Chapter 1731: The Tomb-Raiding Beile Dorgon

Hearing Zhu Youjian's words, Zhu Chunchen felt somewhat relieved.

But he still did not believe Yuan Chonghuan could kill Hong Taiji. The Liaodong garrison had fought the eastern barbarians for so many years — if the barbarian chieftain could have been killed, they would have killed him long ago. Why would they wait until he came inside Shanhai Pass to kill him?

Last time at the Battle of Ningjin they had trumpeted it as a great victory, but had not the Liaodong troops under Yuan Chonghuan's command still been pinned inside their forts and battered by Hong Taiji? Only when Hong Taiji's troops were worn out and his veterans exhausted did Yuan Chonghuan and Man Gui seize the chance to fight a battle before the walls and drive off the eastern barbarians' great host. But they had not actually killed many of the Jianzhou slaves — if they had truly killed many, the Jianzhou slaves would not have dared come this time.

So there was still a great gap between the fighting strength of the Liaodong garrison and the eastern barbarians. For the Liaodong troops to hold out behind their walls and wear the eastern barbarians down until they withdrew already counted as a great victory.

Kill Hong Taiji? That was a dream!

But such dampening words Zhu Chunchen did not dare say to the young emperor, so he cheerfully chimed in: "With Yuan Chonghuan's Liaodong elite troops laying a heaven-and-earth net, the battle inside Shanhai Pass is certain to be won. This subject congratulates Your Majesty, and congratulates the Great Ming!"

Once he took the lead, the whole courtyard full of Great Ming traitor-ministers joined in with fine words.

"The battle inside Shanhai Pass is certain to be won! After this battle the slave bandits will surely be badly weakened, and the recovery of Liaodong is just around the corner!"

"Our Great Ming is invincible under heaven, and His Majesty is invincible under heaven!"

"His Majesty is sagely wise! His Majesty leads us first to fight at Shanhai Pass, then to fight at Shenyang!"

"The Great Ming shall surely win, the eastern barbarians shall surely perish!"

Zhu Youjian, of course, did not believe a single word of the traitor-ministers' flattery. In his previous life, it was precisely because he had believed them that he had nearly been killed by Li Zicheng!

But he would not expose these treacherous sycophants either; the scene of sovereign grace and subject loyalty still had to be maintained.

Zhu Youjian smiled and nodded. The traitor-ministers in the courtyard all fell silent, each wearing a confident smile — and how treacherous they looked!

"The battle inside Shanhai Pass is of course certain to be won," Zhu Youjian said, "but the eastern barbarians have many cavalry units, while the troops of Ji and Liao are mainly infantry. Winning is easy, but pursuing and annihilating the fleeing foe is very hard! Fortunately, We have quite a few cavalry units at hand, and We also know how to use cavalry.

So We shall not go join the excitement inside Shanhai Pass. We shall first go to Xuanfu, then go out beyond the Great Wall through Longmen Garrison, and circle around to cut off the eastern barbarians' retreat, to ambush and kill Hong Taiji on the road!"

What? You are not going? Zhu Chunchen was no fool; the moment he heard this he sensed something wrong. Since victory was certain, why not go join the excitement? Could you not just follow behind the routed eastern barbarians and cut them down? Why must you go out beyond the wall from Xuanfu? What ambush on the road? The terrain east of Xuanfu was so complex, covered with mountains and forests — no place at all for cavalry to range freely. And that stretch of land was enormous, with many passable roads. Ten or twenty thousand cavalry scattered out there would vanish without a trace. How would you ambush anyone? Where would you go to ambush them?

"Your Majesty's use of troops is divinely inspired; this old subject is endlessly admiring," said Zhang Weixian, who had just been relieved of his post as Commander, taking the lead in flattery. "It is only a pity that this old subject is advanced in years and cannot take the field to lead troops; otherwise he too would wish to follow Your Majesty into the charge."

He was quite pleased with himself. After serving as Commander for decades, now that he was about to go to the battlefield and be killed by the enemy, he had managed to toss the black pot to someone else.

In truth, men of his and Zhu Chunchen's standing did not want merit at all — they just wanted to skim a little. Because he was the Duke of Ying, and Zhu Chunchen was the Duke of Cheng. Ming subjects were not enfeoffed as princes while alive; duke was the highest rank. And these two dukes were hereditary dukes with iron-plate charters — there was no further promotion possible, so what merit was there to earn? Earn merit so as to alarm the sovereign with excessive achievements?

Zhu Youjian nodded with a smile. "The Duke of Ying grows sturdier with age! Though you cannot charge at the front, your august reputation remains, more than enough to hold a region and overawe the barbarian caitiffs."

His tone had grown heavy. "We have heard from the Grand Princess of the Uriankhai that Hong Taiji's younger brother Dorgon is most skilled at tomb-raiding, and has been enfeoffed as the Tomb-Raiding Beile. Every time he goes to war he leads a company of tomb-raiding Tartars, searching along the way for imperial mausoleums and the graves of great houses, digging up tombs and taking their treasures. This time the Jianzhou slaves have come with their whole nation, intent on plundering wealth and goods; they will certainly not let the late emperors' tombs on Tianshou Mountain go. If Wang Zhichen and Yuan Chonghuan cannot stop them east of Tu'er Mountain, the main Jianzhou force will surely head straight for Tianshou Mountain and dig up the tombs of our Great Ming emperors of successive reigns. As for the Regional Commander of Changping Garrison who guards Tianshou Mountain — We wish to ask the Duke of Ying to take that post. With the Duke of Ying stationed at Changping, presumably that Tomb-Raiding Beile Dorgon will not dare go there."

What? A Tomb-Raiding Beile? Was that real or not?

The nobles in the courtyard were all hearing of this so-called Tomb-Raiding Beile for the first time, but they did not dare suspect Zhu Youjian of lying. The young emperor had said the news came from the Grand Princess of the Uriankhai. The Chahar were Mongols, and the relationship between the Mongols and the Jianzhou Jurchens could be described as "you within me, I within you" — they ought to know the Jianzhou Jurchens better than the Great Ming did. Perhaps there really were tomb-raiding Tartars!

Quite a few nobles began to worry about their own ancestral graves. They were all noble and wealthy houses; their ancestral tombs were built lavishly and richly, and contained many fine burial goods. If the Jianzhou slaves dug them up, they would have failed their ancestors!

And the ancestral tombs of these nobles within Beijing were, for the most part, also within the defense zone of Changping Garrison!

This Changping Garrison was one of the so-called Nine Borders Thirteen Garrisons. The Nine Borders had originally been nine garrisons; later Shanzhou Garrison was divided into Shanhai, Changping, and Zhenbao Garrisons, and Lintao Garrison was split off from Gansu Garrison, forming the Nine Borders Thirteen Garrisons. There were also Ming-dynasty formulations of Nine Borders Eleven Garrisons and Nine Borders Sixteen Garrisons — it was simply a matter of border garrisons splitting and merging. And when Zhu Youjian had transferred the Liao troops into the pass, he had merged Yongping and Miyun (one of the sixteen garrisons) into Ji Garrison, but had kept Changping Garrison, which was dedicated to guarding the imperial tombs — he too had been deceived by that unfilial son, and truly believed Dorgon was a Tomb-Raiding Beile!

Pressed by Zhu Youjian, Zhang Weixian's good mood vanished at once. But he could not push away the glorious mission of guarding the imperial tombs and opposing the Tomb-Raiding Beile. Because his own Duke of Ying family's ancestral tombs were also in Changping — if Dorgon dug them up, how could he face his ancestors?

Moreover, the Regional Commander of Changping Garrison controlled the Tianshou Mountain Garrison Commander, and under the Tianshou Mountain Garrison Commander there were thirteen tomb guards. These tomb-guard posts had always been sinecures for the sons of Beijing's nobles, and Zhang Weixian was the head of the Beijing nobles — he had to guard them for everyone's sake.

If he did not take up this burden, others might not necessarily be able to. If the imperial tombs on Tianshou Mountain really were dug up by Dorgon — even if only one corner was dug — Zhu Youjian would have a pretext to purge the Changping Garrison and the Tianshou Mountain Garrison Command yamen.

But he could not lightly step forward to fill this pit, for a very simple reason: Changping Garrison was empty! This Changping Garrison drew 360,000 taels of pay a year; its main and auxiliary troops on paper should number 30,000, but in reality no one knew whether there were even 10,000. And of those truly able to fight, there were probably not even 3,000!

"Your Majesty," Zhang Weixian memorialized, "Changping Garrison is a military garrison without actual territory. If this subject becomes Regional Commander, he can only manage the military and not the people. And the territory Changping administers is very small; the thirteen tomb guards are all in the mountains. Relying on 30,000 paper troops alone, I fear I cannot manage it all, and will have to mobilize civilian households and able-bodied men to assist in the fighting."

"You shall be given actual territory!" Zhu Youjian said with a smile. "Changping Prefecture, Huairou County, Yanqing Guard, Baiyangkou Battalion, and Zhenbian Fort Battalion shall all be placed under Changping Garrison. We shall not send a Governor — it shall all be under you, the Duke of Ying! In addition, the Tianshou Mountain Garrison Commander post shall also be held by you concurrently."

This was managing the army on horseback and the people on foot!

And the Duke of Ying really could manage it!

"Your Majesty," the Duke of Ying said through gritted teeth, "Changping Garrison has enjoyed peace for too long; most of its troops cannot fight. This subject wishes to transfer elite troops from Xuanfu into Changping."

He did not dare ask for the Capital Camps, and he could not get the Datong garrison troops or the headquarters army, so he could only set his sights on Xuanfu. Though the Xuanfu troops were not as good as the Liao troops or the Datong troops, they were border troops after all, and could still fight.

"Granted!" Zhu Youjian said with a smile. "Except for Hou Shilu's household retainers and the garrison headquarters battalion, all other Xuanfu troops, whether main or auxiliary, shall be transferred to Changping. We shall lead the headquarters army and the Datong troops to Xuanfu, which will be enough to guarantee Xuanfu's safety. Duke of Ying, Changping Garrison is entrusted to you! Do not let that Tomb-Raiding Beile Dorgon disturb the peace of the Great Ming's ancestors!"

(End of Chapter)