Chapter 656: The Local Tyrant Zhu

The one behind this mischief was, of course, that fortune-telling schemer Song Xiance!

Hadn't this Song Xiance volunteered last time to prop up Zhu Cihuan as a warlord alliance leader against Zhu Cilang? Pity the whole affair had barely begun before it came to a halt — Li Zicheng had even faked his survival, so what was the point of stirring up more trouble?

Still, Song Xiance was a man of considerable cunning. He did not release Zhu Cihuan, Gao Yushun, and Noble Consort Yuan just because Li Zicheng had faked his survival. Instead, he immediately sent men down from Huya Mountain to Tongbai Mountain on the border of Hubei and Henan, summoned back his son Song Qingtian, and had Song Qingtian bring Zhu Cihuan, Gao Yushun, Noble Consort Yuan, and the others back with him.

But this affair had merely paused, not ended. Because the "Crown Prince Begging Incident" and the "Second Northern Expedition of the Great Ming" had given the Shun dynasty a breathing spell, the Shun had been able, under the leadership of the Army-Pacifying Crown Prince Li Guo, to enter Sichuan successfully. They had seized Kuizhou, Chongqing, Shunqing, Baoning, Tongchuan, Luzhou, and Long'an in Sichuan, as well as Hanzhong Prefecture and most of Gongchang Prefecture in Shaanxi, plus Yunyang Prefecture in Hubei — a vast stretch of territory. Moreover, through the two fundamental state policies of land grants by enclosure and land grants by headcount, they had gradually established stable rule.

Yet everyone in the Shun army, high and low, knew that their good days in Sichuan were only temporary. They could not even wipe out the Ming's remaining local forces in Sichuan, so once the war between Ming and Qing was decided, could they possibly meet a good end?

Therefore, the moment Li Guo entered Chongqing, he ordered Song Xiance to play the Zhu Cihuan trump card once more — even if it could not stir up great waves, it would be satisfying just to give Zhu Cilang some grief.

And Song Xiance, after analyzing the internal situation of the Great Ming, offered a strategy of "sending letters to sow discord." It was no great ingenious plan, really — just forcing Gao Yushun to write letters in his own hand to incite the warlords on Zhu Cilang's side to rise and rally to the throne, while at the same time creating suspicion between the Zhu emperor and his subordinates.

As for the results, one could not call them good, but they were not nonexistent either. Some of the military bosses — Gao Jie, for instance — upon receiving Gao Yushun's letter immediately sent men to deliver it to Zhu Cilang. Some warlords did not recognize Gao Yushun's handwriting at all and thought nothing of it, simply handing the letter over to the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Still others secretly kept Gao Yushun's letters — because at that time Zhu Cilang had no son yet, and if he were to die young, the one to inherit the throne would be one of Chongzhen's other sons, so keeping a way out for oneself was not wrong.

And after the dizzying series of events — the death of Zhang Xianzhong, the entry of the Xi's four co-ruling kings into Sichuan, Wu Sangui's defection, and Prince Dai Zhu Cijiong's entry into Shaanxi — Song Xiance and Song Qingtian, father and son, redoubled their efforts to use Zhu Cihuan and Gao Yushun to work their estrangement schemes.

The focus of their plotting now was the Ming's twin heroes of Gansu and Shaanxi, Wu Sangui and Zhu Cijiong. They did not need the two to actually come to blows; as long as the two grew suspicious and hostile toward each other, they would have no spare strength to march south from Shaanxi into Sichuan.

Yet however well the estrangement scheme was worked, it was not the decisive factor in whether the two peasant-rebel regimes, the Shun and the Xi, could hold on.

What would decide the survival of the Shun and the Xi was the imminent Grand Council at Jianmen Pass.

Right now, the great army of the Xi's four co-ruling kings was encamped at Zhaohua county town and Guangyuan Chong, north of Jianmen Pass — soldiers plus their families numbering more than two hundred thousand!

They were no lost dogs or defeated troops, but a victorious army that had fought Wu Sangui at Heshangyuan and nearly annihilated his entire force. Moreover, they were fully supplied, excellently armored, and well directed. By any measure, they looked far more the part than when Zhang Xianzhong was alive!

So Li Guo dared not take them lightly. He had no choice but to lead his troops out of Chongqing in person and march north to Jianmen Pass in Baoning Prefecture, first blocking the four co-ruling kings' road into Sichuan.

After sealing off Jianmen Pass, Li Guo sent envoys to Guangyuan Chong to discuss with the Xi's four co-ruling kings the matter of a Shun-Xi merger.

By now the peasant-army side was, one might say, a single string with two — no, nine — big grasshoppers tied to it!

On the Shun side there were the "five big grasshoppers": Li Guo, Liu Zongmin, Tian Jianxiu, Yuan Zongdi, and Liu Fangliang. On the Xi side there were the four brothers Zhang Kewang, Zhang Dinggao, Zhang Wenxiu, and Zhang Nengqi.

These nine mountain strongholds had under them some two hundred thousand fighting men and held nearly ten prefectures. On the surface it looked rather decent. But in reality the situation was critical in the extreme!

Because the great trend of the realm no longer permitted them to remain roving bandits. Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong had both met their deaths at enemy hands, one after the other — that already told the story. With the current military strength of the Shun and the Xi, if they left Sichuan, they would be no match at all for the resurgent Southern Ming court or the fierce, wolf-like Great Qing that had entered the passes.

The former occupied the water-rich lands of the south, where not only was its army strong, but its navy was utterly invincible. The Jing River and the Han River were now both firmly in Southern Ming hands. The Shun's navy was far too inferior — there was simply no possibility of sailing east.

And the latter's cavalry-plus-artillery tactics were too formidable! If roving bandits met them on the great plains, they could neither win the fight nor escape.

Therefore, neither the five Shun magnates nor the four co-ruling Xi kings were now considering leaving Sichuan to wander.

Besides, the brothers under them had roamed for years and now all wanted a place to settle. Sichuan was so fine, so comfortable! Hadn't everyone fought and bled precisely to win a piece of land like this to grow old on? Who would still be willing to leave Sichuan?

Since no one wanted to leave Sichuan, and no one could leave Sichuan, then they had better think carefully: if the five Shun magnates and the four co-ruling Xi kings fought a great battle at Jianmen Pass, would they still have the strength afterward to take all of Sichuan?

Never mind mutual ruin — even a long, drawn-out stalemate would not do!

The Great Ming and the Great Qing had now signed some sort of five-year peace treaty, agreeing not to go to war within five years.

How Zhu Cilang intended to use these five years — did the Shun and Xi leaders really need to think hard to figure it out? The first order of business would surely be to wipe out their lot of "utterly unpardonable" roving bandits!

If they still wanted to live to old age and die in bed, and have sons and grandsons to see them off, then there was only one road left: join forces immediately — and it had to be fast! Before Zhu Cilang could transfer his northern-expedition armies to Sichuan, strike down the Ming forces in central Sichuan in one blow.

Otherwise they would soon face enemies on all sides and war within and without — and then it would be a dead end!

Standing atop Jianmen Pass, gazing at the cliffs on either side glowing golden in the sunset's lingering light, Li Guo could not help but sigh.

Such fine rivers and mountains — would his family ever have the good fortune to enjoy them?

"Ada, what are you sighing about?"

The voice of Li Laiheng, the Shun's foremost filial son, sounded beside Li Guo's ear.

"Laiheng, you're back. Did you get to see Zhang Kewang and the others?"

Li Guo looked at the "Shun's foremost filial son" and asked eagerly.

It turned out Li Laiheng had earlier been sent out by him to negotiate cooperation with the Xi's four co-ruling kings, and had only just now returned.

"I saw them!" Li Laiheng said. "Not only did I see Zhang Kewang, I also saw his three sworn younger brothers."

"What did they say? Are they willing to submit to us?"

Li Laiheng shook his head.

Li Guo tensed at once. "They want to fight?"

"Not that either," Li Laiheng said. "They want to set up an arrangement of eight kings and one lord to rule Sichuan together."

"Eight kings ruling together? What does that mean?"

"It means the four of them, plus Liu Zongmin, Tian Jianxiu, Yuan Zongdi, and Liu Fangliang — all eight made Deliberative Princes, governing Sichuan together with you, Ada."

"Wouldn't that make us just like the eastern barbarians?" Li Guo's brow furrowed deeply.

"We're far better off than the eastern barbarians' little emperor," Li Laiheng said with a laugh. "Those great kings of the eastern barbarians are all fathers to the little Shunzhi emperor!"

At least it was not eight deliberative fathers — so it could still be grudgingly accepted.

Li Guo's expression remained grim. "Besides the eight Deliberative Princes, what else do they want?"

"Naturally, to divide up territory and military prefectures," Li Laiheng said. "That Zhang Kewang said that after the two houses merge, we should follow the Northern Zhou model: each of the eight great kings commands his own military prefecture, and you, Ada, also control a portion of the military prefectures. Then the military prefectures would be used to garrison the various prefectures of Sichuan. That way, neither we fathers nor our sons would have anything to worry about for two generations!"

Li Guo looked at his son. "Laiheng, can you accept a council of eight deliberative kings?"

Li Laiheng smiled. "Ada, if we don't agree to them, the two of us, father and son, are dead ten times over. If we agree, our family gets at least three generations of Sons of Heaven and decades of wealth and honor!"