Chapter 16

After making these arrangements, Emperor Chongzhen began to review his plan. Sending the Crown Prince to Nanjing had already been discussed and agreed upon in court; even if the Cabinet and the Six Ministries had not been reshuffled, this imperial decree would have been issued smoothly. Regional Commander of the Navy, Huang Fei, was a royalist. Since childhood, he had followed his uncle, Huang Long, in Liaodong to resist the Jiannu. After Li Zicheng breached Beijing, Huang Fei led his troops south to garrison Zhenjiang. After the death of the Hongguang Emperor, he refused to surrender, leading his navy further south into Zhoushan to support the Longwu Emperor. Eventually, after a failed suicide attempt following his military defeat, he was executed by the Qing forces.