Chapter 1571: A Prosperous Age Not at Peace

With a plop, a half-gnawed sheep's trotter fell to the floor.

Princess Nisha heard the sound and quickly looked up to see Emperor Zhu with his mouth hanging open, staring at her in astonishment.

"Nisha, what did you just say?" Zhu Cilang spoke up. He had been badly startled!

Someone from the Western Heaven! No emperor ever liked the idea of going to the Western Heaven!

"Your Majesty," Princess Nisha said, "the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reported that someone has come from the Western Heaven..."

"Someone from the Western Heaven? Come looking for the Retired Emperor?" Zhu Cilang did not know whether he had not fully woken up or whether age was dulling his wits, but he actually asked such a question.

"Looking for the Retired Emperor? Why would someone from the Western Heaven be looking for the Retired Emperor?" Princess Nisha was equally baffled.

Indeed, why would someone from the Western Heaven come looking for the Retired Emperor?

To take Chongzhen up to the Western Heaven, of course... He should have gone more than thirty years ago, and now he was that many years late. Perhaps the higher-ups had noticed and sent someone to fetch him? Though who knew whether Chongzhen would be willing to go?

"Wait, that's not right!" Zhu Cilang had caught on by now and muttered under his breath, "This matter doesn't fall under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and it doesn't seem like the sort of thing anyone would send notice about... Nisha, bring the memorial to Us!"

That was true enough. If the Western Heaven wanted to send someone down, they would not go through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs! Even if they did, they would have to go to the Huangjue Temple... And Zhu Cilang had never heard of such a thing coming with advance notice.

Princess Nisha hurriedly handed the memorial to Emperor Zhu.

Zhu Cilang wiped his hands, then took the memorial and read it. It turned out that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' reception office in Shanghai had received a delegation claiming to be from the Western Heaven Prefecture of the Kingdom of India... The delegation was quite large, and they had brought proper credentials and gifts. The gifts were lavish too — a great pile of gold, silver, and jewels, plus ten Indian beauties!

It all looked genuine enough, so the Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials did not dare arrest them as frauds — and besides, nobody faked tribute missions anymore. The Great Ming now practiced free trade; anyone who wanted to do business was welcome to come, no need to impersonate envoys. Moreover, the Great Ming's diplomatic exchanges no longer followed the old practice of giving more than it received. The value of return gifts was generally lower than what the other side had presented, so faking a tribute mission was definitely a losing proposition!

The officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Shanghai office then began an investigation — they had to figure out exactly where this Western Heaven was. If this Western Heaven really was up in the sky, then it was no longer the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' business; it would have to go to the Huangjue Temple.

After asking around, they finally got it straight: this Western Heaven Prefecture was not in the sky at all, but in Bengal... Bengal in the Kingdom of India, the capital of the Great Shun Empire of India!

"What? The Great Shun Empire of India... isn't that the roving bandits?" Zhu Cilang slapped the memorial down on the table, his face full of displeasure. "And they even pass themselves off as the Western Heaven, trying to scare people?"

Fine, Shun is Shun, but why call it Western Heaven Prefecture... What kind of name is that? Western Heaven — are you going on a journey to fetch scriptures from the Western Heaven? Come to think of it, that fellow Li Jicheng really does seem to be close to the place where Tang Sanzang fetched the scriptures. Isn't Nalanda Monastery right near Bengal?

These roving bandits really know how to roam! They actually made it all the way to Bengal... Well, now their descendants will be drinking Ganges water for generations!

"Your Majesty," Princess Nisha asked quietly, "will you receive this visitor from the Western Heaven?"

"Yes!" Zhu Cilang said crossly. "Of course We will! We want to see just who dares to impersonate someone from the Western Heaven!"

Laoshan Palace, the Hall of Imperial Supremacy.

Zhu Cilang was not about to give the envoy from Western Heaven Prefecture a friendly face — the visitors from the Western Heaven all looked like Indians. Needless to say, every one of them was a traitor to India!

The leader was an old Indian traitor in his fifties named Xin Guiyi — the name alone sounded like a capitulationist! He was decent-looking, though, with sharp, spirited features and a large, neatly trimmed beard. Zhu Cilang had been planning to give this traitor to his own country a good dressing-down, but the fellow respectfully presented a gift list.

"Your Imperial Majesty, these are a few modest gifts our country has prepared for you. Though they may not be worthy of the eyes of the Emperor of the Celestial Dynasty, they represent our country's sincere devotion, and we hope Your Imperial Majesty will graciously accept them."

After presenting the gift list, Xin Guiyi opened his mouth and out came a stream of fluent Shaanxi Mandarin. When he finished, he lowered his eyes, composed himself, and stepped back, then beckoned to an Indian attendant standing by the main doors of the Hall of Imperial Supremacy. Then, led carefully by several matronly palace maids, in came slender, graceful beauties dressed in gorgeous saris, their jade ornaments tinkling as they walked lightly forward.

Zhu Cilang was taken aback. He had not expected Li Jicheng to pull this move... He, the Emperor of the Great Ming, was hardly some lecherous, money-grubbing man. Was this really necessary?

At the thought of money-grubbing, Zhu Cilang quickly lowered his head to look at the gift list. It was a long list! Nothing much of value, though — apart from the ten beauties, the rest was just gold, silver, pearls, gemstones, diamonds, and the like... Probably all fine things looted from Bengal!

Drawing his gaze back from the gift list, Emperor Zhu began to size up the beauties standing in a row before him... They all looked "Bollywood" grade, no worse than the maids Princess Nisha had brought with her!

Of course, Zhu Cilang was a man of high moral character, not a lecher, and would not be seduced by these beauties, much less bought off by the riches on the gift list.

"Take them all away!" Zhu Cilang said to a female official on duty in the Hall of Imperial Supremacy. "Take them all to the Red Fort and hand them over to Princess Nisha."

Most of the maids Princess Nisha had brought with her had already left the palace, granted as concubines to meritorious officials of the Great Ming. Two who remained in the palace had been taken by Zhu Cilang and made Selected Attendants, leaving only two still with Nisha. This was just the right time to "restock" for Princess Nisha and see if any were worth training...

The beauties were led away, and now they could finally get down to substantive matters.

Zhu Cilang opened his mouth and asked, "Xin Guiyi, tell Us... What exactly is Li Jicheng's meaning? Sending so many gifts — does he wish to submit to the Celestial Dynasty as a vassal?"

"Not at all," Xin Guiyi said with a smile. "Our Shun sovereign is an Emperor, and you are an Emperor too... both the same rank."

Before he had even finished speaking, several of the Great Ming's high officials present flew into a rage.

"Insolence!"

"Li Jicheng is nothing but a destitute bandit, and he dares compare himself to the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming?"

"Do you not fear our Great Ming's heavenly troops storming the Western Heaven..."

What? Storm the Western Heaven? What are you even saying?

Zhu Cilang followed the voice and saw that the one spouting this nonsense was Chief Grand Secretary Luo Dagong... Had this fellow also gone senile with age? Was it time for him to retire?

"Enough, enough!" Zhu Cilang waved a hand. "That bandit Li Jicheng has already gone to the Western Heaven... The Western Heaven is no longer within our Great Ming's domain. If he wants to play emperor there, We have no interest in interfering."

The Western Heaven was, of course, outside the jurisdiction of the Great Ming Emperor... Whether Li Jicheng called himself Emperor of the Great Shun Empire of India or even the Buddha of the Western Heaven, Zhu Cilang could not do anything about it.

"Your Majesty," Minister of Foreign Affairs Zhu Cixuan reminded him in a low voice, "we are allies of the Timurid Empire of India. The roving bandits have now invaded India and occupied the Timurid Empire's Bengal. Moreover, the bandits have also seized considerable territory in our province of Yunnan."

"Your Majesty," Xin Guiyi said at once, "we are willing to withdraw from Yunnan... Yunnan is the territory of the Celestial Dynasty, and we would not dare covet it. We only ask that the Great Ming Celestial Dynasty refrain from meddling in the contest for supremacy within India! As long as the Great Ming agrees to our terms, we can guarantee the free passage of merchant ships in the western part of the Lesser Western Ocean."

Zhu Cilang gave a cold smile and said, "The land of Yunnan, our Great Ming's heavenly troops will retake on their own — no need for you to withdraw! As for trade on the Lesser Western Ocean, you had best weigh the matter carefully yourselves! The struggles of great powers are not something a country like yours can meddle in... Perhaps when the Great Ming and Rome contend on the Lesser Western Ocean, you may find an opening. But the Great Ming and Rome are tens of thousands of li apart, and what we contend over is nothing more than commercial interests. There will surely be both strife and reconciliation. When the great powers reconcile, can you withstand the punitive expedition of our Great Ming's naval fleet? If you stayed tucked away in that backwater Burma, Our fleet might find no profit in striking at you. But you have already entered India and seized Bengal!

Heh, that is a rich and comfortable land. You had best take good care of yourselves!"

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