Late Ming Dynasty: So what if Emperor Chongzhen was inactive?!

Chapter 75 That damned Zheng Zhilong, that son of a bitch Huang Taiji

On the second day of the second month of the first year of the Chongzhen reign, according to the report of Ye Zhenchun, the director of the Imperial Observatory, this day was suitable for a funeral.

In his memorial, he said: "I observed the celestial phenomena last night and saw the Horn constellation rising, the Azure Dragon appearing, and the Neck constellation appearing together, indicating favorable timing and location, and harmony between Yin and Yang. The Book of Celestial Offices says: Horn is the gate of heaven and governs funerals, while the Pleiades in the sky signifies solemnity and peace, which is in accordance with the ceremony of moving the mausoleum."

Zhu Youjian's carpenter brother was finally able to have his funeral. To make the whole show of it, Zhu Youjian ordered three thousand White Pole Guards to wear armor and carry their signature white-pole spears to protect the coffin and carry it through the procession.

Before Baozong, the death of the emperor was a terrifying event for the women in the harem, but the practice of burying the emperor alive with the emperor has now been abolished.

The Tianqi Emperor had one empress and eight concubines. Zhu Youjian was incompetent and tyrannical for so long, yet he only had four wives, which is truly shameful.

At this moment, Empress Zhang Yan knelt before the coffin, wiping away tears and sobbing softly. Zhu Youjian was also reluctant to part with his brother, who had accompanied him for so long in the Qianqing Palace.

Whenever Zhu Youjian was troubled, he would feel inexplicably at ease simply by staying beside his brother's coffin. Whenever he summoned ministers to the Qianqing Palace, they would speak to him much more politely out of respect for the late emperor.

The coffin, weighing several thousand kilograms, was steadily lifted by seventy-two strong men and moved step by step out of the Qianqing Palace, through the palace gate, and into the outer court.

At this time, the square in front of the three main halls of the outer court was already filled with civil and military officials and court ladies of the third rank and above who were kneeling to mourn the late emperor.

The funeral procession for the emperor, including the accompanying soldiers and servants, numbered nearly ten thousand people. Qin Liangyu and Zhu Xieyuan were among those chosen to carry the coffin! They had certainly come at the right time.

Zhu Youjian, holding the white silk wrapped around the coffin, stood at the very front of the procession. This position was usually reserved for the crown prince, but unfortunately, the Tianqi Emperor had no surviving crown prince.

Strangely enough, Emperor Taichang had seven sons, but only two survived to adulthood. The other five didn't even live past the age of one, a frighteningly high mortality rate. Zhu Youjian now only has one younger sister left.

His younger sister, Zhu Huiti, was raised in the palace and is now of marriageable age. Although she isn't very close to Zhu Youjian, she is his only surviving blood relative. Just a few days ago, Zhang Yan came to remind him that he should pay attention to the little princess's marriage.

However, Zhu Youjian was reluctant to marry off his younger sister so casually. The Ming Dynasty's system of marrying princesses was simply too absurd. In the end, princesses became commodities auctioned off by eunuchs and officials, and anyone could marry a princess.

In any case, Zhu Youjian was determined to turn back the clock and heavily rely on his maternal relatives. If the maternal relatives were to fall from grace, that would be a matter for the next generation. Could the Ming Dynasty even have a next generation?!

This matter should be dealt with promptly. Zhu Youjian vaguely remembered that there should still be a few promising young generals around ten years old. He should select the tallest, most imposing, and most handsome among them to be his son-in-law. For example, Cao Wenzhao's nephew would be quite suitable.

Zhu Youjian was a pragmatist. The constant stream of ceremonies before and after the New Year had exhausted him, so he ordered the simplification of funeral and burial ceremonies.

Given the increasingly difficult financial situation of the Ming Dynasty, these various ceremonies were already being simplified. Even so, everyone worked from dawn until the afternoon to send the late emperor to his mausoleum.

The funeral procession was one thing, but the burial had to be scheduled for another time. The Imperial Astronomical Bureau said that five days later would be an auspicious day for the burial. In fact, Zhu Youjian suspected that any day could be an auspicious day if the Imperial Astronomical Bureau wanted to.

In the original timeline, the Tianqi Emperor's funeral was held on March 8th, and he was officially buried and his underground palace sealed on March 12th. It's just that now the funds for the imperial mausoleum are being raised faster, and the construction progress is also faster.

At this time, the De Mausoleum was bare; only the ground had been leveled, and not even a foundation had been laid. Zhu Youjian's expression was very grim. The two million taels of silver that had been promised was the entire construction cost of the imperial mausoleum. Now, the Ministry of Works had squandered all of it, and only the underground palace had been completed. Whether the underground palace would leak or not was still uncertain.

Xue Fengxiang repeatedly petitioned Zhu Youjian to continue allocating funds for the construction of the imperial mausoleum's above-ground palace. Zhu Youjian suspected that the Ministry of Rites had also received substantial benefits, and they subtly implied in their memorials: "If the emperor doesn't allocate funds to repair the imperial mausoleum, that's unfilial! The late emperor entrusted the entire empire to you, and you can't even spare the expense to repair a tomb; that's far too cruel."

These two bastards made Zhu Youjian tremble with anger. Whatever, he wasn't going to send any more money anyway. Who knows who would benefit from fixing this thing?

"This is the last imperial tomb of the Ming Dynasty," Zhu Youjian thought to himself. He even felt a little envious of his adopted brother, who at least had his own place to sleep, while he might end up like a teru teru bozu (a Japanese doll that brings good weather). The good news from Dongjiang Town made Zhu Youjian a little smug, but before he could be happy for two days, he received bad news from all over the country.

Following the emperor's instructions, Yu Zigao, the general of Fujian, had already tried his best not to provoke Zheng Zhilong, but that scoundrel Zheng Zhilong took the initiative to provoke him and cause him trouble.

Zheng Zhilong, based in Wanggang, Taiwan, frequently harassed the Fujian coast and attacked the Ming Dynasty's official navy. Yu Zigao, unable to tolerate it any longer, retaliated in a fit of rage, resulting in a crushing defeat.

Yu Zigao mobilized the naval forces from Fujian'an, Xinghua, and Yongning to converge in Xiamen, intending to join forces with the Dutch to encircle and annihilate Zheng Zhilong. However, the Dutch failed to deliver the intended blow. The Fujian navy had only eighty dilapidated ships, while Zheng Zhilong had four hundred, and these ships were larger, newer, and better.

As a result, more than half of the eighty ships sank, and of the more than 10,000 people who participated in the battle, countless died, fled, or were captured. In the end, only four thousand people escaped back.

The most humiliating thing was that they couldn't beat Zheng Zhilong in the water, and they still couldn't beat him on land. They were chased for over a hundred miles by Zheng Zhilong's cavalry, and Yu Zigao's own five hundred retainers were reduced to only about a hundred.

Zhu Qinxiang, the governor of Fujian, was so angry that he shouted in his impeachment memorial that the court should execute Yu Zigao. Unfortunately, as the governor of Fujian, he could not escape blame and was also impeached.

At the beginning of the year, Xuanfu and Datong reported that the Jurchens outside the Great Wall were fighting a large-scale war with tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides. They asked the court whether to intervene or take advantage of the situation.

As a result, most people in the court believed that neither Huang Taiji nor Ligdan Khan were good people, and it would be best to let them fight like dogs. The Ministry of War's opinion was to guard the border and ignore the matter.

Zhu Youjian did intend to help Ligdan Khan to prevent the Mongol tribes from completely siding with Ligdan Khan, but as these ministers said, Ligdan Khan was indeed not a good person.

On one hand, he lacks integrity, but that's not the most important thing. The most important thing is that he's utterly incompetent. Furthermore, is the Ming army in Xuanda truly capable of participating in this Manchu-Mongol war?

It was precisely because Zhu Youjian hesitated and the court responded passively that Huang Taiji had already finished the war.

The Governor-General of Xuanfu and Datong, Wang Xiangqian, reported that in mid-February, Huang Taiji, in alliance with the Khorchin, Kharachin, and Khalkha tribes, launched a surprise attack on the Chahar Dorot tribe, capturing over ten thousand prisoners at Aomulun, along with countless cattle and sheep. Ligdan Khan has sent envoys seeking assistance from the Ming Dynasty.

Wang Xiangqian described the battle in detail in his memorial, making the reader feel as if they were there. He even knew that Amin had been tricked by Huang Taiji. Zhu Youjian was secretly surprised and thought to himself that the Governor-General of Xuanda, Wang Xiangqian, was amazing. His intelligence work was so good that it would make the Embroidered Uniform Guard look bad.

His opinion was unique; it wasn't about ignoring the situation or sending troops to help the Chahar tribe, but rather suggesting that they compete with Huang Taiji for people. Huang Taiji could recruit Mongol tribes, and the Ming Dynasty could also undermine Ligdan Khan's influence by taking in small Mongol tribes, trying to restore the Doyan Three Guards, and incidentally expanding the forces of the Left and Right Battalions of the Surrendered Barbarians.

When Qin Liangyu went to the capital to pay homage, she only brought some guards and servants. This time, Zhu Youjian was too embarrassed to ask her to lead troops north, and he was also afraid that doing so would frighten the officials in the capital and cause unnecessary misunderstandings.

He originally planned to chat with Qin Liangyu to strengthen their relationship before letting her go back, but now he suddenly couldn't bear to let her leave.

Even the governors-general of the five provinces, Zhu Xieyuan and Zhu Youjian, did not want to send him back, because they felt that they were lacking in trustworthy military talents who could be consulted at any time.

Minister of War Cui Chengxiu knew nothing about military affairs. Bi Ziyan was merely an economics expert, also lacking military knowledge. Wang Zaijin spoke eloquently about military matters, seemingly quite reliable, but the problem was his lack of practical experience. Without battle achievements, everything was just theoretical.

Zhu Xieyuan was a true strategic mastermind, as evidenced by the hundreds of thousands of lives lost in the She'an rebellion. If he hadn't been tied up at the time, Zhu Youjian would have actually wanted him to manage Liaodong.

Zhu Xieyuan was an excellent strategist, while Qin Liangyu was a top-notch frontline general. Only by working together and complementing each other's strengths and weaknesses could they maximize their effectiveness.

"Minister Zhu, I wish to appoint you as Minister of War. What do you think? The situation in the southwestern provinces is stable. Are you able to leave your post?" Zhu Youjian asked Zhu Xieyuan with eager eyes.

(End of this chapter)