Chapter 419

The officials were talking when the gate of the Zhang residence finally opened.

The creaking of the gate hinges was especially clear in the quiet alley, and everyone's gaze turned toward it at once.

Zhang Tingyu stepped out of the gate wearing a stone‑green everyday robe, no official gown, a black gauze cap on his head, and a jade belt recently bestowed by Emperor Jing Sheng tied around his waist.

He was followed by dozens of Imperial City Guard officers, each spirited, fully armored, swords at their waists, with solemn faces scanning the surroundings with sharp eyes.

Also present was an inconspicuous old servant in green cloth carrying a document box wrapped in blue cloth, keeping close pace.

Zhang Tingyu stood outside the threshold, sunlight spreading across his face and outlining his features clearly.

He was over fifty, his beard and hair more than half white compared to last month, his expression weary yet solemn.

Yet his back remained straight, like an old pine tree battered by wind for years, its trunk full of cracks but never fallen.

He glanced at the crowd of officials filling the alley, his face grave, his eyes like blades.

Although he had already known it a month earlier—that taking on the party‑purge investigation and the capital inspection would destroy the clean reputation he had built over decades in an instant!

After all, these two matters truly offended many; last month he had arrested or killed over two hundred old‑party officials, confiscated their homes, and the involved interests were obvious.

Not to mention the memorials impeaching him piled up in the cabinet like a small hill; even his former fellow villagers, classmates, schoolmates, and friends who once got along well now keep their distance from him!

Usually in front of his residence one would see senior ministers of the Six Ministries and the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers chatting and laughing, but now he was surrounded by a group of stern‑looking reformist officials.

Zhang Tingyu had been cautious all his life, never expecting that in his old age he would be cursed by officials and scholars as a "treacherous minister and cruel official," and now every time he goes out he must be accompanied by dozens of Imperial City Guard personally dispatched by Emperor Jing Sheng, just in case.

He understands all this, and has made mental preparations for it.

Since he chose loyalty to the emperor over the scholars of the world, he has had no retreat!

He is a scholar‑official; when the Retired Emperor was on the throne, he was merely a fourth‑rank official.

It was the present emperor who, over ten years, gradually promoted him to Vice Minister of the Six Ministries, Heavenly Official of the Ministry of Personnel, and junior assistant of the cabinet, allowing him to fulfill his political ambition.

Thunder and rain, dew and mist—all are the emperor's grace!

Now that he has chosen to aid Emperor Jing Sheng in reviving the Da Han Empire, he has no room left to waver!

He has already considered and weighed the matter thoroughly!

The Da Han Empire has reached this entrenched, dire state; without implementing the New Policies and rectifying officialdom, it is absolutely impossible!

Moreover, the court has at last obtained a far‑sighted sovereign like Emperor Jing Sheng and a victorious general like Jia Jing, giving the ailing Da Han dynasty a breath of life and buying time to deal with internal troubles.

Thus, it is fitting for us senior cabinet ministers to withstand the pressure and assist the holy sovereign in creating a brand‑new glorious age for the Da Han dynasty!

And he, standing at the forefront, either advances further—cutting off ties with his peers, receiving ancestral‑temple sacrifices, enabling the Da Han to survive another three hundred years, becoming a reviver praised for eternity in later histories—

or he is crushed to pieces, his family ruined, condemned by scholars and gentlemen as a "strange beast," pointed at by myriad fingers, infamous for ten thousand years, repeating the tragic fate of reformers like Shang Yang and Wang Anshi!

In this game where the rise and fall of the Da Han state and the lives of billions hang in the balance, he cannot hope to profit from both sides; he must throw himself in fully to have any chance of prevailing against heaven.

The only thing that gives him slight comfort is that his younger brother Zhang Tinglu still holds an official post; if he keeps him out of this, maintains distance, and places separate bets, even if he fails, the Zhang family may still retain some escape route.

As Zhang Tingyu's thoughts raced, a light cough came from the alley before the Zhang residence, and Kong Ying, bearing the hopes of the officials, stepped forward one pace,

ending up five steps before Zhang Tingyu, he clasped his hands and loudly said, "Senior Grand Secretary Zhang."

Zhang Tingyu gave him a gloomy look, roughly understood, nodded slightly, and said in a hoarse voice, "Lord Kong, ladies and gentlemen."

Kong Ying's gaze fell straight onto Zhang Tingyu's face, and he spoke loudly:

"Senior Grand Secretary, we are not here today to block your way; we merely wish to ask you a few questions."

Zhang Tingyu fell silent for a moment, handed the jade tablet in his hand to the old servant behind him, stood with his hands behind his back, and said with an indifferent expression, "Lord Kong, please speak."

Kong Ying said:

"Senior Grand Secretary, you presided over the capital inspection and handled the case of Xu Zhuo and others; within a month, more than two hundred court officials were seized by the Imperial City Guard and thrown into the Custody Prison; to this day many fates remain unknown, causing uproar throughout court and countryside, everyone feels insecure, and sleep and appetite are disturbed."

"Acting in the name of party factions, usurping authority, disrupting governance, persecuting the loyal, and fabricating countless false cases—could this be what a worthy minister ought to do?"

"Moreover, the ancestral statutes declare that speakers are blameless; why then do you cooperate with the Imperial City Guard's hounds to seize loyal remonstrators—is this not utter madness?"

"Senior Grand Secretary Zhang was once praised by all at court and in the countryside as a virtuous and upright official; what has become of you now? We do not understand!"

"What Lord Kong says is correct!"

"Lord Kong is truly a model for us!" the surrounding officials echoed the surrounding officials.

Zhang Tingyu said without expression:

"First, the Imperial City Guard does not arrest people at random; they detain those who secretly form factions for private gain, harbor deceit, and attack the New Policies."

"Second, the principle that speakers are blameless is the emperor's benevolent virtue, not an excuse for officials to threaten the sovereign! Xu Zhuo and the others have defied superiors, spread slanderous rumors that the New Policies harm the people, and vilified the emperor—these are grave crimes, outside the scope of 'speakers are blameless'!"