Chapter 299: Section Fifty-Four: Raging Waves (Part One)

The assembled ministers repeatedly petitioned Prince Xin to ascend the imperial throne. Prince Xin, citing his deep grief over the late emperor’s recent passing and his inability to consider matters of title, politely declined. The ministers then pressed Prince Xin to take the throne on the grounds that the realm cannot be without a sovereign for a single day. Prince Xin, professing his own meager virtue and scant ability, refused the ministers’ nomination a second time. The ministers, declaring that no sage within the four seas surpassed Prince Xin, urged him a third time to ascend the imperial throne. Prince Xin replied that he wished to observe three years of mourning and asked the ministers to raise the matter again after that.

After receiving Prince Xin’s third refusal, the officials of the Six Ministries jointly signed a memorial urging accession, which was presented through the Grand Secretary’s office to Prince Xin’s residence, earnestly beseeching Prince Xin, for the sake of the ancestral altars and the millions of subjects, to leave his princely establishment and inherit the great succession.

At this point, the ritual of three refusals and three deferrals — which every Son of Heaven of Huaxia throughout the dynasties has had to undergo — had been fully completed. Prince Xin accepted the ministers’ memorial urging accession, performed the sacrifices to Heaven, the ancestors, and the Taimiao, and ascended the imperial throne. An edict was proclaimed to the realm, fixing the following year as the first year of the Chongzhen reign.

On the twenty-sixth day of the tenth month of the seventh year of Tianqi — that is, nine days after Emperor Xizong’s passing — Wei Zhongxian, who had once wielded overwhelming power, now seemed to have aged twenty years. Since ancient times, a new sovereign means new ministers. The two eunuchs currently most favored by the Emperor were Cao Huachun and Wang Chengen. Wang Chengen was one thing, but Cao Huachun was a disciple of the great eunuch Wang An — and Wang An had once been Wei Zhongxian’s greatest political enemy, and had also died at Wei Zhongxian’s hands.

Back then, Wang An had been the Inner Chancellor whom the Donglin Party praised with one voice, so Cao Huachun was naturally also a Donglin man. The Emperor’s favor toward this man naturally made Wei Zhongxian secretly sense trouble. After several days of observation, he judged that the new Son of Heaven was exceedingly polite toward him, but far from cordial. Wei Zhongxian had maneuvered through officialdom for many years, and he was confident he still possessed this much discernment.

Wei Zhongxian knew he had offended far too many people over the years. Seeing that the new Emperor no longer trusted him, he could not help but consider a path of retreat. So today, Wei Zhongxian rose early and waited outside Cao Huachun’s door. The moment Cao Huachun opened the door and stepped out, Wei Zhongxian threw himself to his knees: “Eunuch Cao, grant this servant a way to live!”

Cao Huachun was greatly startled by the sight. He stepped aside and hesitated a moment, but still did not move to help Wei Zhongxian up, merely crying out repeatedly: “Nine Thousand Years, this must not be.”

Wei Zhongxian kowtowed several times with resounding thuds and said with earnest emotion: “Eunuch Cao, I beg you to tell His Majesty that this servant is advanced in years. I ask only to leave the palace and return home to spend my remaining years in peace. Beyond this, I have no other request whatsoever.”

Cao Huachun piled a smile onto his face and finally walked over to help Wei Zhongxian to his feet, even brushing the dust from his clothes. Throughout this, Wei Zhongxian stood with lowered head and hands clasped, motionless as a wooden puppet, letting the other do as he pleased.

“Eunuch Wei…”

Upon hearing this form of address, Wei Zhongxian seemed to release a breath, and his rigid shoulders seemed to loosen slightly, but he still waited obediently for Cao Huachun’s next words, like a young schoolboy facing his headmaster.

“His Majesty has been constantly praising Eunuch Wei. When the late Emperor was on his deathbed, he also spoke of Eunuch Wei’s merits and Eunuch Wei’s talents…”

On the eighteenth day of the tenth month, a memorial from the Southwest Regional Commander Zhang Heming entered the capital. The tribes of Shuixi and Yongning had all surrendered. Zhang Heming stated that he believed Heaven cherished all living things, and since the rebel forces had already surrendered, it was inadvisable to carry out further slaughter. At the same time, Zhang Heming also put forward his views on the situation in the southwest. He believed the court should implement gaitu guiliu — replacing native chieftains with rotating officials — in the Shuixi and Yongning regions.

Gaitu guiliu had three very obvious advantages: first, the territory and population under court control would increase, which would naturally raise the fiscal revenues of Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan provinces; second, it would eliminate the separatist power of the minority peoples, so that if unrest arose again in the southwest in the future, the manpower and material resources of the Shuixi and Yongning regions would be used by the court rather than against it; and finally, it would serve as a warning by making an example — if the thousand-year magnate clans like the She and An families were thoroughly uprooted this time, it would certainly greatly overawe the other native chieftains of the southwest.

Zhang Heming declared in his memorial that if gaitu guiliu could be smoothly implemented, it would surely guarantee fifty years without unrest in the southwest, and would extend blessings to later generations, allowing the state to enjoy long-term benefits.

However…

Zhang Heming spoke with firm conviction about the immense difficulty of gaitu guiliu. If this matter were handled with the slightest carelessness, it would not only easily provoke popular uprisings, but would even more easily become a pretext for a minority with ulterior motives to stir up rebellion.

Therefore, Zhang Heming proposed a comprehensive plan of “using barbarians to control barbarians.”

The first step was to execute all members of the chieftain class in Yongning and Shuixi, along with their most trusted kinsmen and sons. These people had all been the backbone of the rebel forces during the She-An Rebellion and had caused the most severe harm, so Zhang Heming advocated killing them all. This would serve both as a deterrent and would deprive the minority peoples of Shuixi and Yongning of potential ringleaders. Zhang Heming had already identified and killed all such people among the captives, and he recommended that the remaining partisans in Shuixi and Yongning be dealt with in the same manner.

The second step was to adopt a policy of conciliation toward the other minority peoples. Zhang Heming said he intended to grant a general amnesty to tens of thousands of captives in order to win their hearts, and would also distribute the lands and property of the executed chieftains equally among them, to demonstrate the court’s magnanimity. Previously, when Zhang Heming killed the chieftains of these two regions, he had also made these captives carry out the executions, and had even organized something called a “denunciation assembly,” digging up all the past deeds of these chieftains in bullying men and violating women. In the end, he had the common people of these two regions kill their own chieftains with their own hands, to prove to the court their repentant hearts and loyalty.

There was nothing improper about the above measures, but the third point Zhang Heming raised was somewhat peculiar. Before discussing the third point, he first discoursed at length on the hostility of the minority peoples toward the Han people. Although the court’s implementation of gaitu guiliu would in fact lighten the burdens of the minority peoples, there would always be those who might accuse this of being Han enslavement of the minorities, so the utmost caution was necessary.

Zhang Heming’s third step was to organize for these minority peoples an election for a native official, letting them elect a provisional native official themselves. The reason it was called a provisional native official was that such an official would have to be re-elected every three years, could not serve consecutive terms, and certainly could not hold the post hereditarily. Zhang Heming suggested maintaining this provisional native official system for a period of time, until Shuixi and Yongning were fully Sinicized and some of their people had passed the examinations to become Licentiates, Provincial Graduates, and Metropolitan Graduates, and had served as circulating officials in other regions. Only then would the court dispatch circulating officials to these two regions to implement direct rule.

As for the advantages of this approach, Zhang Heming also identified three. First, allowing a native official to govern for a period would help dispel the native people’s fear and suspicion of the court, preventing anyone from inciting them to rebellion again. Second, without permanent and hereditary native chieftains, it would be difficult for a core of opposition to the court to form again. Third, the Great Ming could dispatch a type of person called an “observer” to supervise the minority elections, forbidding them from electoral bribery or armed coercion. Finally, after the native official election was completed, it would still need to be reported to the Sichuan and Guizhou Provincial Administration Commissions for approval before taking effect. Zhang Heming believed that in this way, both the minority peoples and the native officials would have something to seek from the Great Ming government, and would thus no longer form a monolithic bloc.

In his memorial, Zhang Heming also suggested establishing two political parties for the native people, letting them compete for the native official post on their own. He had even thought up names for the two parties on behalf of the minorities: one called the “Democracy Party” — since the minority people were no longer slaves of the native chieftains, they were now masters of their own affairs; the other called the “Republic Party” — they would jointly elect and also maintain peace with the Great Ming, which was precisely what “republic” meant.

After reading the memorial, the newly enthroned Emperor pondered it for a long time, then could not help laughing aloud. He repeatedly praised Zhang Heming for his considerable insight, saying these were truly the words of a seasoned statesman planning for the state. He was prepared to approve its implementation, and also intended to bestow three thousand volumes of Confucian classics upon Shuixi, Yongning, and other places, so that the minority peoples of these two regions might produce Licentiates as quickly as possible.

Some in the Grand Secretariat did question Zhang Heming’s method, saying that while such things sounded good, there was after all no precedent. The Great Ming had never had a similar method of governance before. The young Son of Heaven held that these were not grounds for opposition. He declared to his ministers with magnanimity: The Great Ming spans ten thousand li and has hundreds of millions of subjects; customs differ every thousand li. He felt that it was no great matter if methods of governance differed. The state was so vast and the types of minority peoples so numerous that several completely different methods of governance could perfectly well coexist.

With the Emperor’s support, Zhang Heming’s proposal was approved. Hereditary native officials were abolished in Shuixi and Yongning, and the Great Ming Code was henceforth applied universally in both regions.

…

The twentieth day of the tenth month, the seventh year of Tianqi. Yongning. Today, Huang Shi personally led a detachment of guards into the Yongning region. After the Battle of Chishui, at Huang Shi’s strong urging, Zhang Heming had agreed to adopt a policy of conciliation toward Yongning. After Shuixi and Yongning surrendered, Zhang Heming forbade other large Ming forces from entering these two regions, and also gradually released the tens of thousands of captured former rebels.

At Huang Shi’s suggestion, Zhang Heming had also gladly adopted his policy of “using barbarians to control barbarians,” nearly wiping out the native elite class of both regions entirely. Even chieftains who had voluntarily surrendered were shown no leniency; all the crimes they had committed throughout their lives in oppressing their own people were dug up. Then the Ming army had their former enemies carry out the executions, putting all these chieftains to death.

After the Ming army distributed all the land to the native people, the native people seemed to have largely set aside their past hatred. Once the Ming army led them in dividing up the property of the hereditary chieftains and the elite class, the native people’s support for the Ming army essentially reached the level of their former support for the chieftains. Finally, when Zhang Heming announced that Han officials would not be forcibly imposed, the last worry in the native people’s hearts vanished. Since ancient times, a defeated people had never encountered such magnanimous treatment.

Traveling through the Yongning region, Huang Shi sensed that the native people still showed deep fear toward the White Plume soldiers, but to his relief, there was no longer any hatred in their eyes. In the past, when the Ming army fought minority rebels in the southwest, once the rebels were defeated, the Ming army would often enter the minority-populated areas and carry out large-scale massacres, using their heads to exchange for military merits. Therefore, the southwestern minorities either did not rebel, but once they rose up, they would inevitably fight the Ming army to the death, because they were fighting not only for their chieftains, but also for their own lives and the lives of their loved ones.

Huang Shi’s purpose this time was to tell these minority peoples that if the native chieftains rebelled again, it would only be a problem between them and the Great Ming, and had nothing to do with the broad mass of minority people. Huang Shi spurred his horse on at speed, looking around at the faces filled with fear and deference. Many emotions stirred in his heart; he knew that countless among these people were alive because of a single word from him.

Upon reaching the Yongning Guard, Huang Shi met the provisionally appointed native official of Yongning. This man was none other than Luo Meiluo, the elder of the two brothers who had been among the first batch captured by the Firefighting Battalion. With Ming army support, he had turned his coat and personally slaughtered a chieftain who had once violated his sister, thereby winning the Ming army’s trust and being appointed provisional native official. Huang Shi had come here today to inquire whether any Ming troops had violated orders and led soldiers into the Yongning region.

After receiving a negative reply, Huang Shi prepared to take his leave. The Shuixi and Yongning regions were growing increasingly peaceful. Seeing that the Ming army strictly observed military orders and had committed no acts of plunder or slaughter, the native people of these two regions had set their minds at ease. Songs praising the Ming army’s magnanimity had even begun to appear, and quite a few people had requested to set up spirit tablets to pray for blessings for Zhang Heming and Huang Shi.

This truly left Huang Shi not knowing whether to laugh or cry. The demands of these minority peoples were actually so low. Simply refraining from massacring them was enough to earn their gratitude. In the end, Huang Shi also paid out of his own pocket to leave behind some tools for the native people of Yongning and Shuixi. After all, they were facing the arduous task of rebuilding their homes. If these two regions could be thoroughly pacified from this point on, Huang Shi would not need to worry about being dispatched to the southwest on official business again.

“A great malignant sore has been cut out from the body of the Great Ming by us,” Huang Shi remarked with such emotion to He Dingyuan, Jin Qiude, and the others after leaving the Yongning Guard. Having said this, he gazed once more toward the northeast: “But there is an even larger malignant sore waiting for us to cut out.”

…

The fifth day of the eleventh month. Guiyang. After the Battle of Chishui, not only had Shuixi and Yongning surrendered, but the other native chieftains of the southwest had also become extremely docile. As early as a month ago, Huang Shi had proposed to Zhang Heming that he lead his troops back to Funing Garrison. Zhang Heming also felt there was no longer any need to let the Funing army continue wasting provisions here. The rebellion did not look likely to see any major resurgence, and even if there were some minor ripples, the one hundred eighty thousand Ming troops from the four provinces would be more than sufficient to suppress them.

With Zhang Heming’s approval, the Firefighting Battalion had begun boarding ships at the end of last month to sail down the Yangtze and return to Fujian. At the same time, news came from Guangdong that since the second half of this year, pirate forces in Fujian and Guangdong had greatly expanded. Although the government troops had done their utmost to suppress them, the sea routes were now declared impassable. Thus, it was no longer possible for Huang Shi to travel from Guangzhou back to Fujian by sea.

After receiving the Guangdong reports on the pirates, Huang Shi went to see Zhang Heming again. Since the rebellion in the southwest had been settled, he naturally had to hurry back to Fujian as quickly as possible to prepare to deal with the Japanese pirates problem. After all, he was still the Garrison Regional Commander of Fujian. Seeing that the situation in the southwest had grown even more stable in recent days, Zhang Heming could no longer justify keeping Huang Shi there, and so granted him permission to lead his troops away from the southwest.

Since the sea route from Guangdong to Fujian was impassable, Huang Shi had no choice but to have the Boulder and Vanguard Battalions return to Fujian by land. This time, the schedule was more relaxed, so the arrangements could be made more deliberately. Huang Shi had already sent the vanguard out to prepare provisions and fodder. Moreover, with the good reputation the Firefighting Battalion had left behind on its way here, Huang Shi believed he could still purchase enough food.

After this decision was issued, Huang Shi inquired through his Loyalty-to-Sovereign-and-Love-of-Nation Catholic Church about the soldiers’ private reactions. They secretly reported to him that although the officers and men of the Boulder and Vanguard Battalions dared not say it openly, in their hearts they fervently hoped Huang Shi would personally lead them on the march back to Fujian. These two battalions also contained many of Huang Shi’s old subordinates. Although they had been transferred out of the Firefighting Battalion, they did not wish to be seen as no longer part of the innermost core of Huang Shi’s personal troops.

Besides these veterans, the other soldiers of the two battalions also very much hoped that Huang Shi would lead them back just as he had led the Firefighting Battalion here. After all, they did not wish to be regarded as a cut below the Firefighting Battalion. However, although many soldiers in these two battalions harbored such thoughts, they did not hold great expectations, because while they were unwilling to be seen as second-class troops, the seniority of the Firefighting Battalion was an indisputable fact.

This question gave Huang Shi pause for thought. He then wrote a stack of orders and instructions to Funing Garrison. After that, he announced to the officers and men of the Boulder and Vanguard Battalions that he, Huang Shi, would march back to Fujian on foot together with the soldiers of both battalions. In this way, Huang Shi once again won thunderous cheers that shook the heavens. The morale of these two battalions soared, just as it had when the Firefighting Battalion set out from Fujian.

Today they were to set out. Zhang Heming led the civil and military officials of the southwest to see them off. By now, almost none of the Ming generals in the southwest dared to look Huang Shi directly in the face. Even Qin Liangyu, whom Huang Shi secretly admired, was extremely courteous toward Huang Shi. The compliments she offered made Huang Shi suddenly realize that before his own troops, the White Rod Army, which had shaken the realm in his previous life, would also pale considerably.

Zhang Heming escorted Huang Shi for several li, which could be considered giving Huang Shi ample face. Before parting, Huang Shi brought up the old topic again: “Squire Zhang, regarding the Liaodong matter that this junior officer mentioned last time — does Squire Zhang have a plan in mind?”

Ever since the great victory at Chishuihe and the pacification of the southwestern rebellion, Zhang Heming had taken to telling everyone he met the story of how Xiong Tingbi had once called him a blockhead. Now, Zhang Heming could not even be bothered to offer an assessment; each time, he simply narrated this fact plainly and let everyone judge for themselves who between him and Xiong Tingbi was truly the blockhead. It seemed that Zhang Heming had brooded over Xiong Tingbi’s insult for many years, but previously had no way to refute it, so the frustration had festered in his chest until it became a deep-seated grievance.

Seeing Zhang Heming behave this way now, Huang Shi guessed that in his heart he must wish to personally pacify the Liaodong situation. So Huang Shi had casually raised this topic once, and sure enough, Zhang Heming showed great interest and had discussed strategies for pacifying Liao with Huang Shi many times. Huang Shi found that the old man had a good memory. Although Zhang Heming did not openly record Huang Shi’s words, after several conversations he could nearly recite Huang Shi’s plan from memory.

Of course, Huang Shi’s plan did not omit himself. This was precisely his purpose in constantly enticing Zhang Heming to pacify the Liaodong situation. As long as Zhang Heming could refrain from hindering him as he had done this time, Huang Shi was quite confident in dealing with the Later Jin. Dongjiangzhen had a good relationship with Huang Shi, and he also had several old friends in the Guanning Army, so even unified command would not be too difficult.

Moreover, ever since Huang Shi had taken up the defense of Funing Garrison, his resources had become even more ample. Training four battalions — twenty thousand men — next year did not seem to be a major problem. As long as they adopted Huang Shi’s strategy of using the sea as the route, he was very confident he could fight a war of attrition with Hong Taiji on the central Liaodong plains. And once it became a war of attrition, Huang Shi was confident he could drive Hong Taiji back to Jianzhou within three years, and drive them back to Tungus within five years.

Hearing Huang Shi raise this issue again, Zhang Heming was silent for a moment before saying: “In this old man’s view, pacifying the Liaodong situation will require at least six years.”

This timeframe was not something Zhang Heming had come up with on his own; it was essentially the approximate time Huang Shi had mentioned in their conversations. In addition to the five years needed to drive Hong Taiji out of Jianzhou, Zhang Heming had added one year for transferring Huang Shi to Liaodong. He always liked to calculate with the fullest margins, erring on the side of caution in all aspects when assessing the enemy.

“Squire Zhang’s insight is clear. Six years is absolutely without problem, but five years is not entirely impossible…” Huang Shi, fearing that Zhang Heming might come out at a disadvantage in the competition for the assignment, did his utmost to promote his “Pacify Liao in Five Years” strategy. Huang Shi said he believed the biggest problem was attacking cities, but since there were several million in provisions and pay each year, logistics should not be a major issue: “His Majesty is wise. If Squire Zhang needs more provisions, pay, and cannons to pacify Liao, this junior officer believes His Majesty will certainly support Squire Zhang.”

“Speak with caution, speak with caution.” Zhang Heming chuckled dismissively and said with earnest gravity: “Three million in Liaodong military tax is already a great burden on the state. And there is also grain, armor, cannons, and fortresses — all of these cost money. The state’s revenues and expenditures have their limits. Seeking quick success and instant benefits is the most unacceptable thing.”

“This old man has heard of your family circumstances, Huang Shi, and knows that you bear an irreconcilable blood feud with the Jian slaves. If His Majesty truly consults this old man’s opinion, this old man will certainly recommend you. But this is still an unknown. You should set your mind at ease and go pacify the Japanese pirates in the Min Sea. Otherwise, even if the time comes to transfer you to Liaodong, you would not be able to be transferred out.”

“Squire Zhang’s instruction is correct. This junior officer was rash. This junior officer takes his leave.”

“Take care on the journey.”

“Yes. Squire Zhang, set your mind at ease.”

…

After the Ning-Jin campaign, the head of the great eunuch faction, Yan Mingtai, ordered the abandonment of Jinzhou. He believed that if there was no force daring to relieve a siege, then stubbornly holding a fortress was utterly meaningless; and if there was no force daring to attack, then building forward bases was likewise utterly impossible to have any meaning.

After abandoning Jinzhou, the Liaodong Regional Military Commission could save over one million taels of silver annually. Since the Ning-Jin battle, the eunuch faction had become thoroughly disheartened and disappointed with the Guan-Ning Army of Liaozhen. So Yan Mingtai ordered a re-audit of Dongjiangzhen's troop strength and promptly raised the authorized force size from twenty-four thousand to thirty-six thousand. The annual military pay Dongjiangzhen could receive also rose from two hundred thousand to three hundred thousand, and the rice allowance was doubled.

Likewise, after the Ning-Jin campaign, the Later Jin intensified their offensive against Liaonan and reoccupied the city of Haizhou. But after receiving increased central support, Dongjiangzhen's combat effectiveness also grew. In the eleventh month of the seventh year, Mao Wenlong launched a counteroffensive in the Haizhou direction and quickly fought his way to the walls of Haizhou.

In mid-eleventh month of the seventh year of Tianqi, at the cost of the lives of a large number of officers and men, including General Zhang Pan, the city wall the Later Jin army had just repaired was once again breached with a large gap. However, a portion of the garrison managed to flee in time through the north gate before the Ming army swarmed into the city.

Bai Youcai and the Sun brothers stood beneath the city wall, watching their grey-haired Grand Commander personally raise a red flag and climb onto the battlements, waving it fiercely at them: "Long live the Great Ming!"

"Our Dongjiang Army is mighty!"

After capturing Haizhou, Mao Wenlong immediately dispatched men to occupy it and began establishing military farms around Gaizhou. In Huang Shi's original history, the recovery of Haizhou marked the peak of Dongjiangzhen's controlled territory, and the Great Ming court began seriously considering relocating Mao Wenlong's command to Gaizhou.

Mao Wenlong's act of recovering Haizhou and stationing troops in the city not only marked the complete bankruptcy of the Later Jin's attempt to crush Dongjiangzhen through the Korean campaign, but also signified that Dongjiangzhen was finally beginning to attempt frontal combat with the Later Jin army on the Liaozhong plains. In this timeline, Huang Shi, that intruder, arrived in Liaodong and then subsequently left, but Dongjiangzhen still tenaciously took this step.

At General Zhang Pan's funeral, Mao Wenlong, impassioned, shouted to his impoverished soldiers: "Sons of Liaodong, our descendants will remember: there was once a ragged army, there was once a starving army. Though they suffered from cold and hunger, they still reclaimed their ancestral land from the barbarians, and they ultimately achieved final victory!"

……

At the end of the eleventh month, the impeachment of Wei Zhongxian by court censors grew increasingly fierce. Wei Zhongxian submitted a memorial begging to retire and return to his hometown. The Son of Heaven decreed: "Not permitted," and instead ordered Wei Zhongxian to go to Fengyang to guard the imperial tombs.

Wei Zhongxian was overjoyed upon hearing this, believing his life was spared. He hastily packed his bags and set out overnight for Fengyang…

On the fifth day of the twelfth month of the seventh year of Tianqi, at the You Family Inn at the southern gate of Fucheng, Wei Zhongxian, having traveled all day, asked the innkeeper to prepare a basin of foot-washing water. After the hot water was brought, he impatiently prepared to put his feet in. At that very moment, Li Chaoqin suddenly pushed the door open, holding a letter in his hand: "Eunuch Wei, a letter has come from the capital."

Wei Zhongxian glanced at the flustered look on Li Chaoqin's face, lowered his head, and placed his feet into the foot basin. He then let out a satisfied sigh. He rested with his eyes closed for a moment before slowly saying, "Read it."

The letter was from Li Yongzhen. Recently, the Donglin Party had impeached Wei Zhongxian for secretly harboring assassins on the road to Fengyang with intent to rebel. The Son of Heaven had already ordered the Embroidered Uniform Guard to leave the capital to arrest him. In the letter, Li Yongzhen urged Wei Zhongxian to make plans early.

Wei Zhongxian sneered upon hearing this, shaking his head repeatedly and sighing: "The Donglin Party, ah, the Donglin Party. I have seen far too many incompetent people, but to be as incompetent as you lot is truly rare. For over a decade, you haven't even changed the charges you frame people with — it's always rebellion and nothing but rebellion. Sigh, in these past two years when I've dealt with people, the charges were never the same. Have you lived all these years for nothing but the dogs?"

"Eunuch Wei!"

Hearing this urgent cry, Wei Zhongxian looked up at Li Chaoqin beside him and sneered again: "Did I say anything wrong? The Palace Attack Case: the Donglin Party said Imperial Consort Zheng brought a madman with a stick to commit rebellion. The Red Pill Case: the Donglin Party said Senior Grand Secretary Fang presented poison to Emperor Zhen, conspiring with Imperial Consort Zheng and Li Xuanshi to rebel. The Palace Removal Case: the Donglin Party said Li Xuanshi, holding Princess Le'an, was rebelling. And now, I, an old eunuch, traveling to Fengyang with a few servants — haha, and I'm rebelling too!"

Li Chaoqin, having listened to Wei Zhongxian ramble on without touching the main point, could not help but call out a third time: "Eunuch Wei!"

"Bring wine! Tonight, we drink until we drop!" Wei Zhongxian bellowed, and then burst into loud laughter.

At the fourth watch before dawn on the sixth day, before drinking, Wei Zhongxian had told Li Chaoqin to hang a rope for him from the roof beam. But Li Chaoqin had actually hung two. Wei Zhongxian looked at the two nooses hanging side by side, smiled bitterly and shook his head a few times, then beckoned Li Chaoqin to sit and drink with him. By now, both Wei Zhongxian and Li Chaoqin were dead drunk.

"In the past, I took quite a bit of money behind the late Emperor's back, but the late Emperor never held it against me. Even if he knew, he would just laugh it off. Eunuch Cao once told me that before the late Emperor passed away, he even mentioned me to His Majesty. Sigh…" Wei Zhongxian sighed and raised his wine cup again, his face showing the nostalgic devotion of a loyal hound: "Whenever I think of this, I always hoped to serve His Majesty with all my might, to repay the late Emperor's profound grace."

"The Donglin Party says that if I am dismissed and the ancestral system restored, the natural disasters will pass and the Great Ming will enjoy favorable weather. Hmm, this life of mine was originally given by the late Emperor. If that were truly the case, then my death would be worth it. Heh heh, but if the disasters remain, can His Majesty really rely on the Donglin Party to govern the country?"

Wei Zhongxian drained his cup in one gulp, grinned and exclaimed "Excellent!", then grew emotional again: "His Majesty is still too young, born deep within the palace, raised behind high walls. Sigh, His Majesty simply does not know just how treacherous the hearts of men in this world can be."

"How can His Majesty trust the Donglin Party? …Forget it, forget it." Wei Zhongxian had grumbled all night and felt he was being too much of a nagging old woman. He staggered to his feet, dragging a stool toward the noose. Wei Zhongxian stumbled over to the noose, drunkenly trying to climb onto the stool. Li Chaoqin, reeking of alcohol, came over to help Wei Zhongxian up, assisting him onto the stool.

"Thank you." Wei Zhongxian said softly. He knelt on the stool, reached up, and firmly grasped the noose, pulling himself upright.

"Late… Your Majesty, your humble servant comes." After slipping his neck into the noose, Wei Zhongxian murmured, preparing to kick the stool away. But just as he closed his eyes, he suddenly seemed to remember something important. He hurriedly opened his eyes again and pulled his neck out of the noose.

By now, Li Chaoqin had also dragged his own stool over and was unsteadily climbing onto it. Wei Zhongxian turned his head and loudly said to him once more: "Thank you."

Then Wei Zhongxian turned his head back, pulled the noose over his neck a second time, and closed his eyes…

On the sixth day of the twelfth month of the seventh year of Tianqi, Wei Zhongxian hanged himself in Fucheng. After he was hastily buried by his followers, at the demand of the Donglin Party, the Son of Heaven ordered Wei Zhongxian's body to be dug up again, subjected to the death of a thousand cuts for the crime of rebellion, and his head displayed to the public.

……

At the end of the twelfth month of the seventh year of Tianqi, after purging the eunuch faction, the young Son of Heaven formed a brand-new Donglin Party cabinet. The Donglin cabinet then suggested to the Emperor that the Eastern Depot, that secret police agency, should be abolished, because such surveillance was an insult to the Donglin gentlemen. The youthful emperor trusted the moral integrity of the Donglin gentlemen deeply. He fully believed that even without anyone watching them, the civil officials would not embezzle state funds and would do their utmost to perform their duties. So the Emperor gladly approved the cabinet's suggestion and disbanded the Great Ming's national security bureau.

The young man, determined to be a sovereign like Yao and Shun, after disbanding the Eastern Depot, further inquired of his ministers how they should cooperate with one another to realize his ambition of restoring the Great Ming. The Donglin gentlemen believed the Emperor should also abolish other surveillance agencies deployed in various regions, such as the river course supervisors in each province.

The Jiajing Emperor liked to send eunuchs to supervise river management. Because floods were repeatedly managed yet repeatedly struck, Jiajing uncharitably suspected that the civil officials below were embezzling the river management funds. But lacking evidence, he simply dispatched eunuchs to supervise the water control. This distrust was bitterly resented by the civil officials and was successfully abolished during the Longqing reign.

The Wanli Emperor was nothing like his weak father, but rather resembled his uncharitable grandfather. So after Wanli took personal rule, he not only re-dispatched eunuchs to supervise water control but greatly strengthened it, decreeing that all water control funds must be reviewed by eunuchs. In the past, when floods occurred, the Emperor had no way to deal with the civil officials, but he had plenty of ways to deal with eunuchs. Wanli stipulated that if a flood occurred, he would execute the supervising eunuch without asking any questions.

Although this practice was utterly unreasonable, it greatly stimulated the work enthusiasm of the river course supervisors. During the Wanli reign, when spring floods and autumn torrents came, many chief eunuch supervisors of river courses would even move to live on the river embankments. Despite this, many eunuchs still died under this brutal law of Wanli's. Therefore, the civil officials hated Wanli's evil law even more than they hated the Jiajing Emperor.

After the Donglin Party took power in the Tianqi reign, they once again recalled the river course eunuchs. From the first year of Tianqi to the sixth year, before Wei Zhongxian took power, the Donglin gentlemen did not repair a single river course nationwide. Now that the Son of Heaven was consulting them, the Donglin cabinet immediately cited the river course supervisors as an evil policy of Wei Zhongxian.

Since this law was enacted after Wei Zhongxian framed the Donglin gentlemen, the young Son of Heaven agreed it must be an evil rule. He believed that insulting the virtue of the Donglin gentlemen was destroying the harmony and trust between ruler and minister. So the Son of Heaven again gladly ordered the recall of all river course supervising eunuchs nationwide.

In Huang Shi's previous life, after Chongzhen recalled the river course supervising eunuchs, until Li Zicheng breached Beijing, the entire Great Ming never again repaired a single river or managed a single flood in seventeen years — whether the Yellow River or the Yangtze, whether Shandong or Zhejiang. In those seventeen years, the rivers were allowed to flood time and again. Each time, the Donglin gentlemen used the pretext of "economy" to make the river repair and water control funds disappear.

The Donglin cabinet and the Donglin Party members in and out of court hailed the Son of Heaven's wise decision with cries of "Long live!" Subsequently, the cabinet proposed a comprehensive tax reduction plan. They believed the natural disasters were mainly brought about by Wanli's reckless tax collection, and now was the time to set things right. So they suggested to the Son of Heaven a general tax reduction to please Heaven above, thereby ensuring favorable weather throughout the Great Ming.

After the Son of Heaven agreed, the first tax the Donglin gentlemen proposed to abolish was the tea tax. In the past, the Wanli Emperor did not trust the civil officials and sent supervising eunuchs to inspect the tea plantations in each province. This was, of course, a great evil policy. The Donglin gentlemen would never embezzle state tax funds. The Son of Heaven thus recalled the supervising eunuchs from each provincial administration commission. Naturally, from then on, tea tax revenues from each province plummeted sharply. Civil officials reported disasters year after year, and the tea harvest failed annually. By the tenth year of Chongzhen, in Zhejiang Province alone, the tea tax had dropped from two hundred thousand taels of silver during the Wanli and Tianqi reigns to just twelve taels of silver per year!

Next was the maritime tax. The Ming civil officials had always had countless ties with local maritime merchants. They proposed to the Emperor that the "maritime ban" should be restored. The Wanli Emperor's lifting of the maritime ban and sending eunuchs to collect taxes was a serious violation of the ancestral system, a great evil policy, and the subsequent continuous natural disasters also proved the extreme injustice of collecting maritime taxes. The Son of Heaven once again endorsed the Donglin cabinet's judgment and ordered the eunuchs at all maritime customs stations to return to the palace.

Since the Wanli Emperor promoted maritime trade, customs duties had been a major pillar of the Great Ming's finances and an important source of the inner treasury. By the fortieth year of Wanli, the Wanli Emperor was receiving four million taels of silver annually in maritime taxes. From the first year of Chongzhen, after the maritime customs duties were abolished in the name of restoring the maritime ban, the inner treasury could no longer receive a single tael of silver from the nation's increasingly prosperous maritime trade.

Then there was the silk tax. Wanli believed that if merchants sold silk and woven fabrics, they must be making money, so he levied industrial and commercial taxes. The Donglin gentlemen called this "the Son of Heaven contending for profit with the common people," one of the causes attracting natural disasters. This tax exemption plan naturally had to abolish it as well. Chongzhen expressed his approval.

There was also the cloth tax. As in the Tang and Song dynasties, the Ming originally stipulated the colors of clothing that commoners and officials of various ranks could use. For example, bright yellow was originally the Emperor's color, and bright red was clothing that high officials could wear. After the shameless, money-grubbing Wanli Emperor took personal rule, in order to collect more taxes, he relaxed the restrictions on commoners' clothing. Soon, within the Great Ming, a phenomenon emerged where commoners competed with officials in sartorial splendor.

At the time, officials who felt that all decorum had been swept away protested to Wanli and questioned the Emperor: if he now disregarded the dignity of officials and messed around like this, what should be done the day a commoner wore yellow clothing? As a result, Wanli replied that as long as the cloth merchants were willing to pay taxes, he felt that selling yellow cloth was not out of the question either… The Great Ming's ministers were thus once again defeated by the Emperor's shamelessness.

After abolishing various taxes that "contended for profit with the people" and violated the ancestral system, as demanded by the civil officials, the newly enthroned Emperor once again enjoyed high praise that his grandfather, father, and elder brother had never enjoyed. The Donglin gentlemen in and out of court unanimously acclaimed this young Son of Heaven as the undisputed lord of the Great Ming's restoration, and assured him that, based on the principle of heavenly-human resonance, the Great Ming would soon enjoy favorable weather, a prosperous country, and a peaceful people.

Having so easily obtained the fine reputation of a Yao or Shun, the young Son of Heaven, in his satisfaction, resolved to pay some attention to the Great Ming's national defense. The She-An Rebellion in the southwest had largely been pacified, making the unrest in Liaodong particularly conspicuous.

After eliminating the thoroughly purged members of the eunuch faction, there seemed to be two candidates for Regional Commander to consider. Both were civil officials and both had experience leading armies.

"Send an edict summoning Zhang Heming and Yuan Chonghuan to the capital."