usatvline Chapter 478 Presenting Captives
Chapter 478 Presenting Captives
Gao Yingxiang had just surrendered, but before he could even be delivered to the capital and the ceremony of presenting the prisoners had begun, Li Zicheng sprang into action again. Like trying to hold down a gourd only to have another pop up, after receiving the urgent report, the Ministry of War issued several orders, and Emperor Chongzhen also issued successive decrees, ordering Hong Chengchou to return to Shaanxi. Hong Chengchou had no choice but to turn back to Shaanxi. Due to a lack of warhorses and the fact that his main force consisted of infantry, his march was slow. Therefore, he dispatched Cao Wenzhao as the vanguard, leading three thousand cavalry ahead.
By this time, the combined forces of the various bandit groups led by Li Zicheng had reached 200,000. Even if they were to divide their forces to attack Jingning, Tai'an, Qingshui, and Qinzhou, each group's strength far exceeded that of Cao Wenzhao's vanguard, resulting in a significant disparity in numbers. In June of the ninth year of the Chongzhen reign (1636), Cao Wenzhao's army encountered the rebel forces at Luanmachuan. Outnumbered, he suffered his first major defeat against the rebel army in recent years. His vanguard commander, Liu Honglie, was captured, and soon after, his deputies Ai Wannian and Liu Guozhen were killed in battle. Cao Wenzhao himself was also wounded. Left with no other option, Cao Wenzhao had to temporarily lead his remaining troops to retreat and join Hong Chengchou's main army, daring not to advance any further.
The defeat of Cao Wenzhao, who had struck fear into the hearts of the refugee armies, greatly spurred the various refugee leaders into action. A fierce uprising erupted in Shaanxi and Gansu, with several prefectures and counties falling in succession, threatening to sweep across the entire western province. Hong Chengchou found himself in a predicament, unsure whether to advance into Shaanxi or Gansu first. His forces were insufficient, and he dared not divide his troops. Furthermore, Cao Wenzhao's defeat and injury had dampened the army's morale. Therefore, he temporarily remained in Henan, sending messengers to the imperial court to request more troops.
While the urgent messenger was still on his way, a grand ceremony to present prisoners of war was being held in the capital.
On the second day of the sixth lunar month, as soon as Lin San escorted Gao Yingxiang into the capital, he was immediately taken over by the waiting officers and soldiers of the Beijing Garrison. Gao Yingxiang was put into a prison cart and taken away, and the grand ceremony of presenting the prisoners officially began.
On the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, an auspicious day for breaking ground, catching fish, offering sacrifices, and burial, the entire city of Beijing was deserted. Officials, nobles, and commoners alike flocked to the streets to witness this grand ceremony. The emperor had already issued an edict, announcing to the world that the bandit leader, Gao Yingxiang, had been captured alive and would be sent to the Imperial Ancestral Temple and the Temple of Earth for a formal ceremony before being executed. Everyone wanted to see what the bandit leader, described by storytellers as having "eyes as big as copper bells, a height of over ten feet, three heads and six arms, and a mouth capable of eating people," looked like. Many who had never seen the emperor before also wanted to catch a glimpse of the imperial family's splendor—even though the Imperial Guards surrounded the city in layers, obscuring everything.
The ceremony presided over by the Ministry of Rites was extremely complicated. The emperor, along with civil and military officials, had to report to Heaven and Earth, the ancestral temples, the altars of the land and grain, the mountains and rivers, the palaces and temples, and all shrines within ten li of the capital, offering wine and dried meat as a sacrifice. In other words, all temples within ten li of the capital had to be reported to and offered with wine and the three kinds of sacrificial animals in nine rites. There were hundreds of temples of all sizes in and around the capital, and it was impossible to worship them all. The Ministry of Rites only selected one or two of the largest and most famous for Emperor Chongzhen. Even so, this procedure still took a very long time.
After the prelude came the main event: the "enemy chieftain" Gao Yingxiang was bound like a rice dumpling with white silk and taken to the Imperial Ancestral Temple, where Emperor Chongzhen made the announcement.
Standing in the solemn and dignified Imperial Ancestral Temple, Emperor Chongzhen faced the memorial tablets of his ancestors. When he saw the tablet of Emperor Xizong (Zhu Youxiao), he thought of the arduous journey he had taken the throne from him and was filled with emotion.
When he was young, Zhu Youjian, who was then the Prince of Xin, had a very good relationship with his elder brother Zhu Youxiao. At that time, the young Zhu Youjian innocently asked his brother: What kind of official is the emperor? Can I be this official?
Zhu Youxiao replied with a smile: "When I have served for a few years, I will serve you."
Emperor Xizong Zhu Youxiao hastily ascended the throne at the age of 16, adopting the reign title Tianqi. He reigned for 7 years. At the age of 23, he suddenly fell seriously ill after drowning. Before he died, he summoned Zhu Youjian and gave him his last words: "My brother should be like Yao and Shun." He passed the throne to his younger brother, thus fulfilling his earlier jest.
Emperor Chongzhen sighed. Even now, he remembered the terror he felt upon hearing those words, replying, "For Your Majesty's words, I deserve ten thousand deaths." After the late emperor's death, the powerful eunuch Wei Zhongxian summoned him to the palace to ascend the throne. Chongzhen entered the palace alone, afraid to even eat the food from the imperial kitchen, fearing Wei Zhongxian would poison him. He only dared to secretly eat food hidden in his sleeves. For an entire day after entering the palace, apart from the guards arranged by Wei Zhongxian, no minister was able to see the soon-to-be emperor. No one could know the helplessness and desolation Chongzhen felt at that time. Whether this experience of ascending the throne shaped his current narrow-minded and extreme personality, Chongzhen himself did not know.
Of course, Chongzhen later succeeded in killing Wei Zhongxian, overturning the mountain that had been weighing on him. Eliminating the eunuch faction became his moment of glory, and he was once praised by his ministers as a "sage ruler" who could "revive the Ming Dynasty".
"But I have devoted myself to the country for years, never daring to neglect state affairs, yet why does the state of the nation deteriorate day by day?" Chongzhen looked at Tianqi's memorial tablet in bewilderment. "The civil officials are mediocre and incompetent, and the military officers are cowardly and afraid of death. The things I give them are always handled terribly by these people. Why don't I have capable ministers like Zhang Taiyue to assist me, or famous generals like Qi Jiguang to share my burdens?"
When Qi Jiguang was mentioned, Chongzhen realized that the purpose of his trip was to pay homage to his ancestors and hold a ceremony to present the captives, not to complain to the late Emperor Xizong at his memorial tablet.
"However, I have also done something that is enough to comfort the late emperor: After I ascended the throne, I spent countless sums of money and grain and mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops to finally capture the biggest leader of the bandits, Gao Yingxiang, alive. I have come here to inform the late emperor and our ancestors..." He naturally attributed the credit for capturing Gao Yingxiang to himself, but he did not consider that the Qionghai Army was not trained by him, the weapons were self-produced, and even the provisions were self-raised. This great victory had nothing to do with his "exhaustive" management of the court.
After the ceremony concluded, Chongzhen stepped out. Outside the ancestral temple, civil and military officials were waiting. Gao Yingxiang was also flanked by two burly generals and stood before the officials.
Emperor Chongzhen stopped ten paces away from Gao Yingxiang and asked, "When you raised an army in rebellion and committed such a heinous act, did you ever think that this day would come?"
Seeing the way the prisoners were being presented, Gao Yingxiang knew his life was in danger and had no hope of escaping. He coldly replied, "You dog emperor have reigned for eight years, and the people are suffering terribly. The Shaanxi region is a wasteland. Are you waiting to die if you don't rebel? Rather than starve to death, you might as well pick up a knife and fight back. Instead of questioning why I'm rebelling, you should ask yourself what you've done for the people."
Emperor Chongzhen's face darkened: "I have never neglected state affairs. I only sleep for three hours a day and am constantly reviewing memorials and handling important military matters. What right do you, a bandit leader, have to question me about what I have done?"