Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 286 Even if you win, it's still troublesome

As far as Zhu Cilang knew, after the Battle of Liaoluo Bay, there had been no large-scale conflicts between the Ming Dynasty and Westerners except for a few smaller frictions.

After all, the Dutch are about to win the Battle of the Downs, and the Franks are no longer able to compete with them at sea.

Under such circumstances, the Dutch should be suppressing the French on a global scale. No matter how you think about it, it is unlikely that they would provoke the Ming Dynasty, a behemoth in the eyes of Westerners.

However, due to the issue of going out to sea to purchase food, the course of history must have changed slightly. Even if the Reds will not launch a large-scale attack, it is not completely impossible for them to make some tests.

So after hearing Zheng Zhilong report the unusual movements of Westerners, he became a little unsure.

White people have always been like this. If they meet someone who is not easy to deal with, they will talk to you about rules and honesty. But once they meet a soft persimmon, they will throw away the bottom line of being a human being and there is no need to talk about rules and honesty anymore.

Zhu Cilang was very clear about this. He even believed that if the Ming Dynasty had been defeated in the Battle of Naliao Bay, those white people would have pounced on the Ming Dynasty, which was facing internal and external troubles, like jackals.

Then
"Zhou Quan, pass the message to Wang Fuping."

Zhang Guowei had been gone for quite a while, but Zhu Cilang had been staring at the notebook on the table in a daze, not even turning a page.

Zhou Quan was probably used to His Majesty's behavior, so when the rather sudden voice came, he immediately took the order and went out without even wasting half a breath.

To be honest, Zhu Cilang was still a little worried.

Although the situation of the Ming Dynasty at the time of the Battle of Liaoluo Bay was not good, it was still a vast empire with a territory of thousands of miles. In addition, the Ming Dynasty also showed considerable courage and strength in that battle. Even though the red-haired people had long been salivating over the wealth of the Ming Dynasty, they had to endure it.

But now the Ming Dynasty can't even maintain its outward glory.

If the Red Hair really wanted to test the Ming Dynasty after suppressing the Franks, with whom he had an irreconcilable feud, then with Zhu Cilang's current strength, it is not certain that he would be able to win again like he did in the past.

After a while, Wang Fuping appeared in the warm room holding a stack of intelligence that he had handed in today. Just as he was about to pick out some important information to report, Zhu Cilang asked directly, "Why haven't you heard anything from Jiangbei these days?"

Hearing this, Wang Fuping did not panic. After taking out a few pieces of information from the stack and handing them to Zhou Quan, he began to explain in detail.

There were naturally movements on the side of the pseudo-dynasty. Not to mention that many surrendered officials were sent from Beijing to Huai'an by the Tartars, even Hong Chengchou, the prime minister of the pseudo-dynasty, was busy without a moment's rest.

But all this news had already been reported in the last routine report, so Wang Fuping did not bother His Majesty with these unoriginal things.

"Do you know if there are any ships other than those of the Ming Dynasty appearing in Jiangbei?"

"This"

As soon as Zhu Cilang finished speaking, Wang Fuping immediately fell into deep thought.

This question really stumped him.

For several months, he has been busy getting in touch with the spies deployed by the Jinyiwei back then. Up to now, although the harvest south of the Yangtze River is quite good, he can only detect some not-so-secret information north of the Yangtze River.

"According to Zheng Zhilong, the Red Hairs seem to be making some unusual moves. You should devote more energy to Jiangbei to see if the Tartars are connected with the Red Hairs."

Seeing Wang Fuping's expression, Zhu Cilang could probably imagine that the Jinyiwei's infiltration of Jiangbei would not be very effective.

One must eat one bite at a time. It has only been half a year since the siege of Yingtian was lifted. It is already excellent that Wang Fuping has achieved this. He can only point it out directly to make people pay more attention to it.

Wang Fuping always obeyed His Majesty's orders. After he finished speaking, the three ministers came together, so he naturally left the palace and went to his own government office.

"Commander, has His Majesty arranged another errand?"

As soon as Wang Fuping entered the yamen, several centurions came to greet him. It was obvious that they had been waiting there for a long time.

On weekdays, the Jinyiwei would report all the important news to the palace every two days, and Wang Fuping would personally go to the palace every four days to make a summary and analysis.

If it was just a routine summons, these subordinates would have their own errands and probably wouldn't have had the time to wait at the door. But this time it was His Majesty who took the initiative to summon him to the palace, and the Jinyiwei, who had always been quite sensitive about such matters, naturally had to welcome their commander.

"It says inside."

Wang Fuping's pace did not slow down at all because of the greeting of his subordinates. After entering his own custody room, he explained in detail the task assigned to him by His Majesty.

"You are all veterans of the Imperial Guard. You need to come up with a set of rules as soon as possible on how to handle this mission."

After the words fell, there was silence in the room. People like Ma Jinlu, who were closer to Wang Fuping, even looked at the other people in confusion.

He couldn't help but feel confused.

Zhu Cilang’s idea was really too wild and unconventional. How could people like them, who had focused on land all their lives, possibly digest such an idea?
"Commander, according to what I think, the emperor's words must have other meanings."

Just when everyone in the room felt that it was a little unbelievable, a thin captain stood up first and expressed his thoughts.

His name is Du Fangyi, and he is responsible for collecting various documents.

Because he is in a marginal position in business, his status among the thousand households has always been ranked last, but who can tell whether it is a blessing or a disaster?
Because he had access to more documents and records, he knew that some emperors did not like to talk. It was for this reason that after hearing such a confusing task, he felt that His Majesty's meaning must not be as simple as it seemed.

"Oh? How can I meet you?"

"Commander, you don't know that the red-haired people just want to do business. As long as they are supplied with enough goods, they will be like well-fed pigs and will never make trouble." Du Fangyi secretly glanced at Wang Fuping's expression. After seeing that his boss was obviously inspired by his words, he continued, "Your Majesty must know what I know, so I thought that Your Majesty's intention was not to fall on the red-haired people."

"Didn't it fall on Red Hair?"

"Absolutely not!"

Du Fangyi had just finished speaking when Wang Fuping's voice followed. I don't know whether it was stimulated by the current scene or Du Fangyi gradually sorted out his thoughts, but such a low-key and timid person actually responded decisively after hearing the inquiry in his boss's words.

Of course, self-confidence is necessary if you want to convince others. However, when Wang Fuping, who was still skeptical, saw his subordinates perform like this, the balance in his heart inevitably tilted towards him.

"伱means"

"Your command is wise! What I mean is the noble family!"

People have said things to this point, and even though Wang Fuping was still a little confused, he could only put on an expression that he understood everything.

Afterwards, Du Fangyi explained the basis of his theory in detail, and everyone in the room could only ponder.

More than a dozen great families that had been passed down for who knows how many years were destroyed overnight. This incident probably only came as a shock to some people who had no connection with the incident, but it was not so simple for the aristocratic families with complicated connections.

But now His Majesty has hundreds of thousands of troops at his disposal, and his reasons for raiding those families are impeccable. Even if people who are related to those families are dissatisfied, they can only suppress them, and at most cause some trouble for the court within the rules.

Under such circumstances, the Jinyiwei had to be on guard against some people with evil intentions who might collude with Jiangbei.

"That makes sense! In the next few days, have your subordinates focus on those who are related to those traitors!"

"I accept my order from my humble position!"

At this time, local forces were too strong. Not to mention that the farmlands scattered throughout the counties and prefectures allowed them to raise a force to fight against the local government in a short period of time, even if they distributed the money they had saved for who knows how many lifetimes, they could make the court's rules work for them.

Such local forces have always been the target of suppression by the central government, but in the early period of Chinese history, local forces have always held an absolute advantage in the struggle with the central government.

Take the Zhou Dynasty for example. Although the central ruler at that time was called the Son of Heaven, there were many princes who were much stronger than him in terms of power.

By the time of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the power of the princes was enough to crush the central government, and the title of Son of Heaven was thrown to the ground and trampled on by local forces more than once.

Don't think that only the relationship between the emperor and the princes was like this during that period. In fact, the control of the feudal lords over their retainers was generally weak among the princes.

This situation did not undergo a fundamental change until Emperor Qin Shihuang administered the entire country through counties and Emperor Wu of Han increased the central government's financial strength through the salt and iron monopolies.

Later, under the inertia of these regulations, although the power comparison between local and central governments experienced twists and turns, it generally showed a trend of the central government being strong in the early stages of the dynasty and the local governments being strong in the late stages.

However, for Zhu Cilang, due to various factors, the local forces under his rule had been severely damaged, and the power of the central government had been greatly strengthened compared to the Chongzhen period.

But his methods can only be used once or twice but not repeatedly. Otherwise, when the aristocratic families representing local forces recognize his true face, they will surely launch a frenzied counterattack.

Don't think this is alarmist. At this time, Zhang Xianzhong, who was in Sichuan, was the most direct victim of the counterattack by local clans.

"Father, in my opinion, our army should first defeat He Luohui's troops, and then leave one army to stop Haoge by taking advantage of the terrain. This way, we can free up our hands to deal with the Ming court forces in various places in Sichuan."

In the Daxi Palace in Chengdu, Sun Kewang (don't worry about the name) spoke excitedly for a while and then looked at his adoptive father with expectation.

Zhang Xianzhong entered Sichuan from Hunan at the beginning of the year before last. After entering Sichuan, his peasant army was truly unstoppable. Not only did they capture several cities in succession, even the famous Qin Liangyu was defeated by them.

Although the situation later encountered more resistance than when the Tartars first entered the south of the Yangtze River, in terms of the overall degree of success, it can be said to be on the same level.

After that, they won victory after victory. Not only did they not encounter any opponents among the government troops, but even the local forces were quite submissive.

After more than half a year, the entire Sichuan province basically fell into the hands of Zhang Xianzhong. He then ascended the throne in Chengdu and named his country Dashi, which was considered an achievement.

If he had settled down like this, he would have been able to hold out for a few more years in this chaotic world with Sichuan's geographical advantages. But who would have thought that the rebel armies in the late Ming Dynasty all followed the same strategy. Not only did Zhang Xianzhong have no intention of building good relations with local forces, he also weakened them in various ways.

How could the local forces tolerate this?

After all, it was his Zhu family that suffered in the change of dynasties, so what did it have to do with the local aristocratic families? However, Zhang Xianzhong's methods were not only very direct, but also clearly appeared in various documents of the new dynasty.

As a result, Sichuan, which had originally had no ability to resist the Dashi Army, immediately erupted with amazing combat effectiveness.

By this time, not only was it difficult for Zhang Xianzhong's decrees to spread beyond Chengdu, but even the officials he sent out died under the common hatred of local forces and the Ming army.

If it were just that, the worst that could happen would be a "killing". But the problem was that the remnants of the Shun army entrenched at the junction of Sichuan and Shaanxi could no longer withstand the continuous fierce attack of the Qing army. The Qing court even appointed Prince Su Haoge as the General of Jingyuan to attack Sichuan, and led Wu Sangui and other Manchu and Han troops to march straight to the center of Sichuan.

At this time when the country was attacked from all sides and was in trouble both internally and externally, even though Zhang Xianzhong had led soldiers for most of his life, he still felt a little overwhelmed.

So he summoned all his adopted sons to Chengdu to discuss how to deal with this crisis.

"Father, why don't you send a light cavalry to Hanzhong to support the Shun army?"

After listening to Sun Kewang's words, Li Dingguo, who was standing aside, hesitated for a moment and added a sentence. It was obvious that he also strongly supported his brother's opinion.

It has to be said that these adopted sons of Zhang Xianzhong all have extremely high tactical levels.

After his accidental death, although those people became enemies due to various disagreements, they rarely suffered a disadvantage when facing the Qing army.

This is naturally related to the fact that after they returned to the Ming Dynasty, they received support from some local forces, which greatly improved their equipment and logistics levels. However, without extremely high tactical qualities, they would not be able to make full use of these favorable conditions.

"What do you mean?"

Seeing that his two adopted sons expressed the same idea, Zhang Xianzhong asked the others another question, and after he asked this question, the others nodded slowly. It was obvious that this method was their only way to survive.

"I have been wandering for half my life, and it seems that I will have no chance to live in this imperial palace." At this point, Zhang Xianzhong seemed to be a little regretful that the palace had not been built yet, but in just a moment, he seemed to have made up his mind and went straight to the harem.

(End of this chapter)