Chapter 1440: Imperial Brother, Spare My Life (Begging for Monthly Tickets, Begging for Subscriptions)

Seeing the Zhu Emperor's fury, the twenty or thirty Ming Commandery Princes were all terrified — this was the Zhu Emperor, the Ming dynasty's foremost filial son, who could have their heads roll with a single word!

Terrified they were, but some still didn't know where they'd gone wrong — and had the nerve to shirk responsibility!

"Imperial Brother, we didn't mean to make Father angry. It's all Father's fault — he swindled us out of our sale money, wouldn't give us a single copper, and still wants to send us to Heilongjiang."

The speaker was the Retired Emperor's twentieth son, Zhu Ciling, only eighteen this year, just enfeoffed as Commandery Prince of Wuyang. He'd also received a run-down princely mansion and three thousand mu of poor farmland in Hebei, but his purse was still tight — he couldn't even scrape together the money to repair the mansion. His mother was a low-ranking consort the Chongzhen Emperor had taken in Shandong, plain-looking and out of favor, so she couldn't help him out. On top of that, he had a crowd of poor relatives from her side to look after, which had nearly turned him into a beggar prince.

Reduced to such a state as a prince, he was naturally full of pent-up anger, so he spoke without restraint in daily life. But the Zhu Emperor didn't bother with a penniless prince, so he'd escaped punishment and grown bolder and bolder in his speech.

"Insolence!" Zhu Cilang roared, cutting off the babbling Commandery Prince of Wuyang, Zhu Ciling. "Old Twenty, have you rebelled? You dare slander our Imperial Father — you are unfilial and undutiful!"

"Me, unfilial and undutiful?" Zhu Ciling was stunned by his eldest brother's shout, and even turned to point at Chongzhen, who was sitting in a chair sulking. "He's the one who's old but not respectable!"

"Outrageous!" Zhu Cilang bellowed. "Guards! Seize this unfilial son for Us!"

Seize him?

Zhu Ciling knew things had gone wrong. Just as he was about to beg for mercy, two guards who had come with the Zhu Emperor were already on him, one on each side, twisting his arms behind his back.

"Ow, ow, ow—" Zhu Ciling howled.

Beside them, the Crown Prince Zhu Hexing also set his face stern and snapped at Zhu Ciling: "Twentieth Uncle, what time is this? You're still crying about pain? You defied Imperial Grandfather — that is high treason. My Imperial Father is already enraged. You're going to die!"

Going to die? How had it come to dying?

Zhu Ciling was truly frightened now. He looked left and right — a whole pile of brothers were sprawled on the floor, and not one was willing to speak up for him. Were these even good brothers?

"Crown Prince, I wasn't the only one who defied the Retired Emperor! Everyone defied him! You can't punish just me — if we die, we all die together!"

Right! The law does not punish the many! There were twenty-some brothers! Could the Zhu Emperor kill them all?

But his twenty-some brothers were none too pleased. Every one of them glared at him with venomous eyes, just short of going up and beating him senseless.

Zhu Cilang's face was ashen. He glared at the pack of unfilial sons and jabbed his right finger at them, cursing: "Look, just look at what you've done to Imperial Father! When has our Ming imperial house ever produced unfilial sons like you? We will not let this go — not one of you is getting away!"

After laying down this harsh warning, the Great Filial Son Zhu paced back and forth across the hall in fury, his left hand resting on the hilt of his sword, which terrified the pack of unfilial sons below.

Their eldest brother was a ruthless man! Back when he was still Crown Prince, he'd dared chase Imperial Father around with a treasured sword. Now that he was Emperor — and a restoration hero who killed people like scything grass — what did chopping down a few brothers in a rage count for? What were they to do?

A few of the sharper Commandery Princes hurriedly shot glances at Crown Prince Zhu Hexing — your father's about to kill people, you have to stop him!

"Imperial Father, calm your anger. Imperial Father, calm your anger." It was the Crown Prince Zhu Hexing who had a good conscience. Seeing his father about to kill, he hurried forward to block him, and at the same time turned back to the pack of stunned uncles and said: "Why aren't you begging for forgiveness? Beg for forgiveness, quickly!"

Only then did the pack of foolish princes react — they had to beg for mercy! Otherwise they really would die!

The first to open his mouth and beg was none other than Zhu Ciling, already seized by the imperial guards. He shouted: "Imperial Brother, your younger brother knows his fault! Spare your younger brother this once—"

Seeing him cave, the other Commandery Princes all joined in pleading.

"Your younger brother was wrong, I'll never do it again—"

"Imperial Brother, spare your younger brother!"

"Imperial Brother, spare my life—"

Zhu Cilang naturally had no intention of sparing them. Hadn't he crouched outside the Hall of Longevity all that time precisely to catch this pack of unfilial sons red-handed?

He gave a cold snort then and there: "Our Ming rules the realm by filial piety. How can We tolerate a pack of unfilial sons like you? Today We shall surely execute a few of these rebellious sons who defied the Retired Emperor, to restore discipline and the hearts of the people!"

Execute a few? A terrifying atmosphere descended at once.

However ruthless Zhu Cilang was, he wouldn't slaughter twenty-some brothers in one breath — that would make him a Second Emperor of Qin. Besides, Zhu Cilang had only ever swindled his brothers, never killed them. Wasn't it better to keep twenty-some brothers around to swindle slowly? If he killed them all, who would he swindle?

But killing a few — that was a workable brother-killing plan!

The Commandery Prince of Wuyang, Zhu Ciling, was already scared out of his wits. The quota of "a few" was something others could gamble on, but for him it meant certain death! Even if there were only one execution quota, he wouldn't survive it.

"Imperial Brother, spare my life! Imperial Brother, spare my life! Your younger brother will never do it again. From now on I'll be good, I'll be properly filial to Imperial Brother—"

Even "filial to Imperial Brother" came out. The Chongzhen Emperor, sitting in his chair sulking, had been mulling whether to intercede with Zhu Cilang, but at these words his temper flared too, and he cursed: "The rebellious son deserves death!"

"Right! He deserves death!" Zhu Cilang roared. "Lucky boy, drag your Twentieth Uncle out and behead him—"

Zhu Hexing answered, went up, and grabbed Zhu Ciling, who had been made the scapegoat, pretending to drag him out for execution — but took the chance to lean close to his ear and whisper: "Twentieth Uncle, quickly say you're willing to go to Heilongjiang to guard the border for the realm!"

Hearing this, Zhu Ciling had no time to think it over and blurted out: "Imperial Brother, spare my life! I'm willing to go to Heilongjiang to guard the border for the realm—"

It wasn't over. Zhu Hexing was still feeding him lines: "I want nothing at all. I'll just follow the Crown Prince obediently to Heilongjiang!"

"I want nothing at all—" Zhu Ciling sobbed. "Just leave me my life. I'll follow the Crown Prince to Heilongjiang and wait on him hand and foot—"

Zhu Cilang nodded. "Fine! Since Twentieth Brother knows his fault, We won't kill you. We order you to serve in the Crown Prince's army. Do well, and later your elder brother will find you a plot of land in Heilongjiang and enfeoff you as a Commandery Prince who governs troops and administers the people — hereditary, never downgraded!"

"Your younger brother thanks Imperial Brother for sparing his life. Your younger brother gives thanks—"

A stroll past the gates of hell truly was educational! The unfilial son who just moments ago wouldn't leave the capital without silver had now made a leap in enlightenment, and had resolved to devote his whole life — and his descendants — to service on the banks of the Heilongjiang!

Zhu Cilang looked at this Twentieth Brother, and the more he looked, the more he liked him! Sure, the fellow was a poor student who'd barely scraped through middle school, good for nothing but eating, drinking, and having fun — but he was handsome. The Zhu family's hereditary good looks! Back in the day, Zhu Yuanzhang was just a squad leader of nine men who couldn't even manage ten, and hadn't he risen to glory precisely because he'd hooked up with Commander Guo's stepdaughter, Sister Ma?

Marriage alliance was an ancestral skill of the Zhu family, second in importance only to begging!

And for over two hundred years since, the Zhu family had selected beauties for breeding. By now, even a good-for-nothing was, more often than not, a handsome good-for-nothing. Take Chongzhen's sons — the princesses up in the northeast would surely drool at the sight of them. Zhu Cilang had tested it himself: hadn't Dong'e and Ajige both fallen for him utterly?

"And you lot?" Zhu Cilang fixed the other brothers with a savage glare. "Do you know your faults?"

"We know, we know our faults—"

"We all know our faults!"

"Eldest Brother, don't kill us — we'll go to Heilongjiang, to Andong, all right?"

Zhu Cilang smiled: "Now that's more like it. You'll all follow Lucky Boy to the northeast, each of you a Commandery Prince who governs troops and administers the people, all hereditary and never downgraded, guarding the border forever!" He paused, then added, "We won't treat you shabbily. Each of you gets a hundred thousand taels of silver as resettlement allowance — paid directly into your own hands!"

"Long live His Majesty! Long live, long live—"

Wait, that's not right! Why are they all going? Weren't only twelve supposed to go? Over there, the Retired Emperor Chongzhen was dumbfounded. Today he'd summoned twenty-four sons, originally planning to pick one out of every two — how had Zhu Cilang swept them all away? Wasn't this a bit too shameless?

(End of Chapter)