Chapter 530: The Roving King Has Cannons

The Enemy Is at Gong'an County. "Long live His Majesty! Long live, long live His Majesty..."

At the foot of Shishou Mountain, along the banks of the Yangtze, the densely packed soldiers of the Shun army raised a thunderous cheer. Standing at the highest point of Shishou Mountain, Li Zicheng, the Shun emperor, wore a satisfied smile.

He had just announced the distribution of rewards! The wealth being handed out was not much — a few thousand bolts of silk and cloth, a few thousand taels of silver, and several tens of thousands of strings of copper cash. In a place like Shishou County, scraping together this much was already quite good.

And this time Li Zicheng was uncharacteristically generous — he gave it all away, not keeping a single copper for himself.

With a distribution like that, how could the Shun army not be fired up?

This emperor had harbored great ambitions for several years now, and since then, the old man had kept a tight fist. Whatever wealth he got, he saved it up, keeping it for great undertakings later! Who would have thought he'd turn generous again now — it seemed he realized his mistake and meant to mend his ways!

Seeing his men in such high spirits, Li Zicheng was pleased himself. Thirty thousand crack troops with morale like this — what was there to fear in taking Gong'an?

"Good!" Li Zicheng shouted. "Pass on Our order: set the fires, burn the boats!"

The loud-voiced proclamation officer at his side immediately opened his throat and relayed Li Zicheng's latest imperial decree. At the foot of the mountain there were many more mounted proclamation officers; when they heard the decree from above, they would ride back and forth among the troops assembled along the riverbank below, shouting as they went, making sure everyone heard Li Zicheng's command.

At the same time, riders galloped toward the Shishou docks to notify the imperial guard troops there — they had long since prepared kindling on the moored wooden boats, just waiting for Li Zicheng's order!

But the nearly thirty thousand veteran camp soldiers and their attendants and servants assembled at the foot of the mountain had no idea their emperor was about to become the "Hegemon of Western Shu," burning the boats to cut off their own retreat.

So when they heard Li Zicheng's decree and then saw the wooden boats on the river set ablaze, they were all stunned.

What was wrong with His Majesty? Why burn perfectly good boats?

Besides, with the boats burned, how were we supposed to cross the Yangtze?

Li Zicheng saw everyone below staring blankly, no one cheering, and merely frowned slightly before shouting again: "Listen up, all of you! We have just received reliable intelligence — the bandit Crown Prince Zhu Cilang is in the county seat of Gong'an... with very few guards around him. As long as we capture Zhu Cilang, our Shun can sail down the river, and the dazzling world of Jiangnan will be ours!"

But... what does that have to do with burning the boats?

The veteran camp soldiers of the Shun army still didn't understand!

So there was no cheering.

Li Zicheng saw the mood was still flat, so he added: "By ordering the boats burned now, We are breaking the cauldrons and sinking the boats!"

Breaking cauldrons and sinking boats? The veteran camp soldiers thought to themselves: they were clearly burned, no cauldrons were used...

Li Zicheng went on: "It means cutting off everyone's retreat, damn it... You, and We, can't go back north of the river now. Unless we kill the bandit Crown Prince and seize Gong'an County, damn it, there's no way out alive!"

Ah!

No way out alive?

And we cut it off ourselves... How could this emperor be so unreliable?

Now everyone panicked. They'd only just managed to become lords, and now they couldn't go back...

Li Zicheng bellowed: "We're going to fight the bandit Zhu to the death! As long as we win, all of Jiangnan is ours — then we can enjoy ourselves to the fullest!"

You liar... You wouldn't even let us run wild in Beijing, and now you talk about Jiangnan?

The veteran camp soldiers who had followed Li Zicheng for some years were not so easily fooled. But among the troops now following Li Zicheng were many who had defected from the old Zuo family army. They didn't yet know how stingy Li Zicheng was, and when they heard about looting Jiangnan, they got excited at once.

"Great Shun victorious! Long live His Majesty! Long live, long live..."

Thirteen thousand two hundred Shun soldiers who had come over from the old Zuo family army burst into jubilation.

The veteran camp men standing at the foot of Shishou Mountain saw how high-spirited these newcomers were and had no choice but to shout along with them. The attendants and servants they had brought also joined in the uproar with their masters.

With more than fifty thousand people cheering at once, the sound truly shook the heavens and surged to the stars.

Li Zicheng was finally satisfied. He thrust his hand toward the northwest: "The bandit Zhu is in Gong'an County! Gentlemen, follow Us to kill the bandit Zhu and take Jiangnan!"

"Kill the bandit Zhu, take Jiangnan..."

"Fourth Brother, your elder brother has missed you terribly... Come here, come here, let your brother have a good look at you!"

"Eldest, eldest brother, this younger brother knows he was wrong..."

"What nonsense are you talking? How are you wrong? You're not wrong... Not only are you not wrong, you're about to render meritorious service — great service!"

At the Jade Lake traveling palace, two "bandit Zhus" were at this moment staging a touching scene of brotherly harmony.

Li Zicheng was about to attack, so whatever grudges these two "bandit Zhus" had, they had to set them aside. Right now, only if the brothers were of one heart could their strength cut through metal.

Of these two "bandit Zhus," one was the Great Ming Army-Supervising Crown Prince Zhu Cilang, and the other was his dear younger brother, the Great Ming "Loyal Prince" — currently still Prince of Chu, but about to become Prince of Yunnan — Zhu Cizhao.

Zhu Cizhao had been hiding in the county seat of Gong'an for quite some time, publicly claiming to be "down with chickenpox." To avoid passing it to Zhu Cilang, he could not come to see him — although both Zhu Cilang and Zhu Cizhao had been inoculated and were not so easily infected with smallpox, the humanpox vaccine was not one hundred percent effective.

So Zhu Cilang "believed" it and allowed Zhu Cizhao to rest and recover, and did not let Zuo Mengmei disturb him.

Now the chickenpox had run its course, and it hadn't left scars on his face. He was still a fair, tender little boy, and the moment he saw his elder brother he couldn't help shedding tears — crying in the most pitiful manner!

"Thousand Years, when you said His Highness was about to render great service, what did you mean?" Zuo Mengmei, finally back at Zhu Cizhao's side, was quick-witted as ever and had already caught the hidden meaning in Zhu Cilang's words.

Zhu Cilang smiled. "Naturally, he will lead his troops to fight Li Zicheng to the death!"

What?

Fight Li Zicheng to the death?

These words frightened Zhu Cizhao so much he even forgot to cry, and he just stared blankly at his brother — this was killing with a borrowed knife!

Zhu Cilang saw he was silent and knew he wouldn't refuse. What a good brother — so reliable!

"Fourth Brother," Zhu Cilang said, squeezing his younger brother's small hand with a smile, "it doesn't matter if you don't know how to fight, because under your command, Zhang Yong is a rare tiger of a general! Guangxi Commander Jin Shenghuan can fight too, and Regional Commander Qiu is a veteran. With those three assisting you, you, as prince, need only sit in command and oversee the battle to win."

Zhu Cilang was of course not foolish enough to use his own core troops to fight Li Zicheng — and besides, they couldn't get here anyway.

So the task of engaging Li Zicheng's main force was handed to Zhang Yong, Jin Shenghuan, and Qiu Lei.

"Then, then, then what about you, Eldest Brother?" Zhu Cizhao was furious inside, but didn't dare curse aloud, so he could only stammer out a question.

Zhu Cilang said with a beaming smile: "We will also oversee the battle... from behind you!"

Of course Zhu Cilang was not without troops at his side — he still had an army of about ten thousand men!

These ten thousand were divided into two parts. One part was the cavalry commanded by Sun Fugui and Yan Yingyuan, about three thousand men including support troops.

The other part was three infantry regiments formed mainly from the Shaanxi soldiers formerly under Ma Jiaolin, plus some officers transferred from Wu Guoyong's Right Division.

These three regiments were mostly Shaanxi men — they had come to Jiangnan with clenched fists, so to speak, and they were of Ming border-army origin, so they were fairly reliable. Their weapons, equipment, and training were of upper-middle standard among Ming troops.

Zhu Cilang reorganized them according to the methods of the various division infantry regiments, but he did not equip them with firearms — just a combination of long spears, saber-and-shield, and bows.

Of course, the troops' pay and provisions, as well as the land grants for merit, were the same as for the soldiers of the other division armies. However, the land would not be granted near Nanjing, but rather they would be settled in Wuhan.

According to Zhu Cilang's plan, Wuhan in the future would also become, like Nanjing, a city where the families of the Northern Army's officers and soldiers would settle.

And around Wuhan, Huangzhou Prefecture and Yuezhou Prefecture still had many official fields and military colonies, all of which would be granted to the meritorious officers and soldiers of the Northern Army's new forces in Wuhan......