Chapter 1174: Be Serious — We're Carving Up the World Here!

Investing in nation-building, and as a business deal?

Although the Senior State Uncle Zhou was a man of large dealings, with a family fortune already in the millions, his vision was not exactly broad, so he simply could not understand the relationship between investment and nation-building, much less treat the matter as a business.

How could this be a business? Nation-building is rebellion! That is what Li Zicheng and Nurhaci did!

Zhu Youjian, you are already the Retired Emperor, so why can you not settle down? Still thinking about nation-building. If you just shut your door and indulged in wild fantasies, that would be one thing, but why set up a stall in front of the Palace of Benevolent Longevity to raise rebellion funds? Even leaving aside how efficient the Embroidered Uniform Guard is nowadays, even without the Guard reporting it, His Majesty could not possibly fail to know! You live right across from each other! With you here selling things to raise money for nation-building, how could His Majesty possibly not know?

At that thought, how could the State Uncle Zhou dare see his son-in-law? Meeting him would make him an accomplice to rebellion! That would not do — he had to slip away at once. No, not just slip away; he also had to go report to the Emperor that his father was plotting rebellion!

The old State Uncle was a shrewd one; he knew that at a time like this he had to take a clear stand with his fine grandson-by-marriage, or his head would be moving house!

At that thought, without even a word to the old eunuch clearing the way ahead of him, he slipped off on his own, plunged into the crowd, and vanished. So fast was he that even the imperial guards following the old gentleman failed to react — these men were all guards of the Chongzhen Retired Emperor, in service since before the Jiashen year, not replaced in twenty years; the youngest were already in their mid-forties, their skills long gone. The guard captain following the State Uncle Zhou was even a fat man, at least two hundred jin, panting just from walking.

Yet although the State Uncle Zhou was seventy-four, he was in excellent health, neither fat nor thin, nimble of limb, and in a flash he had slipped away without a trace. The fat man still stood there dumbstruck, utterly unable to understand what had happened!

While the State Uncle Zhou was slipping away to tip off Zhu Cilang, his fine son-in-law, the Chongzhen Retired Emperor, was right inside the Hall of Imperial Supremacy!

The Retired Emperor setting up a stall was, of course, only a manner of speaking. The Chongzhen Retired Emperor could not actually go set up a stall outside the Palace of Benevolent Longevity to do business! If he had gone, nothing would have sold. So the ones actually running the stalls in the row of makeshift sheds outside the Palace of Benevolent Longevity were the senior eunuch Pang Tianshou and several of his adopted sons.

As for the Chongzhen Retired Emperor himself, he had gone off to the Hall of Imperial Supremacy to grab territory!

The world is vast, but it cannot withstand too many people wanting a share of the carving!

Chongzhen himself had more than a hundred sons; if each got a Thousand-Li Marquisate, that would be a hundred thousand li! Zhu Cilang, Zhu Cijiong, and Zhu Cizhao, the three brothers, also had many sons each, and they too had to take part in the carving!

Moreover, within the city of Yingtian Prefecture there was still a great heap of Princes, Commandery Princes, and their descendants. These dragon sons and dragon grandsons had not been raised as pigs for twenty years now, and among them a group of the young had no idea of the happiness of being pigs; every one of them was brimming with a sense of urgency!

Nowadays, aside from the few princes of the Ming bearing the "Overcoming Hardship" title (held only by those princes who led troops, such as the Prince of Tang, Prince of Lu, Prince of Dai, and Prince of Luokun), all other princes' titles descended with demotion.

A Prince's heir became a Commandery Prince; a Commandery Prince's heir became a Commandery Duke (the title of Duke was reserved for meritorious subjects); a Commandery Duke's heir became a Marquis; a Marquis's heir became a Count; a Count's heir became a Viscount; a Viscount's heir became a Baron; and after that, commoners. Moreover, each title could pass to only one son; the other sons became commoners!

Tell me, is that not maddening?

Most princely households had a pile of sons. The heir still had a path, but what were the others to do? How could they not be anxious, not be fretful, not strive?

But striving did not guarantee results! Not everyone could be a top student! Although children from princely households could enter the best primary and secondary schools of Yingtian Prefecture, by the university stage they had no particular advantage — just a slight bonus of ten or twenty points. And even that bonus applied only when sitting the examinations for the "Capital Academic System" (that is, the universities derived from the Capital Academy, such as Yingtian University, Nanjing Polytechnic, Wuhan College of Arts and Sciences, Tianjin University, and the like) and the "Military Academic System" (the various military academies). There was no bonus for the "Imperial Academy System" (Nanjing Imperial Academy, Wuhan Imperial Academy, Tianjin Imperial Academy) or the "Private Academic System" (privately run universities, concentrated mainly in the wealthy provinces of Jiangnan, Jiangbei, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, and the like).

And even with a bonus, admission was not guaranteed, because there were a great many people with bonus qualifications sitting the Capital Academic System and Military Academic System examinations!

In addition, under the various academies of the Military Academic System there trailed a host of semi-military, semi-civilian juvenile military schools, such as army middle schools and navy middle schools.

Compared with these students who had entered military school at ten-odd years of age, the children of princely households had no advantage even with twenty bonus points.

So there was not one among the crowd of princes and the princes' sons and grandsons below them who was not frantic, and the success of that "Fool Prince" Zhu Cihuan — the one who had lost all of the Chongzhen Retired Emperor's retirement money — gave this frantic crowd of dragon sons and dragon grandsons hope!

The success of the three brothers Zhu Cilang, Zhu Cijiong, and Zhu Cizhao would not give them hope. Because those three were formidable! Zhu Cilang went without saying — the Grand Progenitor and Exalted Emperor reborn!

Zhu Cijiong had all along been on the front line of resisting the Tartars in the north!

And although Zhu Cizhao was a notch below his two elder brothers, he still had the great achievements of pacifying Annam and rescuing Siam. In recent years he had also overseen the army that had fought down the Kingdom of Patani, and was now still attacking the Kingdom of Perak. He was on the verge of becoming the overlord of the southern sky — who would not be convinced?

But Zhu Cihuan had no ability. Everyone knew that apart from being a bit handsome, he had no merits at all; he was just a good-for-nothing prince.

If even he could carve out a state of fifteen thousand li overseas, why could not the other dragon sons and dragon grandsons?

So when everyone saw how hotly the titles of the Kingdom of Jiaqing were selling, their hearts instantly warmed.

The baronies of the Kingdom of Jiaqing truly could not meet demand! There were only five hundred slots in total, and Chongzhen had taken twenty-five of them, leaving four hundred seventy-five. How many rich men and assorted second-generation heirs were there in Yingtian Prefecture alone? They sold out in under ten days — so the State Uncle Zhou, far off in Suzhou Prefecture, had not even known of this fine opportunity!

With money this easy to earn, how could people not be envious?

Of course, those envious fellows had no idea how enormous the expenses on Zhu Cihuan's side were!

Those four million-odd taels were nowhere near enough to spend — Zhu Cihuan was in fact also just making merry in poverty.

But making merry in poverty was still better than having no merriment at all! Even an overseas Thousand-Li Marquisate was a spiritual anchor — even without a Ming title, there would still be an overseas Thousand-Li Marquisate, hereditary and unreducible, and with land and people to govern.

So the princes of Yingtian Prefecture quickly formed a "Six Princes Nation-Building League" and came together to "petition for land" from Emperor Zhu.

By "petitioning for land," of course, they did not mean carving flesh from the Ming's directly administered provinces, internal dependencies, or external vassals; rather, they wanted to "petition for unowned land."

But "unowned land" was, after all, limited, and land both relatively close to the Ming and relatively wealthy was even scarcer.

They had to move fast and grab it!

"This is ours! We brothers proposed it first — what right do you have to seize it?"

"I am the Prince of Overcoming Hardship. What are you? You are nothing but a demoted 'wandering prince.' What right do you have to contend with me?"

"What right? The Prince of Fu has also bought in!"

"Your Majesty, this subject's line of the Prince of Zhou is overpopulated and has long been living beyond its means. Moreover, although my house has no merit in overcoming hardship, when we held Kaifeng Prefecture in those years we did our utmost to defend home and country, spending a million in gold on the city's defense!"

These princes really were making a scene — right in the Hall of Imperial Supremacy, they had gathered around an enormous globe and started quarreling!

The sight of them infuriated Zhu Cilang. He was just about to open his mouth to rebuke them when the Chongzhen Retired Emperor, who had arrived at some unknown point, suddenly shouted: "All of you, stop arguing!"

The Great Emperor Zhu turned his head and saw that the Chongzhen Retired Emperor, bringing along several of his older sons, had arrived at the Hall of Imperial Supremacy at some unknown time.

Zhu Cilang was not exactly pleased either. Seeing Chongzhen arrive, he did not go to greet him, but instead teased him: "Imperial Father, were you not setting up a street stall outside the Palace of Benevolent Longevity? How did you get here so quickly? Sold everything already?"

"What do you mean, sold everything?" Chongzhen glared at his son, then pointed at the crowd of princes quarreling around the globe. "Had We come any later, the world would have been carved up completely!"

What was this about carving up the world... Just as Zhu Cilang was about to explain matters properly to Chongzhen, the voice of the senior eunuch Huang Xiaobao rang out: "Your Majesty, the Jiading Count Zhou Kui requests an audience, saying he has urgent matters to report!"

(End of Chapter)