Sweet Wormwood: A Collaborative TL

YLi

Author's Note: I will be working on this with EvolvedSaurian. I might be posting updates for him on here.
~*~*~*~

"Gotcha, you want me to rape the shit out of this woman."

"No, I want to you to keep her safe."

"Ok. Meat injection. Consent totally optional. Understood boss."

"No. By keep safe, I literally mean KEEP. SAFE. As in no harm coming to her, as in if you touch her and she doesn't let you do so, I will peel your face back off your head with a broken pottery shard. Wait, scratch that. Give her a bath, a set of clean clothes, a nice, proper meal and a comfortable bed to sleep in. You are to treat her as you would treat one of my daughters, is that clear?"

The naked woman was probably stunningly beautiful when not weeping and covered with cuts and bruises. In any case, she was definitely going to be presentable by the time she was needed.

"Alright, alright", sighed the soldier, "Right this way ma'am."

Li Zicheng, Chuangwang of Xi'an paced back and forth in the small hilltop courtyard behind the Forbidden City, occasionally pausing to contemplate the body of the late Chongzhen Emperor, who was swinging by his neck in the late April breeze. He wondered if one day, one of his descendants would be hanging himself from the ragged pagoda same tree.

A couple of soldiers jogged into the courtyard and stood at attention behind their leader.

"Your majesty", one of them began, "should we cut him down? Maybe...give him a proper burial or something?"

"Huh?"

"You know...", the other soldier jabbed his halberd in the general direction of the late Emperor.

"Oh. Right. Not now. Maybe a bit later. Don't touch him until I can figure out what to do with him. Just leave me alone for now, I need some time to think."

Zicheng looked down from the hill. Below him, the bitter smell of burning wood contrasted with the warm, almost pleasant glow of Beijing's buildings being set on fire.
~*~*~*~
"They have her!? What do you mean they have her? What did they do to my Yuan Yuan?!"

"They probably raped her. They took over your father's house and cut his head off when he protested. I saw them tear off Yuan Yuan's clothes. The last thing I saw was a couple of soldiers kicking her around like a soccer ball."

Wu Sangui gritted his teeth in anger. The servant had ridden from Beijing as fast as he could manage to flee the chaos. The man was faithful and honest. He had worked for the Wu household since Sangui was a small child. Sangui knew the man did not tell lies.

"They burned down Beijing, sir. They killed anyone that didn't run and put all the buildings to the torch. After that, I rode here as fast as I could manage."

"That motherfucker! And to think, I was to bear arms for him! GET ME A SCRIBE!" shouted Wu to anyone who could hear him.

A scribe rushed into the room almost instantly, carrying paper, brushes, ink pots and a small desk to write upon.

“What do you need written, sir?” asked the Scribe.

“Just send something to Dorgon. Anything. Tell him that we are surrendering to his forces.”

The Scribe blinked once in shock. Then he began writing slowly.

~*~*~*~
“What’s your name?”

“My name is Chen Yuan Yuan. I am the wife of General Wu Sangui.” The young woman had two black eyes and her speech was slurred because her front teeth had been knocked out by a soldier’s armored boot. Only timely personal intervention by the commander of the rebel army had ensured that no further insults were done to her person.

Li Zicheng carefully sipped his tea, being careful to appear calm.. It felt good to sit on the Golden Throne of Supreme Harmony. Still, he had to be careful not betray any sign of hesitation. Silently, he counted the number of dragons painted on the roof beams. He lost count somewhere after 450.

“My husband indicated to me before he left for Ningyuan that he wished to pledge his men and fealty to you, Your Majesty.”

“Really now?”
“Yes. That was one possibility. An alternative option for him would be to defect to the Manchus.”

“The Manchus? You don’t say...” Li motioned one of his officers over, “send a message to Shanhaiguan at once. Ask him to put his arms down. Tell him that his wife and father are in good health and have not been harmed.”

“Yes sir.” The officer left the throne room at once.

“Shanhaiguan? I thought my husband was at Ningyuan.”

“He moved back towards the south once he heard Beijing had fallen. We had a few brief skirmishes with his army yesterday. If he really wanted to pledge loyalty, he would have done so already.”

“Have you spoken with him yet?”

“I’m afraid not. My messenger should reach him within a day or two. As for you, I suggest you go and get some rest. These last few days seem to have been hard on you.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Oh and before you go, tell your father in law that I would like to speak with him.”

~*~*~*~
“Your Eminence, we have just received a letter from the headquarters of General Wu Sangui, formerly of the Great Ming. He wishes to surrender his forces to us.”

“Let me read that.” Dorgon stroked his beard and carefully perused the letter.

“Your Eminence, do you believe what they’re saying?”

“Sure I do. General Wu has no reason to lie to me. He has no way out. He has rebel forces in front and Manchu forces to his back. He has to pick one or the other. At worst, there’s a 50 percent chance that I’m wrong.”

“Are you willing to take that gamble?”

“It’s better than sitting here in Mukden, waiting for Li Zicheng’s army to consolidate power in China.”

“That’s...a given, Your Eminence.”

“Well, now that we’ve settled that question, ready the Banners, we march at once.”

~*~*~
“Well then...this is a bit awkward.”

Wu Sangui could only stare at his shoes.

“I have kept up my own end of the bargain by not harming your wife and father for the most part. What about you?”

“I....I...” sputtered Wu.

“What?”

“One week ago, I sent a letter to the Manchus stating my intent to surrender the garrison at Shanhaiguan.” Wu dropped to his knees, barely holding tears back.

Li Zicheng chuckled. “Your wife told me you might do something like that. You reacted too soon. Just calm down. Given how quickly the Manchus march, they’re probably no more than a day from us. I have an idea.”

“Oh?”

“The Manchus know how large your force is, right?”

“Yes.”

“They don’t know how large my force is, correct?”

“Correct.”

“You will stay here with a skeleton force as most of your men “desert” for my army.”

“And?”

“Now tell me, what is the key advantage of the Manchus?”

“Their cavalry.”

“And cavalry needs mobility. I will retreat back towards Beijing in a false state of panic after appearing to offer open battle and wait for the Manchus to lay siege to it. Then I will counterattack and trap the Manchu army inside Beijing while you and your men seal off the pass to prevent reinforcements from getting through. They can’t ride inside the city and my troops have plenty of guns.”

“I...”

“Just go along with the plan. Trust me, it’ll work.”

“Yes. Yes your majesty. It is a brilliant plan.”
 
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YLi

The specific POD is that rebel leader Li Zicheng does not alienate influential Ming commander Wu Sangui by "insulting" (we all know what that means in the context of the 17th Century) his favorite concubine, Chen Yuan Yuan and executing his father, Wu Xiang. He is thus able to hold off the Manchus until he unifies China on his own.
 

WhatIsAUserName

imperialaquila said:
What's the specific POD here? This looks good, but some background would be nice.
Click to expand...

One point of divergence here, I'm not sure if it's the main one but it looks like it, is that Wu Sangui finds out his family actually wasn't killed by Li Zicheng's forces. This means Wu decides to ally with Li Zicheng instead of the Manchus.

EDIT: I thought Wu Sangui's father actually wasn't killed at Beijing in history, and that Wu Sangui was mistaken the whole time, but I guess I was wrong.

EDIT2: On second thought, I am pretty sure Wu Sangui had already let the Manchus in and had joined forces with the Manchus, before Wu Xiang was executed.
 
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YLi

If I recall correctly, he was halfway to meeting Li Zicheng to pledge fealty when he learned of his father's death.

But there are 10 different versions of this history.
 

YLi

Author's Note: From EvolvedSaurian
~*~*~
From the letters of the Mirza Raja Jai Singh
1061 AH (1652 by the Christian calendar)

Kandahar. For centuries the city has been contested between the armies of Persia and of Hindustan. This conflict with the Safavids is only the latest iteration, and apparently the last.

Aurangzeb, the third son of the Badshah Shahjahan, was appointed general of the Mughal army raised to retake Kandahar from the Persians who took the city by surprise three years ago. Although he clearly held me in contempt for keeping to the faith of my fathers, he held his arrogance within tolerable levels, and his fervor to win the city back for his father, whom I serve most loyally, forced me to overlook his... earnestness in religious matters.

The prince insisted on personally leading the initial assault. Safavid troops had massed themselves outside Kandahar, and led a force of cavalry into the center of the Persian mass.

Then the artillery.

It's not clear to me what happened next, the precise details. Persian cannons fired on the sowars, their musketeers volleyed into the ranks, our horsemen broke their lines and the prince lost most of his right leg to a cannonball. They retreated back into their city, and it is truly their city now, and our search parties recovered the prince, bloodied and crudely amputated. His leg was gone from just above his knee, and the thighbone was in splinters. The army surgeons were forced to amputate further and cauterize the remaining stump.

For a week, his life hung in the balance. Delirious, fleeting in and out of consciousness and in mortal agony, he was offered both strong wine and opium. Pious Muslim that he is, he resisted all offers for the first three days. On the fourth, he gave in. He quickly quaffed a bottle of wine, then accepted an opium pipe and remained quite insensible for the remainder of the day, regained consciousness come nightfall and took the same intoxicants, refusing food or water. A week after the battle the surgeons declared the infection gone, but by then it was too late. Prince Aurangzeb, once a stern moral force, is now a one-legged drunken pipe-addict.

The army, now under my command in its entirety, retreated to Kabul and the prince was sent ahead to Delhi. I am told that Shahjahan was shocked to see his son in such a condition and offered him all the palace doctors to aid his comfort and convalescence. The prince refused, and proceeded to take his comfort in a bottle.

Shahjahan, I am told, declared that "No more of the blood of Babur shall be spilled to take that wretched and devilish cities. Let the Persians have it, and let the bastards rot in it."

I was then relieved of my army, disgraced and placed as a commander of a thousand cavalry under Shahjahan's eldest son, Dara Shikoh.
 
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YLi

Sweet Wormwood: Ch. 2

Gao Guiying was in a place where no distinguished, middle-aged lady of high standing really should have been, much less in China, where women normally had their feet bound and were shut in the home.

Arrows and musket balls whizzed past her as she ran down the trench line. Her armor was plain and undecorated for the most part, to prevent identification by the Manchu snipers on Beijing’s walls.

A few other soldiers, some of the faster girls her size, were taking turns wearing an elaborately decorated suit of ceremonial armor befitting a woman of Gao Guiying’s status as a Lady of the First Degree and soon to be Empress of China.

The Manchu Grand Army had marched south from Mukden in haste and disorder, covering 150 kilometers per day for over a week. They had easily breached the overglorified skirmish line at Shanhaiguan and moved south towards Beijing. By the time they formed siege lines around the city, their men and horses were exhausted and they had left their artillery train and gunpowder stocks languishing back at Shanhaiguan.

The sudden counterattack by rebel forces had pushed the enemy army back into the city. General Wu delivered the captured Manchu artillery train a few days later and now, cannon, rockets and mortars were hammering away at Beijing’s walls. The only problem was that the walls were thick and sturdily built. Cannonballs bounced right off them.

There had been a million people living in Beijing and even though many of them had fled when the fighting started, there were still several hundred thousand people in the city walls and surrounding environs.

Fortunately, the Manchus had nothing more than muskets and bows; the rebels had stripped all the cannon from Beijing’s towers and were training them on the fortifications. Still, there wasn’t enough firepower to breach the gates and Manchu gunners were making it all but impossible to get sappers to the base of the walls.

Then there was the problem of assaulting the city. There was absolutely no way the rebels could match the Manchus in hand to hand combat. Still, the Manchus were getting desperate. The rebels could barely contain the last sally attempt and they only managed to repel the Bannermen by manhandling a pair of cannon into position and unloading canister shot into the tightly packed Manchu infantry formation.

Lady Gao took 3 more turns, then dove headfirst into a dugout as a couple of stray musket balls kicked up the mud near her feet. Not very accurate, but they could fly several hundred meters if the shooter aimed high enough.

“My Lady, are you alright?” asked an officer in the dugout.

“For the most part. How are our forces doing?”

“Same as usual”, replied the officer, “we’re running low on food and ammunition, not to mention the fact that every day we stay here is another day that we’re running the risk of a disease outbreak.”

“Well, fucking do something before these shaven-headed fucks outlast us.”

The officer, a professional who had defected from the Ming Dynasty flinched at Lady Gao’s distinctively un-ladylike profanity. “Well, there’s not much we can do.”

“Yes, yes there is. Try getting your head out of your ass. Confucian classics on strategy are nice, but they won’t help us here, especially if you’re missing their point entirely. Look at the situation.”

The officer cleared his throat, “As I mentioned previously, my Lady, we are running out of food and ammunition and are at great risk of disease, we can’t stay here much longer. In any event, we previously raided the countryside for food and supplies, so we can’t do it a second time.”

“Go on...”

“So...if we can’t stay here...Ah...”

“We hold the passes to the North and the cream of the Manchu army is trapped in Beijing. We are now the proud owners of most of their artillery train. At this point, they’ve probably slaughtered and eaten their horses. There is nothing to eat or drink in the city and not much to burn for fuel at night.They can either exit the city and try to forage for supplies that don’t exist or they can surrender to us and ask for terms. The really funny thing is that by now, word has probably reached the Manchu court that they’ve taken Beijing.”

The officer chuckled. “So pull back?”

“Yup. At least a day’s march out.”

~*~*~
“Do we...”

“If we want to live, we’ll surrender.” Dorgon sighed. “Damnit, I never should have trusted these stupid rice farmers.”

“Well sir, is it important that we live?”

Dorgon sighed again. “There’s absolutely nobody guarding Mukden. If we-”

“What about your brothers?” asked Dorgon’s advisor.

“They’re the definition of incompetence. They don’t count. Neither does Jirgalang and his clique of treacherous backstabbers. Either way, Li Zicheng is in a perfect position to march into Mukden.”

“Well...”

“Offer terms.”

“What?”

“Offer terms.”

“But what about our honor? Surrender would be undignified!”

“What of it? What is going to happen is that we’re going to drink some bad water and die of the shits in Beijing. Then Li Zicheng will march north and kill every man, woman and child from Liaoyang to Bukui with nothing to oppose him but a few packs of nomads doing hit and run raids. This whole notion of conquering China was a gamble in the first place. They outnumber us a hundred to one in both men and materiel and there’s no one else in China with the spine or the balls to stand up to Li Zicheng’s army, us included. If we don’t surrender right now, there is absolutely no way that we can protect our people.”

“I suppose so”, sighed the advisor. “But would living under Chinese slavery considered a true life?”

“I really don’t know.”

~*~*~
“They’re willing to surrender?”

The messenger nodded. “Dorgon says he’s willing to surrender if you spare the lives of his men and if you don’t launch any reprisals against the Manchu people. In return for your kind and merciful gesture, he will support you as the Khan of the Qing and Khan of the Mongols.”

“I’m listening.”

Li Zicheng sipped his tea carefully.

“He also says the other Manchus are for the most part incompetent and will not offer up any proper resistance.”

“That I don’t believe. Tell my wife that she is to disarm the Manchus. Then she is to bring Dorgon to me.

~*~*~
Things were going much, much better than expected for Li Zicheng. Not only did he capture Beijing, but Dorgon and tens of thousands of Manchus were pledging fealty to him. He was now face to face with the would-be conqueror of China.

“So what you’re telling me is that your brothers will likely squabble with Jirgalang and his faction.”

“Yes, Your Majesty, and our failure to capture Beijing has weakened his faction greatly. I suspect that if they want to keep their heads on their shoulders, they have no choice but to bow to you as well.”

“So you’re saying we should march on Shenyang at once while the anti-Jirgalang faction is still gathering up resources for a coup.”

“Pretty much.”

“We’ll never get there in time”, said Li Yan, one of Li Zicheng’s top advisors. “It’s 1400 li to Shenyang. Our artillery train can cover 60 li at most per day. Our guest here ended up leaving his artillery train behind during his march on Beijing. Manchuria doesn’t matter anyway, we need to focus on taking the rest of China before what’s left of the Ming Dynasty”

“I don’t think we’re in a position to any of those things”, replied Lady Gao. “We’re low on food and ammunition and our troops are utterly exhausted. I suggest that we spend the fall and winter stockpiling supplies and recruiting more troops to make up for our losses.”

“She’s right, boss”, chimed in Liu Zongmin, of Li’s generals, “We ain’t got shit to eat and next battle we’re in, we better start loading pebbles and dirt into our cannons cuz that’s all we got left.”

“Well....fuck”, Li Zicheng shook his head, “I guess we’re stuck waiting for now.”
 

YLi

The Extent of Li Zicheng's Empire, August, 1644:

Shun1650.png
 

Ganesha

Looks like a very interesting start! I'm curious to see your thoughts on the long term impact of the dynasty shift.

Cheers,
Ganesha
 

YLi

Thanks for your support everyone. I'll keep writing updates.

As for the basemap, I just Googled "Blank China Map" and picked a one I liked.
 
Aozhouhuaren

Aozhouhuaren

Banned
Great work, guys! It was a very interesting read. I very much look forward to further developments, especially in regards to Shun China. :)
 

M. A. Dickens

I forgot is Zhang Xianzhong still around? I sure like to see Li Zicheng sending Dorgon's forces to deal with him. ;)

Also, seems like Zheng Chenggong (or his heir) has got a lot to think about...

Marc A
 
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YLi

Sweet Wormwood: Ch. 3

Li Zicheng studied the weapon before him. It looked like a regular Frankish musket for the most part. There were a couple small bits of metal welded to the ends of each barrel that stuck up slightly. The German Jesuit had just handed it to him, proclaiming that it was “wunderwaffen” or something.

“What is this?” asked Li Zicheng.

“That, Herr Kaiser, is called a rifle.”

“A what now?”

“A rifle.”

“And what makes this ‘rifle’ so different from any other Western firearm?”

“Herr Kaiser, do you see that archery dummy over there?”

“Which dummy? That archery range has to be a full li away.”

The Jesuit took the rifle back and handed Li a pair of binoculars. “I painted one of the dummies red. Tell me what part you want me to hit?”

“Do you think you can hit it in the head?”

“I know I can.” The Jesuit cocked the rifle’s hammer back and pulled the trigger. A puff of cotton and hay erupted from the dummy’s head.

Li’s mouth hung open, he could scarcely believe what he just saw.

“So, do you understand now?”

“I want you to teach every gunsmith we have how to make these weapons.”

~*~*~*~
“You say you looted these from the Imperial Treasury in Beijing?”

“Not looted, more like appropriated. After all, Li Zicheng, the Chuangwang of Xi’an is the true and rightful ruler of China. He may expend his treasure as freely as he pleases.”

“That is quite a large amount of treasure.”

“It is. It is.”

Gao Yigong, Li Zicheng’s brother in law, hadn’t taken part in Li’s conquest of Beijing. He was in Amdo, Qinghai, courting Gushi, the Khosut Mongol Khan. The task had been made immeasurably easier when cartload after cartload of gold, silver, jewels, silks and porcelain looted from Beijing had found their way to the west. He was in the middle of nowhere on the shore of a forsaken body of salt water, rarely bathing and getting far, far too drunk on fermented mare's milk.

And yet, a great opportunity had just presented itself.

“My brother Ubashi was originally going to migrate westwards, but I think you’ve brought enough to convince him that he should stay in these parts. You will have all 5 of his tumens under your command by nightfall.”

~*~*~*~
“I want 3 shots each minute, you cocksucking pansy faggots! NOW MOVE!”

Liu Zongmin bellowed at the troops at the top of his lungs. He wore a big, bushy beard and was quite possibly the most muscular man in China at that time.

“IF YOU DON’T LOAD FAST ENOUGH, I WILL MAKE ALL YOU MOTHERFUCKERS REGRET THE DAY YOU FELL OUT OF YOUR MOTHERS’ CUNTS!”

He was also quite possibly the least sophisticated man in China. He was immensely proud of the fact that there was not a day he went sober and not a woman in China he couldn’t force himself upon.

Still, his job was not to be sophisticated, it was to make sure that the army could fight. To that end, he had the local gunsmiths modify some of his matchlocks to take a piece of flint, which struck against steel in the western style. He managed a test run in under 12 seconds. Not everyone was as mighty a warrior as him. 20 seconds would do. Soldiers arranged in three ranks fired one after another. If they were good enough, they could keep up a nearly continuous stream of fire.

The battalion of men practicing at the range had wax plugs jammed into their ears, in order to dull the noise from constant firing. They bit the tops off the paper cartridges, primed the pan near the lock with a bit of gunpowder and poured the rest down the barrel with the ball before ramming it down with a metal rod. The musket’s hammer was cocked back and the trigger was pulled.

Normally, the entire process took 30 seconds. The best trained troops could consistently fire once every twenty seconds.

There was one trooper cutting corners though. Through the smoke, Liu could see that he was smashing the butt of the musket against the ground to get the ball to roll down the barrel. And was he spitting the ball into the barrel?

Liu blew into a bugle on his hip. The sharp, piercing noise cut through the wax earplugs the men were wearing.

“CEASE FIRE! SHOULDER ARMS!” he yelled.

The men snapped to attention at once.

“Soldier!” he bellowed, pointing at the man who was spitting the balls into his musket, “FRONT AND CENTER!”

“Yes Sir!”, the soldier stepped up.

“Soldier, HOW FAST CAN YOU LOAD AND FIRE!?”

“In less than twenty seconds Sir!”

“TWENTY SECONDS YOU SAY!” Liu pulled out a gold pocket watch that the German Jesuit had given him. “I BET YOU THIS WESTERN POCKET WATCH THAT YOU CAN’T COMPLETE IT!”

“And what must I give up if I lose Sir!?”

“I hear from the other men that your wife is beautiful! She will become my concubine if you lose! YOU WILL WATCH US MAKE SWEET, SWEET LOVE IF YOU LOSE! I WILL STICK MY THIRD LEG UP HER ASS IF YOU LOSE, DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?”

“I can’t gamble on that, please don’t make me Sir!”

“TOO BAD!” Liu grabbed a musket from another soldier. “I CAN LOAD AND FIRE IN TWELVE SECONDS. CAN YOU!?”

“No I can’t, Sir!”

“I BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN! The first man to fire 6 rounds off will win the match, but to make things more interesting, the good Yi Zhang here will take actions to distract each man during the process!”

The battalion’s hulking Sergeant Major quietly cracked his knuckles. Liu handed his pocket watch over to the unit’s commanding officer and brought his musket into the ready position.

“AND BEGIN!”

The soldier got off to a fast start, quickly biting off the top of the cartridge the wrong way around, holding the ball in his mouth and spitting it into the barrel once he was done priming the pan and pouring the powder. He managed his first shot in less than 8 seconds.

Liu was slightly slower and made sure to use the ramrod. He was about to pull the trigger the first time when the Sergeant Major’s punch to the solar plexus lifted him off his feet. Quickly, he regained his bearings and pulled the trigger at 14 seconds. Immediately afterwards, the soldier fired another round off.

Right after he spat the third round into the barrel before he slammed the butt of his weapon against the ground, the Sergeant Major punched the soldier in the stomach. Unfortunately for the soldier, this caused the gun to slide under his own chin and discharge.

The Sergeant Major sighed and wiped the flecks of brain out of his face with his sleeve. Liu continued like nothing had happened, firing off all six rounds.

“What’s the time!?” he asked.

“One...one minute and 45 seconds sir!” stammered the commanding officer as Liu took his pocket watch back.

“THIS DIPSHIT!”, began Liu, kicking the dead soldier’s corpse, “WAS CARELESS! HE IGNORED THE CORRECT PROCEDURE. HE SHOWED CASUAL DISREGARD FOR ORDERS! ACCIDENTS CAN HAPPEN! DISTRACTIONS WILL HAPPEN ON THE BATTLEFIELD! BECAUSE OF THIS MAN’S STUPIDITY, I WILL SHORTLY BE COMMITTING ACTS OF GROSS INDECENCY WITH HIS WIDOW! IF YOU DON’T WANT ME FUCKING YOUR WIVES AND DAUGHTERS WHILE YOUR HEADLESS CORPSE LOOKS ON, THEN THE REST OF YOU FUCKING CUNTS WILL RESPECT! THE! FUCKING! MANUAL! OF! ARMS! DO YOU FUCKING UNDERSTAND ME!?”

“YES SIR!”

~*~*~
Luo Rucai was a thief and bandit lord. He was getting used to being an official. The Huai River area was at peace and he didn’t really have to do much except for train and equip soldiers.

But a good thief was also a good con artist. And to be a good con artist, one had to not only be able to talk, but also listen. A servant of Zuo Liangyu, governor of Wuchang was in front of him, explaining the woes of his master. A classically educated Mandarin would have no time to listen to a lowly servant. But Luo was a thief, and a thief knew whose words were truly important enough.

“But you see, Ma Shiying dismissed all the remaining eunuchs and started putting his own friends and family members in positions of power. He is a greedy and corrupt man.”

“And why hasn’t Zuo made a move already if this is the case?”

“He can’t. Ma Shiying commands the army and fleet along with the pirate Zheng Zhilong. He steals from the people to pay his men, I think he’s even selling our women to Dutch slave traders.”

“I assure you, we will depose the false claimants as quickly as we can.”

“Please hurry. I fear that my master will be purged soon.”
 
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