Chapter 464: Let's Just Play Landlord Together (Begging for Monthly Tickets)

"Fourteenth Brother, that man is a live Jiang Gan!" Dodo said at once when he heard his brother was going to send Jin Zhijun as an envoy. "Last time he and Sun Zhixie brought back several chests of name lists and got us into a fine mess!"

"What mess?" Dorgon laughed. "This realm was won by the heavenly soldiers of our Eight Banners. Those Nikan scholar-officials are of no use. If they won't submit to us, so much the better — we'll just enclose their land and equalize their fields! Once those two matters are settled, we'll have a hundred thousand Green Banner troops to use, and among the Eight Banners we still have our own three banners! Fifteenth Brother, think it over again. Have you got it clear now?"

Ah. Only now did Dodo fully grasp his elder brother Dorgon's scheme.

The purpose of enclosing land and establishing the Green Banners was not entirely to ease fiscal pressure — it was also to pull in more heads for their own side!

The Great Qing was presently a "commonwealth of the Eight Banner princes," and the little Shunzhi Emperor was nothing but a puppet. And Dorgon, this Prince Regent, had not been appointed by Hong Taiji's testamentary edict either, but jointly acclaimed by the Eight Banner princes. Yet the Eight Banner princes had only acclaimed Dorgon to serve as regent; they had no intention of letting Dorgon or Dorbu become emperor.

And now Dorgon wanted to advance further, so he had to increase his own voice in the "commonwealth of princes."

After ruining Hooge and seizing the Plain Blue Banner, the three Dorgon brothers' voice had grown considerably, but it was still not enough.

Because the little Shunzhi Emperor himself held the Plain Yellow and Bordered Yellow Banners — Shunzhi was still young, but the lady Bumbutai could command the two Yellow Banners in Shunzhi's name. And the two Red Banners had always been held in the hands of Daishan's family; the three Dorgon brothers had no way to seize them. The Bordered Blue Banner was Jirgalang's territory, and Jirgalang was far craftier than Hooge — ruining him would not be easy.

So Dorgon could only do addition: establish two Green Banners outside the Eight Banners!

Of these, the Bordered Green Banner was Wu Sangui's power, and for the moment not worth discussing. But if the hundred thousand men of the Plain Green Banner could be brought under Dorgon's control, then the three Dorgon brothers would effectively have four banners! The number of niru they controlled would reach over three hundred, exceeding the combined niru of the two Yellow Banners, the two Red Banners, and the Bordered Blue Banner.

With strength like that, Dorgon could naturally take another step forward.

"Fourteenth Brother, sending Jin Zhijun to Fengyang Prefecture is..." Dodo looked at his brother and asked in a low voice.

Dorgon smiled. "Naturally, to make contact with that fine son-in-law of mine!"

That's a fine son-in-law? Dodo did not know what to say.

Dorgon chuckled. "This prince wants to take another step forward, and he wants to take another step forward too! This prince wants to press down the two Yellow Banners, the two Red Banners, and the Bordered Blue Banner. He wants to finish off Zuo Liangyu and take the Huguang territory. This prince wants to enclose land and equalize fields; he wants to survey land and clear the fields... Fifteenth Brother, do you understand now?"

Dodo nodded. "Understood!"

He finally understood: neither Dorgon nor Zhu Cilang was a good man! Both wanted to use the banner of repelling foreign aggression to secure power at home and seize power, and they even wanted to take those few acres of land from the landlords and rich men. No wonder he had married Donggo off to Zhu Cilang — the two of you are birds of a feather!

Dorgon asked with a smile, "Fifteenth Brother, do you now know what Jin Zhijun is going to Fengyang Prefecture to do?"

"I know — to conspire and collude with Zhu Cilang in secret."

"Fifteen, why do you put it like that?" Dorgon looked at his blunt-spoken youngest brother, rather helpless. "Everything I do is for Dorbu!"

Dodo felt a little embarrassed now. "It's just hard on Donggo..."

"Hard on Donggo?" Dorgon laughed. "That girl will be either Empress or Noble Consort, with endless glory and wealth to enjoy. What hardship is there in that?" He glanced at Dodo. "Do you still remember Mangguji?"

Mangguji was Dorgon and Dodo's half-sister by a different mother, Nurhaci's third daughter. Because she had been drawn into the struggle between Hong Taiji and Manggultai, Hong Taiji had made her the "chicken" killed before a pile of "monkeys" — and he had killed her very ugly indeed: death by slow slicing!

Mangguji was Hong Taiji's own full sister! And she had been done in so ugly a way... And Donggo and Dorbu were not even full siblings, and Donggo was Dorgon's only flesh and blood. What would happen in the future, truly only Heaven knew!

And in political struggles there is no certain victory! The three brothers Dorgon, Dodo, and Ajige might be very powerful now, but who would win in the end was still unknown.

Stung by his brother's words, Dodo's face turned awkward, and he could only murmur, "Hong Taiji went too far, too far..."

Dorgon smiled. "Too far? Only when one's own people hate one's own people can the hatred cut to the bone! To intimidate a pack of brothers with sinister designs, what was too far about Hong Taiji slicing up a sister who didn't know her place?"

Dodo only sighed, not knowing what to say.

Dorgon had no son of his own to succeed him, so Donggo, his only daughter, occupied a somewhat awkward position. A heaven-favored girl, he could not bear to marry her off to the Mongols, and marrying her to an Eight Banners noble would easily drag her into the Eight Banners' internal struggles — and she might well end up like Mangguji!

Sending her instead to Zhu Cilang's rear palace, as a symbol of temporary peace between the northern and southern courts, was the safest course.

Even if north and south came to blows, Zhu Cilang would not kill Donggo and sacrifice her to the war banner; on the contrary, he would have to dote on her all the more. Because if neither side could overcome the other, they would have to take the road of peace talks, and Donggo would be the person who could pass messages and broker peace between the two sides.

If the southern army gained the upper hand, Donggo would be a kinswoman who could be used to win over the northern Eight Banners and the Mongol military chiefs.

And if the northern army gained the upper hand, Donggo would be a bargaining chip for begging mercy.

So as long as Zhu Cilang was a clear-headed feudal statesman, there was no reason for him to harm Princess Donggo.

Moreover, Zhu Cilang's rear palace was plainly a contest for favor between the women of the Zheng and Wu families. Dorgon's daughter was an outsider, of high enough birth, but with no power at all in the southern court, and she could not possibly give birth to a crown prince — bloodline aside, she was only seven years old; even if she bore a son it would be a matter of ten years later, and she could not possibly become the mother of Zhu Cilang's eldest son. For now she was just a symbol, exactly right for pressing down the Zheng and Wu women and keeping the struggle in Zhu Cilang's rear palace from intensifying.

Jin Zhijun entered Ming territory under the pretext of demanding the return of Hooge's remains!

When two states are at war, envoys are not killed, so he arrived intact at the utterly transformed city of Fengyang.

He had visited Fengyang, the Ming's central capital, more than once, and was thoroughly familiar with it inside and out, knowing it as a city both huge and shabby. But coming to Fengyang again, he could not recognize it. Had not a young kinsman of Zhu Chunchen accompanying him told him that the two strange-looking fortresses before his eyes were Fengyang, he would certainly have thought he had taken a wrong road.

"No mistake, this is Fengyang! I'm registered in Fengyang Prefecture myself — how could I lead you wrong? See that one there, that's Phoenix Mountain, and what's being built on the mountain is Phoenix City. Below Phoenix Mountain, what's being enlarged is Sleeping Dragon City... Phoenix above, Sleeping Dragon below! And by the way, a dozen or so li to the south there's also an Imperial Mausoleum City, also a great bastion with a twenty-li perimeter! Mount Hongyi cannons and Great General cannons on it, and it will be truly as firm as a wall of metal and a moat of boiling water! If your tomb-robbing prince dares come again, he absolutely won't get off lightly!"

Listening to this kinsman of Zhu Chunchen's account, Jin Zhijun understood — the Ming side had apparently torn down the original huge, shabby central capital of Fengyang Prefecture and rebuilt it, and had moreover turned the one city of Fengyang into three impregnable Fengyang fortresses.

"Is Fengyang Prefecture still the central capital?" Jin Zhijun asked again.

"Of course it is!" said this kinsman of Zhu Chunchen. "If Fengyang were not the central capital, why would His Highness the Thousand Years spend so much silver and recruit so many laborers to rebuild and enlarge it? The old outer wall of Fengyang was huge but useless, so this time they simply razed the outer enclosure and rebuilt it as an upper and a lower city, impregnable — how fine is that!

If the Tartars dare come again, Fengyang will be their death ground. And if the Tartars don't come, the Thousand Years will use Fengyang as his base to march north against the Central Plain and recover the sacred capital!"

"So that's how it is..." Jin Zhijun thought to himself: Zhu Cilang, it seems, is content to hold the lands south of the Yangtze! If he truly wanted to march north against the Central Plain, he should not be spending so much on the Fengyang fortresses. But no wonder — since ancient times the north has always subdued the south; rarely has the south attacked the north. Even with the precedent of the Ming founder, in the end did not the Prince of Yan come from the north and pacify it once more? For the little Zhu prince to secure a southern foothold would already be quite good enough!

(End of Chapter)