Chapter 797: The Buddha-Like Boy Galdan

Zhu Cilang was unleashing his greatest golden finger!

It was the greatest golden finger of all — using the civil service examination system to test mathematics and philosophy, selecting the highest-IQ people in the Great Ming, and then having them study the "Zilun Gewu Pian" and Western scientific works translated into Chinese, thereby transforming the Western into the Chinese and establishing China's own natural philosophy and basic science system — in his previous life, Zhu Cilang had not worked in industrial technology, so he did not have many applicable-technology golden fingers to unleash.

If this were the Song or Tang dynasty, he would certainly have had plenty of ideas to turn into "golden fingers," but this was the mid-17th century!

European science and technology had already developed to a certain height, and many things could be directly copied from the West, which was far easier than Zhu Cilang unleashing a golden finger.

However, much of the mathematical, physical, chemical, and philosophical knowledge Zhu Cilang possessed was in certain respects ahead of the mid-17th-century West.

Yet this knowledge could not, or could only with great difficulty, be directly converted into applications — at least not by Zhu Cilang alone. Moreover, his knowledge was deficient in many areas — he could not remember everything, only a portion.

Therefore, gathering the most intelligent people, introducing Western natural philosophy, and then handing over fragmented future knowledge to them as the "Lost Chapters of Confucius" for study — that was the greatest golden finger Zhu Cilang could conceive of.

With enough intelligent people who had mastered basic natural philosophy and scientific knowledge, application-oriented golden fingers would be easy to unleash. After all, the vast majority of inventions and creations in human history came from top scholars.

The nine-year-old boy Choros Galdan of the Dzungar tribe of the Oirat Mongols had no idea at this moment what the just-concluded "Imperial Academy entrance examination" had to do with him. He did not even know such a thing had happened, nor could he imagine that twelve years later he would walk into the examination hall of the Nanjing Imperial Academy to solve the mathematical problems that fascinated him, still less that he would form a lasting teacher-student bond with the Great Ming's Hongxing Emperor!

Right now he was still dressed as a little novice monk, riding a short, chubby horse, following his grand-uncle, an old monk who served as a lama and was known as Lama Celing (meaning "Long-Life Lama"), on the road to the Old Mountain Palace.

He had left the Dzungar capital of Daorben Erutsenmu Castle in Oirat Mongolia last summer, traveling east with Long-Life Lama and a dozen or so Dzungar warriors disguised as lamas. Because they had to avoid the territory of the unfriendly Yarkent Khanate and the Khoshut Khanate, which remained loyal to the Great Qing, they had no choice but to take a roundabout route through Khalkha Mongol territory. Later, Long-Life Lama fell ill in Yulin City and they were delayed for several months, so it was not until late in the eighth month of the fifth year of Hongxing that they finally reached Nanjing, a city that opened the eyes of Galdan and his entire party.

That such a magnificent city could exist in this world — and that within the city there were so many wealthy residents, many of them carrying guns!

Guns were a rather rare weapon in Oirat Mongolia; even in the household of a tribal confederation leader like Batur Khong Tayiji, there were only a few firearms.

But within Nanjing, Galdan was astonished to discover that carrying guns was quite common, and there were even shops openly selling long guns and short guns!

But Galdan was not afraid of guns, because he was merely a peace-loving little novice, a very Buddha-like little boy.

This Buddha-like boy Galdan had originally intended to go to Tibet to become a monk, but fate played a joke on him. Because his father Batur Khong Tayiji wanted the Great Ming's firearms too badly, he had no choice but to go to Nanjing to attend elementary school.

Of course, the Buddhist Dharma still had to be studied.

So Batur Khong Tayiji specially sent someone to Tashilhunpo Monastery in Tibet to invite a senior monk — who was also Batur Khong Tayiji's uncle, Lama Celing — to accompany Galdan to Nanjing for schooling, and incidentally to urge him to chant sutras and study the Dharma.

"Master Celing, we have arrived." The speaker was a staff officer of the Shuofang Army named Yuan Ruofei. He was originally a man of Liaodong; when his homeland fell, he fled with his parents into the interior. He had intended to return to his ancestral home in Fengyang Prefecture, but in Henan he was swept up by Li Zicheng's army and placed under Chen Yongfu's command. Later he followed Chen Yongfu in defending Taiyuan, and after Chen Yongfu fled, his whole family went up Mount Lüliang to join Prince Dai, Zhu Cijiong. Over the years he had rendered some service, so he received an opportunity to go to Nanjing for remedial study, and along the way he escorted Lama Celing and Galdan. He had not expected the lama's party to travel so slowly that they lost time; the graduation examination for the first remedial class had already ended by the time he arrived outside the Old Mountain Palace in Nanjing.

These days the Zhu Emperor had been staying at the Old Mountain Palace with his wife and child — Wu Sanmei had finally achieved fruition and borne Zhu Cilang a son, named Zhu Hexing.

But the child had been born somewhat early, before full term, and was therefore very frail. The Zhu Emperor and Wu Sanmei both feared he might die young, so they brought him to the newly completed Old Mountain Palace. The Forbidden City in Nanjing was not comfortable to live in; it was too damp there — wet and cold in winter, stifling in summer — far inferior to the comfort of the Old Mountain Palace north of the river.

When Galdan and Lama Celing arrived at the Old Mountain Palace, Zhu Cilang was holding a joint meeting of the two councils, discussing whether to send envoys north again to negotiate with the Shunzhi Emperor about marrying the Fourteenth Princess.

Just a few days earlier, Beijing had sent Wu Liangfu to court, expressing willingness to accept the dowry demands put forward by the Great Ming, but at the same time indicating that they were unable to mobilize the three feudatories of the Central Plains.

If the Great Ming wanted the territory of the three feudatories, they would have to take it themselves!

"Your Majesty, this subject believes you should marry the Qing state's Fourteenth Princess," the strategist Li Yan advised. "Although this matter is a stalling tactic by the Northern Qing, we can turn their own trick against them.

For this subject has observed the successive northern expeditions of the Southern Dynasties and the Southern Song. Those that failed did so because it was difficult to consolidate the Central Plains. The Central Plains are flat and hard to defend, and water transport is inconvenient. It is land easy to take but hard to hold. To attempt the Central Plains first and then Yan and Zhao, achieving the great enterprise of a northern expedition in one stroke, is extremely difficult. If we can first take the Central Plains, then spend three years consolidating it — repairing roads, stockpiling grain, building cities and forts, training cavalry — and only then strike north in one blow, success will come easily."

Zhu Cilang said, "But the Qing state is also vigorously reforming. If by chance they achieve something, will not the day of our great northern victory be postponed indefinitely?"

"Your Majesty, this subject believes the Northern Qing's reforms are not worth mentioning," said Zu Kefa, who had returned from Beijing. "The Qing state's reforms amount to nothing more than recruiting soldiers by offering land, plus a policy of 'no distinction between Manchu and Han.' But peasant soldiers cannot endure prolonged warfare; if a campaign drags on even slightly, they will be unable to make ends meet and will be hard pressed to continue.

Your Majesty has already planned to spend ten years on this, so why fear the Northern Court's peasant soldiers? Never mind ten years away from home — if a hundred thousand peasant soldiers serve for three years, more than half will likely desert!

Moreover, the Northern Court's firearms are ultimately insufficient, and peasant soldiers cannot ride horses. In the end they can only hold cities and wait for relief. If they cannot sally forth to fight in the open field, then whether they have many soldiers or few makes little difference."

After hearing the opinion of Zu Kefa, one of the "Qing-knowers," Zhu Cilang was already somewhat swayed. He then looked at Chief Grand Secretary Wei Zaode. "Chief Grand Secretary, what do you think of Shunzhi's reform methods?"

"Your Majesty," Wei Zaode said with a smile, "they are merely the surface of Emperor Xiaowu's methods. Unfortunately, the Northern Court no longer has a scholar-gentry class — only a bunch of slaves, not worth mentioning. Whether or not to marry the Fourteenth Princess is entirely up to Your Majesty's wishes. What truly needs to be worried about is Dodo beyond the passes. This subject suggests that when we advance north into the Central Plains, we should also find something for Dodo to do."

A chapter shout-out for the big-shot Shanshui's "The Number One Ruthless Man of the Great Tang" — a book that was a hit from the start, with solid quality. It was locked up in the little black room for a while, but it has now been released and is being rewritten. Readers who like "ruthless men" should hurry over and see if he is still that ruthless man.

(End of Chapter)