Chapter 96

Mentioning the name Wang Wang Xiantong, perhaps no one knows him.

But his great-grandfather, Wang Shouren, was somewhat famous in the Great Ming.

In the original history, in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the Newly Created Earl Wang Wang Xiantong defended Qihua Gate; outnumbered, he personally descended from the walls to engage the Li army in hand-to-hand street fighting, slaying several men before being captured by Liu Zongmin, after which he refused to surrender, cursed Li Huang Zicheng aloud, and had his tongue cut out, his heart carved out, and his head severed to be displayed to the masses.

He was also the only noble to slay several soldiers of the Chuang army when the city fell.

Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian had already spoken to this extent.

Wang Wang Xiantong had no choice but to kneel and accept the imperial decree.

A look of fierce ruthlessness suddenly appeared on Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian's face.

"In urgent times, one must not refuse expedient measures; to correct falsehoods, one must not shy away from going too far."

"If old officials are unworthy, I will kill them; if new officials are unworthy, I will kill them just the same!"

With the court renewed and the imperial clansmen across the regions gradually being buried,

and fueled by the fermentation of the national shame at Xingshan, countless aspiring individuals successively enlisted in the army, rushing to Liaodong.

Zheng Sen, son of Zheng Zheng Zheng Zheng Zhilong, the Mobile Corps Commander of the Five Tigers of Minhai, led the Fujian naval forces northward.

Li Dingguo, a bandit chieftain in the southwest, led his troops to defect and requested to fight in Liaodong.

Zhang Huangyan, a provincial graduate from Ningbo, joined the military.

Yan Yingyuan, a clerk from Jiangyin, joined the expeditionary army to Liaodong...

88, Fan Fan Wencheng: "Your Majesty, this matter may yet see a turning point!"

And with Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian's purge,

the entire court of the Great Ming gradually became clear.

At this time, Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian finally finalized the list of Grand Secretaries for the Great Ming's cabinet.

Sun Sun Chuanting, the Provincial Governor of Shaanxi, was promoted to Grand Secretary of the Wenyuan Pavilion and made Chief Grand Secretary.

Hong Hong Chengchou, the Viceroy of Jiliao, retained his title as Grand Secretary of the Dongge Pavilion while concurrently serving as Minister of War.

Du Du Yinxin, a Principal Clerk in the Ministry of Revenue at the Southern Capital, was promoted to Minister of Revenue, granted the title of Grand Secretary of the Zhao Wenhua Hall, and entered the cabinet to assist in governance.

He He Tengjiao, the County Magistrate of Nanyang, was jointly recommended by the gentry of the Central Plains, summoned to court, granted the title of Grand Secretary of the Wuying Hall, given the additional rank of Vice Minister of War, and entered the cabinet to assist in governance.

Sun Sun Chuanting and Hong Hong Chengchou were already veteran officials of the court, selected by Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian himself.

However, the latter two, Du Du Yinxin and He He Tengjiao, were insistently added to Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian's list by Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Yuanzhang.

These two were among the few officials who managed to keep themselves unblemished after Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian's purge.

Furthermore, Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Yuanzhang personally "reviewed" the memorials submitted by these two over the past two years.

He only glanced at them.

Yet in his heart, Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Yuanzhang immediately formed a judgment.

These two are usable!

Not only usable, but capable of bearing great responsibility!

At the very least, these two are superior to the few individuals he had picked for Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Yunwen.

As the founding emperor of the Great Ming, Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Yuanzhang possessed a certain talent and boldness in employing people.

Especially regarding this Du Du Yinxin, Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Yuanzhang vaguely felt that this man might one day rival Li Li Shanzhang of years past.

The Great Ming, originally tottering on the brink of collapse, nearly miraculously quieted down after the coffins of the imperial clansmen from various regions were successively buried.

Next, once this session of the imperial examinations concluded and these new scholars were filled into the Great Ming's court, the perilous dynasty could barely hold on.

Liaodong, Shengjing.

Huang Taiji, who had barely retreated to Shengjing, also noticed the changes in the Great Ming.

Meanwhile, Fan Fan Wencheng had aged ten years almost overnight.

A few days ago, a letter had arrived from his hometown.

The ancestral graves of Fan Fan Wencheng's family had been dug up by the surrounding commoners.

Huang Taiji lay on a reclining chair with a grave expression, weakly raising the paper in his hand and whispering to Fan Fan Wencheng,

"Mr. Fan, I intend to voluntarily renounce my imperial title, submit to the Great Ming as a vassal, and then seek peace with the Great Ming. Do you think the Great Ming will agree?"

Fan Fan Wencheng replied with a bitter smile,

"Your Majesty, how is that possible..."

Let alone the twenty-five thousand imperial clansmen; even if the Great Qing had not pit-executed twenty-five thousand surrendered soldiers at Xingshan, the Great Ming might still not agree to such a matter.

Moreover, the lesson of the Southern Song stands right there.

Whoever advises Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian to accept this peace document

would be labeled a Qin Hui.

If Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian agreed,

he would be labeled a Zhao Gou.

At best, they would earn a kneeling statue to kneel for several thousand years.

Huang Taiji clenched his teeth tightly and whispered,

"Then what if I voluntarily cede Shengjing and the cities of western Liaodong..."

Fan Fan Wencheng lowered his head and remained silent.

"Your Majesty, forgive my bluntness, but with the war having reached this point, the Great Ming and our Great Qing are now locked in a fight to the death."

Huang Taiji looked at Shuntian Prefecture on the map before him with near despair, gritting his teeth and whispering,

"Are the thirty-odd years of painstaking effort our Great Qing invested in Liaodong to be handed over to the Han Chinese just like that?"

Huang Taiji knew this.

Although Liaodong of the Great Ming now held only the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled,

given the Great Ming's current financial strength,

it would take less than a year to train one hundred thousand elite troops in the Shanhai Pass and Ningyuan region!

Yet this was not what made Huang Taiji most desperate.

What truly drove Huang Taiji to despair was this:

over the past decade and more, the most crucial reason for the Qing army's repeated victories was that Nurhaci, in the battles of Sarhu and Hun River, had wiped out an entire generation of Ming generals.

This left the Ming forces in Liaodong long suffering from a state of having soldiers but no commanders.

However, ever since the Battle of Xingshan,

that Grand General "Blue Liang," who had led the Ming imperial clan into Liaodong, seemed to have plugged this very weakness in the Ming army.

Relying solely on the two thousand troops he had forcibly seized from under Hong Hong Chengchou,

Blue Yu had stubbornly waged Mobile Corps Commander warfare in Liaodong.

Supported by Han civilians in Liaodong and by plundering Qing supplies, Blue Yu now commanded a force that had swelled to ten thousand men.

What Huang Taiji did not know was that

Blue Yu had originally risen to power through Mobile Corps Commander warfare.

In those days, even the steppe cavalry of Emperor Shundi of Northern Northern Yuan could not match Blue Yu amidst the vast grasslands.

Now, with Liaodong's mountains, rivers, and forests, Blue Yu fought as if he had returned to his own home.

Just at this moment, a fierce ruthlessness suddenly flared in the eyes of Fan Fan Wencheng, who was kneeling on the ground.

He murmured in a low voice,

"Your Majesty, the Great Qing has not yet lost; there may still be a turning point."

Huang Taiji slowly raised his head and looked at Fan Fan Wencheng with bewilderment, asking,

"A turning point? What turning point?"

Fan Fan Wencheng's gaze slowly settled upon the southeastern corner of the map.

"The turning point lies right here!"

Having spoken, Fan Fan Wencheng clenched his teeth and whispered,

"Rather than ceding territory, Your Majesty should feign defeat!"

Upon hearing this, Huang Taiji's brows instantly tightened; he raised his head in confusion and asked Fan Fan Wencheng,

"Mr. Fan, what do you mean by this?"

Both Huang Taiji and Fan Fan Wencheng understood clearly.