Chapter 30: Another Loyal Subject Discovered (Seeking Favorites, Seeking Recommendations)

Only five days…

Zhu Cilang turned and looked at Wu Xiang, and Wu Xiang nodded. His estimate was also five days! If they had to hold out one more day, then they could only defend the Imperial City and the Forbidden City.

As for whether his son Wu Sangui could arrive before Beijing fell, he himself was not confident either.

So the best plan of all was still to run at once!

"Commander Li," Zhu Cilang asked, "five days is too few. Do you have a way to hold out a few more days?"

"Yes." Li Ruolian nodded. "Abandon the outer city!"

"Abandon the outer city?" Zhu Cilang frowned. "To concentrate our forces defending the inner city?"

Beijing's inner and outer cities had sixteen gates in all — nine inner and seven outer. If they abandoned the outer city, then the capital's limited defenders could be distributed among the nine inner gates, and the troops on each gate and the surrounding walls would be a little more numerous. But not by much — each gate would be lucky to get a thousand men.

"Concentrating forces is only the first point," Li Ruolian said. "Drawing the Roving Bandit's veteran camp into the city to attack the Chongwen, Zhengyang, and Xuanwu Gates is the second. The third is to make the Zhengyang Gate barbican our final stronghold!"

Zhu Cilang asked, "How do you know the Roving Bandit's veteran camp will attack the Chongwen, Zhengyang, and Xuanwu Gates from the outer city?"

Li Ruolian answered, "This subject is a native of Shuntian Prefecture and knows the capital well. The outer city is also a wealthy place, lined with shops and densely populated. How could the Roving Bandit bear to let the coerced rabble and newly surrendered troops enter the city to loot it on a grand scale?

Moreover, the parts of the outer city near the Chongwen, Zhengyang, and Xuanwu Gates are extremely prosperous, with crowded houses and buildings rising one after another — enough to block the defenders' line of sight and hinder the use of cannon. To avoid heavy losses to his own veteran camp, the Roving Bandit will certainly send his veteran camp in through the outer city to attack the Chongwen, Zhengyang, and Xuanwu Gates. At the same time, he will use the rabble and newly surrendered troops to attack from outside the city as a diversion."

By the time Li Ruolian had said this much, how could someone as cunning as Zhu Cilang fail to understand his meaning? If most of the Roving King's veteran camp entered the outer city, then the veteran camp outside the city would be reduced… and relying on newly surrendered troops and rabble, it would be very hard to stop the makeshift battalion commanded by Wu Xiang and Wu Sanfu.

Who said the Great Ming had no loyal subjects? This Li Ruolian was a great loyal subject!

Zhu Cilang thought to himself: people who believe the Great Ming has no loyal subjects are surely people who never bother to discover the potential loyal subjects! Loyal subjects are like undervalued stocks — they require analysis, research, and discovery.

He himself was clearly good at discovering loyal subjects — today he had discovered several loyal subjects and good eunuchs. If this trend continued, a group of loyal subjects and fine generals would surely gather around him, and the Great Ming's restoration would be within reach!

"Good!" Zhu Cilang nodded approvingly. "Commander Li is indeed a pillar of the state… Which gate do you command now?"

"In reply to the Crown Prince, this subject commands the Chongwen Gate."

"You need not command the Chongwen Gate any longer," Zhu Cilang said. "Come to Our side and assist in military planning… Give the Chongwen Gate to — to Zu Zepu. He is a fierce general of the Zu family army, and he still has many of the Zu family's household retainers with him. He will certainly manage the Chongwen Gate well."

As he spoke, he turned to his chief steward Huang Dabao and said, "Give Zu Zepu an extra three thousand taels." Then he beckoned Wu Sanfu forward and said in a low voice, "Sanfu, go with Huang Dabao and tell Zu Zepu that he must keep the Chongwen Gate garrison firmly in Our hands… We trust him. Once We reach Jiangnan, he will certainly be given important duties, and his future rank will be no lower than his father's."

Zhu Cilang's promise to Zu Zepu was, of course, very hard to fulfill… because someone always had to serve as cannon fodder and as a target to draw Li Zicheng's attention.

Wu Xiang and his son Wu Sanfu were too important to be used for that. Qiu Zhizhong, Zhu Chunjie, and the others were Zhu Cilang's close ministers and trusted confidants, and could not be lightly sacrificed either. So the only one left to sacrifice was Zu Zepu. But Zhu Cilang would not let him die for nothing — once they reached Nanjing, he would make sure Zu Zepu's name was entered in the Loyalty Shrine and given a grand funeral!

Seeing Li Ruolian transformed in an instant into a close minister of the Crown Prince, the other gate officers were naturally all envious, and immediately a second man rose to offer Zhu Cilang a plan.

This man also wore a flying-fish robe. He was in his thirties, tall and broad, with a fair face and a long beard, handsome features — every inch a beautiful man. Zhu Cilang knew him: his name was Luo Xiushen, younger brother of Luo Yangxing, Regional Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. He held the rank of Assistant Regional Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and commanded the Han Generals.

The so-called Han Generals were the palace front guards — the men who stood there in golden helmets and golden armor as decoration during court audiences, every one of them a handsome man. This Luo Xiushen was their leader, so naturally he was dignified in appearance and looked every bit a famous general.

Perhaps because he looked too much the part, Wang Cheng'en had pressed him into service and sent him to guard the Fucheng Gate.

"Your Highness, this subject is now the gate officer of the Fucheng Gate." Luo Xiushen bowed and said, "This subject believes the roving bandits will certainly come from the northwest, and will most likely form their camps outside the four gates of Fucheng, Xizhi, Desheng, and Anding. We should prepare early, gathering banners, gongs, drums, and cannon, and concentrate them at those four gates. We should also recruit large numbers of able-bodied men and deploy them at the four gates, making a great show of strength, so that the bandits believe the capital has many defenders and tight defenses. In this way, the roving bandits will not dare spread their forces too thinly around the capital."

Zhu Cilang turned and looked at Wu Xiang, and Wu Xiang nodded. Zhu Cilang said, "Who are the commanders of the Xizhi, Desheng, and Anding Gates?"

Three Capital Camps officers rose in response. Zhu Cilang knew one of them: his name was Zhang Shizhong, a cousin of Zhang Shize, the Duke of Ying. He was now an Assistant Regional Commander in the Capital Camps, and Wang Cheng'en had assigned him to guard the Anding Gate.

The other two also gave their names: Zhu Guoyong, cousin of Zhu Guobi, the Marquis of Funing, and Lin Yihu, a Centurion of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and a military jinshi of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen. Both were young — Zhu Guoyong was just past twenty, and although he came from a noble house, he looked a bit rustic, though sturdily built. Lin Yihu was a little older, twenty-five or twenty-six. Although a military jinshi, he was refined and scholarly, of medium build, with fine features, fair skin, and a short beard.

"Give the two of you an extra three thousand taels of silver as well. Start recruiting men first thing tomorrow morning — you may offer as much as one tael of silver a day! The existing Capital Camps troops on the walls are also to be given one tael of silver per man per day… If the money is not enough, We will give you more!"

Zhu Cilang was going all out! Great rewards surely bring brave men! For now he could only use heavy rewards to draw people in — whether they were brave or not was hard to say, but as long as there were enough heads, and it looked like many troops and many generals, it would be enough to bluff Li Zicheng.

What he feared most now was Li Zicheng besieging the city. Once surrounded, breaking out would be very difficult, and he could only passively wait for Wu Sangui to lead his troops close to Beijing.

But whether Wu Sangui would actually listen to his father was truly hard to say!

As the saying goes, better to rely on oneself than on others. For now he could only make maximum use of his power as Army Commissioner to put on a show of strength, making Li Zicheng believe that Beijing still had a fair number of defenders, so that he would not adopt the tactic of dividing his forces to besiege the city.

But whether his current arrangements would actually work — only Heaven knew.

……

The Forbidden City, Qianqing Palace.

The Chongzhen Emperor, Zhu Youjian, was at that moment receiving Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Cheng, Luo Yangxing, Regional Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and Gong Yonggu, Imperial Son-in-law Commandant.

Later generations always regarded the eunuchs of the mid-to-late Ming as very powerful, while overlooking the existence of the noble houses.

In fact, the noble houses had always been an important part of the power game of the Great Ming dynasty. Even after the losses of the Tumu Fortress campaign had severely weakened the noble faction, the power of the noble houses in the two capitals, north and south, still could not be ignored.

Because the Capital Camps and the Embroidered Uniform Guard that defended the two capitals had always been under the control of the noble houses!

In other words, the Emperor himself had always been under the protection of the noble faction!

The fundamental reason the Chongzhen Emperor had been able to bring down Wei Zhongxian so easily was that Wei Zhongxian had no way to seize the Capital Camps and the Embroidered Uniform Guard from the hands of the noble houses.

At that time, the man in charge of the Capital Camps military administration was Zhang Weixian, grandfather of Zhang Shize, the Duke of Ying who had helped Zhu Cilang block the gate. And Luo Yangxing's father, Luo Sigong (his ancestor Luo Yicheng was a martyr of the Ming founding), had held the Embroidered Uniform Guard for forty-two years! Moreover, the Luo family had deep roots in the Embroidered Uniform Guard going back six generations, and before Luo Sigong there had even been a Chief Commissioner of the Embroidered Uniform Guard in the family!

Compared with the noble houses who had deep roots in the Capital Camps and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Wei Zhongxian's foundation was truly not worth mentioning, and it was no surprise at all that the Chongzhen Emperor had stripped him of everything and hounded him to death.

Zhu Cilang, who had risen suddenly within a city in peril, was not someone Wei Zhongxian's sort could compare with — but wanting to sideline Chongzhen, who had been emperor for seventeen years, was likewise nothing but a daydream…

(End of Chapter)