Chapter 254: House Confiscation!

"Duke of Wei, out with it honestly — how much land, how many shops, jewels, calligraphy, antiques, buried gold and silver does your family have, and how much have you lent out, how many open and secret shares have you bought into? Tell Us everything. Roughly how much is it all worth? Give Us and His Majesty a bit of cheer, and maybe We'll spare you the death penalty!"

The Grand Merit Arch was now the Crown Prince's temporary residence! A most improper Crown Prince sat there grinning from ear to ear, spouting nonsense as he interrogated the just-captured Duke of Wei and his son.

Beside him, Chongzhen listened to Zhu Cilang's wild talk and could only sigh and frown. How did Zhu Cilang's words sound anything like a wise sovereign? Was a wise sovereign so greedy for money? Sparing a death sentence just because the confiscated wealth was large?

Surely the more one embezzled, the heavier the crime!

Xu Hongji had nothing left to say. He simply closed his eyes and awaited death. His health had long since failed; even if they didn't kill him, he wouldn't live much longer, so what was there to say? But his son Xu Yunjue hadn't yet had his fill of life! Hearing Zhu Cilang's words, he clutched at them like a drowning man grasping a straw.

"Thousand Years, spare my life! My family truly has money — a great deal of money. If you count all the branch households, our wealth rivals a nation's."

"Not counting the Duke of Dingguo's line!" Zhu Cilang said. "The Duke of Dingguo is a hero of the hard times, a great and loyal subject!"

Zhu Cilang drew clear lines between love and hate. The Duke of Dingguo's family had merely followed along, but they were still on the Crown Prince's side. Following along counted as merit, and once they reached Jiangnan they could still reap some benefits.

"Yes, yes, yes," Xu Yunjue said. "Not counting the Duke of Dingguo's northern branch, my family's land, shops, jewels, calligraphy, antiques, buried gold and silver, various debts, various open and secret shares — if properly disposed of, they would certainly amount to fifty or sixty million taels of silver."

"What? Fifty or sixty million taels! That much? You — you—" The Chongzhen Emperor shot to his feet, pointing a trembling finger at Xu Yunjue. "You were far too greedy, far too greedy! How could you embezzle so much!"

"Imperial Father, calm yourself!" Zhu Cilang's smile was radiant as spring sunshine. "That fifty or sixty million taels must include military colony land and other land. Subtract the land, and it's not nearly so much. Xu Yunjue, tell Us how much land your family holds in total!"

"I — I report to Thousand Years, this guilty subject truly cannot remember the exact figure."

Too much! Truly too much! How could anyone remember it all?

Chongzhen demanded sternly, "Then give an approximate figure!"

Xu Yunjue said with a mournful face, "This guilty subject's clan is vast, with many branches; even an approximate figure is hard to work out at once. Speaking only of the main line of the Duke of Wei's household, the military colony land amounts to roughly 1.2 million mu, and other land roughly another 1 million mu. Of that, 700,000 mu is concealed land, and the rest was bestowed on my family by the court over the years."

That is, 2.2 million mu of land, of which 700,000 mu was concealed land!

Zhu Cilang said to Chongzhen with a smile, "Imperial Father, if land could be freely bought and sold, these 2.2 million mu would be worth thirty or forty million taels!"

Even if the land is not easily bought or sold, the annual rent from these 2.2 million mu still comes to 2 million shi!"

He turned back to Xu Yunjue and said, "Go on! What other assets are there? Tell Us everything."

Xu Yunjue answered, "In this guilty subject's Duke of Wei residence, the buried silver amounts to over 1.8 million taels, gold 170,000 taels, plus 180,000 strings of standard cash, tens of thousands of bolts of silk and cloth, and 110,000 shi of rice and wheat. The principal and interest on various loans out amount to no less than 2 million taels, and the open and secret shares held are together worth around a million. In addition, there are three gardens, two or three hundred shops, eleven warehouses, and one wharf."

"Hahaha, truly rich!" Zhu Cilang rubbed his palms together. "A ducal house of over two hundred years is indeed something special!"

In truth, the Beijing nobles and meritorious officials who had followed Zhu Cilang south had once been wealthy too. Though they couldn't compare with the Duke of Wei's house, a grand family of over two hundred years, quite a few of them had also been extravagantly rich. But when they fled for their lives, they could only carry ready cash — they couldn't bring land, shops, or mansions, and the debts they'd lent out had all gone bad. So they seemed far less wealthy now.

The Chongzhen Emperor snorted coldly. "Over two hundred years of imperial favor, and this is how you repay it? You deserve death!"

"No, no, no — we can't kill him. We must give Xu Yunjue a way to live." Zhu Cilang said quickly to Chongzhen. "The Duke of Wei's household has vast assets, but confiscating and disposing of them won't be easy. Without Xu Yunjue's cooperation, who knows how much would vanish in the process. Xu Yunjue, wouldn't you say that's the truth of it?"

Xu Yunjue naturally kowtowed like a pestle pounding garlic. "Yes, yes! This subject will certainly hand over all the family assets to Thousand Years and His Majesty, not leaving behind a single copper."

"No need for that, no need for that." Zhu Cilang waved his hand repeatedly. "You should still keep a little. Otherwise how will you get by afterward?"

There would be an afterward? That meant his life would truly be spared? A surge of indescribable gratitude welled up in Xu Yunjue's heart: the Crown Prince was truly a benevolent sovereign!

Seeing him about to kowtow again, Zhu Cilang raised a hand to stop him. "Wait, don't kowtow. We haven't finished speaking!"

There were more conditions?

Xu Yunjue looked at the Crown Prince with pleading eyes.

Zhu Cilang said, "You still have many brothers and cousins. They will all be exiled to Dayuan Island! Do you know where Dayuan is? It's a wild, miasma-ridden land. Once you go there, it's very hard to come back!

But they won't go immediately. They'll go only after you cooperate with the Embroidered Uniform Guard in fully confiscating the assets of the Duke of Wei's main household. Before they set out, We will have them audit your accounts! Whoever finds errors or omissions stays in Nanjing as head of the Xu family — and you go to Dayuan Island! Will you let them find any errors or omissions?"

Xu Yunjue said rapidly, "This guilty subject will certainly not let them find any errors or omissions, because this guilty subject would never dare have the slightest error or omission."

Zhu Cilang nodded. "Your family also has many women. Whether or not they bear the surname Xu, We will not make trouble for them! For all concubines under forty, We will arrange husbands for them. For the Xu family's unmarried daughters, as long as they are of age, We will arrange matches for them too. Each will receive a dowry! As for those already married off, We will pursue them even less. You must reassure them well; don't let them despair and take their own lives."

Xu Yunjue hastily responded, "This guilty subject receives the decree. This guilty subject will certainly convey Your Highness's benevolence to them all. Your Highness is truly the foremost benevolent sovereign of all ages!"

Zhu Cilang was of course benevolent, but sparing the Xu women had little to do with benevolence. He had promised the officers and men of the Hard Times New Army — land there will be, wives there will be!

Now there was plenty of land, but wives were still nowhere to be found! Naturally he had to use the families of the "eunuch-party traitors" to fill the gap.

"Well then," Zhu Cilang said with a smile, "everything that needed saying has been said. Xu Yunjue, go see your father off to his end."

What?

See him off to his end?

Xu Yunjue froze, staring at Zhu Cilang, seemingly at a loss.

Zhu Cilang's expression darkened slightly. He said to Xu Yunjue, "What? You don't understand? Your Duke of Wei household stirred up such a huge commotion. Is it too much for Us to order the death of one old wreck who's already three-quarters in the grave? Rebellion! There has to be an accounting, doesn't there? From your Duke of Wei household, only he is ordered to die. You and your son remain. All other male members are exiled to Dayuan Island — life or death by fate! As for the other branches of the Xu family's southern line, they will be handled the same way!"

Xu Hongji, who had been relatively calm until now, began to tremble all over at Zhu Cilang's words. His nose stung, tears fell, and a few wails escaped his mouth. Truly, of all hardships through the ages, death alone is the hardest!

But the old man's tears were useless now! Zhu Cilang's treatment of the Duke of Wei's household was merciful to the extreme — utterly beyond comparison with Zhu Yuanzhang or Zhu Di. Of course, he wanted money, not lives (not that he wanted no lives at all — just not many). His greed far exceeded Zhu Yuanzhang's and Zhu Di's too. Even a house confiscation, he managed to turn into a work of art.

Watching the "filial son" Xu Yunjue support his tear-drenched old father Xu Hongji as they left under the guard of several Eastern Palace guards and Embroidered Uniform Guard men (to take Xu Hongji somewhere deserted to hang himself), Zhu Cilang once again broke into a brilliant smile. He said to the Chongzhen Emperor, "Imperial Father, are you satisfied with your son's handling of this? If you are, the other eunuch-party nobles and meritorious officials implicated in the case will be dealt with the same way. Kill as few as possible, but silver, land, shops, and mansions — we must get our hands on as much as we can! We must confiscate at least several hundred million. Only when we've gathered enough can we properly reward our meritorious subjects!"

(End of Chapter)