Chapter 226: We Are Not on Your Side!

Chang Yan'en, the Assistant Regional Commander of the Yangzhou Guard, had truly been living through days that felt like years these past few days. He was on edge all day long, and even at night he could not sleep soundly, terrified that he would wake up to find the Embroidered Uniform Guard already at his door.

As for this Chang Yan'en's background, it was in no way inferior to that of Xu Yongji, who had already fled. He was a descendant of Chang Yuchun, a founding hero of the Great Ming, who had been enfeoffed as Duke of E before his death and posthumously enfeoffed as Prince of Kaiping. His family's ancestor Chang Sheng, who had been enfeoffed as Duke of Kaiguo, had backed the wrong side in the Jingnan Campaign and been killed (some say he was implicated in the Lan Yu case), and the family had suffered misfortune for a time. However, by the Hongzhi era their crimes had been pardoned, and they had been granted the hereditary post of Guard Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard in Nanjing. By the Jiajing era they had risen even higher: because they were descendants of Chang Yuchun, they were further enfeoffed as Marquis of Huaiyuan, with the title hereditary and never to be downgraded. After that, three successive generations had held command of the Nanjing military headquarters, and the family's power had swelled accordingly.

And the Yangzhou Guard was the key domain that the Huaiyuan Marquis Chang family had cultivated — because the Chang family's wealth and rank had been interrupted for many years, they had lost the opportunity to acquire large amounts of property in Yingtian Prefecture. They could only settle for second best and make the Yangzhou Guard the focus of their operations. If a son born of a concubine in the family had no other prospects, he was assigned to the Yangzhou Guard wherever possible. By the late Ming, a vast Chang clan settlement had formed within Jiangdu County under Yangzhou Prefecture, called Changjiabang.

When Wuchang fell in the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, Chang Yanling had submitted a memorial to Chongzhen expressing his wish to go to Changjiabang in Jiangdu to recruit several thousand soldiers, then proceed west to Jiujiang to assist in its defense. But before he could set out, Zuo Liangyu had retaken Wuchang, and then came the matter of Shi Kefa marching north to rally to the throne, so his trip to Jiujiang was put off.

But from this alone one could see just how great the Chang family's power in the Yangzhou Guard was!

So when the Commander of the Yangzhou Guard got into trouble, it ought to have been good news for Chang Yan'en, the Assistant Regional Commander. Once Xu Yongji stepped down, the next to take the post should have been him.

But this time the situation was different. The Great Ming had produced a Crown Prince who was very likely the reincarnation of the Exalted Founder Emperor, and he was protecting the Emperor, leading the court, and had arrived in Yangzhou at the head of a real army of tens of thousands!

Not long after arriving in Yangzhou, he had suddenly moved to arrest Xu Yongji, the Commander of the Yangzhou Guard. Although he had not caught him, he had confiscated Xu Yongji's household and pinned on him the terrifying charge of plotting rebellion! After that, using the account books, letters, and other physical evidence seized from the Xu household, along with the confessions of the Xu family steward, bookkeepers, and others, he had arrested the four Shanxi-Shaanxi salt commissioners of Yangzhou!

These four old Shanxi salt commissioners were every bit as close to the Yangzhou Guard Chang family as could be!

Moreover, the Duke of Wei's household and the Marquis of Huaiyuan's household were related by marriage. The wife of Chang Yanling, Marquis of Huaiyuan, was a young lady of the Duke of Wei's household. And here in Yangzhou, the cadet branches of the two families intermarried just the same — they had long since become so intertwined that each was in the other and the other in each.

If the Duke of Wei's household plotted rebellion, could the Marquis of Huaiyuan's household escape?

So after Xu Yongji and his son fled, Chang Yan'en did not dare remain living inside Yangzhou city, and instead moved out to Changjiabang outside Jiangdu city to lie low.

But Jiangdu did not seem all that far from Yangzhou city either.

The days of terror did not last long, however. On the thirteenth day of the seventh month, early in the morning, the head steward of the Chang household came to report bad news to the groggy Chang Yan'en.

"Master, trouble! Someone has come from Yangzhou city!"

"What? Is it — is it the Embroidered Uniform Guard?" Though Assistant Regional Commander Chang looked imposing and heroic, the moment he heard that someone had come from Yangzhou city, he collapsed into his chair, his whole body going limp, unable even to flee.

"Not the Embroidered Uniform Guard." The steward shook his head.

"Eastern Depot agents." Assistant Regional Commander Chang's voice was trembling. The Eastern Depot was even more ferocious than the Embroidered Uniform Guard!

"Not them either," the steward said. "It's the Duke of Ying."

"Who?" Chang Yan'en was stunned, staring at the steward.

"The Duke of Ying."

Chang Yan'en came back to life at once and glared fiercely at the steward. "Ha! You old fool — can't you just say it all at once? You nearly scared me to death!"

His steward shook his head. "It's not good, though. The Duke of Ying has brought a large force of troops, and it looks like he's come to arrest someone."

"No need to fear, no need to fear," Chang Yan'en said, waving his hand. "As long as it isn't the Depot or the Guard, even if the judiciary came to arrest someone, what could they do? Besides, it's the Duke of Ying — one of our own!"

Although the old grudges between the Jingnan merit officials and the Jianwen loyalists had long since been resolved, the two groups of ennobled families, north and south, each had their own territory and each made their own money. It could not exactly be said that they never crossed each other's paths, but their conflicts were not great. By the mid-to-late Ming, when civil officials rose to power, the two groups of ennobled families even had to "shield one another as fellow nobles," and so their relations grew ever closer.

Since it was one of their own who had come, Chang Yan'en did not hide or flee. He hurriedly had people prepare a banquet and gifts, then went out personally to receive the guest. The moment he stepped out the main gate, he was seized and bound by a gang of ferocious-looking Censorate guards.

"Duke of Ying, what is this? What is the meaning of this?" Chang Yan'en was utterly baffled. "What crime has this humble official committed?"

The Duke of Ying, Zhang Shize, his face dark, gave a cold snort. "Chang Yan'en, you are a corrupt official!"

"What?" Chang Yan'en was stunned at the charge. "My Lord Duke, what did you say?"

"You are a corrupt official!" Zhang Shize said with a solemn face. "This official has already ascertained that of the 130,000 mu of land held by the Jiangdu Battalion of the Yangzhou Guard, 50,000 mu, along with 35,000 mu of government land belonging to Yangzhou Prefecture, have all been seized by your family. In addition, your family holds tens of thousands of mu of concealed land in Yangzhou Prefecture, has participated in the sale of illicit salt, has accepted bribes from Yangzhou salt merchants, and has shielded them in their illicit salt trade. Chang Yan'en, do you admit to these crimes that this nobleman has stated?"

"These... these count as crimes?" Chang Yan'en was nearly driven to laughter by Zhang Shize's dead-serious anti-corruption act. If this had been in the Hongwu era, the crimes would have been enormous! But in the Chongzhen era, what did any of it matter? All three hundred and some guards in the realm were like this! Otherwise, how could the Tartars be so rampant? How could the roving bandits be so formidable?

"How are they not crimes?" Zhang Shize said with a stern face, raising a finger at the defiant Chang Yan'en. "Your family's crimes are enormous! How many years has your family been seizing that land? A hundred years? Your family has shielded the illicit salt trade and taken bribes from Yangzhou salt merchants for more than a generation or two, hasn't it? You Marquis of Huaiyuan Changs have been corrupt generation after generation! Your sins are truly deep!"

"Ha, now you're dragging my ancestors into it? Fine, fine, my family are corrupt officials — so is your Duke of Ying's household clean?" Chang Yan'en was not about to accept that, and shot back on the spot. "The bit of land my family seized and the bit of bribe money we took are nothing but a fart compared to your Duke of Ying's household! Why don't you piss in a puddle and take a look at your own character? You investigate me now, and damn it, someone will be investigating you before long!"

"Hahaha—"

Someone laughed. It was not Zhang Shize alone laughing, but the dozen or so wolf-like Right Circuit investigating censors who had come with him.

"Wh-what are you laughing at?"

Zhang Shize shook his head. "You Assistant Regional Commander Chang, how can you be so muddled? We are not the same as you. Although we too are corrupt officials generation after generation, we are not afraid of being investigated!"

"Why is that?" Chang Yan'en still did not understand.

Zhang Shize laughed loudly. "Because we have almost all been ruined. Even if a little movable wealth remains, compared to when we were in Beijing, eighty or ninety percent of it is gone. What is there left to investigate?"

"Th-this, this, this..."

At last Chang Yan'en had the feeling that catastrophe was upon him. So the era of "nobles shielding nobles" was already over!

These ennobled families and hereditary military officers who had fled south with the Crown Prince had all lost eighty or ninety percent of their family fortunes, and some had been utterly ruined. They and the southern ennobled families were no longer the same breed. They had gone from being fat pigs awaiting slaughter to being the butchers who did the slaughtering.

Seeing that Chang Yan'en had nothing to say, Zhang Shize smiled and said, "Let me be frank with you. The fifteen Right Circuit investigating censors this nobleman has brought are all Beijing ennobled families and hereditary military officers who have been ruined. The Crown Prince has set a rule: we may take ten percent of recovered illicit silver and confiscated property as a reward! So do not harbor any illusions. Confess everything you have. In truth, even if you do not confess, we can still find it all out. Those little tricks your family used for embezzlement and bribe-taking — which of us does not know them inside and out?"

(End of Chapter)