Chapter 47: Everything Has the Emperor Taking the Lead

"Your Majesty, when I received your decree, my heart burned with anxiety, but the road from Xiaoling to the capital is long and difficult. I could only order my soldiers to travel light, and we managed to reach the capital within a month. I beg Your Majesty to forgive my presumption in acting without prior approval!"

"My minister speaks too humbly. To serve the sovereign and the state—truly a fine general!"

"For the Xiaoling Guard to come defend the Ming capital at this moment of crisis, and to continue our loyalty to the Great Ming, is the greatest honor for us sons of Huaixi!"

Listening to Zhou Jingwu speak, the Chongzhen Emperor felt greatly reassured—the Xiaoling Guard was currently the force he could rely on most.

This unit traced its origins to five hundred elite Huaixi soldiers personally selected by the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang to accompany him in his campaigns. Among the soldiers, the surnames Wang, Zhao, and Xu predominated, while all officers bore the surnames Zhou or Li.

These five families shared an inseparable bond with the imperial house that went beyond mere master-servant relations. The chosen troops from these five lineages had guarded Xiaoling for generations—naturally, they were the men Zhu Yuanzhang trusted most.

As Zhou Jingwu spoke, he unbuckled the sword at his waist and offered it up with both hands.

"This was the sword worn at the waist of the founding emperor. When he passed through Xiaoling, he unbuckled it and presented it to my ancestor, commanding our Zhou family to serve as Guard Commanders for generations and guard Xiaoling. Now I return the original to its rightful place—this too fulfills my ancestor's dying wish!"

The moment the sword was drawn, its edge gleamed with intimidating sharpness. Upon it was a rare engraving of a five-clawed golden dragon, its bloody maw agape, radiating supreme majesty. Gazing upon its visage, one felt it looked down upon the world, scorning all things beneath heaven.

The blade's patterns were finely chiseled, the designs crisp and clear—on one side a flood dragon soared aloft, on the other a phoenix spread its wings, while the rim was adorned with the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper, matching the blade to celestial phenomena. Truly a work of divine craftsmanship.

The Chongzhen Emperor took one look and was deeply enamored. Grasping this sword said to have once belonged to Zhu Yuanzhang, he truly felt a sense of ruling over all under heaven.

The Chongzhen Emperor raised the sword toward the sunlight and asked, as if half to himself:

"What the founding emperor once used—truly a fine sword! But Guard Commander Zhou, how does this sword differ from the usual imperial swords of office?"

"This..." Zhou Jingwu pondered for some time before speaking:

"Your servant does not truly know. There are some rumors within the Xiaoling Guard, but they cannot be fully trusted."

"Over two hundred years have passed, yet this sword still gleams as if new. Could it be a forgery?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Jingwu's face turned fearful as he prostrated himself on the ground, knocking his head and saying:

"Your Majesty, your servant would never dare deceive the sovereign. Every hundred years, the then-serving Guard Commander of Xiaoling would search the realm for the most skilled craftsmen to reforge the blade in the furnace, which is why it still gleams as if new."

The Chongzhen Emperor nodded—there was nothing wrong with this answer. He sheathed the sword and said:

"In that case, Zhou Jingwu, hear the decree!"

The five-clawed golden dragon motif could only be used by the imperial house—so why had the founding emperor left such a sword to the Zhou family guarding Xiaoling? Was it a whim, or did he have a long-term design?

Since arriving in the Great Ming, the Chongzhen Emperor had discovered that the imperial household was far less simple than he had imagined. The Three Great Cases of the palace were shrouded in mystery, and the palace archives held countless secret dossiers he could not even count.

Some of these secrets were of utmost importance, passed down orally from emperor to emperor of the Zhu family—the Xiaoling Guard being one of them. The rest could only be learned by the emperor himself poring through the archives.

Last time, bored and idle, the Chongzhen Emperor had casually pulled out a volume and read a few pages, only then unexpectedly learning that Zhu Yuanzhang had left behind the Xiaoling Guard as an imperial bodyguard unit. The historical Chongzhen Emperor likely never knew of this at all.

How many more secrets in the palace had he not yet read? The Tianqi Emperor had fallen into the water in a muddle, dying before he could pass on what needed to be known to Chongzhen. It seemed the Xiaoling Guard was only one of many—everything would have to be discovered on his own.

But before any of that, he needed to send that deadly courier Li Zicheng packing—otherwise, nothing else mattered.

With this thought, the Chongzhen Emperor handed the sword back to Zhou Jingwu amid the astonished gazes of all present, and said:

"By decree: all officers and soldiers of the Xiaoling Guard shall be registered and formed into an army, granted the title 'Divine Martial Army.' Guard Commander Zhou Jingwu of the Xiaoling Guard—his forebears served diligently for generations, guarding Xiaoling without cease, and I trust him deeply. He is hereby enfeoffed as 'Earl Wei Xiao,' granted a patent of nobility, hereditary in perpetuity, and additionally appointed Right Commissioner-in-Chief of the Five Armies Command, leading the Divine Martial Army to take over the capital's defense."

"By decree: Wang Yong'en, Earl of Jingyuan, and Liu Wenbing, Marquis of Xinle, shall verify the troop numbers of the Banner Guard, the Gold Feather Forward Guard, the Gold Feather Rear Guard, the Feathered Forest Left Guard, the Feathered Forest Right Guard, the Palace Army Guard, the Palace Army Left Guard, the Palace Army Right Guard, the Palace Army Forward Guard, the Palace Army Rear Guard, and the Tiger Guard Left Guard."

"By decree: Li Ruolian, Regional Military Commissioner of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, shall verify the actual strength of the Guard's Southern and Northern Offices."

"By decree: Zhang Qingzhen, Earl of Huian, shall verify the troops of the Swallow Mountain Left Guard, Swallow Mountain Right Guard, Swallow Mountain Forward Guard, Daxing Left Guard, Jiyang Guard, Jizhou Guard, and Tongzhou Guard, and depart the capital immediately."

"By decree: Fang Zhenghua, seal-holder of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses and Superintendent of the Inner Depot, shall verify the numbers of the Soaring Dragon Left Guard, Soaring Dragon Right Guard, Martial Soaring Left Guard, and Martial Soaring Right Guard imperial guards."

"The Directorate of Ceremonial shall draft the edict: regardless of the verification results, the above guards shall henceforth no longer fall under the Five Armies Command or the Ministry of War. They shall be placed under the Imperial Guards Regional Military Commission, personally commanded by me."

Having finished the official business, the Chongzhen Emperor turned and said in a cold voice:

"Ministers, let me make myself clear: if anyone dares disobey once the decrees are issued, the Eastern Depot and Embroidered Uniform Guard may arrest and confiscate property without prior report. If anyone dares commit insubordination—another incident like Patrol Censor Che Shen privately mobilizing patrol troops—it shall be treated as rebellion!"

"The Divine Martial Army, the Capital Camps, and the Regimental Camps may all suppress unrest on imperial authority. Followers shall suffer execution of their three clans; the principal culprits shall suffer execution of their nine clans!"

"Your ministers obey the decree! Long live His Majesty, ten thousand years, ten thousand times ten thousand years!"

The nobles the Chongzhen Emperor had just appointed—Zhang Qingzhen, Earl of Huian, Wang Yong'en, Earl of Jingyuan, Liu Wenbing, Marquis of Xinle, and others—had all died for the Great Ming in history.

Unlike the ordinary civil and military officials in the capital, these nobles and imperial relatives were absolutely loyal and obedient. With the situation so dire, the Chongzhen Emperor had no time for slow observation—he could only judge by whether they had died for the state in history, treating a dead horse as a living one.

The Chongzhen Emperor intended to grant military power to these men loyal to the Ming and have them serve him.

Some might say that by this point, these imperial guards of the Ming had long lost all combat effectiveness, and that the problem of drawing salaries for nonexistent soldiers was severe—the Chongzhen Emperor was well aware of all this.

But in history, these few imperial guards had fought separately, and compared to the garrison troops inside and outside the capital and the runners of the Five City Troops and Horses Office who knelt and surrendered, they had fought to the last man.

When Li Zicheng besieged the capital, aside from the palace eunuchs, those who resisted most fiercely were none other than these imperial guards scattered at the various gates.

What the Chongzhen Emperor planned was to tally up these imperial guards who would fight to the death for the Ming and use them for himself—compared to troops from the provinces, their loyalty was clearly more assured.

If their numbers proved too few, he would temporarily abolish the imperial guard establishment and register the guards on the rolls into a new army. If money ran short, he would find some fat sheep who had surrendered to the Tartar Qing or Li Zicheng and confiscate their property—who said they couldn't become the next Divine Martial Army?

Originally, at the start of the Ming, imperial power was centralized. But by the Chongzhen Emperor's generation, governance had been encroached upon by the Grand Secretariat, and these imperial guards established by the ancestors had fallen under the control of the Ministry of War.

Since the Chongzhen Emperor had already regained administrative power in his hands, he needed to strike while the iron was hot and take back military authority.

That the imperial guards were few in number was an iron fact, and they were scattered apart—that they had failed to form combat effectiveness in history was understandable. If he could forge them into a single fist, landing a heavy blow on Li Zicheng was not impossible!

The string of imperial decrees displayed the Chongzhen Emperor's immense trust in these men. They exchanged glances, each seeing relief and excitement in the others' eyes.

The Chongzhen Emperor's intention to seize military power from the Ministry of War could not have been more obvious. Had this happened when only the feeble Capital Camps existed, they might have worried whether trouble would arise.

But now, with over five thousand sons of Huaixi from the Divine Martial Army guarding the imperial city, the situation was entirely different.

The Chongzhen Emperor had first supported the depot and guard in persecuting the Donglin, then mobilized the Divine Martial Army to take over the capital's defense. Now the decree forcibly seizing military power from the Ministry of War had come down—what was there left to fear?

Since the Emperor was taking the lead, if those civil officials wanted a fight—fine, let them come!

Anyone who flinched now wasn't born of father and mother!