Chapter 240: Crown Prince, How About You Take Charge of the Army North of the River?

"Ha ha ha!"

It was time for the midday court at Tianning Temple again, and hearty laughter rang out from the great hall — the Crown Prince Zhu was roaring with laughter!

In the great hall, apart from Chongzhen, who was "studying" how to be an emperor, everyone's expression matched Zhu Cilang's exactly!

Chongzhen found it thoroughly depressing! Why was it that when he himself was emperor, upright gentlemen were always singing a different tune, but now that his unfilial son held power, not only did no one sing a different tune, even their expressions were all identical.

When the Crown Prince was angry, the treacherous ministers were all righteous indignation. When the Crown Prince was happy, everyone was jubilant...

What was even more hateful was that the Crown Prince Zhu had thrown away all three tools for disciplining officials — the Embroidered Uniform Guard's Imperial Prison, court flogging, and the Eastern Depot. The Embroidered Uniform Guard no longer concerned itself with disobedient or corrupt officials, only with rebels and military espionage. Court flogging was simply abolished — no more beating of backsides — and the Eastern Depot had also been dissolved by decree!

In Chongzhen's view, the current Zhu Cilang was about as fearsome as a toothless tiger!

But the question was, why were the officials all so afraid of him? What were they afraid of? What means did the Crown Prince have to discipline them?

Could they all believe that Zhu Cilang was the reincarnation of the Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor? That was simply absurd!

Zhu Cilang had no idea that his bargain-bin father was studying how he managed his subordinates. This sort of thing was actually very hard to learn — it was more a matter of natural talent!

Zhu Cilang happened to possess exactly that talent. Otherwise, how could the Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, have taken a fancy to him?

In Zhu Cilang's view, using the Eastern Depot, the Imperial Prison, and court flogging against civil officials was entirely a sign of helplessness! Only when one had no way to handle civil officials, and no official faction to rely on, did one need such intimidating methods.

But Zhu Cilang now had his own bureaucratic faction — he had his own group of hard-won meritorious officials, most of them propertyless officials in exile. If they did not follow him, they would suffer hardship and poverty, and even putting food on the table would be a problem. So there was no need to worry about opposition from the bureaucracy; on the question of dealing with the bureaucratic, noble, and gentry classes of the southeast, everyone was of one mind.

Only by dealing with the bureaucratic, noble, and gentry classes of the southeast could they have good days ahead!

Zhu Cilang also had an army he had built with his own hands — the Hard-Won New Army! Although the backbone of this army came from the Wu family retainers, surrendered roving bandits, and remnants of the Capital Camps, he had already brought it completely under his control. There was now simply no possibility that anyone could incite the New Army to oppose the Crown Prince!

Zhu Cilang even had more than three hundred "Hard-Won eunuchs" he could rely on. Although he had been steadily reducing the power of the inner court, these "Hard-Won eunuchs" could still be trusted. Because they were not only eunuchs, but also meritorious officials. They could receive noble titles and take up posts in the outer court.

In addition, Zhu Cilang had cultivated an "imperial merchant faction" that could serve his purposes, including Huang Jiang, Su Sheng, Shen Tingyang, Zheng Sen, the four Huai-Yang salt commissioners, and Iron Abacus Yun San.

Precisely because he had forces he could rely on in every quarter, he was able to carry out his policies quite effectively.

And so good news came pouring in one after another!

And not just one piece of good news, but four joys arriving at once!

The first joy, of course, was that the nine prefectures of Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Suzhou, Songjiang, Ningbo, Jiaxing, Huzhou, Shaoxing, and Hangzhou had successively fallen into the grasp of the Crown Prince Zhu!

Apart from Fang Gongyue, Qiu Yu, and Fan Jingwen — three grandees who had served as Grand Secretary and Minister and held the title of Hard-Won Count — serving as Governor, Prefect, and Garrison Commander all in one, Zhu Cilang also dispatched two "Hard-Won civil officials" who had followed him from Beijing to serve as Prefects of Changzhou, Songjiang, Ningbo, Jiaxing, Huzhou, and Shaoxing. After that, he stationed one brigade of the New Army in each of these nine prefectures — at present the Hard-Won New Army had on paper six divisions and twenty-four brigades, of which two divisions and eight brigades were stationed in Dengzhou and Huai'an, and of the remaining sixteen brigades, nine more were distributed among the various prefectures, leaving only seven brigades still in Yangzhou.

The second joy was news from Jinan Prefecture. The eastern barbarians occupying Beijing had sent a marriage-proposal embassy, saying they wished to marry Dorgon's six-year-old daughter Donggo to Zhu Cilang as his wife — although Zhu Cilang had never once considered making the pretense real, this eastern barbarian embassy could still greatly enhance the prestige of Zhu Cilang and the traveling court.

Because Dorgon's attempt to marry off his daughter could also be seen as a sign that he did not intend to destroy the Southern Ming and unify the realm! Or rather, Dorgon already knew that the Great Qing lacked the ability to defeat the Southern Ming and unify China.

So this Zhu Cilang had an extremely high chance of holding half the realm. Although it was only half, he would still be the sovereign of a state!

The third joy came from Wuchang. Zuo Liangyu, who had always paid the court little heed, had finally sent an envoy to Yangzhou. This envoy was not one of Zuo Liangyu's men, but Han Lin, a subject of Li Zicheng's who had come from Taiyuan.

This Han Lin was truly formidable — he was the author of the Complete Book of Defense, a famous scholar of Jiangzhou in Shanxi. In his early years he had traveled through Jiangnan, moved in scholarly circles, studied Western learning under Xu Guangqi, and even joined the Catholic Church. He had also become acquainted with a Western missionary named Vagnoni, who was expert in fortification and artillery. With the latter's help, he had written the Complete Book of Defense, which could be called a textbook of Western-style fortification. However, although this Han Lin was learned in both Chinese and Western knowledge, his eight-legged essays were not good enough. He took the examinations again and again but only ever became a juren, so he had no official post. He had no choice but to live in seclusion in Taiyuan and study Western learning. And when Li Zicheng broke through Taiyuan, he happened to be in the city, and so he pledged himself to the enlightened lord...

But after pledging himself to the enlightened lord, Han Lin discovered that the enlightened lord was not so enlightened after all, and so he had been looking for a chance to leave. This time he had finally gotten on Gu Junen's path and served as his vanguard. After Han Lin delivered letters from Gu Junen and Wang Cheng'en, Zuo Liangyu had no choice but to change his stance toward the traveling court at Yangzhou.

Although he had some strength, he still could not defeat Li Zicheng. Now that Li Zicheng was proactively seeking peace, would he dare detain the envoy and not send him on to Yangzhou? Was he not afraid Li Zicheng would send troops to beat him? And at just this moment, Feng San, Red Lady, Chen Yingyuan, and the others sent by Zhu Cilang had seized the southern part of Runing Prefecture, directly threatening Zuo Liangyu's territory! Zuo Liangyu could hardly defy Li Zicheng on one side and fight a battle with the approaching Zhu Cilang on the other, could he?

So he could not afford to sit back and watch the struggle between Yangzhou and Nanjing. He had no choice but to send Han Lin as his envoy, traveling day and night with tribute goods and a memorial, hurrying to Yangzhou.

At present, Gao Jie, Liu Zeqing, and Liu Liangzuo all outwardly submitted to the traveling court at Yangzhou. Only Huang Degong paid Yangzhou no heed. Now Zuo Liangyu had also sent an envoy to present a memorial and offer tribute, which could be considered a declaration of submission.

In this way, Zhu Cilang had gained the support of four of the five great warlords of the southeast! Adding his own direct troops, he now had crushing military superiority over Nanjing.

And the fourth joy came from Nanjing, which had been in a standoff with the traveling court at Yangzhou. The nobles and meritorious officials of Nanjing seemed to have softened after Zhu Cilang "took a step back." Liu Kongzhao had accepted the edict, and had also brought out the former Nanjing Minister of Personnel Zhang Shenyan, who had been recuperating in Nanjing, and the Nanjing garrison eunuch Han Zanzhou, to come together to Yangzhou to welcome the imperial presence. According to a report from the eunuch sent ahead, the Nanjing nobles were willing to offer up twenty million mu of land for the court to distribute!

Liu Kongzhao and Zhang Shenyan had now reached Zhenjiang and would soon arrive in Yangzhou!

An internal strife, it seemed, had already been dissolved before it could take shape.

"Good news, all of it good news!"

Zhu Cilang waved Zuo Liangyu's memorial, sitting beside the Chongzhen Emperor, and laughed as he addressed the jubilant ministers below: "The General Who Pacifies the Bandits is indeed a pillar of the court! We intend to enfeoff him as the Border Marquis of Wuchang, to hold Wuchang Prefecture in perpetuity, and concurrently to serve as Governor-General of military and civil affairs in Hubei, with overall command of the military and civil affairs of the six prefectures of Wuchang, Huangzhou, Chengtian, Yuezhou, De'an, and Jingzhou!"

"Your Highness," the Minister of Revenue Hou Xun stepped forward and memorialized, "Zuo Liangyu's overall command of the military and civil affairs of the six northern Huguang prefectures will encroach upon the authority of the Governor of Huguang. Should we seek the opinion of the Governor of Huguang, He Tengjiao?"

"That will not be necessary." Zhu Cilang waved a hand. "Huguang can be divided in two. The six Hubei prefectures will go to Zuo Liangyu's jurisdiction. Changsha, Changde, Chenzhou, Shizhou, Baoqing, Hengzhou, Yongzhou, Chenzhou, Jingzhou, and the two pacification commissions of Yongshun and Baojing in Hunan will all be under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Hunan. He Tengjiao will be reassigned as Governor of Hunan, with his office established in Changsha.

In addition, the Earl of Sincerity Liu Kongzhao, Commander of the River-Clearing Fleet, after escorting the Prince of Tang to Anqing Prefecture, need not return to Nanjing. Order him to lead his fleet to Jiujiang and take over the post of Garrison Commander of Jiujiang! The military and civil affairs of Jiujiang Prefecture will all be managed by Liu Kongzhao. And the River-Clearing Fleet is permitted to set up checkpoints and collect taxes on the Yangtze waterway near Jiujiang!

As for the Marquis of Distant Pacification Chang Yanling, he also need not return to Nanjing. Order him to serve as the Garrison Regional Commander of Hunan, to go to Changsha and defend Hunan together with He Tengjiao."

Zhu Cilang was still reasonable. After all, this Chang Yanling had not rebelled, so he could not drive the man to his death — he would just make him hand over his southeastern lands and family property, then go to Hunan to line his pockets.

And as long as Liu Kongzhao was willing to come over, he could enjoy the same treatment, because Zhu Cilang did not wish to go to war with the River-Clearing Fleet. His own Yangtze fleet had not been tested in real combat — what if it could not stand up to a fight?

Hearing Zhu Cilang's words, the Chongzhen Emperor, seated on the imperial throne, immediately drew a sharp breath. The unfilial son's methods were truly unfathomable! He had thought the boy would make peace with the Nanjing nobles, but instead he was still going to divide and break them! Using the posts of Hunan Regional Commander and Jiujiang Garrison Commander to win over Chang Yanling and Liu Kongzhao, thereby isolating Xu Hongji and Zhao Zhilong...

Xu Hongji, Zhao Zhilong, you two had better be careful — don't let the Crown Prince get you killed!