Chapter 566: We All Feel Great About It!

"Why hasn't Gao Yingwu (Gao Jie) arrived yet? What's he dawdling around for?"

"What else could he be doing? The Crown Prince has sent a Censor to investigate him! He's busy figuring out how to deal with it!"

"A Censor? Who?"

"Ji, the King of Hell — Gao Yingwu is in real trouble this time! How much has he embezzled in these two-plus years in Haizhou? No less than two or three million! Ji, the King of Hell, coming up north is definitely here to investigate him!"

"True enough — we're all clean-handed, so when Ji, the King of Hell, shows up, there's nothing on us!"

"But Gao Yingwu is a Commander, with twenty thousand battle-worthy troops under him, and right now troops are needed. Would the Crown Prince really quibble with him over corruption?"

"Have there been few officers brought down for graft and bribery these past two years? Five or six regimental commanders of the New Army have fallen. Guard Commanders, Regional Commanders, and Vice Regional Commanders all over — who knows how many have toppled!"

"Exactly! And what kind of battle-worthy troops does Gao Yingwu have anyway? Wealth and comfort have worn away all their fighting spirit. The Crown Prince is about to ascend the throne, and a new ruler's first three fires — the first one will burn him!"

In the main hall of the Governor-General of Seven Provinces' yamen in Qufu, Gao Hongtu, Zuo Maodi, Huang Degong, Kong Xingxie (son of Kong Yinzhi), Li Huajing, Liu Zhaoji, and the others were drinking tea and talking freely while waiting for Shi Kefa, Kong Yinzhen, and Zhu Yihai, Prince of Lu, who had not yet arrived.

What they were discussing was the impending arrival of Ji Kun, Supervising Censor of the Shandong Circuit, known as Ji, the King of Hell. Contrary to Zhu Cilang's expectations, these warlords all felt quite good about it. No one thought Ji Kun was coming for them — they hadn't skimmed much. Gao Jie was the real embezzler: his estate on the island of Yuzhou Mountain was so magnificent it nearly rivaled the imperial palace, and it was said he had built a whole Shaanxi Street at the port of Shanghai, where every house on the street belonged to the Gao family! He had also built grand mansions in Nanjing and Wuhan, and under his wife's name had deposited a huge sum in the Salt Merchants' Bank.

Besides graft and bribery, this Gao Jie also shirked battle. As Regional Commander of Xuhai, he had never properly fought a single engagement against the eastern barbarians. Last time Shi Kefa gathered all the armies to break the Qing army's Yishui camp, everyone sent troops — only Gao Jie went through the motions, sending a bit of grain and gunpowder and calling it his best effort.

Now the Crown Prince is about to ascend the throne and become Emperor, and then it will surely be a northern expedition to recover the Central Plains — the roving bandits have already been dealt a heavy blow, and Li Zicheng is very likely dead! Xiangyang and Nanyang, those two nests the bandits had occupied for two or three years, have also been taken by government forces. The situation in Huguang and the southwestern part of the Central Plains is excellent.

At the same time, the anti-Qing situation in Shanxi is also quite good. The Dai princely establishment in the Lüliang Mountains grows ever stronger. Although Datong Prefecture has again been surrounded by the Qing army, it can still hold for now — and a large number of Qing troops are thus tied down on the Shanxi front.

Moreover, Li Ruolian, Su Guansheng, and Shen Tingyang have made considerable progress in raiding the islands along the Liaodong coast. They now hold Juehua Island, Zhangzi Island, Shicheng Island, the Greater and Lesser Changshan Islands, Wangjiashan Island, Guanglu Island, and Tieshan Island — and this summer they even landed on Changsheng Island, the big island in Fuzhou Bay! They have assumed a posture of attacking Jinzhou Guard and Fuzhou Guard, causing great panic in Liaodong.

Judging from the present situation, after His Highness the Crown Prince takes the throne he will most likely launch a northern expedition to establish his authority — and the odds of victory are quite good!

And before the troops march, there is no avoiding killing a chicken to warn the monkeys!

So a Regional Commander like Gao Jie, who only knows how to line his pockets and not how to fight the Qing, is certainly in for disaster. He is the chicken to be killed.

Just as everyone was discussing this, a cough came from behind the screen. Gao Hongtu and Zuo Maodi exchanged a glance and both rose from their chairs. Gao Hongtu said sternly, "Form ranks properly — His Highness the Prince of Lu has arrived!"

Shandong is full of big names. Even Shi Kefa, Governor-General of Seven Provinces, is not the biggest — the biggest is Zhu Yihai, Prince of Lu!

Some time ago Zhu Yihai went to court for an audience, and accompanied by the fat Prince of Fu, he met the "semi-retired" Chongzhen Emperor. He also visited Xuanwu Lake and Tangshan to see the "Summer Palace" and "Winter Palace" where the Chongzhen Emperor lives after abdicating.

Before long, when the Chongzhen Emperor becomes the Retired Emperor, in spring and autumn the old man will reside in the Xipu detached palace inside Nanjing, in summer he will live in the detached palace in Xuanwu Lake, and in winter he will go to the hot-spring palace at Tangshan — and every year he will have one million taels of gold-flower silver to spend.

That life is simply beyond words. Zhu Yihai was so envious he could hardly stand it. After returning to Shandong and meeting Shi Kefa and Kong Yinzhi, he could not stop praising the Crown Prince's filial piety!

Shi Kefa and Kong Yinzhi heartily agreed. The two of them accompanied Zhu Yihai out from behind the screen, and after they had taken their seats, they took turns passing the good news to everyone.

"The Crown Prince is truly filial!" the great loyalist Shi Kefa said with a smile, stroking his beard. "He personally led the refugees to Huguang to find food, yet did not reduce the Emperor's gold-flower silver by a single tael, and even built the Xuanhu Palace and the Hot Spring Palace for His Majesty. Truly, truly filial."

Kong Yinzhi nodded repeatedly and chimed in, "He even rounded it off for the Emperor — twenty more years of Chongzhen! Twenty years as Son of Heaven, and a Retired Emperor at thirty-six — what a lord of profound good fortune!"

"Yes, yes!" Zhu Yihai said with a laugh. "And His Majesty is in excellent health, in the prime of life. By the look of him he'll live to at least seventy-six — twenty years as Son of Heaven, forty years as Retired Emperor. What blessed enjoyment!"

Who knows what the Chongzhen Emperor would think if he knew what these three "loyal ministers" in whom he placed such high hopes were saying?

But Shi Kefa, Kong Yinzhi, and Zhu Yihai were speaking from the heart!

In the view of the three of them, Chongzhen ruled for seventeen years and ran a still-viable Great Ming into this state, while the Crown Prince has held power for two and a half years and the nation's fortunes have markedly improved. Restoring Chongzhen's power would be harming the country and the people, and would betray the ancestors.

So the Chongzhen Emperor had better step down soon! Retire at thirty-six, enjoy all the wealth of the world and its fairest beauties — what's so bad about that? Must he stay on the throne and work himself to death before it's over?

Besides, the Crown Prince has already rounded it off for the Chongzhen Emperor — what a filial son! From now on the Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial Piety can add the deeds of the Great Filial Son Zhu and become the Twenty-Five Paragons!

Huang Degong also felt quite good, having no idea at all that Ji, the King of Hell, was coming to investigate him! He chimed in with a laugh: "Once the Crown Prince takes the throne, it will likely be a northern expedition to recover the Central Plains. We fellows will finally have a place to put our martial skills to use!"

Shi Kefa stroked his beard and smiled too: "Indeed — that is why we have invited everyone here: to discuss how to carry out the northern expedition! These past two years the Tartar caitiffs have acted tyrannically in the Central Plains, and heaven's wrath and the people's resentment have long been stirred. I believe that when the royal army arrives, the people everywhere will rise in response. The pacification of the Central Plains is just around the corner!"

Indeed — Dorgon has been enclosing land and setting up the Green Standard, conducting household-by-household land grants, and giving the scholar-gentry not the slightest concession, taxing everyone uniformly at four sheng per mu (that is what the Qing court collects; the localities add their own levies on top). How could heaven's wrath and the people's resentment not be stirred?

Every one of those who fled to Qufu hates it beyond words. Jinan, Qingzhou, Denglai, and the rest are much the same — there is not a landlord or rich man who does not hate it!

"The pacification of the Central Plains is inevitable, but the land of the Central Plains must be returned to its original owners!" the great filial son Zuo Maodi said gravely. "The Central Plains is not the same as Huguang!"

"Right, right — Brother Luoshi is absolutely correct!" Gao Hongtu also endorsed Zuo Maodi's view. "These two years of national crisis, countless gentry of the Central Plains have ruined their families to aid the state. The court absolutely must not let everyone down!"

Kong Yinzhi added, "For more than ten years now, Shandong, Henan, Northern Zhili, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Liaodong have suffered endless natural and man-made disasters. Gentry and commoners alike have had their vitality sapped. After recovery, the people must be given rest. Surely there must be a ten-year tax exemption?"

Huang Degong, however, shook his head and said with a bitter smile, "Duke for the Perpetuation of the Sage, if taxes are exempted for ten years, what are we supposed to do? Surely the court can't be expected to subsidize the localities out of its own pocket?"

Shi Kefa laughed: "Aren't there still official fields and military colonies? We can sell off the official fields and military colonies to raise military funds — spread the sales over ten years, and that solves it."

"That is one way." Huang Degong seemed less optimistic than Shi Kefa and Gao Hongtu. "But who knows how many years this northern expedition will take to win?"

(End of Chapter)