Chapter 873: What? The Great Qing Is Gone! — Fourteen (Please Subscribe)

"What? What did you say?"

"Your Majesty, the Qing state is gone!"

"The Qing state is gone? Truly?"

"Truly gone..."

On the eighteenth day of the second month of the seventh year of Hongxing of the Great Ming, the Great Emperor Zhu, who only last night had drunk a victory toast with the civil officials and military officers at the traveling palace on Yunlong Mountain, had just risen this morning, finished washing, and had not yet had breakfast when he heard an almost unbelievable piece of tremendous good news.

The Great Qing state was gone!

Such a huge Great Qing state — how could it just vanish, just like that?

Hadn't the people in the Military Staff Office said it would take ten years to destroy the Great Qing? And how long had it been now? Not even ten months since the war began — how could it be gone?

Emperor Zhu pressed at once: "What exactly happened?"

"Your Majesty, this slave doesn't know what happened either..." Huang Xiaobao, who had come early in the morning to report the good news to Emperor Zhu, could only shake his head repeatedly. "Li Yan, Qian Qianyi, and Zu Kefa are all waiting outside the palace for an audience. Your Majesty had best ask them in person!"

"Good, good," Zhu Cilang drew a deep breath. "Summon them at once... have them come join Us for breakfast."

"This slave obeys the decree."

Huang Xiaobao bowed and turned to leave. Zhu Cilang turned back and saw Jin Dongzhu, who had attended him in bed last night and had just been helping him dress, standing frozen to one side, her small mouth open, her phoenix eyes staring wide — who knew what she was thinking?

"Dongzhu," Zhu Cilang said with a smile, "keep Us company for the morning meal."

Only then did Jin Dongzhu come back to herself and give Zhu Cilang a curtsy. Emperor Zhu took her small hand and said cheerfully: "It seems the Qing state truly cannot do without your father! But this matter no longer concerns you... you are now Our honored consort. Just set your mind to bearing Us sons and daughters — you must not fall too far behind Xu Erlin."

Xu Ermo's cousin Xu Erlin had entered the palace at the same time as Jin Dongzhu and was now pregnant, but Jin Dongzhu's belly showed not the slightest sign. Hearing Emperor Zhu's words, Jin Dongzhu's fair face flushed bright red at once, her head drooped, and her heart began thumping wildly again.

These days, because Xu Erlin had had a slight show of blood and was resting to protect the pregnancy, the duty of attending the Emperor in bed had fallen mainly on Jin Dongzhu...

Zhu Cilang led Jin Dongzhu by the hand to the dining room beside the bedchamber. Breakfast had already been served — very simple: rice porridge, eggs, and a very strange sort of fried dough stick called "eight-strand fried dough." It had nothing to do with the eight-legged essay; it was roughly four fried dough sticks pinched together and fried as one. An ordinary fried dough stick had two strands; this one had eight... placed on the plate it was a huge pile, too much to finish in one meal — somewhat like the Great Qing state that had now suddenly vanished.

The Great Qing state had also been a huge pile! Impossible to swallow in one bite...

Just yesterday, before Emperor Zhu and his ministers drank the victory toast, he had received a battle report from Zhu Chunchen, the Regional Commander of Jiangbei — not good news, but word that the siege of Suizhou had been repulsed!

Defending Suizhou was that Xu Dingguo who deserved to be hacked to pieces. He was the local boss of Suizhou; when the Plain Green Banner was being established he had pulled strings and been enfeoffed at Suizhou. After years of painstaking management, he had turned Suizhou into the Xu family's private kingdom.

Before Emperor Zhu launched the northern expedition, that old man Xu had secretly sent word to Zhu Chunchen, the Ming army's Regional Commander of Jiangbei, proposing terms for defection: "hereditary rule over one prefecture." Zhu Cilang had refused.

Zhu Cilang no longer accepted military traitors switching sides — on the one hand because he now had real strength, and on the other because there was no territory left to settle them. That bit of land in the north — who knew how many people had their eyes on it! How could any share be left for traitors?

As for luring them over first and settling accounts after autumn... Emperor Zhu was a man of good faith and would not do such a thing — nor could he let the bunch of northern military men under him serve as a homecoming corps for nothing! Want land? Go fight hard for it!

But Zhu Chunchen's skill at war seemed rather poor. He commanded two divisions against a single Suizhou and still had not taken it!

By comparison, Wu Sanfu and Zhu Yujian were far more efficient. The armies under their command had cleanly and decisively stormed Ruzhou and Xuzhou, killing Bai Guang'en and every male of Liu Liangzuo's household! The heads of Bai Guang'en and Liu Liangzuo had also been placed in two rather handsome carved boxes and sent to Yunlong Mountain in Xuzhou for public appreciation.

But within Shandong and Henan provinces, there were still quite a few Qing army strongholds — for example Dezhou, Liaocheng, and Anping in Shandong; Suizhou, Zhengzhou, the Henan-Hebei Grand Camp, Luoyang, Hongnong, and Huaiqing in Henan.

Some of these cities were already besieged; some had not yet been attacked by the Ming army. To take them all would probably still require several months or even a year.

And now the Great Qing state had suddenly vanished... this was an unexpected variable indeed!

Just as Emperor Zhu was staring blankly at a lump of eight-strand fried dough, Li Yan, Qian Qianyi, and Zu Kefa came in to pay their respects.

"Sit, all of you sit, have something to eat! Zu Kefa, you must have ridden day and night from Tianjin Garrison — surely tired and hungry. Here is an eight-strand fried dough; it's yours."

Zu Kefa was indeed utterly exhausted. Tianjin was a thousand li from Xuzhou! He had covered the distance in under three days, changing horses several times along the way — how could he not be tired? His stomach, however, was not hungry, because when he passed through Pengcheng in the early morning he had eaten a baked flatbread wrapped around fried dough twists and drunk a large bowl of pheasant soup.

But now that His Majesty had bestowed a lump of fried dough, he still had to eat it. Zu Kefa gave thanks for the grace, and without using chopsticks, grabbed the eight-strand fried dough with his hand and took a big bite — quite fragrant!

Watching this, Zhu Cilang's appetite stirred too, but he could not be so crude, so he signaled Jin Dongzhu with his eyes, and she tore off a piece by hand and handed it to him.

"Kefa, tell Us — what happened? How did the Qing state vanish?"

Zu Kefa swallowed a mouthful of fried dough and answered with a smile: "To answer His Majesty: when Fulin learned of Dodo's crushing defeat at Desheng Marsh, he was scared out of his wits. He no longer dares to be the Qing Emperor and wishes to declare himself Your Majesty's subject. Whatever Your Majesty enfeoffs him as, he will be; he even wishes to acknowledge Your Majesty as his father-emperor!"

"Cough, cough..." Zhu Cilang had not expected Fulin to be so starved for fatherly love as to make such a request, and at once choked on the fried dough. Jin Dongzhu beside him hurriedly brought a bowl of tea for the Ming Emperor to drink — if he accidentally choked to death, where would Fulin go to find an Ama?

Zhu Cilang hastily washed down the fried dough with tea, then shook his head, unable to decide whether to laugh or cry: "How could such a thing happen... Then is he willing to hand over Beijing and Tianjin?"

Zu Kefa said: "Verbally he has agreed... but this subject believes it is a stalling tactic!"

"A stalling tactic?" Zhu Cilang asked. "Then We cannot agree! Shi Kefa still has Tianjin Garrison surrounded, does he not?"

"Ring upon ring of encirclement!" Li Yan interjected. "Fulin could not fly out even with wings."

"Good!" Zhu Cilang laughed. "We are not short of sons now. If Fulin wants to live, let him come to Nanjing and be Prince Gong... wealth and honor will not be denied him!"

"Your Majesty," Qian Qianyi now interjected, "this old subject believes you should still accept Fulin as your son!"

"Is that so? But he is using a stalling tactic!" Zhu Cilang said.

Qian Qianyi said: "Your Majesty, we can turn his own trick against him!"

"Turn his trick against him?" Zhu Cilang asked. "How so?"

Qian Qianyi glanced at Jin Dongzhu, who sat beside Zhu Cilang peeling an egg, then said: "Your Majesty can demand that Fulin hand over his mother, Bumbutai!"

"That..." Emperor Zhu's eyes went wide. "What would We want with that Mongol matron?"

Zhu Cilang had long since asked Jin Dongzhu about her: Bumbutai was a matron, and a rather plump one at that, not at all good-looking, and getting on in years.

Qian Qianyi smiled: "Your Majesty, this Bumbutai is of course for people to see!"

"For whom to see?"

"For all under Heaven to see — for the traitors in Dezhou, Anping, Liaocheng, Zhengzhou, and elsewhere to see!" Qian Qianyi said. "If everyone knows that Fulin has even offered up his own mother, who would still believe the Qing state could ever revive?"