Chapter 197: The Merit Aristocracy of Nanjing Must Stay Strong!

Because of the Jingnan Campaign, the Ming dynasty's ennobled merit aristocracy split into northern and southern factions. The core of the northern faction was the Jingnan merit officials, concentrated mainly in Beijing after Zhu Di moved the capital there. The core of the southern faction, of course, was the surviving Jianwen-era old officials, who remained in Nanjing after Zhu Di moved north. This group, led by the Xu family, Dukes of Wei, guarded the southeastern territories and lived their own quiet lives, and for over two hundred years they had been quite well-behaved.

Of course, the so-called ennobled merit aristocracy was an enormous body, not merely a group of nobles holding titles.

In the Ming dynasty, the granting of noble titles was rather difficult. Those of different surnames basically could not be enfeoffed as kings, and even if they were, it was only posthumously. The noble ranks were Duke, Marquis, and Earl — three grades in all — and within these three grades there was a further distinction between hereditary succession and diminishing succession: hereditary succession meant the title passed down undiminished through generations, while diminishing succession meant each generation inherited at a lower rank. The former was granted to merit officials, the latter to imperial relatives.

However, the difficulty of obtaining noble titles did not mean that Zhu Yuanzhang treated his merit officials poorly. Later generations often had the impression that Zhu Yuanzhang was too petty, that he mistreated his merit officials, slaughtered them, and there were even legends about him bombarding the Merit Officials' Tower with cannon.

But such an impression is the opposite of the truth! In fact, the Ming dynasty was very likely the dynasty in all of Chinese history that treated its merit officials most generously. And the Ming dynasty's generosity toward merit officials was not reflected in a small number of high-ranking merit officials such as the six dukes and twenty-eight marquises of the founding, but rather in its generous treatment of the vast numbers of mid- and low-ranking merit officials.

Zhu Yuanzhang's army numbered several hundred thousand men!

And the method by which Zhu Yuanzhang generously treated his meritorious officers and soldiers was, in fact, the military household system!

Was the military household system a form of generous treatment? Was it not a disguised form of serfdom? In truth, the military household system was both generous treatment and a disguised form of serfdom!

Because the meritorious officers and soldiers who followed Zhu Yuanzhang in conquering the realm were not the bottom-tier serf military households, but rather the guard and battalion officers!

The Ming dynasty had more than three hundred guards! How many Guard Commanders, Vice Commanders, Assistant Commanders, Provosts, Chiliarchs, Centurions, Platoon Leaders, and Squad Leaders must there have been? All these guard and battalion offices were hereditary through the generations!

In other words, the descendants of most of the meritorious officers and soldiers who followed Zhu Yuanzhang in founding the dynasty still had a guard or battalion office to hold even by the late Ming — at least among their many descendants, a portion could still hold office.

The only thing comparable to Zhu Yuanzhang's military household system was probably the Qing dynasty's Eight Banners system.

Like the Qing dynasty's Eight Banners, after more than two hundred years of hereditary transmission, the Ming dynasty's guard and battalion officers had also grown decadent. Not only had they lost their fighting capacity, they had also carved up the guard and battalion lands among themselves.

And while losing their fighting capacity, the sons of military households had actually become quite good at their studies, and were rather successful in the Ming examination halls. The number of jinshi degree-holders of military registration averaged as much as thirty percent of the total number of jinshi, and their influence in officialdom was also very great.

For example, Shi Kefa and Ma Shiying, who were now discussing how to deal with Zhu Cilang, were both of military registration origin.

Therefore, Zhu Cilang's action of reorganizing the guards and battalions in Dengzhou and Laizhou was equivalent to abolishing the "iron-cap crops" of the Qing dynasty! This matter touched the bottom line of the southern merit aristocracy and the hereditary military officers!

"Of course we cannot let them stay out of this!" Ma Shiying said with a frown. "The merit aristocracy of the auxiliary capital would ordinarily not involve themselves too much in court affairs, but since the Crown Prince intends to move against the guards and battalions, they will not turn a blind eye. The more than one hundred guards of the southeast — are they not the food on their plates? The Crown Prince wants to dig up their very roots! Without these guards, how can they still be merit aristocrats? We must make them contribute men and resources, and also make them jointly submit a memorial to the court!"

The guards and battalions combined military and civilian administration, controlling vast amounts of land and population, and were the very foundation of the merit aristocracy! Once they lost the guards and battalions, the merit aristocracy of the auxiliary capital would become rootless duckweed, at the mercy of Zhu Cilang.

"Will they stand on our side?" Shi Kefa turned his head and asked Zhu Guobi.

Zhu Guobi himself was not one of the auxiliary capital's merit aristocracy, but he had already participated in rallying to the throne, had brought a small number of troops (the elite of the grain transport soldiers), and had also swallowed up the two hundred thousand taels of silver that should have been shipped to Dengzhou, under the pretext of military expenses for rallying to the throne. So he could not get off the bandit ship now.

"Minister Shi, let this noble make a trip to the auxiliary capital!" said Zhu Guobi, Marquis of Funing and Superintendent of Grain Transport. "I will go speak with them personally. They will certainly act together with us — at the very least, they can submit a joint memorial requesting the Crown Prince to return governance to His Majesty."

Shi Kefa asked: "Will the Earl of Xincheng also join us?"

Zhao Zhilong, Earl of Xincheng, who currently managed the affairs of the Nanjing garrison, was likewise not one of the auxiliary capital's merit aristocracy. They were all Beijing merit aristocrats, who had now lost most of their family property and the population and land they controlled, and had become merit aristocrats without foundations. With their own roots gone, they naturally had to cling tightly to Zhu Cilang's thigh. And digging up the roots of the southeastern merit aristocracy was, for them, beneficial and harmless. Because in the process of digging up others' roots, they themselves could certainly scoop up quite a lot! Otherwise how would they live in the future? Beg from the southeastern merit aristocrats and scholar-officials?

So Shi Kefa was somewhat worried about the positions of Zhu Guobi and Zhao Zhilong.

"Rest assured, Minister," Zhu Guobi assured him. "The Earl of Xincheng is His Majesty's trusted confidant, and moreover he manages the affairs of the Nanjing garrison and concurrently oversees the affairs of the Nanjing Chief Commissioner's Office. If we cannot now support His Majesty in regaining great power, then once the Crown Prince takes control of Nanjing, he will have nothing left! Besides, a good number of the volunteer troops under Your Excellency's command are Nanjing Capital Camps soldiers that he transferred over."

Zhao Zhilong's current office was equivalent to Commander of the Nanjing Capital Camps. Once Zhu Cilang arrived in Nanjing, he would certainly appoint one of Zhu Chunchen, Zhang Shize, or Li Guozhen as Commander. It was absolutely impossible that he would let Zhao Zhilong — a man who had never worked for the revolution with him and was moreover a trusted confidant of Chongzhen — serve as Commander. Moreover, Zhao Zhilong was already implicated along with Shi Kefa!

When that time came, he would have nothing at all.

And Zhu Guobi's own situation was much the same, and he did not even need to wait for Zhu Cilang to reach Nanjing — as soon as Zhu Cilang reached Huai'an, he would be out of office!

The important posts of Superintendent of Grain Transport and Defender of Huai'an would of course also have to be filled by Zhu Cilang's trusted confidants!

When that time came, Zhu Guobi would also be reduced to drifting about Jinling, scraping by on the savings he had embezzled during his previous tenure in Huai'an. And if Zhu Cilang should also pursue the matter of his embezzlement and his participation in the "rally to the throne," then he would be in even worse straits. So although he was a Beijing merit aristocrat, he now stood resolutely in opposition to Zhu Cilang!

"Good!" Shi Kefa nodded. "Then I must trouble the Marquis of Funing. As long as the merit aristocracy of the auxiliary capital are southeastern landlords, and as long as they can be of one mind with His Majesty, the Crown Prince will have no choice but to return governance."

Every move in the Yanzhou area was, of course, within the grasp of Zhu Chunjie, Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Compared with the current provisional court at Dengzhou, Shi Kefa's Marshal's Office in Yanzhou was a sieve leaking wind, and every day detailed reports were delivered to the desk of Commander Zhu.

And today, the news Zhu Chunjie received was somewhat startling — after learning of the Crown Prince's reorganization of the Dengzhou and Laizhou guards and battalions, Shi Kefa had finally made up his mind to oppose the Crown Prince!

So upon receiving the news, Zhu Chunjie did not dare delay, and immediately rode out of the city, heading straight for Penglai Pavilion.

Penglai Pavilion was now Zhu Cilang's temporary palace!

In mid-June, Wu Sanmei had finally confirmed that she was pregnant! In order to give Wu Sanmei a comfortable living environment, Zhu Cilang had moved his residence from the noisy city of Dengzhou to Penglai Pavilion on Danya Mountain.

When Zhu Chunjie arrived, Zhu Cilang had just returned from inspecting the military camps, and was watching the sea in the Guanlan Pavilion at Penglai Pavilion together with Wu Sanmei and Fei Zhen'e.

After hearing Zhu Chunjie's report, Zhu Cilang showed not the slightest trace of anger, but instead threw back his head and laughed heartily: "People say a xiucai's rebellion takes three years and never succeeds. This jinshi Shi Kefa is about the same! He's been dawdling all these days, and still cannot make up his mind to send troops and start a war. He wants to drag in that bunch of useless merit aristocrats in Nanjing — this is truly wonderful!"

As he said this, the smile on his face grew even broader, as if what Shi Kefa and Zhu Guobi were doing was exactly what he had hoped for.

"Thousand Years, then shall we—" Zhu Chunjie, however, furrowed his brows slightly, as if worrying on Zhu Cilang's behalf.

At present, Zhu Cilang had quite a number of elite troops under his command. The Kenan New Army had already expanded into five divisions — Left, Right, Center, Front, and Rear — each division having more than 7,000 men. Add to that the 10,000 men from the Dengzhou and Laizhou guards, plus the direct subordinate units of the New Army Command and the Grand Marshal's Office, and the total strength could be claimed as sixty thousand!

But the problem was that Shi Kefa's side also had quite a few men, and moreover the Great Ming was now in a time of troubles, with the eastern barbarians and roving bandits still watching hungrily from the sidelines. Once chaos broke out, it was feared it would be impossible to contain!

Zhu Cilang smiled: "Our forces are about to expand again! Li Yan has just sent word that the roving bandit Chen Yingyuan's force has agreed to submit, and he has also obtained a letter of surrender!"

Li Yan and Hong Niangzi had recently gone on a mission to win over the remnants of the roving bandits and the various heroes and bold spirits in the Shandong region.

After Li Zicheng took Beijing, he had sent General Guo Sheng with several thousand men to seize Shandong. Guo Sheng had too few men to control all of Shandong, and could only focus on occupying the two cities of Jinan and Jining. Later he sent troops to take Qingzhou, and this Chen Yingyuan was the one Guo Sheng sent to attack Qingzhou. He was also unlucky: he had only just reached Yidu (the chief county of Qingzhou) with 2,000 men when news of Li Zicheng's loss of Beijing reached Jinan. Guo Sheng had no choice but to withdraw in haste, without regard for Chen Yingyuan and another roving bandit general named Yao Fengying. The two of them had no choice but to combine their forces and take to the Taiyi Mountains. But because they were unfamiliar with the terrain, they were ambushed by the Ming dynasty's Qingzhou Mobile Corps Commander Li Shiyuan, and Yao Fengying was killed in battle!

Zhu Cilang would of course not let this opportunity pass, so he had Li Yan and Hong Niangzi go out to win over the desperate Chen Yingyuan.

(End of Chapter)