Chapter 917: The End of the Qing State (Please Subscribe)

"What? The Kang, Kangxi Emperor? How could it be Kangxi? The contract clearly said Shunzhi!"

By the time Zhu Cilang learned that the Shunzhi he had "ordered" had been swapped for Kangxi, he had already entered the barbican of Beijing's Desheng Gate.

Because Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun had suddenly withdrawn their troops, the battle north of Beijing had turned into a one-sided slaughter, leaving the field strewn with corpses, and the number of Qing soldiers taken prisoner was even greater — a full ten or twenty thousand!

After killing and capturing all the traitors outside the city, Yan Yingyuan again moved his troops to attack the city, and seizing the moment while the Qing army was in chaos, captured in one stroke all the barbicans, bastions, and gates of Beijing's northern city.

So that very night, Zhu Cilang pitched his imperial tent inside the barbican of Desheng Gate.

The last time he had come to the Desheng Gate barbican had been in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen; in the blink of an eye eleven years had passed — how time flies!

The young Crown Prince of eleven years ago had now grown into a mighty sovereign of his age, yet even a mighty sovereign often cannot have his wishes fulfilled.

This time, for instance, he had clearly wanted a Shunzhi, and had even paid a high price for it, granting a hereditary military governorship for three generations and a deputy military governorship for two generations. And in the end, Shunzhi was simply gone, and those two "scoundrels" Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun would only send a Kangxi to make up the numbers — where was he supposed to go to get justice for that?

"Your Majesty, the two princes — no, the two generals — did their utmost, but who could have expected that Fulin would rather burn himself to death than surrender? He burned himself to ashes in the Thousand Buddha Temple, so the two generals had no choice but to make do with Xuanye. Actually, it's all the same — both are emperors of the eastern barbarians, all the same."

"Right, right, all the same. This Kangxi Emperor's accession procedures are complete: he was first made Crown Prince, the testamentary edict exists, and it is in Shunzhi's own hand, stamped with the imperial seal. And the imperial seal can also be presented along with him — it is said to be the Heirloom Seal that Yuan Huizong Toghon Temür took with him when he fled north."

The two men stammering out these explanations were Kong Sizhen and Shang Zhixiao. His Majesty the Zhu Emperor was not at all satisfied with their explanation. Could Kangxi and Shunzhi possibly be the same? Kangxi was the one later generations would extol as the greatest emperor of all ages; Shunzhi never received such treatment. And Kangxi's service life was long too — sixty-one years!

But that was in history. How old was the current Kangxi? A mere infant — he did not even have enough weight! Not enough weight, so they threw in a stone (the Heirloom Seal)? Was that not a complete rip-off?

"Where are Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun?" Zhu Cilang asked coldly. "Why do they not come explain to Us in person? Why do they still hold the imperial city and resist Our great army?"

The Great Qing inside Beijing was not finished yet. Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun had gathered their remnants and withdrawn into the imperial city's bastion — and the Beijing fortress was no small thing, with three layers in all, inside and out. The Ming army had so far taken only the outermost bastion; two inner layers of fortification had yet to be breached!

Moreover, the imperial city bastion and the Coal Hill bastion were smaller in area, so the garrison they required was correspondingly smaller, making them even harder to breach than the outer bastion.

Knowing that they had no way to deliver the goods according to the contract, Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun had no choice but to grit their teeth and hold the imperial city bastion to the death, hoping to make the Zhu Emperor accept the substitution of Kangxi for Shunzhi.

"Your Majesty, the two princes are holding the imperial city by no means to resist the celestial army! They only want to let Kangxi make up the full twelve hours!" Kong Sizhen was a man who could talk nonsense, and he actually improvised an excuse on the spot. "With twelve hours, this Xuanye will have been emperor for a day, and the Veritable Records of Kangxi can have a few more words in it..."

The Veritable Records of Kangxi, indeed. The Zhu Emperor thought to himself: What would they record? At what hour the emperor nursed, at what hour he cried, at what hour the Empress Dowager spanked his bottom?

"And besides," Kong Sizhen added, "if the Qing had no Kangxi Emperor, then Shunzhi, burned to ashes, would be the last emperor. To prefer death to surrender and be reduced to ashes — would that not be a little too staunch and unyielding?"

"Was Fulin really burned to ashes?" Zhu Cilang paused. "He wouldn't have pulled a fire-escape, would he?"

"No, no. Fulin was absolutely burned to ashes!"

"Right, right, right. He is dead by burning. A fire-escape is absolutely impossible!"

Kong Sizhen and Shang Zhixiao spoke in unison, both insisting that Shunzhi was dead. This was the line that Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun had settled on after repeated deliberation.

They too suspected that Shunzhi had "fire-escaped," but Shunzhi had completed all the formalities before "escaping," which showed that he had planned it well in advance — most likely he simply wanted to vanish from the world and live free and easy afterward. In truth, he had no other way out: fleeing beyond the passes was impossible, for Dodo would never tolerate him. Fleeing to the steppe was even less viable; the Mongols on the steppe had never regarded him as their true Great Khan, and if he really went there, he would be nothing more than a gift to present to the Ming emperor.

As for Datong Prefecture, that was even more out of the question. Jirgalang and Chang'adai were being pressed by Zhu Cilang to hand over Datong and go to Tumochuan. If Fulin delivered himself to their door, he would make a perfect gift with which to beg mercy from the Zhu Emperor — after presenting Fulin, even if they still had to go to Tumochuan, they could ask Zhu Cilang for a bit more economic aid and the like.

Thinking it over, it seemed Fulin's only reliable option was to find some place to hide and live as a recluse deep in the mountains. After all, Fulin had once been emperor, and he had an Ama who was quite good at saving money. The storehouses of the Coal Hill fortress held no small amount of gold and silver; taking out a few hundred catties of gold would be enough for Fulin to live in ease for the rest of his life.

Since Fulin could only go into hiding, Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun simply insisted that Fulin was dead. That way they could be considered to have partially fulfilled the contract, and with a Kangxi thrown in, it would be about enough.

At this moment Zhu Cilang also realized that Fulin would most likely never appear again — as long as Fulin did not appear, then politically and historically he was as good as dead!

As for him hiding away alone and living in ease, Zhu Cilang had no mind to hunt him down. He was not worried about anyone launching a movement to restore the Ming and overthrow the Qing.

So Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun had fulfilled part of the contract after all, and if Zhu Cilang now broke the agreement, it would be somewhat dishonorable.

The Zhu Emperor thought for a moment, then said: "Very well. We shall write a supplementary agreement. Its general content will be that the two feudatories, Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun, guarantee that Fulin is dead. If Fulin should appear in the future, the two of them must resign from office and retire, and their descendants shall no longer inherit official posts. If the two of them agree, then before dark tomorrow, they are to deliver Xuanye, his mother Lady Tunggiya, and the Heirloom Seal to the barbican of Desheng Gate.

Furthermore, when you return, speak properly with Lady Tunggiya and tell her not to grieve too much. We are a benevolent sovereign and will never harm a widow and orphan. Once Xuanye comes forth and surrenders, We shall enfeoff him as Marquis of Extended Grace, hereditary and never downgraded."

The terms offered by the benevolent sovereign were, of course, impossible for Shang Kexi, Kong Tingxun, and Lady Tunggiya inside the imperial city bastion to refuse. And so, at the third quarter of the you hour on the twenty-third day of the tenth month of the first year of Qing Kangxi, the Great Qing finally welcomed its end ahead of schedule!

Once the third quarter of the you hour had passed, the north gate of the imperial city bastion, Bei'an Gate, was pushed open, and then a vast expanse of white could be seen slowly surging out from within. These were the remnants of the Great Qing, all dressed in mourning hemp — they were wearing mourning for the Shunzhi Emperor who had been "burned to ashes." Leading them were Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun, both also dressed all in white, wailing loudly as they walked, mouths stretched wide. Whether it was out of guilt was impossible to say, but in any case they all looked quite grief-stricken!

Behind the two of them followed a crowd of traitor soldiers, all carrying weapons. After passing through the city gate, they tossed the arms they carried onto an empty patch of ground by the roadside, and before long several great piles had risen up.

Because the Zhu Emperor had a golden reputation for keeping his word, these traitor soldiers, having surrendered their weapons, were not worried about being massacred by the Ming army. But at that moment they had no idea how awful the territory the Zhu Emperor had arranged for them was — within the lands of the Duogan Military Governorship there were two little native chieftains who, in history, would make the Qianlong Emperor spend seventy million taels of silver: one called Great Jinchuan, the other Little Jinchuan.

After Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun led their disarmed troops around the corner of Shuntian Prefecture Street and headed toward the Dongzhi Gate barbican, it was time for the main players in today's grand surrender drama to take the stage: Lady Tunggiya, supporting herself on the coffin, with the little Kangxi Emperor held in her arms, and behind them a small number of Qing officials.

Lady Tunggiya would carry Kangxi and walk to the Desheng Gate barbican under the gaze of Ming flintlock musketeers standing with loaded weapons on both sides of the street, to beg the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming for surrender and mercy, and to present the Heirloom Seal that symbolized the supreme power of the Great Qing.

(End of Chapter)