Chapter 598: The Qing Rots Away Day by Day, While the Great Ming Grows Better Day by Day

The Great Ming, Nanjing.

This dwelling of the Son of Heaven on the banks of the Yangtze was filled with a joyous, festive air. Ever since the wise and mighty Hongxing Emperor ascended the throne, the Great Ming's run of bad luck seemed to have come to a complete end.

From the Hongxing Emperor's enthronement in the first month until now, over the greater part of a year, the Great Ming had enjoyed one happy event after another!

First, of course, came favorable weather and peace in all quarters. At least across the eight provinces under the court's direct control—Jiangnan, Jiangbei, Huguang, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Fujian—no major disasters had been reported in this more than half a year. With the autumn harvest now imminent, it looked as though there would be a long-awaited bumper year.

Moreover, in this more than half a year, no great disturbances had arisen in the eight southeastern provinces either—small disturbances, of course, there were. The eight provinces held at least a hundred million people, most of them dirt poor, at least half of them often going hungry, and quite a few freezing or starving to death (the southeast's grain supply on the whole fell short of abundance, could only barely make do, and could not be distributed fairly, so there were a great many people suffering from cold and hunger). How could there not be some small disturbances?

Small-scale popular uprisings could be said to occur every month, and especially after Zhu Cilang issued the edict abolishing slavery, slave uprisings in various places became extraordinarily frequent.

What? Slavery had already been abolished, so why were they still rising up?

In truth, the slave uprisings that frequently occurred in the southeast in these times were not for freedom, but for food!

For example, the crowds of household slaves in Zheng Zhilong's household would not make trouble—they all ate well, drank well, and even had money to take; why the hell would they riot? Even after Zhu Cilang issued the slavery-abolition edict, his household's slaves remained just as before, doing whatever they had been doing.

But many southeastern scholar-officials had, for various reasons, seen their families decline, losing their privileges and estates, and this dragged their slaves down with them. Some ruined scholar-officials even tried to squeeze more out of their slaves, which intensified the conflict.

And because slave uprisings were frequent everywhere, Zhu Cilang simply issued an edict abolishing slavery. But then, because of the question of dividing property between slaves and masters (slaves were not necessarily without property) and the question of how slaves would make a living after gaining their freedom, even more upheavals were triggered.

However, for the Hongxing Emperor, whose capacity for suppression was very strong, these slave uprisings were no problem at all. They basically rose and fell in an instant, never amounting to anything. Quite a few rebels were captured, all handed over to Zheng Zhilong and sent off to develop Taiwan.

The next happy event was good news from the two provinces of Yunnan and Guangxi—through the efforts of Zhang Yong and Qiu Lei, Sha Dingzhou's meager strength simply could not withstand a beating, and he soon abandoned Kunming and fled back to Mengzi. Although the unrest in Yunnan was not over (perhaps it was even more chaotic), the Prince of Yunnan's palace (Zhu Cizhao was re-titled from Prince of Pacifying the West to Prince of Yunnan after entering Kunming) and the Yunnan Governor's yamen had taken root there. From now on, Yunnan would be run jointly by the princely palace, the ducal palace, the Governor's yamen, and a pile of native chieftains.

In Guangxi, Jin Shenghuan led troops in a forceful takeover—Jin Shenghuan was appointed Regional Commander of Guangxi, not a feudal lord of Guangxi. But Zhu Cilang authorized him and the Guangxi Governor's yamen to jointly reorganize Guangxi's guard stations and native chieftains, and also allowed Jin Shenghuan to take over Guangxi's official fields as military fields to sustain his troops' expenses.

The reason he was allowed to do this in Guangxi was, of course, to reorganize Guangxi's military strength so as to overawe Annam. Otherwise, with Guangxi's current military strength, never mind the Trinh lord or the Nguyen lord, even the Mac lord, who had retreated to Cao Bang to cling to a precarious existence, could not be dealt with!

Now Zheng Sen was preparing for his journey to Annam, Champa, and Water Chenla. The Zheng family would of course send warships to accompany him, but one could not expect a few warships to scare the others out of their wits.

The third happy event was that the Hongxing Emperor had gained another princess. That made three daughters! But no matter—the Hongxing Emperor was still young, and there would be plenty of chances to have sons!

And the fourth happy event was the marriage of the "old maid" Princess Kunxing to the Earl of Xiamen, Zheng Jiangong—Xiamen Island belonged to Quanzhou Prefecture, and after Zhu Cilang granted the marriage to Zheng Jiangong, Zheng Zhilong offered up Xiamen Island and requested that Zhu Cilang enfeoff it to his second son, Zheng Jiangong.

Zhu Cilang of course gladly agreed, but he would not let the second young master Zheng go back to Xiamen to farm, because the Great Ming central navy was counting on him to build it!

"Jiangong, you are now an Imperial Son-in-law. According to this dynasty's rules, an Imperial Son-in-law may not go too far from the capital, so you need not return to Fujian."

Within the Xuanhu Palace, it was the Retired Emperor Chongzhen who hosted a banquet today, inviting the Imperial Son-in-law Zheng Jiangong and Princess Kunxing, husband and wife, to dine. The Hongxing Emperor also came along to eat eggs. The boiled eggs of the Duke of Xuanhu were delicious—all "golden eggs"; once shelled they were white and tender, and at a glance one could tell they had not been poisoned.

While eating eggs, Zhu Cilang was chatting with Zheng Jiangong, who had grown considerably fairer.

The Retired Emperor Chongzhen looked at his son-in-law and was pleased as well. This was a fine son-in-law! His first move had been three hundred thousand taels in silver notes from the Maritime Merchant Bank. It seemed Zheng Zhilong knew how to raise a son—far better than that wretched old man Wu Xiang!

Hearing Zhu Cilang's words, Chongzhen smiled and interjected, "Don't go back to Fujian—just take up permanent residence in Nanjing!"

"Imperial Father," Zhu Cilang said with a smile, "he cannot stay permanently in Nanjing either, because your son has an important task to entrust to the Imperial Son-in-law."

"An important task? How important?" Chongzhen asked.

Zhu Cilang smiled. "Imperial Father, did your son not say so last time? Your son wishes to have the Imperial Son-in-law take charge of the Shanghai Naval Academy. The academy's buildings are now complete, and the Imperial Son-in-law may go and take up his post."

Zheng Jiangong's cheeks reddened again. He lowered his head and said in a voice so faint it was barely audible, "This subject, this subject is of meager talent and shallow learning, and knows nothing of naval warfare. I am unfit to serve as Chancellor of the Naval Academy."

In truth, Zheng Jiangong was not entirely ignorant—he was a half-baked amateur, knowing a little but not proficient (Japan was closed to the outside, after all, so he could not go to sea). Yet even this half-baked amateur counted as a "rare talent" within Zhu Cilang's core group; the others did not even have half-baked knowledge!

The Hongxing Emperor's Northern Prefecture clique, to put it bluntly, was a feudal warrior clique, its core a group of armed landlords. Who among them understood navigation or naval warfare?

Even Zheng Sen, in fact, did not understand it. Zhu Cilang had originally thought he was very capable, but after contact over a period of time he discovered that Zheng Sen was basically a scholar-official!

After Zheng Zhilong brought him back from Japan, he had raised him as a Confucian scholar. By contrast, Tagawa Shichizaemon, who had remained in Japan, had received the training of a maritime merchant cum warrior; although he had not really been to sea, he was still very knowledgeable about Chinese and Western ship types and vessel performance.

Besides, Zheng Jiangong was certain to know who did understand the trade—this was very important!

In these times, one could not just pick any blond foreigner and get a naval talent. If the man put in charge of building the navy was a blockhead, then the tuition fees would never stop mounting.

And the Zhu Emperor could not simply bundle the matter off to the Portuguese either; the Portuguese would fleece him just the same.

Zhu Cilang smiled and said to Zheng Jiangong, "Imperial Son-in-law, the Naval Academy is now a blank sheet of paper. Apart from you, there is no one else. We trust only you—go and do it with a free hand!"

In truth, Zhu Cilang had no one else to use! And he also knew that Zheng Jiangong was fairly earnest and responsible, and would not covet those piddling sums. The red envelope he had presented to the Retired Emperor Chongzhen today contained three hundred thousand taels in silver notes! Several years of funding for the naval academy amounted to about that much. If he embezzled such small change, he would truly disgrace his father's name completely.

But Zheng Jiangong did not know what the Zhu Emperor was thinking; he still believed Zhu Cilang trusted him deeply!

Zheng Jiangong was deeply moved in his heart! He had finally met an enlightened sovereign—first enfeoffed as an earl (one hundred thousand shi at Xiamen!), then given a princess in marriage (making him one of the imperial kin), and now trusted so completely!

At this thought, he hastily rose, walked to Zhu Cilang's side, and prostrated himself: "Your Majesty's kindness in recognizing this subject's worth, this subject will never forget to the end of his days. I shall serve with utter loyalty through seven lives, and repay it with a hundred deaths!"

Zhu Cilang rose with a smile and personally helped Zheng Jiangong to his feet. He was just about to say a few more words of encouragement when Huang Xiaobao, the brush-holding eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, came trotting in from outside, then stood on tiptoe, leaned close to Zhu Cilang's ear, and said in a low voice, "Imperial Lord, Commander Zhu of the Embroidered Uniform Guard requests an audience, saying he has a great piece of good news to report—it concerns Wu Sangui!"

Concerning Wu Sangui? A look of delighted surprise immediately appeared on Zhu Cilang's face—good news one after another! Having an enlightened sovereign on the throne was truly wonderful!

(End of Chapter)