Chapter 447: Second-Rank General of the Valiant Cavalry, Grand Minister of Military Affairs

Kong Ying: "……"

"Your Majesty! It must be some petty servants of my household flying my banner and causing trouble outside; I am unaware of it."

"Even if I were utterly ignorant, I would not dare to knowingly break the law and cause the deaths of several people……"

Kong Ying panicked and subconsciously began to blame the household slaves.

"Enough!"

Jing Sheng Di gave a stern shout, his cold, solemn voice echoing through the hall, making the officials lower their heads while completely blocking Kong Ying's protests.

Cold sweat streamed from Kong Ying's forehead, his limbs turned icy, and he looked in terror at the emperor behind the throne, whose face was grim.

Only a cold, deep voice came from behind the imperial desk:

"Seize them! Kong Ying and the others are corrupt, perverting the law for profit, bewildering the mind, harming the state and the people; the law will not tolerate this. Immediately strip them of their official robes, remove all their titles, strip their descendants of all privileges, confiscate their property, and hand them over to the Imperial City Office for strict interrogation!"

Only now did the pent-up anger and gloom that Jing Sheng Di had suppressed all morning finally find a real target to vent upon!

As Jing Sheng Di's words fell, the hall fell silent for a moment.

Dozens of Imperial City Office officers, under Xia Shouzhong's orders, hurried into the hall, each pair lifting an official's arms and dragging the group up from the ground.

Kong Ying's mouth kept moving, but no sound came out; only broken sobs leaked from his throat, as if something were blocking it.

His boots dragged two wet trails across the gold bricks; as he passed Zhang Tingyu's side, Zhang Tingyu lowered his eyes and did not look at him.

The footsteps faded, the hall doors shut behind Kong Ying with a dull thud, like an iron door falling and cutting off the last plea for mercy.

Morning light leaked down from the hall's bright tiles, beam by beam, falling on the gold bricks, on the lowered official caps, and on the scrolls on the imperial desk.

The light slowly moved across the hall, from the west wall to the east wall, stretching the officials' silhouettes into thin, long shadows on the ground, like rows of silent fences.

From outside the hall came the faint sound of palace servants sweeping the ground, one stroke after another, slow and steady, as if another world were turning.

The sky had already brightened.

Yet the atmosphere in the hall still seemed to press upon that deep, undispelled chill from last night.

At this point, no one dared to speak out of turn; even though many wanted to ask what the little book on the imperial desk was, none dared to risk offending the emperor at this moment.

After a while, Jing Sheng Di, with a grim face, slowly descended from the throne.

His boots struck the gold bricks, each step ringing like a bell marking the hour; the officials' breaths rose and fell with the sound, and no one lifted their heads.

Jing Sheng Di walked to the edge of the Crimson Steps, stopped, and swept his gaze over the lowered heads one by one.

He did not speak immediately, remained silent for a moment, drew a deep breath, and then his cold voice rang out, each word weighing a thousand jun, as if squeezed from a crack in stone.

"These days, first the Jiangnan gentry resisted the New Policies and murdered the imperial envoy; then officials besieged the palace, factions disrupted governance; yesterday they assassinated a senior minister, plotting to throw the capital into chaos. All this, one after another."

"In just one month, three or four hundred officials in the capital have been jailed, including a current Grand Scholar, a duke's mansion, and those upright officials just imprisoned. Moreover, I do not conceal it: one of my two consorts in the harem has been cast into the cold palace for meddling in politics."

"Perhaps it is because I have always relied on virtue rather than force that these people have grown ever more reckless, daring and lawless, deceiving the sovereign and betraying the state; if I do not now punish them severely, the atmosphere of the Han Empire's officialdom will only deteriorate beyond repair, and the ruin of the nation and the extinction of our line loom before us."

Jing Sheng Di paused, and his voice suddenly sank:

"Think about these people! Who among them did not earn this official robe through white-haired devotion to the classics, pouring heart and blood? Who was not once a spirited, ambitious seed of literature, and who has not step by step personally sent himself into the abyss……"

"……Now they have all rotted, and my heart feels as if it will break. The ancestors entrusted the realm to my hands, yet I have made it like this…… I am anguished and resentful!"

Having said this, Jing Sheng Di's eyes sharpened like a blade slicing across the hall:

"And you! Although you now stand upright and proper on the shore, are you truly that clean?"

"I know that some of you are even more corrupt and hateful than they!"

"I advise you: turn out your hearts and entrails, air them, wash them, tidy them up, and ask yourselves whether you can hold this office with a clear conscience!"

Again came a long silence.

Jing Sheng Di walked slowly through the midst of the officials, his face showing a touch of emotion, his voice like a cold wind flowing along the ground:

"At first…… when I just ascended the throne, I thought the court's greatest enemy was the False Qing. After defeating the False Qing, I thought the greatest enemy was the Northern Yuan. After pacifying the Northern Yuan, I thought the bandits of Chuan Shan would become a hidden threat……"

"But now I am becoming ever clearer…… the Han Empire's hidden danger is not outside; it lies in the court, in this very hall, and among my ministers!"

He stopped, turned around, faced the sea of black heads, and his voice rose sharply:

"If we rot even a little, the Han Empire will rot all over. If you all rot, the Han Empire will rise in revolt everywhere, leaving us nowhere to bury our dead!"

"Think about it! How many years have passed since the events of the previous dynasty's end? Have you forgotten? The souls of those who died unjustly, the fallen rulers and ministers, still watch you every day from heaven!"

He walked back onto the Crimson Steps, his gaze like a dragon looking down upon the earth, glaring fiercely:

"I didn't sleep a wink last night…… I kept thinking about what to say to you all. But words need a beginning…… after thinking it over, there are only four characters."

As Jing Sheng Di's words fell, four eunuchs behind the imperial desk slowly raised a plaque.

On the plaque were four large regular-script characters: "Justice and Stern Clarity."

The strokes were steady and strong, the brushwork like chiseled by axe and adze, casting a dark golden gleam in the hall's candlelight.

The officials lifted their heads; some looked up, some dared not look, and for a moment no one spoke.

Jing Sheng Di stood beneath the plaque, like a statue, he sighed, his voice low and solemn:

"These four characters are easy to say, but hard to put into practice!"

"'Justice' means not yielding out of fear, nor favoring personal ties. 'Righteousness' means knowing the right path, standing upright, never swaying no matter how hard. 'Severity' means leaving no leeway for oneself, giving others no excuse. 'Clarity' means seeing right from wrong clearly, perceiving people's hearts, and seeing oneself!"

"These four characters, I dug them out from my heart, I excavated them from a sea of blood!"

"When I wrote these four characters, my hand did not tremble. I hope that when you read them, your hearts will not be hollow. For I have hung them here not to frighten people, but to awaken them."

"Remember, from today on, this hall shall be renamed the Bright Governance Hall."

"'Bright' means brightness and clear-sightedness; 'Governance' means order and law. To rectify officialdom is the foremost task of bright governance. Taking this as the hall's name shows my resolve to make the court's administration clear and bright for the rest of my life!"

"All of you, lift your heads and look well…… also reflect on how much of your original aspiration for office remains!"

A wind sounded outside the hall, stirring the cracks in the doors, as if someone far away were responding to those four characters.

Those four characters, carved into the plaque and also into each person's brow,

Justice and Stern Clarity.

Yet one does not know what the officials kneeling in the hall will carry in their hearts each day and night when they look up at the plaque—whether it is heavenly light or dark shadow.

Jing Sheng Di faced the officials, slowly walking toward the hall's exterior, his voice tinged with fatigue, as he walked he gestured and ordered Xia Shouzhong:

"Grand Companion! Proclaim the two edicts I drafted last night!"

Xia Shouzhong responded with an assent, picked up an edict from the imperial desk, his voice followed immediately, sharp and clear:

"Officials, hear the edict!"

"Long live the emperor, ten thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand ten thousand years!" The officials' faces varied, they knelt down in a rustling clamor.

By the Mandate of Heaven, the Emperor decrees: Grand Secretary of the Wenhua Hall Zhang Tingyu, magnanimous and sincere, capable in governance and economy, having served in various ministries and devoted himself for years; since assuming the position of Assistant Grand Secretary, he has devoted himself wholeheartedly, in state affairs he has shunned nothing, in the face of treachery he has feared nothing.

Regarding the recent faction case, Zhang Tingyu upheld public interest, investigated officialdom, avoided no resentment, pursued no private gain; he is truly the emperor's arm and a minister of the state. Now I specially confer upon him the title of Grand Protector of the Crown Prince to show my esteem.

Effective immediately, I order Zhang Tingyu to oversee the Grand Plan of Capital Inspection; all civil officials in the capital, from the Grand Secretariat, the Six Ministries, the Censorate downwards, up to those of third rank and above, shall undergo performance evaluation. The capable shall be retained, the incompetent removed, the corrupt dismissed, the lazy expelled.

The affair of capital inspection concerns the purity of officialdom and the safety of the state; Zhang Tingyu must uphold impartiality and integrity, not avoid the powerful, to fulfill my trust, such is the imperial command.

Xia Shouzhong set aside the first edict, took up the second, unfolded it, and his voice became more solemn than before:

By the Mandate of Heaven, the Emperor decrees: Grand Pillar of the State, Marquis of Jing, Military Governor of the Twelve Division Camps, Minister of War, General Who Conquers the Army Jia Jing, since he joined the army to defend the nation, he has long dealt with frontier matters and repeatedly achieved remarkable merits; he organizes and trains troops, purges military discipline, possesses both courage and strategy, and devotes himself to the state, truly the emperor's bulwark and the state's Great Wall.

Now the frontiers are initially pacified, but the military system is not yet orderly; the Ministry of War and the Five Military Governor's Office have overlapping authority and inconsistent orders, leading to lax military preparedness, lazy officers, and private hoarding of weapons. After repeated consideration, I believe only by unifying military administration can we revive military might.

I hereby confer upon Jia Jing the rank of Senior Second Rank General of the Cavalry; effective immediately, I establish the Office of the Superintendent of Military Affairs, appointing Jia Jing as its Minister Superintendent. From now on, all the empire's troops, military registers, orders, armaments, provisions, selection of military officers, garrison farms, frontier defense duties, and the like shall fall under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Superintendent of Military Affairs.

The Ministry of War's original authority over military affairs is wholly transferred to this office; the Five Military Governor's Office's original authority over troop command is also placed under its jurisdiction. All military affairs, from organizing and training troops to military law and discipline, rewards and punishments, shall be decided and executed by the Minister Superintendent of Military Affairs, who will report to Me.

All essential military affairs, all military officials shall obey its dispatch; within its jurisdiction, neither the Ministry of War nor the Five Military Governor's Office may impede.

This is the beginning of military reform and also a key task of strengthening military preparedness. Jia Jing shall prioritize state affairs, organize troops and enforce discipline, taking the Northern Zhili region where the capital resides as the core, reopening garrison farms, eliminating redundancies, motivating soldiers, so that the Da Han Empire's army may regain its vigor. Such is the imperial command.