Chapter 290: So That's How Wicked the Tartars Are! (Part 2)

"So it's Ruan Jizhi. It has truly been many years since we last met."

Sun Zhixie did not dismount, but cupped his hands toward Ruan Dacheng from horseback.

Ruan Dacheng did not return the salute, but demanded loudly: "Sun Longfu, where is your hair? Why is it gone? Have you seen through the vanity of the world and shaved your head to become a monk?"

Sun Zhixie smiled, reached back, and pulled out the queue like a copper coin and a rat's tail. "Brother Jizhi, this younger brother is now a man of the Great Qing. All men of the Great Qing must shave their heads and wear the queue."

"All must shave? And what if one does not shave?" Another voice spoke up. Sun Zhixie followed the voice and saw a fat man in a blue cloth scholar's robe sauntering over, waving a paper fan.

"I am Luo Dagong of Songjiang. I ask for your instruction!" The newcomer was a Donglin successor, the second-place candidate of next year's special examination and a possible first-place, Luo Dagong.

"Ha ha ha!" Sun Zhixie suddenly burst into loud laughter.

Luo Dagong was baffled. "What are you laughing at?"

"I am laughing that a useless bookworm like you, if you were in the Northern Metropolitan Region, would not even be qualified to shave your head!"

Luo Dagong snorted. "The body, hair, and skin are received from one's parents! I will not shave my head and wear a queue!"

Sun Zhixie only laughed all the harder. Ruan Dacheng found it strange too, and asked, "What are you laughing at?"

Sun Zhixie put away his smile and swept the crowd with a cold, sinister gaze. Outside the barbican of the Yifeng Gate, apart from the soldiers keeping order, the gathered crowd was all officials in official robes and black gauze caps, or scholars in Confucian robes and caps, every one of them glaring at him with knitted brows.

"This official is laughing at his shallowness and ignorance!" Sun Zhixie said darkly. "He does not even know of the twenty-four ranks of advancement in my Great Qing."

"What twenty-four ranks of advancement?"

Sun Zhixie smiled. "It is the promotion path of the Eight Banners' sons. From booi slaves upward, there are twenty-four grades in all, up to Prince. Each grade requires genuine merit! Merit brings promotion; fault brings punishment. And the booi slaves at the very bottom do not count as a rank, so it is called the twenty-four ranks.

For an ordinary Han, so long as he is not an official surrendering, if he wishes to enter my Great Qing, he begins as a booi slave, toiling like an ox or horse for the Eight Banners masters, and his wife and daughters must serve the master. No matter how much learning you have, whether you can pass the provincial or metropolitan examinations, it is all the same. Even the present Grand Secretaries of the Great Qing, Fan Wencheng and Ning Wanwo, both climbed up step by step from booi slaves. And Grand Secretary Fan's wife, being rather comely, even served His Highness Prince Yu of the Great Qing! That was a great honor for Grand Secretary Fan!"

"What? Such a thing is an honor?" Luo Dagong cried out. "Does this Fan Wencheng have no backbone at all?"

"Backbone?" Sun Zhixie laughed wildly again, then raised his riding crop and pointed at Luo Dagong. "You do not know how great Grand Secretary Fan's abilities are. He is a man of both letters and arms. With a brush he can write splendid essays; with a blade he can kill the soldiers and officers of your Southern Court. His present wealth and rank were won by blade and spear.

And a weak-limbed bookworm like you dares speak of backbone with Grand Secretary Fan? Tell me, what use are you? Apart from taking the examinations, what else can you do? Be a master? In the Great Qing, the Eight Banners nobles are the masters. Ordinary Han all must begin as booi slaves. Can you be a slave? Can you farm? Can you do manual work? Can you kill? If you can do none of these, then you cannot even be a booi slave. If you were in the Great Qing, with good luck, you might meet a benevolent ruler like the Taizong Emperor and become a peaceful starving corpse. If you met a fierce ruler like the Taizu, you would be killed to save grain."

Ah! Is this true? Are the Tartars really so savage?

Outside the Yifeng Gate, the crowd of officials and scholars were all stunned by Sun Zhixie's words — Sun Zhixie was an envoy of the Tartars; surely his words could not be false!

At that moment, Zu Kefa, who had come with Sun Zhixie, roared out again in stiff Han speech with a Liaodong accent: "You nikan are lucky you were not born in Beijing. Otherwise, once the house-seizure order came down, you would all be driven out of the city to live or die on your own!"

"What is this house-seizure order?" Ruan Dacheng asked, following up on Zu Kefa's words.

"It is driving all the Han commoners of Beijing out of the city!" Zu Kefa said. "Their houses and belongings are given to our Eight Banners nobles!"

"What? Then what happens to the common people?" Luo Dagong.

"Heh heh," Zu Kefa stroked his great beard and said smugly, "Either they become booi slaves, or... they starve to death!"

"This is utterly inhuman!"

"You Tartars are too cruel!"

"How can you harm the people like this?"

"This is truly hateful..."

"This will bring retribution!"

The crowd of scholars and officials all cursed in a babble of voices, but Zu Kefa only laughed heartily: "You bookish fools are simply ignorant! Since ancient times, who among those who entered the Central Plains from beyond the passes has not slaughtered millions? Moreover, our Eight Banners nobles are coming to be masters. A Han who cannot be a slave — what use does my Great Qing have for him?

Let me tell you, besides house-seizure and head-shaving, my Great Qing also has city-massacre, land-enclosure, forced-enlistment, and fugitive-hunting — six measures in all! If you do not wish to be slaves of my Great Qing, and are not willing to die, then go quickly and tell your Crown Prince to receive in grand ceremony a princess of my Great Qing's Prince Regent's house, declare himself a subject of my Great Qing, cede all lands north of the Huai River, and pay annual tribute of thirty million shi of rice and wheat!"

Ruan Dacheng snorted: "Never! The scholars of my Great Ming have iron spines and will never bow to the Tartars! Qian Shouzhi, is that not so?"

Huh?

Qian Qianyi was caught off guard by Ruan Dacheng's question. This Ruan was of the eunuch faction! He himself was the leader of the Donglin — how could he share the same opinion as him?

"Scholars?" Zu Kefa laughed wildly. "When my Great Qing takes Shandong, we will dig up the grave of old Confucius and cut off the roots of you Southern Court scholars!"

They really would rob Confucius's tomb!

Now Qian Qianyi could not remain silent; otherwise his position as Donglin leader would be finished!

Qian Qianyi roared: "The scholars of my Great Ming will never let the burial ground of the Most Sage and First Teacher fall into the hands of barbarian filth!"

"Right! We cannot let the Tartars take Qufu!"

"We must defend the Sage's hometown to the death!"

"We scholars should give money if we have money, and strength if we have strength! Raise troops, defend the Confucian teaching!"

What? Give money too? How? Does that mean strictly levying commercial taxes? Qian Qianyi somehow found himself thinking of commercial taxes, which struck him as rather odd.

He hurriedly turned to look, and saw that the one shouting about giving money was his own prized disciple Zheng Sen, who was stirring up a ruckus with a group of Donglin successors!

At that moment, Qian Qianyi's prized disciple Luo Dagong had already produced a scroll and raised it high, declaring loudly: "Gentlemen of Jinling, this is the 'Proclamation Against the Caitiffs and in Defense of the People,' written by Luo. We men of learning, in this national crisis, should all step forward to defend the state, the people, and the teaching! If you agree, please sign your names upon this proclamation!"

"Ruan Dacheng of Tongcheng will sign!"

The first to respond was, unexpectedly, Ruan Dacheng.

Qian Qianyi frowned slightly. He felt that this Ruan Dacheng should not be involved. Now that he was involved, what was he to do?

"Zheng Sen of Quanzhou will sign!"

When it came to giving money, the son of the richest family naturally could not be left out.

"Zhang Huangyan of Yin County will sign!"

"Chen Mingyu of Shangyu signs!"

"Yan Yingyuan of Tongzhou will sign!"

"Chen Zilong of Songjiang will sign!"

"Xia Yunyi of Songjiang will sign!"

"Xu Fuyuan of Songjiang

"Feng Houdun of Jintan signs!"

"Wu Shu of Kunshan will sign!"

"Su Jin of Wu County will gladly follow in your wake!"

"Wei Rusong of Shangyuan."

"Chen Qian of Fengyang — I too am willing to sign!"

"Qian Qianyi — willing to sign the denunciation!"

Of course there were plenty of people willing to sign! It was now the eleventh month, and the special imperial examination would open at the beginning of the second month next year, so in recent days the talented scholars of the southeast who intended to sit the examinations had all begun gathering in Nanjing. Quite a few of them had crowded to Yifeng Gate to see the Tartars, and under the arrangements of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Hard-Working New Army, they had come out here beyond the barbican gate. What they heard with their own ears and saw with their own eyes made them understand just how wicked the Tartars were.

Having seen and heard all this, if they still did not step forward, then what jinshi were they hoping to sit for? To pass the examination and then go serve the Tartars as traitors?

So any juren gentleman with brains knew that if they did not sign their names to Luo Dagong's denunciation, they might as well go home right now — because no matter how fine their essays, the Crown Prince would never read them, and passing the jinshi examination would be a dream!

Of course, the denunciation they signed would also be carried back to Beijing by Sun Zhixie and handed to the Qing Prince Regent Dorgon. That way they would be well and truly snared — even if they later wanted to become traitors, there would be no door left open for them!

(End of Chapter)