Chapter 824: Prince Gong, Prince Shun (Seeking Monthly Tickets, Seeking Subscriptions)

It had to be said, Princess Jianning was truly a rare beauty — an oval face, large eyes, delicate features, fair tender skin, and cherry lips curved in a smile, indescribably charming. Yet she was not one of those dainty, lovable Jiangnan girls; at only thirteen or fourteen, she already stood five chi two or three cun tall.

"Haha, a beauty indeed. I never imagined that fat Hong Taiji could have a daughter like this," Zhu Cilang remarked with a laugh.

Princess Jianning was not the least bit offended, and giggled: "Your Majesty, this slave takes after her mother, so she is good-looking. Your Majesty is good-looking too — do you take after your Ama or your mother?"

The Zhu Emperor laughed: "You will know the answer to that once you have met the Retired Emperor and the Retired Empress. For now, remember that a wife follows her husband! You are now Our woman, and from now on you are Han. No more calling her 'Mother' or 'Ama' — you must call them Father and Mother. Understood?"

Well, it was feudal society, after all! Naturally the husband's authority prevailed; except in matrilineal societies, everyone did it this way. So once Princess Jianning entered the Zhu Emperor's palace, she became Han.

Besides, it was an ancestral institution of the Great Ming for emperors to take the women of enemy rulers into the rear palace — Zhu Yuanzhang did plenty of that to promote ethnic integration!

"This slave understands!" Princess Jianning answered at once, her smile blooming like a flower.

Zhu Cilang smiled and went on: "We and your brother Fulin will soon be at war, but that has nothing to do with you. You are Our woman, and so beautiful that We shall favor you at all times. But the rules of the palace are very strict; if you break them, We will still have to apply family discipline."

"What is family discipline?" Princess Jianning asked with a grin. "Does it mean beating this slave?"

"Correct!" Zhu Cilang deliberately put on a stern face. "A severe beating! Are you afraid?"

"Not afraid, not afraid." Princess Jianning was not afraid in the least. "As long as the beating is not too hard, this slave will not be afraid."

Zhu Cilang burst out laughing again. This girl was rather amusing; with her around from now on, the palace was sure to be lively.

"Old Tian," Zhu Cilang said to Tian Shuchen, "take her to the Golden Pearl Residence and have Dongzhu teach her the palace rules and the elementary curriculum."

"This slave obeys the decree." Tian Shuchen acknowledged, and led Princess Jianning away.

The Zhu Emperor then said to Bumburshan: "Bumburshan, go back and tell Fulin that We are very fond of Jianning. Now We and he are relatives, so in the future there must always be a way left open! No matter when, in Laoshan, Nanjing, and Wuhan, there will be a princely residence kept for him! When the time comes, he will not be able to be emperor, but he will still be a prince — We have even thought of his title for him: Prince Gong or Prince Shun. In the future he will still be an imperial relative by marriage, with glory, wealth, and rank beyond measure."

Hearing this, Bumburshan thought to himself: He gets a princely residence, but what about me? Am I not also a relative of Your Imperial Majesty? Will I also become an imperial relative of the Great Ming in the future?

"You need not worry," Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "We are relatives too. Over there you are a Supporting Duke; when you come to Us in the future, you will be demoted one rank to marquis! You will likewise be granted a marquis's residence and merit fields. Glory and wealth will not be lacking."

The Zhu Emperor was playing an open stratagem. He had to let the people on the Qing side know that ethnic integration was the irresistible trend, and that there was still a future of "submission, comfort, and settlement"!

So before doing anything wicked, think it over carefully, and do not be so absolute. Otherwise — the Ming court has plenty of Henan men: Li Yan, Hou Xun, Hou Fangyu, Shi Kefa, Feng San — they are all Henan men!

Whoever breached the Yellow River dikes and flooded their homeland would be hounded daily by a gang of high Henan officials in the future. Would life be any good then?

Of course, Zhu Cilang was not going to say anything threatening to the Shunzhi Emperor on behalf of the common people of Henan — he had to appear utterly indifferent. Why should he care about the common people of Henan? They were neither kin nor acquaintance, and plenty of Henan folk had followed Li Zicheng in rebellion!

This was, in fact, psychological warfare against the people of the Great Qing.

Moreover, Zhu Cilang genuinely did not want Fulin to slip away beyond the passes and become "Emperor of Manchuria" — that would be splitting the motherland!

Now that they were relatives, how could he stand by and watch the Shunzhi Emperor become a criminal who divided the nation?

And there were quite a few bad people in the world these days — Spain, Russia, England — they all looked rather wicked!

If Fulin, the Mongol Great Khan and Qing Emperor, fled to the northeast and fell into Dodo's hands, then Dodo could legitimately inherit the title of Mongol Great Khan and Qing Emperor. Then, if he colluded with a few imperialist powers, the wars in the northeast and Mongolia would drag on without end.

So being able to invite Fulin to Nanjing to become some Prince Gong or Prince Shun would be the best possible outcome.

At that point, the Great Qing would legally be extinct, and what was more important, the Shunzhi Emperor was still the Mongol Great Khan! The Mongol people could not be without a Great Khan! If Shunzhi quit, then Zhu Cilang would simply have to reluctantly become their Great Khan.

To keep Russia north and west of Lake Baikal, it was impossible without the support of the Mongols. Russia's logistics could travel by the Arctic Ocean, the Yenisei River, and the Angara River.

If the Ming army wanted to go up onto the Mongolian plateau, whom could it rely on? It would have to eat the Mongols' cattle and sheep. What else could be done? From the port of Tianjin to Lake Baikal was over 2,000 kilometers by land; a thousand-kilometer delivery rate of 10% would already be extraordinary, and at 2,000 kilometers it would be 1%! Send a hundred shi of grain and only one shi would arrive. There was a reason the Great Ming, even at its height, could never pacify Mongolia!

At this moment, the Shunzhi Emperor still did not know that three magnificent Prince Gong residences awaited him in Nanjing, Laoshan, and Wuhan.

He was climbing high to gaze into the distance, having ascended Coal Hill behind the Forbidden City. Standing beneath an old crooked-necked locust tree, he looked out over Beijing bathed in the setting sun, with a loyal old eunuch at his side. The scene was truly too beautiful.

Unfortunately, outside Beijing at present there was no sea of enemies; the Shunzhi Emperor had merely climbed up to survey the terrain, and had not reached the point of having no way out.

But Shunzhi had already prepared for the worst — to rely on Beijing and fight a final battle against the Ming army coming north.

Beijing had always been a solid fortress. Before the Jiajing era, Beijing's outer city (also called the double city) did not exist; it was simply a strong city (the inner city) roughly square in shape, with a perimeter of 45 li. The walls were four to five zhang high, nearly seven zhang thick at the base, and over five zhang three cun thick at the top. The walls had nine gates, each protected by a barbican, plus four corner towers, three water gates, 172 enemy platforms, 11,038 crenellations and embrasures, and a moat 30–60 meters wide outside the city.

Although Beijing was only a classical fortress from before the age when cannon dominated the battlefield, its walls, up to 20 meters thick, could withstand even Hongyi cannon — this was no empty boast. When the Yongding Gate was demolished earlier, the Shunzhi Emperor had men fire Hongyi cannon at it, and it could not be battered down at all!

Still, Shunzhi was uneasy. He already knew that the Southern Ming could now cast bronze long cannon of up to 24 pounds!

And the foreign devils even had super bronze cannon of 48 pounds!

Cannonballs of that weight would probably be more than the inner city of Beijing could withstand, so the city had to be further reinforced.

Therefore the Shunzhi Emperor ordered that materials from demolishing Beijing's outer city (including materials obtained from demolishing all buildings within the outer city) be used to strengthen Beijing's inner city.

Of course, to reinforce the entire 45-li inner-city wall, those materials would not be enough — nor was that necessary. According to the advice of the fortification expert invited from Spain, all nine gates, four corner towers, and 172 enemy platforms of Beijing's inner city had to be greatly strengthened.

The four corner towers and nine gates were all rebuilt into angular bastions, each mounted with four Hongyi cannon.

The 172 enemy platforms were all rebuilt into semicircular form, with roofs constructed of logs and sandbags, and the crenellations and embrasures specially reinforced, turning them into blockhouses that were very easy to hold.

After the reconstruction, the defenders of Beijing would not need to hold 45 li of wall; they would only need to hold the nine gates, four corner towers, and 172 enemy platforms — 185 strongpoints in all. With an average of 100 men per strongpoint, 20,000 defenders would be enough to hold Beijing.

(End of Chapter)