Chapter 679: Seal

Chongzhen, for his part, regarding Liu Chengzong —

actually, he rather admired him.

He knew this was a genuine bandit, one who brooded day and night on how to seize his realm.

To put it bluntly, Chongzhen had never once felt that Liu Chengzong, Hong Taiji, Ligdan Khan, or anyone else were his enemies.

Or rather, all rulers like them were the same — dragons among men, every one. Would any of them deign to look upon another human being as worthy? Would any of them regard another person as a rival?

No one was worthy.

They were not even worthy to be rivals among themselves.

Their true opponent was far more powerful than any single one of them.

Chongzhen was like a quack doctor. Standing before him was not a mighty pathogen called the Later Jin, but the aged, decrepit, terminally ill, and already rotting body of the Great Ming.

The same held true for Liu Chengzong: his opponent was the ravenous appetite and the swarms of antisocial elements around him — he had to bridle the madmen tightly and feed their mouths, using crazed brains to command crazed legs.

One moment of distraction, one lapse in control, and a Zhang Yichuan would spill out, leaving the banks of the Yellow and Huai Rivers rolling with severed heads.

Zuo Maodi did not understand this, which was why he mistakenly believed Chongzhen harbored a deep hatred for Liu Chengzong.

In truth, the one Chongzhen hated was Hong Taiji.

Because the Eight Banners really had been holding a chisel the whole time, chiseling away at the crown of his skull — it truly hurt, and it never stopped.

Liu Chengzong was different.

He was still there, like an alchemist, testing medicinal formulas one official at a time.

Sometimes he had to grit his teeth and remove two ribs to provide disaster relief to Shaanxi; other times he grabbed the wrong medicine, flung out a handful of arsenic, and ate it until his bowels ran.

But there was no help for it — as emperor, regardless of ability, he had to try to save his Great Ming, to heal that rotting, broken leg.

In the end, Liu Chengzong, without a word, hoisted a saw, raised his hand, and lopped the rotten leg right off for him.

Though suddenly missing a leg left Chongzhen somewhat wistful and at a loss, once the sharp pain passed, he actually felt considerably lighter in his heart, as a portion of the burden on his shoulders had been removed.

In fact, as early as when Zhang Yichuan entered Henan, Chongzhen had already been secretly sending people to inquire about the various miscellaneous taxes of the Fu Principality in Suzhou, Songjiang, and Changzhou.

Mainly because of the precedent set by Liu Chengzong, Chongzhen had for a time underestimated the severity of a princely fief being besieged.

He had assumed it would be just like the Su Principality and the Han Principality — the princes, commandery princes, and even the imperial clansmen would not die; those who could flee would flee, and those who could surrender would surrender.

If you've surrendered, then Uncle can just live well over on Liu Chengzong's side. For my sake, Liu Chengzong surely won't make things difficult for you.

Weren't the Prince of Han and the Prince of Su both still alive and kicking?

I, on this side, would also take over your property, creating a situation where everyone is happy.

He never, ever imagined that barbarian Zhang Yichuan would actually kill a commandery prince the moment he caught one.

As a result, the news of the Prince of Wan'an's death scared Chongzhen's face green. Terrified that Zhang Yichuan would harm the Prince of Fu next, he immediately ordered Zhang Renxue to go reinforce him.

It was not until the Prince of Fu's crisis was resolved that Chongzhen remembered the Shaanxi princely fiefs also held property in the interior. Though meager, even a mosquito's leg is still meat.

So he charged the Ministry of Rites with inventorying and inspecting the estates of the Qin Principality, Su Principality, and Han Principality in the interior, preparing to abolish these three princely fiefs.

Of course, this light and pleasant mood lasted only a month.

From the loss of Shaanxi, right up until Zuo Maodi told him Liu Chengzong was preparing to declare himself king.

The moment he heard Liu Chengzong wanted to declare himself king, a sense of crisis surged up uncontrollably in Chongzhen's heart once more.

The Emperor cursed inwardly: "Everything was perfectly fine — what are you declaring yourself king for? Wouldn't it be nice to just stay in Shaanxi and govern my northwest properly?"

His inner feelings toward Liu Chengzong were far too complicated.

Envy, admiration, fear, mixed with an indescribable, inexplicable contempt, and further laced with the arrogance of believing everything was still within his grasp.

This was actually because he fundamentally had no concept of what losing Shaanxi meant.

He had no concept even of Zhang Yichuan rampaging through the Central Plains heartland — he only heard from others that the rebel was getting closer and closer to the ancestral tombs.

Like those emperors raised deep within the palace, Chongzhen's realm was just that one map.

No matter how vast the territory of Liu Chengzong's Marshal Manor, no matter how wide the range of Zhang Yichuan's marauding troops, none of it compared to the shock delivered when the Later Jin army fought its way to the walls of Beijing during the Jisi Incident.

The one he hated most in his heart was, and always had been, the Later Jin, who had made him lose all his dignity.

The great wars erupting across the realm were, to him, merely figures — data on coin, grain, and troop numbers.

That was why some generals who lost battles and killed innocents to claim merit would find the Emperor smiling with utmost benevolence, while other generals who lost battles would be dragged out and chopped to pieces on the spot.

The reason lay in this: if you came to me asking for pay and provisions, the money came from me. A defeat — that was a pain that cut to the bone.

If a man raised his own provisions and pay to fight, a defeat — the Emperor felt nothing.

But for Zuo Maodi, Liu Chengzong loomed like an ancient behemoth baring its blood-dripping maw, a threat right before his eyes. His exchanges with Chongzhen were utterly like a chicken talking to a duck.

Zuo Maodi depicted Liu Chengzong's terrors: his army had plowed through the wealthy households of Shaanxi, redistributing land and fields, and his administrative efficiency and capacity to extract civilian labor were immensely formidable.

His own Hancheng County, by contrast, plagued by those long-accumulated abuses and powerful clans, could never reach that level no matter how much he exhausted his mind and strength.

To Chongzhen's ears, these words only filled him with bewilderment, and he nearly blurted out: Then why not just have him send troops to plow through your county for you? Wouldn't that solve both your problems at once?

Of course, Chongzhen did not say it.

Although he was already the emperor, for Chongzhen, these eight years had really just been about learning how to be an emperor.

After all, he had not been the crown prince.

By now, he had learned that it was best not to discuss problems with his ministers — he only needed to raise the problem and see whether the grand secretaries had a solution.

If they did not, he would just summon another minister and have the two of them discuss it.

The emperor must not participate in the discussion. The moment he opened his mouth and delivered a lengthy discourse — no one can be right forever; flaws would inevitably appear.

The imperial nerve center gathered the cleverest men under heaven, and those bastards already looked down on everyone else by relying on their intellect.

If a flaw appeared in the emperor's words, it would inevitably invite their contempt.

He had matured immensely since his early days on the throne — it was just that, for his moribund empire, it was still far from enough.

As Chongzhen listened to Zuo Maodi's vehemently embellished threats, all he could see from Hancheng was that Liu Chengzong was someone he could cooperate with.

To put it even more harshly — Liu Chengzong did not land on a crackless egg.

Zuo Maodi never imagined that after he had so strenuously dramatized the threat of Liu Chengzong, the audience would end and the Chongzhen Emperor would summon Grand Secretary Wen Tiren.

The Emperor briefed the Grand Secretary on the latest movements of the Marshal's Office, opening with: "We wish to prevent Liu from presumptuously calling himself a king, and therefore intend to enfeoff him as King of Qin. What does the Elder of the Cabinet think?"

Wen Tiren's thirty years of skill in self-preservation within officialdom nearly failed him in that moment.

Because he did not want him to presumptuously declare himself a king, the Emperor would preemptively enfeoff him as the King of Qin.

Your Majesty, are you afraid the title he claims for himself will sound bad?

So we'll pick a nice-sounding one for him first?

But after all, age brings cunning; Wen Tiren merely raised an eyebrow, his old bones sitting in the chair, and said with perfect composure: "Your minister is foolish and ignorant; only the sage and wise can decide."

This was Wen Tiren's usual trick: whenever the Chongzhen Emperor asked a question of any importance, so long as it did not concern him, he would hem and haw and let the Emperor decide for himself.

He truly held a post without doing its work, occupying the seat of Grand Secretary without acting, a total slacker.

That clever brain of his would only run at full capacity for his own sake when harming a political rival.

But there was no helping it; the environment at the imperial court's center was just that way. When the fires of factional strife burned onto oneself, one had no choice but to run at full capacity.

By all rights, given the Chongzhen Emperor's temperament, he should have long been dissatisfied with such conduct and kicked him straight into the Imperial Prison.

But there was truly no help for it — this man was simply too comfortable to use.

The Chongzhen Emperor's realm was a stack of data that no one could remember.

And Wen Tiren's powerful memory and quick calculation, his sensitivity to legal codes, fiscal matters, and grain supplies, ensured that the Chongzhen Emperor could see his realm at every moment.

On that basis, the Emperor simply held his nose and accepted that Wen Tiren would not make decisions on major or minor affairs, treating him not as the Grand Secretary of the empire, but as his personal advisor and private secretary.

Fortunately, Yang Sichang had just arrived in the capital to report on his duties, so someone who could offer the Emperor counsel was here.

The Chongzhen Emperor greatly admired Yang Sichang, not because he possessed any extraordinary military talent, but because Yang Sichang had started his career in the Ministry of Revenue.

High-ranking officials sent out to the provinces during the Chongzhen reign basically could not escape having one of two résumé items.

Either they had profound ability in managing money and grain — having supervised military provisions in the localities or managed provisions in the Ministry of Revenue.

Or, they had denounced Wei Zhongxian.

Of these two résumé items, the former was more favored by the Chongzhen Emperor.

Because he was perpetually short of money, to the point of desperation.

Yang Sichang was currently the Supreme Commander of Shanxi and Xuan-Da. Summoned by the Chongzhen Emperor, he hurried to the Platform for an audience.

But listening to the Chongzhen Emperor's idea of preemptively enfeoffing Liu Chengzong as a king, Yang Sichang seemed distracted and merely asked: "Has Your Majesty asked Elder Wen of the Cabinet?"

The Chongzhen Emperor first nodded, then, recalling Wen Tiren's reaction to the matter, smiled and shook his head.

The two shared a tacit understanding. Seeing just that, Yang Sichang knew Wen Tiren had certainly said nothing about it, and he turned his head away with a huff, glancing elsewhere.

When he turned his face back, he then said to the Chongzhen Emperor with sincerity: "Everyone knows, yet knowing, they do not speak! Your Majesty, if an envoy were sent bearing an edict to enfeoff Liu as king, and he refuses to accept the edict — what then?"

Yang Sichang thought to himself, that thing Liu Chengzong would love nothing more than to enfeoff you as the King of Ming; he clearly won't agree just because you make him King of Qin.

When the Great Ming's edict of enfeoffment is delivered past Tong Pass, and he passes it around for his ministers to read as a joke, then afterward declares himself something else — how will you wipe the spit from your own face?

"In your minister's humble opinion, Liu has never possessed the virtues of loyalty and understanding. Calling himself a king would be so; being enfeoffed a king would be so as well. Neither can prevent him from acting the clown and invading the east."

Yang Sichang shook his head decisively: "Your Majesty must never place hope in pacifying the northwest by enfeoffing him as a king."

The Chongzhen Emperor truly had not considered what he would do if he offered the enfeoffment and Liu Chengzong refused to accept it.

Now, hearing Yang Sichang say this, he mulled it over carefully and also felt this was a real possibility.

Liu Chengzong's way of doing things was open and aboveboard, yet the man himself was crooked at the root.

The Chongzhen Emperor felt he was losing a bit of face. Fortunately, Yang Sichang was sincere with him, and he also trusted that Yang Sichang was a minister who could speak heart-to-heart with him.

After a moment's deliberation, he asked: "Then in your opinion, what should be done about the current situation? Must We simply watch as there are two emperors, one south and one north, and a man calling himself a king in the west?"

Yang Sichang knew the main event had arrived. He was not like Wen Tiren, a fellow who only cared about self-preservation.

On the contrary, to achieve his goals, Yang Sichang would not care even if it cost him his life.

He pondered for a moment to organize his words, then with grave solemnity performed a salute to the Chongzhen Emperor and said: "Your Majesty seems to regard pacifying the borders as the first priority, suppressing the bandits as secondary, and the Simpleton Khan of the northwest as of no consequence."

"Yet your humble minister believes that the interior must be secured before the exterior can be repelled. I humbly submit that the great trend of the realm is like the human body: the capital is the head; Xuan-Da, Ji, and Liao are the shoulders and arms; the Central Plains are the belly and heart."

"In the present situation, border beacons blaze beyond the shoulders and arms — the assault there is extremely urgent; roving bandits wreak havoc within the belly and heart — the penetration there is extremely deep. The urgent certainly cannot be dealt with slowly, but the deep is even more impossible to ignore."

"Now the belly and heart are poisoned, the organs festering with ulcers, the essence and blood dried up — the situation is critical. Therefore your minister says the interior must be secured before the exterior can be repelled. This is not to say repelling the exterior should be delayed; precisely because repelling the exterior is supremely urgent, we have no choice but to first secure the interior."

The Chongzhen Emperor actually disliked the saying "secure the interior before repelling the exterior." He frowned just hearing it.

For one, his temperament was impatient and overly idealistic; for another, it was the matter of poverty causing trouble.

He always believed Liaodong was the greatest expense and that the Eastern Brigands problem must be resolved first. Once the Eastern Brigands were dealt with, the court's largest expenditure would vanish.

And the ideal part was that, when the time came, the surtaxes and levies would be removed, peace and happiness would return to the realm, the common people would have food and clothing, and the scourge of the roving bandits would naturally dissolve.

With the realm well-governed, Liu Chengzong would also have no pretext for an eastern campaign.

The Chongzhen Emperor felt Liu Chengzong was just a political commissar squad. Otherwise, why had he executed so many people, yet Zuo Maodi was fine?

He was the Simpleton Khan's preferred choice, a good official personally certified by Liu Chengzong.

A person's first impression is very important.

The Chongzhen Emperor's first impression of Lion Liu was extremely good.

This led the Emperor, even now, no matter that Zhang Yichuan bore the official title of Henan Chief Commander of the Marshal's Office, to refuse to believe Zhang Yichuan was one of Liu Chengzong's men.

That Zhang Yichuan was a roving bandit through and through, completely different in style from the troops under Liu Chengzong's command.

Fortunately, the Chongzhen Emperor now also particularly detested Zhang Yichuan, so he could barely bring himself to listen to Yang Sichang's talk of first securing the interior.

He said: "So by your meaning, we must first exterminate Zhang Zhi, then attack Liu Chengzong, and finally engage the Eastern Brigands?"

Zhang Zhi was Zhang Yichuan.

The Great Ming's field reports had copied it wrong.

Yang Sichang dared not say anything about this, but inwardly he was utterly speechless.

Serving this Emperor was difficult; he always thought of matters far too simply.

Can't we prioritize and do them at the same time? It's not like they're going to fight us in turns.

"In my humble opinion, regarding the Eastern Brigands, Northern Brigands, Western Bandits, and Southern Bandits — for the Eastern Brigands and Western Bandits, we should…"

Yang Sichang spoke, glancing around the pavilion, and said, "I beg Your Majesty to dismiss your attendants."

The Chongzhen Emperor had no particular suspicion of him, merely assuming he wanted to discuss something secret, so he ordered all the eunuchs nearby to withdraw.

Only then did Yang Sichang's expression turn deeply moved as he said, "Your servant has long burned with indignation over the state of the realm. I have recklessly overstepped my bounds — even if it brings disgrace to my name and death to my person, I dare not shrink from it. Today's matter is the moment I offer up my life and name to repay my sovereign."

He paused, then spoke the thought in his heart: "The realm today is ruined, the deadlock impossible to break. Regarding the Eastern Brigands and Western Bandits, I implore Your Majesty to pursue peace negotiations!"

"Peace negotiations?"

The Chongzhen Emperor instantly flew into a violent rage.

If he had said to negotiate peace with Liu Chengzong, Chongzhen would not have been anxious.

But to have him negotiate peace with the Eastern Brigands?

Chongzhen raged, "They proclaimed themselves emperor just the other day, treating Us as nothing. And now you, right on their heels, tell Us to negotiate peace? Yang Sichang, what are your intentions?"

"Your Majesty, quell your anger. Your servant knows full well that speaking these words is the gravest calamity under heaven, one that will leave me not knowing where I might die."

Yang Sichang had long anticipated Chongzhen's reaction. He knew clearly that speaking these words was like roasting his own petty life over a fire.

Yet he still said it, his tone growing ever more earnest: "However, in this present deadlock, the Southern Bandits have raised their banners and usurped the imperial title. They must first be encircled with heaven's nets and earth's snares and annihilated with heavy troops."

"As for the Eastern Brigands and Western Bandits, we must use delaying tactics and deal with them slowly. In Liaodong, we need only maintain a defensive posture — there is no need to waste our elite troops in field battles against them. Although our provisions and pay are an enormous drain, the Eastern Brigands, with their reckless militarism, are even harder pressed to sustain it."

"For the Western Bandits as well, we must hold the strategic passes and river defenses, deploying heavy troops across Shanxi and Henan. If the Liu clan proclaims themselves kings, let them proclaim themselves kings. Admonish them with moral righteousness and the greater duty — suppress where we can suppress, placate where we can placate. If battle is unavoidable, then in the Shanxi region, fight them to the death and destroy a few of their battalions, then seek peace negotiations again."

"Once the Southern Bandits are annihilated, internally we reorganize the armies and strengthen our martial power, replenish the material strength of the Central Plains, and unite military strength and morale in one place; externally, we sever their arms and prune their branches."

"To the east, have Shen Shikui and Chen Hongfan reorganize the naval forces, and send twenty thousand troops across the sea to garrison Korea in joint defense, to prevent the Eastern Brigands from squeezing money, grain, and manpower from our tributary state."

"In the west, if Liu Chengzong proclaims himself king, your humble servant would also boldly request that Your Majesty enfeoff Yang Qi beyond the passes as a king. At best, this will make him the target of intense suspicion, causing them to sever their own arm and set up rival claims against each other; at worst, it will win Yang Qi's loyalty, so he can assist in defending beyond the passes and prevent the Eastern Brigands from invading Xuan and Yun in the west."

Yang Sichang finished outlining his blueprint for rest and recuperation in one breath, then looked toward Chongzhen, his face full of expectation.

His plan was very simple: based on the current situation, temporarily stop contending for what was already lost, and on the foundation of doing everything possible to hold existing territory, avoid battle as much as possible.

After all, going out to seek merit in the field, only to be beaten every time they encountered the field armies of the Eastern Brigands or Western Bandits — no one could save face. Better simply not to initiate any pitched battles.

At least regarding the Eastern Brigands: if you come, we'll defend city by city; if you don't come, we'll negotiate peace with you. I refuse to believe those Eight Banners nobles don't want to enjoy wealth and comfort, aren't weary of war.

As long as you grow weary of war and we negotiate peace, if no major war is fought for five years, the Later Jin economy will implode on its own.

The Marshal's Manor is the same. Once you've proclaimed yourself king, once those mud-legged followers of yours have been ennobled, once you've taken Xi'an Prefecture and entered prosperous territory — who wouldn't want to enjoy themselves a little?

If peace negotiations can be achieved, perhaps in two years their entire mental outlook will undergo a massive change.

As for Chongzhen.

Chongzhen was entirely engulfed in tremendous shock.

"Enfeoff Yang Qi as a king?"

He had never even considered this matter, but it was clearly of far greater benefit to the Ming court than enfeoffing Liu Chengzong as a king.

Chongzhen's eyes went blank.