Chapter 258: Traitor! You Are a Traitor! (Bonus Chapter for 4,400 Votes)

When Zhu Guobi returned to the Grand Merit Quarter, the scenery was unchanged, but his state of mind as he waited for an audience was utterly different.

The last time he had come, he had been an honored guest, able to join a pack of Nanjing's noble houses and meritorious officials who did not know the height of heaven or the depth of earth in plotting how to deal with the Army-Pacifying Crown Prince.

But now he was a prisoner, a convicted member of the eunuch faction! Of the nobles and meritorious officials who had once held forth with him, some were already dead — Xu Hongji, Zou Cunyi, Liu Yunji, Fang Yiyuan, Jiao Mengxiong, Zhang Guocai, Huang Jiuding, Liu Zuochang, Tang Guozuo, Guo Zuoyong, Li Zushu — eleven great nobles had already been executed in the first batch!

And those who had not died were either waiting to die, or else cooperating with the Embroidered Uniform Guard in confiscating their own households with the best possible attitude of contrition — this was not confiscation, this was buying their lives! If they performed poorly, they would be sent to Dayuan Island... a place known as the Gate of Hell, where "of ten who go, six die"!

Yet Zhu Guobi now very much wished to go to Dayuan Island and live out the rest of his days... because he felt his crimes were simply too great! And his family property was too little — truly not enough to redeem his crimes! To receive the punishment of exile to Dayuan Island would already be a joy beyond expectation.

Who could blame him? He was a noble sent from Beijing, and most of his family property had been left behind in the north. Although he had worked very hard at graft after reaching Huai'an, the amount was ultimately limited, and compared with his great crimes it was hardly worth mentioning.

But compared with those nobles and meritorious officials in Nanjing, he did have one piece of luck. He was the only member of his family on the Nanjing side; his brothers, nephews, and his son all lived in Beijing. Among them, one brother and two nephews had broken out southward with Zhu Cilang and were now heroes of the Overcoming-Hardship.

They were heroes, so of course they did not need to help confiscate Zhu Guobi's household to redeem his crimes, nor would they be implicated by him. It was said that the Crown Prince even intended to let one of them inherit the title of Marquis of Funing.

So Zhu Guobi, eager to perform well, had drawn up a list of his own property and now carried it on his person, ready to present it to Zhu Cilang to redeem his crimes when he saw him.

He did not ask for full redemption; to redeem a place on Dayuan Island would already satisfy him completely. Just thinking about it made him want to weep...

The place where Zhu Cilang personally tried Zhu Guobi was set in the Yongchun Pavilion beside the Grand Merit Hall. It was a rather elegant little courtyard, planted with many evergreens, furnished with several rare stones brought from Lake Tai, and containing a newly renovated two-story building. The interior furnishings could not be called luxurious, but every detail showed care, giving one a sense of comfort and ease.

Zhu Cilang had made this his "Upper Study" for handling government affairs. Every day before the noon court began, he would read memorials here for a while, and sometimes he received visitors here as well.

When Zhu Guobi was escorted in by Chen Shifang, the eunuch superintendent of the Eastern Depot, and several armed eunuchs of the Eastern Depot, Zhu Cilang was in conversation with Zhu Chunchen, the newly appointed Commander of the Nanjing Capital Camps, and his eldest martial brother Zheng Sen.

Incidentally, unlike those previous Ming emperors who had been propped up by the civil-official bloc, Zhu Cilang had a reliable inner circle — the nobles, meritorious officials, civil officials, and military officers who had "walked the Long March road" with him, plus the Overcoming-Hardship heroes and volunteers who had joined during the court's southward journey, and even the salt merchants who had only come aboard in Yangzhou — all of them were proving quite useful. So the role of eunuchs under Zhu Cilang was not very great.

But he still kept the terrifying Eastern Investigation Depot, though he no longer used them to investigate treason cases. Instead they had become bodyguards for watching the house and guarding the courtyard. Chen Shifang, the former head of the arquebus eunuchs, was appointed superintendent, a batch of arquebus eunuchs served as the backbone, and finally the Pure Army here in Nanjing was incorporated into the Eastern Depot. This formed a eunuch armed force that, together with the Eastern Palace guards, was responsible for the security of the Grand Merit Quarter and the West Garden.

And Zhao Zhilong, Han Zanzhou, Zhu Guobi, and Zhang Shenyan — the four "eunuch-faction ringleaders" — were all held under guard by the Eastern Depot. Merely held under guard, not interrogated. This Nanjing eunuch-faction treason case was the responsibility of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

"The guilty subject Zhu Guobi respectfully inquires after the Crown Prince's golden well-being! The guilty subject has already drawn up a list of treasonous property, and requests Your Highness to look it over..."

Zhu Cilang was taken aback. "A list of treasonous property? You're a noble from Beijing — how much treasonous property could you have in Jiangnan?"

Zhu Guobi said hurriedly, "I do have some! This subject is a corrupt official, and has much treasonous property to offer the court to redeem his crimes!"

"Oh, bring it here and let me see."

Huang Xiaobao, who attended Zhu Cilang, took the list, which filled three pages, and handed it to Zhu Cilang.

"So much? What is the total?"

"In reply to Thousand Years, not counting this subject's holdings in Huai'an, in Jiangnan alone there are 3,000 mu of farmland, seven residences, and 530,000 taels of ready silver..."

"That much silver?" Zhu Cilang was somewhat surprised. "How did you manage to embezzle it?"

"The guilty subject swallowed 200,000 taels of tax silver that was being prepared for shipment to the treasury, and also embezzled more than 200,000 by skimming from vacancies and withholding military pay. The rest came from using grain-transport boats to smuggle private goods..."

"What? Skimming vacancies and withholding military pay can yield that much? The grain-transport troops have that much grease on them?"

"The grain-transport troops of course do not have that much... This subject, this subject also received orders from the traitor Xu Hongji to supervise and reorganize the Nanjing Capital Camps, and took the opportunity to skim a little..."

"What? You had your head hanging from your belt in rebellion, and you still didn't forget to embezzle?" Zhu Cilang was rather speechless. Shaking his head, he began examining Zhu Guobi's property list, and the very first asset on the list baffled the great Crown Prince.

"What is 'Kou's White Gate'? Is it a piece of real estate?"

"It is not real estate. It is, it is..." Zhu Guobi's face was red, his head lowered, the very picture of shame.

"It's a woman!" Zheng Sen answered for him from the side. "It is Kou Baimen, one of the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai."

"Oh..." Zhu Cilang nodded. "Then keep her to bestow on someone."

He was not very interested in the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai. Earlier, when he had seized Wu Sanmei, he had overlooked Chen Yuanyuan; later, when coming south from Dagu, he had seen Gu Hengbo; and at Qian Qianyi's place he had met Liu Rushi.

These three were all top names among the Eight Beauties, far more famous than Kou Baimen, but in Zhu Cilang's eyes they were just about that much. For looks they were no match for Fei Zhen'e; for figure they were no match for Wu Sanmei; for dignity they were no match for Ning Xiangyu.

"Junior brother, Your Highness," Zheng Sen said to Zhu Cilang in a low voice, "this woman is famous throughout Jinling. She cannot be casually bestowed on just anyone..."

Zhu Cilang looked Zheng Sen over with a smile. "Elder brother, is it that you want her?"

"No, no..." Zheng Sen shook his head repeatedly. "Junior brother, Your Highness, I, I have never thought of it."

"Then how should that woman be disposed of? Public auction?"

Zheng Sen quickly shook his head. "She absolutely cannot be auctioned... Junior brother, Your Highness, if you wish to get on good terms with the Donglin talents, you need a bridge. This Kou Baimen is the bridge to connect you with the Donglin talents."

"Oh, a socialite, a club..." The Crown Prince nodded, then uttered two words that Zheng Sen did not quite understand. "Fine, handle it as you see fit."

Hearing Zhu Cilang and Zheng Sen speak of Kou Baimen so lightly, Zhu Guobi's heart ached until tears came. She was the "goddess" in his eyes, and he had offered her up just like that — and they did not even take it seriously!

"Zhu Guobi," Zhu Cilang said at this point, his tone sinking, "do you want to live or to die?"

"To live, the guilty subject wants to live..." When Zhu Guobi heard these words, great joy surged in his heart.

"Then are you a ringleader of the eunuch faction?"

What? A eunuch-faction ringleader?

Zhu Guobi was stunned. He had been an opponent of Wei Zhongxian! He had even been stripped of his title for being close to the Donglin Faction and opposing Wei Zhongxian, and had only been given important posts after Chongzhen took the throne.

How had he become a member of the eunuch faction? And a ringleader at that...

"The guilty subject, the guilty subject..." He hurriedly cast a pleading look at Zhu Chunchen, and seeing Zhu Chunchen nod, he gritted his teeth and said, "The guilty subject is a ringleader of the eunuch faction!"

"Then why did Wei Zhongxian strip you of your title?"

Why indeed?

Zhu Guobi thought to himself: I'll have to make something up...

"Because, because Wei Zhongxian wanted the guilty subject to infiltrate the Donglin Faction!"

Promising! Zhu Cilang nodded repeatedly and said with a smile, "Right, right, you must be a spy who infiltrated Donglin! Tell me, what was your purpose in infiltrating Donglin?"

What purpose?

Zhu Guobi thought hard, then said, "The guilty subject was to gather intelligence on the Donglin Faction's internal affairs for Wei Zhongxian..."

"Is that all?" Zhu Cilang's face had already darkened.

"There is more, there is more..."

"What more?"

What more? I don't know!

Zhu Cilang snorted, thinking: How can you be so stupid!

"Are you recruiting allies for the eunuch faction within the Donglin?" Zhu Cilang demanded sharply.

"Yes... yes..." Zhu Guobi answered, his voice trembling.