Chapter 1662: Who Is the Great Villain?

"Your Majesty, we slaves are suffering!"

"Your Majesty, we slaves have been wronged!"

"Your Majesty, this slave is truly no running dog of the traitor Wei — this slave has never even laid eyes on the traitor Wei!"

In the Forbidden City, inside the Hall of Literary Splendor, a group of aging eunuch soldiers, their hair already gone white, lay prostrate on the floor, desperately pleading with Zhu Youjian, who sat behind his writing desk reading memorials. Their weeping was a pitiful sight indeed!

These old eunuch soldiers had all been handpicked by Cao Huachun to put on this show of misery — Eunuch Cao Huachun did in fact have a bit of sympathy, especially for these pitiful eunuch soldiers.

It turned out that this Cao Huachun was an elite eunuch of outstanding talent, accomplished in both civil and military arts — eunuchs too have their elites and their commoners! A eunuch with a clever mind, a pleasing appearance, and exceptional skill at flattery tends to rise quickly! Cao Huachun was just such a eunuch destined to rise. Originally he had nothing whatsoever to do with the eunuch soldiers; his future lay in the Directorate of Ceremonial, in the Directorate of the Imperial Horses!

But because he had offended Wei Zhongxian while serving as Zhu Youjian's study companion, he had been banished to the auxiliary capital Nanjing to serve as a eunuch soldier. That was even worse than being a eunuch soldier at Nanhaizi! At Nanhaizi they at least fed you well, since Wei Zhongxian still wanted to rely on the "inner drills" to protect himself and the Tianqi Emperor, so he always gave the Nanhaizi troops a full meal. But who cared about the auxiliary capital eunuch soldiers? Starve to death and be done with it!

Had Cao Huachun not had some savings, he would have starved to death in Nanjing!

It was because of his experience as a eunuch soldier in the auxiliary capital that Cao Huachun truly understood how bitter the eunuch soldiers' lot was — but he also knew that Zhu Youjian's resolve to disband the Nanhaizi eunuch soldiers was already set!

In order to win a little more benefit for his fellow eunuch soldiers, Cao Huachun had deliberately picked a few eunuchs who looked especially wretched to come before Zhu Youjian and put on this show of misery.

Had this been the Zhu Youjian whose true age was only seventeen, he would certainly have softened.

But the present Zhu Youjian was a ninety-year-old fox — what had he not seen? Naturally he saw through Cao Huachun's scheme at a glance.

The fellow did have ability, accomplished in both civil and military arts! His essays were excellent; had he not suffered that cut, he could at least have passed the provincial examination. Moreover, he could command troops and train troops — the Valiant Guard Camp had been trained under his hand.

But Cao Huachun had one very fatal flaw: the fellow was too soft-hearted, much like that Wang Cheng'en. A soft heart means one cannot play the villain, and a eunuch who cannot play the villain loses half his usefulness!

This won't do — I still need to find a fiercer chief eunuch. But who is fierce enough?

Zhu Youjian's gaze slowly swept across the Hall of Literary Splendor. At present, besides Cao Huachun and Tu Wenfu, there were three other chief eunuchs in the hall — Liu Yingkun, Ji Yong, and Tao Wen, just returned from the Liaodong front.

These three had been sent by the villain Wei Zhongxian to supervise the army on the Liaodong front, had taken part in commanding the great victory at Ningyuan and Jinzhou, had forced back the menacing Hong Taiji, and had even driven off the high-spirited Yuan Chonghuan. These three ought to be fiercer than Cao Huachun!

After withdrawing his gaze from the three villains, Zhu Youjian spoke to the pleading eunuch soldiers in a calm tone: "We know your hardships. However, the Nanhaizi eunuch soldiers, after all, fell into the hands of the traitor Wei for so many years — they can no longer be kept!

Still, We cannot bear to see you starve to death. We must give you a way to stay alive!"

We can still live?

There is still a way out?

The eunuch soldiers all stopped weeping and pricked up their ears to listen.

Zhu Youjian said: "We give you two ways out. First, take the examinations — civil or military. If you can excel in either, We shall let you enter the Directorate of Ceremonial or the Directorate of the Imperial Horses!"

The Nanhaizi eunuch soldiers numbered twenty or thirty thousand; there might well be a few usable ones among them. And Zhu Youjian's personal guard troops also needed eunuchs to serve as army supervisors and clerks. If some men could be selected from the Nanhaizi eunuch soldiers, that would be a good thing.

Zhu Youjian continued: "If you cannot pass into the Directorate of Ceremonial or the Directorate of the Imperial Horses, We shall still give you a way to live! But you will not be able to remain in Beijing. We shall arrange for you to serve as guard eunuch soldiers in princely and commandery establishments."

He turned to the chief eunuchs beside him and said: "Liu Yingkun, Cao Huachun, Tu Wenfu, Ji Yong, Tao Wen — the matter of selecting talented men from among the eunuch soldiers for the Directorate of Ceremonial and the Directorate of the Imperial Horses is entrusted to you! You have one month. Pick one in a hundred — select two or three hundred men. The rest will be distributed to princely and commandery establishments to serve as guards."

As he spoke, Zhu Youjian's tone suddenly deepened: "If anyone still makes trouble after this, then he is surely a remnant of the traitor Wei's faction — beat him to death on the spot!"

By the time Zhu Youjian began resolving the Nanhaizi eunuch soldier problem, it was already the fifteenth day of the tenth month of the seventh year of Tianqi, and the north was already swept by biting winds. In the gateway of Yongding Gate in Beijing, several very old-looking horse-drawn carts stood waiting. One of them was a passenger carriage with a spacious compartment that could seat two or three people abreast. The driver sat hunched on the front bench, neck drawn in, hands tucked in his sleeves, waiting for the official gentleman inside to speak. But the two men inside were still deep in animated conversation and had not yet told the driver where to go.

"Brother Zhisheng, His present Majesty is vastly different from the late Emperor. Though he is even a few years younger than the late Emperor — only seventeen this year — his conduct is remarkably seasoned!"

The speaker was none other than Li Guo, Grand Secretary of the Hall of Martial Valor and Minister of the Ministry of Justice.

"Is he truly that seasoned? When I served as lecturer to the late Emperor, I saw him many times and even guided his studies. Compared with the late Emperor, he is certainly far more diligent — perhaps he will prove somewhat wiser than the late Emperor!"

The man conversing with Li Guo was in his sixties, with a square face, a full beard, very spirited eyes, and a large, prominent nose. This was Sun Chengzong, tutor to the Tianqi Emperor, and at the same time the hope of the Donglin gentlemen — and of course the "loyal subject" Wei Zhongxian most wanted eliminated.

This great loyal subject Sun and Li Guo were both natives of Gaoyang in Baoding, and their relations had always been good — in the original course of history, because Li Guo had served as Grand Secretary for a long period while Wei Zhongxian held power, in the first year of Chongzhen he became the target of attacks by censors and Imperial Academy students. Unable to bear the impeachment, when he voluntarily requested to resign, he recommended Han Kuang and Sun Chengzong to replace him.

But for now Li Guo was still the hope of upright gentlemen, so naturally no one impeached him; instead they regarded him as a leader of the pure stream and a Donglin gentleman.

Li Guo himself also considered himself a man of the pure stream and a gentleman. He looked askance at the three "eunuch-party" Grand Secretaries Huang Liji, Shi Fenglai, and Zhang Ruitu, and did not think much of the newly arrived Wang Zaijin either. Only Xu Guangqi, still on his way north, met with his approval.

Of course, toward Sun Chengzong, the former imperial tutor of the previous reign, he was still deeply respectful — otherwise he would not have gone out through Yongding Gate to welcome this old fellow-townsman from Gaoyang.

Hearing Sun Chengzong's assessment of Zhu Youjian, Li Guo shook his head repeatedly: "His Majesty is not merely somewhat wiser — His Majesty is simply too wise! In so short a time, he has already brought both the outer court and the inner court fully under control! These past two days he has been cutting the Nanhaizi eunuch soldiers, reorganizing the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and — and he has collected a sum of atonement money from a bunch of eunuch-party traitors. It is said he will use this money to build some sort of personal guard force."

"What? Atonement money?" Sun Chengzong was stunned. "This — this — how can such a thing be? Since when has this dynasty allowed justice to be bought with money? Did no one at court remonstrate?"

"Remonstrate?" Li Guo smiled bitterly. "In the days when the traitor Wei held power, how many of the civil and military officials at court did not go along with him? The Son of Heaven's indulgence is prepared precisely for them."

"That is true enough!" Sun Chengzong stroked his beard and glanced sidelong at his old friend, thinking: You probably need to spend money to atone too. Though you are no hardcore member of the eunuch party, you did work alongside Wei Zhongxian for so many years, and your relations seemed rather good... hard to explain clearly! The eunuch party is powerful at court now; it seems we must plan carefully for the long term.

He sighed and asked again: "Then how does the Son of Heaven intend to handle the Liaodong matter?"

Li Guo said: "His Majesty now relies on Wang Zaijin and Yuan Keli. He seems to want to focus on defense in Ji and Liao, while using southern Liaoning and Dongjiang for harassment, waging a protracted war against the eastern barbarians."

Sun Chengzong's brows knitted tightly as he pondered for a long while. "Such an approach — I fear the eastern barbarians will become another Western Xia, or even another Khitan!"

(End of Chapter)