Chapter 136: Someone Unafraid of the Eight Banners' Heavenly Soldiers?

"Your Highness, what did you say?"

"Your Highness, the eastern barbarians' Eight Banners are nothing the roving bandits can compare to!"

The moment Zhu Cilang voiced his idea of fighting the Eight Banners troops, he frightened the two veteran generals, Wu Xiang and Cao Youyi.

These were genuine Tartars of the Eight Banners!

Even in the heavily funded Guanning Army, only the finest of the Wu household retainers could stand against the Eight Banners' regular troops; ordinary Guanning soldiers could only hold out behind fortress walls. As for the crack troops inside the passes who fought the roving bandits to the death, once they met the Eight Banners, defeat was all but certain. By now, the entire Ming army had long suffered from a severe Eight Banners phobia.

Troops who fought bravely against the roving bandits went weak at the knees the moment they encountered genuine Eight Banners Tartars — they could not bring out three-tenths of their ability, and battles they should have won or at least drawn turned into crushing defeats!

The only force that could put up any resistance to the Eight Banners was the Guanning Army, and even they could only fight from behind city walls; outside the walls, they went weak at the knees just the same.

A Ming army that dared to face the Eight Banners head-on, drum to drum, had probably not yet been born!

And Zhu Cilang did not have any troops worth fighting with, either. Although nearly twenty thousand soldiers had been concentrated at Dagukou, they were a motley crowd assembled just to make up numbers. Only the one thousand men Wu Guoyong had brought from Shanhai Pass could put up a slight contest against the Eight Banners — and the outcome of that contest would most likely still be defeat!

Just a slightly better-looking defeat, that was all.

Zhu Cilang's gaze swept over the faces of Wu Xiang and Cao Youyi. Seeing both men looking utterly dejected, he suddenly laughed. "Old Father-in-law, Commander Cao, are you both so very afraid of the Eight Banners?"

"This..."

"Thousand Years, forgive this old subject for speaking bluntly — the Eight Banners are tigers; the roving bandits are at best a jackal!" Wu Xiang shook his head repeatedly. "These days, the officers and men of the army, let alone fighting the Eight Banners, tremble three times at the mere mention of the Manchu Tartars' name!"

"Indeed!" Cao Youyi said. "Fear before battle — how can we win? Thousand Years, you must think this over carefully!"

"No, no, no," Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "There are some who are not afraid. Within the Hard-Struggle New Army, there are more than a thousand brave men who do not fear the Tartars!"

Men who did not fear the Tartars?

And they were in the Hard-Struggle New Army?

Both Wu Xiang and Cao Youyi found it hard to believe.

"There really are! When have We ever deceived you?" Zhu Cilang said, smiling. "The number is not large, but it is enough to deal the Tartars a heavy blow around Dagukou!

Today, everyone under heaven fears the eastern barbarians like tigers! If We cannot break the legend of the eastern barbarians' invincibility, then even if We go to the auxiliary capital, We will find it hard to gain a footing.

And what if, by chance, We can win a peace like the Treaty of Chanyuan? Ceding territory, a marriage alliance, annual tribute — We are willing to give all of it, so long as the eastern barbarians withdraw beyond the Great Wall!"

Zhu Cilang paused, then lowered his voice. "Seizing the southern half of Jiangnan to rebuild the Ming is a choice of last resort. To sit and watch the barbarians and the bandits fight each other, and after the barbarians are wounded and the bandits destroyed, first fight the barbarians and then make peace, and recover the capital — that is the best of all choices!

If We cannot win, it is still not too late to take to the sea and flee! But if We win... then all under heaven is settled, and We can take one more step forward with full legitimacy!"

These words had reached the very root of the matter!

If fortune favored him and he truly beat the Tartar Dorgon into a Khitan Empress Dowager Xiao, then Zhu Cilang could enter Beijing as a victor. At that point, even if Zhu Cilang did not force the throne, the Chongzhen Emperor would be too ashamed to remain the father and lord of the realm, and would have no choice but to abdicate and yield the throne to the worthy.

Moreover, if the Ming welcomed its rebirth and a sage lord of restoration in this victorious posture, the many reforms to follow would all become much easier.

Because everyone under heaven knew the Manchu Tartars were the fiercest of all! If even the Manchu Tartars could not handle the Grand Crown Prince Zhu, then who would dare challenge the authority of the future lord of the Ming restoration?

Did anyone think themselves more ferocious than the Tartars?

Zhu Cilang looked at Wu Xiang. "Old Father-in-law, We are confident of thwarting the Manchu Tartars' vanguard here at Dagukou. But defeating the Tartars' main force is impossible. Therefore the gap at Shanhai Pass must be sealed tight no matter what!"

"Understood!" Wu Xiang nodded. "This old man will write to Second Brother and make sure the Manchu Tartars do not take Shanhai Pass."

"Wumei," Zhu Cilang said to Shen Tingyang, "the matter of re-establishing the Dongjiang Garrison is entrusted entirely to the Navy Guard. It need not be re-established on Pi Island; any island along the coasts of Liaodong or Joseon can serve as the Dongjiang Garrison's base.

Once you have chosen a site, report it to Us, and We will transfer land troops to you and issue an edict to the King of Joseon!"

"Your Highness," Shen Tingyang quietly reminded him, "Joseon no longer declares itself a vassal of our Great Ming."

Joseon had originally been a tributary state of the Ming, but in the ninth year of Chongzhen, Hong Taiji personally invaded Joseon and forced it to abandon its father-state, the Ming, and declare itself a vassal of the Qing.

"Hmph! We do not need the Joseon people to declare themselves vassals. We only need to establish the Dongjiang Garrison on Joseon territory, and to gain trade advantages!"

Zhu Cilang shot Shen Tingyang a glance and laughed. "Our Great Ming's land troops may not beat the Tartars, but can they not beat the Joseon kingdom? If they refuse to let you occupy the islands, if they refuse to trade with you, then you go and fight them! Fight them hard! Beat them until the Joseon people hurt, until they go crying to the eastern barbarians for help!"

On the twelfth day of the fourth month of the Chongzhen era of the Great Ming — the third day after the Ming traveling court, in exile from Beijing, arrived at Dagukou — Zhu Cilang convened his first court assembly since assuming the regency of the army, in the great hall of the Chongzhen Emperor's temporary palace.

It was called a court assembly, but the officials and nobles in attendance were not many — nowhere near the grand spectacle of the imperial audiences at the Meridian Gate in Beijing, merely a hundred or so people.

The great hall of the compound Shen Tingyang had provided could not possibly squeeze in so many people, so most of the officials and nobles stayed in the courtyard. Zhu Cilang did not make them stand; all were given seats, while Zhu Cilang himself placed a folding chair beside the Chongzhen Emperor.

After the assembled ministers had made their obeisance, Zhu Cilang spoke before Chongzhen could. "Today's court assembly is the first since the court left Beijing! The matters to be discussed — presumably all of you have heard something of them already!"

The moment these words were spoken, the Chongzhen Emperor, seated upright on the imperial throne, grew tense!

Heard something? Why does We not know? What is this unfilial son planning that he dares not let Us know? Could he be about to usurp the throne...

Zhu Cilang paused, then let out a long sigh. "Now the capital has fallen, the court is wandering, and all across the realm heroes have long since risen together. This is already the situation of a Warring States age of chaos! Yet our court, to this very day, remains a court of an age of peace and prosperity!

This will not do. The court's methods of deliberation and governance must be drastically reformed!"

So it was not usurpation... but reforming the ancestral laws of the house!

The ancestral laws were paramount. Even the emperor could not lightly touch them, let alone a crown prince serving as army regent. If he dared to move rashly, the civil officials of the whole court would leap up to remonstrate and protest, and if the matter grew serious, someone might even offer death by remonstrance...

The Chongzhen Emperor, seated on the imperial throne in the center of the great hall, was suddenly energized. His eyes went wide, and he stared with burning intensity at the assembled ministers below, waiting for someone to leap out and challenge the Crown Prince's authority.

He was now a spectator who feared no trouble; the bigger the uproar, the better. Only when it grew big enough could he, the emperor, step forward to speak — and in the process pull down the army-regent Crown Prince while he was at the height of his influence!

At this thought, the Chongzhen Emperor gave a soft cough — just a tickle in the throat, nothing more!

Whether or not his hint had taken effect, someone immediately stood up to question.

"Crown Prince, Your Highness, the court's methods of deliberation and governance, though somewhat out of step with the times, are nonetheless the established regulations of successive reigns, traceable back to the Hongwu era, and have been in practice for over two hundred and seventy years. To change them so abruptly, I fear, would only create chaos!"

Chongzhen followed the voice and looked over — and was at once taken aback. The one leading the "challenge" to Zhu Cilang was none other than Hou Xun, Grand Secretary of the Eastern Pavilion and Minister of Revenue!

This was a man Zhu Cilang had released from prison and then promoted to high office. Now, for the sake of defending the ancestors, he disregarded even the great debt of rescue and patronage he owed the Crown Prince — truly a loyal subject!

Chongzhen thought to himself: These Donglin men indeed have moral backbone. In the future, they must be put to important use again...

(End of Chapter)