Chapter 21: Stroking the Dragon's Scales

Sun Chuanting was a man who absolutely had to be used, but how to use him was something that needed careful thought.

After pondering for a moment, Zhu Youxiao tapped the armrest of his wheelchair, then gave the order: "Go to the Grand Secretariat and convey my decree—promote Sun Chuanting to Bureau Director of the Military Appointments Bureau in the Ministry of War."

Though Chen Hong was curious, he dared not ask any more questions at this moment, and quickly said, "This servant will go at once."

The Ministry of War had four Bureau Directors, overseeing respectively the Military Appointments Bureau, the Mapping Bureau, the Carriages and Horses Bureau, and the Armory Bureau.

Among the four bureaus, the Military Appointments Bureau was the most important—it handled the selection and ranking of military officials, controlling the official caps of every military commander under heaven, and corresponded to the Civil Appointments Bureau of the Ministry of Personnel.

As for the remaining bureaus: the Mapping Bureau managed the maps and charts of all provinces.

The Carriages and Horses Bureau managed the policies on horse breeding and the postal relay system.

The Armory Bureau managed military registers, weapons, the military examinations of the provincial and metropolitan exams, as well as matters of conscription and frontier garrison duty.

The Bureau Director of the Military Appointments Bureau held not only a high position but also great power. Zhu Youxiao planned to place Sun Chuanting there first as a transitional post.

Sun Chuanting was a man wasted in his previous life; in this life, Zhu Youxiao naturally intended to make good use of him. As for exactly how, Zhu Youxiao hadn't yet decided.

Though he had an idea forming in his mind, Zhu Youxiao wanted to wait until matters in Liaodong had reached a conclusion before speaking of it. Right now, all his thoughts were on Liaodong—he just didn't know whether Xiong Tingbi would make it in time.

Inside the palace, all was calm as usual—the Emperor was not holding court—but outside, things were stirring fiercely, because the Eastern Depot had started making arrests again.

This time they arrested three men: Feng Sanyuan, Wei Yingjia, and Zhang Xiude.

Of these three, Feng Sanyuan and Zhang Xiude were Censors, while Wei Yingjia was a Supervising Secretary. All three had played extremely disgraceful roles in the Xiong Tingbi affair.

Back when Xiong Tingbi was being impeached, these three had leapt in with great enthusiasm.

After the Xiong Tingbi matter came to light, Censor Feng Sanyuan impeached Xiong Tingbi on eight counts of lacking strategic vision and three counts of deceiving the Emperor, saying that unless Xiong Tingbi was dismissed, the Liaodong lands could never be held.

In history, the Tianqi Emperor had referred Feng Sanyuan's memorial to the court officials for discussion—this already signaled the Tianqi Emperor's displeasure with Xiong Tingbi, or perhaps this young emperor was simply still too green.

In fact, such behavior would cause the frontier generals to misunderstand.

Sure enough, when Xiong Tingbi learned how the Emperor had acted, he was greatly angered and directly submitted a memorial defending himself with all his might, even requesting to be dismissed and sent home.

At that point, Censor Zhang Xiude again impeached Xiong Tingbi for destroying Liaoyang.

Xiong Tingbi grew even more indignant and once more submitted a memorial in his own defense, saying: "The Liaodong lands have now turned from danger to safety, yet I, your minister, am going from life toward death."

He then returned his imperial sword of authority and earnestly requested to be removed from office.

Supervising Secretary Wei Yingjia seized the opportunity to impeach him as well. All of them together criticized Xiong Tingbi until he was utterly shredded.

But there was one thing the Tianqi Emperor did not know—and that the current Zhu Youxiao did know.

Xiong Tingbi was of the Chu Faction and had once served as a Censor himself, having attacked members of the Donglin Faction more than a few times. Now that the Donglin people had risen to power, they naturally wanted revenge.

That's right—the three men impeaching Xiong Tingbi were all Donglin. So Xiong Tingbi submitted a memorial requesting that investigators be sent.

Feng Sanyuan, Wei Yingjia, Zhang Xiude, and others then submitted successive memorials fiercely detailing Xiong Tingbi's faults, whereupon Xiong Tingbi requested that these very three be sent to verify the facts.

The Tianqi Emperor followed Xiong Tingbi's suggestion.

Censor Wu Yingqi, Supervising Secretary Yang Lian, and others firmly insisted this could not be done, so instead Supervising Secretary Zhu Tongmeng of the Ministry of War was dispatched.

This Zhu Tongmeng was also Donglin. After arriving in Liaodong, he did indeed witness Xiong Tingbi's achievements, and so submitted a memorial comprehensively setting forth Xiong Tingbi's merits, yet concluded: "When I entered the Liaodong lands, the scholars and commoners spoke of him with tears of praise, saying that hundreds of thousands of lives were preserved solely because of Tingbi—how could his crimes be easily determined?

It is only that Tingbi was most trusted by Your Majesty. In the Battle of Puhe, when the enemy attacked Shenyang, he spurred his horse to the rescue—how great was his courage! But then, seeing the weakness and cowardice of the officers and soldiers, he suddenly retired to his hometown. Where, then, did he place the Emperor's great kindness to him? Tingbi's merit lay in preserving Liaodong, and his minor accomplishments are indeed commendable; but his crime lay in failing His Majesty, and by the great principle of ruler and minister, he cannot escape culpability. This is a case where crime outweighs merit!"

He acknowledged Xiong Tingbi's contributions, yet said Xiong Tingbi had spurned the Emperor's grace—uprooting him from the very foundation.

Zhu Youxiao really wanted to ask: then what about everything you people said before? Just treated it as so much hot air?

This was also the reason Yang Lian and the others wouldn't let Feng Sanyuan, Wei Yingjia, and Zhang Xiude go to Liaodong—if those three went and then came back to tell barefaced lies, were they certain the Emperor truly wouldn't know? And if they didn't lie, wouldn't that be slapping their own faces? Send someone else instead—no matter what they said upon return, even if it slapped someone's face, it could be dismissed as Censors reporting on hearsay.

Zhu Youxiao also realized something: the Tianqi Emperor was not stupid—he simply hadn't anticipated that Yuan Yingtai would be stupid enough to lose both Liaoyang and Shenyang.

The Tianqi Emperor had just ascended the throne; perhaps this was a test. On the surface, the Donglin Faction had handled things beautifully, successfully taking revenge on Xiong Tingbi.

But what about in reality?

In reality, it caused the Tianqi Emperor to stop trusting them entirely, and he turned instead to using Wei Zhongxian.

Later, when Wei Zhongxian attacked the Donglin Faction, the Tianqi Emperor tacitly approved—even supported him from behind. It's hard to say this affair wasn't part of the reason.

Perhaps it was through this affair that the Tianqi Emperor saw through the true nature of the Donglin Faction. To sum it up in one phrase: "Though their pens produce a thousand words, their breasts hold not a single plan." They could talk eloquently about everything, but when actually asked to do something, they couldn't accomplish a damn thing.

Zhu Youxiao knew that his predecessor, though vilified relentlessly and spending his days doing carpentry, had actually been quite clear-eyed at heart.

Now that Wei Zhongxian had arrested Feng Sanyuan, Wei Yingjia, and Zhang Xiude, this affair had directly burned the Donglin Faction's own doorstep.

The earlier arrests of Yao Zongwen and Liu Guojin they might not have cared about, but now that Feng Sanyuan, Wei Yingjia, and Zhang Xiude were implicated, if this continued, who knew who might be dragged in next—how could the Donglin Faction not panic?

So routine memorials were submitted once again, and with extremely resolute attitudes, directly beginning to criticize Zhu Youxiao—things like doting on a powerful eunuch, things like not holding court. Anyway, it wasn't as if they hadn't dared to stroke the dragon's scales before.

Casually tossing the memorials aside, Zhu Youxiao leaned back in the wheelchair he had made himself, his face expressionless. These memorials reminded him of the people who had attacked the Wanli Emperor.

In fact, after Zhang Juzheng fell from power, the trend of factionalism at court grew increasingly severe, and the Donglin Faction's verbal cannonade had formed from that time—denouncing the Wanli Emperor for not holding court was something they had done.

The Wanli Emperor had explained countless times that his legs were inconvenient, but you could never reason with someone who had plugged their ears. Now these people had come to deal with him.

"Chen Hong, summon the imperial physicians to the palace." Zhu Youxiao tapped the armrest of his wheelchair as he spoke slowly: "Have them all come. Make a big show of it."

Hearing this, Chen Hong hastily bowed and said, "Yes, Your Majesty. This servant will see to it at once!" With that, he turned and walked out.

Zhu Youxiao let out a sigh of relief: "Wei Zhongxian, don't you dare disappoint me!"