Chapter 1679: We Are the Most Loyal!

This really is a case of hard work paying off!

You rebel scum have finally fallen into Our hands. Zhu Youjian was so excited he nearly called for the executioners! Cut them down, and put an end to future trouble!

Unfortunately, he had not arranged any executioners — because he knew Li Zicheng still had talent! The country was in urgent need of capable men, and it needed commanders like him!

And he also knew that the Ming's true national crisis was not the roving bandits, but the eastern barbarians!

It was because the Ming's most battle-worthy armies had been smashed and annihilated one after another by the eastern barbarians that Zhu Youjian had been left short of soldiers and generals, unable to completely stamp out the roving bandits, and could only watch helplessly as they grew stronger and stronger.

Moreover, those heaven-cursed eastern barbarians had broken through the passes five times to kill and plunder, emptying and stripping bare the regions of Northern Zhili, Shandong, and Datong Prefecture in Shanxi. Although those regions were not the Ming's key tax lands, Shandong's annual land tax quota still amounted to 2.85 million shi, Northern Zhili's was smaller at under 600,000 shi, and Datong Prefecture in Shanxi even less. The three together still came to over 3.5 or 3.6 million shi! And that was only the land tax entering the Grand Granary — it did not include the seed-grain silver from the imperial estates. The Ming imperial house directly owned over three million mu of imperial estates, all of them in Northern Zhili. The eastern barbarians' burning and killing in Northern Zhili had turned those three million-plus mu of imperial estates into wasteland, and the annual loss in seed-grain silver was no small sum!

Furthermore, Northern Zhili had 50 million mu of arable land, and Shandong had 60 million mu — together that was 110 million mu!

How much grain could that produce in a year?

The eastern barbarians' five incursions of burning and killing had turned Northern Zhili and Shandong into a thousand li of empty ground. The successive famines from the second year of Chongzhen to the seventeenth were absolutely connected to the eastern barbarians' burning and killing!

If half of those 110 million mu were abandoned, it would be catastrophic! Losing tens of millions of shi of wheat every year — it would be strange if there were no famine!

If the eastern barbarians could have been kept beyond the Great Wall, the Jiashen catastrophe would never have happened!

And to keep the eastern barbarians out, he would have to rely on a northwestern hero like Li Zicheng to serve in the Son of Heaven's personal army. Let Li Zicheng go and fight Hong Taiji to the death!

Victory would remove the external threat; death would resolve the internal worry. How fine that would be!

At that thought, Zhu Youjian finally unclenched his teeth, broke into a smile, and said with a laugh, "Good, good — the two of you are true men indeed! Li Hongji!"

"Here!" Li Hongji answered cheerfully.

"You are a native of Mizhi County, Yan'an Prefecture, Shaanxi?"

"That is correct," Li Hongji said. "My family has lived in Mizhi for generations."

"This Li Jin is your nephew?" Zhu Youjian asked again.

"That's right," Li Hongji said with a laugh. "Though he is a few years older than me and watched me grow up, his generation is junior, so he is my nephew."

Zhu Youjian nodded, thinking to himself: There's no mistake — these are Li Zicheng and Li Guo, the two "father and son"! The Great Ming nearly fell to ruin at your hands!

"Have you two volunteered to enlist as soldiers in the headquarters personal army?" Zhu Youjian asked again. "Did Lu Jiude tell you the benefits of serving as a cavalryman in the headquarters army?"

"He told us, he told us," Li Hongji said, nodding repeatedly. "Would I have come if he hadn't? Eunuch Lu told me that as soon as I became a mounted soldier in the headquarters army, I'd get 500 mu of land, a house, a sum of settling-in silver, and a monthly pay of 2 taels of silver on top of that. And — and they even issue wives! Your Imperial Majesty, is that true? Will they really issue me a palace maid as a wife?"

It had to be said, this Li Hongji's mental fortitude was truly impressive. Facing questions from the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming, he was not the least bit nervous, conversing with ease and perfect composure.

When Zhu Youjian heard Li Zicheng ask about a wife, he smiled and shook his head. "You have come too late. The palace maids released from the palace have all been assigned."

"Ah?" Li Hongji was quite disappointed. How could they all be gone?

But there was no need to worry — Zhu Youjian had not finished speaking!

"There are no palace maids left, but We have had people select some daughters of impoverished and unsupported distant imperial clansmen," Zhu Youjian said with a smile. "How would you like it if We chose two of them to be betrothed to you as wives?"

"What does 'distant imperial clansmen' mean?" Li Hongji did not understand.

"It means the Ming imperial clan. His Majesty is choosing two golden-branch, jade-leaf daughters of the imperial clan to marry you!" Lu Jiude, who was standing nearby, was so startled his voice changed pitch. "The two of you, hurry up and kowtow to give thanks for this grace!"

In truth, daughters of the imperial clan were worth nothing in the Chongzhen years. The Zhu family had so many descendants — how could there be a shortage of daughters? It was impossible that they only begot sons and never daughters!

The daughters of princes — commandery princesses and county mistresses — were still somewhat precious, but what did ordinary daughters of distant clansmen amount to? Yet Zhu Youjian had discovered their value: they could be used for imperial bestowal marriages!

They could be granted to the officers and soldiers of the headquarters personal army, and also to capable profiteering merchants like Zheng Zhilong and Shen Tingyang. Using them to win over the personal army and the imperial merchants was still very much worth it.

Moreover, giving away daughters of the imperial clan not only won hearts but also shifted some burdens. There were far too many idle mouths in the Ming imperial clan — reform was necessary.

But how could reform be easy? What could clansmen accustomed to living off the state do? Zhu Youjian had thought it over again and again, and it seemed the only two realistic options were living off their wives' families and marrying off their daughters.

Li Hongji and Li Jin had no idea that Zhu Youjian had no good intentions. The moment they heard they could marry golden-branch, jade-leaf daughters of the imperial clan, they immediately dropped to their knees before the Zhu emperor and kowtowed loudly — bang, bang, bang — to give thanks for the grace.

Zhu Youjian said with a smile, "Once you marry daughters of the imperial clan, you will be Our brothers-in-law or uncles-in-law. You had best serve the Great Ming loyally!"

Li Hongji immediately said, "Rest assured, Your Imperial Majesty. For Your Imperial Majesty's great kindness, I, Li Hongji, can only repay it by smashing my liver and brains upon the ground!"

Li Jin also said, "Your Imperial Majesty, my second uncle and I will surely serve the Great Ming loyally. We want to be the most loyal subjects of the Great Ming!"

Li Hongji nodded repeatedly. "Right, right — we are the most loyal!"

Zhu Youjian looked at the two most loyal subjects of the Great Ming and thought: It seems Li Zicheng and Li Guo are going to become loyal subjects after all. I only wonder whether rebels like Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai, and He Yilong can repent and reform. The more loyal subjects the Great Ming has, the better!

At that thought, Zhu Youjian collected himself again, looked at Li Hongji, and asked, "Li Hongji, your skill with bow and horse is quite good. Who did you learn it from?"

Li Hongji had learned his skills from his nephew Li Jin, but he had surpassed his teacher, and his abilities were greater than Li Jin's. Moreover, being a generation senior, he was unwilling to say that Li Jin was his teacher, so he said to Zhu Youjian, "Your Imperial Majesty, my skills are self-taught. No teacher taught me."

"Oh, self-taught and accomplished!" Zhu Youjian nodded. "We shall bestow upon you a name: 'Zi' above, 'Cheng' below. From now on, you shall be called Li Zicheng!"

"Li Zicheng — I am Li Zicheng!"

While Zhu Youjian was receiving "the Great Ming's most loyal" Li Zicheng at the Nanhaizi grand camp, inside Beijing at the residence of Censor Sun on Xila Hutong, a visitor had just arrived. The caller was a scholar with delicate features, in his forties, fair-skinned, with a three-part beard, looking extremely refined.

This refined scholar had entered through Chaoyang Gate early that morning, not alone but surrounded by a crowd of attendants, among them some very sharp-looking, tough men who appeared to be of military background.

After entering Chaoyang Gate, the party headed straight for the residence of Censor Sun outside the Eastern Prosperity Gate of the imperial city. Censor Sun was none other than Chief Censor of the Left Sun Chengzong. He had been at the Censorate drafting impeachment memorials, preparing to impeach a pack of treacherous ministers, when a household servant reported that Yuan Ziru had arrived. He immediately put away the memorials in hand, requested half a day's leave, and went home to receive his guest.

And this Yuan Ziru was no ordinary man — he was Yuan Chonghuan, who had twice defeated the eastern barbarians' chieftain at Ningyuan!

Yuan Chonghuan had already arrived in Beijing!

He was a native of Dongguan in Guangdong. One month before the Tianqi Emperor passed away, he had resigned and returned home. The journey was long and slow, and it took him a great while to reach his hometown. Before he had even caught his breath, the imperial edict summoning him back to the capital for office arrived from Zhu Youjian.

Arriving almost simultaneously with the edict was a personal letter from his old superior Sun Chengzong, urging him to hurry back to the capital as well — now that a new sovereign had taken the throne, although Wei Zhongxian and Madam Ke had been dealt with by thunderous means, there were still many treacherous eunuch-faction villains at court! Moreover, men like Wang Zaijin and Yang Gao, though not of the eunuch faction, were muddle-headed ministers whose harm was no less than that of the eunuch faction, and they too had been given office. As for upright gentlemen, they were pitifully few and could not form a united force at all, so Yuan Chonghuan absolutely must not decline office and must return to take up his post as quickly as possible.

The Great Ming and all upright gentlemen needed him!

(End of Chapter)