Chapter 644: The Old Eight Banners Grow Unchecked

"Imperial Ama, you sent for me?"

Fan Wencheng had somehow already arrived behind Dorgon. After making a full prostration, he stood with hands lowered and shoulders slack, the very picture of a loyal slave.

Dorgon nodded and asked Fan Wencheng, "Do you think this fence can hold back the southern army?"

"I fear it cannot. But there are still forty niru fortresses — they should be able to hold out for a while."

"And after the niru fortresses are taken?" Dorgon said. "Breaking all forty niru forts is impossible, but one or two... I fear they cannot be held."

A niru fort in theory held two thousand bannermen, but that was only in theory. Right now there were not even eight hundred bannermen here at Liaocheng. And even if there were two thousand, had the Ming army not taken one easily last time?

"Imperial Ama," Fan Wencheng said, frowning, "then we must have reinforcements. We need to place at least thirty thousand Eight Banners troops behind this fence wall!"

Dorgon nodded. "Not only must we place Eight Banners troops behind this fence, we must also station some in Henan Prefecture, Ruzhou, and Nanyang Prefecture (in part). And we must also place a portion of Eight Banners troops in Shanxi. As for the Sunid Mongols — Tengjisi and Tengjite have been in revolt since the third year of Shunzhi, and even now we cannot spare the strength to deal with them. Fan Wencheng, what do you think should be done?"

What should be done? Fan Wencheng thought to himself: Why not withdraw beyond the passes?

He looked at Dorgon again — still the picture of confident assurance, clearly determined to keep struggling on inside the passes.

"Imperial Ama, this slave is dull-witted and truly does not know what should be done."

Dorgon glanced at this slave of his, and once again found himself missing Hong Chengchou. If he had not killed him, he might now have one more man to offer counsel.

"We intend to establish an amban-janggin office under each of the old Eight Banners," Dorgon said, "and have these amban-janggin offices lead troops to defend the various regions, while also permitting them to recruit able men into the Han army."

Fan Wencheng was startled. "Imperial Ama, you mean to have each of the old Eight Banners set up its own amban-janggin office?"

"Correct!" Dorgon nodded. "It can only be done this way. Otherwise, who would be willing to put their heart into the work?"

Amban-janggin meant Regional Commander, and could also be understood as a garrison general.

Dorgon had originally intended to put the Plain Green Banner at the front and keep the old Eight Banners concentrated around Beijing. But the situation no longer allowed it — the old Eight Banners had to go to the front line.

So establishing amban-janggin offices at the front was normal enough, but Dorgon placing these amban-janggin offices under each of the old Eight Banners was not at all normal. In this way, the old Eight Banners' armies would no longer be mixed together to check one another, but would each form a separate army.

"Imperial Ama," Fan Wencheng said after thinking it over, "would this not make the Eight Banners too strong?"

"If they are not strong, how can they hold back the southern army?" Dorgon said lightly. "The general trend is what it is. Apart from continuing to let the Eight Banners develop, what other choice does We have?"

The Qing dynasty was of course founded on the Eight Banners, but it did not give the Eight Banners free rein. On the one hand it relied on them, and on the other it used every kind of institution to restrain them, so that the Eight Banners could neither go their own way nor develop unchecked.

Although Dorgon had become Imperial Ama in his capacity as a banner-lord prince, he had never given the Eight Banners free rein either — otherwise he would not have kept them penned around Beijing while at the same time establishing the Green Standard and the Green Banners.

If he truly meant to let the Eight Banners develop unchecked, he should have let each banner take charge of its own territory and recruit Han troops on its own. If he did that, the Eight Banners would certainly grow stronger, but the risk of the Great Qing splitting apart would also greatly increase.

It would be tantamount to letting each of the Eight Banners hold its own domain and expand its forces at will. Before long, the Eight Banners would become eight states.

"Imperial Ama, think this over carefully!" Fan Wencheng, after all, came from a Han xiucai background, and he utterly abhorred every hidden danger of division.

Dorgon shook his head. "There is no other way. If we do not do this, how much longer can we hold out? Do you truly believe a great victory like Guishan is a certainty — that we can keep producing them?"

Fan Wencheng was speechless.

Dorgon continued, "From Songshan to Guishan, the southern army has improved very quickly. If Shi Kefa had had one hundred thirty thousand men at Guishan — no, if only his numbers had been equal to ours — the battle of Guishan would have been lost, and the Great Qing would have fallen!"

Faced with the crisis of national destruction, the Eight Banners each growing powerful was nothing at all.

Dorgon said, "Furthermore, We also intend to establish a Bordered Green Banner. We shall lead the Bordered Green Banner Ourselves, and use the lands of Datong to recruit bannermen. Each man shall contribute five hundred shi of grain and be granted three hundred mu of land. With the lands of Datong Prefecture alone, we can recruit roughly twelve thousand five hundred households, organize twenty-five niru and five jalan, and obtain six million two hundred fifty thousand shi of grain. What do you think?"

While Dorgon was strengthening the Eight Banners, he was also working hard to expand the power of his own brothers.

First he established nine gūsa beyond the passes, all placed under Dodo's command. Three of these nine gūsa came from the Plain Blue, Plain White, and Bordered White Banners, so they naturally obeyed Dodo. There was also one gūsa from the Plain Green Banner that was a fence-sitter and easy to control. The remaining five gūsa from the old Eight Banners were somewhat harder to manage, but they would not stump Dodo — he always had ways to bring them to heel one by one.

Now Dorgon was about to establish a new Bordered Green Banner directly under himself. Although its twelve thousand five hundred households were "purchased commissions" and not necessarily good fighters, most of them were capable slaves — otherwise they could not have produced those five hundred shi of flour and soybeans!

Once they obtained the Bordered Green Banner, the Dorgon brothers would control four banners, and would also hold the two base areas beyond the passes and at Datong. Their strength would be greatly enhanced!

"Imperial Ama," Fan Wencheng said thoughtfully, "may I ask whom you intend to appoint as gūsa ejen of the Bordered Green Banner?"

Dorgon smiled. "Since I have spoken of it to you, you are naturally one. The other is Suksaha. The two of you shall jointly hold the Bordered Green Banner."

Fan Wencheng immediately knelt. "This slave thanks Imperial Ama for his great favor!"

Although he did not approve of what Dorgon was doing, a slave was still a slave.

"Your Majesty, you intend to take all the land west of the Grand Canal, south of the Daqing River, and east of the Taiyi Mountains for military farms to grow sweet potatoes? All of that land has owners!"

"Yes, it is all land with owners."

At the imperial conference in the traveling palace at Penglai Pavilion, Zhu Cilang listened to the differing opinions of Gao Hongtu and Zuo Maodi, and merely said with a smile, "Can We not simply rent it? Let those who hold title deeds bring them out, and We shall be the tenant. Two qian of silver per mu per year in rent — how about that?"

"Your Majesty, the Shandong gentry have contributed greatly to resisting the eastern barbarians!" Shi Kefa also disapproved. "They should be treated differently."

"Then..." Zhu Cilang smiled. "How about this: the few of you go and draw up a list of meritorious Shandong gentry and officers, and We shall grant them all the unowned land west of the Grand Canal, south of the Daqing River, and east of the Taiyi Mountains as merit fields. Then We shall rent these lands at two qian of silver per mu of merit field per year. That should do, shouldn't it?"

Wonderful — the Hongxing Emperor not only knows how to beg for food, he also knows how to be a tenant farmer. Truly the Founding Emperor reborn!

Zhu Cilang asked, "How many mu of princely estate does the Prince of Lu's household hold in Qingzhou?"

Zhu Yihai was present as well. He immediately rose and replied, "One hundred eighty thousand mu."

"Rent it all to Us as well!" Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "The lands of Dong'e, Pingyin, Feicheng, Dongping Subprefecture, Wenshang, Ningyang, Ziyang, Jining Subprefecture, Qufu, Zou County, Sishui, Teng County, and Fei County — in all, two subprefectures and eleven counties — together with the Prince of Lu's one hundred eighty thousand mu, all rented to Us, this great tenant! As for the rest of Shandong Province, there will be no distinction of merit fields or princely fields. We also want no official fields or military fields. All shall be counted as private land, exempt from tax for five years."

Zhu Yihai, Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu, and Zuo Maodi were all astonished beyond words when they heard Zhu Cilang finish speaking.

This was an operation like no other. Before Zhu Cilang reorganized the various Shandong armies, he had offered the condition that merit fields and princely fields would be entirely tax-exempt, but he had not specified any time limit for the exemption. Elsewhere there were no princely fields, and merit fields were also tax-exempt — but after a meritorious official died, they would revert to private land and become taxable.

Here in Shandong, everyone had originally hoped to fight for a permanent tax exemption and to expand the amount of merit fields as much as possible. They had not expected Emperor Zhu to confine the merit fields to two subprefectures and eleven counties, and on top of that to become a "great tenant" who would rent all the merit fields to grow sweet potatoes. With that, the question of tax exemption or not became meaningless.

(End of Chapter)