Chapter 200: Prince of Heng, You're in Serious Trouble! (Sixth Update, Seeking Subscriptions)

"A surrender memorial?" Zhu Chunjie was taken aback. "A roving-bandit general has to submit a memorial to surrender? This bandit is certainly particular about formalities."

Zhu Cilang waved a hand and laughed. "It wasn't Zhao Yingyuan who submitted the surrender memorial — what memorial would he submit? Having Li Yan and the Red Maiden vouch for him is stronger than any memorial."

"Then whose memorial is it?" Zhu Chunjie asked, puzzled.

"The Prince of Heng's surrender memorial!" Zhu Cilang's smile was positively radiant. "In the fourth month, Zhu Youju submitted a surrender memorial to Li Zicheng, hoping to become the Shun dynasty's Prince of Heng! The memorial never got sent off before Li Zicheng's cause collapsed. When Li Yan went to win over Zhao Yingyuan, Zhao Yingyuan produced the surrender memorial."

"Now that Chen Yingyuan has come over, we have some strength in Qingzhou! It's only three thousand men, but it's not a force Li Shiyuan can defeat. What's more, we now have ironclad proof that the Heng princely estate went over to the enemy, which gives us the pretext to bring the Heng estate to heel."

This Prince of Heng really is a fool! Zhu Chunjie thought to himself. He surrendered blindly without reading the situation, and now the evidence of his crime has fallen into the Crown Prince's hands — how could that possibly end well?

"Thousand Years, how do you intend to deal with the Prince of Heng?" Zhu Chunjie asked.

Zhu Cilang smiled. "The man hasn't been caught yet, so let's not think about dealing with him. Yidu is a strong city, and the Heng princely estate has been passed down for over a hundred and fifty years, so it should have considerable reserves. And Li Shiyuan, who assists in holding the city for the Heng estate, is a fierce commander. We have no wish to bog our troops down beneath the walls of Yidu."

"Thousand Years, this subject can devise a way to take the Heng estate by stratagem."

Zhu Cilang smiled. "Very well. Go draft a plan and send it to Penglai Pavilion."

"This subject obeys." Zhu Chunjie bowed and was about to take his leave when Zhu Cilang added, "Chunjie, keep watching Yanzhou as before... do not startle the snake in the grass."

"This subject obeys."

Zhu Cilang continued, "As for the Heng estate, find a way to take it by stratagem. Whatever method you use, Zhu Youju must be brought before Us. Remember — a secret arrest, without a trace of exposure, and not a hair on his head may be harmed."

"This subject obeys! This subject will go think of a way at once!"

Inside the barbican at Yidu's east gate, the Prince of Heng, Zhu Youju, sat his obese frame on a chair, a yellow canopy held above his head. His fat face was screwed into a knot, covered with large beads of sweat that he did not bother to wipe away, and he simply sat there sighing without cease.

Several hundred armored soldiers, fully arrayed, stood in ranks behind him, waiting in silence.

There was also a crowd of imperial-clan officials and gentry in official robes and scholars' gowns, clustered behind the fat Prince of Heng, baking in the sun, every one of them ill at ease.

Li Shiyuan, the Qingzhou Assistant Regional Commander, stood black-faced behind the fat Prince of Heng, his left hand resting on the hilt of his saber.

The Prince of Heng's sighs, the unease of the Qingzhou imperial-clan officials and gentry, and Li Shiyuan's ever-darkening face were all the doing of that bizarre prince, Zhu Youju of the Heng princely estate.

As a Ming princely lord, Zhu Youju seemed to have a peculiar enthusiasm for surrender — and what was more, he had no wish to become emperor or even Regent.

In the fourth month of this year, after word came that Beijing had fallen, a movement to acclaim and urge him forward had arisen in Qingzhou, led by Assistant Regional Commander Li Shiyuan. Apart from his fondness for surrendering, this prince was passable in other respects — particularly in his loose purse strings, having given Li Shiyuan and the others a good deal of silver to raise troops. So Li Shiyuan felt the prince could at least serve as Regent.

But the Prince of Heng absolutely refused to become Regent, let alone take any further step.

Refusing the regency was one thing, but then he sent men to beg Li Zicheng for permission to surrender!

You are a prince of the great Ming! If you were surrounded by a roving-bandit host with no way out, surrendering to beg for your life would be one thing. But Qingzhou was not surrounded! If you feared death, you could perfectly well have fled like the Prince of Lu, Zhu Yihai.

Why the desperate rush to beg Li Zicheng for surrender? And he did it behind the backs of Li Shiyuan and the officers and men holding the city, creating a fait accompli so that everyone had no choice but to surrender along with him...

Of course, a prince of a fallen dynasty surrendering to beg for his life is no great crime, and hardly enough to leave a whole city's officials and gentry ill at ease. The Heng estate's crime was surrendering in a frantic hurry without reading the situation!

As it turned out, not long after the surrender memorial was sent off, Li Zicheng lost Beijing and fled for his life. At the same time, the "missing" Chongzhen Emperor and Crown Prince Zhu Cilang arrived in Dengzhou at the head of a great army.

It was enough to make one not know whether to laugh or cry. Li Shiyuan and his lot — Ming officers and men whom the Heng estate had dragged into becoming turncoats — immediately turned their coats back, and even defeated the roving-bandit force that had entered Qingzhou in one engagement. The victory was not great, but Yidu was at last secure.

Yet the roving bandits defeated by Li Shiyuan did not return to Jinan, because Jinan had been occupied by Gao Jie and Liu Zeqing, who were pushing north. With no way out, the bandit Zhao Yingyuan's force somehow found a connection and was actually recruited by the Dengzhou side... It truly left people at a loss for words! Ming turncoats met bandit turncoats — each more two-faced than the last.

And the matter of Zhu Youju and his people surrendering to the Shun was known to the Shun turncoat Zhao Yingyuan. Would he denounce the Heng estate's crimes to the Crown Prince?

If he did, how would the Army-Supervising Crown Prince deal with it? And how should the Heng estate respond? Surely they could not shut the gates and resist?

A Ming prince becomes a loyal subject of the Shun, and then the Crown Prince sends a Shun turncoat to suppress him?

The very thought was absurd! But absurd or not, shutting the gates and resisting was not entirely out of the question. Because things were a little off at the mobile court as well — there was clearly a sage sovereign on the throne, yet all power rested with the Army-Supervising Crown Prince! That was contrary to the ancestral system! So the Heng estate's shutting its gates and resisting seemed to have some basis after all.

Moreover, in Yanzhou, someone seemed to be brewing a movement to restore the sage sovereign's authority. So the Heng estate and the officials in Yidu might be able to hold out for a while...

Just as the people of consequence in Yidu were all on edge, an envoy from Dengzhou arrived in Yidu, bringing news even more alarming.

The Dengzhou side had appointed Hou Xun, Grand Secretary of the Eastern Pavilion and Minister of War, as Governor-General of Seven Provinces, to lead troops to recover Henan, Shanxi, Huguang, Sichuan, and the other regions occupied by the roving bandits — and he would be passing through Yidu.

A Grand Secretary and Supreme Commander marching troops through! The civil and military officials and the princely lord of Yidu would all have to go out to welcome him. And Supreme Commander Hou was a Donglin grandee, a man on par with Qian Qianyi and Shi Kefa. Now that he was leading troops to recover lost territory, how could the Heng estate and Li Shiyuan dare resist?

But would the Grand Secretary and Supreme Commander Hou Xun be carrying a secret edict to arrest the Heng estate and the Qingzhou officials? The crowd waiting in the barbican at Yidu's east gate was thoroughly uneasy!

They had stood in the sun for no one knew how long, until the sun had gradually crept toward its zenith, when at last the dozen or so fast riders sent out ahead to greet the approaching force came galloping back, bringing with them several mounted couriers in mandarin-duck battle jackets with signal flags at their backs. The lead rider, one of Li Shiyuan's household retainers, shouted from afar toward Yidu's east gate: "The Grand Secretary and Supreme Commander is not entering the city! The Grand Secretary and Supreme Commander is not entering Yidu! He only requests Assistant Regional Commander Li, who holds the city, to come and pay his respects!"

Not entering the city?

Wonderful!

The Prince of Heng, Zhu Youju, let out a long breath, wiped the sweat from his face, and turned to Li Shiyuan. "Assistant Regional Commander Li, go make this trip on Our behalf. Remember to bring all the gifts and deliver them to Grand Secretary Hou."

Li Shiyuan also relaxed a little. Although the Heng estate had dragged him into becoming a turncoat, his troops were all paid and fed by the Heng estate, so he could not be too hard on them.

Now that no one was making trouble for the Heng estate, that was good news!

"I will go and return shortly." Li Shiyuan clasped his hands toward the Prince of Heng, then set off west with several dozen household retainers, escorting more than ten carts of gifts. They had gone less than twenty li when they saw a newly pitched military camp. Many officers and men in red battle robes were either patrolling the perimeter or building ramparts and setting up camp, with an orderliness far beyond anything Li Shiyuan had imagined.

Just as Li Shiyuan was marveling, a squad of Embroidered Uniform Guard in flying-fish robes suddenly emerged from the main camp with two or three hundred musketeers. At their head was a Guard officer in his twenties with a commanding presence, who called out upon seeing Li Shiyuan and his men: "Which of you is Li Shiyuan, Qingzhou Assistant Regional Commander? The Army-Supervising Crown Prince, His Highness, requests your presence!"

What? The Army-Supervising Crown Prince requests my presence? Li Shiyuan knew at once that things had gone badly wrong... he had fallen for the Crown Prince's trick! He glanced left and right — the security was impenetrable! Escape was clearly impossible. He could only let down the Prince of Heng.