Chapter 103

The name Wang Xiantong may not be known to anyone.

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

In the original history, in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the newly created Earl Wang Xiantong defended Qihua Sect; outnumbered, he personally descended from the city walls to fight the Li army in close-quarters street combat, cutting down several men before being captured by Liu Zongmin. He then refused to surrender, cursed Li Zicheng, and was cut open—his tongue cut out and his heart carved out—and his head hung up for public display.

He was also the only nobleman who managed to slay several of the Chuang army when the city fell.

Zhu Youjian had already spoken to this extent.

Wang Xiantong could only kneel and accept the imperial decree.

A fierce, ruthless look suddenly appeared on Zhu Youjian's face.

"In an emergency one must be allowed to bend the rules; to correct a falsehood one must go beyond the proper bounds."

"If an old minister is unworthy, I will kill him; if a new minister is unworthy, I will kill him just the same!"

With the court taking on a completely new look and the imperial clans from various regions being buried in succession.

Spurred on by the national humiliation at Xingshan, countless men of ambition joined the army one after another, rushing to Liaodong.

Zheng Sen, son of Mobile Corps Commander General Zheng Zhilong of the Min Sea Five Tigers, led the Fujian navy north.

The southwestern bandit Li Dingguo led his troops to switch allegiance and requested to fight at Liaodong.

The Ningbo juren Zhang Huangyan enlisted in the army to take up arms.

Jiangyin registrar Yan Yingyuan joined the campaign against the Liao army….

88, Fan Wencheng: Your Majesty, there may yet be a turning point in this matter!

And with Zhu Youjian's purge.

The entire Great Ming court gradually brightened and cleared.

And at this moment, Zhu Youjian finally finalized the list of Grand Secretaries for the Great Ming's cabinet.

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

Viceroy of Jiliao Hong Hong Chengchou retained his title of Grand Secretary of the East Pavilion and concurrently served as Minister of War.

Du Du Yinxi, a Director of the Ministry of Revenue in Nanjing, was promoted to Minister of Revenue, granted the title of Grand Secretary of the Wenhua Hall, and admitted to the cabinet to assist in governance.

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

Sun Chuanting and Hong Hong Chengchou were both veteran ministers of the court, appointed by Zhu Youjian's decision.

But the latter two, Du Du Yinxi and He Tengjiao, were insisted upon by Zhu Yuanzhang and added to Zhu Youjian's list.

These two were among the few officials who managed to remain untainted after Zhu Youjian's purge.

And after this, Zhu Yuanzhang personally "reviewed" the memorials these two had submitted to the throne over the past two years.

He only took one look.

And Zhu Yuanzhang made a judgment in his heart.

These two men were usable!

Not only usable, but fit for great tasks!

At the very least, these two were far better than the sorry lot he had picked for Zhu Yunwen back then.

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

Especially this Du Du Yinxi—Zhu Yuanzhang vaguely felt that this man might one day rival Li Shanzhang of old.

The Great Ming, which had been tottering on the brink of collapse, after the coffins of the imperial clans from various regions were buried one after another, quieted down almost miraculously.

Next, once this imperial examination was finished and these newly admitted scholars were poured into the Great Ming court, the imperiled Great Ming would barely be able to hold on.

……

……

Liaodong, Shengjing.

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

And Fan Wencheng seemed to have aged ten years in a single night.

A letter had come from his old home a few days earlier.

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

With a solemn expression, Huang Taiji lay on a reclining chair, weakly raised the paper in his hand, and said in a low voice to Fan Wencheng,

"Mr. Fan, I am preparing to strip myself of the imperial title, submit as a vassal to the Great Ming, and then negotiate peace with the Great Ming. Does Mr. think the Great Ming will agree?"

Fan Wencheng replied with an almost bitter smile,

"Your Majesty, how could that be possible…"

Forget the matter of the two hundred and fifty thousand members of the imperial clan—even the fact that the Great Qing had massacred two hundred and fifty thousand surrendered soldiers at Xingshan meant the Great Ming would not necessarily agree to this.

Moreover, the lesson of the Southern Song was right there before one's eyes.

Whoever urged Zhu Youjian to accept this peace negotiation.

Would be Qin Hui.

If Zhu Youjian agreed.

He would be Zhao Gou.

At the very least, he could count on getting a kneeling statue to kneel for several thousand years.

Huang Taiji clenched his jaw tightly and said in a low voice,

"Then what if I take the initiative to cede Shengjing and the various cities of Liaoxi…"

Fan Wencheng lowered his head and said nothing.

"Your Majesty, forgive my bluntness, but the war has reached such a point that the Great Ming and our Great Qing are already locked in a fight to the death."

Huang Taiji looked almost in despair at Shuntian Prefecture on the map before him, and through gritted teeth said in a low voice,

"Are the more than thirty years of painstaking effort my Great Qing put into building up Liaodong really to be handed over to the Han just like that?"

Huang Taiji knew.

Though the Great Ming's Liaodong now held only the old, the weak, the sick, and the lame.

Given the Great Ming's current finances.

It would take less than a year's merit to train a hundred thousand elite troops in the area around Guanning!

And that was not what most drove Huang Taiji to despair.

What truly drove Huang Taiji to despair was.

Over the past dozen years or so, the reason the Qing army had won battle after battle was, most importantly, that Nurhaci's two engagements at Sarhu and the Hun River had wiped out an entire generation of the Ming army's commanders.

Leaving the Ming forces in Liaodong in a prolonged state of having soldiers but no generals.

But ever since the Battle of Xingshan.

That Grand General "Lan Liang," who had led members of the Great Ming Sect into Liaodong, seemed to have patched up this shortcoming of the Ming army.

Lan Yu relied solely on the two thousand troops he had seized by force from under Hong Chengchou's command.

And stubbornly waged Mobile Corps Commander warfare in Liaodong.

With the support of Liaodong's Han civilians and by plundering the Qing army's supplies, Lan Yu now had a following of ten thousand men under him.

What Huang Taiji did not know was.

Lan Yu had originally risen to prominence by waging Mobile Corps Commander warfare.

Back in the day, the grassland cavalry of Yuan Shundi on the boundless steppe were still no match for Lan Yu.

Now in present-day Liaodong, with its mountains, waters, and forests, Lan Yu fought this war as comfortably as if he had returned home.

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

He murmured in a low voice

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

Huang Taiji slowly raised his head, looked at Fan Wencheng in confusion, and asked

"A turning point? What turning point?"

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

"The turning point is right here!"

Having said this, Fan Wencheng gritted his teeth and said in a low voice

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

Hearing this, Huang Taiji's brow immediately tightened, and he raised his head in puzzlement, looking at Fan Wencheng as he asked

"What do you mean by that, Mr.?"

Both Huang Taiji and Fan Wencheng were well aware.