Chapter 217: Section Thirty-Three: Juehua (Middle)

"Lord Factory Director, your insight is keen; this humble general merely offers a simple thought."

After arriving in the Ming dynasty, what Huang Shi found most intolerable was this cruel system of collective punishment, where one person's crime implicated the entire family, often dragging dozens or even hundreds of relatives into disaster. This time the imperial court's mass prosecution swept up a vast number of people, and the girls confiscated and taken into official custody numbered in the hundreds. Under the Ming system of official sale, they would all be sold into brothels and registered under the courtesan household registry from then on.

Huang Shi asked, "This humble general hopes that Miss Fang is among them."

Upon hearing this, Wei Zhongxian's eyes shifted a few more times, and a hint of displeasure seemed to surface on his face.

Huang Shi knew what Wei Zhongxian was thinking. He must be wondering why Huang Shi would go through such an enormous circle just to help Fang Zhenru. So Huang Shi put on a solemn expression and said, "Lord Factory Director, though this humble general is dull-witted, I deeply understand that a frontier commander must not form ties with court officials. Moreover, the court has its own laws and statutes; whatever crime Lord Fang deserves, it is not for this humble general to interfere."

"Mm, well said, General Huang."

Seeing that Huang Shi was not going to interfere with his killing the chicken to warn the monkeys, Wei Zhongxian was naturally quite pleased. Whether the official sale was handled openly or through backroom deals did not matter to Wei Zhongxian; as long as the court officials saw these bloody examples, as long as no more censors foolishly came forward to impeach him, that was enough. Of course, Huang Shi's stance also carried meaning: Wei Zhongxian understood that Huang Shi was not an ungrateful man. He decided not to immediately crush Fang Zhenru; after all, this minor official was not a particularly conspicuous figure.

Huang Shi probed further, "These convicted women are all currently in the imperial prison, correct?"

"Yes," Wei Zhongxian pondered for a moment. He slapped his hand heavily on his thigh. "I think we shall do it this way: once the verdict is set, I will send someone to notify General Huang. General Huang will dispatch a trusted man to receive them, and then they will be sent directly to Changsheng Island. What does General Huang think?"

Although there were female criminals in the Ming dynasty, such offenders were generally not thrown into women's prisons. The first reason, of course, was that women's social status at the time was relatively low; in the Ming dynasty, women were considered the property of men. So if a woman committed a crime, even a relatively serious one like brawling or injuring someone to the point of disability, the officials would drag her father or husband out to be beaten with the plank, then order the offender's father and husband to go home and discipline her strictly. As for how the innocent husband, having inexplicably taken several dozen heavy blows, would go home and teach his trouble-making wife a lesson — well, "even an honest official cannot settle family affairs."

But there was another reason as well: female criminals in this era simply could not obtain even the most basic guarantee of safety. In this era, there was no such thing as a female constable. All public functionaries were male, and many were ruffians from the lowest rungs of society. Therefore, if a woman was detained in a jail cell, it would undoubtedly affect her future reputation.

And in fact, the prison guards were also very rough with female convicts. In the Ming dynasty, if a woman entered a prison, it generally meant either that she would never have the chance to leave again (certainly for serious crimes like murder, with the evidence being quite conclusive), or that there was simply no one left to protect her (for example, if she had a husband, the man should have been the one to take the beating and sit in the prison on his wife's behalf). In most parts of the Ming dynasty, the women's prison was a brothel run by the head jailer, which was also one of the traditional sources of gray income for ancient jailers.

Before the verdict in this mass prosecution was finalized, Wei Zhongxian had held these female convicts in the imperial prison of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. The Embroidered Uniform Guard knew full well how deep and murky the waters were here, so naturally they dared not be negligent. But once the women were sent to ordinary women's prisons to await official sale, Huang Shi could not guarantee whether they would be mistreated.

After hearing Wei Zhongxian agree to let him send his own men to receive them, Huang Shi hastily thanked the Director of the Eastern Depot. He had long since devised a plan to use these literate women to establish a small school, to help the officers under his command learn to read and recognize characters. Besides, after this New Year, the Company Commander and Squad Commander-level officers under Huang Shi would be able to marry, and this batch of well-bred young ladies had arrived at just the right time.

Privately, Huang Shi had another thought: after the Tianqi Emperor passed away and Wei Zhongxian fell from power, this batch of women might even become a kind of political resource. With the officers of Changsheng Island pulling together such a network of relatives, there would certainly never be any problem with military pay again. The families of these women would also remember the kindness of Changsheng Island and Huang Shi. Wei Zhongxian surely never imagined that their brothers and fathers might one day be reinstated. Huang Shi could not afford to hang himself on the single tree of the Eunuch Party.

Furthermore, Huang Shi had also heard that Wei Zhongxian had already internally decided Xiong Tingbi's sentence and was just waiting for the Emperor to mark the execution order. So he again approached the topic through indirect hints. Xiong Tingbi was probably the most unfortunate man in the struggle between the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party; both parties were eager to put him to death as quickly as possible. This time, Wei Zhongxian had sentenced Xiong Tingbi to the punishment of having his head paraded through the Nine Frontier Garrisons, and also accused him of embezzling four hundred thousand taels of silver. Because Wei Zhongxian had only confiscated one hundred eighty thousand taels, the unmarried Miss Xiong should, at this moment, also be in the imperial prison, waiting for Huang Shi to transport her to Changsheng Island.

"Lord Factory Director, this humble general wishes to meet Xiong Tingbi once. I wonder if it would be appropriate to request this from His Majesty. What does Lord Factory Director think?" After probing for a while, Huang Shi directly asked Wei Zhongxian whether he would agree to let him visit Xiong Tingbi.

"General Huang wishes to see Xiong Tingbi?" Wei Zhongxian was startled upon hearing this request from Huang Shi, but his face still showed not the slightest abnormality or shock. "What does General Huang want to see him for?"

"Lord Factory Director, your insight is keen. This humble general has some military matters to consult Xiong Tingbi about." Huang Shi knew that everyone held Xiong Tingbi's ability in very high regard. Even when the Donglin Party sentenced Xiong Tingbi to death, they admitted that Xiong Tingbi was the man of whom it was said, "When he is in Liao, Liao survives; when he leaves Liao, Liao perishes." So Huang Shi told Wei Zhongxian that he had questions concerning the terrain, geography, and hydrology of central Liaodong that he needed to ask Xiong Tingbi. In addition, he also wanted to ask Xiong Tingbi what problems he saw with his troop training and marching.

"This humble general also feels that it is improper for a frontier commander to meet a convict alone, so I earnestly request that Lord Factory Director dispatch a few men from the Embroidered Uniform Guard to accompany me. Should anyone in the future frame this humble general for colluding in secret with the convict Xiong, there will at least be witnesses." Huang Shi, fearing that Wei Zhongxian might think he had some other ulterior motive, immediately proposed that Wei Zhongxian send spies to accompany him... As for exactly how to extract information from Xiong Tingbi, Huang Shi naturally had his own calculations.

Unexpectedly, Wei Zhongxian was not the least bit worried about what might happen between Huang Shi and Xiong Tingbi. If one had to trace the political origins of Mao Wenlong and Xiong Tingbi, both men were pure, red-rooted, orthodox Donglin Party members... Of course, now that Wang Huazhen had switched sides, their party affiliation had become somewhat disputed, and for the time being they could be considered independents. Moreover, Wei Zhongxian felt that Huang Shi seemed to be relatively close to Sun Chengzong. He had always worried that Huang Shi might, under Fang Zhenru's influence, jump from a neutral position over to the Donglin side. But now it appeared that Huang Shi was clearly not the kind of political idiot that Mao Wenlong was, so Wei Zhongxian already regarded Huang Shi as half one of his own.

And the even bigger political idiot, Xiong Tingbi, had now become a stray dog. Fang Congzhe, who had once vigorously defended Xiong Tingbi, had been branded by the Donglin Party as the leader of the "Evil Party." They also claimed that Fang Congzhe was the murderer who poisoned the Tianqi Emperor's father, the Taichang Emperor, charging him with ten great crimes and three capital offenses, and nearly convicted Fang Congzhe's entire faction of high treason. So now, Fang Congzhe's followers were all die-hard supporters of Wei Zhongxian. And the Donglin Party would not say a single good word for Xiong Tingbi either. After Wei Zhongxian sentenced Xiong Tingbi to the severe punishment of having his head paraded through the Nine Frontier Garrisons, the Donglin Party, which shared a blood feud with Wei Zhongxian, still cried out, "Not having Xiong Tingbi sliced to death is really letting him off too lightly!"

As a military commander, it seemed quite reasonable for Huang Shi to want to ask Xiong Tingbi, that old hand at military affairs, some questions about Liaodong. At the very least, Wei Zhongxian did not believe that Huang Shi would help Xiong Tingbi in any way — there was neither friendship nor benefit to be had; what would Huang Shi be after?

"General Huang may go and see Xiong Tingbi off. There is no need to trouble His Majesty with this matter; I will arrange it." Wei Zhongxian gave a cold, sinister smile. In his plan, finishing off Xiong Tingbi was a matter of just these next couple of days. "However, Xiong Tingbi's big mouth is famously foul and stubborn. Now more than ever, he has nothing left and fears nothing. Is General Huang confident he can make him talk?"

Huang Shi habitually shrugged his shoulders. "This humble general will tell Xiong Tingbi that if he speaks properly with me, I will find a good family for his daughter to marry into."