Chapter 2: Chongzhen Summons

Zhu Cilang had been reborn into this precarious age, and was about to witness this tragic and stirring era.

To the north, the Jianzhou barbarians hammered at the passes; to the south, Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, and other roving bandits swept through the Central Plains.

Born into troubled times and knowing how it all ended, Zhu Cilang had hoped to use his knowledge from a later age to realize his ambitions, guide the realm, and change everything—but reality proved otherwise.

Even as the Crown Prince, in seven years he had accomplished almost nothing to alter history. At most, he wrote various planning documents in the palace and tinkered with small inventions.

He was too young. Even if he performed like a child prodigy, he could not break through the cage of feudalism—the Crown Prince could not easily leave the palace.

Zhu Cilang had found several opportunities to offer many suggestions to Chongzhen, but because he was young and his words carried little weight, Chongzhen did not take them to heart.

The only thing Chongzhen adopted was Zhu Cilang's suggestion to reorganize the Capital Camps and train an army with formidable combat strength.

Because in the eighth year of Chongzhen, after the thirteen families and seventy-two camps of the peasant army held their grand meeting at Xingyang, they captured the secondary capital Fengyang, dug up the imperial ancestral tombs of Old Zhu's family, killed over sixty eunuchs guarding the city and several thousand garrison officers and soldiers, and even raised a banner reading "Ancient Yuan True Dragon Emperor" to celebrate their victory—their arrogance was utterly rampant.

The fall of the secondary capital Fengyang enraged Chongzhen greatly. He felt the Great Ming urgently needed a brave and battle-capable army, stationed in the capital and ready to answer orders at any time, so he happened to adopt Zhu Cilang's suggestion.

What disappointed Zhu Cilang was that Chongzhen did not hand him the authority to organize and command the army. Instead, he appointed Cao Huachun, eunuch superintendent of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses, to consolidate the Tengxiang Four Guards.

Cao Huachun was an old retainer from Chongzhen's household when he was still Prince Xin, held a higher position than Wang Cheng'en, and enjoyed Chongzhen's deep trust.

Zhu Cilang was helpless. In the end, he was still too young—everyone treated him as a child, and even bearing the title of Crown Prince was useless.

It was not until he left the palace to study at the age of six that Zhu Cilang was formally recognized in his status as Crown Prince and gained many rights.

The practice of leaving the palace to study as recognition of the heir's status originated with the Jiajing Emperor. This old immortal who popped miracle pills was a devout believer in Daoism, trusted the legend that two dragons could not meet, and for a time refused to see his son or name an heir.

Perhaps fearing that the Great Ming's future emperor would be illiterate, the old immortal had his eldest son Zhu Zaihou leave the palace to study, and had him educated according to the Great Ming's unique system for training the heir apparent. From then on, leaving the palace to study as recognition of the heir's status became a nominal ancestral institution.

Seeing Zhu Cilang staring blankly in silence, a leading young eunuch had no choice but to kneel and plead bitterly: "Young Master, please come down—it's dangerous up there."

Zhu Cilang let out a light sigh, tossed the telescope in his hand gently down to the eunuch below, then skillfully braced his hands on the glazed tiles, planted his feet against the great crimson palace wall, and descended like an ape coming down a tree—within a few breaths he stood firmly on the ground.

He waved his hand and said: "Rise, Companion Wu. Why must you nag like this every time, disturbing my peace?"

This Companion Wu, originally named Wu Zhong, was around twenty years old. He was Zhu Cilang's companion-reading young eunuch and also the head eunuch of Zhongcui Palace, responsible for looking after Zhu Cilang's daily life.

True to his name, Wu Zhong was utterly loyal to Zhu Cilang. Though young, he understood very well that His Highness the Crown Prince was his future.

When His Highness one day ascended the throne, he himself would share in the merit of supporting the sovereign's rise, and would stand alongside great figures like Cao Huachun and Wang Cheng'en at the pinnacle of the eunuch hierarchy, reaching the summit of his life.

"This servant would not wish to disturb the Young Master either, but I worry that if the censors learn of the Young Master's actions, they will surely petition His Majesty with remonstrances." The young eunuch Wu Zhong said softly.

"Would I be afraid of this bunch of blustering talkers?" Zhu Cilang gave a light snort.

Whenever he thought of the Donglin Faction—those who, under the guise of criticizing court politics and evaluating officials, actually shielded the landlords and fought for the interests of wealthy merchants and magnates—Zhu Cilang's anger rose from the depths of his heart.

Though these people daily shouted slogans of incorruptible devotion to duty, revitalizing official governance, and abolishing maladministration, in substance they had degenerated into spokesmen for the interest bloc of great landlords and big merchants, doing everything in their power to obstruct tax collection and disaster relief.

In history, the direct cause of the Great Ming's fall was the loss of those few critical battles, and some attributed the defeat of those battles to Chongzhen's blundering command.

But in reality? Wasn't every one of them lost because the campaigns dragged on too long, the court ran out of money to fight, and only then did Chongzhen, under the repeated demands of the civil officials, issue the edict ordering the front lines to seek a quick decisive battle?

They wouldn't let taxes be collected, there was no money to fight, which led to defeat—and then they dumped the blame on the emperor. The Donglin Faction really played that hand beautifully.

They wouldn't let commercial taxes be collected, and insisted on piling taxes onto the peasants. The result was that peasants who had already suffered catastrophic famines became even more miserable, and ultimately, led by some hard-headed men, they gathered in crowds and rose in rebellion.

Peasants rebel, the court suppresses the rebellion, suppressing costs money, no money so taxes are collected, more taxes on peasants, they're starving to death, peasants rebel again.

Running through this vicious cycle, how could the Great Ming withstand the strain?

This was one of the reasons Zhu Cilang hated the Donglin Faction, and at the same time he was not afraid of some censors filing petty reports against him.

Under the Great Ming's ancestral system of succession by the eldest legitimate son, combined with the extremely deep affection between Chongzhen and Empress Zhou, his position as Crown Prince could be said to be unshakable.

Back in the day, the Wanli Emperor dreamed of deposing the eldest in favor of a younger son, yet could never have his wish. As long as Zhu Cilang didn't hold a musket to Chongzhen's head, who could depose him?

Just as he was lost in thought, a eunuch in a crimson robe entered Zhongcui Palace with quick little steps and said in a shrill voice: "Your Highness, His Majesty summons you—you are to proceed to Qianqing Palace for an audience."

"Understood." Zhu Cilang nodded.

Entering the inner chamber, attended by two young palace maids, Zhu Cilang changed into a set of casual robes of deep red with dragon patterns.

Zhu Cilang smoothed the hem of his robes and said to Wu Zhong: "Companion Wu, tell the Armory Bureau to rush out another batch of telescopes, and have them do some research in their spare time instead of sitting around all day eating and waiting to die."

"Yes!" Wu Zhong hurriedly acknowledged, then reached out to support Zhu Cilang as he stepped over the half-chi-high threshold.

The telescope had been introduced to the Great Ming for ten years already. Two years prior, the Great Ming's first telescope for observing celestial phenomena had been successfully made, and the Chongzhen Emperor had personally come in high spirits to inspect it, becoming the first emperor to observe astronomical phenomena through a telescope.

Yet no one at all thought of equipping the Night Scouts of the Ming army at the nine frontier garrisons with telescopes to scout enemy movements.

"Xu Sheng!" Zhu Cilang shouted loudly toward the courtyard outside.

Immediately, a tall, imposing palace guard holding a silver hammer strode over with a dragon's gait and a tiger's bearing, swiftly appearing before Zhu Cilang, chest out and head high: "Xu Sheng reporting!"

"Together with Companion Wu, accompany me to Qianqing Palace." Zhu Cilang patted Xu Sheng's broad arm and said.

He very much wanted to pat Xu Sheng on the shoulder, but the other man was too tall—he simply couldn't reach.

Xu Sheng was personally selected by Zhu Cilang from the Grand Han Generals of the Embroidered Uniform Guard establishment. After several years of molding, he was already utterly loyal to Zhu Cilang, and all the palace maids and eunuchs of Zhongcui Palace were likewise utterly loyal to him.

A transmigrator, a person over thirty years old counting two lifetimes combined, bearing the status of Crown Prince—if he couldn't even win over these people, how was he any different from a pig?

Zhu Cilang, with his personal bodyguard Xu Sheng and Wu Zhong, followed the eunuch bearing the summons toward Qianqing Palace.

He did not ride in the Crown Prince's ceremonial procession but walked on foot—a habit he had kept since childhood.

In his thinking, born into the chaos of the late Ming, if he wanted to survive, he would inevitably have to go out and stir things up in the future.

So Zhu Cilang had long since made plans, starting martial arts training and physical exercise from a young age. He had no desire to end up like the future Prince of Fu—too fat to run, eventually captured by Li Zicheng's peasant army, boiled, and eaten.

After several years of training, though Zhu Cilang was only seven years old, his frame looked considerably sturdier, and his height was close to one meter forty.

Originally, Zhu Cilang's behavior in the palace was supervised by the palace's disciplining matrons. During his training, one harsh disciplining matron kept calling him "improper in conduct," chattering on and on for ages like some Tang Monk.

Zhu Cilang was so annoyed he couldn't stand it. He jumped up, delivered a resounding slap, and said sternly: "Do you want to end up like Lady Ke?"

Lady Ke was the wet nurse of the Tianqi Emperor, nominally married to Wei Zhongxian. The two of them wreaked havoc in the palace. After Chongzhen took the throne, he had Lady Ke flogged to death at the Laundry Bureau, then had her executed by lingering death.

That disciplining matron was stunned on the spot. Recalling Lady Ke's miserable end as if it were before her eyes, her legs couldn't help trembling, and she dared not say another word.

Later, the matter reached Chongzhen, who personally inquired why Zhu Cilang had committed such an act of impropriety.

Zhu Cilang said directly: "In their day, the Founding Ancestor and Emperor Chengzu could govern the state and pacify the realm with letters, and ride horses to settle heaven and earth with arms. As the Great Ming's heir apparent, it is only proper that I emulate my predecessors—how can I not practice martial arts?"

This answer greatly surprised Chongzhen. Far from punishing him, he praised and encouraged him.