Chapter 329: Your Majesty, the Water Is Too Cold

"Your Majesty, these are the various rites for sweeping the Xiaoling Mausoleum that the princes in Nanjing have agreed upon. They have been submitted for Your Majesty's inspection."

Lu Jiude stood with his hands hanging at his sides, utterly deferential, in the middle of a small pavilion by the pond in the rear garden of the Xipu detached palace. The Chongzhen Emperor was strolling through the garden with the heavily pregnant Lady of Handsome Fairness Wei Qinghui, and they had just reached this pavilion to rest a while.

Today was New Year's Eve of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, and tomorrow would be the first day of the first month of the eighteenth year of Chongzhen — the day that most gave the Chongzhen Emperor a headache!

For the Crown Prince, Zhu Cilang, had long since declared that on the first day of the first month of the eighteenth year, the Xiaoling Mausoleum would be solemnly swept and sacrifices offered, and that he would formally beg forgiveness before the ancestors, announcing the news that Beijing had been lost and the Tartars had once more entered the Central Plain!

The one who needed to beg forgiveness was, of course, the Chongzhen Emperor! He was the one who had lost Beijing, and although he had not invited the Tartars in, he had been emperor for seventeen years, and the fact that the war against the Tartars had been defeat after defeat, each worse than the last, was undeniable.

In short, he had not done well as emperor and must beg forgiveness before the founding ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang! As for begging forgiveness, Chongzhen was not actually afraid of that; he was probably the emperor in all Chinese history who had issued the most self-condemning edicts.

What he feared was that after the begging was done, there would be treacherous ministers and traitorous subjects who would propose that he abdicate in favor of a worthier man.

That his unfilial son Zhu Cilang was plotting to seize the throne was no secret in Nanjing by now, and an emperor as astute as Chongzhen naturally knew it too.

There were now no small number of treacherous ministers and wicked officials urging the unfilial son to take the throne!

The high civil and military officials in the capital, and the governors-general, governors, and commanders in the field, had for the most part already submitted memorials urging him to ascend. The several dozen decorative princes kept in Nanjing — the Prince of Qin, Prince of Jin, Prince of Zhou, Prince of Heng, Prince of De, Prince of Lu, Prince of Min, Prince of Shen, Prince of Gui, Prince of Jing, and as many as twenty-three houses of commandery princes — had all likewise submitted memorials urging the Crown Prince to assume the throne without delay!

And the Prince of Lu and Prince of Tang, who commanded troops in the field, sent memorials every few days, weeping and clamoring for Zhu Cilang to become emperor, as if unless Zhu Cilang usurped Chongzhen's throne, life would be unlivable and the Great Ming would be finished.

These princes truly were unworthy to be descendants of the Exalted Ancestor, Emperor Gao!

Yet not all the provincial officials, feudatory princes, and commandery princes were wicked; there were still good men. The Prince of Dai, Zhu Cijiong, and the Prince of Yong, Zhu Cizhao, had not submitted memorials asking Chongzhen to abdicate, and the Prince of Jingjiang, whose fief was in Guilin, had likewise not submitted a memorial telling Chongzhen to step down.

There were also such great territorial officials as Shi Kefa, Governor-General of the Seven Provinces; Gao Hongtu, Governor of Shandong; Wang Yongji, Governor-General of the Three Frontiers; Regional Commander Jiang Xiang of Datong; Mu Tianbo, Duke of Qian; Shen Youlong, Governor-General of Military Affairs of Guangdong and Guangxi and concurrently Governor of Guangdong; Fang Zhenru, Governor of Guangxi; He Tengjiao, Governor of Hunan; and Wu Zhiping, Governor of Fujian — none of them had submitted such treasonous memorials either.

Moreover, Zuo Liangyu, Governor-General of Military Affairs of Huguang and Marquis of Wuchang, had not only refrained from urging Zhu Cilang to take the next step, but had openly and firmly supported the Chongzhen Emperor and opposed Zhu Cilang's usurpation of the throne! It was precisely because the Great Ming still had such loyal and upright men that the unfilial son Zhu Cilang hesitated on the question of usurpation, and that the Chongzhen Emperor had been granted an eighteenth year of Chongzhen.

But the sweeping of the Xiaoling Mausoleum on the first day of the first month of the eighteenth year of Chongzhen made the Chongzhen Emperor sense danger. Once he wept bitterly and begged forgiveness before the founding ancestor's tomb, the princes and great ministers in the capital might well seize the opportunity to propose abdication!

Then the unfilial son Cilang could half-reluctantly ascend the throne amid the acclamation of the multitude. What was to be done?

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"

Wei Qinghui's sweet, crisp voice rang out beside the distracted Chongzhen Emperor, and only then did he realize he had lost his composure.

He took the memorial that Lu Jiude handed over and read it right there in the pavilion. The memorial had been submitted to Chongzhen in the joint names of the princes in the capital — a pack of good-for-nothings who had lost their fiefs and fled, not one of them of any use, yet Zhu Cilang had somehow discovered the little remaining value in them.

These men could serve as representatives of the Ming imperial clan!

They could represent the at least one hundred thousand clansmen still living in territory loyal to the Great Ming in proposing and approving clan reform measures. They could also represent the one hundred thousand descendants of Zhu Yuanzhang in demanding that the Chongzhen Emperor, who had led so poorly, yield the throne to the wise and mighty Crown Prince Zhu Cilang!

Of course, they could also represent the Great Ming's one hundred thousand clansmen in firmly demanding the abolition of the clan's tax privileges — once the clan's tax privileges were abolished, would those high-minded scholar-officials still have any excuse to keep enjoying their various tax exemptions?

So these princes were truly of enormous value!

There were now thirty-three princes kept in Nanjing, of whom ten were princes of the blood and twenty-three were commandery princes — commandery princes in this Ming dynasty were wildly overabundant, numbering in the several hundreds! But thanks to Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, most of the commandery princes had been wiped out or stripped by Zhu Cilang on the pretext of having lost their fiefs. Only twenty-six commandery princes still had Zhu Cilang's recognition, among whom the Prince of Jingjiang was in Guilin, the Prince of Ruyang, Zhu Yuyue, was in Ruyang, and the Prince of Zhenyang, Zhu Yu'e, was in Zhenyang — none of them had to live by Zhu Cilang's favor.

As for the princes in Nanjing, each family had its own residence: a prince of the blood was given ten thousand mu of land, a commandery prince five thousand mu, and they collected rent to live on, guaranteed not to starve, but nothing more. If they wanted spending money, they had to take office and work for Zhu Cilang — even if it meant helping the Crown Prince usurp the throne against their conscience, they had to do it!

And all thirty-three princes who lived off Zhu Cilang — ten princes of the blood and twenty-three commandery princes — were "demoted princes," meaning princes who would be "held back a grade": their titles would drop one rank each generation, and after a few generations they would be commoners.

Furthermore, only the heir apparent could inherit the title; all sons of concubines had to go out and work, which in practice meant they had to beg Zhu Cilang for their bread.

So these thirty-three princely households were wonderfully obedient to the Crown Prince, doing whatever he told them to do — they knew nothing else, only how to obey!

What good could come of the rites these damned princes had now drawn up for the Chongzhen Emperor's sweeping of the Xiaoling Mausoleum? Nothing but kowtowing and begging forgiveness, begging forgiveness and kowtowing. Who knew whether their heads would be knocked senseless!

Before Chongzhen had even finished reading the memorial, he could not help cursing: "These wastrels deserve to die, daring to bully Us! Truly detestable!"

Though he cursed aloud, in his heart he felt a wave of helplessness. The princes were now entirely in the Crown Prince's grasp; if they were not obedient, their whole households would not even have food to eat. Most of them were princes who had known hardship and understood that today's happy life had not come easily!

Lu Jiude also knew that these princes had been seized by the Crown Prince at their vital point, and if all thirty-three princes together draped the yellow robe over Zhu Cilang, Chongzhen would truly become the Retired Emperor!

So this matter truly could not be met head-on; it required a clever stratagem.

"Your Majesty," Lu Jiude said, still loyal, stepping forward to the Chongzhen Emperor's side, "this slave does have a delaying tactic that might buy a little time."

"What tactic? Speak quickly!" Chongzhen asked urgently.

Lu Jiude pointed at the pond beside them: "Your Majesty, the water is too cold. The water is too cold."

(End of Chapter)