Chapter 70: Victory Dispatch Reaches the Capital

The twenty-second day of the seventh month in the ninth year of Chongzhen, noon.

A squad of Eastern Palace guards bearing news of victory galloped into the capital, waving the victory dispatch and shouting at the top of their lungs: "Great victory! Great victory! Great victory at Liangxiang—the Yongwei Camp has beheaded over seven thousand barbarian slaves!"

"Great victory! Great victory! Great victory at Liangxiang—the Yongwei Camp has slain four jala janggin and eighteen niru janggin of the barbarian slaves in battle, and rescued over a hundred thousand common folk..."

"Great victory..."

The victory-announcing cavalry entered through Yongding Gate of the capital's outer wall, rode along the central axis of Yongding Gate Avenue straight into Zhengyang Gate of the inner city, then into Chengtian Gate of the imperial city, shouting all the way—the entire city was in an uproar!

Zhang Fengyi, the Minister of War who lived in the inner city, heard the news and immediately had his steward prepare a sedan chair to go to the Ministry of War. But when he arrived, he found that the victory announcers had not come. He stood stunned for a moment, then immediately mounted a horse and rode straight into the imperial city to seek an audience with the Emperor.

Zhang Fengyi was not at all annoyed that the victory announcers had not followed procedure by delivering the dispatch to the Ministry of War first, because he had heard the words "Yongwei Camp"—he knew that was the army directly commanded by the Crown Prince, which had no need whatsoever to go through his Ministry of War.

When the Eastern Palace guards delivered the victory dispatch to the Meridian Gate, the gatekeepers were all dumbfounded. A eunuch on duty at the Meridian Gate hastily hoisted the dispatch up the city wall in a basket, then handed it at top speed to Cao Huachun, the brush-holding eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial.

Cao Huachun took the victory dispatch, scanned it quickly, and his heart leaped with wild joy. He hurried at once toward the Qianqing Palace.

By this time the Qianqing Palace was already in chaos. A great scatter of memorials and petitions lay strewn across the floor, and the Chongzhen Emperor's furious roars kept pouring out of the hall: "Eighteen whole days—the barbarian slaves have marched as if through uninhabited land, south to Zhuozhou, east through Pinggu, breaking more than ten cities in a row! And these Regional Commanders who came to defend the capital haven't exchanged a single blow with the barbarian slaves? What do they want? To play at being Cao Cao?"

The Chongzhen Emperor was furious beyond measure and roared in succession: "The capital region suffers this calamity, and every Regional Commander is worthless! I will have them executed!"

When the Son of Heaven's wrath stirs, a million corpses lie in its wake. Though Chongzhen lacked such power, it was enough to make the palace maids and eunuchs in the Qianqing Palace tremble with terror.

They all shook uncontrollably, mouths tightly shut, not daring to breathe aloud, for fear of incurring the Emperor's displeasure and being dragged out and beaten to death.

Cao Huachun arrived before the Qianqing Palace and saw the Chongzhen Emperor inside in a towering rage. After hesitating a moment, he saw the furious roars within come to a stop, and only then ran inside. Raising the victory dispatch high, he shouted: "Your Majesty, a great victory!"

Seeing the normally steady Cao Huachun leap in like a monkey, Chongzhen furrowed his brow and snapped: "What are you shrieking about? What? What great victory did you just say?"

The Chongzhen Emperor saw Cao Huachun's face full of smiles, and his heart tightened with tension. He could not help asking: "There truly is a great victory? A great victory where?"

Cao Huachun dared not hide the dispatch behind his back and make Chongzhen guess. He answered at once: "The Crown Prince reports victory: a bloody battle at Liangxiang—the Yongwei Camp has beheaded over seven thousand barbarian slaves, slain four jala janggin and eighteen niru janggin in battle, and rescued over a hundred thousand common folk... An unprecedented great victory!"

The Chongzhen Emperor took the victory dispatch with trembling hands. He read the memorial over and over again, afraid of missing a single word. The more he read, the more rapid his breathing became, and his originally tense expression gradually relaxed.

"Good! Good! Good!" The Chongzhen Emperor shouted three times, pacing back and forth in the Qianqing Palace, releasing emotions long suppressed, with ten thousand words in his heart that were hard to express.

This victory dispatch could not have come at a better time—the Great Ming desperately needed this victory to boost the morale of its soldiers and people!

At this moment, the eunuch on duty reported that several Grand Secretaries and ministers of the Six Ministries were requesting an audience.

The Chongzhen Emperor's excited expression immediately froze, and a cold glint flashed across his face. These heavyweights of the court had been utterly useless when the enemy was at the gates, and only now that news of victory had arrived did they come rushing over to join the celebration.

But constrained by ancestral precedent and his own reputation for accepting remonstrance, the Chongzhen Emperor still received them.

After the assembled ministers had performed their salutations, Zhang Fengyi, the Minister of War, immediately spoke up: "Your Majesty! Your minister recommends executing the nine Regional Commanders who came to defend the capital!"

Chongzhen was stunned at this and said: "Why does my dear minister Zhang say this?"

Zhang Fengyi, the Minister of War, said angrily: "Your Majesty issued an edict four days ago ordering the various Regional Commanders to arrive in the capital within eight days to defend it. Yet now eighteen days have already passed—the Regional Commanders have long since arrived near the capital, but they still dare not engage the Qing army in battle. Therefore your minister recommends executing a few of the Regional Commanders to put pressure on them!"

As Minister of War, Zhang Fengyi nominally commanded the various Regional Commanders. Now that this situation had arisen, the only option was to pin the blame on the Regional Commanders—otherwise, if someone with a grudge seized on this, he as Minister of War could not escape blame, and resignation or imprisonment would be unavoidable.

The Chongzhen Emperor said nothing, his expression somewhat weary. After a moment he spoke: "If I kill them all, will my Great Ming's northern garrisons still have generals to hold the line?"

Though the Chongzhen Emperor was furious in his heart, he was also helpless. His earlier talk of executing those worthless men had been nothing more than angry words.

The armies of the Nine Borders, though outwardly obedient to the court's summons, had in truth already begun forming their own systems, gradually transforming into warlord forces.

The Liaodong garrison in particular had long since formed a vested interest group. The court threw millions of taels of silver at Liaodong every year, yet they only defended and never attacked, nor did they build up fortifications—they stuffed the money into their own pockets, and the officers even embezzled the soldiers' pay.

Corrupt as they were, the court could not remove them. If the Liaodong levy were cut off, mutiny would be the lesser concern—defecting to the enemy would be the greater one.

If Liaodong were lost, the Qing army would be able to drive south unhindered through the Guan-Ning defense line, and the consequences would be unimaginable.

Jiang Fengyuan, the Minister of Rites, said: "Perhaps it is because the various relief forces lack unified command that the several Regional Commanders dare not act rashly."

At Jiang Fengyuan's words, several ministers nodded vigorously in agreement. Though they knew this was not the real reason, all understood tacitly and did not wish to openly break with the border troops.

"The Crown Prince has beheaded over ten thousand barbarian slaves in a matter of days. I intend to have the Crown Prince serve as Governor-General over all the relief forces—what do you all think?" Chongzhen said, handing the victory dispatch to Wen Tiren, the Chief Grand Secretary.

Wen Tiren—old ginger is spiciest. Who knew what sorcery he had fed Chongzhen, but within a few days he had regained the Chongzhen Emperor's favor.

The several ministers hesitated, feeling the Emperor was being somewhat frivolous. Setting aside whether this victory dispatch was inflated, simply having a Crown Prince not yet ten years old serve as Governor-General was hard to justify—would the various Regional Commanders obey him?

Wen Tiren took the victory dispatch and glanced at it. His old eyes immediately widened a full circle, full of incredulity. Then a sharp glint flashed in his eyes, and he said: "Your Majesty, since ancient times a Crown Prince has never led troops. Your minister believes it would be more proper to let someone else take this role."

Jiang Fengyuan, the Minister of Rites, and Xie Sheng, the Minister of Personnel, both felt that the old poison Wen Tiren was vicious indeed.

Every sovereign feared someone coveting his throne, especially the Crown Prince as second-in-command. To prevent power from falling into other hands, dynasties throughout history generally did not allow the Crown Prince to lead armies.

Even when an emperor personally led a campaign and had the Crown Prince serve as Regent, he would place his own confidants at the Crown Prince's side—nominally to assist, but in truth to supervise.

By speaking thus, Wen Tiren was indirectly reminding Chongzhen to be wary of the Eastern Palace.