Chapter 976: The Emperor Works Overtime Too! (Seeking Subscriptions)

There was no nightlife in Tangquan Town — at least no public nightlife — but that did not mean everyone had to be in bed the moment it got dark. The Prince of Condé, from France, was not in bed at this moment; he was keeping a beautiful woman company in conversation.

The beautiful woman was Marie Mancini. She had already spent several days in this dull place called Tangquan Town, yet still had not received a summons from His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Ming. The Emperor had decided to see her, but she had to wait in line — in about seven or eight more days she would get her audience.

So at this moment Miss Mancini wanted to seize the time and learn more about Emperor Zhu from the Prince of Condé.

"He is a rather dull man!" said the Prince of Condé. "He does not dance, does not like music, does not like painting, does not watch plays, does not smoke, and hardly drinks — basically he does not drink at all. He is also very restrained in food and drink; lunch and dinner are only four dishes and one soup."

"Your Highness, who are you talking about?" Miss Mancini stared with her pair of expressive, speaking eyes. "It wouldn't be Cromwell, would it?"

"Cromwell?" The Prince of Condé thought for a moment, then laughed. "They do seem rather alike! His Majesty the Emperor is very much like that Puritan madman. Of course, his attitude toward women is a bit more open. You know, Eastern monarchs do not really practice monogamy; they generally have a harem thronged with beauties. His Majesty the Emperor also has his harem, though the number is not large — eight women in all. Two of them were chosen for him by his Imperial Father and entered the palace while he was still Crown Prince.

As for his Empress and Imperial Noble Consort — the two women of the most exalted status — both came through political marriages. The Empress, Wu Sanmei, comes from the Wu family of generals, while the Imperial Noble Consort, Zheng Chagu, comes from the richest family in the Great Ming and a naval military house.

The third- and fourth-ranking women in the palace also came through political marriages; they are from the imperial house of the Tartar Qing dynasty, which His Majesty defeated.

There is also a talented lady from Shanghai, who is presumably His Majesty's companion in scholarship. And another is a Tartar princess-commander captured by His Majesty, who entered the palace as a slave girl, and it seems she is still a slave girl."

The "Tartar princess-commander" the Prince of Condé spoke of was Kong Sizhen. Because Kong Tingxun had cut corners in fulfilling the contract and turned Shunzhi into Kangxi, Kong Sizhen, the intermediary, lost her chance to be promoted to the rank of Selected Attendant — though for her it made little difference.

Miss Mancini knit her delicate brows and thought: Eight women is quite a lot! She just wondered what they looked like. If they were like those ugly creatures in the European royal houses, that would be fine; but if they were all beauties, that would be trouble.

At that thought, she sighed softly: "I wonder who His Majesty the Emperor is sharing his bed with tonight?"

If the great Emperor Zhu could have heard Mancini's sigh and question at this very moment, he would certainly have answered with a sigh of his own.

Because tonight he was working overtime!

There were eight beauties in the harem, and outside the palace there was a young Western beauty waiting to become his mistress — and yet he had to busy himself with overtime. This was undoubtedly the most painful thing for Zhu Cilang right now!

And he was not working overtime in the Old Mountain Palace, but at the Old Mountain hunting grounds — personally supervising the joint military exercises of the youths from the Military Academy, Old Mountain Middle School, and Old Mountain Castle's Nine Border youths!

This military exercise had been planned long in advance. It had begun on the afternoon of the fifteenth day of the ninth month and would last five days and five nights. The exercise ground was the Old Mountain hunting grounds — that is, the Old Mountain range covering eighty or ninety square kilometers. Emperor Zhu had chosen this territory as his "political capital." Apart from its proximity to Nanjing, he had chosen it precisely because of this mountainous area that could be used for military training.

And regularly organizing the Military Academy students, Old Mountain Middle School students, and the hard-pressed Nine Border youths to carry out joint military exercises was meant to preserve the martial and hardworking spirit of the successors of the Overcoming-Hardship Merit Aristocracy!

Zhu Cilang, now twenty-eight years old and already holding great power for twelve years, had long since begun cultivating successors for feudalism!

On the question of successors, he was quite self-aware. He knew that the Overcoming-Hardship Merit Aristocracy he relied upon was only a "restoration group," not a founding group. A restoration group would more or less inherit the various bad habits of the era of decline, and since the foundation of a restoration was not a demolition and restart, the whole society was still permeated with an atmosphere of rot and degeneration. Under such circumstances, a restoration group was especially prone to corruption and degeneration. And once the restoration group became corrupt and degenerate, the restoration of the Great Ming dynasty would not be sustainable.

In order to make the hard-won restoration last, Zhu Cilang had chosen the Pukou–Old Mountain area, away from the bustle of Nanjing, as the political center of the empire and the residential area of the merit aristocracy. He also strictly suppressed extravagance in Pukou–Old Mountain and established a large number of new-style schools there to cultivate the new nobility of the Great Ming dynasty!

The Great Ming dynasty certainly needed a new nobility!

Zhu Cilang knew that his identity was that of an emperor, not a leader of the common people. As an emperor, he had to rely on the nobility to rule. Of course, the regime could open itself to commoners to a certain extent — allowing them to take examinations and become officials, establishing consultative assemblies, and encouraging (in fact, buying) Nine Border youths to join the army — but the emperor must never forget that the core of the ruling group could only be the nobility, especially the military nobility!

The decay of the nobility meant the decline of imperial power, and the loss of control over the nobility meant the sidelining of imperial power.

What Zhu Cilang wanted now was to keep the imperial power of the Great Ming that he had preserved as strong as possible. The only way was to forge a noble group that supported imperial power while also being austere, martial, shrewd, and formidable.

And to achieve that goal, there was no choice but strict formation and education. So-called aristocratic schools and aristocratic education were things quite hated in later ages. But Zhu Cilang had no alternative — he was the emperor, and the Overcoming-Hardship Merit Aristocracy gathered around Old Mountain were nobles to begin with.

How could he not properly cultivate and instruct the second and third generations of the Overcoming-Hardship Merit Aristocracy?

The future of the realm would depend on them to fight for it! The root cause of the Tumu Crisis and the later weakening of the Ming dynasty was, in fact, the corruption and enfeeblement of the Ming merit aristocracy itself.

If they themselves had not been corrupt and feeble, the Grand Preceptor Esen would long ago have been hacked into eight pieces, and the civil officials of Beijing would have had no underhanded tricks to play. With the paltry strength Esen had, if the experts at killing from Zhu Yuanzhang's generation had been around, would he have dared run to the Great Wall to throw his life away?

So instructing these second and third generations was Zhu Cilang's top priority at present, and he had to attend to it personally.

Therefore, on this night, there was not a single beauty by the side of the Great Ming's Son of Heaven (when going far away to war, of course one must bring beauties along, but for exercises right at one's doorstep one cannot bring women — that would look too decadent). There was only a group of fully armored imperial guards.

The Great Ming Emperor, with this group of guards, rode his Arabian horse and made an inspection tour of the camp on the western slopes of Old Mountain.

The youths and adolescents from the Military Academy, Old Mountain Middle School, and the Nine Border Youth Camp — whether imperial clansmen, young masters of ducal and marquis households, or poor youths from several border garrisons — were all now treated exactly the same. They carried all their own gear, marched on their own feet, pitched their own camps, and cooked their own meals. At this moment, they were sitting in circles by company, eating.

No one dared complain, because the Emperor himself was inspecting the camp. So no matter how bitter and exhausting it was, they had to put on a look of full vigor. When they saw the Emperor approaching surrounded by his cavalry guards, they had to shout "Ten thousand years!" in unison.

Amid the cheering, Zhu Cilang finally felt somewhat gratified. Of course he knew that most of the several thousand, nearly ten thousand youths before him were pretending — in their hearts they were already missing the hard plank beds at school. What? Soft beds at home and maids to warm the bed? That was impossible!

The Military Academy and Old Mountain Middle School were both boarding schools! Students slept on hard plank beds and ate canteen food, under complete military-style management. Never mind maids — there were not even page boys or old servants! Only when they went home on vacation could they hug and cuddle with the maids — but only with their own household maids. They were not to go seeking pleasure in the city of Nanjing. The Pukou docks were guarded by dedicated personnel, and underage noble sons were not allowed to cross the river.

Moreover, the Military Academy and Old Mountain Middle School would call roll at any time and summon students back from vacation for remedial classes. There was truly not a shred of humanity in it!

(End of Chapter)