Chapter 469: What to Do When There Is No Door Through Which to Sell Out the Country

In the autumn of the eighteenth year of Chongzhen of the Great Ming, for the prominent figures of Wuchang, it was a season almost impossible to endure.

The Battle of Blood-Flowing Creek that summer had struck the commanders in Wuchang like a blow to the head, shattering and smashing to pieces their little fantasies of carving out a domain in Jingchu. Because Zuo Liangyu had long commanded troops in Liaodong (he himself was a Shandong man, a fellow native of Qiu Lei), he had under him many military bosses of Liao army origin, some of whom still maintained secret contacts with the Liaodong military bosses who had surrendered to the Qing and become traitors. These men therefore understood very well the significance of the Battle of Blood-Flowing Creek!

The Great Qing's Prince Su, banner lord of the Plain Blue Banner, the Grand General Who Pacifies the Distant, Hooge, had been killed. And the Great Qing court itself had acknowledged it!

What sort of man was Hooge? He was not one to charge recklessly into danger. So for Zhu Cilang to have killed Hooge, he must have dealt the Qing army a heavy blow at Blood-Flowing Creek; there was no doubt he had slain several thousand stalwart warriors of the Eight Banners.

And the true Manchu of the Eight Banners had only fifty or sixty thousand fighting men in all. Ten percent gone in one stroke. Heh — could these would-be traitors under Zuo Liangyu still hope for the royal army?

Yet this news was not what shocked them most. What shocked them most was that the Great Qing had begun carrying out land equalization by headcount in Henan, Shandong, Northern Zhili, Shanxi, and elsewhere.

When word of the Qing land equalization arrived, all of Wuchang fell speechless. What the Qing land equalization meant for the Great Ming, anyone with a brain could figure out. The Qing, a tribal confederation of the Eight Banners, had entered the pass and seized the Central Plain with a few tens of thousands of warriors skilled in bow and horse. There was an enormous element of luck in it, and to win the realm, a few tens of thousands of brave men alone would not suffice; they had to win the support of the Han scholar-officials.

And what did the Han scholar-officials hate most? Overturning the altar of old Master Kong? Not at all. And of course it was not the shaving of heads or the changing of robes either — it was land equalization!

If the Great Qing did not equalize the land, the southern scholar-officials might still have gone over to them. But now, the possibility of going over was gone. If the Great Qing wanted to pacify the realm, it would have to fight for it by force.

And the Battle of Blood-Flowing Creek had shown that hard fighting and frontal assault would not work. So the Qing court's announcement of land equalization after the Battle of Blood-Flowing Creek in fact made clear that they had already given up on unifying the realm!

In any case, this generation of Eight Banners lords was satisfied with just the Central Plain; they no longer counted on the southeastern scholar-officials to welcome the royal army and become traitors.

Since even the Great Qing was not coming, what could these would-be traitors in Wuchang still hope for?

Now there truly was no door through which to sell out the country.

Having no door to sell out the country was already miserable enough, but worse was yet to come! The worse thing was that Chongqing Prefecture in Sichuan had actually been seized by Ma Shiying!

Zhang Xianzhong, who had looked so formidable, had apparently taken some wrong medicine. Once he entered Chengdu he turned into a useless pastry, and a bunch of Sichuan men hung him up and beat him! He lost Chongqing, then lost Luzhou; lost Luzhou, then lost Xuzhou; lost Xuzhou, then lost Jiading — in the blink of an eye, half of Sichuan was gone!

Had they known Zhang Xianzhong was so easy to beat, those men under Zuo Liangyu would have escorted Zuo Liangyu into Sichuan. By now they would all be "Kings of Sichuan."

But now Ma Shiying had entered Chongqing, at the very height of his confidence and vigor — would he still allow the Zuo army into Sichuan to seize territory?

Losing the chance to enter Sichuan was still not the worst of it. The worst of it was that the Zuo family army was about to be struggled against as landlords by Li Zicheng.

Just a few days earlier, spies sent by Li Zicheng had posted a proclamation titled "Welcome the Roving King, Equalize the Land" outside the walls of Wuchang.

This proclamation declared that a million soldiers of the Shun's heavenly host would come floating down the Han River to drive out the bandit Zuo and deliver the people of Jingchu! And after that, they would equalize the land by headcount, so that every poor peasant of Jingchu would have fields to till, food to eat, and clothes to wear!

Now there truly was no way to survive. The Tartars were not coming, but Li Zicheng was coming first — and the Zuo family army no longer even had room to flee into Sichuan for refuge!

Not only were the Zuo army's generals all in a panic; even the Hubei gentry and wealthy merchants living in Wuchang city and Hankou town felt that catastrophe was upon them. When they gathered together, there was nothing but sighs and lamentation.

"The proclamation states it in black and white: the Roving Bandit means to be the champion of the people, equalizing land by headcount. He will take all the land of the heartless gentry and merchants and distribute it to the poor peasants with little or no land. That rebel has only been quiet for a few days, and now he comes to wreak havoc on Huguang again!"

"What is there to fear? The Great Ming now has the Crown Prince who soothes the army. He even killed the eastern barbarians' Beile who dug up graves — should we still fear Li Zicheng?"

"But Huguang is not the Crown Prince's territory."

"Exactly! Grand Commander Zuo treats the Crown Prince as a Cao Cao who holds the Son of Heaven to command the feudal lords!"

"Then what can be done? Can Grand Commander Zuo hold off the Roving Bandit?"

"Hold him off? Only if a miracle happens! If he could hold him off, he would not have come to Wuchang."

"And Grand Commander Zuo is so ill he can barely hold on!"

"Is that true?"

"Of course it is true. Grand Commander Zuo's military adviser Huang Zhonglin and I are both of the Donglin succession; we studied together in Jinling back in the day. These days, Huang Zhonglin is so worried his hair has turned white!"

The Wuchang Marquis's residence.

This deathly still marquis's residence was now heavily guarded inside and out!

In a study at the very innermost part of the residence, the Wuchang Marquis's heir, Zuo Menggeng, was pacing restlessly back and forth. He was now merely the marquis's heir and had not been granted the seal of General Who Suppresses the Bandits. Although he had submitted several memorials in Zuo Liangyu's name seeking this great seal that symbolized command of the Zuo family army, Zhu Cilang had all along ignored them.

That is to say, once Zuo Liangyu died of illness, Zuo Menggeng would be left with only the post of Garrison Regional Commander of Wuchang Prefecture. And there were several garrison regional commanders in the Zuo family army; everyone was a prefectural regional commander, so why should Zuo Menggeng command them? Moreover, here in Hubei there was also a Prince of Chu, who was also Grand Commander Zuo's son-in-law!

For now, Zuo Liangyu was still clinging to his last breath, and for the sake of the old man's face, everyone addressed Zuo Menggeng as "Young General" and could still grudgingly obey the orders of the General Who Suppresses the Bandits headquarters.

But Zuo Liangyu was now so ill that he could no longer handle affairs and might die at any moment. What would Zuo Menggeng do then? Would he have to hand over power and go to Nanjing to be a wealthy marquis?

If he handed over power, would Zhu Cilang settle accounts with him after the fact?

If he did not hand over power...

At this thought, Zuo Menggeng let out a long sigh!

But the biggest problem now was not really whether the Zuo family army's subordinate generals would submit to him as their young master, nor whether Zhu Cilang in Nanjing would allow him to inherit the Zuo family army. It was that Li Zicheng was about to attack! Even when his father was strong and vigorous he could not defeat Li Zicheng, let alone now, with Zuo Liangyu at his last gasp. Zuo Menggeng was so frantic he had lost his head — how the hell could they fight?

And Li Zicheng had raised the banner of "equalizing the land" to delude the people. What could be done about that!

Huang Shu was now one of the few core figures of the Zuo family army who could still see Zuo Liangyu every day. He was sitting in Zuo Menggeng's study, watching the young master pace back and forth like a headless fly, his own brows tightly knitted.

Going east to purge the court was unthinkable — Hooge was dead, and if Zuo Menggeng went east he would become "Dreaming Geng." Going west into Sichuan was also impossible, because Ma Shiying would not let the Zuo family army go to Sichuan to seize territory, and besides, it was now autumn, when the water was shallow, and the boats Zuo Menggeng could gather would have difficulty entering the Sichuan river. And if they went overland into Sichuan, how would they transport the great quantities of supplies and the officers' families?

As for going north to join the Great Qing — that also seemed impossible. Because the Great Qing territory closest to Huguang was at Ye County in Nanyang Prefecture and Xiping County in Runing Prefecture. For the Zuo family to go north, they would have to pass through Li Zicheng's or the Prince of Tang's territory. How could they get through? Now Zuo Menggeng and his lot truly had no door through which to sell out the country!

Just as Huang Shu was racking his brains, Zuo Menggeng suddenly stopped in his tracks, turned to look at Huang Shu, and said in a trembling voice: "Military Adviser... if I go to Nanjing now to pay my respects, can I still be a wealthy man?"

Huang Shu's face was grim, and he shook his head gently: "The old marshal has left behind so many regional commanders, vice regional commanders, assistant regional commanders, and mobile corps commanders — every one of them is a wealthy man. Half of Hubei has been squeezed dry! Now that Li Zicheng is about to attack, they are all thinking of going to Nanjing to be wealthy men. Does the young marshal think that will work?"

"This..." Zuo Menggeng also shook his head. "Then what is to be done? Military Adviser, you must give me an idea!"

(End of Chapter)