Chapter 314: Cai Ding

"Well? Is everything properly arranged?"

Sun Chengzong lifted the hot tea at his hand and gently skimmed the floating froth.

His question echoed through the empty hall.

Cai Ding stood with hands lowered and replied respectfully: "Sir, everything has been arranged."

"After yesterday's meeting, Secretary Yuan and the others requested several large screens, paper, and brushes. They divided the work simply and began at once."

"I went in for a look — they had taken down every roster of officials, cut them into strips, and pasted them all over the screens."

"Later, I heard from the servants that the lamps in that room did not go out until the third watch."

At this point, Cai Ding paused, and a trace of barely perceptible complexity crept into his tone.

"And this morning, just as dawn broke, they rose early, held a meeting, then split into two parties and set off — one for Ningyuan, the other for Jinzhou." Sun Chengzong set down his teacup and said with a smile:

"As expected of men forged in the new policies — exactly the style Bosun described in his letters."

"Every last one of them a madman who treats the third watch as if it were the first."

Cai Ding, standing to the side, heard these words and felt deeply unconvinced.

He lowered his eyelids slightly, pressed his lips together, and said nothing.

When it came to rising early and retiring late — who was afraid of being measured against anyone?

In Cai Ding's mind, the scene of Sun Chengzong's first command in Jiliao surfaced unbidden.

In those days, the field headquarters had just been established; everything was yet to be built, a true struggle through thorns and brambles.

Under his banner were Lu Shanji, Mao Yuanyi, Du Yingfang, Wang Zegu, and he himself, Cai Ding… What a gathering of talent that had been, what soaring spirit. For the sake of the Liaodong campaign, they had disguised themselves as scholars to probe enemy intelligence, braved wind and snow to survey the terrain, worked through the night sorting provisions, pay, arms, and equipment. In those days, who among them had not risen early and retired late, wishing they could bury their very lives in the ice and snow of Liaodong?

Sun Chengzong noted the shifting expressions on Cai Ding's face and pressed on: "Well? You still have no wish to take office?"

Cai Ding raised his head, met Sun Chengzong's gaze, and answered bluntly, refusing outright.

"Sir, I told you before — Cai Ding is a man of the mountains, never fond of constraints."

"This murky officialdom is nothing but a cage to me!"

This exchange had its roots in events some time ago.

One day, after receiving a letter from the Son of Heaven, Sun Chengzong suddenly gave the order to disband the Jiliao field headquarters.

Every member of the staff was personally placed by Sun Chengzong, each dispatched according to his inclinations and interests.

For those like Lu Shanji and Mao Yuanyi, who already held official rank, Sun Chengzong wrote a letter and sent it directly to His Majesty, recommending them to the capital to take up various posts in the new policies.

For those like Cai Ding, who still held no rank, arrangements were made according to each man's character — either recommended for office or granted a study place at the Imperial Academy, sought from the Emperor. After that, the once bustling and clamorous Jiliao field headquarters, which had wielded the heavy authority of Liaodong, stood empty in a mere ten-odd days.

In the end, all those comrades who had once sat shoulder to shoulder had departed, leaving only Cai Ding behind.

Stiff-necked, he refused every recommendation and every chance at office, remaining here in the Supreme Commander's residence.

Watching Cai Ding's stubborn manner, Sun Chengzong shook his head and pressed no further.

"Then I can only trouble Keyi to toil a while longer."

"The Ministry of Personnel is already speeding up the selection. Once the advisory staff have been trained, they will arrive one after another."

Cai Ding shook his head and forced a smile. "The Supreme Commander governs with calm, and has delegated authority and responsibility to individuals — in truth, the headquarters is no longer as busy as before." He opened his mouth; his Adam's apple bobbed up and down as if he wished to say something, but in the end he closed it again.

Seeing this, Sun Chengzong laughed heartily. "Well now — since when has Keyi had words he could not speak before this old man?" That sentence was like snapping the taut string in Cai Ding's heart.

He gritted his teeth fiercely and at last mustered the courage to speak.

"Does the Supreme Commander not feel… that His Majesty has gone too far?!"

Once the words were out, they could no longer be held back, pouring forth in an unstoppable torrent.

"I do not know why the Supreme Commander suddenly disbanded the headquarters, but I presume it must be connected to His Majesty."

"The Supreme Commander has been in Jiliao four months and has done nothing — only repaired walls and conducted inspections. This, too, I presume, is His Majesty's instruction."

"And now, not only has the court sent that wolf-hearted, dog-lunged Yuan Chonghuan up here, it has also meticulously carved up all duties and responsibilities…"

Cai Ding's voice trembled slightly; the rims of his eyes reddened.

"Is the Supreme Commander of Jiliao still the Supreme Commander of Jiliao?!"

These words had been pent up in his heart far, far too long.

The Jiliao field headquarters of old had teemed with talent; once an order was issued, none dared disobey — what grandeur that had been.

And now? The wind of the new policies had blown beyond the passes; the Liaodong campaign was at last showing signs of progress — yet Sun Chengzong, who had built all this, seemed to be steadily hollowed out by the court, step by step. Having followed Sun Chengzong through wind and rain for so long, how could his heart harbor no resentment?

This was not a matter of career prospects!

When had he, Cai Keyi, ever cared about career prospects!

This was a matter of justice!

"That project of the Duke Who Revives the State — my view is exactly the same as Bosun's. It is plainly aimed at you, Supreme Commander!"

Cai Ding grew more agitated as he spoke, his hands clenching tightly into fists.

"Very likely, the day that project is completed will be the day you are relieved of your post!"

He thrust his finger toward the hall's exterior and spoke in a low, indignant voice:

"When we first arrived at our posts, beyond the passes, hearts were scattered, and there was neither fodder nor grain!"

"In the vast lands of Liaodong, there was only a single fort at Balipu and a single city at Zhongqiansuo."

"Zu Dashou had even fled to Juehua Island with a host of tens of thousands, panicked and ready to flee west to the Mongols to preserve his family's holdings."

"It was us! It was the Supreme Commander who led us in years of painstaking effort, and only then did we have the forty-seven fortresses, the three hundred thousand people of Liaodong, the one hundred thirty thousand troops we see today!"

"Only then did we have the six hundred warships, the five hundred war chariots, the sixty thousand horses, camels, and oxen, and the more than fifty thousand government offices and civilian dwellings!" "To say nothing of the over one million pieces of armor, equipment, gunpowder, and bows and arrows!"

"Among them, the military farmland successfully cultivated by the troops amounts to over five thousand qing; the silver income from government farms exceeds one hundred fifty thousand taels; the silver income from the salt trade exceeds thirty-four thousand taels; and the silver saved each year by summer and autumn grass-cutting beyond the passes amounts to over one hundred eighty thousand taels!"

He poured out every achievement in a rushing stream, his tone filled entirely with unwillingness to accept it.

"The victory at Ningyuan, the victory at Ningjin — which of them, which single one, was not won by the troops we trained and the walls we built?" "Why is it that now, the court can still come demanding to know why, in seven years, not a single marquis of pacification has emerged?!"

"How utterly unjust this is!"

A deathly silence fell over the hall.

Only the occasional crackle of sparks bursting from the charcoal brazier broke the stillness.

Sun Chengzong fixed his gaze on Cai Ding, whose face was flushed crimson and chest heaving.

He blinked, then suddenly threw back his head and burst into hearty laughter.

"If Keyi had not spoken, I would never have known how deeply you have been stifling your grievances."

Cai Ding stiffened his neck, utterly unyielding. "These are hardly Keyi's grievances — this is the injustice I have suffered on behalf of the Supreme Commander!"

Sun Chengzong smiled and shook his head, rising to his feet.

He walked over to Cai Ding and patted this fiercely loyal advisor on the shoulder.

"Certain official correspondence between His Majesty and myself is classified at the highest level. You have not seen it, so this misunderstanding of yours is understandable."

"It would be improper for me to make an exception and show it to you in detail, but…"

Sun Chengzong pondered for a moment, clasped his hands behind his back, and paced slowly to the side of his writing desk.

"I can, however, give a proper answer to that question raised by the Duke of Xingguo."

Cai Ding raised an eyebrow, his eyes still brimming with deep indignation. He cupped his hands and said, "Keyi is all ears."

Sun Chengzong turned around, his expression turning solemn.

"First of all, that question was not directed at me."

"Different circumstances, different situations — how can they be treated as equivalent?"

"The Japanese pirates that the Marquis of Pingbo fought back then were weak in combat power and far from the capital. They were an ailment of the armpit, not a mortal affliction of the heart."

"Even if they could do no more than plunder the coast, even if they had truly taken Nanjing — what of it?"

"Unable to hold territory, unable to establish governance — raiders are nothing more than raiders!"

"But the situation in Liaodong is entirely different."

Sun Chengzong extended a hand and pointed at the map hanging on the wall.

"If Ningyuan and Jinzhou cannot be held, then Shanhai Pass cannot be held; if Shanhai Pass cannot be held, then the imperial capital is in peril!"

"With a massive army pressing on our borders and survival hanging by a thread, who has the time to carry out some thoroughgoing reform?"

"You play the cards you have in hand and get through the crisis first — then we can talk."

"His Majesty is endowed by Heaven with sagely brilliance. He naturally understands the reasoning in this."

"And he has never once denied the achievements we have made in Liaodong."

Cai Ding furrowed his brow and pressed further. "Then why would the Duke of Xingguo pose such a question?" Sun Chengzong paced a couple of steps and let out a long sigh.

"The problem is precisely this: at the start, the situation was indeed as I have described — but what about later?"

"Ningyuan and Jinzhou are now secure. Why, then, have we still not managed to forge a single army of spotless integrity?"

Sun Chengzong halted his steps, looked at Cai Ding, and enunciated each word deliberately. "It is not that we did not wish to — it is that we could not."

"Back when the court impeached Ma Shilong for corruption, we in the command tent schemed in every direction, dispatched men to rush about far and wide, and spared no effort to keep him out of trouble."

"Now, with only the two of us in this council hall, I ask you once more."

"Ma Shilong — was he truly innocent and free of wrongdoing?"

Cai Ding's whole body jolted. He opened his mouth, but no words came.

How could he possibly have been innocent?

The account books of Liaodong — Cai Ding knew them better than anyone.

Ma Shilong might be riding high now, his future bright as brocade.

But the silver he had slipped into his own pockets in the past — was it really any less than what the others had taken?

Sun Chengzong gave him no chance to catch his breath and pressed on with his questioning.

"In the early spring of the third year of Tianqi, after half a year of reorganizing the army, I was finally ready to march beyond the pass, garrison Ningyuan, and begin the work of managing Liaodong."

"At that time, Ma Shilong recommended the two generals Sun Jian and Li Chengxian. I rejected both, and instead chose Man Gui, who was then utterly obscure, serving under the central army staff. Why was that?"

Cai Ding was silent for a moment, then replied in a rasping voice:

"Those two generals may have been capable in battle, but both were deeply corrupt. The former recruited cunning soldiers who falsely registered for camp rations, skimming off their settlement fees — five taels here, six taels there."

"The latter was ordered to construct fortifications but fraudulently inflated the labor costs. For a hundred-zhang wall section, the work required twenty thousand taels, yet he claimed thirty thousand. Each enemy tower cost twelve hundred taels to build, yet he fraudulently claimed two thousand."

Sun Chengzong nodded, then shook his head and continued his questioning.

"And what of Man Gui, who was upright and valiant back then? Now, at this day — is he still upright? Does he not take bribes?"

Cai Ding shook his head — not in denial, but because he had no words left.

A mere three to five years, and the once-upright and valiant Man Gui had now become the very image of Liaodong.

Sun Chengzong turned his head and gazed out at the gray, overcast sky beyond the hall, his voice low.

"To hold office and get things done in times past was to attach oneself to a banner."

"Looking upward, at court there was the Donglin faction, and there was the eunuch faction."

"At my level, I commanded all of Jiliao, and was faintly regarded as the voice and spirit of the Donglin."

"When those at court impeached Ma Shilong for his crimes — could I truly have punished him?"

Sun Chengzong slammed his hand onto the desk with a dull thud.

"At that time, I had set up the altar and appointed him general, entrusting the entire Jiliao army to his hands. If Ma Shilong had been found guilty, then Jiliao itself would have been found guilty!"

"If Jiliao was found guilty, then the Donglin would be found guilty!"

"With every link interlocked, facing such a tangled and deep-rooted situation — how could I possibly not have saved him?!"

Sun Chengzong looked at Cai Ding, his tone utterly cold.

"And once I had saved a corrupt general, how could this army ever produce another spotless Marquis of Pingbo?!"

"Though Jiliao is said to have been revived and reorganized, in all its murky, filth-harboring dealings — do I, Sun Chengzong… do any of us in the Donglin truly bear not the slightest shred of responsibility?"

Cai Ding's hands trembled slightly.

He was silent for a long while, yet still gritted his teeth and stubbornly spoke up in protest:

"At that time the court was locked in strife, a fight to the death — how can this be laid at your door alone, my lord! A man in the jianghu cannot always act as he would wish, that is all! And besides, of all that silver and coin for Liaodong, did a single sliver ever find its way into your private purse? This..."

Sun Chengzong cut him off with a wave of his hand.

"Does that matter?"

"A man may be pure himself, yet he cannot purify the realm. This so-called purity, when all is said and done, is it not merely self-consolation? Self-righteous posturing?" Cai Ding was speechless for a moment.

It was not for lack of an angle from which to argue.

It was that the Supreme Commander who held sway over Liaodong was, in the most concrete terms, taking the deep-rooted rot of the system, the sins of an age, upon his own shoulders. As a subordinate, facing a superior who laid himself bare with such candor, what more could he possibly say?

Sun Chengzong looked at Cai Ding's dejected expression, and his tone softened.

"Have you ever bought crabs at the market?" Cai Ding raised his head, utterly bewildered, wondering why the conversation had suddenly veered to this utterly unrelated trifle.

Sun Chengzong gave a short laugh.

"Next year when the crabs are fat at Mid-Autumn, go take a look at the market."

"The vendors set out their crab baskets and never need to put on a lid, yet of all the crabs in the basket, not a single one ever escapes."

"It is simply because if one crab tries to clamber out of the basket, all the other crabs will surely swarm up after it and drag it back down with a death grip."

He turned around and gazed at the great map of Liaodong.

"In the court of old, affairs followed the man, and so factional strife pursued the man through his affairs, each side wishing only for the other's death — was it not just the same as that crab basket? When the struggle reached its end, among all the civil and military officials of the court, who could bear to see a Wave-Quelling Marquis suddenly emerge from the other side?"

"Even if the Wave-Quelling Marquis were truly reborn into this land of Liaodong, either he would be pressed down so hard he could never raise his head, or he too would be dragged down into the water by the rest of the crabs."

Having laid bare so much in one breath, Sun Chengzong seemed somewhat tired.

When he had first been recalled to office, a pent-up energy had filled his chest; his spirit had been roused, and he had never felt weariness in his work.

But as the New Policies gradually began to show results in the capital and the provinces, that pent-up energy had ebbed away, and he instead felt his vigor was far from what it had been. "You may withdraw."

Sun Chengzong waved his hand.

"When the strategic advisors selected by the Ministry of Personnel arrive, take them in hand for a while first, and acquaint them with the affairs of the Supreme Commander's headquarters."

"After that, take my letter of recommendation and go study at the Imperial Academy."

He smiled slightly and looked with sincerity at this advisor who had followed him for many years.

"Keyi, with your talents..."

"It would be a great pity if you were to truly miss this era."

Cai Ding's expression was complex. He made a deep bow and withdrew, utterly crestfallen.

Sun Chengzong watched his retreating figure disappear, could not help shaking his head, and gave a soft laugh.

The confidential document he had mentioned just now was in fact the "Preliminary Investigative Report on the Issues of County Magistrates' Customary Fees, Advisors, and Court Silver," spearheaded by the Ministry of Personnel.

On the matter of "advisors," or "private secretaries," within it, His Majesty had specially exchanged letters with him, discussing it back and forth.

What the two of them had begun by discussing was merely the matter of advisors, merely the matter of these "private officials."

But as they talked on, they came to discuss the ecology of officialdom and the ills of the dynasty.

From the absence of officials at their posts, they moved to the corruption of local governance.

From the roots of factional strife, they moved to the currying of favor and patronage.

The deeper the discussion went, the greater Sun Chengzong's confidence grew in these New Policies personally launched by the Emperor.

The more thoroughly they talked, the more he felt...

That perhaps, this was no longer an era that needed him to turn back the tide with his own strength...

This was the true reason he had resolved to disband his private staff and pave the way for the futures of the many advisors under his command.

On the one hand, the New Policies were indeed a fine path forward, and the earlier one joined, the brighter one's prospects.

Men like Mao Yuanyi and Lu Shanji had all already found their own places within the rolling tide of the New Policies.

And on the other hand, he also intended to use this Ji-Liao Supreme Commander's headquarters as a testing ground, to try out what His Majesty called the "professionalization of administrative officers," to test whether this so-called long-term strategic execution of "fitting men to affairs" could truly take root within the New Policies.

From this intention, he had actually long since made his plans for his own departure.

Once the first year of Yongchang came to an end, if that war was truly won, he genuinely intended to retire to his hometown and request the return of his old bones.

Sun Chengzong's gaze fell upon a card lying in a corner. He looked at it quietly for a long time.

After all...

He was, this year, already sixty-five.

Who could say how many years yet remained in the life ahead?

After a moment, Sun Chengzong spoke.

"Someone come."

"Deliver this card to the Duke of Xingguo."

A servant entered at the sound of his voice and received it with both hands.

He glanced down at it, and his heart gave a violent lurch.

It was a card of plain paper with black characters.

On this, the first day of the new year, it seemed exceptionally inauspicious.

Upon it were written, starkly:

Obituary of the late Minister of Personnel Zhao of the Ming. His unfilial son Qingheng weeps blood and bows one hundred times.