Chapter 52: Li Zicheng Has Rested Long Enough (Recommendation Tickets)

"Thousand Years, about this matter... His Majesty simply hasn't thought it through for the moment. Please don't take it to heart. Perhaps by tomorrow the clouds will part and the mist will clear..."

Inside the Hall of Auspicious Joy, Zhu Cilang, just back from the inner drill ground, was holding his wife Wu Sanmei by the hand as they sat side by side on the imperial seat, listening cheerfully to Wang Cheng'en. His eyes never once looked at Wang Cheng'en; he simply studied Wu Sanmei over and over, a satisfied smile now and then tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Seeing him like this, Wang Cheng'en inwardly blamed the Chongzhen Emperor too: what a fine young couple they were—why must a father beat the mandarin ducks apart? And this was no pair of star-crossed lovers, but a warlord couple with a great army in hand. Never mind beating them apart—even cannon fire might not do the job.

"Sanmei, what shall we do? Imperial Father is angry and wants you to become a palace maid... what shall we do?" Zhu Cilang was easygoing at heart and did not take the Chongzhen Emperor's fit of pique to heart at all; he just asked Wu Sanmei with a grin what they should do.

"This slave will heed Thousand Years. Whatever Thousand Years wants this slave to be, this slave will be. As long as this slave can stay by Thousand Years' side, even being a bondmaid is a joy." Wu Sanmei's heart was not small either—one look told you that, full and swelling... so she was not angry either, just as cheerful as Zhu Cilang.

What a perfect match these two made!

Watching the pair of them so utterly carefree, Wang Cheng'en was at once annoyed and amused, and at the same time helpless.

They had fallen in love at first sight, and now they would stay together even without proper standing!

"Thousand Years," Wang Cheng'en said with a furrowed brow, "right now, right now the state treasury is empty, and the palace treasury is empty as well... the court can barely keep going. You are a filial son; surely you cannot bear to watch His Majesty and Her Majesty the Empress suffer?"

"Isn't there still two hundred thousand taels?" Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "It's only these next two or three days—isn't two hundred thousand enough to spend?"

What did he mean, "only these next two or three days"?

Wang Cheng'en was taken aback. "Thousand Years, what do you mean by that?"

"In two or three days we leave!" Zhu Cilang said. "Companion Wang, how are Imperial Father and Imperial Mother's preparations coming? Who goes along, who stays behind to cover the rear—has it all been settled? Has everything been packed?"

"Why leave? Now we have troops and pay, and Wu Sangui's great army is almost here..."

Zhu Cilang shook his head. "What troops? A mere twenty thousand rabble, fewer than five thousand of them fit to fight... and they were thrown together at the last moment. They cannot fight a proper pitched battle at all."

"Once Wu Sangui's troops enter the capital's walls, the roving bandits will have no stratagem left."

"Whose idea is that?" Zhu Cilang's brow finally creased.

"That is... that is this old slave's own thought."

Wang Cheng'en knew that the Chongzhen Emperor and quite a few court officials were reckoning the same way.

"Sanmei," Zhu Cilang turned his gaze back to Wu Sanmei, "you tell us."

"This slave? How would this slave understand great affairs of war and state?" Wu Sanmei was startled.

"If I tell you to speak, then speak," Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "We mean to test you."

"Oh," Wu Sanmei nodded. "In this slave's view, this slave's second brother will not enter the capital's walls."

"Why is that?" Wang Cheng'en was stunned.

Wu Sanmei blinked her large eyes and said with a perfectly serious face: "Because a lone city cannot be held! The Guanning Army is built around cavalry and excels in the field. If it deploys east of the capital, it can threaten the bandits besieging the city and cover the garrison's breakout. If it enters the city, then the bandits can dig trenches around the capital and lay siege, and everything around the capital will fall into bandit hands as well—exactly the situation at Dalinghe and Jinzhou back in the day."

By "the situation at Dalinghe and Jinzhou," she meant the siege of Dalinghe in the fourth year of Chongzhen and the siege of Jinzhou in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen.

Both fortresses had been "lone cities that could not be held," with no continuous defensive system, and both had been surrounded by Qing troops who held the advantage in field combat. In the end both suffered catastrophic losses—men dead, cities lost!

As a member of the Guanning clique's core family, Wu Sanmei had naturally heard her elders and brothers discuss at length these two campaigns that had so badly wounded the Guanning clique's vitality.

"See there—even a palace maid understands..." Zhu Cilang said half-jokingly. "Beijing is already dead ground. To insist on holding it is nothing but losing both the men and the ground!"

Wang Cheng'en's brow was tightly knit: "But His Majesty does not wish to flee in disarray. Even if he is to journey south, he must first beat back the roving bandits, and only then move south at leisure."

"Heh," Zhu Cilang laughed. "If by luck we beat back the bandits, then there will be dithering again over the question of moving south... Companion Wang, go back and tell Imperial Father plainly: say that We have already resolved to move south, and within two or three days We will escort the imperial carriage in a breakout. If there is any crime in abandoning the ancestral foundation, We alone will bear it. Once the carriage reaches the secondary capital, We will go to the Xiao Mausoleum to beg forgiveness."

Going to the Xiao Mausoleum to beg forgiveness was impossible—going to demand an accounting was more like it! Zhu Cilang very much wanted to ask his ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang by what right his soul had been dragged across several hundred years to take the blame for Chongzhen.

Wang Cheng'en sighed as well: "Thousand Years is indeed a filial son. It is only that His Majesty has some misunderstanding of Thousand Years. If it is not explained clearly, I fear the rift will deepen by the day."

"It won't," Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "As the saying goes, between father and son there is no grudge that lasts the night. This little rift will melt away by tomorrow morning. Companion Wang need not worry."

"That is for ordinary families..."

Wang Cheng'en sighed again. The imperial house was the most heartless of all! History was full of emperors killing their own crown princes!

Having gotten no satisfactory answer from Zhu Cilang, Wang Cheng'en could only sigh and go back to persuade Chongzhen.

Meanwhile, in the Hall of Auspicious Joy, Wu Sanmei—demoted to palace maid by the Chongzhen Emperor—had begun urging Zhu Cilang to go apologize to the Chongzhen Emperor.

"Thousand Years, please don't quarrel with His Majesty over this slave... why not go and admit your fault?"

Zhu Cilang glanced at Miss Wu and burst out laughing: "Already calling yourself 'this slave'... you really do take yourself for a palace maid?"

Wu Sanmei thought it over, then actually nodded seriously and said: "As long as Thousand Years cherishes this slave, being a palace maid is fine too."

Zhu Cilang yawned—he had been badly short of sleep these past two days. "No need to worry. Between father and son there is no overnight grudge... We need to nap for a while, or tonight We won't have the strength to favor you!"

He still had not yet favored Miss Wu! So he meant to conserve his strength.

Miss Wu vaguely understood a little of the business between men and women. Her fair face flushed red at once, her head drooped, and she was too embarrassed to answer.

Zhu Cilang then unfastened his treasured sword (not the Imperial Sword) and handed it to Wu Sanmei. "Sanmei, you know how to use a treasured sword, don't you?"

Wu Sanmei took the sword and looked at Zhu Cilang, puzzled. "Thousand Years, this is..."

"Extraordinary times!" Zhu Cilang said. "It's just as well Imperial Father made you a palace maid—a palace maid is more convenient than a consort... From now on, you stay by Our side. We'll fight our way out of Beijing together, conquer the realm together, pacify the realm together! And one day pass this realm on to our son!"

Wu Sanmei was moved all at once by Zhu Cilang's words and nodded emphatically: "Mm, this slave will stay by Thousand Years' side. This slave will heed Thousand Years in everything."

Zhu Cilang nodded and smiled: "In a while, when We are asleep, you keep watch by Our side."

......

While Zhu Cilang was conserving his strength for the evening's "great battle," he had no idea that his opponent for tonight was about to change... The sprint of love between him and Wu Sanmei would have to continue a while longer before it reached its happy consummation.

But the line he had used to fool Wang Cheng'en—"between father and son there is no overnight grudge"—turned out to be true!

Because Li Zicheng had rested long enough and was preparing to attack again after dark on the eighteenth. But it was not an attack of real swords and spears—it was still a battle for the mind.

Compared with the anticlimactic battle for the mind on the afternoon of the seventeenth, however, this one would be far more explosive.

As soon as darkness fell on the eighteenth, the crackle and pop of gunfire erupted outside Guangning Gate on the west side of Beijing. It did not sound continuously, but in bursts. In the gaps between gunfire came the bandits hailing the walls. And this time it was not the bandits' old camp doing the shouting, but former Ming officers and men who had surrendered to the bandits at Xuanfu, Changping, and elsewhere—many of them from the Capital Camps.

Under cover of night they approached the walls, and then, whenever the intimidating gunfire paused, they began proclaiming the Roving King's benevolence to the defenders on the walls of Beijing, urging the defending troops to open the gates or lay down their arms.

At this, even the Crown Prince had no heart for "great battle with Wu Sanmei." After waking, he hastily ate a little something, then led his men up onto the walls to inspect.

(End of Chapter)