Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 11 Extraordinary Times, Extraordinary Means

After a short rest, Zhu Cilang once again counted the troops under his command, and at the same time, made a new round of mobilization to the soldiers guarding him before departure, and announced more specific promises.

This time, his big promise was no longer the illusory promotion, wealth, and honor to his family, but a complete plan that included the allocation of land, promotion to basic official positions, and rewards based on merit. It included both the minimum guarantee of three hundred acres of paddy fields, one thousand two taels of silver, and three consecutive promotions, as well as additional rewards based on merit in protecting the emperor in the south.

This gives a lot of room for imagination. If one can make some great achievements on the way south, the former Beijing camp officers can be promoted up to six levels, to the highest level of battalion officer, while the Jinyiwei can be promoted up to four levels, to the highest level of commander.

Zhou Shixian, Chang Denggui, Lin Changfeng and the others were all delighted after hearing this. If His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had not been right in front of them, some of them would have even jumped up in excitement.

Although Li Banghua's face remained expressionless and he was as steady as a rock, his heart was also full of hope for the future. The position of the chief minister of the cabinet was the lifelong dream of many civil servants.
Not only that, Zhu Cilang now directly promoted everyone present by two levels. Zhou Shixian became a captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Chang Denggui became a captain, and even the lowest-ranking soldiers in the Beijing camp were now a squad.

These are very necessary measures before setting off, which can not only inspire people, but also lay the foundation for Zhu Cilang to rebuild the Beijing Camp in the future.

After all, the crown prince brought with him the battalion commanders of the Five Army Camps, several captains, centurions, imperial son-in-law captains, Jinyiwei commanders, centurions, and the chief minister of the cabinet to migrate south. This was much more prestigious than fleeing south with twenty or so unknown soldiers.

This is politics!
Now, although Zhu Cilang has successfully broken out of the capital and the Shun army has not sent a large number of pursuers, his situation has improved greatly, but the situation is still not optimistic and danger may come at any time.

Moreover, seven of the fifty-five horses he brought from Beijing had already been lost. If he could not get new horses from the post station, his speed of moving south to Qing County would be greatly delayed.

In other words, given the current situation, Zhu Cilang has no choice but to speed up his march south.

He had to leave Shuntian Prefecture as soon as possible to truly get rid of the threat from the main force of the Shun army, even if this would cause his team to lose more horses in a short period of time.

At this time, Zhu Cilang needs to take the initiative to assume responsibility and make a truly risky choice after deciding on the plan to go south.

Not being able to make mistakes does not mean not making choices. Otherwise, he would never be able to establish real prestige and might end up in the same embarrassing situation as Chongzhen - the ministers were afraid and distrustful of him.

You know, taking the initiative to take responsibility on key issues is one of the most important qualities of an excellent commander.

Zhu Cilang led his 25 men and quickly circled outside Dong'an County. However, at this time, the officers and soldiers in the city had already changed their flags to the Shun Army, but they had not had time to control the surrounding area.

However, the group had no intention of entering the city. Zhu Cilang's plan was to replenish food and fodder in the villages outside the city, especially salt and wheat beans, which were urgently needed to restore the horses' strength after running long distances.

But at this time, northern Zhili had already been deserted after several lootings by the Qing army, the plague two years ago, and the defeat of the Eastern Expedition Army led by Li Jiantai.

Zhu Cilang led his men around for more than thirty miles before finally finding an inhabited village by a dry river southwest of Dong'an City.

This village, which has survived so many years of war and chaos, has already built a stronghold and a fort. As soon as it sees troops coming from a distance, it immediately goes into a state of preparation for war, regardless of whether they are government soldiers or rebels.

Chang Denggui volunteered to go and negotiate, but the villagers ignored him and threatened to attack him if he came any closer. They also shot several wooden arrows from the battlements on the earth wall.

Seeing this, Li Banghua rode forward, regardless of the pain in his buttocks, and tried to persuade the villagers to sell some food and fodder by reasoning with them and appealing to their emotions, but as expected, he was also rejected.

For a moment, everyone was at a loss. Lin Changfeng wanted to say something, but seeing that Zhou Shixian was also eager to try but timid, he finally held back.

In fact, if Zhu Cilang hadn't been here, how could these soldiers be so polite? They would have stepped forward to threaten him, or at least fired a few shots to scare him. When they broke out last night, they didn't dare to fire because they were worried that the noise would be too loud and alert the main force of the Shun army, causing the breakout to fail.

But now they are nearly two hundred miles away from Beijing, the surrounding area is deserted, and the county town is twenty miles away. Let alone firing guns, if they have cannons, they would even dare to fire a few shots.

"Your Highness, why don't we find another village? The people in this village are probably scared by the bandits." Zhou Shixian said with a bow.

"Where is the next village? It's getting dark soon. The soldiers only have enough food to last two days, and the horses only have enough beans for a day and a half."

Zhu Cilang's face was serious. He took a breath slowly and then exhaled suddenly. The sound sounded like a sigh. Lin Changfeng wanted to say something, but he didn't dare to say it anymore.

"Even if we can find it, can you be sure that the village will be willing to sell us food and fodder? I'm afraid that the villages in northern Zhili that are still inhabited are all like this!"

Zhu Cilang was not willing to waste time on such things, and even more unwilling to bear greater uncertainty. Dong'an was not far from Beijing and Tianjin. The longer he stayed here, the more dangerous it would be.

Moreover, he could wait, but the horses, which were already exhausted, could not wait any longer.

"." Zhou Shixian didn't know how to answer for a moment.

Zhu Cilang gently patted the horse under his crotch, which was snorting and pawing the ground with its front hooves due to fatigue. He looked around at his men who were frowning and waiting for his words, and made a decisive decision:

"This is the only village left. They have to sell it even if they don't want to!"

"Your Highness, these are all the people of my Ming Dynasty." Upon hearing this, Li Banghua was afraid that Zhu Cilang would do something cruel, so he hurriedly tried to persuade him.

"I know." Zhu Cilang said without further ado, "But there is no time now. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures."

Lin Changfeng had been pent up for a long time, and upon hearing this, he immediately clasped his hands and said, "Your Highness, I am willing to negotiate. If these unruly people don't understand the big picture, I have plenty of ways to make them understand the truth."

The bandits' mistakes are like combs, and the soldiers' mistakes are like rakes. The officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty are much more terrifying than bandits. People like Lin Changfeng, who were born in Liaozhen and served as soldiers in the Beijing camp, naturally also picked up many similar bad habits.

"That's not what I meant!" Zhu Cilang's face was tense. He raised his hand to stop her, saying, "I am the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty. These are the people of the Ming Dynasty, my subjects. Of course, I will not kill innocent people."

"What does Your Highness mean?" Li Banghua felt relieved and even a little relieved after hearing this. His originally frowned brows instantly relaxed, but what followed was confusion.

"Since soft tactics don't work, let's use force. However, we must first use courtesy before force. I can't indiscriminately kill innocent people, but I think it's okay to scare them."

Zhu Cilang raised his eyebrows, his gaze sharpening once more. He had never been one to be inflexible, but the most important thing right now was to secure food and fodder. If the next place was the same, he might as well just get it done right here. What if that village turned out to be even stronger?
"Pass on my order. All troops, immediately prepare bows and muskets. Also, tell the villagers that if they know what's happening, we'll pay ten times the market price for the grain. They just need to send someone to deliver it to the village entrance. We won't enter. If the village is truly short of grain, we can even sell them less."

But if they don't know the current situation and are unwilling to sell their food and fodder, tell them that we will launch a strong attack immediately. Then, have the soldiers shoot three rounds of arrows at the village, followed by three rounds of musket fire. We are not afraid that they will still be so stubborn!

(End of this chapter)