Chapter 45: How Is It That Everyone Is Richer Than the Emperor

"Where is the Crown Prince right now? What is he doing?" the Chongzhen Emperor asked about Zhu Cilang's current whereabouts.

The Crown Prince was truly busy these days — he had no time to come home and pay his respects to his parents. From the fourteenth to now, Chongzhen had seen Zhu Cilang only once.

What irked Chongzhen even more was that this Crown Prince was far too fond of acting on his own authority, with no notion of requesting imperial sanction! He had given him the title of Army-Pacifying Governor-General of Zhili Military Affairs, but he had not authorized him to sell city-exit decrees!

First of all, the Crown Prince's decrees could not be sold!

Secondly, the commission of Army-Pacifying Governor-General of Zhili Military Affairs did not extend authority over civil and military officials, inside or outside the court, who held no post in the Capital Camps or the Pure Army.

How could Zhu Cilang, with a single decree, send officials, eunuchs, and ennobled favorites who had paid money off to Tianjin? If they held commissions in the Capital Camps or the Pure Army, that would be one thing — but many of the people he had dispatched held no post in the Capital Camps or the Pure Army at all!

For example, that Wang Zhixin was a brush-holding eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial and concurrently Superintendent of the Eastern Depot — how could an Army-Pacifying Governor-General of Zhili Military Affairs have authority over him?

This was a gross overstepping of authority! No, not merely overstepping — it bordered on usurpation!

Were the situation not so exceptional, this Crown Prince could have been deposed.

"Your Majesty," Luo Yangxing, Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, answered at once, "the Crown Prince came down from the wall at Fucheng Gate and went straight to the Duke of Chengguo's residence."

"He went to the Duke of Chengguo's residence?" The Chongzhen Emperor frowned deeply. "Zhu Chunchen is Commander of the Capital Camps!"

A Capital Camps Commander keeping such close company with the Crown Prince... if Li Zicheng were not at the city walls, the censors should have impeached him long ago!

"Do you know what he went there to do?" the Chongzhen Emperor asked.

"It should be about silver," Luo Yangxing said. "The Duke of Chengguo has had a rough time of it from the Crown Prince today... This subject has heard that after witnessing the Crown Prince kill a man, he knelt and begged for mercy, and offered to donate his family fortune."

"Donate his family fortune? How much money can he have?" Chongzhen asked.

"Setting aside farmland, houses, and shopfronts, his ready cash is... at least four or five hundred thousand taels of silver."

Chongzhen ground his teeth. "That much!? We always took him for an honest official..."

The hatred in the Chongzhen Emperor's heart! What kind of world was this, that any random high official grabbed off the streets of Beijing was richer than he, the Emperor? They were all corrupt officials! All of them!

"How did he manage to embezzle that much money?" Chongzhen asked furiously.

"That... that this subject does not know." Sweat was already beading on Luo Yangxing's forehead.

In truth, one reason these ennobled favorites and high officials at court refused to donate money even with the enemy at the walls was that they could not bear to part with it — and the other was that they had no way to explain how they had so much money.

Everyone was an upright official with empty sleeves — how could every one of them possess a vast family fortune? How much salary did they even draw? They could not even collect that pittance in full — how could they possibly have money? Having that much money, needless to say, made them corrupt officials.

Knowing the Chongzhen Emperor's suspicious nature, these corrupt officials would sooner or later be hauled off to the Northern Provost's office!

"Then investigate!" Chongzhen said through gritted teeth. "Have the Northern Provost investigate!"

"Your Majesty," Gao Yushun, the seal-holding chief eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial at his side, hastily cautioned, "now is not the time to settle accounts after the harvest — Li the bandit's great army is still outside the city! And besides... the Duke of Chengguo is now the Crown Prince's man!"

At these words, Chongzhen sucked in a cold breath!

The armed forces inside the capital were now divided into three parts: first, the Capital Camps; second, the Crown Prince's Hard-Overcoming Battalion; third, the Pure Army. Of these, the Capital Camps were the largest, with over five thousand men, while the Hard-Overcoming Battalion and the Pure Army each numbered around three thousand.

If the Capital Camps and the Hard-Overcoming Battalion both fell under the Crown Prince's control, then the Crown Prince would command an armed force of over eight thousand, while the Chongzhen Emperor would have only three thousand eunuch soldiers in his own hands...

"Will the Capital Camps officers and men obey the Crown Prince?" Chongzhen's question was almost an accusation.

Luo Yangxing and Gao Yushun exchanged glances, then both nodded.

"They will!"

"How is that possible?" Chongzhen's face changed drastically. "He has only held military command for how long? He cannot even recognize all the Capital Camps officers from top to bottom!"

"But..." Luo Yangxing was nearly in tears at Chongzhen's words. The man had been emperor for seventeen years — how could he still not see it?

He steeled himself and said: "But the Crown Prince has money! He has several million! In a single day, he has distributed at least fifty thousand taels in rewards to the Capital Camps troops on the walls, the capital's stout volunteers, and the Hard-Overcoming Battalion's officers and men!"

The Capital Camps troops and the capital's stout volunteers were all old hands — loyalty to the sovereign and love of country were nothing but dog farts to them! Only silver was the boss!

Now that Zhu Cilang held several million in his fist, he was the boss!

And the Chongzhen Emperor held less than two hundred thousand, and was reluctant to part with it... Before Zhu Cilang took up the army-pacifying command, a Capital Camps soldier standing watch on the wall for a day received only a hundred copper coins (not standard cash, but ordinary small coins), and had to pay for his own meals! Was there ever an emperor so stingy?

But after Zhu Cilang took charge, he immediately raised it to one tael of silver! That was equivalent to 5,500 copper cash! A fifty-four-fold raise in wages in one stroke! How could they not adore the Crown Prince? Give them a bit more and father and mother would be less dear than the Crown Prince!

"Fifty thousand taels..." The moment Chongzhen heard how freely Zhu Cilang spent money, his heart ached so much he forgot all about the Crown Prince's usurpation. "How can he spend money like this? Wait... the several million taels in his hands are all state funds — how can he be allowed to squander them as he pleases?"

Squander? That was spending money to buy lives!

Fifty thousand taels to live one more day — what a fine bargain! With the Crown Prince's talent for raising money, he could extract a thousand days' worth of life-money from Beijing. Could Li Zicheng stay outside the city walls for three years?

At that moment, both Luo Yangxing and Gao Yushun felt an impulse to hurry the Crown Prince into usurping the throne...

Of course, usurpation was impossible — Zhu Cilang was a filial son; how could he do such a thing? It could only be the Chongzhen Emperor weeping and wailing and demanding to abdicate in his favor!

Luo Yangxing had no choice but to persuade Chongzhen to change his mind, and said hurriedly: "Your Majesty, the Crown Prince's spending is somewhat lavish, but Li the rebel's hundreds of thousands of roving bandits are right outside the city!"

Gao Yushun added: "Indeed. The morale of the capital's troops and the hearts of its people must not be shaken!"

Chongzhen frowned deeply, conflicted in his heart. The Crown Prince was now the lifeline for Beijing and for himself — he truly could not be cast aside. Yet at the same time, he could not allow Zhu Cilang to seize power step by step. Otherwise, once Li Zicheng left, this emperor might well find himself the Retired Emperor...

Seeing Chongzhen silent, Luo Yangxing spoke again: "Your Majesty, even if you wish to take back the silver in the Crown Prince's hands, it should be done through a Grand Secretariat draft with Your Majesty's red endorsement... If an imperial rescript is issued directly, the Crown Prince, in his capacity as Army-Pacifying Governor-General of Zhili Military Affairs, could simply ignore it."

"That is true..." Chongzhen considered, then felt something was wrong. "But the Crown Prince's commission as Army-Pacifying Governor-General of Zhili Military Affairs was itself appointed by imperial rescript!"

At these words, the hair on Luo Yangxing and Gao Yushun stood on end.

"Your Majesty, you must not!" Gao Yushun immediately advised. "The defense of the capital cannot do without the Crown Prince. And even if the Crown Prince were willing to hand over the capital's defense, who could take it over? Commander Zhu Chunchen and Superintendent Wu Xiang are both the Crown Prince's men now..."

"Wu Xiang..." The Chongzhen Emperor slammed the table. "How could We have forgotten him?"

Luo Yangxing and Gao Yushun stared blankly at Chongzhen. What was His Majesty planning to do?

Chongzhen said: "Luo Yangxing, go keep watch on the Crown Prince and Zhu Chunchen. Find out what they are doing tonight."

"This subject obeys the decree."

"Companion Gao," Chongzhen continued, "go summon Wei Zaode, Li Banghua, and Wang Jiayan."

Wei Zaode was a Grand Secretary of the Hall of Central Extremity — that is, the so-called Chief Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat.

Li Banghua was the Left Chief Censor, head of the Censorate, charged with impeaching and investigating all the hundred offices.

Wang Jiayan was Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, assisting in the military administration of the Capital Camps — that is, an official representing the court ministers in Capital Camps military affairs and the defense of the capital.

During the fighting at Fucheng Gate, he too had mounted the gate tower and assisted Zhu Cilang in defending the wall. But he had not interacted much with Zhu Cilang, because he did not greatly approve of the Crown Prince's conduct. In particular, the sixteen-year-old Crown Prince taking up the army-pacifying command by imperial rescript was altogether too frivolous.

Chongzhen issued the decree summoning the three of them to the palace late on the night of the seventeenth, and by the time the three arrived outside the Gate of Heavenly Purity to await summons, it was already the early hours of the eighteenth, nearly time for morning court.

Chongzhen, who had not slept all night, was preparing for morning court. Hearing the eunuch's report, he immediately summoned the three men to the Eastern Warm Pavilion for an audience.

(End of Chapter)