like to ask Your Highness the Crown Prince for instruction."

Ma Shiying also said, "This subject also wishes to ask Your Highness for guidance."

Zhu Cilang smiled. "Very well, then We shall discuss it with you. It hardly counts as guidance — let us pool our wisdom and efforts, and together work out a method for resisting the Tartars and protecting the state."

Ma Shiying said, "This old subject is eager to hear the details."

Zhu Cilang said, "Our method is to hold firm! To be tenacious and unyielding, to wage a protracted war of resistance, to fear no hardship, to not shrink from death, and also not to speak lightly of sacrifice.

Before the Tartar bandits arrive, the guard posts, prefectures, and counties should be reorganized. The guard posts should revive the military households, and the prefectures and counties should organize local militia on a large scale. The two prefectural cities of Dengzhou and Laizhou should strengthen their walls and prepare for war, store grain and fodder, and make preparations for long-term resistance. The prefectures and counties in the interior should build mountain fortresses and stockaded villages among the mountains, to be defended by the local militia — when the enemy comes, hold the fortresses; when the enemy leaves, go out and harass them. And the guard posts along the coast should all organize naval forces, build fortresses on the coastal islands, and make preparations for protracted resistance.

After the Tartar bandits arrive, the soldiers and civilians of Denglai shall fight them in the open country, fight them at the city walls, fight them in the mountains, fight them on the islands, and fight them at sea! They must do everything possible to preserve themselves and destroy the enemy! Even if the fighting goes badly, they must not surrender to the Tartar bandits, and still less must they leave Denglai!"

The Founding Emperor truly has been reincarnated!

After hearing Zhu Cilang's words, the same thought arose in the minds of both Ma Shiying and Lu Zhenfei — the story that the Grand Founding Emperor had returned to the world was true! Otherwise how could this young Crown Prince before them have conceived of such a brilliant plan?

This was a plan that the two of them, with all their great learning and all their years as officials — officials who could command troops on horseback and govern the people on foot — could not have devised.

In fact, the two of them had been utterly at a loss regarding the Manchus who were about to move south. All they could think of was defending the Yangtze and defending the Huai, resisting step by step. As for Shandong, in their view it was not to be defended under any circumstances.

But now Zhu Cilang had presented a plan for holding firm in Shandong, and it was feasible.

Fighting the Manchus in the open country was certainly unwinnable, and most cities could not be held, but Dengzhou's strong walls, as long as they were properly reorganized and reinforced, still held great promise.

Because the Dengzhou water fortress had its own harbor. As long as the water fortress remained in hand, the Manchus could never cut off Dengzhou's outside aid. And the terrain of the water fortress was extremely formidable — backed by mountains, bordered by water, facing the sea, and connected as one with Penglai Pavilion on Danya Mountain.

Besides the prefectural city of Dengzhou, within the two prefectures of Denglai there were also six guard cities — Weihai Guard, Chengshan Guard, Jinghai Guard, Dasong Guard, Lingshan Guard, and Aoshan Guard — as well as many chiliarch post cities, all built against mountains and by the sea. Although they were not as strong and strategically located as the Dengzhou water fortress, because they were widely distributed and the overland transportation in their areas was very inconvenient, if a large Manchu army could not completely control the mountainous interior but instead had to advance along the relatively flat coast, it would be five hundred li from Laizhou to Weihai Guard, and seven hundred li to Jinghai Guard!

If the area around Dengzhou Prefecture could be stripped of all resources, the logistical pressure on the Manchu troops would be enormous!

As for the sea and the islands, they were entirely the Ming army's domain. The coastal areas of the Shandong Peninsula contained a great number of islands, most of which had water sources and inhabitants, allowing Ming troops to be stationed there. Moreover, the guard posts along the Shandong coast had all been established for defense against the Japanese pirates, and from the very beginning had taken the defense of coastal islands into account, building fortresses and stockades on many islands and stationing military households there.

Therefore, as long as one was determined and made preparations, these islands could always be held.

Monthly votes have already reached 2500+, an increase of more than 400 over yesterday morning's 2100+, so I will add two more chapters, to be completed tomorrow. So today there are still seven chapters, with three at noon and two in the evening. Thank you all for your support.

(End of Chapter)