Chapter 830: Fan Wencheng's Unlimited-Liability Fief

"Hmph!"

Fan Wencheng answered Zu Kefa's concern with nothing but a cold snort.

Because Zu Kefa had misunderstood him — he had not worn himself out over Kong Sizhen, but had grown haggard day by day from racking his brains over reorganizing Shandong's defenses and dealing with the pampered troops Kong Youde had left behind.

Those two matters were truly no easy task!

Before the great battle at Jieshi Mountain, the Qing forces on the Shandong front consisted of Kong Youde's and Geng Zhongming's commands, while Shang Kexi, garrisoned at Guide, could also support Shandong.

But after the battle at Jieshi Mountain, Dodo withdrew a large number of veteran Eight Banners cadres from inside the passes, and moreover readjusted the dispositions, changing the original offensive deployment into a fallback-and-give-battle deployment. The Qing territory in Shandong and Henan thus became defensive depth.

Therefore the Qing adopted an overall contraction and key-point defense operational and tactical deployment in Shandong and Henan. On the Shandong front, the Qing defenses along the Grand Canal and the Daqing River had become nominal. Along the canal only five strongpoints remained: Dezhou, Linqing, Liaocheng, Anping (at the confluence with the Daqing River), and Jining. Along the Daqing River only five strongpoints remained: Anping (also a canal strongpoint), Huakou, Qihe, Jiyang, and Lijin.

Nine strongpoints in all! And among these nine strongpoints, the three major ones were Anping, Liaocheng, and Dezhou along the canal.

Fan Wencheng personally held Liaocheng; his second son Fan Chengmo held Dezhou; and Kong Youde's trusted man Sun Long held Anping. These three strongpoints not only had sturdy fortifications, but also had relatively large garrisons, all above 5,000 men, and were comparatively well equipped, with large numbers of musketeers and cavalry.

In order to control the troops effectively, Fan Wencheng also concentrated in Liaocheng the personal guards he had brought from the Bordered Green Banner (Fan Wencheng had previously served as the Bordered Green Banner's gūsa ejen) and the Kong family guards loyal to Kong Sizhen. He also gathered the families of the troops stationed at the seven strongpoints of Anping, Linqing, Jining, Huakou, Qihe, Jiyang, and Lijin into Liaocheng and Dezhou for protection — these things are easy enough to say, but truly difficult to carry out!

Fan Wencheng, a decrepit old man, had married the seventeen- or eighteen-year-old Kong Sizhen and had also replaced Kong Tingxun as Prince Dingnan — how could the Kong army, high and low, possibly accept that? And now everyone was being made to leave homes where they had lived for years to hole up in nine strongpoints, and to hand over their families besides. To be a traitor to this extent — truly there was nowhere left even to cry.

Fortunately, old Fan was a man of considerable skill, and he also had the firm backing of Shunzhi and Dodo, and had brought along a batch of traitors from the Two White Banners, the Two Yellow Banners, and the Bordered Green Banner to take up his post, so he had barely managed to complete the readjustment.

The military dispositions had just been finished when economic difficulties came one after another.

Previously the Plain Green Banner had followed the path of combining soldier and farmer!

Now that everyone had been penned up inside nine fortresses, how were they supposed to farm? Kong Youde's troops plus the miscellaneous traitor units assigned under Prince Dingnan's headquarters numbered no fewer than twenty thousand households, and the land they occupied was no less than six million mu. At least half of it had been farmed by Plain Green Banner soldiers and their families. Now this land was either lying fallow or out of control — in these chaotic times collecting a bit of rent was no easy matter. Unless you put a knife to a tenant's throat, who would willingly hand over the grain that kept them alive?

So once the Plain Green Banner traitors pulled back, grain was not going to grow legs and deliver itself into the city.

Left with no choice, Fan Wencheng organized numerous "grain-requisitioning mounted squads" to patrol the territory and "seize grain," scraping together whatever food and drink they could to bring back to the city, so as to keep the hundred thousand or more Green Banner troops and their families alive.

But the traitors' lot was still like Wang Xiao'er's New Year — worse with every passing year. When life grew hard, tempers grew short, and sending them out on tasks became difficult.

So when the men below were having a hard time, Fan Wencheng, who had become a prince, was having a hard time himself. And he was miserable inside and out.

Who was Kong Sizhen, after all? How could she possibly take a fancy to a decrepit old man like Fan Wencheng? And toil day and night for him? She would not even let him touch her!

Old Fan had not the slightest recourse. He was now a live-in son-in-law, and the Kong army, high and low, recognized only Kong Sizhen, not him, Fan Wencheng.

And Kong Sizhen had someone above her! The young Shunzhi Emperor had a fling with her, and the Empress Dowager Bumbutai had taken her as a goddaughter. Moreover, when Kong Sizhen had gone to Beijing at the start of the year to visit her family, she had come back pregnant — truly a matter for congratulations!

What left Fan Wencheng even more speechless was that Kong Sizhen not only refused to let Fan Wencheng touch her, but also forbade him from keeping concubines, and had sent away all of Fan Wencheng's former concubines.

Now Fan Wencheng, a great prince, was being angered outside by a pack of useless traitors, and bullied inside his own residence by a hot-tempered seventeen-year-old gege, without even a woman to warm his bed! Not only were women unavailable — men were not allowed either! Young Miss Kong could not stand the sight of such things. Fan Wencheng could only keep his empty room alone. What sort of prince was this? He might as well be a monk!

And all these grievances could only be kept locked in his heart. On the surface he still had to put on a show of glory, and could not let anyone know that the child in Kong Sizhen's belly was a bastard — otherwise, someone would kill the father to silence him!

And what pained Fan Wencheng most of all was that his princedom was running at a loss!

His Prince Dingnan title was also a self-financing "fief," and unlike the "limited-liability fiefs" on the Ming side, his fief was an "unlimited-liability fief"! However great the loss, Fan Wencheng as the fief-holder had to find a way to make it up himself. So Fan Wencheng, after less than a year as a prince, had already squandered nearly all the family fortune he had so painstakingly embezzled during more than half a lifetime as a slave of the Great Qing.

And he had nowhere even to borrow at usurious rates. He could only guard his empty room every night, clicking away at his abacus beads, watching the money and grain in the account books dwindle, his heart nearly shattering into pieces!

How could he not grow thinner by the day living such a life?

"You say that We are to go to Nanjing in the future? What is the meaning of this?" Fan Wencheng asked the envoy Zu Kefa with a cold face.

"Indeed!" Zu Kefa said with a smile. "You see, this the Eastern Depot Prefecture is Princess Jianning's dowry, and is to be handed over to our Great Ming. His Majesty the Emperor of our Great Ming also knows Prince Dingnan's abilities, and so has already built a commandery-duke's residence for you in Nanjing. You need only hand over the city and the troops, and you can go to Nanjing to enjoy yourself."

The words made it sound as though Fan Wencheng had already made up his mind to become a turncoat.

"In life, We are a slave of the Great Qing; in death, a ghost of the Great Qing," Fan Wencheng said righteously. "We will absolutely never surrender to the Ming dynasty."

Zu Kefa sighed and nodded. "That is also acceptable. Every man has his own aspirations! So when will you hand over Liaocheng?"

"Hand over Liaocheng?" Fan Wencheng snorted again, then clasped his fists and made a token bow toward the empty air. "This matter requires an edict from the Great Qing Emperor! Until His Majesty's edict arrives, We must defend Liaocheng to the death!"

And he had no choice but to defend it to the death! His Fan clan was a great Liaodong family, and among the cheng generation alone (one generation below Fan Wencheng) there were a whole host of men holding high office in the Qing. His eldest son Fan Chengyin was now a Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites of the Great Qing, holding a lofty post in Beijing. The children of Fan Chengyin and Fan Chengmo were all in Beijing, and Fan Wencheng's four sons who had not yet come of age were also in Beijing. The descendants of his brother Fan Wencai were likewise all in Beijing. If the whole clan were to be executed, there would truly be a great deal of work to do.

Moreover, inside Liaocheng there was Kong Sizhen keeping watch on Fan Wencheng, and over in Dezhou the Shunzhi Emperor's fourth elder brother, the Defender-General Ye Bushu, was stationed with more than two hundred Eight Banners troops, keeping an eye on Fan Chengmo.

So if Fan Wencheng truly dared betray the Great Qing, it would immediately be a massacre of his entire family!

Furthermore, the Plain Green Banner officers and men under Prince Dingnan altogether occupied six million mu of banner land! And they also held the territory of the Eastern Depot Prefecture, Jibei Prefecture, and Yanzhou Prefecture (Yanzhou Prefecture had been split in two, with both the Ming and Qing sides holding one).

In reality, Prince Dingnan's line of the Plain Green Banner was already an independent kingdom here in Shandong; they were the true masters of the three prefectures of western Lu.

If Zhu Cilang had wanted only the nominal submission of the three prefectures, then the heads of Fan Wencheng and his son would long since have been placed in two rather handsome boxes and delivered to Xuzhou.

But the northern military nobility under Zhu Cilang had also set their eyes on the tens of millions of mu of banner land in the north. The value of this land exceeded one billion taels, so there was nothing left to discuss.

Zu Kefa also knew why Emperor Zhu wanted the Northern Expedition — driving out the Tartars and such was not the point at all. The point was one thing only: fighting for the land of the north!

So Fan Wencheng's answer was entirely within his expectations.

Still, he had words to say on Emperor Zhu's behalf: "It seems your emperor's edict will not be arriving. But no matter — the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming is benevolent and generous of heart. As long as the Prince and the officers and men under him are willing to surrender, their lives can always be spared!"

What could be spared was only their lives!

(End of Chapter)