Chapter 324: The Ruthless Man Who Held the Son of Heaven Hostage and Slept with the Empress Dowager

The night was already very deep, and the whole Forbidden City in Beijing lay still and silent. Only on the heated brick bed of the Empress Dowager Bumbutai, a big-bearded man lay with his eyes wide open, unable to sleep. This man sleeping on the Empress Dowager's bed was, of course, the foremost ruthless figure of the Great Qing today — the regent who held the Son of Heaven hostage and slept with the Empress Dowager: Dorgon. He rested his hands behind his head and stared fixedly at the roof beam. Beside him, Bumbutai had also woken. She saw that her brother-in-law and old lover was still fretting over affairs of state, so she reached a hand over and stroked Dorgon's big beard, asking softly, "Why aren't you asleep yet? You worked so hard all day, and just now you spent so much strength. If you don't rest properly, you won't have any energy for court tomorrow."

Bumbutai was speaking Manchu. Her Chinese was terrible — she was herself a Mongol, married to a Manchu emperor, and carrying on with a Manchu regent. She basically never came into contact with Han people, so she could hardly speak Chinese.

Besides, she was not much to look at. She had originally been sent into Hong Taiji's palace as a secondary consort, serving as a surrogate mother for the primary consort Jeje. But because her looks were plain, she never won Hong Taiji's favor. She began as the Second Consort, then was repeatedly demoted until she became the Fifth Consort — lower in status even than the Fourth Consort Batma Dzoo, who had defected over from Ligdan Khan's side (and who was Dorgon's mother-in-law). Her appearance can be imagined from that.

So the rumor that Bumbutai seduced Hong Chengchou is absolutely groundless. With Hong Chengchou's scrawny little frame, if he had run into a Mongol matron like Bumbutai, who knows whether he would have been seduced or simply overpowered? If it had really happened, Hong Chengchou would probably have chosen death rather than surrender to the Great Qing.

And besides, Bumbutai could barely speak Chinese — how would she even communicate with a man from Fujian?

Yet the woman Hong Taiji did not care for, Dorgon treated like a treasure! Not long after Hong Taiji died, he took up with Bumbutai and began living the happy life of one who holds the Son of Heaven hostage and sleeps with the Empress Dowager.

Dorgon turned his head, gave Bumbutai's round, plump matronly face a deeply affectionate smile, and sighed, "I can't sleep. My mind keeps turning to that Zhu Cilang. Hooge has grown thoroughly impatient waiting by the Yellow River. Every few days he sends up a memorial saying he wants to march south and strike Henan, strike Shandong! But that Crown Prince of the Southern Ming, Zhu Cilang, is no easy mark either. At such a young age he managed to seize the Chongzhen Emperor, lead troops in a breakout from Beijing, and then ambush the elite Eight Banners force under Duolong at Dagu. Now he's stirring up one mess after another in Nanjing, slandering our Great Qing every single day. Truly a rotten bastard!"

Bumbutai looked at Dorgon with some surprise, thinking to herself: What kind of man is this Zhu Cilang? If even you, Dorgon, think he's rotten enough to curse his mother over, just how rotten must he be?

The matron asked, "Then why do you still want to marry that girl Donggo over to him? Aren't you afraid she'll be taken advantage of?"

"Ah," Dorgon sighed. "If he weren't a bad man, he'd have been done in by me long ago — how would he ever get to marry Donggo? In this world, the kind-hearted get bullied. Anyone worthy of Donggo is, by definition, no good man!"

Bumbutai thought it over, and it did seem to make sense. Wasn't she herself in the same boat as Donggo? Whether it was Hong Taiji or Dorgon, both were men who killed without blinking! But then she thought again, and something seemed off.

"Child's uncle," Bumbutai said, narrowing her charming little eyes (Dorgon liked little eyes), "if you're not sleeping at night, could it be that you're worried Hooge will be ambushed by Zhu Cilang?"

"Hmph!" Dorgon snorted coldly. "Worried about Hooge? What I'm worried about is the fifty thousand troops under his command. A small half of those fifty thousand are true Manchus! We Manchus are few in number. If we lose too many, it will sap our vitality!"

It turned out that in recent days Dorgon had been continuously shifting troops to the northern bank of the Yellow River at Kaifeng Prefecture, as well as to Daming Prefecture and Cangzhou Prefecture.

The main force — the true Tartars of the Two Yellow Banners and the Two Blue Banners — had been assembled to nearly twenty thousand men. They were divided under the command of such famous Manchu generals as Hooge, Oboi, Yuedong, and Tantai, with Hooge given overall authority over the other commanders.

Geng Zhongming, Shang Kexi, Li Shuaitai (son of Li Yongfang), and Liu Zhiyuan — four Han traitors — led a total of twenty thousand men from the Plain Yellow Banner Han Army, the Bordered Blue Banner Han Army, the Plain Blue Banner Han Army, and the Bordered Yellow Banner Han Army on the campaign.

In addition, Liu Liangzuo and Xu Dingguo, who had earlier defected to the Great Qing, also brought their troops and joined Hooge's command. Both of these Han traitors had been enrolled into the Eight Banners: Liu Liangzuo was attached to the Bordered Yellow Banner Han Army, and Xu Dingguo to the Bordered White Banner Han Army.

But the troops the two men brought were too weak, and their Eight Banners masters looked down on them, so they were not incorporated into the Eight Banners. Instead they were reorganized into Green Standard troops, marked by green banners — second-class Han traitor soldiers who did not even qualify to be bondservants. After the reorganization, they were supplemented with local bandits who had surrendered to the Qing and small Ming detachments, bringing their total strength up to more than ten thousand.

Yet even after the great army of more than fifty thousand had gradually assembled, Dorgon still delayed issuing the order to attack. He left Hooge, Oboi, and the others waiting idly by the Yellow River, from the end of the first year of Shunzhi all the way to this first month of the second year of Shunzhi. The weather was warming day by day, and the frozen Yellow River and Daqing River would soon thaw — yet the order to attack the Ming or the Shun still had not come.

By now, not only had Hooge, Oboi, and the Eight Banners troops of the Two Yellow and Two Blue Banners — all craning their necks and waiting to march south and get rich — grown impatient, but even the Eight Banners princes left to guard Beijing and the Bordered Red Banner troops under Luoluohun, recalled from Zhangde and Weihui Prefectures, were all burning with anxiety.

Moreover, rumors had begun to circulate in Beijing, saying that Dorgon, in order to marry his only daughter to Zhu Cilang as Empress of the Great Ming, intended to abandon all southern campaigns and cede Shandong and Henan to the Ming.

"Child's uncle," Bumbutai said, choosing her words carefully, "if it weren't for this marriage alliance between Donggo and the Zhu family's Crown Prince, you might still be able to hold down the Two Yellow, Two Red, and Two Blue Banners' desire to march south. But now quite a few people think you have selfish motives."

"Hmph!" Dorgon snorted. He had already taken the Son of Heaven hostage and slept with the Empress Dowager — how could he possibly not have selfish motives? His selfish motives were enormous. He was even looking for a chance to kill both Hooge and Fulin and make himself Emperor!

But this time, holding back Hooge and Oboi and keeping them from marching south was not out of selfish motives. It was for the sake of the Great Qing's northern realm — he was playing a great game of chess.

"Bumbutai," Dorgon grunted, "you needn't try to goad me. I have my own plans. In the end I'll make sure those whelps who dream day and night of burning, killing, and looting get their fill! But they must not be impatient. They have to hold steady and take it slowly. Our Great Qing has many enemies, and many troubles to settle — one at a time! Hooge and Oboi will just have to stay put by the Yellow River! Let them spend the New Year by the Yellow River!"

(End of Chapter)