Chapter 647: Ceding Territory, Paying Reparations, and a Marriage Alliance (Part 1)

"Dorgon wants to negotiate peace? Heh, fine, then We shall name Our price. We have three conditions. First, cede territory! Your Qing state must cede the Liaodong region of Jinzhou to Our Great Ming! Second, pay reparations. Dorgon first slaughtered Datong, then dug up the Kong family cemetery — his crimes are monstrous. Since he cannot be seized and punished now, the Qing state must pay silver! Third, a marriage alliance. The Princess Dong'e must be sent to Dengzhou, raised there for a few years, and then become Our consort."

Mount Danya, Penglai Palace. The Hongxing Emperor of Great Ming, Zhu Cilang, was in the great hall discussing peace terms with the two envoys sent by the Great Qing state, Jin Zhijun and Fan Chengmo.

The terms were nothing much for the Great Qing state — just ceding territory, paying reparations, and a marriage alliance. All things the Great Qing state was good at!

As long as Zhu Cilang got these three things, the defeat at Turtle Mountain would naturally turn into a "strategic victory" — for if there had been no victory, why would the Great Qing state agree to cede territory, pay reparations, and make a marriage alliance? In history, even at the Great Qing's most wretched moments, it had ceded territory and paid reparations, but it seemed there had never been a marriage alliance, had there?

"The marriage alliance is easy to arrange — His Imperial Ama and the Princess are both willing. But this matter of paying silver and ceding territory... ceding Jinzhou, that simply will not do!"

Jin Zhijun wore a troubled expression. In truth, the silver reparations were easy enough to discuss — it was only a matter of how much. The Qing did not have several million to give, but a hundred or two hundred thousand could be squeezed out of the nine great imperial merchants.

But ceding the Jinzhou Guard on the Liaodong Peninsula was truly hard to accept! The Great Qing had long regarded that stretch of land beyond the passes as the private preserve of the Nine Banners' sons. How could a piece of it be ceded to the Southern Ming?

"Indeed," Fan Chengmo added, "the land beyond the passes is the foundation of our Great Qing, and there is absolutely no principle by which it may be ceded. Moreover, Jinzhou is a cold, barren place, unsuited to farming, and of little use to the Han even if they got it. If Your Majesty wishes the friendship between the Southern Ming and the Northern Qing to endure, it would be best to withdraw from Jinzhou. Our court could exchange prefectures and counties in the Central Plain for the land of Jinzhou."

"Fan Chengmo, it seems you still mean to deceive Us!" Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "He has never intended lasting harmony with Our court. Does he not simply want to buy a few years' respite, so he can drill his troops, strengthen his arms, expand the Nine Banners, and then contend with Us for the realm? Lasting harmony between Ming and Qing is nothing but a lie to fool people. We are no fool Ourself, so let us speak plainly!"

What? Was that really what Dorgon was thinking?

Jin Zhijun and Fan Chengmo exchanged a glance, both half-doubting and half-believing — no, not half-doubting and half-believing, but completely convinced!

What a cunning Imperial Ama Dorgon was! Not only had he bedded the Empress Dowager and held the Son of Heaven hostage, but now he had even developed into an Imperial Ama himself! Would he honestly live in harmony with the Ming court? He must be thinking of buying a few years' time, stabilizing the situation, putting the Great Qing state in order inside and out, and then contending with the Southern Ming for the realm.

The Great Qing was, after all, a newly founded and rising state, full of vigor and flourishing day by day. How could a decrepit state nearly three hundred years old like the Ming compare?

In a newly risen state, every man strives upward, every man races to be first. Once it stabilizes, it will advance by leaps and bounds!

But once the Southern Ming stabilizes, it will be just like the Southern Song — singing and dancing along the Qinhuai River without end, treating Nanjing as if it were Beijing.

Imperial Ama was truly brilliant!

While the two Qing envoys were inwardly admiring Dorgon, Zhu Cilang spoke again. "How about this — let our two states sign a peace treaty with a time limit. Five years. For five years neither side attacks the other, and each rests and recuperates. What happens after five years, we can discuss then."

Zhu Cilang calculated inwardly: it was now 1648 by the Western calendar; add five years and it would be 1653. Dorgon, Dodo, and Ajige would surely all be dead by then, and a northern expedition would be easier.

Hmm, there was no shame in outliving one's enemies. Zhu Cilang had already resolved to become a long-lived sovereign — he must live to at least eighty-something and be the Son of Heaven for more than sixty years!

"May I ask how much in reparations the Ming Emperor has in mind?" Jin Zhijun turned the conversation to the matter of the silver.

The Jinzhou Guard was not really a question of whether to cede it, but of whether the Ming army would withdraw!

If the Ming army simply refused to leave, what could Dorgon do about it? The terrain of the Jinzhou Peninsula was so narrow, and the Ming army had already dug trenches and built sandbag walls at the isthmus at the peninsula's entrance. Any attempt to take it by storm would cost tens of thousands of lives — don't even think about it!

If a treaty with no time limit were signed, ceding Jinzhou might become a condition Dorgon would find hard to justify. But now it was only for five years — that was nothing. After five years they could simply fight to take it back!

So the amount of the reparations was the real problem!

Zhu Cilang held up one finger. "One million shi of white flour. We are not asking for much. Is this amount not modest?"

One million shi was not much?

Jin Zhijun and Fan Chengmo's faces both went black!

The Great Qing state collected only a little over four million shi of flour in agricultural tax in a whole year, and this Southern Ming emperor was opening his mouth like a lion to demand a quarter of it!

"Impossible, impossible! Our court could never produce that much grain."

"This is impossible. If Your Majesty truly wishes to negotiate peace, do not raise conditions that cannot be met."

Zhu Cilang smiled and waved his hand. "Do not speak so absolutely. Now let us discuss the marriage. Although the Princess cannot become Empress, We will not stint on the betrothal gifts We ought to give. We will give fine silk and cotton cloth worth one million taels of silver, valued at the silk and cotton prices of Dengzhou market!"

What? Did that not amount to exchanging silk and cotton cloth worth one million taels of silver for one million shi of flour?

Jin Zhijun and Fan Chengmo understood at once — the reparations were a pretense; buying grain was the real purpose!

The Southern Ming had many people and little land, and grain shortages broke out from time to time. The price of white rice and wheat flour could rise without limit. Even when it was cheap, the price of rice and flour in Nanjing and Yangzhou rarely fell below one tael two or three qian per shi.

In any case, Emperor Zhu could not possibly lose by exchanging one million taels' worth of silk and cotton for one million shi of flour — most likely he would make a good profit, and it looked splendid on the surface: the Great Qing was paying reparations!

As for the silk and cotton given out by the Ming, that was the betrothal gift for Princess Dong'e. Princess Dong'e was, after all, a Heshuo Princess of the Great Qing — was she not worth a little silk and cotton cloth?

Besides, the amount of the betrothal gift would not be written into the peace treaty between the two states. That was the marriage contract between Zhu Cilang and Princess Dong'e. Although a marriage alliance between two states had to be recorded in the histories, false accounts were easy enough to arrange.

Jin Zhijun and Fan Chengmo exchanged a look. The peace talks had hope!

Just then, a young eunuch walked hurriedly into the great hall and whispered a few words in Zhu Cilang's ear.

Zhu Cilang then said with a smile, "Gentlemen, the conditions We have proposed will surely need Dorgon to make the final decision. You need only report them upward! Today's negotiations end here. But do not be in a hurry to leave — We have three people for you to meet. They are Hesheli Sonin, Sun Zhixie, and Kong Sixi, all high officials of your Qing state. We wish to exchange them, along with the families of Qing soldiers captured at Liaocheng and elsewhere, for the commoners, official families, and military families you carried off from Qufu."

So it was to be an exchange of prisoners of war. Dorgon would certainly not refuse. Sonin, Sun Zhixie, and Kong Sixi were actually not worth much, but the families of the Plain Green Banner in Zhu Cilang's hands had to be exchanged back. Those were all bannermen of noble stock. If they were not exchanged back, would not the Plain Green Banner, and the Bordered Green Banner soon to be rebuilt, lose their value?

And it was precisely this that Zhu Cilang had calculated when he decided to use the prisoner exchange to stuff Sun Zhixie and Kong Sixi back into the Great Qing state.

These two men were certainly no good birds — especially Sun Zhixie, who had a hand in the historical "Haircutting Edict." By rights he should have been seized and cut to pieces.

But after Zhu Cilang became Emperor of the Great Ming, his standpoint on such matters changed. The "Haircutting Edict" had stirred up a storm of blood and slaughter, but had it not been a good thing for the Southern Ming, which was already tottering on the brink? Without the "Haircutting Edict," would the resistance in Jiangnan have been so fierce?

Although the Southern Ming in history had failed to seize the opportunity to strike back, that could hardly be blamed on Sun Zhixie, who had created the opportunity for the Southern Ming, could it? The more treacherous ministers like Sun Zhixie the Great Qing had, the more advantageous it was for the Great Ming, was it not?

So Zhu Cilang wanted to send Sun Zhixie back to wreak havoc on the Great Qing. If he created another disaster on the scale of the "Haircutting Edict," Zhu Cilang guaranteed he would seize the opportunity and launch a northern expedition to recover the Central Plain and retake the lost territory.

(End of Chapter)