Chapter 287: A Eunuch-Faction Man Who Can Be Reformed

What? What? Wu Sangui and Zu Dashou have both come back over to the loyalist side. I never thought they were so devoted to the Great Ming! Then—then if the Great Qing withdraws beyond the passes, what becomes of this official? Will my whole family be executed?

Sun Zhixie's mouth hung open in shock, his chest seized with a violent spasm, his heart pounding so hard it seemed about to leap out of his gaping mouth!

"Then—then what of Beijing now..." Sun Zhixie sucked in several sharp breaths before he managed to force out a few words.

"Beijing is hell on earth right now!" Zu Kefa sighed. "That Tartar Dorgon is truly a beast! He's been turning everything upside down since the eighth month. First came the land enclosures—all the good farmland within three hundred li of Beijing was seized by the Tartars and parceled out to their Eight Banners troops. Every farming household already there was forced into booi servitude. Those who refused were driven off at once, and allowed to carry only seven days' rations!

Several hundred thousand people lost their homes and livelihoods in an instant, driven from their native soil, begging along the roads. No one knows how many starved to death on the way. When this official traveled south from Beijing, the official roads were lined on both sides with corpses of the starved, lying there beyond counting!"

"How—how could such a thing happen?"

"It's not over yet!" Zu Kefa's eyes had gone red as he spoke. "There's also the house seizures! Inside Beijing, Han people are no longer permitted to live!"

"What? Han people not permitted to live—what does that mean?"

"It means driving all the Han people out!" Zu Kefa said through gritted teeth. "The inner city has all been given to the bannermen. The Two Yellow Banners took the north of the city, the Two White Banners the east, the Two Red Banners the west, and the Two Blue Banners the south. All Han people originally living in the inner city—officials and commoners alike—were ordered to move out! Their houses were confiscated, and most of their household goods were also seized and distributed to the bannermen moving in!

As for the outer city, that was left for the Han officials in the capital and the booi bondservants to live in. Vice Minister Sun's household has most likely been driven to the outer city as well."

"What?" Sun Zhixie drew a sharp breath. "This is even more vicious than Li Zicheng!"

"Of course it is!" Zu Kefa said, grinding his teeth. "Li Zicheng only wanted silver. The Tartars want your house, your land, your people, and your life. Damn it all, they're giving us Han no way to live!

And there's more—the hair-shaving edict! Never mind the area around Beijing; that's all bannerman territory now, and everyone there is either a bannerman or a booi, so of course they all have to shave their heads. But by the ninth month, Dorgon issued another order: every Han male in the Northern Metropolitan Region must shave his head and change his clothing. Anyone who does not shave—executed without mercy!

They call it: keep your hair and lose your head, keep your head and lose your hair! Any male who hasn't become a Buddhist monk has to do like you and me—shave the front of his head and wear a money-rat queue!"

"This is far too hasty..." Sun Zhixie shook his head repeatedly. He was in favor of head-shaving himself, but with the roving bandits not yet defeated and the remnant Ming still entrenched in Shandong, a sudden head-shaving order would only provoke needless resistance!

After all, the doctrine that "the body, hair, and skin are received from one's parents" had sunk deep into people's hearts by the late Ming!

"And so the whole region has risen in revolt!" Zu Kefa said. "Dorgon has also let success go to his head. His own house is in chaos, yet he still sends troops to attack Shanxi—and he made our Guanning Army take the vanguard, to go throw our lives away against the roving bandits! But how could he know that the Ming court has long since made peace with the roving bandits, and together they're moving against the Tartars!"

"What? The Ming court made peace with the roving bandits... how is that possible?"

"If it were impossible, why would this official be in Yangzhou?" Zu Kefa stroked his beard. "This official was originally with the Count Who Pacifies the West, leading troops to attack Gu Pass. Then the roving bandits made peace with the court, and after that they borrowed a route through Datong, sent a surprise force to break through Xuanfu, killed the Duke Who Continues Obedience, Shen Zhixiang, and advanced to the Huailai Garrison. Dorgon had no choice but to pull the Eight Banners troops he'd sent to Jingxing as battle supervisors and rush them back to counterattack at Xuanfu. That was when the Count Who Pacifies the West and my foster father seized the chance to raise the banner of loyalty and, with lightning speed, took Zhending Prefecture and Baoding Prefecture! The common people driven out of Beijing and its surroundings—everyone who could pick up a blade or a spear came to enlist. The great army under the Count Who Pacifies the West and my foster father now numbers two hundred thousand, and every last one of them has a blood-deep grudge against the Tartars!"

"But the Eight Banners troops are ferocious..."

"Heh heh," Zu Kefa laughed coldly twice. "At Yipian Shi, a hundred thousand Eight Banners troops plus fifty thousand Guanning Army soldiers attacked at most sixty thousand roving bandits—and didn't wipe them out, did they? In the end a full forty thousand got away. So tell me, how ferocious are they?

This time Li Zicheng has sent a hundred thousand troops, the Datong Army thirty thousand, the Guanning Army fifty thousand, the volunteer troops a hundred and fifty thousand, and the K'nan New Army twenty thousand, advancing west from Dagukou—they may already have retaken the Tianjin Garrison. Three hundred and fifty thousand troops, a three-pronged assault. The Tartars won't last long!"

He looked at Sun Zhixie and smiled coldly. "Longfu, you may be an envoy, but once the Tartars withdraw from Beijing, what will become of you?"

"I—I—I..." Sun Zhixie was truly frightened now.

These past days he had been confined in Yangzhou. Though cut off from news, deprived of freedom, and unable even to see Jin Zhijun, he had still cast himself as Su Wu, putting on the posture of a loyal dog of the Great Qing—because he knew very well that as long as the Great Qing stood, the Southern Ming court would not dare do anything to him.

But now the Great Qing looked about to be defeated and driven back beyond the passes... could a traitor like him still keep his life?

Zu Kefa's mission was complete. Having said his piece, he cupped his hands in salute, rose, and left.

Sun Zhixie had not yet recovered when Zhang Tao and Wu Xiang came walking in, all smiles. Seeing Sun Zhixie's ashen face, Wu Xiang said to Zhang Tao, "Chiliarch Zhang, let this old man speak with him first. If talking doesn't work, then you may apply the torture."

At the word "torture," Sun Zhixie shuddered. He was no longer a civil official of the Great Ming now—he was a traitor...

"This old man is Wu Xiang." Wu Xiang seated himself, beaming, in a chair opposite Sun Zhixie, while Zhang Tao stood at his side.

Seeing Zhang Tao, an officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, standing there, the guilt-ridden Sun Zhixie did not dare remain seated. He too rose, trembling, and bowed to Wu Xiang: "Greetings to the Duke Who Protects the State."

Wu Xiang chuckled. "His Highness the Thousand Years has sent this old man to ask you one thing: do you want to live?"

"What does the Duke Who Protects the State mean by that?" Sun Zhixie said, steeling himself. "This official is, after all, an envoy. When two states are at war, envoys are not executed."

"But you, as envoy, took orders from the Tartar Prince Regent and directed the remnant eunuch-faction traitors in Nanjing to rise in rebellion and assault their sovereign, plotting to harm His Highness the Crown Prince and His Majesty! That is a crime of the Ten Abominations, unpardonable!"

What? Sun Zhixie was stunned by Wu Xiang's words—how can you slander an innocent man like this?

Wu Xiang smiled. "Sun Zhixie, as long as you obey honestly, His Highness the Thousand Years can treat you as an envoy and will not pursue your Ten Abominations crimes. But if you refuse to obey, heh heh... Chiliarch Zhang has plenty of ways to make you confess to the Ten Abominations—and that means death by slow slicing! Isn't that right, Chiliarch Zhang?"

Zhang Tao said with a grin, "That's right—death by slow slicing. Don't be afraid, Sun Zhixie. This official will cut gently, one slice at a time!"

By the Qinhuai River, at the White Gate Pavilion.

The Great Ming's Army-Soothing Crown Prince, Zhu Cilang, was at this moment meeting someone at Kou Baimen's establishment. The person he was meeting was no beauty, but a man of letters—an old man of letters in his late fifties, nearing sixty, and a notoriously ill-reputed eunuch-faction man of letters at that.

The man of letters was named Ruan Dacheng, the closest friend of Ma Shiying, the Governor-General of Fengyang. Today's meeting had come about because Ma Shiying, in the capital to report on his duties, had recommended this good friend of his for an official post.

Zhu Cilang was now the "Donglin Crown Prince," and during this period he was preparing for the Donglin Assembly, hoping through it to become the power behind the Donglin Faction.

At such a time, openly meeting with a famous eunuch-faction figure was highly improper—let alone promoting such a major eunuch-faction man to office.

But Ruan Dacheng had to be met! Not only to give Ma Shiying face, but also because Zhu Cilang genuinely wanted to put Ruan Dacheng to important use.

Ruan Dacheng was no good as an official. He had drifted from the Donglin camp into the eunuch faction, never achieved office, and stirred up trouble for himself besides. Historically, he had risen again alongside Ma Shiying, then fought the Donglin Faction dog-eat-dog, making an already bad situation worse, and in the end went over to the Tartars and became a traitor. But Zhu Cilang knew that this man possessed great talent, and talent that could be put to great use!

He was a famous playwright of the late Ming period, and had written many operatic works that would be passed down through the ages! That was an extremely useful talent. Used well, he could become a famous anti-Qing literary and artistic worker!

(End of Chapter)