Chapter 27: Hand Over the Silver Quietly

The Tang residence stood on a broad street in the outer city—the mansion of Tang Shiji, a second-rank senior official serving as Chief Censor of the Left.

As a loyal henchman of Chief Grand Secretary Wen, Tang Shiji always followed his boss's lead in court, attacking wherever he pointed—a word here, a memorial there, and many a minister was toppled from power.

Today, Tang Shiji heard a commotion outside his mansion and summoned his steward to inquire. The steward reported with a mournful face that men from the Southern City Troops and Horses Command Office had set up a porridge station right in front of the Tang mansion and were currently distributing porridge.

What was the meaning of this? Setting up a porridge station in front of my mansion? Had the Five Wards Troops and Horses Office grown so bold as to eat bear heart and leopard gall? Tang Shiji flew into a rage on the spot. "Go!" he thundered. "Fetch their commander!"

The steward had barely been gone a moment before he came scurrying back, panting: "Master, the gate is blocked by refugees queuing for porridge—we can't get out!"

The Tang mansion's great gate swung open, and Tang Shiji led a crowd of household slaves outside. After ordering the slaves to drive off the refugees clogging the doorway, he pointed at the porridge station and demanded, "Who set up this porridge shed?"

A patrol colonel from the Southern City Troops and Horses Command Office immediately stepped forward, sweat pouring down his forehead, and saluted respectfully: "This humble officer received orders yesterday to erect the porridge station here."

"Whose orders?" Tang Shiji nearly roared the words.

Before the patrol colonel could answer, Li Tingbiao, who had been patrolling the area, strode over with several Embroidered Uniform Guard officers and cut in: "It was an order from the Eastern Palace. His Highness the Crown Prince knows that your household is poor, and praised you for having clean sleeves and incorruptible conduct. His Highness is benevolent—he specially placed the porridge station before your mansion so that you may conveniently bring your family out each day to scoop a few bowls of porridge and fill the bellies of your impoverished kin."

After Li Tingbiao finished speaking, some refugees and beggars chimed in with envy: "Wow, the Crown Prince is truly virtuous and kind, treating officials so well!"

"Indeed—we can only lament being born with bitter fates, illiterate as we are. Otherwise we too could sit the examinations and become a Zhuangyuan or Tanhua, become officials and enjoy life, with porridge waiting outside our doors every day."

Tang Shiji flew into a fury. "Bullshit!" he spat. As Chief Censor of the Left, he rarely cursed, but now he pointed at the porridge station and bellowed: "Tear down this porridge station!"

Li Tingbiao barked back: "Who dares! The Crown Prince, by imperial decree, is comforting the people—he established this porridge station to spread grace far and wide. If you demolish it by force, are you plotting rebellion?"

"You—" Tang Shiji was frantic with rage, yet he dared not throw his weight around in front of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

The thousands of refugees and beggars around the porridge station, on hearing it might be torn down, erupted in righteous fury. They pointed at Tang Shiji and cursed him; many spat at him, shouting "Corrupt dog of an official!"

Some of the bolder refugees even scooped up stones from the roadside and hurled them at Tang Shiji. In an instant, chaos reigned before the Tang mansion gates.

Tang Shiji was struck by a stone that hit him square on the head. He felt a sharp pain in his skull, though no blood flowed. Clutching his head, he fled in panic, and under the protection of his household slaves, scurried back into the Tang mansion in utter disgrace.

This spectacle drew roars of laughter from the crowd, jeers and curses ringing out without end.

Similar scenes played out at the other porridge distribution points. All ten porridge stations had several Embroidered Uniform Guard officers patrolling them, precisely to prevent officials from abusing their power to tear the stations down.

The highest rank among the Southern City Troops and Horses Command Office personnel was a sixth-rank commander—any official who popped out of the capital could tear them to shreds with abuse. But the Embroidered Uniform Guard was different. Even if the Chief Grand Secretary himself came in person, he could not command the Guard, and many officials harbored deep psychological shadows regarding the Guard, not daring to provoke conflict with them.

After the porridge stations were relocated, many refugees and beggars worried they might move again—if they lost track of one, their meals would be affected. So day and night, countless beggars and refugees surrounded the mansions of these ministers, camping by the porridge stations.

Over a thousand people lingered near the stations, eating, drinking, and relieving themselves entirely on the spot. Within a single day, the stench had become unbearable.

In the corners and crevices outside these ministers' mansions, piles of garbage and excrement accumulated, giving off a foul odor. When heavy rain came, filthy water flowed everywhere, enough to turn one's stomach.

Moreover, some refugees were of low character, often climbing over the walls at night to sneak into these ministers' homes and steal things, making the families of these officials feel genuinely endangered.

A few days later, Tang Shiji was the first to crack. He found the Embroidered Uniform Guard officers patrolling near the porridge station and pledged a donation of several thousand taels of silver.

The Guard officers said it was very difficult to arrange. Gnashing his teeth, Tang Shiji chased the pledge up to ten thousand taels of silver, and only then did the Guard officers, grinning broadly, order the porridge station moved away and notify the refugees of the new distribution point.

As for the relocated porridge station, it naturally went to the next batch of standby ministers' homes. Zhu Cilang had long since planned everything out, and the same operation repeated.

What surprised Zhu Cilang was that barely a day after the porridge stations were set up before the second batch of standby ministers' mansions, they all came forward one after another to donate funds voluntarily—paying money to buy peace, begging to have the stations moved.

Over the next several days, the dozens of ministers who had put on such a show at the banquet were nearly all put through the wringer. Zhu Cilang received another six hundred thousand taels in donated silver.

With the ministers duly tormented, it was naturally the turn of those wealthy merchants Zhu Cilang had marked with little circles. Donating a few dozen taels—your family is poor? This Crown Prince reads the people's hearts and has come specially to look after you. Come! Down this bowl of hot porridge!

The ministers who had been tormented were deeply aggrieved, feeling threatened, and so they banded together, preparing to submit a memorial impeaching Zhu Cilang.

Zhu Cilang naturally had a clever plan. He set aside five hundred thousand taels from the donated silver—enough to fill twenty great carts—and dispatched over a thousand Yongwei Camp troops to escort it all the way to the Meridian Gate. From there, Li Tingbiao led the Embroidered Uniform Guard to carry it into the palace and deliver it personally before the Chongzhen Emperor.

The Chongzhen Emperor, seeing five hundred thousand taels of gleaming white silver, was overjoyed. Silver was precisely what he lacked most—Liaodong was demanding military pay every single day, on the verge of provoking a mutiny.

This five hundred thousand taels was a veritable timely rain. Sent to Liaodong, the border troops would immediately settle down and guard the passes with peace of mind.

The Chongzhen Emperor was inwardly delighted. As for those ministers who had filed reports against the Crown Prince—what was it, refugees blocking their gates? Not a single person had died. How much of a matter was that, to warrant impeaching him in memorials? Could such a trifling thing make him depose his own Crown Prince? Utterly absurd.

Zhu Cilang also took out ten thousand taels and sent it to the Ministry of Revenue, saying it was repayment of the disaster-relief silver owed. He had no desire to owe the Ministry of Revenue a favor over such a paltry sum.

With the silver matter settled, Zhu Cilang encountered another problem. Word had spread that the Crown Prince was distributing porridge in the capital, and refugees streaming toward the city were growing ever more numerous—together with beggars from all over, they were about to break one hundred thousand!

Simply handing out porridge indefinitely would never do. He had to find a way to thoroughly solve the refugee problem. Otherwise, as more and more refugees poured into the capital, public order would deteriorate further, throwing everyone into panic—and in the end, the one to suffer would be him, the Crown Prince charged by imperial decree with comforting the people.

Closing the city gates to keep refugees out was certainly not an option. This was the capital—the volume of trade passing through daily was immense. If the gates were shut for any extended period, the entire capital would grind to a standstill. That would be too terrible to contemplate.

Thanks: to readers Yibie yee, Candlelight Love, z Zhou Lang's Talent Exhausted, and others for their recommendation votes!