Chapter 841: Are We Really That Formidable?

In one stroke they truly seized most of the territory of Jibei, the Eastern Depot, and Western Yanzhou — though "seized" is a bit of a stretch, since they didn't push their administration down into the villages, nor did they garrison troops in the dozens of county seats. Doing that would have scattered their forces too thin! So the Ming Royal Army's occupation consisted merely of officials reaching the county level, plus the "black-gun mule soldiers" patrolling the countryside.

But don't underestimate the significance of the "mule soldiers" patrolling the countryside. The north is still a chaotic land of war and upheaval, and there isn't a single village stronghold that hasn't armed itself — just look at the outer walls, the gates, and the ditches outside the walls and gates of these villages.

Although the three prefectures of Jibei, the Eastern Depot, and Western Yanzhou have only a few dozen county seats, there are over a thousand such armed village strongholds. Every village stronghold is in fact a "small city"...... The north today is truly an age of castles everywhere!

No matter how strong Emperor Zhu's forces are, they cannot possibly occupy every castle. So the mark of holding a piece of territory is not occupying all the castles, but occupying a few castles of symbolic significance — the county seats — and then sending out cavalry to patrol everywhere.

Because no matter how strong the "village heads" and "stronghold lords" here in the Central Plains are, all they can do is organize a bunch of old peasants to brawl with the neighboring village. Organizing a cavalry force capable of controlling the routes between the various towns and strongholds — that is something they could never even dream of.

So whoever can hold the county seats, and at the same time send out cavalry to "rule" the countryside's lines of communication, is the one who has truly taken the territory.

If the Ming army had not possessed the "black-gun cavalry" capable of contending with the Qing cavalry in the countryside and gaining the upper hand, then even if they had basically occupied dozens of county seats, it still could not be counted as fully holding the three prefectures.

Moreover, if they could not control the villages and the lines of communication, then to ensure the dozens of county seats were not lost as soon as they were gained, they would have to send out large numbers of troops to hold them firmly, and the situation would become very passive.

But now, the eight battalions of "mule soldiers" under Shi Kefa have become an existence that the Qing army's Plain Green Banner cannot contend with!

So most of the territory of Jibei, the Eastern Depot, and Western Yanzhou has already returned to the Ming Royal Army.

However, the Ming army's main operational objective in Shandong — besieging a point to strike the relief force, in order to deal a heavy blow to the Qing main force — has still not been achieved.

Faced with the rapid loss of the overwhelming majority of the three prefectures of Jibei, the Eastern Depot, and Western Yanzhou, and the defeat of the Qing cavalry, the Shunzhi Great Khan in Beijing had long since been unable to sit still.

For days on end he held councils of the Deliberative Princes and Ministers in the yurts outside the Fengtian Gate, discussing whether to march south to relieve Dezhou.

The twelve Deliberative Princes and Ministers were also split into two factions. Among the Grand Secretaries of the Inner Academy, Sonin, Ning Wanwo, Feng Quan, and Sun Zhixie, and among the six Inner Ministers, Baiyintu, Jobtei, and Namushenge — seven men in all — advocated "prudence," meaning wait and see......

While Grand Secretary Fuca Esehei, Grand Secretary Gang'atai, Inner Minister Suksaha, and Inner Minister Bambursan — the four of them — all advocated an immediate attack.

In addition, Inner Minister Chentai, who led the infantry battalions stationed on both banks of the Yellow River, also submitted a memorial expressing support for sending troops.

Furthermore, the Imperial Uncle Dodo, Prince Zheng Jirgalang, Chang'adai in Taiyuan, Laoqin in Luoyang, Henan, and Shang Kexi in Pingyang all submitted memorials advocating prudence.

So the council of Deliberative Princes and Ministers met for days on end, with the pro-attack and pro-prudence sides each sticking to their own arguments, and neither able to persuade the other.

Although the Shunzhi Emperor inclined toward sending troops, his own strength was limited. If Dodo, Jirgalang, Chang'adai, Laoqin, Shang Kexi, and the other power-holders all refused to send troops, then with only his own strength plus the Mongols he had sweet-talked into coming, he did not seem to have much confidence......

Just as the Shunzhi Emperor was caught in a dilemma, not knowing what to do, even worse news arrived one after another in the ten to twenty days before the end of the tenth year of Shunzhi.

The Ming army had marched into Hejian Prefecture, which belonged to Northern Zhili!

And they posted proclamations throughout Northern Zhili announcing "three years of tax exemption," and attacked prefectural and county cities everywhere. After breaking a city they did not occupy it, but opened the granaries and distributed grain, hunted down and killed the Qing officials and soldiers, and after they were done wreaking havoc, they carried off the entire Han population of the prefectural and county cities, and set the cities ablaze!

Completely the conduct of roving bandits!

And rather formidable roving bandits at that — in less than twenty days, they had already broken the cities of Ningjin, Qingyun, Wuqiao, Yanshan, Nanpi, Jiaohe, Bucheng, Jingzhou, and others belonging to Hejian Prefecture.

The whole of Hejian Prefecture fell into panic, and all of Northern Zhili came to know this reality — the Ming has returned!

"This, this, this...... what is this Shi Kefa trying to do?" the Shunzhi Emperor demanded loudly. "Is he a Governor-General of the Ming court, or a Governor-General of roving bandits? Why does everything he does look exactly like roving bandits?"

Shi Kefa could not answer this question — at least not right now.

"Your Majesty, it is obvious!" Sonin replied. "He is trying to force us to send troops...... He has laid down heavy forces at Dezhou, just waiting for our great army to come and fight a decisive battle."

"Does he, does he have certainty of victory?" Shunzhi asked.

"No!" Suksaha answered.

"No!" Sonin's answer was the same as Suksaha's.

The attack and defense factions had rarely ever agreed.

Sun Zhixie, whom Sonin had promoted to the position of Assistant Grand Secretary, added a sentence on behalf of his elder brother: "For him, victory and defeat are the same!"

"How can that be the same?" Shunzhi was somewhat puzzled.

"Of course it is the same!" Sun Zhixie said. "The Ming army of today is not what it used to be. Even if our Great Qing's heavenly troops can win, it would be killing ten thousand of the enemy while losing eight thousand of our own...... How many eight thousands does our Great Qing have to lose?"

"How many? We can't even scrape together one!" Nurhaci's nephew, Aisin Gioro Baiyintu, said with a mournful old face. "The old Manchu able-bodied men we have on hand number no more than 4,000. Add in the able-bodied men of the Eight Banners Mongols, and we still can't make up 8,000!"

The so-called Eight Banners Mongols are Mongols incorporated into the Eight Banners, not the nomadic Mongols of the steppe — the difference between the Eight Banners Mongols and the nomadic Mongols is like that between the Han-martial banners and the Han people: they look somewhat alike, but in fact they are not the same thing at all.

The Mongol cavalry of Sengge Rinchen, who was historically called "the last backbone of the Eight Banners" or something of the sort, was in fact the trained troops of the three eastern Mongol leagues of the nomadic Mongols, and not Eight Banners soldiers at all......

Right now, the Eight Banners Manchu and Eight Banners Mongol able-bodied men under the Shunzhi Great Khan add up to only a little over 6,000. Counting the relatively reliable Han-martial troops, it comes to a bit over ten thousand.

One victorious battle and they would be gone......

"Don't we still have the nomadic Mongols and the Green Standard troops?" Fuca Esehei had a big dark face and looked honest and loyal, so Shunzhi did not mind that he was of the Bordered White Banner and had been fairly close to Dorgon, and still employed him heavily.

"Aren't we now one family of Manchu, Mongol, and Han?" Esehei said. "We no longer distinguish between each other, so why can't we afford the deaths?"

"Exactly!" The Shunzhi Emperor nodded. "We cannot just sit and watch the Ming army carry on like roving bandits! If they keep up this kind of havoc, who are we going to collect next year's spring cloth and autumn grain from?"

The Great Qing currently had two taxes a year, in spring and autumn — collecting cloth in spring and grain in autumn, that is, spring cloth and autumn grain. The spring cloth was one bolt per household, and could be commuted to cash. The autumn grain was one dou and five sheng per mu, and could also be commuted to cash.

If not commuted to cash, then meltage fees had to be added. The meltage fees did not go to the court, but were for the officials and clerks below who had to eat and drink and embezzle......

Besides the spring cloth and autumn grain, there were also corvée labor services in winter and summer. The corvée was quite heavy — one adult male had to serve thirty days a year, and had to provide his own rations, to build roads, walls, and houses for the Great Qing.

Such a heavy burden was unavoidable — the population was small, the territory was small, and they still had to contend with the monster that was the Great Ming. What else could they do but demand more from the common people?

"Sonin!" Shunzhi asked again. "If next year's spring cloth and autumn grain from southern Zhili all go up in smoke, can the court's finances still hold up?"

"This......" Sonin thought to himself: Hold up, my ass! If war had not broken out, we could barely scrape by. Now that fighting has started, money is flowing like water, and it is all being sustained by the old reserves left behind by His Imperial Ama.

Shunzhi watched Sonin remain silent, then gave a cold snort: "Our Great Qing — no, Great Mongolia — has retreated until there is nowhere left to retreat. We must send troops!"