Chapter 555: We're Not Beggars — We're Here to Eat From the Rich Households!

You feudal remnants want democracy?

Zhu Cilang kept his composure on the surface, but inside he was already cursing. It was not, of course, that he opposed democracy. In his later life he had been born in the 1970s, and had grown up in exactly the era when the Western free world was at its most formidable, so he did not think democracy was a bad thing.

But in his view, this bunch of Southern Ming scholar-officials did not deserve democracy at all!

It was already 1646 by the Western calendar. If not for Zhu Cilang's own prowess, Ji Kun of Yangzhou would most likely have been beaten to death by Dodo's Qing troops in the city of Yangzhou!

Huang Zongxi, Gu Yanwu, and Wang Fuzhi were somewhat better off, still rushing about east and west busying themselves with resisting the Qing, but it was of no damn use either — in the end, did the Great Qing not still unify the realm?

You people cannot even cut down a few tens of thousands of Eight Banners Tartars, yet you want to trade twenty million shi of rice for the rights of deliberation and taxation. When you lot can shoulder firelocks and go trade volleys with the Russians in line formation, when you can sail gunboats to contend with the British Empire and the French Empire for command of the world's seas, then come talk about this matter!

By that time, no emperor of the Great Ming would dare refuse.

Still, Zhu Cilang would not punish the four of them either. He was a reasonable Crown Prince, and on this point Huang Zongxi had read him correctly.

These four feudal remnants were, in any case, qualified to submit memorials, and the content of their memorial was not entirely without use.

First, they had reminded Zhu Cilang — the landlord's house still has surplus grain! Had they not spoken up, Zhu Cilang would not have thought of it for a while!

Second, the proposal in the "Memorial Remonstrating Against Feudal Deliberative Government" to establish feudal laws and institutions and implement rule by the deliberation of the people was correct — it was only that the southeastern scholar-officials were not qualified to be the people! But that did not mean others were unqualified to deliberate.

For example, those who shoulder guns and go out to open up colonies are qualified, and must be made a deliberative people. Otherwise how are the colonies to be governed? Set up governor-general autocracy? Would the governor-general not become a king?

Set up centralization? That will not work either — the distance is too great and the situation too chaotic; an emperor far away in Nanjing simply cannot centralize power. If something happens in a colony, by the time Nanjing learns of it, it may already be a year later; by the time the court finishes deliberating and transmits the imperial edict to the colony, two years will have passed.

Moreover, under the Great Ming's banner there still exist many warlords who rely on their troops for self-importance!

Whether Zhu Cilang likes them is one matter; whether he can destroy them while at the same time preventing Dorgon, Li Guo, Zhang Xianzhong, and the rest from reaping a share of the benefits is another matter entirely.

So the realistic choice before His Highness the Crown Prince was to coexist peacefully with these warlords.

And to coexist peacefully, one must negotiate a set of laws and institutions and find some common interest!

Third, using the method of advancing land tax to raise grain from the landlord rich folk was also a workable approach.

"Gentlemen, what are your views?"

After Scholar Bi finished reading, it was Zhu Cilang's turn to ask, his expression amiable.

It was now the midday court session. The high officials of the Grand Secretariat and the Grand Marshal's Office in Nanjing were all seated in the court hall, and together with His Highness the Crown Prince they had just listened to that remarkable document, the "Memorial Remonstrating Against Feudal Deliberative Government."

"Your Highness, this subject finds some points in it worth adopting." Chief Grand Secretary Wei Zaode was the most adept at reading his sovereign's intentions, and being the first to speak now was in fact a probe to feel out Zhu Cilang's bottom line.

Zhu Cilang nodded. He did not fear his subordinates testing him; he was unwilling to be like Chongzhen, a monarch of too much uncertainty.

"Among them, the line 'the feudal is not enfeoffing its lord, nor enfeoffing its state, but enfeoffing its institutions' is very well said." Wei Zaode said, "At present the court has enfeoffed many frontier commands and frontier titles, but has not enfeoffed their institutions. Moreover, it has only enfeoffed the lords, with no people of the state, and still less any deliberative government. Therefore beneath the enfeoffed lord there is nothing to restrain him, and above there is bound to be suspicion; feudalism is thus hard to make endure. If feudalism cannot endure, then the enfeoffed lords and the court cannot be of one mind — just as in former days the king and the frontier lords eyed each other with hostility, and sooner or later there was bound to be great chaos!"

At present there is no feudal law and institution acceptable to all, high and low alike, so the court above is always wanting to reduce the feudatories, while the frontier commands below guard against the court more than against the caitiffs and bandits.

And this pattern of struggle between the frontier commands and the center applies equally between the colonies and the Ming homeland.

A colony is in fact also a kind of "feudatory." If there are no laws and institutions acceptable to both sides to constrain it, then why should the court run colonies at all? To make trouble for itself? Better to close the borders and lock the country — that would be cleaner!

"The Chief Grand Secretary speaks most excellently," Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "There must indeed be a method of enfeoffing institutions. But this method cannot be worked out by us here in the court hall. There must be a deliberative assembly, to which the enfeoffed lords and frontier lords send men to deliberate, and the commanderies and counties may also send deliberative officials to deliberate."

Deliberative officials had in fact already appeared — it was an empty title used to reward tax-paying major counties, who would come to Nanjing at year's end or the year's beginning to attend the "Self-Reflection Deliberative Assembly." However, during the period from the end of last year to the beginning of this year, because Zhu Cilang had been away leading troops, the second Self-Reflection Deliberative Assembly had not been held.

Minister of Revenue Chen Rui had spent longer with Zhu Cilang and naturally knew he did not wish to continue discussing the deliberative assembly, so he took up the topic and turned it: "Your Highness, the matter of feudal deliberative government is not an urgent affair. The urgent affair now is still raising grain. After Your Highness ordered the release of five hundred thousand shi of stored grain from the Military Farms Office, the price of rice, which had fallen slightly, has in the past two days risen again to five qian five fen of silver per dou — and that is the price of rough rice.

The refugees in Pukou City north of the river are now living in extreme hardship; many have only one meal a day, and the city of Nanjing is full of beggars who have come over from Pukou."

Pukou City was the former Great Camp North of the River. After Hooge was killed, Zhu Cilang turned the Great Camp North of the River into a main base for receiving refugees from the north. The families of many northern army soldiers who had not managed to get land and houses allotted (their merits being insufficient) also lived there.

For these northerners, Zhu Cilang's court did its utmost to provide relief, but as the stored grain in the Ministry of War's Military Farms Office steadily dwindled, the court's ability to distribute relief was also declining. Last winter the Military Farms Office had received in total more than sixteen million shi of white rice — no small amount — but the number of mouths to feed was also great!

Now in Nanjing, Yangzhou, Huai'an, Fengyang, Anqing, Zhenjiang, and other places there were "refugee camps" for northerners, and the population requiring relief numbered in the millions!

Because of Hooge's offensive in Huaibei last year, the Huaibei region (including Xuzhou) suffered a severe grain harvest failure and required the court to send grain for relief.

In Shandong, because large numbers of refugees had been taken in and several major battles had been fought with the Qing army, farming had been seriously delayed, so the court was also needed to send grain for assistance.

In addition, Zhu Cilang's court had undertaken many great public works — many cities north of the river needed strengthening, and many militarily important sites needed bastion forts built. But the greatest of the great works was the reinforcement project for the Huai River embankments, because the Yellow River had been flowing south for several hundred years, and the lower Yellow River's seizure of the Huai's channel had caused extremely severe silt deposition. By the Jiajing and Wanli years, disasters had become frequent. Although the famous minister Pan Jixun had carefully brought it under control for a time, the river troubles had now become serious again; unless a great drought occurred, flooding and inundation were certain.

To ensure the safety of the grain-producing region of the Jianghuai, Zhu Cilang had no choice but, in the autumn of the eighteenth year of Chongzhen, to appoint Han Lin as Vice Minister of Works and concurrently Governor-General of the River Channels, beginning the enormously costly Huai River control project!

With these several expenditures added together, the sixteen million shi that Zhu Cilang had scraped together with a black heart was being consumed at a flying pace, and there was already no surplus grain left to relieve the refugees. And it was now only late in the sixth month, with still some time to go before the autumn grain came to market in large quantities!

And even when the autumn grain came to market, it would not necessarily ease matters much. Because the Huguang war had lasted too long, it had affected this year's spring planting. At the same time, Li Zicheng's implementation of per-capita land grants and enclosure land grants in several prefectures of Hubei was also negative for the development of productive forces in the Hubei countryside, so this year's grain output in Huguang would certainly be below the average of previous years.

To get the southeast through this grain shortage, the stored grain in the houses of the landlord rich folk must be dug out!

But at the same time one could not tear off all pretense. Tearing off pretense and letting loose with plunder would feel good for a moment, but the consequence would be severe damage to the productive forces of Huguang and the southeast, and future grain shortages would only grow worse.

"Your Highness, this subject has a method." The speaker was the military advisor Li Yan. "Thousand Years, you could lead the northern refugees to Huguang to eat from the rich households!"

(End of Chapter)