Chapter 33: Your Majesty, Let Us Flee Together (Recommendation Votes, Come Quickly!)

The Chongzhen Emperor sat down in a flurry, looked at the boxes and bundles filling the room, and frowned deeply. "Is the Empress going on a journey?"

"I am only making some preparations in advance," Empress Zhou said, "so that when we leave we won't be in too much of a rush and forget anything valuable."

"Leave? Go where?" the Chongzhen Emperor asked, though he already knew the answer.

Empress Zhou shot her husband an exasperated look. "To our home in the south, of course! The ancestors themselves sent a dream to Cilang. Surely Your Majesty will not refuse to heed the words of the ancestors?"

What was this nonsense about the ancestors sending a dream... The Chongzhen Emperor looked at Empress Zhou, and his anger surged. How could a woman of such little sense be so easily deceived?

"Cilang told you this?" the Chongzhen Emperor said coldly. "And you believed him?"

Empress Zhou nodded. "No one knows a son better than his mother. I watched Cilang grow up; would I not know his temperament and character? Yet when Cilang came to the palace to see me the day before yesterday, he was a completely different person... His face changed faster than the pages of a book, and he spoke with such clarity and reason, so well ordered, as though he had gained decades of experience overnight. Who but the ancestors could possess such power?"

As she spoke, Empress Zhou pressed her palms together before her chest and murmured, "Ancestors protect us, ancestors protect us!"

Hearing Empress Zhou speak this way, the Chongzhen Emperor also began to feel that Zhu Cilang was truly not himself. He snorted. "He has changed, all right—changed into a far more cunning person! Who knows what he said to Wu Xiang, but he actually coaxed Wu Xiang into offering his daughter to the palace and writing a personal letter to Wu Sangui calling for reinforcements!"

"Truly?" The solemn look on Empress Zhou's face instantly blossomed into a smile. "Wu Xiang wants to offer his daughter to Cilang? That is wonderful news. Cilang is already ten this year."

Speaking of which, Zhu Cilang truly had no luck with women! He clearly had a state-assigned beauty of a wife, Lady Ning, yet because Li Zicheng's rebellion had grown so large, the proper rites could not be held. And his father, the Chongzhen Emperor, was not fond of women, so no palace maids had been selected for who knew how many years.

As a result, most of the women in the palace were getting on in years; even the younger ones were old enough to be his mother. Moreover, the Chongzhen Emperor feared Zhu Cilang might find himself an older wife, so he had sent all palace maids under fifty out of the Duanben Palace, leaving the Duanben Palace full of old grannies!

"How could it be so casual?" The Chongzhen Emperor glared at his wife. "Wu Xiang's daughter will at least be a Lady of Talents... The proper procedure for selecting a consort for the Crown Prince must still be followed. After morning court tomorrow, We shall issue an edict to the Grand Secretariat to select Wu Xiang's daughter as the Crown Prince's Lady of Talents."

"That would be best. I only fear those civil officials will again use ancestral precedent to pressure us and forbid Cilang from taking a Lady of Talents." Empress Zhou frowned slightly.

"It should not come to that," the Chongzhen Emperor said. "Right now, the capital's only path to survival rests on Wu Sangui!"

"Then once Wu Sangui's great army arrives, we can leave?" Empress Zhou looked at the Chongzhen Emperor with hopeful eyes. "I have already had the valuable things in the rear palace packed up. For the three boys Cijiong, Cizhao, and Cihuan, and the two girls as well, I have sent reliable people to pack their things. I have also had many commoners' clothes prepared, for adults and children alike. Carriages and horses have been arranged too—not palace carriages, but ones bought from the common folk, sturdy and durable..."

Even commoners' clothes and commoners' carriages had been prepared... So this was a plan to escape in disguise!

Cold sweat broke out on the Chongzhen Emperor's forehead. So it was not only the Crown Prince who had learned bad ways—even the Empress, always so virtuous and proper, had learned bad ways, and could even plot a disguised escape!

No! The Empress was so honest—how could she have thought of all this? Someone must be directing her from behind!

"Empress, did you think of all these things yourself?"

Empress Zhou shook her head. "How could I? I have long been in a panic. It was Cilang who wrote out the list and had it sent to the Kunning Palace."

The Crown Prince again... The Chongzhen Emperor thought it over, and was not really surprised. That child Cilang was growing more cunning by the day! If he ever took the throne, he would surely be an emperor more crafty than any treacherous minister. Those ministers who had brought the dynasty to ruin would learn what real ruthlessness meant!

Empress Zhou saw the Chongzhen Emperor sink into thought and assumed he was displeased with their son's cunning, so she quickly spoke in the boy's defense: "Your Majesty, Cilang is only being filial... These past two days, if he had not been making all the arrangements, you and I would not even be able to save our lives, let alone speak of restoring the Ming!"

At the words "restoring the Ming," the Chongzhen Emperor's heart twisted as if cut by a knife. He was such a brilliant emperor—how had the Ming grown worse and worse under his rule?

Just as the Chongzhen Emperor was puzzling over this and could not understand it, an old woman's voice came from outside the great hall of the Kunning Palace: "Your Majesty the Empress, this servant Li Yue'er has an urgent matter to report."

Li Yue'er was a female official of the Duanben Palace, and also the eyes and ears Empress Zhou had planted beside Zhu Cilang.

Empress Zhou glanced at the Chongzhen Emperor; seeing him nod, she answered, "Come in and report."

Then came a creak as the hall door was gently pushed open, and an old woman in a palace maid's jacket and skirt hurried in. She bowed to the Chongzhen Emperor and the Empress, then hastily reported: "Just now the Thousand Years sent a palace official to the Eastern Palace to fetch his armor, helmet, and treasured sword. This servant asked, and was told they were being sent to Xizhimen. Tomorrow the Thousand Years is to meet the Roving Bandit's great army in battle at Xizhimen..."

Meet the Roving Bandit's great army in battle! And at Xizhimen... Zhu Cilang was going to the front line!

The Chongzhen Emperor was once again stunned by his son's outrageous conduct. Since when had the Great Ming ever had a Crown Prince who faced the enemy in battle?

Empress Zhou was also taken aback, and then burst into tears with a wail, weeping and blaming the Chongzhen Emperor at the same time: "It is all Your Majesty's fault! We clearly could have fled, yet you insist on holding out in the capital... You want to hold out, but there are no soldiers, no generals, no pay. So our Chun'er has no choice but to take the field himself. If anything should happen to him, what then?" At this point Empress Zhou suddenly stopped, then raised her head and looked at the Chongzhen Emperor, her eyes full of entreaty. "Your Majesty, call Chun'er back. Let us flee together!"

The whole family fleeing together—what an excellent suggestion! This was the loyal counsel of a worthy empress!

Unfortunately, the Chongzhen Emperor was not good at heeding loyal counsel. What came to his mind at that moment was Zhu Chunchen, the ennobled favorite he trusted most. The Chongzhen Emperor abruptly stood up. "What is Zhu Chunchen doing? How could he let a child like Chun'er go to the front line? Companion Gao!"

Gao Yushun, standing to one side, quickly responded, "This old slave is here."

"Send someone at once to deliver Our verbal edict: the Crown Prince is forbidden to face battle." The Chongzhen Emperor said, "And summon Zhu Chunchen to Us!"

If Duke Cheng, Zhu Chunchen, had heard the Chongzhen Emperor's verbal edict, he would certainly have been moved to tears. For he would finally be able to avoid facing the roving bandits' great army directly.

Unfortunately, the Chongzhen Emperor's verbal edict did not reach Zhu Cilang and Zhu Chunchen in time. For the eunuch bearing the edict went to Xizhimen, while Zhu Cilang and Zhu Chunchen were at that moment at Fuchengmen, watching the Roving King's great army.

The Roving King's great army was certainly great, but by now the sky was pitch dark and little could be seen clearly. All one could make out were countless torches forming several long dragons, rolling in from the southwest. At the same time, on the open ground about five or six li from Fuchengmen, a huge bonfire had been lit, blazing fiercely—a magnificent sight.

"What a huge bonfire. That is... the site of Diaoyutai, is it not? What are those bonfires for?" Zhu Cilang, along with Wu Xiang and Zhu Chunchen—who was trembling like a sieve—was standing at that moment on a gate tower of the outer barbican at Fuchengmen. He did not seem particularly afraid, only somewhat curious about the great bonfire before him.

"That was lit by the roving bandits' vanguard, to show their rear units the direction," Wu Xiang said with a slight frown. In truth, he did not quite understand why the roving bandits needed such a huge bonfire either. "They are marching even at night—their morale seems high!"

"They need a bonfire that big just to show the way?" Zhu Cilang pressed. "Are they afraid they won't be able to find Beijing?"

"The veteran camp soldiers can certainly find it," Wu Xiang continued to bluff, "but the newly attached rabble is another matter... The Thousand Years must know of sparrow blindness, yes? Also called night blindness—at night they cannot see, and it is easy to get separated. With a great bonfire, they have a direction to follow."

"Night blindness..." Zhu Cilang knew of night blindness. "Our men have it too, don't they?"

"Not as badly as theirs. Night blindness is related to diet," Wu Xiang said. "The capital is, after all, at the feet of the Son of Heaven; the common people eat better, so fewer suffer from night blindness. Among the roving bandits there are many poor folk, so naturally more of them are night-blind. This subject estimates that more of these great fires will be lit before long. Every main camp will have one."

"So that is how it is..." Zhu Cilang nodded, thinking to himself: It seems the breakout should be arranged for nighttime. As for the exact time, that can be decided after tomorrow's first engagement... The longer we can hold out in Beijing, the closer Wu Sangui's army gets to the city, and Li Zicheng's determination to take Beijing may well begin to waver.

(End of Chapter)