Chapter 770: The Retired Emperor

Zhenjiang Prefecture.

Aboard a ship on the Yangtze River.

Gaoyou Guard Commander Zhang Yichuan sat in the cabin, holding an official dispatch sent from the north.

Yangzhou Prefect Han Wenjing stood in attendance at his side, watching this already-abdicated emperor take the emperor's dispatch and read about the one who had made him emperor defeating yet another emperor beyond the Great Wall.

Han Wenjing sighed helplessly, feeling that he was truly unlucky.

His amnesty offer to Zhang Yichuan had originally been a stopgap measure to buy time.

He could not win in battle, and the north had sent no reinforcements, so to prevent this river bandit Zhang Yichuan from raiding the Southern Metropolitan Region, he had sent him the amnesty letter.

In truth, Han Wenjing had never expected Zhang Yichuan to agree; at the time he took Zhang Yichuan for just a local bandit from north of the Yangtze, and dangled a Guard Commander's post to test the waters.

The situation in Fengyang then was that a veteran bandit from Shaanxi had declared himself emperor, recruiting defectors and rebels in Fengyang, enfeoffing local bandits as Regional Commanders everywhere — a Guard Commander post could never have satisfied anyone.

He never imagined that Zhang Yichuan would agree in a single breath.

Han Wenjing thought, such a good thing? One Guard Commander post and a bandit crew was settled. After mulling it over, he still decided to meet Zhang Yichuan in person at the amnesty ceremony.

The moment they met, he was ruined, and Zhang Yichuan was set.

Because Han Wenjing was also from Shaanxi — ancestral home in Hongdong, Shanxi, a native of Xianning in Xi'an Prefecture, and a jinshi of the fourth year of the Chongzhen reign.

The moment Zhang Yichuan opened his mouth and that familiar northern Shaanxi accent came out, Han Wenjing knew he had just granted amnesty to something terrifying.

Only at the time, Han Wenjing truly could not have imagined that Zhang Yichuan was actually an emperor on the run.

So Han Wenjing did not think too much of it, simply completed the amnesty smoothly, and even invited Zhang Yichuan to stay a few days at the Yangzhou Prefectural Office to probe for news and intelligence about their old home in Shaanxi.

After all, separated by distant mountains and rivers, Han Wenjing still had a retired father and two younger brothers back home. Ever since Liu Chengzong raised troops for the eastern campaign and attacked Guanzhong, the route had been ravaged by war, and he dared not send anyone back. He could only exchange letters with his fourth brother Han Wenquan, who had passed the jinshi exam two years prior and served in the Henan Ministry of Justice — both were deeply worried about the family's situation.

Who could have known that in the inner hall of the Yangzhou Prefectural Office, Zhang Yichuan would pull a ruthless stunt on him.

When no one was around, Zhang Yichuan reached into his robes and yanked out a "Emperor-Enfeoffing Edict" from the Grand Marshal's Office, slamming it onto the tea table.

With one hand thumping his chest and the other pointing at Liu Chengzong's handwriting on the edict, he told Han Wenjing: "I, the Guyuan True Dragon Emperor, loyal subordinate of the Grand Marshal — Lord Han wanting to go home, that's a trivial matter!"

Lord Han's blood surged upward.

In that instant, images of beheadings at Beijing's Western Market flashed through Han Wenjing's mind like a revolving lantern.

Put it this way: there is no bandit under heaven who cannot be granted amnesty.

Even if some local official granted amnesty to Liu Chengzong all over again, it would still count as a meritorious deed.

Only this Zhang Zhi, who burned the imperial tombs, could not be granted amnesty. If this matter became known, he was certain to lose his head.

The moment Zhang Yichuan saw Han Wenjing's expression, he understood exactly what was going on. From his face to his body language, he instantly turned insolent.

No need to play the groveling grandson anymore. Even if he had already abdicated over in Fengyang, here in Yangzhou he was still the Retired Emperor!

Sharing the same secret, their relationship grew strange.

On the surface, Han Wenjing was the Yangzhou Prefect, and Zhang Yichuan was the Gaoyou Commander; in private, Zhang Yichuan was the rebel false emperor, and Han Wenjing was his dog-headed strategist.

There was no way around it. Han Wenjing initially played along, hoping to get Zhang Yichuan to send men to bring his family from Xi'an Prefecture.

Who knew Zhang Yichuan agreed readily, then turned around and sent a letter to the Ceremonial Office of the Marshal's headquarters, demanding that Zhang Xianzhong take good care of Han Wenjing's family and clan, keep them under strict guard, and by no means let a single one escape.

And he wrote two copies — one sent off, the other shown to Han Wenjing.

What could Han Wenjing say? He hated Zhang Yichuan so much he wanted to eat him alive, but there was truly nothing he could do, so he had to submit to being controlled.

But to be fair, although Zhang Yichuan was a bit unhinged — walking the streets of Yangzhou, he always wanted to burn this or loot that — once back in Gaoyou, he was genuinely very useful.

The lands along both banks of the Yangtze had not seen war for a long time, and the troops were extremely weak. When bandits spilled over from Fengyang Prefecture into Yangzhou, every place fought desperately to defend its walls, and officers died in battle.

Meanwhile, the main work of the Gaoyou Guard's banner troops was assisting in the collection and transport of tribute grain.

Yet this Zhang Yichuan — he was like an elite from the Nine Border Garrisons.

First he wiped out the lake bandits of Gaoyou, then on land he fought the bandits spilling from Fengyang Prefecture into Yangzhou for three days, winning eight battles in eight engagements, exterminating them to the last man.

Whatever Regional Commander or Chief Marshal they were, they could not last half a day against his Gaoyou banner troops — they either begged to surrender and be incorporated, or were beaten to death on the spot.

It left Han Wenjing not even knowing how to write the battle report.

Seriously, should he write it truthfully — cavalry detachments charging out, galloping and shooting at full speed, armored horses trampling?

Or should he say Commander Zhang drove his boats onto land and ran the bandits over to death.

Gaoyou is an inland lake garrison — which of these two accounts would the court ministers believe?

Tell me, does this look like naval troops?

Never mind that these are troops from north of the Yangtze — anyone would think they were troops from west of the Passes.

However, Han Wenjing was not afraid of the court suspecting that Zhang Yichuan was Zhang Zhi.

After all, Shaanxi folk were behind on the news, getting things half-right at best — what the hell did they know about the Guyuan True Dragon Emperor.

That Guyuan True Dragon Emperor was called Zhang Zhi, later reverting to his original name Wang Benren, and by now his head had already been delivered to the capital.

Besides, in people's subconscious, Zhang Zhi sounded much more like a bandit emperor's name than something like Wang Benren or Zhang Yichuan.

Wang Benren — sounded like a petty landlord with a mole on his face, a hair growing out of the middle of it, no examination degree, yet still exploiting his tenants and servants.

Zhang Yichuan — sounded like a Shaanxi refugee who could not fill his belly, with Sanchuan following behind him, having just buried Erchuan, trudging with head lowered through barren hills and bald ridges, picking lice off each other and stripping elm bark to eat.

Speaking of which, it was fate: Han Wenjing's courtesy name was Yishui, his brother Han Wenfeng's was Ershui, Han Wenyao's was Sanshui, and Han Wenquan's was Sishui.

Four Waters matched with Three Rivers — perfectly normal.

Zhang Zhi, though, was different.

A verb — a great banner of enforcing Heaven's way unfurling in the wind.

How perfectly it matched the style and aura of the Guyuan True Dragon Emperor.

But to be honest, by now Han Wenjing both loved and hated Zhang Yichuan.

Zhang Yichuan had brought far too much help to his work.

During this bandit invasion of Fengyang, the guest troops dragged their feet on the road, and every locality was reporting casualties and begging for aid — either a county seat had been breached, or a region had been plundered.

The Chongzhen Emperor even issued two successive edicts to Nanjing within a single month.

The first letter was relatively simple, saying that military preparations in Nanjing had grown lax, and ordering Nanjing Minister of War Fan Jingwen, together with the Inner Garrison, to concurrently undertake rectification.

Half a month later, still worried about the Grand Canal running dry, he sent another imperial edict to Nanjing's River-Defense Vice Censor-in-Chief Wang Daozhi.

The River-Defense Censor originated from the evolution of the Canal Transport Governor-General, also called the River-Defense Superintendent; originally a military post, it later came under the concurrent jurisdiction of the Chief Surveillance Bureau, acquiring supervisory duties.

Wang Daozhi was a trusted confidant of the Chongzhen Emperor, a presented scholar by origin, formerly the seventh-rank prefectural judge of Baoding Prefecture. Because he opposed building a living shrine for Wei Zhongxian in Baoding, he failed to gain promotion. When Chongzhen ascended the throne, he brought out the posts of Baoding Prefect and River-Defense Deputy Censor-in-Chief for him to choose, directly promoting him to the senior fourth rank.

With such a trusted confidant, the Chongzhen Emperor spoke very freely.

"The military preparations in the Southern Capital have long been lax. Warships are rotten and damaged, weapons are rusted and blunted, troops are largely fictitious on the rolls, and the vast expanse up and down the river makes it easy for villains to breed."

"You will go and, together with River-Defense Minister Li Hongji, the Inner and Outer Garrisons, and the Ministries of Revenue and War, consult with one another and each strive to rouse yourselves to action."

"Southern officials have heretofore merely nurtured their seniority and salaries; now you must work with sincere hearts, break through all considerations of face, and only then will you be worthy of your appointment. Moreover, the South suffers most bitterly from the entanglements of wanton litigation; it is most fitting to curb the crafty and quell lawsuits, so as to pacify the people's hearts. I have already told you this in person; I only fear you may forget, so I specially reiterate it — do not treat it as a trifle."

Wang Daozhi was also an upright and unbending minister. Reused by Chongzhen, he gave no one face once he arrived. In rectifying military preparations, he scared the Yangzhou Guard, Taizhou Battalion, and Xinghua Battalion so badly they wet their pants, all rushing to beg Prefect Han Wenjing for aid — either asking for weapons and armor, or pleading for the rapid construction of warships, and even wanting Yangzhou Prefecture to provide conscript levies.

Only Zhang Yichuan's Gaoyou Guard made not a single sound.

Han Wenjing actually thought something had gone wrong, deeply afraid that Zhang Yichuan was in the midst of preparing to rebel again.

Who knew that upon asking, Zhang Yichuan's Gaoyou Guard lacked nothing at all.

The troops taken in from suppressing rebels and surrendering bandits had already exceeded the authorized strength. Although armor and weapons had not yet reached the full establishment standard of a Guard, there were over a thousand full sets of armor, and more than four thousand warhorses, mules, and donkeys.

Let alone in the Southern Metropolitan Region — in terms of arms and equipment reserves, crack troops, and ample provisions, there were few Guard units in the entire realm that could compare to this one. The benchmark of the Southern Capital!

What was more, when there was a fight, Zhang Yichuan truly fought.

He didn't even need Han Wenjing, the prefect, to go begging and pleading to shift troops around.

Within Yangzhou's borders, wherever word came of bandit raids, half a shichen after receiving the news, the Yangzhou Guard would still be hauling cannons up onto the city walls, while the Gaoyou Guard's six or seven hundred cavalry had already charged over.

Mount up and pursue, catch up and fight, fight and win.

Even when it came to disaster relief, they were extremely enthusiastic.

This was also what Han Wenjing found hardest to understand. By all logic, a rebel like Zhang Yichuan — hearing that Zhenjiang had suffered a disaster with snow flying in the sixth month, if he didn't cause trouble, Han Wenjing would already be burning high incense in gratitude.

So much so that upon hearing the Gaoyou Guard had volunteered for disaster relief, although Han Wenjing dared not stop them, he still followed the entire way, terrified that the Guyuan True Dragon Retired Emperor would pull another massive stunt on him.

Of course, on the other hand, at this time the Southern Metropolitan Region simply could not procure large quantities of cotton-padded jackets. The seasons were abnormal, it was cold everywhere, and every household and every person needed padded jackets.

Only Zhang Yichuan had them — not only had them, but had a great many.

Han Wenjing had never imagined that Zhang Yichuan was genuinely doing disaster relief. With great earnestness, he steered warships loaded to the brim with padded jackets, and even brought grain, transporting them all the way to Zhenjiang.

Although the man was a bit stubborn, insisting on personally conducting the relief and forbidding the Zhenjiang prefectural office from interfering, the relief procedures were proper and practiced.

Once the relief was done, Zhang Yichuan was not the least bit dilatory, did nothing else, and directly set off on the return journey to Gaoyou.

On the return boat, Han Wenjing finally asked the doubt in his heart: "You… were truly doing disaster relief?"

"What else? I walked out of Shaanxi wearing a padded jacket. Those ragged padded jackets just take up space tossed in a warehouse. To be able to help disaster victims, to let fewer people freeze to death — it's a good deed."

On this matter, Zhang Yichuan was entirely sincere.

He was a Shaanxi disaster victim who could not afford food, the Sweeping King who would sweep away all the filth of the world, and also the Guyuan True Dragon Emperor who had usurped the title and ascended the throne.

Although the rebel career path had already been speedrun to completion by him along with his abdication.

The sense of responsibility of the Retired Emperor still drove him — he could not just stand by and watch his subjects freeze!

"Then the padded jackets — your men, aren't they wearing them anymore?"

Zhang Yichuan, hearing this, laughed involuntarily.

He had seized vast amounts of gold and silver in Henan and Fengyang. Right now, his brothers were madly buying silks and satins, brocade hats, and sable furs in Nanjing. Every household of the old Shaanxi folk in Gaoyou Guard was itching to set up a chiming clock — who would still wear padded jackets?

The Retired Emperor could not even be bothered to answer that question.

Instead, holding a dispatch sent from the north, he shouted outside the cabin: "Invite Prince Yong in!"

Before long, Liu Yiyong, Chief Instructor of the Five Battalions of Henan, entered.

Han Wenjing felt a chill in his heart at the sight of Liu Yiyong's baby face.

Actually, from the very beginning, Han Wenjing had discovered that Zhang Yichuan's troops were in fact controlled within the camp by several young officers surnamed Liu of the "Yi" generation, led by Liu Yiyong.

They were all war orphans, adopted sons of Liu Chengzong from the Children's Camp, the eldest no more than twenty-two years old.

They led a hundred-man Model Company from the Marshal's Army.

Within it were Marshal's Army veterans of four branches — infantry, cavalry, artillery, and engineering — as well as armorers who maintained weapons, officers from the Hehuang Militia responsible for drilling civilian recruits, professional mounted scouts, and even twelve Tatar riders specifically tasked with protecting the six adopted sons.

On the very first day Zhang Yichuan ascended the throne as emperor, these six adopted sons of Liu Chengzong were enfeoffed with princely titles.

And these six Liu-surnamed princes, though on the same side as Zhang Yichuan, would often refuse to give him face.

Just like now — as soon as Liu Yiyong entered, his face was stern, and his first words were to tell Zhang Yichuan not to use princely titles in the future.

Even before Han Wenjing knew that Zhang Yichuan was the Guyuan True Dragon Emperor, he had already discovered they were not a monolithic bloc. Back then, he had even considered inciting Zhang Yichuan to kill these Liu-surnamed adopted sons, so as to thoroughly control this amnestied army.

But it failed.

At the time, he did not know why.

Not until he discovered that Zhang Yichuan's true identity was a Retired Emperor who had already abdicated.

Although Zhang Yichuan was greatly annoyed by Liu Yiyong and the others refusing to give him face, and they would often rebuke him for his out-of-line behavior, he absolutely dared not oppose Liu Chengzong.

In truth, this army, having undergone in a short span of time a series of major events — explosive troop expansion, usurping the imperial title, wanton bestowal of ranks and regalia, the emperor's abdication, and acceptance of amnesty — had indeed experienced great changes in its ideological state, and the risk of internal strife had sharply increased.

But the doubt within the army was not when Zhang Yichuan would kill Liu Yiyong, but when Liu Yiyong would kill Zhang Yichuan.

Because they were the ones who trained the troops, they were the ones who formulated the tactics, and most importantly, they bore the surname Liu — they were the Grand Marshal's adopted sons.

If they killed him, in the best-case scenario, who would lead the army to victory? In the worst-case scenario, who would lead the army back to Shaanxi?

Zhang Yichuan, on the other hand, was rather useless.

But it was hard to counter when Zhang Yichuan opened his mouth and said: Although I no longer serve as the emperor appointed by the Grand Marshal, I have not resigned from the post of Henan Regional Commander that the Grand Marshal appointed!

Only then did people recall — ah, right, Zhang Yichuan was also an officer appointed by the Grand Marshal; killing him would indeed be hard to explain later.

"Look here, the Marshal is hammering the Eastern Slaves hard beyond the frontier. The way I see it, that emperor is about to abdicate too!"

Zhang Yichuan was long accustomed to being scolded by Liu Yiyong, and at this moment did not take it too seriously. Handing over the dispatch, he said: "Take a look. This matter really has to be done my way — find a way to elevate our battle merits a bit. Prefect Han, you put in some effort too, have the Southern Metropolitan Region establish another battalion in Yangzhou."

"Who knows when the Grand Marshal might cross the Yellow River — for us, raising troops again to cross the Yangtze and set up some petty court doesn't hold much appeal."

Zhang Yichuan shook his head. "Better to follow the Yan'an Prefecture model. I'll go out as a Regional Commander, Yiyong will be the Commander, and we'll get in touch with a few trustworthy Shaanxi merchants and Fengyang chieftains to specifically target their competitors. The chieftains handle the looting, we handle the suppression — trade, spoils, military merit, all in hand."

"Build warships, drill the troops, distribute the spoils — just wait for the Grand Marshal to cross the Yellow River, and we'll secure the north bank with a single proclamation!"

?? Good evening!

? (End of chapter)