Chapter 638: The Ming's Great Creditor

Inside the main hall of a landlord's grand residence near Pingdu Pass in Daning County, Pingyang Prefecture, the distinctive medicinal fragrance of Maojian tea drifted through the air. The Ming Loan King Zhu Cijiong, dressed in plain cloth with a square kerchief on his head, sat upright in the seat of honor, a confident smile on his face — at first glance he looked just like a young Zhu Cilang.

Seeing Zu Kefa enter accompanied by the Prince of Dai's Chancellor Li Jiantai and the princely guard commander Luo Xiushen, Zhu Cijiong greeted them with a smile and told the three to dispense with ceremony and take seats, the picture of easy affability. Zu Kefa could not slight the Prince of Dai's courtesy, so after a smiling bow he sat down openly in a chair. Li Jiantai and Luo Xiushen remained in the hall to keep them company.

"Great joy for Your Highness — Wu Sangui has this time made up his mind to turn loyal again! He has the troops of three hundred and thirty Chiliarchs, a full hundred thousand men ready to march!

Now that Wu Sangui holds the territory of Xi'an Prefecture and Tongguan Guard, the moment he turns, Your Highness's territory will link up with the court's. Retaking the Divine Capital and recovering the Central Plain looks to be just around the corner, and when that day comes Your Highness will be the foremost meritorious subject of our Ming."

Listening to Zu Kefa paint such a rosy picture of the anti-Qing situation, Zhu Cijiong could not suppress a bitter laugh.

Foremost meritorious subject, and a prince of the blood besides — no matter how one heard it, it smacked of achievements so great they made the sovereign uneasy!

And on top of that, this prince of his was up to his ears in usurious debt — even retreating to his princely estate to be a wealthy, virtuous prince was impossible! Because what he owed was not merely "silver debt" but also "blood debt." Silver debt was easy to repay — his imperial elder brother was said to be skilled at amassing wealth, and could be counted the greediest sovereign in all Ming history. Surely he would not stand by and watch his own full brother die poor over a few million taels of debt?

But how was the Loan King to repay the "blood debt" he owed?

After absorbing Jiang Xiang's forces, the Loan King's troops now numbered forty-five or forty-six thousand — many of them men whose families had been destroyed and homes ruined in the defense of the Ming realm!

These were debts of blood, every one of them — blood debts owed by the Prince of Dai, Zhu Cijiong!

Could Zhu Cilang help repay these blood debts?

These "creditors" who had helped Zhu Cijiong resist the Qing in the Lüliang Mountains and Datong Prefecture wanted more than a few months' pay — they wanted land in Shanxi. In years of peace, Shanxi's total farmland came to more than thirty-six million mu. If the Loan King's band of "blood creditors" each took two or three hundred mu on average, and a bit more was distributed to the families of officers and men killed in battle, over ten million mu would be gone.

Moreover, there were still the accounts of the Shanxi gentry who had lent money for the Loan King's wars to be settled!

If both the silver debts and the blood debts were paid off, Shanxi Province would essentially belong to Zhu Cijiong's old followers! Could Zhu Cilang agree to that?

Zu Kefa, seeing the worry on Zhu Cijiong's face, assumed he was concerned about the Qing forces east of Tongguan Guard. So he said, after weighing his words: "Your Highness, Wu Sangui suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Heshangyuan. His combat-ready troops now number barely thirty thousand, and with both grain and pay in short supply, he will likely find it hard to withstand a fierce Qing assault. That is why he wishes to borrow troops and funds from Your Highness."

Zhu Cijiong frowned slightly at this — he himself was up to his ears in debt, so how was he to lend to Wu Sangui? He shot a glance at his Chancellor, who was also his father-in-law, Li Jiantai, signaling him to find an excuse to decline.

Li Jiantai nodded and spoke: "Commissioner Zu, Wu Sangui's request to borrow troops and funds is all well and good, but the question is — what does he have to repay with?"

Repay with what?

Zu Kefa thought to himself: His Highness the Prince of Dai and His Majesty are indeed full brothers born of the same father and mother.

Zu Kefa said with a smile: "Now that Wu Sangui's younger sister has become Empress, do you still fear he would default on his debts?"

All the more reason to fear, Zhu Cijiong thought. Could he, a mere prince, go dunning the Empress for payment? The debt might go uncollected, but the poisoned wine would be bottomless!

"That will not do," said Li Jiantai, who came from Shanxi merchant stock and knew how to work an abacus.

How could they possibly lend real silver, real gold, and troops to Wu Sangui just like that?

"Chancellor, sending relief troops is like fighting a fire!" Zu Kefa said urgently. "Moreover, Your Highness and Wu Sangui are as close as lips and teeth — when the lips are gone, the teeth grow cold."

"Then there must be collateral." Li Jiantai, that old profiteer and old schemer of a minister, simply shook his head.

"Collateral?" Zu Kefa was taken aback. You people — a Prince of Dai, a Prince Who Pacifies the West — need collateral to borrow money?

"May I ask what collateral Your Highness desires?" Zu Kefa asked.

"Ningxia," said Li Jiantai. "Wu Sangui now has the foundation of a hegemon in Guanzhong. It would be rather inappropriate for him to also hold Ningxia and Gansu — such wellsprings of crack troops. Better to cede Ningxia Garrison to our prince."

Zu Kefa's eyes went wide; he was utterly stunned.

There was such a maneuver as this? The land of the state, and you people just privately hand it over to one another? These are traitorous ministers and villainous subjects!

He drew a breath and asked with a frown: "Your Highness is in Lüliang, and between you and Ningxia lies Yan'an Prefecture. How would you get across?"

"Across? Why would we not get across?" Li Jiantai smiled. "Wang Yongqiang has already agreed to submit to the court, and under the Prince of Dai's command there are no few officers and men from Yan'an, Yulin, and Ningxia."

Li Jiantai's idea was to have Zhu Cijiong shift his garrison to Yan'an, enfeoff Wang Yongqiang and Gao Di in Ningxia, have Jiang Xiang hold Yulin, and leave Zhang Xixian guarding the Lüliang Mountains.

In this way, the Prince of Dai would gain half of the crack troops of Gansu and Shaanxi, and transform from a mountain prince into a genuine, formidable frontier prince of Gansu-Shaanxi.

Even if that imperial lord in Nanjing wanted to reduce the feudatories, he would have to think it over very carefully.

Furthermore, with the territory of Yan'an, Yulin, and Ningxia, the Prince of Dai Zhu Cijiong could at least repay a little of his "blood debt" — the officers and men who had followed the prince in mountain warfare would at last have land on which to rest and recover.

Zu Kefa did some reckoning on Wu Sangui's behalf as well. The plan was acceptable. Wu Sangui was now so poor he could not even afford to be a traitor; giving up a Ningxia was no great matter.

Besides, how could Ningxia compare with Xi'an? Once Wu Sangui gave up Ningxia, he could conveniently move the Chiliarchs previously settled there to Xi'an Prefecture and Fengxiang Prefecture to garrison them, first securing firm control of the Guanzhong Plain before anything else.

Moreover, with the Prince of Dai as a powerful northwestern frontier prince for company, Wu Sangui's clique would no longer stand out so glaringly. If the Great Qing could not be destroyed for the time being, the imperial lord in Nanjing might perhaps tolerate Wu Sangui and Zhu Cijiong living at ease in the northwest.

"Good!" Zu Kefa nodded. "I shall agree on Wu Sangui's behalf. But the military situation at Xi'an is urgent as fire — the dispatch of troops and lending of funds cannot be delayed by even half a day!"

Li Jiantai and Luo Xiushen both turned to look at the Prince of Dai. Zhu Cijiong had already made his calculations. He said: "Our troops are already assembled and can march at any time! Here at Pingdu Pass there are still several hundred thousand taels of silver in store, which can be lent to Wu Sangui first to meet his emergency."

It turned out that upon learning of Zhang Xianzhong's death, Zhu Cijiong had also planned to send troops into Shaanxi to seize some territory — life in the Lüliang Mountains had not been easy for him, and he too urgently needed a prosperous territory in which to rest and recover.

Reaching an agreement with Wu Sangui now to carve up Gansu and Shaanxi was surely better than the two sides falling out completely.

"Tell Nikan there is no need to advance into Guanzhong. It will suffice to occupy Shanzhou with one contingent and block Wu Sangui's road east. The main force is to enter Shanxi and come under Ajige's command!"

In Qufu, Shandong, the Great Qing Imperial Ama Dorgon, who was at that moment overseeing archaeological excavations, was issuing an edict to Nikan far away in Shanzhou.

Contrary to the expectations of Wu Sangui and Zhu Cijiong, Dorgon had no intention of advancing into Guanzhong at all. For he did not know that the Xi army, bereft of Zhang Xianzhong, had actually beaten Wu Sangui so badly — and thinking about it, how could that be possible? With their leader Zhang Xianzhong gone, would not the band of underlings below him be a dragon without a head, easy prey for anyone?

It was just like the Great Qing now — without him, the Ama, what hope would remain? Nothing but to await destruction.

"Issue another edict to Ajige," Dorgon continued, "ordering him to begin the campaign against the Lüliang Mountains at once! He must strike a thunderbolt blow against the Prince of Dai's forces of the Southern Dynasty before Wu Sangui betrays our Great Qing!"

Fan Wencheng had already drafted the edict from Dorgon's dictation and brought it over for Dorgon to review. Dorgon waved his hand, telling Fan Wencheng to put the imperial edict away, then asked: "Have the accounts of the Plain Green Banner been settled? How much deficit did they run up last year?"

It turned out that Wu Sangui was not the only one who had lost money as a traitor — quite a few in the Plain Green Banner had also run at a loss. After the New Year, every jalan and niru was settling accounts, and once the accounts were settled they still had to beg the Ama for grace and some grain and money as subsidies. There were many expenses coming up, and the slaves of the Plain Green Banner could not be allowed to go bankrupt so quickly!

(End of Chapter)