Chapter 161: A Brilliant Scheme

Mid-July, Tianqi 5. The Imperial Palace, the capital.

The daily work of the Great Ming central government was normally handled by the Grand Secretariat and the Directorate of Ceremonial. The Emperor was checking their work from the past few days. Ever since a certain memorial had been presented, the impatience on Tianqi's face had vanished. He read every character with rapt attention, occasionally murmuring to himself, softly reading the words of the memorial aloud. The Eastern Depot's Provincial Military Commander Wei Zhongxian, along with the Directorate of Ceremonial's Brush-holding Eunuch and Seal-holding Eunuch, all stood in attendance on either side. Each of them stood with hands pressed to their trousers in utter reverence, eyes fixed rigidly on the tips of their black boots, not daring to let out even a heavy breath, for fear of disturbing the Son of Heaven as he read the memorial.

The young emperor read this memorial several times before setting it down, his expression a mix of joy and worry. Tianqi pondered for a moment, then suddenly spoke up: "How many troops does General Huang command now?"

The other eunuchs froze. Just as they were racking their brains to recall, Wei Zhongxian had already blurted out: "Reporting to His Majesty..." He maintained his earlier posture of reverence, his eyes still fixed motionlessly on the floor in front of his feet as he spoke. The military households Huang Shi had reported, those Zhang Pan had reported, plus the Shang brothers, Zhang Minghe, and Li Chengfeng of Jinzhou — Wei Zhongxian reeled them all off like a string of cash: "... the Left Auxiliary of the Dongjiang Garrison commands a total of twenty thousand military households, with over seventy thousand able-bodied men."

"Good." Tianqi clapped his hands and laughed. With this relieved exclamation of approval, the worry on the Emperor's face vanished entirely, leaving only a face full of delight: "This time there's no need to promote General Huang again. Otherwise, I wouldn't even know what to promote him to. |||"

The number of heads taken this time was less than one percent of what the Dongjiang Garrison's Left Auxiliary had reported for their troops. Wei Zhongxian was secretly pleased about this as well — it looked like there would be no trouble this time. Just rewarding Mao Wenlong and Huang Shi a few hundred taels of silver each would be enough to muddle through: "His Majesty is wise. General Huang is not yet thirty. To suddenly attain high rank may not be a blessing for him."

The young Son of Heaven had not thought that far; he simply found it difficult to handle. To promote Huang Shi any further, apart from granting a title of nobility, the only option left was to bestow the rank of Grand Master of Splendid Happiness. And above Huang Shi there was still Mao Wenlong. Whatever was given to Huang Shi, something even greater would certainly have to be given to Mao Wenlong, and this especially struck Tianqi as troublesome.

Yet the Great Ming Emperor still felt somewhat guilty at heart. He had already been pondering how to compensate Huang Shi. Upon hearing Wei Zhongxian's words, he mulled it over for a moment, then still let out an: "Oh?"

"The Army-inspecting Eunuch of Changsheng Island, Wu Mu, has submitted a secret memorial." Wei Zhongxian, standing with head bowed, still spoke in a tone utterly devoid of emotion. The Directorate of Ceremonial eunuch opposite him immediately presented a memorial with both hands.

Tianqi flipped it open and read two lines. His breathing instantly grew rapid. He randomly flipped to the later pages, skimmed a few sentences, then with a flick of his hand hurled Wu Mu's booklet forcefully to the ground. ||||

"Utterly ridiculous!" the young Son of Heaven barked out sharply.

All around, the sound of eunuchs' robes rustling as they dropped to their knees immediately arose, followed by a chorus of voices: "His Majesty, quell your anger."

The Emperor, his fury still unspent, abruptly rose to his feet. He stared at the memorial on the floor for a few more moments, then sent it flying into the air with a kick. It sailed far away before landing with a slap before the assembled eunuchs: "I have ruled for five years. The men below are either corrupt officials and filthy clerks, or incompetent rats! And many are both corrupt officials and filthy clerks, and incompetent rats."

Tianqi strode hastily down from the imperial desk, chasing the memorial until he stood firm right in front of the eunuchs. His chest still heaved violently, and his heavy breathing echoed through the deathly silent inner hall. Then another torrent of furious words burst forth: "After all this difficulty, we finally get a General Huang who is both capable and not corrupt, and that becomes abnormal... Is my virtue truly so meager? Is it only reasonable that my subjects should all be a pack of wine-sacks and rice-bags plus embezzlers?"

Below, Wei Zhongxian and the other eunuchs had already kowtowed until their foreheads bled. They kept shouting over and over: "His Majesty, quell your anger, quell your anger. NovelReads"

Tianqi clasped his hands behind his back and exhaled heavily several times, but still could not control himself and could not help cursing again: "'When a matter departs from normal reason, one should be cautious' — nonsense!" This line was originally what Wu Mu had said about Huang Shi. He had said that Huang Shi held second-rank office yet took no wife or concubine, and that his achievements overshadowed Liaodong yet he embezzled no military funds — a military officer of such unique conduct should be employed with caution. But the Emperor was in the heat of anger at this moment, so he seized on the phrase out of context and railed against it.

"General Huang takes fifty thousand taels of military pay from me each year. Every few months there is a victory report. This is called departing from normal reason? Must it be that General Huang demands several million taels of military pay from me each year, then loses every battle, and every loss is a great loss, and every great loss costs tens of thousands of troops and officers — only then is it called 'normal reason'?! Only then should he be entrusted with heavy responsibility and relied upon as a bulwark of the state?!" The more Tianqi spoke, the angrier he became, and his voice grew increasingly shrill. Gnashing his teeth, he jabbed a finger at Wei Zhongxian and roared: "How can there be such a muddle-headed fool as Wu Mu? What kind of people have you, you old dog, been recommending?"

Wei Zhongxian, prostrate on the ground, burst into loud wails: "This old slave's crimes deserve ten thousand deaths."

The Brush-holding Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial at the side hurriedly presented another prepared memorial, simultaneously singing out in a high voice: "Grand Secretary of the Wenyuan Pavilion and Liaodong Military Commissioner, Mr. Sun, also has a secret memorial to present. NovelReads"

"You should have died long ago!" The Emperor threw down a harsh word, then temporarily let Wei Zhongxian off. Huffing with rage, he shook open Sun Chengzong's memorial and began to read. This time, the more Tianqi read, the more solemn he became. Finally, he slowly paced back to the imperial seat and sat down steadily. After a moment, the Emperor propped his forehead on his hand, flipped the memorial back, and started reading it from the beginning again.

After finishing, Tianqi raised his head and saw that Wei Zhongxian was still lying prostrate on the ground, not daring to move, with a patch of blood on his forehead. A trace of apology immediately rose in his heart: "You there, help Lord Wei up."

The Emperor now had a clear idea in his mind. He was certain that Wei Zhongxian had read both memorials before arranging for them to be presented. Although the Emperor somewhat regretted having just scolded Wei Zhongxian so indiscriminately, he certainly could not openly apologize to a household slave, so he changed his tone: "Wu Mu is sincere in his duties and very loyal at heart."

"However..." After reading Sun Chengzong's memorial, Tianqi's heart was already hesitating. He had just fiercely berated Wu Mu. If he now immediately turned around and said Huang Shi was no good, not only would he lose great face before the eunuchs, but he himself could not convince himself either.

"His Majesty is wise. Wu Mu's knowledge is shallow, and he speaks nonsense. NovelReads But this old slave believes he is still utterly loyal." Although Wei Zhongxian could not control what memorial Sun Chengzong submitted, he absolutely could control the mood in which Tianqi read this memorial. While he did not have the guts to curse Sun Chengzong in front of Tianqi, he absolutely dared to use Wu Mu as a target — and then point at the monk and curse the bald donkey.

"Oh?" Tianqi sensed that Wei Zhongxian seemed to think his own words were quite correct. He felt a surge of energy: "Speak your mind."

Wei Zhongxian had already climbed up from the ground. In his heart, he was secretly gloating over how brilliantly he had arranged the order in which these two memorials were presented. If they had been submitted in reverse order, General Manager Wei estimated that Chairman Zhu would have been half-believing and half-doubting, and Wu Mu's memorial would have served to strike while the iron was hot. Although Wu Mu was committing political suicide — probably because he was too loyal — Wei Zhongxian had absolutely no intention of sharing his misfortune. Besides, a powerful ally like Huang Shi was very important. Wei Zhongxian also believed he could keep this military brute firmly under his control.

"This old slave believes that General Huang forgoes small gains because he must have a grand design..." Wei Zhongxian had long since thought out his argument. He explained to Tianqi that Huang Shi's integrity was for the sake of a future hereditary fief. After Liaodong was pacified, even if Huang Shi could not be enfeoffed as a marquis of ten thousand households, as long as he won many battles and accumulated great merit, it would not be impossible for Huang Shi to insist that each military household under him had over a dozen males and that each household should be allotted one hundred, or even one hundred and fifty, mu of land. NovelReads Besides, Liaodong had always been vast in land and sparse in people. Now, the five million-plus Liao people in that northeastern corner had been slaughtered by the Wild Boar Skin until only a few hundred thousand remained. By then, even if Huang Shi were promised one hundred mu per household, no civil official would say much about it.

The Ming Empire's system consisted of three separate frameworks: military farms, civilian fields, and princely estates. For an imperial prince or a Brocade Guard in the interior, the size of a fief was merely a standard for disbursing money. For example, when the Wanli Emperor bestowed two million mu of land upon his beloved son, the Prince of Fu, it meant that local officials had to give the Prince of Fu tens of thousands of taels of silver each year according to the imperial court's standard — say, one li of silver per mu. (Zhang Juzheng had also set a rate of half a li of silver per mu for the imperial clan and the Brocade Guard.) Imperial clansmen and hereditary Brocade Guard officers had no right to sell the land or to rule over the farmers on it.

But Huang Shi, as a frontier army general and a hereditary great military chief of Liaodong, though he also had no right to sell the land (because it was state military farmland), all the military households on the land did not pay state taxes but paid military grain. This military grain was also handed over to Huang Shi and his descendants (generally about forty percent of the yield). The hereditary Liaodong Regional Commander was then supposed to use this military grain to purchase supplies, arm, and train the Great Ming's border defense forces. So if Huang Shi could secure one hundred mu of land for each of the five thousand military households under him, then the Huang family's income would naturally be very considerable — Wei Zhongxian absolutely did not believe that after Huang Shi had a million mu of land, he would spend all the yield on the army. |||

Tianqi nodded repeatedly as he listened, and finally laughed heartily: "General Huang only asks me for a few tens of thousands of taels of silver each year. If he can pacify the Jianzhou Jurchens with just this bit of money, then even if he is eventually promised one hundred and fifty mu per household, I won't be losing out." Tianqi laughed again as he spoke: "Even if we include Marshal Mao's share, I'm not afraid. Even if both Marshal Mao and General Huang are enfeoffed with ten thousand households, as long as we can stop the three million annual Liaodong military stipend, I still won't be losing out." In any case, this land was currently in the hands of the Later Jin, so he, Tianqi, certainly was not losing out.

"His Majesty's insight sees ten thousand li." Wei Zhongxian's self-defense work was perfectly complete. Next, it was time to launch a counterattack against Grand Secretary Sun: "In this old slave's humble opinion, Mr. Sun will probably still need some explanation. Mr. Sun is, after all, a pillar of our Great Ming. This old slave thinks it would be better to wrong Huang Shi a little than to absolutely, under no circumstances, let Mr. Sun lose face."

As he sat in his own room drinking tea, Wei Zhongxian was still cursing nonstop: "Has Wu Mu's brain been fried by fever? If you don't rope in a fierce general like General Huang, then who are you supposed to rope in? When Mr. Sun was roping in Huang Shi, we should have doubled down on promises and benefits. And this bastard actually went and kicked him away! Isn't this blatantly kicking Huang Shi over to Mr. Sun's side?"

Wei Zhongxian fiercely gulped down two mouthfuls of tea, his heart still gripped by lingering fear. It was certain that Wu Mu's memorial could not bring down Huang Shi — that was a given. Even adding Sun Chengzong's wouldn't do it. {NovelReads + Wei Zhongxian believed that Sun Chengzong's move was called 'pretending to let go in order to grasp tighter.' Once the truth was later revealed to Huang Shi, Huang Shi would definitely hate Wu Mu and the man behind him — himself — to the bone. Sun Chengzong would not only wash his hands completely clean but also earn considerable goodwill. If the Liaodong campaign ever went badly, Tianqi would also instinctively assume that Sun Chengzong had been deceived, and that everything was the fault of Wu Mu — which is to say, the fault of Wei Zhongxian's underling. He, Wei Zhongxian, had already been busy for several months trying to shift the blame for a potential defeat onto Sun Chengzong.

Lost in thought, General Manager Wei squeezed his teacup and lid until they creaked. Cold sweat streamed down his contorted face: "Mr. Sun, you are far too insidious." Then General Manager Wei lightly patted his own forehead a few times. A relieved smile appeared on his face as he muttered to himself: "Fortunately, our family is ever vigilant and careful in all matters. I saw through Mr. Sun's brilliant scheme at a single glance."

Having defeated his imaginary enemy, Wei Zhongxian chuckled smugly at his own total victory. After giggling foolishly to himself for a while to savor the thrill, ||| he summoned a young errand-running eunuch: "Write a letter to Wu Mu. Scold him fiercely! A mere vice general could be trouble — to think he could even come up with that."

Wei Zhongxian dictated a summary of the letter. He recounted his own analysis of Huang Shi coveting a marquisate and hereditary lands, then told Wu Mu to stop being so neurotically oversensitive all the time when nothing was wrong. Furthermore, Wei Zhongxian believed that Huang Shi absolutely had to be recalled and put on ice for a period. Otherwise, if this continued, Sun Chengzong was going to pacify the Later Jin.

Now Wei Zhongxian felt he had done his work to perfection. Before Tianqi, he had already praised Sun Chengzong to the skies. Huang Shi, the most combat-effective man in Liaodong, was also someone he, Wei Zhongxian, had vigorously protected. The reason Huang Shi was leaving the battlefield was also to save face for Sun Chengzong by being recalled. As long as he could detain Huang Shi until Liaodong suffered a defeat, then all the blame would fall on old man Sun's shoulders alone. And if old man Sun could still win every battle... then he, Wei Zhongxian, would just have to accept his fate.

"Mr. Sun..." When the room was empty again, Wei Zhongxian once more wagged his head smugly: "Our family will go and lodge a complaint against you before General Huang first. Let General Huang know that it was our family who protected him, while you were the one pushing him to his death. Heh heh, the valor of Xin Bu — truly killing without a trace of blood. NovelReads"

"Godfather, your son has investigated." A eunuch rushed in excitedly: "The Prince of Fu's eldest daughter has not yet been betrothed. She is about the age to leave the women's quarters."

July 22, Tianqi 5. Changsheng Island.

The day before yesterday, Jin Qiude, Yang Zhiyuan, and Li Yunrui had all returned. They had systematically completed their work in Fuzhou. Starting yesterday morning, Huang Shi had convened an enormous all-hands meeting. Hong Antong, in charge of internal security; Zhang Zaidi, in charge of the Loyalty-to-Throne Catholicism; and Bao Jiusun and the others all attended.

This morning, after the meeting reached a stopping point, Huang Shi glanced at the sky. It was not yet time for lunch. He shot a meaningful glance at Zhao Manxiong.

Zhao Manxiong cleared his throat, stood up, and announced in a clear voice: "While everyone is here, I would like to discuss our Changsheng Island military regulations. Ahem, it concerns the issue of officers marrying."

His words caused a ripple of reaction among the assembled officers — precisely the effect Zhao Manxiong enjoyed.

"On our Changsheng Island, the previous rule was that an officer could only marry after half of his subordinates had married. This regulation greatly boosted our army's morale, effectively consolidated our army's heart, and was also very helpful in..." Zhao Manxiong's opening was delivered very fluently, but he never bothered to change these formulaic phrases, which made Huang Shi slightly bored. He paid no attention at all to what Zhao Manxiong was saying; in any case, his opening remarks were always more or less the same, and Zhao Manxiong would certainly emphasize the key points.

Sure enough,

"But this regulation has also caused us some trouble. That is, there are many who would rather not be officers just to get a wife, and there are individual officers who try every means to delay promotion or openly refuse promotion orders issued by our Changsheng Island, even to the point of willingly taking a military beating for it."

Another ripple ran through the entire assembly.

"Song Jianjun, that Firefighting Battalion officer who just received the Third-Class Distinguished Service Medal — I'm sure everyone remembers him. After he arrived on our Changsheng Island in Tianqi 3, within a year, with the help of his then-superior, he arranged a marriage. He originally planned to marry by the end of Tianqi 4. However, because of his outstanding performance in the Battle of Gaizhou, he was promoted to Squad Leader. According to our Changsheng Island regulations, every Squad Leader must help at least five of his subordinates marry before he himself can marry. So, in those months when he should have been preparing his own wedding, Song Jianjun was busy all along acting as a matchmaker for his subordinates."

As Zhao Manxiong recounted this, he maintained a deadpan expression, but his words brought smiles to the faces of many officers present.

"The former Squad Leader Song finally reached this goal just before the Southern Pass campaign. But during the Southern Pass campaign, Squad Leader Song was promoted to Matchlock Company Commander for his outstanding performance. As a result, he suddenly found himself facing five squad leaders, four of whom had not yet met our Changsheng Island's marriage regulation."

Snickers began to sound continuously, but Zhao Manxiong's expression remained utterly unruffled.

"Company Commander Song spent this entire half-year actively matchmaking for his subordinates' subordinates. Until last month, the third squad leader in his company finally married. But after the Battle of Fuzhou..." Zhao Manxiong deliberately drew out his voice, then continued in his ever-calm tone: "Company Commander Song was promoted once again. This time, he is facing several hundred bachelors in the recruit battalion."

Howls of laughter erupted from the crowd like a volcanic explosion. Zhao Manxiong waited patiently until everyone stopped laughing and began wiping their eyes before continuing: "Instructor Song said to me — God bless me, please don't promote me again, or my fiancée will call off the engagement."

Another wave of laughter exploded inside the tent. Zhao Manxiong turned and bowed to Huang Shi: "My lord, your humble general believes we can add a regulation: Any officer who has reached the age of twenty-four, or whose rank exceeds Battalion Commander, shall no longer be restricted from marrying."

"Agreed, agreed." Before Huang Shi could speak, Li Yunrui was already shouting loudly. He had been staring intently at Zhao Manxiong's lips the entire time, afraid of missing a single word. The moment Zhao Manxiong finished, Li Yunrui clapped and cheered with all his might, as if he were about to shatter his own hands, his face contorted with excitement.