Chapter 371: This Time Let Chongzhen Win!

After bidding farewell to the wealthiest man Zheng Zhilong and his senior fellow disciple Zheng Sen, the light wind and drizzle over Nanjing had nearly stopped. Zhu Cilang rode out with the little beauty Zheng Chagu, and under layers of escort they took the horse path of the Yifeng Gate barbican up onto the wall of Nanjing's inner city, then followed the wall toward Taiping Gate.

The reason for traveling along the wall was that the western part of Nanjing was far too bustling and lively in this era. The actual population living there had long since passed a million, every trade flourished, industry and commerce thrived, and both sides of every street and lane were lined with all manner of shops, making security extremely difficult. Zhu Cilang had also done too many things to offend the Jiangnan gentry, and fearing someone might try to harm him, he was unwilling to pass through the busiest streets, so he simply traveled along the Nanjing city wall. Fortunately, the Nanjing wall was broad enough that riding horses along it posed no problem at all.

As he rode along the wall, a Crown Prince guard led his horse for him, so he had no need to watch the road. Instead, he looked down from on high and observed this great city that belonged to him. It was already afternoon, and golden sunlight spilled from the sky, draping the prosperous city in a thin veil of gold and giving one the feeling that gold covered the ground.

In truth, that feeling was not wrong at all — the ground of Nanjing truly was covered in gold!

This city, being right under Zhu Cilang's nose, was naturally the one he controlled most firmly. Not long after the spring metropolitan examination, under the direction of Chief Grand Secretary Wei Zaode and the newly appointed Prefect of Yingtian Prefecture Song Quan (formerly Minister of Justice), it became the first city to strictly levy commercial taxes!

The city's commercial taxes were divided into four major categories: transit tax, residence tax, liquor tax, and boat tax. The transit tax set up tax posts at Nanjing's water and land checkpoints to levy duties on merchants coming and going to trade. The residence tax was levied on the shops and workshops of Nanjing. The liquor tax was a monopoly tax, modeled on the Song dynasty method, granting the right to brew and sell liquor to thirty-eight wine houses, called the Thirty-Eight Licensed Establishments. The boat tax was levied on the pleasure boats and passenger vessels within Nanjing, most of which belonged to the pleasure houses of the Qinhuai district; a single outing on one of these boats could earn as much as an ordinary family made in a year, so taking a bit of tax was no great matter.

The four categories of commercial tax combined brought in seventy to eighty thousand taels of silver a month! Half was handed over to the Ministry of Revenue, and half was spent by Yingtian Prefecture itself.

So now Yingtian Prefecture had nearly forty thousand taels of commercial tax to spend each month, and everyone from top to bottom was living quite comfortably. Even petty clerks who had once been beneath notice were now bustling about on salaries of several taels of silver a month.

Of course, this "commercial tax" of seventy to eighty thousand taels a month was not only no burden to the merchants doing business in Nanjing — it was something they were very happy to pay.

Because in the era of "no taxation," the corrupt officials and ennobled families throughout Nanjing still had to be paid off with gifts, and the money spent on that was even more than what they now paid in commercial tax!

Now, although they paid commercial tax, Zhu Cilang kept a very close watch. He transferred the notoriously harsh Yangzhou official Ji Kun to serve as Supervising Censor of Yingtian Prefecture, and had the newly appointed Huang Zongxi, a Bureau Vice Director in the Bureau of Evaluations of the Ministry of Personnel, take charge of eliminating the lowest-ranked officials in Yingtian Prefecture.

In short, in present-day Yingtian Prefecture, the ones who hated Zhu Cilang the most — oh, rather, the ones who hated that treacherous minister Wei Zaode the most — were a bunch of low-ranking officials whose "livelihoods had become unlivable." The villain presiding over the "Chongzhen New Policies" was Wei Zaode, after all; he was now universally acknowledged as a treacherous minister, and every day memorials impeaching him arrived in Nanjing from Shandong, Huguang, Liangguang, and Fujian — places Zhu Cilang could not yet fully control!

But a treacherous minister did not fear impeachment. As long as Zhu Cilang, who backed him, was not harmed by some petty villain, his position as Chief Grand Secretary was as steady as Mount Tai.

By the time Zhu Cilang, who was living ever more cautiously, came down the horse path at Taiping Gate, the area around Taiping Gate had already been placed under full martial law. This gate lay to the north of the imperial city; ordinary folk never came here, and there was no commerce. Once through the gate, a turn led onto Bei'anmen Avenue. Both sides of Bei'anmen Avenue had originally been quiet and desolate, with hardly any buildings, bleak and barren. Now, however, it was somewhat lively, with construction sites appearing one after another, stretching from near Taiping Gate all the way to outside Bei'anmen — all of them were bestowed residences for mid- and high-ranking officers of the Hard-Working New Army.

As Zhu Cilang urged his horse toward Bei'anmen, he suddenly heard a faint crackling and popping. He frowned: "Is that the New Army outside the city doing target practice?"

"Thousand Years, that's the sound of firecrackers." It was Zheng Chagu who heard it clearly. "It's coming from inside Bei'anmen."

"Inside Bei'anmen..." Zhu Cilang thought for a moment. "Is someone in the Guard Battalion holding a wedding?"

Inside Bei'anmen were the barracks of the Left and Right Feathered Forest Guards. The Left and Right Feathered Forest Guards had long ceased to exist, so the barracks had been assigned to the Guard Battalion.

The officers and men of Zhu Cilang's Guard Battalion rotated in and out; all were veteran soldiers drawn from the Hard-Working New Army. Naturally, they had all been allotted farmland around Nanjing and residential plots in the eastern part of Nanjing's outer wall, where they had built houses.

With houses and land, of course they had to marry and have children.

So during this period, the Guard Battalion barracks area often had people setting off firecrackers and handing out fruit, and each time Zhu Cilang would wrap up a red envelope of eighteen taels of silver for the person, to win people's hearts.

But today he did not recall having given out any red envelope. Could he have forgotten?

The newly appointed shift commander of the guards, Qin Mingtao, immediately stepped forward and answered: "Thousand Years, there is no wedding in the Guard Battalion today."

"Then those firecrackers..." Just as Zhu Cilang said this, he saw Huang Xiaobao trotting out from inside Bei'anmen to greet him.

"Thousand Years, this slave offers you congratulations." Huang Xiaobao's mouth said "congratulations," but his face showed not the slightest joy — on the contrary, he wore a worried, miserable expression.

"That expression of yours..." Zhu Cilang was taken aback. "What happy occasion?"

"You have gained a younger brother..."

"Gained a younger brother?" Zhu Cilang frowned too. It was indeed... a happy occasion! He had gained a younger brother, and the Chongzhen Emperor had gained a son — how joyous! The Great Ming dynasty had another heir!

"Who gave birth?" Zhu Cilang asked again.

"It was Lady Wei, the Selected Attendant, who gave birth!"

The Chongzhen Emperor's harem had more than one swelling belly — besides Wei Qinghui, there was also a Wu Wanrong who was about due, and several Shandong girls were pregnant as well.

Before long, Zhu Cilang would have a whole pile of younger brothers and sisters... In the future, he would have to help all his younger brothers establish themselves, and each one would need a share of glory and wealth from him! And his younger sisters' dowries would also have to come out of his pocket as the elder brother!

The Chongzhen Emperor was only responsible for the begetting — no, not that he did the begetting either; he was only responsible for sowing the seed! All the future expenses would fall on Zhu Cilang... Truly irresponsible to the extreme!

"Hahaha, Chun-ge, you've come at just the right time. Come, come, come, look at your younger brother. You're Big Chun-ge, and he's Little Chun-ge. Look how handsome he is — far better-looking than you were as a child..."

Ever since his son had seized his power, the Chongzhen Emperor had never been as happy as he was today — not because he had gained a son, but because he had beaten Zhu Cilang once in the matter of producing sons! No, not just once; he could keep on winning. Because he had more wives than Zhu Cilang, more of them with big bellies, and therefore a greater probability of producing sons!

He was the Emperor, and every son born to him was a Prince. Even if they were not enfeoffed elsewhere, a princely residence would have to be bestowed within Nanjing, along with a stipend and granted lands. So every son born meant that certain unfilial son would have to spend a fortune. If the unfilial son failed to produce a son, then one of these younger brothers might in the future inherit the throne... Just thinking about it made him happy!

Chongzhen was happy, and Zhu Cilang was naturally even "happier." Smiling, he took the baby from Chongzhen's hands and held him in his arms. The little fellow had his eyes closed and was sound asleep, huffing away. Zhu Cilang looked him over carefully and found that he was not good-looking at all — his coloring was off, all red and blotchy, and he was very fat... Who knew whether he would grow up to be as fat as the Prince of Fu? Come to think of it, the Prince of Fu had no son — why not adopt this child out to the Prince of Fu? Then someone would be there to care for the fat Prince of Fu in his old age and see him off. Good, that settles it!

Watching the stiff smile on Zhu Cilang's face, Chongzhen said with a beaming smile: "Chun-ge, you'd better hurry up a bit too. Don't keep your eyes only on Wu Sanmei — Ning Xiangyu, Fei Zhen'e, and Zheng Chagu are all rare beauties!"

(End of Chapter)