Chapter 658: Better to Go Abroad and Become a Tenant Farmer

The day Zhu Cilang returned to Nanjing, he happened to run straight into a summer typhoon.

On the streets of Nanjing, a violent storm was about to break. The gale howled and shrieked like ghosts wailing and wolves howling. Dark clouds hung low and pressed down, and from time to time the faint rumble of muffled thunder rolled across the sky. The streets lay in gloom, with only trash and debris whirled into the air. When Zhu Cilang entered the city under the escort of one or two thousand personal guards mounted on short, stocky horses, accompanied by Consort Ning and Consort Fei riding in carriages, the whole city seemed empty and still.

Zhu Cilang suddenly thought that if Nanjing were always this empty, it would save him a great deal of trouble...

"Your Majesty, the Retired Emperor and the Retired Empress knew you were returning to the palace today, so they came back specially from the Hot Springs Palace to the Forbidden City. They are now waiting for you together with the Empress, the Imperial Noble Consort, and the eldest prince!"

The one speaking with Zhu Cilang was Chief Grand Secretary Wei Zaode. When the Son of Heaven returned to court, he naturally had to lead the hundred officials out to the suburbs to welcome him — though there were no hundred officials, only the heads of the Grand Secretariat, the Grand Marshal's Office, the Imperial Clan Court, and the Censorate. The other officials could go on with whatever they were doing!

"Is that so?" Zhu Cilang answered absently. "Has Zheng Zhilong come?"

"He has. How could he not?" The reply came from Wu Xiang, in a rather dejected tone. "At this moment he is probably in the Forbidden City, keeping the Retired Emperor company in conversation."

As soon as Zheng Zhilong heard that his daughter had borne a son, he had ridden post-haste from Fujian, and he was now the hottest figure in Nanjing.

"Zheng Sen has come too," Qian Qianyi said with a smile. "He returned from Chai Gun only half a month ago."

Zhu Cilang was taken aback. "Chai Gun? What sort of name is that?"

"It is a place name in Water Chenla," Qian Qianyi explained. "Did Your Majesty not previously send Zheng Sen to make a circuit of Annam, Champa, and Water Chenla?"

Zhu Cilang nodded. "Right, right, there was such a matter."

Zheng Sen had certainly been busy. Not long after returning from Japan, he had set out again for Annam, where he met with their Trinh lord and Nguyen lord, then gone on to Champa and met King Anzan of Champa, and finally gone to Water Chenla and met the regent of Water Chenla, Oudey.

It was merely a matter of meeting them, establishing contact, and learning the situation in those three countries — nothing more. Colonial rule and the like had to be applied selectively. Annam, Champa, and Water Chenla were none of them too weak; the Great Ming had an advantage over them, but not an overwhelming one.

So one could not be too hasty, baring fangs and claws from the outset and demanding colonies... it was not that easy!

The moment he thought of Annam, Champa, and Water Chenla, Zhu Cilang's mind turned to the food security that concerned him most.

"How did the trial planting of foreign tubers turn out? What was the harvest? Can they be eaten?"

Foreign tubers were potatoes. The Fujianese called them foreign tubers, and they were already grown in small quantities in Fujian and Jiangnan. Xu Guangqi had also mentioned the thing in his writings.

But foreign tubers were not as common in the southeast as sweet potatoes, so Zhu Cilang had not rushed to promote them. Instead he had let Minister of War Wu Xiang try planting them — not in the military farm bureau of the Ministry of War, but on Wu Xiang's own estate. A matter of a few mu of land; even a total crop failure would not matter.

"Planted, planted... three mu were planted, and the harvest was good — over three thousand jin. A fine yield!" Wu Xiang said with a smile. "This subject has also had some sent into the palace. Perhaps tonight Your Majesty will be able to eat them at the Empress's place."

"Is that so?" Zhu Cilang asked with a smile. "The Empress has already eaten them?"

"More than eaten them — she cooked them herself, deep-fried in oil... fried potato strips with fried chicken." Wu Xiang laughed. "The Empress said this was something Your Majesty had spoken of with her before leaving Nanjing."

Zhu Cilang chuckled. "Excellent, excellent... We must certainly sample the Empress's cooking."

It had been a long time since he had eaten fried potato strips and fried chicken...

While Zhu Cilang was talking with Wu Xiang, Wei Zaode, and the others, the short, stocky horse beneath him kept moving forward, and they managed to enter the Forbidden City just before the heavy rain came down.

Wei Zaode, Qian Qianyi, Chen Rui, Li Yan, Huang Binqing, Li Ruolian, Zhu Chunjie, Zhang Shize, and the others were not imperial relatives and could not conveniently attend the palace family banquet, so they took their leave and returned to their respective offices to attend to business.

Zhu Cilang, together with Wu Xiang, the fat Prince of Fu from the Imperial Clan Court, the somewhat effeminate Prince of Lu, and his two pregnant consorts, went to the Hall of Martial Valor.

Before moving out of the Forbidden City, Chongzhen had lived in the Hall of Martial Valor. After he left, the quarters there were kept for the Retired Emperor's use whenever he returned to the palace.

Zhu Cilang did not take a sedan chair but rode his horse all the way to the gate of the Hall of Martial Valor. The eunuchs had long since announced his arrival, so Empress Wu Sanmei and Zheng Chagu, holding her son, had already come out of the hall to greet him.

"Sanmei, no need for ceremony... Chagu, don't kneel either." Zhu Cilang swung down from the saddle, and as he spoke he excused the two women from their formalities while striding forward to take a big, plump baby boy from Chagu's arms.

The boy was only a dozen or so days old, yet already fair-skinned and chubby — a born glutton, by the look of him. When Zhu Cilang took him, he was asleep; probably sensing a stranger, he woke at once, opened his eyes, swept a glance over Zhu Cilang, and then burst out wailing with a loud "wah."

Zhu Cilang had little experience soothing children and was momentarily at a loss, when the voice of the Chongzhen Retired Emperor came from within the Hall of Martial Valor.

"Brother Hao is crying — go and see to him quickly..."

"Brother Hao?" Zhu Cilang was startled.

Zheng Chagu hurried forward to take back her son, and with a smile told the Zhu Emperor, "Imperial Father, the old Imperial Father just now bestowed a name on the boy — he is called Brother Hao."

"Brother Hao?" Zhu Cilang frowned. "Called Zhu Hao?"

"Your Majesty!" Wu Sanmei shook her head. "How have you forgotten your own family's generation character?"

"Right," Zhu Cilang thought for a moment. "Ci, He, Yi, Bo, Zhong — the He generation... and then metal, wood, water, fire, earth. My name carries fire, so my son should carry earth. Zhu Tuhao?"

Zhu Tuhao... the Chongzhen Emperor really had a gift for naming!

Zhu Cilang was the richest of all the Ming emperors, Zhu Tuhao's mother was the richest of all the Ming consorts, and Tuhao's maternal grandfather Zheng Zhilong was the richest man in the entire Ming... surrounded by a pile of richest people, if he wasn't a tuhao, who was?

"What Zhu Tuhao..." Wu Sanmei did not know whether to laugh or cry. "It is Zhu Hehao!"

"Close enough, close enough..." Zhu Cilang laughed, pulled Wu Sanmei to her feet, and together they entered the Hall of Martial Valor. The moment he stepped inside, he saw a little fat boy swaggering about, and behind the little fat boy two little girls who could barely toddle along.

The three children stood there staring blankly at Zhu Cilang, and then the older of the little girls said to the great Zhu Emperor with a beaming smile, "Your daughter pays respects to Imperial Father!"

Then the other, younger girl said in a milky voice, "Pays respects to Imperial Father!"

The little fat boy, who was the last to react, chimed in as well: "Pays respects to Imperial Father..." Halfway through he realized something was wrong. "No, you're not Imperial Father. You are..."

"I am your imperial elder brother." Zhu Cilang reached out and pinched the little fat boy's bun-like cheek. "Brother Fu, how did you get so fat? Have you done nothing but stuff your face?"

This silly boy turned out to be a son of the Chongzhen Emperor — the very "Little Chun." Zhu Cilang wanted to adopt him out to the Prince of Fu, Zhu Yousong, and so called him "Brother Fu." As for his formal name, it was Zhu Cixuan.

"What is stuffing your face?" the little fat boy asked blankly.

Zhu Cilang did not answer him but bent down and scooped the two little girls into his arms. These two girls were Zhu Cilang's daughters — one born to Wu Sanmei in the eighteenth year of Chongzhen, the other born to Zheng Chagu in the nineteenth year of Chongzhen. In addition, Wu Sanmei had borne Zhu Cilang a third daughter in the twentieth year of Chongzhen.

The three girls had also been given names: "Heavenly Phoenix," "Colorful Phoenix," and "Little Phoenix." At the moment Little Phoenix was being held by the Retired Empress Zhou and had already been rocked to sleep.

After hugging his two precious daughters, Zhu Cilang set them down, then strode forward to pay his respects and offer greetings to the Chongzhen Retired Emperor and the Retired Empress Zhou, saying loudly to the two of them, "Imperial Father, Imperial Mother, your son has not failed your hopes and has at last returned in triumph... Our great Ming celestial dynasty may finally look forward to a restoration!"