Chapter 1574: The Indians Have Finally Risen

At this moment, outside Chaoyang Gate of Nanjing's inner city, on land that had once belonged to the Xiaoling Guard, ten thousand commoners' dwellings had long since sprung up, clustered against the walls. Before Nanjing's southward relocation in the Jiashen year, the city's soldiers and civilians already numbered close to a million — indisputably the largest city in the world. Later, another two to three hundred thousand northerners migrated south in waves, and with bankrupt farming households from the countryside all around Nanjing constantly pouring in, that figure had long since surpassed two million. So the once-desolate eastern outer city of Nanjing had now become bustling and lively.

Especially from the early years of Hongxing onward, after the silk-reeling industry in the eastern outer city of Nanjing rapidly rose thanks to the appearance of large numbers of "ruthless" northern-army silk households who did not care about taking life, countless dwellings, markets, workshops, temples, storehouses, pavilions, and terraces had appeared on the former Xiaoling Guard lands. There were no strict ward-and-lane regulations, nor the rigorously planned construction seen across the river in Pukou — everything was just jumbled together in a chaotic tangle, which made it seem all the more lively. And Nanjing's prosperity was still far from reaching its limit: every year, countless people still migrated from the countryside and even small cities of Jiangnan and Jiangbei to Nanjing, the city at the Son of Heaven's feet.

Though Nanjing had developed into such a flourishing city and gathered such an enormous population, supplying food and clothing for two million people posed not the slightest difficulty. This city, along with nearby Suzhou, Yangzhou, and Shanghai, was truly a "chosen land" of early-stage capitalism. Relying on Yangtze River water transport, it could draw on the middle and lower Yangtze plain, the Jianghan plain, the Dongting Lake plain, and the Sichuan basin — these lands of fish and rice — as its hinterland, obtaining a continuous, low-cost supply of grain and raw materials.

Note: low-cost, and continuous!

Compared with Kaifeng in the Northern Song, and with Beijing before the Jiashen catastrophe, Nanjing — with its two million people — had no need at all for a huge transport bureaucracy and canal army laboring to maintain supply, or even sacrificing the Huai River to keep the canal open... Nanjing could obtain, at very low transport cost, large and ample quantities of grain sufficient to feed two million people, and still have enough surplus capacity to supply the consumption of its vast handicraft industry.

This abundant, low-cost supply was the foundation for the great development of workshop-based handicraft industry!

At the same time, these flourishing cities were also close to the seacoast, and could obtain foreign technology, capital, goods, raw materials, and markets from the boundless ocean, and could also very conveniently export surplus population overseas... The ability to easily export surplus population was in fact also an important precondition for gathering large populations!

Because capitalism, after all... how could it possibly be free of economic crises?

If there were no outlet to release the pressure, then when a crisis came, the trouble would be enormous...

Therefore, by moving the center of rule from Beijing to Nanjing, Zhu Cilang could very easily lead this country onto the road of capitalism.

But making the wealthy, gentle land of Jiangnan the center of the Celestial Empire also had its drawback: a nation's elite could too easily sink into a life of affluence and forget that this world ultimately speaks through guns and cannons!

However, in the thirtieth year of Hongxing, the warriors who had carved out this golden age with guns and cannons were all still alive and well, and Nanjing was still steeped in a martial, war-loving spirit.

When the news that the Great Ming was reunified, and that the Retired Emperor and the Emperor were going to the Xiaoling Guard to report to their ancestors, spread through Nanjing, the northern migrants living in the eastern outer city, the retired northern-army soldiers, and their sons and younger brothers all cheered and boiled over with excitement.

When the seventh day of the second month arrived, the long avenue outside Chaoyang Gate was already a sea of people — all subjects at the Son of Heaven's feet who had come to witness history, every one of them dressed in their finest clothes. The foreign envoys and foreign merchants residing in Nanjing and in Pukou across the river all wore expressions of deep emotion at this vast crowd.

No wonder the Great Ming considered itself the Celestial Empire... the population of Nanjing alone, this city at the Son of Heaven's feet, was greater than the total population of most countries in the world!

Yingtian Prefecture and the Guard Army had both mobilized large numbers of personnel for duty today. Soldiers stood facing the street, holding back the tide of commoners behind them. These soldiers also looked extremely spirited — for the father and son Zhu Youjian and Zhu Cilang, the Great Ming was a restoration, but for these Ming soldiers, this was nothing less than a founding of a dynasty — no, not one founding, but many foundings!

They were the warriors of the founding generation, so of course they were bold and full of spirit!

Squad after squad of cavalry selected from the Guard Army also paraded back and forth along Chaoyang Gate Avenue, flaunting their might. Every rider sat astride a tall Arabian or Indian Marwari horse, carrying a long gun or flintlock on their back, wearing a half-plate cuirass and a helmet. Anyone with a trained eye could see at a glance that this cavalry was an elite force capable of sweeping the world.

The East Peace Gate due east of the imperial city had been thrown wide open, and large formations of Guard Army officers and soldiers, all in gleaming armor, some mounted and some on foot, filed out in orderly columns.

Behind them came ten golden four-wheeled carriages, their windows tightly shut and curtains drawn; from outside, one could only make out faint silhouettes within. Every carriage had people seated inside — as for which carriage held the Emperor Zhu Cilang... or whether he was even in any of these carriages at all, only Heaven knew!

This was now an age when rifled guns had taken to the battlefield — from several hundred meters away, one shot might well settle the matter...

So Zhu Cilang was growing more and more cautious!

"Long live His Majesty the Emperor, ten thousand years, ten thousand times ten thousand years..."

Seeing the golden four-wheeled carriages, led by Guard Army cavalry, drive out through Chaoyang Gate, the commoners lining the avenue all bowed toward the carriages with clasped hands, while shouting "ten thousand years" in unison.

Though the cheering was not perfectly synchronized, it was extremely loud, rising and falling in waves without pause — one could well imagine that the soldiers and civilians along Chaoyang Gate Avenue all sincerely supported Zhu Cilang, the lord who had restored the Great Ming.

Following behind these ten carriages were the imperial relatives, nobles, and the full civil and military court, all riding on horseback... men and women together numbering several thousand!

As for imperial relatives, nobles, and officials who could not ride horses, they were excused from today's ancestral worship. Either they were too old to endure the exertion, or too young to understand matters... they could just stay home and behave!

Zhu Cilang and Zhu Youjian, father and son, had in fact already arrived at the Xiao Mausoleum by this time — Zhu Cilang would never risk assassination by openly passing along the main street!

Early that morning, he, his old father Zhu Youjian, and Zhu He'ao — full brother of the Crown Prince Zhu Hexing — had already arrived ahead of time at the traveling palace at the Dismounting Arch.

The three generations, grandfather, father, and grandson, had all changed into Heaven-Piercing Crown robes — this outfit somewhat resembled Song-dynasty imperial attire and was worn for sacrificial ceremonies.

Presiding over today's ancestor-worship was Kong Yinzheng; this descendant of Old Man Kong had been busy since last night and was at this moment making a final inspection of every part of the Xiao Mausoleum. Once he finished, Zhu Cilang, Zhu Youjian, and Zhu He'ao, three generations, would go before the treasure mound of the Ming founder to report on their work over these years.

Zhu Youjian and Zhu He'ao did not take it too seriously... only Zhu Cilang wore a devout expression, holding a work report he had written entirely by himself, reading it over and over.

His heart was rather uneasy!

Because he knew where he himself had come from. Now that the Great Ming had been fully restored, and the Xiao Mausoleum had been rebuilt at enormous expense... could his work as Emperor continue? It was only Hongxing 30 now — surely he ought to keep working until at least Hongxing 70?

So he had written in the report... that he was prepared to work another forty years, to lay a solid foundation for the Great Ming's ten-thousand-generation enterprise!

Just as he was feeling uneasy, dense footsteps sounded outside the door, followed by Kong Yinzheng's booming voice.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty the Retired Emperor, Your Highness the Prince of Ao, the auspicious hour has arrived. Please move outside the hall, and please follow this humble subject into the Great Golden Gate of the Xiao Mausoleum..."