Chapter 640: Rescuing the Great Qing

This Imperial Ama, Dorgon, was beyond any doubt the sovereign lord of the Great Qing, and so wherever he, the Imperial Ama, happened to be — that was where the Great Qing's center of power lay.

And in early February of the fifth year of Shunzhi, the Great Qing's center of power was none other than Qufu county seat, the hometown of the Sage.

On the second day of the second month, with the same-day arrival of Ajige's second son, the Defender Duke Fulehe, and Bahana, the Plain Blue Banner's Gushan Ejen beyond the Pass and Angbang Janggin of Ningguta, the representatives of the Qing's Nine Banners were all gathered in Qufu, this center of power.

These heads of the Qing's Nine Banners had nominally been summoned to Qufu to deliberate on countermeasures because Wu Sangui, lord of the Bordered Green Banner, had advanced to become a "thrice-serving subject." But in their hearts they all knew perfectly well that a fickle scoundrel like Wu Sangui hardly required the assembled bigwigs of the Nine Banners to deliberate on countermeasures — they could simply send twenty or thirty thousand men over, and what was there to fear about not flattening him?

Before this scoundrel switched sides, he had even been badly beaten by the remnants of Zhang Xianzhong's forces! And one should recall that Zhang Xianzhong himself had been killed by a force of a little over ten thousand commanded by Nikan and Mandahai.

Wu Sangui could not even defeat the remnants of Zhang Xianzhong's forces, so his fighting strength was easy to imagine — he was simply no match for the Qing's heavenly troops.

Even Zhu Cilang, whose military strength far surpassed Wu Sangui's, had after the Battle of Guishan adopted a strategy of contracting and avoiding battle, successively abandoning Liaocheng, Anping Town, Dongping Prefecture, Jining Prefecture, Luqiao Town, and other key strongholds along the Grand Canal, and also abandoning the fortresses built along the canal during the earlier northern expedition, pulling his forces back to the Taiyi mountain region to safeguard the security of central and eastern Shandong.

Even the Great Ming's Hongxing Emperor, Zhu Cilang, had to avoid the edge of the Great Qing Imperial Ama's blade — to say nothing of a scoundrel like Wu Sangui who could not take a beating.

Moreover, after Wu Sangui switched sides, Zhu Cijiong, the Ming Prince of Dai, who had originally been based in the Lüliang Mountains, also chose to advance westward, obtaining Ningxia Garrison from Wu Sangui and also accepting the allegiance of Wang Yongqiang, a northern Shaanxi warlord who had originally belonged to Li Zicheng's camp.

Then the Prince of Dai's group moved their main base from the Lüliang Mountains to Yulin. (Originally they had wanted to move to Yan'an, but Zhu Cijiong, Li Jiantai, Luo Xiushen, and the others discovered that Yulin Garrison had more land available for distribution, so they went to Yulin instead.) Because of the Prince of Dai's group's relocation, Ajige finally captured several key strongholds in the northern Lüliang Mountains in the first month of the fifth year of Shunzhi, and the Qing's situation in Shanxi greatly improved as a result.

Under these circumstances, Wu Sangui in Shaanxi posed no threat whatsoever to the Great Qing, so there was no need for the Nine Banners' bigwigs to hold council.

And at present, the only thing that seemed capable of posing a major threat to the Great Qing's realm was the Great Qing's "operating deficit" of the fourth year of Shunzhi — and it was not only the Qing court that was in deficit, but also the Nine Banners, thirty-six Gushan, and one hundred eighty Jalan below.

Ama had still not distributed to the banners the money and grain to fill their deficits! Until the money and grain came down, each banner had to bear its own deficit, and the Gushan, Jalan, and Niru below were all howling in deficit. At year's end, in order to scrape together money to give the people below a good New Year, the masters of each banner had racked their brains, and quite a few had quietly taken out high-interest loans from the nine great imperial merchants.

So as soon as today's Nine Banners assembly began, Kong Tingxun, one of the three banner lords of the Plain Green Banner — the most miserable of the Nine Banners — started weeping first.

"Liaocheng is now a scene of ruin — there isn't even a single decent house left; the southerners knocked them all down! Now the Gushan Ejen's yamen and my princely residence can only be set up in tents. The households gathered from all over are even worse off — many don't even have a lean-to, and can only dig a hole in the ground to live in. What kind of bannermen are these? They're practically rats! But that's still not the worst of it. The worst is that there's no seed, no farm tools, no way to till the land — life simply can't go on. Wuwuwu..."

Now all Nine Banners and thirty-six Gushan had reported deficits, but everyone else's deficits were on the public books — the princes, dukes, officials, and bannermen below were mostly making a profit. Could grave-robbing ever end in a loss?

But the Gushan that Kong Tingxun had taken over was truly in deficit — more than half its able-bodied men had been killed by the Ming army, and its old nest, Liaocheng, had been emptied out. Every bit of Kong Youde's savings had gone to the Ming army. And when the Ming army retreated, they had also destroyed all the houses inside Liaocheng, leaving Kong Tingxun a ruined city.

In addition, the manors and estates around Liaocheng had all been devastated by the Ming army as well — apart from wasteland and broken walls, nothing at all had been left behind.

Dorgon looked at Kong Tingxun, who had cried himself into a sodden mess, but did not immediately express a position. Instead he continued listening to the opinions of the various banner representatives.

"The Plain Green Banner has able-bodied men but no slaves, and no tenant farmers either. Once its bannermen go out on campaign, the farm work is bound to be neglected."

These were Shang Kexi's words, and the meaning was very direct: either find a way to stop the war, or issue booi slaves to the Plain Green Banner.

"The Green Banner's territory is too close to the Southern Dynasty. If the banner had booi, they would certainly flee in droves — how could you stop them? The Fugitive Slave Law cannot govern the Southern Dynasty."

These were the words of Tantai of the Plain Yellow Banner's Manchu Gushan. The Plain Yellow, Bordered Yellow, and Plain White Banners had the greatest interests at court, so Tantai had to step forward to defend the Qing court — he could not let the Plain Green Banner, like the old Eight Banners, first enclose land and then enclose people. That would be cutting flesh from the court itself.

"The Plain Green Banner's lands are all on the front line. Even if booi were allotted to them, there's no guarantee they could farm the land, and then we'd still have to give the booi a ration of grain." Mandahai, who had just returned from the Shanxi front, said, "In my view, the court should simply make up the Plain Green Banner's deficit."

"Then what difference would there be between the Plain Green Banner and the Green Standard?" Fulehe, Ajige's son and Defender Duke, was not yet twenty this year, and was as rash as Ajige — not much in the way of brains.

His words made the three princes of the Plain Green Banner all frown deeply.

Dorgon had no choice but to speak up: "What are you saying? The Qing's Nine Banners are all one body — the Great Qing realm belongs to all of us!"

"Imperial Ama," Fulehe still wasn't quite convinced, "the Plain Green Banner's deficit is so huge right now. If we have to come up with that much to fill it for them, we might as well have kept the old Green Standard!"

Dorgon snorted: "If it were still the Green Standard, what we'd be discussing right now is how to hold Beijing!"

The Plain Green Banner's hundred thousand households were also a privileged class in the Great Qing — nowadays Qing officials, whether Manchu or Han, were all bannerman officials. If a Han wanted to become an official, he first had to join the Plain Green Banner, so the Plain Green Banner's will to fight was clearly higher than the old Green Standard's.

"Imperial Ama, this slave has an idea that is not much of an idea." The speaker was Jin Zhijun, who held Plain Green Banner status and was now the Great Qing's Minister of Revenue.

"Speak," Dorgon said.

"This slave thinks we could open up a contribution route for joining the banner," Jin Zhijun said. "Allow wealthy Han commoners to pay money to purchase Plain Green Banner status."

"That is a method." Dorgon glanced at Kong Tingxun. "The Prince Who Pacifies the South's Gushan has plenty of vacancies — this method would be just the thing to fill them. But would these Han who join the banner be willing to go and live in Liaocheng?"

"Naturally they would be unwilling." Jin Zhijun smiled. "We can have them pay more money — an annual exemption fee. Wouldn't that support the Green Banner soldiers on the front line?"

Dorgon rubbed his big bald head and looked at Fan Wencheng. Fan Wencheng said: "Imperial Ama, the land in Datong Prefecture is now lying waste and its population is sparse — it would be just right for granting land and opening military farms. Any Han willing to pay the contribution and join the banner can be moved into Plain Green Banner land within Datong Prefecture, with each household granted 300 mu, and permitted to devote themselves to clearing and farming the land without having to serve at the front. That way they will not encroach on the interests of Han civilians elsewhere."

"Good, good, good," Dorgon said with a laugh. "Scholar Fan has thought it through thoroughly. But contribution-based banner entry and land grants in Datong are measures to cure the root. We must cure both the root and the symptom."

"To cure the symptom, then we must stop the war!" Fan Wencheng looked at Dorgon.

Dorgon narrowed his eyes and slowly swept his gaze around the hall, taking in everyone's changing expressions. Apart from the Ajige family's blockhead, who wore a look of disdain, everyone else looked approving.

"Jin Zhijun," Dorgon turned again to the Great Qing's Minister of Revenue, Jin Zhijun, "what do you say? Can the war be stopped?"

"Im-Imperial Ama... stopping the war — that depends on what terms you are prepared to offer?"

Dorgon smiled: "The terms can be negotiated. The key is to stop first!"

"This..." Jin Zhijun understood that Dorgon wanted him to volunteer for the mission, so he did not decline. "Imperial Ama, how about this slave makes the trip?"

Dorgon said: "There is only one condition. On the Shandong side, the Daqing River and the Grand Canal shall be the boundary. Both sides stop fighting. Everything else can be discussed slowly later."

(End of Chapter)