Chapter 164: The Exercise

After the leading battalions passed beneath the gate towers of the Forbidden City, they made straight for the great drill ground outside the capital to assemble. According to the original plan, they were to prepare for the next step—a live combat demonstration—to proclaim the might of the Great Ming army to all under heaven.

When the last battalion had passed before the towers, the entire scene gradually fell silent. The Chongzhen Emperor, holding Empress Zhou's hand, stepped forward two paces, swept his gaze over the assembled crowd below, and nodded to a young eunuch at his side.

That young eunuch immediately stepped forward, unfurled the imperial edict he had been holding in his hands, and called out in a loud voice: "By the mandate of Heaven, the Emperor decrees:

I, of meager virtue, have inherited the great succession, intending to renew all under heaven and restore the old ways of our ancestors. Yet in the eighteen years since I ascended the throne, I have repeatedly been beguiled by treacherous ministers and wrongly put to death many loyal and good men, causing the realm to lose heart. The barbarians have invaded three times, and the bandits have raged for eight years. Soldiers and officers have been exposed to hardship, and the common people have been cast into misery—these are all my faults.

Whenever I hear of households broken and ruined, of wives separated from husbands and children torn from fathers, I am grieved to the point of gnashing my teeth, as though the pain were in my own heart!

Alas! At night I hear the voices of my ancestors and am moved by the loyalty and righteousness of our soldiers and officers. Only thus do I dare, with a state that is not yet flourishing, to devote all my strength to striking the bandits and repelling the barbarians, resolved to stand or fall together with the altars of state.

Now, in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, gathering the full strength of our royal army's three forces, we have encircled and launched a great offensive, striking directly at the enemy's core. At last we have annihilated the fierce bandits through force of arms and driven back the Tartar hordes to the north. First came the great victory at military pay and provisions, then the great victory at Xuanzhen, and afterward the great victory at Guguan. This is not Heaven's mandate to me alone—it is the united hearts of the Ming soldiers and people that have brought about this age of renewal.

Before this, I have sinned against all under heaven. From now on, I too shall bear the guilt of my crimes and lead the armies of the Great Ming to win one great victory after another. Everything of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen will never be a bubble of a golden age—this is only a beginning.

From this day forward, I shall continue to uphold the last wishes of the late emperor, taking as my duty the creation for the Great Ming of an age of restoration comparable to that of Emperor Guangwu of Han.

The Jianzhou barbarians are hereditary vassals of the Great Ming—mere jumping clowns! I make this promise to all under heaven: one day, I shall personally plant the flag of the Great Ming atop the walls of Shengjing!"

This edict was in fact much like the Great Ming's proclamation of might. The common people gathered around, their faces moved, knelt in a great wave, and shouted long life to the Emperor ten thousand times over.

Seeing this grand spectacle, Johann Adam Schall von Bell and some of the foreigners who had been conscripted into the Bureau of Works and the Directorate of Astronomy chattered away in their own tongue. Though many could not understand them, one could guess the subject of their conversation from the envious expressions on those foreigners' faces.

In truth, no one was a fool. No matter how the Donglin Faction propagandized, everything in this seventeenth year of Chongzhen seemed to be turning for the better. Though the degree of improvement was not yet great, it was indeed a good omen.

The most obvious sign was that since the Chongzhen Emperor had re-established the Three Depots and One Guard, the Donglin Faction had been hunted down and executed with great severity. The literati described these matters as the depots and guard abusing their authority.

For the common people, however, there was no sense that the realm was on the verge of collapse. Quite the contrary—as large numbers of literati and scholars were arrested and thrown into prison, the capital suddenly became much cleaner and had actually begun to grow steadily more peaceful.

The hooligans and ruffians of the capital vanished by seventy or eighty percent that year. Since the patrolling censors had been replaced, the Eastern Depot began stationing duty shifts at each sub-office of the Troops and Horses Office in the five wards. The government offices were also thoroughly renewed—runners patrolled the streets and generally intervened whenever they encountered trouble.

At the very least, the thugs and ruffians no longer dared to harm people in the open, and some minor officials who held authority in local areas no longer dared to abuse their power wantonly.

Within the great drill ground outside the city walls stood more than thirty thousand carefully selected capital troops in orderly ranks. This live combat exercise began with a dozen or so ceremonial cannons firing into the air.

"Boom, boom, boom—"

When the ceremonial salvo was finished, fierce battle cries and chaotic footsteps immediately rang out across the drill ground. More than three thousand foot archers in red armor and robes rushed forward. Suddenly an indistinct command rang out, and the foot archers immediately raised their bows toward the sky.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—"

Before the assembled crowd could even recover their senses after the foot archers completed their volley, they heard an earth-shaking thunder—it was the various cannons beginning to fire in unison, one after another.

Next, the spear infantry formation entered the drill ground from the south. First they advanced in orderly steps, then gradually quickened their pace at the command of the Platoon Officers, and finally leveled their spears and charged.

This live exercise focused mainly on archer volleys, arquebus volleys, cannon volleys, spear thrusting, and formation changes—in fact, these were the usual daily training subjects of the various capital army battalions.

The exercise lasted about four hours before finally drawing to a close. The Chongzhen Emperor and Empress Zhou did not linger. Together with the assembled ministers, under the gaze of the multitude, they proceeded to the Shrine of Loyal Martyrs to carry out the final step of the grand ceremony—the "public memorial sacrifice."

The Chongzhen Emperor understood that he had survived to this day entirely because of the soldiers and officers below—men whose names he did not even know—who had fought and died bravely. Thus this public memorial sacrifice was absolutely necessary.

A large crowd of all sorts of people who had heard the news had already gathered outside the gates of the Shrine of Loyal Martyrs, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Emperor's august countenance. Among them was a woman holding a child of several years old. Seeing the Chongzhen procession approaching from afar, she, like everyone else, hastily knelt down with the crowd and cried out "Long live the Emperor!"

Most of these people were common folk in worn and shabby clothing. In addition, some wealthy gentry in silk robes stood watching from distant pavilions. The former wore worried expressions, while the latter chatted and laughed among themselves.

Seeing this situation, the runners of the Shuntian Prefecture and the Troops and Horses Office of the five wards, fearing that someone among the crowd might harbor ill intent toward the Emperor, dared not be negligent. They hurried forward to hold back the crowd, and some had already begun shouting loudly, not wanting these unruly commoners to rush against the Emperor.

The woman had initially been kneeling on the ground. When the runners suddenly came, she had no time to react. Moreover, having not eaten all day, she was pushed away by the runners—but her child remained where he was, with no one watching over him.

"My child! My child!"

"Stop pushing! Push any further and I'll draw my blade on you!" In such circumstances, the runners did not hesitate—threats came out of their mouths by habit.

"But my child is still over there!" The woman paid no heed to the threats in the runner's words and continued to push forward frantically.

The Chongzhen Emperor was walking along when he heard the sound of a child crying in the distance. Frowning, he came to the front of the crowd and only then saw that a child was sitting on the ground. He asked in a stern tone:

"What's going on here?"

The child was wailing as though his heart would break. Even Empress Zhou found it pitiable. Frowning, she said: "Whose child is this? Why is no one looking after him?"

At this moment, the crowd that had been pressing forward suddenly stopped. Under a signal from the Prefect of Shuntian, the runner hurried forward and knelt prostrate on the ground, but could not explain what had happened.

Before the Chongzhen Emperor could ask anything further, Empress Zhou directly stepped out from the protection of the imperial guards, went forward, picked up the child, and began to soothe him.

In just a few moments, the child who had been crying loudly fell silent, lying peacefully in Empress Zhou's arms, well-behaved indeed.

Seeing this, the common people exchanged smiles, thinking to themselves that the Empress was truly approachable and kind. Johann Adam Schall von Bell and some of the missionaries found it even more incredible—such a thing would be utterly impossible in the West.

Seeing this scene, Fang Zhenghua grew somewhat worried for Empress Zhou's safety. He waved his hand to signal the eunuchs of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses to go and protect her, but before the others could act, the Chongzhen Emperor raised his hand to stop them.

The Chongzhen Emperor watched the harmonious scene between Empress Zhou and the common people and was not particularly worried in his heart. After all, the runners of the Shuntian Prefecture and the Troops and Horses Office still stood between them—what could possibly happen?

Before long, Empress Zhou returned the child to the woman's hands and asked with a smile:

"What is this child's name?"

The woman had not expected the current Empress to speak with her. Kneeling on the ground while holding her child, she said: "This common woman answers Your Majesty the Empress: his name is Baodan."

"Oh." The Empress smiled again and said: "That's a lovely name. With that plump, big-eared look about him, he's sure to become a pillar of the state in the future."

While Empress Zhou was conversing with the common woman, the Chongzhen Emperor led his guards over to the runner. He beckoned for him to rise and said in a gentle tone:

"Since you acted out of concern for the safety of myself and the Empress, I shall for the moment forgive your intent. But remember—on ordinary days you must not bully the common people under the pretext of carrying out your duties."

"Otherwise, if I come to hear of it, I will certainly not let you off!"