Chapter 155: Moving Hong Chengchou (Chapter 51 goes live — please subscribe, please send monthly tickets)

Just then, a eunuch arrived outside the Eastern Warmth Pavilion and announced in a loud voice, "Reporting to His Imperial Majesty: Luo Yangxing, Guang Shiheng, Gao Yushun, Yang Guanguang, Li Yuanding, and several other officials have arrived at the Wuying Gate and request an audience."

Li Zicheng put away the cold look on his face. "What are these newly surrendered officials doing here at a time like this?"

Niu Jinxing said, "Most likely they have come to urge Your Majesty to ascend the throne. Before the campaign, Your Majesty had already prepared the enthronement ceremony, but it was postponed because of the military expedition. Now that the officials see Your Majesty has returned, they wish to ask Your Majesty to carry the matter through."

Li Yan, however, gently shook his head. "Ascending the throne in Beijing is tantamount to announcing to the whole realm that Your Majesty is the master of the north. If Beijing is then abandoned to the Tartars, how will the whole realm regard Your Majesty?"

Li Zicheng sighed, his heart heavy. "This trip should never have been made. So many brothers died, and the Tartars were let through the pass, and in the end all we got was an enthronement in Beijing. Ah, but if we leave without enthroning, then the whole trip will have been for nothing."

"Let us ascend the throne! Tomorrow we ascend the throne, and then we take the gold, silver, and treasures from the city, along with the two sons of that bandit Emperor Zhu, one Noble Consort, and that eunuch Wang. Arrange for them to leave today. Chen Yongfu is to leave as well, traveling day and night to Taiyuan."

"This subject will also return to Tianjin Garrison to gather the troops." Li Yan did not dare to follow the plan and request to defend Beijing; he only wanted to leave as soon as possible.

"Good!" Li Zicheng nodded. "Tianjin cannot be held either. You and your wife pack up and withdraw to Shanxi."

"Elder Brother, how is it? Is His Majesty leaving?"

Luo Yangxing, who had led the call for enthronement, returned to his own residence around dusk with a worried frown. The moment he entered the gate, he ran into his brother Luo Xiushen, who had been waiting for who knew how long.

"Oh," Luo Yangxing nodded and said in a low voice, "Tomorrow he ascends the throne, and the day after he leaves."

"What? He still wants to ascend the throne?" Luo Xiushen laughed. "At a time like this? Still enthroning?"

"What are you saying?" Luo Yangxing glared at his brother, looked left and right, and, seeing no one else around, finally breathed a sigh of relief and strode toward his study.

Luo Xiushen had something to tell his brother, so he followed him all the way to the study.

Once inside the study, Luo Yangxing dismissed the maids and page boys as well, while Luo Xiushen shut the doors and windows and lit an oil lamp.

The two brothers sat in the dim lamplight, staring at each other.

"Speak. What is it?" Luo Yangxing asked.

Luo Xiushen pointed at the desk, on which lay a letter.

Luo Yangxing picked up the envelope, tore it open, and took out the letter. One glance and his expression changed slightly. "A personal letter from His Highness the Thousand Years! Second Brother, you have contact with the Dagu Fort side?"

"It didn't come from Dagu Fort." Luo Xiushen shook his head. "The Crown Prince gave it to me before he left Beijing. The Crown Prince is truly uncanny — he predicted back then that Li Zicheng would not last two months in Beijing! And now it has come true!"

Luo Yangxing picked up the letter and read it, his brow furrowing more and more.

"What is it? What does the letter say?"

Luo Yangxing shook his head. "His Highness the Thousand Years wants me to be a thrice-serving official. Being a twice-serving official wasn't enough — now he wants me to be a thrice-serving official!"

"Oh?" Luo Xiushen asked. "How so?"

Luo Yangxing snorted. "Naturally, I am to come forward and rally my old subordinates, seal the city gates, and keep the Tartar troops from entering."

"Then how is that being a thrice-serving official?"

"Hmph! Of course it's being a thrice-serving official!" Luo Yangxing said. "It's only temporarily keeping the Tartar troops out of the city. In the end the gates will still be opened and the city surrendered. Once Hong Chengchou arrives, we surrender. It's just stalling for a little time."

"Oh." Luo Xiushen smiled. "Then stall away. But this time your younger brother cannot accompany you in being a thrice-serving official."

"Why?" Luo Yangxing glanced at his brother. "Where are you going?"

"To Datong." Luo Xiushen said. "Elder Brother, you have old ties with Jiang Xiang, the Regional Commander of Datong, don't you?"

"The Jiang family has been a military house for generations, and our families are old friends." Luo Yangxing said. "What, does His Highness the Thousand Years want Jiang Xiang to turn his coat?"

"Hehe, nothing can be hidden from you, Elder Brother." Luo Xiushen said. "The decree pardoning Jiang Xiang was prepared by His Highness the Thousand Years before he left Beijing — even the draft and the vermilion endorsement are all there! Now all I need is a personal letter from you, Elder Brother, and I will leave the city tonight."

"What?" Luo Yangxing was stunned again and again. "He foresaw this too? Is he not even more formidable than Zhuge Liang?"

Luo Xiushen nodded admiringly. "Indeed! His Highness the Thousand Years is surely more formidable than Zhuge Liang! Elder Brother, just wait here in Beijing with peace of mind. Within ten years, the Great Ming will surely return."

"Hmm," Luo Yangxing rolled his eyes. "By then your elder brother will have to surrender one more time — that will make me a four-time-serving official! So this whole life is just surrendering back and forth!"

"But this is undercover work!" Luo Xiushen said. "You are surrendering by imperial decree. In the future you can go down in history with glory."

"Surrendering and still going down in history with glory?"

Luo Yangxing only shook his head, but he still picked up paper and brush and began writing to Jiang Xiang. After obtaining his brother's personal letter, Luo Xiushen immediately mounted a horse and rode out of the city with several dozen attendants. He was a subordinate of the Ruhou Liu Zongmin and carried the Ruhou's token, so the city gate guards naturally did not dare to stop him. They could only let him gallop out toward Datong Prefecture in Shanxi to stir up the winds and clouds.

And the man who would be sorely harmed by the storm he was about to stir up — the Great Qing's Minister of War, Hong Chengchou — was at that very moment in the main hall of the Funing Guard Commander's headquarters, wiping away tears over a personal letter from the Chongzhen Emperor!

Whether it was Hong Chengchou's fine acting or Wei Zaode's brilliant prose, in any case the traitor Hong Chengchou appeared to be deeply moved!

"Sob, sob — I never imagined His Majesty still remembers this old subject, and even apologizes to me, and does not blame me for serving the Great Qing..."

Watching the rat-faced, treacherous-looking Hong Chengchou weeping in sorrow, Zhou Zerui — the envoy sent by Zhu Cilang — also took out a handkerchief and dabbed at his eyes, and actually managed to squeeze out real tears!

"To be perfectly honest, when His Majesty spoke of the Supreme Commander a few days ago, he too broke down weeping in the court." Zhou Zerui said. "His Majesty said that this time the Great Ming was able to achieve its revival entirely thanks to the Supreme Commander's merits! Although the Supreme Commander is in the Great Qing, his heart is still with the Great Ming. If the Supreme Commander could return to the Great Ming, His Majesty would enfeoff him as a marquis and make him Chief Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat!"

"The Supreme Commander's mother and brothers are all in Fujian, and the Supreme Commander is a supremely filial son — do you not wish to be reunited with them? Why not speak with the Great Qing's Prince Regent and ask to be released back to the Great Ming? Then the Supreme Commander could, with the dignity of a marquis, serve his mother in Beijing while administering the court for the Great Ming."

To be a marquis, to be Chief Grand Secretary, and to be a filial son — truth be told, Hong Chengchou was indeed a little tempted.

But only a little!

He was now firmly convinced that the fall of Ming and the rise of Qing was the great trend of the age, and that returning to the Great Ming would only mean being buried alongside the Zhu dynasty. Staying with the Great Qing was the only way to truly serve a wise lord, unify the realm, and then go down in history — in history, he had in fact gloriously made it into the "Biographies of Twice-Serving Officials" compiled during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty!

"This official is now a subject of the Great Qing," Hong Chengchou said, weighing his words carefully and not closing the door entirely. "Even if I were to return to the Great Ming, I would need the Prince Regent's permission. Moreover, the Great Qing has treated me generously, and I must earn my lord's salary and share my lord's burdens."

"That is only natural."

"Vice Minister Zhou" — Zhu Cilang had given him the concurrent title of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites — Hong Chengchou paused. "The roving bandits suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Shanhai Pass, and within a few days they should abandon Beijing and leave. May I ask when His Majesty and the Crown Prince will be able to return to the capital?"

"Oh, that." Zhou Zerui smiled. "Beijing will certainly be retaken, but as for the exact date, this humble official does not know."

"Furthermore, the eastern barbarians — oh, I mean the Great Qing — still have a hundred thousand troops in Northern Zhili. Quite a few people at court are uneasy, and even His Majesty is somewhat afraid."

"What is there to fear?" Hong Chengchou's eyes darted about. "The Great Qing only seeks wealth. Once they get the silver, they will withdraw their troops of their own accord."

"True, true. Still, His Majesty is not entirely at ease," Zhou Zerui paused. "So the idea of a marriage alliance with the Great Qing has arisen."

"A marriage alliance?" Hong Chengchou nodded. "The Great Ming Emperor wishes to marry a princess to our Great Qing Emperor?"

"No," Zhou Zerui shook his head. "His Majesty has heard that the Prince Regent has a daughter — virtuous, gentle, and noble in bearing, with the manner of one fit to be mother to the realm. So he wishes to seek this match for the Crown Prince and betroth her as the Crown Princess!"

"What? Betroth — betroth the Prince Regent's gege as Crown Princess?" Hong Chengchou was stunned again and again. "Is this truly His Majesty's wish?"

He was now somewhat suspicious. It was said that the Great Ming was currently under the Crown Prince's military regency! Could it be that the Crown Prince, Zhu Cilang, was playing some trick?

(End of Chapter)