Chapter 460: You're Annexing Miscellaneous Troops Again

When the Great Qing Imperial Uncle Regent, Prince Rui, Generalissimo Dorgon personally led a great army of ten thousand from the Plain White Banner and Bordered Blue Banner, sweeping south from Beijing in majestic force — the banner of "The Great Ancestor, Exalted Emperor, Reborn" of the Ming Army-Supervising Crown Prince Zhu Cilang was already flying high above the Ming Central Capital, Fengyang Prefecture!

After Zhu Cilang "cut down in battle" Hooge, no Qing army south of the Huai River dared test his blade again! Bahana and Oboi gathered some seven or eight thousand broken troops and fled in panic back across the Chi River, joining forces with Kong Youde and Shang Kexi, who were just preparing to cross the river. Then together they fled before the wind to the outskirts of Fengyang Prefecture, where they joined the Qing army that had been besieging the Forbidden-Wall Bastion of Fengyang, and all together retreated back across the Huai River.

Within a few short days, south of the Huai River, not a single Qing soldier remained!

But the Qing army's retreat did not stop immediately after crossing the Huai; instead they continued falling back all the way. They did not even look back at the wind — they simply fled with heads down, abandoning the Huai-north counties and prefectures of Fengyang and Runing Prefectures they had previously occupied. Only when the entire army had withdrawn into Guide Prefecture and Kaifeng Prefecture in Henan did they finally come to a halt.

And on the Xuzhou front, Helohui, who had earlier "raided Xuzhou" successfully, also fled in panic. Without even waiting for a Ming counterattack, he abandoned the prefectural seat of Xuzhou and the two county seats of Pei County and Feng County, tucked his tail between his legs and returned to Yanzhou Prefecture to join forces with Dodo.

Now the Crown Prince truly had the air of one whose might awed the entire southeast!

Last time, at the Battle of Dagu Estuary, many people had held doubts — who knew whether those heads had been obtained by killing innocents and passing them off as enemy dead?

And after Dagu Estuary, hadn't Zhu Cilang still escorted Chongzhen and fled to Dengzhou? If it had truly been a victory, they should have returned to Beijing!

But this time no one doubted it — even the Tartars themselves admitted it! It was Zhu Cilang who had stabbed Hooge to death with twin swords.

And the Tartar army had then fled before the wind, hadn't it?

Who would still dare doubt the Crown Prince?

So this time Zhu Cilang had become truly, utterly formidable!

He had slaughtered a Tartar Prince like Hooge — who the hell would still dare refuse to submit? In the southeast, the central-south, the southwest — who dared beat their chest and claim they were more formidable than Hooge? Who dared claim their army could defeat twenty thousand Eight Banners troops?

"Your subject Huang Degong respectfully wishes His Highness the Thousand Years golden peace!"

"Your subject Gao Jie respectfully wishes His Highness the Thousand Years golden peace."

Before the Gate of Receiving Heaven inside the Forbidden-Wall Bastion (the interior of the bastion was in fact the original Fengyang Forbidden City; most of its buildings had been destroyed by the roving bandits, but the Gate of Receiving Heaven still stood), Huang Degong and Gao Jie, who had hurried over from Xuzhou and Suzhou, were performing the grand ceremonial obeisance before Zhu Cilang on the imperial seat.

This was not the first time they had kowtowed to Zhu Cilang, but this time they were truly convinced, heart and soul. Hooge was dead, twenty thousand Eight Banners troops had been smashed — how much did they themselves amount to? Did they dare refuse to submit? Were they tired of living?

"Rise. Grant them seats!" Zhu Cilang was as genial and smiling as ever.

Huang Degong and Gao Jie rose together and stole a glance at the Crown Prince. Both felt that behind his smile there was a hint of ruthlessness!

Truly a ruthless man — they must be careful!

Two of Zhu Cilang's guards brought over two embroidered stools. Huang Degong and Gao Jie did not dare sit comfortably; they perched on half a buttock each, hands resting on their knees. Where was any trace of the lawless warlords they had been?

Zhu Cilang looked at them with a smile: "How many troops do you two have? Give me the real number — don't count the old, weak, sick, or disabled. Just tell me how many can still be trained up."

"In reply — in reply to His Highness the Thousand Years," Huang Degong spoke first, "this subject — this subject has in truth thirty thousand troops under his command, of whom about twenty thousand are able-bodied."

Historically, Huang Degong had given Zuo Liangyu's forces — reputed to number eight hundred thousand — a thorough beating, so he clearly had some real strength.

"Good, good," Zhu Cilang nodded, his face wreathed in smiles. "Twenty thousand able-bodied men is quite good. Twenty thousand able-bodied men, each allotted one hundred mu of land on average — that's two million mu! As for the remaining ten thousand, pay them silver and disband them. I'll give you one hundred thousand taels of silver. Can you manage it?"

What? He was stripping him of military power just like that?

Huang Degong could hear his own heart breaking!

The capital he had accumulated over so many years — the Crown Prince was taking it all away with a single sentence?

Having finished speaking, the Crown Prince wore a slight smile as he watched Huang Degong.

The death of Hooge and the Tartars' flight before the wind were two very big stories! And Dorgon had been so obliging as to cooperate. With such fine material, Zhu Cilang naturally had to hype it up thoroughly. And once the hype had driven the price up, he couldn't just cash out and walk away — so he could only proceed with "mergers and acquisitions." And the two "acquisition" targets Zhu Cilang had chosen first were the armies of Huang Degong and Gao Jie.

The foundations of these two men had long since been thoroughly investigated by Zhu Chunjie. The capital they had on hand was enough to organize ten Guard-Associated Brigades each (new army Guards) without any problem.

"Your — Your Highness the Crown Prince," Huang Degong's forehead was dripping cold sweat, "this subject's troops are all accustomed to doing as they please. I fear they cannot endure the hardships of the Hard-Working New Army!"

"They can endure hardship," Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "When the land is given in full and the silver is given in full, no hardship is a problem. Besides, the training of the Hard-Working New Army isn't all that harsh — it's just a bit long in duration.

Also, there isn't much land left to distribute south of the Huai and in Jiangnan now! How about I allot land for your men in the area of Suzhou, Mengcheng, Lingbi, Hong County, Suining, and Taoyuan?"

The territory Zhu Cilang offered lay in the angle between the Xu-Huai section of the south-flowing Yellow River and the Huai River — one prefecture and five counties. Because of the earlier Qing invasion, the common people had mostly fled, and much of the land lay abandoned, so it would naturally be easy to enclose two million mu.

Huang Degong's face was full of difficulty. "Your Highness the Thousand Years, these territories are too close to the Tartars..."

"Are you afraid of the Tartars?" Zhu Cilang asked with a smile.

"This subject — this subject..."

Seeing Huang Degong at a loss, Zhu Cilang smiled and said: "There is no need to fear. We will make proper arrangements. We will remain in the Central Capital for some days to supervise the defense works along the Huai. With Us here, the Tartars will not dare come south. Before long, there will be ten bastions between the Yellow and Huai Rivers, and Sir Huang will be able to rest easy north of the Huai."

Only then did Huang Degong breathe a sigh of relief: "With His Highness the Thousand Years holding the line, this subject does have confidence to develop the land north of the Huai."

"That is how it should be!" Zhu Cilang nodded approvingly. "We will establish a garrison command north of the Huai, with you as its Regional Commander. In addition, the territory of Xuyi shall remain your fief."

"This subject thanks His Highness the Thousand Years for his generous favor." Huang Degong hastily rose and kowtowed.

In truth, Zhu Cilang had not favored him all that generously. Huang Degong had originally been Regional Commander of Henan, ruling Guide Prefecture plus half of Kaifeng Prefecture. Now he had become Regional Commander of Huaibei, with a territory of one prefecture and five counties. Not even half of what he'd had before! And moreover, his mercenary troops had been turned into military-agricultural colonists, absorbed into the Hard-Working New Army system, and placed under the jurisdiction of the Marshal's Office and the Ministry of War.

"Sir Gao," Zhu Cilang then said with a smile to Gao Jie, "the Xu-Hai region has been contested by armies since ancient times. How many men does your command have? How much land should be granted, and how many fortresses built?"

"This subject has twenty-five thousand troops," Gao Jie, knowing he had no way out, could only brace himself and report, "all of them able-bodied. Xuzhou lies beside the suspended river and is not easy to defend. If His Highness the Thousand Years insists on fortifying Xuzhou, this subject can send men to build a mountain fortress.

As for land grants, they should be in the Haizhou and Pizhou area, where the land is fertile and mostly paddy fields. Two million mu would suffice. However, the Pizhou-Haizhou region is densely populated, and there is not much unowned land that can be granted."

"How can there be none?" Zhu Cilang smiled. "Sir Gao need not worry. We will send Censors together with the land-survey officials of the Military Colonization Bureau to investigate. More than two million mu of government land, military land, and concealed land can always be found."

The work of surveying and investigating land must now be pushed forward while the iron was hot! Not only must the Southern Metropolitan Region be thoroughly investigated, but Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces must also be investigated! Only when everything had been clearly surveyed would the southeastern territory truly be in Zhu Cilang's grasp.

Having settled on the idea of further land surveys, the Crown Prince again said with a genial smile to Huang Degong and Gao Jie: "We have the utmost trust in you two gentlemen. The defense of Huaibei will still be entrusted to you two generals. As for reorganizing your troops into Guard Armies, that too is necessary for holding Huaibei..."

Just as he was speaking, his military strategist Li Yan suddenly strode in quickly, a memorial in his hand. Seeing him, Zhu Cilang knew there was urgent military business, and without concealing it from Huang Degong and Gao Jie, asked on the spot: "Strategist, what has happened?"

"Your Highness the Thousand Years, Dorgon has come!"

(End of Chapter)