Chapter 16: With Silver, Men Will Sell Their Lives! (Please Add to Favorites, Please)

By the time Zhu Cilang left the inner parade ground, the sky had already darkened. The fifteenth day of the third month in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen was nearly over. By this time tomorrow, Li Zicheng's vanguard would very likely be prowling near the walls of Beijing!

And by the day after tomorrow — the seventeenth of the third month — the battle for Beijing would begin. If history did not change, two days from now the divine capital of the Great Ming would fall into Li Zicheng's hands. The Chongzhen Emperor would hang himself on Coal Hill, and Zhu Cilang would lose everything, reduced to a prisoner in Li Zicheng's camp...

By the time Zhu Cilang returned to the Palace of Upright Beginnings with his large retinue, the good mood he had felt while handing out "stock options" at the inner parade ground had vanished completely.

Although over the past day and night, Zhu Cilang had pulled off several unimaginable "deals."

He had successfully bamboozled Wang Cheng'en and Wu Xiang, two major figures of the Ming court, into becoming his "angel investors." He had also deceived the guileless Empress Zhou, turning her into his accomplice. He had laid a trap for the able-bodied men of Beijing, whose numbers were unknown, and finally issued "stock options" to Wu Xiang's household retainers — right in front of Wu Xiang, no less, and Wu Xiang had shown no displeasure whatsoever.

But the time history had left him was simply too tight. There were now less than four days until the city fell!

And only two short days until Beijing was surrounded!

So even if Zhu Cilang could scrape together a force of two or three thousand men, there was no way he could forge them into true elite troops.

Without elite troops to guard the imperial person, there was still no absolute certainty of escaping from Li Zicheng's encirclement of more than a hundred thousand troops.

Therefore the safest course was to flee tomorrow night, before Li Zicheng's army surrounded Beijing.

That way, besides the two or three thousand men he had hastily assembled, there would also be three thousand troops of the Nanhaizi Purified Army to protect him, and Song Quan in Tongzhou had one or two thousand men as well... At the most generous count, seven or eight thousand troops could be mustered.

With that many men protecting him, reaching the Tianjin garrison would be absolutely safe. After arriving in Tianjin, if he could also draw over part of Wu Sangui's Guanning Army, plus the Tianjin garrison and the Tianjin naval squadron, he would have ten or twenty thousand men.

With that much capital, he and Chongzhen would no longer be commanders without an army, and restoring the dynasty from Nanjing would be much easier...

If Chongzhen refused to shed tears until he saw the coffin... then they would have to fight a battle in Beijing! But that was all right too. Zhu Cilang still had some confidence in breaking out and escaping. Even if they had to fight in Beijing for a few days, he was not entirely without options.

There were plenty of able-bodied men inside Beijing. In times like these, as long as there was silver, there would be men willing to sell their lives!

And silver inside Beijing... there was plenty of it!

"Thousand Years, we've finally been waiting for you. Dinner is all prepared — shall I have it brought in now?"

At the main gate of the Palace of Upright Beginnings, the eunuch Huang Dabao had already been waiting for some time. Seeing Zhu Cilang arrive, he hurried forward to greet him.

Zhu Cilang's meals were Huang Dabao's responsibility. At some point, the imperial kitchens of the Ming palace had stopped cooking for the Emperor, the Crown Prince, the Empress, the Empress Dowager, the Princesses, and the Noble Consorts — because the imperial kitchen's food was too awful and too costly, and simply not worth it. So each household cooked for itself, with the eunuchs serving their masters taking charge.

For example, Zhu Cilang received a monthly food allowance of one hundred fifty taels, all handed over to Huang Dabao, that gluttonous eunuch, to manage — and he did a rather fine job of it.

"Come eat with me." Zhu Cilang turned to Zhu Chunjie, the captain of the Eastern Palace guards; Bi Jiucheng, the attendant secretary; Qiu Zhizhong, the study companion eunuch; and a dozen or so other guards. "All of you, come keep Us company for dinner. Dabao, is there enough to go around?"

"Enough, enough," Huang Dabao replied.

"Dabao, you join us too." Zhu Cilang smiled. "Eating together is livelier, and We have things to say to all of you."

With disaster looming before his eyes, even dragon liver and phoenix marrow would have no taste for Zhu Cilang. Using the mealtime to steady his core circle was what mattered most.

Wu Xiang's household retainers and the trapped able-bodied men of the capital were still on the periphery of Zhu Cilang's circle of power. The true core was the guards at his side, his trusted eunuchs, and the Eastern Palace lecturers. Though none of these men were particularly good people, at the moment he had no choice but to make use of them.

"Zhu Chunjie, Secretary Bi — you followed Us around all day today. Do you know what We are trying to do?" Zhu Cilang said as he picked at his food, addressing his guard captain Zhu Chunjie and secretary Bi Jiucheng.

"This subject understands, only... only..." Zhu Chunjie did not know what to say.

"This subject understands as well." Even as Bi Jiucheng spoke, his forehead was covered in cold sweat!

Among all of Zhu Cilang's close ministers and eunuchs, these two were the ones whose interests aligned most closely with his own. That was because the senior eunuchs and tutors around Zhu Cilang were all getting on in years and might not outlive Chongzhen. The Chongzhen Emperor's mind was not the sharpest, but his body was in excellent shape — otherwise he could never have withstood so much official business and endless mental battering!

Moreover, the Chongzhen Emperor was only thirty-three this year. If he lived into his sixties, those aging eunuchs and civil officials would all be dead long before. But Zhu Chunjie and Bi Jiucheng were young and vigorous; no matter what, they could become Zhu Cilang's foremost trusted ministers.

So as long as everything remained stable, Zhu Chunjie would at the very least become a Guard Commander — that is, Regional Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. And Bi Jiucheng would surely enter the Grand Secretariat; in time he would be Grand Secretary Bi!

But what Zhu Cilang had done today, for a Crown Prince, was truly beyond the pale!

A Crown Prince should not take the initiative in seizing military power! For now this was being kept from His Majesty, but how many days could it be hidden? Once His Majesty found out, the trouble would be anything but small. Deposing the Crown Prince might not happen, but the people around him would most likely be dragged down with him — and might well lose their lives in the bargain.

"Only that it was beyond the pale?" Zhu Cilang understood what Zhu Chunjie and Bi Jiucheng were thinking, and said with a smile, "We know it was beyond the pale too. But We are not afraid!"

"Your Highness, you..." Zhu Chunjie frowned, at a loss as to how to remonstrate.

Bi Jiucheng's face was also full of conflict.

"Because We have received a dream from the Great Ancestor!" Zhu Cilang's tone suddenly turned grave. "The Great Ancestor told Us that Juyong Pass has already been betrayed to the Roving Bandit by treacherous ministers, and the Roving Bandit's great army is about to reach the outskirts of Beijing! Now the only one who can save the Great Ming, who can save Our Imperial Father, is Us! For the Great Ming, for Our Imperial Father, what is there for Us to fear?

And you all saw what We did today... Last month Wu Xiang demanded a price of a million taels in military pay. Today he asked for nothing, wrote the letter ordering Wu Sangui to move his troops, and even offered his daughter to Us! Do you think Wu Xiang would be so agreeable without the protection of the Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor?"

He was rallying his trusted followers, boosting their morale so they would unite firmly around him.

Just as Zhu Cilang was speaking, the voice of the duty eunuch suddenly rang out from outside the Hall of Upright Reverence: "Thousand Years, Superintendent Wang requests an audience."

Wang Cheng'en had arrived.

"Invite him in." Zhu Cilang swept his gaze over the few men dining with him and said in a low voice, "The news of Juyong Pass's fall has arrived!"

Wang Cheng'en came striding in hurriedly, his face pale. Seeing Zhu Cilang sitting there, he said urgently, "Your Highness, Juyong Pass — Juyong Pass has truly fallen! Tang Tong and Du Zhizhi have betrayed the imperial trust!"

Zhu Cilang nodded. "How could the Great Ancestor's words in a dream be false? By the way, Companion Wang, have you eaten? If not, join us for a bite. Dabao, fetch another bowl and chopsticks."

Wang Cheng'en stepped forward and bowed, then said, "Thousand Years, the situation is urgent. How can you still sit here so calmly?"

"No hurry, no hurry." Zhu Cilang smiled. "There is still time to eat and sleep... Juyong Pass is still over a hundred li from here, and the mountain roads at Badaling are steep and treacherous, not suited for a large army to pass. We estimate the Roving Bandit will not take Changping until tomorrow, and will not surround the capital until the day after. Tonight we can still rest and sleep peacefully. Tomorrow night we slip away through Tongzhou under cover of darkness, and we will surely escape the tiger's jaws.

Companion Wang, do not be anxious. Anxiety is useless. Eat something with us, then go back and get some sleep. Starting tomorrow, I fear we will be busy day and night without rest."

Hearing this exchange between Zhu Cilang and Wang Cheng'en, Zhu Chunjie, Bi Jiucheng, Huang Dabao, Qiu Zhizhong, and the others all forgot to eat. They sat with mouths agape, staring at Zhu Cilang, no one knowing what to think.

Zhu Cilang smiled as he swept his gaze over his subordinates. "Everyone is tired. After dinner, go and rest.

Zhu Chunjie, none of your men may leave tonight; all of them will rest here in the Palace of Upright Beginnings. Tomorrow at first light, go out of the palace yourself and invite the three gentlemen Chen Rui, Li Shichun, and Lin Zengzhi, and bring them to the inner parade ground.

Secretary Bi, from this moment on, you will follow Us and serve as Our ghostwriter!"

(End of Chapter)