Chapter 215: A Blood Debt of Deep Enmity, Avenged Before Long

"Exactly! The Imperial Academy in the capital raises a bunch of scholars who only know how to flap their lips. Every last one of them pisses their pants the moment they step onto the battlefield. Last year they were scrambling over each other to surrender to the roving bandits, and now they're setting their sights on us military men?" Ma Shixiu hurriedly shouted.

Though Ma Shixiu only held the rank of Assistant Regional Commander, he had always been Zuo Liangyu's most trusted beloved general, and now he led the most elite household retainers in the Left Camp. Having heard his commander's intentions, he naturally had to make his own position clear.

"What General Ma says is right — this is a laughingstock for the whole world!"

"Hahaha!"

In truth, the views of the generals in the Left Camp were much the same — that rotten place, the Imperial Academy, was full of nothing but scholars who knew only empty talk. Read a few shabby books and then come out to be an official — that could be called an official?

Speaking of those Imperial Academy students, their numbers were indeed considerable, but as for those who achieved great things — not that there were none — they made up less than one-tenth of the total. Composing poetry and gossiping behind people's backs, they had a knack for both.

The moment you put a gleaming blade before their eyes, nine out of ten would piss their pants in fright. All the benevolence, righteousness, and morality they mouthed day in and day out turned into complete dogshit at that moment.

"No, no, no." The Directorate of Ceremonial eunuch Zhang Guoyuan was at this moment like a frightened little chick, looking at the pack of yellow weasels around him, without even the strength to speak loudly. He hurriedly waved his hands and said: "You gentlemen misunderstand. The empire's military academy is not entirely the same as the Imperial Academy, it's just..."

Before he could finish speaking, Zuo Liangyu cut him off with an extremely impatient, muffled voice: "Enough. You go back and tell His Majesty that my son Menggeng, as Bandit-Suppressing General, naturally has busy military affairs on his hands. This Wuchang is a place every soldier must contest; it is also inconvenient for my son to travel."

"Besides, as the saying goes — when the general is in the field, he may decline even the sovereign's commands. This blasted military academy, I see no damned use for it. Not going is fine!"

Zhang Guoyuan had come this time bearing the Son of Heaven's oral decree. Even the grand governors and inspectors of the provinces, upon seeing him, had to respectfully address him as the Heavenly Envoy. That Zuo Liangyu showed no respect was one thing, but to speak such insulting words — this was simply not putting the Emperor in his eyes at all.

But Zhang Guoyuan could only curse the bastards in his heart. To keep his own life, he had to remain deferential and respectful on the surface.

"Th-this, this..." Zhang Guoyuan's whole body trembled, his speech turning to stutters, yet he still refused to leave, saying: "Lord Ningnan, this military academy even —"

This time it was Ma Shixiu who interrupted him. He stepped forward a few paces before the crowd, grabbed Zhang Guoyuan up like a chick, and shouted as he dragged him toward the exit:

"Who cares who goes and who doesn't! Our Left Camp is the mightiest imperial army under heaven — how could we share a space with those rats?"

"Well said!" At this moment, a rough fellow clad in standard Ming iron armor chimed in: "You Heavenly Envoy really are something — can't speak, and don't know how to read the room. Our lord earl has already said his piece, so why don't you get the hell out of here already? What are you dawdling around with us gentlemen for?"

"Get lost, get lost! Keep delaying our fun with drinking and meat, and mind you don't get thrown outside the city walls to feed the roving bandits!"

"Hahaha, look how scared that dead eunuch is! At least show a little face to the Heavenly Envoy."

"Face my ass — can it lay eggs?" Hearing this, the rough fellow from before remained relentless. From the look on his face, had they not been inside the main tent, he would have charged over on the spot and torn Zhang Guoyuan apart.

Zhang Guoyuan's journey could be described as one setback after another. At his first stop in Wuchang, Zuo Liangyu had humiliated him in public. After this affair spread, the minor civil and military officials in small places with no power or influence couldn't see much in it — after all, they were nothing compared to Zuo Liangyu with his two hundred thousand troops under command. If they defied the Heavenly Envoy, their downfall would come quickly enough.

But when Zhang Guoyuan steeled himself and arrived at his second stop, Fengyang Prefecture, he encountered the same situation with Liu Liangzuo — except this "Flower Horse Liu" didn't dare go as far as Zuo Liangyu had, merely finding some excuse.

Over in Shandong, with the most powerful Vice and full Regional Commanders like Mou Wenshou and Qiu Lei setting the example, the military commanders everywhere naturally didn't dare lag behind. Within a few days they had all obediently sent their own sons and nephews ahead to the capital to wait.

Over in Huguang, because the affairs of Zuo Liangyu and Liu Liangzuo were being spread everywhere, Zhang Guoyuan could be said to be unable to take a single step forward. In the end, even county magistrates in small places dared to mock him to his face.

Helpless before the principle that the law cannot punish the many — nearly all of Huguang was like this — the imperial court's decrees had long ceased to have any effect here. Hitting walls wherever he went, Zhang Guoyuan thought to himself that continuing on was useless, and could only slink back to the capital to report.

The Chongzhen Emperor, who was admiring flowers in the warm pavilion, showed no reaction, as if this had all been within his expectations. With a calm expression he walked down and patted Zhang Guoyuan on the shoulder, saying:

"From this day forth, I promote you to attendant eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial. You have worked hard — go down and rest."

"This servant kowtows in gratitude for Your Majesty's heavenly grace! Even dying ten thousand deaths, I could never repay it!" Zhang Guoyuan had thought that since this journey had not achieved the desired results, he had come to confess his fault and receive punishment. But he never expected that the Emperor would not only not punish him, but would instead commend and promote him for it.

He was immediately so overcome with emotion that his face flushed red, unable to contain himself.

The Three Guards of Doyan — on these lands far beyond the frontier passes, there had long been no banners or troops of the Great Ming.

Since the late Wanli era, the Jurchen barbarians of Jianzhou had risen in the lands of the White Mountains and Black Waters, calling themselves descendants of the Jin, and beginning to contend with the undisputed hegemon, the "Great Ming Dynasty."

At that time, the three tribes of the Doyan Uriankhai still submitted to the Great Ming. In their eyes, the so-called Jianzhou Jurchens were nothing before the Great Ming but children hopping about here and there. Once the sturdy adult turned back his hand, this child would inevitably suffer a heavy blow and be smashed to pieces.

After all, the Great Ming had just gone through the Three Great Campaigns of the Wanli era — repelling Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the two successive wars to resist Japan and aid Korea, then pacifying Ningxia, and finally exterminating the native chieftain rebellion in Bozhou. It could be said that its prestige was at its peak; the disparity between it and the Jurchens, who were worth less than a bird's egg, was all too obvious.

But Hada Xizhen, the old chieftain of the Uriankhai tribe, never imagined that the newly risen Jurchens would win victory after victory in Liaodong, quickly seizing half of Liaodong's territory from the Ming, and even giving rise to the absurd rumor that "ten thousand Jurchens are invincible."

Originally, Hada Xizhen had firmly believed that the Ming would dispatch a great army to pacify Jianzhou just as they had in the war to resist Japan and aid Korea. But he had only guessed half right. At the Battle of Sarhu, the Ming army dispatched nearly a hundred thousand elite troops advancing in three routes to encircle, with Yang Hao as overall Military Commissioner, intending to achieve complete victory in a single stroke. But no one had expected that the Ming army would suffer its greatest defeat since the Tumu Crisis.

After the Battle of Sarhu, the absolute dominance the Ming had enjoyed in the early days of the Wanli Three Great Campaigns plummeted. In the Liaodong region, they lost key strongholds like Shenyang at an even faster pace. Conversely, the Later Jin began conquering cities and seizing territory everywhere, and soon made contact with the three Uriankhai Guards who pastured their herds in the lands of the Three Guards of Doyan.

The allied forces of the three Uriankhai tribes fought a decisive battle against the Later Jin army and suffered a disastrous defeat. Captured and killed males numbered in the tens of thousands, and they were forced to submit to the Qing.

Hada Xizhen, the venerable old chieftain of the three Uriankhai tribes, had been chopped to death by Ajige while fighting the Qing army — a blood debt of deep enmity indeed. The chieftain who succeeded him, Wuermai, began actively seeking aid from the Ming side in the early days of his reign. Even though the Ming refused to send any assistance whatsoever, Wuermai was still determined to wage a war of revenge against the Qing.

By then it was already the early Chongzhen years. Let alone the three Uriankhai tribes — even the powerful steppe tribes like the Khorchin had already submitted to the Qing. Without question, the three Uriankhai tribes fighting alone ended in defeat with heavy losses, and what's more, they drew a large-scale bloody purge from the Qing army.

After this battle, Wuermai, chieftain of the three Uriankhai tribes, saw his great authority fall into other hands, seized by Sunduleng, chieftain of the pro-Jurchen Ongniud tribe.

From then on, no one among the three Uriankhai tribes ever again raised the matter of defying the Qing. Moreover, under the leadership of the Ongniud tribe, they repeatedly followed on southern campaigns, reaping no small profit.