Chapter 37: A Monarch's Promise

"Your Majesty, Luo Yangxing plotted treason. Though he has now been executed, his faction's influence runs deep. For the sake of the Great Ming, I beg Your Majesty to issue an edict transferring the Embroidered Uniform Guard garrisons of the Southern and Northern Provincial Offices."

At the next day's court assembly, Wei Zaode, Chief Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat and Grand Secretary of Wuying Hall, stepped forward with head bowed and spoke words that shocked the assembled ministers.

"Excellent! What the Grand Secretary says accords perfectly with my intentions. Cheng'en, draft the edict."

The others could not understand Wei Zaode. Had he not seen over these years what kind of man the Chongzhen Emperor was? The former Chief Grand Secretary Chen Yan had served the Great Ming with utmost diligence, yet now he had ended up with his entire clan executed to the ninth degree.

And this was no isolated case. Whenever a major incident occurred, Chongzhen always pushed them, his ministers, to the front of the stage to perform. If the performance went well, he would claim the credit for his own "heavenly wisdom and sagely brilliance, deep counsel and decisive judgment."

But if the performance failed, he would turn ruthless without warning, striking down the ministers who had acted on his orders, even going so far as to kill them to silence dissent.

The lessons of the past were vivid before their eyes.

In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, the Emperor had secretly dispatched Minister of War Chen Xinjia to negotiate a peace settlement with the Tartar Qing. Somehow, the matter was leaked without cause, throwing the entire court into an uproar.

The Chongzhen Emperor, enraged and humiliated, ignored the counsel of Liao Guolin, Yang Zhiqi, Zhou Yanru, Chen Yan, and others, and unhesitatingly had Minister of War Chen Xinjia executed. Was Wei Zaode, by willingly taking the blame this time, trying to become the next Chen Xinjia?

"Your Majesty, this matter absolutely cannot be done!"

Suddenly, Zheng Wenxuan, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, stepped forward and memorialized:

"The Southern Office inspects military discipline at the guard stations; the Northern Office exclusively manages the Imperial Prison. To suddenly transfer personnel would not only violate ancestral regulations, but would inevitably throw the court into chaos. Officials of all departments would be thrown into panic—how can these matters be conflated?"

Before the Chongzhen Emperor could respond, Wei Zaode turned and rebuked:

"His Majesty has already issued the decree! What right do you have to speak? Get back in your place!"

"Hmph." Zheng Wenxuan was unimpressed. With a contemptuous clasped-fist salute, he said:

"So you are the Grand Secretary Wei who, as all the court and countryside have heard, betrayed his teacher and abandoned his friends. My respects, my respects!"

Zheng Wenxuan's words drew roars of laughter from the assembled ministers. Wei Zaode's face alternated between pale and green, and for a moment he could find no words to refute—after all, his recent conduct deserved to be reviled.

Seeing that Wei Zaode, renowned for his sharp tongue, was rendered speechless, the Chongzhen Emperor said: "A Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel dares to bellow in the court hall—what kind of decorum is this! Guards, throw him into the Imperial Prison!"

"Th-this this..."

Zheng Wenxuan's eyes went wide instantly. He could never have imagined the Chongzhen Emperor would be so overbearing. "Tyrant! Foolish sovereign, you—"

Before he could finish, two newly appointed Grand Warrior Generals strode in from outside the hall and, one on each side, dragged him straight out of the court.

"Does anyone else have something to say?"

The Chongzhen Emperor swept his tiger gaze across the ministers below. Wherever his eyes fell, the ministers lowered their heads in disgrace. Though resentment burned in their hearts, not a single one dared make the slightest sound.

"Issue the decree: Zheng Wenxuan, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, for bellowing in the court hall, is sentenced to execution of his three clans. The Eastern Depot and Western Depot shall jointly confiscate his property. Court adjourned!"

Watching the Chongzhen Emperor sweep away with his sleeves, Wei Zaode still could not quite believe his eyes. Was this the same Chongzhen who had been so timid and cautious, so concerned with face?

At the Capital Camps' drill ground, banners fluttered in the wind. The soldiers, shedding their former lazy demeanor, wielded new-style blades and spears as they ran and swung about. On the Zhennan and Zhenbei passes surrounding the grounds, rows of soldiers stood sentry.

"Kill!"

A row of spearmen, hearing the command, shouted loudly and thrust their long spears forward with brutal force.

Dong Qi frowned deeply and sighed:

"Still no real change."

Since Duke of Ying Zhang Shize had been appointed to oversee the Capital Camps, he had spent nearly every moment at the drill ground training new soldiers, except when major matters required him to report to the palace. Hearing Dong Qi's words, he showed no surprise and said with a smile:

"After all, the Capital Camps have no veteran foundation from real battlefields. Training them to this level in half a month is already decent. In the more than two hundred years of our Great Ming, many enemy armies have reached the capital, yet not one has ever breached it."

"Rest assured—as long as the Great Ming does not fall, what are a few roving bandits!"

Dong Qi nodded but said nothing.

To be honest, he genuinely admired Zhang Shize's magnanimity and optimism. The silver confiscated from the National Father's estate had been almost entirely allocated to the Capital Camps. Now the problem was no longer a shortage of silver—it was that no one was willing to come and seek death.

Including Dong Qi himself, few truly believed Beijing could be held. However, the Chongzhen Emperor's recent uncompromising stance had brought considerable comfort to commanders like Dong Qi who were resolved to die for the court.

Had he been like this from the moment he ascended the throne, how could the Great Ming have come to such a state? And the court would not have been controlled by the Donglin Faction.

"His Majesty arrives!"

Suddenly, the drill ground burst into commotion. From afar came a procession beating drums and gongs. At its head were twenty Grand Warrior Generals in resplendent armor—the Chongzhen Emperor had come in person.

"His Majesty arrives, and I failed to come out and receive him—this crime deserves ten thousand deaths!"

Zhang Shize had received no prior notice. He hastily led Dong Qi and several officers forward to beg forgiveness. The Chongzhen Emperor waved his hand and said:

"My minister has rendered great service to the state—what crime is there in this? I have come today to behold the heroic bearing of our Great Ming's soldiers!"

Accompanying the Chongzhen Emperor were more than a dozen cartloads of silver. Seeing these, the drill ground erupted with a buzz of excitement. No one could believe that they had laid eyes on the Great Ming's emperor in person—and it looked like rewards would be distributed.

What was even harder to believe came next. The Chongzhen Emperor gestured for the Grand Warrior Generals and others to remain where they were, then walked alone into the midst of the Capital Camps' soldiers.

The Chongzhen Emperor patted the shoulders of several soldiers as he walked, saying:

"Soldiers of the Capital Camps, the Great Ming has reached a moment of crisis between survival and destruction. You have seen it yourselves—those literati and scholars are unfit for important duties, and they wish nothing more than for me to perish. Now, I must rely on you alone to defend the capital!"

Zhang Shize, unable to rest easy, kept close on one side with Dong Qi on the other, their hands tightly gripping their sword hilts, eyes constantly scanning the soldiers as if ready to draw and protect the Emperor at the slightest sign of trouble.

Walking among these men, the Chongzhen Emperor was at first extremely nervous—he could even hear his own heart pounding in his chest.

The further he walked, the calmer he became. These newly recruited Capital Camps soldiers were different from the old ones. Most had rough hands gripping their blades and spears—clearly men accustomed to hard labor.

Among these men, the Chongzhen Emperor could also sense their psychological shifts. Some junior officers, worried that someone might move against him, used their bodies to block the way in front.

Some had faces flushed with emotion, bodies trembling. Others behaved effusively, some even kneeling on the ground and kowtowing repeatedly. The Chongzhen Emperor made a circuit through the ranks, then walked back to the reviewing platform and shouted:

"I will not forget your selfless contributions, and the Great Ming will not forget your courage and fearlessness! Soldiers, what is coming are the roving bandits! Regional Commander Zhou and the Shanxi troops are fighting desperately at the Daizhou front! We must prepare for the future before it arrives!"

"These roving bandits under the banner of Great Shun are nothing but a swarm of locusts that devour everything wherever they go! If they enter the capital, what will become of your families? What will become of the peace of the city's people?"

"Have you not seen those refugees begging for food throughout the capital? Do you want your own families to be displaced, to end up like them one day?"

Hearing the murmuring below, the Chongzhen Emperor suddenly shouted:

"I do not want that! The people of the Great Ming are virtuous by nature—they do not deserve such a fate! I promise you, I promise every soldier under heaven, that from this day forward, the court will do its utmost to make up the arrears of pay owed! And soon there will be a set of regulations ensuring that every soldier who fights for the Great Ming, and their families, will receive the compensation they deserve!"

"Now, I ask you soldiers to give me a promise in return—will you fight to the death for me, and die in battle for the Great Ming?"

The Grand Warrior Generals accompanying him shouted the Chongzhen Emperor's words in unison, their voices echoing clearly across the drill ground. Everyone heard it distinctly, including Zhang Shize and Dong Qi. Everywhere one looked, faces were moved, eyes fixed in disbelief, and some even wept with joy.

"His Majesty still remembers us!"

"Heavens, His Majesty just walked right past me!"

"Brother... I'm not hearing things, am I... Am I seeing things... The Emperor actually walked right up to me and even patted my shoulder... Am I seeing things..."

The two soldiers embraced tightly, while another shouted through tears:

"Brother, you're not seeing things—the Emperor is here, and His Majesty still remembers us!"