Chapter 58: Hurry Up and Lead the Imperial Campaign in Person (Seeking Recommendations)

"We are the Emperor now — how can We climb a wall to enter the city?" Li Zicheng glanced at the scaling ladder wrapped in yellow cloth and shook his head like a rattle-drum.

Riding a tall horse into the capital had been Old Li's dream for many years — he had cherished this aspiration from the very day he became a rebel. As the saying goes, a rebel who does not want to be emperor is no good rebel! Li Zicheng was absolutely a good rebel with ideals and ambition, and so he had already become emperor.

And an emperor must look the part of an emperor! How could he climb into Beijing? Would that not still be acting like a thief? Thieves climb walls to enter houses; emperors all enter through the front gate.

"Your Majesty, the Grand Strategist has calculated it: Beijing is the city of the Son of Heaven, so the Son of Heaven must lead the campaign in person, and the imperial field headquarters should be set up at the Temple of Heaven. Only then will the Shun realm be secure..."

The speaker was General of Authority Tian Jianxiu. The idea of asking Li Zicheng to climb the wall was his! Not that he had failed to think it through — on the contrary, he had considered it carefully. Because Li Zicheng was a classic underdog-made-good, and in the past he and his old brothers had stood shoulder to shoulder. Now that he had become emperor, the best any of the others could be was a marquis — why should they be sincerely convinced? Moreover, Li Zicheng was not especially formidable in battle; he had often been beaten until barely a handful of men remained, and it was only thanks to his brothers' desperate protection that he had come this far. So under these circumstances, in order to establish his own authority, Li Zicheng had to make use of that whole feudal-superstition apparatus.

The "feudal" part meant finding himself a feudal ancestor. No one knew what Li Zicheng was thinking — he had a perfectly good Li Shimin to claim, yet he insisted on going and finding a Tangut, Li Jiqian.

And on the superstition side, he had found a fortune-teller, Song Xiance, to serve as founding Grand Strategist, and had even worked out the phrase "the eighteenth son shall wield the sacred vessel," thereby proving that Li Zicheng possessed the Mandate of Heaven — that is, everyone around Li Zicheng was of poor background and had little education; otherwise this "eighteenth son" would not have been Old Li at all.

Old Li's ancestor was Li Jiqian, and Li Jiqian was not really surnamed Li — his surname was Tuoba. That "Li" had been granted to his family's ancestor by a Tang emperor long ago. In the Song dynasty they were granted the surname "Zhao," and then Emperor Jingzong of Western Xia, Yuanhao, changed the surname to Weiming — so Weiming was the true imperial surname of Western Xia. Since Li Zicheng also claimed Western Xia as his ancestors, then he was really Weiming Zicheng...

Besides working out "the eighteenth son shall wield the sacred vessel," Song Xiance had also calculated for Li Zicheng the route map for entering Beijing. Stay at Diaoyutai outside the city, first take the outer city, then seize the inner city, and after entering the outer city stay at the Temple of Heaven... All of it had been calculated by that shaman Song, and it had to be followed step by step for the great undertaking to succeed.

In addition, that shaman Song had especially admonished that the battle inside Beijing must be commanded by Li Zicheng in person. This was not from the divination, but because Li Zicheng's army was somewhat uneven in quality. The old camp had the makings of roving bandits; although it had been reorganized, once it entered Beijing, that "nest of gold and silver," it would be hard to avoid losing control. And the newly surrendered Ming troops were even fiercer than the roving bandits!

If Li Zicheng did not personally hold the line, this lot might well loot Beijing empty!

Looting a bit elsewhere would be one thing, but Beijing was the residence of the Son of Heaven! The Shun dynasty also had a very strong chance of establishing its capital in Beijing, so Beijing must not be turned into an empty city.

Moreover, Li Zicheng was also calculating on fighting a battle with the Manchus around the capital, so he still needed to win the hearts of the people of Beijing...

"Sky-locking Sparrowhawk, how about you climb in first." Li Zicheng pointed at the scaling ladder wrapped in yellow cloth. "Once inside, take the Temple of Heaven and the Altar of Mountains and Rivers, then seize all the gates of the outer city... As for the rest, We will make arrangements after We enter the city. Remember — absolutely no looting or harassment!"

After assigning Tian Jianxiu to enter the city first, Li Zicheng returned to Diaoyutai under the protection of the imperial field headquarters. He needed to confer carefully with his chief strategists Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance, and Gu Junen about how to rely on the strong walls of Beijing and fight a proper battle against the Guanning Army and Manchu reinforcements!

But Li Zicheng did not realize that this delay of his gave the Ming feudal forces inside Beijing's inner city a crucial breathing space.

For by the time Tian Jianxiu, Chen Yongfu, and the others who had entered the city first finished clearing Yongding Gate, it was already the night of the nineteenth. Li Zicheng was of course unwilling to slip into Beijing in the middle of the night — that would also look a bit like a thief! So he delayed until the morning of the twentieth before entering the city, then took up residence at the Temple of Heaven, first offering sacrifices to Heaven and Earth, then summoning his generals and arranging the assault. By the time all that was done, it was already the evening of the twentieth.

So the battle for Beijing's inner city did not formally begin until the morning of the twenty-first!

......

"Wh-wh-what did you say?"

"Imperial Lord, the roving bandits have broken into the outer city! His Highness the Thousand Years has also seized Zhang Jinyan, Xiang Yu, Liang Zhaoyang, Zhou Zhong, Wei Xuelian, Qian Weikun, and several dozen other officials and commoners who went to the outer city to welcome the surrender — all dragged outside the Meridian Gate and beheaded..."

Upon hearing the young eunuch's report, the Chongzhen Emperor, who had just sprung up from the throne, felt his legs go weak and slumped back down onto the dragon throne.

The outer city had been broken... Could the inner city still hold?

And moreover, the Crown Prince had killed several dozen people in one go outside the Meridian Gate!

Killing people in itself was nothing — Zhu Cilang was now Army-Pacifying Governor-General of Zhili Military Affairs, and had the authority to kill. But among those killed this time were quite a few court officials, several of them holding offices of no low rank, and the killing had taken place outside the Meridian Gate, separated by only one gate from the plaza before the Gate of Imperial Supremacy where the hundred officials held court!

Most critically, to kill so many at once without even asking the Chongzhen Emperor for instructions... What exactly was this son trying to do?

At this thought, the Chongzhen Emperor shuddered.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty... The crisis is upon us! Only an imperial campaign in person can preserve the capital!"

Among the handful of court officials present, the only one to step forward was Guang Shiheng, Supervising Secretary of the Office of Military Affairs.

He had twice blocked the move south, and had also impeached the treacherous minister Wu Xiang for offering his daughter to curry favor — he had become, it seemed, a pillar and cornerstone among the court officials.

If Beijing could survive the present crisis, then he would surely enter the Grand Secretariat and become a Grand Secretary before long.

But to hold Beijing, relying on Zhu Cilang, who strongly advocated the imperial progress south, was impossible. Because these past few days Zhu Cilang had been arranging to flee, with no intention whatsoever of defending to the death. And once the court abandoned Beijing and moved south to the auxiliary capital, then Guang Shiheng would be in serious trouble! He had taken the lead in twice blocking the move south, and especially the second time, when blocking the Crown Prince from supervising and pacifying Nanjing, he had openly uttered the harsh words: "Do you intend to reenact the story of Emperor Suzong of Tang at Lingwu?"

That was equivalent to placing himself in opposition to the Crown Prince!

And his impeachment of Wu Xiang for offering his daughter had also been aimed at stripping the Crown Prince of his power!

The two together had made Guang Shiheng the Crown Prince's mortal enemy. And today, with the Crown Prince's killing spree outside the Meridian Gate — even killing Xiang Yu, a lecturer of the Eastern Palace, without regard for old ties — Guang Shiheng already felt the danger of losing his own head!

If the Crown Prince succeeded in pushing through the progress south, with Wu Xiang and Wu Sangui, father and son, escorting the imperial carriage, then the day the imperial party reached the auxiliary capital would likely be the day the Crown Prince ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor.

When that time came, could he, Guang Shiheng, still live?

So he had to stop the move south, and he had to help the Chongzhen Emperor take back military power!

And to achieve these two goals, there was only one method: to push Chongzhen to lead the campaign in person. Once the Emperor took the field, the Crown Prince's army-pacifying authority would naturally be revoked.

And the Chongzhen Emperor, who was full of misgivings about moving south, would once he took the field have no choice but to make plans to defend Beijing to the death.

"Your Majesty, although the outer city is lost, it is not because the capital's defenders cannot fight, but because His Highness the Army-Pacifying Governor-General deliberately abandoned it." Guang Shiheng gritted his teeth. He knew he and the Crown Prince were irreconcilable, so he simply pointed the spear directly at the Crown Prince.

He told Chongzhen, "According to this subject's investigation, the total garrison of the seven gates of the outer city did not even reach 1,000 — it was a defense in name only. The inner city garrison, however, numbers more than 20,000, with over twenty Hongyi cannons, over a hundred Folangji cannons, and countless crouching-tiger cannons and various firearms, with gunpowder likewise beyond counting. If Your Majesty personally commands the six armies, the roving bandits can never break through the walls."

The Chongzhen Emperor, who had been slumped on the dragon throne, straightened up. "Right! Right! Secretary Guang speaks most excellently... The inner city can be held! We shall take the field in person!"

Guang Shiheng let out a great breath of relief, and memorialized again: "There is no time to lose. May Your Majesty speedily issue the great edict and proclaim the imperial campaign!"

"Draft the edict — draft it at once!" the Chongzhen Emperor said repeatedly. "We shall lead the campaign in person! Summon the Crown Prince as well, and tell him We shall go into battle together with him against the enemy!"

The several dozen court officials outside the Gate of Imperial Supremacy, hearing Chongzhen's words, could not help but inwardly curse Guang Shiheng.

The situation in Beijing had just begun to improve, and now this fellow had to jump out and wreck it! An imperial campaign in person — was fighting a war something His Majesty could manage? For over a decade now, every good situation had been ruined by him. And now, with Beijing an isolated city, letting him take the field — how could that possibly end well?

The court officials all knew perfectly well it would not end well, but none dared say a word... For now it was no longer merely the court against the roving bandits; open and covert struggle had also begun between the Emperor and the Crown Prince!

(End of Chapter)