Chapter 466: The Southeast Has No Thanos (Begging for Monthly Tickets)

"Fourteenth Brother, that man is a living Jiang Gan!" As soon as Dodo heard his brother was going to send Jin Zhijun as an envoy, he spoke up to warn him. "Last time he and Sun Zhixie brought back several chests of name lists, and they nearly ruined us!"

"Ruined us how?" Dorgon laughed. "This realm was conquered by the heavenly soldiers of our Eight Banners. Those Nikan scholar-officials are of no use... If they refuse to come over to us, so much the better — we'll just enclose their land and redistribute their fields! Once those two matters are settled, we'll have a hundred thousand Green Banner troops to use, and among the Eight Banners three of them will be ours! Fifteenth Brother, think it over again — is it clear now?"

Ah... Only now did Dodo fully grasp what his elder brother Dorgon was scheming.

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

The Great Qing was presently a "republic 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 — he had been jointly elected by the Eight Banner princes. But the Eight Banner princes had only pushed Dorgon forward to serve as regent; they had no intention of letting Dorgon or Dorgon's son Dorbo become emperor.

And now Dorgon wanted to advance further... so he had to increase his own say in this "republic of princes."

After ruining Hooge and seizing the Plain Blue Banner, the three Dorgon brothers' say 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. The two Red Banners had always been in the grip of Daishan's family, and 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 base, and could be set aside for now. But if the hundred thousand troops 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 advance another step...

"Fourteenth Brother, you're sending Jin Zhijun to Fengyang Prefecture to..." 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 advance another step, and he wants to advance another step too! This prince wants to press down the two Yellow Banners, the two Red Banners, and the Bordered Blue Banner. He wants to deal with Zuo Liangyu and take the Huguang territory. This prince wants to enclose land and equalize fields, and he wants to survey land and clear the fields... Fifteenth Brother, do you understand now?"

Dodo nodded. "Understood!"

He finally understood: Dorgon and Zhu Cilang were neither of them good men! Both wanted to use the banner of repelling foreign aggression to secure power at home and seize power, and they also wanted to take those few acres of land from the landlords and rich old money... No wonder he married Donggo 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... he's going to conspire and collude with Zhu Cilang in secret."

"Fifteenth, why do you have to put it that way?" Dorgon looked at his blunt-spoken youngest brother with a touch of helplessness. "Everything I do is for Dorbo!"

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 got caught up in the struggle between Hong Taiji and Manggultai, Hong Taiji made her the "chicken" killed as a warning to a flock of "monkeys" — and killed her in the ugliest way possible: death by slow slicing!

Mangguji was Hong Taiji's own full sister! And even she was done in so hideously... And Donggo and Dorbo were not even full siblings, and Donggo was Dorgon's only flesh and blood — what the future held for her, only heaven knew!

Moreover, in political struggles there is no guaranteed victory! The three Dorgon brothers might look immensely powerful now, but who would win in the end was anyone's guess...

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

Dorgon laughed. "Too far? Only when your own kin hate your own kin can the hatred cut to the bone! To intimidate a pack of brothers with ill intentions, 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 biological son to succeed him, so the position of Donggo, his only daughter, was a little awkward. A heaven-favored girl like her — 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 internal struggles of the Eight Banners, and she might well end up like Mangguji!

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

Even if north and south came to blows, Zhu Cilang would not kill Donggo to consecrate his banners — on the contrary, he would have to dote on her all the more. Because if neither side could defeat the other, they would have to take the road of peace talks, and Donggo would be the person who could carry messages and broker peace between the two sides.

If by chance 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 suing for mercy.

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

Moreover, it was plain that the women of the Zheng and Wu families were competing for favor in Zhu Cilang's rear palace. Dorgon's daughter was an outsider — her birth was high enough, but she had no power at all in the southern court, and she could not possibly give birth to a crown prince. Setting aside the question of bloodline, she was only seven years old; even if she bore a son, it would be ten years from now, and he could never become Zhu Cilang's eldest son. For now she was just a symbol, exactly right for keeping the Zheng and Wu women in check and preventing 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 executed, so he arrived intact at the utterly transformed city of Fengyang.

He had been to Fengyang, the secondary capital of the Ming, more than once, and was thoroughly familiar with it inside and out — he knew it was a city both huge and dilapidated. But coming to Fengyang again, he could not recognize it. Had not a younger 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 turn.

"No mistake about it, this is Fengyang! I'm registered in Fengyang Prefecture myself — how could I lead you wrong? Look, that's Mount Phoenix, and what's being built on top of it is Phoenix City. What's being enlarged at the foot of Mount Phoenix 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, a great bastion with a twenty-li perimeter! Mount Hongyi cannons and General cannons on it, and it's truly a fortress of metal and boiling water! If that tomb-robbing prince of yours dares come again, he absolutely won't get off easy!"

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

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

"Of course it is!" said Zhu Chunchen's young kinsman. "If Fengyang were not the secondary capital, why would His Highness the Thousand Years spend so much silver and hire 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 as metal and boiling water — how fine is that!

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

"So that's how it is..." Jin Zhijun thought to himself: Zhu Cilang seems content to settle for a corner of the realm 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 it has always been the north conquering the south, rarely the south conquering the north. Even with the precedent of the Ming founder, in the end did not the Prince of Yan come down from the north and conquer it all over again? For the little Zhu crown prince to secure a corner of the realm was already quite good enough!