Chapter 265: The Crown Prince Won't Take the Blame

Zhu Cilang would never accept Li Zicheng's offer of submission!

He had finally managed to throw off the burden of the perpetually loss-making northern market — if he let Old Li become a vassal, wouldn't that just be picking the black pot right back up again? There'd be no benefit whatsoever, yet the responsibility of defending the land and protecting the people would be greater than heaven itself. If the north couldn't be held, Zhu Cilang would also have to bear the blame for losing territory, and later generations would pin on him the label of "the Crown Prince who didn't resist."

Old Li, on the other hand, would be "free of all burdens," recuperating under the shelter of the Great Ming's wings, shoving the responsibility of resisting the Qing army onto Zhu Cilang, and could even righteously demand money and grain from Zhu Cilang — all while looking for a chance to seize the southern half of the Great Ming's Jiangnan.

If the one ruling now were Chongzhen, that blame-bearing Son of Heaven, he might well fall into Li Zicheng's trap. But Zhu Cilang was hardly the sort who cared only for face and not for substance.

So the matter of offering Li Zicheng amnesty and official rank had already fallen through before it even began.

What could be discussed with Zhu Cilang was whether the Great Ming and the Shun should become brothers and jointly resist the Great Qing.

"Gu Junen, military advisor of the Shun, respectfully inquires after the golden well-being of the Great Ming's Army-Supervising Crown Prince."

"Wang Cheng'en respectfully inquires after the golden well-being of His Highness the Crown Prince."

Gu Junen and Wang Cheng'en met Zhu Cilang in the largest hall within the Great Merit Residence — the Great Merit Hall.

The mansion left behind by Xu Da was a ducal residence, and none of its buildings exceeded the regulations in the slightest. Yet for two hundred years the Duke of Wei's household had flourished without decline, right up until the "Nanjing Eunuch Party Rebellion." Thus most of the buildings in the great residence had been renovated several times, each renovation more splendid and magnificent than the last. The Great Merit Hall was no exception — though it could not compare with the palace halls of Beijing in size or grandeur, in refinement and luxury it surpassed them by far.

"Grant them seats!"

Zhu Cilang smiled and raised a hand, pointing to the chairs arranged on both sides of the Great Merit Hall, bidding Wang Cheng'en and Gu Junen be seated.

"Companion Wang," he then said to Wang Cheng'en, "you have truly suffered. Since you've made it to Nanjing this time, there's no need for you to go back."

Wang Cheng'en gave a bitter smile. "If I don't go back, what of the Prince of Yong and the Fifth Prince? What of Noble Consort Yuan?"

Zhu Cilang smiled. "If the peace talks succeed, they can naturally be released. What say you, Military Advisor Gu?"

"That is only natural." Gu Junen nodded.

Zhu Cilang continued, "May I ask how the Shun intends to conduct relations with my Great Ming?"

"Two states." Gu Junen thought for a moment. "What if the two states address each other as brothers?"

"That's acceptable," Zhu Cilang said with a smile and a nod. "From now on, the Great Ming and the Shun shall be good brothers."

"Can the two states join forces to resist the Qing?" Gu Junen asked.

"That..." Zhu Cilang thought for a moment, then said, "My Great Ming will resist the Qing! For the Qing is a barbarian state, murderous by nature, and it would destroy our Confucian teachings, abolish our rites, and dig up the tombs of Confucius and Mencius. All who read and write must resist the Qing to the bitter end!"

Gu Junen was of course familiar with the contents of the "Proclamation Against the Eastern Barbarians," but he did not believe the Great Qing would actually dig up Confucius's tomb.

Zhu Cilang continued, "If the Shun wishes to join forces with our state to resist the Qing, then it must acknowledge the contents of the 'Proclamation Against the Eastern Barbarians' — to fight for the protection of Confucius and the Confucian teachings. Though Shun and Ming are two states, in the end we are both of the Hua Xia and not barbarians, are we not?"

"Naturally!" Gu Junen nodded emphatically.

Zhu Cilang continued, "Furthermore, are Our two younger brothers and Our father's concubine, Lady Yuan, still well?"

"They are well," Gu Junen said. "Our sovereign is also a benevolent and righteous ruler; naturally he would not mistreat women and children."

Zhu Cilang nodded. "Then when will your state release them? Now that our two states are brother nations, keeping them detained would be contrary to propriety, would it not?"

Gu Junen smiled. "Your Highness Thousand Years must be well-versed in the histories of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, and surely knows that in the diplomacy of that era, states often exchanged hostages. Since Your Highness Thousand Years acknowledges Shun and Ming as brother nations, then let the two young princes remain as guests in Chang'an."

Zhu Cilang frowned slightly. This Gu Junen was somewhat crafty!

"In the Warring States period, no one detained the wife of a friendly state's ruler as a hostage, did they?" He paused. "And isn't detaining two of our princes as hostages a bit excessive? We have only three brothers in total!

How about this: let the Prince of Yong remain in Chang'an as a hostage, and release Noble Consort Yuan and the Fifth Prince to return to Jinling?"

"That..." Gu Junen thought for a moment, then smiled. "This envoy cannot decide such a matter; I must return and request instructions."

Zhu Cilang nodded, then added, "Wang Cheng'en only remained in your state because he had no choice but to care for Our two younger brothers and Our father's concubine. His loyalty and righteousness rival that of Guan Yu of the Three Kingdoms era."

Guan Yu? Wang Cheng'en smiled bitterly. This Guan Yu of his had actually ruined Uncle Liu the Emperor, and had helped Liu Adou seize his father's power...

Zhu Cilang continued, "Why not let Wang Cheng'en escort Noble Consort Yuan and Our fifth brother back together? As for the Prince of Yong, your state should also treat him with propriety."

"Our state is a land of propriety; treating the Prince of Yong with propriety is certain." Gu Junen said, "As for whether Eunuch Wang may escort Noble Consort Yuan and the Fifth Prince back, that too must be decided by our sovereign."

"That is fine as well," Zhu Cilang nodded. "Let us conclude today's discussions here. As for how the borders between our two states shall be divided, how we shall jointly resist the Qing, how embassies shall be established, and how trade shall be conducted — we can discuss all of that gradually."

He then said to Wang Cheng'en, "The Imperial Father is currently residing at the West Garden. I will arrange for you to have an audience shortly, and you can tell him of the situation of Noble Consort Yuan, the Prince of Yong, and the Fifth Brother."

Seven days after Wang Cheng'en and Gu Junen met with Zhu Cilang, the Great Ming's envoy swaggered into Taiyuan Prefecture.

Of course, the one arriving in Taiyuan was not an envoy dispatched from Nanjing. In this day and age there were no trains, and with the Central Plains in chaos from war, a mission could not travel from Nanjing to Taiyuan that quickly.

The one arriving now was an envoy from Datong Prefecture, Luo Xiushen, and he had come to deceive Li Zicheng!

Although he opposed allying with the Qing to betray Li, his words carried little weight in Datong. Wang Yongji, Jiang Xiang, and Gao Di all disliked hearing them, so there was nothing to be done.

Taiyuan Prefecture now appeared utterly desolate — even worse than Datong!

Luo Xiushen's party entered the city right around noon, the liveliest time of day, yet the streets of Taiyuan were still cold and quiet, the markets utterly depressed.

Most of the shops along both sides of the streets had closed down, and even those barely managing to stay open had scarcely any customers.

"Is the market really this bad?" Luo Xiushen frowned and asked a Shun official who was accompanying him into the city.

This official was also a turncoat from Beijing, surnamed Wang, given name Baizhou, a jinshi of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, and originally acquainted with Luo Xiushen. Because he was from Henan and his hometown was under Shun rule, he had not betrayed Li Zicheng and was still serving as a Shun official.

Hearing Luo Xiushen's question, he merely smiled bitterly. "There's the ravages of war, and then there are the forced contributions. Worst of all, the rural tenant farmers have all stopped paying rent. So the gentry of Taiyuan have all fallen into poverty. When the gentry have no money, business is hard to do — how could the market not be depressed?"

"So that's how it is," Luo Xiushen nodded. "At least the poor farmers have gotten food and warmth."

"Indeed." The official replied, "In the summer it also rained for days on end, which finally eased the drought somewhat. This year the common folk of Taiyuan Prefecture have had an easier time surviving.

Moreover, because the grain transport has been cut off by the war, Jiangnan's silk and cotton can no longer reach Shanxi. Shanxi's homespun cloth can find some buyers now. If His Majesty the sovereign governs well, the common people's lives can always improve somewhat."

Smallholder farming depended on men tilling and women weaving. In the late Ming, because Jiangnan's silk and cotton were too dominant and commerce flowed without restriction, the "women's weaving" of the north suffered a devastating blow. And "women's weaving" had always been a crucial means for smallholders to earn cash income; once it lost its market, farming households found it very hard to get money. After Zhang Juzheng's Single Whip law reform, the court also demanded more silver and less payment in kind.

For the commercially developed southeast, collecting more silver was actually a good thing. But in the Central Plains and the northwest, the situation was the opposite: the peasants' handicrafts had lost their market to the onslaught of Jiangnan silk and cotton, making money hard to come by, and they could only sell their grain cheaply to exchange for silver to pay taxes.

But now the Roving King had not only "exempted taxes for three years," he had also stopped protecting the interests of landlords and gentry, and had cut off the transport routes for Jiangnan handicraft goods. For the poor and lower-middle peasants, life was indeed improving.

But the gentry of Taiyuan absolutely loathed Li Zicheng's rule!

(End of Chapter)