Chapter 791: Beijing Household Registration Is About to Be Gone!

Shunzhi was startled by his mother's question.

He was indeed plotting a scheme to seize Dorgon, and he had been plotting it for years! The specific method was to select the "bookish and weak" among the Eight Banners' sons to study together with him, train them into his own core faction, and then wait for the right moment to strike.

This was much the same trick his son Kangxi would later use in history to capture Oboi. But their eras were different, so the methods were not entirely the same. When Kangxi captured Oboi, the Manchu Qing had already been inside the Pass for twenty-five years. So the Eight Banners sons Kangxi could find were all born in Beijing, and they were Eight Banners sons of the 1650s at that — they had long since lost the ferocity of the Eight Banners sons from beyond the Pass.

Just look at how those men later suppressed the Three Feudatories and you will understand!

If it had been the Eight Banners of Dodo's and Ajige's generation, an aged Wu Sangui would have been no match at all — how could it have dragged on for so many years? If Wu Sangui had not died on his own, the suppression of the Three Feudatories truly would have had no end in sight.

So the "bookish and weak" men Shunzhi found were far stronger than the wrestlers Kangxi found!

Moreover, Shunzhi had also obtained through various channels some flintlock pistols — not many, just a dozen or so, but still enough to riddle Dorgon with holes!

Of course, this would only succeed as a surprise attack!

"Mother," Shunzhi said, "how did you find out?"

Bumbutai glared at her son: "Dorgon told me!"

"D-Dorgon knows too?"

Bumbutai snorted: "You thought you could hide it from him? He is the Clever Prince — would he not be on guard against you? Think about it: why did he have Dodo manage the lands beyond the Pass and Ajige manage Shanxi? Was it not precisely to guard against being caught all at once in Beijing? If you really did seize Dorgon, this Great Qing would be—"

At this point she sighed: "I truly never thought that our Great Qing really cannot do without him as Imperial Father! Ajige looked formidable enough, but when he met Dodo he collapsed without a fight. Now Dodo dominates alone, and it is only a matter of time before he commits an act of disloyalty.

My son, we cannot wait any longer. We must strike first!"

"Mother," Shunzhi asked, "you want your son to lure Dodo into the palace, and then — seize him in one stroke!"

"That is the only way now!" Bumbutai sighed. "Now it all depends on whether Dodo will act recklessly."

A master of palace intrigue does not fear meeting a clever opponent — he fears meeting a reckless one!

Even a tiger dozes sometimes. Dorgon was so clever he became known as the Clever Prince, yet did he not fall from power without any clear explanation?

But no matter how brilliant the palace intrigue, when it meets a reckless man, all the Hongmen banquets, all the cup-dropping signals, all the "bookish fighters," all the "wrestler youths" become useless.

And Dodo was precisely the sort of man whose recklessness defied all expectation!

Just as Bumbutai and Shunzhi, mother and son, were preparing bookish fighters and a Hongmen banquet for Dodo, an unforeseen disaster suddenly descended upon the heads of most of the Eight Banners sons inside Beijing.

It was not that the "fake Manchus" under Dodo were coming to seize things — rather, the Beijing household registrations of a portion of the Eight Banners sons inside Beijing were about to expire.

On July 23, Dodo, victorious in the great battle of Jieshi Mountain and having captured Ajige alive, led a mighty host of one hundred thousand old and new Manchu troops in a grand and imposing march into Beijing.

The reason it was one hundred thousand troops was that the Bordered Blue Banner and Plain Red Banner armies that had originally followed Ajige, a portion of the Plain White Banner and Plain Green Banner troops, a small part of the Bordered Red, Plain Yellow, and Bordered Yellow Banner troops, and some Mongols who had just been along for the ride, had all gone over to Dodo's side.

So after Dodo left a portion of his army to garrison Shanhai Pass and Jieshi Mountain, he still had as many as one hundred thousand soldiers and horses, who marched into Beijing with him in high spirits and full of swagger.

Oh, they did not all enter the inner city — only Dodo's new army from beyond the Pass could enter the inner city. The rest of the troops who had defected during the great battle of Jieshi Mountain were all stationed in the outer city.

They, together with the captives taken at Jieshi Mountain, would await the Brave Prince Dodo's decision on their punishment.

At the same time, the inner city of Beijing was firmly in the grip of the new army from beyond the Pass!

On July 25, two days after arriving in Beijing, Dodo convened a Deliberative Council of Princes and Ministers at his own Prince Yu's mansion, in the name of the Prince Regent.

Ajige of course could not attend. Luokeduo of the Bordered Red Banner, having failed to switch sides in time, had been captured like Ajige in the battle of Jieshi Mountain and become a prisoner, so he had no chance to deliberate either. Of the three princes of the Plain Green Banner, Geng Zhongming and Kong Tingxun had also fallen, both captured. The Plain Yellow Banner's Gushan Ejen Luoyide and the Bordered Yellow Banner's Gushan Ejen Chentai had likewise become prisoners, so naturally they could not attend the Deliberative Council of Princes either.

And the Bordered Red, Plain Green, the two Yellow Banners, and Ajige's own Bordered White Banner had all suffered heavy losses in the great battle of Jieshi Mountain!

Not counting the losses of the Plain Green Banner, the losses of the old Manchus of the Bordered Red, the two Yellow, and the Bordered White Banners alone exceeded ten thousand, of whom no fewer than eight thousand were dead or seriously wounded.

It could be said that this great battle of Jieshi Mountain was the most costly battle the Manchus had suffered since their rise!

And the disaster for the Bordered Red, the two Yellow, and the Bordered White Banners was not yet over!

"This Prince's meaning is this: every niru that followed Ajige and fought against this Prince, and did not switch sides before the end of the great battle of Jieshi Mountain, must leave Beijing within a set deadline — leave at once, leave before the Mid-Autumn Festival, and go to their banner's gushan beyond the Pass for resettlement!

Furthermore, all the booi bondservants under these niru are to be confiscated and redistributed! And they may not take too much luggage with them — each household may take only one cartload of goods. The remaining property is to be left in their residences and must not be deliberately damaged, or they will be demoted to booi bondservants!"

The moment Dodo's words left his mouth, most of those attending today's Deliberative Council of Princes and Ministers were stunned.

There were not many long-term residents of the two Green Banners in Beijing — it was basically the old Eight Banners and the old Eight Banners' booi bondservants. According to Dodo's meaning, the old Manchus of the Bordered Red, the two Yellow, and the Bordered White Banners could forget about staying in Beijing. Their Beijing household registrations, and their courtyard houses inside Beijing's Second Ring, would all be gone!

"Prince Regent, is this punishment not too severe?"

"Indeed, they are all old Manchus..."

"Prince Regent, would you reconsider?"

The several Deliberative Princes and Ministers in the capital all spoke up to plead for mercy.

"This hardly counts as a punishment. The land beyond the Pass is our old homeland!"

"What severity? It is not exile into slavery — it is merely resettlement beyond the Pass, handed over to their own banner's gushan beyond the Pass. It is nothing!"

"Right, it is nothing."

The princes and gushan ejens who had come with Dodo from beyond the Pass all supported Dodo with one voice, clearly having reached agreement long ago.

The Deliberative Princes and Ministers in the capital all looked at Jirgalang. Now that Ajige was gone, they could only look to him as their leader.

"Prince Regent," Jirgalang said, steeling himself, "the able-bodied men of the Bordered Red, the two Yellow, and the Bordered White Banners have suffered grievous losses. Those remaining are mostly the old and weak, and moving beyond the Pass would make survival difficult. Would you reconsider?"

Dodo smiled: "Reconsider what? The Bordered Red, the two Yellow, and the Bordered White Banners that took part in the great battle of Jieshi Mountain amounted to only a hundred-odd niru. How many people does one niru have? Less than a thousand, right? Altogether that is barely a hundred thousand. Beyond the Pass, the nine banners including booi have more than two million people — are you afraid they cannot be fed? And there is plenty of land beyond the Pass. Not even a tenth of it has been opened up for cultivation. Never mind a hundred thousand — even if another million went out, there would still be land to distribute."

What? Distribute land?

Jirgalang and the several other Deliberative Princes and Ministers in the capital broke out in cold sweat on their foreheads at Dodo's words.

Distributing land meant farming! There were few people beyond the Pass, and the land simply could not be rented out.

Their fine Beijing household registrations, their Second Ring courtyard houses, and their iron-rice-bowl livelihoods would all be gone — in one stroke they would be turned into old peasants beyond the Pass. This Dodo was truly more ruthless than Dorgon and Ajige put together!

Jirgalang wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and ventured to ask: "Then — then what of the properties of the Bordered Red, the two Yellow, and the Bordered White Banners in Beijing and around Beijing?"

Dodo smiled: "Their land all has people farming it. The rent grain and wheat collected will be sold and converted into money and silk, to be rewarded to meritorious officers and men. Their residences inside Beijing will first be stripped of goods by meritorious officers and men, then handed to merchants to sell for money.

Moreover, their booi bondservants will all be rewarded to meritorious officers and men, to be taken back beyond the Pass to farm and labor!"

(End of Chapter)