Chapter 637: Grand Secretary Sonin, Come with Me to the Great Ming

Hearing that Wu Sangui had again sent men to receive him, Sonin could not help thinking of the last time he had passed through Ningxia. What a loss of face! He, Heseri Sonin, might be a Grand Secretary, but he was skilled in both letters and arms!

In the third year of Tiancong, he had followed Hong Taiji on a raid into the interior, and when they clashed with Ming troops southeast of Beijing he had gone into battle and slain the enemy, rescuing Hooge from the midst of ten thousand troops when Hooge was surrounded by Ming soldiers. Was that valor not enough to meet the standard of a Baturu?

It was only that the Great Qing had too many Baturus, so Sonin's bravery had little room to shine, and gradually he became a civil official. But what Sonin had not expected was that after so many years away from the battlefield, his skill at cutting men down had greatly deteriorated. The last time he had tried to fight Wu Sangui's personal guards to the death over their wearing the wrong clothes, his hand had trembled as he gripped the knife, and Zu Zepu, that twice-serving turncoat, had easily snatched the blade away.

Had he, Sonin, so neglected his martial training over the years that he could no longer even hold a knife?

So after entering Qinghai, Sonin, shamed into resolve, had practiced his martial arts bitterly every day and had already made great progress. If he met Wu Sangui's men wearing the wrong clothes again, he would absolutely not let anyone snatch his knife away.

The moment he thought of the knife, he instinctively gripped the hilt and asked in a deep voice, "What clothes are those men wearing? How many of them are there?"

"Replying to my master, they are all wearing the armor of the Bordered Green Banner, about two niru."

Only then did Sonin relax, and he continued in a deep voice, "Go and tell their niru janggin or jalan janggin to come and speak with me."

"Ja." The booi bondservant answered, spurred his horse over to speak with them, and before long came back leading a large crowd, the hoofbeats rumbling like thunder.

Sonin, sitting inside the carriage, found this strange. He hurriedly lifted the curtain to look, and several dozen Bordered Green Banner riders in green helmets and green armor had already surrounded him.

"Wh-wh-what is the meaning of this?" Sonin asked, frowning.

He knew this place was not close to the Ningxia garrison city, and Wu Sangui could not have come out to meet him. At most he would have sent a few niru janggin or jalan janggin to receive him. How could there be so many? How many janggin did one niru of their Bordered Green Banner have?

"Master," the booi dismounted and performed the daqian salute, saying somewhat helplessly, "This slave did as you instructed and spoke with them, but they said that two jalan janggin and thirty-one niru janggin have come, all wanting to kowtow to you."

"Oh." Sonin narrowed his eyes and looked around. Indeed there were several dozen men, all tall and sturdy. After looking for a while, he found it strange again. "Didn't they say they wanted to kowtow? Why is no one kneeling? Does the Bordered Green Banner kowtow standing up?"

Just as he was wondering, a dark-faced man with one hand behind his back had already strode up quickly. When he reached Sonin he did not kneel. Sonin found the man somewhat familiar — he seemed to be Liu Sheng, the one who had worn the wrong clothes last time. Wu Sangui had said he would be severely punished, yet now it seemed he had not been punished at all!

Just as Sonin was feeling somewhat displeased at Wu Sangui's failure to keep his word, the hand Liu Sheng had kept behind his back came around, and it was not empty — there was a hand cannon in it, its black muzzle pointed straight at the forehead of Grand Secretary Sonin!

Sonin was stunned. What was this? Without a single word spoken, a firelock was already pressed to his forehead — what was this?

"Wh-wh-what are you doing?" Sonin cried out.

Liu Sheng grinned. "Grand Secretary Sonin, I've finally been waiting for you to arrive. Come with me for a trip!"

Sonin forced himself to stay calm. "A trip? To where?"

Liu Sheng said with a smile, "To Nanjing, of course, to see His Majesty."

His Majesty in Nanjing... it's over, it's all over!

Sonin's heart went cold. That fickle traitor Wu Sangui must have already become a thrice-serving turncoat and defected back to the Ming, and now he was going to hand him over to Zhu Cilang... How could that end well?

"I won't go!" Sonin gritted his teeth and shut his eyes. "Fire your weapon! I, Sonin, am a man among men, and I do not fear death!"

Liu Sheng chuckled, and with a glance to his left and right, two men immediately stepped forward, seized Sonin's wrists, and took away his waist saber.

Only when he saw that Sonin had been subdued did Liu Sheng put away his hand cannon and say to Sonin with a smile, "Grand Secretary Sonin, my apologies. But do not be afraid — you are merely accompanying the Great Lama on a trip to Nanjing. Once it is done, you will be sent back whole, with all your parts intact."

Sent back? Sent back to be punished by Dorgon?

Sonin's heart was bleeding! But he still had to strive for the interests of the Great Qing. He was a loyal slave of the Great Qing! So he said in a deep voice, "I have no problem going to Nanjing, but the Living Buddha cannot go. The Living Buddha has lived on the snowy plateau since childhood and cannot adapt to the climate of the southeast. Moreover, the Living Buddha has never had smallpox and has never been inoculated. If he goes to Jiangnan, I fear he will pass into nirvana there... The Living Buddha is protected by the Dharma Protector King, the State Preceptor Khan. Does Wu Sangui intend to start a war with the State Preceptor Khan?"

The Dharma Protector King, the State Preceptor Khan, was the leader of the Oirat confederation and the khan of the Khoshut Khanate, Borjigin Töröbaikhu. In the ninth year of Chongzhen, at the invitation of the Fifth Great Lama, the Panchen Lama of Tashilhunpo Monastery, Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen, and the Gelug regent Sonam Chöpel, he had secretly entered Tibet, and in Lhasa received from the Fifth Great Lama the title Güshi Tenzin Chögyal, meaning Dharma Protector King, the State Preceptor Khan.

And the State Preceptor Khan's legitimate rule over Tibet also derived from the support of the Dharma Protector and the Fifth Great Lama — at this time Tibet was under the dual rule of the State Preceptor Khan and the Great Lama. Without the Fifth Great Lama, the State Preceptor Khan's rule in Tibet would become unstable.

If Wu Sangui truly dared to send the Great Lama to Nanjing, then he could wait for the State Preceptor Khan to fight him to the death!

Liu Sheng said with a smile, "This official will speak of this matter to the Prince, but you absolutely must go to Nanjing."

Sonin merely gave a cold snort, his whole bearing righteous and unyielding. "Go I shall. At worst, it is death!"

Liu Sheng put away the hand cannon, which had never been loaded and whose match had never been lit, smiled, and cupped his hands to Sonin, then made a gesture of respectfully ushering a guest. "Grand Secretary Sonin, after you!"

"To where?" Sonin's face darkened. He thought to himself, had that bastard Wu Sangui even prepared a prisoner cart for him?

"To see the Living Buddha, of course!" Liu Sheng said with a laugh. "We must explain things properly to the Living Buddha so he does not worry, and have him stay peacefully in Ningxia. We must also tell the Living Buddha that His Majesty of the Great Ming is also a believer in Buddhism — and is especially wealthy!"

Grand Secretary Sonin had few guards and attendants with him, but the Fifth Great Lama had not come alone. The Gelug regent Sonam Chöpel had sent his cousin Norbu with a company of Tibetan soldiers as guards, and the Great Lama himself had a group of iron-staff lama guards.

Although these guards and iron-staff lamas certainly could not defeat Liu Sheng's troops, if it truly came to blows, swords and blades had no eyes — if the Great Lama were wounded, whose fault would that be?

While Liu Sheng was forcibly inviting Sonin to Nanjing in Ningxia, Zu Kefa was also traveling day and night to Daning County in Pingyang Prefecture, Shanxi, to fetch reinforcements for Wu Sangui, and at the same time to borrow another usurious loan!

Because of the previous raid on the salt fields of Jiechi, the Third Crown Prince had some spare cash on hand — of course, the usurious debts he owed could never be fully repaid, but not all usurious debts were debts to the King of Hell. The debt that had driven Wu Sangui to stop even being a traitor was the pension silver owed to the three hundred and thirty Chiliarchs below him. If that could not be repaid, the consequences would be very serious!

The last person who had failed to pay the wages owed to the Gansu-Shaanxi border army seemed to be the Chongzhen Emperor... If not for his "twenty-five filial sons" and Zhu Cilang, he would have been dead for years by now!

But the Third Crown Prince's creditors were all good creditors of the Great Ming. Not only did they not press for repayment, some even sent daughters and sisters to help the Third Crown Prince beget sons. What wonderful creditors!

So after seizing the salt, Zhu Cijiong had only used part of it to repay debts, to demonstrate his willingness to repay. He always repaid his debts and would never maliciously evade them.

The remaining salt became the Third Crown Prince's funds for doing great things. Having learned from Liu Sheng that the Third Crown Prince had money, Zu Kefa planned to borrow another usurious loan for Wu Sangui while fetching reinforcements.

Wu Sangui now owed so much pension silver that if he did not pay out a single tael, how could the men below have any motivation? He had to pay out at least part of it, so he could only borrow from the Third Crown Prince.

(End of Chapter)