Chapter 1774: This Is No Good Emperor!

"Chief Grand Secretary!" The Bureau Secretary from the Ministry of Personnel stamped his foot. "His Majesty has entered the city with a large force!"

"Nonsense," Wang Zaijin, the Minister of War, said with a laugh. "If he didn't bring troops, were you expecting His Majesty to enter the city all alone? What if he ran into villains?"

"Minister Wang," the Bureau Secretary shook his head, "the troops His Majesty brought have already occupied the Military Governor's yamen. This humble official lives right next to the Military Governor's office and saw with his own eyes the Son of Heaven's household retainers in full armor taking over the yamen with a palace decree!"

"What? Taking over the Military Governor's office?" Vice Minister of War Zhang Fengyi was instantly alarmed. "What does this Emperor think he's doing? This is Beijing!"

Yes, Beijing!

The foremost capital under Heaven, a place of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. An ordinary Emperor could only lie low in Beijing. Even an out-of-line Emperor like the Tianqi Emperor had only dared to stir up trouble against the Donglin Faction's civil officials. The Donglin Faction held great power in the southeast, but in Northern Zhili and Beijing they had little influence — Beijing and Northern Zhili were the territory of the meritorious nobles and the eunuchs!

So the Tianqi Emperor's stirring was nothing more than using eunuchs to fight the civil officials. As for the meritorious nobles who had swallowed up the military colony lands of the seventy-four guards around Beijing, who fed on three million in annual empty-payroll funds from the Capital Camps, and who controlled thirty or forty thousand Embroidered Uniform Guard men used only for their own extortion and blackmail without ever sharing a copper with the Emperor — those he dared not touch too deeply.

Of course, the princes and scholar-officials across the realm were skimming even more! But they merely enjoyed the advantage of being far from the Emperor's reach. And if the Emperor did not first gain firm control of the land, population, and military strength of Beijing and Northern Zhili, what right did he have to stretch his claws out across the realm?

And the dragons and tigers within Beijing were not so easily subdued. They could make an Emperor die young, and they could also bind an Emperor hand and foot, turning him into a true solitary man.

But however capable the Beijing meritorious nobles and the inner-court eunuchs were, they could only handle an ordinary Emperor. This current Emperor was no ordinary Emperor — he was an "atavistic" Emperor! One who did not follow any of the rules. You try to lecture him on the principles of the sages, and he comes at you with a blade!

What was even more infuriating was that this Emperor was actually quite skilled at cutting people down. In over a year since taking the throne, he had fought for months and actually won every time. He had even expanded the realm, seizing three prefectures and twenty thousand households of territory. Oh, and he had killed the Mongols' foremost warrior in single combat, and stolen the Mongol Great Khan's sister. This Emperor truly was no good Emperor!

"Where is His Majesty?" Huang Liji was also getting anxious. "When did he enter the city? Why has no one reported to the Grand Secretariat? The Military Governor's office has been taken by his personal troops — what about the Shuntian Prefecture?"

The Ministry of War had jurisdiction over the Military Governor's affairs, and the Shuntian Prefecture belonged to the civil official system. If the Emperor suddenly entered the city with troops, both yamens should have notified the Grand Secretariat. The Military Governor's office had been occupied and could not report — but what about the Shuntian Prefecture? Had it been occupied too?

What exactly did His Majesty want? Why did this look like a coup to seize power? Whose Emperor was he, anyway?

"His Majesty seems to have gone out through the Zhengyang Gate." The one answering was still that Bureau Secretary. "When this humble official passed through Chessboard Street, I saw a large force of golden-armored cavalry coming down from the Zhengyang Gate tower, and then they went out through the Zhengyang Gate. The Zhengyang Gate has also been brought under control by the personal troops."

The six ministries of the Ming court were located very close to the Zhengyang Gate, separated only by the Great Ming Gate (the main gate of the imperial city) and Chessboard Street (formed by four very short streets laid out in a perfect square, like a chessboard). Officials of the six ministries had to pass through Chessboard Street to reach their offices. When this Bureau Secretary passed through Chessboard Street, he happened to see a unit of cavalry coming down the horse ramp of the Zhengyang Gate tower, then exiting the city through the Zhengyang Gate. Because this cavalry unit was all clad in dazzling golden armor, he thought of His Majesty.

"What is His Majesty going to the outer city for?"

Huang Liji was still standing there asking stupidly, but Wang Zaijin had already risen to his feet: "Chief Grand Secretary, stop asking. Let us go welcome His Majesty! Once we see him, we'll know everything!"

"Y-you, you — don't come any closer, Your Majesty! Or else this slave, this slave—"

Inside the Bai family mansion in the Shanxi Camp, a chaste and virtuous widow was resisting the Emperor who wanted to seize her! And her method of resistance was traditional martial arts.

Widow Xu was, after all, a daughter of a military family. Although she had married into a wealthy merchant household, she had never let the martial skills she had trained in since childhood slip. The moment she heard someone wanted to seize her, she instinctively dropped into a fighting stance — half-turning her body, sinking her waist into a horse stance, then a turning palm-strike with a hammering fist to lead the way. Although the widow was wearing a ruqun skirt, a beizi jacket, and an ao shirt, this "display" still revealed her fine figure completely.

Only after settling into her stance did Widow Xu realize something was wrong — her adoptive father Xu Yingyuan had already knelt before a beardless young general in golden armor, and was addressing that young general as "Your Majesty"!

Your Majesty? Wasn't that... the current Son of Heaven, the supreme sovereign of the Great Ming?

Why had he come to the Shanxi Camp?

And had he just said he wanted to seize her?

At this thought, Widow Xu was already somewhat dazed! But dazed as she was, she still had to maintain her posture of resistance.

Zhu Youjian saw Widow Xu's appearance and figure, and her half-resisting, half-inviting posture as if she wanted to test her martial arts against his, and his heart was instantly delighted. He burst out laughing: "You, Widow Xu, truly have nerve, daring to match martial arts with Us. You're far stronger than that godmother of yours, Madam Ke!"

Hearing Zhu Youjian mention Madam Ke, Widow Xu's nose twinged, and her long, narrow eyes grew slightly moist.

Although Madam Ke had committed countless evils, she had treated her adopted daughter Widow Xu very well. And Widow Xu also knew that Madam Ke had been wronged — what treason, what rebellion, it was all groundless. At worst, she had merely had an affair with the Tianqi Emperor.

And for that little matter she had been executed by slow slicing — three thousand six hundred cuts.

At this moment Xu Yingyuan also realized that his adopted daughter was about to fight the young Emperor, and he panicked immediately. He hurriedly spoke: "Lady Xu! What are you doing? It is His Majesty who has come — kneel and welcome him at once!"

"B-but he wants to seize me!" Widow Xu bit down on her pearly teeth. "I won't agree!"

Won't agree?

Zhu Youjian chuckled: "Widow Xu, you are not only Madam Ke's adopted daughter, but also an accomplice of the treasonous traitor Fan Yongdou. Fan Yongdou has already confessed! It was you who gave him the copy of the memorial in which the Prince of Dai and the other princes of Datong spread wicked rumors and cursed the Son of Heaven. And he took that copy beyond the passes and summoned the slave-bandits' great army!"

"L-Lady Xu, is this true?" Xu Yingyuan, still kneeling on the ground, was terrified out of his wits, because that copy of the memorial was something he had given to his adopted daughter. Of course, his reason for doing so was not to collude with a foreign power, but to get Widow Xu to contribute money and effort to help Zhu Cilang — still in his mother's womb — take the throne. Widow Xu was one of the head Shanxi merchants in the capital (there was more than one head merchant), and at a critical moment she could mobilize enormous sums of ready silver and bring large quantities of grain into the capital.

And Widow Xu had then passed this news to Fan Yongdou — which was actually quite normal. Fan Yongdou was also a great Shanxi merchant, and he had sources beyond the passes. Widow Xu had wanted to use him to find out what exactly had happened to the little Emperor. But who could have imagined that Fan Yongdou would pass the news directly to the eastern barbarians!

"I-I..." Lady Xu had already realized the gravity of the situation!

Taking Madam Ke as a godmother was no great matter. Wei Zhongxian's adopted sons and grandsons were all still around! It was nothing more than buying indulgences. The law could not punish everyone, and the little Emperor could not possibly destroy the Bai family over that.

But the crime of colluding with foreign barbarians and betraying the nation was different! If that charge was made to stick, it would not be Widow Xu alone who died — the entire family would be executed.

"Lady Xu," Zhu Youjian said with a wicked grin, "do not panic. We know it was an unintentional mistake, and We will show leniency. But you must also have the intention to atone for your crime! As things stand now, do you intend to follow Fan Yongdou down the same dark road to the end?"

Atonement...

When Lady Xu heard those two words, her legs went soft and she knelt, tears streaming down. "Your Majesty, please spare me just this once. I am but a foolish little woman who knows nothing..."

Even as she spoke her pleas for mercy, she was secretly sizing up Zhu Youjian. She saw a rather handsome face covered with the wicked smile of a scheme successfully carried out — this truly was no good Emperor!

(End of Chapter)