Chapter 302: No Territory Ceded, No Tribute Paid, but the Gege Is Still Wanted

The Third Crown Prince Zhu Cijiong did not leave Datong lightly with a small escort; he took with him the entire princely guard and the troops of Gao Di, the newly appointed Manager Regional Commander of the Western Garrison, about four thousand cavalry and infantry in all. But this march was not meant to fight anyone, so a great many soldiers' dependents and common folk followed along as well.

All the motley soldiers and civilians together, in the end the number who followed the Third Crown Prince away was fully twenty or thirty thousand! They also carried a great quantity of carts, horses, goods, and wealth, advancing in a vast, mighty column through the wind and snow.

By this time the Qing army's mounted scouts and patrols were already active outside the city of Datong Prefecture, so of course such a large body of men and horses on the move could not escape their eyes. But they did not launch a pursuit; after all, over the past month or two, the performance of the Datong Ming army had already somewhat overturned their understanding.

At Zhenlu Guard, Yongjia Fort, Wayao Pass Fort, Gaoshan Guard, Baideng Fort, Yanghe Guard, Juluo Post, Xujiazhuang Fort, and the other forts and stockades lying along the Qing army's westward route, fierce battles of contention had all broken out! The great army led by Hooge and Oboi had suffered no small losses.

Although the losses among the true Tartars were not too severe, the Han bannermen who served as cannon fodder lay dead and wounded in heaps; all told, before and after, the number had passed five thousand!

They had not even seen the walls of Datong, and already the losses were so great—how could this not make the Qing army, high and low, turn cautious and wary?

They knew well the reputation of Datong as a mighty city. If it truly came to a bloody battle at Datong, without tens of thousands of dead and wounded, it probably could not be taken, could it?

So Hooge, who had been preparing to lead the Plain Blue Banner troops back to Beijing, upon learning that a large Ming force had withdrawn from Datong, let out a long breath and said with a bitter smile to his trusted confidant Oboi: "This time Ajige is going to get the bargain."

"My Prince, the Prince Regent has gone too far in bullying us. Here at Datong Prefecture it has been us doing the bitter fighting; now that victory is finally in sight, he sends Ajige to pick up the easy gain."

Oboi was Hooge's sworn partisan. Back when Hong Taiji died, he, along with Sonin, Turgei, Tulai, Tantai, Xihan, Gong'adai, and other high ministers of the Two Yellow Banners, had all firmly supported Hooge's accession. But in the end, because of the opposition of the Two White Banners and the selfishness of the various princes and beile (all of whom preferred a young ruler), they had narrowly lost. Yet Oboi still had not given up the thought of raising Hooge to the throne.

Right now Fulin was only six years old, so naturally he had no heirs, and Dorgon's health had always been poor. What was hateful was that the three brothers Dorgon, Dodo, and Ajige had all along been suppressing Hooge, not allowing Hooge to win any great merit sufficient to win over the multitude.

Hooge snorted. "Whether that bargain can be picked up cleanly is still unknown!"

"My Prince, do you mean there is still fighting to be done at Datong?" Oboi asked, then shook his head. "This slave does not see it as certain. At worst it is just a long siege, the same as when we fought at Dalinghe City back then."

"Heh heh," Hooge laughed. "That is true. But how long will this siege have to last? Dalinghe City was only besieged for three months. The stores inside Datong City should be greater, should they not? If it has to be besieged for a year or two, then Ajige will be delayed!"

"Delayed from what?" Oboi still did not quite understand.

Hooge lowered his voice. "Delayed from marching south, of course!"

"Marching south?" Oboi was taken aback. "My Prince, does the Prince Regent not wish to negotiate a marriage alliance with the Southern Court?"

"Hmph!" Hooge snorted. "That matter has fallen through!"

"The Southern Court's Crown Prince refused?"

"No," Hooge said with a gloating smile. "He is just unwilling to cede territory and pay annual tribute. That Crown Prince of the Southern Court is a shameless scoundrel; he wants to get Dorgon's daughter for nothing!"

"Truly?" Oboi's eyes went wide.

Hooge nodded with a smile. "It was in Luoluohun's letter. The mission sent to Jiangnan to negotiate the marriage has returned, and they brought back a Southern Court marriage envoy—none other than Zu Kefa!"

Oboi was stunned. "Zu Kefa? Was he not beaten to death by the roving bandits? He even has a posthumous title—Wuzhuang, I think. A while back the Zu family held his funeral, and I even contributed a share."

"Dead my ass!" Hooge shook his head repeatedly. "He surrendered. First he surrendered to the roving bandits, then the roving bandits sent him to the Southern Court, and then he surrendered to the Southern Court. Add to that his earlier surrender from the Ming to our Great Qing, and that makes three surrenders in all—a proper Fourfold Subject!"

"Fourfold Subject?" Oboi's face was full of contempt. "What sort of creatures are these men of the Guanning Army? Surrendering back and forth—have they no shame at all?"

"Prince Regent, our Thousand Years is truly sincere toward your gege. Even though the gege is only six years old, he is willing to wait a few years. All these gifts are for the gege: one hundred bolts of various Suzhou silks, one hundred pieces of Jingdezhen porcelain, fifty pieces of Japanese lacquerware, fifty dolls of every kind, fifty boxes of assorted candies and preserved fruits, fifty pieces of gold jewelry, and five hundred taels of silver ingots for the gege to bestow on her attendants."

In the Forbidden City, in the Hall of Martial Valor, the "Fourfold Subject" Zu Kefa—his head shaved bald and now dressed once more in the military officer's uniform of the Great Ming—was pointing at a great heap of opened chests and cheerfully introducing them one by one to the Qing Prince Regent Dorgon.

And Dorgon wore an expression caught between tears and laughter. What sort of business was this? This Zhu Cilang truly had some imagination: on one hand refusing to declare himself a subject and pay tribute, on the other wanting to marry his daughter—and then sending a "Fourfold Subject" as marriage envoy, along with a great pile of gifts for coaxing a little girl. What was this fellow trying to do?

"Zu Kefa! You—you—how could you surrender to the Southern Court? Have you no sense of shame left at all?"

While Dorgon was still dazed, someone had already spoken up. The questioner was Gong'adai, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. He was a nephew of Nurhaci and also the Gūsa Ejete of the Plain Yellow Banner. Zu Kefa had originally been a Meiren Janggin of the Plain Yellow Banner Han troops, a lower rank than Gong'adai. So Gong'adai could speak on behalf of the master of the Plain Yellow Banner—that is, the six-year-old Fulin.

Zu Kefa glanced at Gong'adai and chuckled. "Why must the Gūsa Ejete speak so harshly? This humble official was originally a kinsman of the Southern Court's imperial house. In time of peril, turning to one's kinsmen is only natural. Is it not the same everywhere here in the Great Qing?"

As he spoke, he cast a meaningful glance at Dorgon. Gong'adai's face instantly turned ashen. It turned out that he too was a fellow who had betrayed his master and surrendered—he had originally been one of Hooge's men, but later, seeing Dorgon's power on the rise, he had betrayed Hooge and gone over to Dorgon.

"You—" Gong'adai was furious. How could the nature of his surrender to Dorgon be the same as Zu Kefa's surrender to Zhu Cilang? This slave deserved a beating, deserved death!

"Enough, enough." Dorgon hastily waved his hand to stop Gong'adai, who was on the verge of exploding. "He is already a Fourfold Subject; why get angry with him? What can you do to him anyway?"

Gong'adai thought about it and realized it was true. Kill him, and that would be executing an envoy—worse, executing a marriage envoy. How unlucky would that be? He had come on behalf of the Ming Crown Prince to seek the hand of the gege Dong'e. If you killed him, who would dare come seeking the gege's hand in the future? What if the gege could not be married off?

And if you detained him and tried to force his surrender—damn it, the man was already a Fourfold Subject. Forcing his surrender would be no different from snatching a whore to make her your wife.

Dorgon frowned deeply and looked at the Fourfold Subject Zu Kefa, whose face was thicker than a city wall. "What exactly does the Zhu family's Crown Prince mean? If he will not pay tribute and declare himself a subject, my Great Qing will have to chastise him!"

"Then fight." Zu Kefa spread his hands. "It is not as if we have never fought. If you wish to fight, the Crown Prince will oblige you!"

Dorgon was taken aback. "Then why is he still seeking my gege's hand?"

Zu Kefa smiled. "My Prince, kin are kin, and war is war. Your gege—the Crown Prince still wants her."

"Hah, this Crown Prince..." Dorgon did not know what to say.

But Zu Kefa still had more to say. He said with a smile: "In matters of marriage, one seeks a proper match of families. How is the Prince's gege not a fitting match for the Ming Crown Prince? As for declaring oneself a subject, paying tribute, and ceding territory—that must be settled on the battlefield, and has nothing to do with marriage."

"Understood. This Prince understands." Dorgon had nothing more to say to a "Fourfold Subject," and waved his hand. "Go back to the guest quarters and rest first!"

But Zu Kefa did not move. Grinning, he said to Dorgon: "My Prince, my Crown Prince has two further proposals."

Dorgon said: "What proposals? Speak quickly."

"First, my Crown Prince hopes to establish a 'Marriage Alliance Hostel' on Haisha Island outside the Dagu mouth at Tianjin, and to station a marriage alliance envoy there, to facilitate the marriage alliance between north and south." Zu Kefa smiled. "Second, my Crown Prince hopes to establish a trade hostel beside the Marriage Alliance Hostel on Haisha Island, to facilitate the coming and going of merchants from north and south, and the exchange of goods."

(End of Chapter)