Chapter 563: Why Is Someone Plotting Treason Again?

Having settled the Guangdong matter, Zhu Cilang turned the conversation to western Hunan and the Shizhou Guard.

He said, weighing his words: "Our dynasty's guard-battalion system is in truth a form of enfeoffment, only the laws are lax, authority and responsibility are unclear, and the hierarchy is muddled, so it has largely rotted away. Fortunately, places like western Hunan and the Shizhou Guard have been maintained because the campaigns to expel the barbarians went on for many years and brought considerable gains. Now that we are to set down laws and restrain the enfeoffed vassals, why not begin with western Hunan and the Shizhou Guard?"

"What belongs to the government, let the government govern; what belongs to the enfeoffment, let it be enfeoffed" — that is the reality the Great Ming faces, so drawing up a set of laws by which things can "be enfeoffed" has become the urgent task of the moment. This is, more or less, "one country, N systems," is it not?

In later ages, the New China was so powerful, and even it used such methods. What tricks could the present Zhu Cilang possibly have? Leveling and crushing the great mountains of western Hunan and eastern Kui is impossible — in the original history, those mountains were not fully brought under central government control until the New China!

How could Zhu Cilang's meager strength compare with the New China? If he really threw himself into the great mountains of western Hunan and eastern Kui to fight a pacification war, he would surely sink into a quagmire and never get out.

Besides, those mountain regions have little to offer — taking them would cost more than it gained, and if he insisted on fighting, he would fight himself into bankruptcy, guaranteed.

Moreover, the great mountains of western Hunan and eastern Kui are not places that can produce an emperor! The terrain there is high peaks, deep valleys, and dense forests — especially suited to producing a king of the valleys who dominates one region. But at the same time it is very hard to unify, so no combined force can form, and there is no real threat to the central government.

"Your Highness, this subject believes that in western Hunan and the Shizhou Guard we should abolish the guard-battalion system and implement the tusi method. At the same time, establish a General's Office for Pacifying the Barbarians to oversee all the tusi, lay down uniform and workable laws, and permit the tusi to send clan elders to reside permanently at the General's Office, serving both as hostages and as participants in governance."

The speaker was the ruthless official Ji Kun. He was extremely excited today, because Zhu Cilang had clearly already adopted his proposal. His career as a ruthless official would probably soon be over.

Wang Fuzhi, currently serving as a Reader-in-Waiting at the Hanlin Academy, was a Hunan man and fairly knowledgeable about conditions in western Hunan. Stroking his beard, he said: "This subject believes what Censor Ji has said is excellent. Western Hunan and Shizhou have always been wild and uncivilized — high mountains, dense forests, fierce Li and Miao peoples — and only the nation's warriors are sufficient to suppress them. And enfeoffment by guard-battalion has never matched enfeoffment by tusi. Whether in western Hunan, Shizhou, Yunnan-Guizhou, or Sichuan, whenever there is military action, the native troops are always stronger than the guard-battalion troops. The reason, at bottom, is simply that the tusi have the substance to match their title, while the guard-battalions have enfeoffment without establishment. Therefore the tusi chiefs can manage their domains with real commitment, while the guard commanders have no heart for their posts and think only of squeezing out more profit."

Zhu Cilang nodded repeatedly. He too had studied the tusi and the guard-battalions. In his view, a tusi was a family enterprise, while a guard-battalion was an enterprise controlled by insiders.

Family enterprises can of course also fail, and insider-controlled enterprises can also flourish. But the way insiders were produced and incentivized in the Ming guard-battalions was extremely negative. To become a Guard Commander, a Vice Guard Commander, an Assistant Guard Commander, or the like, the first requirement was being born into the right womb! Of course, the tusi family system also required being born into the right womb. But a single Ming guard often had a whole pile of "commander families," and there were often many men qualified to be Guard Commander, Vice Guard Commander, or Assistant Guard Commander. Who actually got the post depended on the wishes of those above — which is to say, on who could pay the bigger bribe!

And once a man became head of a guard, the evaluation and incentive mechanisms were rotten to the core. Except for the frontier armies, which had to fight and therefore had to put in a little effort, the evaluation standard for all other guards was still the preferences of those above — which meant continuing to pay bribes! And there was basically no incentive mechanism at all: if you ran your guard well, those in power gained not the slightest benefit. Unlike the tusi families, where things passed down from generation to generation, a guard did not necessarily pass to one's descendants — usually it rotated among a bunch of families — so what was the point of doing a good job? Better to squeeze out more for your own family!

So Zhu Yuanzhang's guard-battalion system... honestly, it would have been better to just do proper, open enfeoffment and be done with it!

Perhaps, according to Zhu Yuanzhang's original intent, the great majority of the three hundred-odd guards existed to reward merit and maintain public order. The ones truly defending the realm had to be the nine frontier princely garrisons — if not for the reduction of the princedoms by Zhu Yunwen and Zhu Di, they would have been "family enterprises," with the frontier princes hereditary.

If a princely establishment was run well, it could be passed down to sons and grandsons! If even one of the nine frontier princely houses had applied itself in earnest, with three or four guards — roughly twenty thousand households of elite troops — that would have been enough to destroy Nurhaci before he grew great. And if all nine frontier princely houses had applied themselves, one hundred eighty thousand elite troops... heh, invincible under heaven!

It is a pity that the balance and cooperation between the frontier princes and the emperor was utterly destroyed by Zhu Yunwen's reduction of the princedoms — had there been no reduction, Zhu Di as Prince of Yan would have been checked by the other eight princedoms, and with a little skill at maintaining balance, the situation could basically have been preserved.

Zhu Cilang had already made up his mind. He said to Chang Yanling: "Marquis Huaiyuan, when you spoke before of going to Sichuan to suppress the rebellion, We did not agree. First, because the situation in Sichuan is not easy to handle, and you have no foundation there. Second, because We wished to appoint you General for Pacifying the Barbarians and have you take up the burden of western Hunan and the Shizhou Guard... proceed along the path of converting guard-battalions into tusi. However, there are many guard officers and few tusi offices, so there will certainly be many men with nowhere to go. Therefore, We will shortly have someone hold a military examination in Wuhan for the guards of western Hunan and Shizhou, to recruit a batch of western Hunan and Shizhou warriors skilled at crossing mountains and ridges into the army."

The Crown Prince wanted to recruit from western Hunan and Shizhou an army skilled at fighting in mountainous and jungle terrain. His New Model Army was not suited to mountain warfare, because square-formation tactics, flying-cannon tactics, and infantry-cavalry-artillery coordination tactics could only be brought to full effect on flat terrain; in places of high mountains and dense forests, they might well prove unworkable.

Zhu Cilang then said to Du Yinxi: "Commissioner Du, once the military examination is over and the mountain troops are formed, take them to Yunnan. Yunnan is vast, and it cannot all be enfeoffed to Cizhao; a share must be left for the Mu family, and a little left for the court as well. Commissioner Du, are you willing to make this journey and look after Our fourth brother?"

"This subject is willing!" Du Yinxi also knew that Zhu Cilang did not wish him to take office in the central government, but being able to go to Yunnan as Governor was always a good thing.

Yunnan might be remote, but it was a place where one could accomplish something great!

At this point Zhu Cilang yawned, showing a trace of weariness. Cao Youyi, He Tengjiao, Chang Yanling, Du Yinxi, and the others exchanged glances, then rose together to take their leave. Zhu Cilang did not press them to stay, only saying to Ji Kun: "Censor Ji, remain a moment. The rest of you may return."

Ji Kun was inwardly delighted and promptly sat back down.

Zhu Cilang watched the others leave, then took out a secret memorial and handed it to Ji Kun, saying in a low voice: "Gao Jie has secretly reported that Huang Degong and Shi Kefa are colluding with each other, concealing Our fifth brother Cihuan, with intent to plot treason!"

What? Ji Kun was stunned, and blurted out instinctively: "Surely not..."

Zhu Cilang nodded. "We also feel it is unlikely. Gao Jie and Huang Degong have never been on good terms, and now they are fighting over several counties in Xuzhou and Haizhou — the lawsuits have even reached Us. For Gao Jie to secretly report this matter at this moment may be an attempt to frame Huang Degong. Therefore, We wish to appoint you Censor of the Left Circuit of Shandong, to oversee the civil officials of Xuzhou, Haizhou, and Huaibei. Go there under that title and find out the truth for Us."

Hearing Zhu Cilang's words, Ji Kun groaned inwardly: I am a Censor, not the Embroidered Uniform Guard! I haven't even shed the skin of a ruthless official, and now I'm to become a secret agent again!

Ji Kun shook his head. "Your Highness, this matter should be for the Embroidered Uniform Guard..."

"Quite right!" Zhu Cilang smiled. "Then We shall give you a concurrent post as a Chiliarch of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Secretly, of course!"

Still a secret agent.

"Thousand Years..." Ji Kun still wanted to decline.

But Zhu Cilang waved his hand and said: "Take the 'Memorial on Enfeoffment and Participatory Governance' with you as well, and show it to Gao Jie, Huang Degong, Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu, Zuo Maodi, and also Prince of Lu Zhu Yihai. The central and western parts of Shandong, Xuhai, and Huaibei are not easy to control, so We still wish to enfeoff them. We want to hear their opinions. In addition, the Imperial Father has decided to abdicate early next year, and We hope that these men can come to court to attend Our enthronement ceremony!"

Hearing these words, Ji Kun understood that this journey was one he absolutely had to make — and that it carried heavy responsibility!

(End of Chapter)