Chapter 1650: The Eunuch Faction Has Its Good and Bad Too!

"Your Majesty, this matter touches the imperial bloodline and must not be taken lightly. It should be entrusted to an upright minister who keeps no company with the eunuch faction to conduct a thorough investigation!"

Zhang Weixian immediately seized the chance to step out from the ranks and submit this memorial!

At this memorial, the whole crowd of eunuch-faction scoundrels turned deathly pale — if this were given to some "upright minister" to investigate thoroughly, they would no longer be a eunuch faction but a rebel faction, and every one of their old lives would be forfeit!

Zhu Youjian glanced at Zhang Weixian, then looked at Wei Zhongxian's fellow townsman, Chief Grand Secretary Huang Liji, and asked with a smile, "Chief Grand Secretary Huang, what do you think of Commander Zhang's proposal?"

When Huang Liji heard Zhu Youjian's question, beads of sweat were about to drip from his forehead!

He was not, in fact, a member of the eunuch faction. He had never joined the faction, nor had he ever been castrated, so how could he possibly be of the eunuch faction? And he had never particularly curried favor with Wei Zhongxian, nor of course had he ever submitted a memorial impeaching that Nine Thousand Nine Hundred Years — when Wei Zhongxian was in power, not many officials had the guts of a bear or a leopard to dare such a thing!

This Huang Liji was just a time-serving bureaucrat, with nothing outstanding about him. But because Wei Zhongxian was his fellow townsman, Wei had looked after him specially, promoting him all the way from Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites to Chief Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat.

So in the eyes of others, Huang Liji was a eunuch-faction man through and through!

If the upright ministers at court were to investigate, then Huang Liji would not be far from the Embroidered Uniform Guard's Imperial Prison.

"Your Majesty," Huang Liji hastily stepped out and memorialized, "The matter of the traitor Wei and Madam Ke abducting pregnant women into the palace touches the inner palace and should not be shared with outside ministers."

A dozen or more upright gazes instantly shot fiercely at Huang Liji — a eunuch-faction man discovered!

Zhu Youjian of course would not let outside ministers investigate the inner court. He had been burned once — would he be burned a second time? The eunuchs of the inner court also knew how to coast along; if the Donglin worthies investigated them, what if every one of them lay down and stopped working? Then the outer court would coast, the inner court would coast too, and sooner or later he, the Emperor, would again be forced at sword-point by that rebellious son!

"The Chief Grand Secretary speaks most wisely!" Zhu Youjian looked at Zhang Weixian. "Duke of Ying, your loyalty is known to Us! This time you took the lead in coming to protect the imperial person! Very good! You are a loyal minister! But — the inner court holds many secrets. How are outside ministers to investigate? And outside ministers cannot be allowed to come and go freely!"

"This..." Zhang Weixian was so rebuffed by Zhu Youjian's words that his old face flushed red — what imperial person had he protected? The present "imperial person" was so fierce, did he need protecting?

Zhu Youjian then looked at the seal-holding eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, Wang Tigan. "Companion Wang, how about having the Eastern Depot take charge of investigating this matter?"

The Eastern Depot?

Was that not Wei Zhongxian's territory? Wei Zhongxian himself was the eunuch superintendent of the Eastern Depot!

Before the outside ministers could grasp it, Wang Tigan already understood the young Son of Heaven's meaning, and immediately memorialized: "This slave recommends Xu Yingyuan as superintendent of the Eastern Depot."

The Eastern Depot could be reorganized, but it could not be abolished, and still less could outside ministers be allowed to reorganize it — that was the bottom line! Eunuchs were household slaves; only the Emperor, their master, could punish them! If this power were handed to outside ministers, then little would remain of the power in Zhu Youjian's hands.

"Companion Xu," Zhu Youjian at once summoned his trusted chief eunuch to his side, "you are now a depot intendant. Do you know how to be a depot intendant?"

As he spoke, Zhu Youjian glanced at the headless corpse on the ground.

"This slave knows!" Xu Yingyuan certainly knew — he must obey the Emperor! If the Emperor said east, east it was; if west, west it was!

Zhu Youjian smiled — this was the benefit of killing Wei Zhongxian with his own hands!

Wei Zhongxian could not be allowed to be done to death by that crowd of "upright gentlemen" in the outer court! Otherwise the Eastern Depot would come to fear the outer court, and then how could it serve as the Emperor's claws and fangs?

Zhu Youjian's present situation was different from that of the rebellious son who had fled to Nanjing. That rebellious son had once had a group of empty-handed northerners behind him, so he had no need of a people-crushing office like the Eastern Depot. But Zhu Youjian had no such group; he had to rely on the inner court — the three battalions of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses were also the inner court's armed force!

So Zhu Youjian still needed the eunuch faction — it was his own strength!

Only, what Zhu Youjian needed was a eunuch faction that obeyed him, not one that collaborated with Wei Zhongxian's eunuch faction. The true head of the eunuch faction was the Emperor; it must never be turned into Wei Zhongxian's faction.

And the two most powerful posts within the eunuch faction were the brush-holding eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial concurrently serving as superintendent of the Eastern Depot, and the seal-holding eunuch of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses.

The post of brush-holding eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial concurrently serving as superintendent of the Eastern Depot had originally belonged to Wei Zhongxian; it had now been taken and given to Xu Yingyuan.

What still remained was the post of seal-holding eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial.

Zhu Youjian looked at Tu Wenfu. "Liu Chao, Governor-General of Nanhaizi, is Wei Zhongxian's trusted man. He has twenty or thirty thousand Purified Troops under him. What is to be done?"

What is to be done? Tu Wenfu thought to himself: just dispatch five hundred cavalry from the Directorate of the Imperial Horses and it would be settled. Would the Purified Troops dare fight the Directorate of the Imperial Horses cavalry?

But Tu Wenfu did not dare say this, so he could only volunteer: "This old slave will make a trip to Nanhaizi and bring Liu Chao back to beg Your Majesty's forgiveness."

"Good," Zhu Youjian nodded and said with a smile, "Then you shall go and be Governor-General of Nanhaizi. First take the Purified Troops in hand; later We shall properly reorganize them."

Zhu Youjian did not actually want to reorganize the Purified Troops — he wanted to disband the Nanhaizi Purified Troops!

Because the Purified Troops had little fighting strength, yet occupied the precious land of Nanhaizi and held quite a lot of fine weapons and armor. Better to hand their armor and weapons over to Mao Wenlong, and divide the land of Nanhaizi among several hundred households of heavy cavalry of the border-army household-retainer class.

Of course, the eunuchs of the Nanhaizi Purified Troops were not necessarily useless; a batch of new men could still be selected from among them to replenish the twenty-four offices of the inner court, while a batch of old eunuchs lacking drive but not lacking nerve could be weeded out.

"This slave will surely manage the Nanhaizi Purified Troops well for Your Majesty." Tu Wenfu gave up the post of seal-holding eunuch of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses, yet felt a sense of relief.

Because his military authority over the Directorate of the Imperial Horses had already been taken away — being seal-holder was simply impossible to carry on!

And he also knew about the conspiracy of Wei Zhongxian and Madam Ke; he would still have to go and confess honestly later, and beg for leniency. If this old slave still had some use, perhaps he could have a dignified end.

Zhu Youjian nodded approvingly, then said to Shang Fuming: "Shang Fuming, We appoint you seal-holding eunuch. Manage the Directorate of the Imperial Horses well for Us!"

"This slave receives the decree!" Shang Fuming strode forward, kowtowed, and accepted the appointment.

With this, the Directorate of Ceremonial, the Eastern Depot, the Directorate of the Imperial Horses, and the three battalions of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses all formally fell into Zhu Youjian's hands.

And one must remember — it was only one day until his formal enthronement!

This was the difference between cutting people down and grinding people down — no matter how clever the means of grinding people down, it was never as effective as directly cutting them down!

"Your Majesty," at this moment Li Guo, the only Grand Secretary in the Grand Secretariat who had kept some distance from Wei Zhongxian, stepped forward, "During the traitor Wei's misrule, many upright, loyal, and righteous ministers were persecuted. Now that the traitor Wei has been executed, the court should immediately issue an edict to redress the unjust cases, so as to rouse the people's hearts and morale."

Zhu Youjian said with a smile: "Unjust cases should of course be redressed. But it must not be done carelessly; it must be thoroughly investigated. Not one good man should be wronged, but not one bad man should be let off either!

The urgent task at present is first to reorganize the Embroidered Uniform Guard in the various offices of the inner court. We might as well begin by replacing the Guard Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard!"

The Embroidered Uniform Guard was an office that gave Zhu Youjian a headache! It was not like the Eastern Depot, an inner-court institution that Zhu Youjian could do with as he pleased.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard had always been the territory of the military nobility! Even Wei Zhongxian could only control the Embroidered Uniform Guard through Tian Ergeng and Xu Xianchun, two hereditary military nobles.

This rule was not one Zhu Youjian could lightly break.

But most of the present military nobles lacked any drive — otherwise Wei Zhongxian could never have wielded such influence.

Zhu Youjian thought for a moment, then said to Luo Sigong: "Your son Luo Yangxing has long served in the Embroidered Uniform Guard and is familiar with its affairs. Perhaps he may be allowed to serve as acting Guard Commander. Have him come to the Hall of Literary Splendor after morning court tomorrow."

To be honest, Luo Yangxing was not a very suitable candidate for Guard Commander. But Zhu Youjian could not afford to fall out with the military nobles of Beijing right now.

He still needed the support of these useless ennobled ministers to sit securely on the throne — and only once securely on the throne could he proceed from within outward, step by step, to set the court in order.

The matter of setting the court in order must not be rushed. Haste makes waste! And the first step in setting the court in order was still to make the inner court solid and secure!

(End of Chapter)