Chapter 887: I Am Not Li Fulin (Please Subscribe)

"Whoa, this Beijing city has really changed beyond recognition — three layers of bastions all around, and the innermost layer is even a mountain fortress. Even our Shun dynasty's northern capital Chongqing can't compare! And it's still under construction and being reinforced! It seems His Highness Prince Gong is preparing to fight a decisive battle right here in Beijing against the forces of the Zhu Ming court! Good! Good! Good!"

The one making these grand exclamations was Huang Shu, Minister of the Shun dynasty's Ministry of Rites and Government. He was dressed in a plain, subdued blue official robe, wore a black gauze cap on his head, and rode a tall, large horse as he entered the towering and majestic Beijing fortress under Sony's escort.

Huang Shu had passed the jinshi examination and had once held office in Beijing, so he was quite familiar with the city. But seeing it again this time, he almost failed to recognize it.

Beijing had not only been transformed into a great bastion with three concentric layers, but it also now had elevation. The innermost layer, the Coal Hill fortress, was stacked tier upon tier, and it looked far from easy to assault!

"Northern capital Chongqing? Does your Shun dynasty also have a southern capital?" Sony was also quite interested in the Shun court far off in the southwest, so he began asking about it.

"We do," Huang Shu said with a smile. "The Shun dynasty's southern capital is Kunming Prefecture. A fortress was built on Wuhua Mountain within the city of Kunming Prefecture, called Wuhua Palace. In recent years, His Majesty the Shun Emperor has spent most of his time residing in Wuhua Palace, and he has also established a military academy beside the Green Lake outside Wuhua Palace to train new troops in preparation for a northern expedition to the Central Plains."

Training troops and lecturing on warfare in Yunnan was for the purpose of a northern expedition?

Sony found this somewhat dubious. "How can a northern expedition set out from Yunnan? Shouldn't it set out from Hanzhong? Troops dispatched from Hanzhong can strike directly into Guanzhong!"

Huang Shu waved his hand dismissively. "Wrong, wrong. These days it is no longer the era when holding Guanzhong meant holding the realm. Guanzhong is cold and dry, bitterly poor to the extreme, and can no longer support the empire's finest soldiers. Not to mention Sichuan, the Land of Abundance — even Yunnan, long considered remote, now far surpasses Shaanxi under our dynasty's painstaking governance."

In truth, Yunnan's economy was not actually better than Shaanxi's, but both the Shun and the Xi regimes had been thoroughly disillusioned with Shaanxi. So Li Guo, Li Laiheng, and the Eight Deliberative Princes had little interest in a northern expedition into Shaanxi, and were instead very interested in developing Yunnan.

Yunnan's territory was by no means small, and there was also a great deal of arable, cultivable land. Moreover, there were many tusi chieftains who had been wealthy for untold generations and could be "eaten." So in recent years, the Shun dynasty's center of development had shifted from Sichuan to Yunnan, and they had also transplanted the military-farm system that had proven effective in Sichuan (including Hanzhong Prefecture, Yunyang Prefecture, and parts of Gongchang Prefecture) to Yunnan.

Furthermore, to strengthen control over Yunnan, the Shun had established a southern capital in Kunming, echoing the northern capital Chongqing from afar. They had also opened a military academy in Kunming to train officers for the garrison troops, and had established government-run handicraft workshops for casting cannons and manufacturing guns.

But no matter how much Yunnan developed, using it as a base for a northern expedition still seemed somewhat implausible. Using Yunnan as a base for a southern campaign against Burma would make far more sense.

Huang Shu was, however, a glib talker. He lowered his voice and said to Sony, "Moreover, warfare demands the element of surprise! If our Shun troops march out from Shaanxi, the Zhu Ming side could anticipate it with their eyes closed, so they would certainly be fully prepared. We absolutely must not do that!"

"Then you would send troops from Yunnan?" Sony asked. "To strike Guizhou?"

Huang Shu put on an air of mystery. "That is a matter of military and state secrecy — how would a civil official like me know? But Your Excellency Sony may rest assured: as soon as word reaches Yunnan that the Ming army is massing to besiege Beijing, our Shun dynasty will certainly launch a northern expedition and catch them completely off guard!"

Sony frowned. "Beijing and Yunnan are ten thousand li apart. News does not travel that quickly. If the Zhu Ming seals off information, word might not reach Yunnan even in a year."

"How could that be?" Huang Shu laughed. "Has Your Excellency forgotten how this official traveled here from Yunnan?"

"You..." Sony thought for a moment. "You came by ship?"

Huang Shu smiled and nodded. "Indeed, this official came by ship."

"The Shun now has a seaport?"

"We have had one for a long time!" Huang Shu said with evident pride. "And it was this official who negotiated it. Burma is now a vassal state of our Shun dynasty, and our Shun holds a concession at Syriam, a seaport on Burma's southern coast. So this official set sail from Syriam in Burma, took a fast Portuguese ship around Malacca and northward, and reached Lüshun in just over a hundred days. At Lüshun I chartered a boat to the seaport of Yongping Prefecture, and from Yongping Prefecture I came to Beijing."

At present, Yongping Prefecture and more than half of Shuntian Prefecture were still under Fulin's rule — Yongping Prefecture bordered Shanhai Pass, and the land boundary between the Ming court and the Andong Protectorate ran along Shanhai Pass and Jinzhou Pass. If the Ming army were to march into Yongping Prefecture now, it would inevitably make Jin Dodo nervous, and could easily cause friction.

Moreover, the land around Yongping Prefecture was almost entirely banner land. The people of the Anding Protectorate were working hard to mobilize the "bannermen" there to relocate to the Northeast and become Han people. Emperor Zhu certainly had no desire to keep those people! Many meritorious officials who had endured hardship had their eyes on the land in Yongping Prefecture, and Emperor Zhu still needed it to reward people!

Huang Shu continued, "With this sea route in place, exchanging messages between our two sides is no great difficulty. We need only have the Portuguese ship we hired sail to Xiangyun Island off Yongping Prefecture and lie concealed. Once the Ming army masses to besiege the city, a messenger can board a Portuguese merchant ship and sail south to Burma. With favorable winds all the way, the news can reach Wuhua Palace in Kunming in as little as three months. Then our Shun dynasty's heavenly troops will launch the northern expedition into the Central Plains!"

Sony thought for a moment. "Can Portuguese ships enter the Bohai Gulf?"

"They can!" Huang Shu said. "With money, they can get in. The Ming's Northern Fleet doesn't blockade the Bohai Gulf much these days, and the ship I hired is a Western-style vessel with a hard sail, very common in the southeastern seas."

Huang Shu's ship was a small vessel with a cargo capacity of less than a hundred tons — light and fast. Although it was a hard-sail ship, the sailors manning it were all veterans, so it traveled very quickly. Moreover, the ship paid every last coin of tax it owed and had every permit it needed — it was a model vessel, unafraid of inspection, and extremely safe.

Sony thought for a moment. "That is good. The Ming army will certainly launch their northern expedition in autumn, because they need to use the spring and summer southeasterly winds to transport grain and equipment by sea to Tianjin. They will set out just before the early autumn harvest, so they can also seize a season's wheat from us! And in autumn the north winds prevail, so your ship will surely have favorable winds!"

It must be said, the Qing dynasty's last-ranked Baturu did know how to fight. His judgment was entirely correct.

The Ming army's northward advance to attack Beijing was set for the early autumn of the eighth year of Hongxing (1655). That was still almost a full year away!

The reason for such a long delay was, of course, to dredge the Wei River for shipping and to stockpile supplies.

The Grand Canal was now impassable, so they could only rely on sea transport. And when the Qing army retreated, they had used the method of sinking ships to block several shallows along the Wei River, which would take some effort to salvage and clear.

Furthermore, the wind direction was now unfavorable. Although ships could still force their way north, it was ultimately not very convenient. So Shi Kefa could only wait in the Tianjin garrison until next spring, after the Wei River thawed, before he could stockpile supplies on a large scale.

Only with sufficient supplies would the siege of the Beijing fortress be assured!

"What? You want Us to submit to the roving bandits as a vassal?! And change Our surname to Li — isn't that acknowledging Li Zicheng as Our Ama? Are Our Amas not numerous enough already?"

Inside the Coal Hill fortress, Jin Fulin was immediately displeased upon hearing the demands Huang Shu had brought.

It turned out that Huang Shu had brought an imperial edict from Li Guo, investing Jin Fulin as Prince Gong of the Shun and Military Governor of Youzhou — and also granting him the imperial surname.

The Shun imperial surname was Li, so Jin Fulin was to become Li Fulin!

However, Li Guo had no intention of taking him as a son. He had several sons of his own, so he did not need Li Fulin to come be filial to him. He merely wanted to become sworn brothers of the same surname with Li Fulin.

"Your Highness Prince Gong, you misunderstand. His Majesty the Emperor did not ask you to acknowledge the old Emperor as your father," Huang Shu, knowing that Fulin had misunderstood Li Guo's request for sworn brotherhood, hurriedly explained. "It is simply to become sworn brothers. Nothing more!"

Sony also chimed in to help, "My Prince, it is just swearing an oath of brotherhood, becoming sworn brothers. No one is asking you to become a son to Li Zicheng — it is to the Taizu Emperor."

"Then, then why must I change my surname to Li?" Fulin said. "Wouldn't that make me a slave of three surnames? I, Fulin, will not change my surname. I will keep my surname... my surname Aisin Gioro!"

(End of Chapter)