Late Ming Dynasty: So what if Emperor Chongzhen was inactive?!

Chapter 223: Release pressure outwards, strangle inwards, first suppress then appease.

Wang Jiayin walked towards the government office with his head down and in a daze. As he walked, he smelled a strange aroma of meat and vaguely heard a few words that were not very clear:

“Young… a girl, tender flesh… her breasts can be eaten once they’re roasted until they bulge out!” Wang Jiayin’s heart skipped a beat, and he staggered toward the sound.

Three or five of his rebel soldiers sat together, with a broken iron pot placed on its side. The firewood was decades-old wood, and the firewood consisted of rafters and purlins that had been taken from the house. Next to the iron pot was a pile of blood-stained clothes, and Wang Jiayin even saw a worn-out tiger-head shoe among them!
Next to him was a soldier holding a wooden stick and skewering a round object, and a peculiar smell of burnt hair wafted over.

Wang Jiayin could no longer contain himself. He rushed forward, kicking over the iron pot and knocking down the volunteers. Tears streamed down his face, his voice trembling with sobs: "Didn't we tell you? No cannibalism! No eating people! We're human beings! How are you any different from beasts?!"

"Your Majesty!" Several soldiers were terrified. Some knelt down and begged for mercy, while others covered their faces and ran away.

However, the begging soldier clung to Wang Jiayin's leg: "But I'm hungry! Your Majesty, you said there would be food after we take Yan'an, but where is the food?! I'm hungry! I don't want to eat pork, I want to be a human being, but I'm hungry! I don't want to die! If I don't eat, I'll starve to death!"

Wang Jiayin couldn't answer the soldiers' questions. Yes, where was the food?! He opened his mouth, but it felt like something was stuck in his throat, and he couldn't make a sound. His face was pale, and he became unsteady on his feet!

"Zheng! How dare you! Let go of me!"

The roar of Wang Jiayin's personal guards as they drew their swords pulled him back to reality. The soldiers holding him quickly let go and continued to kneel and beg for mercy. They were also armed, but they had no intention of resisting. The king's personal guards were all in armor, while they only had a single layer of clothing and their swords were blunt. Even if they were all stacked together, they might not be able to defeat one of them!
Wang Jiayin walked away dejectedly, without taking any further action. The soldiers looked at each other, but eventually picked up the pieces of meat on the ground and ate them. That evening, Wang Jiayin received a report from his subordinates: "Luo Rucai has defected, taking several hundred men with him!"

Wang Jiayin remained silent for a long time before saying softly, "I understand. Don't worry about him, let him be!"

……

"How is Zhu Tongmeng, the prefect of Yan'an?!" This was the first thing Zhu Youjian said to Zhu Xieyuan.

"Tong Meng has already been murdered," Zhu Xieyuan said in a deep voice.

“I’ve already sent him back! I’ve already issued an edict to bring him back! Why won’t he listen?!” Zhu Youjian said in a hoarse voice.

"Your Majesty need not blame yourself. Zhu Tongmeng disobeyed the imperial decree and deserves to die!" Wei Zhongxian comforted him.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Youjian was furious, and the word "get out" was about to escape his lips, but he swallowed his anger and said calmly, "This is none of your business. You may leave now!"

Wei Zhongxian suddenly realized he had said the wrong thing. In recent years, he had become complacent with the emperor's approachability, to the point that he spoke without thinking; or perhaps he was getting old and his mind was not as sharp as it used to be.

He knelt down abruptly, slapping himself in the face as he said, "Your Majesty, I was wrong, please punish me!"

"Step back!" Zhu Youjian roared.

"Your subject obeys!" Wei Zhongxian hurriedly kowtowed and quickly disappeared from the emperor's sight.

"Does Zhu Tongmeng still have any family members alive?" Zhu Youjian continued to ask Zhu Xieyuan.

"Your Majesty, please forgive me, I was unaware!" Wang Chengen said upon seeing this, "Your Majesty, Prefect Zhu's ancestral home is Laiwu County, Jinan Prefecture, Shandong Province. He did not bring his family with him to his post. There are five brothers in his family, and he is the third. His elder brother, Zhu Qimeng, is currently the county instructor. His wife died early, and he has three sons and one daughter. His son... has repeatedly failed the imperial examinations."

"Give him a pension of five hundred taels of silver, grant his eldest son the position of a centurion in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and allow his descendants to enter the Imperial Academy without taking the imperial examinations," Zhu Youjian said.

"I will take care of it immediately," Wang Chengen said softly.

“If Your Majesty wishes to recapture Yan’an, it will not be difficult,” Zhu Xieyuan said.

Zhu Youjian shook his head, sighed, and said, "No need."

Zhu Xieyuan frowned, but did not immediately refute him. Instead, he asked softly, "Is Your Majesty dreaming of the Taizu family again? Will the disaster in northern Shaanxi become even more severe?!"

Zhu Youjian nodded silently. Zhu Xieyuan opened his mouth, having grown up reading the classics, and knowing Confucius's saying, "Respect the spirits and gods, but keep them at a distance," he didn't believe a word of the emperor's dream-related tale. He simply didn't know how the emperor knew about the celestial phenomena. He shouldn't have believed it, but the emperor's predictions were too accurate, even more so than those of the Imperial Observatory.

"Even if Yan'an is not recovered, the court still needs to send reinforcements to Shaanxi. According to the report of Hong Chengchou, the governor of Shaanxi, the rebels in northern Shaanxi have now gained considerable power, and the court should send troops to suppress them. If we ignore them, they will likely produce a leader, who will probably be a figure like Nurhaci, at which point the court may not be able to cope. Once the border is lost, the rebels will turn into bandits and wreak havoc on several provinces!"

Zhu Youjian nodded and said, "I don't know anything about troop deployment either. You are the Minister of War, so you can handle it."

"Your subject obeys the decree!" Zhu Xieyuan bowed and said.

But he was a sensible old man and wouldn't believe the emperor's polite words entirely. He didn't leave, but instead explained his plan to the emperor in general terms:
The route remains the same as the one originally set by the emperor: surrender is not accepted, and the rebel leaders must be executed. As for the rabble, they can be appropriately appeased. The garrison on the Shanxi-Shaanxi border is under immense pressure. Although the Yellow River provides a natural barrier, it is too long to keep a complete watchful eye on everything.

Although large-scale crossings have not yet occurred, small-scale smuggling is happening every moment. The garrison can't catch them all, and even if they do, they don't know what to do with them. They can't bring themselves to kill them directly.

They certainly wouldn't be ruthless towards bandits; they knew very well whose food they ate. But when faced with unarmed civilians who spoke the same language and looked just like them, they really couldn't bring themselves to be cruel.

So he planned that if they could reach the Yellow River, he would disarm them and take them in, then select some to serve as soldiers, some as laborers, and some as farmers. He would gradually relocate them along the Yellow River and the border wall, finding places to settle them. There were no other suitable places; only Liaodong was the most appropriate.

There are not many people left in Liaodong now, and recovering Liaodong can greatly alleviate the pressure of domestic disaster relief. Therefore, the recovery of Liaodong should be put on the agenda. It does not need to be decided in one battle, but rather it should be gradually eroded and the lost territory recovered step by step. Zhu Xieyuan said that the fortified cluster advance tactic formulated by Sun Chengzong back then also had some merit.

Therefore, the imperial court needed to transport grain to Shanxi, and some of the grain from the prefectures in Henan, Huguang, Sichuan and Shaanxi bordering Shaanxi was also transferred to Shaanxi.

Grain can be transferred from these places, but people cannot be sent here. These provinces are also densely populated provinces, and their own conflicts are already sharp enough. There is no guarantee that these unruly people will not lead the local people to rebel when they arrive in these places. At that time, the government troops will really be unable to fight against so many forces.

The strategy of releasing pressure outwards and strangling inwards, employing a policy of first suppressing and then appeasing, is fundamentally aimed at reducing the population of Shaanxi. It is not a response to natural disasters, but rather a response to the saying: "If you can't solve the problem, then solve the people!"
Zhu Youjian's lifeless eyes met Zhu Xieyuan's cold gaze. The old man was usually cheerful, but he was ultimately a military commander, and at crucial moments, he would never be soft-hearted.

Zhu Youjian slowly closed his eyes: "Then let's do as you say!"

(End of this chapter)