Chapter 685: The Ming's Loyal Defense Commands and Loyal Subjects

The "Rinan Commandery" in Zhu Cizhao's title of Prince of Rinan was the old name for the kingdom of Champa. And the Jinghai Army in his office of Jinghai Army Military Governor was a defense command established by the Tang dynasty in the seventh year of Xiantong to guard the Annan region against attacks from the kingdom of Nanzhao.

Historically, the seat of the Zhennan Protectorate was overrun by Nanzhao twice, in the first and fourth years of Xiantong, and the situation was perilous in the extreme.

Of these, the fall of the Zhennan Protectorate's seat in the fourth year of Xiantong lasted a full three years, and it was not recovered until the seventh year of Xiantong by the late-Tang famous general Gao Pian. Afterward the Jinghai Army defense command was established to resist the brainless Nanzhao kingdom's offensives against Annan — at the time, Tang and Nanzhao were locked in a seesaw war that dragged on for decades, with the battlefield stretching all the way from Sichuan to Annan, and the result, one might say, was mutual ruin!

The Tang dynasty, which had long since had almost no central army left to use, relied on troops sent by a host of autonomous or semi-autonomous military governors to hang the once-mighty Nanzhao up and beat it savagely, leaving it "repeatedly stripped of its hosts, its state drained and hollowed," even to the point of conscripting boys under fifteen as soldiers.

And the exhaustion of Nanzhao's own tribal manpower gave the Han Chinese Qingping official Zheng Maisi, who had thrown in his lot with Nanzhao, the chance to stage a coup, slaughter more than eight hundred members of the Nanzhao royal house, set himself up as emperor, and found the kingdom of Dachanghe.

On the Tang side, several hundred Xuzhou soldiers garrisoning Guilin, enraged that after six years of frontier duty they still could not return home, rose in revolt and fought their way all the way back to Xuzhou, then battled Tang government troops in the Xuzhou area for nearly a year, severely draining the Great Tang dynasty's military strength in the Central Plains heartland.

Only a few years after the Pang Xun uprising was suppressed, the "Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao rebellion" broke out, which is why some hold that the Tang perished because of Huang Chao, but the calamity had its roots in Guilin.

Though if one truly traces the matter to its source, the decades-long Tang-Nanzhao war was probably where the real root of the calamity lay.

The root of Annan's separation from China was, in fact, also this long war that left both Tang and Nanzhao defeated, and had little to do with whether or not the Jinghai Army defense command was established.

And after much deliberation, Zhu Cilang still felt that establishing defense commands was the most suitable method of governing colonies available to the Great Ming at present.

What else could be done, after all?

The territory directly administered by the Ming court now follows a route of separating military and civil administration: governors and prefects (or department magistrates) basically cannot interfere in military affairs (apart from the patrol battalions for keeping order), while governors-general, provincial military commanders, and regional commanders cannot interfere in local civil affairs.

Moreover, governors-general, provincial military commanders, and regional commanders are merely the heads of military regions (war zones); unless specially authorized by imperial decree, they cannot command the model divisions stationed within their defense zones (including the troops subordinate to those divisions) or other forces directly controlled by the Grand Marshal's Office — basically they can only command some model regiments. Not all model regiments not incorporated into divisions are under the command of governors-general, provincial military commanders, and regional commanders; they can only command a portion of them.

In addition, conscription, the training of new recruits, and the management of military dependents are handled by sixteen general's offices — these general's offices are in theory directly subordinate to the Grand Marshal's Office. Although the post of general may be held concurrently by a provincial military commander, the general's office and the provincial military command cannot be merged; two separate staffs must be maintained.

Under these circumstances, military and civil authority in the territory directly administered by the Great Ming have both been broken up very finely. Governors-general, provincial military commanders, regional commanders, governors, prefects, and department magistrates can each manage only their own patch, checking one another, with no one holding plenary authority.

This structure of governance safeguards the authority of the Ming central government, but at the same time it lowers the efficiency of local military and civil administration.

Within a distance of one or two thousand li around Nanjing, the loss of efficiency is not great — a 600-li express relay can arrive in three or four days, so the two central offices (the Grand Secretariat and the Grand Marshal's Office) can deal with matters in a timely fashion.

But beyond that distance, administration becomes somewhat strained!

For example, the three provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Guizhou lie outside the "2,000-li express relay circle." Fortunately, Guangdong and Guangxi are not war zones at present, so the problem is not great — though the Ming's control over the two Guang provinces is still weaker than over the core "Two Hu and Four Jiang" region.

Guizhou's territory contains a great many native chieftains, and the land directly administered by the governor is very little; the total acreage (controlled by the Guizhou governor) amounts to only a few hundred thousand mu. He is called a governor, but in practice he is no more than a department magistrate.

And under the Governor-General of Sichuan and Guizhou there are also two military governor's offices with very broad authority — the East Sichuan Military Governor's Office and the West Sichuan Military Governor's Office.

As for Shaanxi, which is even farther away, the Zhu Emperor simply entrusted it entirely to the two great defense commands of Pingxi and Shuofang for self-governance.

The one exception is probably Liaodong — although Liaodong is not outside the "2,000-li express relay circle," one must cross the sea to reach it, so communications with Nanjing are not very convenient either.

However, Liaodong Province currently has only one prefecture, Jinzhou, and it is a newly established "military colony prefecture," so it is relatively easy to administer.

Moreover, the troops now stationed in Liaodong are all model armies directly controlled by the central government, and they rotate on Liaodong garrison duty, making them relatively easy to command, so there is no need to establish a Liaodong defense command.

Champa and Ca Mau, these two territories, are both more than 6,000 li from Nanjing, and there is also a long stretch of sea route, with communications affected by the monsoons. Without establishing defense commands that unify military and civil administration and hold very high military and fiscal authority, they would truly be very difficult to govern.

And a defense command is not, in fact, the same as a separatist regime opposed to the central government — a military governor, like a governor, governor-general, provincial military commander, or regional commander, is an official appointed by the court. As for whether he can be removed or replaced, the key lies not in the title, but in whether he possesses private troops capable of opposing the court!

If a civil governor possesses private troops capable of opposing the court, he is just as much a separatist defense command!

Therefore, among the defense commands currently established by the Ming court, there is in fact a distinction between separatist defense commands and loyal, obedient defense commands.

Of these, the Pingxi Army, the Shuofang Army, the Dongning Army, and the Jinghai Army are all separatist defense commands, possessing military strength capable of opposing the court. Among them, however, the Dongning Army has only a powerful navy and no army capable of opposing the model armies, so it can oppose the Ming court only in theory.

The Huaibei Army, the Xuhai Army, the Ca Mau Army (the Ca Mau Agricultural Development Office), the East Sichuan Army, and the West Sichuan Army are all loyal, obedient defense commands, utterly incapable of resisting the court.

And outside the defense commands, there are two other forms of local self-governance (which may also be seen as separatism): native chieftains and vassal kingdoms.

Of these, native chieftains are concentrated mainly in the Ming's southwest and northwest — native chieftains exist not only under the Ming court, but also under defense commands. The 330 chiliarchs under the Pingxi defense command have been classified by the Ming court as "native chieftains."

And a vassal kingdom is a large-scale native chieftaincy that possesses a dynastic title — it is not a defense command with a dynastic title, because the lord of a defense command is not necessarily hereditary, while the lord of a native chieftaincy is always hereditary.

That is to say, the two princes, Prince of Dai Zhu Cijiong and Prince of Rinan Zhu Cizhao, are not actually "kings of vassal kingdoms," but Princes (or Commandery Princes) concurrently holding the office of military governor.

And the only true vassal kingdom at present is the kingdom of Annan!

After receiving the memorials in which Le Duy Ky, Trinh Trang, Vu Cong Duc, Mac Kinh Vu, and Nguyen Phuc Tan declared themselves subjects and begged for enfeoffment, the Ming court responded at the first opportunity.

Le Duy Ky was enfeoffed as King of Annan, Trinh Trang was enfeoffed as Marquis of Thanh Hoa, Vu Cong Duc received the title of Marquis of Tuyen Quang, Mac Kinh Vu received the title of Marquis of Cao Bang, and Nguyen Phuc Tan received the title of Marquis of Quang Nam — although the titles Marquis of Thanh Hoa, Marquis of Tuyen Quang, Marquis of Cao Bang, and Marquis of Quang Nam all use the names of Annan prefectures, they are all marquisates conferred by the Ming emperor, so they all belong to the Ming's lords marquis!

They are by no means men the King of Annan may casually issue edicts to chastise!

At the same time, Zhu Cilang, in the form of a grand imperial edict, absolved the four clans of Trinh, Vu, Mac, and Nguyen of all their past crimes — whether they had forced the Le emperor to hang himself or proclaimed themselves kings or emperors, none of it was a problem now. Thus they are all great loyal subjects of the kingdom of Annan, loyal subjects certified by the Ming Son of Heaven, every one of them loyal beyond words!

And while enfeoffing the King of Annan and the four great marquises, and certifying a batch of Annan loyal subjects, the Zhu Emperor also discovered a villain.

Namely, the wicked kingdom of Champa!

This kingdom of Champa is clearly a vassal of the Great Ming, yet it does not keep the duties of a subject, declaring itself a vassal to Annan and Chenla, and moreover it has taken advantage of Annan's internal strife to invade Annan — truly a crime of the greatest evil, and therefore it must be chastised!

Not only must the Great Ming send troops, but the newly enfeoffed King of Annan and his four great loyal subjects must also send troops together.

(End of Chapter)