Chapter 49: Startling Upheaval at Datong (Part One)

After arranging all his trusted subordinates, the Chongzhen Emperor came to the side hall. Looking at Li Yan, bound hand and foot by the young eunuchs of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses, he felt no real desire to punish him.

Li Yan had been persecuted severely by lower-ranking officials; given his experiences, his disillusionment with the court was entirely understandable. The Chongzhen Emperor waved his hand to signal that the bonds be loosened, then began his meal right before Li Yan's eyes.

Though the Emperor said nothing, the young eunuchs dared not let their guard down. Having heard that Li Yan was versed in both letters and martial arts, with some skill in fist and footwork, they refused to leave, nervously guarding the Chongzhen Emperor on all sides.

Looking at Li Yan, who remained silent, the Chongzhen Emperor wiped his mouth, set down his rice bowl, and said casually:

"Master Li, with talents like yours, why stoop to serve in a bandit camp? To serve the court, to serve me, to earn titles for your wife and children and leave a fine name for generations—is that not better?"

After all, this was the imperial palace—the first time Li Yan had ever seen it in his life. Though he harbored deep hatred for the Chongzhen Emperor, at first, faced with the sternly standing Grand Guard officers and Capital Camp soldiers, he still felt somewhat intimidated.

While the Chongzhen Emperor conferred with his confidants in the warm chamber, Li Yan's initial awe at the palace gradually faded. All he could think of was that when he finally met the Chongzhen Emperor, even if it meant his own death, he would take the Emperor down with him.

But now that he had actually met this emperor of the Great Ming, Li Yan was too astonished to speak. The most direct impression this emperor gave him was that he did not resemble the emperor in his imagination at all.

Throughout the realm, common folk numbered in the hundreds of millions, and the bureaucrats, gentry, and other men above men were beyond counting—but there was only one emperor. He should be heaven's favored son, the supreme sovereign, a man without equal.

Yet the Chongzhen Emperor before him—what he wore and used simply did not resemble an emperor.

Deep worry was etched between his brows. He wore a five-clawed dragon robe that appeared splendid and majestic, yet as he ate, his movements inadvertently revealed numerous patches on the inner garments beneath—how was this different from a peasant?

And looking at the imperial meal before him—merely a plate of greens, a bowl of soybean milk, and half a bowl of rice. That the Emperor lived so plainly and frugally was something Li Yan simply could not believe.

He kept thinking the Chongzhen Emperor was putting on a show for his benefit, but then he reconsidered: he was a man already condemned to die. The Chongzhen Emperor would kill him sooner or later anyway—why bother with such a charade?

"Oblivious tyrant, do you know how many families across the realm have been ruined because of you?"

"You tyrant levied the Three Surcharges, leaving the common people without food to eat or clothes to wear, their grievances rising like a tide. Now the Dashing King, in his righteousness, leads a million righteous troops straight for the capital. You're afraid—afraid of being dragged off the throne by us mud-footed commoners—so you abolished the Three Surcharges that could never be collected anyway, desperately trying to cling to life!"

"Oblivious tyrant, is what I, Li, have said correct?"

Treating the Chongzhen Emperor's question as wind past his ears, Li Yan spat out a string of piercing accusations.

"How dare you!" Fang Zhenghua, standing to one side, flew into a rage and moved to cripple Li Yan on the spot. "Thief Li, His Majesty is no oblivious tyrant! Don't spout that nonsense from the pens of literati!"

Li Yan chuckled, craning his neck as if awaiting death. But after a long moment, nothing happened. He opened his eyes to see the Chongzhen Emperor rise and turn his back to him, saying:

"What Master Li says is both right and wrong. In the eyes of some, I am indeed an oblivious tyrant. But if you say I abolished the Three Surcharges out of fear of losing this throne, then you are wrong—dead wrong!"

"I have drifted through half a lifetime without doing many things that truly served the people. That the realm has come to this state—if I don't bear this burden, who will? That Li Zicheng?"

"But I cannot die, and the Great Ming cannot perish! Beyond the passes, the Tartar beasts watch with hungry eyes. And how many soldiers across the realm still fight and die loyally for the Great Ming? If the capital falls, could that thief Li stop the Tartars from sweeping south? He hasn't the ability!"

"I am the Emperor—I must hold the realm's reins! If I do not enter hell, who will? Three hundred years of the Ming dynasty's foundation cannot be destroyed in my hands. Li Zicheng is nothing but a petty rat—I have never taken him seriously, and I will not hesitate to send his head rolling!"

Li Yan had nothing to say in reply. What he had said earlier was meant to provoke the thin-skinned Chongzhen Emperor, to make him kill him in a fit of rage—that would have been an end to it all.

But unexpectedly, the Chongzhen Emperor paid no heed to his words. What emperor would openly admit before others that he was an oblivious tyrant? It was simply unheard of!

Yet the Chongzhen Emperor's words gave Li Yan a sudden flash of insight. It occurred to him: beyond the passes there were still the Tartars, famed as invincible in field warfare—could the Dashing King defeat them?

The peasant uprising had not been smooth sailing. In the beginning, the central plains' government troops were formidable—men like Hong Chengchou, the two Caos, and Sun Chuanting struck fear into their hearts.

A few years earlier, when Yang Sichang served as Supreme Commander, his strategy of "Four Uprights, Six Corners, Nets Spread in Ten Directions" had indeed worked wonders at first. The peasant army was on the verge of collapse, and only by exploiting contradictions among the government forces had they managed to break through.

Yang Sichang was the last Supreme Commander to achieve anything against the peasant army. After Xiangyang fell, the various peasant forces swept across the central plains, and could no longer be contained.

Come to think of it, the peasant army and the Tartars beyond the passes coordinated remarkably well. Whenever the peasant army seemed on the verge of defeat, the Tartars would conveniently launch an incursion, forcing the government troops to divide their attention.

Seeing Li Yan lost in thought, the Chongzhen Emperor did not wish to say more. He turned and left the side hall, saying to Li Chun:

"Convey my decree: find a quiet place in the palace to keep him confined. Assign two palace maids to attend to him properly. Without my decree, Li Yan must not come to any harm."

"Also, every evening, select some of the memorials I have reviewed in the warm chamber and send them to Li Yan to read!"

On the city wall of Datong town in Shanxi, the court's dark-bird banner flew high, and a row of listless border troops stood guard atop the wall. Suddenly, one man's eyes went wide—an army was approaching in the distance.

The arrivals were Bai Guangen and his men, who had received the imperial decree at Ningwu and come to take up his post. Of this government force of roughly a thousand men, most bore wounds—survivors of the fierce fighting in the breakout at Daizhou.

At the very front of the column were the imperial commissioner Li Fengxiang and several dozen mounted riders from the capital, pulling more than twenty carts laden with heavy silver.

"Who goes there!"

Bai Guangen reined in his horse, clasped his fists in a distant salute toward the capital, and called out loudly:

"I am Bai Guangen! Tell your commander to come out of the city at once to welcome me!"

As he spoke, contempt showed on Bai Guangen's face—he looked utterly confident of his position.

Jiang Xiang, though currently holding the high post of Regional Commander, was in Bai Guangen's eyes nothing but a junior.

Back in the day, when Bai Guangen had earned his way through merit to substantive Regional Commander, this Jiang Xiang had been merely a minor Assistant Regional Commander—and when he heard Bai Guangen was coming, he had scurried out of the city to greet him like an eager puppy.

Moreover, this visit was to replace Jiang Xiang as Regional Commander of Datong, not to chat over old times. The Jiang family was a military clan from Yulin; ordinarily, Bai Guangen would not go out of his way to provoke them.

But the Emperor had decreed the execution of the entire Jiang clan to the ninth degree, and had—quite rarely—rewarded the Datong border troops with a million taels of pay. With that silver as guarantee, what did the Jiang family amount to?

The Company Commander atop the wall returned into the city and reported the news to Jiang Xiang. Jiang Xiang and Jiang Rang were in the midst of secret plotting, still unaware that their intention to surrender had already been exposed by the depot and guard—they merely found it somewhat puzzling.

"This Bai Guangen already surrendered to Li Zicheng. By all rights, that cold and ungrateful Chongzhen should have killed him long ago. Why would he come here?"