Southern Ming: A boy soldier at the beginning, supporting the world

Chapter 207 Sun Kewang Requests to Be Conferred the Title of King of Qin

Sun Kewang's request to be named King of Qin caused a lot of controversy and had become a top priority for the court.

Feng Jiali looked solemn. He carefully took out a secret letter from his bosom and said, "Marshal Jue, I have received Sun Kewang's petition to be crowned the King of Qin. Please have a look."

Danchu took the memorial and read it softly, "The King of the Pre-Qin Dynasty pacified the Central Plains and eliminated corrupt officials. In the past ten years, he has never forgotten his loyalty to the emperor and his patriotism. He never thought that Li Zicheng would rebel and move away. I am alone guarding southern Yunnan and strictly following the will of the ancestors. I would like to inform you that the king will inherit his father's title and the country will continue the Pre-Qin Dynasty. I beg you to order the important ministers to review the imperial edict and seal it. Sun Kewang wrote this letter on the fifteenth day of the first month of the year of Jichou."

His tone was perverse and showed no courtesy to a subject. Sun Kewang did not seem to be asking for the title of King of Qin, but rather as if the court owed him something.

After reading it, Danchu put the secret letter aside and fell into deep thought.

During the Ming Dynasty, there were very few kings with different surnames, and all of them were founding ministers. They were only posthumously named two-character kings by Zhu Yuanzhang. Sun Kewang asked to be named a one-character king, and the most honorable King of Qin, right from the start. His wish was a bit too extravagant.

As the ancients said, "Only tools and names cannot be lent to others." Sun Kewang offered the remnants of the bandits to the court and asked to be named the King of Qin. His words were disrespectful and would inevitably be opposed by Emperor Yongli and his ministers.

Danchu asked, "What is the attitude of the court?"

Feng Jiali looked at Lu Shouyi and signaled him to answer. Lu Shouyi was more familiar with the matter and replied:

"The court was unanimously opposed. The Prime Minister Yan Qiheng, the Grand Secretary Wen Anzhi, and the Commander Qu Shisi were all hostile to Sun Kewang. Not only did they oppose the title of King, they were unwilling to give him even the title of Duke. Dongxun also strongly opposed it. 'Tiger Fang' Jinbao submitted seven consecutive petitions in opposition, calling Sun Kewang a thief.

"Only Qian Bingdeng, the editor of the Imperial Academy, advocated compromise. He believed that by conferring titles on Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo, and Liu Wenxiu, he could alienate the relationship between them and cause the Dashi Army to fall into chaos without a fight."

Qian Bingdeng, Danchu was quite impressed by him. When Tan Tai besieged Nanchang, Qian Bingdeng wrote to the court, suggesting that Li Chengdong go directly to Nanchang to reinforce Jin Shenghuan instead of Ganzhou. He was quite intelligent. If there is a chance in the future, he should be recruited to serve for his own use.

The court's reaction was as expected. Danchu asked again, "What is the attitude of the local military governors?"

"In Guangdong, Dongxun strongly opposes it. Pi Xiong and Wang Xiang in Guizhou are also afraid of Sun Kewang and clearly oppose the title of king. In Guangxi, Xinxing Hou..."

Lu Shouyi stopped talking. Xinxing Hou Jiao Lian was once Danchu's benefactor, and the Intelligence Bureau was not in a position to discuss his right and wrong behind his back.

"I know about Xinxing Hou. He is contacting the nearby military governors and is preparing to jointly submit a letter to the court to refute Sun Kewang's treason. I will also be listed in this letter."

Jiao Lian, Cen Danchu, and Feng Jiali, like Sun Kewang, were all from Shaanxi, but they were members of the Shaanxi border army. They had fought with the Dashi Army and the Dashun Army for many years and were like enemies to each other. Naturally, they opposed Sun Kewang's claim to the throne.

Danchu's attitude was clear, and Lu Shouyi carefully considered his words and said, "Chen Bangfu seems to be in favor of this and is quite active in this matter. However, he has been humiliated by our army and has a bad reputation in the court, so he seems to have no say."

The Intelligence Bureau seems to have relaxed its vigilance against Chen Bangfu, which is not a good thing.

"No," Cen Danchu immediately refuted: "Chen Bangfu is despicable and shameless, with weak troops, but he has been operating in Guangxi for many years and has many followers in the court. Now, the 'Ma Emperor' Ma Jixiang has absolute control over the court and has a deep friendship with Chen Bangfu."

Ma Jixiang was originally a wanderer in the capital, good at flattery, and served as a "head of the eunuchs" in a low position. His rise to fame was inseparable from the support of Chen Bangfu. With Ma Jixiang as a supporter in the court, Chen Bangfu would not fall from power for a while.

Feng Jiali was even more unconvinced and said, "The conferring of official titles is the authority of the Emperor. When Sun Kewang asked to be named King of Qin, he had to obtain the title from the Emperor and stamp it with the Emperor's golden seal. No matter how treacherous Chen Bangfu is, no matter how arrogant Ma Jixiang is, can they still do anything about it?" "Haha," Danchu sneered, "Old Feng, don't think the Emperor is so noble. There are so many dirty things in the court, it's just that the people below don't know about it. How sacred do you think the Emperor's golden seal is? The Emperor has prestige, so the golden seal is naturally noble. The Emperor has no prestige, and the golden seal is just a lump of gold.

"In the first year of the Yongli reign, the emperor went to Wugang. Zhao Weiying, a native official of Longying Prefecture, spent a large sum of money to bribe Ma Jixiang. Ma Jixiang colluded with the eunuch Pang Tianshou, stole the emperor's treasure, and privately conferred the title of Earl of Longying on Zhao Weiying. Have you heard about this?"

At this point, Danchu smiled bitterly and teased Feng Jiali, "Old Feng, if you have money, you can still bribe an earl by spending tens of thousands of platinum."

Feng Jiali burst out laughing and said quickly, "You are joking, Marshal. How dare I ask for the title of Earl? I am grateful to be able to serve under you, Marshal."

Danchu stopped smiling and said, "The court sent ministers such as He Tengjiao, Du Yinxi, and Jie Chongxi to Huguang, Jiangxi, and Sichuan to recruit the rebels. Although they had no money or soldiers, they were given many blank imperial edicts with imperial seals. The front line was defeated, and there is no guarantee that these imperial edicts would not be lost. If they fall into the hands of Chen Bangfu and others, they will have ulterior motives and will do something desperate..."

"General, what you mean is that Chen Bangfu dared to forge the imperial edict and appoint Sun Kewang as the King of Qin?" Feng Jiali said with an incredible look on his face.

This impossible thing happened in the history of the Southern Ming Dynasty. In order to befriend Sun Kewang, Chen Bangfu was blinded by greed and used a blank imperial edict to send Hu Zhigong to falsely convey the imperial edict, conferring Sun Kewang the title of King of Qin.

"More than dare, I'm sure Chen Bangfu must have had this idea."

"If that's the case, why not send someone to stop it? Or send someone to Kunming to warn Sun Kewang?"

The secret had been revealed, and Danchu realized that he had said too much. Without thinking, he said, "You will suffer for your own actions. Sun Kewang is suspicious, and Chen Bangfu is treacherous. We should not get involved in their actions. We can just wait and see what happens."

Stay out of it and wait and see what happens. This is the Red Army's attitude towards this incident. Feng Jiali pondered Cen Danchu's words and said:

"Sun Kewang's envoy Yang Weizhi is from Baoji, and is from the same hometown as us. He was the governor of Yunnan during the Ming Dynasty, and had no choice but to follow Kewang. In fact, he is loyal to the king and has great ability.

"A secret letter came from the Zhaoqing intelligence station saying that Emperor Yongli was undecided on this matter. Yang Weizhi advised, 'You can expect a strong army and use it for your own benefit. Why not confer a title to win the hearts of the people and make enemies instead?'

"Yang Weizhi advised the court to confer the title of Duke on Sun Kewang and the titles of Duke on Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu, but all the officials opposed it. He could not agree and asked the court to confer the title of Duke on him so that he could return to report.

"Zhaoqing said that the matter has been concluded. Emperor Yongli intends to confer the title of Duke of Jing on Sun Kewang and give him the name Sun Chaozong, and to confer the title of Marquis on Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu."

"There is another thing," Lu Shouyi added, "It is rumored that in order to subdue Li Dingguo, Sun Kewang once gathered all the troops in the parade ground and beat Li Dingguo with a stick in front of all the generals. The generals pleaded for mercy, but Sun Kewang refused and beat Li Dingguo 100 times. Afterwards, Sun Kewang hugged Li Dingguo and cried bitterly. Li Dingguo pretended to obey him but secretly resented him."

Yang Weizhi was very knowledgeable and, like Du Yinxi, advocated uniting with the invaders to suppress the enemy. During the Longwu period, Wu Bikui and Sha Dingzhou in Yunnan rebelled. Yang Weizhi made great contributions in defending the territory and was appointed as the governor of Yunnan by Emperor Longwu.

Taking advantage of Sha Dingzhou's rebellion, Sun Kewang led the Dashi Army into Yunnan, and cooperated with Yunnan officials and military governors such as Mu Tianbo and Yang Weizhi to quickly put down Sha Dingzhou's rebellion and build Yunnan into a pure land.

"Ridiculous, ridiculous." Danchu sneered, "Sun Kewang was General Pingdong under Zhang Xianzhong, and he has already called himself King of Pingdong in Yunnan, and has issued a public document. This time he sent an envoy to ask for a title, just to save the court's face. Not only did the court not make him a king, but it also downgraded him to a duke, which is very unwise. I'm afraid this matter will set off another bloody storm."

(End of this chapter)