Chapter 53: The Death of the Tianqi Emperor

The sky had just darkened. In the main room of the courtyard, Chen Xin sat at the table holding a bowl of noodles. A dim yellow oil lamp was lit on the table. Liu Minyou sat opposite him, also holding a bowl of noodles.

"Minyou, when Dai Zhenggang and Song Wenxian return in the ninth month, I'll be going to Jingshi. I'm taking Lu Chuanzong, Dai Zhenggang, Zhu Guobin, and Hai Gouzi with me."

Liu Minyou was a bit surprised. "You've already sent Qin Lufang to Jingshi, and now you want to take this many more people. Are you going to fight a war or something?"

Chen Xin chewed the noodles in his mouth a couple of times and said, "It's about the same as fighting a war. Tianqi is going to die. I don't remember which month, but it's this year. I want to go see if there are any opportunities."

"Aren't you just going to pay silver for a rank? What else can happen if Tianqi dies? Can you drag Wei Zhongxian out and kill him? Besides, the shop needs people too. If you take them all, what am I supposed to do here?"

Chen Xin picked up the noodle broth and took a sip, sighed comfortably, and then said, "If only it were that simple. Don't you have Zhou Laifu's wife and that Pan Jinlian in the shop? Right, I promised Lao Cai and Lu You that they can both come work at the clothing shop from now on. That many people should be enough."

With a clatter, Liu Minyou's bowl dropped onto the table. "You—who told you to hire so many people? The clothing shop hasn't even had a hundred orders this month, mostly cotton, earning only thirty or forty taels of silver. A few days ago you guaranteed Deng Keshan a base pay of three taels. Now you're adding two more people. What silver are we even making?"

Chen Xin unhurriedly set Liu Minyou's bowl upright. "Lao Cai gets two taels, Lu You gets one. What does it matter? Deng Keshan can handle matters in Tianjin—that's worth giving."

"It's not a matter of a few taels of silver. How much business can the shop have? You bring all these people here with nothing to do. What are they supposed to do all day, idle around?"

"Brother Liu, don't be impatient. We're not going to run a clothing shop our whole lives. There will be many other businesses to do later. We're building a core team now, so when we need them later, we won't be short of capable people."

Liu Minyou stared at him straight for a long moment, then suddenly stood up, went to the door, and slammed it shut with a bang. He came back and sat down. "Tonight you have to explain clearly—what exactly are you planning? Don't treat me like a fool and keep me in the dark."

Chen Xin put on a roguish look and reached for the soup bowl again. Liu Minyou beat him to it and moved the soup bowl aside.

Chen Xin spread his hands and smiled. "Fine, but don't laugh at me after you hear it."

"Go on."

Chen Xin cleared his throat and began, "I want to contend for hegemony over the world!"

With a crash, Liu Minyou fell off his seat. He scrambled up quickly, furious and flustered. "You want to contend for hegemony over the world? You've got just over ten thousand taels of silver. What gives you the right to contend for hegemony? The merchant houses in Tianjin city that do business on the Grand Canal—which of them doesn't have a fortune of tens of thousands? Even they haven't gone to contend. What gives you the right?"

Chen Xin hurriedly pulled him back down to sit. "Brother Liu, don't get worked up. I told you not to laugh at me, but you insisted I say it."

"Brother Chen, can we please stop stirring things up? We have a ship now, we have silver, we have a business. Can't we just live honestly and peacefully? I think we should settle you down with a family as soon as possible—then you'll be content. Several aunties from Erdaojie have come to propose matches. How about I let you get married first, alright?"

Chen Xin shrugged. "Can we really live in peace? What about when the Tatars come?"

"Don't you have a private port in Weihai? We'll flee to Weihai first, then to Taiwan. If that won't do, then Ryukyu. What's there to fear by the sea? But the way you're stirring things up, contending for hegemony—maybe before the Tatars even come, you'll have stirred us all into ruin."

Chen Xin gave a bitter smile. "Shopkeeper Liu, contending for hegemony over the world is just a dream right now. There's no roadmap to achieve it yet."

Liu Minyou said angrily, "You've had a roadmap for a long time. You've just been hiding it from us. From the day you entered the Japanese dried seafood Dian, you had a roadmap. You just didn't expect to make this much this time. Now that you have silver and territory, you can't wait any longer. Dreams have a price too. Didn't you see Martin Luther King? The moment he said 'I have a dream,' he was killed."

"Brother Liu, don't get angry yet. Hear my reasons, how about it?"

"Then speak."

Chen Xin put on a professional smile and probed, "If I said it's to save Chinese civilization, to keep it from being cut off by barbarism—would you believe that?"

Liu Minyou didn't hesitate. "No!"

"Mm, then I'm actually saving civilization while at the same time realizing some personal value—for example, gaining a larger stage..."

"Enough. You're just having a power addiction flare-up. Just like back at the company—whether marrying the director's daughter or collaborating with President Pan, it was all for power."

Chen Xin nodded repeatedly. "Brother Liu, you truly are my bosom friend. You've hit it exactly. Once you've tasted the flavor of power, it is addictive."

Liu Minyou glared, and Chen Xin quickly changed his tone. "Alright, seriously—great chaos is right before our eyes. Tianjin and Weihai are no paradises. Since we can't hide from it, why not rise up and fight? Change the fates of people like Dai Zhenggang and Hai Gouzi, and change the fate of China too. With me in charge of governance, it's certainly better than that half-slave, half-feudal, half-colonial monstrosity of the Manchu Qing."

Liu Minyou looked at him skeptically. "What do you mean, half-slave, half-feudal, half-colonial?"

"The Manchu Eight Banners are nothing more than a semi-slavery structure under a military clan command. After entering the Central Plains, they used military superiority to establish an ethnically segregated colonial society. But after a bit of dressing up, on the surface it looked the same as China's traditional centralized imperial regime—that's the so-called feudal society. It was like a parasitic tree, wrapping itself around the great tree of Huaxia, plundering its nutrients. After more than two hundred years, China had become a frail, ignorant monstrosity."

Liu Minyou was silent for a moment. What Chen Xin said might all be correct, but it might not be his real reason. Though he was his good friend, he was also easily deceived by him. "What else?"

"Second, I think we have a chance to succeed..."

Liu Minyou finally seized on his weakness. "A chance to succeed? There's also a chance to die a martyr's death. You don't know how to smelt steel or iron or make glass, and you don't know how to fight wars. How can you contend against the Jianzhou Bandits?"

"If we don't know, we can learn. I may not know these things, but I've studied several hundred more years of knowledge than they have—all products of the Industrial Revolution..."

Liu Minyou coldly cut him off again. "The two of us just read a few more books on math, physics, and chemistry, and we've long since returned it all to the teachers. I can't even remember the cosine of sixty degrees. Do you remember the parabola formula? Do you remember calculus? Do you remember the periodic table? You polish that gun every day—do you know the gunpowder formula it uses? Let alone smelting steel and iron—I've only ever seen molten steel. I don't know anything else."

Chen Xin opened his mouth, and after a long moment said, "I really don't remember. But Huang Taiji and Li Zicheng don't know either."

"They're not ordinary people. Those who leave their names in history, whether good or bad, are not the kind of ordinary people we are. Huang Taiji followed the old chieftain into battle since childhood. After all these years, even average talent becomes a qualified commander. For two people like us who've always been scholars, how many lives would it take to reach that level? Hai Gouzi and the others follow us, but they didn't sign up to die for us."

"Then think about it, Shopkeeper Liu. If we hadn't come, what fate would they have had? They'd just be tossed about in the great tide of the era—maybe joining the roving bandits, maybe joining the government army, maybe dying in a massacre. Who can escape the bloodshed of dynastic change?"

Liu Minyou remained resolute. "But they are before my eyes, not numbers in a history book. I'd rather take them to wander overseas than have them lose their lives for this. I don't like the Manchu Qing either, but I don't have the ability to change the great trend. Neither do you."

Chen Xin stole a glance at Liu Minyou. Under the weak oil lamp, his face was full of seriousness. Chen Xin's eyes shifted, and he spread his hands. "Brother Liu, your words have awakened this dreamer. I've decided to abandon this unrealistic idea. From now on, I'll honestly be an official. We'll do some maritime trade, earn some money. But since we're going overseas later, we still need to find more people to go together. Otherwise, how would we survive on those desolate islands? I plan to secure a piece of territory at Weihaiwei, gather more refugees, and when the Tatars come, we'll take them all with us and flee."

Although Liu Minyou didn't fully believe he had abandoned this notion, at least he had stated his position. Only then did he let him off. "Fine then. Remember the words you yourself spoke."

"I'll remember, I'll remember. Brother Liu has earnestly advised me—how could I be heartless and ungrateful? But I still have to make that trip to Jingshi. First, purchase a Battalion Commander rank. There are still over ten years before the Tatars break through the passes. We have to live these ten-plus years a bit more comfortably. When we go overseas and become savages, at least we'll have something to think back on—we did get to be officials in this life, after all."

"This official addiction of yours!" Liu Minyou sighed, then asked him, "Since you plan to settle down a bit, do you want those aunties to act as matchmakers and start a family sooner?"

"No need. I have my own arrangements. I'll find a pretty one after I get promoted."

Liu Minyou more or less knew about him and Miss Zhao. He sneered, "Has it been settled with Miss Zhao's side?"

Chen Xin nodded. "Her mother spoke to me a few days ago. She said she hopes I'll become their family's matrilocal son-in-law and leave a descendant for the Zhao family."

Liu Minyou's face lit up with joy upon hearing this. "Then quickly set a date..."

"Set what date? Their family has no son, only a daughter observing mourning. Considering Zhao Xiang's age, her mother said they'll only observe mourning for one year."

"Then you still have to wait a year. That Miss Zhao is beautiful—she's been to our shop. You're blessed with romantic luck. It's just a pity you'll have to be a matrilocal son-in-law again."

"What are you thinking? I didn't agree to be a matrilocal son-in-law. I only agreed that the first son will take the surname Zhao."

Liu Minyou rubbed his hands together. "That's wonderful then. Better than your last life. No need to carry foot-washing water anymore."

Chen Xin grinned, not angry at all. He leaned back in his chair, a trace of warmth appearing on his face. "Zhao Xiang really is quite good. Every day I chat with her a bit, watch her smile, and my mood is excellent. Besides, the sassy girlfriend isn't in fashion now. Even if I wanted to carry foot-washing water for her, she wouldn't dare agree."

Seeing that his good friend's heart had found its owner, Liu Minyou was happy from the bottom of his heart. In his mind, he had even begun planning how to arrange Chen Xin's wedding, even though it was still a year away.

The main gate suddenly banged loudly. By the time Chen Xin reached the courtyard, Hai Gouzi had already opened the gate. Deng Keshan rushed in, flustered and panicked. The moment he saw the two of them, he spoke urgently.

"Brother Chen, Brother Liu, have you heard? The Emperor is dead."

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End of Volume One