Chapter 49: Reversal

After the night passed and court convened the next day, the assembled officials finally realized that Grand Secretary Zhou Yanru of the Grand Secretariat, Vice Minister of War Hou Xun, and the Grand Commandant of the Embroidered Uniform Guard were all missing.

Only then did the hundred officials grasp the truth — the uproar that had lasted all day yesterday was most likely because of these few men.

Yet what the court officials could not fathom was this: Luo Yangxing had been one of Chongzhen's trusted men since his days in the princely residence; although for the past few months he had merely served as a human backdrop at the Platform, why had even he been arrested?

When the court session convened and the assembled ministers had finished their obeisance, Chongzhen did not wait for them to present their memorials but said directly: "Yesterday's incident was a case of someone colluding with the palace in an attempt to assassinate Us.

The chief conspirators and their accomplices have now all been thrown into the Imperial Prison."

As Chongzhen's words fell, the expected buzzing of voices did not come; instead, a deathly silence descended, and the assembled ministers all fixed Chongzhen with questioning eyes.

To put it bluntly, since the assassination attempt on Chongzhen had occurred outside the Donghua Gate, a single day was more than enough for the news to spread throughout the entire capital.

Had the city gates not been sealed before the incident, the news would likely have reached as far as the Tianjin garrison by now.

Chongzhen looked down at the ministers and felt a surge of emotion. Look at them — every one a sanctimonious beast in official robes, these men who had single-handedly wrecked and destroyed a colossal empire that at the time had no rival in the entire world!

After that, the Divine Land sank into ruin, and even after centuries it has never regained its position as the world's foremost empire.

Growing ever more disgusted with these self-styled upright gentlemen, Chongzhen said curtly: "Wang Cheng'en, proclaim the edict."

After Wang Cheng'en took out the imperial edict and read it aloud, the court officials below the imperial steps looked as though they had been struck on the head with a great hammer — every one of them was utterly stunned.

A string of names — Grand Secretary, Commandant of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Vice Minister of War — a string of death-by-slow-slicing sentences, a string of household confiscations and extermination of nine degrees of kinship — at last made the assembled officials on the court hall realize with piercing clarity that the man seated on the dragon throne in the great hall was the reigning Son of Heaven, and no longer the Prince of Xin whom they could hoodwink at will.

Then Wang Cheng'en read: "A certain Wang, an Imperial Academy student, who openly committed assassination in broad daylight — his crime is beyond pardon.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard is hereby ordered to execute this government student by slow slicing and to exterminate ten degrees of his kinship, as a warning to those who would follow."

Hearing this, the assembled officials on the court hall broke into discussion.

At once a Censor stepped out of the ranks, knelt, and memorialized: "Reporting to Your Majesty: apart from the Chengzu Emperor's extermination of Fang Xiaoru's ten degrees of kinship, since antiquity there has never been any precedent for exterminating ten degrees of kinship.

Your Majesty's punishment is excessive; your subject petitions that it be changed to extermination of nine degrees of kinship."

Chongzhen gave the Censor a deeply meaningful look and asked: "And what if We insist on exterminating ten degrees of his kinship?"

The Censor was a bold one; to win a name for himself as an incorruptible, he was willing to disregard even life and death. He merely stiffened his neck and said: "If Your Majesty does not change this, then Your Majesty is a tyrant like Jie and Zhou!

As a Censor, it is my very duty to remonstrate with Your Majesty and to investigate the hundred officials. Now that Your Majesty intends to carry out this cruel punishment, I would rather dash my head against the pillars and die in this hall!"

Chongzhen kept his eyes on the Censor but spoke to Wei Zhongxian, who stood in attendance at the side: "We wish to hear the particulars concerning this Censor who so boldly remonstrates to Our face."

What sort of man was Wei Zhongxian? One who could rise from a mere eunuch to become the "Nine-Thousand-Year-Old" was hardly someone to be trifled with.

He immediately declared in a ringing voice: "Censor Zhang Wansheng, awarded jinshi in the third year of Tianqi, appointed Hanlin Compiler, and exceptionally promoted to the Censorate in the fifth year of Tianqi.

His family possesses ample surplus wealth, and thus as an official he is quite incorruptible, never accepting gifts or tribute."

Hearing this, the assembled officials on the court hall thought to themselves: See, it has to be us upright gentlemen — even the eunuch Wei can find no fault with us!

But Wei Zhongxian's next words plunged them into an icy abyss.

"However, his affliction of the widower is most severe. In the third month of the fourth year of Tianqi, he took Xiaoyu, the top courtesan of the Spring Breeze Pavilion, as a concubine; before four months had passed, he tormented her to death.

In the fifth month of the fifth year of Tianqi, he took Xiahe, the top courtesan of the Leaning Red Pavilion, as a concubine; in the seventh month, Xiahe died.

In the second month of the seventh year of Tianqi, he took Qiuyu of the Spring Jade Court as a concubine; in the fourth month, Qiuyu died.

His father, Old Moneybags Zhang, possesses considerable landed property in his hometown in Shanxi. Relying on the name of Censor Zhang Wansheng, he has seized by fraud and force over three hundred mu of good farmland and driven five tenant farmers to their deaths."

Having finished with a beaming smile, Wei Zhongxian turned to Zhang Wansheng and asked: "Lord Censor, is there any falsehood in what I have said?"

Chongzhen and the assembled officials had only to look at Zhang Wansheng, drenched in sweat, to know that Wei Zhongxian's words were true.

Before the officials could devise any excuse to plead on Zhang Wansheng's behalf, the enraged Chongzhen bellowed: "Guards!"

At once two strapping generals of the Embroidered Uniform Guard on duty before the hall came forward, knelt, and cried: "Your subjects are here!"

Chongzhen said furiously: "What an incorruptible Lord Censor! What bold remonstrance to Our face!

Did you not say that today you would dash your head against the pillars and die in this hall? We shall grant your wish, so that you may seek benevolence and obtain benevolence, seek death and obtain death!"

He then pointed at Zhang Wansheng and said to the two Embroidered Uniform Guard generals: "Seize him! Dash this wretch's head against the Coiling Dragon Pillar until he dies!"

The two strapping generals answered in unison: "We obey the edict!"

One on each side, they seized Zhang Wansheng by the arms, freed a hand each to press down on his head, and — heedless of how he struggled and begged for mercy — violently smashed it against the Coiling Dragon Pillar.

Pitiable Zhang the Censor, who had endured ten years of bitter study by the cold window — his skull was split open, and his entire face became as though a dye shop had been opened upon it, red and white streaming down together; it was clear he could not survive.

The assembled officials on the court hall were instantly terrified into stupefaction.

Only then did they realize that ever since his accession, the Emperor on the dragon throne had already had Grand Secretaries and Censors flayed and stuffed with straw, had men slowly sliced to death alive — and not just one or two.

Hooge, the eight great Shanxi merchants, and others were all precedents. In sheer murderousness, he likely far surpassed the Chengzu Emperor and rivaled the dynasty's founding Hongwu Emperor.

Ignoring the expressions of the assembled officials, Chongzhen said to Wang Cheng'en: "Continue reading. Let Us see who else has anything to say!"

But this time, even after Wang Cheng'en finished reading all the edicts, not a single minister dared step forward to object.

Yet Chongzhen, with no one objecting, grew increasingly irritated. So you're all just keyboard warriors? Let the fellow Daoist die so long as this humble Daoist lives? No wonder the Great Ming is doomed to fall into your hands!

When the court officials spoke and angered him, they had to die; when the court officials stayed silent, Chongzhen found fault with them all the same. His fury surging, Chongzhen looked at the assembled officials below and said: "What is this, struck dumb?

Weren't all of you quite eager to speak just now? Is there perhaps still someone who wishes to call Us a tyrant like Jie and Zhou?

Do you not each and every one style yourselves upright gentlemen? This is Our Great Ming's hundred officials? We think later generations could write a book and call it 'Bureaucrats Exposed: Scenes from Great Ming Officialdom'!

Look at yourselves, every one a beast in official robes — which of you dares beat your chest and swear you are clean?! Are you worthy of the official robes you wear? The common people pay their taxes and this is what they get — a pack of wretches like you?

We give you one line. Your salaries, your stipends — all are the very fat and blood of the people. Whoever takes the people's salary and then goes on to oppress the people, We shall exterminate nine degrees of his kinship!

Do not be so self-satisfied as to think that without you, the Great Ming is finished. There are plenty of people outside who want to be officials! If there is one thing Our Great Ming does not lack, it is people!"

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(End of chapter)