Chapter 1778: The Prince of Fu Meets Li Zicheng

Li Zicheng!

When Zhu Changxun, Prince of Fu, heard those three words, his heart was seized with panic! It was as if this man named Li Zicheng were the nemesis fated to destroy him — even more terrifying than the young Ming emperor Zhu Youjian, who at this very moment was sharpening his blade, ready to slaughter Zhu Changxun!

Yet Zhu Changxun himself did not understand why he should fear a mere Battalion Commander of the personal guard before his tent. However fallen his own fortunes, he was still a dignified Ming prince of the blood, and a close collateral branch at that. If he was to fear anyone, it ought to be the young emperor Zhu Youjian!

"My Prince, Your Highness, what are you thinking?" Li Zicheng leaned in with his big, stubble-covered face and asked with concern. Only then did Zhu Changxun realize that, in his dazed confusion, he had already followed Li Zicheng to the gate of a large residence inside the Nanhaizi fortress.

The walls of the Nanhaizi fortress enclosed what had originally been the Nanhaizi military camp, which already contained many buildings and offices. Over the past few months, further renovations and additions had been made, using high walls to divide these buildings and offices into two or three hundred courtyards of varying sizes. When the Later Jin army had entered, tens of thousands of family members of the personal guard had crowded in here. But now most of those guard families had returned to their own homes, and the great majority of the courtyards stood empty. Only a few were occupied by one regiment of the personal guard garrisoning the Nanhaizi camp — the personal guard had originally consisted of eight regiments, later expanded by one more at Datong, making nine regiments now, plus a separate direct unit, totaling over twelve thousand men.

These twelve thousand-odd men, however, were not in camp year-round; they served in rotation, and only in wartime were they all concentrated. At present it was not wartime, so the forces concentrated here amounted to only three regiments — two of which had gone with Zhu Youjian, while one remained behind at Nanhaizi.

The regiment left to garrison Nanhaizi these days was commanded by Wu Xiang, the father of Wu Sangui. So when the Prince of Fu's family arrived, it was Wu Xiang who arranged their lodgings.

Wu Xiang was a tactful man, unwilling to offend the seemingly down-and-out Prince of Fu, so he had prepared a spacious and bright residence for the prince's family and posted several personal guard warriors at the gate.

Now Li Zicheng, together with the Prince of Fu Zhu Changxun, his heir Zhu Yousong, Prince of Yingchong Zhu Youqu, Prince of Dehuai Zhu Youhua, and the chief eunuch of the Prince of Fu's household, Wang Changchun, had arrived outside this large residence. The gate was already open, yet the Prince of Fu stood at the entrance in a daze. The members of his household who had come out all watched their prince, every one of them looking frightened and uneasy, not daring — and unable to bear — to urge this prince, already standing at the gates of death, to take one more step forward.

Seeing the Prince of Fu so utterly distracted, Li Zicheng felt some sympathy for him, and so said with a smile: "Please enter, my Prince. Though this residence cannot compare with your palace at Luoyang, it counts as one of the better ones here at Nanhaizi. If Your Highness finds it unsuitable, I will speak with His Majesty again and arrange another residence for you."

"No need. This place is fine." As the Prince of Fu spoke, he thought to himself: if I change residences again, I fear I will be looking for one within the high walls of Fengyang!

Li Zicheng said with a smile: "Food and clothing within the residence must be paid for out of Your Highness's own purse. However, since the people of your household cannot conveniently leave the city, you may instruct this humble officer to buy on your behalf."

"General Li," the old eunuch Wang Changchun of the Prince of Fu's household interjected, "do you mean to say that His Highness is to be confined here?"

Li Zicheng nodded and said: "His Majesty issued a verbal decree on the road to Beijing. In truth, this is also for the prince's protection! This affair involves many people, and none of them are good sorts. They might well do Your Highness harm. Better to be cautious."

The old eunuch Wang was about to speak again, but the Prince of Fu said: "Then I must trouble you, General." As he spoke, he shot a glance at the old eunuch Wang, who immediately produced a gold ingot and quietly offered it to Li Zicheng.

Li Zicheng gave a hearty laugh but did not take the ingot, merely smiling as he said: "Your Highness is too kind. Old Li here had the good fortune to marry a daughter of a collateral branch of the Prince of Zhou's house; my father-in-law is of the 'zai' generation. By that reckoning, old Li is Your Highness's cousin-in-law, so of course I ought to look after you."

Well, well — Li Zicheng had become Zhu Changxun's cousin-in-law! The bond between these two was truly not shallow!

Hearing Li Zicheng speak thus, Zhu Changxun felt this fierce-looking Battalion Commander of the personal guard was somewhat closer to him, and so asked: "General, this humble prince has a doubt in his heart. May I venture to ask?"

Having said this much, Zhu Changxun again hesitated and would not continue.

Li Zicheng was a clever man and naturally knew what Zhu Changxun wanted to ask, so he smiled and said: "Do not be afraid, my Prince. His Majesty knows that Your Highness has always been law-abiding and dutiful, and that you merely had the misfortune to be born into an imperial house and to be too greatly favored by the Divine Ancestor. Therefore His Majesty will certainly preserve Your Highness's life."

Only preserve his life?

Zhu Changxun sighed, stepped forward, and walked into the residence Wu Xiang had arranged for him.

Elsewhere, Zhu Youjian was hosting a banquet in the great hall of the Nanhaizi detached palace for the officials who had joined him in welcoming the Prince of Fu, along with Zhang Weixian, Luo Sigong, Luo Yangxing, Liu Chao, and others who had escorted the Prince of Fu from Luoyang.

It was called a banquet, but in truth there was nothing fine to eat or drink — just some dishes and wine prepared by the cooks of the personal guard cavalry regiment under Wu Xiang: big chunks of meat, large bowls of wine, and big platters of white-flour steamed buns.

Zhu Youjian ate with evident relish. As an emperor whose valor surpassed the entire army, he naturally had to maintain a very high level of physical exertion; with great exertion came a hearty appetite.

The officials in the great hall, however, had little appetite.

For the Prince of Fu's arrival at the Nanhaizi fortress meant that a storm sweeping through the court and the inner palace was about to break!

The present situation was vastly different from that of more than a year ago!

The combat strength of the personal guard had been tested in two wars, proving itself comparable to the Eight Banners troops of the Later Jin. Moreover, he had used those two wars to gain control of the three garrisons of Datong, Xuanfu, and Changping, and had also built up several regiments of local militia.

The Capital Camps troops and the Changping garrison troops under the control of the Beijing nobility had all been "settled," and what remained could no longer amount to anything. Now only the thirty thousand-odd men of the Embroidered Uniform Guard in the capital still counted as a force, but they could not possibly oppose the military power Zhu Youjian now held.

Thus Zhu Youjian already possessed the strength to fully control the Northern Metropolitan Region!

Indeed, Zhu Youjian's current objective was only the Northern Metropolitan Region, not the entire north or the whole realm!

Because he understood very clearly the difference between actual control and nominal possession. In his previous life, he had nominally possessed the entire realm — but in reality? Never mind the whole Northern Metropolitan Region; even within the Forbidden City, his orders had to be heavily discounted.

And his enemies, whether the eastern barbarians or the western bandits, though their nominal territory and population could not compare with the Ming court's, had a far larger actual base than he, the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming, possessed!

Therefore his Great Ming had absolutely no possibility of pacifying the barbarians and exterminating the bandits.

As for that rebellious son — through coercing northerners to move south, suppressing the Nanjing nobility, and the subsequent distribution of land and residences, the population and territory he obtained came close to matching the bases of the western bandits and eastern barbarians. And precisely because he had such a base, that rebellious son had been able to continuously extract wealth from the rich eight southeastern provinces and forge his own powerful armed forces.

Having studied under that rebellious son for over fifty years, Zhu Youjian now of course knew where he had failed in his previous life. It was not some "ministers who doomed the state," still less "rotten roots," nor even the endless natural disasters — it was that he, the emperor, had simply had no roots at all!

If the lands of the seventy-four guards of the Northern Metropolitan Region and the more than three hundred thousand military households had still been in his hands as emperor, then with a single order he could have concentrated three or four hundred thousand fully armed rotating troops — only that would count as "having roots." Only with roots could one speak of rot or no rot.

And the present Zhu Youjian could only be said to have gained a little root, still far from the point of controlling the seventy or eighty guards and several hundred thousand military households of the capital region.

Therefore Zhu Youjian's present objective was, and could only be, the single corner of the Northern Metropolitan Region. Only with this corner could the Ming realm have roots.

And one who is Son of Heaven must first firmly control a single corner, and only then use it as a foundation to sweep through and set the realm in order!

(End of Chapter)