Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 50 Rebuilding the Beijing Camp
Although the imperial edict clearly stated that the appointments of these civil and military officials were only temporary, everyone knew that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, they would be officially appointed when the new emperor ascended the throne.

Moreover, this is only the appointment of some key positions. The vacancies in other departments and even the cabinet will depend on the performance of these officials during this period, whether loyal, capable, or courageous.
In short, all the civil and military officials in the court had to find a way to fight for their own future after missing out on the opportunity to be supported by the emperor.

This made it much easier for Zhu Cilang to control the government and appoint talented people. With such a large court, it was easy to promote officials in name only and demote officials in reality, or to establish new offices under the pretext of coordinating various affairs during wartime.

Within the Ming Dynasty system, a truly capable monarch could fully control the government. Even if it was Chongzhen, replacing the prime minister or executing the commander-in-chief could be done with just a single order.

But how to kill people so that they can be convincing and truly beneficial to the situation, and how to use this to intimidate the ministers and ensure that one's orders are implemented, is the true art of being an emperor!
When Zhu Cilang was in Fengyang before, he had already bullied these officials into submission. During the half month in Fengyang, the government affairs that had originally piled up in Nanjing had basically been dealt with under his tireless work day and night. The most important ones have now been basically handled.

The aftermath of the "Lu Jiude Rebellion Case" is still ongoing, and the salt merchants in Huai'an have suffered a heavy blow. Zhu Cilang directly let Lu Zhenfei temporarily take over the salt administration and handle it properly. On the one hand, he strictly limited the scope of the crackdown, and on the other hand, he quickly supported new salt merchants to prevent the market from being occupied by the neighboring Yangzhou salt merchants.

Zhu Cilang did want to use this to make money and establish his prestige, but he also wanted to tell the world that the new emperor of the Ming Dynasty was a man of rules. As long as you don't break the rules, no one can touch you, and the court will protect your property. But if anyone dares to break the rules, they will not be forgiven.

This concerns the support of local gentry and is a guarantee of the legitimacy of the Ming Dynasty. The grassroots control of the Ming Dynasty depends entirely on local gentry. Before he can gain a strong enough grassroots force, he must make compromises and unite local forces.

Otherwise, it would be digging its own grave and giving the Qing Dynasty, which has already entered the pass, an opportunity to take advantage!

However, the salt administration was a major source of income for the Ming Dynasty court. If the time was not yet ripe and Zhu Cilang could not directly carry out drastic reforms, he would definitely have to carry out thorough reforms.

What Zhu Cilang really lacks now is a large number of trusted officials supported by himself and a great victory that can make all parties believe in the strength of the Nanjing court. These are the opportunities needed for reform.

Military victory is the foundation for the survival of a regime. The imperial court is a violent institution, which is the guarantee of all political actions!

Although Lu Zhenfei is only temporarily taking over the salt administration, the most important thing for him in this process is to train a reliable team of bureaucrats, which will be of great use to Zhu Cilang in the future.

When the entire court is filled with ministers supported by Zhu Cilang, it will be time for him to really take comprehensive action against the Ming Dynasty, a patient with one foot already at the gates of death.

Now, he is just taking advantage of the opportunity of "preparing for the Northern Expedition" to treat the symptoms rather than the root cause, but this process involves the deployment of human, material and financial resources, which is exactly the practice of Zhu Cilang in building his own team.

At this time, the entire Nanjing court, in addition to the central officials of all ranks, as well as some governors and generals from surrounding provinces, were summoned to meet the crown prince, either to participate in the coronation ceremony or to come to Beijing to discuss military and national affairs.

Zhu Cilang also issued an edict to "recruit talents", preparing to promote a group of local civil and military talents to Nanjing based on their memory to participate in the war preparation process.

In the two directions of Huguang and Jiangxi, they will soon have to deal with the remnants of the Shun army and Zuo Liangyu's military forces. Zhu Cilang must also make preparations early. Du Yinxi and He Tengjiao, two ministers who are good at finance and local governance, must be promoted and appointed as soon as possible.

Of course, we cannot rely entirely on them for military matters, as neither of them is knowledgeable about military affairs.

Compared with He Tengjiao, Du Yinxi has a unique vision in overall strategy and a certain ability to train troops, but leading troops in battles at the campaign and tactical levels and training strong field troops are not his specialties.

During this period, Zhou Shixian had been traveling back and forth between Nanjing and Pukou. Under Zhu Cilang's orders, he was responsible for the preparations for his enthronement on the one hand, and on the other hand, he had to prepare for the reconstruction of the Jinyiwei. At this time, he had temporarily taken up the position of commander of the Jinyiwei.

In response to this, Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu, and even Xu Hongji and a group of old ministers and nobles in Nanjing naturally jointly wrote a letter of opposition, fearing that the Jinyiwei would gain power and that informing and infighting would become a common practice in the court.

But Ma Shiying smelled something and his eyes immediately lit up. He jumped out and expressed his support for the reconstruction of the Jinyiwei. At the same time, he attracted a large number of ministers in the court who still wanted to be promoted to agree.

Li Banghua, the de facto chief minister of the cabinet, did not express his opposition clearly. He even tried to explain the pros and cons and persuade Shi Kefa and Gao Hongtu, but it was completely useless.

However, Zhu Cilang was not Zhu Yousong, and it was completely impossible for him to disable himself. But he would not allow Ma Shiying to exclude dissidents and monopolize the government like Zhu Yousong did.

The checks and balances in the court were not supposed to allow any one party to dominate. Now that Li Banghua was mediating, it was the best thing for Ma Shiying, the "traitor" from Jiangbei with no foundation, to confront the "upright man" from Nanjing.

As a result, things went in the direction planned by Zhu Cilang, but Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu and others were still not convinced.

After the major affairs of the court were basically dealt with, Zhu Cilang, under the pretext of supervising the exercises, suddenly went to inspect the Nanjing Beijing Camp with the head of the "upright men" Shi Kefa, the new commander of the Jinyiwei Zhou Shixian and a group of generals transferred from Jiangbei.

Prior to this, Zhu Cilang had used temporary appointments to win over and promote some of the nobles in the Nanjing Jingying camp who had complex connections and were impossible to deal with at the moment, which made them relax their vigilance.

After all, to deal with these insects, as the new emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he only needs to show a little goodwill and extend an olive branch, and people will immediately kneel down and follow him to achieve great things.

You know, there are not many opportunities like this, maybe it will only come once in a lifetime. Even if others want to kneel, they probably don’t have the place to kneel like this!
The results of the review did not disappoint Zhu Cilang. These nobles in the Beijing camp were basically useless. Even those who were slightly capable of doing something, like Xu Hongji, were powerless.

Zhu Cilang looked at the Beijing camp's information room, stables, baggage room, granary, and armory that had not caught fire yet, and in front of Shi Kefa, he loudly praised Zhou Shixian for his efficient work.

In order to preserve this evidence, Zhou Shixian began making arrangements as soon as he entered Nanjing. His status naturally made him familiar with those nobles. The Jinyiwei's previous style of doing things also made his attempts not to be suspected at all.

Before Shi Kefa came, he felt a little uneasy in his heart. Now he finally understood what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince wanted to do, but he seemed to want to save face and was still unwilling to admit the necessity of rebuilding the Jinyiwei.

Almost all of the nobles had deserted their posts and had either just arrived at the Beijing camp or were still on their way back across the Qinhuai River. They were terrified.

By the time they arrived, Zhou Shixian and his men had already taken a basic inventory of the number of war horses, food and fodder in the Beijing camp, as well as the armor, swords, guns, firearms and gunpowder in the armory. They had not had time to check the more detailed accounts and military registers.

Zhu Cilang looked at the assets of the Beijing Camp presented by Zhou Shixian, then looked up at the military training ground. All the Beijing Camp officers and nobles were kneeling before him, many of them even trembling. He slowly spoke:

"Was the Beijing Camp like this from the beginning?"

Upon hearing this, all the nobles, including Li Benshen and Hu Maozhen from Gao Jie's army, Tian Xiong from Huang Degong's army, and Bai Yongfu from Liu Zeqing's army, dared not breathe a sigh of relief. They dared not challenge the young prince's authority. "What did you say when I questioned you at the Nanjing Garrison a few days ago?" Zhu Cilang narrowed his eyes and asked again. When he was about to reward these nobles, he had already received their affirmative answers.

"Although armor and war horses have suffered heavy losses due to the recent suppression of bandits, they are still sufficient to equip 25,000 troops. Now, would you like me to read out how much is left in the treasury of such a large military camp?"

On the parade ground, the kneeling officers and nobles of the Beijing camp all bowed their heads to the ground. When they saw the troops brought by Zhu Cilang, they felt that something was wrong.

Now, in addition to the imperial guards led by Lin Changfeng, the Jinyiwei led by Zhou Shixian, and the servants led by Li Benshen, Hu Maozhen, Tian Xiong, and Bai Yongfu, are all in the Beijing camp.

In this situation, even if Zhu Cilang wanted to kill them directly, they would have no power to fight back.

Shi Kefa looked at the nobles who were terrified and sweating profusely, and couldn't help but recall how arrogant and domineering these people were when he was in charge of the Beijing camp.

For a moment, he was a little confused. Was this the majesty of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, or did the Embroidered Uniform Guard really have such a role?
He had clearly known about the existence of these problems, but he had no idea how to find evidence. Even if he had evidence, I'm afraid these nobles would not be afraid of him.
"Li Benshen, Hu Maozhen, come and take a look!" Zhu Cilang immediately gave the order.

Li Benshen and Hu Maozhen did not dare to delay after receiving the order. They immediately stepped forward and took the papers handed over by Zhu Cilang. They soon frowned as they read them.

"You have all been leading troops for many years. Tell me, is there any way to remedy the situation in the Beijing Camp?" Zhu Cilang asked in a deep voice.

Li Benshen and Hu Maozhen already knew how to answer. Upon hearing this, they quickly echoed the same tune and cooperated with each other.

"Your Highness, to fill such a huge shortfall, it will probably cost more than one million taels of silver, which will take more than a year or two!" Li Benshen said with a bow.

"There are many craftsmen in Jiangnan, workshops are everywhere, and rivers connect everywhere, which eliminates transportation losses. Replenishing these armor, swords and guns should only cost 500,000 to 600,000 taels of silver, and it won't take long." Hu Maozhen then bowed and clasped his fists.

"But, so much silver, this..."

This almost explicitly stated that whoever coveted the silver would have to give it back. Zhu Cilang didn't kill the man because the situation was unstable. If he missed this opportunity, it would be no wonder he didn't!
So, the kneeling officers and nobles immediately begged for mercy, expressing their willingness to make meritorious contributions while serving their sentences and donate their wealth to the country.

Zhu Cilang naturally went with the flow and directly ordered Li Benshen and Hu Maozhen to be fully responsible for the matter. Tian Xiong and Bai Yongfu cooperated, and Zhou Shixian led the Jinyiwei to supervise. All matters were reported directly to Li Banghua.

The Nanjing Beijing Camp was to be streamlined and even rebuilt, and these incompetent nobles had to continue to hold office and manage a few empty camps to maintain the last bit of dignity.

Although Zhu Cilang took over a court that was essentially semi-paralyzed, it was still well-established and carried a heavy historical burden.

Although he got rid of some of the burdens through a series of decisions and took the initiative in military and political affairs, the remaining ones still needed to be handled with caution.

Of the twenty-five riders who had followed him to break out of the capital, Li Banghua had already entered the cabinet and held the high position of Prime Minister, Zhou Shixian had been promoted to the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and a hundred men had been transferred from the Palace Army to reorganize the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Chen Fu led the two battalions in Jiangbei and became the general, and Chang Denggui led the Palace Army, and the officers and soldiers under their command also became officers at all levels.

After more than two hundred years of development, the Ming Dynasty had formed a system of conferring titles based on two main modes: "one great merit" and "accumulated small merits". Among them, the "one great merit" title was conferred for making great contributions to supporting the country in wars. Zhou Shixian, Chen Fu, Chang Denggui and others belonged to the former type.

In other words, these are all the new nobles of the future of the Ming Dynasty. Even if Zhu Cilang wanted to win over the people and show his good attitude towards the nobles, he would not openly take action against the nobles in Nanjing.

However, it is inevitable that they will be sidelined, but they will have to be used for a while. Once they have completed their mission, Zhu Cilang will make them pay the price for their years of idleness.

In fact, as long as he had the military and political power of the court in his hands, he had countless ways to raise military funds from the nobles and wealthy businessmen under his rule. Just relaxing the restrictions on the imperial examinations and increasing the number of imperial examination places was enough to make the gentry and wealthy businessmen in various provinces scramble to donate money.

In this way, Zhu Cilang could also gain the support of the ministers in the court, take the opportunity to reform the imperial examination, change the now rigid imperial examination system, and truly select talents capable of governing the country.

After all, he was not going against the civil officials, and they were not all his enemies. These were all his preparations to rebuild the court and quickly realize his military training plan.

This time, taking advantage of the surprise inspection of the military camp, Zhu Cilang discovered a series of serious omissions in the camp. He also took the opportunity to rearrange the deployment and training of the Palace Army and the Nanjing Military Camp, and transferred thousands of soldiers who could still fight in the Beijing Camp to the Palace Army. While expanding the Palace Army's troops, he also completely hollowed out the Beijing Camp.

In this way, Li Benshen, Hu Maozhen, Tian Xiong and Bai Yongfu, who were transferred to the Nanjing Beijing Camp by Zhu Cilang, can lead their respective servants to recruit new soldiers for training and form a new camp.

After losing their old subordinates, those nobles would no longer have the strength to pretend to obey their orders. Li Benshen, Hu Maozhen and others would certainly do their utmost to demand payment in order to maintain their power.

The biggest problem Zhu Cilang faces now is the shortage of officers. The officers promoted from Chen Fu and Chang Denggui can lead a division of three to four hundred people, but if they are asked to command thousands of people at once, there will definitely be big chaos, and those soldiers can only be promoted to centurions at most.

However, after confiscating the royal family and salt merchants stranded in Huai'an, he had nearly two million taels of silver in military pay to train troops. The handicraft production capacity of Jiangnan, as well as the iron smelting and firearms manufacturing capabilities of Guangdong and Fujian were all very strong. As long as Zhu Cilang had enough silver, it would not be difficult to purchase military equipment to arm his troops.

In this era, building a strong army is nothing more than spending money and letting generals who have real experience in Liaodong, Liaoxi, or at least the Central Plains battlefield and have actual experience in leading troops lead the troops.

If Zhu Cilang only wanted to defend the Yangtze River and the Huai River, he would not need too many cavalry. The troops trained by some generals transferred from Gao Jie, Huang Degong, and Liu Zeqing in a year were enough to defend the city and even launch a counterattack from the city.

You have to know that in history, these generals were quite capable of fighting small local battles with sufficient military pay and strict military discipline, but they did not have the strength to command an army of tens of thousands of people.

What Zhu Cilang needed was exactly this Nanjing Jingying. Before the Palace Army, which he personally commanded and trained, truly grew up, it was inappropriate for the other troops to become too powerful.

The new army he really wanted to reshape, the one that was not contaminated by the old-school officers of the Ming army, was the Palace Army, which was the real "Emperor's personal army"!
　Thanks to book friends Yuekenlu Dazhuang and Chaotic Memorieso for the rewards.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)