Chapter 510: Shoot You All

Outside the south gate of Jiangling city, the burly Zuo Menggeng, dressed all in hempen mourning clothes, sat upright inside the Official Reception Pavilion. Three thousand of the Zuo family's household retainers, in white clothes and white armor, stood in formation outside the pavilion, simply waiting in silence.

The scene looked rather like troops being reviewed and prepared to march off to war. The expressions on the faces of every Zuo family retainer were not ones of grief, but of that suffocating tension that comes only before a great battle. From Zuo Menggeng on down, every man was restless and uneasy.

The Regional Commanders of the various battalions who had already arrived at Jiangling to attend Zuo Liangyu's funeral had also thrown a white robe over their official dress. Each sat on a small folding stool outside the Official Reception Pavilion, waiting. They glanced at one another, then looked away again, and no one spoke.

The Regional Commanders, great and small, under old Marshal Zuo's command were not all present. One was still missing: Jin Shenghuan, the Garrison Regional Commander of Chengtian Prefecture, who held tens of thousands of troops stationed at Yiling.

Today the whole party had followed Zuo Menggeng out of the city to the Official Reception Pavilion by the Yangtze riverbank, in order to welcome He Tengjiao and his party, who were coming to Jingzhou Prefecture to pay their condolences for Zuo Liangyu.

The officials from Hunan had already reached Jiangling, yet Jin Shenghuan, who was close by at Yiling, had not come to Jiangling. No matter how one looked at it, this was not right!

While Zuo Liangyu was still alive, Jin Shenghuan had already been outwardly aligned but inwardly estranged from the Zuo family, a force unto himself. Now that the old man was gone, could Jin Shenghuan still be relied upon? This fellow was not even one of the old guard who had followed Zuo Liangyu for years, but a roving bandit who had come over after accepting amnesty. If he had once been won over by Zuo Liangyu, why could he not now be won over by Zhu Cilang?

Zhu Cilang was, after all, the Army-Supervising Crown Prince, holding the great moral authority of legitimacy in his hands, and he had silver to spare! If Jin Shenghuan switched his allegiance to Zhu Cilang, he would get office if he wanted office, money if he wanted money, and could even leave his name in the annals of history. What reason did he have to remain loyal unto death to the Zuo family?

Moreover, the thought of abandoning the Zuo family and going over to the Ming was surely not Jin Shenghuan's alone. Zhu Cilang had now stationed his troops at Wuchang and was facing off against Li Zicheng, who was entrenched at Hanyang, and he even seemed to have gained the upper hand.

Once Zhu Cilang defeated Li Zicheng, what good end could await the Zuo army, which had retreated to Jingzhou Prefecture? When the Army-Supervising Crown Prince, who had successively defeated the Qing army and the roving bandits, came knocking, would the Zuo family army not be utterly annihilated?

So quite a few men had long been waiting for the Crown Prince's secret envoys to come and buy them over. The problem now was that they had waited and waited, and no secret envoy from the Embroidered Uniform Guard had arrived bearing gold, beautiful women, and official caps. It was enough to drive a man frantic!

And now, out of the blue, word had come from He Tengjiao that he had accepted the invitation and would bring the high officials of Hunan with him to Jingzhou Prefecture to mourn Zuo Liangyu. Could it be that this He Tengjiao was actually a loyal subject of the Chongzhen Emperor, preparing to join forces with the young commander to rally to the throne?

The Regional Commanders of the Zuo army, a pack of fence-sitters, were once again unable to make up their minds.

As for Zuo Menggeng, ever since receiving He Tengjiao's message, he had immediately begun preparations for the reception. On one hand, he informed the Regional Commanders under him of the plan to unite the various heroes and rally to the throne, in order to settle their minds; on the other hand, he transferred his own trusted troops into Jiangling city, while at the same time moving the units of the two less reliable Regional Commanders, Zhang Yong and Ma Jiaolin, to Shizhou Guard and Yuezhou for garrison duty.

The troops Zuo Menggeng kept in and around Jiangling city consisted, apart from his own trusted forces, of the men of the four Regional Commanders Li Guoying, Lu Guangzu, Xu Yong, and Hao Xiaozhong, plus the guards of the Prince of Chu's palace. The four Regional Commanders' men all set up camp beneath the city walls, in case Li Zicheng should suddenly come leading his troops. The Prince of Chu's palace guards were stationed inside the city — after all, Zuo Menggeng could not very well drive the Prince of Chu's soldiers out of Jiangling; Jiangling was the Prince of Chu's territory!

However, Zuo Menggeng was at ease about his nominal sister Zuo Mengmei. That ignorant woman spent her days dreaming of becoming empress, and was still counting on the Zuo family army to march east and rally to the throne! How could she possibly stage a coup inside Jiangling?

With the military dispositions complete, people's minds were somewhat settled. The day for He Tengjiao and his party to come to Jiangling to pay their respects had also arrived. Only then did Zuo Menggeng bring out all the officers under his command to wait for He Tengjiao and the others at the Official Reception Pavilion outside the south gate of Jiangling.

To the south of the Official Reception Pavilion was a broad pontoon bridge linking the two banks of the Yangtze. This bridge had been built on Zuo Menggeng's orders after he retreated to Jingzhou Prefecture, precisely so that if Li Zicheng's great army bore down on Jiangling, he could withdraw at the first opportunity to Gong'an County in Jiangnan.

Now Li Zicheng had not come, but He Tengjiao and his party had arrived first, about to cross the pontoon bridge and walk into the trap at Jiangling — and they were coming as a group to walk into the trap! There was not only He Tengjiao, the Governor of Hunan, but also Chang Yanling, Fu Shangrui, Yan Qiheng, Zhang Kuang, Wu Jinxi, Zhou Daqi, and a whole host of Hunan's warlord-officials.

If all of them could be seized, the whole province of Hunan would fall into the Zuo family army's lap. But these men had not come alone! They were the "Seven Magnates of Hunan" who had carved up the province among themselves. Which of them did not have more than ten thousand troops who could fight and charge? Coming all this way to Jiangling, and at a time of such chaos and upheaval, how could they possibly not bring their personal guards along?

According to a report sent back by Zhang Yingyuan, the trusted man Zuo Menggeng had dispatched to welcome He Tengjiao and the others, the personal guards accompanying He Tengjiao's party totaled no fewer than fifteen thousand men. Bringing that many troops to mourn the dead — no matter how one looked at it, something was off!

In the back of his mind, Zuo Menggeng vaguely sensed that matters were not so simple, yet he was unwilling to give up the opportunity at hand. The two thoughts wrestled back and forth in his mind, leaving him irritable, and in the end he merely let out a long breath.

Huang Shu, who had already returned from Li Zicheng, was also sitting outside the Official Reception Pavilion. Seeing Zuo Menggeng sigh, he rose and walked into the pavilion, came up behind him, bent down to Zuo Menggeng's ear, and said in a low voice, "His Imperial Majesty's great army will arrive soon!"

The "His Imperial Majesty" he spoke of was of course not Chongzhen, but the Shun emperor, Li Zicheng!

Huang Shu had not come back from Li Zicheng empty-handed. He had brought an edict from Li Zicheng investing Zuo Menggeng as Duke of Xiang and Military Commissioner of Hunan.

Li Zicheng was not generous when it came to bestowing titles. Men of the caliber of Liu Zongmin, Tian Jianxiu, and Li Guo were only marquises. Now he had made Zuo Menggeng Duke of Xiang, which was a tremendous elevation. And old Li had also given him the title of Military Commissioner of Hunan. By virtue of that title, Zuo Menggeng would be the Shun dynasty's top man in Hunan.

In addition, Li Zicheng had sent word through Huang Shu that the Shun's hundred thousand heavenly troops would arrive at once! If Zuo Menggeng could use a "Hongmen funeral" to seize He Tengjiao and the others, then the land of Huguang would be shared between Li in the north and Zuo in the south.

Zuo Menggeng glanced at Huang Shu and still said nothing. Huang Shu said in a low voice, trying to reassure him, "My Lord Duke, even if He Tengjiao is playing tricks, with all the crack troops we have on hand, can we not take him? His Imperial Majesty has also sent the Marquis of Bo to station troops at Jingmen — nothing can go wrong!"

Zuo Menggeng let out a breath and turned to look at the three thousand Zuo family retainers drawn up in ranks a few dozen paces away. With them here, was there any need to fear the ten thousand or so weak soldiers He Tengjiao had brought?

Just then, a dozen or so riders came galloping at full speed along the official road from the south bank of the Yangtze, charged onto the pontoon bridge, and from a distance shouted toward Zuo Menggeng, "Governor He has arrived! Commander Chang has also arrived!"

Zuo Menggeng abruptly stood up and straightened his mourning clothes. Beneath the mourning clothes was a coat of mail passed down from his father, exquisitely wrought and of excellent material. Then he pressed his right hand on the hilt of the saber at his waist and squeezed it hard.

Huang Shu, afraid he would lose his composure, hastily reminded him, "My Lord Duke, let He Tengjiao and the others enter the city first. Only once they are inside the city can we catch them all in one net!"

Zuo Menggeng drew a deep breath and nodded. "This Duke knows!"

On the horizon across the Yangtze there at last appeared a "Commander of the Three Armies" banner fluttering in the wind, and a great standard bearing He Tengjiao's official title. At the same time, a dozen or more other banners of every description appeared, snapping and rolling in the wind. Only then came a gleaming expanse of spear points, rank upon rank, advancing like a forest. Even from a distance, it made one's scalp prickle. A while later, a hundred or so riders came into view, escorting a tall, lean man in his fifties, dressed in a great red python robe, with a full beard that reached all the way to his chest, a high-bridged nose, and bright, piercing eyes, as he mounted the pontoon bridge linking the north and south banks of the Yangtze.

This man was none other than He Tengjiao, Imperial Commissioner, Governor of Hunan, and concurrently Prefect of Changsha of the Great Ming!