Chapter 91: We Are Truly Filial (Seeking Favorites, Seeking Recommendations)

The main force of the roving bandits was about to arrive, but Zhu Cilang still showed no sign of alarm, because he knew the bandit army could not reach the walls of Tianjin all at once. West of Tianjin the Wei River (the Grand Canal) formed a barrier, and the wooden bridge over it had already been burned, so the situation was not yet especially critical.

Only after Hao Yaoqi and his subordinates had each received their reward silver and had been escorted by "Wu Sangui" and the "Yi Ding cavalry" to the barracks inside the Tianjin garrison city that had originally belonged to the Tianjin Prefecture headquarters battalion did Zhu Cilang summon Li Ruolian and Wei Zaode, who had already taken off the dragon robe, to his side. Wei Zaode had of course not usurped the throne; because he was handsome and imposing and about the same age as Chongzhen, Zhu Cilang had pressed him into service, put the dragon robe on him, and had him impersonate the Emperor in order to deceive that honest rebel Hao Yaoqi.

Zhu Cilang said, "Grand Secretary Wei, Commander Li, the two of you are to leave the city at once and, together with Wu Xiang, gather up all the officials, their families, the common people, troops, horses, and supplies outside the city.

The civil officials outside the city and their families, as well as those who came from Wangqingtuo, are all to be under Grand Secretary Wei's authority. The military officers, the sons of meritorious nobles, and their families are all to be under Commander Li's authority. The army and the gold and silver escorted by Huang Dabao are all to be under Wu Xiang's authority. In addition, Wu Xiang is to be Regional Commander of all the men and horses outside the city!"

After entrusting the task of gathering the men, horses, and supplies into the city to Wei Zaode, Li Ruolian, and Wu Xiang, Zhu Cilang then took Wu Sanmei and a few trusted guards and walked quickly into the courtyard, which was full of corpses and thick with the smell of blood.

In the courtyard, the door of the small building where Chongzhen and Empress Zhou were staying had already been opened. Cao Huachun and Cao Youyi were standing guard there, and when they saw Zhu Cilang approaching with his people, they hurriedly knelt and kowtowed.

"Your subject Cao Youyi kowtows to His Highness the Crown Prince."

"This old slave Cao Huachun kowtows to the Thousand Years."

Before the bloody battle at the Tianjin garrison, these two had still been somewhat unwilling to accept Zhu Cilang's authority. But now they were thoroughly convinced!

They had no choice but to be convinced! The two of them had lost most of their strength in the bloody fighting inside the Tianjin garrison city. And Zhu Cilang had directly crushed the rebel troops of the Tianjin garrison, and had even tricked more than two hundred ferocious veteran soldiers of the roving bandits' main camp into surrendering.

Whether by fist or by brain, Zhu Cilang had already displayed the fine qualities of a heroic ruler for a chaotic age.

That was why he was the sovereign the Great Ming needed most right now!

"Are my Imperial Father and Imperial Mother both safe?" Zhu Cilang now once again acted the part of a filial son, anxiously asking after Chongzhen and Empress Zhou.

"Safe, both safe," Cao Huachun nodded, then frowned. "It is only that Her Highness has suffered a bit of a fright..."

"Is that so?" Zhu Cilang snorted. "The rebels of the Tianjin garrison are truly detestable, to have frightened my Imperial Mother! Regional Commander Cao, they must be severely punished!"

"This subject obeys the decree!" Cao Youyi hastened to accept the order.

The decree was addressed to him, which meant that his post as Regional Commander was still his for the time being.

But Cao Huachun thought to himself: Crown Prince, you are wronging those rebels... Her Highness was not frightened by the bandits; she was frightened by your Imperial Father!

The filial son Zhu Cilang, ignorant of the truth, did not exchange more words with Cao Huachun and Cao Youyi. Leading Wu Sanmei, he stepped up the stairs and reached the second floor where Chongzhen and Empress Zhou were.

After going upstairs, Zhu Cilang saw the Chongzhen Emperor sitting on a chair as if stunned. Beside him stood the two senior palace matrons Wei Qinghui and Wu Wanrong, but Empress Zhou was nowhere to be seen.

He hurried forward and saluted the Chongzhen Emperor with a bow: "Your son greets Imperial Father. Your son has come too late to rescue the sovereign, and has caused Imperial Father and Imperial Mother to be alarmed."

Chongzhen looked at his son, not knowing what to say, and simply remained silent.

This son of his... to call him a filial son, one really could not see it! To call him an unfilial son, he truly was not one either. If he were an unfilial son, he could simply have watched while the roving bandits beat him to death. Once he was dead, would the son not be Emperor?

But he had not done that at all. Instead, he had very efficiently rescued both himself and Empress Zhou.

Moreover, the brilliance of Zhu Cilang's methods in suppressing the rebellion and deceiving the roving bandits into surrendering far surpassed that of Chongzhen, his own father.

With such methods, even if he could not pacify the barbarians and exterminate the bandits and restore a bright and clear world to the Great Ming, he could at least hold on to the southern half of Jiangnan and continue the dynasty handed down by the Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor.

"Imperial Father, where is Imperial Mother?" Zhu Cilang's voice rang out again, interrupting Chongzhen's thoughts.

"Ah..." Only then did the Chongzhen Emperor remember that he himself had not seen Empress Zhou for a while. He hurriedly looked around, but did not see Empress Zhou either.

What was going on? How had she vanished in the blink of an eye?

"Where is the Empress?" Chongzhen asked.

"Your Majesty, Young Master... Her Highness the Empress is over there." It was Wei Qinghui, the senior matron serving Chongzhen, who spoke up, raising her hand and pointing to a corner.

Zhu Cilang looked in the direction she pointed and saw a shield standing upright there.

"Why is there a shield here?"

"Young Master, Her Highness is hiding behind the shield." Wei Qinghui said with a helpless smile. "This slave and Sister Wu tried to persuade her for a long time, but she refused to come out."

"We shall go and take a look." Zhu Cilang walked quickly toward the shield. When he reached it, he reached out and tugged at its edge, and sure enough, someone behind it was holding on.

"Imperial Mother, are you behind there?" Zhu Cilang asked.

"I am!" Empress Zhou's voice sounded angry.

"Imperial Mother, the bandits have already been subdued by your son. You do not need to hide any longer."

"I am not coming out!" Empress Zhou said. "There is someone who just now held a sword and tried to kill me, and he has not left yet!"

"What?" Zhu Cilang was startled by Empress Zhou's words. He quickly drew his treasured sword and looked around in all directions, but he did not find any rebels in the small building.

Could it be that Empress Zhou had been frightened out of her wits? What was to be done then? The treatment of mental illness had been a difficult problem even in later ages, and that four-eyed miracle doctor Zeng certainly would have no solution either! He had only just managed to have such a young and beautiful mother, and now she had gone mad?

"Imperial Mother, there is no one else here..." Zhu Cilang felt his scalp prickle. "What is the matter with you?"

"She is talking about Us!" the Chongzhen Emperor suddenly spoke up.

It was Chongzhen... Ah! Zhu Cilang understood. The Chongzhen Emperor must have thought just now that the bandits were about to break in, and so had wanted to kill his wife to spare her from disgrace.

"Imperial Father!" Zhu Cilang also spoke to Chongzhen in a reproachful tone. "How could you do this? Imperial Mother is your wedded wife. How could you try to kill her?"

The Chongzhen Emperor defended himself: "We, We only did it to preserve her chastity! It was for her own good!"

"Imperial Father!" Zhu Cilang shook his head repeatedly. "The world is now in great chaos. This is an age of contending states, and you cannot keep using the thinking of a peaceful and prosperous era. All that talk about losing one's chastity being a grave matter and starving to death being a small matter is out of date... Right now in Beijing there are several thousand civil and military officials who have lost their chastity, and not even ten who have starved to death! Chastity and reputation truly are not that important! For a sovereign, the survival of the state is the greatest matter! For others, surviving in a chaotic age is the greatest matter! Losing one's chastity is the smallest of matters!"

"You, you..." The Chongzhen Emperor was momentarily at a loss for words, not knowing how to reason with his son.

Zhu Cilang was so very eloquent! Now, of course, having reason on his side, he would not spare his father, and continued his criticism: "That whole doctrine of heavenly principle and human desire is only for binding people's hearts... In a peaceful age, it does no harm to use it; when people's hearts are bound, there will naturally be fewer who rise in rebellion. But now is a chaotic age, and a hero of a chaotic age must use every possible means, leaving nothing untried! Only thus can the Great Ming be restored, the barbarians pacified, and the bandits exterminated!

And restoring the Great Ming, pacifying the barbarians, and exterminating the bandits is what matters most. As for what means are used, that is not important! Even if they are utterly base and shameless, what of it? The victor becomes king, the loser becomes a bandit! Since ancient times, the histories have all been written by the victors. As long as the realm of the Great Ming is preserved, later generations will never know how wicked we were!"

Chongzhen stammered, "You, you... have you learned the sages' teachings all for nothing?"

"The sages' teachings are for governing the world, not for contending for supremacy!" Zhu Cilang lectured his father. "Now is already an age of great contention. The realm is divided into four, and many heroes have risen together. We father and son are merely one of the four heroes. We no longer have the qualifications to be sages!"

Chongzhen said, "Our Great Ming is the legitimate dynasty!"

Zhu Cilang shook his head. "How can Imperial Father be so pedantic? How can you contend for the realm against the Roving Bandit, against the Xi Bandit, and against the eastern barbarians with such thinking? Imperial Mother, you be the judge. If our dynasty and realm were left for Imperial Father to manage, could there be any future?"

By this time Empress Zhou had already come out from behind the shield and was standing beside her son. She said crossly, "Your Majesty, think about what Cilang has done these past days! Without him making all the arrangements, the Great Ming would already have perished! The dynasty would have fallen! The foundation laid by our ancestors would have been destroyed in your hands... Even in death you would have no face to meet our ancestors!"

"This, this, this..."

"Imperial Father," Zhu Cilang said, seeing that the Chongzhen Emperor was at a loss and seemed on the verge of mental collapse, and so he struck while the iron was hot. "How about this... Your son will contend for the realm on Imperial Father's behalf. All the base and shameless deeds, your son will do them. Imperial Father need only cultivate his character and nurture his nature, and be a sage and a gentleman!"

"Then, then let it be so!" The Chongzhen Emperor nodded, and once again, albeit unwillingly, granted his son Zhu Cilang the authority to control the court.

This grant of authority was different from the previous seizure of power at the Gate of Supreme Ultimate; this time the Chongzhen Emperor had truly nodded his assent!

(End of Chapter)