Chapter 360: Sworn to Kill Wu Sangui!

"Imperial Lord, you mean to give up Tong Pass?" The Marquis of Ru, Liu Zongmin, immediately grasped Li Zicheng's intent and said with a frown. "If the Wu traitor takes Tong Pass and then advances cautiously, consolidating step by step, what are we to do?"

The Marquis of Ze, Tian Jianxiu, added, "Indeed, Imperial Lord. Wu Sangui can fight. From Shanhai Pass all the way here, we've never once gotten the better of him."

The Marquis of Qi, Gu Ying, shook his head. "Imperial Lord, isn't holding Tong Pass good enough for us? Tong Pass is a natural stronghold; it would take that fellow Wu months to fight through. Let us first divide up the Guanzhong land among the officers and men. Once they have fields and property, their fighting spirit will rise. There'll be no fear of not being able to hold out."

Dividing land was not a cure-all, but neither could one underestimate the resolve of the Shun army's soldiers to defend the fruits of their land reform!

If the land were truly divided, the eighty-some thousand men here in Chang'an would be fighting for their own two or three hundred mu of family land, to be passed down to sons and grandsons. Against Wu Sangui's thirty or forty thousand men, they would be more than a match!

Li Zicheng smiled faintly. "The real Tartar army is now split into three columns. One is stationed in Hebei, one besieging Datong, and one holding Shanxi. Of these, the troops in Hebei and those besieging Datong cannot move. Only the troops holding Shanxi can give Wu Sangui some support, and even they cannot come in great numbers. Because Zhu Ming's Prince of Dai, Zhu Cijiong, has gone up into the Lüliang Mountains and now controls three prefectures and nine counties in the Lüliang region, coordinating from afar with Jiang Xiang, who is holding Datong to the death, and tying down the main Tartar force in Shanxi. So Wu Sangui is in fact advancing west alone. So what if he advances cautiously? So what if he can fight? At most he has thirty or forty thousand men. Are we afraid we cannot swallow them up?"

The Yongchang Emperor of the Shun laughed, brimming with confidence. "If we are to build up our territory, we must first teach the Tartars to fear us! Once Wu Sangui is killed, the Tartars will not dare come rampaging into Shaanxi again. Only then can we build up our strength in peace for a few years!"

"These days I have been reading the histories, and I find the present situation of the realm somewhat resembles the standoff among the Western Wei, Eastern Wei, and Southern Liang in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Our Shun is the Western Wei of that age. Though poor, we hold the strategic terrain of Guanlong. As long as we can properly implement the fubing system, the eastern barbarians and the Southern Ming will ultimately be no match for us! Chancellor, Military Advisor, tell me—am I right or not?"

Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance exchanged a glance, and the same answer formed in their minds: No! Imperial Lord, you are wrong. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Guanzhong was far richer than it is now. Back then Guanzhong was still a fertile and prosperous land of abundance. Had it been as it is now, there would have been no Northern Zhou, Sui, or Tang afterward.

"The Imperial Lord's insight is profound!"

"The Imperial Lord's sagacity is supreme!"

Though both knew Li Zicheng was wrong, Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance spoke their flattery in the same breath. It was not that they feared Li Zicheng could not tolerate honest words and would have them killed with a single stroke, but rather that they feared Li Zicheng would once again become Li Run-run and abandon Guanzhong for Huguang.

Back in the first month, Li Zicheng had already discussed with Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance the possibility of moving south—if the Qing army advanced west in full force, Guanzhong could not be held, and abandoning Guanzhong for Huguang was, in Li Zicheng's mind, the best course.

But Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance both believed there was no way out to the south! Not only was going south a dead end—any course that abandoned the Shaanxi base was a dead end.

Because the Shun's main enemy now was not the feeble Ming, but the Tartars, whose military strength was great and whose army excelled at mobile warfare and field battles.

So the Shun could no longer go back to being roving bandits even if it wanted to. They simply could not roam anymore; the Qing army would hunt them down until they had nowhere left to run!

As for going south, the Shun had no navy either! Last time they had suffered a loss on the Wei River at Tianjin. To go to the Yangtze now—just thinking about it was unreliable. Zhu Cilang had the Yangtze fleet, and he had also won over the two great "pirate groups" of the northern Shen and southern Zheng. In naval warfare even the Tartars were no match for him, let alone the Shun.

Therefore Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance, and Gu Junen, who had already gone to Xiangjing to take office, were of one mind about the Shun dynasty's way forward: hold their ground!

"Good!" Li Zicheng nodded, speaking with full confidence. "Then it is settled. We let the Wu traitor into Guanzhong, then converge a hundred thousand troops and annihilate him in one blow!"

"What? The roving bandits have abandoned Tong Pass?"

Wu Sangui had just arrived at the Hongnong Guard city in Shanzhou, and before he had even had time to summon his generals to discuss how to attack Tong Pass, his vanguard commander Wu Guogui (Wu Guoyong's elder brother) sent a victory report—Tong Pass, famed as a place where one man could hold the pass against ten thousand, had actually been voluntarily abandoned by Li Zicheng's army.

Now the pass gate stood wide open, and Chang'an was right before their eyes!

"My Prince, this is surely a trick! Abandoning the strategic stronghold of Tong Pass without a fight is plainly meant to lure us into a decisive battle beneath the walls of Chang'an!"

"My Prince, we must not fall for Li Zicheng's cunning scheme! Xi'an is a strong city, and we have hardly any Hongyi cannons on hand. We cannot possibly break through Xi'an's walls!"

Guo Yunlong, who had rushed over upon hearing the news, and Yang Kun, another senior Wu army general who had been given the rank of Regional Commander, were both veteran commanders of many campaigns, and they saw through Li Zicheng's plan at a glance.

Wu Sangui turned his head and glanced at Liu Sheng, who was following him. "Hailong (Liu Sheng's courtesy name), what do you think?"

"My Prince," Liu Sheng said, "this subordinate believes that right now we must not only watch the west, but also keep an eye on Prince Su's fifty thousand troops to the east. They are still by the Yellow River, are they not? Those are not meant for the Ming—they are meant for you, my Prince!"

Only once you, my Prince, have entered Tong Pass will the thirty or forty thousand brothers following you have a way to live!"

The instructions he had received earlier were to avoid a decisive battle with the Shun—Zhu Cilang feared Li Zicheng would once again become Li Run-run and, as in history, abandon Shaanxi and flee into Huguang. That would be a huge problem!

But Liu Sheng now also understood Wu Sangui's predicament. Dodo was to the north, Hooge to the east—two great Manchu tigers, both meant to drive Wu Sangui, that great gray wolf, forward. If Wu Sangui lingered in Luoyang and refused to move, it was not impossible that Dorgon would resolve to finish off the Guanning Army.

The Guanning Army was no pushover, but if Dorgon truly made up his mind, it would only cost him a few thousand or ten thousand true Manchus.

Wu Sangui still frowned, noncommittal.

Liu Sheng gritted his teeth and went on. "My Prince, if we do not enter Tong Pass, there is no way to live. If we do enter Tong Pass—Prince Yu is now stationed at Pingyang Prefecture, and surely he will not stand by and watch Li Zicheng crush us? At worst, after entering the pass we advance cautiously, consolidate step by step, and push slowly toward Xi'an, fighting a protracted war with Li Zicheng."

"Protracted?" Wu Sangui knit his brow. "How much grain do we have? How many months can it sustain us?"

"Enough for three months." Wu Sangui's Vice Regional Commander, Regional Commander Guo Yunlong, said, "My Prince, according to our investigations, last year's harvest in Guanzhong was passable, and Li Zicheng exempted grain taxes for three years, so the common people have recovered some strength. Procuring grain should not be difficult."

"Oh," Wu Sangui nodded. "Then we can procure grain among the people."

Yang Kun shook his head. "My Prince, the worry is that Li Zicheng has made preparations, stripping the fields and clearing the countryside along both banks of the Wei River, leaving us with no supplies to obtain."

"Hmm, possible!" Wu Sangui nodded, and a cold sneer suddenly appeared at the corner of his mouth. "Pass on Our command: reward the three armies. Every soldier is to be given ten taels, junior officers double, and ranking officers double again!"

"In addition, prepare thirty days' marching rations!"

"My Prince, thirty days' marching rations, is that not—"

"Indeed, thirty days may not be enough!"

Wu Sangui waved his hand. "It is enough! Thirty days. If we cannot win by then, We are prepared to wrap Our corpse in horsehide!"

His gaze swept over those to left and right. "Pass the word: if this time we can take the fertile land of Guanlong, We shall share it with all the officers and men of the three armies!"

(End of Chapter)