Chapter 519: The Great Ming's Prince Who Pacified the West

"Your Highness! Ahead is already Gong'an County. Our forward scouts have spotted the banners of the various armies encamped on the south bank of the Yangtze — we've arrived!"

Several riders came galloping back from the front at full speed. Though the weather was at its hottest, the riders still wore full armor and helmets, with slender carbines slung across their backs, quivers and Kaiyuan bows at their sides, not daring to relax in the slightest. The main force marching with Zhu Cilang was resting on the ground, and they too had not shed their armor or unsaddled their horses. All sat in disciplined silence, wordlessly eating their field rations. Every face showed exhaustion — seven hundred li of forced march, all while maintaining high alert against a possible ambush by Shun troops crossing from the north bank of the Yangtze. But to get Zhu Cilang to Gong'an County on the south bank as quickly as possible to take charge of the Jingnan garrison, this risk had to be taken.

The forces now concentrated in the Jiangnan region of Jingzhou Prefecture included, besides the one elite division under Wu Guoyong — Zhu Cilang's own core troops — as many as seventy to eighty thousand men of miscellaneous units. Though miscellaneous, they were the key to victory or defeat in this Huguang campaign.

Without them, the three divisions of core troops Zhu Cilang had brought to Huguang — a land force of just over forty thousand — would simply not be enough, no matter what.

The Huguang theater had now split into four sectors: one at Hanyang and Wuchang, one at Xiangyang and Nanyang, one along the Yangtze at Yuezhou, and one at Jingzhou Prefecture. Dividing a land force of just over forty thousand into four to cover each sector was truly a stretch.

So Zhu Cilang had no choice but to grit his teeth and, escorted by some three thousand cavalry, press on day and night at a breakneck pace — while also having to carefully figure out how to hoodwink the warlords of the Jingnan armies. Thinking about it, it really was exasperating. What sort of people were they? Zuo Mengmei, who played at killing her own brother; his own dear younger brother Zhu Cizhao, who clamored day and night about dealing with him; He Tengjiao, the master of internal strife; Jin Shenghuan, who in history became a turncoat and then switched back; and Zhang Yong, a diehard turncoat of the Great Qing in history and the foremost of the Four Generals of Hexi... Only Du Yinxi was slightly better, but he was a Wuxi big landlord and a Donglin successor! To put it bluntly, he was Crown Prince Zhu's class enemy!

How was it that there wasn't a single good man among them — all traitors, rebels, and sycophants?

They say birds of a feather flock together. He was the foremost filial son under heaven, and had done so many good deeds wholeheartedly for the country and the people — so why was it that he had a whole crowd of loyal ministers and pillars of state around him to use?

Could it be that all the capable loyalists of the Great Ming had been done in by Chongzhen and turned into martyrs, leaving him with no good men to use?

Fortunately, Zhu Cilang had a knack for packaging loyal ministers — he could package traitors and rebels into loyal ministers! The men now gathered in Jingnan might not be good people, but meeting His Highness Crown Prince Zhu was their good fortune. From now on they were guaranteed a place in the history books, every one of them a loyal minister of the Ming restoration.

And in order to leave a good impression on these future loyal ministers of the restoration, after approaching Gong'an County, Zhu Cilang ordered the exhausted column, which had marched over six hundred li, to halt and rest, to tidy up their military appearance a little, and to send out scouts to feel out the situation. If anything was amiss, they were not to blunder straight into it...

When the scouts returned with their report, His Highness Crown Prince Zhu was sitting cross-legged on the ground, laboring over a piece of hard-baked flatbread. After a few bites he choked, and hurriedly asked Wu Sanmei for water — Wu Sanmei, it seemed, was not fated for a life of ease. How long had it been since she gave birth? And here she was again, accompanying His Highness on campaign.

Originally this trip to Jingnan had not required her company, but to make dealing with Zuo Mengmei easier, Zhu Cilang had decided to bring her along.

Just as Zhu Cilang was drinking water, his chief bodyguard Yan Yingyuan spoke up: "Whose banners were flying over the main camp you saw?"

The riders had already dismounted one after another, and the foremost man reported loudly: "A pair of command flags, red background with yellow characters. I don't know whose they are."

Beside Yan Yingyuan, Bi Jiucheng's voice rang out: "Those are the command flags of a Prince — it's the camp of the Prince of Chu!"

Zhu Cilang had marched along the Yangtze, entering Jingzhou Prefecture from Huarong County in Yuezhou Prefecture, then skirting the county seat of Shishou and entering the territory of Gong'an County. Gong'an County was one of the core holdings of the Prince of Chu's estate, and after losing Jiangling County, Zhu Cizhao and Zuo Mengmei had naturally relocated to Gong'an.

"How many men does the Prince of Chu still have? Who commands them?" Zhu Cilang asked.

Bi Jiucheng replied: "The Prince of Chu's force is just his palace guard, reorganized from the troops of Regional Commander Qiu Lei of Jingzhou Prefecture and the militia of Prefect Du Yinxi of Jingzhou. Not worth mentioning. However, He Tengjiao's secret memorial says the Princess of Chu and Zhang Yong have sworn brotherhood as sworn siblings, and Zhang Yong's eight thousand Shaanxi troops can really fight!"

Although Bi Jiucheng's official post was Hanlin Academician, he was an old hand who had followed Zhu Cilang since Beijing, and had always been responsible for military-related memorials and decrees, so he was thoroughly familiar with the situation of the various armies — practically half a chief of staff.

Zhu Cilang then glanced at his chief bodyguard Yan Yingyuan. Yan Yingyuan was a military-register jinshi, a fellow townsman of Zhu Cilang, a first-class graduate of the Military Academy, and one of the few "good men from history" around His Highness — naturally a key figure to be cultivated!

So the Crown Prince now wanted to hear his opinion.

"Thousand Years, we have three thousand iron cavalry!" Yan Yingyuan said. "All elite troops who have killed Tartars... Zhang Yong's eight thousand are no match for them. Your Highness would do well to emulate Emperor Guangwu's strategy of soothing the Bronze Horses — first overawe them with iron cavalry, then enter Gong'an County to soothe them. In this way, the entire Chu army, high and low, will be sincerely won over by Your Highness and gladly serve as your vanguard!"

"Good!" Zhu Cilang nodded, then glanced at Bi Jiucheng. "Note that down. In the future, that's how it shall be written in the histories!"

"Aye!" Bi Jiucheng immediately produced a small notebook and brush, licked the dried-out tip with his tongue, and began recording in the little book.

Then Zhu Cilang turned to Yan Yingyuan: "Liheng, remember this for me: people's hearts are not meant to be tested! When there is no opportunity for corruption, civil officials are all officials as clean as water. Short of a matter of life and death, military officers are all loyal-hearted ministers. If there is no chance of advancing further, all of Our brothers are virtuous princes of unutterable loyalty.

So on the Jingzhou front, there will only be good officials, loyal ministers, and virtuous princes — nothing else!"

Zhu Cilang was just that sort of person — always sizing up people's hearts with the fullest measure of malice.

"This subject knows what to do now!" Yan Yingyuan said. "I will immediately send men around Gong'an to contact the commander of the Right Division, Wu Guoyong."

Zhu Cilang nodded. "Send out more cavalry to patrol and stand guard in all directions. Don't let Zuo Mengmei and Zhang Yong learn our true strength!"

"Aye!"

"Why hasn't he come back yet?"

Qiu Lei was pacing in the main hall of the Prince's secondary residence inside Gong'an County town, his steps heavy and quick, all restless agitation.

Since the infighting at Jiangling, the Ming troops who had withdrawn to the south bank of the Yangtze had, intentionally or not, split into two groups. The three commands of Qiu Lei, Zhang Yong, and Jin Shenghuan, which had broken away from the Zuo family army, were camped together near the county town of Gong'an.

Meanwhile, the three commands of He Tengjiao, Chang Yanling, and Wu Guoyong were camped at Hukou Ferry on the south bank of the Yangtze, on the island of Xiabaili Zhou in the Yangtze channel between Jiangling city and Hukou Ferry, and at the bridgehead camp on the north bank — also clustered together.

This arrangement of splitting the forces into two locations made it plain that He Tengjiao, Chang Yanling, and Wu Guoyong still did not trust the old troops of the Zuo army, and so kept them far away, the better to guard against them.

And now His Highness Crown Prince Zhu had ridden hard for over seven hundred li to Jingzhou Prefecture, not only bypassing the county town of Gong'an where the Prince of Chu's main camp lay, but also sending out large numbers of cavalry to patrol and stand guard around the main army, preventing the Prince of Chu's scouts from getting close enough to observe.

After consulting with Zuo Mengmei, Qiu Lei had simply withdrawn his own patrols and let His Highness pass through their sector unhindered, while at the same time asking Prefect Du Yinxi of Jingzhou, who had connections on both sides, to go out and welcome Zhu Cilang. They had also swept clean a luxurious villa outside the county town of Gong'an that had originally belonged to the Prince of Hui's estate, to use for entertaining Zhu Cilang.

But Du Yinxi had been gone two full days without so much as a word in reply, and Zhu Cilang of course had not taken up residence in the Prince's villa outside Gong'an County town... What exactly did this Crown Prince Zhu intend to do?