Chapter 560: The People of Hunan Are the Best!

On the eighth day of the eighth month in the nineteenth year of Chongzhen of the Great Ming, at Qiaokou Town in Changsha, Huguang.

At the Qiaokou Town wharf, a crowd of wealthy figures dressed as country gentlemen or scholars had already gathered. The painted archway for welcoming the imperial procession had been erected with the greatest possible speed. According to the ancestral institutions of the Great Ming, the passage of a Crown Prince or a Prince was an occasion of the utmost solemnity. But in the past, the princes of the Ming had all been raised like pigs — apart from a brief outing when they went to their fiefs, they were penned up in their domains and never stirred again. As for the Crown Prince, his lot was to grow up deep within the palace, grow old deep within the palace, and die deep within the palace. The last time a Crown Prince had roamed the realm at will was when Ming Xuanzong, Zhu Zhanji, was still Crown Prince — for over two hundred years no Crown Prince had left the capital to travel about, until this anomaly Zhu Cilang came along, who even went so far as to lead refugees out begging for food. Truly, strange things happen every year, but this year they are especially plentiful!

Since there were strange happenings, there was no shortage of people coming to watch the spectacle. On the embankments of the Qiao River on both sides of the wharf, commoners from Qiaokou Town and villagers from the surrounding countryside who had heard the news had already crowded in, all craning their necks eastward, ceaselessly talking and discussing among themselves.

"Well I'll be — a great big Crown Prince, how'd he turn into the head of a beggar gang?"

"He's eating the rich! What's there to fear for us barefoot folk? Old Skinflint Zhang's the one in rotten luck — he'll be eaten into poverty!"

"Hey, isn't that Old Skinflint Zhang? How come he's still putting on that air? Has he gone soft in the head?"

"That's all put on — inside he's wailing, poor dear!"

"You fools, stop your nonsense — careful someone hears and hauls you off to have your heads chopped!"

At the mention of having their heads chopped, the country folk watching the spectacle dared not speak another word. They hastily shut their mouths and opened their eyes wide, wanting to see what this beggar Crown Prince looked like, and even more wanting to see the wretched state of Squire Zhang, who ordinarily threw his weight about.

But what they saw was the great Squire Zhang carefully maintaining the poised bearing of a celebrated scholar, chatting and laughing in low voices with a high official in black gauze cap and python robe. Where was the slightest sign of impending misfortune? Could it be that Squire Zhang was not headed for ruin, but rather about to enjoy a stroke of great good fortune?

The commoners of Qiaokou Town and the bumpkins from the surrounding area were merely watching the fun, but the wealthy households of the neighboring towns, as well as several large rice merchants from Changsha, all knew about Squire Zhang's fainting spell the day before.

What sort of man was Squire Zhang? He was one of the biggest landlords in all of Changsha Prefecture — thirty or fifty thousand taels of silver meant nothing to him. If he had been so agitated that he fainted, the loss must have been in the hundreds of thousands or even a million taels, surely?

Was the wealth and rank of the Zhang family of Qiaokou to end with Zhang Tingsu's generation?

But judging from Master Zhang's appearance today, he did not look like a man about to be ruined. On the contrary, it seemed the Zhang family had already latched onto the Crown Prince's stout leg and was about to soar to success. These rich masters all opened their eyes wide as well, waiting for the Crown Prince's dragon boat to arrive.

The "dragon boat" carrying Zhu Cilang was by now approaching the Qiaokou Town wharf. His mood appeared quite excellent — he had not returned to his hometown for over three hundred years, so how could he not be stirred? These mountains, these waters — none of them looked quite the same as in his memory!

But home was home after all, and he could now be said to have returned in glory — leading several hundred thousand refugees home to beg for food was also quite a dignified affair!

He Tengjiao had already sent men back to report. When the Hunan gentry at Qiaokou Town heard that the Crown Prince was coming, they were truly beside themselves with excitement! What a tremendous honor! It must be good fortune cultivated over several lifetimes! So no one begrudged one or two hundred thousand shi of white rice.

Could the people of Hunan let the Great Ming's good Crown Prince go hungry? It was only rice, after all! When the roving bandits came, there was none — but when the Crown Prince came, there was plenty!

By this time the dragon boat was nearing the wharf. Firecrackers and drums and music erupted all at once. Inside the cabin, Zhu Cilang said with a smile to Wu Sanmei and Zheng Chagu, who had accompanied him the whole way: "Look — the people of Hunan are truly magnanimous! It seems Our coming to Hunan was the right decision. As the saying goes, so long as the men of Xiang do not fall, China shall not topple!"

Wu Sanmei listened somewhat blankly. She did not understand what "so long as the men of Xiang do not fall, China shall not topple" meant. Wasn't Hunan just a rice granary? She had never heard that the people of Hunan were particularly formidable. In Ming officialdom, men from Hubei had quite a presence, but among famous ministers of Hunan origin there seemed to be only one Liu Daxia — oh, and there was also Li Dongyang, whose ancestral home was apparently Hunan, though he was registered with the Embroidered Uniform Guard's Left Guard and had lived in Nanjing for generations.

Zheng Chagu, for her part, nodded vigorously — whatever her Crown Prince brother said was certainly right!

"Right, right, the people of Hunan are magnanimous," Chagu said with a laugh, "but we Hokkien people are even more magnanimous — we go down to the Southern Seas, over to Japan, and before long we'll even cross the Pacific to New Spain!"

The "Hokkien people" of this era were indeed more enterprising than the people of Hunan. Not only had they traveled throughout the Southern Seas and Japan, they were now even planning to send ships to New Spain (New Asbania). And they were going to send great galleons!

Hadn't Zhu Cilang previously instructed Zheng Zhilong to build ten Western-style galleon-rigged soft-sail great warships? And hadn't he promised a subsidy of thirty thousand taels of silver per ship?

A few days earlier, while Zhu Cilang was at Wuchang, he had received word that the first of the ten Western-style warships had been completed. It was preparing for its maiden voyage, and if all went well, it would next be used to ply the Pacific route!

That's right — the trade route, of course!

Don't think that having a few Western-style sailing gunboats makes you so awesome that you can take down Spain, Holland, England, and the other Western naval powers.

They weren't there yet. Their ocean voyaging was still barely adequate! They had never been to the Americas or Europe themselves; the Zheng family's ships had at furthest only reached Batavia. That level was merely elementary-school grade in the Age of Discovery.

As for the other Ming naval squadrons, they were still just cruising along the Ming coast.

So the Ming's maritime power must first learn to sail the open oceans, and only then consider other matters. Ocean voyaging was not only training for the sailors, but also a test of shipbuilding technology, and during long ocean voyages there would inevitably be low-intensity clashes with Western pirates and navies.

Only by sailing the open oceans back and forth, until they became familiar with them, could they truly forge the force — shipbuilders and sailors alike — and only then could they begin to think about dominating the seas. And the cost of ocean voyaging had to be offset through commercial activity. That was why the naval powers of this age were all, without exception, great maritime trading nations.

He Tengjiao and Zhang Tingsu had by now come aboard — one in black gauze cap and python robe, the other in square scholar's cap and Daoist gown. On the deck they performed the grand ceremony of obeisance to the Crown Prince, who strode briskly out, and announced their names.

Zhu Cilang, all smiles, stepped forward and helped up Zhang Tingsu in his square cap and Daoist gown. "Squire Zhang, please rise at once. We have already learned of your righteous deed! Good, good, good — truly a celebrated scholar of the Xiang region!"

It turned out that after Zhang Tingsu had been revived by someone pressing his philtrum the day before, he had quickly thought things through: he could not hard-headedly resist this beggar Crown Prince Zhu Cilang!

The man had five hundred thousand people with him! If Zhang really dared to resist, the eating of the rich would consume the Zhang family entirely.

Since he could not resist, the only option was to cling to the great leg!

He absolutely had to let those who coveted the Zhang family's modest estate see that he, Zhang Tingsu, had already latched onto the Crown Prince's leg!

Offering up two or three hundred thousand shi of white rice was nothing; losing tens of thousands of mu of official fields, military fields, and hidden fields was not a catastrophe either.

As long as he was one of the Crown Prince's men, people on all sides would continue to support him. The land and grain given away now could always be earned back in the future.

At the very worst, the remaining estate of the Zhang family could still be preserved.

So Zhang Tingsu, gritting his teeth and stamping his foot, had asked He Tengjiao to memorialize Zhu Cilang, offering to contribute two hundred thousand shi of white rice, to surrender forty thousand mu of official fields, military fields, and hidden fields, and inviting His Highness the Crown Prince to honor the Zhang family mansion in Qiaokou Town with his presence!

He had originally only hoped that Zhu Cilang would spend one night at the Zhang mansion — that alone would have been an immense honor. But he never expected that this cunning and ferocious beggar Crown Prince would be especially friendly toward him, actually taking him by the hand and walking down the dragon boat's gangplank together, amid a swell of drums and music and cries of "Thousand Years," onto the grain wharf of Qiaokou Town.

At this, everyone was stunned — what was the relationship between this Squire Zhang and the Crown Prince Zhu Cilang? How could they be so close?

(End of Chapter)