Chapter 77: Annexation

The man sent to Gaozhou with the message was called Zhang An. Because he was short, everyone on the mountain called him "Short-Leg An."

Though Zhang An was short, he had attended a private school for two years in his early days, which made him the only literate person on Dajiao Mountain besides Song Xianggong. And not only could he read, he was also glib and quick with his tongue.

It was precisely for this reason that when Zhou Shixiang had suggested to Boss Hu that someone be sent to Gaozhou with the message, Boss Hu had sent Short-Leg An without a second thought.

Zhang An had returned ahead of schedule. When he entered the city, Lei Xianchu and the others were still twenty li away. The reason he had come back first was, on one hand, to give Luoding advance notice, and on the other, because official protocol demanded it.

Lei Xianchu was a Mobile Corps Commander of the rank of from-third-grade, a proper Ming army officer, and this time he had come as the representative of the Governor of the Four Prefectures.

Therefore, no matter what, Luoding had to prepare a proper reception, and the relevant leaders had to go out of the city in person to meet him. Only in this way would protocol be satisfied.

Everything Zhang An saw after entering the city left him dazed, as if he had come to the wrong place. Once he confirmed that the huge force before him was indeed the Taiping Camp, his spirits lifted at once.

After seeing Zhou Shixiang and Song Xianggong, he did not linger in grief over Boss Hu's death, but immediately recounted everything he had seen and heard in Gaozhou.

According to Zhang An, after arriving in Gaozhou he had not seen Cheng Bangjun at all, nor had he seen any of Li Dingguo's people.

Instead, he had been taken directly to the Governor's office of the Four Prefectures, temporarily set up in Gaozhou, and then locked in a room for six straight days, with no one coming to see him. A few days later, a low-ranking official in a blue robe suddenly came to see him.

The man did not say who he was, only told him to report the situation in Luoding, and then left without another word.

The day after the blue-robed official's visit, a secretary from the Governor's office suddenly came to tell Zhang An that His Excellency the Governor was already clear on the situation in Luoding, greatly admired the righteous deeds of the men of Dajiao Mountain, and had specially dispatched Mobile Corps Commander Lei Xianchu to Luoding to negotiate with Assistant Regional Commander Hu Quan.

The secretary spoke with absolute finality, with no intention of asking Zhang An's opinion at all.

Reading the man's expression, Zhang An sensed that the secretary did not wish to mention Cheng Bangjun, the Director of the Bureau of Operations in the Ministry of War, and simply wanted him to set out at once and return to Luoding with Commander Lei.

Though puzzled by this attitude, Zhang An did not dare ask questions, and so he was released from the Governor's office in a daze. Then soldiers took him before Commander Lei.

Commander Lei did not waste words with a mere messenger; with a flick of his whip he ordered him to lead the way. Only when they were still twenty li from Luoding did Lei Xianchu's attendants tell Zhang An to ride ahead into the city and report.

What kind of game are they playing?

Hearing Zhang An's account, both Zhou Shixiang and Song Xianggong were puzzled. Where had Cheng Bangjun gone? And what did Zhang Xiaoqi mean by sending a military officer? Did they still recognize the Taiping Camp as Ming army or not?

Song Xianggong pondered briefly, then asked Zhang An, "Did they ever mention Brother Hu's appointment as Assistant Regional Commander of Luoding?"

"No." Zhang An thought hard, then shook his head firmly. "In Gaozhou, the people at the Governor's office looked down on me, and on the road that man Lei and his subordinates ignored me completely. The way I see it, these people don't seem to think much of us at all. In fact..."

"In fact what?" Zhang An's hesitation irritated Song Xianggong, and he glared at him.

Zhang An said hurriedly, "Judging by Lei Xianchu's manner, it looks as if they mean to swallow us up."

At this, Zhou Shixiang laughed. "A Mobile Corps Commander dares to swallow up an Assistant Regional Commander? If that's really the case, this Lord Lei has quite an appetite!"

"It seems something has gone wrong in Gaozhou. Otherwise Cheng Bangjun could not have failed to show himself."

Song Xianggong was somewhat worried that something had indeed happened in Gaozhou, and was hesitating over whether to let Lei Xianchu into the city, when Zhou Shixiang was already striding toward the door.

"You don't know if a mule or a horse is any good until you trot it out.

If this man Lei really has come to swallow us up, then we'll make sure he doesn't leave alive."

Lei Xianchu's ancestral home was Baochang County, Nanxiong Prefecture, Guangdong. His grandfather Lei Lin had died in battle during the Wanli Emperor's Korean campaign, and the court had granted his father Lei Qing the post of Hundred-Household Officer of the Tingzhou Guard.

In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, Lei Qing died of illness, and Lei Xianchu inherited the post of Hundred-Household Officer of the Tingzhou Guard.

In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the calamity of the Jiashen year befell the nation: the Manchu Qing entered the pass and swept south in force.

The Hongguang regime made no effort to advance, appointed men poorly, and had no strategy for war or defense, and so the southern capital fell.

On the seventh day of the sixth month of the second year of the false Qing Shunzhi reign, the Ming Governor of Fujian Zhang Kentang, the Minister of Rites Huang Daozhou, the Earl of Nan'an Zheng Zhilong, the Earl of Jinglu Zheng Hongkui, and others acclaimed the Prince of Tang, Zhu Yujian, as Regent at Fuzhou.

On the twenty-seventh day of the intercalary sixth month he was proclaimed emperor, Fuzhou was renamed Tianxing Prefecture, and that year was made the first year of Longwu.

After the Longwu regime was established, Lei Xianchu was promoted from Hundred-Household Officer to Thousand-Household Officer of the Tingzhou Guard, and led more than six hundred officers and men of his guard unit under the command of Huang Daozhou, the Chief Grand Secretary, Minister of Personnel, and concurrent Minister of War, in preparation for the northern expedition.

But Huang Daozhou was a great Confucian scholar with no understanding of military affairs, and the Earl of Nan'an, Zheng Zhilong, held his troops back to preserve his own power and would not send a single soldier to Daozhou.

Daozhou had no choice but to return to his home region and recruit funds, provisions, and troops on his own, gathering several thousand men and a dozen or so horses.

When his force reached Guangxin, he recruited three months' worth of army provisions, then divided his troops into three columns and launched an attack on the Qing forces. All three columns were defeated.

A few days later, Huang Daozhou was ambushed by Qing troops. Assistant Regional Commander Gao Wanrong fled the field, and Lei Xianchu could not reach him in time to help, whereupon the entire army collapsed.

Daozhou was captured by the Huizhou garrison commander Zhang Tianlu and sent to prison in Nanjing.

The Qing court sent the envoy Hong Chengchou to persuade him to surrender, and Daozhou wrote this couplet: "The historian's brush leaves a lasting fragrance; though success was not achieved, in the end he may be a model.

The Hong grace is vast and mighty; unable to repay the state, he has instead become a foe."

When Hong Chengchou saw the couplet, he was both ashamed and humiliated, and sent up a memorial requesting that Daozhou be spared the death penalty, but the Qing court refused. Afterwards Daozhou fasted for twelve days.

During that time his wife, Lady Cai, wrote to him: "A loyal minister has a state but no family; do not look back." On the fifth day of the third month, Daozhou died a martyr in Nanjing.

After Huang Daozhou's death, the Longwu Emperor, who was under the thumb of the Zheng brothers, resolved to break free of Zheng control. He traveled in person from Fuzhou to Yanping, preparing to make a risky journey to Huguang, but was detained by Zheng Zhilong.

Later he met his death at Tingzhou, giving his life for the dynasty.

After the fall of the Longwu regime, Lei Xianchu, who had fled back from Jiangxi, refused to shave his head and surrender to the Qing.

He led the thirty-odd survivors of his troops south to join the Shaowu Emperor (Longwu's younger brother) in Guangzhou, serving under Su Guansheng, the Grand Secretary of the Shaowu cabinet.

But from its very founding, the Shaowu regime never made resisting the Qing its first priority. Instead, in order to contest the imperial succession, it fought openly with the newly established Yongli regime, and the two sides came to blows.

The Qing army reaped the benefit of their quarrel. In the eleventh month, Qing forces under Li Chengdong broke through Huizhou and Chaozhou and drove straight for Guangzhou.

On the fourteenth day of the twelfth month, fourteen Qing horsemen pretended to be reinforcements and tricked the city gates open, and the main force swarmed in. Su Guansheng urgently summoned Lei Xianchu and others to resist, but they could not hold, and the city fell.

The Shaowu Emperor, Su Guansheng, and the rest all hanged themselves and died for the dynasty.

Having once again narrowly escaped death, Lei Xianchu fled from Guangzhou, resolved that he would never surrender to the Qing even in death, and went west to join Zhang Xiaoqi, the Governor of the four prefectures of Gao, Lian, Lei, and Qiong, appointed by the Yongli court.

At the time, Zhang Xiaoqi was suffering from a lack of capable officers under his command. Seeing that Lei Xianchu was a proper officer of the Ming guard system and had repeatedly raised troops in the loyalist cause, he appointed him Mobile Corps Commander of Leizhou.