Chapter 59: Not on the Scale

A few days later.

Naozhou Island naval stockade.

The Guangdong Provincial Administration Commissioner, the Guangdong Regional Military Commissioner, the Leizhou Prefect, and the Assistant Regional Commander for coastal defense at Baige Stockade gathered together before that rebellious poem.

Provincial Administration Commissioner Zheng let out a disdainful cold snort: "Crude wording, flawed prosody, handwriting like a child's! Ha, wanting to imitate Huang Chao—he should first weigh himself on the scales."

The Assistant Regional Commander for coastal defense at Baige Stockade said, "Your Excellency is right. This mob of vagrants hasn't an ounce of learning—nothing to worry about."

Commissioner Zheng laughed in anger, his gaze shooting toward him: "What a sharp tongue! Even at a time like this, you still call them vagrants! Are you trying to say the pearl grounds forced the pearl divers to rebel, and it has nothing to do with you—is that it?"

The Assistant Regional Commander for coastal defense at Baige Stockade immediately knelt to the ground: "This humble officer would never dare such a thought. The Naozhou pearl grounds fall within my defense sector. With something like this happening—whether it's pearl divers rebelling or wokou raiding—this humble officer cannot escape blame."

Commissioner Zheng withdrew his gaze: "Good that you know. Your blame is not urgent—first think about how you'll answer to Eunuch Yang and His Excellency the Governor-General."

Just at that moment, a man entered from outside the door. The officials great and small around him all bent their bodies and addressed him respectfully: "Eunuch Yang."

Eunuch Yang, the eunuch Superintendent of Maritime Trade, wore an extremely foul expression. The moment he entered, he asked, "Li Qin—have they found the man?"

No one answered. A low-ranking soldier at the side steeled himself and said, "Reporting to Eunuch Yang, Eunuch Li is here."

Eunuch Yang turned to look, and saw the soldier kneeling on the ground, holding up a tray on which lay a head covered in dust and blood—it was Li Qin's head.

Eunuch Yang's eyes split with rage: "What audacity! They dare kill a palace eunuch!"

He looked at that rebellious poem and roared in fury: "Fine, fine, fine! Truly a rebellion! This is outright treason! Regional Military Commissioner Zhou!"

The Guangdong Regional Military Commissioner clasped his hands: "Eunuch Yang."

"Have you found any trace of the rebels? Who is the leader?"

The Regional Military Commissioner's face showed difficulty: "No one was left alive on the island, so we couldn't question anyone. Inferring from this poem, the rebels should have headed east."

After all, what was written on the wall was "From here to Penglai, eastward into the sea"—not only could it be read as sailing east, it should also show that the rebels found an island to hole up on.

But such a low-intelligence deduction wasn't worth spelling out in full.

Eunuch Yang suppressed his anger and said, "In that case, why not send the navy to surround and suppress them? This is only one pearl ground. What if the rebels get a taste of success and strike several more places, delaying this year's pearl harvest and ruining the Consort's birthday banquet—who among you will bear that responsibility?"

With that Consort Zheng who held His Majesty's heart alone being invoked, the Regional Military Commissioner could only answer with repeated yeses, then said in a low voice, "What you say is right, Eunuch. But this humble official does have Governor Xu above me. Without the Governor-General's orders, this humble official cannot dispatch troops on his own authority."

In the early Ming, the Regional Military Commissioner was responsible for managing the guard stations' troops within a province.

As the post of Governor-General gradually shifted from temporary to permanent establishment, the Regional Military Commissioner's authority was also weakened, until gradually he had to obey the Governor-General in everything.

Eunuch Yang gave a cold snort and changed his target for venting anger, asking those around him, "Where's His Excellency Governor Xu? With such a major incident happening, he doesn't even come over—he certainly knows how to hide away in leisure!"

The moment his words fell, a young eunuch respectfully presented a letter.

"Eunuch Yang, this was delivered from Guangzhou this morning."

Eunuch Yang took it and swept his eyes over it—it was actually a letter from the very Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi he had just been muttering about.

He and this Governor Xu had never gotten along; there was no personal friendship between them whatsoever, and they barely even exchanged official correspondence on ordinary days. Why would a private letter arrive today?

To show he had nothing to hide, Eunuch Yang tore open the letter in public. He looked at it only once, and the color instantly drained from his face.

The whole roomful of provincial-level officials was terrified by Eunuch Yang's expression. Forgetting all propriety, they hurriedly pressed: "Eunuch Yang, what does the letter say?"

Eunuch Yang said nothing, and handed the letter to them.

Everyone who read it felt their souls fly from their bodies, standing frozen in place.

The letter contained only a single sentence.

"On the twenty-first day of the seventh month of the forty-eighth year of Wanli, His Majesty passed away."

Counting the days, the Capital Gazette from Beijing could not yet have reached Guangdong—His Excellency the Governor-General must have had his own channels of information.

Unless it were absolutely certain, Governor Xu would never dare write words like "His Majesty passed away" even if he had the guts of a bear and the gall of a leopard.

The Emperor had died?

The officials had long lived in Guangdong and knew little about the Wanli Emperor's state of health.

They couldn't figure it out—last time at the capital inspection, His Majesty's dragon body was still hale and healthy. How had he died so suddenly?

The officials looked at one another, pondering whether they ought to wail a few times before Eunuch Yang, this palace eunuch.

"Your Majesty! Wuwuwu..." The first to burst into tears was the Assistant Regional Commander of Baige Stockade, still kneeling on the ground.

Then the other officials, as if waking from a dream, vied with one another to sob, pretending to wipe tears with their sleeves.

Eunuch Yang had no leisure to note down who hadn't cried.

His mind was a tangled mess at this moment, ceaselessly turning over the chain of cause and effect.

Why did the pearl divers rebel?

Because the pearl grounds had levied a great pearl-diving corvée.

Why was the corvée levied?

Because preparations were being made for Consort Zheng's birthday banquet.

Who was Consort Zheng?

She was the Emperor's most beloved consort, who had borne His Majesty his second son, Prince Fu.

In order to make Prince Fu the Crown Prince, the Emperor had fought with his courtiers for over a decade, and in the end still lost—after which he never held court again.

Then who was the Crown Prince of this dynasty?

It was the Emperor's eldest son born of Consort Wang—Zhu Changluo.

Consort Wang was of humble birth and disliked by His Majesty; after bearing him a son, she was confined.

The Crown Prince had never seen his mother since childhood, and only when Consort Wang was dying of illness did mother and son meet for the first time—and the last.

Come to think of it, it was Consort Zheng's exclusive favor that had left the Crown Prince without a mother since childhood.

The dispute over the succession had dragged on for twenty years, and the Crown Prince had lived half his life in fear.

Now, at last, it was the Crown Prince's turn to ascend the throne. Consort Zheng... where would she go from here?

Just thinking about it made Eunuch Yang feel cold all over.

If Consort Zheng fell from power—

As for those who worked for Consort Zheng, where were they to go?

Especially the eunuch of the Maritime Trade Supervisorate, whose exorbitant pearl levies had driven the pearl divers to revolt—where was he to go?

Eunuch Yang's whole body trembled uncontrollably, his vision darkened before his eyes, and the world spun endlessly around him.

"Eunuch Yang?"

Seeing Eunuch Yang swaying left and right, the assembled officials voiced their concern one after another.

Eunuch Yang forced himself to rally, then pointed at the wall and said, "Men, smash this wall!"

The soldiers acknowledged the order, fetched iron hammers, and brought the wall crashing down in a few blows.

Eunuch Yang was still not satisfied—he had the rubble thrown into the sea and the entire building demolished.

As the officials stepped out of the building, the soldier carrying the severed head followed behind them.

Seeing him, Eunuch Yang recoiled as if confronted by a viper or scorpion, and snapped angrily: "What filthy filth is this, set out on a tray? Throw it into the sea to feed the fish at once!"

The soldier stood frozen on the spot.

He could not understand how, in the time it took to read a letter, Eunuch Yang had become a different man.

"Go on, hurry." The Provincial Administration Commissioner urged. "Dispose of this man's corpse as well."

"Yes." The soldier acknowledged, and went off carrying the head.

In the Great Ming, those who could pass the examinations and earn official rank were geniuses among geniuses; those who could rise to high office were the shrewdest of the shrewd.

At this moment, Provincial Commissioner Zheng also grasped Eunuch Yang's intent.

Ming civil officials were not bound by the same personal dependency as eunuchs, but the peril of factional infighting was even more ferocious than among the eunuchs.

Zhu Changluo had kept his position as Crown Prince only through the strenuous advocacy of the pure-stream faction; now that the Crown Prince had ascended the throne, the pure-stream faction would naturally rise with the tide.

The reckoning against the Zhejiang Faction, the Chu Faction, and the Qi Faction was clearly imminent.

At such a critical juncture, one naturally had to distance oneself from the Zhejiang Faction, the Chu Faction, and the Qi Faction.

Reporting the rebellion and drawing the eyes of the entire realm to Guangdong, to serve as fodder for factional strife—

That would be the supreme stupidity of all stupidities.

If he did that, he might as well cut off his own head and send it straight to the capital.

Even setting that aside—suppose he emulated Hai Gangfeng and insisted on being obstinate, clinging to rigid principle, and reported the rebellion anyway.

The Six Ministries in the capital were busy handling the late Emperor's funeral and preparing the new sovereign's enthronement; they had no time for anything else.

By the time they had leisure, the ministries had run through their procedures, the Grand Secretariat had completed the draft rescript, the Directorate of Ceremonial had affixed the red approval, and it had been dispatched to the localities—half a year would likely have passed.

By then, this band of sea rebels would have fled who knows where.

Did not the poem say something about "heading east into the sea toward Penglai"?

Presumably, one would have to sail east for several thousand li before finding "Penglai."

Several thousand li—that would take them beyond Guangdong's borders, out of his jurisdiction.

At this very moment, the civil official faction and the eunuch faction in Guangdong had reached a striking tacit understanding.

Joining hands to clean up the mess Lin Qian had left behind.

As long as everyone was of one mind in covering it up, what did a few dead eunuchs, some dead soldiers, and one or two damaged naval stockades amount to?

In the Great Ming, some matters that could not be weighed down by a thousand catties—if never put on the scales, weighed less than four ounces.

Yahei

Fenyuan

Pen