Chapter 227: Ji Kun Takes Office

Among the sixteen investigating censors Zhang Shize had brought with him, one was not from the right section — that is, he was not a "military censor," but a civil censor of juren background. This man was Ji Kun, juren, of Yangzhou Guard military household origin.

He had now very reluctantly become an official, appointed to a left-section investigating censor post with rich pickings — and the pickings of this office were indeed rich. One could openly drink the blood of corrupt officials and eat their flesh, so long as the greater share was left for His Highness the Crown Prince.

He had clearly been given an office with excellent "prospects," yet Ji Kun, courtesy name Chunfan, now felt a deep dread.

He was at this moment inside the Pingshan Hall of Daming Temple, reporting to Zhu Cilang on the progress of the Yangzhou Guard "anti-corruption" campaign.

But Zhu Cilang's interest seemed not to lie in "anti-corruption." After listening to Ji Kun for only a few sentences, he began assigning him a special task.

"Ji Kun, Chang Yan'en is nothing but the smallest of shrimp. What We want is a big fish! Do you understand?"

"This subject is dull-witted."

Ji Kun was of course not dull-witted. He was simply shocked — shocked at how far Zhu Cilang would go.

If Zhu Cilang had set out to punish the southeastern noble houses because of their choice of sides, Ji Kun would not have thought it wrong. But Zhu Cilang was now treating the southeastern nobles as big fish to be hooked, as fat pigs to be slaughtered — and he wanted Ji Kun to act as his accomplice!

Although Ji Kun had brought a case against Xu Yongji before Zhu Cilang, he did not want to become a cruel official! He was a juren well read in the histories, and he knew perfectly well that cruel officials never came to a good end. Nor did he feel any such urgency. Zhang Shize and his lot were vicious northern nobles fleecing the fat southern nobles — his situation was different. Besides, Zhang Shize's people were a pack of paupers, numerous and powerful, and Zhu Cilang had to rely on them to suppress the southern magnates. Ji Kun, by contrast, made a very good living as a litigation petifogger for the Yangzhou salt merchants; he was not one of those northern exile nobles who had lost everything and were frantic to claw money back.

So he was thoroughly disgusted by Zhu Cilang's campaign against the Chang family of Yangzhou Guard — he had a quarrel only with the Xu family, none with the Chang family, and was in fact distantly related to them.

Moreover, his own clan was a Chiliarch household of Yangzhou Guard! Though he himself was not of the main line and held no hereditary post, he still had several same-clan brothers serving as Chiliarchs and Centurions, and they too had seized a great deal of land.

So this campaign against Yangzhou Guard would inflict heavy losses on the Ji family as well!

He was now, in effect, confiscating the property of his own kin and friends — and taking a cut from it!

Was that not the act of a scoundrel?

Before Xu Yongji drove him into a corner, Ji Kun had been a man of some standing in Yangzhou city. In the blink of an eye, Zhu Cilang had turned him into a scoundrel.

During this period, Ji Kun's relatives and friends had stopped speaking to him when they met. There were even rumors that the Ji clan was preparing to expel him from the family — that he would no longer be a Ji, and after death would not be allowed into the ancestral graves!

Zhu Cilang at this moment paid little attention to Ji Kun's predicament, because he did not regard Ji Kun as one of his own.

"Go and tell Chang Yan'en that We are not deliberately making trouble for him!" Zhu Cilang said. "We want him to write to Chang Yanling and ask Chang Yanling to come to Yangzhou. Tell him this: whether he is guilty, whether the Chang family of Yangzhou Guard is guilty, all depends on which side Chang Yanling chooses."

Another lie!

Ji Kun thought to himself: A moment ago you were talking about fishing, and now you say you want Chang Yanling to choose sides. That Marquis of Huaiyuan has no real power — even if he chooses correctly, will you really not confiscate his family?

"Well?" Zhu Cilang looked at Ji Kun. "Can you do it?"

"This subject will try." Ji Kun did not dare say "no" to Zhu Cilang!

He was now a cruel official, the most despised kind of cruel official! If he did not cling tightly to his master's leg, how could he possibly fare well?

"Good," Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "Go and speak nicely to Chang Yan'en. Tell him We still value the Chang family. So long as Chang Yanling is willing to come, all will be well."

"Chunfan, is what you say true? So long as the Marquis is willing to come to Yangzhou and pay his respects to His Highness the Crown Prince, your family will have no great trouble?"

Inside the prison of the Yangzhou Guard Southern Provost Office, the despondent Chang Yan'en, upon hearing Ji Kun speak, believed him completely. He knew Ji Kun, and they were even distantly related, so he addressed Ji Kun by his courtesy name.

"Chunfan, don't deceive me! We are kin, after all."

"Assistant Regional Commander, I am merely relaying His Highness the Crown Prince's words." Ji Kun was clear as a mirror in his heart, and he knew perfectly well that Zhu Cilang had no good intentions. But he did not dare expose it — the Censorate guards were standing right beside them!

If he ruined Zhu Cilang's great plan, he would be hauled off to the Embroidered Uniform Guard's Southern Provost Office for a beating! The Embroidered Uniform Guard's Southern Provost Office was no Censorate — that was the yamen that seized rebels!

"All right, all right, I'll write, I'll write the letter." Having grasped at a lifesaving straw, Chang Yan'en no longer thought much of anything, and simply agreed repeatedly.

"Assistant Regional Commander," Ji Kun probed, "will Marquis Chang come?"

"He will!" Chang Yan'en nodded. "The Marquis is a good man. He would not abandon his Yangzhou kin."

Well, then it's over! Ji Kun thought: In these times, it is the good people who suffer misfortune!

"But he married a daughter of the Duke of Wei's household," Ji Kun said, still unwilling to give up. "The Duke of Wei will stop him, won't he?"

"How could he?" Chang Yan'en shook his head. "Do you really think the Duke of Wei would rebel? He's just old and muddled, led by the nose by Grand Secretary Shi, Commander Zhu (Zhu Guobi), and Governor Gao. Now that the principals themselves have stopped making trouble, what would he still be making a fuss for? If His Highness the Crown Prince wants to invite the Marquis over, he'd be only too glad — it's a chance to test the waters."

Then it is utterly finished!

Better not to test them at all. The moment they test, the water will surely be too cold, and they will have no choice but to rebel. What a sin!

Chang Yanling indeed fell for it. His family had some two or three thousand members living in Jiangdu County, Yangzhou Prefecture! A good marquis like him could not simply abandon them. Besides, the Nanjing nobles now also wanted to make contact with Zhu Cilang, to see whether they might beg for mercy.

Although they had taken part in Shi Kefa's and Gao Hongtu's rally to the throne, and many of them had foolishly written letters to Shi Kefa and the others expressing support for the Chongzhen Emperor's restoration, and had, at Shi Kefa's bidding, summoned garrison troops from all around, assembling fifty or sixty thousand land and naval troops in Nanjing city —

they had never once imagined personally taking the field to fight the cunning and vicious Zhu Cilang. By now they already knew that Dorgon had sent a marriage envoy!

Anyone with half a brain should know why that marriage envoy had come — the Battle of Dagu seems not to have been entirely boastful after all! Three thousand — no, discount it by seventy percent; so long as even nine hundred Tartar heads were real, the tens of thousands of troops in Nanjing would not dare oppose the Crown Prince!

Besides, the forces in Zhu Cilang's hands were no longer few either — they numbered fifty or sixty thousand as well.

So the Marquis of Huaiyuan, Chang Yanling, was in fact coming to Yangzhou as the envoy of the Nanjing nobles to beg for mercy — so long as His Highness Thousand Years would let bygones be bygones, they could offer to urge him to the throne!

In the thinking of these nobles, all Zhu Cilang wanted now was to usurp the throne and ascend as soon as possible. If everyone yielded a step on that question, there was nothing else to it. As the saying goes, a mighty dragon cannot crush the local serpent — and these nobles, who had operated in the southeast for over two hundred years, were the local serpents of Nanjing.

But Chang Yanling himself was not so optimistic. He still knew there would be a settling of accounts after autumn! The present hurdle was easy to clear, but once Zhu Cilang was secure on the throne, he would probably still reckon up the southeastern nobles' support for the Chongzhen Emperor.

So his thinking now was to "go" — of the thirty-six stratagems, retreat is best. He would take his Jiangdu kinsmen and go far away. No matter where, he could not remain under Zhu Cilang's very nose.

"My Lord Marquis! My Lord Marquis! Something seems wrong!"

Chang Yanling was resting with his eyes closed in the cabin, turning over in his mind how best to retreat, when the trembling voice of a household retainer suddenly sounded in his ears.

"What is it?" The Marquis opened his eyes and saw that one of his household retainers had already pushed open the cabin window and was pointing outside.

Outside was the Yangzhou canal dock, and on the dock waited rank upon rank of Embroidered Uniform Guard in flying-fish robes!

"My Lord Marquis, they can't be here to arrest us, can they?" the Chang household retainer said nervously. "Perhaps we should not go ashore—"

"What is there to fear?" Chang Yanling stroked his beard, his expression composed. "Would His Highness the Crown Prince really want to drive the Nanjing houses into rebellion? If it truly came to that, the entire southeast would fall into chaos!"

(End of Chapter)