Chapter 380: Li Zicheng, The Thousand-Year Imperial Capital (Part Two)

Of course, these scattered heroes could be recruited, but men like Crock and Yi Dou Gu, who had previously pledged allegiance to Li Zicheng, commanded large followings, and Li Zicheng dared not move rashly against them.

Moreover, with his own forces swelling by the day as they seized cities and territory, he no longer relied much on men like Yi Dou Gu. In just a few months, figures such as Yi Dou Gu had already begun to be marginalized within the Chuang army. For instance, at this council of military affairs, men like Crock and Yi Dou Gu were not among those Li Zicheng had invited.

The walls of Yongning had been razed, yet inside and outside the city, tides of people surged back and forth. Along the city's outskirts, every kind of shack, tent, and encampment seemed to stretch to the horizon, with banners bearing the character "Chuang" densely packed like a forest.

Mount Longtou was not far from the county seat, and nearby flowed the Yumen River. Legend held that this was the mountain gate split open by Yu the Great when he tamed the floods, allowing the waters to flow into the Luo River.

To thank Yu the Great, the local people named the river Yumen River and built a temple there.

This temple had now stood for untold years. In its courtyards and before and behind its halls towered many ancient and famous trees, each luxuriant with foliage and brimming with vitality. The temple and its vicinity served as the headquarters of Li Zicheng's personal battalion; coming and going everywhere were the elite cavalry of the old camp.

A banner several zhang high stood before the temple gate, its tassels snow-white and made of horse mane. The banner's lance was silver-white, crafted from pure silver.

The banner billowed and churned in the cold wind, revealing a gigantic character "Chuang," embroidered in black satin.

The temple sat atop a ridge, with the Yumen River flowing below. Nestled against the mountain and overlooking the water, it commanded a panoramic view of the surrounding scenery.

Li Zicheng's field headquarters was established here. Although the Prince of Wan'an's mansion lay within Yongning city, Li Zicheng did not dwell there. This was at Niu Jinxing's counsel, emulating how Emperor Gaozu of Han, upon reaching Xianyang, refused to rest in the Qin palaces.

The temple was spacious. In the main hall, several braziers of charcoal burned. Gathered around the fires, the hall was packed with men engaged in spirited discussion. At their head was a middle-aged man dressed in a blue riding tunic and a white felt hat adorned with a red tassel. A great scarlet cloak was draped over his shoulders, and a treasured sword hung at his waist.

Both the middle-aged man's tunic and cloak were rather worn, and the red tassel on his felt hat was quite frayed. He sat in the main seat, motionless for long stretches. His tall, robust frame sat ramrod straight in his chair, and as he looked around, keen glints occasionally flashed in his eyes.

The middle-aged man was in his thirties, with high, prominent cheekbones, a high-bridged nose, deep-set eyes, and a thick, full beard. His features seemed somewhat un-Han. Indeed, this man was the leader of the Chuang army, Li Zicheng, known to his contemporaries as the Chuang King. It was said he was of Tangut descent; historically, after Li Zicheng founded his state and proclaimed himself emperor, he even honored the Tangut Li Jiqian as his founding ancestor.

Strictly speaking, Li Zicheng and Li Jiqian were not related in the slightest. Such an act stemmed purely from a mentality of "claiming an ancestor" and "my forebears were once grand."

Yet this action of Li Zicheng's illustrated one point: he did not consider himself a Han.

Although Han civilization is a concept of culture and identity—with that identity, even a blond, blue-eyed Westerner could be considered Han.

Without that identity, even a pure-blooded Han descendant could be regarded as a barbarian. Appearance matters not; only a genuine sense of identity proves everything.

Seated below Li Zicheng were the various high and low officers of the Chuang army: Liu Zongmin, Liu Fangliang, Li Guo, Li Shuangxi, Gao Yigong, Yuan Zongdi, Zhang Nai, Hao Yaoqi, Tian Jianxiu, and others—all figures of notorious renown at the time, whom the officials and gentry hated to the bone and wished to eradicate as soon as possible.

Also seated to the left and right, just below Li Zicheng, were several scholars. One of them had a body as small as a child's, a narrow, elongated face, and was exceedingly ugly; at first glance, he resembled a demon.

He was lame in one leg, and a crutch rested beside his seat. A Daoist robe hung loose and empty on his frame. At this moment, the man sat upright, conserving his energy, his eyes seemingly half-closed. This was none other than Song Xiance, the itinerant occultist who had recently pledged allegiance to Li Zicheng. Because of his diminutive stature, the Chuang army called him "Song the Child." Though his appearance was grotesque, when a grotesque-looking man possesses ability, others will prettify it as "born with an extraordinary visage."

History records many successful men of "extraordinary" appearance. Moreover, deeply valued by Li Zicheng, no one in the Chuang army dared look down on him. Seated below him was another scholar, a man in his forties, with a three-part long beard and a lean, refined face. He wore a square pacifying cap, a blue robe in the style of a Great Ming Provincial Graduate, and felt boots with white soles.

From time to time, he stroked his long beard, bearing the air of a man with a belly full of pearls and gems, occasionally casting smiles at the others.

This man was Niu Jinxing, a Provincial Graduate from Lushi who had also recently joined Li Zicheng. To gain the allegiance of a Great Ming Provincial Graduate delighted Li Zicheng beyond measure. Not only did he hold Niu Jinxing in the highest regard, but he even intended to marry his own daughter to him.

Opposite Niu Jinxing sat another man dressed as a scholar, in his twenties, with a face like jade and hair neatly bound behind his head with a cloth band. He also wore the blue robe and cap of a Great Ming Provincial Graduate. He sat smiling, possessing a warm, jade-like aura that seemed to bathe one in spring breeze at first sight.

This man was Li Yan. It was said his father was the late Minister Li Jingbai. A Provincial Graduate from Qixian, he had once distributed a thousand dan of grain to relieve the starving, and the common folk called him "Lord Li."

After he and his elder brother Li Mou pledged allegiance to Li Zicheng, Li Zicheng felt as if he had found a priceless treasure and immediately entrusted him with important duties. Li Yan did not disappoint. He helped Li Zicheng tighten military discipline, composed a series of ballads, and put forward slogans like "equalize land and exempt taxes," enabling the Chuang army to rapidly expand and grow strong. At this moment, Li Yan sat smiling, like a clear spring amidst the multitude of coarse bandits.

He had joined the Chuang army out of despair with the Great Ming court, hoping to meet an enlightened lord and realize his ideal of "in poverty, perfecting oneself; in success, benefiting the whole world," restoring the Way of the ancient kings. In fact, Li Yan was a modest gentleman, amiable to all, and got along well with all the Chuang army officers, high and low.

At present, he was primarily responsible for famine relief efforts and enjoyed considerable prestige among the impoverished commoners who received aid.

However, Li Zicheng had other plans for Li Yan's important employment, for he discerned that this man possessed talent in both civil and military affairs. Indeed, historically, Li Yan was enfeoffed as Vice General of the Central Camp and Marquis of Yue, second only to Liu Zongmin. In the Chuang army, military merit was supreme; his military talent was undeniable, and it would be arbitrary to view him merely as a frail scholar.

The hall was filled with assembled Chuang army officers, their conversation thick with Qin-region accents. When discussing military affairs, it was mainly a consultation among the various Chuang generals. As for Li Zicheng, though he valued men like Niu Jinxing, he did not think much of their armchair military strategies. When it came to fighting, the instinctive experience forged through years of bloody warfare was far superior to the grandiose talk of these scholars. He employed Niu Jinxing mainly for managing logistics, establishing rules and regulations, winning hearts and minds, and recruiting worthy men.

The same applied to Song Xiance. This itinerant occultist, who made his living telling fortunes and casting hexagrams, had not offered any remarkable military insights since joining the Chuang camp.

His military talent could not even compare to that of his own officers like Gao Yigong, Liu Fangliang, Zhang Nai, Tian Jianxiu, and Yuan Zongdi. Yet this cripple, not three chi tall, was proficient in the Six-Ren and Qimen Dunjia arts, as well as prophetic charts and numerology. He was especially adept in feudal superstition. Upon their first meeting, he had produced a prophecy from his sleeve: "Eighteen children shall preside over the divine vessel." Li Zicheng was overjoyed at the time, interpreting it to mean that the house of Li would prosper, that he was ordained by Heaven, and that he possessed the visage of an emperor.

It seems that throughout China's millennia, whenever a generation's great hero was born, there would always be some auspicious omen or prophetic verse—a harbinger of hegemony. Except for the Ming founder, who firmly believed he was just a beggar by origin, everyone else believed deeply in such things, and Li Zicheng was no exception. After this prophecy emerged, Li Zicheng became even more convinced that he was favored by Heaven, that his mandate was divinely bestowed, and that henceforth he would be ever-victorious. And indeed, facts seemed to prove it: every time Song Xiance divined the outcome of a battle, his army always seized cities and territory with unstoppable momentum.

Song Xiance thus became a military advisor upon whom Li Zicheng relied heavily, always kept at his side for consultation and trusted as a god. Meanwhile, the Li brothers, feeling they were newcomers and reluctant to meddle in Chuang army affairs, remained mostly silent. Thus, at this time, these scholars played little role in military matters.

The one speaking now was Chuang General Yuan Zongdi, for he was primarily responsible for this assault on Luoyang. "Luoyang is not easy to take. The city wall is nine li in circumference and four zhang high, entirely faced with large blue bricks. Every city gate has a barbican, and there are watchtowers above the gates. Along the entire wall, there are thirty-nine enemy platforms and countless bastions. Outside the city, there is a moat, five zhang deep and three zhang wide, fed by the Chan River—very difficult to cross... The officers and soldiers inside have already begun their defense. They've hauled many large blue stones from the Luo River flats and piled them inside the city to use as rolling logs and stone missiles. The trained militiamen patrolling Luoyang have also increased. The authorities have also posted notices: all men and women in the city between the ages of fifteen and fifty must help defend the walls."

"The neighborhood heads and tithing chiefs from every ward in the city have all been summoned, dividing the defense into sectors with assigned responsibilities. The city walls have all been marked with white lime to delineate defensive zones..." "There are many cannons, large and small, on the walls—over a hundred. According to our spies' reconnaissance, inside the city there are eight 'Divine Might Invincible Grand General' cannons, with two installed at each city gate. There are also several 'Divine Might Grand General' red-barbarian-style guns, all firing cannonballs of ten catties or more..." Liu Fangliang, seated below, saw a shadow of gloom flash in his eyes; he could also feel the gazes of many in the hall focused on him. Yuan Zongdi continued: "The city's fortifications are so strong, and the officers' and soldiers' defenses are robust. A direct assault on the city, I fear, would be difficult. In the eighth year of Chongzhen, our righteous army, following the High Chuang King, also attacked Luoyang. Over a hundred thousand men besieged it for several days, but in the end, we couldn't take it..." A silence fell over the hall for a moment. In the eleventh month of the eighth year of Chongzhen, most of those present here had followed Gao Yingxiang in attacking the strong city of Luoyang, and in the end, the assault had failed. Moreover, with government reinforcements arriving, Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng, seeing victory was unlikely, had led their troops in flight. The following year, Gao Yingxiang was captured in Shaanxi and executed by slow slicing. That lesson was etched into their bones; they must not repeat the same mistake this time. Yuan Zongdi spoke again: "Our spies report that for Luoyang's defense, the dog-official Wang Yinchang guards the Ruiguang Gate to the west; Garrison Commander Wang Shaoyu guards the Gongchen Gate to the north; Mobile Corps Commander Liu Jianyi guards the Changchun Gate to the east; and Mobile Corps Commander Luo Tai guards the Dongfeng Gate to the south. Reinforcements are still arriving continuously, especially the troops of Assistant Regional Commander Chen Yongfu, the defender of Kaifeng, and the guest commander Wang Dou, who have already reached Luoyang..." The hall grew even quieter. After a long pause, Li Zicheng said to Liu Fangliang, "Mingyuan, tell the brothers in detail about the matter of Wang Dou's army..."