Chapter 912: Let's Stake Everything Against That Zhu! (Please Subscribe)

Beijing, the Chonghua Palace.

In Shang Kexi's study, three men sat staring at one another in silence. Today a distinguished guest had come to the residence of Shang Kexi, Loyal Prince of the Great Qing — it was Kong Tingxun, Prince of Rites. Kong Tingxun had not come empty-handed; he had brought a letter said to be written in his sister Kong Sizhen's own hand!

This was no small matter. All of Beijing knew that Kong Sizhen was a chaste and martyred woman who had died for the Great Qing alongside her husband Fan Wencheng, and had been sliced three thousand times by the men of Emperor Zhu, dying a cruel death in Xuzhou.

To commemorate this martyred woman, Fulin had even ordered a cenotaph built for her in Beijing and a chastity archway erected — there was another one in Nanjing as well. She was the foremost chaste and martyred woman of both the Ming and Qing dynasties!

That such a chaste martyr who had died for the Qing should now have written a letter in her own hand to Kong Tingxun — the whole thing was rather frightening!

So the faces of Shang Kexi and his son Shang Zhixin were at this moment extremely grave!

The room was utterly quiet. Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun sat facing each other, while Shang Zhixin stood beside his father. The three of them simply looked at one another, and no one knew how much time passed before Shang Kexi let out a breath: "Prince of Rites, was the letter truly written by your sister?"

Kong Tingxun nodded: "That's right, it is my sister's own handwriting."

Shang Zhixin asked: "Wasn't she sliced to death? Everyone knows about it — could it be false?"

Kong Tingxun did not know whether to laugh or cry, and shook his head: "According to the household servant of my family who delivered the letter, Sizhen was cut three thousand times—"

"And she didn't die?"

"Is your sister made of iron?"

"No, no," Kong Tingxun hastily explained. "My sister is delicate and tender-skinned — how could she be made of iron? It's just that all three thousand cuts landed on — landed on her hair, so she wasn't cut to death."

Shang Kexi rolled his eyes. "You call that death by a thousand cuts? That's called a haircut! How could anyone die from that?" He rubbed his own shiny bald scalp. "By that reckoning, I've been cut who knows how many times, and I'm still perfectly fine, aren't I?"

Shang Zhixin still frowned: "Then — then is what your sister wrote in the letter reliable?"

"That..." Kong Tingxun shook his head slightly. "I don't know! But the chief villain in Beijing is Fulin, after all, isn't it? If we hand him over, Emperor Zhu can hardly come after us again, can he?"

Shang Zhixin said: "Right, right — let's do it! Treat a dead horse as if it were still alive!"

Right now the Ming army's trenches are almost dug to the edge of the moat outside the Chaoyang Gate fort. They've been advancing by digging trenches the whole way, and the Hongyi cannons and Folangji cannons we've mounted on the fort can't hit them at all. And for more than a month now, they've been firing explosive shells from their great cannons every day — bombarding the city at night and the Chaoyang Gate fort by day. All told, they've already killed or wounded more than two thousand of our men and knocked out over a dozen of our cannons. By now almost no one dares go up onto the Chaoyang Gate fort, and no one dares haul cannons up there either!

Father, it's plain to see they're about to attack the Chaoyang Gate fort! This fort cannot be held. But if the fort outside Chaoyang Gate falls, then what gets bombarded next will likely be the Chaoyang Gate barbican and the nearby city wall!"

Kong Tingxun nodded vigorously: "Exactly! The Ming army has many cannons called mortars — they look like big iron pots and can lob explosive shells. Once they take the fort outside Chaoyang Gate, they can use that fort as cover to set up mortars and bombard the Chaoyang Gate barbican. By then even the barbican will be hard to hold!"

In truth, Kong Tingxun was worrying a little too much. Taking the Chaoyang Gate fort alone would not be enough for the Ming army to bring large-caliber mortars outside the Beijing city wall to bombard the wall and barbican. To set up mortars that way, they would need to take at least the Dongzhi Gate fort or the Little East Gate fort as well.

The parallel trenches for attacking the Dongzhi Gate fort and the Little East Gate fort were already being dug, and in twenty days at most they would be in position. By then the Chaoyang Gate fort, the Dongzhi Gate fort, and the Little East Gate fort could all be taken together.

With these three forts as a base, the Ming army could use 24-pounder and 48-pounder mortars to bombard the Beijing city wall at close range, move the eight 48-pounder cannons forward, and concentrate even more 24-pounder and 12-pounder cannons for the assault on the city. After another ten days to half a month of bombardment, they would likely be able to blast open a section of the wall. Because the base of the wall was protected by sandbags, completely collapsing it was impossible, but they could still blast out a slope up which grenadiers and flintlock musketeers could charge.

"Hmph!" Shang Kexi snorted and looked at Kong Tingxun. "If it were a matter of surrendering the city, we'd do it. But seizing Fulin — he's holed up inside the Coal Hill fort right now and won't come out. How are we supposed to seize him? The Coal Hill fort is so strong, and all we have on hand are some 12-pounder Hongyi cannons — we simply can't take it!"

Fulin had learned his lesson by now. He had shrunk into the Coal Hill fort like a little turtle and simply refused to come out.

Moreover, the Coal Hill fort was defended by Manchu troops under Bumburci, who would likely fight to the death at the critical moment. With the forces of the Shang and Kong families alone, they probably could not take Coal Hill!

Shang Zhixin suddenly said: "Father, your son has a plan that could coax Fulin down the hill — or at least coax Fulin into handing over the elite troops he holds!"

"What plan?"

"Speak quickly!"

Shang Zhixin gritted his teeth: "Father, Prince of Rites — why don't we go out of the city and fight to the death? Let's stake everything against that Zhu!"

"What? What did you say?"

"Your Majesty, after discussing it with my father and the Princes of Rites, Righteousness, and Filial Piety, we have concluded that we cannot sit and wait for death. We must go out of the city and fight a decisive battle against that Zhu!"

"Go out of the city for a decisive battle? Why? Are we about to run out of grain?"

"It is not that the grain is running out, but that the Ming army has already dug its trenches to the base of the Chaoyang Gate fort..."

On Coal Hill, Shang Zhixin was holding a joint memorial signed by the four princes — Shang Kexi, Kong Tingxun, Geng Zhongming, and Shen Yongxing — requesting Fulin's permission to go out of the city for a decisive battle.

Fulin, meanwhile, had turned pale with fright at this proposal!

There were several hundred thousand troops outside Beijing!

And they possessed extremely formidable cannons! Although Coal Hill had not been shelled these past days, Fulin, looking down from his high vantage point, had seen clearly the bombardment around Chaoyang Gate in the east of the city — 48-pounder explosive shells bursting! Smoke and fire rose up, and from time to time houses were blasted apart and fires started. After more than a month of this, the area around Chaoyang Gate was nearly scorched earth.

With the Ming army already this formidable, how could they go out of the city to throw their lives away?

"As things now stand, the Chaoyang Gate fort is certain to fall," Shang Zhixin said. "Once the fort is lost, the Ming army's cannons will move forward, and then the city wall around Chaoyang Gate cannot be held either. Once the wall is lost, the Ming army can bombard Coal Hill directly."

"What?" Fulin's voice trembled. "Bombard Coal Hill..."

"Your Majesty, by then you would be sitting and waiting for death — and death by cannon at that!"

"Death by cannon..." Fulin was afraid. "What is to be done?"

"Stake it all!" Shang Zhixin gritted his teeth. "Your Majesty, we had better stake everything against them!"

"Can — can we win?"

"Win?" Shang Zhixin was taken aback. "What are you saying? Right now there are at least three hundred thousand Ming troops outside Beijing, and at most we have fifty thousand men... How could we possibly win?"

"If we can't win, why go out to fight?"

"To break out!" Shang Zhixin said. "We subjects will stake our lives to escort Your Majesty in fighting your way out of Beijing!"

"Fight our way out of Beijing?" Fulin's face fell. "Where could We even go?"

That was a good question!

For a moment Shang Zhixin could not answer. Where could Fulin go? Apart from Zhu Cilang, who had a title of "Marquis Who Disobeys Orders" waiting for him, who else would take him in?

"Go to the grasslands!" Shang Zhixin thought for a long while. "Your Majesty... you were once the Great Khan of the Mongols, after all. You must still have some standing on the grasslands. Besides, north of the grasslands there is still a way to survive."

"North? The Khalkha Mongols?" Fulin asked.

"Farther north still," Shang Zhixin said. "You can go to Lake Baikal and seek refuge with Russia! Then travel through Russia to Europe, and throw in your lot with the Spaniards — or go to the Mongol state in India. Surely that is a way to stay alive?"

So it was exile overseas... it did seem like a way to survive! But the question was, could they even get there?

Fulin sighed: "Let Us think it over. Tomorrow — tomorrow We will give you an answer!"

(End of Chapter)