Chapter 689: A Small Step for Colonization, a Great Step for Huaxia

As the three cracks of the ceremonial whip sounded, the civil and military officials of the Great Ming of sixth rank and above, along with the local councilors who were neither civil nor military, all of whom had long been waiting outside the Meridian Gate in Nanjing, walked in file after file through the Meridian Gate and into the great square outside Fengtian Gate.

Today a grand court assembly was to be held!

Although the Hongxing Emperor of the Great Ming was a wise ruler, he was a wise ruler who liked to sleep in, so he rarely convened grand court assemblies early in the morning. When there was business to discuss, it was generally handled by a joint meeting of the two offices — the heads of the Grand Secretariat and the Marshal's Office would simply meet in the Hall of Fengtian or in the East Warm Pavilion of the Hall of Fengtian.

If there was some major policy requiring extra deliberation, before the final decision was made, a so-called Deliberative Princes' Conference would be convened — the term was copied from Dorgon, though the substance was different. The so-called Deliberative Princes' Conference was a freewheeling gathering of the local councilors and the various princes in the capital. Emperor Zhu would listen to everyone's opinions, especially those of the local councilors — that is, a group of gentry councilors elected by the local prefectures and departments — as a gesture of due deliberation.

Of course, this Deliberative Princes' Conference was by no means parliamentary democracy or anything of the sort... rather, it was an institution akin to the remonstrance offices.

Although Emperor Zhu had reformed the Censorate, turning the all-encompassing Censorate into an anti-corruption bureau, and had also abolished the six offices of Supervising Secretaries that were far too fond of spouting nonsense, that did not mean he no longer needed to hear dissenting opinions. It was only that dissenting opinions on major policies, or impeachments of officials, ought not to come from the anti-corruption department or from mid-level bureaucrats within the government who did no practical work and had no understanding of local conditions.

Now that there was the two-office joint meeting to solve problems and the Deliberative Princes' Conference to raise problems, Zhu Cilang could basically be a wise ruler capable of discovering problems and solving them...

So grand court assemblies that harmed the quality of sleep should be avoided whenever possible.

But yesterday at noon, an extraordinary victory dispatch arrived in the city of Nanjing! So by the afternoon, every government office had received notice that a grand court assembly was to be convened.

Now the sky had just brightened, and the weather was rather chilly. The officials being led by eunuchs into the great square outside Fengtian Gate were one by one yawning to shake off drowsiness, rubbing their palms together for warmth, and some who had come in a hurry were still gnawing on steamed buns, mantou, youtiao, and the like... they did not look like good officials at all!

"The Retired Emperor arrives — His Majesty the Emperor arrives..."

At the eunuch's duck-like squawk, the high officials and ministers of the Great Ming court who had been yawning, rubbing their hands, and secretly eating breakfast all at once perked up — the Retired Emperor was coming today too? That was truly rare; they must have a good look at him.

As these courtiers and officials prostrated themselves with cries of "Long live the Emperor," the Great Ming's foremost filial son was already supporting the Chongzhen Retired Emperor out of the Hall of Fengtian and onto the white marble platform outside Fengtian Gate.

Then everyone heard Emperor Zhu's voice, unable to conceal his delight: "Rise, rise..."

Holding court at the gate was "outdoor work," rather arduous — exposed to wind, rain, and sun, and with no seats besides. Only Zhu Cilang, beneath the gate tower of Fengtian Gate, and the Chongzhen Retired Emperor, who appeared only occasionally, had chairs to sit on. Everyone else could only stand!

Seeing that the assembled ministers had risen and taken their places, Zhu Cilang, already seated grandly upon a buttock-pinching dragon throne, said with a smile: "Today We have summoned you all here to share some good news... Yesterday at noon the King of Rinan sent an envoy to report victory. Thirty thousand troops of the Great Ming's celestial army, irresistible as splitting bamboo, stormed into the capital of the Kingdom of Champa, Panduranga. The Champa ruler and his court have already abandoned the city and fled to the Kingdom of Chenla. The rebellious kingdom of Champa, which showed no respect to our Great Ming celestial dynasty, has now been destroyed!"

His tone was excited, as though he had won some extraordinary victory!

In truth, from a military standpoint, the war that destroyed the Kingdom of Champa was hardly worth mentioning... Champa had once counted for something in Southeast Asia, but it had long since declined. The country's last glory had come more than two hundred and nearly three hundred years ago, around the early Ming. At that time there had arisen a great ruler named Che Bong Nga, who had a real knack for raising elephants and could train elephants that truly could charge into battle, routing the Tran dynasty of Annam in a crushing defeat and storming Thang Long three times.

But after that, by the early fifteenth century, when Annam had changed hands to the Ho dynasty, Champa's misfortunes began. Its capital was stormed by the Ho Retired Emperor, and all the good things it had managed to seize from Annam were taken back. Once the Later Le dynasty, which had defeated the Ming invasion of Annam, succeeded the Ho dynasty, Champa's situation became even more unbearable. Most of its territory was annexed by Annam, and the remnant Cham people were penned up around Panduranga, barely surviving.

Although the spread of the Arabian faith had restored a bit of Champa's vitality, after the onset of the Age of Discovery, the Arabian-faith powers of Southeast Asia were all in decline. Even the old-line Arabian-faith sultans were in poor shape, let alone Champa, a newcomer.

Moreover, the moment Champa adopted the Arabian faith, it automatically placed itself in opposition to Catholicism — the Southern Nguyen next door to Champa were supported by the Portuguese!

So Champa was bullied in every way by the Southern Nguyen, and its territory shrank again and again, until by now only a few city-states remained — Champa had always been structured as commercial city-states plus agricultural tribes. After the introduction of the Arabian faith, the commercial city-state portion came to believe in the True God, while the agricultural tribes still followed the Brahman path. And the two sides were not united either: the Brahman-believing Cham people were close to Chenla, while the True God-believing Cham people wanted to rely on their harbors and trade routes to become part of the Arabian-faith world.

And these two groups of Cham people combined did not amount to many people at all — only around a hundred thousand or so. Facing the thirty thousand troops of the Great Ming and Annam, they simply had no way to resist — all their able-bodied men combined did not even reach that number.

Besides, the Brahman-believing Cham people made up more than two-thirds of the population, and when they fought they had to consider caste... how many of them could actually take the field?

And the Arabian-faith-believing Cham people were equally incapable of fighting. Before the Great Ming and Annam allied forces had even arrived, they had already begun fleeing toward the Malay Peninsula. Even the King of Champa, Ba Bi, had fled before the great army attacked.

So the punitive expedition occupied the entire territory of Champa almost without bloodshed!

Moreover, according to the agreement reached by Zhu Cizhao, Chen Zizhuang, and the Four Loyalists of Annam, the Great Ming's gains in this war were limited — merely some coastal territory of Champa, roughly corresponding to the later Vietnamese regions of Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, and Binh Thuan.

Apart from two very fine harbors and a few stretches of coastal plain, there really was nothing much of value.

But Zhu Cilang still looked as though he had picked up a great bargain, saying with a smile: "The Rinan Commandery, which broke away from the Central Plains in the Han dynasty, has now at last returned... an achievement without equal in our age! The King of Rinan is truly Our good brother, and the Retired Emperor's good son! We cannot treat him shabbily. Retired Emperor, what do you think We should reward him with?"

The Chongzhen Retired Emperor wore a bitter smile, thinking: Cizhao, that child, has it hard... he has been driven all the way south of Annam! He will never be able to return in this lifetime!

He said tentatively: "We have been missing the Fifth Lad a bit... Moreover, the thirty thousand officers and men who followed the Fifth Lad on the southern campaign have all rendered great and meritorious service. Should they not be allowed to return in triumph to the capital?"

Zhu Cilang said with a smile: "The King of Rinan does not shrink from hardship and miasma; he is truly a pillar of the state. In this campaign against Champa, although the land gained is not much, it is the beginning of opening up territory to the south! In the future he will surely be remembered in the annals of history... Now that the Rinan Commandery is newly annexed, the people's hearts are not yet won, and a hundred undertakings await revival. This is truly not the time to recall the King of Rinan.

However, the officers and men who followed the King of Rinan south need not all remain in that wild and desolate land... The King of Rinan, Zhang Yong, and Qiu Lei may be allowed to select five thousand officers and men willing to remain permanently in Rinan, and to choose a place by the seacoast of the Rinan Commandery where the climate is cool, the produce abundant, and there is a fine natural harbor, to build a city and settle for the long term. We shall not stint in funds and goods, and shall richly reward these officers and men willing to settle in Rinan. As for the remaining officers and men, they shall return to the homeland in batches."

Most of the thirty thousand troops Zhu Cizhao had taken with him had in fact never even reached the Kingdom of Champa — the forces that attacked Champa were mainly the troops of the "Four Loyalists of Annam."

Moreover, the Champa lands that fell into Zhu Cizhao's hands were basically all lying fallow, and developing them would not be easy, so they could not support thirty thousand troops anyway.

Being able to leave five thousand was already quite good... the work of colonizing and expanding territory southward could only proceed step by step, slowly.

Although only a small step had now been taken, for the whole of Huaxia, it was a great step forward!