Chapter 239: Ennobled Lords

Nanjing, Dagong Ward.

On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, at the Mid-Autumn Festival, the ennobled lords and meritorious officials in Nanjing were all invited to gather at Dagong Ward to watch opera and admire the moon.

The Mid-Autumn Festival was supposed to be a day for family reunion, yet these ennobled lords and meritorious officials of Nanjing broke with custom — everyone of any standing had come to Dagong Ward to eat mooncakes.

The mooncakes were delicious, but there was no festive air. After the evening banquet, when everyone gathered in the Dagong Hall to drink tea, every face was clouded with worry, and the oppressive atmosphere made it hard to breathe.

The situation was unfavorable!

The Crown Prince in Yangzhou had struck too hard — with the force of a thunderbolt he had crushed the fence-sitting Zhenjiang Regional Commander Jiang Yuntai, and had also forced Regional Commanders Wang Zhiren and Huang Binqing to surrender their military authority. The nine prefectures downstream from Nanjing — Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Suzhou, Songjiang, Ningbo, Jiaxing, Huzhou, Shaoxing, and Hangzhou — had all fallen into the hands of the mobile court.

These nine prefectures, together with the two prefectures of Huai'an and Yangzhou, were the places where all the wealth of the realm gathered! By taking these eleven prefectures, Zhu Cilang now controlled more than half of the Great Ming's wealth!

Worse still, the mouth of the Yangtze and three of the four great silk centers were now all in Zhu Cilang's hands.

If the great sea bandit Zheng Zhilong of Fujian still wanted to do business happily, he would have to throw in his lot with Zhu Cilang. In that case, the two provinces of Fujian and Guangdong would soon become the mobile court's territory as well.

And the Tartars to the north and the roving bandits to the west had inexplicably gone soft. Not only had they refrained from sending troops against Shandong and Huaixi, they had both simultaneously sued for peace.

The eastern barbarians' Prince Regent Dorgon wanted to marry his daughter to the great Crown Prince Zhu. And Li Zicheng, having no daughter to offer, had simply proposed to declare himself a subject — Gu Junen had already reached Wuchang!

Whether sincere or feigned, the offer of a daughter in marriage and the offer of vassalage meant that for the time being, at least, they would not trouble Zhu Cilang.

And it would greatly enhance the great Crown Prince Zhu's prestige!

At the same time, Zuo Liangyu, who had originally leaned toward the Nanjing side, was now planning to send envoys to Yangzhou to express deference to the mobile court.

In these circumstances, the situation was extremely unfavorable for the Nanjing side!

Of course, there was some good news too.

"My Lord Duke, the Crown Prince seems to have taken a step back." The speaker was a short, stocky man with a square face and a full beard, in his thirties or forties — none other than Liu Kongzhao, Earl of Chengyi and Commander of the River Training Fleet.

Liu Kongzhao was a descendant of Liu Bowen, but his earldom of Chengyi had not been passed down in an unbroken line from Liu Bowen — it had been re-granted by the Jiajing Emperor. The earldom of Chengyi passed down from Liu Bowen had been broken off in the generation of Liu Bowen's grandson Liu Zhi. In the Jiajing reign, Liu Zhi's sixth-generation descendant Liu Yu had been re-granted the earldom of Chengyi.

Because the line had been broken for over a hundred years, the wealth and rank of the Earl of Chengyi's house could not compare with those ennobled houses that had never been interrupted. But the energy and ability of the Earl of Chengyi's house were far greater than those of the grandees who had been rich for over two hundred years.

Liu Kongzhao and his grandfather Liu Shiyan had both accomplished deeds worthy of a few extra lines in the annals of history.

And among the ennobled lords of Nanjing, he and Chang Yanling, Marquis of Huaiyuan — likewise a re-granted title — were considered the more capable sort.

Liu Kongzhao had commanded the River Training Fleet for many years and had some real strength in hand. Although the mobile court had now also established a Yangtze Fleet, that fleet was newly built after all, its foundation being the grain-transport troops who had operated on the canal and Gu Sanmazi's river-mouth pirates. They were not familiar with the river conditions west of the Nanjing stretch, and a rash westward advance would likely cost them dearly.

Thus the River Training Fleet was the only armed force in the hands of the Nanjing ennobled lords that gave Zhu Cilang any cause for wariness.

"Cough, cough, cough—"

Xu Hongji, Duke of Wei, who was afflicted with consumption, broke into another fit of heart-rending coughing. The maidservants attending him bustled about for a good while, and finally brought out a spittoon so the old man could spit up a mouthful of stale blood!

The old Duke Xu's complexion was even more ashen than the last time everyone had seen him! Judging by his appearance, he clearly did not have long to live.

Having finally caught his breath, Xu Hongji spoke, his pair of murky old eyes slowly sweeping across the room, taking in every face. At last he let out a sigh and said: "You all want to ease off for a while?"

Li Zushu, Marquis of Linhuai, nodded and said: "My Lord Duke, if this standoff continues, it is to our disadvantage! To say nothing else, the eleven wealth-gathering prefectures of the southeast are all under the Crown Prince's control, and the mouth of the Yangtze is in the hands of the Crown Prince's navy. We have only the single prefecture of Yingtian. If this drags on, will our money even last?

To reorganize the Capital Camps' rotational troops in Nanjing, we have already spent three hundred thousand taels! Three hundred thousand! Right now the Capital Camps' rotational troops require over a hundred thousand taels in pay and provisions every month, and we are supporting it all out of our own pockets. If this standoff lasts a few months, the Crown Prince won't even need to send troops to attack us — military pay alone will bleed us dry!"

This Marquis of Linhuai was a descendant of Li Wenzhong and Li Jinglong. Li Jinglong had been discarded by Zhu Di in the Yongle reign once his usefulness was spent — his title was stripped, and he went on a hunger strike at home to lose weight, starving for ten days without dying, and then lived on until the end of the Yongle reign. His descendants, though without a title, still had hereditary Guard Commander posts to fall back on. In the Jiajing reign, the title of Marquis of Linhuai had been re-granted.

This current Marquis of Linhuai was clever enough — he had originally been serving as an official in Beijing, but seeing the signs turning bad, he had slipped away on the twelfth day of the third month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, just before the city gates of Beijing were closed.

As soon as the Marquis of Linhuai spoke, voices of agreement rose at once.

"Indeed — Censor Huang said he could raise funds for us, but to this day we haven't seen a single tael of silver!"

"We're the ones paying for everything!"

"We raised a million taels before, and in no time at all it's nearly spent. If this business of rallying to the throne keeps dragging on, it's no solution."

"If we raise money from Nanjing, it's still us bleeding."

"The money on the river is hard to collect too! The merchant ships coming from Hankou all fly the banner of the General Who Pacifies Bandits. If we try to levy taxes on them, we'll offend Zuo Liangyu!"

"We can't drag this out! The Crown Prince holds eleven prefectures so rich they drip with oil! Once taxes are collected next spring, the Crown Prince will have several million more taels of silver in hand!"

"More than several million. The land tax from the eleven prefectures alone will come to over ten million piculs of grain! The salt tax from the two prefectures of Huai'an and Yangzhou for half a year is three million taels. And there are also the contracted taxes of the northern and southern seas and the commercial taxes of the eleven prefectures — at least two million taels."

"With that much money, how can we fight him? Money means soldiers! He already has six land divisions, two naval divisions, and seven guard units — nearly a hundred thousand troops. In another half year, he'll have a hundred and fifty thousand. What the hell are we fighting for?"

"Cough, cough, cough!" Xu Hongji broke into another violent fit of coughing. The ennobled lords and meritorious officials present all fell silent, every eye on this Duke of Wei who was sick beyond cure.

"Earl of Chengyi," the Duke of Wei looked at Liu Kongzhao, "you are the most resourceful man here. Speak."

Liu Kongzhao stroked his beard, his expression grave, and shook his head: "The Crown Prince is using the Son of Heaven to command the feudal lords, and now he controls the eleven southeastern prefectures. And we on this side are far too passive. Can you, my lord, lead troops to strike at Zhenjiang? Under what banner would you fight? This time, when the Crown Prince sent troops and officials to occupy the nine prefectures of Jiangnan, apart from the battle against Jiang Yuntai at Zhenjiang, everywhere else was taken without shedding a drop of blood. Not a single Jiangnan scholar-official raised troops to resist the Crown Prince! Why is that? Is it not because the Crown Prince holds the great banner of His Majesty? To resist the Crown Prince is rebellion!"

The scholar-officials of the nine Jiangnan prefectures did not resist not only because Zhu Cilang controlled the Chongzhen Emperor, but also because he had not touched the bottom line of the southeastern scholar-officials — their tax-exemption privileges!

The profits of the salt tax belonged mainly to the ennobled lords and high officials; the vast majority of southeastern scholar-officials had no standing to dip into the salt profits. Moreover, Zhu Cilang had left the four salt merchants of the Hui clique a certain margin of profit, allowing them to continue funneling a portion of the benefits to their backers.

The benefits of the guard stations belonged to the ennobled lords, hereditary military officers, and scholar-officials of military household registration; scholar-officials of civilian registration could hardly touch them.

In other words, Zhu Cilang's current infringement on the interests of the civilian-registration scholar-officials, who made up the majority of the southeastern gentry, was not severe. The only ones harmed were the military-registration scholar-officials of the two prefectures of Huai'an and Yangzhou. So the reaction of the southeastern scholar-officials was relatively passive — they could still tolerate the great Crown Prince Zhu.

Moreover, the great righteous title of Chongzhen was still firmly in Zhu Cilang's grasp!

How could these fellows who had read the books of the sages possibly challenge a Crown Prince who held the righteous title, when their own interests had not been clearly harmed?

Under these circumstances, the Nanjing ennobled lords were left extremely passive, with no possibility of taking the initiative.

Liu Kongzhao continued: "And the Crown Prince still has a trump card he has not yet played!"

"A trump card?" Xu Hongji's white brows knitted tightly.

"Correct!" Liu Kongzhao said. "The Crown Prince can still hold a special imperial examination! He has His Majesty, he has the court, so he can hold an examination to select officials. The court lost many officials in the course of its southward relocation — a special examination would be just the thing to fill the vacancies.

And with most of the north fallen, there will no longer be separate northern and southern lists! If the Crown Prince issues an edict ordering a special examination, I fear the southeastern scholar-officials will all shout 'Long live!' to him!"

Xu Hongji's brow had twisted into a knot. He asked: "Then what do you say we should do?"

"Why not turn his own scheme against him!" Liu Kongzhao said. "Since the Crown Prince has taken a step back, let us take a step back too! As long as the Crown Prince comes to Nanjing, are we afraid we won't have our chance?"

"Step back how?" Xu Hongji asked.

Liu Kongzhao said thoughtfully: "If we agree to hand over twenty million mu of land, and then respectfully welcome His Majesty and the Crown Prince into Nanjing, the Crown Prince will surely escort the Son of Heaven here."

"Hand over twenty million mu? You — cough, cough—" Xu Hongji was so angry he broke into loud coughing, nearly losing his breath.

When he had finally recovered, Liu Kongzhao frowned and said: "My Lord Duke, the problem now is getting the Crown Prince and His Majesty to come to Nanjing. Only when they come will we have a way! Otherwise, if this drags on for a year or half a year, the silver will run out!"

"Then when they come, can we defeat them?" Xu Hongji asked again.

"Well..." Liu Kongzhao glanced at Zhao Zhilong.

"We can defeat them!" Zhao Zhilong's eyes rolled as he said, "The Crown Prince's troops are many, but they have already been dispersed across the land, and the men he still holds in hand number at most twenty or thirty thousand. If we yield to the Crown Prince, he will surely grow arrogant and careless, and without waiting for his main force to assemble, he will lead the twenty or thirty thousand men garrisoned at Yangzhou into Nanjing — we will still have a chance!"