Chapter 427: Imperial Father, We Are Now a Bit Stronger Than Zhao Gou

Because each regiment and battalion had procured its own armor, the armor of the New Army of Endurance now displayed before the Chongzhen Emperor and Zhu Cilang was not very uniform.

This was an oversight on the part of the Grand Marshal's Office — it had permitted the units below to make their own purchases, but had forgotten to require that each regiment or battalion be standardized!

So the Marshal's Office only inspected whether the armor was sturdy, and did not ask whether the styles were uniform. As a result, many square formations displayed armor in a "mixed pattern" — within a single square formation, some men wore gleaming assembled half-plate armor, while others wore cloth-faced iron armor with red fabric.

Although the ranks were extremely orderly, the armor could not be made uniform, and it always gave people the feeling that the troops were not quite elite.

At least, that was how the Chongzhen Emperor felt.

Apart from the armor being a bit "mixed," the weapons used by the soldiers of the New Army of Endurance also made the Chongzhen Emperor uneasy.

Some units were equipped half with firelocks and half with pikes, while other units had not a single firearm. Could they not even things out a little?

"Imperial Father, in the future all infantry regiments will be reorganized and re-equipped according to the methods of the model regiments. When that time comes, they will all uniformly be half firelocks and half pikes. But for now there is no need — firelocks still have to be used in concentrated fashion."

As Zhu Cilang rode alongside the Chongzhen Emperor reviewing the troops, he smilingly explained the equipment problem to him. "In the future, the armor will also have to be standardized into half-plate armor, and it cannot be assembled — it must be made of a single piece."

Assembled plate armor offers less protection than whole plate armor; the seams of the assembled pieces are easily pierced by arrowheads, and in close combat they are easily smashed by blunt weapons. Therefore, once the iron-smelting industry of the southeast develops, all of it should be replaced with whole plate armor.

"Chun Ge'er, that will cost quite a lot of money, won't it?" the Chongzhen Emperor said coldly. "We have heard that because of the collection of commercial taxes, disturbances have broken out in quite a few places! Moreover, the small farmers of the southeast are also restless. You must not let things flare up on a large scale again."

Tax resistance was to be expected — there are always people in this world who fail to see reason! But this matter did not yet require Zhu Cilang to act personally; there were still plenty of lackey officials below to handle it!

Zhu Cilang had now abolished the rule that natives could not serve as officials in their own localities (though of course, this did not mean officials had to serve in their native places), and he had also implemented the "staff official system" and the "deliberative official system," expanding the bureaucratic ranks and also absorbing a portion of the local powers willing to serve the court. In addition, he had directly taken control of large numbers of people and land through the local military agricultural colonies.

Thereby greatly strengthening local control, so that ordinary gentry and merchants could stir up no trouble at all.

But the unrest among the "small farmers" of the southeast was a problem. In fact, the restless ones were not "small farmers" at all, but bondservants!

Because of the policies Zhu Cilang had adopted to suppress the southeast gentry, the power of the gentry had declined somewhat, and they were beginning to lose control over the bondservants beneath them.

The Ming dynasty inherited the Yuan, and from the founding of the dynasty had recognized the institution of bondservitude. By the "late Ming" (whether it is actually the end now is uncertain), for various reasons, the number of bankrupt peasants and handicraftsmen in the Jiangnan region had increased day by day. In order to survive, these people had no choice but to sell themselves into servitude. At the same time, because of the three levies and various apportionments during the Chongzhen reign, many poor households had also offered themselves as bondservants to evade taxes.

Therefore, during the Chongzhen years, the number of bondservants kept by wealthy merchants and gentry in Jiangnan was also increasing.

And now, with the power and wealth of the gentry who oppressed the bondservants declining, large-scale bondservant uprisings were inevitable. Handling this matter would not be easy.

Because Zhu Cilang knew that what the slaves needed was not only personal freedom, but also the means of production to sustain their livelihood.

Zhu Cilang could be a "smasher of shackles," but he could not divide the slaveholders' property among the slaves, so for now he had not rashly proclaimed abolition.

Zhu Cilang smiled. "Imperial Father, rest assured — nothing too serious will come of it. And once the iron industries of Shanghai and Nanjing develop, a suit of plate armor will cost only a few taels of silver — four or five taels at most. With a million taels, we can forge two hundred thousand iron-armored soldiers!"

"When that time comes, we can launch a northern expedition into the Central Plains and recover the imperial ancestral tombs! Imperial Father, you will be able to go to Tianshou Mountain and offer apologies to the ancestors one by one!"

Still have to offer apologies? Chongzhen glared at his son, thinking: How can there be so many offenses to apologize for? Apologizing too much will make the subjects and officials mistake Us for a fatuous ruler!

"Then, then what about now?" Chongzhen asked. "The Tartar caitiffs are about to attack, and your troops are not yet trained. What is to be done?"

"The elite troops are already formed!" Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "Imperial Father, what you are seeing now are elite troops! Not to mention those units equipped with firelocks — even the regiments armed with sabers, spears, and bows are enough to fight the Tartars!"

"Is that so?" At that moment, the Chongzhen Emperor was riding past the front of an infantry regiment that was not equipped with firelocks.

"The Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, reborn — ever victorious!" The officers and soldiers knelt on one knee and shouted at the top of their lungs.

This slogan... The Chongzhen Emperor sighed. Zhu Cilang had set a bad precedent, and it could not be stopped now! The soldiers of the Great Ming were growing more and more heretical and presumptuous!

The New Army of Endurance was shouting things like "The Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, reborn — ever victorious."

And Shi Kefa's Qufu militia shouted "The Sage Confucius protects us, blades cannot pierce us"... What was all this nonsense?

"Imperial Father, if anyone thinks these soldiers are weak because they lack firearms, they are gravely mistaken!" Seeing Chongzhen frowning, Zhu Cilang thought he was worried that the regiments without firelocks could not fight, and explained with a smile, "They may not be able to defeat the half-firelock model regiments, but if they meet Tartars who likewise lack firelocks, they will not come off worse."

Not come off worse? Chongzhen thought to himself: Once you do come off worse, you can weep then!

Amid the cheers, Zhu Cilang accompanied the skeptical-faced Chongzhen Emperor in a cursory review of the troops of the Jiangbei Grand Camp, and only then entered the bastion fort of the grand camp.

After settling in at the palace compound within the bastion fort, Chongzhen finally could not hold back. While waiting for lunch in the great hall of the palace compound, he asked Zhu Cilang, "Chun Ge'er, the day is still early — why have we stopped?"

"Stopped?" Zhu Cilang asked with a smile. "Where does Imperial Father wish to go?"

The Chongzhen Emperor's expression was grave. "Are we not going to defend the imperial tombs at Fengyang?"

Zhu Cilang smiled. "The Fengyang imperial tombs already have Commander Zhu going to protect them, so they should be absolutely safe. Imperial Father need not worry."

In fact, even without Zhu Chunchen sending troops, nothing would go wrong at the Fengyang imperial tombs — that place had long ago been dug over by Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, and Zhang Xianzhong, the three of them. If the Great Ming truly had a dragon vein, it had already been severed. What would Hooge go there to dig up?

Even if there were still something left to dig, Zhu Cilang had no intention of stopping it! Dragon veins and the like were all superstition, and Zhu Cilang did not believe in them.

Chongzhen frowned and asked, "Then where should we advance next?"

"Nowhere," Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "We wait right here!"

"Wait?" Chongzhen was stunned again and again. "Then why are we not waiting in the city of Nanjing? We have not even left the borders of Yingtian Prefecture yet, have we?"

"We have not left Yingtian Prefecture," Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "This place belongs to Jiangpu County, less than ten li from Nanjing's Longjiang Pass, and only five li from the Yangtze."

"But once we left the city, it became an imperial expedition in person! And we have also crossed the Yangtze... This shows that Imperial Father and your son are unwilling to settle for a petty existence south of the river, and intend to launch a northern expedition into the Central Plains and recover the realm. At the very least, we are a bit stronger than Zhao Gou and Sima Rui!"

"After all, we have already launched the northern expedition. Although we have only crossed the river by five li, this is still a northern expedition!"

What? A northern expedition of five li? The Chongzhen Emperor thought: You unfilial wretch, have you no shame at all? Crossing the Yangtze counts as a northern expedition? And how can you mention Us in the same breath as fatuous rulers like Zhao Gou and Sima Rui? We are far stronger than they are!

Zhu Cilang glanced at Chongzhen. He did not think this gentleman could compare with Zhao Gou and Sima Rui. The one who was stronger than those two was mainly this Crown Prince himself.

But of course he could not say that to Chongzhen — it would be too hurtful. Zhu Cilang quickly changed the subject. "Furthermore, this place is only three hundred li from the seat of Fengyang Prefecture. However the fighting in Huaibei develops, the Jiangbei Grand Camp can know of it within five double-hours at the fastest. If we were inside the city of Nanjing, the relay riders coming south would still have to cross the river, which would cost two more double-hours."

(End of Chapter)