Chapter 211: Great Ming, Let Us Make Peace!

Listening to his subordinates' reports and suggestions, Li Zicheng, the Son of Heaven of the Shun, felt a surge of helplessness in his heart.

When he withdrew from Beijing, he had still believed he had plenty of moves left to play. The hearts of all under heaven were with him; the mountains and rivers girding Shanxi were in his hands; Shaanxi had the natural fortifications of its passes and the strategic barriers of the Qinchuan plains — the very foundations upon which the mighty Han and the glorious Tang had been built. Even if he lost Shanxi, Hebei, and Henan, so long as the Guanzhong region remained his, the Shun would still have the capital to contend for the empire.

But never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that the moment he stepped out of Beijing, he would go from being the universally acclaimed sovereign to a rat scurrying down the street with everyone shouting for its blood. Not only had all those who once longed for the Roving King and welcomed the Roving King vanished without a trace, but Shanxi had suddenly produced countless loyal subjects of the Great Ming, attacking the officials and troops sent out by the Shun court everywhere! What infuriated him most was that quite a few of these Ming loyalists had, only two or three months earlier, been lining up to abandon the Ming and join the Shun, eager to become founding ministers of the new dynasty.

How much time had passed since then? And now they had all seen the light and repented, wanting to become loyal subjects of the Ming again? Where were you all before? If you had been loyal subjects earlier, the Shun army would never have reached Beijing, let alone fought a bloody battle against the Manchu Tartars at Yi Pian Shi!

Now that things had come to this, he, the Son of Heaven of the Shun, truly regretted making that trip to Beijing. Had he known it would turn out like this, he would have stayed in his old home in Shaanxi, managed things properly, first set his foundations firm, and only then launched the eastern campaign!

But when his subordinates spoke of abandoning Shanxi and withdrawing to Shaanxi, the socket of his blind eye twitched violently, and began to ache faintly again.

What he had encountered after withdrawing from Beijing had made him doubt the loyalty of his fellow Shaanxi natives as well. Although he was a man of Shaanxi, the places where he had risen to power were Henan and Huguang. And before the tenth month of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, when he had led his forces through Tong Pass and swept across the Guanzhong region, the government troops of Shaanxi had always been his mortal enemies!

Could he really withdraw to Shaanxi now and rely on those utterly unreliable fellow natives to resist the Ming and the Tartars?

If the people of Shaanxi proved as unreliable as the people of Shanxi, where could he, the Son of Heaven of the Shun, retreat to then?

The men below watched Li Zicheng remain silent while his expression grew darker and darker. One by one they shut their mouths, not daring to say another word. Ever since Li Zicheng had left Beijing, his temper had become somewhat terrifying. The defection of Li Yan and his wife, Hong Niangzi, in particular had made the Henan men in the Shun army somewhat unwelcome, and several Henan men had already mysteriously disappeared. Now everyone faced Li Zicheng with trepidation, terrified of touching his reverse scale and throwing their lives away for nothing.

At that moment, at the entrance of the great hall, the two resourceful military strategists Song Xiance and Gu Junen arrived together. Seeing a large crowd in the hall with no one speaking, and Li Zicheng sitting with his head bowed in silence, the scene was truly awkward, and they knew at once that Li Zicheng was once again worrying over the future of the Shun dynasty.

The two strategists hastily kowtowed to Li Zicheng. After rising, Gu Junen said with a smile, "Your Majesty, excellent news! The Zhu family's Crown Prince has stabilized the situation in Shandong, and has boldly and decisively reorganized the seven guards of Dengzhou and Laizhou. He has also sent Li Yan and Hong Niangzi to recruit the heroes of the Taiyi Mountains, enfeoffing many as mountain commanders. Moreover, Kong Yinzhi, the Duke for Perpetuating the Sage, has issued a 'Proclamation Against the Eastern Barbarians,' declaring that the eastern barbarians have come to destroy our Confucian grove and tear down our Confucian temples! He further claims they intend to sweep away entirely the rites, propriety, and human relationships of China, along with its classics, poetry, and all codes of conduct, in one fell swoop."

"What? What did you say?" Li Zicheng was stunned at this, staring with his single eye at Gu Junen and Song Xiance.

"Your Majesty," Song Xiance said with a smile, "the Zhu traitor Crown Prince has miscalculated. This will bring fire upon himself!"

"The Chief Strategist believes that this Kong fellow issued the 'Proclamation Against the Eastern Barbarians' at the instigation of Zhu Cilang?" Li Zicheng was somewhat puzzled. "But why would Zhu Cilang do such a thing?"

Song Xiance shook his head. "Hard to say. Perhaps he means to govern within by means of an external enemy?"

"Govern within by means of an external enemy?" Li Zicheng still did not quite understand.

Gu Junen explained, "Zhu Cilang, in his position as Crown Prince, has taken command of the army and assumed the regency, effectively hollowing out the Chongzhen Emperor's authority. He will likely force his father to abdicate. In the eyes of the scholar-officials, such conduct is nothing short of disloyalty and unfiliality! If Zhu Cilang does not raise up a great enemy for the scholar-officials to focus on, he will probably be attacked by all the educated men of the realm."

"So that is how it is!" Li Zicheng frowned. "But he does not actually intend to fight the Tartars, so what benefit is there for us?"

Gu Junen said, "Your Majesty, although he does not truly wish to fight the Tartars, we can turn his own scheme against him by sending envoys to Jiangnan to negotiate peace with the Ming."

"But the envoys I sent to Datong all went and never returned!" Li Zicheng frowned. "Would Jiangnan not slaughter them as well?"

Song Xiance smiled. "Jiangnan would certainly not execute our envoys. After all, the Prince of Yong and the Zhu family's Fifth Prince are still in our hands!"

Li Zicheng glared. "Then they would kill them all the more! Wouldn't Zhu Cilang be hoping I kill off all his brothers? Only when his brothers are all dead can his throne be secure!"

Gu Junen smiled. "But Your Majesty is benevolent and generous of heart. If Zhu Cilang dares to kill the envoys you send, you will surely repay evil with kindness and release his two younger brothers."

"Release his younger brothers?" Li Zicheng thought it over and then laughed as well, stroking his beard. "I remember now — I am indeed a great and virtuous man who repays evil with kindness! But even if he does not kill my men, that does not mean he will be willing to ally with me!"

"Your Majesty could declare yourself a subject of the Great Ming!" Song Xiance said. "Does he not wish to replace the Chongzhen Emperor? If he can obtain Your Majesty's submission as a subject, his prestige would soar, sufficient to take the throne in his father's place."

"Declare myself a subject..." Li Zicheng's frown deepened. He had, after all, only with great difficulty become Emperor. To stop being Emperor before he had even tasted the flavor of it — would that not be a pity?

"Your Majesty," Gu Junen added, "sending envoys to declare submission does not mean actually submitting. So long as Your Majesty does not accept an enfeoffment from the Zhu emperor, you remain the Emperor of the Shun."

Song Xiance also said, "Your Majesty, the most urgent matter now is to divert the calamity toward Jiangnan! Only when the Ming and the Qing are locked in mutual slaughter can we regroup in Shaanxi and sit on the mountain watching the tigers fight!"

Gu Junen advised, "Your Majesty, if we cannot make peace with the Great Ming, then by the tenth month at the latest, the Ming's Prince of Dai will join forces with the Tartars to attack Taiyuan. When that happens, Taiyuan will fall, and even Shaanxi will be in danger. Our foundation is too shallow — we have been in the Guanzhong region for less than a year, and have not put down roots anywhere in Shaanxi. If we are suddenly attacked by the Prince of Dai and the Tartars, I fear that today's Shanxi will be tomorrow's Shaanxi!"

The Shun army had only broken through Tong Pass in the early tenth month of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen. On the third day of that month, Sun Chuanting died in battle, the Qin army collapsed completely, and the Shun army then swept through Shaanxi. It had not yet been a full year since then, and only two or three months since Li Zicheng had set out eastward for Beijing.

In such a short time, the Shun court naturally could not have put down roots in Shaanxi. The construction of local governance was merely superficial, and no effective system for conscripting troops and requisitioning grain had been established.

Therefore, Li Zicheng's Shun dynasty simply could not support a prolonged war of resistance against the Qing. Once the old camp soldiers who formed the main force suffered heavy losses, the entire situation would collapse in an instant.

Song Xiance said, "Your Majesty, the hurdle our Shun dynasty faces has always been the Manchu Tartars! The roots of the Zhu family's realm rotted away long ago. No matter how capable the Zhu Crown Prince is, he can only patch things up here and there — he cannot bring about a restoration. Our Shun is a new dynasty, rising day by day, not something the remnant Ming can compare with. What we lack now is time to reorganize Shaanxi and establish our foundation. Once we put down roots and the strength of the Guanlong region is at our disposal, the achievements of the mighty Han and the glorious Tang are entirely within reach!"

"The strategist speaks wisely!" Li Zicheng let out a breath. "The Tartars are indeed a hurdle not easily overcome... So what terms should I propose?"

Gu Junen said, "Your Majesty may seek enfeoffment as Prince of Qin, holding all of Shaanxi; the prefectures of Henan, Nanyang, and Ruzhou in Henan; the prefectures of Xiangyang and Yunyang in Huguang; and the prefectures of Pingyang, Fenzhou, Lu'an, Qinzhou, Zezhou, and Taiyuan in Shanxi."

"Not Kaifeng Prefecture?" Li Zicheng asked.

"Not it!" Gu Junen said. "Kaifeng Prefecture has been ravaged by war after war and is long since ruined. Moreover, it borders the Tartar caitiffs to the north and is easy to attack but hard to defend. Better to cede it to the Ming and let them fight over it with the Tartar caitiffs."

Li Zicheng stroked his great beard. "A fine idea. Then who can be sent as envoy to Jiangnan?"

Gu Junen said, "Your Majesty, this subject can go to Nanjing together with Wang Cheng'en to persuade Zhu Cilang. In addition, Your Majesty may entrust Zuo Liangyu's daughter, Zuo Mengmei, to this subject, and let me take her to Wuchang to return her to Zuo Liangyu. While there, I can also arrange a secret pact with Zuo Liangyu for mutual non-aggression."

(End of Chapter)