Chapter 601: Imperial Ama Musters the Troops

In the late seventh month of the fourth year of the Qing Shunzhi reign, in Henan, Kaifeng Prefecture, the city of Zhengzhou.

Because the city of Kaifeng Prefecture had been destroyed by Li Zicheng's water attack in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, the city of Zhengzhou had benefited from that disaster and become the seat of the Qing Governor of Henan's yamen, the Provincial Military Commander's yamen, the Prefect of Kaifeng's yamen, and a host of other government offices — in effect, the true capital of Henan Province.

Although it had become a provincial capital, the streets and markets of Zhengzhou still looked extraordinarily desolate. In this small prefectural city, only two intersecting commercial streets showed any sign of life. And even that life amounted to little — a few dozen half-dead shops scattered sparsely about, of which the slightly more presentable ones all belonged to the Nine Great Imperial Merchants, accounting for roughly a third of the total. They were all wide-fronted grain, salt, tea, wine, cloth, iron, livestock, and medicinal herb firms — in the Great Qing of today, these eight trades all counted as big business!

The reason for this state of affairs was, of course, connected to the many years of war and the two great policies of land enclosure and land equalization. Or rather, this was simply how things generally were in the early days of any "reset" dynasty that had started over from scratch.

Because the population was small, industry and commerce could not easily develop. And because industry and commerce could not develop, that in turn encouraged the small-peasant economy and the manorial economy to flourish. The defining feature of both the small-peasant economy and the manorial economy was self-sufficiency: the small-peasant economy emphasized men plowing and women weaving, while the aristocratic manorial economy was somewhat better off, but given the overall social environment, it too had to follow the path of self-sufficiency. And once everyone was self-sufficient, industry and commerce became even less likely to prosper.

But no matter how self-sufficient people were, the four commodities monopolized by the state and the Nine Banners — salt, iron, wine, and tea — still had some market. The Great Qing had not yet achieved "unification" and still maintained a system of joint rule by the banner lords and the princes of the Eight Banners. Thus the Nine Banner lords and the banner command offices held great power, each one virtually a "little Qing state," and so they also had the right to deal in monopolized goods — though in principle only for the purpose of meeting their own banner's needs.

And outside the Nine Banners, the market for salt, iron, wine, and tea needed by the more than ten million Han people was contracted out to the Nine Great Imperial Merchants.

Besides these four monopolized commodities, the markets for grain, cloth, livestock, and medicinal herbs were also considerable. Grain, cloth, and livestock were the chief products of the small-peasant and manorial economies, and at the same time they were necessities — and livestock was a necessity for the soldiers of the Nine Banners. As for medicinal herbs — people eat the five grains; who can remain healthy forever?

Moreover, the taxes the Qing court levied on the small peasants were not silver or copper cash, but chiefly flour (or wheat) and cloth. After the Qing government offices had collected the flour, wheat, and cloth, they would also take out a portion of it to trade with the Nine Great Imperial Merchants, exchanging it for handcrafted goods or gold, silver, and copper cash that they needed.

In addition, the six trades of salt, iron, wine, tea, grain, and livestock were also the chief goods the Nine Great Imperial Merchants traded with the Mongol banners on the steppe. Salt, iron, wine, tea, and grain were shipped to the Mongols, while livestock was brought into Han territory.

Now that Southern Mongolia, Khalkha Mongolia, and most of the Han lands in the north all belonged to the Great Qing, trade between these regions faced no further obstacles and could be freely conducted by the Nine Great Imperial Merchants.

All in all, however, the scale of industry and commerce under the Great Qing's rule at present was not large. Apart from Beijing and Tianjin, which were somewhat prosperous, cities elsewhere were extraordinarily desolate, with very few urban residents. Zhengzhou was no exception — even in broad daylight, one could gallop a horse down the busiest street and not necessarily hit a pedestrian.

During this period, because the Qing Imperial Ama was sojourning in Zhengzhou, mounted couriers carrying messages and edicts frequently passed through the streets, which at least added a bit of life to the desolate market scene.

Another burst of harness bells rang out, and several sturdy horses swept like the wind through the streets and markets of Zhengzhou, galloping past a shop with a broad frontage and a signboard reading "Jiale Market." Inside the shop stood a man in a long gown and riding jacket, wearing a small melon-rind cap, with a queue hanging behind his head marking him as a bannerman — none other than Jia Busi, one of the Nine Great Imperial Merchants of the Great Qing.

A man of his status naturally had a queue and was a bannerman. It was Dodo who had personally raised him into the banners — at first he was attached to the Bordered White Banner Han army, and now he had followed Dodo in transferring to the Plain Blue Banner Han army, and had even obtained the official rank of expectant county magistrate. Of course, no actual posting would ever be given to him, but his status as a bannerman official was real.

This time he had come to serve at the front under orders from the Plain Blue Banner command office. Charging into battle and devising stratagems were not needed from him, but military supplies required the participation of these imperial merchants, and the loot seized by the lords of the Nine Banners also depended on these imperial merchants to be converted into cash.

In short, once the flames of war rose, every one of them could make a fortune!

So the imperial merchants gathered in Zhengzhou were all beaming with joy, just waiting to get rich!

But when Jia Busi was alone in the "Jiale Market" trading house, his brow was always knotted in a frown, and the worry on his face could not be wiped away no matter what.

Because from the quantities of military supplies he was required to procure, he already knew that the scale of Dorgon's troop mobilization this time was enormous!

The Nine Banner troops of the Great Qing were now all soldier-farmers. The old Eight Banners were somewhat better off because they had booi bondservants to help with the work, but the Plain Green Banner had no booi — one more booi household meant one fewer household of "leeks" paying taxes to the Great Qing — and after the land was distributed by headcount, hired laborers and tenant farmers within the Great Qing's borders were hard to recruit, so the land one received had to be farmed by oneself. Therefore a large-scale mobilization had an enormous impact on farming!

Moreover, news of the Great Ming's northern expedition had not yet arrived, and Jia Busi did not know whether the Great Ming would take advantage of Zhang Xianzhong's eastern campaign to launch a northern expedition of its own.

Under these circumstances, Imperial Ama was about to mobilize troops on a grand scale — what did that mean? It meant Imperial Ama was already prepared to go to war with the Great Ming!

"Imperial Ama, urgent report from the headquarters of the Grand General Who Pacifies the South!" A white-armored soldier of the Plain White Banner stood outside a pavilion within the Imperial Ama's headquarters, respectfully presenting the just-received box containing the memorial.

Hearing the announcement, the two men playing chess in the pavilion glanced at each other. One of them immediately rose, walked over to receive the box containing the memorial, and then went to the other man's side. "Imperial Ama, it is a memorial from the Duoluo Beile Lekedehun."

The speaker was none other than Fan Wencheng, and the one he called Imperial Ama was, of course, Dorgon.

And the Lekedehun who had sent this urgent report to Dorgon was the grandson of Daishan and the younger brother of that unlucky fellow Adali, who had openly supported Dorgon becoming emperor. Adali had been put to death by his own grandfather Daishan, and Lekedehun had been implicated and reduced to a commoner under Hooge's command. But his time as a commoner did not last long before Dorgon fished him out and enfeoffed him as Duoluo Beile. After Dorgon became Imperial Ama, he advanced further and became Grand General Who Pacifies the South, stationed at the Eastern Depot Prefecture, making him the Great Qing's top man in Shandong.

"Let Us guess," Dorgon said, head lowered, eyes on the chessboard. "Zhu Cilang is about to launch a northern expedition?"

Hearing this, Fan Wencheng hurriedly took the memorial out of the box and opened it. After only a few glances, his expression changed drastically. "Imperial Ama, how did you know?"

Dorgon smiled. "A guess! Once the marriage alliance was settled, it was only natural to meet on the battlefield!"

"Imperial Ama, he — he says you slaughtered the city of Datong, that it was a betrayal of faith, and that he will demand justice for the hundred thousand and more lives of Datong!"

"Hmph!" Dorgon laughed coldly. "He's already become emperor, and he still talks of justice or injustice — nothing but a pretext!"

"Imperial Ama," Fan Wencheng's expression grew worse and worse, "Lekedehun also says Zhu Cilang has enfeoffed Wu Sanmei as Empress!"

"Oh," Dorgon sneered. "So that means he and Wu Sangui have finally come to terms?"

"Imperial Ama, if Wu Sangui rebels, the northwest will have no peace!"

Dorgon smiled. "So what? Can he still march through the Southern Mongolian steppe?"

"Even if he comes through the Southern Mongolian steppe, we need not fear him!" Fan Wencheng had finished reading the memorial and said thoughtfully, "But Zhu Cilang is coming with great momentum this time, and I fear he will not be easy to deal with! Moreover, Zhang Xianzhong has proclaimed himself emperor at Luoyang — he now occupies Chang'an and Luoyang! He cannot be underestimated!"

Dorgon waved his hand. "No matter. Dry bones, nothing more!"

(End of Chapter)