Chapter 23: The Siege (Part II)

"My Lord, you had better head down."

A military officer urged, "The King of Qian's artillery is far superior to ours. It can strike any part of the city wall with absolute precision. We must be on guard!"

Wang Ziteng’s lips twitched. He recalled the advice the King of Qian had given him, but in the end, he said nothing and descended from the wall.

Several city-defense generals were already waiting for him. They had not dared to ascend the wall themselves, but seeing Wang Ziteng come down, they swarmed around him. They remained silent, merely staring at him. Wang Ziteng knew well that they were all proponents of surrendering to the King of Qian. The loyal generals who wished to fight to the death were already stationed throughout the city walls, following the deployments Wang Ziteng and the Military Council had made yesterday. These men before him had come to persuade him otherwise.

He frowned and pondered for a long time.

"So be it."

Wang Ziteng thought of the King of Qian as he had appeared during the peace talks days ago. Perhaps this empire really ought to be governed by a man of such extraordinary bearing.

When he let out this sigh, the generals looked up at him with surprise and joy.

Wang Ziteng said, "Send someone into the palace to report that... the King of Qian's artillery is far superior to ours, and the soldiers are mostly afraid to fight."

To speak such words before a battle was tantamount to shaking the morale of the army. The imperial court could easily send a military supervisor to execute Wang Ziteng for this, and he would have no choice but to plead guilty. But if they were to behead him, the Governor of the Capital, military morale would crumble even further. In Wang Ziteng’s view, the court would likely strip him of his post and hold him accountable after the dust settled—if the Great Shun Dynasty still existed by then.

"We stand with you, my Lord, in honor and disgrace alike!"

The generals bowed and cupped their hands to show their resolve. After receiving Wang Ziteng’s nod, they hurriedly dispatched a messenger to the palace. Whether the court chose to surrender or to fight, they would no longer concern themselves with it.

...

The messenger, Song Wei, galloped his horse along the empty streets of the city, riding straight to the Five-Dragon Bridge in front of the Chengtian Gate of the Imperial Palace. He dismounted, ignoring his horse, and hurried past the right side of the bridge, arriving at the Chengtian Gate.

Holding a letter in one hand and his command token in the other, he went straight into the gate. Expecting that the guards would not stop him, he was surprised when a dozen of them surrounded him. Song Wei hurriedly shouted, "Governor Wang has sent me to urgently deliver a report to the Emperor and the Military Council!"

The guards laughed, "We aren't stopping you; we just want to know what it's like outside. Tell us, has the King of Qian begun his assault?"

"Not yet. They fired a round of artillery, and it hit a corner tower, killing several soldiers."

"What?!"

"They're really fighting?!"

These imperial guards had never seen battle; hearing that men had died before the real fighting had even begun, their faces paled. Song Wei ignored them and dashed into the palace, passing through the Duan Gate and the Wu Gate, arriving finally at the Military Council outside the Linjing Hall. Only then did he pause to catch his breath. After a eunuch went inside to report and returned to summon him, Song Wei carried the letter in.

Emperor Yongning and several grand councilors were inside. Upon seeing him, their expressions turned grim.

"Your Majesty, please look."

Liu Ju, the head eunuch of the Qianqing Palace, delivered the letter to Emperor Yongning.

"The scoundrel! He deserves to die!!"

After reading only a few sentences, the Emperor flew into a rage and slammed the letter onto the table, his face flushing deep red. "Issue my oral decree: go to the East Gate and throw Governor Wang Ziteng into prison!"

"Your Majesty!"

Zhuang Jin and the others stood up to intervene, arguing that Wang Ziteng had served as the Governor of the Capital for over a decade, and replacing the commander so rashly would only lead to a collapse of the front line.

Zhuang Jin advised, "Your Majesty, it would be better to send someone to supervise the army and order Wang Ziteng to assist, leaving him in command."

Emperor Yongning suppressed his fury. "Who can be sent to supervise so that those men will obey?"

"The Shi family is related to the Wang family by marriage. The Marquis of Baoling, Shi Nai, is of proven loyalty. He can be sent."

"Let it be as you suggest! Go and convey the decree at once!"

The Military Council drafted the decree quickly, and after applying the seal, they ordered it to be delivered with all haste.

Half an hour later, when Shi Nai arrived at the East Gate, the thunder of artillery was already echoing inside and outside the city. Without time to exchange pleasantries with the somewhat awkward Wang Ziteng, Shi Nai climbed the arrow tower and looked out the window. He saw the rebel army on the opposite bank of the moat, methodically filling it in.

Seven or eight massive shield carts, their fronts reinforced with iron plating, blocked the arrows and artillery fire from the city walls. They protected thousands of laborers carrying loads of earth, dumping them into the moat. Whenever a large number of soldiers on the wall rose to fire arrows, the rebel artillery several miles away would unleash a volley, while smaller cannons behind the shield carts fired as well. The density of the fire was so great that the defending soldiers dared not even poke their heads out!

"How is this fight to be won?" one of the gate generals asked, looking lost.

The rebel army claimed to have two hundred thousand men, and likely fifteen thousand were combat-ready. They could take turns attacking the city, and they had hundreds of thousands in logistics, constantly transporting grain from Jiangnan and Jinling, while driving tens of thousands of commoners from the surrounding areas to manufacture siege equipment and fill the trenches and moats. With so many people, they could pile up a mound as high as the city wall itself, at which point the rebels would be able to fire down upon them from above!

"We must fight, even if it cannot be won!"

Shi Nai grabbed Wang Ziteng by the shoulders, staring intensely at him. "Brother, the safety of the world rests on your shoulders alone!"

Wang Ziteng could only offer a bitter smile and set about arranging men to guard the various points of the city. His subordinates watched, exchanging glances.

"What do we do now?"

"What else can we do? Who knows how many in this city are willing to surrender?"

"There is a way!"

"What way?"

"Prince Zhongshun!"

"Yes, yes! Quick, Song Wei, go to the Prince Zhongshun’s residence. Tell him if we don't surrender now, there will be no chance left!"

Both sides had suffered casualties. According to the King of Qian's proclamation, princes and dukes would all have to pay with their lives, but as long as the imperial city had not been breached, there was still a chance for negotiation!

The messenger, Song Wei, mounted his horse again and sped toward the residence of Prince Zhongshun.

Upon hearing the news, Prince Zhongshun sat slumped in his chair. After a long while, he burst into a tirade: "The throne was never meant for me, yet now that the rebels have arrived, I am to be executed! I told you to surrender, and you wouldn't! Now that the bandit king has lost a few hundred men, the entire imperial clan is going to be wiped out!"

Song Wei listened for a moment before advising, "My Lord says the Prince should think of a way quickly. While the King of Qian’s army has yet to breach the city, there is still a window for negotiation."

"A chance? What chance?!"

"My Lord says as long as the court is willing to surrender, everything else can be negotiated. One only needs to persuade the grand councilors..." He dared not mention the Emperor.

But Prince Zhongshun dared. He cursed again, "My heartless and ungrateful brother will never agree to surrender. He has been Emperor for ten years, and now that my Imperial Father is about to pass... wait!"

He stood up abruptly, his eyes gleaming. "I know who to find! Quick, prepare the horses! I am going to the palace to see the Retired Emperor!"

"Wait!"

Prince Zhongshun called back the servant who was about to leave. "Go and call Prince Wu and Prince Yi. Tell them to come with me to the palace to seek an audience with our Father!"

"As you command, Your Highness," the servant hurried off.

Half an hour later, the princes arrived at the Wanxian Pavilion. They found the main gate wide open, and the eunuchs were nowhere to be found.

The princes hurried inside, only to find the incense-filled hall occupied by the Seventeenth Eldest Princess, Qinghe, Empress Zhang, and a group of young princes. Their eyes were all fixed on a point nearby.

Prince Zhongshun saw his father slumped beside a smoking alchemical furnace, his hair disheveled, appearing as if he had lost his mind. The old man kept muttering: "How could it have failed? It was an auspicious day to consume the elixir... Why have I not yet departed this mortal world?"

"Father!!"

Prince Zhongshun could no longer hold back. He shouted, "The rebel army has breached the defenses! Quickly, issue a decree and let my brother surrender!"