Chapter 687: A Small Step for Colonization, a Giant Step for the Chinese Nation

The "Rinan Commandery" in Zhu Cizhao's title of Prince of Rinan Commandery is the old name of the Kingdom of Champa. And the Jinghai Army in his office of Jinghai Army Military Commissioner 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 the Kingdom of Nanzhao twice, in the first and fourth years of Xiantong, leaving the situation perilous.

Of these, the fall of the Zhennan Protectorate's seat in the fourth year of Xiantong lasted three full years, and it was not until the seventh year of Xiantong that the famed late-Tang general Gao Pian recovered it. Afterward, the Jinghai Army defense command was established to resist the brainless Kingdom of Nanzhao's offensives against the Annan region. At that time, Tang and Nanzhao were locked in a decades-long war of attrition, with battlefields stretching from Sichuan all the way to Annan, and the result could be said to have left both sides devastated!

The Tang dynasty, long since left with few central armies of its own, relied on troops dispatched by a host of separatist or semi-separatist military commissioners to hang the once-mighty Nanzhao up and beat it savagely, leaving it "repeatedly routed, its state drained and hollowed," to the point of conscripting boys under fifteen as soldiers.

And the exhaustion of Nanzhao's own native manpower gave the Han Chinese Qingping official Zheng Maisi, who had thrown in his lot with Nanzhao, the chance to launch a coup, slaughter more than eight hundred members of the Nanzhao royal house, proclaim himself emperor, and establish the Dachanghe Kingdom.

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 back to Xuzhou, then battled Tang government forces in the Xuzhou area for nearly a year, severely draining the military strength of the Great Tang dynasty in the Central Plains heartland.

Only a few years after the Pang Xun rebellion 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 root of the disaster lay in Guilin.

Yet if one truly traces the matter to its source, the decades-long Tang–Nanzhao war was probably the real root of the disaster.

The root cause of Annan's separation from China was in fact 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 Great Ming court now follows a route of separating military and civil administration: governors and prefects basically cannot interfere in military affairs, 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 districts; unless specially authorized by imperial decree, they cannot command the model divisions stationed within their defense zones 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, matters such as conscription, training of new recruits, and management of military dependents are overseen by sixteen General Offices. These General 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 Office and the Provincial Military Command must not be merged; two separate staffs must be maintained.

Under these circumstances, military and civil authority in the Great Ming's directly administered territory have both been broken down very finely. High officials such as governors-general, provincial military commanders, regional commanders, governors, prefects, and department magistrates can each manage only their own sphere, checking one another, with no one holding plenary authority.

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

Within a distance of one to two thousand li around Nanjing, the reduction in efficiency is not great — a 600-li express relay can arrive in three or four days, so the two central offices 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 serious. Still, the Great Ming's control over the two Guang provinces remains 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 small, totaling only a few hundred thousand mu of farmland. 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 commissioner offices with very broad authority: the East Sichuan Military Commissioner Office and the West Sichuan Military Commissioner Office.

As for Shaanxi, which is even farther away, the Zhu Emperor simply delegated full authority 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," it requires crossing the sea, 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 through Liaodong on tours of duty, making them relatively easy to command, so there is no need to establish a Liaodong defense command.

The two territories of Champa and Ca Mau are both more than 6,000 li from Nanjing, and a large stretch of the route is by sea, with communications affected by the monsoon winds. 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 equivalent to a separatist regime opposing the central government. A military commissioner, 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 official serving as 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 Great Ming court, there is in fact a distinction between separatist defense commands and loyal defense commands.

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

The Huaibei Army, Xuhai Army, Ca Mau Army, East Sichuan Army, and West Sichuan Army are all loyal defense commands, utterly incapable of resisting the court.

And outside the defense commands, there are two other forms of local self-governance: native chieftaincies and vassal kingdoms.

Of these, native chieftaincies are concentrated mainly in the Great Ming's southwest and northwest. Native chieftaincies exist not only under the Great Ming court, but also under defense commands. The 330 chiliarchs under the Pingxi defense command, for instance, have been classified by the Great 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, whereas the lord of a native chieftaincy is always hereditary.

In other words, the two princely lords, Prince Dai Zhu Cijiong and Prince of Rinan Commandery Zhu Cizhao, are not actually "kings of vassal kingdoms," but rather Princes concurrently holding military commissioners' posts.

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 offered their submission and requested enfeeoffment, the Great 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 was enfeoffed as Marquis of Tuyen Quang, Mac Kinh Vu was enfeoffed as Marquis of Cao Bang, and Nguyen Phuc Tan was enfeoffed as 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 prefectures in the Kingdom of Annan, they are all marquisates conferred by the Great Ming Emperor, so they all rank as marquises of the Great Ming!

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 Zheng, Vu, Mac, and Nguyen clans 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 Son of Heaven of the Great Ming, 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 fails to observe the duties of a subject, offering submission to Annan and Chenla, and moreover took advantage of Annan's internal strife to invade Annan. Its crimes are truly monstrous, and it must be chastised!

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