Chapter 1313: No Throwing Silver Money Around!

"Your Highness, was this glittering golden elephant also brought from India?"

"Of course not. How could it possibly be shipped from India? From Surat to Guangzhou is nearly twenty thousand li of sea route — put an elephant on a ship and wouldn't it stink to high heaven?"

"Then this elephant is..."

"It was ordered from the Jīn'ōu Army, and the seller was even made to deliver it to Guangzhou."

"You buy an elephant and they even deliver it?"

"Princess Nisha has plenty of money! Money can make ghosts turn a millstone — what's delivering an elephant to your door?"

"Then what is Princess Nisha bringing an elephant to Wuchang for?"

"To ride, of course. Do you see the little golden house on the elephant's back? The Princess will sit inside it."

The two people talking were Zhu Cixuan and Luo Dagong. As it turned out, the two of them had come to the dock to welcome Princess Nisha of the Timurid Empire in India. Just as the two of them were talking about the elephant, they saw more Indian maidservants, dressed in brilliantly colored sari gowns, with glittering gold jewelry on their wrists, necks, hair, ears... even on their nostrils, form two lines and walk from that great golden ship down the long gangplank onto the dock. These maidservants numbered twenty in all, all of them wheat-complexioned foreign women with somewhat bewitching looks, each with a basket hooked over her right arm, and inside the baskets something glittered silver — though what it was, no one could tell.

Immediately after, Princess Nisha, in a white sari with only a string of pearls hanging around her long neck, looking exceptionally elegant, appeared in the line of sight of the Prince of Fu, Zhu Cixuan.

Zhu Cixuan tugged at Luo Dagong, who was carefully scrutinizing Princess Nisha's Rajput maidservants, and said in a low voice, "Princess Nisha has arrived."

Hearing this, Luo Dagong hurriedly looked toward the great golden ship, and at a glance he saw Princess Nisha, dressed all in white and wearing a white headscarf.

"How is it that this princess doesn't look like her palace maids?" Luo Dagong looked at the princess's features and complexion, then looked again at those Rajput palace maids — they were not the same race at all!

"Of course they're different," said Zhu Cixuan. "The Princess is a Mongol. Those palace maids are Rajputs of India — they were never the same race to begin with."

"A Mongol? She doesn't look like one!" Luo Dagong took another look.

"Her line has drifted. She has rather a lot of Persian blood, and a bit of blood from the Western Regions, but no native Indian blood, so she is very fair. Those somewhat darker ones are the high castes of India."

"High castes?" asked Luo Dagong. "Are there also low castes?"

"Of course there are," said Zhu Cixuan. "India has many castes, with high and low, noble and base clearly divided. Outsiders find them very hard to tell apart. All I know is that the fairer the skin, the higher the caste, roughly speaking."

"Is that so?" Luo Dagong glanced at Zhu Cixuan and said, half-jokingly, "Your Highness, the two of us are both quite fair. If we went to India, we'd probably both be high caste, wouldn't we?"

Heh heh, it's not all about skin! Zhu Cixuan had in fact studied India's caste system. Caste was actually tied to occupation. Luo Dagong was a descendant of the great Song-dynasty Confucian scholar Luo Yuzhang — six hundred years of a scholarly family; placed in India, he would probably be a Brahmin. As for Zhu Cixuan's own ancestors, they had begged for food... who knew whether Princess Nisha, upon learning of this, would look down on the Zhu emperor?

While he was lost in these wild thoughts, Princess Nisha, surrounded by a crowd of maidservants, had already stepped onto the Hanyang Gate dock. Her eyesight was excellent, and from far off she spotted Zhu Cixuan, so she came toward him with a smile, and when she reached him she imitated the manner of a Chinese woman and performed a blessing curtsey.

"Nisha offers her greetings." The princess spoke in Chinese too — she could now even write poetry in Chinese; her gift for languages was truly remarkable!

Zhu Cixuan hurriedly cupped his hands and returned the greeting: "This prince greets the Princess." Then he introduced Luo Dagong to Princess Nisha: "Your Highness, this is the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Great Ming, Grand Secretary Luo Dagong."

Zhu Cilang had abolished the Grand Secretaries of the Grand Secretariat and replaced them with a cabinet system in which the Prime Minister and the Ministers jointly assisted in governance, and so the eight Ministers were all called "Grand Secretary."

"Greetings, Grand Secretary." Princess Nisha also performed a blessing curtsey to Luo Dagong.

Luo Dagong hastily returned the courtesy, then said with a smile, "Your Highness, this old subject and His Highness the Prince of Fu have come by imperial command to escort you to the palace. The East Lake Palace is quite far from here — we had best hurry on our way, so as not to keep His Majesty waiting."

"I shall follow the Grand Secretary's arrangements in all things." Princess Nisha beckoned behind her, and then two pitch-dark elephant drivers were seen driving the great glittering golden elephant toward her.

At the same time, still more very dark-looking servants appeared, two men carrying one great chest, coming down from the golden ship. The servants were very numerous, and so were the chests. Even after Princess Nisha, with the help of her maidservants, had entered the little golden house on the elephant's back, servants continued to stream down from the ship in an unending flow.

"Your Highness the Prince of Fu, let us set out!" Princess Nisha waited until all her servants had disembarked, then said with a smile to Zhu Cixuan.

Zhu Cixuan and Luo Dagong exchanged a glance, then looked at the elephant, which had already risen to its feet, and ordered their various attendants to lead over the pacing horses — they had prepared a carriage for the Princess, but since she insisted on riding the elephant, they had no choice but to ride ahead on horseback to open the way.

But they were not at the very front. At the very front was Zhu Cixuan's honor guard. Behind the honor guard came Princess Nisha's twenty Rajput maidservants, then Luo Dagong and Zhu Cixuan, then Princess Nisha riding on the elephant, and behind the Princess were the servants carrying her books and jewelry — most of her dowry had already been deposited in the Maritime Merchant Bank and remitted directly to Wuchang Prefecture; only a portion had been brought along for spending on the road. What came with her was mainly her books and jewels. She was the foremost book collector in all India! The entire fruits of the Islamic world's hundred-year translation movement had come to China with her.

As for the jewels, they were so numerous as to be absurd. India was a place naturally rich in all kinds of gems and pearls, and the Timurid Empire had been plundering there for so many years that its storehouses were full of such things. Whatever Princess Nisha wanted, she could have as much as she pleased.

Actually, she did not wear much of it. She wore only a single string of pearls and nothing else. Nevertheless, Princess Nisha had brought a great deal of it to the Great Ming to keep up appearances.

The procession had already begun to move forward. After walking only a short while, the twenty Rajput maidservants with baskets, who were walking ahead of Zhu Cixuan and Luo Dagong, began — the moment they left the dock and came onto the main street outside Hanyang Gate — to throw the things in their baskets to the crowds watching on both sides of the road!

"What are they doing? Why are they throwing things around at random?" Luo Dagong was stunned when he saw pebble-like objects being flung out by the handful. "Couldn't this hit someone? What if someone gets hit?"

Zhu Cixuan had seen this sort of thing back in India, and said with a helpless laugh, "They're throwing rupees."

"Rupees? What are rupees?"

Zhu Cixuan explained, "Rupees are money! Silver coins of the Timurid Empire of India!"

"What? Throwing money? Can money be thrown around at random? Isn't this just wasting money?"

"That's how it is in India," said Zhu Cixuan. "The drowned drown, the parched parch. The Timurid court is so extravagantly rich it knows no bounds — its annual revenue is half that of our Great Ming's fiscal income! This Princess Nisha's dowry plus her own private property together amount to several million taels of silver, and on top of that she has an annual pension of over three hundred thousand taels!

I reckon her maidservants will scatter money all the way to the East Lake Palace!"

Luo Dagong thought to himself: Scatter money all the way? This princess is far too extravagant. I must report this to His Majesty when we return — she needs to be properly disciplined!

As Princess Nisha rode her elephant, scattering rupees, bringing with her countless jewels and books, passing through Wuchang city and heading for the East Lake Palace, the Zhu Emperor was alone in his imperial study writing out an examination paper — this was an entrance examination for Jinling Women's University! It was extremely difficult, and the first person to be tested by it was, of course, Princess Nisha, who was hurrying toward the East Lake Palace at that very moment.

It was just like Zhu Cilang to think of such a thing — he was going to use a semi-public examination to entertain this foreign princess who had come from afar, and moreover, her rank in the imperial harem would be determined by her examination results. At best she could test into Noble Consort; at worst she could only become a Lady of Selected Service. So Princess Nisha had better do well on this exam!

(End of Chapter)