Chapter 1667: Summon the Foreign Devils!

"Your Majesty, Yuan Chonghuan must not be used!"

"Your Majesty, Yuan Chonghuan's talent as a commander is rare indeed."

Wang Zaijin and Sun Chengzong are still arguing!

Zhu Youjian waved his hand to stop the two of them: "Gentlemen, be patient. Let us wait until Yuan Chonghuan and Mao Wenlong have entered the capital before we speak further." He paused, then turned his gaze to Xu Guangqi, Grand Secretary of the Eastern Pavilion and concurrent Minister of the Ministry of Works. Xu Guangqi was already over sixty, looking somewhat gaunt and dry — just an ordinary little old man.

"Xu Dongge, has your student Sun Yuanhua come to Beijing together with you?"

Sun Yuanhua and Xu Guangqi were from the same hometown — both were from Shanghai, which at the time was called Songjiang Prefecture. Xu Guangqi was nearly twenty years older than Sun Yuanhua. In the thirty-second year of Wanli, when he was in his forties, he had passed the highest imperial examination and become a jinshi. Sun Yuanhua, on the other hand, had become a juren in the fortieth year of Wanli. After passing the provincial examination, he did not continue with the examinations, but instead relied on the knowledge of mathematics, firearms, and fortification that he had learned from his teacher Xu Guangqi and several Western missionaries, and took the path of recommendation, becoming a staff officer under Sun Chengzong, helping him build platforms and cast cannon. Many of the fortresses that Sun Chengzong ordered built in western Liaoning were designed by Sun Yuanhua. Later, when Sun Chengzong fell from power, Sun Yuanhua followed Yuan Chonghuan to defend Ningyuan. The reason the castle and its gun platforms at Ningyuan were so sturdy was in part due to Sun Yuanhua's contribution.

And after Yuan Chonghuan fell from power, Sun Yuanhua likewise had nowhere to go, so he resigned from office and returned home, continuing to study the great matters of the Lord of Heaven and heavenly principles together with his teacher Xu Guangqi.

This time Xu Guangqi had received a great appointment, rising to the Grand Secretariat in a single bound, so of course he had to bring his good student along with him to Beijing.

"Your Majesty, Sun Yuanhua has come to Beijing together with this subject." Xu Guangqi answered truthfully.

Zhu Youjian smiled and said: "That is good. We have heard that he is proficient in Western mathematics and the art of firearms, and We wish to make him a lecturer. What do you think?"

A lecturer? You mean joining the army, right?

Xu Guangqi of course knew all about how the four lecturers Hong Chengchou, Chen Qiyu, Sun Chuanting, and Lu Xiangsheng had been tricked into joining the army!

Of course, Zhu Youjian would not give these four lecturers military posts either. By now the notion that civil office was noble and military office base had taken root in people's hearts, and no one was willing to switch to a military post. So Zhu Youjian arranged for the four of them to receive posts in the Household of the Heir Apparent: Hong Chengchou became the Crown Prince's Equerry, Chen Qiyu became Right Mentor, Sun Chuanting became Right Companion, and Lu Xiangsheng became Right Adviser.

Although the posts were all civil offices, their actual duties were all to help establish the personal army before the imperial tent!

As for this personal army before the imperial tent, among the civil and military officials at court, of course there were few who supported it and many who opposed it. The Emperor already had the "household retainers of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses" — how could he still not be satisfied? He even wanted to establish some personal army before the imperial tent, and moreover planned to raise as many as thirty or forty thousand men!

This really was somewhat excessive! Setting aside how much money such a grand undertaking would cost, just this matter of thirty or forty thousand personal troops — did this young Son of Heaven perhaps not trust everyone?

But though everyone was dissatisfied, apart from Sun Chengzong submitting a memorial in opposition, no one else said anything.

Because at present the court was still full of the eunuch faction! They could barely redeem themselves in time — how would they dare offend the young Son of Heaven? If they offended him, someone would come forward to expose their crimes! Besides, the personal troops before the imperial tent were ultimately the Son of Heaven's private soldiers, paid for with silver from the inner treasury and the private treasury, with no need to take money from the Grand Granary, so people truly could not say much.

Moreover, the Ming emperors did indeed have a tradition of raising personal troops — the Embroidered Uniform Guard was one, the three battalions of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses another, and the Pure Army of Nanhaizi yet another.

Now that Zhu Youjian had disbanded the Pure Army of Nanhaizi and reduced the strength of the three battalions of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses, turning instead to the grand establishment of the personal army before the imperial tent, it did not count as breaking the rules.

If one really looked into it carefully, the personal army before the imperial tent was not a eunuch armed force. Disbanding the Pure Army and establishing the personal army could even be seen as weakening the eunuchs' power... which was in line with the political correctness of the civil officials.

So the civil officials at court simply turned a blind eye and let the personal army before the imperial tent grow unchecked.

Xu Guangqi naturally did not want to offend Zhu Youjian over the matter of the personal army before the imperial tent, nor did he want to block his student Sun Yuanhua's future prospects, so he could only express approval.

Zhu Youjian smiled and nodded: "That is good. Tomorrow morning, you and Sun Yuanhua shall come together to the Hall of Literary Splendor!"

"This subject receives the decree."

In the blink of an eye it was early the next morning. Zhu Youjian, accompanied by Cao Huachun and the newly arrived young eunuch Wang Cheng'en, had just reached the Hall of Literary Splendor when someone came in from outside to report that Xu Guangqi and Sun Yuanhua had already arrived.

"Summon them into the hall!"

As Zhu Youjian spoke, he picked up a fine brush used for writing tiny regular script and began writing on a sheet of letter paper.

"This subject Xu Guangqi respectfully inquires after His Majesty's sacred well-being."

"This subject Sun Yuanhua respectfully inquires after His Majesty's sacred well-being."

The two Wu-accented voices sounded one after the other.

"Rise."

Zhu Youjian did not look up, but continued writing furiously. Only after he had finished did he raise his head and look at the two men standing in the hall.

One of them was the little old man Xu Guangqi. The other was in his forties, somewhat plump, wearing a long five-strand beard — this was none other than the Sun Yuanhua who made Zhu Youjian somewhat speechless. In his previous life, who knew how this fellow had managed his troops? He had raised a Western-style new army and ended up with a mutiny!

He, a commander of armies, had actually been done in by the very new army he had trained with his own hands — and had also brought disaster upon the Great Ming! Who knew whether in this life he had learned his lesson?

"You are Sun Yuanhua?" Zhu Youjian looked at the fat man, asking what he already knew.

"This subject is Sun Yuanhua." Sun Yuanhua had no idea that even if he turned to ash, Chongzhen would still recognize him! He was still answering with a beaming smile!

This fellow looked amiable and gentle, but in truth he had exactly the temperament of one too kind to command troops, yet he insisted on mingling in the ranks. In this life he still had not improved — upon hearing that he was to serve in the personal army before the imperial tent, he was so happy he could hardly contain himself!

Zhu Youjian looked at him and asked: "We have heard that you understand Latin?"

"A smattering."

Zhu Youjian handed the letter to Wang Cheng'en, who was still a young eunuch. "Cheng'en, take it and show it to Sun Yuanhua."

Wang Cheng'en was now only fourteen or fifteen years old, and very handsome. He had previously studied at the Inner Hall, and had been spotted by Cao Huachun, who had entered the Directorate of Ceremonial as a brush-holder, and brought along to serve as a page boy for Zhu Youjian.

The young eunuch Wang very respectfully received the letter and glanced at it — he could not recognize a single character!

Because the letter was written in Latin!

Sun Yuanhua took the letter and looked at it, and was also taken aback. Because the letter was full of Latin that even he found very difficult to read! That the young Son of Heaven was actually proficient in Latin was truly astonishing!

And the contents of the letter surprised Sun Yuanhua even more.

It turned out to be a letter from Zhu Youjian to the Portuguese military commander in Macau, that is, the Governor — this Ming Emperor hoped that the Portuguese military commander in Macau could dispatch forty to fifty Portuguese soldiers proficient in gunnery and in the tactics of the Frankish square (Spanish square), leading four to five hundred Black slave soldiers (at the time, the Portuguese soldiers in Macau all brought Black slave soldiers, usually one leading eleven or twelve), to come north to the capital to assist in the war.

In addition, Zhu Youjian also hoped that the Macau side could send some experienced cannon-makers and gunsmiths, and bring with them twenty 3-pounder regimental guns usable in field battles and two thousand arquebuses, northward.

Of course, Zhu Youjian would not let the Portuguese send troops, cannon, and guns for nothing — he would reward them with fifty thousand taels of white silver.

So he was going to hire foreign soldiers and foreign officers!

And on such a grand scale — hiring several hundred at once!

"Sun Yuanhua," Zhu Youjian had already begun to speak, "We wish to make you Our imperial commissioner, to make a trip to Macau and invite some foreign soldiers and officers to train troops for Us."

"Your Majesty," Sun Yuanhua was somewhat stammering, "this, this... is it an imperial rescript?"

An imperial rescript was an edict without the countersignature of the Grand Secretariat — not entirely lawful!

And the matter of inviting foreign devils to help was somewhat serious! Without the Grand Secretariat's countersignature, Sun Yuanhua would not dare go.

"There will be a countersigned edict!" Zhu Youjian said. "We are only asking you to make the journey. Are you willing to go?"

Sun Yuanhua breathed a sigh of relief, but still did not dare agree immediately. Instead he glanced at his honored teacher Xu Guangqi, who nodded repeatedly.

Xu Guangqi, standing to the side, was of course in favor of this matter — in the original history, Xu Guangqi had once promoted the matter of inviting Macau's foreign soldiers to assist in the war. And it had almost succeeded — all the necessary procedures had been completed, and the men had already reached Nanjing, when a memorial from a Supervising Secretary of the Office of Military Scrutiny threw it into disarray. Only a small number of Portuguese officers and soldiers were gathered up by Sun Yuanhua to form that disastrous new army...

(End of Chapter)