Chapter 320: Arrest and Transport to the Capital

On the third day of the second month of the nineteenth year of Chongzhen, court discussion was underway in the Huangji Hall of the Forbidden City.

The court discussion that day had just drawn to a close. The Chongzhen Emperor and his ministers had settled the matters of aftermath in Nanjing, and he breathed a sigh of relief, thinking to himself that these troublesome ministers had at least not cooked up any new mischief for him this time.

Wang Dehua, the eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, thought the same as the Chongzhen Emperor — with nothing else pending, the matter of Jinling could be considered settled, which was naturally the best possible outcome. He cleared his throat and was about to call the court adjourned.

The assembled ministers each felt their necks to confirm their heads were still attached, found no new wounds on their bodies, and clapped their hands in mutual congratulation — no one had died today, and they could go home to reunite with their wives and children.

Before Wang Dehua could get the words out, he saw a eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial rush frantically into the great hall, and immediately furrowed his brow.

In his excessive haste, the young eunuch tripped and fell as he entered — the "thud" was by no means light — but the young eunuch let out an "aiyo" and, as if nothing had happened, hurriedly raised the memorial in his hands and continued running forward, shouting:

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, urgent dispatch from Jinling!"

Seeing his state, the Chongzhen Emperor's heart sank, but his expression did not change as he gestured for Wang Dehua to bring it to him.

As a brush-holder of the Directorate of Ceremonial, Wang Dehua naturally recognized this young eunuch, and felt somewhat puzzled — this lad was usually alert and honest enough, so why was he so beside himself today?

He walked up to the young eunuch and, while receiving the urgent dispatch, asked in a low voice: "What's happened? So lacking in decorum."

On any other day, this young eunuch would have been eager to curry favor with Wang Dehua, but now he lay prostrate on the ground, trembling, not daring to utter a single word. Wang Dehua knew something was up and bore him no ill will; he lowered his head to look at the urgent dispatch in his hands, and felt all the more that this matter was out of the ordinary.

After receiving it, seeing Wang Dehua's suddenly changed expression, the Chongzhen Emperor had already steeled himself mentally. He slowly opened the urgent dispatch, and what met his eyes was a dense list of names.

This urgent dispatch was precisely the result of a joint investigation by the Eastern Depot and the Western Depot. Li Youcheng, Xu Qiang — even Zhou Jingwu, Ma Shiying, and Liu Fu, the eunuch garrison commander of the Southern Capital, had all signed their names to it, showing just how weighty the matter was.

The more the Chongzhen Emperor read, the more shocked he became. Among these names, deeply entrenched and powerful imperial relatives were no small number, while the remaining officials covered nearly all of the twenty-four yamen of the two capitals and the various prefectures, departments, and circuits.

Throughout the court, from north to south, officials in nearly every place had been granting favors to merchants — smuggling supplies beyond the passes being only one of their offenses. Officials and gentry colluded with each other, and cases of killing innocents to claim merit, refusing to pay taxes, and seizing the people's property were hardly rare.

The ministers below stared at each other in bewilderment, none understanding what had happened. As they murmured among themselves, the sharp-eyed among them already noticed that the hand holding the urgent dispatch was trembling slightly — clearly the Chongzhen Emperor was enraged to the utmost.

"Outrageous! Utterly outrageous! Do they still have this Great Ming in their eyes at all?!" Suddenly, the Chongzhen Emperor hurled the urgent dispatch violently to the foot of the steps and rose to his feet, raging: "As imperial relatives, to defy propriety and law so brazenly — where do they put the ancestral regulations and precepts? Li Ruolian!"

Li Ruolian, who had been standing calmly on the left side, gave a start at the summons, and quickly stepped forward with clasped hands, calling out: "Your servant is here!"

"After court is dismissed, I will write out the warrants by my own hand. The Embroidered Uniform Guard is to leave the capital and rush to various places — even if force must be used, you are to 'invite' the Prince of Fu, the Prince of Heng, the Prince of Rui, the Prince of Qingyuan, and the Prince of Pingyao to the capital, every single one of them!"

"Li Ruolian, you will personally make the trip to Jinling. The Prince of Fu must be 'brought' back by you no matter what — if he refuses, then even if you must put him in chains, you will chain him and bring him to the capital!" After this furious tirade, the Chongzhen Emperor calmed his emotions, took a few deep breaths, and said:

"If the various princely establishments refuse, report it as a military rebellion. The Ministry of War is to issue circular orders immediately, authorizing local troops to mobilize and suppress the unrest, coordinating with the Embroidered Uniform Guard!"

Li Ruolian was stunned, not quite having processed what had happened. Only after a long moment did he hurriedly acknowledge and quickly walk out of the hall.

In truth, it was not only Li Ruolian who was baffled — the entire court, civil and military alike, was equally at a loss. What exactly had been written on that urgent dispatch? What great matter had the agents of the Eastern Depot and Western Depot uncovered, that it should involve imperial relatives?

The last few times imperial relatives had been involved, apart from some distant nephew of a royal kinsman, the closest connection had been that Imperial Son-in-law Gong Yonggu. But those to be dealt with this time could not be compared to last time — every single one of them was a bona fide member of the imperial bloodline.

The current Prince of Fu was Zhu Yousong. This branch of the Fu princely line, strictly speaking, was even more closely related by blood than the Chongzhen Emperor himself.

In the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, Zhu Yousong had inherited the title. His father Zhu Changxun was the third son of Emperor Shenzong of the Wanli reign, and had died at the hands of Li Zicheng in the fourteenth year of Chongzhen — the protagonist of the infamous "Fortune and Emolument Feast."

The old Prince of Fu, Zhu Changxun, was the son of Consort Zheng, Emperor Shenzong's favored concubine. The succession dispute that dragged on for over a decade during the Wanli reign all stemmed from Emperor Shenzong's desire to "depose the elder and establish the younger" — to make Zhu Changxun, the father of the current Prince of Fu, the crown prince.

Speaking of it, Emperor Wanli's refusal to hold court back then was related to the Donglin Faction opposing him. In truth, the Chongzhen Emperor also understood that as long as this cancer of the Donglin Faction was not eradicated, they would oppose him in whatever he did.

When he had first arrived in the year Jiashen, the Chongzhen Emperor had gone nearly a year without holding court in order to focus on preserving his life — and matters had only gotten better and better. Clearly, the quality of governance had little to do with whether one held court or not.

After Emperor Tianqi had passed away, the Donglin Faction, believing the Chongzhen Emperor of history to be young and easily manipulated, had supported Prince Xin, Zhu Youjian, on the grounds of "when the elder brother dies, the younger succeeds." Quite a few members of the eunuch faction and the Qi faction, however, felt that the Prince of Fu, Zhu Changxun, as the third son of Emperor Shenzong, was of closer blood and wanted to support him for the throne.

Of course, the current emperor was the Chongzhen Emperor, and both the eunuch faction and the Donglin Faction had been nearly wiped out, so there was no longer any dispute over succession.

Apart from the Prince of Fu, the closest in standing among the five princes involved this time was the Prince of Rui, Zhu Changhao — the fifth son of Emperor Shenzong of the Wanli reign, a half-brother of Emperor Guangzong by a different mother, born of Consort Zhou Duan.

Zhu Changhao was not as favored by Emperor Shenzong as his elder brother Zhu Changxun, but his blood relation among the current imperial clansmen was still very close. It was said that this old Prince of Rui, nearly sixty years of age, was a devout Buddhist — yet extremely fond of money.

According to intelligence gathered by agents of the Eastern Depot's Earth Branch stationed in the Prince of Rui's establishment, the prefectures, departments, and counties surrounding the princely residence all had to pay dozens of kinds of exorbitant levies and miscellaneous taxes that did not exist elsewhere. Moreover, this Zhu Changhao had taken complete control of all salt in his fief — both official and private — reaping enormous annual profits.

In fact, as early as the Wanli reign, this Prince of Rui's reputation for greed had already been known to all.

During the Wanli reign, when the ministers submitted memorials requesting Emperor Shenzong to complete the marriage of the crown prince Zhu Changxun, Emperor Shenzong naturally knew these fellows were waiting to share in the spoils, and ignored them all.

When Zhu Changhao heard this news, he himself grew restless with desire, eager to marry without delay, and almost every day pestered the Ministry of Revenue for funds concerning his future expenses.

The Ministry of Revenue, unable to bear the harassment, reluctantly handed over one hundred and eighty thousand taels of silver to Zhu Changhao. Zhu Changhao hid it in the palace and falsely claimed it had all been spent, saying that even this amount was not enough to buy his ceremonial cap and robes, and continued to demand more by every means imaginable.

In the seventh year of Tianqi, Zhu Changhao arrived at his fief, and his conduct became even more brazen. Every single transaction was recorded in the ledgers of the Embroidered Uniform Guard to this very day — if an investigation were launched, there was simply no way to deny it.

As for the other two, the Prince of Qingyuan and the Prince of Pingyao, by blood relation, by this nineteenth year of Chongzhen, their connection to the Great Ming imperial clan had in fact grown increasingly distant.

Looking at the various enfeoffed princes across the realm today, branches of the imperial clan as distantly related as the Prince of Qingyuan and the Prince of Pingyao made up the vast majority. Though their reputations and family fortunes could not compare to those of the Prince of Fu and the Prince of Rui, each of them was the largest landowner in their locality whom no one dared to provoke — and with so many of them, they could not be underestimated.

To put it bluntly, these sorts were equivalent to latching onto the great tree of the Great Ming dynasty under the title of prince and sucking its blood — of any other use whatsoever, they had not a shred.