Chapter 66: Wang Cheng'en Wants to Eat Meat

In barely an hour, after handling two such thorny routine memorials in a row, Zhu Youjian felt a faint sheen of sweat on his forehead.

He simply rose to his feet and began pacing back and forth across the spacious main hall.

An indescribable frustration pressed against his chest.

This emperor — called the Son of Heaven, sovereign of all within the four seas —

in truth dwelled deep within the Forbidden City, where everything his eyes saw and his ears heard was only what others wished him to see and hear.

Just now, for instance — was the report of Ligdan Khan's death true or false? Were Mao Wenlong's Five Grievances fact or exaggeration?

He had no way of knowing at all.

The feeling was like being a blindfolded giant — possessing immense strength, yet with no idea where to direct it.

This cannot stand. It must change!

His personal security already had a rudimentary foundation, and the civil officials at court were gradually being set in motion under his command.

But his reforms of the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard were still far too lenient and far too slow.

Did they think that paying atonement silver meant they didn't have to work?

That was blood money to buy their lives — not money to buy their performance ratings!

His footsteps halted. He turned and looked at Gao Shiming.

"Companion Gao, yesterday you told us that the Embroidered Uniform Guard's practice of inflated rosters and indiscriminate appointments grows worse by the day, and that compared to the time of the Shenmiao Emperor, there are now over twenty thousand extra men?"

Gao Shiming's heart tightened. He knew the Emperor was about to get serious, and hurriedly bowed. "Your Majesty, it is indeed so. During the Tianqi years, the authority of the Depots and Guards largely rested in the hands of Madam Ke and Wei Zhongxian. They handed out offices recklessly and took in personal cronies at will, so that the ranks became bloated and chaotic, a mix of dragons and fish."

"To answer Your Majesty, that is indeed the case. During the Tianqi era, the authority of the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard was largely held by Madam Ke and Wei Zhongxian. They handed out offices recklessly and took in cronies for their private networks, so the rosters became bloated and filled with a motley mix of dragons and fish."

He could have played at some imperial mind games — spoken a few ambiguous words and let those below guess and speculate.

But in the end, he abandoned the idea.

That was not what he excelled at, nor what he wished to do.

"Convey our decree."

Zhu Youjian's voice became exceptionally clear and resolute.

"First: order Tian Ergeng, Guard Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, to compile a list of all Embroidered Uniform Guard personnel who received inflated or indiscriminate appointments since the start of the Tianqi era, and submit it to Wang Tiqian, Director of the Eastern Depot, for review by the Eastern Depot."

"Set a time limit for this matter — the list is to be produced within five days. The dismissals are to be completed within the next month!"

"Second: have the two of them each prepare a plan for intelligence operations monitoring the Nine Frontiers, the Mongols, and the Jurchen. Once drafted, they are to enter the palace and report."

He thought it over and felt it was still not competitive enough, so he added:

"Third: this call for intelligence plans is not limited to the two of them alone."

"Pass the word down — among all Embroidered Uniform Guard and Eastern Depot personnel in the capital, anyone holding a substantive post of Centurion or above may submit a written proposal."

"Collect their answers as well. We shall review them personally!"

Gao Shiming dared not show the slightest negligence. He engraved these three decrees firmly in his memory and replied in a deep voice, "This slave obeys the decree!"

Having dealt with these two utterly unexpected major matters, Zhu Youjian finally allowed himself a breath of relief.

He sat back down behind the desk and turned his gaze to the last two stacks of examination papers upon it.

Over two hundred answer sheets from the students of the Inner Palace School — he no longer had the inclination to read through them one by one, so he simply looked at the compiled summary of results.

The scores of most of the young eunuchs were passable enough; their accuracy on the various question types was fairly decent.

Only in the subject of mathematics did they truly perform poorly — many were graded as inferior.

His eyes moved slowly down the list of names. Suddenly, his brow lifted slightly.

His gaze moved slowly down the list of names, and then, suddenly, his brow lifted slightly.

The name stirred a faint ripple in his heart.

But it was no more than a flicker of anticipation.

There was no helping it. Over the past few days he had discovered that Wang was a major surname in the capital region and its directly administered prefectures to begin with.

And the two characters "Cheng'en" were, much like "Jianguo" or "Jianjun" in later ages, one of the "trendy names" unique to this era.

Not to look far — right in the Capital Camps there was a Vice Regional Commander named Wang Cheng'en, who during the Ning-Jin campaign in the fifth month had even led five thousand troops to reinforce Shanhai Pass.

Speaking of that expedition, it was an utter joke.

No sooner had the army marched out of Guangqu Gate than half the troops deserted. The remaining half scattered along the road to loot and plunder, raising utter chaos.

They dawdled for over half a month before finally straggling to Shanhai Pass — only to find that, over on the other side, the Ning-Jin campaign had already been won.

Then this "great army" nervously hunkered down outside the pass for half a day before finally receiving orders to withdraw.

This was one of the reasons why, just this morning, Zhu Youjian had preferred to shoulder the management-radius penalty rather than select officers from the Capital Camps.

— The Capital Camps were rotten to the very core.

Besides the Capital Camps, there was also a Wang Cheng'en in the Embroidered Uniform Guard. And within the palace itself, over the past few days he had met several eunuchs named Wang Cheng'en — only they were all far too old, and did not match.

But this Wang Cheng'en in the Inner Palace School — there was a fair chance.

After all, if that companion of the hanging, seventeen years from now, had only just graduated from the Inner Palace School at this point, it would seem plausible enough.

Zhu Youjian's interest was piqued.

He set down the summary and said to Gao Shiming, "Fetch Wang Cheng'en's examination paper. We wish to see it."

Gao Shiming acknowledged the order and very quickly located Wang Cheng'en's paper from among the two-hundred-odd sheets, then presented it with deference.

Zhu Youjian took the paper, prepared to spend a little extra time on it, if only for the sake of the name.

The paper in his hands carried a faint scent of ink. The handwriting, however, was crooked and ungainly — clearly the work of someone who had only recently begun practicing calligraphy.

First question: If you encounter a superior demanding bribes within the palace, what should you do?

Answer: Call on Grandpa Fang for help.

Zhu Youjian stared at it, utterly baffled.

Zhu Youjian was utterly baffled.

"Grandpa Fang? What's that? Is he some immortal the palace eunuchs worship, like Lord Guan or Lord Yue in the operas?"

He suppressed his puzzlement and looked at the second question.

The second question was arithmetic: one dou of rice costs ten wen. If you buy three and a half dou, how many wen must you pay?

Answer: three and a half ten-wen coins.

When Zhu Youjian saw this answer, he first stared blankly, then couldn't help laughing.

What a fine display of the commutative property of multiplication!

This little fellow might just be a budding math prodigy.

He flipped briefly through the other questions. Most were answered competently enough, so he didn't examine them closely and turned directly to the final essay question.

The topic was "Reflections on Entering the Palace."

The opening two lines were still rather bookish, carrying a hint of the scholar's manner.

"The sage Son of Heaven sits above, his grace spreading far and wide. This slave, the junior fire-lighter Wang Cheng'en, kowtows. This slave's family was poor; by the good fortune of imperial grace, I was able to enter the palace — such is the vastness of Heaven's favor."

But starting from the third line, the facade collapsed entirely — the prose was incoherent, rambling, utterly devoid of logic.

"Truth is, I don't remember much anymore. Just that there was never enough to eat at home."

"My elder brother needed a wife, and the family couldn't scrape together the betrothal money. My dad crouched on the doorstep and wiped away tears all night. Then, I entered the palace."

"Seemed like I stood in line a long time before my turn came. It hurt a lot when I entered the palace, hurt so bad I couldn't get out of bed for days. But Dad bought me a sugar figure. The taste — oh, it was so sweet."

"Speaking of that sugar figure, it was shaped like a tiger, with big eyes, a few whiskers on its face, and a long, long tail."

"I pulled the tail off first and ate it. Too bad the weather turned so hot later, it melted too fast. I had to gobble it all up in a hurry, didn't even get to taste it properly."

"Oh, right, I still want meat. At the start of the month, Grandpa Fang said the Court of Imperial Sacrifices had made offerings to some immortal or ancestor, and a bit of the leftover sacrificial goods were distributed to our school. The taste of that meat — it was so wonderfully savory."

"And last time, Grandpa Fang gave me..."

As Zhu Youjian read on, the smile at the corner of his mouth grew broader and broader, until at last he couldn't hold back a soft laugh.

He shook his head.

This youth had either just entered the school, or his natural aptitude was indeed rather dull.

Yet between the lines, there shone an unpolished genuineness and simplicity — something rare to find within these deep palace walls.

Could it be you, Wang Cheng'en?

Zhu Youjian hesitated for a moment, but decided against forcing the seedling to grow by pulling it up.

After all, sometimes overly aggressive promotion can very well destroy a person's potential.

Let us wait a while longer and see.

In any case, I come once a month. If you can keep this simplicity, then even if you are not that Wang Cheng'en, what of it?

He casually placed the exam paper back into the thick stack of documents and said to Gao Shiming, "Distribute the rewards according to the grades you have drawn up. As for all other matters concerning the Inner Palace School — as I said before, see to them as quickly as possible."

"This slave obeys the decree."

Gao Shiming acknowledged the order and stepped forward to receive the exam paper.

But as he took the paper and turned to return it to its place, the thumb of his right hand pressed lightly into the sheet, leaving an extremely faint indentation.

Zhu Youjian noticed nothing. He picked up another, smaller stack of exam papers beside him.

These were the answer sheets written by the attendants and brush-holders of the Directorate of Ceremonial.

He examined them carefully, one by one.

The more he read, the tighter his brow furrowed.

The calligraphy and prose of these men were naturally more than a single level above those of the junior fire-lighters in the Inner Palace School.

Yet reading through them all left him deeply disappointed.

He could not tell whether these eunuchs, long steeped in palace life, were simply too cautious, or whether they had truly been influenced by the civil officials of the outer court and molded into their very shape.

The vast majority of the exam papers strained after rhetorical brilliance, larding their prose with classical allusions, crafting perfectly parallel couplets — to the point of outright showing off.

But whenever they reached sections requiring concrete measures or methods, everything dissolved into empty platitudes and formulaic boilerplate.

"We should take His Majesty's heart as our own heart, and take the affairs of state as our constant concern." "Let those above and below be of one mind, strict in reward and punishment."

Having said it, they might as well have said nothing.

A wave of helplessness washed over Zhu Youjian.

Suppressing his disappointment with effort, he could only pick out three papers from that pile of flashy but hollow compositions — ones that were, relatively speaking, a little more substantive.

As it happened, of these three men, two were known to him.

He handed the three exam papers to Gao Shiming.

"Have these three come in now to see me."

Gao Shiming took the order and withdrew. Outside the main hall, he spread the three papers open under the sunlight.

There, in the signature line of each, three names were written with perfect clarity.

— Cao Huachun.

— Zheng Zhihui.

— Liu Ruoyu.