Chapter 74: The Real and False Chongzhen (Please Add to Favorites)

The crack of firelocks still rattled like beans popping in a pan. A woven curtain of shot, together with the clouds of smoke belched out by crouching-tiger cannons and Folangji cannons, soon wrapped the area around the Zhengyang Gate barbican in a haze of gunpowder.

After the gunfire came the battle cries!

Row upon row of foot soldiers in ragged armor and white felt caps surged out of every street and alley beyond Zhengyang Gate, raising shields and carrying scaling ladders, throwing themselves at the towering ramparts like a tide.

At the same time, on both flanks of the Zhengyang Gate barbican, from the direction of Chongwen Gate and Xuanwu Gate, fresh assaults were launched along the broad city wall!

Though they had already been beaten back many times, these former Ming officers and men newly attached to the Shun still had high morale, every man striving to be first.

The reason was simple: the yellow dragon banner of the Ming Son of Heaven still flew above Zhengyang Gate! The cornered Chongzhen Emperor was most likely there as well. As long as they took Zhengyang Gate, the Ming dynasty would breathe its last, and the new Shun court would become master of all under heaven.

With such a great achievement right before their eyes, who would not strive to be first?

The struggle for the inner city of Beijing had already gone on for more than a day. The time had reached the twenty-second day of the third month, and the "Roving" banner had been raised over eight of the nine gates of Beijing's inner city. Apart from Xuanwu and Chongwen Gates, the other six had fallen without a fight — at two of them the defenders had scattered at the first sign of the enemy, and at the remaining four the defenders had simply defected and voluntarily handed over the gates.

Because Chaoyang Gate and Dongzhi Gate had not been blocked up, Li Zicheng's veteran camp troops also poured in through Chaoyang Gate in great numbers.

But what awaited them was not Ming officers and men making a last-ditch stand, but the common people of the capital lining the streets to welcome them, along with officials abandoning the Ming and going over to the Shun. The song "Eat his mother, wear his mother" rose and fell in waves, and many people brought out firecrackers they had long prepared and set them off with abandon — the whole scene was much like celebrating the New Year!

On this day, the Shun dynasty was truly pleased beyond measure.

Yet amid all this satisfaction, there was one small disappointment. The resistance at the Zhengyang Gate barbican remained stubborn, continuing from noon on the twenty-first all the way until now, beating back more than a dozen waves of Shun attacks.

This barbican was simply too sturdy! The ramparts were both high and thick, and the gates on all four sides consisted of thousand-jin drop-gates and double iron-leaf doors that could not be blasted open without Hongyi cannons. Even more fearsome was that the barbican's defensive system included a great arrow tower with a platform four zhang high and a tower eight zhang high, built of brick and stone. The main body of the arrow tower had four stories, with a total of ninety-four arrow slits on its east, south, and west faces for shooting outward.

Such a formidable fortress was something Li Zicheng was seeing for the first time! Without Hongyi cannons and without any large siege equipment, relying solely on swarming assaults, the losses were naturally not light.

But spurred by lavish rewards, the Shun officers and men still pressed forward wave after wave, launching assault after assault.

Chen Yongfu's troops remained the main force of the attack. This fierce general, who had once shot out one of the Roving King's eyes, now wore heavy armor and, together with his trusted officers, strove to control the pace of the advancing ranks, keeping them from falling into disorder in their eagerness to outdo one another. Arrows and iron-shot pellets shot out from time to time from the arrow slits of the tower. The arrows posed little threat to Chen Yongfu and his men; they wore long iron armor, and their personal guards held shields for them.

But iron armor and shields could not stop firelocks! On the Zhengyang Gate arrow tower there were some finely made Lumi muskets, all of which Luo Yangxing had gathered from the Embroidered Uniform Guard under his own control. The soldiers operating the muskets had also been fed full with silver, and they specifically picked out Shun officers wearing good armor to fire at! They had already killed quite a few of Chen Yongfu's trusted officers and household retainers, causing him no small heartache.

But heartache aside, he still had to fight!

This battle for the Zhengyang Gate barbican would most likely be the foremost achievement in the Shun's destruction of the Ming! As long as it could be taken, would Chen Yongfu ever need to worry about not having a dukedom to pass down?

The officers and household retainers under Chen Yongfu also threw caution to the wind — the glory and wealth of their sons and grandsons all depended on this day!

Led by these officers and retainers, the ordinary soldiers also staked their lives. They did not expect noble titles, but surely they could gamble for a hereditary Centurion post? That too could feed several generations.

In an instant, the formation of several thousand men filled the narrow moat, wading forward through waist-deep water. Men kept falling from arrows and shot, and the cries and screams of the wounded rose up. But all these sounds were drowned out by the song welcoming the Roving King — "Eat his mother, drink his mother" — which rose from every part of the inner and outer city of Beijing, merging into a heaven-shaking wave of sound, as if about to bring down this suffocating end of an era.

Luo Yangxing and Gao Yushun heard this earth-shaking song and were both shocked and frightened. The sound came from all directions — had every part of the capital fallen? Was only the Zhengyang Gate barbican left, stubbornly holding on?

These two loyal subjects of the Ming were also driven to their wits' end. In truth, both of them wanted to surrender — the order from Zhu Cilang permitting surrender was tucked in their bosoms, which could perfectly well let them become loyal turncoat subjects remembered through history.

The problem was that Li Zicheng sent no one to urge surrender! He just kept attacking wave after wave! So they had no chance to surrender even if they wanted to, and could only grit their teeth and hold on.

Indeed, surrender also required an opportunity and terms. It was not a matter of "lay down your guns and you won't be killed" the moment ferocious-looking enemy soldiers came charging up. Where would such a good thing come from? Once men had fought to the point of bloodlust, who still cared whether you surrendered or not? They would kill you first and talk later!

Not only did Luo Yangxing and Gao Yushun have to force themselves to supervise the defense, but the stout volunteer soldiers who had been lured into defending to the death with lavish rewards were now equally unable to back down.

Because Luo Yangxing and Gao Yushun had not come up onto the wall empty-handed — they had brought several hundred thousand taels of silver into the Zhengyang Gate barbican. Zhu Cilang had given them all the silver he could not take away. And Luo Yangxing and Gao Yushun were, for once, extraordinarily generous, scattering money freely: beat back one enemy assault and everyone was rewarded! So much so that the several thousand men still holding the Zhengyang Gate barbican had each received at least twenty taels of silver!

This was an enormous sum!

Even if the Shun officers and men were merciful enough to spare their lives, would they not also want their money?

To protect this money earned at the risk of their lives, they had no choice but to steel themselves and hold on... hold on until Li Zicheng sent someone to urge surrender, at which point they would have the standing to negotiate terms with the new master of the realm.

Fortunately, they still held a great card in their hands — the Ming Son of Heaven, the Chongzhen Emperor!

On the highest fourth story of the Zhengyang Gate arrow tower, there were now only two people: Guang Shiheng and Luo Xiushen. The Chongzhen Emperor impersonated by Guang Shiheng was the pillar of morale for the defenders — if anyone found out he was a fake, who knew whether the men below would scatter in an instant?

So Luo Xiushen personally guarded the false Chongzhen, and had the passage from the third story of the arrow tower to the fourth sealed off.

But Guang Shiheng had already collapsed. He huddled alone in a corner of the arrow tower's fourth story, neither eating nor drinking, his hair disheveled and face grimy, weeping and wailing without cease, showing not the slightest trace of a loyal subject.

Luo Xiushen had no choice but to console him earnestly: "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid... When the Roving King sends someone to urge surrender, we will surrender. Surrendering still makes us loyal subjects — what a fine thing that is! The longer we hold out now, the purer our loyalty will be. When the time comes, the Roving King will have to treat us well in order to win people's hearts..."

"B-but he isn't sending anyone to urge surrender!" Guang Shiheng was nearly crying from anxiety. "These waves of attacks — when will they ever end!"

"They will come, they will come," Luo Xiushen said with a smile, consoling him. "The Zhengyang Gate barbican is not easy to take. How many lives does Li Zicheng have to throw into it?"

...

At this moment, Li Zicheng stood atop Yongding Gate, his expression utterly solemn, watching the battlefield ahead without any emotion. The performance of both the Shun and Ming armies was all taken in by his eyes.

The Shun warriors had already fought hard enough, attacking without regard for their lives. Yet the Ming soldiers defending the city had also staked their lives. Even though every part of the capital had fallen to the Shun, and even the chief eunuch Wang Dehua, who guarded the Forbidden City, had just surrendered, these lone loyalists of the Ming remained utterly unshaken, vowing to defend the Chongzhen Emperor to the death.

This loyalty truly earned Li Zicheng some admiration. He could not help but sigh: "If all the civil officials and military commanders of the Ming were like the loyal men on Zhengyang Gate, how would I have come to this day?"

"Your Majesty," the second military advisor Gu Junen finally remembered the tactic of urging surrender, "why not send Wang Dehua, who has just surrendered to us, to urge them to surrender? The Zhu bandit Son of Heaven has already lost his realm — how much longer can he hold out relying on a single fortress? If Your Majesty could grant him a princedom, he would most likely be willing to surrender."

Li Zicheng nodded and said: "I was just thinking the same. Send someone to bring Wang Dehua to me!"

(End of Chapter)