Late in the eleventh year of Chongzhen's reign, on the night of the third day of the tenth month, the autumn breeze carried a slight chill.
Inside Beijing's Forbidden City, the Chongzhen Emperor, Zhu Youjian, stood before the Palace of Heavenly Purity in his dragon robes, gazing up at the moon.
"The ancients never saw the moon of our day, yet today's moon once shone upon the ancients..."
His voice was wistful, tinged with sorrow and a weight of feeling he did not know how to put into words.
Hearing this, Wang Cheng'en, the brush-holding eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, could not help feeling a pang in his heart. He bowed and urged, "The night wind is cold, Your Majesty. You have only just recovered. Please take care of your imperial person!"
Zhu Youjian gave an absentminded hum of assent. Chongzhen had dressed before dawn and eaten after dusk, laboring diligently by day and remaining vigilant by night. He certainly needed to look after his health. But the soul now inhabiting this body came from another world.
That soul belonged to Zhu Zheyu, a museum researcher from two hundred years in the future. He had once walked through this palace every day, drawing upon every glazed roof tile, every blue-gray brick beneath his feet, every little beast perched along the roof ridges, and mountains of books and oceans of reference works to imagine what it had looked like centuries before.
Now, he no longer needed to imagine it. He could see it with his own eyes-and those eyes belonged to the Chongzhen Emperor!
Zhu Zheyu was a man, and an ordinary man at that. When studying history or reading novels, he had dreamed of having three thousand beauties in his harem. But he resented this. Having been given the chance to travel through time, why did he have to end up in the Chongzhen Emperor's body?
What good were all those beauties? Even if he spent every day in the harem, he would have no more than six years. And with his meager abilities, where could he possibly lead Great Ming?
It would have been one thing if he had arrived at the beginning of Chongzhen's reign, but it was already late in its eleventh year. If history followed its original course, he would hang himself from that crooked tree on Coal Hill in six years. What kind of fate was that?
At this thought, Zhu Zheyu-now Zhu Youjian-felt an unbearable bitterness.
To put it kindly, Chongzhen was conscientious and hardworking, attending to everything himself. He had the heart to restore Great Ming, but not the ability.
To put it bluntly, he was headstrong and self-willed, suspicious by nature, lacking experience, narrow in both heart and vision.
Great Ming at this time faced roaming rebels such as the Dashing King and Zhang Xianzhong within, while the Jurchen slaves repeatedly raided its passes from without. Indeed, the very reason he had been able to come here was that another Jurchen incursion had enraged Chongzhen so badly that he vomited blood and collapsed, unconscious.
Using his incomplete recovery as an excuse, Zhu Youjian had remained in the Palace of Heavenly Purity to adjust to his new identity. He had also taken stock of his current predicament.
At the end of the ninth month, urgent dispatches had flown into the Forbidden City like snowflakes.
Yue Tuo, Prince Cheng of the First Rank, had breached the Great Wall at Qiangziling north of Miyun and broken through the frontier defenses. Wu Aheng, governor-general of Ji and Liao, and Regional Commander Wu Guojun had died in battle.
Dorgon, Prince Rui of the First Rank, had breached the frontier wall at Qingshan Pass, then driven straight inland past Qian'an and Fengrun, encamping his army west of the river at Tongzhou.
There, the two forces had joined, then skirted Beijing to the north and reached Zhuozhou. They had subsequently split into eight columns and attacked westward, sweeping across the vast plains of Hebei and Shandong like an autumn wind scattering fallen leaves, their advance as unstoppable as splitting bamboo.
Meanwhile, Huang Taiji had personally led his Han troops against Jinzhou and Ningyuan to pin down the Ming forces in that region, preventing its battle-hardened garrisons from sending reinforcements.
Thus, Great Ming's defenders in the east and west had been forced to rush from crisis to crisis, unable to protect both head and tail.
Zhu Youjian sighed again at the thought. There was no helping it now: he had started in hell. But he absolutely could not become the ruler of a fallen dynasty who hanged himself on Coal Hill. He still had six years. Though time was short, with all the books and historical materials he had studied, he could still turn things around!
He had spent countless late nights reading by lamplight, pondering how Great Ming might escape its doom. Now that Heaven had given him this chance, he would not squander it!
In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen's reign, the Jurchen slaves had broken through the passes. Then came the Ten Days of Yangzhou, the Three Massacres of Jiading, and a thousand miles of Shuchuan without a soul in sight!
Jiangyin, Nanchang, Guangzhou, Kunshan... Corpses piled into mountains, blood flowed in rivers. Cold numbers remained in the history books, and whenever he read them, his hair bristled and his eyes threatened to split with rage. His whole being trembled, as though his soul would leap from his body.
Yet there had been nothing he could do...
But now things were different. Looking up at the moon, Zhu Youjian silently swore that from this day onward, he would be Great Ming's Chongzhen Emperor. He would devote himself to good governance, strive with all his strength, and restore Great Ming!
Making a vow was easy. Actually changing the present situation and reviving a Great Ming plagued by chronic ills and rotten government would be fraught with difficulties. The emperor alone could accomplish nothing.
Leaving aside what would happen six years from now, the immediate situation was that the Jurchen slaves had once again breached the passes and were running rampant through the capital region. Driving them out was the first priority.
Fortunately, before vomiting blood, the Chongzhen Emperor had ordered Zu Dashou, the vanguard regional commander of Liaodong, and Hong Chengchou, governor-general of Shaanxi's Three Borders, to come to the capital's defense.
Gao Qiqian, the army-supervising eunuch at Shanhai Pass, was to lead a contingent of troops from the pass and Ningyuan in support.
Lu Xiangsheng, governor-general of Xuan-Da, had been appointed supreme commander over the various armies. He was to lead the regional commanders Yang Guozhu, Wang Pu, and Hu Dawei, with their forces from Xuanfu, Datong, and Shaanxi, as the left wing, while the armies from Tianjin, Qingzhou, Dengzhou, and Laizhou formed the right wing. Together, they would strike the Jurchen slaves from both sides.
The troops of Liu Zeqing, governor-general of Shandong, were to check the Jurchen slaves from the front.
Meanwhile, the capital's garrison armies were to strengthen the city's defenses.
This arrangement for battle and defense was reasonably sound, but Zhu Youjian knew that Chongzhen's plan had utterly failed to account for the formidable fighting strength of the Jurchen cavalry.
Not only were the Jurchen slaves riding high in morale, but once they entered the vast plains, they divided their forces into multiple columns and struck in every direction, seizing cities and territory, plundering wantonly, and stopping at nothing.
The Ming armies, however, often responded with cautious, ponderous strategies, leaving them unable to guard against every attack.
In this campaign alone, all of Chongzhen's earlier deployments had revolved around protecting the capital. Yet historical records showed that attacking Beijing had never been a strategic priority for the Jurchen slaves. Their sights were set instead on the vast plains between the Taihang Mountains and the Grand Canal.
Thus, the Jurchen slaves could act freely and recklessly, maneuvering with ease, while the Ming armies were as baffled as a ten-foot monk trying to feel the top of his own head.
Though the Ming armies were bewildered, many of their officers and soldiers faced the Jurchen slaves with loyal hearts and the determination to defend their homes and country in a fight to the death.
Among them was Lu Xiangsheng, governor-general of Xuan-Da.
The original Chongzhen had repeatedly changed his mind during this campaign. At first, he had appointed Lu Xiangsheng minister of war and placed all the empire's troops under his command.
But later, persuaded by Grand Secretary Yang Sichang, he had reversed his decision, demoting Lu Xiangsheng to vice minister of war and handing military authority to Gao Qiqian, chief supervisor at Shanhai Pass.
Like Yang Sichang, Gao Qiqian favored peace. During the campaign, he had not only transferred away Lu Xiangsheng's troops, but stood idly by when Lu Xiangsheng fought the Jurchen slaves at Julu, leading to Lu Xiangsheng's death on the battlefield.
Lu Xiangsheng was a formidable commander of the late Ming. He absolutely could not be allowed to die!
At this thought, Zhu Youjian once again asked Wang Cheng'en, "Has Lu Xiangsheng arrived?"
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