Chapter 59: Imperial Father, Don't Run — Your Son Is Filial

When the Chongzhen Emperor announced his personal command of the campaign, he forgot one crucial matter… he had not ordered the Palace Guard to deploy at the Meridian Gate!

The Gate of Imperial Supremacy, where he now stood, faced the Meridian Gate directly, and since court was in session, the Meridian Gate stood open. Just now, when the killing took place outside the Meridian Gate, officials at the Gate of Imperial Supremacy with sharp hearing could all make out the startled cries of the officials gathered outside the Meridian Gate.

In other words, Zhu Cilang and his one thousand fully armed soldiers were separated from the Chongzhen Emperor by only a single gate.

And among the Han Generals guarding the Chongzhen Emperor outside the Gate of Imperial Supremacy, there were eyes and ears for Zhu Cilang — Zhu Chunjie, the former head of Zhu Cilang's Eastern Palace guard, had once commanded the Han Generals' camp! So once Zhu Cilang had money, he had Zhu Chunjie go to the Han Generals' camp and scatter silver.

So now one of the Han Generals slipped quietly out of the Meridian Gate and reported to Zhu Cilang, who was preparing to leave, that the Chongzhen Emperor was about to take personal command of the army.

"Your Highness, you cannot let His Majesty take the field himself!"

The one speaking to Zhu Cilang was Wu Xiang, who had come over from the tower of the Zhengyang Gate. When Zhu Cilang entered the Zhengyang Gate, Wu Xiang had been up on the wall directing the placement of the red-coated cannons, so he had not gone down to meet the Crown Prince. Only when he heard that Zhu Cilang was about to carry out a massacre outside the Meridian Gate did he rush over to try to stop it.

Killing people like this right at the Emperor's doorstep was truly a gross act of disrespect!

But he had arrived too late, and saw only corpses strewn across the ground, several baskets of severed heads, and officials trembling with fright.

Just as Wu Xiang was at a loss for words, a Han General in golden helmet and golden armor dashed out of the Meridian Gate and reported to Zhu Cilang both Guang Shiheng's incitement of Chongzhen to take personal command and Chongzhen's decision to do so.

Wu Xiang, Wang Qi, Wang Zhou, and the others naturally heard it too. The three exchanged glances, all knowing that disaster was at hand!

If the Emperor took personal command, how could the Crown Prince still oversee the army?

Heads were already rolling — could the Crown Prince still hand over military power? If he handed it over, could he survive?

Besides, the capital could not be held! The common people outside the Zhengyang Gate were lining the streets to welcome Li Zicheng's roving bandits! This showed that the people of the capital and a considerable portion of the officials had already taken Li Zicheng for the true Son of Heaven and were preparing to abandon the Great Ming…

The authority of the Ming court was draining away fast… Authority resides in men's hearts, and now that hearts had changed, authority too was about to vanish!

Once authority was utterly gone, the twenty thousand rabble in the inner city would fall apart, and Wu Sangui's Guanning Army would seek a new master.

Father and son Chongzhen would have only one road left — death!

"Old Father-in-Law!" Zhu Cilang gritted his teeth. "Take the right bureau of the musket corps and seize the Meridian Gate!

Wang Qi, bring the Eastern Palace guards and follow Us through the Meridian Gate to see His Majesty!"

Was this a palace coup?

Zhu Cilang issued the order publicly, and not only Wu Xiang, Wang Yong, Wang Qi, the right bureau of the musket corps, and the Eastern Palace guard battalion heard it — many of the officials, clerks, and palace attendants standing around watching also heard it.

Every heart gave a jolt… The Crown Prince was going to lead troops to the Gate of Imperial Supremacy! Was this to force the throne? Or to kill the sovereign?

Li Zicheng attacking from without, the Crown Prince rebelling within! Could the Great Ming still be saved?

Zhu Cilang's face was grim as water, and he shouted at the top of his lungs: "Gentlemen! The crisis is upon us! The capital is about to fall, and my Imperial Father refuses to move south — the ancestral realm is about to be lost! We beseech you all to enter the Meridian Gate with Us and remonstrate… This is what loyal subjects and filial sons do!"

It truly was not a palace coup — at most it was an armed remonstrance!

Immediately someone shouted in response: "The Crown Prince speaks most rightly! Loyal subjects and filial sons cannot stand by and watch their sovereign and father perish and the state be destroyed!"

Zhu Cilang at once cast his gaze over and found it was a blue-robed civil official, very young, fair-faced with a short beard, speaking in a Wu accent.

Seeing Zhu Cilang looking at him, the man immediately strode forward and performed a bow with clasped hands: "I, Su Ziwen, Hanlin Academy Compiler, am willing to follow His Highness the Crown Prince through the Meridian Gate!"

"Good!" Zhu Cilang praised loudly. "A loyal subject indeed! From this moment, you are Our expositor!"

With that single praise and appointment, the officials outside the Meridian Gate suddenly woke as if from a dream — this was a chance for promotion and riches!

At once a second loyal subject appeared, a man in a flying-fish robe of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, in his twenties, refined in appearance, looking like a scholar. He had probably run over from the nearby Embroidered Uniform Guard office to watch the excitement.

"I, Ren Yizhou, Centurion of the Northern Pacification Office, am willing to follow His Highness the Crown Prince through the Meridian Gate!"

"Good!" Zhu Cilang nodded. "You too are a loyal subject! You are now one of Our guards!"

So that was how one became a loyal subject!

"Your Highness, I am willing to follow!"

"Your Highness the Crown Prince, I am willing to be a loyal subject of the Great Ming…"

"I too am willing to follow!"

The Great Ming truly did have a good many loyal subjects! In no time, all the officials and clerks outside the Meridian Gate who had come to watch the excitement had become loyal subjects.

Zhu Cilang drew a deep breath — the air he inhaled carried the smell of blood! Unlike his reaction the last time he killed Du Xun, now when Zhu Cilang smelled this bloody scent, not only did he not feel nauseated, he felt an irrepressible excitement…

"Gentlemen, follow Us through the Meridian Gate!"

With these words, Zhu Cilang strode forward and swaggered toward the Meridian Gate. The Eastern Palace guards, the musket soldiers of the Hardship Battalion, and the officials outside the Meridian Gate who had watched the excitement and become loyal subjects of the Great Ming all followed behind Zhu Cilang — more than a thousand, nearly two thousand people, surging through the Meridian Gate in a mighty tide.

The main gate of the Meridian Gate was ordinarily kept shut; instead, one gate opened on each of the two side wings of the Meridian Gate, called the Left and Right Wing Gates, which served as the entrances for all officials attending court.

The banner-guard soldiers manning the Left and Right Wing Gates were all showpieces, and few were even at their posts. Seeing so many fully armed soldiers, some even carrying muskets, they were scared out of their wits — how would they dare resist? The eunuch supervising the Meridian Gate, however, did his duty, flying toward the Gate of Imperial Supremacy, shouting as he ran: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, rebellion! The young master has rebelled…"

The Chongzhen Emperor had already seen it — a great crowd was pouring in through the Left and Right Wing Gates, those in front all clad in iron armor that glittered in the morning sunlight. He would have to be blind not to see it.

Seeing his son charging in with soldiers, murderous and menacing, Chongzhen was for a moment frozen with fright. Events had moved too suddenly! It had already surpassed the Chongzhen Emperor's imagination… He had been Son of Heaven for seventeen years! How old was the Crown Prince? Only sixteen! A few days ago he had been raised in the depths of the palace, unknown to the world, and in the blink of an eye he was leading troops to force the throne!

How was this possible?

"Your Majesty, the crisis is upon us — quickly follow this old slave into the Gate of Imperial Supremacy to take shelter…"

It was Wang Cheng'en, the brush-holding eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, who reacted faster, shouting once and then moving to support Chongzhen, seemingly intending to lead Chongzhen away in flight.

Chongzhen had truly lost his head. He did not stop to think how much authority he, the Son of Heaven in a city under siege, still had left. And by fleeing after Wang Cheng'en in front of so many people, what little authority remained would in an instant drop to zero… At least within Beijing, no one would any longer treat him as a Son of Heaven whose word weighed nine cauldrons.

Zhu Cilang also saw the Chongzhen Emperor being dragged away in flight by Wang Cheng'en, and with that, the heart hanging in his throat was for the moment somewhat set down.

If the Chongzhen Emperor had not fled, but instead ordered the Han Generals to protect him and stood against Zhu Cilang at the Gate of Imperial Supremacy, Zhu Cilang would truly have been in a difficult spot! The authority of the Ming court had already been swept to the ground, and this was not only the Chongzhen Emperor's problem — it was Zhu Cilang's problem too. If the Chongzhen Emperor refused to back down, Zhu Cilang would not dare use force; at most he could "beg" to leave the city and oversee the army — and that would be the worst of all strategies!

Because a Crown Prince who abandoned his Imperial Father, Imperial Mother, and the court to flee on his own would be seen by all as unfilial, disloyal, and unrighteous. Once such a man left Beijing, it would be very hard for him to establish authority.

Moreover, after being stirred up like this by Zhu Cilang, if Chongzhen happened to come around and flee before Li Zicheng attacked, then whether Zhu Cilang would even remain Crown Prince was hard to say!

Fortunately, the Chongzhen Emperor was terrified by his murderous son and fled from the imperial throne at the Gate of Imperial Supremacy of his own accord.

And with that flight… the inner city of Beijing was now Zhu Cilang's to command!

Thinking of this, Zhu Cilang opened his throat and bellowed: "Imperial Father, don't run — your son is filial… Your son is a filial son!"

Hearing this shout, the civil and military officials present nearly choked… Here was the Crown Prince, helmeted and armored, bearing weapons, with more than a thousand warriors, charging in through the Meridian Gate and now chasing after the Emperor — and he called himself a filial son?

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(End of Chapter)