Chapter 301: A Man Without Shame Is Invincible Under Heaven

Not long after, Zhang Zhiji walked back in.

Seeing his son return, Zhang Weixian's brows furrowed again, and he asked with a dark expression, "Is he at a loss again?"

"Yes, Father, exactly so." Zhang Zhiji spoke in a very cautious tone, seeing his father's anger.

"These useless fools! If they weren't still of some use, I'd truly want them dead." Zhang Weixian said with indignation, then added with some helplessness: "Go out and tell him—if he goes and kneels at the gate of the Western Park, His Majesty will surely receive him."

"Once His Majesty sees him, he should weep—weep while recounting his ancestors' achievements, and weep while admitting his faults. When you've erred, you must own it; when you've been struck, you must stand at attention. Tell him to say he has shamed His Majesty and shamed the court, that His Majesty may dispose of him however he sees fit, and he harbors no objection. Make him show remorse so deep he wishes he could take his own life—the more pitiful, the better. Alright, go!"

Zhang Zhiji glanced at his father, feeling truly helpless.

Indeed, the older the ginger, the spicier it is—but wasn't this method a bit too shameless?

This way, the Marquis of Xining could be saved—at least his life wouldn't be lost, and neither would his title. Everything else was of little consequence.

"Yes, Father." Zhang Zhiji acknowledged, then turned and walked out the door.

He needed to quickly inform the Marquis of Xining to handle this matter at once, and not drag it out in a mess. He too wanted some peace and quiet.

The Western Park.

Looking at the Marquis of Xining kneeling on the ground, wailing at the top of his lungs, Zhu Youxiao truly didn't know what to say.

He felt a headache coming on—his skull ached terribly.

Zhu Youxiao naturally couldn't actually punish the Marquis of Xining, because among the nobility, the Marquis of Xining's status was simply too high and too important.

One should know, the Marquis of Xining bore the title of "Two Imperial Sons-in-law in One House, First Family North of the Yangtze"—that truly wasn't just empty talk.

The Marquis of Xining was a core member of the founding Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang's inner circle—even the innermost of the inner circle.

In the twelfth year of Zhizheng of the Yuan dynasty (1352), Zhu Yuanzhang, then serving under Guo Zixing, returned to his hometown in Anhui to recruit soldiers.

Hu Dahai, Deng Yu, Chang Yuchun, Lan Yu, and others from Dingyuan all joined the army in this recruitment, and Song Sheng, along with his father Song Chaoyong and elder brother Song Guoxing, also enlisted.

At that time, the Marquis of Xining, Song Sheng, was only 10 years old—a child soldier who spent his days by Deng Yu's side doing odd jobs like serving tea and water, sweeping the courtyard, and polishing blades and spears.

In the fourteenth year of Zhizheng of the Yuan dynasty (1354 AD), Song Sheng's elder brother Song Guoxing led a suicide squad, charging at the front, stubbornly crossing the river to assault the Yuan dynasty's key Jiangnan stronghold—Jiqing (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu)—and tragically fell after being struck in the forehead by a poisoned arrow.

Song Sheng, then only 13, inherited his brother's position as Vanguard General. Everyone originally thought it was merely a consolation reward, after all, his brother had died quite miserably.

But no one expected that this 13-year-old boy general would lead his men to repeated extraordinary feats and make a name for himself on the battlefield.

When Zhu Di became emperor, he treated Song Sheng's family with equal warmth and favor, even marrying his own daughter to Song Sheng's son—and not just one, but two daughters married to his two sons.

Two Imperial Sons-in-law in one house—one could say their favor and glory was unmatched at the time.

Although the Marquis of Xining's household wasn't as powerful as before, people like this truly couldn't be touched unless absolutely necessary—unless they rebelled.

After all, they had followed the founding Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang out of their hometown in Anhui. They could be punished for faults, but if one made too big a stir, it would chill people's hearts.

Take the Chongzhen Emperor, for example—that was the best case of chilling people's hearts.

Zhu Youxiao couldn't do that.

But looking at this Marquis of Xining before him, weeping so miserably with snot and tears streaming, Zhu Youxiao truly wanted to step forward and kick him.

This worthless fellow—carrying on as if his father had just died, or as if his entire clan were about to be executed and his property confiscated. What if someone saw him like this?

The current Marquis of Xining was named Song Guangxia, already well advanced in years, but he could still swallow his pride.

With no other choice, Zhu Youxiao could only sigh and say to Chen Hong beside him: "Enough, quickly fetch some water for the Marquis of Xining to wash his face. Tell him to stop crying and sit down to speak."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Chen Hong promptly acknowledged, then directed the eunuchs and palace maids to bring water for the Marquis of Xining to wash his face, and also had a brocade stool brought over for him to sit on.

Once the Marquis of Xining was seated, Zhu Youxiao darkened his expression and asked: "What is my lord doing this for?"

At this point, he naturally couldn't cry anymore, so the Marquis of Xining said: "Your Majesty, your servant's heart is filled with remorse."

"In recent years, your servant's health has been poor, and discipline over household matters has been lax. They have done things that wronged the court, and your servant feels deep guilt. Your servant is truly unworthy before the court, unworthy before Your Majesty!"

"Your servant has not only brought shame upon his ancestors' wisdom, but also upon Your Majesty and upon the court. Your servant's heart is filled with boundless regret, wishing he could take his own life to atone to the world—yet fearing that when he descends below, he would have no face to meet his ancestors."

"Therefore your servant begs to see Your Majesty. However Your Majesty chooses to deal with your servant, he will bear no complaint. I only beg Your Majesty not to show leniency on account of your servant's ancestors' merits." Having said this, the Marquis of Xining knelt on the ground once more.

Zhu Youxiao gave the Marquis of Xining a helpless look.

As the saying goes: a tree without bark is surely doomed, but a man without shame is invincible under heaven.

When a man has no sense of shame, he truly is hard to deal with. Especially someone like the Marquis of Xining—you couldn't actually have him killed.

But this was fine too—the Marquis of Xining was cooperating well enough, obediently playing the role of the sacrificial chicken, only hoping to be spared his life and not actually butchered.

So Zhu Youxiao said: "This matter has already been sent for investigation. As for the specific disposition, we'll discuss it after they return with their findings. You needn't worry too much—I won't let anyone falsely accuse you."

Hearing these words, the Marquis of Xining breathed a sigh of relief.

The Duke of Ying truly hadn't deceived him—this approach really did work.

So the Marquis of Xining quickly said: "Your servant will return home at once to reflect behind closed doors."

"Alright, go then." Zhu Youxiao waved his hand.

After the Marquis of Xining had left, Zhu Youxiao sighed helplessly, turned to look at Chen Hong, and said: "Where did the Marquis of Xining go before coming to the palace?"

"To report to Your Majesty—he went to the Duke of Ying's residence." Chen Hong quickly replied.

"So this was the Duke of Ying's idea." Zhu Youxiao picked up his tea and took a sip, then said: "This should also count as a test of me. Truly, not one of them is a fuel-efficient lamp."

The Duke of Ying had come just before to express support for this matter, and right after, had the Marquis of Xining come here to weep. In plain terms, he wanted to see how I would handle the Marquis of Xining.

The Duke of Ying's attitude was also quite clear—that is, we support Your Majesty, and we hope Your Majesty will also consider our interests and not truly drive us to extinction.

Or perhaps he was testing whether I would really exterminate them all. If I truly intended to do so, these people would probably band together and play dead.

Rebellion was out of the question, but using them for anything in the future would likely become impossible too.

There's a saying that goes well: do more, err more; do less, err less; do nothing, err nothing.

These families that had weathered over 200 years of storms—what hadn't they experienced?

The Tumu Crisis, eunuch tyranny, the ascendancy of civil officials—what kind of emperors of the Great Ming hadn't they served?

They knew exactly where they stood.

But Zhu Youxiao had no intention of dealing with the Marquis of Xining anyway. What was the ruling foundation of a feudal dynasty? Zhu Youxiao knew very well—he wouldn't do anything to shake his own foundations.

These people might not be of much use in foreign wars, but they still served some purpose in maintaining domestic stability.

Setting the teacup down on the table, Zhu Youxiao stood up and turned to say to Chen Hong: "Let's go, to Consort Yuan's place. I wanted to go just now, but he came to cause trouble again. Now we can go."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Chen Hong acknowledged, then turned and led the way ahead.

These past few days His Majesty had always been going to Consort Yuan's place, and Chen Hong was somewhat worried. If the Empress got angry about it, the palace would be in for trouble.

Zhu Youxiao was not worried about this, because tomorrow he would go to the Empress's place.

Speaking of which, three women had been making him feel somewhat strained lately. He would need to make a rotation schedule, otherwise at this rate his body would collapse.

Fortunately he was still young and could handle it for now, but if this continued it probably wouldn't work.

But if he already felt he couldn't handle three women, what would he do with a dozen or twenty?

Then he could only hide himself in the palace and not go out, flipping name cards when he wanted someone. But then the palace would fall into chaos.

Thinking about that scenario, Zhu Youxiao found it frightening. What if he ended up killed by one of his consorts? Then what they'd be filming would be "Ming Dynasty: The Legend of Zhen Huan."

He had been obsessed with Consort Yuan's long legs these past few days, but he needed to exercise restraint.

Zhu Youxiao went to find Noble Consort Yuan, and the Marquis of Xining also returned home.

But the news had spread, and it was still fermenting.

Everyone knew that this time they probably couldn't dodge it.

Some watched the excitement, looking gleefully schadenfreude;

Some were busily working, seeing if they could fish out any benefits from it;

Some watched coldly from the sidelines, since this matter had nothing to do with them anyway;

Some were jumping up and down, wanting to grab this assignment into their own hands.

Tax collection! That was a lucrative post!

Regarding this matter, there were different speculations both inside and outside the palace, and all sorts of chaotic rumors were flying everywhere, but for the moment there was no result.

Everyone was waiting.

In the Grand Secretariat.

The atmosphere among the four Grand Secretaries had become somewhat strange again recently.

The most important thing was the matter of taxation. Who would collect this tax — that was a very critical question.

Having Shuntian Prefecture do it was clearly not appropriate; Shuntian Prefecture's rank was too low.

If the authority were given to the Ministry of Revenue, then the money would go into Xu Guangqi's hands.

Now everyone had their own affairs to handle. Han Kuang and Huang Kezuan were promoting the Imperial Academy, while Sun Chengzong was thinking about giving more money to the border troops, and the Ministry of War was not peaceful either.

As for Xu Guangqi, he wanted the Ministry of Works to spend more. But everyone knew about the Ministry of Works — every project across the realm needed money, and it was all big money. It was said that the Hundred Crafts Institute was about to start up as well.

The money hadn't even been collected yet, and everyone was already thinking about how to spend it.