Chapter 277: The Envoy of the Celestial Court

In the Shengjing Imperial Palace, the seven-year-old Fulin was learning Chinese poetry under the hands-on tutelage of Bumbutai; since ascending the throne, this had become Shunzhi's required lesson every morning and evening.

The young Shunzhi Emperor did not yet harbor any conspiracy theories—he only bore some resentment toward the Regent Dorgon who had brought all this about, and his little head simply could not make sense of certain things.

Had it not been for Dorgon repeatedly urging his mother the Empress Dowager, he would not have had to study these scalp-crawling poems; had it not been for him coming into the palace all day long to chatter with his mother, he would not have had to endure so many restraints and rules.

After fluently reciting an entire Tang-dynasty poem, Bumbutai seemed quite pleased, and waved her hand a few times to signal that class was dismissed.

Fulin, seeing this, grew extremely excited and instantly cast aside his earlier grudge against Dorgon. He was about to run out joyfully to find some palace maids and eunuchs to play with when he suddenly collided with a Plain Yellow Banner guard who was rushing in through the door.

"Your Majesty, forgive me! Your Majesty, forgive me!" The guard retreated a few steps, shouted a few perfunctory words of apology, then hurried forward to bow and pay his respects to Bumbutai.

The two Yellow Banners had always been personally commanded by the imperial clan, and it was they who were currently responsible for security within the palace. When Bumbutai saw the expression on this guard's face, she knew something major had happened. She quickly pulled Shunzhi back and sternly rebuked:

"What business has you so flustered? Has the sky fallen down or what?"

"Reporting to the Holy Mother Empress Dowager, the envoy of the Ming state has arrived and is waiting in the Chongzheng Hall. He says he has gifts and a state letter to present to the Holy Mother Empress Dowager and His Majesty. Holy Mother Empress Dowager, shall this lowly one drive him away?" As the guard spoke, his eyes darted about shiftily, never daring to meet Bumbutai's gaze directly.

"Mother, why would the Ming state send an envoy?" The Shunzhi Emperor was encountering for the first time the matter of the Great Ming inside the Pass dispatching an envoy, and was both curious and astonished.

Bumbutai did not answer Shunzhi's question. She gave a cold snort and said, "Since he has already come, then we might as well see him! Otherwise people will start saying that our Great Qing is afraid of the Ming state. You go make the arrangements first."

"Your will be done!" The guard did not dare raise his head, shouted once, and immediately withdrew.

"Fulin, you must remember that you are the Emperor of our Great Qing. When you see the Ming envoy shortly, do not give him any good face. You must know—it is these very people who have oppressed our Aisin Gioro clan for centuries."

"Mother, I'm scared..." Fulin tightly hugged Bumbutai's leg, squeezing his head in between.

"Scared of what? You are the Emperor; he is merely a minister of the Ming state. The one who should be afraid is him, not you!" Bumbutai shook her head, seeming somewhat disappointed that iron could not become steel.

"Shi Bangyao, Left Vice Censor-in-Chief of the second rank of the Great Ming, offers his greetings!" Shi Bangyao looked with contempt at this woman and child emerging from the rear palace, sneered inwardly at these barbarians, yet his face remained impassive.

"How dare you!"

Bumbutai glared with knitted brows and cried out sharply, "I care not whether you are a Censor! I am the Holy Mother Empress Dowager of the Great Qing, and this is the Emperor of the Great Qing. Yet you do not perform the proper rites upon seeing the Emperor and the Empress Dowager? Is this how your Emperor teaches you?"

"Hahaha."

Shi Bangyao seemed to have heard something utterly ridiculous. He laughed loudly a few times, then with a solemn expression clasped his hands in the direction of Beijing and said gravely:

"The Emperor of my Great Ming has this very year enfeoffed the kings and military governors of several Annam states. The titles of kings and military governors of all surrounding states have always been conferred by our court—yet I have never heard of any 'Great Qing Emperor.' Where, exactly, does he come from?"

As Shi Bangyao spoke, he held his head high, not even deigning to cast a single glance at Bumbutai and Fulin.

"This is too outrageous—guards!" Bumbutai trembled with fury. She had intended to give this Ming envoy a show of force, but had not expected him to be so obstinate and speak so absolutely.

Yet before she could finish speaking, Shi Bangyao sneered a few times, then suddenly waved his hand and shouted loudly:

"No need for the trouble! Do not lay hands on me—I fear it would soil the official robes of the Great Ming on my person!" With that, under the shocked gazes of the assembled Manchu princes and nobles, Shi Bangyao picked up the box on the floor and declared in a loud voice:

"This is a gift from the Emperor of my Great Ming to you barbarians. As the saying goes, courtesy demands reciprocity—but I see no need for that now, because this object is one you will never be able to send back."

Bumbutai was greatly puzzled. She waved her hand to stop the guards who had ascended the hall, and her jade-like palm slowly opened the wooden box. The next instant she covered her mouth with a cry of shock, and the box fell to the floor, the long-dried head within tumbling out and rolling across the ground.

Fulin, seeing such a ghastly sight for the first time, immediately clung to Bumbutai, with none of the bearing befitting an emperor. Seeing this, Shi Bangyao laughed heartily, remarking that Fulin's words and conduct were not even comparable to the eighth prince of the Chongzhen Emperor, who had only recently been born.

"Drag him away! Drag him away!!" Bumbutai's throat seemed to burn with rage. Without a second thought, she waved for the guards to repay him in kind.

Shi Bangyao seemed to have anticipated this long ago. He offered no resistance at all, merely craning his neck and waiting for death.

Just as he was about to be dragged off the hall by the guards, Bumbutai waved her hand again to stop them. She thought for a moment, then forced onto her face a smile uglier than tears, and said through gritted teeth:

"In that case, I ask the envoy to return and tell that Zhu Youjian this: the Emperor of our Great Qing is not as cruel as he is. The gentleman loves wealth but obtains it by righteous means, and men of insight across the realm will likewise flock to our Great Qing. The widow and family of Master Ning will be well protected by us. Whether Manchu or Han, all those of talent under heaven may come and serve our Great Qing. After all, that the Great Qing shall replace the Ming state is the Mandate of Heaven."

Hearing this, Shi Bangyao, who had been seeking only death, looked at Bumbutai with some surprise, a thousand waves churning in his heart. After a moment, he gave a cold snort, shook off the guards' hands, and said expressionlessly:

"In that case, I shall take my leave!"

Every prince and noble of the Eight Banners on the hall wished to tear the swaggering Shi Bangyao to pieces, but Bumbutai would not permit it, and even Jirgalang and Daišan and the others would not permit it either. Having no recourse, they could only let the matter drop.

Setting aside the shock in Shi Bangyao's heart along the way after failing to die, Master Ma had likewise steeled himself and made contact with the head constable of the Five Wards Troops and Horses Office, intending to shake the tree like an ant.

Far away, over a hundred li beyond the Pass in the Doyan borderlands, an army was also arriving belatedly.

About a month earlier, the young Shunzhi Emperor Fulin had conferred upon Dorgon the post of Grand General and personally bestowed the seal of command. Having learned his lesson from last time, Dorgon did not boast that he could directly break through the Pass, nor did he bring a great many troops.

In truth, Dorgon himself was deeply awed by the breadth and profundity of Han culture. He believed that to completely destroy the Han people, the root cure lay in utterly eradicating their culture.

This time when the Qing army left the Pass, they claimed to number two hundred thousand, but their actual strength was only around one hundred fifty thousand.

Since the end of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, rebellions large and small had emerged one after another in the Liaodong region. It was precisely because Dorgon had drained the Qing forces from Liaodong in the year of jiashen that he had nearly brought about an irredeemable catastrophe.

So this time when he set out, for the main force of the Manchu Banners he brought only his own two White Banners with over twenty thousand cavalry; the remaining tens of thousands were hastily assembled Mongol Banner and Han Banner troops. In addition, the booi bondservants responsible for transporting supplies traveled in droves, numbering no fewer than thirty thousand. In this manner, they barely scraped together an army of over a hundred thousand so-called iron cavalry.

To be honest, Dorgon had come out this time partly because he was deeply weary of the feuds and entanglements between the old and new factions within Shengjing city and wanted to get some fresh air, and partly because he had heard the report delivered by the Doyan commander-general before his death, and wished to use the military merit of recovering the Three Doyan Guards to intimidate those princes and ministers.

Just as they entered Doyan territory, a rider from Shengjing caught up from behind and said with a grave expression: "Regent, the Holy Mother Empress Dowager orders you to withdraw your troops and return to Shengjing immediately—there are important matters to discuss!"