Chapter 1305: Wu Sanfu, You Must Work Hard!

Wu Sangui's brother Wu Sanfu was now Governor-General of Huguang. When his second brother died of illness at the front, he had been at the Governor-General's headquarters in Jiangling County, Jingzhou Prefecture, planning operations to seize Kuizhou Prefecture and Yunyang Prefecture. But now he had already returned to Wuchang Prefecture, busy sending word of his brother's death — he and Wu Sangui had been very close, and now that his brother was gone, he was utterly grief-stricken and had no heart for anything, so he had submitted his resignation. He wanted to step down as Governor-General and let the Hubei Provincial Commander Hao Yaoqi take over, while he devoted himself entirely to arranging Wu Sangui's funeral.

No sooner had his memorial gone up than the Zhu Emperor summoned him at once to the Hall of Diligent Governance. He had assumed the Emperor was granting him leave, but the moment he entered the hall he sensed something was wrong.

Because Military Advisor Feng Sizhong, Li Yan of the Ministry of War, and Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander Zhu Chunjie were all present — this did not look like his leave was being granted!

"Your subject Wu Sanfu respectfully inquires after Your Majesty's sacred well-being." Wu Sanfu performed the bow of obeisance.

Zhu Cilang said, "We are well. Grant him a seat."

"I thank Your Majesty." Wu Sanfu did not stand on ceremony with the Zhu Emperor. He voiced his thanks, pulled up a chair beside the conference table, and sat down.

"Have you read Sangui's final memorial?" Zhu Cilang asked.

"I have already read it," Wu Sanfu replied.

"What do you think of it?" Zhu Cilang asked again.

Wu Sanfu nodded and said, "This subject thinks it is very good. However, this subject has not yet mentioned it to Lady Chen or to Ake."

"There is no hurry to mention it. First see to the funeral properly," Zhu Cilang said. "But Minister Wu, We fear you cannot remain in Wuchang Prefecture to attend Changbo's funeral."

Wu Sanfu was taken aback. "Your Majesty, Provincial Commander Hao has followed Your Majesty for twenty-three years, has been through a hundred battles, and is already thoroughly versed in the art of command. He is fully equal to so great a responsibility."

"We know that," Zhu Cilang said. "We have already approved your resignation, and We have also issued edicts appointing Hao Yaoqi to succeed as Governor-General and Feng San to succeed as Provincial Commander. But you cannot remain in Wuchang, because We have a still greater responsibility to entrust to you!"

Wu Sanfu understood now. "Your Majesty wishes to send this subject to Shaanxi?"

Zhu Cilang nodded and said, "Your Wu family fought so long in the Pacification of Sichuan campaign. Now that the fruit is about to ripen and drop, We cannot let someone else pick it!"

"But — but this subject's health is poor," Wu Sanfu said. "I am always dizzy and my vision blurs. I fear I cannot bear so great a responsibility!"

That's high blood pressure! Zhu Cilang knew it the moment he saw Wu Sanfu's round, rolling build and his red face. You need to lose weight — at least thirty jin — or in a few years you'll be Wu Wuning!

"We will have the Divine Physician Zeng accompany you," Zhu Cilang said. "We have also given him an edict authorizing him to control what you eat and drink for twelve months, guaranteeing that your head will stop spinning and your eyes will stop blurring, and that you can go on serving the Great Ming for another twenty years!"

Originally, Zhu Cilang had not intended to step in and save Wu Sanfu. Eating and drinking his way to a fat death in his early sixties would not have been so bad — he might even have earned the posthumous title Wu Wuning. What more could a man ask?

But the problem was that the Northern Faction's influence was now falling too fast, while the Southern Faction had begun scheming for military merit. And on top of that, Wu Sangui on his deathbed had sent the Zhu Emperor a great gift — an especially adorable great gift! One that made the Zhu Emperor too embarrassed to stand by and watch him die.

So he had given Divine Physician Zeng two secret prescriptions specifically for Wu Sanfu's dizzy spells — lose weight, and give up drinking!

From now on, there would be no more days of good food and good drink.

"Your Majesty, you said he would control what this subject eats and drinks?" Wu Sanfu was stunned again and again. "This subject has no trouble eating. Although this subject's spirits are low because of my brother's death, I still must eat my meals, and I still must drink my wine."

Zhu Cilang said, "Your dizzy spells are caused by being too fat and by drinking. You must moderate your eating, give up wine, and exercise more."

No food, no drink, and exercise besides. Wu Sanfu instinctively glanced at Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander Zhu Chunjie — had he really not just been arrested by the Embroidered Uniform Guard?

Zhu Chunjie hastily shook his head — at your rank, Wu Sanfu, even if you were arrested and thrown into the Embroidered Uniform Guard, you would still be supplied with good food and good drink! So set your mind at ease!

"Minister Wu," Zhu Cilang said gravely, "listen to Us and you will not go wrong. The prescription We have given you is the fruit of many years of the palace physicians' accumulated experience. You must work hard at losing weight! The Great Ming still needs a veteran general like you to hold it up."

Hearing Zhu Cilang's words, Wu Sanfu was moved for a good while, and felt too embarrassed to go on about his gluttony.

With Wu Sangui dead, Wu Sanfu had truly become an important weight balancing the Northern and Southern factions. If he too were gone, Zhu Cilang would have to make exceptional promotions of a batch of military academy graduates in their forties.

Those academy-trained officers from the Military Academy were of course fierce enough to suppress the Southern profiteers. But Zhu Cilang did not wish to see such a situation arise, so he still needed an old-school figure of high prestige and virtue like Wu Sanfu to hold the stage, until that first generation of academy officers were all past fifty, their temperaments sufficiently worn smooth, and then it would be better for them to take the stage against the Southern Faction.

Seeing that Wu Sanfu no longer resisted the weight loss, Zhu Cilang went on: "Minister Wu, We are sending you to Shaanxi to hold the seat. You must not rush to the front the way Changbo did. Yan Yingyuan, Qin Mingtao, Yu Daren, Li Yuanyin, Tian Yiqing — they have all already gone to the Shaanxi front. With them charging into battle at the front, that is enough to pacify Sichuan."

"This subject understands," Wu Sanfu said. "This subject is just a bodhisattva, holding the stage for them."

Zhu Cilang said with concern, "Not only holding the stage — you must also lose weight, at least thirty jin, and give up wine."

In the great mountains of western Hubei, at that moment, a fleeing army of high morale was threading its way along the small paths among the peaks, heading steadily west.

This fleeing army had no uniform dress, and its weapons were a motley assortment, basically all short weapons convenient to carry — no long spears, and no long-barreled flintlocks or matchlocks. The rate of armor-wearing was quite high, reaching thirty or forty percent. But there was no plate armor, only mail.

Moreover, the army had quite a few mules and donkeys, all laden with goods, looking for all the world like they were returning home fully loaded.

Needless to say, this refugee army was the remnant of the righteous army that had risen at Tiger Fang Mountain — and quite a remnant remained, at least five thousand men! More than when they had left Tiger Fang Mountain.

The reason for this was that the Ming pursuit forces had reacted sluggishly, following slowly behind, not the least bit hurried. And along the road west from Jingmen Mountain, from time to time some rather formidable bravos had come to join the band. So the force had grown larger and larger!

And supply along the way was no problem either, because this road was originally a smuggling route, and the many villages along it that had grown rich on smuggling had all been cleaned out by this band of righteous soldiers.

But the closer the army drew to Sichuan, the more uneasy Niu Jie, the army's Regional Commander, felt. Though he could not say exactly what was wrong — in any case, something was wrong!

Besides, dragging five thousand men into Sichuan looked easy, but how to settle those five thousand men was, in Niu Jie's view, a hard problem.

If each man were given forty shi, that would be two hundred thousand shi. Where was there land for that!

And among the five thousand there were high and low; they could not all be given the basic amount!

Just thinking about it made his head spin!

But however dizzy he got, for now he could only follow along. Because ever since they had plunged into the great mountains of western Hubei, he had been completely lost. All he knew was going from this mountain into that mountain, endless mountains to climb, endless valleys to walk, with no idea where he had wandered to.

If he were told to go back, without a guide, he would probably spend the rest of his life in the great mountains of western Hubei.

"Mister Xiucai, where have we got to?"

As the army emerged from between two hillocks, Niu Jie saw before him a large stretch of comparatively gentle terrain, with great swaths of terraced fields carved out, layer upon layer winding with the contours of the hills, half real and half dreamlike, like a beautiful landscape painting slowly unrolling.

"This is Jiannan Subprefecture of Shizhou Guard," Zhang the Xiucai said with a smile. "Go further west and it's Sichuan!"

"Where in Sichuan?" Niu Jie had long since lost all sense of direction, and he had never heard of this Jiannan Subprefecture.

"Near Wan County and Zhongzhou in Sichuan," Zhang the Xiucai said with a smile. "In three or four days at most, we'll be setting foot on the soil of the Shun."

Niu Jie was somewhat surprised. "We've come a long way!" He craned his neck and looked around. "There are no Ming troops in this area?"

"Of course there are!" Zhang the Xiucai said. "But they won't block our way. They're all house-guarding bandits; they won't stand in the way of our passing."

(End of Chapter)