Chapter 174: Arrival at the Central Capital

Ten li outside Fengyang city, banners fluttered and crowds packed the area as several hundred officials and a great number of gentry and commoners gathered here to receive the imperial carriage.

At the head were Zhu Dadian, Vice Minister of the Right of the Ministry of Revenue and Right Censor-in-Chief, Governor-General of Grain Transport, Governor of Fengyang and Superintendent of Coastal Defense; Wang Yumin, the eunuch garrison commander of Fengyang; Yang Yufan, Regional Commander of Fengyang; Zhang Guowei, Right Assistant Censor-in-Chief; and Shi Kefa, Assistant Censor-in-Chief. Behind them stood officials from the various prefectures and departments near the Southern Metropolitan District.

Zhang Guowei, forty-two years old this year, had been appointed by Chongzhen in the seventh year of his reign as Right Assistant Censor-in-Chief and Governor of Ten Prefectures, when the roving bandits were running rampant across the Central Plains, in order to stabilize the great rear area centered on Nanjing and ensure the smooth flow of grain transport and the supply of military provisions.

These ten prefectures were the most prosperous region of the Great Ming, the very cradle of the dynasty, and the primary source of military supplies and soldiers. Zhang Guowei accepted the commission in a time of crisis and took up his post in Suzhou in Jiangnan. After assuming office, he attended to everything personally, inspecting farmlands and vigorously pursuing water conservancy projects, achieving considerable results.

Shi Kefa — earlier this year, when Zhang Xianzhong's forces attacked Anqing, Chongzhen appointed him Assistant Censor-in-Chief and Governor of Anqing, Luzhou, Chizhou, and other areas.

Like Zhang Guowei, Shi Kefa was an extremely conscientious and dutiful official, and both men were members of the Donglin Faction. Both took the suppression of the rebellion very much to heart, frequently personally persuading the wealthy households and great merchants of Jiangnan, as well as the meritorious nobles and powerful clans, to contribute money, grain, and supplies.

Under their tight defense and interception, Zhang Xianzhong and the other roving bandits gained nothing at Anqing and could only slink off to camp at Tongcheng. Assistant Regional Commander Pan Keda pursued them to Tongcheng and routed the bandits, who then fled from Tongcheng to the surrounding areas.

On the way they were blocked again by troops from Luzhou and Fengyang, forcing the bandits back to Tongcheng, where they plundered the surroundings. Shi Kefa and Pan Keda led troops to surround and suppress them, and the bandits fled in defeat to Lujiang, where Shi Kefa and Zuo Liangyu defeated them again at Fengxiang Post.

Hearing that Luzhou was besieged, Shi Kefa hurried to take personal command there and direct the defenses. Later, learning that Tuo Xianling had gone north to raid Suzhou and that Zhang Xianzhong had withdrawn his troops, Shi Kefa realized he had been tricked and hastily led part of his forces straight for Suzhou.

Zhang Guowei, who had been inspecting Chuzhou, was also greatly alarmed when he heard the news and rushed to the rescue through the night. The two met at Fengyang, where Zhu Dadian, the Governor-General of Grain Transport stationed there, told them that the Crown Prince would soon arrive at Fengyang and that they should prepare at once to receive him.

Though they did not know what had become of the bandits who had gone to raid Suzhou, hearing that the Crown Prince was safe filled Zhang Guowei and Shi Kefa with great joy, and they immediately prepared to go out of the city to welcome him.

Only when they personally laid eyes on the Crown Prince within the imperial carriage did the two finally relax completely, and they hurried forward to pay their respects.

"Your servant, Right Assistant Censor-in-Chief Zhang Guowei, pays respects to His Highness the Crown Prince — ten thousand years!"

"Your servant, Assistant Censor-in-Chief Shi Kefa, pays respects to His Highness the Crown Prince — ten thousand years!"

After the two stepped forward and performed the rites, the other officials and those gathered to welcome him also bowed in salute.

Zhu Cilang stepped out of the imperial carriage and said calmly, "Rise!"

After the rites were completed, Zhang Guowei and Shi Kefa both turned their heads and shot a cold glare at Huang Degong. Huang Degong's troops had surrounded the Censorate and buried the Left Censor-in-Chief alive — for men who served as censors like themselves, this was an utter humiliation.

Though they were extremely dissatisfied with the Yongwei Camp and Huang Degong, they had to admit that the Yongwei Camp's troops were absolutely an elite force. The soldiers presented a stern and orderly appearance, their ranks neat and tidy, standing tall with chests out like pines — not a single one slouching or stooping.

Even more astonishing was that among over ten thousand men there was not the slightest noise — clearly an army of strict discipline.

"Truly all elite soldiers — it seems there is hope for suppressing the rebellion this time!" Zhang Guowei and Shi Kefa could not help but be moved, and their expressions softened considerably.

Zhu Dadian was also a censor, and a Right Censor-in-Chief at that, but he did not take it to heart. Governors all over the Great Ming carried a censor's title as a matter of course — why take oneself so seriously as a remonstrating official?

Zhu Dadian bowed and said, "Your Highness, your servant has heard that the bandit chief Tuo Xianling led thirty thousand troops in a surprise attack on Suzhou. How did you—"

Before he could finish, a single rider came galloping from afar, and upon entering the Yongwei Camp's perimeter of vigilance, immediately raised a waist token high and shouted the password.

This Longxianging Night Scout dismounted twenty paces from the imperial carriage and ran over quickly, reporting in a loud voice: "Reporting to Your Highness, the bandit force of Tuo Xianling has been wiped out by our army. Our five thousand iron cavalry took ten thousand heads. The bandit chief Tuo Xianling was slain on the spot — his head is here!"

So saying, the Night Scout removed the bundle coiled at his waist and tipped out the head from the box.

Staring at the head rolling on the ground, the surrounding officials were stricken with terror and retreated several steps.

"The head of the bandit chief Tuo Xianling?" Shi Kefa stepped forward two paces to examine it carefully, then ordered men to bring portraits of the various bandit leaders.

After a careful comparison with Tuo Xianling's portrait, Shi Kefa finally exclaimed in shock, "It truly is the bandit chief, One-Character King Tuo Xianling!"

Zhang Guowei also exclaimed in amazement, "How could the Yongwei Camp defeat Tuo Xianling's thirty thousand-strong army with only five thousand men? This—"

Shi Kefa shook his head and said, "Not defeated — annihilated. They even sent his head here. This single battle has yielded more than all our months of painstaking pursuit and interception of the bandits combined."

Seeing the two men somewhat indignant and envious, Zhu Cilang said calmly, "Though the bandits claim two hundred thousand men, they are nothing but chickens and clay dogs. So long as my Yongwei Camp has sufficient provisions and pay, we can sweep clean all the bandits of Jiangnan in one go!"

Though Zhang Guowei and Shi Kefa were both upright, incorruptible great loyalists who in history had died for their country, they now represented the interests of the Jiangnan bureaucracy and landed gentry. Zhu Cilang had no need to regard them with reverence at this moment — on the contrary, he needed to knock them down a peg from time to time.

Respect was respect, and governing was governing — the two were separate matters, and one must not sacrifice public duty for private feeling. If the two dared to put obstacles in his way in Jiangnan, Zhu Cilang would not mind eliminating them first.

The faces of the crowd turned rather sour at the Crown Prince's boastful words, but the Yongwei Camp had indeed achieved such a great victory, and they had no power to refute it. After exchanging pleasantries for a while, they accompanied the imperial carriage into Fengyang city.

Fengyang was the hometown of Ming Taizu, Zhu Yuanzhang. In the second year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang summoned tens of thousands of artisans, soldiers, and laborers from across the realm and, using Nanjing as the model, built the Central Capital at Fengyang, constructing the city walls and palaces according to the regulations of the capital.

The Central Capital was built with palace halls, the Secretariat, the Grand Marshal's Office, the Censorate, the Military Command Bureau and its sub-offices, as well as Wansui Mountain, the Altars of Soil and Grain, the Imperial Ancestral Temple, the Directorate of Astronomy, and even the Gate of Heavenly Succession, the Meridian Gate, the Gate of Dark Martiality, the East Glorious Gate, and so on — it was nearly built to the same plan as the capital.

Later, construction was halted halfway through. After the Central Capital was abandoned, it was not used as the capital but was designated the auxiliary capital of the Great Ming.

Zhu Yuanzhang required that imperial princes and members of the imperial clan come to Fengyang each year for training and military drill. Of the more than three hundred li from Nanjing to Fengyang, at least a third had to be walked on foot — riding was not permitted.

After Ming Chengzu, Zhu Di, moved the capital to Beijing, Beijing was too far from Fengyang, and imperial princes were no longer frequently sent to live at the Central Capital as in the Hongwu years. The palaces there gradually fell into ruin.

A disaster in the eighth year of Chongzhen destroyed the Central Capital of Fengyang completely. The various structures were burned to the ground by the devastating fires set by the roving bandits, with only a few palace halls surviving.