Chapter 1720: All You Know Is Factional Strife — Hong Taiji Is Almost Here!

"Master Sun, my brother is the Son of Heaven's lead guard. He followed the Son of Heaven onto the battlefield and saw with his own eyes the Son of Heaven fight thirty-six rounds against the foremost warrior of the Mongols, Guiyingqia. A silver spear danced up and down, stabbing left and right until that foremost Mongol warrior could only parry and block, unable to counter, and in the end His Majesty used a single move, 'Fierce Dragon Crossing the River,' and knocked him from his horse. His Majesty truly possesses the valor of ten thousand men!"

The man holding forth so eloquently to Sun Chengzong, Qian Qianyi, and Shen Tingyang about the Son of Heaven's valor was none other than Li Zunzu, Marquis of Ningyuan. This gentleman was a born storyteller. Though he had never personally seen Zhu Youjian cut a man down, his clever tongue painted the scene so vividly that his listeners felt they were there on the battlefield. Only Sun Chengzong, who had some military experience, frowned as he listened. How could the Son of Heaven ride out alone and fight a man in single combat? Fortunately he had won. Had he lost, would the Great Ming not have fallen into internal strife?

"Then why has the Son of Heaven not returned in triumph?" Sun Chengzong glanced at Li Zunzu. "Marquis of Ningyuan, do not try to fob me off with some nonsense about the Son of Heaven wanting to strike straight into the Tumed lands!"

Li Zunzu, his thoughts seen through by Sun Chengzong, gave a soft sigh and said with a bitter smile, "What does the Son of Heaven intend to do? Does Master Sun truly not understand? The Son of Heaven is now at Datong, surveying fields and mustering troops. Add to that the earlier salt administration reforms — what the Son of Heaven wants to do is plain to see, is it not?"

How could Sun Chengzong not understand? He had been the teacher of the Tianqi Emperor. In those days, the Tianqi Emperor had harbored intentions much like those of the present Chongzhen Emperor, only his methods fell far short. These two brothers both regarded the host of court officials as traitors to the state and enemies of the dynasty, and both wanted to carry out a great purge. But the Tianqi Emperor had no ability to get things done — he could not fight, did not understand finance, had no grasp of statecraft, and was not much good at using men. So he dragged out Wei Zhongxian, a man who only knew how to make a mess of things.

After all that effort, not a single one of the real rats and great embezzlers was caught. Instead, he ruined himself and died young.

But this present His Majesty is far more formidable. Without making a sound, he built up a personal force of more than ten thousand imperial retainers, then used the opportunity of the Khutuktu Khan's invasion to launch a campaign in person — and actually won a great victory against superior numbers. Borrowing the prestige of that victory, though it was not enough to control Beijing, Datong is now firmly in Zhu Youjian's grasp.

The 130,000-odd troops on the books at Datong feared the Tartar caitiffs like tigers, but the young Son of Heaven, with the prestige of having broken the enemy with ten thousand cavalry and sent the Khutuktu Khan fleeing in disarray, could look down upon all eight guards and sixty-four forts of Datong.

And so the Son of Heaven could survey fields and reorganize the army at Datong, and no one in Datong dared oppose him!

Once the military farms and garrison troops of Datong were sorted out, there would be no 130,000-strong army, but forty or fifty thousand crack troops there would certainly be. Add to that the Son of Heaven's own front-line cavalry, and there would be fifty or sixty thousand "troops of the Son of Heaven" in all — enough not only to protect the Son of Heaven's safety, but also to overawe the traitors and enemies of the dynasty within Beijing.

However great the power of the traitors and enemies of the dynasty in Beijing, they could not stretch their hands into Datong, which was firmly controlled by the Son of Heaven's troops. And those traitors and enemies of the dynasty could not actually drag their power onto a battlefield. If they had that kind of power, the Tianqi Emperor would not have needed to struggle — he could simply have sent Zhang Weixian with the Capital Camps to cut off Nurhaci's head, and that would have been the end of it.

So once the Son of Heaven left Beijing and went to Datong, beyond the reach of the meritorious nobles' claws, he could seize the initiative, and need not worry about falling overboard while boating, being poisoned, or having his life cut short by some quack physician.

"Shouzhi, Jiming, the two of you should make a trip to Datong."

After seeing Li Zunzu off, Sun Chengzong said to Qian Qianyi, who had come to the capital seeking office, and Shen Tingyang, who was bent on seizing the grain transport business, "The Son of Heaven will not be returning to Beijing for the time being. Even if he enters Shuntian Prefecture, he will not enter Beijing. He certainly does not lack warriors around him, but there are not many civil officials he can use, and even fewer who understand finance. If you two go, you will surely be given important posts."

Qian Qianyi had passed the jinshi examination in the thirty-eighth year of Wanli. He had been in official service for eighteen years and was now forty-six years old. Moreover, he had placed third in the palace examination that year, and had begun his career as a compiler in the Hanlin Academy — a very high starting point. But his subsequent career had been extremely rough. Because he bore the empty title of Donglin leader, he became a thorn in Wei Zhongxian's side, and after many years of ups and downs in officialdom, he had never landed a lucrative post, and had twice been stripped of office. Now, on the verge of "knowing the Mandate of Heaven," he was still living in idleness. Fortunately, his ancestors had accumulated virtue and his family were great landowners, and as an official on the rolls he did not have to pay taxes. Otherwise he would have had to worry about food and clothing!

But was Qian Qianyi the sort of man to idle away his days waiting to die? This time he had brought Shen Tingyang, a great magnate of Jiangnan, with him to the capital. With Shen Tingyang's sponsorship and the support of Sun Chengzong, the Donglin leader, his restoration to office should have been assured.

But after arriving in Beijing, Qian Qianyi discovered that he had run into something strange. The Emperor himself had left the capital to fight the foremost Mongol warrior in single combat!

With the Emperor away, the Grand Secretariat and the Directorate of Ceremonial in Beijing were in a caretaker state, and no one could restore Qian Qianyi to office. A man of Qian Qianyi's stature, if restored, would be at the level of Minister or Vice Minister — he could not simply be fobbed off with a county magistracy.

So the matter had to be decided by the Emperor himself! With the Emperor away, even if Shen Tingyang was willing to spend money to buy Qian Qianyi an office, there was nowhere to send it.

Qian Qianyi stroked his beard, his dark face grave, looking rather like a black-faced Judge Bao. "Master Sun, the Son of Heaven clearly is extremely dissatisfied with the meritorious nobles in the capital! And the eunuch faction, when the Prince of Dai mistakenly reported news last time, colluded with the meritorious nobles to plot the enthronement of the Prince of Fu. You should write a memorial, and I will carry it to Datong and present it to His Majesty."

Sun Chengzong frowned, seeming somewhat hesitant. He knew that once this memorial was submitted, he would be at odds with the meritorious nobles of Beijing.

He did not fear the eunuch faction, but the meritorious nobles — every one of them had deep roots and great power!

Seeing Sun Chengzong's hesitation, Qian Qianyi lowered his voice and continued, "Master Sun, the moment we took over the salt transport office, we came into conflict with those rats of the state. No matter how much we humble ourselves and yield, they will never be satisfied.

Unless we go back to the original two million-odd taels to support the Liaodong army. But would the Liaodong garrison accept that? They have been drawing more than four million in pay (after deducting the shares for Tianjin and Dongjiang, it is roughly four million-odd). Cut that in half, and would they not turn the world upside down? If it got so bad that even Yuan Yuansu could not keep them in check, the eunuch faction and meritorious nobles in the capital would certainly seize on it to attack us!

Master Sun, factional struggle is really just borrowing strength to strike at strength. His Majesty's intent is plain, and there is strength to borrow. As long as we link the eunuch faction with the meritorious nobles, we need not fear failing to destroy them!"

Sun Chengzong frowned and remained silent, apparently still weighing the matter.

Qian Qianyi continued, "And there is also the death of the late Emperor, which can be made use of. In those days, we Donglin gentlemen were all out of office, so the matter had nothing to do with us. But the eunuch faction and the meritorious nobles of the capital cannot escape their guilt!"

"How so?" asked Sun Chengzong.

Qian Qianyi said, "The meritorious nobles of the capital hated the late Emperor for wanting to reorganize the Capital Camps and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, while the eunuch faction plotted to enthrone the Prince of Fu."

"This even drags in the Prince of Fu? That is entrapping an imperial prince!"

Qian Qianyi laughed. "How is it entrapping an imperial prince? This time someone really did plot to enthrone the Prince of Fu! Can he escape involvement? When the Empress arrives at Datong, will she not weep and pour out her grievances to the Son of Heaven? What will the Son of Heaven think? Chief Censor, the post of Chief Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat hangs on this one move!"

This Qian Qianyi must have been suppressed for too long — his head was full of nothing but such scheming, and he did not even see what time it was!

Hong Taiji was about to attack!

Of course, at this moment Sun Chengzong and Qian Qianyi did not know that Hong Taiji was bearing down on the Great Wall at Ji Town. In fact, even the Eight Banners troops who had marched out with Hong Taiji, and the leaders of the Kharchin Mongols, the Inner Khalkha Mongols, and the Khorchin Mongols who were preparing to join forces with Hong Taiji, did not know that this Tiancong Khan was already preparing to test the weight of the tripod of Beijing. All they knew was that the Tiancong Khan intended to hold a great assembly of the Mongol tribes by the Daling River and receive the submission of the Mongol Left Wing tribes.

Even that man of foresight, Zhu Youjian, did not know that the Jisi Incident had come early and become the Wuchen Incident!

(End of Chapter)