Chapter 44: Li Zicheng's Side Certainly Doesn't Lack Ennobled Nobles

What? Learn from Zhu Chunchen?

Learn to go up on the walls and kill bandits, then come home and donate money?

What's there to learn from that... what good would learning that do?

The whole crowd of ennobled nobles and imperial kinsmen said nothing.

They were all the sort who had no strength for killing bandits and truly couldn't bear to part with their money. If they really could bear it, they'd have bought the edict to leave the city this morning and be in Tongzhou by now — what would they still be doing inside Beijing?

Besides, even if they came around and were willing to pay for the edict, it was already too late. Roving-bandit cavalry were already active east of Beijing — although Li Zicheng was using the tactic of surrounding three sides and leaving one open, that didn't mean the east side was completely open to come and go as one pleased; plenty of small cavalry squads had still been sent out.

If a large force broke out of Beijing, these small cavalry squads naturally couldn't stop them. But the small numbers of household retainers and able-bodied men belonging to the ennobled nobles and imperial kinsmen weren't enough to deal with them — going out would be suicide.

So Zhu Cilang's edict to leave the city could no longer be sold.

Seeing that the ennobled nobles and imperial kinsmen had no reaction, Zhu Cilang merely smiled and looked at Zhu Chunchen — you, the model among the ennobled nobles, should put on a performance now!

Zhu Chunchen immediately took the hint, bowed to Zhu Cilang, and said: "Thousand Years truly overpraises me. How would this subject dare to be called a model for the ennobled nobles? This subject's donation of two hundred fifty thousand taels of silver is actually for my own family's sake!"

Is that so?

The ennobled nobles and imperial kinsmen didn't believe it for a second! Two hundred fifty thousand taels of silver! Did he think the silver was taking up too much space?

Zhu Cilang merely watched these muddle-headed nobles coldly. Unlike in history, when most of Beijing's civil officials became turncoats, most of these nobles died for the dynasty after the city fell — Li Zicheng's side lacked civil officials; a bunch of bandits couldn't govern a state. So most civil officials were treated fairly well, and only a few high officials were tortured and squeezed for contributions.

But Li Zicheng's side absolutely did not lack ennobled nobles!

At this point Zhu Chunchen spoke again: "Gentlemen, don't think I, Zhu Chunchen, am talking nonsense... I'm speaking from the heart, because my family's silver is more than two hundred fifty thousand taels! My family has over four hundred thousand taels of silver. Now that I've donated two hundred fifty thousand, I still have one hundred sixty thousand.

One hundred sixty thousand taels of silver doesn't look like much sitting at home, but try loading it onto carts and hauling it away. Sixteen taels of silver weigh one catty, so one hundred sixty thousand taels is ten thousand catties... add the chests to hold the silver, and that's over eleven thousand catties. One horse can pull three hundred catties of cargo, so eleven thousand catties needs at least several dozen horses to haul!

Besides the silver, I also have my family, and my valuables, and for a long journey I'd need to bring food and horse fodder — all of that needs carts and horses to carry. So my family's horses and carts can only haul away one hundred sixty thousand taels of silver. Any more, and it truly can't be moved! If it can't be moved, should I give it to the roving bandits? Better to give it to Thousand Years for military funds than to the roving bandits. Let Thousand Years raise more troops, so he can protect this duke and all you noble subjects on the journey to Jiangnan!"

Zhu Chunchen suddenly raised his voice and cried out: "We are all noble subjects! We are different from the civil officials, the eunuchs, and the military officers commanding troops outside.

We share the fate of the dynasty... the ancestors of you gentlemen and of Zhu here were mostly men who won merit following the dragon in the time of the Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, with a minority being descendants of meritorious officials and imperial kin from later reigns. But there is absolutely no family among us whose ancestors were meritorious officials of the Yuan dynasty!

By the same logic, on the side of the Roving Rebel, there is absolutely no glory and wealth for us noble subjects of the Great Ming! The Roving Rebel also fought a hundred battles to reach this day — would the bandit Li, with his several hundred thousand troops, still lack noble subjects? So we can only follow unto death, protecting His Majesty and Thousand Years on the journey to Jiangnan together.

As long as we can reach Jiangnan, even with only half the realm, we will still be ennobled nobles!"

When this speech was finished, the courtyard fell deathly silent.

Zhu Chunchen had spoken aloud what everyone most feared! They didn't even have the qualifications to surrender and join the rebels!

Because Li Zicheng's side had no need for useless noble wastrels like them. Li Zicheng already had a huge pile of his own noble subjects to place — what would he want Ming noble subjects for? The Great Ming hadn't kept the Yuan dynasty's nobles on its payroll back then either!

Confiscating all their property and leaving them their lives would already count as benevolent — historically, Li Zicheng's policy of torture and squeezing for contributions after entering Beijing drew much criticism, but what deserved criticism was the torture of civil officials and scholar-gentry, not the torture of nobles and eunuchs. Because those two groups were exactly what the new dynasty didn't need — if you don't beat the local tyrants among them, whose local tyrants do you beat?

Inside the courtyard, the atmosphere was heavy; only the flickering light of torches and lanterns made the air even more tense.

No one knew how long it was before someone reacted and loudly asked: "Thousand Years, are we truly going to abandon the capital and move south?"

"Are we truly moving the capital?"

"Beijing was won by our ancestors through a hundred battles — are we truly going to abandon it?"

"Have the Grand Secretaries all agreed?"

The nobles began discussing it all at once. Moving the capital and the imperial progress south — surely it couldn't be settled that easily?

Zhu Cilang said: "His Majesty issued an edict on the sixth of this month to abandon Ningyuan and transfer the Guanning Army to defend the capital. Thus, east of the capital, only Regional Commander Gao Di's force at Shanhai Pass, fewer than ten thousand men, remains — how can it withstand the great host of the Manchu caitiffs? And north of the capital, at Xuanfu, Juyong, and every pass along the Great Wall, there is now not a single imperial soldier. Even if the court could rely on the bitter fighting of the Guanning border army to drive off the roving bandits, it would still be powerless to defend Shanhai Pass and the Great Wall line, and it could not recover the lost territories of Xuanfu, Datong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Henan.

Thus, the capital is no more than an isolated city. The only use of the court squatting here is to keep the roving bandits and the caitiffs separated, preventing the two of them from fighting each other. But for the court, it would be more advantageous if the roving bandits and the caitiffs did fight! So holding the capital to the death is already a death-seeking policy, and abandoning it is inevitable! If any of you wish to say the ancestral foundation cannot be abandoned, you need not open your mouths!"

"Thousand Years is right!" Zhu Chunchen cried out at this point. "Once the Guanning Army moves, the capital loses its shield to the east, and the caitiffs breaking through the passes is only a matter of two or three months. And if the Guanning Army doesn't move, the roving bandits will break the capital... so the only path to survival is to have the Guanning Army escort the court south.

And to summon the Guanning Army to escort the imperial carriage, can it be done without money? To make Beijing hold out until the Guanning Army arrives, can it be done without money? If we ennobled nobles want to go to Jiangnan and continue our glory and wealth, we have no choice but to bring out our money! Not only must we donate money, we should also send each family's household retainers, servants, and able-bodied sons to join the army! Only in this way can we seek life in the midst of death! As long as we can reach Jiangnan and continue as ennobled nobles, what fear is there of lacking money?"

The reasoning was sound, and the nobles nodded one after another.

"The Duke of Chengguo speaks the truth!" At last someone stood up to echo him — it was Li Guozhen... whether or not he was a plant, who could say?

Li Guozhen said loudly: "Thousand Years, this subject is willing to donate one hundred thousand taels of silver, and to send one hundred able-bodied household retainers and sons to join the army!"

His family's able-bodied men had actually long since been swept up by Wu Sanfu; this was nothing but empty talk now.

"Good!" Zhu Cilang said loudly. "The Earl of Xiangcheng is likewise a pillar of the state, a model among the ennobled nobles, a meritorious subject in overcoming this crisis!"

"Thousand Years, this subject Liu Wenbing, Marquis of Xinle, is willing to give fifty thousand taels, and to bring fifty household retainers and sons to join the army!"

"Your Highness the Crown Prince, this subject Wei Shitai, Earl of Xuancheng, is willing to give thirty thousand taels, and to bring twenty household retainers to join the army!"

"Your Highness, this subject Yang Chongyou, Earl of Zhangwu, is willing to give twenty thousand taels, and to bring twenty household retainers to join the army!"

"This subject Zhang Qingzhen, Earl of Hui'an, is willing to give twenty thousand taels, and to bring fifteen household retainers to join the army!"

...

Just as one group of ennobled nobles was learning from Zhu Chunchen, each striving to be a good noble of the Great Ming, the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming, Zhu Youjian, was in the eastern warm chamber of Qianqing Palace receiving Gao Yushun and Luo Yangxing.

That afternoon, Gao Yushun had witnessed the Battle of Fucheng Gate commanded by Zhu Cilang! And Luo Yangxing had gotten word of the Crown Prince's killing! Du Xun had not been killed by Zhu Chunchen — he had been killed by the sixteen-year-old Zhu Cilang! Killed with his own hands!

In addition, the matter of Zhu Cilang making money by selling edicts to leave the city had also come to Chongzhen's attention.

The Chongzhen Emperor was chilled again and again. His own son was actually so ruthless and cunning — at only sixteen he could kill a man with his own hands. And he had frightened Zhu Chunchen, Commander of the Capital Camps, to tears, and had swindled several million taels of silver out of a crowd of death-fearing nobles and officials...

"Truly too cunning, too cruel..." the Chongzhen Emperor couldn't help muttering after hearing the report. "So cunning and cruel at only sixteen — what will he become when he grows up?"

Luo Yangxing and Gao Yushun looked at each other, then nodded at the same time!

Indeed, what would he become!

So cunning, so cruel... once he became Emperor, the roving bandits and the caitiffs would be doomed!

But the civil and military officials and the ennobled nobles and imperial kinsmen who fell into his hands would certainly not have an easy time of it.

This one was no case of the Great Ancestor sending a dream at all — it was simply the Great Ancestor himself possessing his body!

(End of Chapter)