Chapter 561: Orange Isle Head

At the head of Orange Isle, gazing east at Changsha, west at Yuelu, the Xiang River flowing north, water and sky one color — who rules the rise and fall?

At the southern end of Orange Isle, Zhu Cilang climbed a tower and looked out over Changsha city, Yuelu Mountain, and the vast Xiang River. By now, his eyes were brimming with hot tears.

This was his homeland! A wanderer adrift away from home for over two hundred years, today he had finally returned to the Changsha of Hunan that haunted his dreams, and had even seen a sliver of scenery unchanged from old. But things remained while people had changed, and all was over — the kin and friends of former days had not yet been born, and he would never see them again!

"Thousand Years, Crown Prince Brother, why are you crying?" Zheng Chagu's pretty little face leaned in close as she asked curiously. Only then did Zhu Cilang realize his face was already streaked with tears, his eyes probably red from weeping, and he had lost his composure for who knew how long. The guards, eunuchs, and palace maids around him all stood with mouths half open, watching his tearful state.

These people were surely all wondering inwardly: what sorrowful matter has the Crown Prince been thinking of? And thinking it over, it truly had not been easy for him! Such a child of gold and jade, yet for nearly three years now he had not had many days of peace — either at war with the Tartars or at war with the roving bandits, and he still had to find time to deal with a pack of traitorous ministers and corrupt officials. And now he even had to lead so many refugees from the north to beg for food from the great households!

For these northern refugees, Zhu Cilang had truly worn his heart out! In order to bring more than two million starving people out from the refugee camps in various places (Zhu Cilang had always been deeply concerned about the refugees fleeing from the north, and had built camps for them at Fengyang, Huai'an, Yangzhou, Jiangpu, Yizheng, and other places, to house those without food or clothing) and back from the brink of death by starvation, the navy warships and merchant ships on the Yangtze, the grain barges on the Grand Canal, the sand ships moored at Shanghai, and even some bird ships that could navigate inland rivers had all been urgently requisitioned by the Grand Marshal's Office.

And the Grand Secretariat had also sent documents to the prefectures and counties along the Yangtze, along the Gan River, along the Han River, and along the Xiang River, ordering the local officials to cooperate fully and prepare lists of wealthy merchants and powerful gentry, so as to welcome the Crown Prince bringing his people to eat!

Of course, Zhu Cilang was a reasonable man and would never eat anyone's food for nothing — every wealthy household that provided grain would have their accounts settled clearly with him.

Whatever was eaten would be repaid double (the original plan was to add fifty percent, but later, considering the current high price of rice, it was changed to double), deducted against future land taxes.

In addition, all local tyrants and evil gentry who warmly entertained His Highness the Crown Prince and the begging masses could, after the land survey and inspection, continue to lease the official fields, military colony lands, and hidden fields they occupied at a "preferential rent" of three to seven dou of rice, and the grain they provided to the refugees could also be counted into their deposits at one and a half times the amount.

Under the influence of this series of preferential terms and the Crown Prince's personal charisma, the gentry everywhere along the way had all shown themselves to understand the greater good. At any rate, no one dared to shut their gates and resist Zhu Cilang's begging army — all obediently offered up their grain!

It seemed the gentry of the southeast of the Great Ming were still worth saving. They were all "loyal gentry," "righteous gentry," and "clever gentry" — it seemed that after more than two hundred years of nurturing scholars, the Great Ming had finally produced some results.

Besides begging for food, Zhu Cilang also had to settle some of the refugees along the way.

The process of the refugees fleeing all the way from the north was in fact also a process of weeding out the old and weak. So the refugees who followed Zhu Cilang begging all the way were mostly young and able-bodied. Of the men among them, at least more than half met the selection standards for New Army soldiers.

So Zhu Cilang settled them at Anqing, Jiujiang, Wuhan, and Yuezhou (Baling) along the begging route, and also sent some to Jingzhou, Xiangyang, and Nanchang. By the time the begging army reached Changsha, the original two million people had been reduced to just over five hundred thousand.

According to Zhu Cilang's plan, two hundred thousand northern refugees were to be settled here in Changsha — the Prince of Ji's palace, which occupied half of Changsha city, and the garrison quarters of the palace guard would all be allocated to these two hundred thousand refugees. The Prince of Ji's palace and several other commandery princes' palaces, generals' mansions, and related government offices would also all be demolished. The bricks, timber, and land obtained would all be handed over to these refugees for building houses.

And the princely estates outside Changsha city (not only the Prince of Ji's estates, but also the estates of the Princes of Jing, Liao, Rong, Chu, and Min) as well as the military fields of the palace guard would also all be granted to the northern refugees settled in Changsha.

In addition, Zhu Cilang would establish a "Changsha General's Office" to administer the two hundred thousand refugees settled in Changsha. If these two hundred thousand people were counted by household, that would be roughly over forty thousand households, just under fifty thousand.

Besides this "Changsha General's Office," Zhu Cilang also established a General's Office in every prefecture where large numbers of northern refugees were settled.

However, these "General's Offices" were not the same thing as the garrison General's Offices of the Qing dynasty in history. They were only for temporarily caring for the refugees, while also being responsible for recruiting soldiers and providing basic military training to new recruits. They were somewhat similar to the Yingyang Offices and Zhechong Offices of the Sui and Tang dynasties.

But their recruitment targets were not locked to northern refugees — the northern refugees were not military households, nor were they a privileged class like the bannermen.

Zhu Cilang also did not want them to eventually become the Great Ming's bannermen, nor did he want them to become the Great Ming's new military households. He only wanted to give some of them an opportunity to rise, to become the new northern nobility loyal to himself. Most of them should slowly integrate into the local population. As a feudal dynasty, if it wanted to achieve restoration, it could not avoid producing a batch of new nobility, but His Highness the Crown Prince also did not want the new noble group to be too large — too many wolves and too little meat, not enough to go around!

Because Zhu Cilang handed over the Prince of Ji's palace inside Changsha city (already damaged by Zhang Xianzhong) to the Changsha General's Office and the refugees, his own temporary headquarters was set up in the Yunlu Palace (a Daoist temple) on Yuelu Mountain on the west bank of the Xiang River.

At the same time, he had someone find a villa belonging to a wealthy family on Orange Isle, and sometimes he would bring Wu Sanmei and Zheng Chagu over to stay, and take a look at the Changsha city that haunted his dreams — but he never expected that looking at it, he would start crying.

Huang Xiaobao saw the Crown Prince suddenly burst into tears for no apparent reason, and not knowing what had happened, could only step forward and ask: "Thousand Years, Commander Cao, Governor He, Commander Chang, and Provincial Administration Commissioner Du have all come onto Orange Isle. Do you wish to see them?"

"Yes!" Zhu Cilang wiped his tears. "Have Ji Kun and Wang Fuzhi arrived?"

"They have. They arrived long ago."

"Then have them come along too!"

"Yes!"

The place where Zhu Cilang met with Cao Youyi, He Tengjiao, Chang Yanling, and the others was that villa on Orange Isle — a very elegant place, surrounded by orange groves.

And the purpose of Zhu Cilang summoning them here was to discuss the Guangdong problem and the western Hunan problem (including Shizhou Guard).

By now, the plains region of Huguang was basically under Zhu Cilang's effective control. Hubei had been cleaned out once by Li Zicheng, and Zhu Cilang had simply gone to seize the fruits of victory. Although the process had many twists and turns, the result was not bad.

The plains region of Hunan consisted of Yuezhou Prefecture, Changde Prefecture, and Changsha Prefecture, with Hengzhou also being acceptable. Through the two General's Offices at Yuezhou and Changsha, and with a Hengzhou General's Office to be established later, it could basically be firmly controlled.

But Guangdong and western Hunan would not be so easy to deal with! The former had conflicts between the indigenous and Hakka populations, and also many sea merchants and sea bandits — all of them thorns! The latter had a pile of western Hunan local warlords — whether tusi chieftains or guard stations, all of them were various kinds of defiance.

In the original history, this pack of demons and monsters kept stirring up trouble until New China finally wiped them out. Zhu Cilang, a feudal Crown Prince, dared not compare himself to New China.

So he did not consider completely wiping them out or anything like that.

In a small tower where one could look left at Yuelu and right at Changsha, Zhu Cilang laid out a banquet for the seven visitors. It was not a shared table, but food served separately, just as in ancient times when a ruler feasted his ministers.

After three rounds of wine and five courses of dishes, Zhu Cilang smiled and said to He Tengjiao, Cao Youyi, and Chang Yanling: "Two Commanders, Governor He, Commissioner Du, the reason I have invited you here today is to plan how to manage that bit of territory in Guangdong and western Huguang for driving out the barbarians and opening up new lands. Censor Ji, Huang Taichong, Master Gu, and Master Wang jointly wrote a memorial titled 'Admonition on Feudalism and Discussion of Governance.' Have the three of you read it?"

(End of Chapter)