Chapter 2210: Renzong Chronicles 19: The Chancellor's Downfall

Surveying the entire imperial career of Emperor Zhengtong Liu Weizhen, one finds that what drew the most criticism was not political inaction, but his lust for beauty, indulgence in pleasure, and favoritism toward eunuchs. When the former caused problems, the governing ministers bore responsibility and took the blame, but the latter was an important indicator for evaluating an emperor's virtue.

Although the latter could often be regarded as the emperor's private affairs, unrelated to great righteousness and integrity, the actual situation was clearly not so—the emperor's family matters and state affairs could not be so simply separated.

How the emperor performed always had a profound impact on the empire, including a peacetime Son of Heaven like Liu Weizhen, after all, he sat upon the foundations laid by several generations of former emperors. The power the imperial system bestowed upon the emperor, even if stained with dust, remained fundamentally strong.

And Liu Weizhen, after enjoying beauty for more than twenty years, finally suffered the backlash, and thoroughly detonated the greatest contradiction within the court.

In the early spring of the twenty-fourth year came the "bedchamber stroke crisis"—a collapse suffered in the act of pleasure—and Liu Weizhen truly went to the gates of death and back. When the incident occurred, had it not been for the palace maid's scream, and the eunuch Cai Jue waiting outside rushing in and, relying on his own "medical experience," taking certain emergency measures, perhaps Liu Weizhen would have died on the spot.

Here, one must speak of Cai Jue—this was truly a scheming old eunuch. Given the emperor's womanizing habits, he had privately and with great foresight studied emergency rescue knowledge with the imperial physicians, preparing for unexpected needs, and in the end it truly proved useful.

But even so, under the efforts of a host of great medical masters, applying acupuncture and administering medicine, Liu Weizhen remained unconscious for over a full day before finally awakening.

As the empire's emperor, especially one who had reigned for no short time, he was, for the overall structure of the empire, the best stabilizer.

Even if he was negligent in government affairs and long absent from court sessions, as long as he remained in the palace—whether cultivating the Dao or indulging in women—his existence meant that no matter how fiercely the outer court fought, no matter how chaotic the political situation, there was a most basic limit.

Of course, the so-called "bottom line" was actually quite low; if it truly reached that point, then the Great Han Empire's ailments would inevitably be very deep and severe. And there was one situation that could easily break through the bottom line of so-called political struggle: heaven collapsing and earth splitting apart.

In the Great Han Empire, was there anything more serious than the emperor's critical illness? Absolutely not!

Compared to the supremely honored throne, what was that office of Director of State Affairs, over which the powerful fought until their heads bled?

Of course, it was not because Liu Weizhen's collapse caused the Great Han Empire to spawn many traitors and rebels, but because when the empire faced heavenly calamity, the previous principles of political struggle would also undergo fundamental changes.

As the saying goes: a new emperor, a new set of ministers. The struggles over power and interests involved therein were enough to make all those in the game fight to the knife's edge.

Thus, when the news spread, all factions moved upon hearing the wind—not only important court ministers, but many long-silent nobles also could not help surfacing, at least making moves to closely observe the situation. Rumors rose in the capital region, and the situation grew treacherous and unpredictable.

Of course, while everyone secretly prepared, what they cared about most, besides their opponents' movements, was the emperor's specific condition, and the criterion and premise of all actions was the safety of the dragon's body above all.

Liu Weizhen remained unconscious for a full day and more, and a day's time was enough for earth-shaking changes to occur. One could well imagine the tense situation inside and outside the palace during that period as time passed.

In such an atmosphere, Wang Shilin, as Director of State Affairs, could not remain indifferent. Even more so, pressured by the persistently high political pressure in the court over the past few years, he had to adopt some more proactive coping strategies, and relying on the authority and convenience of the Director of State Affairs, he could do even more.

But some things often resulted in more mistakes the more one did, especially since Wang Shilin himself occupied a sensitive and troublesome position.

If he could, Had it been possible, Wang Shilin too would have wished Liu Weizhen many more years of life, but the situation was urgent and concerned the safety of the state—making some preparations for response was only proper, after all, it was for the sake of the nation's overall interests, and he could explain it that way.

Thus, after confirming that the emperor was unconscious and showed no improvement for a long time, Wang Shilin began to act.

If one could say that uniting (forcing) the various chancellors to carry out emergency control over the various ministries and offices of the court was still a stability-maintenance measure within his authority, then issuing orders in the name of the Director of State Affairs to urge the Bureau of Military Affairs to impose martial law, and even going over the Bureau of Military Affairs to make contact with several imperial army generals, and monitoring the capital region through the Wude Office—this series of actions was hard to escape suspicion of overstepping authority and violating the law.

Wang Shilin's grandfather Wang Xuanzhen had a truly rich resume—from Commissioner of the Wude Office to a great regional governor, then to a chancellor assisting in government (during the Kangzong period)—laying a deep foundation for the Wang descendants. When Wang Shilin rose, those foundations gradually transformed into strength.

Through more than twenty years of painstaking management, Wang Shilin's influence had become extremely extensive, covering nearly every aspect of the empire's military and political affairs, including no lack of powerful and substantive departments.

From this, one could see how powerful the authority of Wang Shilin as Director of State Affairs was during the Zhengtong era, and also how enormous the changes in imperial politics had been over the past eighty or ninety years.

If it were during the Shizu period, the longer a chancellor stretched his hand, the taller the grass grew on his grave. The most typical example was none other than Lu Duoxun, who contended with Zhao Pu at the time. Even from the Taizong period onward, as the positioning of the "Chief Chancellor" became increasingly clear, there were quite strict constraints on his powers and responsibilities. As for Emperor Shizong, needless to say, a large portion of his reign's time and energy was spent on retracting power, concentrating power, and strengthening imperial authority.

It was only after Liu Weizhen succeeded to the throne that the authority of the Director of State Affairs grew stronger with each successive holder, until a schemer like Wang Shilin appeared. But to be fair, Wang Shilin's rise required the right time, place, and people—it was only in such a "special" historical period and conditions that such a powerful chancellor could emerge.

At the same time, the political ecology and structure formed over more than a century of the Han Empire was so strong and stubborn that it was actually not something Wang Shilin could easily shake. The key to the problem still lay with Emperor Liu Weizhen.

It was only after his downfall that Wang Shilin truly and anew realized that compared to the emperor's trust and support, the power and influence he had accumulated over more than twenty years was merely a castle in the air. Lacking Liu Weizhen's endorsement was like having the pillars pulled out—facing the counterattack of those meritorious ministers and old nobles already deeply rooted in every aspect of the empire, the only result was a thunderous collapse.

During the day-plus that Liu Weizhen was unconscious, there were of course many loyal ministers, but the most outstanding and crucial performers were undoubtedly the chief palace eunuch Cai Jue, and the Inner Palace Chief Commander Cui Hao.

The former needed no further explanation—he not only saved the emperor's life, but also strictly supervised the imperial physicians' treatment, attending to him unwaveringly, doing everything possible to save Liu Weizhen.

As for Cui Hao, he was a descendant of the Kaibao famous general and Xingping Earl Cui Han. After the incident, he did only one thing: led the Inner Palace army to firmly guard the palace city and imperial city, controlling entry and exit, especially Chuigong Hall, where the emperor himself lay, with five hundred guards protecting it tightly, thwarting many attempts to interfere.

As for the deeds of the other ministers, the one that chilled Liu Weizhen's heart the most was none other than Wang Shilin. If other matters still had room for explanation, then his later action of moving Crown Prince Liu Xiuyuan from the Eastern Palace to Guangzheng Hall left not a shred of trust between ruler and minister after decades.

Of course, the so-called mutual understanding between ruler and minister was itself a very fragile thing, and there was bound to be internal logic concerning political interests and circumstances.

And that set of "logic" began to collapse from the moment Liu Weizhen woke up and learned what the empire's ministers had done during his unconsciousness.

Regarding Wang Shilin's measures, Liu Weizhen said this: "Back then you installed an Imperial Grandson-Heir; now you would install a Crown Prince as well? I am not dead yet!"

This assessment also proclaimed the beginning of the collapse of Wang Shilin's political edifice.

As the empire's emperor, even someone like Liu Weizhen—every move and gesture had a major impact on the court situation and political conditions. After he regained consciousness, the turmoil within the capital region subsided completely in a short time, and everything seemed to return to how it was before.

Of course, that was merely an illusion. Having gone through this "ordeal," Liu Weizhen's mentality underwent enormous changes, ushering the empire's political situation into a major turning point, and the political undercurrents that had been brewing repeatedly inside and outside the court for over three years finally welcomed a thorough eruption.

Starting from the second month of the twenty-fourth year of Zhengtong, the court once again erupted in collective denunciation against the "chancellor's faction"—from the imperial clan to the consort families, from nobles to ministers, all submitted memorials of impeachment.

Such situations had not been uncommon over the past three years, but this time was clearly more special—not just in scale; some meritorious ministers and old nobles who had never shown their heads also began to display their aggressiveness.

And this time, Wang Shilin could no longer quell it, because he had lost the strength to suppress the crowd of ministers and nobles. Amid the clamor of the court, Emperor Liu Weizhen, dragging his ailing body, held court at Chuigong Hall to inquire into governance and listen to the ministers' reports.

The empire's administrative power center thus returned from Guangzheng Hall to Chuigong. The emperor's move naturally caused Wang Shilin great embarrassment, while the ministers' attitudes were fervent and their actions enthusiastic.

And when Liu Weizhen ascended the hall to discuss matters, what he discussed was of course not government affairs, military matters, or great state affairs—he had neither the ability nor the experience—but he was the Great Han Emperor!

After hearing a large number of impeachments against the Director of State Affairs and his party followers, Liu Weizhen began to act: with the chancellor and Vice Director of the Secretariat Xiao Yan acting as Minister of Justice, Surveillance Commissioner Wang Hongfan, and Chief Justice of the Court of Judicial Review Wei Jingyuan leading the officials of the three departments to investigate all the impeachments, reports, and persons involved...

What this decision meant—to those true bigwigs within the court, to those with a deep understanding of the empire's political structure—was well understood in all its subtlety. The greatest commonality among the three important ministers was that they all came from noble families, each with a glorious and illustrious ancestor.

Thus, larger-scale actions began, step by step, attacking from all sides.

In this process, accompanied by another suspicious case of the "death of a Commissioner of the Wude Office," the then-Commissioner of the Wude Office Zheng Kuang died suddenly in his mansion, while the spies of the Imperial City Office operated vigorously.

Within half a month, dozens of chancellor's faction and suspected chancellor's faction officials came under investigation, and some officials were even directly arrested and thrown into prison. Faced with this situation, Wang Shilin, this towering tree, could not even block a bit of wind and rain.

Of course, Wang Shilin did try to turn things around—only, since Liu Weizhen regained consciousness, he had been granted an audience only twice together with the other ministers, and afterward could not even get a meeting. Every time he went, Cai Jue blocked him: His Majesty was busy with state affairs and could not conveniently receive Chancellor Wang.

It continued until Minister of Personnel Bi Guanglin was thrown into the imperial prison by the emperor on ten charges including forming cliques, dereliction of duty, overstepping authority, violating the law, and pursuing private gain.

Once this edict was issued, the entire court was in an uproar, and the overall situation of the "topple Wang" enterprise was basically settled. Bi Guanglin's identity was also not ordinary—not because his ancestor was the famous Kaibao and Yongxi minister Bi Shiyuan, but because as Wang Shilin's relative by marriage, he was a pivotal figure in the "chancellor's faction."

When Bi Guanglin was taken down, was the situation not clear enough? Was Wang Shilin far behind?

At this juncture, Wang Shilin also thoroughly woke up—as shrewd and perceptive of the situation as when he had assisted Liu Weizhen in seizing the succession more than thirty years ago. He made no other superfluous moves, but proactively submitted his resignation, seeking to retire due to advanced age and obtain some dignity.

But Liu Weizhen chose to leave his resignation unanswered—and not expressing a stance was the clearest stance of all.

In fact, because of Wang Shilin's matter, the contradictions among the upper-level nobles and officials of the court had already become very deep, and the grievances inside and outside the court were not something that could be easily pacified. Even had Liu Weizhen been willing to go a little easy on him, the other men and factions would not easily have let the matter rest.

It was not until the ninth day of the third month of the twenty-fourth year of Zhengtong that Wang Shilin, who had been behind closed doors at home for seven days, was finally taken away by some eunuchs and guards from within the palace, and his residence was sealed. The same package as Bi Guanglin—thrown into the imperial prison—but the charges were far more numerous, fully twenty-seven items listed.

The Director of State Affairs being imprisoned was, from the perspective of the Great Han Empire's history, an extremely rare and serious political event. And from this point, a purge of Wang Shilin's party followers and forces, from top to bottom and from inside out, rapidly unfolded, and in the absence of proper measure and restraint, further damaged the empire's political ecology...