Chapter 1355: To Have a Son Like Li Jicheng

The thirtieth day of the twelfth month in the first year of Dongping Daxing of the Shun.

This day was New Year's Eve, a day when all the government offices should have sealed their official seals and the officials should have gone home to celebrate the new year, but now it was an extraordinary time. Kunming, the foremost capital of the Shun dynasty, still operated at high efficiency, without the slightest trace of festive atmosphere.

Just the afternoon before, Li Laiheng, who had already issued the edict of abdication, had entered the city of Kunming, which no longer belonged to him, escorted by Tian Jianxiu, Niu Jinxing, Li Zijing, Gu Junen, and several thousand dejected imperial guard troops.

And on the day after Li Laiheng, now become the Retired Emperor, returned to Kunming, the newly enthroned Li Jicheng convened an unprecedentedly grand court assembly on Wuhua Mountain. Not only were the officials of the six ministries, the nine ministers, the Censorate, and all the key offices gathered in full, but even the generals of the Shun army stationed within Kunming Prefecture and nearby areas had all been notified and had rushed overnight to attend the assembly.

Such a large-scale court assembly had been absolutely unprecedented since Li Guo ascended the throne in Chongqing!

Including the five great Deliberative Princes Sun Kewang, Liu Zongmin, Tian Jianxiu, Yuan Zongdi, and Liu Fangliang, all the officials in the hall stood according to rank, bowing and stooping, none daring to show the slightest impropriety before the new Shun Emperor and foremost filial son.

All this showed that the system of deliberative rule by the Shun princes no longer existed!

In fact, even before Li Laiheng ascended the throne as emperor, the eight-prince deliberative system had already been on the verge of collapse because of Li Jicheng's rise — the Long March fubing troops he built, his conquest of Arakan, and his plundering of India had all greatly strengthened the power of the Li-Shun imperial house. And in the already disastrous Sichuan–southern Shaanxi campaign, the strength of the Long March fubing had not been damaged; on the contrary, it had grown even stronger through a second round of plundering in India!

With Dutch support, Li Jicheng's Indian expeditionary force had secured a permanently defensible foothold at Madras on the southeastern coast of India — a city that had originally belonged to the English East India Company, originally called Fort St. George, now renamed Shunfeng Fort, jointly governed by the Long March troops sent by Li Jicheng and the Dutch India Trading Company.

With this central trading city on India's southeastern coast, Li Jicheng could just lie back and collect money!

In addition, the port of Syriam in Burma had also become increasingly prosperous because of the Dutch involvement and the great business of plundering India, and had already begun to take on a bit of the flavor of a "little Shanghai."

Add to that the commercial taxes from Chittagong and Mrauk U, and Li Jicheng's purse was growing ever fuller!

With silver, Li Jicheng could not only purchase foreign guns and cannons from the Dutch and hire foreign officers to strengthen his Long March troops, but could also recruit more second-generation and third-generation fubing households to enlist as Long March troops.

Although the Shun's fubing numbered as many as 600,000, there were still large numbers of second- and third-generation fubing with no military post to fill — to become a regular fubing required forty shi of land, and the Shun simply did not have enough land! But serving as a Long March fubing for Li Jicheng required no land; one simply received military pay.

Therefore, while large tracts of land in southern Shaanxi and Sichuan were lost and the number of regular Shun fubing greatly decreased, Li Jicheng's Long March fubing were expanding at a rapid pace.

Many fubing households who had fled to Yunnan had no property and no income, and could only serve as soldiers for Li Jicheng!

Thus in just a few short months, the number of Long March troops loyal to Li Jicheng had swollen from fewer than twenty thousand to as many as sixty thousand.

With sixty thousand Long March fubing, Li Jicheng could not only seize the throne from his father Li Laiheng, but could also overwhelm the five great Deliberative Princes — Sun Kewang, Liu Zongmin, Tian Jianxiu, Yuan Zongdi, and Liu Fangliang — and become the Shun Emperor holding absolute power.

From another angle, the Shun fubing system, which had lasted more than twenty years, had already become nominal with the fall of Sichuan and southern Shaanxi.

At this moment, Li Jicheng, now holding absolute power, appeared in the Golden Throne Hall supporting Li Laiheng, who had been elevated to Retired Emperor. The ministers all stole glances upward and saw that Li Laiheng, who just a few months before had been radiant, had aged considerably and grown much thinner, his complexion nearly as pale as paper, his back stooped, standing there looking at everyone with a vacant gaze.

"Imperial Father, please be seated." The voice of the Shun's foremost filial son rang out.

Only then did Li Laiheng come back to his senses and slowly sit down — not on the dragon throne he was accustomed to, but on a grand tutor's chair placed beside it, covered with thick cushions that looked very comfortable. But Li Laiheng did not wish to sit. Yet sitting, after all, was better than lying down!

So he sighed and obediently sat.

The Shun's foremost filial son took his seat with a stern face and spoke slowly: "All you ministers, the nation's strength is now weakening, buffeted by wind and rain. The land of abundance, Sichuan, is no longer in our dynasty's possession, and a million displaced soldiers and civilians are swarming into Yunnan. And Our Imperial Father, because he was wounded by a bandit's hidden arrow at the front in Chongqing, was unable to govern, and so passed the throne to Us. The Shun's twenty-odd years of dynasty, its several thousand li of rivers and mountains — from this day forward, We and all of you shall bear them together! Though the mountains and rivers of Sichuan in the north are shattered, Burma in the south holds great promise. We are willing to strive together with all you ministers and the several hundred thousand fubing households of our dynasty, to expand our territory in the far south, to revive the great Shun heavenly dynasty, and thereafter to share wealth and honor for generations to come!"

Li Jicheng's words sounded grand and noble, but the actual meaning was: let us all flee together! Sichuan was abandoned, and Yunnan did not look defensible either. Fortunately, the Shun still had Burma. Burma was a good place — more than two thousand li from north to south, more than a thousand li from east to west, with large plains in the central and southern parts. If fully developed, it would absolutely surpass Sichuan, that land of abundance.

Moreover, Burma was close to India, a country dripping with wealth!

Li Jicheng continued: "Our great Shun has always maintained two capitals, north and south. Now the northern capital Chongqing has fallen, leaving only the southern capital Kunming, which is somewhat isolated. Therefore We have decided to change Kunming to the northern capital, and to make Syriam in Burma the southern capital, renaming Syriam as Haidu Prefecture!"

Syriam was now Li Jicheng's old base, and also the Shun's gateway to the sea. Now turning Syriam into the Shun's southern capital, Haidu Prefecture, was to demonstrate his determination to follow the thirty-sixth stratagem — retreat as the best option. This was of course also done for Zhu Cilang to see — I have already slipped away to Burma, so you need not keep chasing me so relentlessly.

Burma was a land of miasma and pestilence; if the northern army entered in force, a good half of them would casually die of disease!

As Li Jicheng spoke, his tone suddenly became incomparably grave. "Though the far south is good, the remaining mountains and waters of Bashu cannot be lightly abandoned. For Bashu shields Yunnan, and Yunnan connects to the far south. If the great mountains of southern and western Sichuan are not held, how can the million of our nation's people now displaced in Yunnan enter Burma at leisure? Burma is a land of miasma and pestilence; even entering at leisure, many will inevitably die of disease, let alone entering in haste.

To defend southern and western Sichuan, We have decided to recruit twenty thousand death-defying volunteers from among the fubing households displaced in Yunnan to form an army for the relief of Sichuan, to hold firm in Dongchuan Prefecture and western Sichuan. All who enlist for the campaign shall have their families given priority to enter Burma, and shall be granted one hundred mu of paddy land within two hundred li of the Burmese capital Haidu. In addition, those who enlist for the campaign need not provide their own armor, weapons, or provisions, and shall receive five dou of rice and two taels of silver each month!

Furthermore, We shall also reorganize all the armies in Kunming, newly forming one hundred thousand Long March fubing, ready at any time to march north to southern and western Sichuan and fight a decisive battle against the invading enemy!"

Establishing Haidu was to demonstrate the determination to flee, while organizing new armies and recruiting death-defying volunteers was to demonstrate the determination to hold Yunnan to the death.

Because without Yunnan as a transit station for the fubing households moving south, there could be no Shun revival in Burma!

And the great migration into Burma was a process that could not be accomplished without three to five years! During this process, Yunnan absolutely must not be lost. Otherwise Li Jicheng would become a dog that had lost its master, and even if he could maintain rule in Burma, it would not last long.

Therefore Li Jicheng now had to arrange the escape on one hand while setting up defenses on the other, to withstand the Ming's wave after wave of fierce assaults on Yunnan!

This was also why he was so eager to usurp the throne — the earlier he seized power, the earlier the Shun could begin the national policy of retreating south while defending the north. At the same time, he could also change the fubing system to a recruitment system as quickly as possible. For Li Jicheng, the fourth-generation ruler of the Shun, time was truly precious!

(End of Chapter)