Chapter 29: How Many More Days Can the Capital Hold? (Seeking Recommendation Tickets)

Forty thousand Guanning troops are coming to Beijing?

That is good news indeed!

It seems the Great Ming's national fortune is not finished just yet...

But when can Wu Sangui get here?

Fifteen of the sixteen gate-commanding officers showed looks of pleasant surprise. The remaining one was Wu Sanfu, who had come from Chaoyang Gate; he had long known the Guanning Army was coming, so he was not particularly surprised.

Zhu Cilang went on: "Of course, the Guanning Army can only temporarily relieve the siege of the capital. After all, the capital is now beset from front and rear — roving bandits to the west, caitiff scum to the east... The court has neither the ability nor the need to remain caught between them. Therefore Imperial Father has already decided to carry out the southward relocation once Wu Sangui's troops arrive! After the court moves south, the Northern Metropolitan Region will be left for the roving bandits and caitiff scum to fight over. The court can then rest and recuperate in Jiangnan, relying on the natural defenses of the Yangtze and Huai Rivers, the advantage of the navy, and the wealth of the southeast.

And all of you, commanding the troops of the Capital Camps, are pillars of the court, and will surely be of great use in the auxiliary capital. You are therefore all included in the escort of the imperial procession, and your families will also move south with you, lest they fall into the hands of the roving bandits and caitiff scum.

We have already ordered that the Qingfu Hall beside the inner parade ground be cleaned and prepared to house your parents, wives, and children. You may return home at once and send your parents, wives, and children there this very evening. Once your families have arrived, go to the Confiscations Treasury to draw your military pay — each household is to receive 5,000 taels of silver... These 5,000 taels are pay and reward for the fighting over the next two days. How it is distributed is for you to decide among yourselves. We concern Ourselves with only two matters: first, leading troops to reinforce whichever gate the Roving Bandit attacks as his main effort; second, severely punishing any officer who defends his gate poorly or abandons his gate and flees.

In addition, We shall dispatch army supervisors to every city gate. And all gate-supervising officials previously appointed by the court are hereby relieved of their posts."

Zhu Cilang was holding silver in one hand and a knife in the other!

Those who obey may take the silver and go defend their gates; those who do not wish to do their duty had better prepare for the knife! And if anyone thinks of surrendering — heh heh, your whole family dies, no negotiation! This Crown Prince is very fierce!

How could the gate commanders of the sixteen gates not understand Zhu Cilang's design? Now everyone looked at the great Crown Prince Zhu with new respect.

This Crown Prince is ruthless indeed — he has the spirit of the Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, and the Accomplished Ancestor, the Cultured Emperor!

"Your Highness!" Just as everyone was awed by the great Crown Prince Zhu's methods, a man of about forty, wearing the flying-fish robe of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and sporting a full beard, abruptly rose and bowed deeply. "This humble officer, Assistant Regional Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and defender of Chongwen Gate, Li Ruolian, has one matter I do not understand and wish to ask Your Highness."

Zhu Cilang looked at this high officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. "What is it you wish to ask?"

"This subject wishes to ask how many days it will take Wu Sangui's great army to reach the capital. If the capital should fall before Wu's army arrives, what then?"

That question was a serious blow to morale!

But Zhu Cilang was not just anyone — naturally he was not going to let a Ming Embroidered Uniform Guard trick the truth out of him. He countered with a question of his own: "Commander Li, how many days do you think this city of Beijing can hold?"

Li Ruolian frowned and thought for a moment, then bowed again. "Would Your Highness please step into the inner hall?"

Zhu Cilang swept his gaze left and right. The arquebusier eunuchs had all stopped eating and drinking, holding their breath in rapt attention — it seemed they too wanted to know just how many days Beijing could hold!

"Speak freely!" Zhu Cilang said with a smile.

He knew that at a time like this, with everyone's hearts in turmoil, the worst thing was uncertainty. Even disclosing false information was better than covering things up and hiding them.

"Then this humble officer will speak plainly," Li Ruolian said, drawing a deep breath and lowering his voice. "Before today, this subject believed that if the capital came under fierce assault by the roving bandits, it would fall within two days at most."

Zhu Cilang nodded. Wasn't it exactly two days? Li the Roving King attacked the city on the seventeenth, and the Chongzhen Emperor was hanging from the crooked-neck tree on Coal Hill by the nineteenth.

Li Ruolian continued: "But now, with Your Highness the Crown Prince overseeing the army in the capital, this subject observes that it should hold for five to seven days."

"That is enough!" A confident smile appeared on Zhu Cilang's face. "With five days, Wu Sangui's ten thousand iron cavalry can arrive; with seven days, Wu Sangui's entire army will be here! The capital's wall has a circumference of forty-eight li. To besiege it, the roving bandits would need to establish a linked encampment eighty li long. The bandit host numbers no more than a hundred thousand — how could they form camps over eighty li? Therefore the Guanning iron cavalry will certainly be able to enter the city."

What Zhu Cilang disclosed was not entirely false information — it was merely the best possible scenario.

Wu Sangui was still at Shanhai Pass, five hundred li from Beijing. And Tian Cunzhi had only left the city this afternoon with Wu Xiang's handwritten letter; if all went smoothly, he could reach Shanhai Pass in one day and one night.

Assuming Wu Sangui was an obedient, filial son who, upon seeing Wu Xiang's handwritten letter, immediately mustered his troops and set out, then he should be able to depart around noon on the eighteenth. At the marching speed of the Guanning iron cavalry, five hundred li could certainly be covered in three days.

And the Guanning Army had more than ten thousand cavalry. If all of them followed Wu Sangui to relieve the capital, then Li Zicheng would have to deal with them carefully and would be utterly unable to throw his full strength into attacking Beijing.

As for simultaneously besieging Beijing and striking the Guanning relief force, that would be very difficult for Li Zicheng to accomplish with his troop strength. Much later scholarship concerns the size of Li Zicheng's forces during his eastern campaign against Beijing; estimates of his total strength range from tens of thousands to two hundred thousand, but of those, the truly battle-worthy veteran camp numbered only in the tens of thousands.

Otherwise Li Zicheng could not have abandoned Beijing immediately after the Battle of One Stone, fleeing in disarray, and then been pursued all the way by Wu Sangui's cavalry and a small number of Manchu troops, suffering defeats in two battles at Dingzhou and Zhending.

Although without Qing troops reinforcing him now, Wu Sangui's army of tens of thousands alone would still not be enough to defeat Li Zicheng's tens of thousands of veteran camp troops. But as long as Wu Sangui's cavalry could enter the capital, Li Zicheng would be unable to break through Beijing in the short term, and the likelihood that he would ultimately withdraw his troops to Shanxi was very high.

In that case, Zhu Cilang and Chongzhen could depart at their leisure... That, of course, would be the best possible outcome!

Of course, from the experience of Zhu Cilang the veteran finance dog, the best outcome usually does not appear in a downtrend... The Great Ming was now in a crashing bear market with no bottom in sight, and at a time like this, simply avoiding the worst outcome was already good enough!

But the state of Great Ming was Zhu Cilang's own family property — naturally there was no reason to short one's own country.

Having finished his morale-steadying words, Zhu Cilang loudly announced: "Tomorrow there will certainly be a first battle, and the first battle must be a victory! Today, gentlemen, eat and drink your fill. Tomorrow We shall lead you to kill bandits. You must all fight hard — We have prepared three hundred thousand taels of silver, and meritorious officers and soldiers will certainly be richly rewarded!"

After saying this, amid a chorus of cheers, Zhu Cilang added: "All gate commanders, follow Us inside to talk."

The morale-boosting words were done; next came the time to lay out the defense!

Zhu Cilang himself did not understand warfare, nor did he know how to arrange defenses; he only knew that the city gates had to be sealed shut to buy time. The concrete defensive arrangements were left to four men: Wu Xiang, Qiu Zhizhong, Zhu Chunjie, and Wang Dehua, a deputy of Wang Cheng'en who oversaw the inner and outer armies and served as superintendent of the Nanhaizi Purified Army.

The Leopard Quarters near the inner parade ground became the temporary headquarters of the central army.

When Zhu Cilang and the dozen-odd gate commanders arrived, Wu Xiang was frowning and speaking with Wang Dehua about something. Qiu Zhizhong and Zhu Chunjie were both absent, having led teams to inspect the sealing work on the six gates of the inner city.

"Sit, all of you sit and talk." After taking the seat of honor at the head of the room, Zhu Cilang politely instructed the gate commanders who had followed him in, along with Wu Xiang and Wang Dehua, to be seated.

Once everyone was seated as instructed, Zhu Cilang's expression turned grave. "The roving bandits reached Changping today. Tomorrow the capital will see its first battle. How should we arrange the defense? I ask all of you to offer your plans and counsel."

This matter was hard even to think about! Not just Zhu Cilang — even Wu Xiang was now wearing a deeply worried frown.

"Your Highness, this subject does have some methods for defense." The speaker was again Li Ruolian. Although he was a head of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he had passed the military jinshi examination in the first year of Chongzhen, and his family had for generations been officers in the Capital Camps. His military knowledge was extremely rich, and he was thoroughly familiar with the situation of Beijing. During the Jisi Incident of the second year of Chongzhen — when Hong Taiji broke through the passes and besieged Beijing — he had also been serving in the capital and had taken part in some military affairs.

"Speak." Zhu Cilang nodded approvingly.

Li Ruolian said: "This subject said earlier that without the Crown Prince overseeing the army, the capital would not hold even two days, because the hearts of the people in the capital were unsettled and there were no defensive arrangements at all. If the bandit troops arrived in force, internal disorder would likely break out. Now that the Crown Prince oversees the army, has distributed reward silver, and has ordered the city gates sealed, internal disorder will not easily occur. That is why this subject believes the city can hold for five days. The reason it is five days is that the first day should be a probing attack by the roving bandits. With Your Highness's Hardship-Overcoming Battalion present and sufficient reward silver to sustain them, victory should be achievable. After the initial defeat, the Roving Bandit will order the construction of siege equipment. He can then assault from several directions, and the government troops are too few to defend all four sides of the city wall. Therefore, once the Roving Bandit has his equipment ready, the capital will certainly fall within two days! Assuming the Roving Bandit needs two days to build his equipment, the city will certainly fall on the fifth day!"

(End of Chapter)