Chapter 683: Let's All Become Loyal Ministers Together!

When the great Ming good man Chen Yongxi was traveling from Hoi An Port toward Phu Xuan City, the deal to trade Thang Long for Champa had already fallen through. This deal had been wrecked by the three loyal ministers—Zhu Cizhao, Mo Jingyu, and Wu Gongde.

Birds of a feather flock together, and people divide by kind. Zhu Cizhao had been quite bad when he was young, wholeheartedly wanting to replace the great filial son Zhu Cilang as Crown Prince. But now that he had grown up and come to understand things, he had recognized his errors and was determined to become Zhu Cilang's loyal minister.

What great progress!

And not only had he made progress himself in becoming a loyal minister, he was also pulling Mo Jingyu and Wu Gongde along to make progress together as loyal ministers. Zhu Cizhao would be a loyal minister to Zhu Cilang, while Mo Jingyu and Wu Gongde would be loyal ministers to the Le King, Le Weiqi.

After each of them had picked up a prefecture, both men came to believe in Zhu Cizhao's sincerity. So at the beginning of the sixth month, each brought two or three thousand troops into Thang Long Prefecture to discuss with Zhu Cizhao the matter of becoming loyal ministers.

"This king has already sent envoys by sea to Phu Xuan to see the Yang Commandery Duke, Ruan Fupin!"

At the banquet entertaining Loyal Minister Mo and Loyal Minister Wu, Zhu Cizhao told the two men about his dispatch of envoys to negotiate with the Ruan lord.

This young prince had not worn his official robes or regular court dress today, only a thin Daoist robe, and no hat either, yet he was still unbearably hot, his forehead covered in sweat, and he kept fanning himself without pause.

To be honest, he did not like Annam at all. It was too hot. Kunming was much better—warm in winter, cool in summer, spring-like all year round.

"Great King, what do you wish to discuss with Ruan Fupin?"

The speaker was Mo Jingyu. Behind the closed gates of Gaoping Prefecture, he too was an emperor! He even had his own reign era, called Shunde.

But once outside Gaoping, he was no longer an emperor, but rather a treasonous minister and rebel of the Le dynasty and a loyal minister and filial son of the Great Ming. Because he was a loyal minister and filial son of the Great Ming, his Chinese was especially fluent.

"Of course it is about how to jointly support the Le King." Zhu Cizhao said while fanning himself, "A few days ago I received a letter from Governor-General He of Liangguang. In the letter he said that the court's intention is still to restore the Le clan to the throne, to have the Le King return to Thang Long Prefecture, and then have the four houses of Zheng, Ruan, Mo, and Wu jointly support and protect him."

What He Tengjiao wrote in the letter was still the approach of "four fathers jointly ruling the Le King." Le Weiqi currently had only one Zheng father, and his days were very hard. The Zheng father was a stepfather, and did not know how to cherish old Le. Old Le's father, Le Jingzong Le Weixin, had been forced to hang himself by Zheng Bang's father, Zheng Song. And this matter had not been carried out quietly, with an accidental-hanging excuse found afterward to cover up the crime—it had been done openly!

Moreover, after Le Weixin died by hanging, he was not even allowed into the imperial ancestral temple. He lay cold for thirteen years, and only after Le Weiqi's repeated pleas did Zheng Song's son Zheng Bang move Le Weixin's spirit tablet into the imperial ancestral temple.

For a powerful minister to go to such lengths was truly going too far!

So Zhu Cilang's plan to find Le Weiqi three more "fathers" to cherish him together had quite a few supporters within Annam.

If there were a "Zheng father, Mo father, and Wu father," the Zheng lord would at least have to consider appearances. At most he could quietly do away with him, then give him a grand funeral.

But Zhu Cizhao wanted to go a step further. He felt the Le King ought to have a city of his own.

"This king's meaning," he said, waving his fan, "is that from now on Thang Long Prefecture shall belong to the Le King. The four houses of Zheng, Ruan, Mo, and Wu shall jointly send troops to protect it, and the Great Ming court shall send officials to supervise! There must be no more incidents of a Le King being forced to hang himself by powerful ministers. That is simply outrageous!

If Annam were uncivilized barbarians beyond the pale, that would be one thing, but Annam is an inner vassal of our Great Ming Celestial Dynasty! How can this be? Is there no heavenly justice or righteousness left in this matter?"

Zhu Cizhao was very sympathetic toward Le Weixin, because he himself was also the lord of an inner vassal of the Great Ming!

Wu Gongde did not understand Chinese well, but he had brought along an adviser who served as interpreter, and as he listened to Zhu Cizhao's words he nodded repeatedly.

His family had been loyal ministers for generations!

His family's founding ancestor Wu Wenyuan, after the Mo family's founding ancestor Mo Dengyong usurped the throne, had presented to the Ming court maps for advancing troops and sought aid, hoping thereby to support the Le and overthrow the Mo, declaring: "Wenyuan is a minister of the Le clan for generations. Because of Dengyong's rebellion, I have come out to hold Tuyen Quang, and I am willing to await the Celestial Army (the Great Ming troops) marching south, then lead my younger brothers and nephews, Wu Ziling and others, to garrison Thach Long Pass and follow them, and thereby summon the righteous men of the realm—Dengyong can be defeated."

For this he had even received from the Ming court the office of Annan Regional Commander-Envoy and the noble title of Qingyang Marquis. In theory, this Wu Gongde was still a marquis of the Great Ming!

And after Wu Wenyuan, the Wu clan of Tuyen Quang had passed down through four generations of protecting their lord. Although starting from Wu Gongde's father, Wu Degong, they had begun plotting treachery, and had several times opposed the Later Le dynasty, even resorting to armed conflict and presumptuously declaring themselves kings—still, first, they had not shut their gates and called themselves emperors; second, they had not forced the Le King to hang himself. By Annam's standards, that made them loyal ministers.

Upon learning that Zhu Cizhao wanted to secure a city for the Le King, he immediately rose to his feet and declared his position: "My family has been ministers of the Le for generations, loyal and unwavering, deeply trusted by the Le sovereign. Therefore I am willing to go in person to Thanh Hoa and escort the Le sovereign back to Thang Long."

His words were translated into Chinese by his own adviser and conveyed to Zhu Cizhao.

Zhu Cizhao nodded: "The Qingyang Marquis is indeed a loyal minister of the Le clan! Then this matter shall be entrusted to you, my lord marquis. Please convey to the Le King that as long as he returns to Thang Long, this king will immediately shift camp to Tan An and transfer Thang Long to him.

Also, speak with Zheng Bang and tell him not to persist in his obstinate course. Otherwise the Celestial Dynasty's great army will assemble the troops of the Mo, Wu, and Ruan houses and jointly campaign against him!"

Zheng Bang, who was in Thanh Hoa, had now truly come to appreciate Zhu Cizhao's methods!

He was plainly a foreign invader who had invaded Annam, yet he carried on like some chivalrous hero upholding justice, and even wanted to secure a city for that good-for-nothing Le Weiqi.

What was to be done about this?

Old Zheng, looking at Wu Gongde's gloating face, felt an urge to draw his sword and cut the man down!

But he did not dare!

The moral high ground had now been seized by that villain Zhu Cizhao! If he cut down Wu Gongde, he would just have to wait to be besieged by the troops of the Ruan, Mo, and Wu houses, plus the Ming army!

He had only twenty thousand men on hand. Even with strenuous mobilization, thirty thousand at most—how could he possibly win?

Moreover, it was very likely that the Ming truly did not intend to destroy the state of Annam.

That bastard Zhu Cizhao was very likely just passing through—Zheng Bang already knew that most of Yunnan had been seized by Li Dingguo.

This Zhu Cizhao was plainly a Ming prince who had lost his fief, come to Annam to meddle in other people's business.

This meddling had left Zheng Bang feeling like finding a block of tofu and dashing his head against it to death!

If he had known earlier, he should never have abandoned Thang Long!

Now how was this mess going to be settled?

If he did not let Le Weiqi return, would he not become a treasonous minister and rebel? But if he did let Le Weiqi return, and then Le Weiqi issued an edict to campaign against the Zheng house, what then?

What the Zheng house had done over the years truly made them treasonous ministers and rebels!

Wu Gongde watched old man Zheng's dark face trembling with rage, and felt an indescribable satisfaction in his heart, but he still worked hard to cajole the old man.

"Prince of Qingdu, to recognize one's errors and reform—no good deed is greater. Surely the Celestial Dynasty above does not wish to drive the Zheng clan to death." Wu Gongde said with a smile, "After all, the emperor the Zheng clan forced to die did not have the surname Zhu! If the Great King submits a memorial to the Son of Heaven asking for forgiveness, begs the Son of Heaven to issue an edict of pardon, and seeks official rank and title, then in the future no one will be able to make an issue of the late Jingzong's death."

"But this king is a minister of the Le emperor, not a minister of the Great Ming Son of Heaven!"

Wu Gongde said with a smile: "This humble official is a minister of the Great Ming Son of Heaven, and Mo Jingyu is a minister of the Great Ming Son of Heaven. Why can the Great King not declare himself a subject of the Son of Heaven? Moreover, the Mo clan's ancestors committed the evil deed of usurping the state. How can the matter of the Great King's father requesting the Le King's death compare with the Mo clan?"

Indeed, if the Mo clan could reform, what did the Zheng clan have to fear?

Usurping the state and regicide were nothing—as long as one reformed, one was still a loyal minister of the Later Le dynasty!

Zheng Bang thought it over carefully, and it seemed there was no other way. There was still no reply from the Ruan lord, but most likely he too would side with the Mo and Wu clans. That would leave the Zheng clan attacked from front and rear, and still having to contend with the Great Ming Celestial Dynasty—no matter how one looked at it, it was a dead end!

He nodded: "Very well. This king will speak with the Le emperor. As long as he agrees, arrangements can be made for him to return to Thang Long Prefecture."

For this Le Weiqi, it truly felt as if happiness had suddenly descended from the heavens! Originally he had been a puppet whose life hung in the balance from day to day. Now not only did he have people who cherished him, he had also picked up a whole Thang Long Prefecture for free—he had territory!

This was truly reaching the peak of life in a single step!

(End of Chapter)