Chapter 196: Chongzhen Descends on Shaanxi: The Shameless Wretches (4K Chapter)

The Chongzhen Emperor had long heard of Lantian County's great name.

That was in his previous life, though, before he transmigrated. After all, apart from the line "in Lantian the sun warms, jade engenders smoke" — a verse passed down through the ages — Lantian had also produced a Duke Who Transmits the State, surnamed Yun.

Though for some reason, that Duke Who Transmits the State never got transmitted down to his own Great Ming.

By now it was nearly the ninth month; by all reason, the autumn harvest should have been approaching.

Yet in Lantian County, there was no sign whatsoever of any autumn harvest — or rather, there was simply nothing to harvest.

Across ground that had barely seen any rain, the cracked earth looked as if someone had taken a knife and slashed wildly across the land.

The fields should have held full crops and farmers hurrying through their work in the cool of early morning. But none of that was there. All there was, was the occasional half-dead stalk of grain. The rest — nothing but stretch after stretch of fissured earth.

A shocking sight. This was the Chongzhen Emperor's most direct impression of Lantian County — or rather, of the great Shaanxi drought.

Yet none of this was anything Chongzhen could change. When the Shaanxi drought struck, Ma Weiyin, Prefect of Xi'an, had already organized the people to dig wells for self-relief.

But it was utterly useless. What came out could not even be called water — more like a pitifully scant yellow mud soup. After many fruitless attempts, Ma Weiyin gave up on the well-digging and simply appealed to the court for aid.

With a deep sigh, the Chongzhen Emperor decisively swung himself up onto his horse and ordered: "Let us enter the county seat and look." With that, he spurred his horse away.

Behind him, Wang Cheng'en, Fang Zhenghua, and the rest of the retinue kicked their horses' bellies in unison and galloped after Chongzhen toward the Lantian County seat.

Only after arriving at the Lantian county seat did the Chongzhen Emperor gain the most visceral understanding of this drought — a disaster the history books would record with no more than: "In the third month of the first year of Chongzhen, all Qin suffered great drought; the sky was red as blood."

Everywhere his eyes fell, there were people in tattered rags, so gaunt and sallow that Chongzhen wondered if he had transmigrated into a Middle Eastern refugee camp of later ages, or even an African slum.

The only thing better than those places, perhaps, was that the Lantian county seat still maintained a certain degree of basic cleanliness.

Just as Chongzhen stood dazed in the street, a voice came from the distance: "Hey, move aside, everyone move aside!"

Chongzhen looked over. It was a few runners pushing a flatbed cart. A tattered straw mat covered the cart, and from beneath the mat protruded several pairs of feet — men and women, adults and children, by the look of it.

Having always assumed such scenes only existed in television dramas or films, Chongzhen was utterly shaken. He reached out and tugged over a middle-aged man nearby, himself famine-victim in appearance, and asked: "Elder brother, what is this about?"

The middle-aged man looked to be around thirty-four. At the question, he sized Chongzhen up, saw he was dressed like a rich young master, and did not take offense, merely curling his lip: "What else would it be? Starved to death."

Though mentally prepared, the Chongzhen Emperor was still stunned.

"Starved to death?

Did the court not distribute famine relief grain? I heard in the capital that His Majesty the Emperor, knowing of the great drought in Shaanxi, lost his temper right in the court and demanded that not a single person be allowed to starve."

The man sighed.

"The Emperor?

The mountain is high and the Emperor is far away! Relief grain — they say there is some.

But one bowl a day of gruel so thin you can see your reflection in it — is it not normal for a few people to starve? This business of the Emperor losing his temper — I believe it.

We've long heard the Son of Heaven of today is one who loves the people. But can he sprout wings and fly here to see for himself?"

At this, Chongzhen asked, curious: "I heard the court bought quite a lot of grain and shipped it here. How can people still starve? Could someone have embezzled it? Even if three or four parts out of ten were taken, people still shouldn't be starving."

The man shot Chongzhen a glance and sneered: "Young sir, one look tells me you're a rich young master who's read too many books. Three or four parts out of ten?

Even if only one or two parts were taken, this many people still wouldn't starve. If you've got the nerve, go out to the mass burial pits beyond the city wall and take a look.

See how many corpses there are — eight or nine out of ten starved to death. Even if you swapped someone else's child into the pot to eat, it'd be gone soon enough."

Chongzhen drew a sharp breath. This was far worse than what the Embroidered Uniform Guard had reported.

Releasing the man, Chongzhen ordered, his face dark: "Let's go. We shan't delay any longer."

With that, he led Fang Zhenghua, Zhu Gang, and the others in his retinue down another street.

By the time they had circled through a fair portion of the Lantian county seat, Chongzhen's expression had become utterly unreadable.

Even Zhu Gang, a rough, thick-skulled killer by trade, could see that the Chongzhen Emperor was on the very brink of eruption — let alone Wang Cheng'en and Fang Zhenghua, who guarded the Emperor day and night.

At noon, the Chongzhen Emperor hastily swallowed a few bites at a tavern. Once he had asked for directions, he took Fang Zhenghua and the others and headed for the mass burial pits outside the city.

In broad daylight, wild dogs long addicted to human flesh made no attempt to avoid people, wholly absorbed in tearing the meat from freshly discarded corpses. Their eyes, every pair, had turned blood-red from eating too much human flesh, making them look more like atavistic wild wolves.

Even the Chongzhen Emperor, who had seen countless dead on the steppe after issuing his own slaughter orders, could not help drawing a sharp, cold breath.

Those he had slaughtered on the steppe were enemies, not compatriots of later ages, so Chongzhen's heart had felt no particular pressure.

But these corpses before him — impossible to count how many — were his own compatriots, his subjects. This feeling and the sight of enemy dead were two entirely different sensations.

Chongzhen truly could not imagine what could drive these scholars, steeped in the classics, to such frenzied, conscience-abandoned embezzlement — to sit and watch the common people starve to death without the slightest stir of feeling.

Stealing a glance at Chongzhen, Zhu Gang was himself in an exceedingly awkward spot. If he tried to offer counsel, he had no idea where to begin.

The Emperor before him looked like a scholar, yet on the steppe he had been able to issue slaughter orders with a smile — slaughter that spared neither old nor young, leaving not even a chicken or a dog alive.

And if no one counseled him, and this lord's fury was simply pressed down like this — who knew how many people would be burned to death once it erupted.

Just as he was torn, he heard the Chongzhen Emperor speak, his tone flat: "Transmit Our decree: order Zhang Zhiji to enter the city with the Capital Camps under the pretext of a brief rest and reorganization before entering the Qinling Mountains for training, and to take over the city's defenses.

Thereafter, seal the city gates — no one is to enter or leave.

Also, surround the Lantian County yamen for Us. Not even a single bird is to be permitted to fly out.

Summon Ma Weiyin, Prefect of Xi'an Prefecture, to Lantian to see Us. If We do not see his person by tomorrow, tell him to roll up his bedding and go home to farm.

Summon Tian Ergeng and Cao Huachun. Order the two of them to bring a large force of Embroidered Uniform Guard captains and Eastern Depot agents and come to Lantian by six-hundred-li express relay.

We want them here within ten days. No matter how many horses they ride to death — if they fail to arrive within ten days, We shall have their skins flayed off!

Order Wei Zhongxian to step up the deployment of personnel to the Shaanxi and Shanxi region. The southeast can be temporarily slowed.

Furthermore, transfer a batch of grain from the relay stations to Lantian first. Dispatch New Army soldiers to keep watch along the road.

Whoever along the way sets their sights on this grain — execute them on the spot, no questions asked. If local officials are implicated, record them — not a single name is to be omitted."

Wang Cheng'en strained to commit the Chongzhen Emperor's instructions to memory, and only after confirming there was no error did he hurry off.

Once Wang Cheng'en returned to report that all matters had been handled, the Chongzhen Emperor swung himself onto his horse once more and headed back toward Lantian County.

At that very moment, in the rear courtyard of the Lantian County yamen, County Magistrate Shen Xiuting was entertaining an honored guest.

This eldest son of Master Wu from the southeast was a truly honored guest. Though he himself had long been absent from the Jiangnan region, banished all this while to a wretched place like Lantian to eat dust, Shen Xiuting had certainly heard of this Master Wu's great name.

That Young Master Wu Qi had come in person to this tiny, wretched place could only mean the Wu family had taken notice of him. With the Wu family's aid, his escape from this tiny, wretched Lantian was just a matter of time.

His mood rising by the moment, Shen Xiuting raised his wine cup with a smile. "Come, Young Master Wu — this county magistrate toasts you."

Wu Qi hurriedly stood, putting on an expression of overwhelmed flattery. "I dare not, I dare not! Such favor from the venerable father-mother official — this student could never presume to accept it."

As the saying goes, everyone lifts a decorated sedan chair; and as another goes, a thousand-li journey to office is for wealth alone.

This Young Master Wu Qi was both his personal God of Wealth and, rare as it was, so utterly free of airs — truly a talent worth cultivating.

Growing ever more pleased, Shen Xiuting smiled. "Sit, sit."

Once Wu Qi was seated, Shen Xiuting continued: "The grain this time — it's finally about settled, I take it?"

Wu Qi smiled faintly. "Nearly settled. This student plans to return to Zhejiang tomorrow to report to my father. I trust my father will have yet another token of his regard for the venerable father-mother official — I hope you will not take offense."

Grasping the implication at once, Shen Xiuting stroked his beard and smiled. "Your honored father is too courteous. It is merely some grain, after all. It was only that time was short and your honored father pressed urgently; otherwise, even double the amount would have been no great difficulty."

Wu Qi simply extended a thumb in praise. "The venerable father-mother official has remarkable methods! This student is in admiration, in admiration!"

These words struck precisely at Shen Xiuting's itch. Through his own sleight-of-hand — a brazen daylight swap — four or five parts out of ten of the grain that had arrived here had been replaced with spoiled or inedible grain. Another one or two parts had simply been swapped for sand.

As for the Embroidered Uniform Guard in the city — pah! They were nothing but dogs who didn't know what was good for them. What could they do to him?

Just as he was basking in self-satisfaction, the steward Shen Xiuting had brought from his home village came rushing in, flustered and frantic, shouting: "Master, master! A great calamity!"

Shen Xiuting remained composed. "Flustered and frantic — where are your manners? Whatever the matter, speak slowly."

Seeing Shen Xiuting still so unruffled, the steward had no time to beg forgiveness, nor even to wipe the sweat from his forehead brought on by his dash. He simply blurted out urgently: "Reporting to the master — the Capital Camps! Those Capital Camps ruffians have surrounded the yamen!"

Clang! Shen Xiuting's air of breezy indifference vanished entirely. He pressed: "How could the Capital Camps come to a tiny place like Lantian? Where is the County Lieutenant? Has anyone asked what this is about?"

Only then did the steward wipe the sweat from his forehead and reply: "This old servant asked the County Lieutenant on the way here.

The County Lieutenant said the Capital Camps entered the city under the pretext of a brief rest and reorganization before entering the mountains for training. But later, for some unknown reason, they forcibly took over the city gates, and now they've surrounded the yamen.

Even the County Lieutenant has been driven into the yamen and forbidden from going out."

It wasn't just Shen Xiuting who was growing frantic with worry — even Wu Qi, who moments ago had displayed the full poise of a gentleman from a great family, lost his composure: "Your Excellency, what are we to do? Could word have leaked, drawing a full army here? What are we to do?"

Shen Xiuting, having weathered his initial panic, was now quite composed. At this, he merely shot a sidelong glance at Young Master Wu and drawled, "What word is Young Master Wu speaking of? This official knows nothing of it."

Startled by the chill in Shen Xiuting's tone, Wu Qi said, "The grain, of course. Could our joint manipulation of the grain have been exposed? But how did an army arrive so silently?"

Shen Xiuting, however, chuckled and said, "Grain god? What grain? This official merely took charge of the grain to arrange relief for the disaster victims. Could there be some problem with this grain?"

Wu Qi froze for a moment, then caught on and smiled.

"Indeed.

This student merely came to Lantian County to visit an old friend. Seeing the people of Lantian suffer such calamity, this student could not bear it and had no choice but to donate five hundred shi of grain on my father's behalf as a modest token of our regard.

I hope Your Excellency will not refuse."

Shen Xiuting heard this and burst into loud laughter. "Young Master Wu and your esteemed father hold such sincere patriotic devotion — how could this official refuse? In that case, this official shall first thank Old Master Wu and Young Master Wu on behalf of the people of Lantian."

With that, the two exchanged a glance and laughed heartily together, carrying an air of everything understood without a word spoken.

After the laughter subsided, Shen Xiuting said to his steward, "This official suspected the County Lieutenant Zhao Jing of privately trafficking grain and was investigating in secret.

I never expected the army to arrive — this is just as well, we can hand him over to the arriving superior officer for disposal."

The steward grasped the meaning at once and said with a mournful face, "Replying to the master, the County Lieutenant, upon returning to the yamen, has already taken his own life out of fear of punishment."

Shen Xiuting, upon hearing this, struck a pose of deep anguish and said, "Why go to such lengths? All for a trifling bit of grain — Zhao Jing, what a fool!"

The steward, hearing this, bowed and stepped aside. "Reporting to the master, this old servant still has some matters to attend to. Perhaps you and Young Master Wu should begin the banquet, and this old servant will return to serve once he has finished?"

Shen Xiuting waved a hand. "Go, go. There's nothing we need you for here at the moment."

After the steward withdrew, Shen Xiuting raised his wine cup once more and said to Wu Qi, "Come, this official toasts Young Master Wu first. This cup is this official thanking Young Master Wu and your esteemed father on behalf of the people of Lantian — Young Master Wu cannot decline."

Wu Qi hurriedly raised his wine cup and said, "This is merely this student's duty, nothing worthy of such favor from Your Excellency."

Just as the two were exchanging toasts, the Chongzhen Emperor, his face dark with fury, had arrived outside the county yamen and ordered Zhang Zhiji beside him: "Smash the gates, seize the men — let not a single one escape!"

(End of Chapter)