After Zhou Qi finished speaking, his gaze swept intensely over the assembled officials, the meaning clear without words. He was waiting for their stance.
All present were seasoned veterans of the official seas, having navigated its waves for many years. How could they fail to understand Old Zhou’s intent? Though Zhu Pingan had spent less time in officialdom, his experience was rich. Under Zhou Qi’s piercing stare, Zhu Pingan and the others promptly declared, “We will spare no effort to exterminate the wokou! We will not betray the Emperor’s trust, nor the people’s hopes!”
Seeing everyone align with him, Zhou Qi nodded in satisfaction.
Yet just as Zhou Qi’s ambitions were unfolding, an untimely voice broke in. “Lord Zhou, the wokou must of course be exterminated. However, the wokou are not a flock of sheep. To wipe them out requires strategy. May I ask, Lord Zhou, what is your plan for destroying the wokou?”
It was Zhao Wenhua’s voice.
Zhu Pingan looked up and saw Zhao Wenhua standing, hands tucked into his sleeves, utterly at ease, towering like a crane among chickens.
Zhou Qi had only just taken office as Governor-General. This was his first meeting with the assembled subordinates, and Zhao Wenhua was already challenging him, demanding his strategy for exterminating the wokou. It was rather forcing the issue.
A strategy for exterminating the wokou was the very guiding blade of the great campaign against them in the Jiangnan region.
How could anyone produce one the moment they took office? It required investigation, study, testing before it could be formulated. A fundamental command strategy of this kind would take at least a month.
But no one present was a fool. Zhao Wenhua’s covetous desire for the Governor-General’s post had long been an open secret. Now that Zhou Qi had snatched the position he wanted, Zhao Wenhua’s challenge was only to be expected.
“Heh heh, Lord Zhao truly shares the insight of a hero. Exterminate the wokou, exterminate the wokou. How could we proceed without a strategy? Without a strategy for exterminating the wokou, the great Jiangnan campaign would lack unified command. How could that work? This old man was just about to explain my strategy to the assembled lords when Lord Zhao raised the question. Truly, great minds think alike.” Zhou Qi gave a dry laugh, his smile not reaching his eyes as he looked at Zhao Wenhua, then spoke slowly.
“Oh, I am eager to hear the details.” Zhao Wenhua sat down with indifference, watching Zhou Qi on the platform as if waiting for a good show. He did not believe for a moment that Zhou Qi had a strategy.
You have only just become Governor-General, and you already have a strategy for exterminating the wokou?
Impossible.
Let me see what one-two-three-four-five you can come up with. If you try to bluff your way through and fail to deliver, hmph, that will give me perfect grounds for impeachment.
“My fellow colleagues, my strategy for exterminating the wokou can be summed up simply as ‘Ten Difficulties and Three Policies’!” Zhou Qi said deliberately.
Ten Difficulties and Three Policies?
The very numbers were stated. Could he truly be prepared, rather than merely bluffing?
When Zhao Wenhua heard Zhou Qi say “Ten Difficulties and Three Policies”, he was surprised and stroked his chin. This fellow actually has a strategy for exterminating the wokou? Impossible, absolutely impossible. Zhao Wenhua refused to believe it and assumed Zhou Qi was putting on a bold front.
Go on then. I want to see what kind of Ten Difficulties and Three Policies you can produce.
Zhao Wenhua watched Zhou Qi with leisurely composure, waiting for him to make a fool of himself.
“The Ten Difficulties and Three Policies. Of the Ten Difficulties, the first is that the wokou come and go unpredictably, making their movements hard to foresee,” Zhou Qi said slowly.
Those below could not help nodding. The wokou arrived by ship from the sea. No one knew which coast they would land on or which place they would attack. Their retreats were the same. Once ashore, they burned, killed, and plundered, then fled. No one knew which coast they would use to return to the sea.
Zhao Wenhua’s expression remained impassive. That the wokou’s movements were unpredictable was common knowledge. It hardly counted as a remarkable insight.
“The second difficulty is that the Jiangnan coastline is long and convoluted, making it hard to defend,” Zhou Qi continued.
The assembly nodded again. The Jiangnan coastline was too long and winding. There were countless possible landing points for the wokou, rendering defence exceedingly difficult.
Zhao Wenhua tugged at the corner of his mouth. Was this second difficulty not somewhat repetitive of the first? The reason the first was difficult was precisely because of the long and convoluted coastline in the second. No one knew which stretch the wokou would use to land and attack.
“The third difficulty is that Jiangnan’s waterways and land routes are interwoven, making battle difficult,” Zhou Qi’s voice went on.
The assembly sat listening.
“Pfft…”
Zhao Wenhua could not hold back a laugh. What nonsense. Jiangnan’s waterways and land routes were interwoven by nature. How did that become a third difficulty?
Did it mean the terrain was difficult for us but advantageous for the wokou? If anything, Jiangnan was our home ground, and the wokou were outsiders. The terrain should favour us more.
Outstanding commanders excel at using terrain. The saying about heaven’s timing, earth’s advantage, and people’s harmony refers precisely to exploiting terrain.
On the platform, Zhou Qi heard Zhao Wenhua’s grating laugh and glanced at him with displeasure. Zhao Wenhua met his gaze without flinching. Zhou Qi held it for a second, then turned away, ignoring him.
“The fourth difficulty is that the wokou are treacherous and cunning, their schemes hard to discern,” Zhou Qi continued with the fourth of his Ten Difficulties and Three Policies.
This time the assembly nodded again. Indeed, the wokou were exceedingly treacherous. They loved using tricks: feigned defeats to lure into ambushes, disguising themselves as refugees, planting spies, bribing defenders with heavy gold. The wokou were full of vile schemes, impossible to guard against completely.
Zhao Wenhua remained scornful. Zhou Qi’s difficulties so far were nothing special. This one in particular, that the wokou were treacherous, was common knowledge.
“The fifth difficulty is that the wokou have long been entrenched, making preparations against them hard,” Zhou Qi went on.
The assembly nodded in unison. The wokou plague in Jiangnan had persisted for years. They occupied islands and abandoned coastal villages, holding them for years or even decades, setting up open and hidden sentries and defensive lines, forming solid lairs that were hard to prepare against and hard to conquer.
Zhao Wenhua’s disdain continued.
“The sixth difficulty is that the populace is vulnerable and hard to mobilise,” Zhou Qi said, looking at the assembly. “On this point, my lords have felt it most deeply.”
“Indeed. Faced with the wokou, the common people are fragile. Getting them to contribute men, labour, or money is difficult. Mobilising them is difficult, difficult, difficult…”
Everyone nodded.
Zhu Pingan narrowed his eyes slightly. He could not fully agree with Zhou Qi’s summary of this difficulty. Asking gentle civilians to face wokou who killed without blinking would of course make the people vulnerable and afraid. Yet when it came to contributing men, labour, or money, he had repeatedly witnessed the people’s enthusiasm and willingness, provided you truly went out to fight the wokou.
“The seventh difficulty is that the land is saline and alkaline, making castle-building difficult,” Zhou Qi said slowly. “Without city walls for protection, resisting the wokou is hard.”
Zhu Pingan frowned slightly. Did this really count as a difficulty? That Jiangnan’s soil was saline and alkaline, making castle-building difficult?
True, compared to the north, Jiangnan had more saline soil, but it was not to the point of making castle-building impossible.
Jiangnan had plenty of cities. The reason Jiangnan had fewer city walls was not saline soil but historical factors, and because Jiangnan lay in the safe rear. In peacetime it did not need so many walls.
By contrast, the Forbidden City was in the north, where the Ming dynasty’s main threat came from northern nomadic peoples, so the north built many walls to defend against them.
