Chapter 875: What? The Great Qing Is Gone! XVI (Seeking Subscriptions)

If she refused to go, the Shunzhi Emperor could do nothing about it. He could not have someone tie up his own mother and send her to Zhu Cilang, could he? The Great Qing ruled the realm by filial piety, and Shunzhi was a filial son famed throughout the world. He had already been filial to three Amas! Truly his filial piety moved Heaven itself, and he absolutely deserved to be ranked as the Twenty-Sixth Paragon of Filial Piety. How could such a great filial son send his mother off to a new Ama without first obtaining her consent?

To be honest, although this matter was an act of filial piety, in Sonin's eyes it was still a supreme humiliation. And so, upon entering Beijing, ascending the Hall of Martial Valor, and seeing the Empress Dowager Bumbutai listening to affairs from behind the screen, he at once broke down sobbing uncontrollably!

This crying was no small matter. It frightened Bumbutai, as well as Wu Keshan and Baiyintu, who had fled back to Beijing from the front lines, and all the civil and military officials of the Great Qing remaining in the city.

"Sonin! What are you crying about?"

"Grand Secretary Sonin! What in the world has happened?"

"Grand Secretary Sonin! Where is the Emperor?"

"Grand Secretary Sonin, don't just keep crying!"

"Grand Secretary Sonin, has the Emperor already—"

Beijing was not under siege. Shi Kefa did not have enough troops for that, so he could only strike at key areas. During this period, the key targets were the Tianjin garrison and the banks of the Wei River. While laying siege to the one, he uprooted the Qing strongpoints along the Wei River, seeking to open up shipping on the waterway.

The Wei River connected to the sea. Once shipping was open, the northern expeditionary army would have no shortage of grain in the Northern Metropolitan Region, and the 48-pound siege cannons could also be brought up. After that, there would be confidence in taking the strong city of Beijing.

Because Shi Kefa temporarily lacked the strength to surround Beijing, the Qing court inside the city had received a great deal of terrifying bad news over the past few days.

First, Wu Keshan and Baiyintu, who had suffered a crushing defeat in the great battle at Guanyin Hall in Zhuangqiao Village, had fled back to Beijing with a few thousand remnants, bringing with them the news of the Great Qing's heavenly troops' disastrous defeat in Hejian Prefecture!

A little later, the envoy sent by Dodo also reached Beijing, bringing even more dreadful news! The Great Qing's most formidable Prince of Valor had been defeated at Desheng Lake in Hejian Prefecture, and now had decided to withdraw beyond Shanhai Pass. All sons of the Ten Banners willing to follow were to leave Beijing at once and head east. "We don't want the Beijing household registrations or the courtyard houses inside the Second Ring Road anymore. Let's all go beyond the Pass and farm the land!"

Two days after that, cavalry sent out to patrol around Beijing brought back word that the Imperial Uncle's great army had fled in panic past the southeastern side of Beijing, heading in the direction of Jizhou.

The Imperial Uncle had not even wanted to come to Beijing. It seemed he had truly been badly beaten by the Ming army!

If even the Prince of Valor Dodo had been smashed like this, who in the Great Qing could still fight?

Now all three armies had been defeated, the Emperor was surrounded, and the Great Qing was finished!

Seeing Sonin weeping like this, Bumbutai, who had been forcing herself to remain composed, grew afraid as well. She came out directly from behind the lowered screen. The assembled officials hurriedly knelt. The Empress Dowager walked up to Sonin, and even her voice trembled as she spoke. "Sonin, speak quickly. Is our Great Qing—"

Sonin wailed: "Empress Dowager! The Great Qing is gone!"

"What?" Bumbutai swayed, her vision went dark, and she was about to collapse. Fortunately, the eunuch Wu Liangfu beside her was quick-eyed and quick-handed, and steadied the Empress Dowager.

Bumbutai steadied herself, but the officials around her exploded into an uproar.

"What happened? How can the Great Qing just be gone?"

"Yes! It was still here just a moment ago! How can it be gone now? Isn't this a bit too fast?"

"Sonin, you must explain clearly. How is our Great Qing gone?"

Indeed, how could such a huge Great Qing just be gone, just like that?

Bumbutai also looked at Sonin, tears welling in her small eyes. "Sonin, has the city of Tianjin been broken by Shi Kefa? Has the Emperor—"

Sonin hurriedly waved his hands. "No, the Tianjin garrison has not yet fallen. His Majesty is still safe for the time being."

Bumbutai let out a breath of relief. "Sonin, then why do you say the Great Qing is gone?"

Sonin sighed and said, "Empress Dowager, His Majesty is trapped in the Tianjin garrison with no way out, and has also learned of the Imperial Uncle's defeat at Desheng Lake. In utter desperation, he had no choice but to submit to the Great Ming as a vassal, acknowledge the Ming Emperor as his father, and renounce the Qing imperial throne and dynastic name, becoming merely a vassal prince of the Ming and the Eyel Zhasag Khan of the Mongols. The Ming Emperor also wishes to invite the Empress Dowager and His Highness Prince Yu to reside in Nanjing."

"And what of Beijing?" Bumbutai pressed. "Is Beijing to be handed over?"

Submitting as a vassal, acknowledging a father, sending off his mother — none of that mattered much. Bumbutai was a middle-aged woman; would she be afraid of Zhu Cilang? But Beijing could not be handed over!

Beijing was a strong city, the surrounding land was still fairly fertile, and the rainfall in recent years had been ample enough to sustain thirty or forty thousand soldiers.

Sonin sighed and said, "Beijing must of course be handed over. Beijing is the old capital of the Great Ming. How can we occupy it forever? The Son of Heaven of the Great Ming has given us one year to relocate to Guihua City."

Guihua City was a city built in his later years by Altan Khan of the Mongols on the Tumed Plain, in the shade of the Great Green Mountains and by the banks of the Yellow River, modeled on the Yuan capital of Dadu, intended to serve as the center of Altan Khan's rule over the steppe. The name Guihua City was bestowed by the Ming dynasty. The Mongols called the city Kuku Hoto, that is, Hohhot, meaning "the Blue-Green City."

Although this city lay on the steppe, it was surrounded by large tracts of reclaimed farmland, inhabited by many Han commoners who had migrated from Han territory and followed the White Lotus faith. In the era of Altan Khan's rule, the Han population had once numbered as many as one hundred thousand.

But this city and its surrounding region had declined and fallen into ruin because of Ligdan Khan's attacks and the later war between Hong Taiji and Ligdan Khan. Still, the foundations remained. As long as enough people migrated there, it could be revived.

But no matter how much Guihua City revived, it could not compare with Beijing! No matter how much the Tumed Plain was reclaimed, it could not compare with the plains around Beijing.

"Must Beijing really be handed over?" Bumbutai said in a lowered voice. "The Emperor can't actually believe he can go to Tumed and become a Great Khan, can he?"

Sonin answered in a voice barely louder than a mosquito's buzz: "Empress Dowager, we must first rescue His Majesty from the Tianjin garrison. Once we return to Beijing, we can slowly think of a way."

Think of a way?

Bumbutai smiled bitterly. She herself was already mortgaged to Zhu Cilang! If Shunzhi refused to hand over Beijing, could she still keep her life?

But going to Tumed would likewise bring no good end. She herself was a Mongol, and knew all too well the rules of the steppe, where the strong were obeyed.

"Very well! Then we shall go. Sonin, when do we set out?"

Having thought it over and found no way out anywhere, the old woman threw caution to the wind. She had to get her son out of the Tianjin garrison no matter what. She was old anyway. Once she went south, she would eat when there was food and drink when there was drink. If the Zhu Emperor truly wanted to kill her, then there was nothing to be done about it.

After arranging her "affairs," the old woman handed Beijing over to Suksaha and Wu Keshan, then set out with Fuquan, following Sonin. Zu Dashou brought his two sons, and Luo Yangxing and Guang Shiheng brought their respective families, all accompanying the old woman south. They were to serve as witnesses — they had to prove that the old woman was the old woman!

Within a few days they reached the city of Tianjin, tightly besieged by the Ming army. In a tent on the east bank of the canal west of Tianjin, jointly administered by the armies of both sides, the old woman met her "Twenty-Sixth Paragon of Filial Piety" son, Fulin. Mother and son naturally fell into each other's arms and wept bitterly.

Zu Kefa was also in this tent, holding a scroll of imperial edict in his hands, the smile on his face impossible to contain. Watching the mother and son weep so pitifully, he began to console them with a chuckle.

"Don't cry, you two. Why make it look like a parting of life and death? The good days ahead are still long! Two Prince Gong residences have already been built inside Nanjing and outside Old Mountain Palace, magnificent and splendid, not much inferior to an imperial palace. The two of you can live out your retirement there. What a fine thing!"

As he spoke, Zu Kefa unfurled the imperial edict in his hands and said with a smile, "When you two have finished crying, kneel and receive the edict! This is the edict investing the Prince Gong and Eyel Zhasag Khan. Once you have received it, the Great Qing will formally be no more!"