Clang! Clang! Clang!
Wang Chengen struck the Jingyang Bell.
The crisp, thunderous toll echoed for over ten miles, reverberating throughout the entire city.
Inside the Imperial City, the women were startled by the sound. Assuming the rebel bandits were arriving, they filled with sorrow and cried, "Those god-forsaken rebel bandits!"
On the streets of Beijing City, people out for their morning stroll carried birdcages as usual. A few people sat at a roadside breakfast stall; as the bell's toll swept over them, they began to discuss the news.
"The Emperor is ringing the bell again. Does this mean the rebel bandits are about to break in?"
"You hit the nail on the head. The rebels broke through Xuanfu yesterday. I reckon they’ll reach our Beijing City within ten days."
"Can the capital hold?"
"Who knows? Anyway, the rebels only rob the wealthy. What money do we poor folks have for them to take? Besides, whether the city can be held is for the Emperor to worry about. We should just look after ourselves."
"It’s cold. See you later."
On the frigid city walls, soldiers of the Three Great Camps and the eunuchs shivered in the biting wind.
When the bell rang, only a few minor officers glanced toward the Imperial City before ducking behind the battlements to blow warm air onto their frozen hands.
Weapons lay scattered about, and the steamed buns in their tunics were frozen hard as rock—too tough to chew, yet they couldn't bear to throw them away. Lacking pay and rations, they couldn't even afford charcoal for warmth, let alone actual food.
It was cold!
The spring of the seventeenth year of Emperor Chongzhen was bitterly cold.
...
Inside the Huangji Hall.
The civil and military officials had already gathered, and Emperor Chongzhen, after taking a deep breath, walked in slowly.
"Long live our Emperor, long live, long live!" The officials kowtowed in unison.
Emperor Chongzhen stood on the steps, surveying his ministers.
Among the Ministers of the Six Ministries, half were rotten to the core, and there were plenty of scoundrels among the Vice Ministers as well.
His gaze eventually landed on the Senior Grand Secretary, Wei Zaode.
This man was as good as dead; every time he looked at him, it was one time less.
"Rise, my ministers!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty!" The officials kowtowed once more.
Wei Zaode, dressed in his scarlet court robes and wearing his black gauze cap, scanned the room before stepping forward and bowing. "Your Majesty, according to the emergency reports, the rebel bandits broke through Xuanfu yesterday and are heading straight for the capital."
Compared to the Manchu Qing dynasty, the status of Ming officials was like heaven and earth. In the Emperor's eyes, these ministers were subjects, not slaves; there was no rule requiring them to kneel at every turn.
Emperor Chongzhen nodded and asked in return, "Is there a strategy to repel the enemy?"
Wei Zaode's brain raced. He possessed no real talent, only a silver tongue. Seeing Emperor Chongzhen's inquiry, he delivered the answer he had prepared in advance: "The military and the people of the capital are united as one, and we will surely be able to resist the rebel bandits."
Empty, hollow words! They meant nothing at all.
Emperor Chongzhen pressed further: "How shall we unite the military and the people?"
Wei Zaode bowed again. "Naturally, by using great wealth!"
As soon as he finished speaking, not only the Emperor but even his subordinate, Shen Weibing, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, felt a sense of contempt for him.
If the Imperial Court had money, the rebels wouldn't have been able to fight their way all the way from Shaanxi to Xuanfu!
What utter nonsense!
"Do any of you ministers have a plan?" Emperor Chongzhen turned his gaze toward Li Banghua.
This proposal had to come from Li Banghua so that he would bear the responsibility.
A monarch in court cannot propose ideas; he can only choose to support those who do. As the saying goes, he only answers multiple-choice questions, not open-ended ones.
If things went wrong, he could shift the blame onto his ministers, claiming he had been misled.
Since ancient times, monarchs never admit mistakes!
Such is the art of statecraft!
The historical Emperor Chongzhen knew nothing of this art.
Then again, one couldn't blame him entirely; no one had ever expected that the throne would fall to him!
Receiving the signal from Emperor Chongzhen, Li Banghua lifted his head, shot a cold, sideways glance at Wei Zaode, stepped out of line, and said, "Your Majesty, the rebels are ferocious. To protect the foundation of the Great Ming Dynasty, it would be best to send the Crown Prince to Yingtian Prefecture. Prince Yong, Prince Ding, the women of the six palaces, and a select few eunuchs and officials should accompany him. As for the rest, we shall hold the capital with Your Majesty and await the relief armies."
"What do you ministers think?"
Though Emperor Chongzhen had already made up his mind, he could not agree immediately in front of his subjects. He had to follow the process and involve the court.
Only by letting these scholar-officials participate in the process could they feel as if they were ruling the world alongside the Son of Heaven.
This, too, was the art of statecraft.
Li Banghua's words were like a bomb, exploding in the silence of the Huangji Hall.
"Your Majesty, you must not!" Li Mingrui, the Left Chamberlain, was the first to fall to his knees. "The Crown Prince is still young and cannot yet monitor the state. It would be better for Your Majesty to go personally!"
Li Mingrui was responsible for recording the Crown Prince's daily life, and based on his knowledge of Zhu Cilang, the boy was not yet fit for such a role. Let alone Zhu Cilang—even if Zhu Youjian himself went, he might not be able to contend with the officials of the Six Ministries in Nanjing.
"Li Mingrui, how dare you! Suggesting that His Majesty move south is the pathetic strategy of Zhou Ping and Song Gao! Are you not afraid of the situation of retreating to a corner repeating itself? The Great Ming is not the Song Dynasty; we cannot divide the land in two! Your Majesty and we, your ministers, holding the capital is the only foolproof plan!" As the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, Li Banghua argued his case firmly.
"Your Majesty, the top priority is to unite the military and people to hold the capital! The rebels are numerous, but the capital’s walls are sturdy and the cannons are fierce. As long as we hold for three to five days, the relief armies from all over will arrive, and the rebels will retreat on their own. Once the Crown Prince heads south, public sentiment will surely collapse, which will be detrimental to the city's defense. These two men clearly have the destruction of our Great Ming in their hearts; Your Majesty should punish them!" Guang Shiheng, a Supervising Secretary of the Ministry of War, stepped forward.
Although a Supervising Secretary was only a seventh-rank official, his power was immense. He could monitor the Six Ministries, impeach all officials, and even veto the Emperor's decrees.
He was an official close to the Emperor. Otherwise, with his seventh-rank position, he would never have had the qualifications to discuss affairs in the hall.
"I second that!" Shen Weibing, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, stepped out.
"I also second that!" Zhang Jinyan, the Minister of War, stood forward.
Once the Minister of War declared his position, the debate in the hall immediately reached a fever pitch.
Emperor Chongzhen counted: the officials were divided into three factions.
Led by Li Censor-in-Chief Li Banghua, nearly twenty percent of the officials submitted a joint memorial hoping the Emperor would hold the capital while the Crown Prince went to Yingtian Prefecture. If Beijing could not be held, the Great Ming would still have half its territory.
Those led by Li Mingrui believed the Crown Prince was too young to handle such a significant task in Yingtian Prefecture and suggested the Emperor go himself, abandoning Beijing.
Fifty percent supported Guang Shiheng. Influenced by the Minister of War, they all believed that Beijing could be held and that neither the Emperor nor the Crown Prince should leave. Doing so would destabilize the army and panic the people, hindering the defense.
All three views had their merits, and the three groups argued incessantly in the Huangji Hall.
There were others who did not express an opinion, perhaps out of indifference, or perhaps they were observing the situation in court, waiting for an opportunity to act.
Initially, they were discussing state affairs, but soon, it devolved into personal attacks.
"Your Majesty, for Li Banghua to propose moving south at this critical moment is nothing but witchcraft and demagoguery; according to the law, he should be beheaded!" said Guang Shiheng.
"Guang Shiheng is short-sighted and unworthy of being a court official; his head should be chopped off!" Li Banghua countered.
"Your Majesty, if we do not leave now, we will not be able to leave once the rebels surround the city!" Li Mingrui urged again.
"Quiet!" Seeing that they had argued enough, Emperor Chongzhen signaled Wang Chengen to intervene.
He looked at the Senior Grand Secretary, Wei Zaode, and asked, "What is the Cabinet's stance?"
Wei Zaode looked left and right, then slowly stepped out and bowed. "The Cabinet has not yet reached a consensus!"
"Hmph," Emperor Chongzhen sneered. "The lot of you, discuss it immediately."
Historically, Wei Zaode had already prepared to defect.
He had thought: With my talents, Li Zicheng will surely treat me as an honored guest and provide me with food and drink!
Therefore, Wei Zaode did not want Emperor Chongzhen to succeed.
According to his plan, the Emperor and the three princes would all remain in Beijing. If they held the capital, he would get a share of the monumental merit; if the capital fell, the Emperor and the three princes would be the tribute he presented to the Great Shun.
That would also be a monumental merit!
He was a court official in the Great Ming, and he would be a court official in the Great Shun; there was no need to care who sat on the throne!
Wei Zaode turned back to the other four members and whispered to ask for their opinions.
The Cabinet originally had seven members. The former Senior Grand Secretary Chen Yan and Cabinet Minister Jiang Dejing had resigned. Li Jiantai had been captured by rebels in Baoding while rushing to aid Shanxi. Now, including Wei Zaode, there were only four left.
The other three Cabinet members were Fang Yuegong, Fan Jingwen, and Qiu Yu.
Among these, Fan Jingwen was the Second Grand Secretary and served as the Minister of Works; his rank and power were higher than the other two.
Fang Yuegong and Qiu Yu knew they couldn't afford to offend anyone, so they both said, "We will follow the words of the Senior and Second Grand Secretaries."
Seeing this, Fan Jingwen said in a loud voice, "I believe Li Censor-in-Chief's plan is feasible. Our Ming troops are currently lacking pay and rations. The road to Nanjing is long. If a mutiny occurs due to the lack of pay along the way, the consequences would be unimaginable."
Wei Zaode shook his head slightly. "Lord Fan is mistaken! The garrison in the capital is already thin. Moving the Crown Prince south would require a thousand men for protection, making it even harder to defend the city."
"The Crown Prince is young; once he arrives in Yingtian Prefecture alone, if officials, eunuchs, or the harem intervene in politics, it will bring uncalled-for disasters to the Great Ming."
"The capital is the root of the Great Ming. If Your Majesty abandons it and leaves, it is equivalent to handing over half the empire to the rebels. It is a pathetic strategy."
"We must hold the capital now and await the relief armies. Though the rebels are numerous, they are nothing but a disorganized mob. Once Wu Sangui’s Guanning Army arrives, they will surely scatter and flee," the Senior Grand Secretary Wei Zaode said, word for word.
In three sentences, he countered Li Banghua's view in the first, Li Mingrui's in the second, and declared his support for Guang Shiheng in the third.
It was logical and well-reasoned; there was no room for doubt.