Southern Ming, my destiny is too abstract

Chapter 97 Gossip
The 15th year of the Yongli reign, the 18th year of the Shunzhi reign, the summer solstice.

Since October last year, Wu Sangui received news about the remnant Ming emperor and began to send troops to western Yunnan and station them on the border.

When the Ming army entered Yunnan from three directions, Dai Qing Gushan Beizi was killed in battle, and the Qing army switched from offense to defense.

In just half a year, the situation has changed very rapidly.

However, after the dramatic changes of 1661, the Xinchou Year, and the Jiashen Rebellion, in which the Ming, Shun, and Qing dynasties took turns to reign, the Ming officials in Yunnan and Yunnan quickly adapted to the situation.

On the contrary, the people of Yunnan and Dian feel a little at a loss.

In the 12th year of the Yongli reign, the Qing army entered Yunnan from three directions. The Ming Dynasty was defeated step by step, and the emperor fled south to hunt in Burma.

After the looting, massacre and land grabbing by Wu Sangui and the Qing army, the chieftains and their people seemed to be able to breathe a sigh of relief, but then the Ming Dynasty fought back again.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince exempted taxes and provided relief to the people, which of course allowed the area to continue to survive.

But when King Qingpingxi retreated to the eastern border of Yunnan, he did not spare the people in Chuxiong, Kunming, Wuning and other places.

Both the Ming and Qing dynasties began to fight for the people.

Naturally, there was wailing everywhere in central and western Yunnan.

Jingdong Prefecture is sandwiched between two mountains. Although it is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it is very inconvenient to transport food and fodder and to dispatch troops.

After a brief discussion, the Ming government and the people decided to move the capital to Dali Prefecture. Emperor Yongli would rather flee to a foreign country than move to Dali Prefecture.

The white snow on the top of Cangshan Mountain and the sparkling waves on the shores of Erhai Lake.

It's a beautiful scenery.

But it was difficult to make the civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty intoxicated.

The scorching heat even made many civil and military officials increasingly irritable.

However, it is said that Emperor Yongli, who had been on the run for half his life, was abducted and placed under house arrest in Anlong by Sun Kewang after the Dashi Army allied with the Ming Dynasty to resist the Qing Dynasty.

Although it is not free, at least there is no danger.

The ministers of the Ming Dynasty court were not like Qu Shisi and Chen Zizhuang, who were always prepared to sacrifice their lives for the country.

After the Eighteen Gentlemen case, Emperor Yongli's court officials operated smoothly for four or five years.

If Emperor Yongli Zhu Youlang died in Yihuang, this team could be inherited intact by the Crown Prince.

But Emperor Yongli was living well in Ava City.

Of course, the court officials are willing to support His Royal Highness the Crown Prince who can lead the Ming Dynasty to prosperity again.

However, Crown Prince Zhu Cixuan did not seem to trust them very much, or had doubts about their abilities.

If the prince had not fought back so quickly, Wu Sangui would have retreated so decisively.

As long as the external threat is not eliminated, the court officials can slowly contact the prince.

There is no military threat for now, and after things stabilize, the old traditions of the Southern Ming Dynasty will begin to unfold again.

At least many civil and military officials were dissatisfied with the temporary seven ministers set up by the prince in Ava City.

Chen Ande, Ren Guoxi, and Deng Shilian.

Are these three people qualified to enter the cabinet and serve as ministers of six ministries?
……

Dali is a key node on the Ancient Tea-Horse Road and a must-pass place for horse caravans and tea merchants.

There is no shortage of restaurants and inns.

In a restaurant that specializes in clay pot fish, three Ming Dynasty officials seemed quite relaxed at the moment.

Jin Weixin called out to the other two: "Xuanchu, Weixin, come and try this Erhai fish."

“But it’s very Dali-style.”

Liu Xuanchu looked at the red and green earthenware fish decorated with papaya and black plum, and his mouth watered. He picked up a piece of fish belly meat after hearing the invitation.

Liu Ju, whose courtesy name was Wei Xin, caught a glimpse of the chili peppers floating in the fish soup, hesitated for a moment, and then turned her chopsticks to another plate of delicious chicken.

The prince wanted to eat chili peppers, and the empress dowager and emperor of Shu also liked spicy food, so there were quite a few chili peppers sent as tribute from the Nanyang and Nanman tribes.

Some businessmen also took the opportunity to open up markets in Yunnan and Yunnan.

It was said that these three people could never pee together in the past.

They are even political enemies.

Liu Xuanchu's former master, King Liu Wenxiu of Shu, died of grief and anger due to being imprisoned by King Li Dingguo of Jin.

Jin Weixin himself was Li Dingguo's military advisor, so it is hard to say whether he contributed any advice.

Jin Weixin had previously formed a clique with the traitor Ma Jixiang and refuted Liu Ju's strategy of moving the capital to southern Sichuan to join forces with the Thirteen Families of Kuidong to attack Chongqing.

Jin Weixin himself was one of the traitors who destroyed the country as Liu Ju said.

Even without talking about politics, it would be difficult for the three of them to sit together based on their backgrounds.

Jin Weixin was recommended by the local area when the Dashi Army was in Yunnan and Yunnan.

Liu Xuanchu was a scholar from Sichuan. He had previously been mixed up with the warlords in southern Sichuan. It was only after Liu Wenxiu pacified Sichuan that he joined the Yongli Dashi regime.

As for Liu Ju, he was a legitimate minister of the Yongli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

In the third year of the Yongli reign, when the army was in turmoil, the court held an imperial examination to recruit scholars. Liu Ju was admitted at that time and became a Shujishi. Later, he was promoted to the position of Qiandu Yushi.

Just when it comes to food, Liu Ju, a Jinshi from eastern Guangdong, cannot even sit at the same table with Liu Xuanchu and Jin Weixin from Sichuan and Yunnan.

But aren't these three the ones that the prince has chosen and appointed to important positions, not to mention the small cabinet of advisers that has been criticized by court officials?

It was during these days that they spent time in the prince's study offering advice and suggestions, and the three of them put aside their past and became friends with each other.

After three rounds of drinking.

Jin Weixin sighed, "It's because the Crown Prince acted too quickly that the court is in such a state of confusion right now."

According to the plan he and the prince had made in Mubang.

The prince's special forces disrupted the Qing army's rear, forcing Wu Sangui to withdraw slowly. Li Dingguo slowly recovered western Yunnan, and then recovered southern Yunnan together with Mu Tianbo of Yuanjiang Prefecture.

It will take at least until the second half of the year to recover western and southern Yunnan.

But who could have imagined that the prince was so brave and the people of Yunnan and Dian were so wise.

Wherever he went, old ministers came to submit to him one after another, and the lost territories were quickly recovered.

This was also because the remaining ministers of the Ming Dynasty still acted according to the old calendar of the Yongli Dynasty and were not used to the Ming Dynasty's style of doing things in Hongshawadi, which led to conflicts with the prince.

Liu Xuanchu drank a glass of rice wine to relieve the spiciness.

"That's because the Reform Movement didn't know about Wu Sangui's atrocities in Yunnan and Yunnan."

Wu Sangui alone would not be able to cause much harm to the hereditary territory in just one year.

But it could not stop the Pingxi vassal soldiers from enclosing land, driving out civilians, and extorting money from the rich.

The chieftains provided money, men and elephants for Dai Qing, but were also plundered by the departing Pingxi vassal army.

"It can only be said that the Crown Prince cooperated well with those in the pseudo-Qing court, and the rumors in Yunnan and Yunnan forced Wu Sangui to gradually distance himself from the Qing court."

"Not to mention Shangshan's death, when he retreated to eastern Yunnan, only the Pingxi army was left in central and western Yunnan."

"If Wu Sangui doesn't leave quickly, Shang Kexi, Zhang Yong and the others will at most come to rescue when Pingxi Fan is still breathing its last breath."

Liu Ju put down his bowl and chopsticks and sighed:
"For now, we should at least work together to drive Wu Sangui and the Qing army out of Yunnan and Yunnan."

"Brother Xuanchu, are the main debates in the court still about those three things?"

Victory in war is of course a joy to behold.

But the complicated government affairs made people feel overwhelmed.

Especially the ministers who prefer to proceed with stability, there are all barriers when it comes to getting along with and cooperating with the impatient prince.

Liu Xuanchu finished the wine in his glass and nodded slowly.

The military threat posed by the Qing Dynasty has not yet been eradicated.

The top priority is naturally military deployment and expansion of the military system.

There is nothing much to talk about military deployment in the court.

Crown Prince Zhu Cixuan and Liu Xuanchu made a plan in Kunming City.

It is too difficult for Yunnan and Dian to attack.

Entering Sichuan through Jianchang means that an isolated army would penetrate four or five hundred miles deep into enemy territory. It would take a year and a half just to set up camps and store food along the way.

Entering Sichuan through Dongchuan Prefecture and Wusha Prefecture, they were attacked by the Qing army from Chongqing and Guiyang.

When they entered Guizhou and Guizhou, the Qing army mobilized a 100,000-strong army.

They could only try to break through Guangxi Prefecture and Guangnan Prefecture, or take the route from Lancang and Annan to Guangxi and Guangdong, and open up another front to disperse the Qing army.

The Ming Dynasty has 100,000 elite troops, and with the help of the Crown Prince and Prince Jin, they can certainly try to break through the Qing army's encirclement head-on.

Not to mention that there are none now, even after Sun Kewang's military expansion and Wu Sangui's disaster, the entire Yunnan and Yunnan provinces could not gather 100,000 elite troops in decades.

We only need to train the Nanman soldiers for two or three years to see if we can make them into elite troops.

The military and economy are inseparable.

Yunnan and Yunnan were in ruins, and there was nothing to be expected. The grain shipped from Hongshawadi was lost on the way.

Even if we rely on the three harvests of rice a year from Hongsha and Siam, we will have to wait until the end of the year to raise enough food before we can send out another army.

Fortunately, there are 30 million taels of silver in the national treasury.

Otherwise, he would be like Emperor Yongli, who had no salary or food and had to owe his soldiers.

After the Prince of Jin handed over the military power to the Crown Prince, the court temporarily decided on the strategy of moving to the southeast.

If he was rich enough, he could also reform the chaotic military system of the Ming Dynasty.

The old Daxi army is not just the West Camp.

Including the old Ming army such as Ma Baoma, Weixing and Ma Zide.

At that time, Sun Kewang had money and food, so Li Dingguo depended on him. Later, he betrayed Sun Kewang and was under the control of Li Dingguo.

Ming troops like Zhao Yinxuan and Hu Yiqing had always been isolated from the Dashi Army, and only occasionally obeyed Li Dingguo's orders for the sake of the face of Yongli, the orthodox Ming Dynasty.

Even within the Western Camp, there are hidden factions of Qin, Jin and Shu.

Reform is imperative, and we cannot continue to issue such general orders to send troops.

Military affairs were naturally discussed and decided by Zhu Cixuan and Li Dingguo alone.

The other three things mentioned by Liu Ju and Liu Xuanchu were what the court officials argued about endlessly.

Liu Xuanchu poured a little rice wine on the table, dipped his index finger in the wine, and wrote three words.

Pavilion, Zhuang, Emperor.

The cabinet consists of seven ministers.

Emperor Yongli fled into Hongsha in panic, and most of his important officials were abandoned in Yunnan and Yunnan.

There were only two cabinet ministers around him, Ma Jixiang and Yang Zai (Ma Jixiang's son-in-law).

These two people have been killed by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

The former cabinet minister of the Yongli Dynasty.

Wen Anzhi, the commander-in-chief of the Thirteen Families of Kuidong, died for his country.

It is unknown whether Guo Zhiqi in the southeast is alive or dead.

Zhang Huangyan from the coastal area followed Zheng Yanping.

There were also some people like Fang Duanshi who were officials from the northern regions who rebelled against the Qing Dynasty and fought against the Qing Dynasty behind enemy lines. It is unknown whether they died for their country or surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.

The Yongli cabinet ministers in Dali Prefecture now include Zhang Zuochen, Lei Yuelong and Fu Gang who just arrived from Guizhou.

The latter two are truly important officials of the country.

When facing both of them, Emperor Yongli respectfully addressed them as "Sir".

Zhang Zuochen was even a close confidant of Emperor Yongli Zhu Youlang.

During the Anlong period, Sun Kewang attempted to usurp power. Zhu Youlang and loyal ministers such as Wu Zhenyu secretly allied with Li Dingguo, which led to the Eighteen Gentlemen Case. It was Zhu Youlang who was protected by Zhang Zuochen, the then Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel.

The original six ministers of the Yongli Emperor also included the Minister of Revenue Sun Shun and the Minister of Punishment Yin Sanpin.

In the city of Ava, the prince appointed three important ministers.

Chen Ande was an ordinary juren, Ren Guoxi had no qualifications at all, and only Deng Shilian barely caught the attention of the civil officials.

You should know that when Zhu Youlang just became regent, Ding Kuichu and Lu Daqi looked down on Su Guansheng, who was not a real Jinshi, and asked the latter to support the Little Tang King, which led to the Yongli-Shaowu dispute.

Zhu Cixuan believed that if the Yongli court of the Ming Dynasty was really useful, it would not have let Li Dingguo lead it.

So I still want to keep an obedient private team.

This is very troublesome.

First there was the coup d'état, and then Prince Lu became regent and Shaowu proclaimed himself emperor.

The prince himself even staged a military coup to seize power, placed the emperor under house arrest and ruled the country unlawfully.

The name is not justified.

There is no guarantee that some officials will not develop disloyalty.

Therefore, after Emperor Yongli sent the abdication edict, everyone in the court and the country wanted the crown prince to inherit the throne and reassure the people.

The prince had soldiers, money, and food, and he liked to be a dictator and act arbitrarily, so no one dared to oppose him.

This brings up two other small issues.

In the fifteenth year of the Yongli reign, it became known to the whole world and to all the people.

The Thirteen Families of Kuidong and Zheng Yanping of the coastal area also only respected Yongli.

When talking about the Thirteen Families and Zheng Yanping, there is one person who cannot be avoided.

Emperor Xiang of the Han Dynasty, Longwu, and King Tang of the Han Dynasty, Zhu Youjian.

Emperor Longwu was not recognized during the Yongli Dynasty. It was only last year when Zhu Youlang, who was detained by the King of Toungoo, felt that the Ming Dynasty was really about to end that he gave him a posthumous title.

This non-recognition was due, on the one hand, to the previous dispute with Emperor Shaowu of the Little Tang Dynasty, and on the other hand, Emperor Longwu was really not worthy of the title.

The Tang Wang's vassalage was ridiculously far away, only slightly closer than the Jingjiang Wang, Taizu's brother.

Emperor Longwu himself was only supported by the big pirate Zheng Zhilong. If Zhu Youlang, who was still the Yongming Prince, had not claimed to be the crown prince, it is hard to say whether the people of the world would recognize him.

Yongli called himself the Eighteenth Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, which means the eighteen emperors in addition to the original sixteen emperors and his cousin Emperor Hongguang.

however.

The original name of the Thirteen Families, the Zhongzheng Camp, was given by Emperor Longwu, and Zheng Yanping also had his surname given by Emperor Longwu.

Just for the sake of uniting the anti-Qing forces, the position of the 18th emperor of the Ming Dynasty should be left to Longwu.

Zhu Cixuan wanted to honor Emperor Longwu, but a few of Emperor Yongli's confidants refused to do so.

Liu Xuanchu and the other two stared at the word "Zhuang" with difficulty on their faces.

The succession to the throne and the arrangements for court officials are all easy to deal with.

The key is the military farm or imperial farm that the prince wants to build.

This touched upon the very foundations of the chieftains and landlords in Yunnan and Yunnan.

After Li Dingguo expelled Sun Kewang, he won over the literati officials from Yunnan and Yunnan and abolished this practice.

At that time in the study, Jin Weixin suggested using the Hongsawadi Sanqing education system.

After Liu Xuanchu and Liu Ju understood, they immediately refused.

Do you still want to win the support of the people by doing this?

Apart from anything else, after Wang's army returned to Yunnan, most of the chieftains surrendered to the Ming Dynasty and tried their best to cooperate.

The key point is, apart from the genius Sun Kewang, who has the ability to maintain this set at the moment.

Prince of Jin Li Dingguo didn't know the benefits of it, but he really couldn't continue to maintain it.

Not to mention, Duke of Qian Mu Tianbo stood in front of the chieftains and landlords.

That’s right, Zhu Cixuan’s father-in-law Mu Tianbo stood against him.

Well, even if you marry off your daughter, you don’t have to use all the savings of the Mu Palace that has guarded Yundian for three hundred years as a dowry.

When Mu Tianbo heard that the prince had taken over one million taels of gold from his family into the national treasury, he almost fainted.

Mu Tianbo led his troops into southern Yunnan as early as when Zhu Cixuan returned north from Xiahongsha.

He had no idea that his own hidden gold had been revealed to the prince by his daughter.

After learning the news, Mu Tianbo scolded the spendthrift girl for the whole day.

It is okay to sacrifice your life for your country, but it is not okay to sacrifice your family for your country.

Wu Sangui lost his mind and wanted to fight to the death with Zhu Cixuan after having nearly 10 million taels of silver plundered from him.

Mu Tianbo had more than one million taels of gold taken away, but it was only to support the chieftains, which was already considered good.

Jin Weixin refilled Liu Xuanchu and the other man's glasses of wine and said, "It's not a big deal overall."

"The national treasury is sufficient. As long as the prince contributes a little, the court officials, chieftains and nobles will be satisfied."

Liu Xuanchu and Liu Ju smiled and raised their glasses to drink.

Thirty million taels.

The taxes for an entire year during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty.

At least when we reach the Yangtze River, we don’t have to worry about food and wages.

……

"None of the 30 million taels from the national treasury will be spent. I will only use this money for the salaries and pensions of the soldiers in the Northern Expedition."

Zhu Cixuan said this to the court officials.

Two in one
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(End of this chapter)