Chapter 1676: An Enlightened Ruler Has a Secret Manual

"Fan Wencheng, say no more!" The more Hong Taiji brooded, the more uneasy he grew, so he cut off Fan Wencheng, who was in the middle of reporting something or other.

"Zhe." Fan Wencheng, who was already kneeling on the ground, hastily put away the letter that had arrived from Zhangjiakou, then knelt there with the utmost deference, waiting for his master to speak.

Hong Taiji said, "Hearsay is false, seeing is believing. And reading a letter is worse than hearsay. If I want to get to the bottom of what that whelp Zhu Youjian is really up to, I'll have to see it with my own eyes!"

"The Great Khan is sagacious." Fan Wencheng had no idea what Hong Taiji was talking about either, but that did not stop him from flattering him — of ten thousand stinks, flattery never stinks!

Hong Taiji smiled. He knew he was sagacious too. If he were not sagacious, how could he have become Great Khan?

"Wencheng, you do have a bit of an eye for things, and you are loyal to the Great Jin. How about you take the trouble to make a trip inside the passes and see that little Zhu emperor's Qianqian cavalry with your own eyes?"

"Great Khan." The moment Fan Wencheng heard this, he grew anxious. Of course he did not want to go. Staying by the Great Khan's side was where the future lay! Going out as a spy — no matter how accurate the intelligence he gathered, it could not compare to being the Great Khan's personal slave.

Moreover, Fan Wencheng had recently taken a second wife, a woman as lovely as a flower, and he had not yet enjoyed her properly more than a few times. How could he bear to travel far from home?

But Fan Wencheng did not dare tell Hong Taiji the truth, so he had to find another excuse to fob him off. "Great Khan, this slave has shaved his head. There is no way for me to slip into the passes!"

Only then did Hong Taiji remember that Fan Wencheng was a slave with a shaved head — the Great Jin did have professional spies who had not shaved their heads, but with a shaved head it would be hard to pass unnoticed.

"Then cut off the queue and disguise yourself as a lama," Hong Taiji said. "Travel with a caravan from the Aohan otog to Zhangjiakou. Once there, disguise yourself as a monk, and make certain to infiltrate Beijing and see with your own eyes what those Qianqian cavalry are like, then come back and report."

Well, the Great Khan had already thought out the whole plan for Fan Wencheng!

Fan Wencheng had no way out, so he could only kowtow and accept the assignment.

Hong Taiji smiled and said to Fan Wencheng, "Then you may withdraw for now. Don't set out right away — rest for a few days, leave after the first day of the new year, and have a good, intimate time with that wife of yours. I have heard from Dodo that the new wife you married is a rare beauty!"

Hearing Hong Taiji say this, Fan Wencheng felt a surge of excitement — the Great Khan had taken a fancy to his wife? That would be an enormous honor!

Fan Wencheng said with a face wreathed in smiles, "Great Khan, how about this slave sends that woman into the palace to serve..."

Hong Taiji laughed heartily. "No need, no need. I do not have a taste for that sort of thing. You may take your leave."

Fan Wencheng was a slave, and a slave's wife was naturally a female slave. If the master wished to sleep with a female slave, it was naturally an honor for both the slave and the female slave. But Hong Taiji was an enlightened ruler! How could he fight over a female slave with his own little brother Dodo? Could an enlightened ruler do such a thing? Absolutely not! Hong Taiji was an enlightened ruler who knew a great many Chinese characters, and recently he had obtained a "secret manual" teaching a man how to be an enlightened ruler, which he was studying! It said right there that an enlightened ruler must not fight over a female slave with his great generals.

Somewhat disappointed, Fan Wencheng could only kowtow to Hong Taiji, then rise and back out of Hong Taiji's study, heading home to prepare for his long journey.

Watching Fan Wencheng leave, Hong Taiji stealthily took out his "Enlightened Ruler's Secret Manual," turned to the eighth chapter, and began to study.

And the title of the eighth chapter of the Enlightened Ruler's Secret Manual was "Minister Wang Yun Cleverly Sets the Chain Stratagem; Grand Preceptor Dong Raises Havoc in Fengyi Pavilion."

While Hong Taiji was studying the Enlightened Ruler's Secret Manual, striving to become a good enlightened ruler of the Great Jin, his rival Zhu Youjian had given himself a long holiday. Taking his three wives — Empress Zhou, Noble Consort Tian, and Noble Consort Yuan — and bringing along Mao Wenlong, who had stayed in Beijing for the New Year, as well as Yang Gao, Li Ruzhen, Hong Chengchou, Sun Zushou, Lu Xiangsheng, Chen Qiyu, and others, he left Yongding Gate under the escort of a squad of Wenhua Hall guards and went to Nanhaizi, south of Beijing, to deliver New Year goods to his household retainers.

When a landlord or rich man celebrated the New Year, did he not also cut up a bit of pork and make a show of paying New Year visits to his hired hands and tenant farmers?

Zhu Youjian was now an enlightened ruler; he could not be worse than a landlord or rich man, could he? Besides, had he not long since fished Li Chengliang's useless son Li Ruzhen out of the Embroidered Uniform Guard's Imperial Prison? That fellow was a "household retainer consultant," and he had taught Zhu Youjian all the old man's methods for maintaining household retainers.

Paying New Year visits to the household retainers was something Li Ruzhen had taught Zhu Youjian — when it came to winning people's hearts, one must not fear trouble!

Besides the New Year visits, Li Ruzhen had also told Zhu Youjian that he absolutely must build concentrated residential quarters for the household retainers in the Southern Park, Eastern Park, and Northern Park, and not let them keep living scattered among their own estates. For if the household retainers lived too spread out, there would be no way to train them together, and it would be hard to keep them under supervision. They had to be kept right under his nose!

Furthermore, the Son of Heaven's household retainers were all armored cavalry. Naturally they had to be provided with good horses — not only ready-made warhorses, but also stallions and mares, so that they could breed and multiply.

And raising horses was both a business and a branch of learning.

Zhu Youjian remembered that the unfilial son had put considerable effort into this area — importing fine breeds, devising breeding methods, and registering many stallions and mares in ledgers to establish horse pedigrees.

But Zhu Youjian had little interest in the study of animal husbandry and had not studied it seriously. He only knew that the household retainers settled in the Southern Park, Northern Park, and Eastern Park should be allotted good horses to raise themselves, and that corresponding grounds had to be prepared for them — because the horses were raised household by household, each family's residential plot had to be allotted a bit more land, and three large horse grounds also had to be prepared for training soldiers and warhorses.

Apart from the above, Zhu Youjian had also had men select sites for building forts at Diaoyutai, west of Beijing, in the Southern Park, Eastern Park, and Northern Park.

The plan was to build one bastion fort on each side of Beijing, to serve as outer strongpoints for the capital and at the same time as the main camps of the youth army.

Moreover, the construction schedule for the four forts outside the city was very tight — they had to be completed before the tenth month of the second year of Chongzhen!

In his previous life, the Jisi Incident had begun in the tenth month of the second year of Chongzhen.

Besides the four forts outside the city, Zhu Youjian also planned to strengthen the defenses at every pass along the Yanshan stretch of the Great Wall. In particular, Longjing Pass, Da'an Pass, Xifeng Pass, and the city of Zunhua all had to be properly repaired, and the most capable generals had to be sent with troops to garrison them.

Zhu Youjian had already made up his mind: this time, if the eastern barbarians dared to break through the Great Wall again, he would make certain they never returned!

Of course, to make the eastern barbarians never return, one could not rely on repairing walls alone. The key was still to train the household retainers well!

"Your Majesty, this subject, this subject..."

A household retainer of the Son of Heaven, a man in his twenties, was already the picture of tearful gratitude. In a barracks that had originally belonged to the Nanhaizi Purified Army, a hundred or so of the Son of Heaven's household retainers and their families all wore the same moved expression as he did!

His Majesty had not only allotted them estates and residential plots, but was also going to build them houses (the houses were not finished yet), and now he had personally come to pay them New Year visits and personally handed out New Year goods and red envelopes. Where on earth could one find such a His Majesty!

Such great kindness and favor — even being ground to powder could hardly repay one ten-thousandth of it.

This household retainer, named Huang Dali, clutching the large piece of pork and the silver ingot that Zhu Youjian had personally handed him, was already sobbing too hard to speak, weeping even as he professed his loyalty: "His Majesty's great kindness — from now on, Huang Dali's life belongs to His Majesty! Whoever dares oppose His Majesty, I'll fight them to the death!"

Zhu Youjian thought to himself: Excellent. Now that unfilial son surely won't dare chase Us around with a sword!

With that thought, he patted the shoulder of the burly man kneeling on the ground. "Well done! You are a loyal subject of our Great Ming. We will never fail a loyal subject! And We will not let a loyal subject like you go fight to the death alone — We will fight alongside you!"

"This subject is willing to follow Your Majesty, even if ground to powder, and will not refuse!" Huang Dali shouted.

The household retainers and their families in the courtyard all shouted along with him. What a stirring scene it was!

Fight together!

Whether Tartars, roving bandits, or the unfilial son — whoever dared oppose Zhu Youjian, the Great Enlightened Ruler Zhu, had better think twice!

(End of Chapter)