Chapter 176: Dorgon, You Can't Back Down Now! (Please Subscribe, Please Send Monthly Tickets)

"The Prince Regent's great kindness to this subject — even if I were ground to dust, I could not repay one ten-thousandth of it!"

Hearing that Dorgon still trusted him, Hong Chengchou was so moved that he wept, and kowtowed heavily several times to Dorgon. Yet he did not withdraw as Dorgon had ordered — not to further win Dorgon's trust so as to keep his head, but out of genuine concern for the Great Qing!

"This subject has one more thing to say!" Hong Chengchou said through tears. "This Crown Prince of the Zhu family is extraordinary! This subject truly did not leak Your Highness's dispositions — he anticipated that we would raid Dagukou, and that is why he laid an ambush. This man is truly the greatest threat to our Great Qing!"

"Is that so?" Dorgon said in a low voice.

Hong Chengchou wiped his tears and said, "Your Highness, this subject now fears that Datong and Beijing may see further trouble. This subject's earlier advocacy of releasing Zhu Cijiong and Wang Yongji now appears to have been a mistake as well — the Zhu Crown Prince has most likely made arrangements. And then there is Beijing itself."

"Beijing?" Dorgon snorted coldly. "A pack of turncoat officials who went over to the bandits — do they dare resist the Great Qing's heavenly troops? Are they not afraid the heavenly troops will put the city to the sword?"

"That must not happen!" Hearing Dorgon speak of slaughtering the city, Hong Chengchou hastily spoke up to stop him.

"Hong Chengchou, what are you saying?" Fan Wencheng, standing to the side, barked sharply. "Wherever the heavenly troops go, any city that first resists and is then taken has always been put to the sword, as a warning to others!"

Hong Chengchou gritted his teeth and kowtowed heavily to Dorgon: "Your Highness, Beijing is the foremost city under Heaven — it must never be subjected to slaughter to overawe the people's hearts! Even when the roving bandits took the city, they made a show of not harming a single hair. How can our Great Qing's army of righteousness carry out mass slaughter? Do we no longer want the hearts of the people? Moreover, if the officials and people of the capital dare resist the heavenly troops, they must have fallen for the Zhu bandit Crown Prince's treacherous scheme. What should be killed is the Zhu bandit's Crown Prince, not the officials and people of the capital!"

"Is that so?" Dorgon's tone was icy. "You think the Great Qing needs the hearts of the people under Heaven?"

"Hong Chengchou!" Fan Wencheng, knowing that Dorgon's killing intent was already stirred, shouted repeatedly, "His Highness has already ordered you to withdraw! What are you still prattling about here? Why don't you leave at once? Are you not afraid of His Highness's wrath?"

Hong Chengchou shuddered. His Highness was a Tartar who killed without blinking! Killing a fifth-rank Han like you would be no harder than crushing an ant.

At that thought, even so loyal a slave as Hong Chengchou could do nothing more. He kowtowed once more to Dorgon and slunk away dejectedly.

Dorgon watched Hong Chengchou leave, then turned his gaze to Fan Wencheng.

"Your Highness, this slave thinks Hong Chengchou is overthinking things," Fan Wencheng said. "What trouble could there be in Datong or the capital? Jiang Xiang of Datong is a petty man who sways with every wind. He already sold out the Great Ming once and was the chief culprit in the capital's fall — would he dare turn back now? As for that pack of turncoat officials inside the capital, with no troops and no generals, what could they use to resist the heavenly troops?"

Dorgon snorted. "We shall see."

Dodo said, "Fourteenth Brother, the loss we suffered at Dagukou was no small matter. We cannot let it go at that!"

Dorgon nodded. "Indeed, we cannot simply let it go. Fifteenth Brother, go at once and round up all the men who fled back, Geng Zhongming included. The news must be sealed off completely!

Once they are confined, question them personally — you must get to the bottom of exactly what happened! Our Eight Banners' heavenly troops are not afraid of defeat, but we must understand our defeats clearly, and know where we lost!"

Dodo nodded. "Very well, I will go now."

After Dodo left, Dorgon said to Fan Wencheng, "Go and tell the Ming envoys that Geng Zhongming acted against Our orders by going south to plunder on his own, which led to this misunderstanding. And We still hope the two nations can establish friendly ties. As for the marriage alliance, We also agree — but Dongguo is young, only six this year, and cannot be married off yet. We must wait another ten years.

Furthermore, from now on the Great Qing and the Great Ming should set their border as the Liao and Song did in history. All the old territory of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun should be ceded to the Great Qing, and the Great Ming must also pay the Great Qing one million taels of silver per year as tribute.

If the Great Ming accepts Our terms, then We will meet the Ming Crown Prince at the Wei River for a covenant!"

Fan Wencheng frowned. "Your Highness, are these terms not too generous?"

Dorgon said coldly, "We will take it one step at a time. If We can seize the northern half of the realm, We would of course scorn the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun. If We can unify all under Heaven, We will not stop at the north. But right now We still do not know what exactly happened at Dagukou — what if the Zhu Crown Prince truly can fight? Besides, there may yet be complications at Datong, so do not overthink it!"

Fan Wencheng bowed. "Your Highness is wise!"

His Highness was of course wise — and he also had a remarkably accurate crow's beak of a mouth. The Zhu Crown Prince really could fight, and Datong really did see complications!

On the very same day as the Battle of Dagukou, a full-scale brawl erupted inside the city of Datong. Jiang Xiang, the Shun dynasty's Regional Commander of Datong, suddenly struck, leading his household retainers in a bloody battle within Datong against the forces of Zhang Tianlin and Ke Tianxiang, whom Li Zicheng had left behind to keep watch on Jiang Xiang.

To the surprise of Zhang Tianlin, Ke Tianxiang, and the others, the fighting strength of those former Ming troops of the Datong garrison under Jiang Xiang was formidable indeed! In the Datong Wuzi Uprising of history, the rebel soldiers and civilians of Datong held out from the twelfth month of the fifth year of Shunzhi all the way to the tenth month of the sixth year of Shunzhi, and were only crushed by the Qing army because their grain ran out and internal betrayal occurred. If they had resisted Li Zicheng with the same determination they showed in the Wuzi Uprising, Li Zicheng would never have reached Beijing at all.

Yet this very Commander Jiang of the Datong garrison was a man of bizarre thinking — he clearly had the strength to resist Li Zicheng, yet he chose to surrender. And after surrendering, because Li Zicheng frightened him once (pretending he would execute him as a traitor), he regretted it, and ever since had wanted to return to the Ming side.

In the end, after the news of Li Zicheng's defeat and flight from Beijing and Luo Xiushen, bearing the Crown Prince's edict as Army Commissioner, arrived at Datong almost back to back, Jiang Xiang judged the moment ripe and boldly launched his mutiny. Zhang Tianlin and Ke Tianxiang were caught completely off guard, and both were killed.

After that bloody battle, the prefectural city of Datong once again became territory of the Great Ming!

"Commissioner Luo, I'd thought the roving bandits were something fierce, but it turns out they're nothing much. If I'd known earlier they were only this good, damn it, I'd never have gone over to the rebels!"

In the main hall of the Datong garrison Regional Commander's yamen, a man of about forty, with a full beard and a face like a fierce god, sat squarely and imposingly behind the desk, pointing at two bloody heads resting on the desk while speaking with Luo Xiushen, who sat to the side.

These two heads belonged to Zhang Tianlin and Ke Tianxiang, the men Li Zicheng had left in Datong Prefecture to watch Jiang Xiang! Zhang Tianlin had even been Jiang Xiang's savior — when Li Zicheng pretended he was going to kill Jiang Xiang, it was Zhang Tianlin who had stepped forward to plead for him.

No one expected this Jiang Xiang to turn his face faster than one turns a page.

Luo Xiushen looked at Zhang Tianlin's head, and felt a chill run down his spine. He inhaled a breath of air thick with the smell of blood and forced a smile: "Commander, His Highness the Thousand Years has another edict, which he instructed this official to deliver to you once your return to loyalty had succeeded."

"Is that so?" Jiang Xiang said with a laugh. "Then bring it out quickly."

An edict — should one not receive it with the utmost reverence? Just bring it out like that?

Luo Xiushen glanced at the bloody heads, then still took out the other edict that Zhu Cilang had given him before leaving Beijing. He stood, walked over to Jiang Xiang, and presented the edict with both hands.

Jiang Xiang took the edict, casually opened it and glanced at it, and his brow furrowed.

"His Highness the Thousand Years anticipated that the Manchu Tartars would make a play for Northern Zhili and Shanxi?" Jiang Xiang said. "Had we not already borrowed their troops to help suppress the bandits?"

Luo Xiushen smiled bitterly. "Commander, that question stumps this humble official. It has been some days since I last saw His Highness. This edict was given to me on the twentieth day of the third month, before His Highness left Beijing."

"Even then His Highness anticipated the Manchu Tartars would come to seize Datong Prefecture?"

"One must always guard against others," Luo Xiushen said. "His Highness having us prepare early is never wrong. The Manchu Tartars are strong in arms, and though Datong is a mighty city, it cannot withstand siege year after year. Therefore establishing a base in the Taihang Mountains is still very necessary."

Jiang Xiang stroked his great beard and laughed. "Commissioner Luo, you are mistaken. A siege is not so easy. Datong is so large a city that without tens of thousands of elite troops, it cannot be encircled. Tens of thousands of elite troops, men eating and horses chewing — the grain and fodder they consume would be staggering! Right now Datong has six months of stored grain. Gather a bit more and make it a full year's supply, and I refuse to believe the Tartars can besiege the city for a year!"

(End of Chapter)