MLMD -Chapter 240 Qing Troops Breach the Pass

“Heh…”

Wen Tiren was seething inside. His small eyes narrowed slightly, a cold glint flashing within them as he stared at Yang Sichang. For a moment, the imposing authority of the Grand Secretary of the realm revealed itself without reserve.

Yang Sichang, however, was not about to yield. He stared right back. The Emperor is still here—who are you trying to intimidate? No matter how formidable you think you are, can you possibly be more formidable than His Majesty?

Seeing the two ministers locking horns right before him, Chongzhen did not grow angry. On the contrary, he watched their open sparring with considerable interest. For an emperor, a court that was too harmonious was never a good thing. If all the officials below him were so close that they could practically wear the same pair of trousers, then he, as emperor, would surely lose his appetite.

Wen Tiren said coldly, “Lord Yang, I do not know what benefits that Yue Yang has promised you, for you to speak up for him so vigorously. Although this official does not agree with punishing him, that does not mean I also agree with transferring his troops to the capital to defend the Emperor.”

Yang Sichang looked calmly at Wen Tiren and replied evenly, “Chief Grand Secretary Wen, this subordinate is merely discussing the matter on its merits. Consider this: over the past two years, Yue Yang has handed over more than a million dan of grain to the court, along with nearly two hundred thousand taels of commercial tax. Based on this alone, the court ought to commend him generously. What I cannot understand is—those so-called ‘loyal ministers’ who keep claiming he harbors ulterior motives—what exactly have they done for the court?”

The moment Yang Sichang said this, Wen Tiren was rendered speechless.

Yang’s words struck at one of the most defining characteristics of the Ming dynasty: scholars were all silver-tongued when it came to talk, but the moment they were asked to actually accomplish something, it became harder than ascending to heaven.

You accuse Yue Yang of being disloyal, of having no regard for ruler or father—then what have those literati who shout “loyalty to the throne and love for the nation” all day actually contributed to the court?

As the saying goes, nothing is more revealing than comparison. Once things are compared, all problems come to light. Some matters simply cannot be handled by words alone. In the end, for a country to function properly, it must rely on people who can truly get things done. Chongzhen, as emperor, naturally understood this very well. After some thought, he came to a decision. Hesitating briefly, he spoke carefully:

“Beloved Minister Yang, as Minister of War, you are in charge of all the empire’s military forces. This matter shall be decided by you. Though I have never met that Yue Yang, I believe that a man who can submit seven hundred thousand dan of grain and several hundred thousand taels of silver to the court every year—no matter how bad he might be, he cannot be that bad. Summoning him to the capital to defend the Emperor should pose no problem.”

Once Chongzhen—the supreme authority of the Ming—had spoken, the matter was settled. Regardless of what they thought in their hearts, everyone rose together, bowed deeply, and said in unison, “Your Majesty is wise!”

Yet even as they bowed, some frowned inwardly. Although Chongzhen had agreed, his tone was clearly reluctant. It seemed that the Emperor still harbored misgivings toward Yue Yang. It was only because there were truly no troops left to deploy that he had no choice but to do this.

Sure enough, not long after, Chongzhen issued another imperial edict, promoting Lu Xiangsheng—who was currently suppressing bandits in Hubei—to Grand Coordinator of Five Provinces, and ordering him to immediately lead his troops to defend the Emperor and rush to Changping.

Thus, amid the deliberations of the court, several imperial edicts were issued almost simultaneously, flying out of the Forbidden City toward all corners of the realm.

By the time Yue Yang received this edict, five days had already passed. The courier, riding at full speed day and night, finally delivered the Ministry of War’s troop deployment order into Yue Yang’s hands.

The eleventh day of the sixth month, the fifth year of Chongzhen

Yue Yang sat in his study, eating grapes brought by the Linglong sisters while reading the freshly delivered mobilization document. From time to time, grape juice splashed onto the deployment order lying on the desk.

“Oh dear, young master, look at you—there’s grape juice all over the document! If someone saw this, it would be disastrous!” Yu Ling, who was tidying the desk nearby, turned pale with fright when she saw Yue Yang treating an official court document so casually. She hurriedly snatched the grapes from his hand and pulled out a handkerchief from her bosom, carefully wiping the grape juice from his fingers.

“Oh come on, little sister, what are you afraid of? It’s just an official document, not an imperial edict from the Emperor himself. And even if it were an edict, so what? Wasn’t it still written by people?”
At another desk, where she was organizing intelligence reports, Hai Lanzhu could not help but chuckle and teased Yu Ling.

“How can that be the same? This was issued by the officials of the court—it’s not something ordinary. We must keep it properly,” Yu Ling replied seriously as she continued to carefully wipe the document.

“You really live up to Grandma’s teachings—so cautious it’s unbelievable.” Seeing how gingerly Yu Ling handled things, Yue Yang could not help but laugh helplessly. Though she had already become an official’s wife, Yu Ling’s careful and meticulous temperament had not changed at all. On ordinary days, she kept Yue Yang’s study and the inner courtyard impeccably organized.

With a sigh, Yue Yang said, “Alright, Ling’er, stop fussing and go help Xiao Man look after our two little demons. I’m worried the two of them might be too much to handle.”

Ever since their son had been weaned, Hai Lanzhu had resumed her work with the Youchuan Office and the Youshan Office, leaving the child to Xiao Man. The Linglong sisters, meanwhile, both helped manage the family business and assisted with the children, who were likewise left to Xiao Man and the household maids. Yu Ling had originally wanted to hire a wet nurse, but Yue Yang had stopped her with great conviction, claiming that children raised on another woman’s milk would grow distant from their own mothers. The reasoning was so forceful that Yu Ling had no choice but to endure the hardship of nursing the child herself while also managing the family business.

Only after finally sending away the diligent Yu Ling did Yue Yang gently tap the desk and say thoughtfully, “Hai Lanzhu, this time the court is ordering me to send troops, and the schedule is extremely tight. They want us to reach Changping within ten days of receiving the order. If we were all cavalry, it might be possible, but more than half of our troops are infantry. To reach Changping in ten days would require marching day and night.”

Hai Lanzhu curled her lips. “Isn’t that obvious? The old lords in the Ministry of War are deliberately making things difficult for you. Your talk of recruiting ten thousand new soldiers must have frightened quite a few people. Especially that Chen Xinjia—he’s the Left Vice Minister of War. It would be far too easy for him to sabotage you in secret. In my opinion, you shouldn’t go at all. This time Huang Taiji sent Ajige south with a hundred thousand troops purely to loot, and they’re seven or eight hundred li away from us anyway. You’ve offended so many officials at court—they’re all itching to get back at you. If you go, won’t you just be bullied to death? Why not simply refuse? I’d like to see what they can really do to us.”

“You…”

Seeing Hai Lanzhu’s nonchalant expression, Yue Yang shook his head helplessly. He reached out and lightly tapped her delicate nose, saying affectionately, “You’re always used to applying the customs of the grasslands to our Great Ming. I know that on the grasslands, strength is supreme—if you have power, you earn respect. But this is the Great Ming. Here, there are many invisible rules and constraints binding us. Though your husband now has some strength of his own, we still have to act cautiously. We can’t just do whatever we please, understand?”

“I really don’t understand why you Han people like putting shackles on yourselves,” Hai Lanzhu said proudly. “You clearly have the strength, yet you still bind yourselves. Look at my Abu—how carefree his life is now. If he doesn’t want to do something, even Huang Taiji can’t force him to.”

Though she had been married to Yue Yang for two years and even borne him a child, Hai Lanzhu still found many Han practices hard to accept. Having grown up on the grasslands, she believed that strength defined everything, and that the strong deserved dignity.

Take the Khorchin tribe, for example. Over the past two years, through trade with Yue Yang, it had become one of the most prominent tribes on the grasslands. It now boasted more than ten thousand warriors. Every year, simply by selling shorn wool and raised cattle, sheep, and horses to Yue Yang, the entire tribe lived in prosperity. No longer did people starve to death every winter as in the past.

With the tribe’s rise, even Zaisang’s voice had grown much louder. Several times, the Qing had invited him to join their southern raids, but he refused each time. As Zaisang put it: in the past, the young men raided south because they had no food. Now that the tribe had enough grain, going out to lick blood from a blade was nothing but foolishness.

Having no way to deal with this wife of his, Yue Yang could only say stiffly, “You must remember—you’re now also a Han wife. In Han terms, that means once married, you follow your husband. Since you’ve come to Han lands, you must abide by Han rules. Understood?”

“Oh.”

Though straightforward by nature, Hai Lanzhu was still obedient to Yue Yang. Seeing how firm he was, she could only drop the matter. Then she thought of something else and asked, “By the way, how many troops do you plan to take this time?”

“Well… I’ll take five thousand infantry, three thousand cavalry, one artillery battalion, and two thousand logistics troops. With over ten thousand men, we should at least be able to protect ourselves,” Yue Yang replied after some thought.

Although Yue Yang’s total forces had already reached around twenty-three thousand men, he still had to station troops beyond the passes with the Chahar garrison, as well as divide forces to guard Yingzhou Prefecture, Hunyuan Prefecture, and the various northern passes. The number of troops he could freely deploy was actually quite limited—otherwise, he wouldn’t have seized the earlier opportunity to loudly announce new recruitment.

At that moment, a line of information Yue Yang had once seen while searching Baidu in his previous life surfaced in his mind:

In July, Qing troops entered the capital region. After capturing Changping, they successively took Liangxiang (present-day Fangshan, Beijing), laid siege to Shunyi (now part of Beijing). The Ming Shunyi magistrate Shangguan Jin, along with the guerrilla commander Zhi Guoqi and regional commander Su Shiyu, defended the city. When the city fell, Jin, Guoqi, Shiyu, and others all died. Taking advantage of their momentum, the Qing army went on to capture Baodi (now part of Tianjin), Dingxing, Ansu (present-day Xushui, Hebei), Dacheng, Xiong County, Anzhou, and other near-capital prefectures.

Though brief, this passage contained the blood and tears of countless common people. Since the Ming court could not properly protect its subjects, then he himself would do what he could to bear a share of that burden…