Chapter 1235: The Pure Stream Shall Triumph Over the Eunuch Faction

"Have you all not noticed? The court has launched several punitive expeditions against the Xuzhou bandits, yet each time has met with setbacks. They are the court's elite troops — how could they suffer such defeats against local bandits? It is nothing more than the eunuch faction colluding with the outlaws, nurturing bandits to bolster their own importance!"

"Rumors have long been circulating throughout Jianghuai and Jiangnan that powerful figures from Qingzhou and Xuzhou have been meddling in the canal transport, colluding with bandits and making life unbearable for the common people. Could this be that very Zhao fellow?"

"Truly the height of arrogance! The Xuzhou tyrant-bandits are scheming to carve out territory, to establish a state within a state inside the Great Ming!"

"Not merely carving out territory — the Xuzhou bandits even seek to use the strategic location of Tianjin to reach into the capital. Such designs are utterly lawless and deserve death by a thousand cuts!"

"With the eunuch faction in power, the nation is humiliated and its sovereignty compromised. Not only have they failed to achieve a single victory against the Tatar slaves beyond the passes and beyond the frontiers, but in the very heartland of our Great Ming, they have been humiliated by tyrant-bandits and petty folk, forced to negotiate peace with these rustic villagers. Where is the court's dignity? Where is the Great Ming's dignity?"

"Since our dynasty's founding, we have never negotiated peace, never ceded territory, never yielded an inch of ground, never surrendered an inch of land. The Oirats and the Altan Khan were once rampant, yet the Great Ming never yielded an inch. Now the Oirats have scattered, the Altan Khan has declined, and the Great Ming still stands. Yet now we are to bow our heads to mere Xuzhou local bandits and engage in the disgraceful business of offering amnesty? This dishonors the nation! Whoever is in charge should be executed!"

The conditions put forward by the Xuzhou Zhao Camp set the court and public in the capital ablaze. One must understand that the proposal for amnesty had not come solely from the eunuch faction. At the time, Jianghuai and Jiangnan were both in upheaval; had the fighting continued, those regions would have been utterly devastated. The crippling of the Great Ming's core tax base was a secondary concern — the real issue was that the Donglin gentlemen's hometowns and family estates were all located there. The joint punitive campaign against Xuzhou could not, under any circumstances, be allowed to continue. But now, with the localities rapidly recovering, naturally no one was willing to acknowledge what had been said before. With Wei Zhongxian's clique now keeping such a low profile, the blame was naturally pinned on them.

"The eunuch faction is incompetent, utterly muddled. If the Xuzhou tyrant-bandits were truly so ferocious and formidable, why would they voluntarily cease hostilities and sue for peace? They must be outwardly fierce but inwardly weak, already unable to hold out. Had Eunuch Wei insisted on not retreating then, we might well be celebrating a great official victory and peace in Qingzhou and Xuzhou by now. Why withdraw at that critical juncture of victory and defeat? Could it be that they accepted bribes from Xuzhou?"

This was another strain of public opinion. Not only did the court officials think this way, but practically everyone under heaven thought the same. If the Xuzhou bandits were truly as formidable as the rumors claimed, they should by now have swept across all of Shandong, invaded Northern Zhili, and threatened the capital region. Yet after several major victories, the Xuzhou bandits had voluntarily withdrawn. They remained exactly where they had been before, all the cities and towns intact, local officials and runners all at their posts, with no memorials reporting any wanton slaughter.

What did the current situation prove? It proved that Xuzhou was fierce in appearance but cowardly at heart, nothing like the invincible menace the eunuch faction had boasted of. They seemed to be of the same ilk as the Incense Sect rebels, perhaps even inferior. After all, the Incense Sect fiends had at least breached a few cities. Why had the Xuzhou bandits failed to capture a single city? For that matter, weren't the government offices in Xuzhou's one prefecture and four counties still functioning to this day, everything appearing perfectly normal?

Of course, the government troops nowadays were not what they had been at the dynasty's founding or during the Jingnan Campaign. They could not even defeat the Incense Sect rebels at first. But once the court got serious, once the government troops got serious, were the Incense Sect bandits not annihilated all the same?

What could the eunuch faction possibly understand about military operations? It was nothing but collusion between soldiers and bandits, taking bribes. If an upright minister of the court led the troops on campaign, with all ranks united in sincerity, it would surely be like an autumn gale sweeping away fallen leaves — the Xuzhou bandits would be wiped out in one stroke, restoring a world of peace and a bright, clear universe.

Amid this surging tide of opinion, there were nonetheless a few dissenting voices. A certain scholar-official from Shanxi, who had once served as county magistrate in Guide Prefecture before entering the capital as an official and returning home to recuperate from illness a few years prior, submitted memorials and wrote letters, all stating that the Xuzhou bandit power could not be suppressed, that the court must absolutely not act rashly, and that it should build up its strength, amass troops, and only plan a joint punitive campaign once it had formed an overwhelming, crushing momentum — otherwise, great calamity would surely follow.

However, after this memorial entered the Directorate of Ceremonial, it sank like a stone in the ocean. Then an elder close to this scholar-official wrote back to reprimand him, saying: At a time like this, for you to voice opinions contrary to the Donglin faction — is that not courting death? Moreover, you performed well in the capital back then, and this is precisely the moment for you to return to office. How dare you utter such words that invite public wrath?

Yet these few opinions were not even ripples in a torrent; they stirred no reaction whatsoever. The discourse in the capital's court grew increasingly unanimous: exterminate the Xuzhou bandits to assert the nation's authority. Now the Jianzhou Jurchens were pressing ever closer, the steppe Mongols were stirring restlessly, the southwestern chieftains were dead but not stiff, and unrest was everywhere under heaven. If the Xuzhou bandits were allowed to profit from this, crafty villains elsewhere would surely follow their example. Then there would be turmoil everywhere, amnesties everywhere — how could the court possibly manage it all? A warning example must be made.

The Donglin faction's public rhetoric was righteous and grand, beyond reproach by anyone. If anyone raised objections, the charges of humiliating the nation, colluding with bandits, and accepting bribes would be pinned on them one after another. The eunuch faction might be ruthless, but the Donglin partisans were equally capable of damning a man beyond redemption. Now was the moment the Donglin Pure Stream was gaining ascendancy; everyone had best not court their own destruction.

The label "Donglin" had existed for decades. Everyone was already quite familiar with their grand, righteous rhetoric and understood the real meaning behind it. All in the capital knew that the Donglin partisans, having just gained the upper hand, needed a victory, needed glorious and illustrious merit, in order to thoroughly crush the declining and subdued members of the eunuch faction.

If the eunuch faction had completely lost power and the Donglin Pure Stream fully enjoyed a court "replete with righteous men," then naturally there would be no need to take risks. But the present situation was different. Originally, the eunuch faction had held seventy or eighty percent of the court; now they held forty or thirty percent. Though in decline, they still had a chance to recover. How could they be dealt a finishing blow? The Son of Heaven still favored Wei Zhongxian, making it very difficult to frame and convict him. The only way was to prove that their own faction was right and that the eunuch faction was entirely, utterly wrong.

When it came to governing the realm, the Donglin Pure Stream could say that the eunuch faction's period of absolute power was a foul miasma — but that was all they could say. In the early years of the Tianqi reign, when the Donglin Pure Stream held absolute power, the situation had not looked any better. When it came to collecting taxes and conscripting corvée labor, the eunuch faction might have been guilty of extortionate levies and underhanded dealings, but at least they could bring in the silver. The Donglin Pure Stream, on the other hand, only emphasized light corvée and low taxes, storing wealth among the people — and so the tax revenues handed up from Jiangnan grew smaller and smaller, the fiscal revenues from canal transport and the salt administration dwindled. There had long been talk in the capital that it was precisely because the Donglin partisans could not collect enough silver in the early Tianqi years, leaving the court's military funds in dire straits, that the Tianqi Emperor had brought forth Wei Zhongxian.

When it came to marching troops and fighting battles, neither the Donglin partisans, nor the eunuch faction, nor any other unrelated clique had ever won any notable victories. When the Donglin partisans suffered defeat, they absolutely refused to surrender; they either took their own lives or died in battle, all martyrs for the nation. But members of other factions had likewise died in battle or committed suicide as martyrs in considerable numbers — this was nothing to boast about.

The only thing they could bring up was these several joint punitive campaigns overseen by Wei Zhongxian. Several times they had moved against Xuzhou, and several times they had suffered crushing defeats. Yet such attacks could not completely finish off Wei Zhongxian's clique. To truly seize the initiative, to truly prove before the Son of Heaven and in the court and public discourse that the eunuch faction was ruining the country and that Donglin governance would be a blessing for the nation, the easiest and most direct method was only one thing: a joint punitive campaign against Xuzhou.

Eunuch Wei had mobilized a great army, wasting men and treasure, only to return in miserable defeat. If the Donglin faction oversaw the joint campaign and achieved total victory, what comparison could be more direct and straightforward? With a great victory, the Donglin partisans would completely gain ascendancy. No matter how close the Tianqi Emperor was to Wei Zhongxian, he would have no way to contend against such correctness. Then it would truly be a court replete with righteous men!

And there was no more suitable choice than this. If the campaign Wei Zhongxian had overseen had been against the Jianzhou Jurchens or the steppe Mongols, the Donglin partisans would not dare make such a comparison. One was an enemy against whom they had fought for centuries without gaining any advantage; the other, in the past decade or so, they had never defeated, had never even suffered a minor defeat against. Who would dare provoke such opponents? To recklessly seek battle would be to invite humiliation upon oneself.

But Xuzhou was different. The various lords in court more or less knew that Xuzhou had grown prosperous in recent years — but so what? A mere remote backwater like Xuzhou, how many troops could it have, how much financial resources to sustain them? How could it contend with the court's great armies? Once battle was joined, Xuzhou would be surrounded on all sides by government troops — how could it possibly prevail?

Why had these two or three joint campaigns failed? It was nothing more than collusion between government troops and bandits. Xuzhou had grown wealthy, so surely there was plenty of silver. Did everyone not already know what military officers were like? Once the silver was delivered, never mind victory or defeat — they would sell their own ancestors. Not to mention that Xuzhou was already prosperous; they must covet peace and wealth. How could they compare to starving, desperate paupers with nothing to lose?

As long as the court got serious, as long as it deployed enough troops, Xuzhou would inevitably be defeated. Many had seen the disaster reports submitted by the Xuzhou locality last year, and there were private letters to corroborate them. There were even people who had passed through at the time, all able to attest that the Yellow River had burst its banks in Xuzhou and the disaster was severe.

This was the Yellow River bursting its banks and flooding — when had that not meant a thousand leagues of inundation and countless deaths? Those who passed through said that Suining County had been completely submerged, that Pi Prefecture had suffered severe disaster. If even the neighboring prefectures and counties were this devastated, could Xuzhou, which bore the brunt, possibly be in good shape? Most of those rebel bandits who defeated the government troops were likely famine victims and refugees from this disaster, fighting desperately for a mouthful of food. And leaving aside the devastation of the locality, it was already past the third month now, precisely the bitter days of the spring famine when the old grain is gone and the new has not yet ripened. Those refugee bandits and rebel bandits, driven mad with hunger, ought to have starved to death by now, shouldn't they?

They thought that by seeking amnesty they could get grain to eat, thought they could negotiate terms with the court. You didn't press your advantage and advance then — now it's too late for regrets. The court need only dispatch a great army, and it will surely sweep all before it in one stroke and return in great victory. Then, before the Son of Heaven, before the hundred officials, before all under heaven, it will be proven that Donglin governance is the fundamental path for the nation!

"... If one does not go and see, does not go and make contact, who could believe the situation in Xuzhou? Who would take Xuzhou's strength seriously? No one would believe it, no matter who they were..."

"... Say it once, say it twice, say it enough times, and whether true or false, you end up believing it yourself..."

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