Chapter 273: Now This Is a True Gentleman!

This is the top jinshi, and he hasn't even taken the exam yet!

Luo Dagong was absolutely furious as he looked at Huang Zongxi! That top jinshi spot should have been his, and now Huang Zongxi, that treacherous little man, had snatched it away! Weren't you "Huang Taichong"? Why aren't you charging ahead at all today? Instead you're scheming on behalf of the great Crown Prince Zhu?

You should have stepped forward boldly and pleaded for the people! How could you throw in your lot with... You're a hypocrite!

Hou Fangyu, Mao Xiang, and Zhang Huangyan, meanwhile, all wore complicated expressions as they looked at Huang Zongxi and "Zhu Yaofei." By now they had more or less guessed who "Zhu Yaofei" was.

This man had to be the Crown Prince who held all the power as Army Commissioner!

To the gentry of the southeast, this outsider, the Army Commissioner Crown Prince, had come to seize their wealth and their people!

But the Crown Prince now held the court's supreme power and could hand out top jinshi degrees, jinshi degrees, and official hats. If you wanted to become a jinshi, if you wanted to hold office, you had to cooperate with His Highness the Crown Prince!

And only by holding office could you be corrupt, could you preserve your family's wealth and rank for generations!

Now the Crown Prince had come in disguise to discuss affairs of state freely with everyone — this was treating worthy men with courtesy. If the "worthies" seated here climbed up the pole he offered, glory, wealth, and rank were theirs for the taking.

If they refused to climb and chose resistance instead, then they had better weigh their own strength carefully!

The great Crown Prince Zhu had not only swept away Nanjing's meritorious officials and nobles with ease, he had even turned the house confiscations into a spectacle — he made the young masters of each family, who wanted to stay alive, do the confiscating themselves! Confiscate well and there was a reward; confiscate poorly and off you went to the island of Taiwan to struggle against all manner of infectious diseases.

In this way the efficiency of the confiscations shot up by who knows how many times, squeezing out all the land that the southeastern meritorious nobles and officials had painstakingly embezzled and seized over more than two hundred years — tens of millions of mu in total!

In other words, the Crown Prince's faction would, within a very short time, firmly control tens of millions of mu of land and at least 700,000 households of people living on that land.

Though this land and population accounted for only a little over ten percent of the actual cultivated acreage of the Southern Metropolitan Region, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and the surrounding areas, and about ten percent of the population.

Moreover, the great Crown Prince Zhu also had the five divisions of the New Army of Hardship as his land force — once those five divisions were combined with 700,000 households of commoners and 35 million mu of land, they would be formidable. Whether they could march north to recover the Central Plains was hard to say, but the southeastern half of the realm was secure.

Since the court's position in the southeast was secure, what else could one do but join?

"Master Zhu, in my humble opinion, now that the court has first arrived in the southeast, it should still combine grace with severity, and the best way to bestow grace is to remit taxes and cancel arrears."

Luo Dagong, having lost the first prize, now began offering his own plans and strategies. The top jinshi spot was gone, but the second and third places could still be fought for!

He had to put on a good showing — he could not let that hypocrite Huang Zongxi get too smug.

He said: "The southeastern prefectures and subprefectures have enormous amounts of gentry land and hidden land, none of which bears any share of tax or levy. And the southeast has always been heavily taxed. The Southern Metropolitan Region's total grain tax reaches more than six million shi, while Zhejiang and Jiangxi each run to two million five or six hundred thousand shi. And that is only the regular quota. Add the three surtaxes and all the various levies and surcharges, and the burden becomes even heavier.

And these grain taxes, surtaxes, levies, and surcharges have mostly been shifted onto poor households with little or no land, so the burden on the poor households of the southeast is extremely heavy and popular resentment is enormous! If the court surveys fields and checks households in the southeast, these resentful people could be incited by villains and rise up in mass disturbances.

For the sake of stability in the southeast, it would be better to remit the commoners' land tax and surtaxes for three years, and to cancel arrears from previous years. Once the people's hearts are settled, the court can then clear the military colonies and survey the land, recovering all official land, military land, and hidden land. After recovery, the land can be equalized. And after equalization, not only can rent be collected, but the fubing system of the Sui and Tang can be restored!"

Zhu Cilang nodded with a smile, thinking: the actual cultivated acreage of the Southern Metropolitan Region is probably 150 million mu! The total grain tax is only a little over six million shi — on average less than half a dou of grain per mu. And they still complain about heavy taxes. How detestable!

Still, Luo Dagong's approach was workable. Because the most urgent matter now was that the land distribution for the five divisions of the New Army of Hardship had not yet been completed. Li Yan, Lady Hong, and the others had also not yet fully secured Runing as a recruiting base. Likewise, Zhu Chunchen had only just arrived in Fengyang and needed time to take control of Fengyang's eight guards and one battalion. At a time like this, pacifying the scholar-officials and troublemakers of the southeast and getting them to cause less trouble would be advantageous.

"Well said," Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "At next spring's special examination, Brother Dagong will surely place in the first class."

The first class had only three places: top jinshi, second jinshi, and third jinshi. Two had already been promised. One spot remained — now it was up to Hou Fangyu and Mao Xiang to fight over it!

The two young masters of the Restoration Society were getting anxious too. Hou Fangyu was in better shape — his father was Hou Xun, a Grand Secretary of the current court, so he did not worry about his own prospects. Mao Xiang was different. Although he came from a famous Yangzhou family, a house of officials, he himself was not much good at examinations. He had taken the Nanjing provincial examination six times and failed every time, and was still only a xiucai.

A xiucai could not sit for the special examination. Now the Crown Prince was handing out jinshi degrees left and right, and he was not even qualified to take one. Tell me, was that not enough to drive a man frantic?

"Master Zhu," said Mao Xiang, who was already thirty-three this year and looked old for his age — he seemed forty — as he stroked his beard, "I have heard that the Tartars have colluded with the eunuch faction and intend to destroy the Confucian Grove at Qufu. There will surely be a great battle there. And once a great battle begins, the consumption of grain and pay will be staggering. The court now wants to remit taxes and cancel arrears, so state funds and military supplies may fall short. Fortunately, there are many xiucai here in the southeast whose families are well-off and who are willing to contribute money and grain to defend the Confucian teaching and protect the Confucian Grove. If the court could grant the juren degree to xiucai who donate money and grain above a certain amount, and allow them to sit for next year's special examination, that would be even better. It would win the people's hearts and also bring in a great deal of money and grain..."

Zhu Cilang's eyes lit up. That was not a bad idea! He glanced at Zheng Sen. You don't seem to have a juren degree either. Why don't you buy one too? That way you can sit for the special examination. Study hard and strive to pass as a jinshi, and give Our esteemed father-in-law something to be pleased about.

Hou Fangyu, Zhang Huangyan, Luo Dagong, and Huang Zongxi all looked at Mao Xiang with contempt — you academic failure who can't even pass the juren exam, and now you've thought of buying it. How shameful.

"Master Zhu," said Zhang Huangyan, who had barely spoken until now, finally opening his mouth, "I have heard that the eastern barbarians and the roving bandits are both moving troops and deploying generals, preparing to fight another decisive battle. Is the court simply going to sit and watch while the two bandits decide the outcome?"

If we don't sit and watch, what else can we do? Stand and watch? Zhu Cilang sighed softly and said, "Does Brother Xuanzhu have a clever plan?"

"The court should closely monitor the war between the roving bandits and the Tartars, while preparing for both outcomes. If the roving bandits win, the Tartars will likely abandon the capital and flee to Liaodong. That would be the court's golden opportunity to march north and seize the capital region. Under no circumstances can we allow the roving bandits to enter Beijing a second time!

If the Tartars win, then the court should attack Liaodong by sea. We can send a naval force to carry an elite army ashore on Guanglu Island and the Greater and Lesser Changshan Islands near Jinzhou Guard, and re-establish the Dongjiang military command!"

Hmm, heroes think alike! Zhu Cilang nodded, thinking: Zhang Huangyan had actually arrived at the same idea as himself. Truly worthy of being the anti-Qing hero of history!

"Brother Xuanzhu is indeed a man of both literary and military talent!" Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "It seems that at this special examination, Brother Xuanzhu will also place high."

Zhu Cilang glanced again at Hou Fangyu. This son of Hou Xun only smiled and said nothing. It seemed he had no clever stratagem to offer.

He withdrew his gaze, cleared his throat, and said with a smile: "Next spring's special examination will surely bring many Donglin successors together in Nanjing. For us Donglin successors, this will be a perfect opportunity to convene a Donglin assembly and elect a new generation of Three Donglin Worthies!

Moreover, the realm is now in chaos. The capital has fallen into the hands of the Tartar caitiffs, and the Confucian Grove at Qufu is under threat from the Tartar blades, in danger of falling at any moment. The Duke for Perpetuating Sagehood has long since raised his voice in alarm and issued the 'Proclamation Against the Eastern Caitiffs,' calling on all the scholars of the realm to do their utmost to defend the Confucian Grove. And we Donglin successors should also respond actively.

Therefore, at the same time we elect the Three Worthies, we should also issue our Donglin 'Proclamation Against the Barbarian Caitiffs' and proclaim it throughout the realm. What do you all think?"

What else could they think? Of course they approved!

Right now Zhu Cilang's position in the southeast looked quite stable, while the eastern caitiffs had hooked up with the eunuch faction and had been smeared as planning to go grave-robbing at Qufu. How could the Donglin Faction men of the southeast not fire off their verbal cannons? Once the cannons were fired, the proclamation written, and names signed — and best of all, if Sun Zhixie could be arrested and publicly denounced — these Donglin men would be well and truly bound to Zhu Cilang's anti-Qing cause!

(End of Chapter)