Chapter 782: Shunzhi Sits Secure on His Fishing Platform?

"Need you even ask?" the Shunzhi Emperor said with a laugh. "When two tigers fight, one dies and the other is wounded — in the end, the only ones to profit will be us!"

There was some truth in what he said, for his position as emperor was not entirely an empty title. Most of the men of the two Yellow Banners were still loyal to him as their sovereign, and even within the Plain White Banner that Dorgon personally commanded, there were some who had been drawn close to Shunzhi through Bumbutai's efforts.

Many of the civil officials of the Bordered Green Banner whom Dorgon had promoted were likewise loyal to the throne — the Plain Green Banner's roots lay among the Han landlord class of the north, and in their eyes the Bordered Green Banner identity was merely a ladder for climbing upward; it was the little emperor Shunzhi to whom they owed their allegiance.

Thus Shunzhi's base consisted of the two Yellow Banners, part of the Plain White Banner's senior ranks that had been won over, and the good servants of the Bordered Green Banner.

Oh, and there were also the "second eunuchs" led by Wu Liangfu. Ajige's control over the palace was weaker than Dorgon's, and he lacked Dorgon's skill at winning over the palace eunuchs and maids. The eunuchs and palace maids were therefore all under the control of Shunzhi and Bumbutai.

Moreover, the four banners of the two Red Banners, the Bordered Blue Banner, and the Plain Green Banner were not the trusted cores of Ajige and Dodo either — each of them formed its own system. They had merely been cowed into submission by Dorgon. Now that the brothers Ajige and Dodo were feuding among themselves, would the banner lords and the princes admitted to the Eight Privileges of the two Red Banners, the Bordered Blue Banner, and the Plain Green Banner still fear them?

Bumbutai narrowed her small eyes as she looked at her son, seeming somewhat worried. "Are you not afraid that Zhu Cilang will march north to reclaim the Central Plains and seize our Great Qing's fine realm?"

"Not afraid!" Shunzhi said with a laugh. "Mother, did Dorgon not leave us a countermeasure? So long as we follow it, we need not fear even a second northern expedition by the Southern Ming!"

The countermeasure Dorgon had left behind was to imitate the arrangements of the Khitans: on the one hand, to build up Shengjing as the foundation, and on the other, to hold the three key strongholds of Beijing, Taiyuan, and Datong within the passes — an arrangement somewhat similar to the situation before the Northern Song destroyed the Northern Han, but even more favorable.

For the Northern Song had used Kaifeng as its great base to support its northern expeditions into Yan and Jin. In those days the Central Plains had not yet been laid waste; Henan and Hebei were prosperous and wealthy lands, fully capable of supplying grain, pay, weapons, and equipment for a great northern expeditionary army.

But now Zhu Cilang's regime was rooted in Jinling, roughly two thousand li from Beijing, Taiyuan, and Shanxi!

Moreover, the Grand Canal that linked north and south had been abandoned because of the Ming-Qing standoff and the great Yellow River–Huai River works — the construction capabilities of the seventeenth century were limited, and there was simply no way to keep the Yellow River's mouth north of the Huai open while also keeping the canal unobstructed, so one had to choose between the two. Historically, both the Ming and Qing dynasties had protected the grain transport and abandoned the Huai, which was why the Huai River floods had been an insoluble problem.

Zhu Cilang, by contrast, had abandoned the grain transport and protected the Huai. The Huai River naturally improved, and the lands of the two Huai regions became fertile once more, yielding bumper harvests almost every year — but the grain transport was finished.

Of course, even if he had clung to the "protect the grain transport" policy that had ruined the people of the two Huai regions, he could not have preserved the grain transport anyway. For the Shandong section of the Grand Canal was now the dividing line between Ming and Qing, and both sides of the standoff were "destroying the grain transport" — both were building bastion forts along the canal, and in order to protect those bastion forts they had dug numerous ditches connecting to the canal, and in order to facilitate transport they had dug those ditches through to other rivers as well.

The result was the formation of many small canals linked to the Grand Canal. And because the Grand Canal's bed was relatively high (with silt deposits as well), the water all flowed into the small canals, leaving the Grand Canal entirely impassable. The navigable capacity of those small canals was also limited; boats could travel them only during high-water periods. That was enough to sustain the supply of those forts, but supporting a great army on a northern expedition would be very difficult.

At the same time, Dorgon's policy of enfeoffing the Nine Banners' amban-janggin in Henan, Shandong, and other places had caused many local petty strongmen attached to the amban-janggin yamens to appear in those regions.

Because there was no civil examination system and commerce and industry were undeveloped, the only way to rise was to be enrolled in the Han armies of the various banners and then be enfeoffed as a fort lord or stockade lord or the like, thereby becoming a petty feudal lord. And in the territory of the Plain Green Banner, the trend toward feudalization was even more pronounced! The three prefectures of Jibei, the Eastern Depot, and Guide had each been seized by the three princes Geng Zhongming, Kong Tingxun, and Shang Kexi, and then enfeoffed downward layer by layer.

Thus the Qing-controlled areas of Henan and Shandong had now become fragmented, with feudalistic strongholds everywhere — a headache just to look at.

Although these strongholds could not stop Zhu Cilang's great army, and might well produce a host of "thrice-serving" and "four-times-serving" turncoats, there was also plenty of trouble in them — for there were many on the Ming side who also wanted to obtain land in Henan, Shandong, and elsewhere!

So Shunzhi was not much worried at present about Emperor Zhu's great northern expedition. He was now sitting secure on his fishing platform, simply waiting to eliminate Dodo and seize Ajige.

The northern expedition was at daggers drawn, and just as an internal feud was about to begin, the great Emperor Zhu in the south indeed had no intention of fishing in troubled waters.

It was not that he was stupid; rather, anyone who had survived on the open stage until now could not be too foolish. If he had made preparations to fish in troubled waters, then Ajige and Dodo might well have stopped fighting.

And so long as the two brothers fell into internal strife, the Great Qing's national strength would suffer to some degree — war always costs lives! The old Manchus were so few; every death meant one fewer.

So Emperor Zhu was now busy with just two matters: first, remedial study; second, examinations.

The remedial study was in military subjects!

He himself had also joined the Prince of Condé's military remedial class, together with Li Yan, Wu Xiang, Wu Sangui, Wu Sanfu, Shi Kefa, Zuo Maodi, and a great crowd of others, listening to the Prince of Condé expound on battle cases — the Prince of Condé's remedial classes numbered more than one; there were two classes in all. One was held in the Western Building inside the Forbidden City at Nanjing, and the other was held at the Nanjing Military Academy. Those attending the Western Building remedial class were all senior generals and the emperor himself, while those attending the Military Academy remedial class were the elite among the middle- and lower-ranking officers.

Both groups had arrived in Nanjing, so the Ming army truly was in no condition to fight, and could only watch Shunzhi, Ajige, and Dodo play their game.

Besides the two remedial classes, the Prince of Condé had also taken part in organizing and training the Ming army's version of dragoons — the Ming army's dragoons were called "musket cavalry," and they also bore the nickname "mule soldiers." For they were all equipped with one horse and one mule. The horses were Hequ horses or Ili horses that Wu Sangui and Zhu Cijiong had resold to Emperor Zhu. The mules were horse mules — that is, the fruits of love between a jack donkey and a mare. They tolerated coarse fodder, endured toil and hardship, had strong disease resistance and adaptability, were powerful and long-enduring, and also lived long lives; they were simply drudges fated for rough and heavy labor. With these long-suffering mules, the "mule soldiers" could even carry a horse gun seven or eight chi long on the move, and on occasion could launch massed charges as well — their combat strength was thus greatly enhanced!

The first batch of mule soldiers numbered four thousand. Their basic equipment was one flintlock musket bought back from Holland (five thousand were bought in total, of which two hundred were issued to the musket workshops below as samples and eight hundred kept in reserve), one saber, one eight-chi horse gun, one light cuirass (plate armor), and one iron-sheet helmet.

Besides busying himself with remedial study, Zhu Cilang was also presiding over the first gaokao in Ming history!

A very high-level gaokao!

It recruited not only Imperial Academy students, but also Grand Secretaries and Imperial Academy doctors (teachers) — quite interesting, is it not? The future teachers and students sat in the same examination hall, working on the same papers. Those who did poorly naturally failed! Those who did fairly well became students, while those who did exceptionally well went on to the next stage of examinations: taking the Advanced Mathematics exam or participating in the thesis defense for the "Zilun Gewu Pian"!

The former consisted of solving problems, all difficult ones personally set by Emperor Zhu. The latter consisted of selecting several passages from the "Zilun Gewu Pian" as research topics, developing them and carrying out in-depth analysis, then writing a thesis, with Emperor Zhu personally presiding over the defense — this "Zilun Gewu Pian" was in fact the gateway to "methodology," not one gateway but many gateways. What lay within the gateways had to be explored and discovered. Zhu Cilang would not bring out everything inside the gateways; that would make it too easy to be exposed, and it was also not conducive to discovering geniuses.

Anyone who could pass one of the two examinations became an Imperial Academy doctor!

Anyone who could pass both, or who did exceptionally well in one of them, became a Grand Secretary!

(End of Chapter)