Chapter 216: Someone's Plotting Rebellion? Wonderful!

The man bringing the accusation before the throne was a scholar in his early thirties, a native of the Yangzhou Guard, and a military-register juren.

He was not bad-looking, tall and slender, with an elegant bearing and a face like polished jade. His features were handsome, and his long, narrow phoenix eyes were narrowed — though the right one was swollen and bruised, as if someone had punched him! The Confucian robe he wore had also been torn, the right sleeve ripped clean off. The square cap or whatever hat he should have had on his head was gone too, leaving his black hair-knot exposed.

"This student, Ji Kun, a juren of the Yangzhou Guard, respectfully wishes the Army-Commanding Crown Prince a thousand golds of peace!" The juren Ji Kun, who looked as though he had been beaten, was led before Zhu Cilang and performed the full rites, kneeling and kowtowing, and announced his name.

"How did you get beaten?" Zhu Cilang looked at the juren named Ji Kun, who bore all the marks of a thrashing, and asked Feng Sizhong beside him with a frown, "Sizhong, was it the guards battalion who beat him?"

"In reply to Thousand Years, it was not the guards who beat him. Someone was chasing and beating him all the way to Guazhou Wharf."

"I see." Zhu Cilang nodded. "Juren Ji, who was chasing and beating you?"

Juren Ji said with a face full of fury, "It was the household retainers of Xu Yongji, Guard Commander of the Yangzhou Guard, who were hunting this student down!"

"The household retainers of the Yangzhou Guard Commander are hunting you down?" Zhu Cilang had met Xu Yongji, the Yangzhou Guard Commander — a rather imposing-looking old man, a collateral branch of the Duke of Wei's house. "Why? You call yourself a military-register juren, so you hold examination rank and can take office at any time. Why would a Guard Commander make trouble for you?"

Ji Kun gritted his teeth and said loudly, "In reply to Thousand Years, because this student wishes to report the treasonous conspiracy of Xu Yongji, Guard Commander of the Yangzhou Guard, and Zhu Guobi, Marquis of Funing and Superintendent of the Canal!"

"Heh heh!" Zhu Cilang raised an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth curling slightly as he laughed.

Someone is rebelling!

And it can even drag in the greatest noble house of Nanjing, the Duke of Wei, Xu Hongji!

You, scholar, certainly know how to stir things up. You must have guessed Our mind! Not bad, not bad — a promising talent, just a bit too crafty.

"Good, good, good!" Zhu Cilang nodded repeatedly.

Below him, Ji Kun, who had brought the accusation, was somewhat stunned. What sort of man was this Crown Prince? Why was he so happy to hear of rebellion? Shouldn't he be flying into a rage?

Just as he was wondering, Zhu Cilang pointed at him and spoke: "Bring him along later. We return to the Grand Marshal's Office in Yangzhou together!"

The Grand Marshal's Office in Yangzhou was set up in a temple called Daming Temple, one of the eight great ancient monasteries of Yangzhou, built beside Slender West Lake. Its architecture was splendid yet refined, winding and secluded, elegant and understated — it did not look like a place of Buddhist cultivation so much as a garden where Yangzhou's rich enjoyed life.

On Qian Qianyi's recommendation, after arriving in Yangzhou Zhu Cilang had placed his Army-Commanding Grand Marshal's Office in Daming Temple, and at the same time placed the Chongzhen Emperor's traveling palace in another ancient monastery within Yangzhou city, Tianning Temple.

Guazhou Wharf was still some distance from Yangzhou city. Zhu Cilang's party also had many men, horses, and vehicles, and was carrying 5,000 firelocks, six 12-pounder bronze cannon purchased from the Bocarro foundry in Macao with Western-style carriages, and a large quantity of gunpowder. So it was not until that evening that the Crown Prince returned to Daming Temple.

After a simple supper, Zhu Cilang, accompanied by Zheng Sen, Bi Jiucheng, and Su Ziwen, held a night interrogation of Juren Ji in the waterside pavilion right beside Slender West Lake.

"Ji Kun!" By the dim lamplight, Zhu Cilang looked at Juren Ji, who had changed into a clean Confucian robe. "The Yangzhou Guard people say you are a cunning, pettifogging shyster who, relying on your juren rank, incites lawsuits, brokers lawsuits, and monopolizes lawsuits, disturbing the peace of the Yangzhou Guard and the local area to profit from it. Is this true?"

Zhu Cilang had already sent the Embroidered Uniform Guard to investigate Juren Ji's background, and found that he was no innocent either — he was a litigation broker who profited from lawsuits. Moreover, he styled himself a successor of the Donglin, had a foot in the Restoration Society, and had a name for himself among the Yangzhou literati.

Before the fall of Beijing, such a figure was someone even the Duke of Wei, Xu Hongji, was unwilling to provoke — though he held no office, he was after all a juren, and a name registered with the Donglin and the Restoration Society. Who knew when he might pass the jinshi examination?

Juren Ji had therefore grown arrogant and overbearing, holding the Yangzhou Guard's commanders and provosts in contempt, meddling at will in the Guard's lawsuits, and even helping the Huizhou salt merchants in their suits against the Shanxi-Shaanxi salt merchants backed by the Nanjing nobles, offending many people.

So after the fall of Beijing and Shi Kefa's march north to rally to the throne, he met with misfortune, suffering retaliation from Xu Yongji and Zhu Guobi, the Canal Superintendent. They had a Centurion whose land Juren Ji had swallowed through fraudulent registration bring suit, and along the way dug up a scandal of Juren Ji's incest (actually a woman of a distant branch of his own clan), seeking to strip him of his juren rank.

Ji Kun, pushed to desperation, was no pushover either. He simply took the risk and brought his accusation before Zhu Cilang — and the accusation he brought was nothing less than treason!

"There is!" Ji Kun gritted his teeth and nodded heavily. "This student does indeed love to right wrongs, and has often stood up for poor households of the Yangzhou Guard, the Dahe Guard, and the Huai'an Guard in their lawsuits, which earned me some small reputation. I was also retained by the Huizhou salt merchants of Yangzhou, and did indeed profit somewhat."

So this was a shyster who built his name by standing up for the poor military households of the guard stations, and once famous became the retained counsel of the Huizhou salt merchants.

"Heh heh," Zhu Cilang laughed. "You are already a juren. Why didn't you think of going further, instead of becoming a litigation master in Yangzhou? Was it because the price offered by the Yangzhou salt merchants was greater than what you could rake in from an official career?"

This Crown Prince knows everything!

Ji Kun was secretly startled, and could only nod and admit, "Thousand Years is wise. This student truly has no interest in an official career. Though I am a juren, I have no confidence of passing the jinshi examination. Moreover, in these troubled times, this student is of shallow learning and has no talent for righting the world. To force myself into office would not allow me to benefit all under heaven, so I would rather look after myself alone in Yangzhou."

Still wants to look after himself alone? When the Yangzhou Massacre comes, the Manchus will cut him down.

Zhu Cilang smiled coldly: "It seems you can hardly look after yourself alone in Yangzhou! Did you offend the Duke of Wei's house, or did you offend those Shanxi salt merchants?"

The Crown Prince even knows about the Shanxi salt merchants! Ji Kun was even more astonished! Zhu Cilang clearly understood the Yangzhou salt trade very well!

Of course! Shen Tingyang, the chief of the Sea Sand Gang, is now the naval commander under the Crown Prince! Wouldn't Shen Tingyang know everything about the Huai-Yang salt business?

"Both, both," Ji Kun said. "This student was too hasty in the past and offended many people."

"It is not that you offended too many people," Zhu Cilang shook his head. "It is that after the fall of Beijing, your juren rank became worthless! Shi Kefa spent considerable effort reorganizing the Nanjing imperial guard, and many guard stations in Jiangbei and Jiangnan contributed men, so those commanders naturally have stiffer backbones now. As for the Shanxi salt merchants, they are all the Nanjing nobles' men, aren't they?"

"Thousand Years is wise." Ji Kun nodded, somewhat deflated.

All his little calculations had been seen through by the Crown Prince.

"Then is there actually anything to this matter of Zhu Guobi's rebellion?" Zhu Cilang smiled.

"That..." Ji Kun broke out in a cold sweat. To say no would mean he had deceived the throne before! To say yes... he had no evidence either! He had only heard rumors. If Xu Yongji had not sent his retainers to hunt him down, he would never have brought such a malicious accusation.

"This student has only heard that he wished to oppose Thousand Years together with the Duke of Wei and the Earl of Xincheng." Ji Kun said, "A few days ago, when Zhu Guobi came south to Yangzhou, he discussed with Xu Yongji, intending to agree on raising troops..."

"Is there clear proof?"

"There is not... but this student can go investigate. I will certainly find it."

Zhu Cilang laughed: "There is none now — isn't that just empty words?"

By the way, since you are one of the salt merchants' men, tell Us about the salt business. What We want to know is: at most, how much can the court extract from the Huai-Yang salt trade? And how?"

Huh? He's dropping the rebellion matter?

Ji Kun was even more astonished. Had the Crown Prince fallen into a money pit or something? He wasn't asking about the rebels, only about salt profits. Wasn't he afraid those Nanjing nobles would succeed in their rebellion and seize his position as Crown Prince?

"Thousand Years," Ji Kun offered a well-meant warning, "these salt profits involve a great many interests — not only the southeastern literati, but also the nobles, officials, and palace eunuchs of both capitals. If you press too hard, the backlash will be fierce, and then even those who did not want to rebel will rebel."

Zhu Cilang laughed heartily: "We are not afraid! We are the reincarnation of the Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, and We specialize in curing all manner of defiance! The roving bandits and the Tartars have both been cured by Us — what are the southeastern nobles?"

A chapter recommendation for a masterpiece set in the early Ming: the new book by Qingshi Jincheng Hui, "Struggling in the Last Years of Hongwu"!

The Northern Yuan driven out, the realm swept clean — the Ming founder must die one day.

A scholar rules the state, the feudal princes watch like tigers; the reduction of the feudatories and the Jingnan Campaign — through blood, fire, and blades, a stern new Ming is forged.

An unemployed Embroidered Uniform Guard, a humble nobody — sword in left hand, hoe in right; one sword pacifies the world, one hoe feeds ten thousand people.

This is the winding tale of a small secret agent who struggles to become a great magnate of a golden age.

The Ming golden age weighs a thousand jun, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard bears eight hundred of it!

Open the Yongle Encyclopedia — it is all my legend!

(End of Chapter)