Chapter 232: Suicide Is Forbidden

Zhao Zhilong had thought long and hard before asking Zuo Maodi to deliver his memorial for him, because his position as Nanjing Garrison Commander was very hollow. He was a Beijing noble who had been parachuted in, a stranger in Nanjing, and he had not been in office long, nor had he brought many trusted men with him. So he could not control the Nanjing Capital Camps troops, and he might even be under the surveillance of the Nanjing nobles.

Therefore he did not dare let anyone from the Nanjing Capital Camps deliver his secret memorial for him, and he did not even dare send his own household retainers — in this he was overly timid; in truth, how could that bunch of Nanjing nobles be so meticulous in their affairs?

And Zhao Zhilong, for whatever reason, actually believed Zuo Maodi was reliable — Zuo Maodi had indeed never expressed a position on the question of the Crown Prince's restoration to power, and he had also not joined Shi Kefa and Gao Hongtu in rallying to the throne. He was a River Patrol Censor, in charge of the naval forces; what business did he have going north?

Besides, Zuo Maodi was a native of Dengzhou in Shandong. The Zuo family of Laiyang was a distinguished house in Dengzhou, owning vast amounts of land. And Zhu Cilang had adopted a policy of "converting regular administration to hereditary tenure" in the two prefectures of Dengzhou and Laizhou, which effectively turned Laiyang County into the Zuo family's de facto "fief." So Zhu Cilang's "land policy" had not harmed the interests of the Laiyang Zuo family; on the contrary, it had benefited them.

Moreover, Zhao Zhilong believed that if Zhu Cilang quickly settled accounts with the troublesome southeastern nobles and seized power in the southeast, it would necessarily benefit the overall situation of resisting the Tartars in Shandong. As a great Shandong landowner, Zuo Maodi was certain to support Zhu Cilang.

So sending a memorial to Zhu Cilang through Zuo Maodi, to declare his true allegiance, could not possibly go wrong.

In this way he could turn from a rebel into a loyal subject who had infiltrated the rebels' ranks!

But what he never imagined was that Zuo Maodi, that upright gentleman, though he would not wade into the mire of "rallying to the throne," still sympathized with the "loyal subjects who rallied to the throne." Confucianism placed the greatest emphasis on filial piety, and what Zhu Cilang had done was, no matter how you looked at it, the act of an unfilial son!

Zhao Zhilong wanted to sell out the "loyal subjects who rallied to the throne" to an unfilial and disobedient Crown Prince — he was nothing but a crafty villain. How could Zuo Maodi, an upright gentleman and a successor of the Donglin, possibly deliver a villain's secret memorial betraying loyal subjects?

Would that not make him an accomplice to a villain? That was no deed for an upright gentleman!

So the upright gentleman Zuo Maodi accepted Zhao Zhilong's secret memorial in Nanjing, and then tossed it into the Yangtze.

"Minister Zuo, We greatly admire your esteemed mother's loyalty. Hmm, although the old lady gave her life for the country after Li Zicheng fled Beijing in defeat, she is still a virtuous and heroic woman of our Great Ming!"

Listening to Zhu Cilang's words, Zuo Maodi could not help feeling something was off. His mother had clearly been a chaste and heroic woman who died for the country — how had the Crown Prince's words turned her into someone who died for Li Zicheng?

Zhu Cilang frowned as he spoke — he knew that in history, Han Chinese scholar-officials who killed themselves for their country were not too few, but too many, and among them quite a few had died with their entire families. Their deaths were certainly heroic, but after all, dying was not as good as holding on to the end. Resisting the Qing required sacrifice to stir men's hearts, but it required unyielding perseverance even more! So Zhu Cilang had repeatedly issued decrees to the generals and militia commanders (the scholar-officials who organized local militia) on the Shandong and Henan front lines, ordering them to prepare for protracted resistance against the Qing, forbidding suicide, forbidding surrender, and forbidding them to leave Shandong or Henan lightly — even if they had to take to the hills as bandits or put to sea as pirates, they must hold on to the end. Hold on to the end, and victory would come!

And this Zuo Maodi had also died for his country in history. He had been sent by the Southern Ming as an envoy to the Qing, where Dorgon had seized him and pressed him to surrender; in the end he refused to submit and gave up his life. Though it was heroic and stirring, Dorgon had in fact achieved his goal!

Dorgon did not really value Zuo Maodi all that much; without his help the Great Qing still unified the realm! Dorgon did this to show all the scholars under heaven who aspired to be traitors that he was most eager for them to come over! Even someone as stubborn as Zuo Maodi, as long as he was willing to surrender, would still get an official post. But to resist the Great Qing to the end meant only death.

So Zhu Cilang would absolutely never send someone like Zuo Maodi as an envoy to the Qing!

But Zuo Maodi could still be put to great use — with that hereditary stubbornness in his character, he could fight the Tartars to the bitter end in Shandong!

Zhu Cilang continued: "In truth, your esteemed mother's death was not because the roving bandits entered Beijing, but because the Tartars entered Beijing! So your esteemed mother died for the Han Chinese realm, and the Tartars are the enemies who killed your mother!

The enmity of a murdered mother cannot coexist under the same sky! Zuo Maodi, do you want revenge?"

Ah! So now it was the enmity of a murdered mother? Zuo Maodi thought to himself: My mother killed herself; she was not killed by the Tartars. This cannot be said carelessly.

Seeing Zuo Maodi silent, Zhu Cilang frowned: "Do you want revenge or not? Are you a filial son or not!"

"I do, I want revenge!" Zuo Maodi said hastily. "But this subject must first return home for mourning and cannot lead troops on a northern expedition!"

Who asked you to lead troops on a northern expedition? Zhu Cilang thought to himself: If I let you lead troops north, Our life would be in danger!

"We of course know that Minister Zuo is a filial son," Zhu Cilang said. "We will not make Minister Zuo set aside mourning and resume office. But Minister Zuo is a man of Shandong! The Tartars will soon march south into Shandong to dig up the ancestral tomb of the Sage Confucius, and perhaps they will even go to Laiyang to dig up your family's ancestral graves. You are a filial son, and a Confucian scholar besides — will you stand by with folded arms?"

What? The Tartars are going to dig up my family's ancestral graves too? Zuo Maodi grew somewhat nervous. Confucius's tomb most likely contained nothing of value. But the ancestral graves of the Laiyang Zuo family did contain some burial goods! They might very well be dug up by the Tartars. If the ancestral graves were dug up, how could he still call himself a filial son?

Besides, even if the Tartars did not dig up graves, he could not let them occupy Laiyang! Because Laiyang now bore the surname Zuo.

Zhu Cilang said with a solemn expression: "We have already made arrangements in Shandong, particularly in the two prefectures of Dengzhou and Laizhou, where We have reorganized the guard posts, established local militia, and repaired city walls. The defenses of Dengzhou and Laizhou have now greatly improved. But the militia in other parts of Shandong is still unsatisfactory, so We wish for you, while in mourning, to take on the post of Shandong Militia Commissioner — mourning and at the same time leading the Shandong gentry in organizing militia, resisting the Tartar caitiffs, and protecting ancestral graves.

Minister Zuo, are you willing to go to Shandong and accept this commission?"

Shandong already had two Governors-General, two Governors, one Prince, one Duke for the Perpetuation of the Sage, and a great many Regional Commanders — now adding a Militia Commissioner made it lively beyond all reason.

But Zhu Cilang's dispatch of Zuo Maodi to Shandong to oversee militia affairs had been weighed repeatedly.

Because most of Shandong could not possibly be held under the Qing army's fierce assault — Zhu Cilang was not foolish enough to fight a decisive main-force battle with the Qing army in Shandong. So apart from Dengzhou, which had to be held, everywhere else in Shandong could be abandoned.

But the "anti-Qing struggle behind enemy lines" in Shandong had to be sustained over the long term!

Under these circumstances, the Shandong theater did not need unified command; arranging several leadership groups capable of commanding the Shandong gentry was in fact highly advantageous to the Shandong people's anti-Qing struggle.

The men Zhu Cilang had now placed in Dengzhou — Su Guansheng, Shen Tingyang, and Li Ruolian — had very little appeal to the Shandong gentry. So they were merely pieces to hold Dengzhou and maintain the Ming's presence along the Shandong and northern coast.

But Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu, Zhu Yihai, and Zuo Maodi were the men truly capable of leading the overall anti-Qing struggle in Shandong.

As for which of them would rise above the rest, and which would soon be killed by the Tartars, Zhu Cilang did not know either. He was simply using the method of diversified investment — backing several candidates at once.

After Zuo Maodi left Pingshan Hall, Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander Zhu Chunjie arrived together with Minister of Rites Qian Qianyi.

Both of them had come about the Qing marriage-proposal mission that had already reached Jinan. Ming diplomacy was tributary diplomacy, handled by the Bureau of Receptions under the Ministry of Rites. Although the Qing was not a vassal of the Great Ming, since the Ming had no foreign ministry, the reception still had to be handled by the Ministry of Rites, of which Qian Qianyi was Minister.

And the Northern Provost Office of the Embroidered Uniform Guard had become an agency for gathering foreign intelligence, so it necessarily had to take part in diplomacy with the Qing.

"Detain the Qing mission!" Zhu Cilang had already made his decision. Sun Zhixie and Jin Zhijun, those two traitors, were of great use!

He added: "Send reliable and capable men to do it. Escort them to Yangzhou and hand them over to the Huaiyang station of the Southern Office for close confinement!"

"Your Highness, they are envoys after all," Qian Qianyi quietly reminded him. "Our Great Ming is a land of propriety and righteousness!"

"We know!" Zhu Cilang laughed. "When two states are at war, one does not execute envoys! We have no intention of executing them — they are of great use!"

(End of Chapter)