Chapter 37: Your Majesty, We Are All Honest Officials! (Please Collect, Please)

"Why are there only this many people? It's almost the hour of Si now — where has everyone gone? Where have all the capital officials of our Great Ming gone!"

At the Gate of Imperial Supremacy, as the hour of Si approached, the Chongzhen Emperor of the Great Ming finally roared out in fury he could no longer contain.

The Emperor seemed to have reason for his anger, for the number of officials who had come to morning court today was far too small — not even a hundred and fifty. Standing outside the broad Gate of Imperial Supremacy, this handful of men looked sparse and scattered, presenting no matter how one looked at it the appearance of a lost cause, of men scattering like birds and beasts.

Because Chongzhen held morning court far too diligently, most of the officials could not endure it, and arriving late to court was so common as to excite no surprise. Even the Chongzhen Emperor could do nothing about officials arriving late to court... it was not just one or two who were late — often only a dozen or a few dozen arrived on time, while the rest were either late or had asked for leave.

Nor could the Chongzhen Emperor dismiss all the officials who were late or had asked for leave — if he did, the court would have no officials left. And morning court was indeed exhausting; it was understandable that the officials could not bear it, so the Chongzhen Emperor did not much pursue the matter of lateness and leave — in any case, the officials who had memorials to present would all come, and that was enough.

But today was different. At this hour, fewer than a hundred and fifty had come — was this not far too few?

And today was the day Li Zicheng's army had arrived at the city walls!

Li Zicheng had only just arrived, and you officials of the Great Ming had already vanished! Had you fled, or gone over to the rebels? It truly infuriated this enlightened sovereign.

"Your Majesty, calm your wrath..." The Chief Grand Secretary, Wei Zaode — a man of only forty or so, refined and cultivated in bearing — hurriedly stepped out of the ranks to memorialize: "The capital officials who have not come to court have perhaps gone to raise funds and make contributions."

"Nonsense!" the Chongzhen Emperor roared. "Wei Zaode, do you take Us for a brainless fatuous ruler? Would We believe such shameless lies? We long ago ordered the officials, the ennobled, and the palace attendants to contribute military funds, and after all those days We obtained only a little over two hundred thousand. The whole court of officials, nearly every man, wept poverty! What day is today, that suddenly they all have money? That they have all struck it rich? This is deceiving your sovereign!"

Rebuked by Chongzhen, Wei Zaode could only laugh bitterly, and memorialized: "In reply to Your Majesty, this subject is not deceiving his sovereign... Before this subject and the others entered court, outside the Meridian Gate we encountered Chen Rui and Lin Zengzhi of the Eastern Palace, sent by His Highness the Crown Prince to urge contributions. Persuaded by these two men, many officials gave no further thought to attending court and all went to Fucheng Gate to contribute military funds."

This is impossible!

This Wei Zaode looks dignified and imposing, and he came first in the palace examinations — so he too is a treacherous minister who deceives his sovereign, and still unrepentant!

"Where is Luo Yangxing!" the Chongzhen Emperor bellowed. He meant to have Luo Yangxing, the Guard Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, arrest that great traitor Wei Zaode.

But Luo Yangxing misunderstood Chongzhen's intent. After stepping out of the ranks, he memorialized: "This subject is here... According to this subject's investigation, every word of Grand Secretary Wei's statement is true, for this subject also encountered Chen Rui and Lin Zengzhi urging contributions on his way to court."

Huh? There really is such a thing?

Chongzhen thought this couldn't be right, and shook his head: "Chen Rui and Lin Zengzhi urged contributions, and everyone was willing to donate money?"

"Yes," Luo Yangxing nodded. "Those two are quite eloquent and can move men's hearts, so the officials with surplus wealth in their households all went to donate money..."

Is there such a thing? The Chongzhen Emperor was half-believing, half-doubting. Were these two, Chen Rui and Lin Zengzhi, truly that formidable? If he had known, he should have put them in charge of urging contributions long ago — the military funds problem would have been solved already.

The Chongzhen Emperor thought further and still found it wrong. "Luo Yangxing, you say they are quite eloquent and can move men's hearts — then how much did you donate?"

Luo Yangxing was miserable inside!

He truly wanted to donate money, and he truly had money. If he donated, he could leave Beijing openly and honorably, and could even take a portion of his savings with him and go enjoy himself at leisure in Jiangnan... but the problem was he could not leave, and could not donate.

Because he was the Guard Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Chongzhen Emperor's most trusted confidant. Could he donate one or two hundred thousand taels of silver to the Crown Prince Zhu Cilang, and then take the Crown Prince's warrant and flee to Tianjin?

Would that not be tantamount to throwing in his lot with the Crown Prince, tantamount to betraying the Chongzhen Emperor?

But he could not say this plainly to the Chongzhen Emperor either — if he said it plainly, would that not be driving a wedge between the Emperor and the Crown Prince?

And moreover, right now inside Beijing, money was needed to buy soldiers. With money came soldiers, and with soldiers one was the master! The Crown Prince now had money and soldiers — he was the master!

So Luo Yangxing could only put on a mournful face and say: "In reply to Your Majesty, this subject is truly an honest official, with no savings to speak of..."

You have no money?

The Chongzhen Emperor rolled his eyes, thinking to himself: You and your father Luo Sigong together have held the Embroidered Uniform Guard for fifty-eight years... and you are both honest officials without money! Who would believe that if you said it?

He swept his gaze over the officials outside the Gate of Imperial Supremacy again, and found that the Grand Secretaries and the great officers of the Six Ministries and Nine Courts were mostly present. Even the two wealthiest magnates among the imperial relatives, State Uncle Zhou and State Uncle Tian, were there. Only that rich man Li Guorui of the Empress Dowager Li's family (the mother of Wanli) had not come — who knew whether his conscience had stirred and he had gone to contribute?

Seeing that the Chongzhen Emperor still looked half-believing and half-doubting, Luo Yangxing added: "If Your Majesty still has doubts, it would be better to send a palace official to Fucheng Gate to ask His Highness the Crown Prince."

Reminded by Luo Yangxing, the Chongzhen Emperor woke as if from a dream. He looked left and right, seeking a reliable eunuch, and only then did he discover that several of the eunuchs were also missing! Wang Zhixin had been nowhere to be seen since yesterday, Wang Yongzuo was also gone, and now only the two great eunuchs Wang Cheng'en and Gao Yushun remained.

What was going on? Could it be that those eunuchs had all gone to donate money too?

"Gao Yushun," the Chongzhen Emperor did not call on Wang Cheng'en, but instead named Gao Yushun, the seal-holding eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial. This fellow had not seen the Crown Prince last night, had returned early in the morning to attend Chongzhen at court, and now was to go out again. "Go to Fucheng Gate and find out clearly how the contributions of the hundred officials stand."

"This old slave obeys the imperial decree!"

Gao Yushun received the decree and hurried to Fucheng Gate, but by the time he arrived, the scene of the hundred officials lining up to donate was already gone. For the great banner of Li Zicheng's "Roving" character had by this hour appeared near Diaoyutai, less than five li from Fucheng Gate.

Appearing together with the Roving King were the valiant, high-spirited veteran troops of the Shun army! And their numbers were fully twenty or thirty thousand, mostly cavalry, drawn up in formation before Diaoyutai. Though not particularly orderly, their killing intent soared to the heavens!

Zhu Cilang, who had already raised more than three million taels of silver and about one hundred thirty thousand taels of gold, and had discovered more than two hundred loyal subjects, naturally had no mind at this moment to issue exit permits to the loyal subjects who had donated money.

So he announced that the fundraising was concluded, and that Fucheng Gate, Xizhi Gate, Desheng Gate, Xibian Gate, Guangning Gate, and the other city gates and nearby walls in the northwest of Beijing were under martial law and preparing for battle.

When Gao Yushun arrived, he was just then, with the help of two palace attendants, putting on a finely crafted long-bodied scale-patterned surcoat. This was a rather heavy suit of armor; the plates were forged from wrought iron and the surface painted golden yellow. Worn on the body it glittered with golden light, making him look like a golden-armored divine general.

This suit of armor was in fact the equipment of the Great Han Generals; the Chongzhen Emperor also had a similar surcoat, only with somewhat more surface decoration.

Zhu Cilang's Eastern Palace guards, as well as the senior generals Zhu Chunchen, Li Guozhen, Wu Xiang, and others, had likewise changed into similar surcoats — some glittering gold, some gleaming silver, all looking quite the part.

As for the ordinary officers and men of the Hard-Overcoming Battalion, the Crown Prince's personal army that followed Zhu Cilang, and a portion of the Capital Camps troops, most wore cloth-faced surcoats. They looked similar to the armor commonly seen in later films and television dramas worn by Eight Banners soldiers.

Later generations called this kind of armor "cotton armor," which is in fact incorrect. This armor is called cloth-faced iron armor — beneath the cloth face there are still iron plates. As for cotton armor, it did exist, but generally was not worn alone; rather it was worn as padding inside iron armor and cloth-faced iron armor, though of course it could also be worn outside. The so-called wearing of two layers of armor was mostly one layer of iron armor and one layer of cotton armor; if one added another layer of mail, that was three layers. Unless one was a warrior of boundless strength, wearing three layers of armor would leave one panting just from walking.

Seeing that Zhu Cilang was already fully helmeted and armored, looking every bit as though he was about to go into battle and fight, Gao Yushun, the seal-holding eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, was truly frightened out of his wits, and could barely even speak coherently.

"Th-Th-Thousand Years, wh-what are you doing?"

Zhu Cilang glanced at the old eunuch and said with a smile: "Li Zicheng has come!"

"Li Zicheng... the Roving traitor has come? Where is he?" Gao Yushun had completely forgotten what he had come for; only fear remained in his heart.

"He has come! Right outside the city!" Zhu Cilang answered with a smile. He was in fact just as afraid. But his psychological quality was very good — it had been tempered in the Chinese financial markets of later generations, where disasters occurred frequently and one could step on a landmine at any moment. Even if he was truly afraid, his face still had to wear a confident smile!

(End of Chapter)