The First Episode of Amnesia

  The next day, when Xunming opened his eyes, the sky was already bright, close to noon. For these two days, his spirit had been highly tense, and yesterday he had relaxed a bit and fallen into a deep sleep, only waking up now. Xunming did not notice that Yuan Zongdi had checked his clothes, and as he put on the Ming army uniform, he thought to himself:

  "It seems I overestimated the complexity of people in the Ming dynasty. People from this era are simple and genuine, swindlers should be rare, they believe whatever you say without suspecting others, this is probably what's called 'ancient style'. Yesterday, I hastily answered their questions, thinking back now it was full of loopholes, yet these people deeply believed me! Hmm, they indeed have great respect for scholars, I slept till now and they didn't even wake me up."

  After leaving the camp, Ju Xing found that there were two guards at the door. Seeing him get up, the two guards smiled and said: "Mr. Deng slept well? The Duke of Jingguo has invited you."

  At this time, Yuan Zongdi was inspecting the Qing army's position in front of Chongqing City. As for Yu Ming, he had already given him a straightforward evaluation as a spoiled son - he could actually sleep until almost noon, obviously having been pampered and never having done any real work.

  The guards brought Yu Xing to the front of Yuan Zongdi, with Zhou Kaihuang and Li Tianba standing beside him. Li Tianba was an envoy sent by the Yongli court, and Yuan Zongdi deliberately let him obtain first-hand information so that he could report back to the court in the future. A person who might be a noble relative suddenly appeared, and the emperor and the officials would definitely ask about the details later on.

  Yuan Zongdi explained the current situation to Xu Ming, determined to let this young noble see his own brilliant ideas.

  Chongqing City is located at the confluence of the Yangtze River and Jialing River. Yuan Zongdi led his troops up the Yangtze River, while Tan Wen, who merged with him, took the fleet up the Jialing River. After the two Ming armies met, they each set up camp on the shore behind Chongqing City.

  "In this way, we can thoroughly cut off the connection between the city and the outside, and can also take precautions against the enemy's ships sneaking up. Yuan Zongdi said: "If we are stationed downstream of Chongqing, then the reality of our army can be observed from within Chongqing City. Once there is an enemy boat appearing upstream, it will be a great threat to our army as it flows downstream."

  In front of the city of Chongqing, there were many Ming soldiers moving about. From a distance, Yu Xing saw them holding shields and swinging axes to destroy some wooden stakes standing on the ground. The outside of the city wall of Chongqing was densely packed with such wooden stakes, like a small forest.

  "What are these stakes?" Xue Ming asked in surprise.

  "This is called a plum blossom stake." Zhou Kaihuang explained to Yuan Zongdi, "They are arranged in layers and placed in front of the city gate to prevent cloud ladders, battering rams, and siege carts from approaching the city wall. The army led by Commander-in-Chief Wen and several generals is already on its way and will arrive soon. We must clear these wooden stakes before they arrive, so that Chongqing can be taken in one battle." The Commander-in-Chief Wen mentioned by Zhou Kaihuang was Wen Anzhi, who was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Yongli court.

  Facing the Ming army's sweeping team, the city head of Chongqing continuously transmitted the sound of cannons. Yu Xing looked at the large piece of wood stakes below the city and asked in surprise: "So many wooden stakes, how much effort did they put in to bury them?"

  It was Zhou Kaihuang who solved the mystery of Wu Ze's name: "In July this year, I learned that Wu Ze had invaded Yunnan, and our army came to besiege Chongqing. Just as we were about to break through Chongqing, Wu Ze turned back to relieve Chongqing, and our army was defeated and retreated to Kui Prefecture. However, Wu Ze's intention to invade the south did not die, and in order to ensure that his rear was secure, he worked day and night to strengthen the defenses of Chongqing. Wu Ze's 180,000-strong army had been entrenched here from July to October, and these wooden stakes were all buried by them. It wasn't until November that Wu Ze left Chongqing again."

  From these sources, it can be learned that Wu Sangui's expedition this time has almost all the mobile forces of the Qing court in his hands. Not to mention the elite troops from Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces, even the Qing army's field troops in Huguang province, which originally belonged to Hong Chengchou's command, are now all under Wu Sangui's control. The Qing court apparently wants to accomplish its goal in one battle, annihilating the Yongli regime of Yunnan in one fell swoop. For this expedition, the Qing court also mobilized a large number of naval vessels and boats from Jiangnan, transporting troops and supplies continuously along the Yangtze River to Chongqing for Wu Sangui's army to use.

  "If it were in the past, Wu's tens of thousands of troops invaded Yunnan, and the imperial court would not dare to rely solely on the Yangtze River for transportation and supply." Speaking of this unprecedented attack, Zhao Tianba, a Western army general, also showed concern: "Sun Keshang betrayed us, he knew our Ming army's internal affairs well, where the population was dense, where there were grain depots, which roads were good, and which cities and fortresses had been neglected for years. He must have provided Wu with a lot of information to help him choose his attack route."

  Sun Kuo-wang was originally a veteran of the Western Camp, and for many years he had been in charge of specific internal construction work in Yunnan. In the past, the Qing dynasty had been completely unaware of the Ming army's deployment in the Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan region, so the Qing army did not dare to enter the territory of the Ming army rashly. However, Sun Kuo-wang and Li Ding-guo had a falling out, after which Sun Kuo-wang defected to the Qing dynasty, allowing the Qing army to gain control over the roads, warehouses, and defenses in the rear of the southwestern Ming army. What was even more fatal was that many local officials and military leaders of the southwestern Ming army were appointed by Sun Kuo-wang, and after his defection, Li Ding-guo carried out a purge of Sun's old subordinates, who had been harboring resentment for some time. When the Qing dynasty attacked the Ming court this time, they brought with them a large number of letters written by Sun Kuo-wang to officials and military officers in the southwest. In Guizhou alone, five counties and more than 30,000 troops surrendered without a fight due to these letters, leading to the rapid collapse of the eastern defense line of the Ming army.

  Zhao Tianba deeply believed that King Jin would be able to repel Wu Sangui's attack, but he also knew the difficulties involved. Otherwise, the imperial court and King Jin would not have ordered him to escort several eunuch envoys to Kui Prefecture. The purpose of these eunuchs representing the imperial court and Zhao Tianba representing King Jin was the same - to use every possible means, including both soft and hard tactics, to get the friendly armies of Sichuan and Huguang to provide full support for the war effort in Yunnan.

  In July, Yuan Zongdi and Liu Tichun coordinated to attack Chongqing, achieving a good effect, forcing Wu Sangui to return halfway, giving Li Dingguo, the King of Jin, several more months to prepare and deploy. The troops stationed in Guangxi returned to Yunnan one after another during this period to prepare for battle. After learning that Wu Sangui had set out again with a large army, Wen Anzhi, the supervisor of the Yongli court, immediately sent an urgent letter to Liu Tichun, Yuan Zongdi, Hao Yaqi, Li Laiheng, and the three Tans - Tan Wen, Tan Hong, and Tan Yi - who were stationed in Wanxian, ordering them to gather again to besiege Chongqing.

  There are some things that Zhao Tianba would think in his heart, but he absolutely wouldn't say out loud. He had a clear view of the situation with the Sichuan and Hubei armies: they were forced to resist Wu Sangui's large army alone, not for their own safety, but for the imperial court far away in Kunming. Last time when attacking Chongqing, the Ming army here suffered heavy casualties, this time although they gathered again, if Wu Sangui came back once more, these friendly armies would inevitably suffer great losses again.

  "Once, twice, three times, here is far from the imperial court, and apart from granting official titles, it's hard for the imperial court to provide support. They've been repeatedly helping the imperial court out of trouble but getting nothing in return, I'm afraid this isn't a long-term plan." Zhao Tianba had some worries in his heart and couldn't help but think of the suggestion that Liu Wenshu, the King of Zhao, gave to the imperial court before he left - to have the main force of the Ming army in Yunnan enter Sichuan and use Chengdu as a base. Liu Wenshu's view was: this way, if the Qing army invades Yunnan from the south, the Ming army will have its main force fighting at the forefront, and the friendly armies in the Sichuan and Hubei areas won't have any complaints. Moreover, they can defend against the enemy outside of Yunnan and not let them approach this most important material production base. However, Li Dingguo was worried that if the army is far away from the imperial court, something unexpected might happen again, and he believed that Wu Sangui wouldn't dare to invade Yunnan without considering the Ming army in Sichuan and Hubei, so he didn't adopt Liu Wenshu's suggestion and stayed in Kunming.

  This time Wu Sangui ignored the threat of the Ming army on his flank, and immediately rushed to Yunnan. The situation became very urgent, just as Liu Wenxiu had said. Due to the long distance and inconvenient communication, Zhao Tianba and others did not know that Li Dingguo was already retreating steadily, and the Qing army was approaching Kunming.

  Although the time spent with Yuan Zongdi and others was not long, the information they provided was crucial for Yu Ming, allowing him to have a relatively clear understanding of the current situation. Now, Yu Ming had no doubt that what he saw was the last moment of resistance by Han people at the end of the Ming dynasty and the beginning of the Qing dynasty. Faced with the step-by-step advance of the Qing army, the Chuanyi and Xiyang camps, which were once "rebels", were making a final struggle for the survival of the Ming dynasty. These Han people in front of him, who refused to be slaves of a fallen country, did not care that they had once belonged to different camps, or even opposing camps, and were fighting side by side against foreign invasion. After so many years of tug-of-war between the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the recent large-scale counterattack by the Western Ming army in Huguang, Yuan Zongdi and other Chuanyi leaders still had illusions about the war situation, thinking that the current situation was still salvageable. But Yu Ming knew that the anti-Qing war would soon take a sharp turn for the worse, which made him secretly think about what he should do next.

  In the upper reaches of the Jialing River, Tan Wen's department was also doing the same work as Yuan Zongdi's department. Although Yuan Zongdi was evasive, Yu Ming had already understood that the Tan family, including Tan Wen, Tan Hong and Tan Yi, who were stationed in Wan County, were all direct descendants of the Ming army. To be honest, Yu Ming had never figured out why Yuan Zongdi mentioned this to him.

  Although both sides have a common goal, Xu Ming also noticed that Tan Wen's department and Yuan Zongdi's department are distinct, their battle lines have not been connected, and there is an obvious gap between the two armies. The Qing army in Chongqing seems to be ignoring this, it can be seen that on the city wall facing the junction of Yuan and Tan, there are only a few surveillance troops, as if they are not worried about them joining forces and launching a joint attack.

  "Does Mr. Deng want to go over there and take a look?" Although Yuan Zongdi was very unwilling in his heart, he had long told Deng Ming that Tan Wen and himself were different, being the orthodox officials of the imperial court, and no matter whether it was Wen Anzi, the supervising minister sent by the Yongli court to Sichuan and Hubei, or the likes of Prince Han who had escaped in difficulty, they always attached more importance to these orthodox officials of the imperial court. To put it accurately, they were very biased. Since Yuan Zongdi judged that Deng Ming might be a noble prince with great background, he naturally could not keep him detained in his own camp.

  "Me?" Yu Ming was extremely surprised by this question. He positioned himself as a scholar who joined the army, and he pondered in his heart: "If I were to follow the 21st-century way of speaking, I would just be a job applicant submitting my resume to Yuan Zongdi, right? Although it's okay to submit resumes casually, it doesn't seem good to reveal thoughts of jumping ship or comparing offers during an interview. Besides, this isn't the future; even if ancient people were more open-minded and magnanimous, they couldn't possibly think like that in the future, could they? Isn't it said that 'a scholar would die for a friend he knows is right'? What does Yuan Zongdi's question mean?"

  A well-rested Yu Xiang's mind quickly turned and came to his own conclusion: "Yes, this must be Yuan Zongdi testing me. The ancients were more straightforward and didn't quite understand psychology, the art of language, and human weaknesses. Yuan Zongdi treated me with courtesy, showing respect and trust, and even provided me with food and lodging. Now he's just testing me to see if I'm a fair-weather friend."

  Since he had made up his mind about this, Yuwen said resolutely: "I am willing to serve the country and make contributions, how can I go elsewhere?"

  No matter whether it was Yu Ming's attitude or the content of his speech, both made Yuan Zong feel stunned for a moment. He thought to himself: "If you are really a member of the imperial clan, who would dare to make you serve? And how could you be serving some minister? Ah, I see, although I know he is a member of the imperial clan and probably the third son of the late emperor, he doesn't know that I already know, so he's still pretending here. Hmm, yesterday I put that string of pearls back in its original place, the third prince probably still thinks I didn't see it."

  Yuan Zongdi suddenly realized and immediately became aware that: "Although the people in Xiyuan were also rebels, but after all, Emperor Li was not forced to death by them. And if this prince is a close relative of Emperor Li, although many years have passed, he may still hate Zhang Xianzhong for what happened back then. I'd better explain quickly that I wasn't involved in the things that happened in Beijing back then. Moreover, it's better to explain now, Prince doesn't understand that I've already guessed his true identity, and explaining now can make me appear more sincere rather than being seen as trying to curry favor."

  Yuan Zongdi thought and did, and let out a long sigh: "In the past, I followed Chu Wang, with the intention of clearing away the small men around the former emperor, assisting Emperor Lie in fighting against the northern barbarians. This was what I thought in my heart, and this was also the agreement I made with Chu Wang. Later, when Chu Wang sent me to Xiangyang in the south, he was deceived by that treacherous villain Niu Jinxing during his entry into the capital, and actually had disloyal intentions. Unfortunately, I was not by Chu Wang's side at the time, otherwise I would have been able to persuade him to pull back from the precipice."

  Yu Xing was amazed, staring at Yuan Zongdi's face for a long time without realizing his own rudeness. In an instant, countless thoughts flashed through his mind: "You are loyal to Chongzhen? Yuan Zongdi, you're fooling around... Looking at his sincere appearance, could he really have secrets unknown to others? No, I almost fell for it. He's saying this because he has accepted the Ming dynasty's title and wants to appear loyal in front of outsiders. It just so happens that when Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he didn't go, and now he's making an effort to clear himself. I should praise him a few times?... However, going along with his words might not be good either. He definitely doesn't have this intention, and if I speak out of turn, he'll probably think I'm being sarcastic. Hmm, anyway, since there are no outsiders around, I should praise the heroic deeds of the rebels, which is what he really wants to hear, and it also shows that I'm truly on his side. Now that I've defected to him, I mustn't get the hierarchy wrong."

  "What the national teacher said, the students did not think so." After a moment, Yuan Zongdi stopped talking and observed Yu Ming's reaction. The latter felt that the former was trying to test his tendency, and immediately said: "During the Chongzhen years, the people were miserable, and the common people were easy to sell their children for food... Shun Wang was above responding to heaven and below responding to the people's feelings. Moreover, this divine instrument is ownerless, so what's wrong with Shun Wang taking it? It's a pity that Wu Sangui, that traitor, led the enemy army into Shanhai Pass, ruining our Han family's good rivers and mountains."

  Yuan's words shocked not only Yuan Zongdi, but also Zhou Kaihuang and Zhao Tianba behind him. Now they are no longer Li Zicheng's subordinates, but Ming dynasty soldiers and generals. Such reasonable treasonous remarks cannot be mentioned at all. Especially when it comes from the mouth of a royal family member like Yuansheng, it is clear that he does not intend to forgive these former rebels, so as soon as he hears Yuan Zongdi's self-defense, he speaks sarcastically and mockingly.

  "That year was indeed confused, and did not know that the emperor's love for the people like a child, and there were also several small people around the emperor..." Yuan Zongdi was shocked and continued to argue, and put forward an argument that could not be refuted - Emperor Chongzhen had treacherous ministers around him.

  "I heard that there must be a ruler like Yao and Shun first, and then there can be ministers like Yao and Shun." Yu Mingxian didn't understand why Yuan Zongdi would defend Chongzhen so stubbornly. He thought to himself: Maybe it's because they haven't had deep interactions yet, and the other party is worried that speaking ill of Chongzhen wouldn't match Yuan Zongdi's current status as a national duke in the Ming dynasty, not even just agreeing with Yu Mingxian's views. To further gain trust, Yu Mingxian continued: "During Chongzhen's reign, corrupt officials emerged one after another, yet the emperor still trusted and reused these ministers. The entire court was corrupt, and officials were extremely cruel to the people... It's like a den of thieves where no evil deed goes uncommitted, but their leader is a saint? Is that possible?"

  This time it was Zhao Tianba and Zhou Kaihuang's turn to listen, their eyes almost bulging out. Zhou Kaihuang agreed with what Yu Ming said, but the key issue was that this shouldn't be something a Ming subject should say out loud, nor should it be said to a Ming general, especially since Yu Ming might be an imperial prince, possibly Chongzhen's third son - could such a person who cursed his father exist? Zhou Kaihuang looked at Yu Ming with increasingly suspicious eyes: "Is this person really the last survivor of the Li Emperor?"

  Zhao Tianba gradually calmed down after the initial shock, and silently sighed in his heart: "This Mr. Deng is indeed the son of Emperor Liehuo! Yesterday I still didn't believe it. Since Emperor Liehuo died for the country, which of his other relatives would dare to say anything bad about him? Except for his own biological son, any member of the imperial family who dared to say such a thing would be beaten to death!"

  Yuan Zongdi also regained his composure at this time. It was without a doubt that Yu Ming was the legitimate son of Chongzhen, and other Ming dynasty imperial clans had no right to criticize an emperor who died for the country. Who else would dare to speak ill of the emperor if not a member of the imperial family? Although it was a great disrespect for a son to rebuke his father, this was an attitude, a very clear attitude of not pursuing the matter further, and only Chongzhen's son could show such an attitude. Yuan Zongdi couldn't help but think that if Yu Ming continued to maintain this attitude in the future, the court would probably not pursue the crimes of the former generals who had surrendered. The other party had probably already realized that he had seen through his identity, so he revealed his attitude without disguise - the attitude of Chongzhen's orphan towards the surrendered generals was one of non-pursuit.

  "A child does not speak of his father's faults." Yuan Zongdi said in a low voice, which was both an expression of his gratitude to Yu Ming and a hint that he had already understood the other party's attitude and did not need to continue discussing past rights and wrongs.

  Yuan Zongdi's words made Yu Ming suddenly stunned again, and he pondered in his heart: "Doesn't the son speak of his father's mistakes? This means that the son shouldn't speak ill of his father, right? But Yuan Zongdi is clearly not Chongzhen's son, what does this mean? Why can't I hear... Oh, I understand, it means that a minister shouldn't listen to others speaking ill of his lord, and now he is indeed a minister of the Great Ming, and theoretically, I am also a minister of the Great Ming.

  "Hmm, Gu Gong said that as subjects, we shouldn't discuss the previous emperor." Yu Shi said hesitantly, trying to sound out his companion.

  "Not bad." Yuan Zongdi nodded.

  "What's going on here?" Xu Ming saw that the other party indeed meant this, and he couldn't help but look down on Yuan Zongdi: "No wonder he respects scholars so much, it turns out he has no vision at all. It's common for officials to criticize the emperor, especially in the Ming dynasty, where officials scolding the emperor is too numerous, even corporal punishment - being caned by the emperor doesn't scare them."

  Yuan Zongdi thought to himself, "Does the Third Prince really think I have no insight at all? Of course, there are many officials in the imperial court who dare to scold the emperor, but how can he interpret the phrase 'a child does not speak of his father's mistakes' like that? Hmm, it seems that this is an attitude of the Third Prince, indicating that although he has guessed that I am very clear about his identity, he still does not want to expose himself and wants me to continue calling him Mr. Deng. Moreover, the Third Prince's insistence on not going to Tan Wen's camp is also a sign of his trust in me."