Chapter 154: Heaven's Reckoning

Hearing Chen Qiyu's question, Liang Qi replied with a wry smile: "I'm just a rough man, and this is the first time I've encountered such a major matter. Right now I truly have no idea what to do. By my nature, I feel that if we arrest those behind the scenes and then capture the ringleaders stirring up trouble, this affair ought to be suppressed. But upon careful reflection, I fear that heavy-handed pressure might trigger an even greater disturbance. I'm at a loss, my mind in a turmoil with no plan. Right now in the Yangzhou and Huai'an area, only you, Governor Chen, hold high position and great authority, with far-reaching wisdom, so I've come especially to discuss with you how to handle this matter!"

Chen Qiyu sighed: "I have been ordered to serve as Governor of Fengyang and Superintendent of Grain Transport. I worry day and night over my duties, and being utterly exhausted in mind and body, I have no strength left for other concerns. Moreover, should anything untoward happen, that would be the responsibility of the two prefectures of Yangzhou and Huai'an as well as the gentlemen of Nanjing. How could I overstep my authority to meddle in civil affairs? Centurion Liang comes from the imperial guard; in my view, you too have no authority to interfere in local civil matters. Let me offer you a word of advice—Centurion Liang had best withdraw from this affair and not involve yourself!"

Liang Qi replied with dissatisfaction: "I do not agree with what you say, Governor! I am of the Son of Heaven's own guard; investigating civil affairs to serve as His Majesty's eyes and ears is our very duty. How could I sit idly by while calamity befalls the Great Ming? You, Governor Chen, are a regional governor of high rank, with your yamen in Huai'an, bearing the responsibility of pacifying the army and the people. If Yangzhou is thrown into turmoil, Huai'an cannot remain stable either. A popular uprising touches upon the safety of grain transport—you, Governor, naturally have the authority to handle this matter! At a moment of crisis, how can you stand aloof? When the court investigates afterward, what future will you or I have?"

Chen Qiyu had originally wanted to make things difficult for Liang Qi, hoping he would soften and plead, whereupon he could mock him a few times before offering a plan—it would also vent some of the frustration of having been locked in the Imperial Prison. But Liang Qi would not yield an inch, making clear that if a popular revolt truly broke out, both he and Chen Qiyu would be implicated, and it would directly affect their future official careers.

Things having come to this, Chen Qiyu could no longer put on airs. In his view, this was hardly a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering affair—wasn't it just someone trying to stir up trouble to squeeze the court?

So he spoke up: "Centurion Liang, do not be anxious. In my view, to handle this matter properly, we must proceed on multiple fronts!"

Liang Qi promptly sat up straight, waiting to hear what brilliant plan Chen Qiyu had to resolve the crisis.

Chen Qiyu waved his hand, and Chen Qizhi at his side, understanding the signal, withdrew with the page boy, leaving only Chen and Liang in the room.

"I believe the first thing to do is report this matter to the court," said Chen Qiyu. "Whether or not the court's reply arrives in time, we must ensure that His Majesty and the ministers at court know the full story of this affair, lest even after the crisis is settled, the officials in charge are branded as having acted arbitrarily!"

Liang Qi nodded in agreement.

This was only proper—the Son of Heaven and the court were the head of the Great Ming. Local officials were merely the limbs. What limb acts on its own without the head's consent? Do you still have the Emperor and the court in your heart?

Although in terms of time, reporting to the capital would be far too late, at least you made the gesture. The court would know that under urgent circumstances, local officials had no choice but to respond accordingly.

Attitude was the key—submitting a report was the best way. Attitude mattered greatly.

Chen Qiyu continued: "Second, we must quickly notify the chief officials of Yangzhou and Huai'an prefectures. The incident occurred within their jurisdictions; the local government must bear responsibility that cannot be shirked!"

Liang Qi disagreed with this point. He was skeptical whether the local government could control the situation. As far as he knew, the salt merchants had extremely deep ties with the local authorities. If a revolt broke out, who knew what role the government might play in it.

He questioned: "The two prefectures are deeply entangled with the salt merchants behind this. If we notify them in advance, wouldn't that alert those who masterminded the plot?"

Chen Qiyu glanced at him, thinking to himself: With a brain like that, how did you ever become a Centurion?

He said calmly: "That is precisely the point—to let them know the court is already aware of this. If they rein in before going over the cliff, it's not too late. But if they persist in going their own way, the consequences will be more than they can bear!"

Liang Qi quickly interjected: "So you mean to use this to dissolve the crisis before it takes shape, Governor? If no revolt actually breaks out, that would be wonderful! But if they insist on going through with it, then what?"

Chen Qiyu smiled and said: "Once the warning has been issued, if they still stir up trouble, then whatever means the court employs will be fully justified! This is what is meant by 'forewarned is forearmed'!"

Liang Qi said with dissatisfaction: "I understand your meaning, sir—next comes the army suppressing them by force! Since you have troops in hand, why bother with a warning? Just push straight in when the time comes!"

Chen Qiyu shook his head: "How can the court act willfully and recklessly? In all matters one must uphold righteousness and legitimacy! One must observe rules and decorum! This is precisely why the realm is governed by literati—were it left to men of arms, they would meet every situation with brute force and hot blood, crude and violent. How could the common people of the realm feel at ease?"

Liang Qi turned his head away. Though he did not voice a rebuttal, his posture made clear he did not agree with Chen Qiyu's words.

Chen Qiyu ignored him and continued: "The court has dispatched the Fengyang Guard and the Xuzhou Battalion to Jianghuai precisely to prevent this sort of incident. I had thought it an unnecessary measure, but it turns out it will have its use. Starting tomorrow, I ask Centurion Liang to go to Yangzhou and secretly begin gathering evidence against those behind the plot. I will lead the Xuzhou Battalion toward Yangzhou. When the disturbance erupts, the Xuzhou Battalion will enter the city to maintain order. If anyone takes the opportunity to cause trouble, military law will be applied!"

Upon returning to the inn, Liang Qi immediately dispatched two mounted agents to take a boat back to the capital that very night, to report the matter to Luo Yangxing and await the Emperor's decree.

Chen Qiyu, for his part, submitted a memorial to the court the next day, then began requisitioning boats and grain, ready at any moment to lead the Xuzhou Battalion toward Yangzhou.

In his heart, he could hardly wait for those salt merchants to blow the matter up—then he could legitimately lead troops to suppress the revolt and claim great merit.

Though he was a civil official, Chen Qiyu, with a steel blade in hand, preferred to win merit and rewards through simple, crude methods.

As for his expressed disdain for the ways of military men during his talk with Liang Qi—that was just talk. Literati, after all, always say one thing and do another. If you believed them, it only meant your intelligence was too low.

As for the poor reviews from the scholar-official class after a military suppression, Chen Qiyu couldn't care less.

If public opinion actually worked, Wen Tiren would have been driven from office long ago.

Ten thousand words of praise from the scholar class couldn't match a single word from the Emperor. This realm belonged to the Zhu family, not to everyone.

In the art of officialdom, one must not care too much about the opinions of those below. Only the words of those with the power to decide truly mattered.

After two days of busy preparation, everything was in order. Just as Chen Qiyu was about to lead his forces to Yangzhou, several Embroidered Uniform Guard officers arrived at the Governor-General's yamen for Grain Transport. Finding Chen Qiyu, they informed him that the imperial commissioner, Right Censor-in-Chief Shi Bangyao, had already arrived in Yangzhou, and requested that Chen Qiyu proceed immediately to the Yangzhou prefectural yamen to discuss official business.

The two mounted agents of the Northern Provost Office who had returned to the capital by fast boat happened to encounter Shi Bangyao's fleet when they reached the Linqing section of the Grand Canal. After making contact with the Embroidered Uniform Guard escorting the fleet, the two agents were brought aboard Shi Bangyao's vessel and reported the planned instigation of a popular revolt in Yangzhou and Huai'an to the imperial commissioner.

After hearing the agents' brief report, Shi Bangyao—who had originally planned to stop at Huai'an Prefecture and meet with Chen Qiyu first—feared a revolt might break out at any moment and immediately ordered the fleet to speed up, heading straight for Yangzhou.

In this regard, he did not see things as clearly as Chen Qiyu.

In the Great Ming, where communications and information were both extremely backward, organizing a large-scale popular revolt was hardly so easy.

The main force of this planned revolt was, after all, the several hundred thousand salt-boiler households from the thirty-odd salt fields of the Two Huai region.

But sending someone to notify every salt field was impossible. The salt fields were spread along a coastline several hundred li long. Just making the trip, gathering up the salt-boilers, and returning to Yangzhou—how many days would that take? The salt-boilers were not an army that could strike camp and march on command. They were ordinary folk—what organizational capacity did they have? If one truly wanted more people to participate, managing to gather them within a month would already be good.

Cheng Fang and the others were, of course, well aware of these details, so they only sent people to notify the salt-boilers of a few salt fields near Yangzhou and Huai'an, telling them to hurry to Yangzhou Prefecture to assemble. The pretext was that the court had openly permitted private salt to pass through the region, snatching the livelihood of the Two Huai salt-boilers.

This pretext was quite compelling. The salt-boilers, whose recently produced salt had been piling up in large quantities and who had been baffled by the situation, finally understood after the salt merchants' men explained—someone had come to take the food from their mouths.

With passions running high, nearly ten thousand salt-boilers set out from their various salt fields in a great commotion, heading for Yangzhou Prefecture.

The salt merchants naturally could not provide large-scale transportation in such a short time. These several thousand people either pooled together to hire boats, or several families who knew each other drove ox-carts, or groups of dozens to a hundred traveled on foot—all making their way to Yangzhou Prefecture in utter disorder.

Chen Qiyu had long since calculated that this rabble would need at least five to seven days to assemble. If Liang Qi were smarter, he would arrest the salt merchants behind the plot before the mob gathered. Even if these people did reach Yangzhou, without their ringleaders, what could they possibly accomplish?

But he simply did not want to guide Liang Qi. He hated the Embroidered Uniform Guard to the bone—how could he give these treacherous scoundrels a chance to earn merit?

He was now waiting for these people to assemble fully—that was when his opportunity to build merit would come.

Positions at court required the accumulation of merit. Continuous achievement was the best way to display one's ability and make the Emperor recognize oneself.

But the notification from the Embroidered Uniform Guard officers today infuriated Chen Qiyu.

This damned Shi Bangyao—why the hell were you in such a hurry to get here?

Chen Qiyu understood these high ministers thoroughly. When faced with such major incidents, the first thing they thought of was to paper over the cracks, finally trading compromise and concession for the quelling of the affair. In return, they would receive a flood of praise from court officials and the scholar class, earning a fine reputation as one who loved the people, acted with prudence, and had the bearing of a famous minister of antiquity.

What goddamn rotten luck!

A great achievement that was within reach had been ruined by someone else!

An old hand at court like Shi Bangyao was not so easily fooled as a fool like Liang Qi. Even if a revolt broke out this very moment, Shi Bangyao would never agree to his strategy of military suppression.

The salt merchants who had planned this revolt were all fat sheep! As long as force was used, which of them could possibly escape?

Once the revolt broke out, he would secretly send men to kill and burn to stoke the flames—Yangzhou city would certainly descend into chaos.

As long as he pinned the charges of colluding with rebels and defying the court on those salt merchant families, their enormous fortunes would naturally become the property of the Emperor and the court.

Then not only would he smoothly take the Two Huai region for the Emperor, he would also deliver an unexpected windfall of wealth—his first-place merit was as good as secured.

By speculating on the Chongzhen Emperor's various methods, Chen Qiyu judged that the Emperor did not want Jiangnan thrown into chaos. Though he might also covet the salt merchants' wealth, he was unwilling to obtain it through heavy-handed suppression.

The Emperor wanted to take control of the salt profits steadily, succeeding through a method that—though Chen Qiyu did not know what it was—would be acceptable to all parties.

In the final analysis, the Emperor did not want to leave behind a bad name.

His Majesty's strategy was not bad, but it was too weak.

He himself did not fear bearing a bad name, but the opportunity had already been lost.

Chen Qiyu, carrying a belly full of anger, took a boat and left Huai'an, hurrying to Yangzhou to pay respects to the imperial envoy Shi Bangyao.