Chapter 1773: This Is Bad—His Majesty Is Coming!

"Chief Director, His Highness the Prince of Fu has already entered the Nanhaizi Grand Camp together with the Duke of Ying, the two Guard Commanders Luo, and Vice Director Liu."

A young eunuch appeared without a sound, reported an urgent matter, and withdrew just as silently.

Xu Yingyuan, the one addressed as Chief Director, held an account book, seeming to read it without reading it, as if his mind had wandered. The person seated across from him smiled and said, "Father, this year's salt profits are a bit thinner than in previous years, and business in Beijing is sluggish too, but the tribute for you, old sir, is thirty percent more than last year."

The one reporting accounts to Xu Yingyuan was a beautiful young woman. Her brows curved, her lips pale, her skin lustrous and white as jade. Her eyes were long and narrow, and as she spoke her gaze flowed, yet what it conveyed was a rare spirited gallantry.

This young woman was none other than the head of the Bai family's Tian-zi shop, Xu Yingyuan's newly acknowledged goddaughter Xu Ruolan. She was in the prime of life at only twenty-five or twenty-six, yet because of her husband's early death and the constraints of propriety, she had long since become a widow.

And this Widow Xu not only brought death to her husband, but also to her father, her mother, her godmother, and her godmother's dining companion. Her own birth parents had long since passed away, and her godmother Madame Ke and Madame Ke's dining companion Wei Zhongxian had died the year before as well. Now only her godfather Xu Yingyuan remained to shelter her!

With only this one stout leg left to cling to, Widow Xu naturally had to work hard to curry favor!

Calling him father was only for the sound of it; the real benefit lay in the "tribute." The previous year, to keep her family from being implicated with Wei Zhongxian, Widow Xu had given Xu Yingyuan two hundred thousand taels. And this year it was thirty percent more, making two hundred sixty thousand taels.

Of course, these two hundred sixty thousand taels were not all put up by the Tian-zi shop that Widow Xu managed; the greater share came from the Xu family's old Shanxi establishment and the Yangzhou head office.

After all, the salt trade was the Bai family's main business!

Only this main business had recently run into a bit of trouble!

When trouble came, one naturally had to find a way to resolve it. And the way to resolve it was, of course, to spend money to smooth things over.

So the Bai family had earned less last year, yet the bribe to Eunuch Xu had grown.

But Xu Yingyuan merely sighed heavily and showed a troubled expression.

"Father," Widow Xu looked at Eunuch Xu, "can the present income be maintained?"

"Well..." Eunuch Xu shook his head. "Daughter, I cannot see through the ways of His Majesty who now rules the household either!"

Just as they were speaking, a clamor suddenly came from outside, and faintly, the sound of horses snorting and neighing.

What was going on?

Eunuch Xu started, looked up at Widow Xu, and was about to ask when the young eunuch who had earlier reported the news to him rushed in frantically.

"Chief Director, Chief Director, this is bad! A band of soldiers has appeared from nowhere, saying they have come to arrest... to arrest Widow Xu..."

Widow Xu was stunned at these words. "Arrest me? Why?"

Xu Yingyuan was also somewhat angered. He abruptly stood up and said to his goddaughter, "Daughter, don't worry. Let me go see who has eaten the gall of a bear and the heart of a leopard!"

With that, the Chief Director of the Eastern Depot swaggered out after the young eunuch. Widow Xu, uneasy, immediately followed as well. The group had only reached the second gate when they saw a band of burly men clad in golden armor, carrying round shields and sabers, forcing their way in. The two sides came face to face, and Xu Yingyuan shouted, "I am Xu Yingyuan, brush-holding eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial and concurrently Superintendent of the Eastern Depot! Who are you people? How dare you force your way into a private residence? This is at the very feet of the Son of Heaven!"

"Eunuch Xu," a man with a broad forehead, a heavy beard, and high cheekbones spoke up, "I am here by imperial order to arrest Widow Xu, the goddaughter of Madame Ke. The Chief Director is here as well—could it be that he too has received the order to arrest Widow Xu?"

"What? What did you say?" Xu Yingyuan was startled. "Who exactly are you people?"

"We are the personal guards of the imperial tent!"

"The tent guards have entered Beijing? When did this happen?"

"Just half an hour ago!" The answer came from Zhu Youjian, in golden helmet and golden armor, appearing before Xu Yingyuan surrounded by several equally gold-armored burly men.

"Your... Your Majesty..." Xu Yingyuan's legs went soft, and he knelt before the young Emperor.

By now Zhu Youjian had already caught sight of Widow Xu. Finding her looks not bad, he had already revealed a satisfied smile and asked, "Is that woman Widow Xu? Did she know We were coming to seize her, and so came out to greet Us of her own accord?"

"Chief Grand Secretary, this is a memorial from the office of the Governor-General of the Three Frontiers. It is marked urgent; it seems the popular uprising in Shaanxi is growing worse and worse."

"Chief Grand Secretary, this is a memorial from the office overseeing military affairs in Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan, Huguang, and Guangxi, also marked urgent. It seems Zhang Yuanping still cannot put down the two rebels She and An!"

"Chief Grand Secretary, this is a report from the Liaodong Supreme Command. The slave rebels are massing troops around Phoenix City and Zhenjiang Fort, and show signs of invading Joseon and Dongjiang..."

"Chief Grand Secretary, these are memorials reporting this year's drought and war damage in Northern Zhili, Shanxi, and Shaanxi. Many prefectures and counties have reported crop failures! The prefectures and counties of northern Shaanxi in particular have almost no harvest at all!"

"Chief Grand Secretary, this is the report from Southern Zhili on the condition of Xuzhou after the Yellow River receded. Xuzhou was flooded for three years, and the city is almost entirely ruined. After the waters receded, the silt deposits were severe, reaching three to four zhang at the thickest points. Nearly the whole city is buried in mud and sand—a pitiful sight!"

As the year drew to a close, Huang Liji, still barely holding the seat of Chief Grand Secretary in the Grand Secretariat, listened to the reports of the ministers below and his brow furrowed ever tighter, his mood growing ever more gloomy.

There was not a single piece of good news!

First, the popular uprising in Shaanxi could not be suppressed!

Alas, the northwest had been in drought for several years now. Last year it not only failed to ease but grew even more severe. Many prefectures and counties in northern Shaanxi were so parched that there was no harvest at all, reaching the point where "all grass and trees were gone, and men ate one another"! And the Ming court, ever since the sixth month of the first year of Chongzhen, had been busy dealing with wars against the Northern Yuan and the Later Jin, utterly unable to organize relief, and also unable to draw out strong troops to suppress Shaanxi.

As a result, the Wang Er uprising that had begun in the seventh year of Tianqi had not only failed to be suppressed but had grown ever more vigorous. Peasant uprisings had broken out in Fugu, Ansai (where Gao Yingxiang was), Yanchuan (where Zhang Xianzhong's old leader Wang Ziyong operated), Yichuan, and other places.

And the main forces of the key garrisons of Guyuan, Ningxia, Gansu, Yulin, and Lintao on the Three Frontiers had to be used to guard against the Chahar and the remnants of the Tumed raiding the border, so too many troops could not be drawn away to suppress the popular uprising.

Moreover, because of the drought and uprising in Shaanxi, the civilian-transport grain for the garrisons of Guyuan, Ningxia, Gansu, Yulin, and Lintao had all been cut off, which meant the five garrisons of the Three Frontiers were left with unpaid wages—the military pay of the Ming border armies was not all composed of silver, nor was it all issued by the Ministry of Revenue. Rather, it was made up of garrison grain (grain from military agricultural colonies), civilian-transport grain (which could be commuted to silver, or partially commuted), salt certificates, salt-price silver, and capital-transport silver. Of these, only the salt certificates, salt-price silver, and capital-transport silver were controlled by the court's finances. The garrison grain and civilian-transport grain were both raised locally and depended largely on the heavens. For example, the garrison grain of the five garrisons of the Three Frontiers was provided by local military colonies, while the civilian-transport grain was mainly provided by Shaanxi Province... The great drought in the northwest had left no harvest at all, so of course there was nowhere to collect the garrison grain and civilian-transport grain!

Therefore the military pay of the five garrisons of the Three Frontiers was reduced to only the salt certificates, salt-price silver, and capital-transport silver (because of the salt administration reforms, the salt certificates and salt-price silver had both been merged into the capital-transport silver, paid out of the Liaodong levy), which could not possibly be issued in full. And if the officials at every level who handled it skimmed a little as usual, the silver that reached the soldiers' hands was next to nothing.

Under such circumstances, it was already a blessing if the government troops of the five garrisons of the Three Frontiers did not rebel themselves—how could anyone expect them to suppress bandits?

So the popular uprising in Shaanxi naturally grew ever larger... Even though Zhu Youjian had now become an enlightened ruler "brave as Lü Bu, cunning as Zhongda, ruthless as the Cao traitor," for the moment he had no solution for the Shaanxi uprising either.

They could only let it rage on for now...

Just as Chief Grand Secretary Huang was racking his brains over the Shaanxi matter, a Bureau Secretary from the Ministry of Personnel suddenly burst in from outside. Seeing Huang Liji, he shouted, "Chief Grand Secretary, this is bad—His Majesty is coming!"

Huang Liji grew somewhat anxious at these words. "What are you saying? How can His Majesty's coming be bad?"

(End of Chapter)