Transmigrating to the Chongzhen era, I started by confiscating the Donglin Party.

Chapter 21 Ice River Blood - Part 1

On the first day of the eleventh month of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen's reign, at the hour of Si (9-11 AM), at the Sanchahekou Wharf in Tianjin.

The wind blew in from the sea, carrying salty, fishy smells and ice crystals.

The canal was covered with a layer of ice about an inch thick, grayish-white and turbid, like a huge, dirty piece of jade. Beneath the ice, an undercurrent surged, emitting a dull rumbling sound—the water was being squeezed, like a trapped beast pounding against a cage.

Twenty official ships were moored at the dock, with dragon flags flying at their bows.

This was not a ceremonial fleet, but Li Ce's actual flagship. Three thousand Imperial Guards and two hundred elite soldiers from the five hundred New Army had been waiting here for three days. Horses were loaded onto the ship, hay was piled up in the hold, and arrows and gunpowder were tightly wrapped in oilcloth.

Li Ce arrived alone on horseback.

The black horse was steaming hot, and the white foam from its mouth and nose froze into ice crystals on its chest. He reined in his horse and dismounted, his boots clicking crisply on the ice.

"Is everything ready?" he asked.

Shi Wenyi, the Vice Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, clasped his hands in greeting. He was the deputy commander specially appointed by Li Ruolian before he stayed in Beijing. He was an old man from the Northern Garrison, with a scar on his face, a man of few words, and ruthless.

"All set." Shi Wenyi's voice was hoarse. "Twenty boats, forty rowers, and sixty towmen, working in three shifts. The message has been sent to all twenty post stations along the route."

Li Ce looked towards the upper reaches of the canal.

Several icebreakers were at work. Thick ropes were taut, and dozens of shirtless boatmen were shouting as they chiseled ice with iron picks.

"Hey-yo!"

"Give it your all—hey!"

The work chants were rough. Ice shards flew everywhere, landing on their frozen, red shoulders and backs, melting quickly, mixing with their sweat and dripping down, only to freeze into thin ice on their skin.

"How long will it take to break the ice?" Li Ce asked.

"We've breached a ten-mile waterway," Shi Wenyi said. "Today we can make it through thirty miles. However... the boatmen have been submerged for three days and three nights. Seventeen suffered frostbite, and two drowned."

Li Ce remained silent.

He walked to the edge of the dock. There, a dozen or so boatmen who had just finished their shift were squatting around a charcoal brazier, warming themselves. The fire was blazing, but their hands were still trembling—not from the cold, but from spasms caused by prolonged exposure to low temperatures, their fingers twitching uncontrollably.

Li Ce squatted down, picked up a piece of firewood, and added it to the fire.

The boatmen were stunned, and hurriedly tried to kneel down.

"No need," Li Ce waved his hand. "How many more miles of ice do we have to break through?"

An old boatman, shivering, replied with lips turned purple from the cold: "Your Majesty, from Tianjin to Linqing, a distance of 420 li, it's all shallow water, where the ice is thickest..."

"How many days will it take?"

"On a sunny day, I can travel fifteen li. But on a snowy day... even ten li is difficult."

Li Ce stood up: "I will give you five days. Within five days, break through a two-hundred-mile waterway—enough for the fleet to reach Dezhou."

The boatmen looked at each other in bewilderment.

The old boatman gritted his teeth, knelt down, and kowtowed: "Your Majesty, it's not that we didn't try our best, it's just that our bodies... really can't take it anymore. Look at these hands—"

He held out his hands.

His ten fingers were swollen like radishes, the skin was purplish-black and shiny, and pus and blood were oozing from under his nails. The flesh of several fingers had ulcerated, exposing the white bone underneath.

Li Ce stared at those hands for a long time.

Then he unfastened the jade pendant from his waist—a piece of Hetian white jade with a coiled dragon design, warm and smooth to the touch. He handed it to the old boatman:

"Pawn it, and distribute the money to all the boatmen. Those with frostbite, get a doctor; those who drowned, provide compensation to their families. The rest, buy wine and meat, and eat your fill tonight."

The old boatman dared not accept the job.

"Take it." Li Ce stuffed the jade pendant into his hand. "Tell everyone—these five days are not for breaking the ice for the Ming Dynasty, but for breaking the ice for their own parents and children. The sooner I arrive in Jiangnan, the sooner the grain from the north will arrive."

The old boatman gripped the jade pendant tightly, tears streaming down his face: "Your Majesty... we men, we'll fight to the death!"

At the hour of Wei (1-3 PM), the canal waterway

The fleet sailed sixty li from Tianjin.

The reeds on both banks stretched endlessly, withered and yellow, bending down and rising again in the wind and snow, rustling and moaning. The withered reeds were waist-deep, and at this time of year, they were easily ignited, making them an ideal place for ambushes and arson.

Li Ce stood at the bow of the ship, holding the newly delivered secret report in his hand.

It was a copy sent by Li Ruolian from Beijing, with a line of small print attached: "The plum blossom symbol is beginning to emerge. It is related to the purchasing records of the Imperial Kitchen, and we are investigating further."

After reading it, he brought the paper closer to the charcoal brazier.

The flames licked the corner of the paper and spread rapidly. Ashes rose, swirled in the wind, fell into the river, and disappeared.

"Send word to all boats," he said, turning around. "One shift of oarsmen, and continuous shifts of sledders. We must pass Cangzhou before midnight tonight."

Wang Chengen exclaimed in surprise, "Your Majesty, the boatmen have been working hard all day. If we speed up any further, I'm afraid..."

Li Ce walked to the side of the boat and looked at the figures pulling boats on the shore.

The towmen, shirtless, trudged through the snow, the ropes digging into their shoulders. Their breath dissipated quickly in the cold wind, leaving their backs frosted with salt.

He stared at it for a long time.

Then he took out half of a jade pendant from his pocket.

It is a piece of Hetian white jade with a dragon carving, but only half of it remains, and the cross-section is uneven.

This was brought back by the old boatman on his knees this morning. He said, "The pawnshop is only willing to give me three hundred taels. I am ashamed to fail the Emperor's grace." He insisted on splitting it in half.

Li Ce stroked the crack in the broken jade.

"Wang Chengen," he suddenly said, "tell me, whom should I show sympathy for? Whom should I be firm with?"

The old eunuch was stunned.

Li Ce pressed the half-jade pendant against the gunwale of the boat, pressing so hard that his knuckles turned white.

"One hundred and twenty li ahead of the canal, in the reed marshes of Cangzhou, lie three hundred men waiting to kill me. They carry oil, bows and crossbows, and iron shovels for scuttling boats."

He paused:

"If I die, what will happen to the million people in the north who are waiting for grain? What will happen to the soldiers at Juyong Pass who are eating snow and chaff?"

Wang Chengen's face turned ashen, and he bowed deeply.

"Therefore I must be quick." Li Ce released his grip, the jade pendant leaving a shallow mark on the ship's side. "Faster than their arrows, faster than their fire."

He turned around:

"By imperial decree: rowers will take an extra shift, and their wages will be tripled. Rowers will work in shifts without rest, and each rower will receive three taels of 'life-risking silver.' Those who pass through Cangzhou before midnight tonight will receive an additional five taels; those who collapse from exhaustion will be treated by the imperial physician; those who die... will receive fifty taels for funeral expenses, and their sons will fill the vacancies."

Shi Wenyi noted it down: "Your Majesty, this expense..."

"From my own private treasury," Li Ce said. "Money can be earned back, but once life is gone... it's truly gone."

The order was given.

The shouts suddenly became more urgent. The oarsmen, shirtless, tensed their muscles and bulged their veins. The splashing of the long oars cutting through the water became a continuous sound, and the boat clearly accelerated.

The boatmen jogged along the shore, the ropes digging into their shoulder flesh, leaving a trail of deep and shallow footprints in the snow.

Someone fell down, got up and kept pulling. Someone coughed up blood, wiped their mouth and continued shouting.

Three taels of silver is enough for a family to eat for half a year. Five taels of silver can buy two acres of poor land. Fifty taels... is enough to get a wife for the son and a coffin for the parents.

They don't understand the general trend of the world.

All they knew was that the Emperor was on the ship and that he had said, "Those who risk their lives will be rewarded."

The fleet shot south like a black arrow.

At 7 PM, in the reed marshes of Cangzhou.

It snowed again, with fine, scattered snowflakes.

Three hundred men lay prone deep in the reeds, having been lying there for three days and three nights.

Snow fell on them, accumulating into a thin layer that, from a distance, resembled a raised snow mound. But upon closer inspection, differences became apparent—about fifty men wore the greyish-brown uniforms of the palace's elite guards, their lips turning purple from the cold, their bodies shivering. The other two hundred and fifty wore variegated cotton-padded jackets, their faces covered with black cloth, their eyes cold and stern, their hands gripping their swords as steady as rocks.

The leader, surnamed Zhao, had a scar on his face—he wasn't a eunuch, but a leader of outlaws recruited by Han Zanzhou from along the Grand Canal using money from the Shen family. He held a monocular telescope in his hand, the tube icy cold.

In the footage, the riverbed is completely dark.

There were no lights, no boats, only the ice surface gleaming faintly gray under the snow.

"Chief Zhao," a young soldier beside him asked in a low voice, his teeth chattering, "Will...will he really come?"

"Yes." Commander Zhao put down his binoculars. "Eunuch Han said it would be no later than midnight."

"But it's already past 7 PM..."

"Wait." Commander Zhao glanced at him. "We've waited for three days, a few more hours won't make a difference."

He paused, then looked at the masked desperados:

"Brothers, cheer up. After this is done, Eunuch Han will give each of you five hundred taels of silver, plus a house in Nanjing. That'll be enough for you to live comfortably for the rest of your lives."

The outlaws' eyes flickered, but no one spoke.

They had truly seen blood. Former canal porters, deserters from the border army, and those who had retired from bandit camps all had lives on their hands. When Han Zanzhou was selecting people, the first test was to let them test their skills with a knife in front of others—only those who could kill a death row inmate without blinking an eye could enter this "clean army new camp".

"Furthermore," Commander Zhao added, "Eunuch Han has already taken care of things. The commander of Dezhou Garrison has received three thousand taels of silver, and tonight, not a single soldier will patrol this section of the river. Let's go all out."

A masked man suddenly spoke, his voice hoarse: "Chief Zhao, is there really an Emperor on the ship?"

Commander Zhao sneered: "Yes. Eunuch Han said it himself, the Emperor is on the lead boat. If we kill him, we'll be founding heroes. If we can't kill him..."

He didn't finish speaking.

But everyone understands.

If they cannot be killed, it is a heinous crime of treason that would result in the extermination of nine generations of their

The young eunuch trembled even more violently: "Chief Zhao, we're from the palace, the tyrant..."

"The palace?" Commander Zhao interrupted him, his eyes mocking. "Do you think Eunuch Han really expects you eunuchs to fight? You fifty are just there to make up the numbers. The ones who will actually fight are these two hundred and fifty brothers."

He patted the shoulder of the desperado beside him:

"See this one? He fought the Jurchens in Liaodong, swords and spears for real. This one robbed grain transport ships on the Grand Canal for seven years. This one is even more ruthless; he single-handedly took on three garrison soldiers..."

He checked them one by one.

With each order, the young soldier's face paled a little more.

"So," Commander Zhao concluded, "follow orders. Fire arrows when necessary, pour oil when necessary. But when it comes to boarding the ship, stay back. As for the crime of regicide... we brothers will take the blame."

The outlaws nodded in silence.

They don't care about the crime.

They cared about five hundred taels of silver and a house.

Commander Zhao raised the binoculars again.

At the end of the river, a faint light finally appeared.

One point, two points, three points... connect them into a line.

The fleet has arrived.

He licked his chapped lips, took out a tinderbox from his pocket, and blew on it to light it.

The flames flickered in the morning breeze.

child time.

There are two hours left.

At the same time, at the caravan camp thirty miles away

Empress Zhou sat by the campfire, holding a bowl of hot soup in her hands.

The soup was made by Yunniang, with ginger and brown sugar added to ward off the cold. She sipped it slowly, but her eyes were fixed on the north.

There, a faint dark red halo appeared on the horizon, undulating slightly beneath the low-hanging clouds.

It's like fire, yet it's not like fire.

"Your Highness," Yunniang said softly, "it's time to rest. We still have a long journey ahead tomorrow."

Empress Zhou did not move.

"Yunniang," she suddenly asked, "where do you think... the Emperor is right now?"

Yunniang was silent for a moment: "Judging by our pace, we should be arriving in Cangzhou soon."

"Cangzhou..." Empress Zhou repeated the two words softly, "There are reed marshes there, aren't there?"

"Yes. The narrowest section of the canal has reeds on both banks that are waist-deep, and they've all withered this season."

"It's withered..." Empress Zhou murmured, "What if we set it on fire..."

She didn't finish speaking.

Yunniang didn't respond.

Both of them stared at the dark red halo in the north for a long time.

That's not the glow of dawn. The glow of dawn is in the east.

Those were flames—vast swathes of fire, rolling and rising in the darkness, illuminating the low-hanging clouds. Though thirty miles away, the color was so striking, an orange-red tinged with black smoke, like the gates of hell had opened.

Empress Zhou suddenly put down the soup bowl and pulled the dagger from her sleeve.

The dagger was cold, and the blade reflected the campfire, gleaming with a flickering light.

"Yunniang," she said, "if there are flames shooting into the sky in the north tonight... we will change our route tomorrow."

"Where should we go instead?"

"We won't go to Handan." Empress Zhou gripped her dagger tightly. "We'll head straight south, through Jinan and Yanzhou, and then to Xuzhou. From Xuzhou, we'll cross the Huai River and reach Yangzhou."

Yunniang was taken aback: "But this way... we'll be completely outside the Phoenix Carriage Guard's protection area."

"Guards?" Empress Zhou smiled. "If something happens to the Emperor, the imperial carriage will be the biggest target. The farther we stay away, the longer we'll live."

She paused:

"And as long as I live to the south of the Yangtze River...those who want to overthrow the world will have to think carefully."

Yunniang gave her a deep look and bowed, saying, "This servant understands."

Empress Zhou put away the dagger, got up and went into the tent.

The tent was simple, but it was covered with thick felt. She lay down, her dagger beside her pillow. Outside, the wind howled, and occasionally the snorting of horses could be heard.

She closed her eyes.

But I didn't sleep.

At the beginning of midnight, the canal fleet

Li Ce sat in the first cabin, holding a teacup in his hand.

The tea leaves did not ripple.

Faint sounds of shouts, ice breaking, and wind could be heard outside. Shi Wenyi stood to one side, hands at his sides, awaiting orders.

"How much further?" Li Ce asked.

"Ten li," Shi Wenyi said. "At our current speed, we can enter the narrow waterway of Cangzhou at 3:45 PM."

Li Ce took a sip of tea: "The new munitions squadron is on the deck. The Imperial Guards are preparing to board. The icebreaker... let it burn."

Shi Wenyi was taken aback: "Your Majesty, if the icebreakers are burned, our path will be blocked. We..."

"Who said we're going to take the path ahead?" Li Ce stood up and walked to the map.

The finger is pointing to a location downstream of Cangzhou.

There was a small sign there that read: "Fork in the Road".

"The canal forks here," he said. "The main channel goes south, and the branch goes east, circling around Cangzhou City. The ice is narrow, so large ships can't pass, but small ships can."

Shi Wenyi's eyes lit up: "Abandon the big ship, and trade it for a small one?"

"Yes." Li Ce nodded. "The icebreaker burned, which conveniently blocked the main road. Han Zanzhou's men thought we were trapped, but in fact—we had already prepared an escape route."

He paused:

"But for now, let them think they've succeeded."

Outside the window, the wind was picking up.

Deep in the reeds, Commander Zhao saw the fleet's lights getting closer and closer.

He put down his binoculars, took out a tinderbox from his pocket, and blew on it.

The flames flickered in the cold wind.

He raised the tinderbox and drew three circles in the air.

signal.

Three hundred torches lit up at the same time.

It wasn't that the lamps were lit one by one, but simultaneously—like three hundred ghosts opening their eyes at the same time. The firelight pierced the darkness, illuminating the reeds, the ice, and the astonished faces on the boat.

Commander Zhao roared hoarsely:

"put!"