Chapter 497: Does the Crown Prince Have Grain to Spare?

"Thousand Years, the ship is already moored at the Wujiaxue Town dock. The vanguard division's troops have gone ashore and cleared the area. Garrison Commander Liu Kongzhao of Jiujiang, Lord Liu, and several local officials who fled from Wuchang, Hanyang, and other places are all waiting at the dock to see you."

The speaker was Yan Yingyuan. A proper jinshi, he had been coaxed by Zhu Cilang into joining the army. First he spent several months at the Nanjing Military Academy, and after graduating he went along on the "Blood Stream" campaign, serving as battalion deputy in Hao Yaoqi's vanguard army. Now he had been promoted again to lead guard of the Guard Battalion — in other words, its commander.

His speed of promotion was nearly as fast as riding a rocket. But he had a jinshi degree, so no one else had much to say. The Great Ming had prized civil office over military for more than two hundred years, and if you counted the Song dynasty's three hundred years on top of that, the notion that civil outranked military and that a jinshi was the highest honor had long since sunk into the very marrow of men's bones! So when Yan Yingyuan traded civil rank for military, people considered it a loss on his part, and a faster promotion was only right.

"Have Liu Kongzhao come. Tell the others to disperse!" Zhu Cilang ordered. Then he looked up at the three gray-bearded civil officials in his cabin.

All three of these were high officials indeed!

Two of them were old acquaintances of Zhu Cilang: one was Qiu Yu, the other Fang Yuegong.

Both had been Grand Secretaries, then stepped down from the Grand Secretariat to serve as Governors for more than a year. Before this campaign, Zhu Cilang had adjusted the administrative divisions of South Zhili, abolishing the five "minor governorships" of Susong, Zhenchang, Huaiyang, Fengyang, and Yingtian, and establishing in their place two grand governorships, Jiangbei and Jiangnan, filled respectively by Lu Zhenfei and Hou Xun.

So Qiu Yu and Fang Yuegong had both been left without posts, and Zhu Cilang had them accompany the expedition in the capacity of military affairs counselors.

Of course, he had not brought these two old men along because there was nowhere else to put them, but because they would be useful here in Huguang. Both were natives of Xiangyang in Hubei — one from Gucheng County, the other from Yicheng County. With the status of Grand Secretary plus the title of Earl of Kenan, set down in Hubei, they were undisputed leaders of the scholarly world!

The other old man was a Jiangxi native named Yuan Jixian. When Beijing fell and Chongzhen and Zhu Cilang, father and son, moved south, he held the posts of Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of War and Right Assistant Censor-in-Chief, was stationed at Jiujiang, and served as Governor-General over military affairs in Jiangxi, Huguang, Anqing, Yingtian, and elsewhere.

It seemed a very grand office, but in reality it was an empty Governor-Generalship. There were no troops for him to command. Relying on his successful persuasion of Zuo Liangyu, he had recovered a bit of Hubei territory.

Later, after Zhu Cilang had secured his footing in Nanjing, he had casually stripped Yuan of that office and recalled him to Nanjing to await reassignment. After a year of waiting, he finally got a post — also as military affairs counselor, accompanying Zhu Cilang on campaign. He too was very familiar with Huguang, having twice served in Hubei, in the tenth and twelfth years of Chongzhen, both times in posts connected with military affairs, and both times fighting the roving bandits.

Besides these three old military affairs counselors, Wu Sanfu was also in the cabin. Without him along, Zhu Cilang would not know how to fight a war. In addition, Zhu Cilang's strategist Li Yan had also left Nanjing with them, though he was not presently with the army — he had gone to Fengyang Prefecture and Runing Prefecture to mobilize troops.

Yan Yingyuan turned and left. Zhu Cilang let out a soft breath and said with a smile, "Liu Kongzhao did not wait in Wuchang but ran all the way to Wujiaxue Town. It seems he was a step too slow and failed to take Wuchang and Hankou!"

The news that Zuo Menggeng had left Wuchang and Hanyang on a "western campaign" was, of course, known to Zhu Cilang at the very first moment!

At the time, Zhu Cilang had just left Nanjing with the vanguard division and the fleet, and had not yet reached Anqing. But Zhu Cilang did not order the fleet to speed up. Instead, he unhurriedly ordered Liu Kongzhao's naval force, stationed at Jiujiang, to seize Wuchang and Hankou as quickly as possible.

Now Liu Kongzhao had most likely failed in that task, yet Zhu Cilang did not look the least bit anxious. Wu Sanfu in the official cabin was long used to this — he knew this lord was brewing some scheme again. And the two old men, Qiu Yu and Fang Yuegong, also had some understanding of the Crown Prince's character and merely narrowed their eyes, pondering.

Only Yuan Jixian was the most straightforward. The old man was so anxious that sweat beaded on his forehead. "Your Highness, the roving bandits have now learned to put down roots, and they use land distribution by headcount to beguile the people. Their ambition is not small — they must not be treated lightly!"

Li Zicheng had made progress — he would not be easy to deal with now!

Zhu Cilang nodded, as if deeply in agreement. "Counselor Yuan speaks most wisely. The situation in Huguang is now critical in the extreme, and indeed cannot be treated lightly!"

"And the most critical point of the situation lies not in the gain or loss of Wuchang and Hankou, but in where the hearts of the Huguang people incline. In Our view, taking Wuchang and Hanyang is easy; winning the hearts of the Huguang people is hard!"

Wuchang and Hanyang were not hard to take — it was simply a matter of massing more model troops and cannon. Li Zicheng's strength could be counted on one's fingers. How much farmland was there in Xiangyang, Yunyang, and Nanyang? Even if he enclosed it all, how many "Old Camp warriors" could it support?

So Li Zicheng's capital now was at most seventy or eighty thousand elite troops, and he still had to leave some for Nanyang and Xi'an. What he could bring to Huguang was forty or fifty thousand elite troops.

And the model troops Zhu Cilang could muster far exceeded that number. So defeating Li Zicheng at Wuchang, Hanyang, and Hankou was not the problem. The problem was the millions, even tens of millions, of Hubei peasants who had received land — what was to be done about them?

If they all stood on Li Zicheng's side, defending the fruits of land distribution by headcount, that would truly be a host of a million!

How many troops could Zhu Cilang commit to Huguang? At the absolute most, a hundred thousand model troops. Could a hundred thousand destroy a million?

"This..." Old Yuan, hearing Zhu Cilang's analysis, furrowed his brow deeply, as if truly worrying over state and people.

But the two Hubei grandees, Qiu Yu and Fang Yuegong, merely narrowed their eyes and fixed their gaze on the Crown Prince. Young as this lord was, he had no shortage of crafty ideas!

To the gentry and merchants of Hubei, this Crown Prince was only slightly better than Li Zicheng.

Zhu Cilang smiled. "Let us first take Wuchang. Wuchang Prefecture is quite large — there should be no small amount of government land and military colonies there, yes?"

"Ah..." Old Yuan thought to himself: Why does this Crown Prince have eyes only for military fields and government colonies?

Zhu Cilang had not finished. He went on: "On the road to Hubei, We have been turning this over constantly. If Li Zicheng has distributed all the land in Hubei by headcount, can we still take it back? There are millions, tens of millions of people — the law cannot punish the multitude! And We are a benevolent sovereign; how could We, upon ascending the throne, seize the people's fields in Hubei? You are all virtuous old ministers — speak your minds."

"That would indeed be improper."

"But the roving bandits' land distribution by headcount is also wrong!"

"We cannot simply perpetuate an error, can we?"

Zhu Cilang nodded repeatedly. "Quite so, quite so. We are not unreasonable. That is precisely why We must ascertain the government land and military colonies of Wuchang Prefecture!"

What are you planning to do?

All three old men looked at Zhu Cilang.

Zhu Cilang said: "This is Our thinking. The land Li Zicheng has granted out, We will not take back. Henceforth it shall all be counted as private land, and tax will be levied uniformly at two dou of rice per mu. As for the Hubei gentry who suffered losses from Li Zicheng's land distribution by headcount, the court will compensate them with government land and military colonies from Wuchang. The land given them in compensation shall be registered in Wuchang henceforth — they need not return to their old homes."

That was simply too black-hearted!

All three old men, Qiu Yu and Fang Yuegong included, drew a sharp breath.

Zhu Cilang was even blacker than Li Zicheng!

So his coming to Huguang was not to fight the roving bandits and protect the good people, but to rob the robbers. Li Zicheng had seized the good people's land and distributed it by headcount; Zhu Cilang planned to drive off Li Zicheng and then tax the peasants who had received the land!

And two dou of rice per mu — was he not enjoying this taxation a little too much?

The total land tax for all of Huguang had originally been only a little over two million shi!

Now Li Zicheng, with his enclosures and equalization, would have gotten hold of at least sixty million mu. At two dou of tax per mu, that was twelve million shi! Even after deducting twenty percent as commission for local officials, there would still be 9.6 million shi!

And this was only Hubei — there was still Hunan, with even more territory! Add Hunan, and would that not mean squeezing more than twenty million shi of rice out of Huguang in a single year? That was a tenfold increase over the original. Could your conscience bear such extortionate taxation?

Before the question of conscience could even be discussed, Yan Yingyuan's voice came from outside the cabin: "Thousand Years, Liu Kongzhao requests an audience!"

"Summon him!"