Chapter 367: Li Zicheng's Trump Card!

"What? The Tartars suffered a crushing defeat beneath the walls of Datong? Is that for real?"

In the Wuying Hall of the imperial palace at Chang'an, Li Zicheng, Son of Heaven of the Shun, was eyeing with mingled belief and doubt a messenger from the Ming army at Datong who had disguised himself as a Shanxi merchant to slip into Chang'an.

The messenger was named Chen Yongxi, twenty-four or twenty-five years old, with fine, delicate features and the look of a pale-faced scholar. He was a xiucai from Dingxiang County under Taiyuan Prefecture, and his family were of course great landlords. Because Li Zicheng had carried out grain-tax and rent exemptions in Taiyuan Prefecture (the rent exemption was not Li Zicheng's doing; it was simply that the peasants refused to pay the gentry's grain), the family had become thoroughly disgruntled, so he and his two elder brothers had taken part of the family fortune and gone to Datong, which was under Ming rule, where they entered Wang Yongji's private staff and lived through the first siege of Datong.

Although the first siege of Datong had ended in a Ming "victory," Chen Yongxi did not think much at all of Datong Prefecture's future.

The Qing army had now withdrawn according to the agreement, but for hundreds of li outside Datong the land lay utterly desolate. Everywhere were villages, towns, forts, stockades, and walled cities that the Qing soldiers had plundered and burned. Only Datong Right Guard and Weiyuan Guard, two guard cities in remote terrain with especially strong defenses, had not been taken by the Qing army. Yet even where they had not been taken, all the farmland around Datong Right Guard and Weiyuan Guard had been abandoned to weeds.

From the time Chen Yongxi left Datong's prefectural seat until he entered the Lüliang Mountains, every place he passed was a wasteland. Along both sides of the official road one saw only burned-out, ruined villages, forts, and stockades, and the bleached bones of people and livestock; nowhere was there a single field that had been sown.

This spring's farming season had been missed, so by autumn there would naturally be no harvest.

When the Tartars came to besiege the city again, how much longer could Datong hold out?

Although he knew Datong Prefecture's situation was precarious in the extreme, the object of Chen Yongxi's hatred was still Li Zicheng.

For after the siege of Datong was lifted, he had already made contact with his family in Dingxiang — and now the family in Dingxiang could happily collect land rent again! One of his paternal cousins had gone over to the Tartars and taken a post on the staff of the Tartar Prince Yu. With that backing, the fields and houses of the Dingxiang Chen family were insured.

So not only did they continue collecting rent and debts from their tenants, they did so with redoubled severity.

What? Shanxi landlords could now get even harsher?

Of course!

When you got down to it, this was Dorgon's doing. Around Beijing he had carried out large-scale land enclosure, house seizure, and forced enrollment as bondservants, driving away great numbers of Han commoners. A considerable portion of these people had gone over to the Shun dynasty, which had exempted taxes for three years — only to find that once they reached Shanxi, they had become subjects of the Great Qing once more.

These commoners who had fled from Northern Zhili with their families could not become independent farmers, so they had no choice but to rent land and become tenants. With more outside tenants arriving, rents in Shanxi naturally rose.

In addition, the Great Qing state still collected taxes — now there was no talk of officials and gentry being exempt from grain levies; everyone had to pay! And these land taxes were of course all passed on to the tenants.

The tenants of Shanxi had barely caught their breath under Li Zicheng's rule, and now they had become fat pigs for the landlords and local strongmen again, to be slaughtered as before.

Incidentally, it should also be mentioned that because the nine great Shanxi merchant houses had gone over to the Great Qing and done a great deal of work for the Qing state, the Great Qing treated the Shanxi gentry with considerable consideration, which also won the Qing a good deal of goodwill among many Shanxi gentry.

Of course, Chen Yongxi was a loyal subject of the Great Ming. This time he had come on his mission bringing his wife and children along, intending to take them with him to Jiangnan and never return to Shanxi, and to seek an official post with the Crown Prince. The Chen family could not afford to hang everything on the single tree of the Great Qing; they had to place bets on both sides.

But Li Zicheng still deserved to be fleeced. Although Zhu Cilang very much wanted to ally with Li Zicheng against the Qing, the landlord-class bureaucrats under him all regarded Li Zicheng as an enemy more vicious than the Tartars.

So upon hearing Li Zicheng's question, he said with a chuckle, "Your Majesty, this matter admits of no deception. If the siege of Datong had not been lifted, could this humble official have brought his whole family to Chang'an? Besides, if Your Majesty sends someone to Datong to take a look, won't he know at once? The Qing troops have all withdrawn south across the Sanggan River! If they had not been defeated beneath the walls of Datong, would they have been willing to retreat so far?"

Li Zicheng turned it over in his mind and felt it made sense. If the Tartars had not suffered a bloody loss, could they have withdrawn from beneath Datong's walls? It seemed this Jiang Xiang really could fight! If he had known earlier, he should have properly won him over and brought his Datong army along to Shanhai Pass.

Still, the Tartars' bloody loss at Datong was a good thing. The Yulin–Yan'an line should be secure now, and Datong should also be able to tie down more of the Tartars' troops.

After sending Chen Yongxi off, Li Zicheng immediately summoned his great generals and senior ministers to the Wuying Hall for a council of war.

"At last, some good news!" Li Zicheng looked smilingly at his assembled subordinates. "The Tartars have taken a bloody loss at Datong. Jiang Xiang defeated them in one engagement and killed several thousand of them!"

"Is that true?"

"Is that fellow Jiang really that formidable?"

"It should be right. Didn't Yulin Guard report that the Tartars had lifted the siege of Datong?"

"In that case, it might well be true!"

"This Jiang Xiang has really made something of himself!"

Li Zicheng cleared his throat, and everyone fell silent. Li Zicheng said with a smile, "The Tartars' defeat at Datong is also to our advantage. At the very least, the Tartars in Beijing cannot reinforce the Tartars at Fengling Ferry and east of Tong Pass."

"Besides, it's just as well that the dog Wu Sangui ran off to Ningxia. Otherwise the Tartars over at Tong Pass could have had tens of thousands more accomplices!"

"Your Majesty, are we truly going to leave Wu Sangui alone?" Liu Zongmin asked bitterly.

"Leave him be. He can't take Chang'an anyway!" Li Zicheng gritted his teeth and said to Gao Yigong, "Yigong, take the Newly Attached Battalion and hold Chang'an!"

"Your Majesty, rest assured. This subject will never let that traitor Wu Sangui take Chang'an!"

Gao Yigong's Newly Attached Battalion numbered fifteen thousand men, so defending the strong walls of Chang'an would indeed not be easy to break. And Wu Sangui had no need to batter himself to death against Chang'an. If he spent all his strength, would the Tartars still let him be King of Guanzhong?

Li Zicheng nodded and added, "Send an edict to the Marquis of Bo at Xiangjing, ordering him to station troops at Nanyang and, when the opportunity arises, advance on Kaifeng Prefecture and cut off the Tartars' rear!"

Again the old trick of cutting off the enemy's rear! The last counterattack at Huaiqing had gone rather well and had nearly turned the tables, so Li Zicheng wanted to repeat the old stratagem.

"Your Majesty," Song Xiance now offered his counsel, "should we contact the Ming court again? These days the Ming Crown Prince Zhu Cilang has been training his troops and strengthening his arms, and there is quite an air of revival about him."

Li Zicheng snorted. "That little Ming Crown Prince is crafty and cruel. He is not likely to be easy to deal with. Last time we fell for his trick and lost Shanxi for nothing!"

Last time he had been swindled by Wang Yongji and Jiang Xiang, and it truly had nothing to do with Zhu Cilang. But Zhu Cilang's evil reputation had spread far and wide, and everyone knew he was crafty and cruel. So any crafty misdeed must surely have been his doing!

Song Xiance smiled, looking as though he had a well-thought-out plan. "This time he will certainly not dare deceive Your Majesty again!"

"Why not?" Li Zicheng asked.

"Because the Chongzhen Emperor's fifth son, Zhu Cihuan, is still in Your Majesty's hands!"

"What use is that child?"

"Of enormous use!" Song Xiance said with a smile. "Does Your Majesty still remember Zhu Cizhao, whom we sent to Zuo Liangyu's army?"

"I remember. What has become of that boy now?"

Song Xiance said, "This subject has just received word that Zhu Cizhao is going to take a wife."

"What? Take a wife? How old is that little fellow?" Li Zicheng was taken aback. "Whose daughter is he marrying?"

Song Xiance said with a smile, "Your Majesty is acquainted with Zhu Cizhao's betrothed. It is Zuo Mengmei!"

"Zuo Mengmei?" Li Zicheng burst out laughing. "You have to hand it to Zuo Liangyu for thinking that one up. That little brat Zhu Cilang won't be able to sleep now."

Song Xiance added with a smile, "Zhu Cilang now holds full power in the southeast, with money, troops, land, and population, yet he still dares not usurp the throne and ascend it. He must be worried that Zuo Liangyu will set up a rival court at Wuchang. But compared with Zuo Liangyu's paltry strength, it is the Tartars who worry him most! If Zhu Cihuan were to fall into Tartar hands and be set up as a puppet emperor, and his name were used to march troops into Shandong, could Zhu Cilang still sleep peacefully in Nanjing?"

"Excellent! Excellent!" Li Zicheng clapped his hands and laughed. "My military adviser has at last come up with a brilliant plan for me! If that boy Zhu Cilang dares deceive me again, I'll send Zhu Cihuan to Beijing and give him to Dorgon!"

(End of Chapter)