Chapter 49: Troops at the Gates of Yangzhou

After a night of tumult, the Huai'an military camp finally grew quiet. To prevent the Huai'an soldiers from harboring deep resentment, Song Xian had ordered all light cavalry, save for Wang Lanping's personal guards, to be stationed outside the camp.

Since Zheng Sen was already the Deputy Regional Commander of Huai'an, taking over the supreme command of the camp was a logical step. The few die-hard loyalists of Liu Zeqing who dared to object were all sent to keep their master company in the grave. Zheng Sen then promoted several new officers to assume full military and political control of the Huai'an garrison.

Zheng Sen's very first act upon taking command was to dispatch men to pacify the scattered and fleeing soldiers. They announced that the battle was over, that Liu Zeqing had rebelled and been executed by the Nanjing Garrison Commander, and that the principal culprit had been removed. Anyone who returned to the camp within three days would be granted complete amnesty, while those who failed to do so would be treated as rebels.

The fallen soldiers were buried one by one, and by evening, order in the camp had been restored, with the majority of the troops returning successively.

According to statistics, the battle the previous night resulted in three hundred and forty casualties for the Huai'an garrison, while Wang Lanping's light cavalry lost a mere twenty-eight men—truly nothing short of a miracle.

The six women found in Liu Zeqing's tent were also released to return to their homes. Before their departure, Wang Lanping presented each of them with ten taels of silver as compensation, and the women departed with profuse expressions of gratitude.

Inside the freshly tidied Huai'an camp, a grand banquet was held with boundless wine and meat. Tonight, the entire army would drink to their hearts' content, though this indulgence was strictly for this once. This excited the soldiers, who had been fed coarse grain for months, to no end. They gathered around towering bonfires, eating, drinking, dancing, and making merry in a scene of absolute peace. Many could not help but grumble about why the people from the Nanjing Garrison command had not arrived sooner.

Liu Zeqing's notorious infamy permeated the entire army, so his death failed to cause any unrest among the ranks. Instead, the crowd clapped, cheered, and danced with joy. Quite a few soldiers, holding wine bowls and reeling with intoxication, even staggered to the camp gates, pointing at the corpse of Liu Zeqing hanging above—still dressed in its dragon robe—and hurling fierce abuses. How could a wretch like this ever dream of becoming Emperor? If such a man were allowed to ascend the throne, the common people across the realm would have no way to survive.

In Liu Zeqing's grand tent, Wang Lanping, Zheng Sen, and Song Xian were also drinking heartily. This minor test of strength had left the formidable Huai'an army of the Four Great Garrisons of Jiangbei utterly helpless, proving beyond a doubt that Song Xian possessed extraordinary abilities. To Wang Lanping, this brought far greater joy than simply subduing the Huai'an forces; troops are easily gathered, but a brilliant general is hard to find.

Song Xian was likewise ecstatic. Having seen no combat for four years, he had initially felt somewhat pessimistic about the surprise attack, especially given the vast disparity in troop numbers. Fortunately, Commander Wang was gifted with divine foresight; last night's battle had succeeded with almost no effort. He realized too that no matter how powerful an army might be, it could never surpass a comprehensive and meticulously laid strategy. Had it been him, he would never have dared to take such a massive risk to launch a long-distance raid. This was fighting as an isolated force; the slightest awareness on the enemy's part would have made it virtually impossible to retreat with an intact army.

Amidst the exchanging of wine cups, Wang Lanping felt a touch of intoxication. At that moment, a profound sense of reflection welled up from the bottom of his heart: If he had possessed an elite cavalry force like this earlier, he would have dared to launch a thousand-mile raid on Li Zicheng's stronghold in Xi'an. Perhaps that could have lifted the siege of Beijing at the time, and the Chongzhen Emperor might not have died. Ah, everything was up to fate; if Chongzhen had not died, where would he, Wang Lanping, go from here?

Even Zheng Sen now realized that Wang Lanping had long since planned everything out. He had placed Zheng Sen in the Huai'an army as a figurehead Deputy Regional Commander, had him bitterly play the fool in front of Liu Zeqing, and even had him curse Wang Lanping to his face—all to lull and confuse Liu Zeqing's judgment.

Imagine this: Zheng Sen was a sworn brother who had shared life and death with Wang Lanping in Huaining City, so how could Liu Zeqing possibly trust him? Yet, the more Zheng Sen cursed, the less suspicious Liu Zeqing became. In fact, whenever Zheng Sen did something beneficial to Wang Lanping, Liu Zeqing would magnify it tenfold in his own mind to justify his trust. Thus, when Wang Lanping casually sent someone to feed Zheng Sen the false news that troops would besiege Nanjing on the fifteenth day of the sixth month, instructing him to find a way to prevent the Huai'an army from reaching Nanjing before that date—and then arranged for this messenger to fall into Liu Zeqing's hands—it made Liu Zeqing deep-rooted in his conviction. Both his military defenses and troop mobilizations proceeded at a leisurely pace, presenting Wang Lanping with an opportunity he could readily exploit.

As he drank, Wang Lanping discussed future affairs with the two men. The Huai'an camp was situated right where the Grand Canal met the estuary of the Yangtze River. If the Qing forces intended to march south along the canal and enter the Yangtze in the future, this location would be their mandatory passage, something that could under no circumstances be abandoned. After thorough deliberation, it was decided that the Huai'an army would remain in place to blockade the canal, serving as the eastern gateway to Nanjing. However, Wang Lanping had one additional stipulation: without his direct command, the Huai'an army was forbidden to make any unauthorized movements, even upon an imperial decree issued by the Emperor himself.

Although Zheng Sen felt some discontent regarding this act of insubordination, he also recognized that to save the Great Ming, only a resolute and decisive fierce general like Wang Lanping could turn the tide. As long as Wang Lanping did not usurp the throne and declare independence, he, Zheng Sen, would support him wholeheartedly. Wang Lanping often felt that Zheng Sen was like Xun Yu of the Three Kingdoms—assisting Cao Cao in achieving great feats while retaining a loyal heart toward the Han Dynasty, ultimately perishing at the hands of Cao's descendants. This was a deep-rooted and unshakeable conviction. Moreover, born into wealth, Zheng Sen understood little of the hardships of the common folk. He had lived in the spotlight since birth, unlike men like Song Xian and Song Dalidari of martial backgrounds who had climbed up from the very bottom through blood and steel, yearning desperately to make something of themselves. They cared far more about their own futures than about loyalty to the imperial house, making them relatively easier for Wang Lanping to mold.

Two days later, Wang Lanping fully transferred the command of the Huai'an army to Zheng Sen and led his troops back toward Nanjing. Having caused such a massive commotion, there were bound to be matters of aftermath to handle. For instance, Nanjing must currently be boiling in chaos. Furthermore, Gao Jie's forces, which had originally marched south under the orders of Ma Shiying, had caught wind of the developments in Huai'an like hunting hounds. Immediately halting their advance, they stood by in watchful waiting, just as they had done when watching Beijing fall. Gao Jie was no fool; with Liu Zeqing finished, heading to Nanjing at this moment would be tantamount to seeking death. With the Huai'an army to his east and the Top Scholar Army to his west, he had no desire to become a second Liu Zeqing. Deciding against returning to the Huaihe defense line, he simply occupied a small nearby town and refused to move further.

Wang Lanping ordered his vanguard troops to return to Nanjing ahead of schedule under the banner that the rebellion had been pacified. Accompanying them were Liu Zeqing's family members, whom Wang Lanping had secretly dispatched men to bring from Hangzhou to Huai'an. This move served solely to corroborate that Liu Zeqing's rebellion had been genuine—he had even brought his immediate family to his side. In addition, he sent men to Liu Zeqing's residence in Hangzhou to unearth and excavate the two million four hundred thousand taels of silver and fifty thousand taels of gold hidden there.

When all arrangements were complete, Wang Lanping rode past the camp gates of the Huai'an garrison. He raised his head to look at the towering corpse of Liu Zeqing clad in its dragon robe, smiled faintly, and murmured, "Liu Zeqing, outside the walls of Beijing you fled at the mere sight of the enemy. The Chongzhen Emperor left his final words that every civil and military official in the court deserved death; go down below and guard the late Emperor, fulfilling your loyalty as a subject. Let's move out!"

As the procession cleared Huai'an Prefecture, Wang Lanping did not return directly to Nanjing. Instead, he made a detour to Yangzhou City, having heard that Shi Kefa had just been appointed by Ma Shiying as the Garrison Commander of the Four Jiangbei Towns and was currently overseeing operations in Yangzhou.

Upon hearing the news that Shi Kefa was commanding in Yangzhou, Wang Lanping felt a deep sense of foreboding. Historically, this was precisely where Shi Kefa met his end, and standing idly by in the face of mortal danger was not the conduct of a true man.

Yangzhou had since ancient times been a gathering place for literati and scholars. Prosperous for a millennium, it was renowned for producing exquisite essays and graceful southern beauties, such as the legendary beauty Chen Yuananyuan, who was a native of Yangzhou. During the Sui Dynasty, it was also known as Jiangdu. Back then, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, having long heard of Yangzhou's fame, ordered the construction of massive dragon boats and conscripted eighty thousand men and women as trackers. Leading his civil and military officials and accompanied by the Empress—who was a Yangzhou native—he traveled a thousand miles to Yangzhou, only to end up utterly ruined in reputation. This prompted poets and scholars to sigh with emotion: "If not for the affair of the water-palace dragon boats, his merits alongside Yu the Great would not be considered small."

However, when Wang Lanping led his force of over two thousand men to a spot twenty miles outside Yangzhou, he failed to catch even a glimpse of the city's famed prosperity.

It turned out that Gao Jie had halted his march some three hundred miles from Yangzhou. Bringing along very few provisions, his temporary garrison numbered fewer than forty thousand men in total—how could that possibly supply the logistical needs of Gao Jie's thirty-thousand-strong army? After pillaging the entire town, he demanded entry into Yangzhou under the pretext of being a subordinate of Shi Kefa in order to alleviate his military food shortage. Yet the officials and commoners within Yangzhou alike were well aware of Gao Jie's reputation as a petty scoundrel and feared he would unleash his soldiers to ravage the populace.

In the past, he had followed Li Zicheng in rebellion before illicitly consorting with one of Li Zicheng's concubines. When that enterprise failed and he found himself cornered with no way out, he had led his subordinates to surrender to the Ming. Most of his troops were former Shun army defectors who fought with fierce valor and immense combat effectiveness, yet treated the common people with utter contempt. Whenever the imperial court's military pay arrived even a few days late, Gao Jie would immediately order his soldiers to forage for themselves—which meant outright plunder. This left the people around his Fengyang garrison living in utter misery. For such a man to enter the bustling metropolis of Yangzhou would spell an absolute catastrophe.

Knowing the severity of the situation, Shi Kefa ordered the gates of Yangzhou tightly shut, barring Gao Jie from entering. In a fit of rage, Gao Jie dispatched troops to surround Yangzhou on all sides. Of course, with a mere thirty thousand men, surrounding a city as vast as Yangzhou was virtually impossible. Upon learning of these developments, Wang Lanping immediately dispatched men into the city to establish contact with Shi Kefa. Nearly three thousand cavalry slipped stealthily into Yangzhou City.

Shi Kefa had been burning with anxiety, but upon hearing of Wang Lanping's arrival, he was both startled and overjoyed. He rejoiced because with this man present, Yangzhou's safety would be absolutely guaranteed. He was startled because five days earlier, under the banner of eliminating a rebel, Wang Lanping had summarily executed the veteran garrison commander Liu Zeqing. He truly could not fathom what kind of person Wang Lanping really was. On the bright side, he was an exceptional statesman capable of managing troubled times; the prestige of the Top Scholar Army had soared, causing the rebel Li Laiheng's forces across Anqing to hesitate and hold back from making any moves—a fact visible to all. Yet at the same time, he seemed like an ambitious warlord of a chaotic era. Whether executing Li Zhi or Liu Zeqing, the outcome demonstrated that Wang Lanping now held absolute military power in his hands. With Nanjing left as a hollow shell, he could execute depositions and successions at any moment.

Upon entering Yangzhou City, the commoners greeted them with the joyous fervor of welcoming the spirit tablets of the God of Wealth during a parade. The title of Martial Top Scholar had been a household name since the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, and coupled with the bloody battle of Huaining, Wang Lanping's name carried the aura of a divine presence. Storytellers often wove tales like this: "Just as the early Han had the Sage of Loyalty and Righteousness Guan, and the early Song had the Sage of Utmost Loyalty to the Country Yue, now our Great Ming also possesses the peerless Martial Top Scholar Wang Lanping, whose valor spans the realm and rivals the sages of old..."

The citizens of Yangzhou lined the streets to welcome him, laying down carpets of fresh flowers while dancing and singing. Seated atop a tall steed and clad in shining bright armor, Wang Lanping cut an exceptionally heroic figure. He nodded frequently to the crowds on both sides, his gestures exuding an easy approachability that made him seem like a completely different person from the one who had executed Liu Zeqing and Li Zhi.

Song Xian and the three thousand cavalry riding alongside him had never experienced such adoration and warmth from the common people. In the past, wherever imperial troops went, the common people looked upon them like mice seeing a cat, cursing them behind their backs and reviling their eighteen generations of ancestors after they left. Today, they were finally basking in the Commander's reflected glory, standing tall and proud to savor this rare moment of triumph.

The news that the young, handsome, and realm-renowned Martial Top Scholar was parading down the main street had already spread throughout the city, inevitably stirring the hearts of all the eligible maidens sequestered in their chambers. Everyone had heard that Top Scholar Wang was unattached—famous at a young age and yet still unmarried. To these young women, such romantic gossip was far more flavorful than hearing tales of the bloody battle of Huaining. Right then and there, they dressed themselves in their finest, applied cosmetics, donned the brightly colored gowns they usually saved for special occasions, and waved their handkerchiefs along the roadside. Drenched in fragrant sweat yet refusing to leave even for a fleeting moment, their singular wish was for the passing Martial Top Scholar to cast a glance their way—or better yet, to fall in love at first sight with the Top Scholar and become his renowned wife.

The reputation of Yangzhou producing peerless beauties was truly well-deserved; this was the unanimous consensus reached by Wang Lanping and his three thousand subordinates regarding Yangzhou. Many bachelors gritted their teeth, stamped their feet, and made a fierce vow: In this lifetime, they would marry none other than a Yangzhou beauty.

Even the married men could not help sighing: "Once this campaign is over, the moment I get home, I'll divorce that nagging old hag and have Commander Wang find me a Yangzhou woman. That way, this trip to Yangzhou won't have been in vain."

Shi Kefa personally led the various garrison commanders of Yangzhou City out to welcome them. Exchanging pleasantries upon meeting, the two men entered the Yangzhou Garrison Commander's Yamen together.