Chapter 215: Section 32: The Choice

On the fifth day of the tenth month, the fifth year of the Tianqi reign, in the capital.

Huang Shi carefully polished his armor. Two days ago, word had come from the palace that he was to have an audience with His Majesty today. The eunuch who brought the message said that the Tianqi Emperor had already let slip his thoughts more than once — what he wanted to see was not Huang Shi in official hat and robes, but the Left Assistant Regional Commander of Dongjiangzhen in full battle gear.

The young eunuch who delivered the decree also took pains to remind Huang Shi that this news had been carefully ferreted out by Wei Zhongxian, the Director of the Eastern Depot. The Director had especially instructed the young eunuch to be sure to pass this tidbit on to Huang Shi. Huang Shi expressed his thanks and sealed ten taels of silver for the young eunuch, and the two parted with profuse expressions of gratitude.

Huang Shi donned the armor Wei Zhongxian had given him long ago, and then hung at his waist the sword Wei Zhongxian had also given him — fortunately, Wei Zhongxian had given him a saber and a sword that year; otherwise, after giving the saber to He Dingyuan, there would have been some awkwardness. Huang Shi turned his body left and right, and felt he looked rather fine, quite full of martial valor.

Huang Shi exhaled with satisfaction, a look of relief spreading across his face. "To think that after coming all the way to the capital, I would have to wait this long just to have an audience with His Majesty."

In the central hall, only Jin Qiude remained. Hearing Huang Shi's complaint, he immediately drew near and said in a low voice, "My lord, the more I ponder this, the more I feel the imperial court harbors suspicions toward you."

"I am but a Vice Regional Commander, my own direct troops no more than two battalions, and in Liaonan there are still several battalions holding me in check. How could suspicion fall on me?" Huang Shi concentrated intently on adjusting his belt and sword, clearly dismissive of Jin Qiude's warning.

A gleam flickered in Jin Qiude's eyes, and in an even fainter buzzing whisper, he said, "My lord, I venture to ask, does my lord still remember the ambition he spoke of in those years?"

Huang Shi recalled that conversation with Jin Qiude long ago. He carefully put on his helmet and straightened it, then turned and strode toward the table in the center of the room. "If it is fated to be yours, in time it will come; if it is not fated, do not force it."

Huang Shi walked to the desk and picked up a memorial. It was the petition Sun Zhijie had asked him to forward to the Son of Heaven the previous month, bearing the joint signatures of many Donglin disciples. Huang Shi had once shown this memorial to Jin Qiude. Seeing Huang Shi tuck it into his bosom, Jin Qiude urgently tried again to dissuade him: "My lord, this memorial must not be submitted!"

The desperate plea made Huang Shi smile as he listened. Yet his hands did not pause for a moment as he tucked it securely into his bosom. He raised his head and said to Jin Qiude with a smile, "Do you think I do not understand that secret dealings between frontier generals and court officials are a grave taboo? Do you think I do not understand why Father-in-Law Wei only summoned me today?"

Jin Qiude's expression darkened. "My lord sees clearly."

"It is only that there are some things I must do, or my conscience will give me no peace." As Huang Shi spoke, he walked toward the door. When he stepped out of the hall, he turned his head back and added, "Rest easy. I will do my utmost to handle the matter well. They have their calculations, and I have my own considerations."

Since the Battle of Yaozhou, the memorials impeaching Sun Chengzong and the five Regional Commanders of Guanning had never ceased. Naturally, the main firepower of Wei Zhongxian's faction was concentrated on Ma Shilong. The censors listed ten capital offenses and twenty reasons for execution against Ma Shilong. For a time, public indignation seethed, and all clamored for the Emperor to kill Ma Shilong alone to appease the realm. Amid this overwhelming tide of denunciation, Tianqi gradually came to feel that without killing Ma Shilong, the people's wrath could not be quelled. Thus, the Liaodong Regional Military Commission, which had been strenuously protecting Ma Shilong, came under mounting pressure.

Amid this uproar, the Grand Coordinator of Liaodong, Sun Chengzong, still stubbornly shielded Ma Shilong, believing even now that Ma Shilong was a fine general. In the history Huang Shi knew from his past life, Ma Shilong was imprisoned and sentenced to death during the Chongzhen reign. After Sun Chengzong was reinstated, he vouched for Ma Shilong to atone for his crimes through service. Upon his release, Ma Shilong achieved considerable military merit, safeguarding the Great Ming's northwestern frontier for over five years of peace. He once commanded his old subordinates in Ningxia to inflict three successive major defeats on invading Mongol iron cavalry within half a year, taking over two thousand heads in total. By the time Ma Shilong died of illness, his accumulated merit had earned him the rank of Left Chief Commissioner and Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince.

By the end of the ninth month, Sun Chengzong had submitted a memorial assuming all responsibility and resigning his post as Grand Coordinator of Liaodong, thereby wiping clean the transgressions of the several Guanning Regional Commanders. Wei Zhongxian seized the opportunity to suggest to Tianqi that Elder Grand Secretary Sun be allowed to return home and rest for a while. Tianqi hesitated briefly, then approved it. This greatly pleased Wei Zhongxian — he felt it showed that Sun Chengzong's influence over Tianqi had already greatly diminished.

On the second day of the tenth month, Sun Chengzong returned to the capital. Wei Zhongxian had long since dispatched a group to welcome him, producing the oral decree from Tianqi ordering him home to rest. Without even giving Sun Chengzong a chance to have an audience with His Majesty, they bundled Old Sun back to his house and confined him there. Feeling that the great matter was now settled, Wei Zhongxian immediately arranged for Huang Shi to have his audience, preparing to send Huang Shi back to Liaonan as quickly as possible to fight a few battles with the Later Jin. Father-in-Law Wei considered all this painstaking scheming to have been played quite beautifully.

However... the Eastern Depot's secret agents had also delivered some reports. After reading them, Wei Zhongxian felt there might still be some minor hidden troubles. He had to meet Huang Shi first.

"Your subordinate, Huang Shi, pays his respects to the Director." After entering the imperial palace, Huang Shi was led directly before Wei Zhongxian. He respectfully performed a salute with clasped fists, then knelt on one knee and bowed his body three times in lieu of the three required kowtows. "I beg the Director to forgive your subordinate for being in armor and unable to perform the full ceremony."

"General Huang, please rise." Wei Zhongxian spoke with an amiable smile, even lifting himself slightly from his chair, his arms making a gesture of helping him up from afar.

"I thank the Director."

After Huang Shi had risen, Wei Zhongxian called out again, "Bring a seat for General Huang."

"I thank the Director." Huang Shi hastily gave thanks a second time. When the stool was brought, he sat perched on its edge; a piece of brocade had been spread over it.

Wei Zhongxian spoke in a slow, measured tone. "His Majesty cannot see you just yet. I fear you will have to wait a while longer."

Huang Shi immediately sprang up from the stool, lowered his head, and cupped his hands. "The Director's words are too weighty."

"Sit." Wei Zhongxian pressed his hand down with a smile. Once Huang Shi was seated, he added, "I feared General Huang might grow impatient waiting, so I came to keep General Huang company for a while, to chat. Ha."

"The Director's words are too weighty." Huang Shi realized he kept repeating the same few phrases, but he did not know what else to say.

"Sit. Sit." Wei Zhongxian's smile grew ever more genial. He glanced at the way Huang Shi was perched on the edge of the stool and asked with an expression of utter sincerity, "Is General Huang not tired sitting like that?"

As he spoke, Wei Zhongxian patted his own thigh. "General Huang need not stand on ceremony before me. Besides, I have no idea myself how long the wait will be. If the General sits like that until his legs go numb, he will inevitably make a fool of himself when His Majesty summons him." Wei Zhongxian then burst into hearty laughter. "General Huang, take care — a breach of decorum before the sovereign is a capital offense."

Knowing Wei Zhongxian was joking, Huang Shi laughed too. He shifted back as advised and sat a little more comfortably on the stool. Wei Zhongxian nodded with satisfaction, then abruptly asked, "I hear that before General Huang joined the army, he was a beggar. Is that truly so?"

The question caught Huang Shi off guard. His face flushed slightly, and he felt a twinge of displeasure. Just as he was about to awkwardly admit it, Wei Zhongxian slapped his thigh and laughed. "It seems it is indeed so. Then I have bested General Huang by a notch. Does General Huang not know? Before I entered the palace, I was a farmer in the countryside."

Huang Shi was stunned for a moment, then said, "Your subordinate is lowly and base; how could he compare with the Director?"

"So you see, General Huang and I both come from bitter origins. Moreover, I cannot read, whereas General Huang, I must say, does know a few characters..." Wei Zhongxian spoke cheerfully of the hardships before entering the palace, and Huang Shi joined him in recalling past bitterness and savoring present sweetness. Finally, Wei Zhongxian tugged at the grand crimson robe he wore. "Though I have changed my skin now, in my heart I never dare forget my roots. So the General need not be so ill at ease. If I were not afraid of soiling these clothes, I would truly like to sit shoulder to shoulder with General Huang on the doorstep and chat. How delightful that would be!"

Hearing Wei Zhongxian speak so amusingly, Huang Shi could not help but smile. "The Director jests."

After the barrier between them had been considerably dissolved, Wei Zhongxian inquired with concern about Huang Shi's experiences in the capital. Huang Shi knew well that Wei Zhongxian's eyes and ears were many, so naturally he dared not fail to report truthfully. As for his recent relations with Sun Zhijie and Mao Chengdou, Huang Shi had not the slightest thought of concealing anything, so he laid out everything about drinking tea and listening to music with them.

Only... the one thing that made Huang Shi hesitate was whether he should cover up the person Sun Zhijie had brought along. But he worried that the meeting of those few people in the pavilion that day had already fallen under the eyes of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. If he tried to hide it, he might displease Wei Zhongxian — although the man before him looked just like a genial old farmer, Huang Shi knew he was anything but easy to deal with.

Torn between two difficulties, Huang Shi slowed his narrative tone while rapidly calculating in his mind. Just at that moment, Wei Zhongxian suddenly interjected:

"Last month..." Wei Zhongxian's brow furrowed slightly, as if he were trying to recall something. He tapped his forehead lightly. "Yes, on the twenty-sixth day of the ninth month. Did General Huang meet with the son of Fang Zhenru?"

Huang Shi's heart jolted, and his expression flickered. "Exactly so. The Director sees clearly."

The person Sun Zhijie had brought to meet Huang Shi that day was indeed Fang Zhenru's son. After Wang Huazhen's great defeat at Guangning, he had defected to the eunuch faction. Wei Zhongxian naturally could not kill him, so he dragged Fang Zhenru out to take the blame in Wang Huazhen's place.

After a round of interrogation, a verdict was reached on Fang Zhenru, declaring that because Fang Zhenru had embezzled fifty taels of silver, the great defeat at Guangning had resulted. Fang Zhenru had always been an incorruptible official; after more than twenty years as a Regional Inspector, his home still had bare walls. Though the authorities convicted him of embezzling fifty taels, in the end they could not even seize fifteen taels of silver from his household. The authorities then detained Fang Zhenru's daughter, preparing to sell her off later to make up for the embezzled silver. On top of that, they intended to behead Fang Zhenru.

Young Master Fang rushed about everywhere, borrowing some silver to try to make up the embezzled sum. But each time he borrowed silver, the presiding judge would invariably use it as a pretext to further confirm Fang Zhenru's crime of embezzlement. The amount of the embezzlement climbed steadily, eventually reaching over three hundred taels. In short, the word was that Fang Zhenru absolutely had to be killed, and Young Master Fang's sister absolutely had to be sold.

"Alas, I have done some things that displeased Young Master Fang. I imagine he would not have said anything good about me." Wei Zhongxian shook his head with a sigh and reached for the teacup beside him. "General Huang need not tell me what he said. I do not wish to hear it."

By now, Huang Shi was inwardly exclaiming in rapid succession at Wei Zhongxian's shrewdness. Because the memorial bore no name of Young Master Fang, Huang Shi had been considering not revealing him. If Huang Shi had lied to Wei Zhongxian and then been found out, the relationship between the two would have soured immediately, and the outcome of this trip to the capital would be all too predictable. Even if Wei Zhongxian did not expose him, Huang Shi would inevitably be plagued by suspicion and find it very hard to maintain a natural demeanor.

Now Wei Zhongxian had not even given Huang Shi the chance to choose whether to lie or not. For the moment, he did not wish to make such an enemy for himself. Once this relationship was laid bare, Huang Shi would be placed in a neutral position, rather than being one of the Donglin faction.

"Director, permit me to report." Huang Shi knew he could not conceal it, so he had no choice but to pull the memorial from his bosom. He reached out and gently stroked the cover. "Young Master Sun and Young Master Fang asked your subordinate to present this memorial to the Son of Heaven."

"Oh?" Wei Zhongxian still wore a smile on his face. He took a small sip of tea, then set the cup back down. Placing both hands on his knees, he said to Huang Shi with a serious expression, "That is just as well. When you see His Majesty shortly, General Huang can fulfill their commission."

"Director, you see clearly. Your subordinate has already read this memorial. Inside, it is..."

Wei Zhongxian gently raised a hand, stopping Huang Shi from continuing. "In any case, it will not be anything good about me. I am well aware of that in my heart. But General Huang is a commander who holds the Imperial Silver Arrow of Authority. If General Huang wishes to memorialize the Son of Heaven, then in the Great Ming, no one has the right to obstruct him. I imagine that General Huang must have found it hard to refuse the faces of Young Master Fang and Young Master Sun, and so has already agreed to forward their memorial. As the saying goes: 'Having accepted another's trust, be loyal to their cause.' General Huang, present this memorial to His Majesty."

After a pause, the amiable smile from before reappeared on Wei Zhongxian's face, and his hands once again rested flat on his knees. In a solemn tone, he said, "His Majesty's discernment reaches ten thousand li. If His Majesty believes I am at fault, I shall admit my guilt and submit to the law. That General Huang was willing to inform me of this matter in advance today already shows ample goodwill. I cannot make things difficult for General Huang."

During the Zhengde reign, the civil officials had relied on a victorious general returning from battle to denounce the eunuch Liu Jin's transgressions before the Emperor, and only thus had they toppled him. From Huang Shi's own private speculation, the scholar Sun Zhijie surely wished to imitate the old stratagem used to bring down Liu Jin. But Wei Zhongxian's situation today was vastly different from Liu Jin's circumstances back then. At present, Wei Zhongxian was already the standard-bearer of the anti-Donglin faction, with a large number of civil officials from the Qi, Chu, and other factions behind him. Moreover, the Emperor's impression of the Donglin faction was extremely poor. The Wei Zhongxian of today could not be toppled by a single military officer's replies in the Orchid Pavilion.

Huang Shi understood this reasoning, and he expected that Wei Zhongxian understood it too. Wei Zhongxian's speech today had been high-sounding and magnanimous. As long as he, Huang Shi, was not a diehard Donglin partisan, there was absolutely no reason for him to embellish the matter when submitting the memorial. Then Tianqi would very likely feel that the Donglin faction was infiltrating everywhere to find people to submit appeals to overturn the case. The Emperor, who already detested the Donglin faction, would only grow more disgusted with that lot. Therefore, Wei Zhongxian was not at all afraid of Huang Shi submitting the memorial.

Besides, even if Huang Shi were a diehard Donglin partisan, so what? Wei Zhongxian had handled the matter openly and honorably on the surface and had not obstructed Huang Shi from submitting the memorial. Once Emperor Tianqi understood the circumstances, he would probably consider Wei Zhongxian to be open and aboveboard. Huang Shi himself, on the other hand, would be seen as acting out of factional loyalty — heh heh, frontier generals forming factions with the court was a grave taboo. Am I tired of living?

Wei Zhongxian's meaning was very clear. He was not demanding that Huang Shi stand on his side; he merely hoped that Huang Shi would remain neutral. Moreover, his attitude just now seemed to show that he was willing to reward Huang Shi's neutrality. On this point alone, Wei Zhongxian had played it far more beautifully than the Donglin faction. Huang Shi could not help recalling the words Sun and Fang had used when they thrust the memorial into his hands. That had essentially been forcing Huang Shi to pledge his life to the Donglin cause. Because of his initial distrust and subsequent hesitation, Huang Shi had nearly been classified among the eunuch faction and the sycophants.

After witnessing Wei Zhongxian's stance, Huang Shi understood why the faction of Zuo Guangdou, which held such sway over the court, could not defeat Wei Zhongxian. He believed that at any time, fence-sitters always formed the majority. The Donglin faction's attitude of "if you are not a comrade, you are an enemy" was clearly pushing the majority straight into Wei Zhongxian's camp... In truth, if they had not been determined to kill Wei Zhongxian, Old Wei himself would originally have preferred to sit on the fence in this factional struggle.

Huang Shi pondered for a long while in front of Wei Zhongxian. Wei Zhongxian drank his tea leisurely, in no hurry to press him.

After a long moment, Huang Shi inclined his body forward from his chair. "The Director is indeed broad-minded and magnanimous. Your subordinate is full of admiration."

"Heh heh, General Huang flatters me." Wei Zhongxian's face broke into a smile. He felt he had obtained the assurance he needed, and this Huang Shi seemed to be a clever man. So now he could rest assured in letting Huang Shi go to see Tianqi. "General Huang, sit a moment longer. I shall send someone again to see if His Majesty is free. His Majesty will receive General Huang in the Orchid Pavilion. I shall not accompany you."

By now, Wei Zhongxian was already confident of victory, so he made a show of magnanimity by not even going to supervise in person. In any case, during the sovereign-minister exchange in the Orchid Pavilion, there would be other young eunuchs present. The Huang Shi before him would surely not be unaware of what was at stake.

Huang Shi, seeing this, hurriedly responded: "Superintendent, please wait a moment."

He did not know whether his own arrival had introduced some variables into the factional struggles of the Great Ming, but the cases of Xiong Tingbi and Fang Zhenru had still not been carried out even now, so Huang Shi could no longer tolerate standing idly by.

Wei Zhongxian raised an eyebrow and asked amiably, "Is there something else, General Huang?"