Chapter 475: Golden Throne Hall Tantrum (II)

The old Zhu family has a hereditary craft when it comes to killing ministers.

Zhu Yuanzhang goes without saying. In later generations, people might not remember Zhu's other achievements, but the purges of his old brothers, and the two richly evocative verbs he created — Flaying and Straw-filling, and Implicating like Melon Vines — those are certainly familiar to every ear.

An emperor who made his mark in history by inventing new models of official-killing — well, there's really no one else quite like him.

The next in line, Zhu Di, was no slouch either.

Zhu Di, whose reign was practically a second founding of the dynasty, faced a host of former dynasty officials whose loyalty was suspect, and naturally he too killed like scything flax.

The emperors who succeeded after that were no longer up to it. Those who came later faced, first of all, an increasingly entrenched court structure and a Scholar-Official bloc that grew more powerful by the day — in the early dynasty, social contradictions were few, the base population multiplied rapidly, and the Landlord Class swelled in strength along with it.

Secondly, the emperors who merely maintained the realm lacked both the capability and the edge of the founders, and also lacked sufficient political prestige. In a word, they had rendered no great service to the state. You, some rich Nth-generation heir who ascended the throne by bloodline alone — what gives you the right to kill people in droves? And so by the mid-Ming, the emperor was retreating step by step before the Scholar-Official bloc, to the point that the farcical spectacle of officials faking merit-beatings actually emerged.

This kind of farcical script by the civil officials — never mind Zhu Baba, even in Zhu Di's era, the outcome would have been the extermination of their entire clan.

Then came the Late Ming.

By this time, the situation had swung to another extreme: social contradictions erupted en masse, the Scholar-Official bloc could no longer HOLD the situation together, and then everyone happened to encounter a young emperor who lacked sufficient capability, yet was single-mindedly determined to turn the tide by sheer force.

And so tragedy ensued.

Discovering that he had inherited a colossal mess, the impatient Chongzhen Emperor began to wield the knife against his officials.

And at this moment, the bureaucratic bloc likewise had no phosphorus left — the situation had turned into this ghastly state; if the Scholar-Official bloc, which controlled the actual administration, annexed the land, and carved up the state's tax revenue, was not responsible, then were they going to shift the blame onto the emperor who hid in the palace doing carpentry?

When Chongzhen first took the throne, the bureaucrats were initially quite pleased, because the Nine Thousand Years and the eunuch faction had been dealt with.

However, when the young emperor discovered that not only had the situation failed to improve, but had in fact rotted even further — the court had lost its balance, and to top it off, even Beijing had been besieged by the Tartars... the emperor's fury then turned squarely upon the batch of people on the stage.

Starting with the dismemberment of Yuan Chonghuan, Chongzhen unhesitatingly raised the butcher's knife and began to let himself go, embarking on a path of impotent rage from which he would never return.

In this Jisi Incident, apart from Yuan Chonghuan who was directly executed, there were in fact many other high officials whom the emperor killed, directly or indirectly.

Grand Secretary Qian Longxi was implicated in the Yuan case and sentenced to death; he narrowly escaped with his life, nearly becoming the second Senior Grand Secretary in Ming history to have his head chopped off by the emperor. This gentleman was later exiled to garrison Dinghai Guard, and for the entirety of the Chongzhen reign, two general amnesties were declared, yet he was not permitted to return.

Yet Qian Longxi's fate was still considered a good one.

In the Jisi Incident, Chongzhen had the Liaodong Regional Commander Yuan Chonghuan dismembered, imprisoned the Minister of War Wang Qia until he died, and had three Directors beaten to death by cudgels. The Minister of Justice Qiao Yunsheng and Grand Secretary Qian Longxi were imprisoned and sentenced to strangulation, then commuted to military exile; their successor Han Jisi was stripped of his rank.

The Governor-General of Ji-Liao Liu Ce, Regional Commander Zhang Xianshi, Grand Coordinator of Shanxi Geng Ruqi, and Regional Commander Zhang Honggong — these four high officials were sentenced to beheading...

Someone like the Regional Commander of Xuanfu, Hou Shilu, who was merely dismissed from office, could actually be considered one of the lucky ones.

For every one of the high officials listed above whom Chongzhen directly killed, there would be a varying number of mid- and low-ranking offending officials who accompanied them in death. Historically, scum like the double agent Li Jichun and that gang of Yongping surrender officials, whom Chongzhen ordered hacked to death by wild sword blows — those don't even count, they're not even worth mentioning.

From the Jisi Incident alone, Chongzhen carved out a fearsome reputation.

When Chongzhen dealt with officials, he did not possess the sheer dominance of the founding emperors. When Zhu Yuanzhang killed, he made no distinction between civil and military; he routinely confiscated estates and exterminated entire clans, and even dragged in the next-door neighbors — this is what is known as Implicating like Melon Vines.

Chongzhen, on the other hand, was still somewhat constrained. Not only could he not wield the knife against a military strongman with real power like Zu Dashou, he also rarely confiscated estates and exterminated the clans of high officials. The emperor could only bring the knife down on ministers who had botched matters and whose missteps he could seize upon.

Yet this was already terrifying enough: late Ming society was leaking air from eight directions and belching smoke from four corners. Before Chongzhen, this pack of incompetent, bloviating Scholar-Officials was riddled with errors and omissions; truly, he could kill whomever he wished — the reasons practically leaped out on their own, without the emperor even needing to search for them deliberately.

After several centuries of peace and stability, the Scholar-Officials who had run rampant throughout the mid- and late Ming were, in this recent stretch of time, reawakened by Chongzhen to that founding-era sensation of living in constant peril.

In today's battle at Huangji Hall, although the script was still designed by the civil officials, one core element had changed: the civil officials could no longer, as they had in the past, rely on distorting truth and falsehood, using sophistry, and overwhelming with sheer numbers to bring down the Loyal and Brave Count.

Before a Chongzhen who was tilting the balance, anyone wanting to topple the man surnamed Cao could only stick to the facts and produce solid evidence. Moreover, regardless of whether they succeeded today, the instigators would very likely have to pay a price — people like Xu Bengao and Wei Xu, along with the Hangjiahu Regional Vice-commander, the Nanjing Ministry of War, and the rest, were visibly on the verge of paying that price. What remained uncertain was: how many people would Chongzhen kill this time?

Seeing that the entire crowd who had just moments ago come at him with such aggressive momentum had all retreated back into their ranks, the Loyal and Brave Count's arrogance soared at this moment.

He puffed out his chest, stuck out his belly, and strode with measured stage steps until he stood opposite the cluster of civil officials and big headscarves. Then, in keeping with his established persona of a crude brute, he slapped his own chest fiercely, smoothly cocked his thumb upward, pointed at his own nose, and declared with an attitude of utter insolence: "Lao Cao here comes from rough and tumble stock. I never beat around the bush in my dealings — what I value is being open and aboveboard!"

"The Xu family sent troops to attack me, so I sent troops to bombard their residence. This is called an eye for an eye!"

"Today in the Golden Throne Hall, before His Majesty's face, Old... I, Lao Cao, have a clear conscience, and I'm the same way!"

At this point in his performance, the Loyal and Brave Count suddenly turned, bowed at the waist, and cupped his fists toward the imperial throne: "Your Majesty, the day Lao Cao went to bombard the Xu residence, not a single soldier or sailor disembarked. I even gave the Xu family the time it takes to burn one incense stick to flee."

"When all is said and done, Lao Cao merely bombarded an empty residence to vent his anger. The tens of thousands of commoners on both banks of the Pu River can all bear witness!"

Chongzhen on the dais, hearing this, nodded with a softened expression: compared to the civil officials who usually spoke in clouds and mist and took no responsibility for their actions, Commander Cao's straightforward approach was actually more to the emperor's taste.

"Minister Cao, you may set your mind at ease. I am determined to investigate this matter to its very end."

Watching the monarch and minister colluding so blatantly, Hou Xun, the mastermind behind this political offensive, began to grow anxious: that Cao Bandit had actually turned defense into offense, not only completely whitewashing the "abusing the people" charge and costing their side a key general, but was now spouting wild boasts in the hall. This scoundrel absolutely could not be allowed to rampage any further.

Yet to his surprise, the blocking forces he had arranged beforehand had all gone mute at this moment; no one stepped forward to continue hammering the man surnamed Cao.

Seeing the situation turning dire, Hou Xun had no choice but to charge into the fray himself. He stepped out from the ranks and said coldly to the Loyal and Brave Count: "Cao Chuan, don't be in such a hurry to gloat. Those twelve major crimes listed in the memorial — you won't be slipping free of them!"

"Tch, Your Excellency, let me teach you a lesson today. To convict a man, one charge is enough."

Commander Cao had only been in the capital for a few short days and did not actually know Hou Xun, but that did not hinder him from firing back. After exchanging this one retort, Commander Cao picked up the memorial and continued to defend himself against the remaining charges.

Among the remaining charges, setting aside those fabricated purely to pad the numbers, the core accusation of "plotting rebellion" — as everyone clearly understood — referred to two points: the mode of production and the absorption of refugees.

What truly made the Scholar-Officials restless and unable to sit or lie in peace, aside from the absorption of refugees, was the industrialized farming model that the Transmigrators were implementing in Taiwan.

As for the truly lethal factories, the Scholar-Officials were actually unable to formulate any coherent critique. This was the Seventeenth Century; based merely on some descriptions in a few pamphlets, people could not deduce the terror of a production line.

These two points were in fact interconnected, and the Loyal and Brave Count proceeded to offer a reasonable explanation.

First, the Loyal and Brave Count once again openly admitted to the matter of farming, and explained to everyone in the hall: back before he had accepted Recruitment and Amnesty, he had already led his brothers to drive out the savages of Tainan and occupy that vast Plain.

After that, because they lacked grain and his men could not fill their bellies, he began trading with merchants from the overseas nation of Alaska, who were skilled in manufacturing tools, purchasing iron carts for plowing from that country, and additionally importing some workshops.

At this point, the Loyal and Brave Count spread his hands and questioned the assembled ministers: "There was a vast expanse of wild fields but few people to cultivate them. Lao Cao thought of a way to buy some iron oxen to plow the fields — what crime is there in that?"

After asking this, the Loyal and Brave Count smoothly transitioned to the matter of absorbing refugees: iron oxen were not all-powerful; they were few in number and difficult to maintain, so he needed to recruit refugees from the Great Ming to work as laborers and farm the land.

In the next moment, the Loyal and Brave Count played his trump card.

He informed everyone present: that fertile Plain, large enough to be a commandery, had over the years been Cleaned Up of savages by his brothers, and water conservancy projects had also been constructed.

Not only that, he had also purchased from the nation of Alaska a secret method to suppress Miasma. Nowadays, Tainan was no longer the dreaded overseas isle of evil that people paled at the mention of, but a land of wealth and fertility known to all in the Fujian and Guangdong region.

Most importantly, when had he, the esteemed Loyal and Brave Count, ever forbidden anyone from purchasing land and establishing estates?

After saying this, the Loyal and Brave Count and the assembled ministers stared at one another; time paused for a few seconds. In the next moment, a flurry of hushed whispers erupted from the ranks.

The quicker-witted courtiers had already grasped the Loyal and Brave Count's meaning: everyone present could go to Taiwan to buy land, and then send people to farm it. In this way, the so-called accusation would cease to exist — once the land was all bought up by the Gentry, naturally they could cultivate it however they wished. Wouldn't that then become a commandery and county of the Great Ming?

And so Hou Xun was dumbfounded.

The Loyal and Brave Count then continued loudly: "That piece of land on the Barbarian Isle yields two harvests of Rice a year. As long as someone is willing to put up the silver, I'll sell!... As for the price, just five taels of silver per mu, with a minimum purchase of one hundred qing of consolidated land. Any less and I won't bother to entertain you. This item is called Attracting Investment."

Seeing the expressions of shock mingled with greed on the courtiers' faces, the esteemed Loyal and Brave Count let out a hearty laugh, turned to Chongzhen, and said: "Your Majesty, do not worry. In truth, Lao Cao long ago set aside an Imperial Estate on the Barbarian Isle as a gift. From now on, its produce will be delivered to the capital on schedule. I humbly hope you will graciously accept it!"

Seeing this country bumpkin so brazenly bribe the Emperor right there in the court hall, in that moment, every court official was utterly shaken.

Chongzhen burst out laughing at these words, laughing until tears streamed down his face.