Chapter 1308: We Are All Loyal Ministers!

"Move south?" Li Laiheng was furious the moment he heard this. The Ming army had only just reached Yangping Pass, and he was already supposed to prepare to move south? Wasn't that a bit too early? He'd be worse than Liu Adou! Far worse than Chongzhen and Zhu Cilang.

And he, the Shun emperor, had been clamoring since last year about personally leading a campaign, yet here he was still stuck in Kunming without budging. Now this southward move would give future historians no end of material to blacken his name! They might even call him "Li Adou" outright.

"Isn't it a bit early to talk about moving south?" Li Laiheng said in a low voice. "And where would we move to? We are already in Kunming. If we move further south, wouldn't we have to go into Burma? Burma is too far from Sichuan. How would We command the armies resisting the remnant Ming?"

Liu Wenxiu frowned slightly, realizing that His Majesty had misunderstood him.

He hurriedly explained, "Your Majesty, this subject did not mean for you to move south right away."

"Not Us moving south?" Li Laiheng's frown deepened. "Then who is to move south?"

Right! Who was to move south? If he, the emperor, did not go, it would not be proper for anyone else to go either! And the Crown Prince Li Jicheng was already in Burma and India.

Li Laiheng looked at the princes below him, thinking to himself: which of you wants to abandon me and run?

Liu Wenxiu knew Li Laiheng still had not grasped the situation, so he continued, "Your Majesty, this subject means that the families of the garrison militia troops withdrawn from Hanzhong, Yunyang, and Gongchang should go first through Burma, and separately we should evacuate the families of the garrison militia of Baoning Prefecture, Long'an Prefecture, and Kuizhou Prefecture. These people are our foundation. Once we go to Burma, we will still have to rely on them."

So it was about getting the garrison militia households' families out of harm's way first!

Li Laiheng pondered and said, "We have long been encouraging the garrison militia households to move south to Burma, and have promised all sorts of benefits, yet few are willing to go south. Now with war and chaos everywhere and no preparations at all, can they still go south?"

"Your Majesty," Liu Wenxiu said, "it is precisely because of the war and chaos that they have no choice but to move south! If they stay in Ba-Shu and the remnant Ming's troops arrive, can they expect a good outcome?"

Li Laiheng still shook his head. "The garrison militia households in Ba-Shu and southern Shaanxi number over four hundred thousand households, with a population of two to three million. How are so many people to move south? How many can we arrange to move south in a year?"

Sun Kewang said, "It depends on how long Ba-Shu can hold out. If it can resist for a few years, moving two or three hundred thousand a year, we could still move half of them. If the situation becomes urgent and everyone strains on all fronts, moving five or six hundred thousand in a year is also possible. Here in Yunnan there are still no fewer than one hundred thousand households, most of whom can be moved. Adding those who have already entered Burma in recent years, we can have two hundred thousand households in Burma no matter what — over a million people, enough to establish a state anew."

Li Laiheng was somewhat speechless. His old father-in-law had planned it out rather well — he was even prepared to abandon Yunnan! Was the Shun dynasty's situation truly so dire that they had to flee the country just to cling to a lingering existence?

And Burma to the south was a land of miasma and pestilence. If a million people went in, within a few years three or four hundred thousand would likely die of disease.

Moreover, if the soldiers on the northern front learned that the Shun court was already planning to flee, would they still be willing to resist? If morale on the northern front wavered, would the Shun dynasty collapse like an avalanche? If military morale collapsed, they probably would not be able to flee at all!

"Isn't this just telling me to run away?" Li Laiheng's face darkened. "Do I look like a fleeing Son of Heaven to you?"

"Your Majesty, how have you forgotten," Liu Zongmin shook his head, "if we could not run, how did we get to Yunnan? We ran all the way from Shanhai Pass! We ran thousands upon thousands of li. Do we care about the thousand-odd li from Kunming to Burma?"

Li Laiheng was instantly speechless. He really was a fleeing emperor — he had only become emperor because he was good at running! And his family had made their start as roving bandits! From his grandfather Li Zicheng on down, they had all been good at running. Running this way and that, they had never let the government troops catch them, and that was how he had become the Roving King. Running and plundering were the family trade, passed down through the generations!

Li Laiheng's face remained dark, the very picture of reluctance.

"Back then we were roving bandits — no, it was mobile warfare! Now we have founded a state and held it for more than twenty years. How can we still roam about? Our mind is made up. We shall return at once to the northern capital, Chongqing, and let the Son of Heaven guard the gates of the realm!"

Li Laiheng's words were spoken firmly, but everyone knew what was in his mind — if he truly meant to fight the Ming dynasty to the death, he did not need to return to Chongqing. He could simply march out of Kunming and attack Guizhou. It was not even far. Setting out from Qujing, it was just over a hundred li. What need was there to go to Chongqing Prefecture?

"Your Majesty!" Liu Zongmin suddenly rose, walked to the center of the hall, and with a thud knelt before Li Laiheng.

Li Laiheng hurriedly stood, pretending to move to help him up while saying, "Prince of Han, what is the meaning of this? You are the Deliberative Prince of Han, a veteran minister of three reigns, of the same generation as my grandfather! How could I bear to receive a kowtow from you!"

"I am a veteran minister of three reigns, and more than that, a loyal minister of three reigns. Every word I speak today in this Deliberative Hall comes from the bottom of my heart, all for the long endurance of our Shun dynasty. If Your Majesty will not heed my loyal counsel, then I — I shall not rise. I shall kneel here until I die!"

Kneel until death? Was there such a way to die? While Li Laiheng was still stunned, the Prince of Qin Sun Kewang, the Prince of Tang Liu Wenxiu, the Prince of Song Yuan Zongdi, Left Assistant Chancellor Niu Jinxing, Right Assistant Chancellor Wang Zhaolin, Grand Military Advisor Song Xiance, and the rest all knelt in unison in the great hall.

"Your Majesty, we are all loyal ministers! We beg Your Majesty to heed our loyal counsel. You must not act on impulse. You must make preparations on three fronts, only then can all be secure!"

So the entire Shun court was full of loyal ministers!

Li Laiheng nodded with satisfaction, then sighed. "Our Shun is not like the remnant Ming. The emperor does not monopolize the reins of government. Rather, the Eight Princes deliberate on policy. If the Prince of Qin, Prince of Han, Prince of Tang, and Prince of Song are all of one mind, still the Prince of Jin, Prince of Sui, Prince of Chu, and Prince of Wei are out commanding the armies. We must still hear their views."

Now he remembered the Eight Princes' deliberation!

That said, the Eight Princes' deliberation here under Li Laiheng was somewhat more workable than the old Ming system of the Grand Secretariat drafting rescripts and the Directorate of Ceremonial approving them in red.

Because the Eight Deliberative Princes were not employees of the Shun — they were its major shareholders. If one viewed the present Shun dynasty as a company, it was a joint-stock company whose employees held shares. All six hundred thousand garrison militia were shareholders! The Eight Deliberative Princes were the larger shareholders and at the same time the directors of the board. Li Laiheng was the chairman of the board, and the Army-Soothing Crown Prince Li Jicheng was the CEO. The interests of several hundred thousand people were aligned, and their strength was all exerted in the same direction. They still had fighting power. It was just that their approach could not resolve the contradiction between people and land, and so the common people of Sichuan and Yunnan suffered.

What Li Laiheng wanted to consult the Prince of Jin, Prince of Sui, Prince of Chu, and Prince of Wei about was the southward move, not the dispatch of troops to the Jiannan Division of Shizhou Guard — that matter was no great affair to Li Laiheng or to the Prince of Sui, Tian Jianxiu, who was stationed in Chongqing Prefecture. It was simply a question of whether they could seize a piece of territory in Shizhou Guard. Even if they could not, it was of no great consequence.

So without even waiting for Li Laiheng's edict of approval to reach Chongqing, Tian Jianxiu dispatched the Kuizhou Military Commissioner, the Marquis of Great Peace Wu Ruyi, to send troops from Yunyang and Wanzhou, and also mobilized the garrison militia brigades stationed at Shizhu, Zhongzhou, Fengdu, Liangshan, and other places to advance on the Jiannan Division of Shizhou Guard.

Perhaps because their movements were still too late, before they could cross the Qiyao Mountains — known as the "Wall of Ten Thousand Li" (a great southwest-to-northeast trending range separating Shizhou from Chongqing and Kuizhou; the range is very narrow in width, less than ten li, but over three hundred li long, with only seven passes along its length, all fortified and all in Shun army hands) — Niu Jie and Scholar Zhang had already reached the Niulan Pass of the Qiyao Mountains with four or five thousand defeated troops.

Wu Ruyi was of course extremely cautious. If the Qiyao Mountains barrier were once broken through by the Ming army, then Wanzhou, Shizhu, and Fengdu would be difficult to hold.

And if either Wanzhou or Fengdu fell, the water route between Kuizhou Prefecture and Chongqing Prefecture would be cut, and Kuizhou would be attacked from both front and rear!

And if the Kui Gate were lost, the eastern gate of Sichuan would be thrown wide open!

So Wu Ruyi decided to go in person to inspect Niulan Pass, to see whether it was a real ox or a fake ox.

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(End of Chapter)