Chapter 473: Board-Bombing

Before the red-robed civil official's words had even faded, four or five colleagues in variously colored robes stepped forward in unison from the ranks and spoke with one voice: "This subject seconds the proposal, and beseeches Your Majesty to rescind the decree!"

Witnessing this textbook offensive-and-defensive maneuver of the court, the belatedly aware Chongzhen, along with the full assembly of civil and military officials, finally caught on to what was happening.

Thereupon, the onlookers all began to speculate in secret: Today's spectacle, it seems, is yet another premeditated attack stirred up by those civil officials... the Donglin Party, targeting the newly-minted Loyal and Brave Count, and incidentally slapping the Emperor's face... As for the cause, perhaps His Majesty has been too smug these past few days? Or is it that the Donglin faction achieved no merit in this matter, had their thunder stolen, and out of jealousy grew hatred?

Just as winds and clouds were stirring across the great square, Comrade Chongzhen, the only one with a seat in the entire venue, had already sensed something was amiss — he was being ambushed. Having sat on the Dragon Throne for three years, Chongzhen was no longer the green youth of yesteryear, so after a cold snort, he cut his losses in time, rose, fiercely flung his long sleeves, and walked away...

It was only then that the duty eunuch's cry of "Court is dismissed" belatedly rang out.

Upon hearing the dismissal, the assembled officials instantly scattered in a great dispersal, the onlookers walking away with faces alight with excitement.

At the same moment, a eunuch scurried over and retrieved that memorial from the hands of Supervising Secretary Wei Xu, who was still kneeling there.

The Lord Loyal and Brave Count, standing there somewhat at a loss, only then reacted: work was over.

This outcome left the Loyal and Brave Count, whose battle lust had been ignited, deeply unaccustomed, as if he had stepped into empty air. But since things had already come to this, Zhang Dongdong had no choice but to exit the Imperial City alone under a myriad of complex gazes, everyone he passed giving him a wide berth, as if he were a Street Tiger.

Time returns to the day before yesterday.

When Master Bo, Bo Daxing, poured out all the details he had grasped about "Cao the Bandit" to his fellow examination-year colleague, Hou Laoye, the latter finally realized the gravity of the situation.

Previously, when Commander Cao had bombarded a gentry residence in Jiangnan over a land dispute, Hou Xun had heard something of it. After all, the Jiangnan region was the Donglin Party's stronghold; that cannon blast was bound to implicate Donglin figures at court. As a Donglin stalwart, even though Hou Xun was from Henan, he was generally aware of the affair.

It was just that the matter had not stirred any significant waves at court.

Firstly, the court had already entered a wartime state of emergency at the time; for such a trivial matter, it was utterly impossible that anyone would submit a memorial impeaching that fellow Cao — doing so would prove to His Majesty and one's colleagues that one was a fool utterly devoid of strategic perspective.

Secondly, to an outsider with insufficient information like Hou Xun, this incident likely seemed another case of the gentry being too greedy, somehow provoking a country bumpkin who had come to buy land, whereupon both sides fell into discord, and then the bumpkin, not knowing the immensity of heaven and earth, fired a cannon — a case of dogs biting dogs.

Indeed, that was exactly what Hou Xun thought at the time. Though the gentry presented a united front outwardly to safeguard class interests, behind the scenes, mutual contempt was hardly rare.

However, when Bo Daxing recounted the process of the affair in detail, coupled with his own understanding and analysis, the matter became far less simple.

Only then did Hou Laoye learn that this fellow Cao had actually premeditated it all along, luring and pressuring the gentry step by step to escalate the conflict, absolutely refusing negotiation, and finally concluding with cannon fire, publicly smashing the gentry's authority in Jiangnan and blasting Cao the Bandit's nameplate into notoriety.

Now, in the span of a mere few months, while the court was preoccupied with the northern barbarian affairs, it remained unaware that the impoverished wretches and mud-legged peasants of Jiangnan were fleeing in droves to Cao the Bandit's territory — this had already become an open secret.

A sea bandit who came through recruitment and amnesty, swallowing up refugees on such a massive scale — what could that be for, if not rebellion?

This information could not but greatly shock Hou Xun. However, what Bo Daxing produced next was enough to make Hou Laoye break out in a cold sweat.

Regarding Master Bo's observations and experiences in Taiwan, as well as the various deeds of the Transmigrators he had encountered in Fujian and Jiangnan, through reflection and investigation over these days, the old master had achieved a comprehensive understanding, thoroughly grasping the true face of Cao the Bandit.

Having reached a conclusion, the next step was naturally to publicize it widely, so that all under heaven could clearly see Cao the Bandit's true face. Yet this was not something that could be done by mouth alone; now that Cao the Bandit's power base had already formed, he was no longer someone three or five ordinary gentry could restrain — it required all true gentlemen of virtue to act.

Therefore, Master Bo had recently painstakingly written a booklet titled "Strange Thief Ming Essentials," and had people transcribe several copies, intending to distribute them free to the grandees on one hand, while seeking an opportunity to print and widely disseminate them on the other.

This booklet would hold a very high place in history. In it, first adopting the tone of an observer, it described in detail the various deeds of Cao the Bandit gathering the populace in workshops and then using mechanical iron implements for farming.

After this, Master Bo shifted his rhetorical approach, deeply analyzing this elimination of tenant farmers and owner-farmers from a traditional Confucian perspective, dissecting the profound social implications it brought. Finally, he pinpointed the theme, thoroughly deducing the extermination-level harm this practice posed to the scholar-official class — every word a pearl, every line a warning.

When Hou Laoye, Hou Xun, finished reading this booklet and then carefully questioned Master Bo, discovering that the other had indeed gone to Taiwan to personally investigate, Hou Laoye's cold sweat also came — if what this fellow Cao had done in Taiwan was truly as the booklet described, then this man was indeed the public enemy of the gentry.

Thus, while Hou Laoye dispatched men to Beijing to seek out and investigate those who had been to Taiwan, he also contacted his Donglin colleagues to distribute the propaganda booklet, spreading word of the newly-minted Loyal and Brave Count's true nature.

Those who had been to Taiwan were easily found, for Beijing was teeming with merchants like hairs on an ox, and many had gone south to procure goods in the past two years.

After comparison and verification, it was discovered that the Loyal and Brave Count was indeed as the booklet described, and so an alliance was swiftly established.

This alliance included the Donglin Party and a portion of other officials.

As for the Donglin Party's side, since the Loyal and Brave Count had previously clashed with the Guanning Army and stolen much of the credit from the officers of Sun Chengzong's faction, they had already found him somewhat disagreeable, and this now provided a perfect pretext to vent their fury.

Additionally, figures like Supervising Secretary Wei Xu, though not of the Donglin Party, were the spokesmen at court for certain Jiangnan gentry who had been bombarded, and so Wei Xu acted as the vanguard in today's impeachment affair.

Finally, a portion of this alliance consisted of people who had purely come out to lend a fist: among the civil officials who had read the booklet, there were always a few who, like Master Bo, possessed the sage-like attribute of caring for all under heaven and were willing to bring their own rations and act as anti-fans.

The above is the reason why the Civil Official Bloc suddenly launched an impeachment operation during this morning's court session.

And because the Transmigrators had previously established no Intelligence Department or affiliated power base in the Capital, they were slow to react to the undercurrents of the court, and in the end, Commander Cao took a hidden arrow.

However, on the whole, the problem was not serious. After all, the Transmigrators came from the future and possessed a profound understanding of the late Ming court. Since Commander Cao had dared to enter Beijing this time, he had naturally made contingency plans for political struggle.

Judging from the aftermath, the Donglin Party's surprise attack today was a success.

Although the Chongzhen Emperor promptly came to his senses, turned around, walked away, and dismissed the court, averting a further deterioration of the situation, words had already been spoken, so he had still effectively been slapped in the face.

Even if the timing of Wei Xu's memorial today was utterly inappropriate, for the Emperor to intend to arrest a Supervising Secretary who was performing his proper duties, specifically responsible for inspection and correction, without even reading the memorial, was absolutely impermissible.

Thus, today's surprise attack had slapped both the Loyal and Brave Count's face and the Emperor's face, counting as yet another victory for the Civil Official Bloc — imperial authority and gentry authority are in constant struggle, and over the dynasties, civil officials devising ways to clamp down on the Emperor had long become instinct.

After dismissing the court, Chongzhen returned to Qianqing Palace and irritably flipped open that memorial.

As expected, the content of the memorial followed the consistent literary style of civil officials impeaching political enemies — twelve great crimes, each one horrifying, every item exaggerated, the writer's words like knives, deeply versed in the Dao of fabricating charges and twisting reason.

In short, under a civil official's brush, every person who opposes the true gentlemen is an enemy of the state whose crimes tower to the heavens, someone whom both heaven and earth cannot tolerate, the kind who cannot be killed enough to assuage the people's wrath.

After reading it, the Emperor, unsurprisingly, shelved the memorial and issued an edict reprimanding that troublemaking bastard Supervising Secretary Wei Xu.

Generally speaking, the Emperor had three paths for handling impeachment memorials.

First, if the Emperor wished to protect the impeached person, he would shelve the impeachment memorial without issuing it.

This move was equivalent to deleting a post in later generations, a basic method to dispel influence and divert a hot topic. Once the Emperor began deleting posts, the officials of the Outer Court who had submitted impeachment memorials would have done futile work. Even if a level-15 super-poster in a red robe posted, the moderator could delete it just the same, and then the topic would naturally cease to exist, and the person would be protected.

Second, if the Emperor did not wish to protect the impeached person, it was very simple: he merely needed to "refer the memorial to the ministries for deliberation."

Referring to the ministries for deliberation was a clear signal, equivalent to permitting members to discuss the matter openly. In such a situation, any official with a modicum of intelligence would immediately submit a memorial "requesting retirement and return to one's hometown," preserving an opportunity to stage a comeback.

The final method of handling an impeachment memorial was the court assembly.

If the Emperor was undecided, he would listen to opinions from all sides at a court assembly attended only by important ministers, and ultimately make a decision on how to handle the impeachment memorial.

Now, regarding today's impeachment memorial, the Emperor was certain to shelve it without issuing it. A joke — the Loyal and Brave Count was now Chongzhen's hope for resolving the northern barbarian threat; how could he possibly permit court officials to impeach him?

And so the memorial was shelved.

However, starting from the next day, a flood of posts impeaching the Loyal and Brave Count surged like the tide into the Office of Transmission. Then, as time passed, more onlooker civil officials who had read the booklet "Strange Thief Ming Essentials" also turned into self-funded gentry, and began incessantly submitting memorials to impeach the Loyal and Brave Count.

When the number of posts reached a certain magnitude, even the Emperor's post-deletion became useless.

This belonged to a fourth, hidden scenario: board-bombing.

Board-bombing was a serious incident, equivalent to stirring up a political tide around this matter, and the Emperor had to give a direct response to it.

Of course, over these few days, the Emperor had also seen the booklet through other channels and figured out the context and background behind the memorials.

Although he maintained a critical and skeptical attitude toward the nonsense in the booklet, Chongzhen, unable to do anything about the assembled officials, could ultimately only issue a decree stating that after tomorrow's Morning Court, a special meeting would be convened at Huangji Hall to discuss this matter. Parenthesis: the Loyal and Brave Count is permitted to defend himself.

At the same time, the Loyal and Brave Count also received the Emperor's private assurance through his ally Wen Tiren's channels: tomorrow, go ahead and confront them in court — you are not alone behind the scenes.