Chapter 557: Imperial Father, Your Son Is Going Begging

No sooner had Zhu Cilang finished speaking than Wu Xiang, the Minister of War, suddenly remembered something of great importance.

Wu Xiang submitted: "Your Highness, the Emperor yearns day and night for an early abdication so that he may enjoy his remaining years in peace. When you set out on the Huguang campaign, you promised that upon your triumphant return to court the abdication would be carried out. Now Li Zicheng has most likely been killed by the government troops, and in Huguang only Xiangyang, Nanzhang, Gucheng, Guanghua, and Junzhou in Xiangyang Prefecture, plus Yilingzhou, Guizhou, Changyang, Yidu, and Xingshan in Jingzhou Prefecture, along with the entire Yunyang Prefecture, remain unrecovered — but the overall victory is already assured."

That was true enough!

Today was already the second day of the seventh month of the nineteenth year of Chongzhen, and the Chongzhen Emperor had long since grown impatient. A filial Crown Prince like Zhu Cilang, who had repeatedly disappointed his Imperial Father on the matter of taking over early, could hardly live with his own conscience!

But the food problem was no small matter either. At least one to two million refugees from the north were going hungry right now, and many of them were military dependents.

If he did not feed them, could Zhu Cilang's throne ever sit secure?

Wu Xiang understood Zhu Cilang's difficulties, yet he still hoped that this son-in-law of his could ascend the throne as soon as possible.

Only when Zhu Cilang was enthroned could his daughter Wu Sanmei advance a step further!

Right — Wu Sanmei was pregnant again recently. And Zheng Chagu had borne Zhu Cilang a daughter just over a month ago. Thank heaven and earth, the Wu and Zheng families were tied once more.

But Wu Xiang did not want to gamble on another round, because he had already caught wind that Zheng Zhilong was preparing to send two more nieces into the palace — the Zheng family had numbers on their side! Zheng Zhilong himself had several younger brothers, and every Zheng brother had a pile of wives and concubines, so the family had daughters in droves. Send a few more into the palace, and one of them was bound to produce a son.

While on the Wu side, Wu Sanmei was fighting all alone!

So Wu Xiang wanted to push Zhu Cilang onto the throne as soon as possible, and then, riding on Wu Sanfu's meritorious service and Wu Sanmei's pregnancy, push Sanmei onto the empress's throne as well.

Once Wu Sanmei became Empress, there would be no hurry — sons could be born slowly, and one would come eventually!

"Duke Protector of the State, abdication is a momentous affair and must be properly arranged," Qian Qianyi, the Minister of Rites, reminded him. "Yet here in the southeast, so many northern refugees are still starving! Recently Yangzhou, Huai'an, Suzhou, and Shanghai have all reported rice-seizing riots."

Qian Qianyi naturally backed the Zheng family's daughter — he was Zheng Sen's teacher! And Zheng Zhilong was a Fujian man, a "southerner." Though he had not really participated in court factional struggles, the Southern Party still regarded him as one of their own.

He understood perfectly well what Wu Xiang was scheming, so he sang the opposite tune. He had already received word that Zheng Sen had reached several important agreements with the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan and would return to the Great Ming before long, bringing a Japanese embassy with him.

Japan "coming to pay court" was a sign of a flourishing age, and once friendly relations with Japan were established, the sea route to New Spain could be opened — that would be a great achievement!

So as long as things could be dragged out until Zheng Sen returned, the contest between the Zheng and Wu families over the empress's throne could be kept going.

"Chief Grand Secretary," Zhu Cilang looked at Wei Zaode, "what is your view?"

Wei Zaode said: "Your Highness, there are great households in Jiangnan that can be eaten too. Better to seek food in Jiangnan first, and after His Highness ascends the throne, then proceed to Huguang."

Zhu Cilang thought to himself: If that happens, the Southern Party will be even more dissatisfied! And the blow to them would be too great.

What Zhu Cilang wanted to strip away was the privileges of the southeastern scholar-officials — such as tax exemption, corvée exemption, and the expansion of these two privileges through fraudulent land registration.

But he did not want to eliminate them economically, because southeastern gentry stripped of their privileges would become tax-paying "fat sheep" under the law. If they were truly wiped out, who would feast to the full? Would all the benefits go to the state? Was that possible? Could a feudal state have that kind of enforcement power? In the end, wouldn't most of the spoils go to the leaders of the northern clique like Wu Xiang and Wei Zaode?

These men were privileged landlords of the north to begin with; they were quite practiced at tax evasion and fraudulent registration themselves. If they were truly allowed to swallow up the estates of the southeastern landlords, Zhu Cilang would become a second Chongzhen!

"How much surplus grain can the landlords of Jiangnan have?" Zhu Cilang shook his head. "Jiangnan is all cotton fields and mulberry groves; there is not much rice there. And Jiangnan landlords don't collect much rice either — they collect silver, or cotton and silkworm cocoons."

How could landlord households possibly have no surplus grain? If they had none, where did the rice on the Jiangnan market at the sky-high price of five qian of silver per dou come from? This year at least seven or eight million shi less rice had arrived from Huguang. How could the grain merchants' stockpiles possibly be that large? It all relied on the slow release of the Jiangnan landlords' stored grain — only then was there rice to sell on the market.

"The two prefectures must arrange the matter of seeking food in Huguang, Jiangxi, and Guangdong as quickly as possible!" Zhu Cilang paused. "As for Imperial Father, We will explain it to him."

Ever since Zhu Cilang returned to court, the Chongzhen Emperor had fallen ill. Perhaps it was retribution for his debauchery and misrule — these days nothing was right with him, and he was especially afraid of seeing his son — oh, not his other sons, just afraid of seeing Zhu Cilang.

Unlike Zhu Cilang's "father-in-law fate" of getting two daughters in a row, the Chongzhen Emperor had gained five more sons during Zhu Cilang's campaign. Counting Zhu Cilang and little Brother Chun, he now had seven sons by his side.

In addition, the Chongzhen Emperor had a great crowd of daughters around him, the eldest of whom, Zhu Meichuo, was nearly eighteen and already at the age to be married off.

Before the fall of Beijing, the Chongzhen Emperor had already picked a fiancé for her, a man named Zhou Shixian. But the fellow had gone missing during the fall of Beijing and was most likely dead.

So Chongzhen and Empress Zhou wanted to arrange another good match for their daughter, but this matter could not bypass Zhu Cilang either, and so it had dragged on until now.

Today, when the great filial son Zhu Cilang came to the Hall of Martial Valor to request an audience, the Chongzhen Emperor was just discussing their daughter's marriage with Empress Zhou. The moment he heard the filial son had arrived, the Chongzhen Emperor, who had been perfectly fine a moment before, immediately began coughing.

While coughing, he said to Empress Zhou: "We seem to have caught a chill — no, We seem to have fallen gravely ill. It must be the root of that illness from the last time We fell into the water acting up again. Summon Physician Zeng at once."

Empress Zhou looked at the suddenly ill Chongzhen and was somewhat speechless — wasn't it just becoming Retired Emperor? You have been stripped of real power for so long already; what difference is there between you and a Retired Emperor?

Empress Zhou said: "Your Majesty, better to see Brother Chun first, settle the date, and then see the physician."

The Chongzhen Emperor feigned ignorance while knowing perfectly well: "Date? What date? The date for Meichuo's wedding?"

"Your Majesty!" Empress Zhou frowned her delicate brows. "The Imperial Son-in-law hasn't even been chosen yet — how can she be married off? What needs to be settled now is the date of the abdication ceremony!"

"Abdication..." The Chongzhen Emperor felt his heart nearly shatter at those two words, and for a moment even forgot to cough.

He had thought there would be treacherous ministers and rebellious subjects to stand up for him, but he never expected that after seeing Zuo Menggeng's fate, the treacherous ministers and rebellious subjects had all learned their lesson. Even the three great warlords of Shandong — Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu, and Zuo Maodi — had fallen silent.

At just that moment, the great filial son Zhu Cilang arrived.

"Imperial Father, your son kowtows to Imperial Father. Imperial Mother is here too! Your son pays his respects to Imperial Mother."

After bowing to his Imperial Father and Mother, the Crown Prince did not wait for them to speak, but stood up on his own. Then, looking at the Chongzhen Emperor slumped in his chair and groaning, he said with concern: "Imperial Father, are you ill again? Oh dear, your complexion is sallow and your breathing uneven — you must have overworked yourself with affairs of state!"

Empress Zhou turned to glance at her husband — his face was clearly ruddy and his breathing even. Where was the slightest sign of illness?

The Chongzhen Emperor had indeed been rather debauched lately, but he had not been excessive. Moreover, for the sake of sustainable debauchery, he had followed the advice of the divine physician Zeng, watching his diet and increasing his exercise. Every day he drew a heavy bow in the palace, lifted stone locks, and rowed a boat on the lake in the imperial garden. His health now was excellent!

Zhu Cilang looked at the increasingly sturdy Chongzhen Emperor and smiled apologetically: "Imperial Father, your son has let you down!"

Chongzhen's heart lurched. "It's over — he's going to usurp the throne."

Zhu Cilang sighed: "Recently the southeast has been short of grain, and the refugees have nothing to eat. Food is the foundation of the people; without food, there will surely be chaos!"

Chongzhen looked at his son, somewhat puzzled: "Elder Brother Chun, do you want to use Our privy purse to buy rice?"

Chongzhen's reaction was reflexive, because the civil officials of the Great Ming, whenever they ran into any financial difficulty, generally set their sights on the privy purse, as if it could never be exhausted.

"No, no," Zhu Cilang shook his head repeatedly. "Your son is a filial son; how could he use Imperial Father's retirement funds? So your son intends to lead the refugees out to beg for food... I'm afraid the abdication will have to be postponed again!"

What?

Chongzhen and Empress Zhou were both stunned!

The Crown Prince was going to lead refugees out to beg... What had become of the Great Ming?

(End of Chapter)