Chapter 1655: Even a Criminal Like Yang Gao Can Renew Himself

Use Yang Gao?

The Ming officials in the Hall of Literary Glory were all somewhat dumbfounded when they heard Zhu Youjian say he wanted to summon Yang Gao.

This Yang Gao was a criminal who had ruined the state! He had been arrested and thrown into the Imperial Prison during the Wanli reign and sentenced to death, only the sentence had never been carried out. How could he now be released and used again? If a man like this could rise once more, then did the Ming court still have any discipline at all?

Zhang Weixian, Commander of the Capital Camps, hurriedly stepped forward to remonstrate: "Your Majesty, this Yang Gao is a criminal minister who ruined the state and lost our armies. The Liaodong affair was ruined because of him!"

Zhu Youjian smiled. "We know exactly what sort of goods he is. But after all, he is familiar with the Liaodong affair and with Joseon, and he can be considered to understand military matters, so he can still be used a little. However, the Commander may rest assured—We will not make great use of him."

In fact, releasing Yang Gao to take office was already "great use." First of all, it was setting up an example of reform and self-renewal!

If even a criminal like Yang Gao could be restored to office, how much more so other men?

So all you guilty treacherous ministers must absolutely not lose faith in life. You should actively purchase indulgences—once your sins are redeemed, you can continue selling your lives for the Great Ming!

Secondly, Zhu Youjian wanted Yang Gao to help him build up the personal guard cavalry—Yang Gao was a civil official who had long commanded troops on the frontier. Although his military talent was mediocre, he certainly knew the trade. Moreover, he had a very good relationship with the Li family of Tieling—Li Chengliang's family. Right now many of Li Chengliang's descendants were idling away in Beijing, and it would be just right to use Yang Gao to gather these people together.

He did not expect this bunch to be able to fight, but they could be used to train and select the "Household Retainers of the Son of Heaven"!

The matter of selecting the "Household Retainers of the Son of Heaven" could not be handled carelessly. An "expert group" had to be formed, but Sun Yingyuan, Zhou Yuji, and Huang Degong could not be spared. Beijing still needed them here!

So the only ones who could go to the Nine Border garrisons to select stout men were Yang Gao and a group of Li family members who had already gone completely cold.

In addition, Zhu Youjian also planned to select a batch of young officers through the military examination to command and train the boy-soldier personal guard army.

And how should the military examination be conducted? What sort of men should be selected? He also needed to hear the opinion of this old marshal Yang Gao. Who else was there? Xiong Tingbi had already been beheaded, and Sun Chuanting, Lu Xiangsheng, Hong Chengchou, Shi Kefa, and the others had not yet been tempered by experience. Zhu Youjian truly had no usable marshal-minister at hand, so he could only release Yang Gao and make use of him.

The criminal minister Yang Gao had already been imprisoned for eight years, and for eight years he had been extorted by the Embroidered Uniform Guard jailers who watched over the Imperial Prison—his crimes were too heavy, so there was no possibility of restoration, and apart from the Joseon people, it seemed no one with power or influence still remembered him. Thus inside the Imperial Prison he had become a fat sheep beloved by all—everyone wanted to come and pluck a handful of wool!

When he first came in he had still been quite woolly, but now he had been plucked bald. Nearly his entire fortune had been offered up in tribute to that gang of Embroidered Uniform Guard jailers.

The problem was that his body was still quite sturdy, and he showed no sign of dying. The court also seemed to have forgotten him. Sentenced to death, yet not dragged out to be killed—imprisoned endlessly! Where would this ever end?

The family fortune he had so painstakingly embezzled over decades as an official was all gone, and so he was full of worry!

Sometimes he even thought, why not just be dragged out tomorrow and beheaded? It would spare him from being extorted and blackmailed by a gang of prison clerks.

But this matter was not up to him!

That Tianqi Emperor did not manage affairs much, Wei Zhongxian had neither enmity nor friendship with him, he was not of the Donglin Faction, and he had never submitted memorials impeaching Eunuch Wei.

So he waited until the Tianqi Emperor himself had died, and still never got his great day of beheading. It seemed he could only slowly wait to die of old age. In this era, Yang Gao was actually already considered very old. He had been a jinshi of the eighth year of Wanli, and when he passed the highest examination he was only twenty—truly a young man who achieved his ambitions early! Now forty-seven years had passed, and he was sixty-seven. He should be about to die of old age soon.

Just when he thought he would die of old age inside the Embroidered Uniform Guard's Imperial Prison, a eunuch suddenly arrived to take him out.

"This gonggong... is it Nine Thousand Nine Hundred Years who wishes to see this old man?" Yang Gao had been in prison so long that he no longer knew much of the news outside.

The one who had come to fetch him was Zhu Youjian's newly appointed study-companion eunuch, named Cao Wenxue. As his name suggested, he looked refined and cultivated.

Hearing the old man's question, he replied with a chuckle: "There is no more Nine Thousand Nine Hundred Years. A few days ago he ate the gall of a bear and the courage of a leopard and tried to rebel! His Majesty led troops and seized him, and his head was chopped off on the spot! His Majesty even did it with his own hands!"

"Ah! Such a thing happened?" Yang Gao could hardly believe it. "His Majesty is that fierce!"

Seeing the old man's astonished expression, Eunuch Cao laughed: "Old sir, do not be afraid. His Majesty summons you to the palace, not to chop off your head. Hurry and come with me!"

"Good, good." Yang Gao nodded repeatedly and followed Cao Wenxue out. Only at the door did he remember to ask: "Gonggong, will this old man be coming back?"

"I do not know," Cao Wenxue shook his head and laughed. "When we get back, I will have a word with the jailer and have your cell kept for you."

"That would be excellent. I have lived in this cell for eight years." Yang Gao sighed again. "Eight years already!"

With those words, he followed Cao Wenxue away.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard's Imperial Prison was just outside the Forbidden City, so after walking only a short while, Cao Wenxue led Yang Gao to the outside of the East Glorious Gate. Only then did Yang Gao discover that outside the East Glorious Gate a great crowd had already gathered, all dressed in plain clothes, carrying bundles on their backs, under the guard of eunuchs and soldiers, every one of them hanging their heads in dejection.

What was going on here?

Just as old Yang was wondering, someone had already recognized him—it seemed to be Xu Xianchun, the former head of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, who recognized him.

"Look, isn't that Yang Fengjun? Why has he come too?"

"Need you even ask? He must be like us, about to be locked up in the Western Garden."

"That can't be, can it? He's been cold for how many years now, and he can still join us?"

"Why couldn't he? If His Majesty says he can, then he can join us!"

So Yang Gao had run into the "seventy fat sheep"! Of course it was no coincidence—Zhu Youjian had arranged it. The fat sheep had to be shown the hope of reform and self-renewal!

Even a criminal like Yang Gao could renew himself! So they still had hope! As long as they bought more indulgences, they would have the chance to rise again!

When the eunuch guarding the East Glorious Gate saw Yang Gao arrive, he immediately let him pass inside. Yang Gao thus followed along in a daze, and when they reached outside the Hall of Literary Glory, he was not allowed to enter.

The gate to the courtyard of the Hall of Literary Glory stood open, and inside and outside the gate the guard was strict.

"Old sir, please wait a moment. This slave will go in and announce you first."

Cao Wenxue's respectful attitude toward Yang Gao somewhat surprised the group of fat sheep who had been brought along under guard. What did this mean? Had Yang Gao stepped in dog shit luck—no more prison, and now he could become an official?

"Summon Yang Gao to the hall!"

At the eunuch's call, Yang Gao, who had already sat in prison for eight years, thus strode into the courtyard of the Hall of Literary Glory under the gaze of all, and was then led up into the great hall, where he saw Zhu Youjian, still dressed in mourning clothes.

"The criminal minister Yang Gao kowtows to His Majesty the Emperor. May my Emperor live ten thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand times ten thousand years."

"Rise!" A youth's voice came from ahead.

Yang Gao's legs were still nimble, and without much effort he scrambled up and stood there, stealing glances at the young Son of Heaven.

On the road to the Forbidden City, he had already asked Cao Wenxue about things and learned that the Great Ming had produced yet another emperor who could chop off heads!

Zhu Youjian was also sizing up Yang Gao. After looking for a while, he said to him: "Can eight years of prison calamity redeem the crime of defeat in Liaodong?"

"It cannot." Yang Gao hastily shook his head and made to kneel again.

"Do not kneel. Stand and speak." Zhu Youjian continued: "Yang Gao, tell Us—why did the Liaodong garrison deteriorate so rapidly after the Joseon campaign?"

That was indeed a question! The Liaodong garrison had performed quite well in the Joseon campaign! How had it rotted away in the blink of an eye?

Yang Gao gave a bitter smile at these words: "Your Majesty, this criminal minister believes the Liaodong garrison was wounded in its vital energy by the Joseon campaign, and moreover the household retainers of the Li family of Tieling gradually collapsed, which is why it could no longer fight. To put it plainly, the Joseon campaign fought the Liaodong garrison into deficit and spent the Li family's entire fortune. After that battle, for various reasons, there was no way to replenish the Liaodong garrison's losses, still less to let the Li family recover its vital energy."

(End of Chapter)