Chapter 53: War Is No Place for Honest Blowing (Frantically Begging for Recommendation Tickets)

Tang Tong, Wang Chengyun, Chen Yongfu, Bai Guang'en, and Du Zhizhi — five men in all — now stood in the open ground about a hundred paces outside Guangning Gate on the outer wall of Beijing. There were no lanterns or torches around them, lest the defenders on the wall bombard them with cannon.

They had come on Li Zicheng's orders to shout at the city. The shouting on the seventeenth had failed, and Du Xun had been thrown away in the bargain. But Li Zicheng had not given up on the "war of hearts and minds," because Beijing's walls were high and strong, and Hongyi cannon were emplaced on top of them. If the city could not be taken by winning hearts, then taking it by storm would be no easy matter.

Li Zicheng's great army had come light and fast, without carrying much artillery, and could not batter down Beijing's walls. Building large siege engines would cost time and effort, and under the threat of the Hongyi cannon on the walls, large siege engines would be of little use anyway. But if they relied on scaling ladders and swarming the walls, how many men would have to die before Beijing fell?

Of course, if it truly came to a point where storming was unavoidable, Li Zicheng would not lightly commit his own veteran camp. He would send the surrendered Ming troops to throw themselves at the city — and however many died, it would not pain him in the least!

But Tang Tong, Wang Chengyun, Bai Guang'en, and Chen Yongfu — the four Ming Regional Commanders who had surrendered to Li Zicheng — did not want their own subordinates to suffer heavy losses.

To them, the army was their capital! It was the means by which they would rise in rank and grow rich in the new Shun dynasty — it must not all be squandered beneath the walls of Beijing.

Moreover, through Du Zhizhi, the four of them knew that Beijing was hollow within. There were only a few thousand Capital Camps troops and three thousand "Pure Army" men.

Wu Sangui's Guanning troops had not arrived either, and the troops of Liu Zeqing, the Shandong Regional Commander south of the capital, had fled.

Apart from having almost no troops, Beijing also had no pay. The state treasury plus the palace treasury — who knew if there were even two hundred thousand taels of silver?

No troops and no pay — it was simply an empty city. How could shouting fail to bring it down?

So besides the "loud voices" doing the shouting, each of the four Regional Commanders had brought several hundred household retainers, plus three thousand picked elite troops selected from their commands. It was these retainers and elite troops who had just fired a volley from their matchlocks toward Guangning Gate, to frighten the defenders on the wall. Now they were waiting for the gate to be shouted open, so they could seize it at once, then quietly await Li Zicheng's veteran camp and count it as a merit — the fat meat of Beijing's outer city was something the four of them would never dare swallow themselves; that had to be left for the Roving King's trusted core troops...

"Brothers on the wall, we were Capital Camps troops too! Now we've gone over to the Shun Emperor, and every day we eat and drink well — no more taking the Zhu family's crap! Stop selling your lives for the Zhus too — come work with us!"

"Brothers on the wall, the Shun Emperor has a million heavenly soldiers! The capital cannot be held! Open the gates and welcome the Roving King, and you'll be honored as dragon-following meritorious subjects..."

The gate-shouting now began. At first no concrete terms were offered, only propaganda about the situation — though in truth there was no need for propaganda. With a million troops already at the walls, what was there left to propagandize?

The Ming dynasty's future was a louse on a monk's head — plain for all to see... it was finished!

So the four Shun Regional Commanders reckoned that a few casual shouts would bring an answer from the defenders on the gate, and then it would be time to discuss terms. The four of them, along with Du Zhizhi, had scraped together several chests of silver — about three or four thousand taels — and had carried it all over. As long as the defenders of Guangning Gate were willing to surrender, the money would be theirs.

But how things developed greatly exceeded the expectations of these gentlemen.

Because the gate would not open... Through the efforts of Zhang Shize, Duke of Ying, Guangning Gate had already been blocked up with earth, rubble, and all manner of odds and ends.

So even if the fewer than a hundred defenders at Guangning Gate wanted to hand over the gate, they were powerless to do so.

And Zhu Cilang had also arrived!

In fighting, the current Zhu Cilang was certainly no match for Li Zicheng, still less for Dorgon.

But in bragging! Heh — whom did Zhu Cilang fear? He was a professional braggart! In later ages there would be a securities regulatory commission to deal with his sort, but the Ming dynasty had no such office at present!

Even if it did, with Zhu Cilang's status as heir to the great cause of Ming feudalism, would he fear being prosecuted for the crime of bragging?

He could just let loose and blow as hard as he pleased!

So no sooner had the surrendered Capital Camps troops below the wall finished bellowing than the response came from above — not to surrender, but to urge surrender.

"Brothers below the wall, you surrendered too early! The court has money now! The nobles and palace eunuchs in Beijing have all donated under the inspiration of His Highness the Crown Prince... so now we get one tael of silver a day in pay! In cash!"

What?

One tael of silver a day, and in cash?

How was that possible!?

All four Regional Commanders turned their eyes to Du Zhizhi. Eunuch Du's head shook like a rattle-drum. "Impossible, impossible... even if the court had money, the sage — ah, the Zhu family's fatuous ruler would never bear to give it!"

True enough — the Chongzhen Emperor was a miser! How could he possibly give that much?

The wall spoke again: "Brothers below the wall, there is still time to abandon darkness and turn to the light! His Highness the Thousand Years says that as long as you come over, past offenses will not be pursued, and each man will be rewarded with five taels of silver — in cash! Come quickly and get your money!"

They really had money?

Tang Tong, Wang Chengyun, Chen Yongfu, Bai Guang'en, and Du Zhizhi — all five — stared in astonishment, mouths agape.

Before the five of them could react, some of the "loud-voiced soldiers" shouting below the wall began to voice doubts.

"Go on and brag — who'd believe it!"

"Even if the court had money, it wouldn't give it to big-headed grunts like us!"

"Even if there's money, it's no use... the Shun Son of Heaven's million troops are here — what the hell is there left to defend in Beijing!"

At once someone on the wall shouted back loudly: "It is useful — how could money be useless?

Let me tell you — us soldiers won't be getting more than a few taels of it... the bulk is going to the Manchus!"

"To whom?"

"The Manchus! The Great Qing... the court has borrowed troops from the Great Qing! Paid two million taels to borrow twenty thousand Manchu troops, coming together with the Guanning Army — they're almost at the capital! Once the Manchu troops arrive, you're done for."

"Is that true?"

"Of course! Our Great Ming has also made a marriage alliance with the Great Qing... the Crown Prince is going to marry a daughter of the Great Qing's Prince Regent, and from now on the Great Qing emperor and His Majesty will be in-laws."

"Really? Don't be talking nonsense!"

"Ha! How could such a thing be false? Can one talk nonsense about a matter like this?"

True enough — could one talk nonsense about a marriage alliance?

Tang Tong, Wang Chengyun, Chen Yongfu, Bai Guang'en, and Du Zhizhi — the five of them now began to panic a little.

What sort of temper did the Chongzhen Emperor have? Did they not know? He was an extremely serious and solemn emperor — how could he recklessly spread word of a marriage between the Crown Prince and a Manchu prince's daughter?

"Eunuch Du, could this matter possibly be true?" Tang Tong could no longer hold himself together and was the first to ask.

"Yes — you were one of the Zhu Son of Heaven's own people, Eunuch. You must know better than us?"

"Eunuch Du, would the Zhu emperor use such a thing to bluff us?"

"Yes, Eunuch Du, you know the Zhu bandit emperor best..."

Wang Chengyun, Chen Yongfu, and Bai Guang'en all pressed him with questions in turn. The matter of the Great Ming borrowing troops from the Great Qing was no joke!

How fearsome were the Manchu troops! Ming officers and men had won more than they lost against Li Zicheng — especially before Hong Chengchou and Lu Xiangsheng were killed by the Qing troops (they did not know that Hong Chengchou had surrendered to the Qing) — Li Zicheng had been beaten into fleeing everywhere, a true roving bandit... yet when such formidable men as Hong Chengchou and Lu Xiangsheng met the Manchu troops, their entire armies were annihilated all the same!

"This, this..." Du Zhizhi shook his head. "By rights it should not be so, but one cannot be certain. Did Chen Xinjia not lose his life precisely because he leaked the matter of peace talks with the Manchus? Perhaps the peace talks have been going on in secret all along!"

"It must be so!" Tang Tong clapped his hands. "Otherwise why hasn't the Zhu emperor fled? At the start of the year, weren't they still discussing going to the auxiliary capital? By the third month, the talk went silent instead..."

"It must be so!" Wang Chengyun was frightened too. As Regional Commander of Xuanfu, he had fought the Manchu troops more than a few times and knew how ferocious those men were.

If he had known that surrendering to Li Zicheng would mean fighting the Manchu troops, he would have held Xuanfu to the death.

Bai Guang'en, who had fought in the Song-Jin campaign, suffered from the same Manchu-phobia. He drew a sharp breath: "If that is truly so, then this capital will not be easy to take after all!"

Chen Yongfu was the calmest of the group. He snorted and said, "It's only twenty thousand Manchu soldiers... I'll keep watch here and have the men keep firing the muskets and cannons. You go report to His Majesty first. I trust His Majesty will have a way to deal with them."

(End of Chapter)