Chapter 1290: A False Alarm That Made Every Bush and Tree Look Like an Enemy

But this was not necessarily a bad thing. The inner court officials' entire reliance was on the Son of Heaven and the imperial house. If anything went wrong there, everything they had would be finished. As long as this foundation held, there was no need to worry too much. Under the Great Ming system, the grand eunuchs would always remain in the uppermost tier.

Seeing everyone agreeing with Wang Zaijin's opinion, the atmosphere of the court session rapidly improved. At this moment, the two Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet, Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou, both leaders of the upright faction, felt somewhat tipsy with satisfaction. They could no longer remember when the court had last seen such a harmonious scene. If things could continue like this, what did the Xuzhou bandits even matter? The Great Ming's resurgence, even its golden age, was right before their eyes.

Just then, the sound of footsteps rang out again. The room fell deathly silent once more. Again, hurried footsteps. This time, there were no shouts of warning from outside. By now, the harmony and joy from the consensus just reached had all vanished like smoke. Everyone finally realized that the Great Ming was riddled with a thousand gaping wounds, swaying in the storm, and great trouble could erupt at any moment. Where would it be this time?

Without needing Wei Zhongxian's order, the eunuch on duty in the room had already hurried out to meet the messenger. When he returned, he looked at Wei Zhongxian. After receiving permission, he opened the letter and examined it. Everyone saw this eunuch's face turn deathly pale. The arm holding the letter trembled uncontrollably. He tried to read it aloud, but the sounds that came out were completely out of tune.

The emotions of everyone in the room were pulled taut by the eunuch's behavior. Wei Zhongxian, no longer caring about protocol, walked over with a dark face, snatched the military report from the eunuch's hands, and roughly scanned it. Everyone saw Wei Zhongxian's body tremble. He nearly lost his balance, and it was only thanks to the quick reaction of the eunuch who had taken the letter, who supported him from behind, that he didn't fall.

"The Jianzhou... the Jianzhou rebels have broken through... broken through Xifengkou in Ji Garrison... The defending troops have scattered... Ji Garrison is rallying its forces to counterattack, requesting reinforcements..." Even Wei Zhongxian himself stammered and faltered when reading this letter aloud.

After he finished reading, Sun Chengzong had already risen from his seat in utter shock, exclaiming, "How is this possible? How could the Jurchen eastern slaves possibly come from the direction of the grasslands? The Jurchens and the Mongols are fighting fiercely on the steppe. How could they come from that direction?!"

Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou's faces were equally ashen. They no longer knew what to say. Although they did not understand military affairs that well, they still knew that Xifengkou was very close to Shuntian Prefecture. A breakthrough there would directly threaten the capital. Truly, a wolf enters the front gate while a tiger comes in the back. The Xuzhou bandits had just left, and now the Jianzhou rebels had arrived!

"Your Majesty, Elder Ge, everyone, the most urgent task is to dispatch fast riders to every location to ascertain the details, send men to urge Ji Garrison and Liao Garrison to hold firm, and impose martial law in the capital. We must not give anyone an opening to exploit!" Wang Zaijin stood up and said, raising his voice.

The sudden breakthrough of the Jianzhou Jurchens at Xifengkou had completely overturned Wang Zaijin's earlier judgment. The Jianzhou Jurchen army had somehow solved the problem of provisions. Not only were they attacking cities and forts in Liaoxi, but they had also begun to detour through the grasslands to attack the Great Ming. This was the real calamity arriving.

But at this moment, who had the time to criticize Wang Zaijin's misjudgment? The most critical thing was how to resolve the current crisis. What Wang Zaijin proposed were all standard, proper measures. Yet among those present, only Sun Chengzong, who had previously managed military affairs, could understand their soundness. In a trembling voice, he said, "That is precisely..."

He stopped mid-sentence, suddenly realizing that in this setting, the Tianqi Emperor had to make the final decision. Everyone looked toward the young Son of Heaven on the imperial throne, only to find the Tianqi Emperor rising from his seat. The relaxed contentment on his face moments ago was gone. Red-eyed, he swept his gaze over everyone in the room, panting heavily, like a bellows being pulled.

"I am a sovereign who has doomed his kingdom, and you are all ministers of a doomed kingdom..." The Tianqi Emperor practically ground these words out through clenched teeth. With these two sentences, he cursed himself, and also cursed every single person in the room.

The Tianqi Emperor's words were extremely severe. On an ordinary day, such a remark would have been enough to drive a person to suicide. But at this moment, who could pay attention to such angry words? More crucially, the moment the Tianqi Emperor finished speaking, he spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed backward, his entire body going limp. Two successive pieces of news had completely shattered the Tianqi Emperor.

Wei Zhongxian, standing there reading the letter, could not react in time and was directly sprayed with the mouthful of blood. The others also failed to react. But at this critical juncture, who cared about that? After a brief moment of shock, Wei Zhongxian cried out in alarm and rushed forward. Everyone else also hurried forward.

"Summon the imperial physician! Summon the imperial physician!" someone shouted in panic.

"Elder Ge Sun, Eunuch Wei, the news must be sealed. At such a critical moment, if the information leaks, I fear the situation will become even harder to control!" Wang Zaijin hurried forward and said.

Wei Zhongxian nodded heavily and immediately gave urgent instructions to Wang Tigan, the Seal-holding Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial. Wang Zaijin, however, was not finished. He went before Sun Chengzong and said, "Elder Ge, the defenses of Ji Garrison, Liao Garrison, and the capital cannot be neglected. Moreover, they must be arranged now, or it will be too late!"

A new ruler brings a new set of ministers. If anything happened to the Tianqi Emperor, both the inner court and the outer court would undergo a massive purge. The most urgent matter at hand was not military affairs at all, but the state of the Tianqi Emperor's health. For Wang Zaijin to bring this up at such a time was truly tactless. Fortunately, Wei Zhongxian and Sun Chengzong were not so oblivious to priorities, and they still followed through with the deployments.

But how could such news be sealed? The imperial palace had always been a sieve. After the Xuzhou army threatened the capital and a peace agreement was reached, the various powers at court and in the provinces were watching even more closely. Because the current situation was delicate, one had to anticipate developments and react promptly. The Tianqi Emperor falling ill, the crisis in Liaoxi, and the Jurchen incursion into Ji Garrison—these were all matters of world-shaking importance. How could they possibly not know?

Just as the news blackout began, many mounted messengers were already racing out of the capital. Some were heading to Shanxi and Shaanxi, where the border garrison commanders needed to know every rustle of the wind and stir of the grass here. Some were heading to Shandong and South Zhili, where the wealthy merchants and scholarly circles of Jiangnan needed every scrap of news from the capital—these matters were intimately tied to their own interests. Still other messengers were heading directly to Xuzhou to report, or even to pledge allegiance. With the situation as it was, there was no more room to sit on the fence. And of course, there were also the messengers the court dispatched to Ji Garrison and Liao Garrison...

After the messengers departed the capital in droves, order in the city nearly collapsed in the first two days. Amid widespread panic, thieves and bandits who looted in the chaos and spread wild rumors began to multiply. Some claimed to be vanguard officers of the great Xuzhou army, acting under the orders of Zhao Jin, the Great Song Emperor. Others said that with the Xuzhou rebels in the south and the Mongol and Jurchen Tatar slaves pressing the borders in the north, evil spirits were at work, and everyone should follow them in worshipping some Buddha or deity to ensure safety. Still others dragged up names like Zhang Shicheng and Chen Youliang.

Fortunately, at this time, both the inner court and the outer court were terrified of unrest. From the Imperial Guard, the Eastern Depot, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard to Shuntian Prefecture and the Five Wards Military Command, everyone was mobilized to take to the streets, impose martial law, and suppress the chaos. There was only one outcome for those looting in the chaos and spreading wild rumors: immediate execution by beheading.

With heads rolling like this, the capital and its environs were actually brought to order in a short time, faintly taking on an air where doors could be left unlocked at night. This, amusingly enough, struck the idle onlookers as interesting. The court grandees prattled daily about sagely virtues and great righteousness, yet the markets were in chaos. But a few swings of the blade, and things were actually straightened out.

Such a huge commotion in the capital even startled the Xuzhou spies. Ma Liu, still in the capital, spent heavily to gather information everywhere while also dispatching fast riders to deliver news to Xuzhou. If some sudden, unforeseen major change truly occurred, the Zhao family army in Xuzhou had to be ready to react accordingly.

But on the third day after the Tianqi Emperor vomited blood and fell gravely ill, confirmed reports arrived from Liaoxi and Ji Garrison. The Jianzhou Jurchens had indeed launched an attack, but they had only captured Dalinghe Fort. In fact, they hadn't even mounted an assault. When Dalinghe Fort saw the banners of the main Jianzhou Jurchen army, the defending troops simply abandoned the city and fled. Then, continuing westward, they successively alarmed the line of forts at Xiaolinghe and Jinzhou.

Some defending forces shut their gates and held firm, while others joined the rout. By the time the wave reached Ningyuan, the commander there had no idea of the true situation at the front. He only heard the fleeing officers and soldiers gesticulating wildly about how ferocious the Jurchen Tatar slaves were and how vast the invading army was. This threw the entire military system of Ningyuan and Liaoxi into extreme tension. First, fast riders were dispatched to the capital with urgent pleas for reinforcements. But two days later, night patrol light cavalry obtained confirmed intelligence: the Jianzhou Jurchen force that had mobilized numbered just over three thousand. It was merely a probe. They had looted Dalinghe Fort for a while and then withdrawn.

At the same time the scouting riders brought back their report, familiar Mongol merchants also brought word. The Jianzhou Jurchens were currently busy pacifying resistance within Liaodong and had no mind to spare for Liaoxi. Moreover, in this season, winter grain stores were nearly exhausted, and the spring planting and harvest were still far off. Without reserves, how could they possibly launch a rash campaign? The movement of these three thousand troops was nothing more than a probe after learning of the Great Ming's predicament under the threat of the Xuzhou army.

As for the matter of the Tatar slaves invading Xifengkou in Ji Garrison, that was also quickly clarified. It turned out to be a small tribe originally subordinate to the Khorchin, which, unable to survive due to natural and man-made disasters, had actually joined forces with horse bandits, planning to slip across the border and pull a few jobs that required no capital investment.

The horse bandits were of mixed origin. There were deserters from the Great Ming border garrisons, able-bodied men from the Jianzhou Jurchens and Yehe Jurchens, and Mongol horse bandits as well. They all wore military uniforms and had a few sets of tattered, threadbare armor, making them look very much like regular troops. They originally wouldn't have dared to approach a border pass like Xifengkou, but having grown overconfident from successful raids, their boldness swelled to the point that they wanted to charge straight through. Even more unexpectedly, they actually succeeded in breaking through.

At the time, there was a market fair near the pass. This gang of horse bandits came howling in for the kill, shouting wildly—"Ligdan Khan," "Great Jin Emperor"—and completely terrified everyone. The merchants and civilians at the border market scattered in all directions, and the border troops guarding the pass scattered as well. The situation completely collapsed. By the time the Ji Garrison border forces reacted, the horse bandits had already withdrawn.

Similarly, the vital region of the imperial capital could not be allowed to suffer any mishap. As soon as an alarm was raised at Xifengkou, claiming it was a major Jurchen army invasion, the border garrisons and local authorities immediately sent out urgent calls for help.

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