Chapter 1649: Monkeys, Come Watch the Chicken Get Killed!

Zhang Weixian, Luo Sigong, Huang Liji, Feng Quan, Shi Fenglai, Zhang Ruitu, Li Guo, Wang Tiqian, Li Yongzhen, Tu Wenfu, Liu Ruoyu, and a great crowd of civil officials, military officers, and palace attendants — whether they had balls or not, whether they had ordinarily been at odds with Wei Zhongxian or on good terms with him — all now scrambled over one another to rush to the Forbidden City to protect the sovereign and play the loyal subject!

These men were all prominent figures in Beijing, and their ears and eyes were keen indeed!

They of course already knew that the traitor Wei Zhongxian's coup plot had been smashed by the newly enthroned young Son of Heaven. They also knew that the three battalions of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses, the most formidable fighting force in Beijing, had firmly sided with the young Son of Heaven the previous night and followed him in putting down Wei Zhongxian's rebellion.

By this morning, the inner and outer Eastern Depots, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Wei Zhongxian's residence, and the entire imperial city had all been firmly brought under the control of the troops of the young Son of Heaven's three battalions of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses!

When everyone heard this news, they all felt as though heaven had been overturned and the earth turned upside down!

Those so-called eunuch-party members who had ordinarily attached themselves to Wei Zhongxian were of course terrified — Wei Zhongxian had rebelled! Oh, whether he rebelled or was framed for rebellion no longer mattered now!

What mattered was how their own offenses would be reckoned. Would they be branded as a rebel faction?

This was no joking matter!

Being branded a rebel faction meant rebellion! Rebellion meant beheading!

Yet they dared not fail to come protect the sovereign. Coming to protect the sovereign, even if they arrived late, at least allowed them to draw a slight line between themselves and Wei Zhongxian. If they did not come — or if they fled far away — then the charge of being a rebel faction would be settled! Then no matter how vast heaven and earth, there would be no place for them to take shelter.

And those who had ordinarily been on bad terms with Wei Zhongxian, such as Zhang Weixian, Luo Sigong, and Li Guo — these "upright gentlemen" — were both delighted and shocked, and at the same time a little regretful. Their delight was that upon waking, the eunuch faction that had bullied them for so many years had already fallen, and the time for these upright gentlemen to hold their heads high was about to arrive!

Their shock was that the young Son of Heaven actually possessed such thunderous means, able to overturn clouds into rain with a flip of his hand! Before the enthronement ceremony he had still put on the posture of intending to rely heavily on Wei Zhongxian. Who would have thought that very night he would turn hostile, and by some unknown means pull the three battalions of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses — long controlled by eunuchs — over to his own side, then launch a sudden strike and catch Wei Zhongxian completely off guard. As for the story that Wei Zhongxian had rebelled and been killed in return, they did not believe it.

They were upright gentlemen, not three-year-old children — they were not that naive!

What sort of creature Wei Zhongxian was, how could they not know?

Rebel? Was he even worthy of the word?

And what made these upright gentlemen regretful was that so great a matter as toppling Wei Zhongxian had actually had nothing to do with them!

They should have been the protagonists in the great drama of struggling against the eunuch-party villain Wei Zhongxian, yet in the end they had not even mounted the stage, and had become mere spectators.

And who were the ones who toppled Wei Zhongxian? The young Son of Heaven, the palace attendants by the Son of Heaven's side, a few eunuch officers commanding troops in the Directorate of the Imperial Horses, and the warriors of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses.

These people, apart from the Son of Heaven, could all be classified as belonging to the eunuch party!

In other words, this struggle to topple Wei Zhongxian had been the young Son of Heaven leading a group of good eunuch-party members to struggle against Wei Zhongxian, the bad eunuch-party member — the affair had become an internal family matter of the eunuch party!

The upright gentlemen had stood by with folded arms. Now they could hold their heads high for a moment, but if they wanted to occupy a favorable position in the power game to come, that was sheer delusion.

Wei Zhongxian had not been toppled by them, so on what grounds should they share in the spoils?

And besides, when Wei Zhongxian was being framed for rebellion, where were you? Why did you not come to protect the sovereign? Were you all at home hugging your concubines and sleeping? Are you still upright gentlemen after that? What use does the Great Ming have in keeping you?

At the thought of all this, the good mood of the upright gentlemen was half gone.

The two groups of Great Ming inner officials and outer officials, each with their own calculations, consciously divided into two columns — the upright gentlemen a small column, the eunuch-party sycophants a great crowd — and with a clatter they proceeded toward the Palace of Xian'an under the guidance of several warriors of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses. Along the way, a few eunuch-party members wanted to abandon darkness for light and squeeze into the upright gentlemen's column, but they were all shouted away by the two military nobles Zhang Weixian and Luo Sigong.

In a short while, the two groups arrived at the Palace of Xian'an. The moment they entered the main gate, they saw a scene that astonished them to the extreme.

They saw a person dressed in white clothes, bound tightly with ropes and kneeling in the middle of the courtyard. Two warriors in iron armor flanked him left and right, pressing down on his shoulders, while a burly man likewise clad in iron armor gripped the man's loosened queue and stretched his neck to its full length. A man wearing golden full-length armor stood to the side of that person, facing the main gate of the Palace of Xian'an, both hands gripping a long sword, raised high!

Was this an execution?

Who was about to take the blade?

Just as everyone was wondering, Wei Zhongxian's voice rang out, choked with tears: "His Majesty, spare me, spare me!"

The one to be killed was Wei Zhongxian?

Everyone was startled! So great a "Nine Thousand Nine Hundred Years," killed just like that? No trial, no public execution according to law?

Suddenly someone cried out in alarm: "That is His Majesty! The one in golden armor is His Majesty!"

What?

His Majesty?

Everyone hurriedly looked closely — indeed! Was not that sword-wielding man about to kill someone none other than the young Son of Heaven who had only ascended the throne yesterday?

Killing at such a young age — what would he be like when he grew up?

At that moment, Zhu Youjian suddenly roared: "Traitor, meet your death!"

As he shouted, the treasured sword swept down and in one stroke severed Wei Zhongxian's stretched-out neck. Blood gushed like a fountain from the severed neck, splashing onto Zhu Youjian's golden armor, making this young Son of Heaven who had just killed a man look all the more murderous.

Wei Zhongxian's head was then raised high by the armored soldier gripping his hair, and a face that had died with eyes open, still twitching, faced the assembled officials who had just surged into the Palace of Xian'an, looking especially aggrieved.

At the sight of this, the Great Ming subjects who had "arrived too late to protect the sovereign" all turned deathly pale — did they not understand what the little Emperor meant?

He was killing a chicken to show the monkeys!

Wei Zhongxian was the "chicken," and all of them were the "monkeys"!

After killing Wei Zhongxian, Zhu Youjian still appeared extremely calm. He reached out to take a cloth, wiped the blood from the treasured sword and his armor, and only then sheathed the sword.

At the sound of the sword entering its scabbard, the officials present seemed to wake from a dream and one after another knelt and kowtowed to their "killing Son of Heaven."

"We subjects arrived too late to protect the sovereign; we beg His Majesty's forgiveness."

Zhu Youjian looked coldly at this group of officials who had "arrived too late to protect the sovereign," then suddenly smiled: "Arriving late is still better than not coming at all. All of you, rise!"

By now two armored soldiers had brought over a chair for Zhu Youjian. He sat down with an imposing, sprawling posture, then cast a meaningful glance at the eunuch beside him, who had by now changed his name to Li Chengyun.

Li Chengyun quickly waved toward the direction of the Hall of Xian'an, and several young eunuchs who ordinarily followed Li Chengyun led out eight pregnant women with large bellies from the hall.

These eight pregnant women had all been frightened, their faces paler than the last, and when they reached Zhu Youjian they knelt in a row on the ground.

Zhu Youjian pointed at them: "These are pregnant women whom Wei Zhongxian and Madam Ke abducted from among the common people and secretly kept in the Palace of Xian'an. He intended to use a son born to one of them to pass off as imperial blood, in order to usurp the realm of our Great Ming!"

The young Son of Heaven looked darkly at the assembled officials and asked coldly: "Is there anyone among you who knew of this matter?"

There were indeed those who knew!

The seal-holding eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, Wang Tiqian, the brush-holding eunuchs Li Yongzhong and Liu Ruoyu, and the seal-holding eunuch of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses, Tu Wenfu — all of them knew!

These men had many ears and eyes in the palace, and Wei Zhongxian and Madam Ke were not people who plotted meticulously — how could it have been kept from them?

Within the Palace of Xian'an, the air, tinged with the smell of blood, grew tenser and more oppressive, almost crushing the breath out of those eunuch officials.

Just then, Zhu Youjian suddenly spoke again: "Those who knew — write a memorial of self-accusation afterward and hand it to Xu Yingyuan. We will question you individually. If you confess on your own, We may show leniency!

Otherwise, knowing of such a matter and failing to report it makes you accomplices!"

(End of Chapter)