Chapter 1044: Northern Expedition

The night was deep, and the entire Old Mountain Palace lay in stillness. Only the Emperor of the Great Ming himself was probably still lying wide awake on the red sandalwood bed in the west warm chamber of Swallow Mountain Hall. He rested both hands behind his head and stared fixedly at the ceiling, lost in some unknown thought.

Beside him, Ning Xiangyu had fallen into a deep sleep right after their hands had touched. In looks and figure, this woman was absolutely among the top one or two in Emperor Zhu's harem — she was a peerless beauty chosen through the imperial selection! How could she be anything less? It was just that her temperament was not the best. She was a little — no, not a little, but extremely — rigid! She could not tolerate the slightest blemish in her eye, and once her temper flared, she dared to talk back to anyone.

Perhaps because Zhu Cilang had taken away her position as Crown Princess (she was actually not the formal Crown Princess, only a candidate), she had spent a stretch of time constantly defying Emperor Zhu. Had Emperor Zhu's inner self not been that of an uncle in his forties or fifties, especially willing to tolerate a pretty young thing like her, Ning Xiangyu would have long ago been banished to the Cold Palace.

But after spending a long time with Ning Xiangyu, Zhu Cilang had actually grown fonder and fonder of her!

It was not that Zhu Cilang was a glutton for punishment, but rather that he discovered Ning Xiangyu did not single him out alone — she was simply that rigid by nature, and if she saw something she disliked, she had to speak up. Even though Zhu Cilang was the Emperor, she refused to buy his account.

Such a temperament seemed annoying, yet Zhu Cilang knew that this Ning Xiangyu was sincere toward him, and that she truly wanted to help him improve into an enlightened ruler, which was why she acted this way. Moreover, her maiden family had all lost contact amid the chaos of war, and there was no vast Ning clan behind her to look after, so she truly belonged to Zhu Cilang alone.

Wu Sanmei and Zheng Chagu each had a large family behind them, and the two of them also had their own little schemes, so it was inevitable that they would form cliques and engage in palace intrigue within the harem. As Empress Wu and Consort Zheng grew older, their open and covert struggles in the palace escalated, and the eunuchs and palace maids had also begun to split into factions!

And the Chongzhen Retired Emperor increasingly gave Emperor Zhu headaches. It was not that his ambitions had not died, but that he was extravagantly wasteful. Even one million taels of gold-flower silver a year was not enough for his expenses, and from time to time he would ask Empress Wu Sanmei for money — and Wu Sanmei had a temperament of "righteousness cannot manage wealth"!

In addition, Zhu Cilang's children were gradually growing up, and they too needed someone to strictly discipline them.

Under these circumstances, Zhu Cilang needed a universally detested "stepmother" to assist Wu Sanmei in governing the harem.

And Ning Xiangyu seemed to be exactly such a "stepmother" — difficult in temperament, senior in standing. Wu Sanmei and Zheng Chagu both had to call her "Elder Sister Ning," and they too got headaches at the sight of this blunt-spoken woman.

So in recent years Zhu Cilang had doted on Ning Xiangyu more and more. Not only did he let her assist the Empress in managing the six palaces under the title of "Grand Noble Consort," he also put her in charge of palace punishments and finances (excluding the Royal Merchant Guild). This time, with Emperor Zhu going north together with Empress Wu, Yingtian Prefecture would have to rely even more on this "Stepmother" Ning to keep order.

The "Stepmother" had already woken up. Finding Emperor Zhu still deep in thought, she draped a snow-white, tender arm over him and asked in a low voice, "Why is His Majesty still not asleep? Tomorrow you still have to discuss the northern expedition with the court officials."

Zhu Cilang turned his head and smiled at Ning Xiangyu's full, dignified, beautiful face, then sighed, "I cannot sleep. There is to be another war, and I must carefully calculate everything — I cannot afford to fight at a loss!"

Ning Xiangyu blinked and said with a smile, "This concubine has advised you for so many years, yet you still treat governing the state and commanding the army as a business. It seems you will never take a loss in this lifetime!"

"Of course I cannot take a loss!" Zhu Cilang laughed. "If there were losses here and losses there, could our family afford two million a year in expenses?"

"How is it two million?" Ning Xiangyu said with a laugh. "Even counting that little slut's expenses (meaning Marie Mancini), it does not exceed a million a year."

Hearing Ning Xiangyu call Mancini a "little slut," Zhu Cilang merely chuckled, not angry in the least. That was because this nickname was one Zhu Cilang himself had started using in the harem — he quite enjoyed giving people nicknames.

He had given his eldest son Zhu Cihao the nickname "Little Tycoon," called Zheng Chagu "Tea Tree Mushroom," called Wu Sanmei "Sweet Naive," called Ning Xiangyu "Stepmother," called Fei Zhen'e "Little Fox," called Xu Erlin "Lady Pedant," called Jin Dongzhu "Little Pig" (her grandfather was Wild Boar Skin, after all), and Mancini was called by Zhu Cilang the "Royal Slut" — while the most baffling of all was Ajige's nickname: Princess Jianning.

Zhu Cilang smiled and continued, "Once the northern expedition army is raised, the harem's expenses will double. Because We are going to build a forward command palace in Tianjin. For the next few years, We will be traveling back and forth between Tianjin and Yingtian, and the harem will also have to be split in two. Xiangyu, when that time comes, your burden will be even heavier!"

Ning Xiangyu furrowed her elegant brows and sat up abruptly, her expression darkening. "Your Majesty, we already have three homes — East Lake Palace in Wuhan, the Forbidden City in Nanjing, and Old Mountain Palace north of the river — and the Forbidden City in Beijing still stands as well. The maintenance costs of these palaces alone amount to over five hundred thousand a year. Is there really any need to build another palace in Tianjin? If you want to take personal command in the north, can you not go to Beijing? Even if our family has money, we cannot spend it like this!"

In the harem, the only one who dared to show Emperor Zhu a sour face was Ning Xiangyu. Yet Zhu Cilang was not angry; instead he smiled and explained, "The Forbidden Cities in Beijing and Nanjing are both to be gradually abandoned. But the Tianjin Palace must be built. Because We must have a home in the north, and that home cannot be placed in Beijing — it can only be placed in Tianjin."

"Why? Is Beijing not good?"

"Of course it is not good!" Zhu Cilang said. "Beijing is in fact the general rear area and final fortress of the Swallow Mountain defense! As long as the Beijing fortress does not fall, the Swallow Mountain line cannot be considered completely broken. But as the capital of a nation, it is truly unsuitable — its geographic position is far inferior to Tianjin's."

"What is so good about Tianjin?"

Zhu Cilang said, "Tianjin is the water and land hub of the north! To the west, a canal leads to Beijing; to the south, a canal leads to Shandong; to the east lies the Bohai Bay, with Liaodong, Liaoxi, and Shandong close at hand, and Joseon not far away. Moreover, by using the monsoon winds, one can conveniently travel back and forth with Jiangnan. As long as Tianjin is in hand, Liaoyang, Anbei, Beiping, Daning, Hebei, Shandong, and other places are all within our grasp.

So our home in the north need not be placed in Beijing, but in Tianjin there absolutely must be a home!"

Emperor Zhu's reasoning was actually not entirely correct. Whether Beijing or Tianjin was better ultimately depended on whether the nation was a purely land-based power or a maritime-land dual-hegemon empire.

Because Tianjin was situated at a river mouth, transportation was extremely convenient, and it could also exert influence over Liaodong, Liaoxi, and Joseon by sea routes.

As long as the nation possessed a powerful navy, Tianjin's terrain would be a natural fortress!

Even if Beijing fell, Tianjin could hold out for a long time — at least in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, that was the case!

Therefore, Emperor Zhu, who had chosen Nanjing and the path of a maritime-land dual hegemon, had to move the northern center from Beijing to the coastal Tianjin, and moreover had to build Tianjin into the economic center of the north, then hold it firmly in his grasp.

Zhu Cilang continued, "Tianjin's terrain is so advantageous, and now Shen Tingyang is working hard to develop it. Once the lands beyond the passes are recovered, it will surely become the Shanghai of the north. We have been thinking that We must take this opportunity of the northern expedition to get involved, and under the pretext of establishing the Tianjin Palace, buy up more land, develop and operate it — in the future it will be another source of income for our family!"

So it turned out that the reason Zhu Cilang was not sleeping late at night was that he was pondering how to use this northern expedition to move the northern center from Beijing to Tianjin, and then to circle up (buy up) a large tract of land in Tianjin, develop it slowly, and once developed, only rent it out and never sell. He did not dare think too much — at the very least, the expenses of three years of pacifying Liaodong had to be earned back!

Of course, the pacification of Liaodong was spent from public funds, while the money Zhu Cilang earned in Tianjin was his private property.

Listening to Emperor Zhu's business talk, Ning Xiangyu truly did not know whether to laugh or cry. Was this man going north to fight a war, or going north to speculate in land? How did everything that fell into his hands become a business? Even the little slut was helping him promote milk tea in Europe and import woolen cloth and wine — and she was full of drive too!

(End of Chapter)