Chapter 245: Zhao Zhilong, Confess Honestly!

, Saving the Great Ming Dynasty

"Thousand Years, the vanguard has already reached the Official Reception Pavilion, ten li beyond Qilin Gate on the outskirts of Nanjing. The official road here is bustling on both sides, and quite a few commoners are now watching from the roadside. The road from the Official Reception Pavilion to Qilin Gate is also packed with people on both sides... They have all come of their own accord to welcome Your Highness, but it is somewhat disorderly and not conducive to security. Might it be necessary to send troops to disperse them? I await Your Highness's command!"

The one making this request was Wu Sanfu, Guard Commander of the Hard-Working New Army and concurrently division commander of the Central Division. His post as Guard Commander of the Hard-Working New Army was gradually becoming an empty title. Not long before, the Guard Command headquarters had also been merged with the Central Division Command headquarters, and the troops directly under the army command had been broken up and assigned to the various divisions, leaving only a newly formed artillery battalion still attached to the army command.

But Wu Sanfu did not much mind his shrinking military authority, because his authority had always been somewhat hollow. Apart from a few officers of old Wu-family household-retainer origin who would give him a little face, the other officers and ordinary soldiers did not much recognize the Wu family name — they were the Crown Prince's Hard-Working heroes, just waiting to be given land, fields, and wives... Even the Wu family's own household retainers, after several months of brainwashing by His Highness Crown Prince Zhu, had begun to place His Highness above the Wu father and sons.

Yet Zhu Cilang treated the Wu father and sons very well. After arriving at Yangzhou, he had enfeoffed Wu Xiang as Duke Who Protects the State Through Hard Work, and Wu Sanfu as Duke Who Pacifies the State Through Hard Work! Father and son now stood at the head of all the Hard-Working heroes.

For among the subjects enfeoffed as dukes for protecting the state through hard work, there were only these two, father and son!

Moreover, Wu Sanmei and Zhu Cilang were closer than could be. She was only waiting to bear a fine son and then be promoted to Crown Princess... or possibly be made Empress directly.

This would be one family with two dukes and one empress — rivaling the old Xu family after the Jingnan Campaign. A meritorious family such as this had to know when to advance and when to retreat, and could not forever scramble for power and profit, or it would not last... Wu Xiang understood this principle, and so these days he had not stopped nagging his son, telling him to retire at the height of his success once they reached Nanjing!

He was already a duke... any further merit and there would be nowhere left to rise!

So Wu Sanfu now did not much grasp for power, but instead served as Zhu Cilang's messenger and chief attendant.

When Attendant Wu came to make his request, Zhu Cilang was riding side by side with Wu Sanmei. Wu Sanmei's pregnancy had been diagnosed in the sixth month, and she was now less than three months along. Her belly had not yet visibly swelled, but her bosom had become even more "expansive"... it was practically a second puberty! Zhu Cilang of course was utterly delighted, and so from the sixth month until now, he still favored Wu Sanmei alone.

The young couple at this moment were cheerfully riding together toward the city of Nanjing, seemingly dreaming of a beautiful future.

The gentle breeze of Jiangnan brushed their faces, and not far away both sides of the great road bustled with activity. Sunlight fell upon the already ripened rice fields, turning them into a shimmering gold. On a small river nearby, some fishing boats were casting nets for fish. Farther off, there was a large town whose name they did not know, where cooking smoke was curling upward.

Such Jiangnan scenery could almost be painted directly into a picture.

Gazing at the scene before him, Zhu Cilang felt as though he already stood above the clouds, looking down upon all living beings, the rivers and the land, everything within his grasp. He longed to recite poetry and sing aloud, to express the heroic spirit in his heart.

Truly, the realm is as fair as a painting, and heroes vie to bow before it!

Hearing Wu Sanfu speak, he turned his head and laughed: "Come of their own accord to welcome Us? They've come to watch a joke, haven't they? We have arrived as a refugee in flight, and We must not show the slightest sign of distress before these crafty folk of Jinling!"

These words made both Wu Sanfu and Wu Sanmei frown a little.

What sort of heart did this Crown Prince have? Why did he always speculate about others' intentions with such overflowing malice?

Wu Sanfu hesitated. "Does Thousand Years wish to disperse those commoners?"

"Disperse them?" Zhu Cilang gave a cold laugh. "That would be a low-class move. We will not do such a thing... We will frighten them away!"

Oh, so dispersing them is low-class, but frightening them away is high-class!

"How does Your Highness intend to frighten them away?" Wu Sanfu asked.

Zhu Cilang smiled. "Sanfu, go and muster two brigades of cavalry, have them enter Qilin Gate first... and then seize Qilin Gate!"

In this era, the prosperous districts of Nanjing were beyond anything Beijing could match. Although Beijing's registered population was no smaller than Nanjing's, the residents permanently dwelling at the foot of the Son of Heaven were fewer than those living within the inner and outer walls of Nanjing. On paper Nanjing had only about five hundred thousand people, but the actual number of households very likely exceeded a million. For the talented scholars and beauties of the Southern Metropolitan Region all loved to register their residence in this ancient capital of six dynasties, enjoying the prosperity and ease along the Qinhuai River.

Moreover, Nanjing was a crucial center of handicrafts, commerce, and trade in the southeast. It was one of the four great silk-producing regions!

Even beyond Qilin Gate, already outside the city of Nanjing, there was a rather flourishing market town beside the broad official road. This place was not far from scenic Tangshan outside Nanjing, and on ordinary days it served as a stopping point for the talented scholars and beauties, the high officials and nobles of Jinling on their excursions to Tangshan. In the market town stood a three-story wine house, named the Qilin Pavilion.

At this moment the Qilin Pavilion was packed with talented scholars and beauties who had come out from within Nanjing to watch the Crown Prince's great army.

They had come only to look, not to welcome him, because they had already heard that the Crown Prince was not a good man!

"Have you all heard? Some say the Crown Prince has seven great faults and ought to be deposed!"

A short, plump scholar in his thirties, waving a folding fan, stood in a corner of the third floor of the Qilin Pavilion, gazing at the vast procession of men, horses, and wagons on the official road, and repeated the gossip he had heard along the Qinhuai River.

A scholar in his twenties, very tall and thin, took up the topic and asked with a frown: "What are the seven faults?"

"Greed, lechery, unfilial conduct, bloodlust, cunning, tyranny, and heresy."

"To speak of the Crown Prince like that?" The tall, thin scholar shook his head. "Brother Dagong, where did you hear this?"

The fat man addressed as "Brother Dagong" smiled. "It was when old Luo here was a guest at the house of the female schoolteacher Li Yulin by Laiyan Bridge, and heard Huang Taichong say it."

"Heh heh," the tall, thin scholar shook his head, seeming somewhat disdainful. "That courtesy name of Huang Taichong's is truly apt — his words are far too chong."

"Brother Xuanzhu, do you think Huang Taichong is wrong?" the fat scholar asked with a chuckle.

"The Crown Prince has only arrived today. None of us have even seen him. How can we recklessly speak of great faults?"

"That is true..."

Just as the two scholars were freely discussing Zhu Cilang's "seven great faults," a clamorous, chaotic noise suddenly arose from the official road outside the Qilin Pavilion.

The two scholars stopped their discussion and turned their eyes toward the road. There they saw that at some point, great formations of neatly arrayed ironclad cavalry had appeared on the official road! All wore helmets and armor, carried spears on their backs and bows at their sides.

Even from a distance, one could tell these cavalry were no ordinary troops!

Then they looked at the commoners watching the excitement on both sides of the road, and the two scholars were instantly stunned. The commoners seemed to have seen something dreadful and were fleeing in panicked confusion! The clamorous, chaotic noise was coming from them... but why were they running?

The commoners of Nanjing were not so timid, were they?

Could those cavalry have committed violence?

At that moment, the ironclad cavalry had already drawn near the Qilin Pavilion. They rode forty to a company, in a four-column formation, advancing at a roughly uniform pace along the main road toward Qilin Gate.

Although the sight of these cavalry was somewhat frightening, they had not committed any violence or harmed anyone...

Just then, a thunderous roar of cheering suddenly erupted.

"The Great Ancestor, the Lofty Emperor, has returned to the world! Long live! Long live! Long live ten thousand years..."

Only then did the two scholars realize that behind these orderly cavalry followed countless people on foot, or riding donkeys, or seated in horse-drawn carts. Most were soldiers, but some were officials, military dependents, and commoners accompanying the army. Everyone was shouting slogans.

What was going on?

The two scholars were bold enough to decide to descend from the Qilin Pavilion and see for themselves. Not far below the pavilion was Qilin Gate. The two had just come downstairs and reached the street outside Qilin Gate when they saw a large body of cavalry advancing slowly toward the long-neglected city gate. At the same time, quite a few Nanjing commoners were fleeing in panic ahead of the cavalry.

The short, plump scholar grabbed one of them and asked: "What did you see? Why are you running?"

"Tartar heads, Tartar heads — every ironclad cavalryman has a Tartar's head hanging from the tip of his spear..."