Chapter 900: Ama Zhu, Come Quickly! (Please Subscribe)

In late March of the eighth year of the Great Ming's Hongxing era, at Old Mountain Palace in Yingtian Prefecture.

Old Mountain in March was shrouded in misty rain, very damp, which gave Zhu Cilang, who in his previous life had grown up on the banks of the Xiang River in Hunan, a feeling of having returned home.

These days, Hebei, Joseon, the grasslands south of the Gobi, Burma, the Western Regions, and other places had all fallen into chaos, with the smoke of battle hanging everywhere, while the Great Ming's several hundred thousand troops were spread across battlefields far apart from one another, either already engaged in major fighting or making preparations for major fighting. And the Emperor of the Great Ming, Zhu Cilang, had been holed up at Old Mountain Palace all along, enjoying his imperial life.

He now had several more children. Empress Wu Sanmei had newly borne him another daughter, while Noble Consort Zheng Chagu had given birth to a son — she now had three sons and one daughter in hand, which was already putting considerable pressure on Wu Sanmei! The talented lady Xu Erlin had also borne Emperor Zhu a big, chubby boy with a very large forehead who looked clever at a glance.

And Jin Dongzhu had finally become pregnant at the beginning of the year. Compared with Zheng Chagu, who conceived at the slightest touch, her fertility seemed a bit weak after all!

Ning Xiangyu and Fei Zhen'e, who had followed Emperor Zhu in Tianjin, had also been diagnosed with happy pulses in the second and third months. What a great harvest!

Still, his gains were far inferior to those of the Chongzhen Retired Emperor! Chongzhen's number of children was now close to breaking into three digits. If this went on, what was to be done!

"Chun ge'er, when do you plan to set out on campaign?"

Inside the Taiji Hall of Old Mountain Palace, Zhu Cilang, who had gone to drink the one-month celebration wine of his thirty-fifth younger brother, was frowning at a big, chubby baby wailing with full-throated vigor in the arms of a mixed-blood beauty (Consort Hu), when he heard Chongzhen ask about affairs of state.

"Imperial Father, why do you ask?" Zhu Cilang looked rather displeased. I, the Emperor, am not even anxious — what is a retired emperor in such a hurry about?

The Chongzhen Emperor sighed at this: "Nothing. We are advanced in years and think of Beijing more with each passing day. We only hope that within Our remaining years We may go once more to Beijing and climb Coal Hill."

"Climb Coal Hill?" Zhu Cilang thought to himself: If you go, you'll be disappointed! The crooked old locust tree you loved so much was chopped down by that big grandson of yours, Fulin!

"To climb Coal Hill and take in the scenery of the capital in one view!" The Chongzhen Emperor seemed to sink into fond memories. "When We were emperor, We could go nowhere; We left Beijing only a handful of times. Climbing Coal Hill to gaze into the distance was Our way of admiring the great rivers and mountains."

A broken hill a few dozen meters high, and you call that admiring the great rivers and mountains — can you even see Tongzhou from there? Emperor Zhu thought to himself: With just that much vision, how could you govern the realm? No wonder you were deceived by a pack of treacherous ministers!

Good thing there's me. I've been to plenty of places! I was a "frequent flyer," you know. I haven't been abroad much, but I've been to nearly every prefecture-level city in the country — you could say I'm widely traveled and well informed!

"Since Imperial Father has this wish," Zhu Cilang paused, "then when the time comes, we'll go take Beijing together!"

"Really?" The Chongzhen Emperor's face lit up with delighted surprise. "Chun ge'er, are you certain of victory? These past few days We have been reading the history of the Song-Liao Battle of Gaoliang River, and it has made Our heart pound with dread!"

Zhu Cilang smiled: "Imperial Father worries too much. There will be no Battle of Gaoliang River! Because Dodo's western expedition army has gone to Joseon!"

Chongzhen was taken aback. "Ah? A western expedition to Joseon? But Joseon lies to the east of Shenyang!"

"All is fair in war!" Zhu Cilang said. "Dodo knows a western expedition would surely fail, so of course he had to change direction."

"Joseon is our tributary, is it not?" Chongzhen asked.

"Not yet!" Zhu Cilang said. "Our negotiations with Joseon are stuck on the border question. The Joseon people proposed to help us suppress the remnants of the eastern barbarians, and after victory, to demand the return of the territory Joseon lost in the two barbarian invasions."

"What is wrong with that?" Chongzhen did not quite understand.

"Of course it's wrong!" Zhu Cilang said. "Because the eastern barbarians never carved off any Joseon territory — at least not before this invasion by Dodo!"

"Oh." The Chongzhen Emperor remained unmoved. "These are all trivial details. Why let them weigh on your mind?"

Zhu Cilang smiled: "The Joseon people should not have let them weigh on their minds. Now, all is well — Dodo, taking advantage of the fact that our negotiations with Joseon were not yet concluded, has marched his army into Joseon. Without a signed Treaty of Suzerainty and Vassalage, Joseon is not a tributary of the Great Ming, and the Great Ming has no obligation to protect Joseon!"

"What? You would just stand by and watch Joseon be occupied by the eastern barbarians?" Chongzhen was startled.

"Of course not," Zhu Cilang said with a cold laugh. "I'm not even watching Joseon! What's there to watch?"

"This..." Chongzhen truly could not fathom how the Joseon people had offended Zhu Cilang.

Zhu Cilang said with a smile: "Joseon is not so easily crushed by Dodo, so we can advance north at our leisure. We set out next month, traveling north by land! Imperial Father, can you still ride a horse?"

"Why couldn't We?" Chongzhen patted his chest. "We can not only ride, We can shoot a bow from horseback! If We encounter the eastern barbarians' roving cavalry, We can even do battle with them!"

What he said was not entirely boasting — given his present physical condition, he could pass for a baturu.

"Excellent!" Zhu Cilang said. "Then your son will be waiting to see the Retired Emperor's heroic bearing in slaying the enemy!"

"Why hasn't he come yet!"

Zhu Cilang and the Chongzhen Emperor were dawdling, and by March they still had not set out from Old Mountain Palace, while their filial son and worthy grandson Fulin had already grown impatient, and was now inside the Coal Hill fortress, peering through a telescope at the outskirts of Beijing.

Outside Beijing, all was desolate. Although the season for crops to grow wildly had arrived, what the Shunzhi Emperor saw through the telescope was only wild grass and ruined villages, along with the outline of the half-collapsed Tongzhou city wall. Occasionally a cavalry squad galloped past in the distance — most likely Ming Black Spear Cavalry, prowling around Beijing to prevent grain supplies from being brought into the city, and at the same time to keep the soldiers' dependents inside Beijing from leaving.

Beijing was not besieged now, but it was already trapped. Traffic in and out was extremely difficult, and basically no grain supplies were getting in; the city was eating through its stores.

Watching the grain reserves inside Beijing being consumed at a rapid pace, Shunzhi was so anxious he was nearly smoking. These past days he had longed by day and hoped by night for his new Ama, Zhu Cilang, to bring troops and come attack him!

It was not because he was asking for a beating, but because if Zhu Cilang did not come soon, the millet left behind by Ama Dorgon would not be enough to eat. If Zhu Cilang did not come for a year, Beijing might suffer a grain shortage; if he did not come for a year and a half, Beijing would run out of grain entirely!

The reason things had come to this was that in Dorgon's plan, the army defending the Beijing fortress was at most thirty thousand, and the non-combatants inside the city should not have exceeded ten thousand. But now, the garrison of Beijing numbered as many as fifty thousand! And the number of dependents who could not fight was as high as one hundred seventy or eighty thousand.

With more than two hundred thousand people eating rations originally meant to feed tens of thousands, how could consumption not be severe?

And Shang Kexi and the others, in order to raise grain for Beijing while also organizing the besieging Ming troops to requisition grain nearby, had sent soldiers to seize grain and wreak destruction around Beijing, leaving the outskirts of Beijing a wasteland and thus losing any possibility of supplying grain to the city.

If the Ming army never came, with so many mouths inside Beijing, the city would probably be unable to sustain itself!

"Your Majesty!" Sonin had at some point arrived behind the Shunzhi Emperor. "This slave Sonin respectfully inquires after Your Sacred Well-being."

"Rise and speak."

"Zhe."

Shunzhi asked: "You're back?"

"Just returned."

"How did it go?"

"Your Majesty, everything is settled." Sonin said. "This slave went personally; nothing can go wrong!"

"No one discovered you?"

"No," Sonin said. "In charge of the Thousand Buddha Temple is the monk Tongxiu from Jieshi Mountain; lying low in the Western Hills is this slave's son Songgotu, and the death-warriors he brought are all sons of the old Eight Banners. In addition, Nalan Mingzhu will receive us at the destination."

"Good!" Shunzhi let out a breath. "By the way, did you encounter any Ming troops on your way back?"

"I encountered one squad, about forty men," Sonin said.

"Then how did you get away?" Shunzhi asked.

Sonin said: "This slave disguised himself as a commoner and mingled among a group of refugees, so they did not trouble this slave. They only scattered some handbills and then left, telling us to return to the city."

"Handbills? What did they say?"

"They said the Great Ming Emperor will personally lead the campaign and come to attack Beijing."

(End of Chapter)