Chapter 237: Turning Their Own Scheme Against Them: Taking the Crown Prince by Strategy

Wang Zhiren had been in a fairly good mood these days — until two days ago, when word reached Suzhou that Jiang Yuntai, the Regional Commander of Zhenjiang, had been defeated and killed.

He and Jiang Yuntai had not been particularly close; it was only because their situations were somewhat alike that he felt the fox's grief at the hare's death. Although he had been a soldier for many years and had risen to the rank of Commander, he was not like Gao Jie or Huang Degong, commanders who had fought their way up blade by blade and shot by shot. He had risen step by step through the patronage of his cousin Wang Zhixin, climbing from a minor officer in the Capital Camps all the way to Regional Commander of Susong.

Susong was the wealthiest region in the empire. There were no roving bandits nearby and no Tartars; the only threat was the river pirate Gu Sanmazi at the mouth of the Yangtze.

But a water bandit like Gu Sanmazi was a "rich bandit," not the sort of desperate, vicious outlaw. His life's goal as a bandit was not to seize a mouthful of food just to stay alive, but to block the river and collect tolls while hoping for an amnesty — first get rich, then become an official, and become the Zheng Zhilong of the Yangtze.

Bandits of this sort would never come break open Suzhou Prefecture or Songjiang Prefecture. At most they would harass the shoreline a little, as bargaining chips for an amnesty.

So Wang Zhiren's main work in his Susong post was covering for smuggling — and he had certainly not taken little money from great sea merchants like Zheng Zhilong and Shen Tingyang!

Would those great sea merchants send him money?

Of course they would!

He controlled the defense of the two prefectures of Suzhou and Songjiang, holding the mouth of the Yangtze!

Whether it was porcelain from Jingdezhen, silk and cotton cloth from Nanjing, Yangzhou, and Suzhou, or salt from the two prefectures of Huaiyang — anything that wanted to be shipped out past the mouth of the Yangtze had to get through Wang Zhiren's checkpoint!

If he blocked the way and refused passage, would Zheng Zhilong or Shen Tingyang send armed fleets to fight him? That would be tearing off all pretense and open rebellion.

So in his post as Regional Commander of Susong, he had filled his bowl to overflowing. But before Beijing fell in the third month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the money he took had to be split with a great many people! What actually landed in his own pocket was not much.

After the fall of Beijing, however, there was truly no one to mind him and no one to ask questions! Not only could he pocket all the money he took, he could also appoint his own subordinates and recruit his own troops — he was practically a local hegemon. He no longer even needed to pay any attention to the prefects of Suzhou and Songjiang, who had once kept him in check.

Everyone kept to their own well and river, each taking their own money, and that was that!

Even when the traveling court came south to Yangzhou, Wang Zhiren's good days still did not change. The court that had left Beijing no longer had its former authority, and on top of that, a rift had opened between the traveling court and the Nanjing garrison command.

In the view of him, his trusted men, and his private advisers, this was the time to hold out for the best price! Both the traveling court and the Nanjing side would surely want to win over a great warlord like him, entrenched in Susong with troops under his command, wouldn't they? His demands were not high; he would be satisfied if they just let him keep skimming from the Susong territory for a few more years.

And the Nanjing garrison command did indeed do as he wished, ordering him to hold Susong, protect the region and pacify the people, guard against sea raiders, and not leave without authorization. Just as he was waiting for the traveling court to send someone to win him over, the bad news arrived.

The traveling court stationed at Yangzhou had suddenly struck hard at Jiang Yuntai, the Regional Commander of Zhenjiang!

Five thousand musketeers and fifteen hundred cavalry crossed the river from Guazhou, landed at Jinshan, and then bore down on Zhenjiang city in full fury.

Jiang Yuntai, the Regional Commander of Zhenjiang, lost his head in panic and actually ordered his troops to shut the gates and resist!

But his men had barely closed the city gates when they were terrified by the killing aura of the ironclad cavalry and musketeers. After a volley of musket fire, the soldiers defending the walls either fled or surrendered, and some opened the gates to welcome the attackers.

Jiang Yuntai, the Regional Commander of Zhenjiang, had no choice but to flee with his family, hoping to take refuge in Wang Zhiren's territory. In the end he was quickly overtaken by the Crown Prince's iron cavalry, and his whole family, old and young, was taken off to Yangzhou — likely with little hope of survival!

Wang Zhiren knew that Jiang Yuntai had also sent gifts to the traveling court, and like him, had been thinking of holding out for the best price between Nanjing and Yangzhou. He had never imagined that the traveling court would not even make an offer — they sent troops!

And the troops they sent were ones that could really fight!

Just as Wang Zhiren was so frantic he did not know what to do, a mounted courier arrived from Zhenjiang, telling him to go to Baoshan Garrison and wait for his cousin Wang Zhixin.

Wang Zhixin had come this time bearing the royal command, to deliver the decree of the Army-Pacifying Crown Prince!

"You — you've lost your head! Who do you think you are? Gao Jie? Huang Degong? Zuo Liangyu? Those men's commands were won in battle! Yours was gotten for you by me, through back doors — can that be the same? Come to think of it, that Jiang Yuntai was even a bit stronger than you! And what happened? In less than half a day he was finished — his house confiscated, his whole family hauled off to Yangzhou. Not one male in his household will survive; all of them are to be beheaded! Beheaded!"

In a residence within the bounds of Baoshan Garrison, Wang Zhixin met his dazed cousin and, without any preamble, gave him a thorough cursing, with threats thrown in.

"Elder Cousin, don't frighten your younger brother," Wang Zhiren actually managed to keep his composure — he really did have some nerve. "There are plenty of garrison commanders in the realm just like me these days. Surely His Highness the Thousand Years won't kill them all?"

"You — you —" Wang Zhixin, stung by his cousin's retort, was so angry his face turned a little green. "You muddle-headed fool! Of course His Highness can't kill them all! But his five thousand troops are marching this way toward Susong right now. If you dare resist, you'll be the chicken killed to warn the monkeys! Do you want to be the chicken or the monkey?"

The chicken or the monkey? That was a question!

Wang Zhiren thought it over seriously and answered, "Then I'll be the monkey!"

"Then get your naval forces and household retainers ready at once, and come with me to Yangzhou to beg forgiveness!" Wang Zhixin said. "Suzhou and Songjiang will be handed over to Governor Qiu to take charge."

This Governor Qiu Yu held great power — he governed the army when mounted and the people when dismounted! In these extraordinary times, when power needed to be delegated, it had to be delegated!

So the governors he appointed — including Su Guansheng, Lu Zhenfei, Fang Gongyue, and the soon-to-take-office Qiu Yu — all held full authority over both military and civil affairs. But none of their jurisdictions was as large as a whole province; in fact, each was just two prefectures.

Su Guansheng governed the two prefectures of Denglai, Lu Zhenfei the two prefectures of Huaiyang, Fang Gongyue the two prefectures of Zhenchang, and Qiu Yu the two prefectures of Susong. The territories were not large, but their authority was very high — all were Governors concurrently serving as Commanders-in-Chief! And each also concurrently governed one prefecture.

Of course, although the posts of Governor and Regional Commander were held by one man, the two offices belonged to two separate systems. Governor was a civil post, under the Grand Secretariat and the Six Ministries. Regional Commander was a military post — that is, Regional Commander — under the Army-Pacifying Grand Marshal's Office. And a Governor's subordinates were the Provincial Administration Commissioner, the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner, and the Prefects. A Regional Commander's subordinates were the various guards under his jurisdiction and the land and naval corps assigned to the Regional Commander's headquarters.

Incidentally, the Huaiyang militia that Lu Zhenfei had raised would later be reorganized into the Huaiyang Naval Force, the First Division of the Overcoming-Hardship New Army, and the Huaiyang Patrol Brigade. Of these, the First Division of the Overcoming-Hardship New Army, more than eight thousand strong, would be directly controlled by the Grand Marshal's Office, and would rank as the sixth division, after the five divisions — vanguard, rear, left, center, and right — of the Overcoming-Hardship New Army.

And Wang Zhiren, about to lose his military authority, was unwilling in his heart. He looked at his cousin and asked, "Then what about my money..."

Wang Zhixin glared at his cousin: "Your money His Highness does not want, and your life he does not want either. His Highness wants only your military authority! But the land you seized in Susong — every last mu of it must be handed over!"

At the same time that Wang Zhiren was handing over military authority in the two prefectures of Susong to Qiu Yu, Huang Binqing on Zhoushan Island in Ningbo Prefecture was facing the same problem.

Lu Zhenfei and Zheng Sen arrived at Shenjiamen Harbor on Zhoushan Island aboard a sand-ship belonging to the Sand-Ship Guild. The two of them had come to persuade Huang Binqing to hand over his military authority and then go to the traveling court to take up the post of Guard Commander of the Naval Guard.

Guard Commander of the Naval Guard was no small office, but its actual power was not great. It was even less than that of Wu Xiang or Cao Youyi, because among the troops directly controlled by the Grand Marshal's Office there was no real "navy." The "navy" of Shen Tingyang, Governor-General of the Northern Seas, was specially contracted and not under the control of the Naval Guard. So under the Naval Guard there were only two inland-river fleets: the Yangtze Naval Force and the soon-to-be-established Huaiyang Naval Force.

The strength of these two fleets was of course very weak. The Huaiyang Naval Force had only grain-transport boats. And the Yangtze Naval Force, apart from grain-transport boats and sand-ships, had only two centipede ships brought by Gu Sanmazi that had any combat capability.

Even if Huang Binqing was willing to hand over his eight hundred ship-handling household retainers and two centipede ships, the Yangtze Naval Force would still have only four centipede ships and sixteen hundred elite sailors with real fighting ability.

And the firearms on those four centipede ships combined amounted to only eight 12-pounder Hongyi cannon and one hundred sixty turtledove-foot muskets.

Yet Huang Binqing did not dare refuse to hand over his military authority, because Zheng Sen had come — and he was the senior fellow apprentice of Zhu Cilang, the Crown Prince himself. He was trusted above all the trusted!

Against Zhu Cilang alone, Huang Binqing might have dared to hold out, but with Zheng Zhilong, overlord of the Southern and Eastern Seas, added to the scale, he did not dare resist.

Moreover, Zheng Sen had come on behalf of Zhu Cilang bearing generous terms for Huang Binqing: to take up the post of Guard Commander of the Naval Guard under the Grand Marshal's Office!

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