Chapter 209: Section Twenty-Six: A Brilliant Scheme

Mid-July, fifth year of the Tianqi reign, the capital, within the Forbidden Palace.

The daily administration of the Great Ming central government was ordinarily handled by the Grand Secretariat and the Directorate of Ceremonial. The Emperor was inspecting their work from the past few days. Ever since a certain memorial had been presented, the look of impatience on Tianqi's face had vanished. He read every character with rapt attention, his lips occasionally moving as he murmured the words of the memorial softly to himself. The Director of the Eastern Depot, Wei Zhongxian, and the Director and the Seal-holder of the Directorate of Ceremonial all stood in attendance on either side. Each of them stood with hands pressed respectfully against their trousers, their eyes fixed rigidly on the tips of their black boots, not daring to let out so much as a heavy breath, for fear of disturbing the Son of Heaven as he perused the memorial.

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

The other eunuchs were momentarily stunned. 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 deference, his eyes still fixed motionlessly on the ground before his feet as he spoke. The military households reported by Huang Shi, those reported by Zhang Pan, the Shang brothers, Zhang Minghe, and Li Chengfeng of Jinzhou — Wei Zhongxian reeled them all off like a string of family treasures: "...the Left Division of Dongjiangzhen governs 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 radiant joy: "There's no need to promote General Huang again this time, otherwise I wouldn't even know what to promote him to."

This time the number of heads taken was less than one percent of the troops reported by the Left Division of Dongjiangzhen, and Wei Zhongxian was secretly pleased about this as well. It seemed there would be no trouble this time; a reward of a few hundred silver taels each to Mao Wenlong and Huang Shi 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 further, aside from granting a title of nobility, the only option left was to confer the rank of Grand Master of Splendid Happiness. Moreover, there was still Mao Wenlong above Huang Shi. Whatever was given to Huang Shi, something even greater would certainly have to be given to Mao Wenlong, which Tianqi found especially troublesome.

Yet the Great Ming emperor still felt a twinge of guilt in his heart. He had already been pondering how to compensate Huang Shi. Upon hearing Wei Zhongxian's words, he mulled them over for a moment before letting out an: "Oh?"

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

Tianqi opened it and read two lines. His breathing instantly became rapid and ragged. He flipped haphazardly to the later pages, skimmed a few sentences, then with a flick of his wrist hurled Wu Mu's memorial forcefully to the ground.

"Utterly ridiculous!" the young Son of Heaven shouted sternly.

All around, the rustling sound of eunuchs' robes as they dropped to their knees immediately filled the air, 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 kicked it into the air with one foot. It flew far before landing with a slap before the assembled eunuchs: "I have ruled for five years, and the men below are either corrupt officials or incompetent cowards! And many are both corrupt officials and incompetent cowards."

Tianqi strode hastily down from the imperial desk, chasing after the memorial until he stood firm before the eunuchs. His chest was still heaving violently, and his heavy breathing echoed through the deathly silent inner hall. Then another torrent of furious words burst forth: "After all this time, we finally get a General Huang who is both capable and incorruptible, and he becomes an anomaly... Is my virtue really so meager? Is it only reasonable that my ministers should all be a pack of wine-sacks and rice-bags, grafters and embezzlers?"

Below, Wei Zhongxian and the other eunuchs had already kowtowed until blood showed on their foreheads, as they ceaselessly cried out: "His Majesty, quell your anger, quell your anger."

Tianqi clasped his hands behind his back and exhaled heavily several times, but still could not contain himself and burst out cursing again: "'One should be cautious of matters that do not conform to common sense' — nonsense!" This line had originally been Wu Mu's words about Huang Shi, saying that a military officer of the second rank who took no wife or concubine, and whose achievements overshadowed Liaodong yet who did not embezzle military funds — such a uniquely behaved military commander should be employed with caution. But the emperor was now in the heat of anger, so he seized on this phrase out of context and railed against it.

"General Huang takes fifty thousand taels of military funds from me each year, and every few months there is a report of victory. Is this what is called 'not conforming to common sense'? Must General Huang demand millions of taels in military funds from me each year, then lose every battle, and every loss be a great loss, and every great loss cost tens of thousands of troops and officers, only then would it 'conform to common sense'?! Only then should he be entrusted with heavy responsibility and relied upon as a shield of the state?!" The more Tianqi spoke, the angrier he became, his voice growing ever more shrill. Gnashing his teeth, he jabbed a finger at Wei Zhongxian and roared: "How could there be such a muddle-headed fool as Wu Mu? What kind of men have you, you old dog, been recommending?"

Wei Zhongxian, prostrate on the ground, wailed at the top of his lungs: "This old slave deserves death ten thousand times over."

The Director of the Directorate of Ceremonial at the side hastily presented another prepared memorial, simultaneously announcing in a high voice: "Grand Secretary of the Wenyuan Pavilion, Grand Coordinator of Liaodong, Mr. Sun, also has a secret memorial to present."

"You should have died long ago!" The emperor flung 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 rested his forehead on his hand and flipped the memorial back to the beginning to read it again.

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

The emperor now had a clear idea of the situation, certain that Wei Zhongxian had read both memorials before arranging the order in which they were presented. Although the emperor somewhat regretted having indiscriminately berated Wei Zhongxian earlier, he certainly could not publicly 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 now wavering. He had just fiercely scolded 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.

"His Majesty is wise. Wu Mu is of shallow insight and speaks nonsense, but this old slave believes he is still utterly loyal." Although Wei Zhongxian could not control what memorial Sun Chengzong submitted, he could absolutely control the emperor's mood when reading it. While he did not have the gall 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 perked up: "Speak your mind."

Wei Zhongxian had already scrambled up from the floor, secretly smug about the brilliant sequence in which he had arranged the submission of these two memorials. If they had been submitted in reverse order, General Manager Wei estimated that Boss Zhu would have been skeptical, and Wu Mu's memorial would then 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 not the slightest intention of sharing his misfortune. Moreover, a powerful ally like Huang Shi was very important, and Wei Zhongxian also believed he could keep this military man firmly under his control.

"This old slave believes that General Huang forsakes small gains because he must have a grand design..." Wei Zhongxian had long since prepared his argument. He explained to Tianqi that Huang Shi's integrity was for the sake of a future hereditary fief. Once Liaodong was pacified, even if Huang Shi could not be enfeoffed as a marquis of ten Battalion Commander, as long as he won many battles and accumulated great merit, it would not be impossible for him to insist that each military household under him had a dozen or so males, and that each household should be allotted one hundred, or even one hundred and fifty mu of land. Besides, Liaodong had always been vast in land and sparse in population. 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. When the time came, even if Huang Shi were promised one hundred mu per household, no civil official would say much.

The Great Ming Empire's system consisted of three categories: military farms, civilian fields, and princely estates. For an inland prince or someone in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the size of a fief was merely a standard for disbursing funds. For example, when the Wanli Emperor granted his beloved son, the Prince of Fu, two million mu of land, it meant that local officials were to pay the Prince of Fu tens of thousands of silver taels annually according to the court 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 Embroidered Uniform Guard). Members of the imperial clan and hereditary Embroidered Uniform 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 magnate of Liaodong, although he also had no right to sell the land (since it was state military farmland), all the military households on the land would not pay state taxes but military grain. This military grain would also be delivered to Huang Shi and his descendants (generally around forty percent of the yield). The hereditary Regional Military Commissioner of Liaodong 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 quite substantial — Wei Zhongxian absolutely did not believe that after Huang Shi had a million mu of land, he would spend all the proceeds on the army.

Tianqi nodded repeatedly as he listened, and finally burst into hearty laughter: "General Huang only asks me for a few tens of thousands of silver taels a year. If he can pacify the Jianzhou rebels with this paltry sum, then even if he is eventually promised one hundred fifty mu per household, I still won't be at a loss." Tianqi laughed again as he spoke: "Even if we include Marshal Mao's share, it's nothing to fear. Even if both Marshal Mao and General Huang are enfeoffed with ten Battalion Commander, as long as we can stop the three million annual Liaodong military tax, I still won't be at a loss." In any case, this land was currently in the hands of the Later Jin. He, Tianqi, was certainly not at a loss.

"His Majesty sees clearly across ten thousand li." Wei Zhongxian's self-defense mission was perfectly accomplished. Next, it was time to launch a counterattack against Grand Secretary Sun: "In this old slave's humble opinion, Mr. Sun will still need some explanation over there. Mr. Sun is the pillar of our Great Ming. This old slave thinks it would be better to wrong Huang Shi than to let Mr. Sun lose face."

As he sat in his room drinking tea, Wei Zhongxian was still cursing incessantly: "Has Wu Mu's brain been addled by fever? A fierce general like General Huang — if you don't win him over, who else are you going to win over? When Mr. Sun was drawing Huang Shi to his side, we should have doubled our promises and offered him benefits. And this wretch actually went and kicked him away! Isn't this blatantly kicking Huang Shi right over to Mr. Sun's side?"

Wei Zhongxian gulped down two mouthfuls of tea fiercely, his heart still gripped by lingering fear. Wu Mu's memorial certainly could not bring down Huang Shi — that was certain — and even adding Sun Chengzong's would not do it. Wei Zhongxian believed that Sun Chengzong's move was called "letting go in order to grasp." Once the truth was later revealed to Huang Shi, Huang Shi would surely come to hate Wu Mu and the man behind him, Wei Zhongxian himself, to the bone. Sun Chengzong would not only wash himself 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 — that is, Wei Zhongxian's subordinate. Wei Zhongxian had already been busy for months trying to shift the blame for any potential defeat onto Sun Chengzong.

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

Having defeated his imagined enemy, Wei Zhongxian grinned smugly at his own total victory. After chuckling foolishly to himself for a while and thoroughly savoring the moment, he summoned a young errand eunuch: "Write a letter to Wu Mu. Scold him fiercely! A mere Vice Regional Commander could be trouble — to think he could even come up with that."

Wei Zhongxian dictated a summary of the letter, recounting his own analysis of Huang Shi's desire for a marquisate and hereditary lands, and then told Wu Mu not to be so pathologically paranoid when there was nothing to worry about. Furthermore, Wei Zhongxian believed that Huang Shi absolutely had to be transferred back and frozen for a period; otherwise, if this continued, Sun Chengzong was going to pacify the Later Jin.

Wei Zhongxian now felt he had done his work to perfection. Before Tianqi, he had already praised Sun Chengzong to the skies. The most combat-effective Huang Shi 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 transferred back. As long as he could detain Huang Shi until Liaodong suffered a defeat, then all the blame would fall squarely on old Sun's shoulders. And if old 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 first and lodge a complaint against you before General Huang, letting 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."

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

July 22, fifth year of the Tianqi reign, 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 a massive full assembly. Hong Antong, in charge of internal security; Zhang Zaidi, in charge of the Loyalty and Patriotism Catholicism; and Bao Jiusun and others all attended.

This morning, when the meeting reached a pause, Huang Shi glanced at the sky. It was not yet time for lunch. He shot a meaningful look at Zhao Manxiong.

Zhao Manxiong cleared his throat, rose to his feet, and announced in a clear voice: "While everyone is here, I would like to discuss our Changsheng Island military regulations. Specifically, the matter concerning officers taking wives."

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 troops' loyalty, and was also very helpful in..." Zhao Manxiong's opening was delivered very fluently, but he never bothered to change these formulaic phrases, which slightly bored Huang Shi. He paid no attention at all to what Zhao Manxiong was saying; after all, 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 vexation. Namely, that many men would rather not be officers at all 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 flogging for it."

Another ripple passed through the assembly.

"Song Army Supervisor, that Firefighting Battalion officer who just received the Triple Distinguished Service Medal — I'm sure everyone still remembers him. After he arrived on our Changsheng Island in the third year of Tianqi, within a year, with the help of his then-superior, he arranged a marriage and originally planned to wed by the end of the fourth year of Tianqi. However, because of his outstanding performance in the Battle of Gaizhou, he was promoted to Platoon Leader. According to our Changsheng Island regulations, every Platoon 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 for his own wedding, Song Army Supervisor was busy acting as a matchmaker for his subordinates."

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

"The former Platoon Leader Song finally reached this goal before the Nanguan campaign. But during the Nanguan campaign, Platoon Leader Song was promoted to Arquebusier Squad Commander for his outstanding performance. He suddenly found himself facing five Platoon 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.

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

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

Another wave of laughter exploded within the tent. Zhao Manxiong turned and bowed to Huang Shi: "My lord, your insight is clear. This humble general believes we can add a regulation: Any officer who has reached the age of twenty-four, or whose rank exceeds that of Company Commander, shall no longer be subject to marriage restrictions."

"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 his hands frantically in approval, with such force it seemed he might shatter his own palms, his face contorted with excitement.