How can one be Emperor Chongzhen without money?

Chapter 165 The Ming Dynasty Had a Zhu Family Army (Third Update, Please Subscribe and Vote)
In the rear hall of the Prince of Jin's mansion in Taiyuan City, Prince Zhu Qiugui of Jin slumped on the ground, looking at the blue-covered "Imperial Ancestral Instructions of the Ming Dynasty" that he had just opened. He felt that he and his family, generation after generation, had been a complete joke for the past two hundred years.

According to the provisions of the "Imperial Ancestral Instructions of the Ming Dynasty", Zhu Qiugui should be leading the Ming army to fight against Huduntu and Huang Taiji - Hu Bujing, and all the princes should defend against them!

This is the true ancestral system!

Yang Sichang leaned forward, his voice low and seductive: "Your Highness, do you understand His Majesty's good intentions now? Is His Majesty really trying to force you by bringing up the ancestral precepts at this time? No! He is trying to show Your Highness and our Jin Kingdom a clear path, a great road to heaven!"

Wei Zhongxian continued in his high-pitched voice, "Your Highness, are you really content to spend your whole life confined to Taiyuan City? You call yourself a prince, but you can't even go up to the city gate tower at will. Think back to the Prince of Jin back then, so brave and outstanding, leading large armies out of the Great Wall to fight against the invaders many times, fighting alongside Emperor Chengzu, his might dominating both the north and south of the Gobi Desert, that was a true prince!"

Yang Sichang quickly tried to smooth things over, painting a rosy picture: "Your Highness, now is the time for you to step forward. Restore the guards, repel the bandits, and you will be a hero of the Ming Dynasty's revival!"

"Don't worry about your high merits causing you to become a powerful ruler, and don't be afraid of anyone's suspicion. Just follow His Majesty's wishes and be further enfeoffed in Sichuan and Guizhou. Following the example of the Mu family, the Duke of Qian, you can establish your own government and guard the region forever! That would be a real vassal king, holding military power and managing millions of soldiers and civilians. The emperor is far away, which is much better than now, where you have to be mindful of everyone's feelings."

"Your Highness, don't complain about the distance to Sichuan and Guizhou. The Mu family of Yunnan, though not princes, has been more powerful than princes for over two hundred years! That's what you call a powerful clan!" Wei Zhongxian sneered. "Your Highness, think about it, isn't that right? As long as the fiefdom is far enough, His Majesty can rest assured, and you'll be at ease. This is the true intention of Emperor Taizu when he established fiefdoms and guards to protect the central government!"

These words struck Zhu Qiugui's heart like hammer blows. The suffocation of being confined to the mansion, the fear of the future, and the lingering desire for power all churned together. His plump body heaved violently with heavy breathing.

"But...where will the soldiers come from? And how will the money and provisions be supplied?" His throat was dry and his voice was hoarse, clearly indicating that he was having some thoughts on the matter.

Yang Sichang looked confident: "Soldiers? They're readily available! In Taiyuan City, there are countless members of the Zhu clan, especially those without titles and who are impoverished. They have plenty of strength but nowhere to use it! If Your Highness were to recruit them first, they would be blood relatives of the founding emperor, our own people. Wouldn't we trust them more than outsiders?"

Wei Zhongxian continued, "As for the vast estate in Shanxi, Your Highness need not worry. Why not follow the precedent set by the Prince of Qin's mansion and implement the method of 'granting favors' to distribute the estates and shops to the generals and lieutenants who remain in the local area to manage."

“We’ll set a fixed amount each year, convert the rent into silver, and send it to you in your new fiefdom. Firstly, this will appease the remaining relatives; secondly, even though Your Highness is in the southwest, you can still enjoy the benefits from Shanxi! Plus, there’s the wealth accumulated by the royal family over two hundred years…”

"Your Highness, just think about it. With this mountain of gold and silver, and a 'Zhu Family Army' heading south, will the remnants of the An and She families in Shuixi and Yongning be enough to deal with? You don't even need to take action yourself. Just let five or six hundred thousand taels of silver slip through your fingers to those killers in Sichuan and Shaanxi, and you can just sit in Chongqing or Chengdu and the good news will come to you on its own!"

"Is it really that easy?" The Prince of Jin was now truly tempted.

Asking him to learn from his ancestors' battlefield prowess was something he felt he still needed more practice. But if he could simply throw money at the problem and wipe out the chieftains of Shuixi and Yongning, then he wouldn't be afraid. Not to mention, he already had a million or two million taels of silver at home. If he could spend five or six hundred thousand at a time and create a small kingdom where he could rule himself, then it would definitely be a worthwhile investment.

"Easy?" Wei Zhongxian scoffed. "Your Highness, that's five or six hundred thousand taels of silver! Who has that kind of money? Even when we defeated Hudun Tu Khan in Xuanfu, that was only about that amount. And that's Hudun Tu Khan, who was known as the Great Khan of the Yuan Dynasty! How can those two worthless chieftains compare?"

Yang Sichang said with a wry smile, "The various forces fighting against the chieftains of Shuixi and Yongning don't even receive that much in pay in a year. Ten thousand elite soldiers, fully paid and fed, would only cost less than half of five or six hundred thousand. If you could come up with five or six hundred thousand, that would be twenty thousand elite soldiers, fully paid and fed, fighting for a year. That would be enough to kill those two chieftains ten times over."

Wei Zhongxian added, "Your Highness, this isn't about asking you to donate five or six hundred thousand to His Majesty to fight the Jurchens. It's about you building territory for yourself and your descendants. You don't want your descendants to be trapped in a small city like Taiyuan, do you?"

Yes, this is about building territory for our own family! Even if we can only build a territory the size of a prefecture, it would still be ten times better than what we are like now.

Zhu Qiugui finally came to his senses, slapped his thigh, gritted his teeth, and said, "Let's do it! I, I have silver, five or six hundred thousand, I can afford it!" Early the next morning, the drill ground south of Taiyuan was packed with people. In the middle of the ground stood a flagpole, its large banner reading "Recruiting Soldiers for the Prince of Jin's Guard" fluttering in the wind. Beneath the flagpole were several large, open wooden chests filled with gleaming silver ingots, so bright they hurt the eyes in the sunlight.

A group of teenagers crowded at the front, their clothes patched, but their eyes shone brightly, their fists clenched. Leading them was a young man named Zhu Qiuyue—a name his father had given him privately according to seniority, a name he'd been given for over twenty years, yet it wasn't even on the Imperial Clan Register. In terms of bloodline, he was a distant cousin of Prince Jin, Zhu Qiugui, but because the "naming" process had been stalled, he was stuck in the middle: neither a member of the imperial family nor a commoner.

He hadn't been oblivious to his options. Taking the imperial examinations? He wasn't qualified. Finding a proper job? The people in the Prince's mansion treated them like thieves, afraid of bringing shame to the imperial family, openly and secretly preventing them from doing odd jobs. He could only sneak out to work, and even then, he had to be subservient to his steward. His father's meager stipend, mixed with wild vegetables, wasn't enough to survive. Once, in desperation, he grumbled to his father, suggesting they risk cursing the court and get imprisoned in Fengyang. At least there would be six pecks of rice and three catties of salt a month, enough to keep them from starving. The old man, upon hearing this, grabbed his sleeve and wept: "Going in is just waiting to die! Our family line will end!"

Now, a way out is right in front of us.

The prince is recruiting soldiers, and he's made it clear that members of the Zhu family will be given priority! I've never seen anything like it before! Are the restrictions imposed by the feudal lords no longer being enforced?
However, the salary is real, a cash handout of pure silver. More importantly, if you make a contribution, you can ask the prince to "bestow a name" upon you, thus replacing that crucial jade register!

Zhu Qiuyue's heart pounded as he squeezed his way to the clerk in charge of registration, his throat dry: "I...I am Zhu Qiuyue, a member of the imperial clan from Pingyang Prefecture, here to seek refuge with Your Highness!"

The minor official, having already received instructions, examined the half of the ancestral jade pendant in the man's pocket, asked no further questions, and shouted at the top of his lungs: "Recruit Zhu Qiuyue, a member of the imperial clan, as a regular soldier! Monthly salary of one tael and five mace, and a settlement allowance of ten taels! In the future, he will be enfeoffed in Sichuan and Guizhou, and granted an additional hundred mu of land!"

The cold silver coins hit his hand, yet burned his heart. The words "awarded a hundred acres of land" were like a thunderclap, making his ears ring. Salary, land, and a legitimate status… He abruptly turned his head, looking at the group of his cousins ​​staring expectantly behind him. Over twenty years of pent-up resentment mixed with burning hope surged up, his eyes welled up, and he roared at the top of his lungs:
"Brothers, look closely! The Prince hasn't abandoned us! The rules of our ancestors have returned! We, the Zhu family, are not good-for-nothings who freeload!"

"I'll die for the Prince!"

That shout was like lighting a powder keg, and the training ground erupted in chaos. These unwanted "sons and grandsons of dragons and phoenixes," seeing light for the first time, all blushed and shouted, their desire for battle, victory, and a turnaround no less than anyone else's.

As dusk fell, Wei Zhongxian and Yang Sichang stood side by side on the city wall of Taiyuan Prefecture, watching the new army gradually gathering at the drill ground, exuding a fierce and vigorous aura.

Wei Zhongxian sighed, a rare occurrence, and said, "Minister Yang, do you see? These wolf cubs have finally seen the light. I used to think His Majesty was ruthless towards the imperial family, but now it seems... he's trying to turn a flock of sheep that's been tamed into dogs that can bite wolves! This is truly for the sake of the Zhu family's empire."

Yang Sichang gazed into the distance and said softly, "Yes, His Majesty's actions may seem harsh, but they are actually deeply compassionate. Without destruction, there can be no construction. If the imperial clan continues to decay like this, they will become a major threat to the court sooner or later. Now, we have given them weapons and a place to use their talents. Whether they become dragons or worms depends on their own fate."

On the other side, in the ancestral temple of the Prince of Jin's residence, Zhu Qiugui knelt alone on a prayer mat. Above him hung a portrait of Zhu Gang, the third son of Zhu Yuanzhang, the progenitor of the Jin princes. In the painting, Zhu Gang was fully armored and imposing, with sharp eyes, as if staring at his descendant more than two hundred years later.

Zhu Qiugui recalled the bright eyes of the imperial clan members during the day, the vast land in the southwest that Yang Sichang had described, and the thought that he might actually be able to escape this living prison. Overwhelmed with emotion, tears streamed down his face.

He kowtowed heavily before the portrait of his ancestor, his voice choked with emotion yet filled with an unprecedented strength: "This unworthy descendant, Qiu Gui... only today does he understand the profound meaning behind the founding emperor's enfeoffment of the princes! Ancestors in heaven, rest assured, Qiu Gui's journey will surely allow our Jin princely family and the Zhu family to take root in the southwest and establish a solid foundation!"

The candlelight flickered, illuminating the heroic faces of the ancestors in the portrait, and also the tear-streaked faces of the descendants below. One old day was drawing to a close, and another new day, whose fate was uncertain, began quietly under the banner of the "Zhu Family Army."

(End of this chapter)