Chapter 795: Pacifying the Three Feudatories, Taking the Dowry

"What? Agree to cede territory? How can that be allowed?"

The little Shunzhi Emperor had just gotten a way out, and now he felt his backbone was perfectly straight again — he would not agree to give several prefectures of Zhongzhou to his sister Ajige as a dowry.

"Your Majesty," Sonin said with a smile, watching Shunzhi's anxious, agitated look, "don't be in such a hurry. This isn't ceding territory."

"How is it not ceding territory?" Shunzhi said. "Zhu Cilang is asking for the moon — he wants to take six or seven of our prefectures!"

"Your Majesty, those aren't ours," Sonin said. "What we actually hold is only ten prefectures and five subprefectures: Shuntian Prefecture, Yongping Prefecture, Hejian Prefecture, Baoding Prefecture, Zhending Prefecture, Shunde Prefecture, Zhangde Prefecture, Weihui Prefecture, Huaiqing Prefecture, Lu'an Prefecture, Ze Subprefecture, Qin Subprefecture, Liao Subprefecture, Bao'an Subprefecture, and Yanqing Subprefecture. Holding these fifteen prefectures and subprefectures well is already no easy task."

"But we still can't hand over Zhongzhou's land to feed the enemy!" Shunzhi still shook his head.

"How is it feeding the enemy?" Sonin laughed. "Didn't the Imperial Uncle Prince enfeoff Laoqin, Geng Jimao, Fan Wencheng, and the others as the Three Feudatories to guard Zhongzhou? We can agree to cede the land, but we can't make decisions for the Three Feudatories. If Zhu Cilang wants the Fourteenth Princess's dowry, he'll have to send troops and take it himself."

"Then what's the point of us ceding or not ceding?" Shunzhi was thoroughly confused.

"Of course there's a point!" Sonin said. "If we don't agree to cede the land, then what gets fought is a life-and-death war between the Ming and Qing dynasties. If we do agree to cede it, then what gets fought next is the war to pacify the Three Feudatories — a war between the Great Ming and the three feudatories of Laoqin, Geng Jimao, and Fan Wencheng."

This was pacifying the Three Feudatories?

No matter how Shunzhi turned it over in his mind, it felt wrong! Why should the Great Ming be the ones to pacify the Great Qing's three feudatories? If anyone was going to pacify them, it ought to be the Great Qing itself! What did it mean to let the Great Ming do it? The Great Qing's vassal lords being cleaned up at will by the Great Ming? Who would ever follow the Great Qing again after that?

No — never mind "after that." Right now there was no one following them anyway!

"This probably won't work, will it?" Shunzhi shook his head. "If we cede the Three Feudatories' land, Laoqin, Geng Jimao, and Fan Wencheng might well surrender to the Ming and become Zhu Cilang's vanguard."

"They can't surrender," Sonin said, shaking his head with a smile. "Laoqin is the Great Qing's Prince Ying; his Ama is Ajige. How could he possibly surrender to the Ming?

As for the two feudatories Geng Jimao and Fan Wencheng — heh, this slave knows these Han traitors best. Every one of them is insatiably greedy. The moment they get a chance, they seize houses, enclose land, and hoard slaves, wishing they could move all the wealth under heaven into their own homes. Just give them a year or so to complete their transfer of garrisons, and they're guaranteed to fatten themselves into prize sheep. How could they surrender then? Surrender and go get butchered?"

Could such a thing really happen?

The Shunzhi Emperor was still half believing, half doubting, but the fat old lady Bumbutai at his side had already made up her mind. She broke in with a smile: "I say we do as Sonin suggests. What else can we do? If we don't agree to cede those several prefectures of Zhongzhou to the Southern Ming as a dowry, will Emperor Zhu just not send troops to attack?

If we agree to cede the land, he may still leave some room and won't send troops by sea to strike Zhili, and we'll still have time to put Zhili's prefectures in order.

Otherwise, once a great army is at the city walls, Beijing may well be the death ground for us mother and son!"

The old lady was right. Whether Shunzhi agreed to cede the land or not, Zhu Cilang would send troops regardless. But if he agreed, Emperor Zhu would very likely leave some room — first take Zhongzhou, then consolidate for a while, and only then strike Northern Zhili and Shanxi. Beijing was no longer the true center of power of the Great Qing. Even if Shunzhi and old lady Bumbutai were killed, the Great Qing would not collapse. Dodo, the Imperial Uncle Prince, would simply take the throne!

So the goal of using Beijing as bait to draw the main Qing army into a decisive battle was actually very hard to achieve.

Under these circumstances, landing in Zhili was not as good as advancing steadily and surely — first swallowing Zhongzhou, then plotting the lands of Yan and Zhao.

If by chance the Zhongzhou campaign did not go as smoothly as imagined, Emperor Zhu could also choose a truce after obtaining the "dowry," and only after digesting Zhongzhou's land launch a fourth northern expedition.

Bumbutai mulled it over, then asked Sonin: "Zu Kefa is still in Beijing, isn't he?"

"He's still here," Sonin said. "Dodo has no interest in discussing the Fourteenth Princess's marriage with him either, so he can only wait and negotiate with us."

"Good!" Bumbutai said. "Sonin, you go negotiate. Don't agree to the land cession all at once — you can haggle with them and drag it out for a while."

Sonin replied: "This slave understands, Empress Dowager. Your Majesty, this slave suggests we can give away a few counties in Runing Prefecture and Nanyang Prefecture to fob them off."

Bumbutai nodded: "Fine, that's what we'll do!"

Zu Kefa and Huang Dabao truly had their eyes opened this time!

Before the great battle at Jieshi Mountain broke out, the two of them had just arrived at Ajige's Jianling camp, so they happened to be in time to watch the fighting — when the two armies clashed, the two of them climbed a hill on the northern slope of Jieshi Mountain and, through telescopes, witnessed the general course of the battle.

Zu Kefa even held a notebook, watching and recording as he went — this was precious firsthand material! Bringing this record back would already be no small merit!

So Zu Kefa and Huang Dabao had no interest in lingering in Beijing either. Once they got Sonin's "quoted price," they immediately returned by sea from Dagukou. By the time they left Dagukou, the autumn wind was just beginning to stir, so they had a favorable wind the whole way, and two days before the Mid-Autumn Festival on the fifteenth of the eighth month, they were back in Nanjing. By this time, the first term of the Condé cram school was almost over.

Emperor Zhu was preparing the cram school's "graduation exam." Except for Wu Sangui and Zhu Cijiong, anyone who did poorly would get no good fruit to eat — at the lightest, demotion; at the heaviest, removal from current office — that is, demoted and retired, given a sinecure and sent home to grow old!

The exam format was to form teams and play war games against Prince Condé's team, simulating real battles on a scale of tens of thousands to over a hundred thousand men.

And the battlefield records Zu Kefa brought back happened to serve perfectly as reference material for the exam.

On the fourteenth of the eighth month, in the map room in the west warm chamber of the Hall of Venerating Heaven in the Forbidden City, Zu Kefa and Huang Dabao gave Zhu Cilang, Prince Condé, Shi Rui'en, Xu Ermo, Yan Yingyuan, and the others an extremely detailed explanation of the "Eastern Army's" battle formation and the equipment of its units in the great battle at Jieshi Mountain.

"Your Highness, what do you think? Is the Qing army's progress very marked?"

After Zu Kefa and Huang Dabao finished, Zhu Cilang began soliciting Prince Condé's opinion.

Prince Condé had also been studying Qing army tactics these days. In his view, the Qing army's formation fighting was not worth mentioning, but its operational maneuver and counter-maneuver capabilities were extremely strong. Breaking that capability was the key to victory in the coming northern expedition.

Still, the Qing army's performance in the great battle at Jieshi Mountain had surprised him somewhat.

"Yes!" Prince Condé nodded. "Their progress is very great. The progress is mainly in artillery and cavalry. Their Eastern Army used its artillery very well, which is why they won the fierce fight at Shihe Village.

Moreover, their cavalry is truly quite good. It needs to be taken seriously!"

"What about their infantry?" Zhu Cilang asked. "What level is their infantry at?"

"Nothing special," Condé shook his head. "Still too many pikes, sword-and-shield men, and archers, and too few musketeers. If they meet an enemy with strong firepower, they'll easily be routed in a firefight. According to experience from the European battlefields, the side that loses a firefight finds it very hard to organize an attack. If you lose under bombardment you can still attack, but if you lose a firefight, all you can do is retreat.

So the flintlock, together with the socket bayonet and paper cartridge you invented, should be the main infantry equipment from now on. Apart from units with the same equipment, the only thing that can defeat them is a powerful shock cavalry."

"Do we need to organize an infantry using flintlocks and bayonets?" Zhu Cilang continued. "We've just concluded a Treaty of Navigation in the Southern Seas with Holland, England, and Portugal, so the channels for importing flintlocks are even smoother now. And our imitation work has also made some progress — before next autumn, there should be twenty to thirty thousand flintlocks equipping the troops!"

(End of Chapter)