Chapter 468: Li Zicheng's Three-Way Division of the Realm (Requesting Monthly Tickets)

Li Zicheng stopped in his tracks, turned to look at Gu Junen, his thick brows tightly knitted, as if carefully weighing something over in his mind.

After a while, the Yongchang Son of Heaven said in a low voice: "Xi'an Prefecture is still locked in battle with that dog of a traitor Wu Sangui, Nanyang Prefecture is facing off against the Tartar caitiffs, and Hanzhong Prefecture has just fought with Zhang Xianzhong. Only the south is slightly more stable. If we open another front against Zuo Liangyu, we'll be beset by enemies on all four sides!"

"Your Majesty, Xi'an Prefecture is bound to fall sooner or later," Gu Junen said. "The countryside around Xi'an Prefecture is already in chaos, and no one has been farming for a long time. Even if the Count of Tongguan (Luo Hu) and the Baron of Linqu (Gao Yigong) do not lose on the battlefield, once the grain stored inside Xi'an Prefecture is exhausted, abandoning the city and fleeing will be their only way out. The situation in Nanyang Prefecture is somewhat better, but once Xi'an falls, it will face enemies on three sides. Even if we struggle to hold it, the countryside will inevitably be reduced to scorched earth. And when that happens, Hanzhong will also be caught between Wu Sangui and Zhang Xianzhong, and its situation will be no more optimistic. If we cannot prepare for a rainy day and expand southward, I fear that once Xi'an Prefecture is lost, we will be hemmed in between Xiangjing and Yunyang!"

Prompted by Gu Junen's analysis, Li Zicheng also realized the seriousness of the problem. The fighting around Xi'an Prefecture still looked sustainable for now, but farming around the city could no longer be carried out. Without farming there would naturally be no harvest, and once the reserves inside Xi'an Prefecture were exhausted, Luo Hu and Gao Yigong would have no choice but to withdraw when their grain ran out.

Li Zicheng sighed: "The elders of Shaanxi all expected me to secure the throne and save the people from fire and water. I originally thought the same, but now half of Shaanxi has been fought into a wasteland, and who knows how many common folk have died."

Gu Junen knew that His Majesty's soft-hearted weakness had flared up again, so he could only console him: "Your Majesty, the rise and fall of every dynasty has been like this. As long as you practice benevolent governance after winning the realm and let the people live a few good years, it will all have been worth it."

Li Zicheng nodded. "Benevolent governance must still be practiced. It's just that if we march south against Zuo Liangyu, will it draw out that little Zhu crown prince? He just killed that Tartar caitiff's what's-it-called Grave-Robbing Beile Hooge, and his troops' morale is at its peak!"

"It will not," Second Strategist Gu said with great certainty. "The Tartar caitiffs' Prince Regent has already personally led a great army to Shangqiu to avenge Hooge. How would the Zhu crown prince dare to advance west into Huguang?"

Li Zicheng thought it over and found it reasonable. Dorgon was said to be Hooge's uncle. If a nephew was beaten to death, could the uncle let it go? The revenge would certainly have to be taken.

Second Strategist Gu added: "The spies we sent to Wuchang Prefecture report that the old traitor Zuo Liangyu is gravely ill and near death. His son Zuo Menggeng is shallow in virtue and meager in talent, unable to command the troops' respect. Military discipline has already collapsed — this is exactly our chance to strike while they are in mourning!

Moreover, Zuo's troops are utterly undisciplined; officers and soldiers alike are worse than bandits. During their time in Huguang, they have tormented the region terribly. Especially in those prefectures we once held, everyone now longs for Your Majesty to march back!"

"Is that true?" Li Zicheng was half believing, half doubting. "They're not longing for the little crown prince, are they?"

"How could they long for him?" Gu Junen laughed. "What good is he? Cunning and vicious, unfilial and rebellious, greedy and base — his reputation in Huguang stinks to high heaven."

Li Zicheng thought to himself: it must be the strategists around Zuo Liangyu desperately smearing the little crown prince!

"Since there are people longing for me, then there's no harm in fighting once more!" Li Zicheng said. "But this time we won't remit taxes for three years. This time we'll equalize the land. If the eastern barbarians can distribute land by headcount, why can't our Shun army of righteousness do the same?"

"Your Majesty is wise!" Gu Junen said. "We can first send spies into the five prefectures of Chengtian, Jingzhou, De'an, Huangzhou, and Hanyang to post proclamations announcing that we will equalize land by headcount in Huguang. Once the poor common folk learn of it, they will surely support Your Majesty's great army."

"Excellent!" Li Zicheng felt a surge of satisfaction in his heart. "Change the song too. Sing it as: 'Eat his mother, divide his mother, the Roving King comes to divide the land!' That will surely win the response of many poor common folk!"

Gu Junen then suggested: "Your Majesty, should we not make contact with Zhang Xianzhong? Now only our two bands of righteous armies remain. We truly should not be killing each other."

Li Zicheng snorted: "He hides in Sichuan calling himself king and hegemon, living comfortably. Why would he join hands with me?"

"Your Majesty, the news from Sichuan says otherwise," Gu Junen said. "Zhang Xianzhong has not been comfortable for long. After he proclaimed himself emperor in Chengdu, he began to decline. Not only was he defeated by us in Hanzhong, but he is also besieged by a group of remnant Ming armies, losing battle after battle, in great embarrassment, and he has even lost Chongqing."

Zhang Xianzhong's fate was actually somewhat similar to Li Zicheng's. Before entering Chengdu and founding the Xi, his fortunes had been good, and he had carried an unstoppable momentum. But after becoming the Xi emperor in Chengdu, he began to lose the upper hand. Not only was he defeated by General He Zhen, whom Li Zicheng had sent to Hanzhong, but he was also besieged by a host of Sichuan Ming commanders — Zeng Ying, Li Zhanchun, Yu Dahai, Wang Xiang, Yang Zhan, Cao Xun, and others.

Before Zhang Xianzhong fought his way into Chengdu, these Ming commanders had not looked like much in a fight. But after Zhang Xianzhong entered Chengdu and became emperor, they suddenly all turned valiant, one after another gathering troops, raising banners, and taking on the Xi army — and fighting with considerable flair!

By the spring of the eighteenth year of Chongzhen, after Ma Shiying, whom Zhu Cilang had appointed Governor-General of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, arrived at Zunyi Prefecture in Sichuan (Zunyi Prefecture was the former Bozhou, which belonged to Sichuan Province in the late Ming) with large amounts of military pay, military supplies, several thousand Guizhou troops, and the Crown Prince's edict of "five years' tax remission," Zhang Xianzhong's troubles grew even greater.

Sichuan is a land of abundance, little affected by the Little Ice Age, and the common people's lives were not too harsh. So the people of Sichuan did not at all look forward to Zhang Xianzhong coming to "save" them. And Zhang Xianzhong was not a hero who had roamed the Central Plains like Li Zicheng — the people of Sichuan also knew the story that whoever wins the Central Plains wins the realm, and they knew even better that regimes which had carved out Sichuan since ancient times never lasted long. Therefore, few Sichuan people were willing to throw in their lot with Zhang Xianzhong. Once Zhu Cilang's tax-remission edict arrived, Zhang Xianzhong's rule in eastern Sichuan reached the brink of collapse.

Under these circumstances, Ma Shiying joined forces with Acting Governor of Sichuan Ma Qian, former Shanhai Pass Regional Commander Gan Liangchen, Fu Prefecture Assistant Regional Commander Zeng Ying, Zunyi Assistant Regional Commander Wang Xiang, and Sichuan Regional Commander Qin Yiming (Qin Liangyu's brother), whose troops were stationed at Shizhu, to counterattack Chongqing — and they actually succeeded in March!

Meanwhile, the remnant Ming troops in southern and western Sichuan also acclaimed Cao Xun as their commander and raised troops in the Dadu River valley. At present, Cao Xun holds Yazhou, and Yang Zhan holds Jiading Prefecture, both making quite a lively commotion — because with the big promise of "five years' tax remission," even more Sichuan people have flocked to Cao Xun and Yang Zhan than in history.

If things continue to develop this way, Zhang Xianzhong may well die even faster than he did in history!

"Serves him right!" Li Zicheng sneered. "Who told him to take it upon himself to become emperor? Now he's being besieged, isn't he? I'd like to see how much longer he can hold out."

"Your Majesty," Gu Junen said in a low voice, "do you know how Imperial Uncle Liu took the land of Yizhou back then?"

"Imperial Uncle Liu?" Li Zicheng was taken aback. "That big-eared thief Liu Bei who was always crying?"

"Exactly!" Gu Junen, who was also a strategist well versed in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, said: "Zhang Xianzhong's situation is now extremely critical. Besieged by the Sichuan armies and exhausted from responding on all fronts, he faces the same circumstances that Liu Zhang faced back then. And Your Majesty is about to take possession of Jingchu — is that not Imperial Uncle Liu's position? Moreover, Your Majesty and Zhang Xianzhong are both righteous armies, and share the bond of sworn brotherhood!"

Although Li Zicheng's second strategist could not "count on his fingers," he did have a certain insight into the great trends of the realm.

He now understood that the Shun had no chance of unifying the realm. What they could seek now was at best a chance to divide the realm into three.

And to divide the realm into three, they would have to take one of the three: Sichuan-Chu, the Central Plains, or the southeast.

Now the Central Plains belonged to the Great Qing, and the southeast belonged to the Great Ming. Moreover, the Great Qing had land distribution by headcount and the establishment of banners through land enclosure, so its position could be maintained. The Great Ming was also reorganizing land, strictly levying commercial taxes, and possessed the wealth-gathering region of the southeast, and could also obtain Western firearms technology, so it too had steadied its footing.

Therefore, the only territory the Shun could now seize was Sichuan-Chu, following the path of Shu Han in the Three Kingdoms era.

(End of Chapter)