Chapter 463: Taking Qufu, Dividing the Spoils

Dodo had already begun to grasp what his elder brother Dorgon was thinking. This Prince Regent of the Great Qing had come south with such fanfare not to avenge his nephew Hooge, whose body had never been found, but to push through the establishment of the Green Banners and the equal-field land redistribution.

The former would require seizing vast tracts of land in Henan and Shandong, which was bound to stir up some resistance. The latter would offend people even more — equal-field redistribution! Li Zicheng had merely shouted the slogan of equal fields and tax exemption, and the scholars and gentry of the realm had hated him for it ever since.

Dorgon was even more ruthless — he was not just shouting slogans, he was actually doing it! Would this not make him a thorn in the eye and a spike in the flesh of every scholar in the land? Could he still expect them to come out and lead the way as collaborators?

"Fourteenth Brother," Dodo lowered his voice, weighing his words carefully, "from now on, will it be north for the north and south for the south?"

Dodo had fought months of grinding, miserable battles in Shandong, and his heart had gone somewhat cold. Before any equal-field redistribution had even begun, the Shandong gentry had already raised so many local militia armies that he could not finish fighting them all. If the land were actually redistributed, what then?

Dorgon snorted. "Since ancient times, he who gains the Central Plain gains the realm! Even in the early Ming, when the conquest went from south to north, the kingly aura of Jinling lasted barely thirty-some years. After that, did not the Prince of Yan, Zhu Di, usurp the realm?

"Zhu Cilang is a formidable sovereign, no doubt, but the very fact that he had to abandon the Central Plain and fall back on Jiangnan means he has already lost the greater momentum. As long as we can take the whole of the central lands and govern them well, then even if our own generation lacks the destiny to conquer Jiangnan and unify the realm, Dorgon's son Dorbo will surely become the hero who unites all within the seas!"

So Dorbo was to be the hero who united all within the seas — then what was Shunzhi? An abdicated emperor? A hidden emperor? Was Dorgon's meaning not to emulate Cao Mengde, who never usurped the throne himself but let his son Cao Pi do it?

The faces of the Eight Banners nobles in the great hall all flickered with a few traces of astonishment, then settled back into calm as if they had heard nothing at all.

"Fourteenth Brother, but Shandong and Guanzhong right now..."

Most of Shandong still bore the surname Zhu!

And Xi'an Prefecture in Guanzhong bore the surname Li!

Neither Shandong nor Guanzhong had been taken — how could one speak of holding the Central Plain?

Moreover, Zhu Cilang had used Shandong as a springboard to extend his claws into the coasts of Liaodong and western Liao.

If anything went wrong in Liaodong or western Liao, that would mean the Ming army entering the passes to destroy the Qing.

"Leave Guanzhong to Wu Sangui for now," Dorgon said. "We only need to hold Yulin, Yan'an, and Tong Pass.

"As for Shandong, the Eastern Depot Prefecture, Yanzhou Prefecture, and the northern part of Jinan Prefecture must all be taken! The Plain Green Banner is to be established with forty jalan and two hundred niru, which will require a great deal of land. Have not the nikan in the Eastern Depot, Yanzhou, and northern Jinan all fled? Perfect — we shall enclose all the wasteland in Shandong and distribute it to the Plain Green Banner troops as banner land!"

"Fourteenth Brother," Dodo reminded him, "Yanzhou Prefecture has not been fully taken! In the western part of Yanzhou, around Caozhou, Juye, and Jiaxiang, the bandit troops of Li Huajing and Gong Wencai are still entrenched, flying the banner of the Southern court. The mountains in western Yanzhou are also in the hands of Gao Hongtu and Shi Kefa. And there is the strong city of Qufu, which has withstood every assault."

Dorgon gave a cold laugh. "Shi Kefa and Kong Yinzhi are still holding out in Qufu?"

"Still holding out!" Dodo said. "I built a large camp by the Yi River outside Qufu to watch every move in the city. Not only have the two traitors Shi Kefa and Kong Yinzhi not left Qufu, they have gone even further, driving the common people and militia to work day and night, strengthening the city walls."

Dorgon smiled. "That is a good thing!"

"A good thing?" Dodo was taken aback. "Are we not attacking Qufu anymore?"

Qufu was not only of enormous symbolic importance; its position also happened to sit squarely in the middle of Yanzhou, near the Grand Canal. If such a great fortress were not taken, western Yanzhou could not be taken either, and even a push south into Xuhai could not be sustained.

"We attack!" Dorgon gritted his teeth. "If we do not take Qufu, the morale of the Plain Green Banner cannot be settled!"

"Fourteenth Brother," Dodo still did not understand, "what does taking Qufu have to do with settling morale?"

"Of course it does!" Dorgon smiled coldly. "Who in the world does not know by now that Qufu holds the wealth of more than half of Shandong? That is what the Kong family has squeezed and accumulated over centuries — even the emperors of the Zhu family are not necessarily richer than the Kongs! If we take it, will not every man in the Eight Banners and the Plain Green Banner get a share? With that to look forward to, morale will steady, and the Green Banners can be established. Once we have a hundred thousand Plain Green Banner troops, the northern Central Plain will sooner or later be the territory of our Great Qing!"

Now everyone understood. Dorgon meant to make Qufu into a big, fragrant painted cake. Whether there was actually money inside Qufu, whether Confucius's "great measure" actually held treasure — none of that mattered.

What mattered was that everyone had something to look forward to! Right now there were over a hundred thousand Eight Banners and Green Standard (Green Banner) troops in Shandong and Henan. Because of Hooge's death in battle, morale was somewhat low. Relying on the establishment of the Green Banners alone would not be enough to lift spirits — after all, the essence of establishing the Green Banners was "shedding a burden." Once the land was enclosed, military pay and provisions would be drastically reduced! And the land distributed to the Green Banner soldiers was all wasteland; without a year or two of stability, it would produce no grain at all.

So the big cake had to be painted well, to make everyone feel there was still somewhere to go and plunder.

Dodo spoke again: "But the scholars..."

"Hmph!" Dorgon gave another cold snort, cutting Dodo off. "Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu, Zuo Maodi, Kong Yinzhi — which of them is not a scholar? Since these book-addled fools insist on resisting the celestial troops of our Great Qing, why should our Great Qing continue to tolerate them? The mountains of gold and silver inside Qufu are just right for taking and distributing to our meritorious officers and men!"

"The Prince Regent is right!"

"That is how it should be..."

"Plunder them ruthlessly!"

The men below erupted in jubilation! Only Oboi wore a worried look, and his expression was caught by Dorgon's eye.

Dorgon smiled and asked, "Oboi, are you worried that the little Zhu crown prince will take advantage of our siege of Qufu to march north into Henan?"

Oboi shook his head. "My lord, this slave does not worry about Henan. Henan has been ravaged by repeated wars and is nearly a wasteland; what grain remained has all been moved by us into Shangqiu, Suiyang, Xuzhou, and other cities. If the Southern army launches a northern expedition, it must carry its grain with it. But in Henan the autumn waters are shallow, and boats moving south cannot easily turn around, so supplying a large army would be very difficult. If the Southern army does launch a northern expedition, it must advance along the Grand Canal — which means the battle will be at Qufu!"

Dorgon smiled. "Then let us fight! This prince has been wanting to meet that little whelp Zhu Cilang and see whether he has the ability to marry Dong'e."

"My lord," Oboi continued, "Zhu Cilang is no ordinary man. He must not be underestimated in the slightest!"

"This prince knows!"

Dorgon smiled, then added: "Issue this prince's order: summon Kong Youde, Shang Kexi, Geng Zhongming, Bai Guang'en, Liu Liangzuo, Xu Dingguo, Bai Yongfu, Wu Weihua, and the other commanders to assemble at Shangqiu. This prince will confer with them on the establishment of the Green Banners.

"Also, have those two Governors, Lei Xing and Sun Zhixie, come as well! This prince wants to discuss with them the implementation of equal-field redistribution in Henan and Shandong!"

Having given these instructions, Dorgon yawned and rose to his feet. The men below all knew the Prince Regent was tired, so they all rose, saluted, and took their leave — only Dodo remained.

"Fourteenth Brother," Dodo waited until the others had gone, then drew close and said, "Do you really mean to make Dorbo a Cao Pi?"

Dorgon was just lifting a teacup to drink. Hearing Dodo's words, he nearly choked, coughed twice, then glared at his younger brother. "What nonsense are you talking? Cao Pi was a treacherous minister. We are the legitimate sons of the Heaven-Mandated Great Khan — Dorbo was always meant to be emperor!"

"Right, right, right!" Dodo could barely keep the smile off his face as he nodded repeatedly. "The throne should have been mine all along — Hong Taiji is the treacherous minister!"

"Enough, enough — let us not speak of this!" Dorgon waved his hand. "Is that Jin Zhijun living off you over there?"

"Yes," Dodo nodded. "Sun Zhixie recommended him. After he resigned his post last time, the fellow had no income. His whole large family was squeezed into Tianjin Wei, scraping by. I happened to need a scholar, so I took him on as an aide."

Jin Zhijun was from Suzhou. He dared not go back to Suzhou now, nor did he dare stay in Beijing, because he was a living Jiang Gan — so he had hidden himself away in Tianjin to get by. But his savings were meager, and soon he could no longer hold out, so he threw in his lot with his fellow sufferer Sun Zhixie. Sun Zhixie then recommended him to Dodo.

"Summon him to Shangqiu!" Dorgon said. "This prince wants him to make a trip to Fengyang Prefecture!"

(End of Chapter)