Chapter 73: The Chongzhen Emperor's Approval

After bowing to the Chongzhen Emperor, it was the turn of the hundred officials to bow to Zhu Cilang. Under the direction of the Ministry of Rites officials, they all bent at the waist in unison and said: "We welcome His Highness the Crown Prince back to the capital in victory!"

Zhu Cilang raised his hand and said: "Rise!"

At this point, the formalities were quickly concluded, and people began to speak. Quite a few officials offered congratulations to the Crown Prince, and insincere pleasantries filled the air without end.

Left Chief Censor Tang Shiji said with some displeasure: "His Majesty personally came out of the city to welcome you, yet why did Your Highness let the soldiers in the army wear mourning bands on their heads and hold up spirit tablets? Do you know this is disrespectful to His Majesty?"

As soon as these words were spoken, many ministers secretly thought that Tang Shiji truly lived up to his reputation as the head of the censorial officials—he could find a reason to rebuke anyone anywhere.

Cao Huachun and Wang Cheng'en and the others all had cold glints in their eyes. For this old fellow to say such things on this occasion was truly knowing neither good nor bad.

A chill crept into Zhu Cilang's eyes as he said: "The Yongwei Camp fought in bloody battle against Eight Banner elite troops twice our number, cutting down over seven thousand enemies at the cost of one thousand one hundred and twenty-five of our own, guarding the capital of the Great Ming. I believe that even having the entire army in mourning white would not be excessive. I wonder if Lord Tang feels the Yongwei Camp's actions were improper? Or perhaps not worth it?"

He only referred to himself as "I" in the imperial manner under the most serious circumstances, and at this moment he was already extremely displeased with Tang Shiji. If not for the Chongzhen Emperor being present, he would have gone up and beaten this foul-mouthed windbag to death.

The generals of the Yongwei Camp all stared at Tang Shiji with cold murderous glints in their eyes. If looks could kill, Tang Shiji would probably have died ten million times over.

Even in the sweltering summer heat, Tang Shiji could feel waves of chill around him. His body involuntarily shrank back, not daring to meet the eyes of the Yongwei Camp generals.

The Chongzhen Emperor shot a glare at Tang Shiji and said: "What the Crown Prince did was not wrong!"

"Your minister admits his fault." Tang Shiji made an awkward face and took the opportunity to retreat to one side, while inwardly breathing a sigh of relief.

To avoid embarrassment, the Chongzhen Emperor burst into loud laughter and said: "The Crown Prince has not disappointed expectations, has not let the tens of millions of common people of the Great Ming down. Leading our Great Ming's elite troops, he slew over ten thousand slave bandits—I am greatly comforted! Therefore, I use the descending-the-steps rite to welcome the returning generals of victory!"

The descending-the-steps rite, existing since the beginning of rites, was prepared for heads of state and clan leaders of various nations, or when a minister returned from an imperial tour of inspection on behalf of Heaven, or when a general returned triumphant in victory—only when one had rendered the greatest of merits would the Emperor personally come out of the city and descend from the gate tower to welcome him, as a sign of imperial favor.

"Father Emperor, Your Majesty, for personally welcoming us, we soldiers of the Yongwei Camp are exceedingly grateful, and dare not ask Your Majesty to perform the descending-the-steps rite." Zhu Cilang bowed once more in salute.

The generals behind Zhu Cilang, Huang Degong, Sun Yingyuan, and the others, also spoke out together, asking the Chongzhen Emperor to return to the gate tower.

The Chongzhen Emperor waved his hand and said: "Today I use the descending-the-steps rite to tell the world that this victory is incomparably glorious. It was hard-won, bought with the fresh blood of over a thousand of our Great Ming's soldiers. All the soldiers who marched out and those who died must receive the respect and reverence of the people of the realm!"

The words the Chongzhen Emperor spoke on this occasion, exceeding his usual performance, immediately moved the soldiers of the Yongwei Camp. The generals all bowed in thanks and once again shouted long live the Emperor in mountain-like chorus.

The Chongzhen Emperor looked at the stirred-up soldiers before him, felt that his speech had been quite effective, and was immediately energized. He continued: "Our Great Ming has an excellent heir apparent, has generals and marshals skilled in war, and has tens of millions of brave soldiers—this is the fortune of the people, this is my fortune!"

Having finished speaking, the Chongzhen Emperor took Zhu Cilang by the hand and walked toward the inner city.

The generals and all the Yongwei Camp soldiers, following along with the welcoming court officials, also trailed behind the Chongzhen Emperor and Zhu Cilang, entering through the Zhengyang Gate.

The Chongzhen Emperor first led the hundred officials and the assembled soldiers to offer sacrifices at the ancestral temple and the altars of state, then directly bestowed a celebratory feast to honor the achievement.

Originally, a ceremony for presenting captives was prepared at the Meridian Gate, but seeing that the rain was falling harder and harder, the Chongzhen Emperor had no choice but to postpone the captive-presentation ceremony by three days.

After all the bustle of most of a day, Zhu Cilang was again summoned alone by Chongzhen for half an hour before he finally returned to his Zhongcui Palace.

During the private audience, Zhu Cilang at the earliest opportunity requested that the Chongzhen Emperor issue an edict to establish a cemetery in the capital, along with a Hall of Loyal Souls, to be used for burying and commemorating the soldiers of the Capital Camps who had died in battle.

Though he said the Capital Camps, at present Zhu Cilang was mainly thinking of the Yongwei Camp. The Yongwei Camp certainly would not fight only this one battle. The Qing soldiers were still ravaging the capital region, and Zhu Cilang did not believe that the nine routes of relief troops would fight the Qing army to the death with all their might.

The Chongzhen Emperor readily adopted his proposal, but when Zhu Cilang further proposed resting for a few days before marching out again to the south, the Chongzhen Emperor vetoed it on the spot.

The Chongzhen Emperor said that Minister of War Zhang Fengyi was already commanding operations at Tongzhou, with over a hundred thousand Capital Camp troops under his hand that could be deployed at any time. Adding the nine routes of relief troops, there were over a hundred thousand men in total—no need at all for you, the Crown Prince, to worry about it.

Zhu Cilang did not hold much hope regarding his imperial father's words. Over a hundred thousand men—the number sounded quite large, especially the Capital Camps.

He had checked the records. Where were there over a hundred thousand men? If an inspection were done, probably half the rolls would be empty—all there to let the Capital Camp leadership pocket the pay of phantom soldiers.

Of the rest, not many would be of use. Many soldiers were old veterans of the ranks, first to charge when drawing pay, first to run when fighting.

The soldiers of the nine relief routes were probably not much better. A bunch of rotten men could only compete over who was more rotten, especially Liu Zeqing's Shandong troops—their running speed, it was said, even enemy cavalry could not catch up with.

We'll see how it goes. If Zhang Fengyi botched things, there would always be an opportunity for the Yongwei Camp to step in. Still, Zhu Cilang hoped Zhang Fengyi could be like Yu Qian of years past, turning the tide and fighting a splendid battle.

This Qing army incursion through the passes had done too much damage to the capital region of the Great Ming—it would likely take years to recover to previous levels.

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After coming out of the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Cilang suddenly felt a sense of relief. Originally, the palace had given him the feeling of a cage—strict in hierarchy, lacking freedom.

It was not until he went out and saw the tragic scenes outside that Zhu Cilang felt how fortunate it was to live within this Forbidden City—no worries about food or clothing, and in leisure time one could play the zither, read books, and stroll through the imperial garden.

What others saw as the most tiring and bitter task—studying—Zhu Cilang cherished deeply. The imperial collection was too rich and too precious, a hundred times more abundant than the museums of later generations. These were the cultural essences of the Chinese nation, and he loved them very much.

As soon as Zhu Cilang returned to Zhongcui Palace, a crowd of eunuchs and palace maids rejoiced and hurried forward to greet him.

One young eunuch immediately rushed up, saying joyfully: "Young Master, you've returned! These past days, this servant has truly missed you to death!"

Wu Zhong immediately rapped this young eunuch on the head and said: "Hey! What nonsense are you spouting, boy? Want a beating, do you? The word 'death' is forbidden in the palace—can't you remember that?"

"This servant knows his wrong."

Zhu Cilang laughed and said: "Enough, Companion Wu, don't make things hard for Qiu Zhizhong. Just be careful next time."

Qiu Zhizhong was also one of Zhu Cilang's study companions, only with less seniority than Wu Zhong. The two had a fairly good relationship in private.

Behind Qiu Zhizhong stood four palace maids. Their names were Mo Qin, Mo Qi, Mo Shu, and Mo Hua—bestowed by Empress Zhou two years ago when the palaces were divided.

As Zhu Cilang's body grew, some remonstrating official suggested replacing the four beautiful young maids beside the Crown Prince with four matrons over sixty years old, to prevent the young prince from lacking restraint in his youthful years.

The Chongzhen Emperor, fearing it might cause some psychological shadow for the young Zhu Cilang, naturally vetoed this official's proposal, saying: The palace's rules are strict; the Crown Prince would not dare act recklessly.

That remonstrating official only ended up embarrassing himself and offending a whole crowd of people besides.

Fortunately, the imperial father had vetoed it—otherwise Zhu Cilang truly did not know what kind of god-awful scene it would be to have four matrons over sixty following him around.

Perhaps it would be that sort of scene where the Vain Young Master makes his entrance with flower petals scattered about in "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons."