Chapter 1380: Trust No One

1380. Chapter 1380: Trust No One

Seeing Zhang Pan in a daze, Chen Jisheng spoke with earnest gravity: "Old Zhang, we're no longer eating from the Zhu family's grain and pay — we're seeking fortune and glory from the Zhao family. Yet you still can't let go of those past matters. This will bring disaster, and might even drag down the brothers under you. Why make it hard on yourself?"

Zhang Pan was a bit stunned and a bit embarrassed, but he did not refute it. Chen Jisheng said no more; he simply turned toward the cheering, jubilant battlefield and spoke: "These heads must be sent inside the Pass. The banners, weapons, and such must all be displayed. We might even be able to invite people from the Ministry of War to come verify the heads. When that happens, all under Heaven will know that the Xuzhou Zhao Family Army has won such a great victory, and the hearts of the people under Heaven will undergo a great change."

The autumn of the fourth year of Tianqi was very calm. After the scourge of the realm, the ambitious hero Zhao Jin, seized Shandong and the Jiangbei region of South Zhili, he actually kept his word and did not continue sending troops to invade.

According to the conventions of the Great Ming, although a new sovereign had ascended the throne, the following year would be the first year of Chongzhen; this year still used the Tianqi reign title. The new sovereign ruled diligently and strove for order, first dismissing the eunuch faction that had wreaked havoc on court politics and punishing the chief culprit Wei Zhongxian. The scholars and upright officials were overjoyed, all feeling that a restoration was in sight.

However, "overjoyed" only appeared in essays. Even the upright officials themselves felt it wasn't something they could say with full confidence.

It was under these circumstances that several large ships docked at the seaport of Tianjin. When these large ships appeared, the Great Ming government troops near Tianjin were extremely nervous. The military officer in charge, while sealing off the news from below, sent men to the capital with an urgent report for help, while also sending his household servants to pack up his valuables in preparation for flight. There were even those who went directly to the Cloud Mountain Trading Company to make contact, saying they had always yearned for the righteous cause and were willing to follow the Mandate of Heaven, and so on.

Few thought they could stop the other side from landing. By now, troops could no longer be stationed at the Tianjin seaport and the canal berths; just getting there would take time. Once that damnable Xuzhou army formed its battle lines, who could possibly break through?

Calculating the time, it should be the moment to seize the realm. The Zhao Family Army had already bombarded the city walls back then. The reason they hadn't taken the city immediately was insufficient preparation; now, surely everything was ready and they were about to make their move.

The news was carried by relay horses to the capital. The grand ministers of the court, where the righteous now filled the ranks, immediately began discussing the matter of relocating the capital. By now, the choices were becoming increasingly clear: one was Shaanxi, relying on the Shaanxi border troops and the relatively closed terrain there to resist; the other was Wuchang, the rich core of the upper Yangtze and a thoroughfare hub of several provinces, where one could also make a stand.

In the past, whoever voiced such a proposal in court would likely have been beaten to death on the spot by the crowd. Yet now, everyone spoke of it with ease and calm. The situation being what it was, and it wasn't as if no one had said it before — why stubbornly resist?

There was a deeper consideration as well. In the past, there had actually been some undercurrents in secret. Many did not want to move the capital not because the Great Ming truly refused to cede territory, negotiate peace, or relocate the capital, but because they wanted to sell this capital city, and the Son of Heaven within it, for a good price. When the old dynasty fell and the new one rose, if one could switch allegiance and still serve as an official in the new court, to maintain one's glory, wealth, and rank unchanged, or to gain even greater benefits, then one would need to use the Son of Heaven as the bargaining chip.

However, the subsequent developments were beyond everyone's expectations. They could see that Zhao Jin's new dynasty was completely different from anything recorded in the history books. In his system, there was no place for the scholar-official class. According to news coming from Shandong, even the descendants of sages like Confucius and Mencius enjoyed no special privileges or preferential treatment.

By all reason, a power that so disrespected the sages and trampled on culture should have been a disorganized rabble, unworthy of concern. Yet this Zhao Family Army was uncommonly strict, disciplined, and formidable. Everything had its system and rules, which left the scholars who had thoroughly studied the sages' books completely baffled, and they felt utterly incapable of adapting to it.

This made the scholars' hair stand on end. No place for themselves, no ground to stand on — and yet this force actually looked like it might succeed. What would become of them in the future?

If bringing great gifts and selling oneself into service couldn't fetch a suitable price, then the only path left was to seek amnesty. Resist as much as possible, fight as hard as possible, and then, when the time came to be offered amnesty, negotiate terms. Only then could they secure a suitable position to settle down and make a living.

Just in the midst of this panic, the Chongzhen Emperor had already spoken in court the words "perish together like jade and stone," a phrase no one wanted to hear. Then news from Tianjin arrived again.

Those large ships were actually loaded with human heads — several thousand heads. They were unloaded and transported to the official road leading from Tianjin to the capital. There, in a few wide, flat open grounds west of Tianjin city, the Xuzhou men went to great trouble to erect fences and pile the heads inside into a victory mound.

Displayed along with the heads were banners, armor, and weapons, all belonging to the troops of the Jianzhou Jurchen Jin Kingdom. It was said they had been encircled and annihilated in two battles by the Zhao Family Army, which had crossed the sea and landed.

This bloody and terrifying exhibit was open for all to see. They even spent money to invite several retired officials and clerks from the Ministry of War to come and inspect them. In recent years, there had been far too many incidents of government troops killing civilians and passing them off as war spoils; the Ministry of War could not possibly pretend to be blind and not see it. Since every head was rewarded with silver and career advancement, a set of verification procedures had also been established.

If no prior connections had been smoothed over, then a serious inspection was required. The hairstyles of Mongols and Jurchens differed from those of the Han, their teeth differed due to dietary habits, and there were slight differences in facial features. A careful inspection could make things very clear. For example, because Jurchen men wore the queue and shaved forehead hairstyle year-round, the hair and the back of the head were vastly different from those of the Han.

Although within the Ministry of War there was a tide of open cursing and secret envy — some even sneaked out of the city to volunteer their services — everyone felt it was absurd. In the entire Ming dynasty, ever since the Yongle Emperor Zhu Di, apart from suppressing internal rebellions, there had never been a time when more than a thousand heads were taken from the Mongols or any of the northern alien tribes. A few hundred heads could earn a marquisate. If you wanted to fake it, you should at least make it look believable — producing nearly ten thousand heads all at once, who could possibly believe it? Still, everyone felt this wasn't necessarily a bad thing. At worst, they could help with the fakery, which would also be a huge favor owed.

Some wanted to go and curry favor, while others were filled with righteous indignation. Several young secretaries in the Ministry of War were beside themselves with rage. The faint good impression they had previously held of the Zhao Family Army vanished like smoke. Among the upright censors, there were also young men, the kind not shackled by the great principles of the classics, who judged things calmly and objectively. These few in the Ministry of War were precisely such men.

For Zhao Jin of Xuzhou to raise troops and march north, threatening the capital, carving up territory — this was rebellion and treason. The muddled old fools either cursed Zhao Jin as an unpardonable monster or secretly thought of defecting to curry favor, while these calm and astute young men saw much more in Xuzhou's systemic structure.

They knew the Great Ming's situation was worsening. Such methods of tax collection, such preferential treatment for the scholar-official class, such additional levies of grain and pay — not only did they fail to solve the problems, they deepened the damage, gradually becoming irreversible. Xuzhou, on the other hand, was thriving and prosperous; they had completely avoided these mistakes.

Intelligent people knew that some methods worked on a small scale but became useless when expanded. The saying "a talent for governing a prefecture may not befit a prime minister" expressed exactly this principle. Yet many of Xuzhou's practices were clearly applicable to the entire realm, capable of reversing this declining momentum across all under Heaven.

Seeing this, they could not help but pay attention, and even had the inclination to learn. These young men in the Ministry of War, along with officials and scholars in the capital who held similar views, were die-hard supporters of Sun Chuanting. They endorsed this method of "learning from the rebel's strengths to control the rebel."

Since they endorsed this method, their hostility inevitably faded somewhat. This was actually quite similar to what Chen Jisheng and Zhang Pan had been thinking. No matter how much Xuzhou stirred things up, they were still Huaxia, still Han. The Jianzhou Jurchens, on the other hand, were Tatar slaves and barbarians. One side might represent a change of the Mandate of Heaven, while the other was an irreconcilable foe.

But this news of nearly ten thousand heads taken made their goodwill and favorable impression vanish completely, replaced by uncontrollable fury.

"This must be killing civilians and passing them off as war spoils!"

"To deceive the hearts of the people under Heaven, they actually committed such a deranged and unconscionable act!"

"Such men are truly great villains, not regarding the lives of common people in the slightest. If they ever gain power, the world will be worse than hell!"

Some things shouldn't be said openly, but as things stood now, there was nothing left to worry about or hold back.

Moreover, these young officials, who still had hot blood in their veins, decided to do something. They too would go and inspect the heads. Of course, the nominal reason was to curry favor with Xuzhou. Once they uncovered the truth, they would expose it to the public. No matter how tightly Zhao Jin of Xuzhou controlled things, he couldn't silence the mouths of the people. Once the exposé was copied and circulated, the whole realm would soon be in an uproar.

Although the Zhao Family Army's military might was formidable, if their deranged behavior became known to all under Heaven, they would either be unable to hold power or would have to restrain themselves. Either way, it would be beneficial.

In the final analysis, in the final analysis, these young officials who fancied themselves knowledgeable in military affairs simply did not believe that a single battle could yield nearly ten thousand heads.

For two hundred years since the founding of the Ming, the Hongwu Emperor had driven out the Tatar slaves, and the Yongle Emperor had launched five northern expeditions, thoroughly crushing the Mongols — battle achievements of the highest order. After that, there were never again any great victories. From Esen Taishi of the Oirats, to the Dayan Khan, to Altan Khan, all the way to the current Ligdan Khan of the Chahar, and the Jianzhou Jurchens rising in the northeast — the Great Ming military had never achieved any truly respectable victory.

The famous minister Wang Yue was enfeoffed as a marquis based on just over a thousand heads taken. Ma Fang became a grand commander based on a few hundred heads taken, and his sons all became regional commanders. Li Chengliang's battle record was the same. And when Qi Jiguang garrisoned the northern frontier, the various tribes of the border regions were so awed by him that they remained at peace — but that had no heads to verify.

Apart from these, battles with over a thousand or several thousand heads taken only occurred in campaigns to suppress civilian uprisings. And in recent years, battles with several thousand heads taken could only be cases of killing civilians and passing them off as war spoils.

The proof of military merit in the Great Ming was the severed head. To get rewards, to get promoted, it all depended on how many heads you had chopped off. The heads of tough enemies like the Mongols and Jurchens were never easy to get in large numbers. Later, even the heads of roving bandits couldn't be gotten. What to do? The increasingly lawless Great Ming military officers began to eye the heads of law-abiding commoners. Chopping off the heads of these unresisting, weak civilians was the easiest thing of all.

It was just that for now, everyone was still somewhat restrained in what they did. The Ministry of War knew of these rumors, but as long as it wasn't too excessive, they would usually just hold their noses and accept it.

But this Zhao Family Army, for the sake of mere empty fame, had actually procured so many heads. According to the news coming back from Tianjin, these heads were all fresh, within ten days old. How could battle achievements possibly be so great? How long had they even been in Liaodong? How could they possibly have won such a victory? This was definitely the wanton slaughter of civilians.