Chapter 842: A True Man

At today’s early court session, the Chongzhen Emperor once more summoned his civil and military grand ministers to discuss defense strategy. Suddenly grief welled up from within him, and he shed tears; the assembled officials wept with one another, every one of them utterly helpless. Some proposed that Feng Quan should be recalled, others that Huo Weihua or Yang Weiyuan should be employed, but the Chongzhen Emperor merely listened in silence and answered none of them.

He recalled a secret report from Wang Chengen, Superintendent of Inner and Outer City Defense, which said that the various reports were grossly unreliable — that the capital originally had twenty-six thousand garrison troops and rotational soldiers, and even allowing for phantom rolls and embezzled rations, and even after Zhou Yanru had drawn off fifty thousand troops to march south, there should still be a hundred and fifty or sixty thousand men. In reality, the troops actually manning the walls might number only fifty or sixty thousand, and most of those were weak and debilitated.

The capital garrison and rotational troops had long gone without pay and provisions; when driven up to defend the walls, most failed to appear. The soldiers guarding the ramparts were largely retainers of noble and favored households, every one of them registered under false names to draw extra rations, and at the last moment they hired poor men to stand in for them. Now, at this moment of national crisis, they still hid at home and paid no heed whatsoever to the defense of the walls.

After Wang Chengen tallied the numbers, the result was shocking: on the inner and outer walls, there might be only one soldier for every five crenellations, and every one of them was utterly exhausted and wholly unfit for duty.

Thinking of this, his heart filled with fury, and he thought again of the Senior Grand Secretary Zhou Yanru, who had accomplished nothing after marching south and was now hastily sheltering inside Baoding city.

The clamor of the civil and military grand ministers rang in his ears, but the Chongzhen Emperor shut it all out. He picked up his brush and wrote twelve large characters on the imperial desk: “Every civil and military official deserves death; the common people must not be killed.”

He secretly showed it to the Eunuch Director of Ceremonial Wang Zhixin, then immediately wiped it away.

After court was dismissed, he summoned the various officials selected for examination and questioned them on enriching military funds and pacifying the people. Huang Guoqi, the County Magistrate of Ziyang, said: “Enriching military funds lies not in extortion but in frugality and prudence; pacifying the people rests in the heart of His Majesty. If His Majesty’s heart is at peace, the people will be at peace too.” The Chongzhen Emperor thought Huang Guoqi was right and immediately appointed him Supervising Secretary.

He continued examining the remaining officials, but before he was halfway through, a secret missive was suddenly delivered. The Chongzhen Emperor’s expression changed after reading it; he rose at once and withdrew inside. The assembled officials stood waiting for a long while before being ordered to disperse.

Afterwards, everyone learned that Tongzhou had fallen, and they all sighed in blank dismay.

The Chongzhen Emperor returned to his Qianqing Palace and paced back and forth in the hall. He was hesitating, unable to decide whether to summon Wang Dou.

If before he had still held some confidence in the defense of the walls, now…

He reasoned with himself that he had already summoned Wang Pu; summoning Wang Dou as well would be entirely logical.

Only…

He recalled every detail of his dealings with Wang Dou. He believed that Wang Dou had always been loyal to him, yet the fact remained that the sovereign was weak and the subject strong — in many matters, how could Wang Dou be allowed his own ideas? That remark of Li Banghua’s kept echoing in the Chongzhen Emperor’s ears, making him shudder every time.

He also thought of how Wang Dou had defied and contradicted him, especially that one incident, which had caused him to lose all face and left the imperial dignity utterly shattered.

Even now, recalling it still filled him with extreme fury.

Should he summon Wang Dou? Inside Qianqing Palace, the Chongzhen Emperor paced back and forth, wavering and unable to decide.

…

Rain and snow drifted over the Forbidden City. Inside the palace, Princess Kunxing, Zhu Meichuo, sat in a daze, while beside her Princess Zhaoren played merrily.

Even deep within the palace, Zhu Meichuo knew that the roving bandits were about to reach the city walls and that everywhere in the palace people were in a state of panic.

She looked at her younger sister and thought blankly: “He promised me… but will he come to save us?”

…

“The bandits and rebels are coming. Will this great city be destroyed like Rome, like Constantinople?”

Inside the Directorate of Astronomy, the high-nosed, deep-eyed Westerner Tang Ruowang, dressed in Great Ming official robes, sighed. He knelt before a crucifix; behind him were a group of Westerners also wearing Great Ming official robes.

“Leave everything to the judgment of the Almighty Lord. Fathers, let us pray.”

…

At the hour of si, a scout suddenly galloped up to the foot of Guangqumen and cried out: “Dust rises to the sky in the distance — I fear the main force of the roving bandits is upon us.”

The eunuch guarding the gate promptly dispatched picket riders to investigate. They returned and reported: “Only roving cavalry.”

So they thought nothing of it.

Near noon, Wang Chengen on the Yongdingmen gate tower suddenly stood up. Li Guozhen beside him stood up as well. In the distant plain, a cloud of dust was rolling toward them — it seemed to be several dozen riders.

As they galloped closer, Wang Chengen frowned slightly. These men were superb riders; they did not look like government scout cavalry.

He drew out his telescope and looked in that direction. He saw clearly that every one of these men wore a red-tasseled felt hat and a yellow uniform tunic, each marked with the character “Shun.”

Wang Chengen murmured: “Roving bandits.”

He said sharply: “Send word to the commander in the arrow tower: when the roving bandits come within two li, immediately bombard them with the red-barbarian heavy cannons!”

A young eunuch beside him hastily took the order and left.

As the main thoroughfare leading in and out of the southern part of the capital region, Yongdingmen also had an arrow tower. Its front face had fourteen arrow windows, arranged in two tiers of seven each. On every arrow window was mounted a four-wheeled millstone cannon, so the entire arrow tower held fourteen four-wheeled millstone red-barbarian heavy cannons.

On the various crenellations of the city wall there were also more than ten red-barbarian great cannons, and over a hundred falconets of various sizes.

The other city gates were similarly heavily armed. Of course, no gateway in the capital could compare with Deshengmen, which had forty-eight arrow windows arranged in four tiers of twelve each.

Soon the young eunuch delivered Wang Chengen’s order. Then, from within the arrow tower, came the sound of creaking and grinding. One by one, the four-wheeled millstone cannons began to turn; they rotated their barrels, adjusted their angles, and one after another, dark, menacing muzzles protruded from the windows, ready to fire at any moment.

These four-wheeled millstone cannons had been painstakingly cast by the Qing state at the cost of countless effort and resources. Every one of them fired shot of ten jin or more, and nearly every cannon could reach three or four li. The gunners of the capital garrison were somewhat inferior to the gunners of the Qing’s Ujen Chooiha battery, but at a range of two li they still had considerable accuracy.

The roving bandit cavalry troop still came thundering on. They drew closer and closer, the rumbling of their hooves crashing like thunder, pounding at the hearts of the soldiers on the wall.

Though they numbered only a few dozen riders, their momentum was formidable, and many faces on the wall changed color.

Wang Chengen abruptly lowered his telescope and looked toward the arrow tower. They had entered the two-li range.

At that very moment, a thunderous cannon blast erupted. A great mass of dense white smoke billowed from one of the arrow windows, followed by the shrieking scream of a cannonball.

With that first shot, the thunderous roar of cannons boomed without cease. The arrow windows were swallowed by rolling dense smoke, with only streaks of fierce flame flashing out.

…

The roving bandits have arrived. Inside Qianqing Palace, the Chongzhen Emperor snapped his head toward the direction of Yongdingmen.

The roving bandits have arrived. Princess Kunxing started and looked up in alarm. Beside her, Princess Zhaoren was so frightened that she threw herself into her arms.

The roving bandits have arrived. Inside the Directorate of Astronomy, Tang Ruowang paused for a moment, then resumed leading the Westerners in prayer.

The roving bandits have arrived. Fu Yingchong, who was in his residence retrieving silver, trembled, then gritted his teeth and quickened his pace.

The roving bandits have arrived. Yang Bagu on Chongwenmen Street looked up in shock, and a sudden palpitation seized her heart.

The roving bandits have arrived. The guards at every gate, the civil and military officials of the capital, the nobles and eunuchs, the merchants and commoners — all looked in that direction at once. Everyone in the capital turned their ears toward that quarter. Their thoughts were all different, but they knew that the moment that would decide the turning of their fates had come.

…

The cannonballs screamed down and struck the somewhat slick ground, throwing up great splashes of mud and dust. The shot, carrying the smell of sulfur and searing heat, rolled on for a long time under its immense kinetic energy before finally coming to a stop.

When the high-velocity spinning cannonballs plunged into the mass of riders, there was at once a sickening sound of snapping sinew and bone. Flesh and blood flew everywhere, severed limbs danced wildly, and a mist-like spray of blood rose in clouds. One cannonball tore straight through a horse’s belly, spilling its entrails and guts; the horse screamed once and hurled its rider far away.

One cannonball struck a roving bandit directly, smashing both man and horse into pulp in a wild spray of blood mist. Another cannonball carried off a roving bandit’s head; the headless body sat on the galloping horse, blood gushing from the neck, and the horse ran on for a while before the corpse slumped and toppled.

The killing power of solid shot was too horrifying. The fourteen four-wheeled millstone cannons in the Yongdingmen arrow tower pounded the several dozen roving bandit cavalry relentlessly. Even if not every shot found its mark, amid the great shrieking screams, clouds of blood mist kept rising from that direction, and a chorus of agonized cries and whinnies rang out. In the blink of an eye, of the fifty or sixty riders, only a little over twenty remained.

The surviving roving bandits were utterly panicked. Their horses, in their terror, bucked and bolted wildly, throwing several riders to the ground. The rest, in their confusion, dared not pause for an instant; they wheeled their horses around and fled for their lives.

The cannon fire from the Yongdingmen arrow tower ceased. Smoke still rolled from the arrow windows, and wisps of light smoke drifted from the muzzle of every cannon.

"Close the city gates!"

Wang Chengen roared at the top of his lungs.

His command arrows were dispatched in all directions; the gates that were not yet closed began to shut. The capital's city gates were all made of extremely hard wood such as elm, wrapped on the outside with very thick iron sheeting and fastened with large copper-plated nails. Each gate leaf was immensely heavy, requiring several men to push, and even the bolts were extraordinarily thick.

Once the gates were closed, contact with the outside world was essentially cut off. Even if refugees appeared outside the walls, they would no longer be permitted to enter.

"Close the city gates!"

"Shut them quickly!"

Amid the repeated roars and shouted orders, the creaking and groaning of the closing gates spread a tense atmosphere throughout every part of the capital.

At that moment, the thunderous sound of hoofbeats rose again, and several dozen more riders appeared in everyone's sight. They reconnoitered from a distance, galloping around the city walls, their rumbling hoofbeats unceasing.

After these several dozen riders came another several dozen. Like the bandit cavalry units before them, they all basically wore red-tasseled felt hats and yellow uniform coats; some also wrapped yellow headscarves. Every uniform coat bore the character "Shun."

They either gathered into a single mass or scattered in all directions to gallop, every man highly skilled in horsemanship. They let out bursts of strange howls, their hoofbeats pounding the earth, bringing heavy pressure upon the defending troops atop the walls.

They always said the roving bandits were fierce and hardy, fierce and hardy — and indeed they were. Just looking at those cavalry units below, few of the capital garrison's defending troops could handle them.

Suddenly, outside the city, a sound like galloping thunder arose as several hundred more riders approached. They formed a loose, scattered formation and advanced neither fast nor slow, halting several li away from Yongding Gate, merely reining in their horses and standing there, quietly observing.

Then what seemed like another thousand riders appeared, a dense, dark mass. Their forces grew larger and larger. Wang Chengen, having experienced the Battle of Jinzhou, managed to remain composed, merely keeping his telescope raised as he surveyed the scene, but Li Guozhen beside him had turned somewhat pale.

This Count of Xiangcheng had always lived in silks and satins, dining on delicacies — when had he ever seen a battlefield?

Amid the vast mist, in the fine rain and sparse snow, the world seemed to fall silent for a moment. Then the defending troops on the wall faintly sensed the ground trembling. They strained their eyes to look, and suddenly a sea of people appeared before them.

This sea of people advanced slowly, twisting like a mirage in the mist and drizzle, flickering in and out of sight, and as unfathomable as a boundless ocean.

They drew closer and closer, their footfalls shaking the earth, and then came an unbroken expanse of yellow armor and clothing, countless yellow banners fluttering and snapping in the wind, layer upon layer, spears like forests and wilderness.

In front of them was a dense mass of cavalry; behind them, an endless infantry force. This human sea shifted and advanced continuously, covering everything beyond the walls, like a towering, swift tsunami that nothing could withstand, or like a sky-darkening swarm of locusts, sworn to devour all things in the world.

The bandits wore yellow armor, like yellow clouds blanketing the wilderness. (~^~)