Chapter 1223: Come Quickly and Invest in Prince Dai! (Seeking Subscriptions)

In the residence Zhu Cilang had given to Marie Mancini, the lights were blazing tonight. Inside a small Western-style building, an informal banquet was underway, and host and guests were at the height of enjoyment.

Mancini's residence had originally been called the Pang Family Garden, the home of Pang Tianshou. It was somewhat secluded, and it sat right next to the Old Mountain Palace, making it an ideal spot for keeping a mistress in a golden house — which was why Zhu Cilang had bought it and given it to Mancini. After Mancini moved in, Emperor Zhu kept spending money to expand it, doubling the grounds and adding a small Western-style building. Once that Western building was finished, about one night in four that Zhu Cilang spent at Old Mountain was spent here.

Of course, the main reason Zhu Cilang stayed overnight at Mancini's was still work. Being an emperor really was exhausting — there was no concept of clocking in and clocking out. After a full day's work, sometimes he still had to keep laboring for the country and the people at night. Truly, it was too hard.

And when Emperor Zhu spent the night at Mancini's residence, he usually arranged some very private meetings. Unlike the former emperors, who were watched closely by others all twelve hours of the day, Zhu Cilang had always kept his own "private time" for activities that were inconvenient to conduct openly. At first, it was through Kou Baimen's "club" that he made contact with certain degenerates among the Jiangnan literati and carried out smear and rumor campaigns — the Gold-Touching Prince, the Grave-Robbing Regent, the mass-signature campaign for the "Proclamation Against the Barbarian Invaders" — all of it was cooked up through this channel.

Later, when the court moved to Old Mountain, Kou Baimen's "club" shut down, and she herself was summoned into the palace as a female official. Emperor Zhu temporarily lost his "private channel" and had to rely on the managers of the Royal Trading Company to carry out special tasks, which he always found inconvenient.

After Mancini arrived and requested to become the royal mistress, Zhu Cilang turned her residence into a "gray space." It was used not only for meeting prominent scholars outside office, but also for business activities that were inconvenient to conduct in the palace — business inevitably required signing contracts, and contract disputes could never be entirely avoided. Once a dispute arose, resolving it through legal channels was sometimes the best approach.

So Zhu Cilang could not sign contracts as the emperor. Otherwise, if a dispute arose, how would one litigate? The Great Ming Emperor sues So-and-So? Or So-and-So sues the Great Ming Emperor? Wouldn't that put Ji Kun, the Chief Justice of the Court of Judicial Review, in an impossible position?

Therefore Emperor Zhu needed a false identity and an agent who could appear in court on his behalf. So at Mancini's residence, he signed contracts under the name "Zhu Yaofei, Assistant Manager of the Royal Trading Company," while having Marie Mancini serve as the "guarantor" of the contracts.

In the event that "Zhu Yaofei" could not perform the contract, the other party could choose to sue Marie Mancini, and Marie Mancini would bear all legal consequences. If "Zhu Yaofei" needed to sue, he would likewise have Marie Mancini bring the suit on his behalf.

In this way, the Court of Judicial Review and the local magistrates' courts could adjudicate according to law.

And the people "Zhu Yaofei" had invited to Mancini's residence today were no outsiders: Prince Dai, Zhu Cijiong; the Minister of Revenue, Zheng Zhilong; the Minister of Works, Shen Tingyang; and Prince Fu, Zhu Cixuan, who had just been dragged back from Shanghai.

The purpose for which Zhu Cilang — no, "Zhu Yaofei" — had invited Zheng Zhilong, Shen Tingyang, and Zhu Cixuan to Mancini's residence was to raise venture capital on behalf of Prince Dai, Zhu Cijiong.

Zhu Cilang was a good elder brother. A good elder brother would never dig a huge pit, shove his younger brother into it, and then just walk away — that would make him no good elder brother at all. A good elder brother would certainly prepare a shovel for the younger brother in the pit, so he could dig out steps and climb up on his own.

And inviting Zheng Zhilong, Shen Tingyang, and Zhu Cixuan was, of course, to raise money so his good younger brother Zhu Cijiong could "buy a shovel."

The "shovel" that could dig Zhu Cijiong out of the great pit in the northwest was no ordinary shovel — it was a very expensive shovel. No matter what, they needed to raise several million taels. Relying on the Great Ming court was out of the question, and it was also inappropriate, because what could dig Zhu Cijiong out was a commercial project.

Although Zhu Cilang had promised his brother that if only the court could produce the money, he would not say a word against it — but the court was in difficulty!

If he didn't believe it, let him go ask Zheng Zhilong himself. There really was no money. Since the court had no money, private individuals would have to pay, and that was why tonight's gathering was held.

"Tonight, there is no sovereign and subject, only business, only buying and selling. I have invited Big Brother Yiguan, Chief Helmsman Shen, and Little Prince Fu. If you feel Prince Dai's venture in the northwest has no future, you need not give me, Zhu Yaofei, any face. Not investing a single copper is perfectly fine. Understood?"

The one speaking these blunt words was Zhu Cilang, under the alias Zhu Yaofei. Ugly words had to be said up front. Venture capital, after all, carried risk — if you lost everything, don't come looking for Emperor Zhu to cover your losses!

"Right, right. I, this subject, I know, I know. Risk borne by oneself, borne by oneself!" The exhausted-looking Zhu Cixuan was the first to speak up — his "rent-collecting king" self had been worn out these past few days! On the day the Retired Emperor Chongzhen summoned him, he had pried out the Retired Emperor's purpose from the eunuch delivering the decree (after paying an information fee, of course), then slipped away overnight to Shanghai to "collect rent."

He had barely caught his breath in Shanghai when the Prefect of Shanghai, Luo Zhichen, knocked on his door, bringing an invitation from "Zhu Yaofei" for him to dine at Mancini's residence.

If the Retired Emperor summoned him, he dared not go; if Zhu Yaofei invited him, he dared not refuse — and he dared not delay either. So he had no choice but to borrow several good horses from Luo Zhichen and ride back to Yingtian Prefecture. After the jolting journey, his bones were nearly falling apart.

Zheng Zhilong also spoke with a smile: "Prince Dai knows how to do business, and he has capable people under him. The northwest venture is one only His Highness Prince Dai can manage. I think it is worth investing in. Chief Helmsman, what do you say?"

Shen Tingyang nodded with a smile as well. "I see it the same way. Prince Dai, how much money do you need? Do you have a figure yet?"

Zhu Cijiong sighed softly. Business in the northwest was not easy.

Seeing Zhu Cijiong sighing, "Zhu Yaofei" spoke on his behalf. He smiled and said: "The expenses of the northwest expedition will all be borne by the court, and three regiments of the Young Guard will be sent to assist. The Beiting frontier army will also march in force, placed under Prince Dai's command, with all costs paid by the court.

What Prince Dai needs to raise now is the money to rebuild the overland Silk Road."

The troops participating in the northwest expedition would be divided into three parts. One part was the Four Garrisons recruits — that is, able-bodied surplus men recruited from the four garrisons of Anbei, Daning, Beiping, and Shuofang, to join the army in the northwest and settle there. According to what Zhu Cilang and Zhu Cijiong had worked out, they needed to recruit twenty thousand households in total! Each household would cost at least two to three hundred taels of silver in moving and resettlement expenses (the cost varied depending on the point of departure), plus at least two hundred taels in outfitting expenses for each recruit.

The total needed was nine million taels of silver!

In addition, the court would dispatch three regiments, a total of 7,500 men, of the Young Guard — this elite force Zhu Cilang had built was now very large, and it had two different designations: the Young Guard and the Guard. These two designations were based on the average age of the soldiers in each unit. Units with an average age under twenty-two were called the Young Guard; those with an average age of twenty-two to thirty-two were called the Guard; and those over thirty-two would be called the Old Guard!

At present, the Old Guard had not yet appeared; there were only the Young Guard and the Guard.

The pay of the Young Guard and the Guard was very generous, fifty percent higher than that of the ordinary New Army. But when carrying out combat missions, there was no extra pay. If they wanted to earn more, they had to trade merit for it, or share in the spoils of war.

Moreover, since the Young Guard and the Guard were both maintained at the highest level of combat readiness — troops that could be deployed at any time — mobilizing them for the western campaign did not require much extra money. They only needed provisions along the way.

Because the number of troops dispatched was not large, the expense would not be too great either. A hundred thousand taels would be sufficient.

In other words, for this northwest expedition, the court would have to pay an additional 9.1 million taels, and would also have to bear the pay of twenty thousand frontier troops in the northwest and the costs of the Beiting expedition.

It looked like an astronomical figure, but compared with the tens of millions spent at every turn during the Qing dynasty's wars against the Dzungars in history, it was really not much at all.

The reason it was not much was that Sengge had seized a large quantity of grain in the earlier war that destroyed the Khanate of Bukhara, and had stored part of it in the granaries of Chu River City.

Therefore the western expedition army could draw on the stored grain at Chu River City, and the cost was greatly reduced.

"Assistant Manager Zhu," Zheng Zhilong had long grown accustomed to Zhu Cilang's "doing business under a false name," "roughly how much money is needed now to rebuild the overland Silk Road? And how much can the overland Silk Road earn in a year? How many years before it turns a profit? Are there figures for all of this?"

(End of Chapter)