Chapter Ninety-Eight: Covering One's Ears to Steal a Bell

This was the issue Manzi Haiya cared about most. After all, he was the Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Jiangnan Regional Censorate, a figure of real weight within the Yuan regime. Since he had now deigned to come in person to win over the Chao Lake rebels, they at the very least had to accord him the treatment due a Vice Censor-in-Chief, if not even a Chief Censor.

Kang Maocai had already received instructions from Liu Yi and Lady Golden Flower. “Please be at ease, Your Excellency. Marshal Liu of Chao Lake has said that so long as Your Excellency is willing to discuss surrender and amnesty, you will remain the Yuan Empire’s Vice Censor-in-Chief. Whatever is being done in the Jiqing camp now will continue to be done in the same way in the future!”

For the Chao Lake navy and Liu Yi, this Vice Censor-in-Chief, Manzi Haiya, was truly a prize beyond price, perhaps the highest-ranking captive captured by the various anti-Yuan forces since Fang Guozhen rose in rebellion in the eighth year of Zhizheng.

Of course, in order to bring Manzi Haiya and the Yuan naval force over, Liu Yi and Lady Golden Flower could also resort to a few obvious forms of self-deception. “Marshal Liu has said that he cannot control what others do, but for Your Excellency he will still use the Zhizheng reign title. There is naturally no need to change banners and insignia. In any case, however you handled official business before, that is how you will handle it now, and your freedom to come and go will be fully guaranteed. Your Excellency may take the navy and leave at any time!”

The terms offered by the Chao Lake navy were unbelievably generous, though everyone knew that some of them were surely inflated or hollow. The clause about freedom to come and go was the classic example.

Everyone believed that Manzi Haiya, together with his relatives, friends, and old acquaintances, would indeed be free to come and go. Since Liu Yi had made such a promise, he would naturally keep it. But the line about “Your Excellency may take the navy and leave at any time” was pure bluff. If Manzi Haiya could truly lead the navy away, there would be no need for this elaborate game of self-deception in the first place.

Although Liu Yi’s promise did contain an element of empty boasting, people instead felt that Liu Yi and the Chao Lake navy would probably honor most of what they had pledged. After all, this was not merely a Vice Censor-in-Chief defecting to the rebels; it was also the strongest naval force on the southeastern battlefield of the Yuan Empire defecting with him.

Even though they would certainly play their little game of appearances after “defecting,” Manzi Haiya could continue wearing Yuan court robes, using the title of Vice Censor-in-Chief, and even cursing Liu Yi and Zhu Yuanzhang as rebels. The Chao Lake men and the Chuzhou men would, by contrast, wear it as a badge of honor. But for those men with ranks such as ten-thousand-household commander, garrison pacifier, and thousand-household commander, there was no such cushion; they would certainly have to change banners and become part of the Chao Lake navy.

Naturally, to preserve Manzi Haiya’s dignity, the Chao Lake side would certainly leave him a nominal post such as personal-guard thousand-household commander, or even personal-guard ten-thousand-household commander. But that too was only another piece of self-deception.

The reason everyone cooperated in playing along with this game was simple enough: each believed victory would ultimately be his own. Manzi Haiya felt that the Chao Lake water bandits were, in the end, nothing more than a pack of roaming outlaws, and that they would sooner or later be forced to seek amnesty and surrender. If he succeeded in bringing over the Chao Lake navy, it would be an extraordinary achievement; not only could he continue as Vice Censor-in-Chief, he might even go on to serve as Chief Censor, or even as one of the Left and Right Chancellors.

Liu Yi and Lady Golden Flower likewise believed they would be the final victors. Although Manzi Haiya still styled himself as a minister of the Yuan and continued to wear Yuan official robes and use Yuan seals, water wears through stone. Given enough time, this Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Great Yuan would surely become a loyal minister of the new dynasty, and the new dynasty would also need embellishments like Manzi Haiya.

But Manzi Haiya was still not wholly satisfied. “After all, I have enjoyed the state’s favor for generations. How can I let myself be trapped in a rebel camp? Old Kang, you need to speak again with the people from Chao Lake and press the matter a little further...”

Everyone knew that Manzi Haiya was setting his price outrageously high, but since they were all on the same boat, they naturally felt his demands were reasonable. “Yes, Old Kang, talk to them again!”

“In any case, we cannot be seen to be consorting with bandits. If Chao Lake wants amnesty, fine, but they need to show more sincerity!”

“If surrender talks fail, the friendship still stands. Tell Chao Lake to stop at once; if this keeps up, my thousand-household command will be completely wiped out!”

“Yes, if we are to become one family, at least leave me some capital to bargain with in the surrender!”

“Have them stop attacking!”

While everyone was talking over one another, a fresh report suddenly came in from outside: “Your Excellency, generals, Chen Zhaoxian is about to collapse. It looks as though he is ready to surrender!”

Chen Zhaoxian was going to surrender?

Even without leaving the naval camp, everyone could hear the killing still raging to the east. Zhu Yuanzhang’s left camp was throwing itself at Chen Zhaoxian’s forces with everything it had. Chen Zhaoxian’s men, already hard-pressed and having lost six or seven camps earlier, were now so thoroughly overwhelmed that surrender was a perfectly sensible choice.

Although everyone took the news with some skepticism, the navy had always had remarkable reach, and before long more inside information emerged. “Chen Zhaoxian may not necessarily surrender himself, but his camp is no longer able to hold. If Chen Zhaoxian does not surrender, someone below him will certainly go over to the rebels!”

“The Chen camp truly cannot hold out. If there is no Chen Zhaoxian, then there is still a Li Zhaoxian!”

“Chen Zhaoxian has already begun to waver. The only question now is which way he should go!”

Since there was now a real possibility that Chen Zhaoxian’s forces would surrender, the mood within Manzi Haiya’s camp changed at once. “Old Kang, hurry to Chao Lake. We cannot let Chen Zhaoxian get there before us!”

“So long as we are the first to go over, Chen Zhaoxian may still have a chance to follow!”

“Exactly. If Chen Zhaoxian moves together with us, then Zhu Yuanzhang will be unable to do anything to us!”

At this very moment, Zhu Yuanzhang still did not know what had been happening in Manzi Haiya’s and Kang Maocai’s camps. He was in high spirits now, all the hardship and humiliation of the past few months swept clean away. “The navy is still advancing steadily and cautiously. I estimate that by the time we break into Jiqing City, they will have only just breached one corner of Manzi Haiya’s water fortress!”

Li Shanchang had just taken a special trip out onto the river. “Marshal Liu has sent over a few more warships and armored men today to assault the water fortress, and there are a few more fire ships as well. But I estimate that the outcome still will not be decided within a day or two.”

The more Zhu Yuanzhang heard, the happier he became. “Good, that is best of all. Chen Zhaoxian can no longer hold on. So long as we can induce the surrender of those twenty thousand men, no amount of trouble from the navy will amount to much.”