Chapter 94: Chronicle of Zhu Youjian, Emperor of the Great Ming

The statistics from the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot had not yet come out, but the Chongzhen Emperor, who had just returned to the palace, found himself plunged into another hair-raising matter — the Tartars had come, and they had suddenly appeared right before his very eyes!

At this moment, the Chongzhen Emperor finally understood the feeling that the man whose body he had possessed had experienced in history — everywhere in the capital there were people who wanted his life, and with one careless misstep he might die a sudden death before he even got the chance to hang himself.

Over the past few months, the Chongzhen Emperor's normally optimistic disposition from his later life had nearly scared him into a heart condition.

After hearing the reports from the secret agents, the Chongzhen Emperor could not help but feel he had been lucky to survive. He had finally made up his mind to personally lead the expedition, and while he was still gathering his forces and before he had even made a move, Shengjing, a thousand li away, had somehow known about it immediately.

Combining the intelligence from the guard and depot agents with Tang Tong's report of victory, the Chongzhen Emperor arrived at a conclusion he simply could not believe — that within the few days before and after he left the city to personally lead the campaign, the news had already been sent to Shengjing by the loyal servants of the Jianzhou barbarians.

The time between his own departure and Dorgon's learning of it could not have been very long — perhaps only a matter of days. Otherwise, no matter how fast the Tartars moved, they could not possibly have appeared directly outside the capital, a thousand li away.

Thinking that the little bit of foundation he had worked months to build had nearly been scooped up in one pot by Dorgon, the Chongzhen Emperor felt a surge of nameless rage rise in his heart.

"Fang Zhenghua, first conduct a thorough search of the entire palace, inside and out!"

"Cao Huachun, you need not concern yourself with this matter. Take the agents of the Western Depot and continue helping Wu Youke and Yuan Ban treat the plague."

He had thought that after he had slaughtered his way through the capital inside and out several times, and with the agents of the Three Depots and One Guard keeping watch day and night, things would at least be somewhat stable, and he would no longer have to live in constant fear.

But now, thinking back, he realized he had taken the situation in Beijing too lightly.

On the surface, those of the Donglin Faction had quieted down, and no one dared to challenge the all-powerful guard and depot agencies. But what schemes they were hatching in secret was anyone's guess — even his own sharp-eyed agents had failed to notice anything.

"Transmit my decree: pile all the severed heads into a mound of skulls outside the Chengtian Gate, as a warning to all!"

Building a mound of skulls was traditionally something done only to proclaim a great victory to the four seas — this was a major matter, and when the civil officials at court heard of it, they opposed it vehemently. But the Chongzhen Emperor paid them no mind whatsoever and simply turned to ask Wei Zaode, the Chief Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat.

After the incident of "Wei the Just," Wei Zaode felt that everything he had done before had been to plead for the people. Now he had changed his mindset — he would simply follow this path to the end. In truth, he had no other choice besides the Chongzhen Emperor anyway.

Moreover, this "Great Victory at military pay and provisions" was a genuine triumph unprecedented in a hundred years of the dynasty. According to what the keeper of the inner treasury had said, the severed heads could no longer even fit inside the treasury. If they did not take them out now to boast about properly, were they supposed to keep them until they bred more?

This time Wei Zaode agreed but also kept a trick up his sleeve — he actually came forward and said he wanted to jointly preside over the construction of the skull mound with Grand Secretary Feng Quan of the Grand Secretariat. Clearly, he was setting aside past grievances with his former enemy, the eunuch faction, to unite against a common foe, forming a new faction — the Royalist Faction.

How could the Chongzhen Emperor not see through the little schemes of these two men? Wei Zaode and Feng Quan wanted a good reputation, and he was not stingy — he would give it to them.

The formation of the Royalist Faction at court was precisely beneficial to the consolidation of his imperial power. The nine years of compulsory education the Chongzhen Emperor had received in his later life had not been wasted. Without saying much, he gladly accepted, bringing about a situation of "everyone is happy."

Of course, this "everyone is happy" was relative. The officials of the Donglin Faction again found their opposition futile and could only go home to continue stewing in their anger. They dared not speak out, and they did not even dare to discuss it in passing on the road.

Because those who did — those of smaller rank would basically be seized by agents the very next day and thrown into prison for torture; those of higher rank could not hope to escape either, for the Chongzhen Emperor's words were as good as gold, and he would simply find some pretext to confiscate their property.

That was right — since the masks had been torn off anyway, the Chongzhen Emperor was now just that ruthless.

Three days later, the Chongzhen Emperor's carriage arrived outside the Chengtian Gate. Looking at the assembled soldiers, he shed tears of joy before the crowd and choked out the words, "Soldiers, you have worked hard."

In later ages, this phrase had been heard so often it had grown calluses on one's ears — it was a mandatory part of the procedure whenever a leader reviewed troops. But in this era, spoken personally by the emperor himself, it was as if it struck the soldiers right in their hearts — it felt warm, and very touching.

Heavens! Where could one find such a good emperor!

Not to mention that the Chongzhen Emperor had said it while weeping and choking with emotion, making everyone feel that their struggles and sacrifices for the Great Ming had not been in vain. If heaven gave them another chance to start over, they would still choose to fight to the death for the Chongzhen Emperor.

And if a time limit had to be set, they wished it would be a hundred years.

By this time, the skull mound was nearly complete. The Chongzhen Emperor descended from the city gate tower and walked through the ranks of soldiers, deliberately looking at these dark, honest faces, exchanging smiling glances with a few of them. He came to the stone stele and personally wrote a passage in small characters, saying:

"Cheng'en, have these words carved onto the stele, so that all under heaven may know my intent!"

Wang Cheng'en first shouted "Long live the Emperor!" three times to receive the decree, then stepped forward to look. Instantly, he felt an indescribable surge of pride well up in his chest. If he were not a eunuch, he truly would have wanted to join Tang Tong, Huang Degong, and the others on the battlefield to kill the enemy — that would have been satisfying.

"In the battle at military pay and provisions, all our imperial armies advanced side by side, employing both orthodox and unorthodox tactics in concert, united as one, and defeated the invading bandits again and again. Like wild geese returning home, the territory of Jizi remains as before; like bears and griffins rallying their ranks, the virtue and might of the Han dynasty is proclaimed far and wide. Apart from the severed heads taken as merits, they are piled into a mound of skulls, the corpses cast into the streets, the heads sent throughout the realm, as an eternal warning against rebellion, and to vent the righteous fury of gods and men alike."

In addition, the Chongzhen Emperor added one more line of small characters at the end:

"The August Ming unites the seas under heaven. Though the splendor of its civil governance and martial achievements no longer matches that of Han and Tang, a loyal heart remains. Righteous valor surges forth — those who leap about in rebellion, however strong, shall surely be slain! — Intercalary fifth month, jiashen day, the seventeenth year. Recorded by Zhu Youjian, Emperor of the Great Ming, upon pacifying the bandits."

When the contents of the stele inscription were transmitted down, the faces of those below all changed in different ways.

For the Donglin civil officials, this bloodthirsty, chaos-courting inscription by the Chongzhen Emperor was the best proof that he was a tyrant. It proved that this ruler, a veritable Jie and Zhou, cared nothing at all for the lives of the common people!

The literati of the Donglin Faction were already brewing in their minds how to denounce the Chongzhen Emperor, while the Ming soldiers present were all flushed with excitement, each gripping their swords and spears tightly, wishing they could charge back onto the battlefield to fight the bandit slaves to the death!

The Ming soldiers assembled by the Chongzhen Emperor, standing before this stone stele and mound of skulls proclaiming the martial might of the Great Ming, felt only pride swelling in their hearts. An emperor like this — who dared call him a tyrant?

Those who said such things were the truly benighted ministers! This was a wise ruler rarely seen in a thousand ages, a wise ruler who in some respects could even rival the Yongle Emperor!

It was said that after the review ended that day, as the various armies were preparing to return to camp for rest, a few scholars by the roadside were reciting poetry and composing verses. The general meaning was plain for anyone to understand — roughly that the Chongzhen Emperor, by writing such an inscription, was an out-and-out cruel tyrant, and moreover a ruler more benighted than even Emperor Yang of the Sui!

Unexpectedly, the scholars' self-righteous clamoring was more than the passing soldiers could bear. Several men who had slain Shun bandits on the battlefield directly spat thick gobs of phlegm at them and roared in anger:

"Cowards who only know how to wag their tongues behind others' backs! The current emperor is sagely and enlightened, seeking blessings for us in everything he does. But you lot — not only do you repay kindness with enmity, you keep making noise and stirring up trouble everywhere. You deserve to die!"

A camp soldier of the Capital Camps wearing armor loudly agreed, saying viciously:

"What the brother said is right! Scholars like you — don't piss your pants the moment you step onto the battlefield. If we ever truly meet on the field of battle, no need to beg for mercy — I'll personally take your dog head for the emperor!"