Chapter 70: There Are Agents Within (Please Favorite, Please Recommend)

"Hao Yaoqi, what did you say?" Li Guo's eyes went wide as he stared at the man before him holding aloft a great banner. The man's surname was Hao, and few knew his given name; everyone knew only that he had started out as a standard-bearer in the army. Even after he became a commander, he still liked to move about carrying a "Roving" army banner. In battle he would wave the great banner and lead the charge himself, ferociously brave. And so everyone called him "Hao Yaoqi" — Hao the Banner-Waver.

Hao Yaoqi answered, "My Lord, that Zhu traitor of an emperor has most likely already left Beijing! I didn't just question the outriders — I also questioned a eunuch of the Zhu household who'd fallen behind. He said the Zhu traitor emperor reached Dongzhimen yesterday afternoon, escorted by the Pure Army from Nanhaizi, and went out through Dongzhimen at the hour of zi today, heading northeast straight for Shunyi."

Li Guo drew a sharp breath, his thick brows already knotted together.

"My Lord, perhaps the Zhu traitor emperor has played a trick of the golden cicada shedding its shell!" The speaker was Tang Tong. He had brought his own eight thousand troops out of Beijing with Li Guo, their objective being to capture Zhu Cilang. Now that he knew Chongzhen might have left the city, he was instantly excited.

If they could take Chongzhen alive, that would be an extraordinary achievement! When merits were later reviewed and rewards handed out, surely he'd be enfeoffed as a marquis at the very least?

Li Guo stroked his great beard and glanced at the eager Tang Tong, thinking to himself: Would the credit for capturing the emperor be given to a surrendered general like you?

"Laiheng!" Li Guo shouted, summoning a tall, powerfully built young man in his twenties.

"Father, you called for me?" The young man's name was Li Laiheng, Li Guo's son and also a commandant under Li Guo — that is, an officer in command of one du. The old-camp military structure of the Shun army was divided into the levels of ying, du, lü, bu, shao, and dui. A du was second only to a ying, usually numbering two to three thousand men.

Li Guo said with a smile, "My son, take your du's troops and pursue northeast toward Shunyi. If the Zhu traitor emperor is fleeing northeast, you must seize him!"

"Your son receives the order!" Li Laiheng answered loudly.

Li Guo then turned back to Tang Tong and said with a smile, "Regional Commander Tang, I must trouble you to send several dozen cavalrymen familiar with the terrain northeast of the capital to guide my son in capturing the Zhu traitor emperor!"

"Your subordinate receives the order!" How would Tang Tong dare defy Li Guo's command? The man was, after all, the Shun emperor's own nephew. And this Li Laiheng might well be the future Taizong Emperor of the Shun...

Li Guo then ordered Hao Yaoqi, "Yaoqi, continue east. Keep your men well in hand. Don't go seizing any fat sheep, and don't engage the Zhu traitor's main force. Bypass Tongzhou and strike straight for Tianjin. Regional Commander Tang, send several dozen more riders with Yaoqi as guides as well."

"Your subordinate receives the order." Hao Yaoqi accepted the military command.

But Tang Tong asked with a puzzled look, "My Lord, Commander Hao has only a few hundred cavalry, and they can't take a walled city... Besides, the Tianjin garrison town is a key center of grain transport and sea transport, and beside it runs the Wei River, which can carry seagoing vessels. That Wei River is both wide and deep — cavalry alone cannot block the passage of seagoing ships. If the Zhu crown prince reaches Tianjin, he'll be a dragon entering the sea, and it will be all but impossible to hunt him down."

Li Guo laughed heartily. "The Grand Strategist long ago made clever plans for this. Inside the Tianjin garrison town there are agents of our Shun. The moment Yaoqi's cavalry arrives, they will rise up within the city. With action inside and out in concert, how could the Zhu crown prince possibly escape?

Regional Commander Tang, bring your troops and follow me. We'll seize fat sheep in the Zhu traitor's rear while we pursue!"

"Your subordinate receives the order!"

......

Zhu Cilang, his backside aching, had now once again become the number-one filial son under heaven. He was riding on horseback ahead of the carriage carrying the Chongzhen Emperor and Empress Zhou, the very picture of a dutiful son shielding his father and mother from harm by the roving bandits.

The west gate of Tongzhou lay just ahead, its gates standing open. Above and below the wall were fully armed officers and men of the Shuntian Governor's headquarters battalion. The Governor of Shuntian, Song Quan, and the Chief Grand Secretary, Wei Zaode, who had arrived earlier as an advance party, stood outside the gate arch with a group of their subordinates. Over their python robes they had both donned long suits of armor, likewise presenting the loyal appearance of men sworn to defend the Ming Son of Heaven and the Crown Prince to the death.

"His Highness the Crown Prince has arrived!" Wei Zaode had sharp eyes and spotted the armored and helmeted Zhu Cilang at once. He immediately shouted, "The one riding at the head of the column is the Ming Army-Supervising Crown Prince!"

Song Quan was a jinshi of the Tianqi era, not yet fifty years old. He was somewhat short, with high cheekbones, small eyes, a high-bridged nose, and side-whiskers trimmed very neatly, giving him an air of authority and shrewdness.

Over the past few days, he had seen quite a number of officials and nobles who had slipped out of Beijing carrying the Crown Prince's orders, and from them he had heard of Zhu Cilang's various deeds. He himself had also received an order instructing him to arrange to receive the Son of Heaven in flight.

Before meeting Wei Zaode, he had not believed that this whole series of actions had come from the Crown Prince Zhu Cilang; he had assumed the Chongzhen Emperor was directing the play from behind the scenes. But this morning, when he saw Wei Zaode arrive at a gallop as the advance party and learned of Chongzhen's "slip and coma" at court and the Crown Prince's taking charge of affairs as Army Supervisor, Song Quan suddenly did not know what to do.

The Crown Prince... seemed to have staged a palace coup!

This was the act of a treacherous subject and unfilial son!

And yet he also felt that what the Crown Prince had done was not wrong. The Chongzhen Emperor was too obstinate. The enemy had already fought their way into the outer city, and still he would not flee, still wanted to hold the inner city and wait for Wu Sangui to come to the rescue... That fellow Wu Sangui was still at Yongping right now! Could he get anywhere near Beijing in less than three to five days?

Even if he came, could he defeat that many roving bandits? The roving bandits now gathered around Beijing numbered at least a hundred and several tens of thousands. How many men did Wu Sangui have? And how many could he bring? At the very most, ten thousand or so crack troops on a forced march — one man against a dozen or more?

So breaking out and fleeing before Li Zicheng's great army completely surrounded Beijing was truly the Chongzhen Emperor's only path to survival...

For a son, in order to save his father, to commit acts that defied his father — could that really be called unfilial? If a father lost his senses and wanted to leap from the wall of the Meridian Gate, must the son go along with him?

After much deliberation, Song Quan had come to feel that Zhu Cilang was a great filial son — filial in the great sense, not the small sense! And in so short a time, he had gathered so many troops, so much silver and coin from within Beijing. That ability seemed to surpass Chongzhen's as well.

The Ming's restoration, it seemed, could only be hoped for from this Crown Prince.

With that thought, Song Quan and Wei Zaode together strode quickly forward, knelt and kowtowed before Zhu Cilang and the column behind him, and declared in a loud voice, "Your subject, Governor of Shuntian Song Quan, respectfully welcomes the imperial procession!"

Wei Zaode and Song Quan's attendants also kowtowed together and said in unison, "Your subjects respectfully welcome the imperial procession!"

"All of you, rise!" Before Chongzhen inside the carriage could speak, Zhu Cilang spoke first. "Wei Zaode and Song Quan, come forward and report! Is Feng Kaizhang present?"

"Present. Your subject Feng Kaizhang is here." A young man in his twenties, short of stature, dark-skinned, speaking with a Zhejiang accent, his features looking very spirited, stepped out from among Song Quan's subordinates and came quickly before Zhu Cilang's horse.

This young man was the son of the Governor of Tianjin, Feng Yuanyang, and the nephew of the former Minister of War Feng Yuanbiao. He held a hereditary post as a Centurion in the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Today, however, he was not wearing official dress, but was attired as a traveling merchant, dusty and travel-worn.

On the tenth day of the third month, on his father Feng Yuanyang's orders, he had entered the capital to report secretly to the Chongzhen Emperor on preparations for escape by the sea route from Tianjin — his father Feng Yuanyang was, of course, also a loyal subject anxious for his country and his people! Using the Tianjin Governor's authority over sea transport, he had long been preparing a retreat route for the Chongzhen Emperor.

But Feng Kaizhang's trip to Beijing had produced no result. On the fourteenth day of the third month — the very day Zhu Cilang "fell into a long sleep and did not wake" — he had left Beijing and returned to Tianjin. As it happened, no sooner had he gotten back to Tianjin than Wang Zhixin arrived right behind him bearing Zhu Cilang's order.

And Feng Yuanyang had immediately acknowledged the Crown Prince's authority as Army Supervisor and Governor-General of Zhili military affairs — and at once dispatched his son back to Tongzhou to welcome the imperial procession.

Wei Zaode, as the advance party, had already met him, and had then sent a servant to report to Zhu Cilang. So Zhu Cilang already knew that the Ming still had loyal subjects of such resolve as Feng Yuanyang and Feng Kaizhang.

"Centurion Feng, no need for ceremony." Zhu Cilang asked in a low voice, "How many seagoing vessels has your father prepared? Where are they?"

"Reporting to the Crown Prince," Feng Kaizhang wasted no words and went straight to the point, "my father has already summoned Shen Tingyang, who manages the sea transport, and Su Guansheng, the Sea Patrol Circuit Intendant of Denglai, to Dagu. With them have come more than one hundred seagoing vessels, several dozen naval warships, and two thousand naval officers and men. In addition, under Shen Tingyang there are two thousand sailors, one thousand guards, and one thousand turtle-dove-foot matchlocks! More than enough to escort His Majesty and the Crown Prince south!"

(End of Chapter)