Chapter 141: The Eunuch Faction's Lethal Strike

Beijing's weather had entered October, and it was beginning to turn quite cool.

The sweet potatoes planted by the people of the New City had also been harvested. Zhu Cilang personally went to the New City to inspect, and saw that in the fields outside the east gate of the New City, there were dense crowds of commoners digging up sweet potatoes.

County Magistrate Ren Guangyu held up an enormous sweet potato, beaming with joy: "The yield of this sweet potato Your Highness spoke of is indeed high. An ordinary mu of land can harvest one dan of wheat, and with summer wheat and autumn millet combined, only two dan. This sweet potato's per-mu yield is fully several times higher."

Although the per-mu yield of these sweet potatoes was high, Zhu Cilang was not satisfied. In later generations, spring sweet potatoes generally yielded two thousand kilograms per mu, and summer sweet potatoes one thousand kilograms per mu, for a combined spring and summer total of three thousand kilograms — that is, six thousand jin.

The current yield in the New City was not even half of that, nor did it reach the several dozen dan per mu recorded by Xu Guangqi in this era.

Zhu Cilang estimated it was due to geographical reasons — sweet potatoes were suited to the Central Plains and the south; the farther north one went, the lower the temperature and the poorer the yield. There was also the matter of improved varieties — the sweet potatoes had just been planted in the New City and were not yet a fine strain; they would still need several rounds of growth and cultivation.

All of this required time to resolve. Zhu Cilang was not anxious. The current yield was enough for the people of the New City to eat, and the surplus sweet potatoes could be traded at nearby prefectures and counties for grain to pay taxes and improve their livelihoods.

Zhu Cilang returned to the New City county office. He had just sat down and taken a sip of tea when Wu Zhong hurried over.

"Young Master, Lord Li has sent a secret report." Wu Zhong handed over a piece of intelligence.

Zhu Cilang took it and looked, and his brows immediately furrowed deeply, sparks of anger faintly flashing in his eyes as he snarled: "This pack of death-seeking wretches!"

Li Tingbiao reported that a Censor had submitted a memorial claiming that the Crown Prince had twenty thousand troops of the Yongwei Camp near the capital, and that by relying on armed force he was growing arrogant — fearing a Xuanwu Gate Incident!

In the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, as the Prince of Qin, held military power, and in the end killed his elder brother the Crown Prince, placed his imperial father under house arrest, and made himself emperor.

But Zhu Cilang had not expected these censors to be so vicious, using the matters of military power and the throne to touch the bottom line of the Chongzhen Emperor.

According to Li Tingbiao's report, the Chongzhen Emperor ordered the bastinado of this alarmist Censor. After enduring one round of twenty strokes, this Censor still lay prostrate on his straw mat writing memorials — one could not say his constitution was not sturdy.

This Censor did not read the times and retreat in the face of difficulty. He disregarded the warnings of his ancestors' spirits and, with no turning back, used a second memorial to once again earn a fatal twenty strokes of the bastinado.

Since it was fatal, of course the boat capsized — this Censor was beaten to death on the spot by the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

With the Censor beaten to death, the censors of the Censorate immediately exploded. Led by Tang Shiji, they flocked to the Meridian Gate to make trouble, demanding that the Emperor open his gates and accept remonstrance, cultivate virtue and govern his heart, and draw close to Confucian ministers. The affair stirred up quite a commotion.

Finding allies, desperately seizing on the target's weaknesses and slamming them into the Emperor's scars, playing conspiracies at any cost, harming others to benefit oneself, disregarding all kinship, even willing to sacrifice the lives of the innocent — these were all Wen Tiren's consistent methods. No need to think twice — it must be him stirring things up.

Zhu Cilang felt something was wrong. The Chongzhen Emperor's ears were too soft, and his nature was deeply suspicious. Even if he doted on him on ordinary days, being of the imperial house and touching upon imperial power —

The case of Liu Ju, the Heir Apparent of Emperor Wu of Han, was a classic example. Liu Ju, as Emperor Wu's eldest legitimate son, was made Crown Prince at age seven, deeply trusted by the Emperor, entrusted with great hopes at Bowang, governing with virtue — yet in the end was framed to death by a pack of petty men.

"Return to the capital!" Zhu Cilang rose quickly and took a few steps, then suddenly stopped and said: "Take silver and buy fifty jin of good-looking sweet potatoes to bring back to the palace."

"Yes!" Wu Zhong acknowledged, and immediately had his personal guards see to it.

As soon as Zhu Cilang returned to the imperial city, Li Tingbiao immediately came forward to greet him.

"How many strokes of the bastinado did that Censor endure?" Zhu Cilang asked as he walked.

Li Tingbiao followed closely, saying: "To answer Your Highness, first he was lightly beaten twenty times. Half an hour later, that fellow submitted another memorial, and His Majesty again ordered twenty strokes."

Zhu Cilang asked suspiciously: "Twenty strokes killed him? Your men did it?"

Li Tingbiao shook his head: "It was not this subordinate's men. Luo Yangxing was supervising, and he set the toes inward in a figure-eight."

"What 'inward figure-eight'?"

Li Tingbiao explained: "There is a trick to the bastinado in the palace. The executing Embroidered Uniform Guard watch the intent of the supervising official. If the supervisor's boot toes point outward in a figure-eight, the blows are lighter — the guard raises the rod high and pats lightly. If the supervisor's boot toes point inward in a figure-eight, the blows are heavier — beating toward death."

Zhu Cilang's steps suddenly halted: "It seems Luo Yangxing is not content with obscurity either — he wants to stir things into chaos."

That joker Luo Yangxing — back then he had wanted to promote Li Tingbiao to Assistant Guard Commander to sideline him within the Embroidered Uniform Guard, but instead Li Tingbiao had gone off with the army on campaign, and Zhu Cilang reported his military merits for promotion, making him the number-two figure in the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Whether Luo Yangxing felt bitter in his heart, Zhu Cilang did not know. He only knew that this joker not only had conflicts with the eunuch faction led by Wen Tiren, but also friction with himself. Now isolated by both sides, he was nothing but a stick stirring the shit.

Li Tingbiao continued: "Your Highness, this subordinate has one more discovery."

Zhu Cilang stopped walking: "Speak."

Li Tingbiao leaned in close and said in a low voice: "This subordinate's hidden line with the Big Fish reports that wherever Your Highness goes each day, whatever you do, even whatever you say — the Big Fish knows it all. This subordinate judges that there should be quite a few eyes and ears of the eunuch faction within the palace."

Zhu Cilang's brows furrowed slightly: "Can you make a rough judgment of which of the Twenty-Four Directorates they belong to?"

Li Tingbiao replied: "Based on Your Highness's usual range of movement, people from the Directorate of Ceremonial, the Directorate of Palace Affairs, and the Directorate of Imperial Meals would easily come into contact with you."

"Understood!" Zhu Cilang nodded.

The imperial palace was not like outside. Although the Embroidered Uniform Guard had the authority to enter and exit the palace, they could not wander freely, nor could they casually arrest people within it. Rooting out the eyes and ears inside the palace was no small difficulty — it could only be done with cunning.

Zhu Cilang passed through Chengtian Gate and arrived at the Meridian Gate square, where he saw a great number of censors kneeling before the Meridian Gate, wanting to enter the palace to face the Emperor and offer remonstrance.

Zhu Cilang simply walked with his hands clasped behind his back straight through the midst of the censors, entering the imperial palace directly through the left side gate of the Meridian Gate, without even a sidelong glance at this pack of dogs.

"Arrogant!" Looking at the Crown Prince's retreating back, a censor said indignantly.

"Censor Chen was beaten to death for his crime because of him — the blood is not yet dry, and he dares to ignore us so completely!"

The censors before the Meridian Gate all angrily denounced Zhu Cilang's insolent behavior, but it was utterly useless — they still had to kneel outside and bake in the sun.

Zhu Cilang first went to Wenhua Hall to meet the Chongzhen Emperor. After performing the rites, he found this imperial father very calm, as if nothing at all had happened.

Seeing him like this, Zhu Cilang found it hard to open his mouth to ask about the matter. Chongzhen only gave an "mm" when Zhu Cilang performed the rites, then said nothing more, burying his head in reviewing personal memorials.

Wang Cheng'en on the side also remained silent, only helping to organize the memorials and grind imperial ink. Wenhua Hall fell into an extremely quiet stillness.

Zhu Cilang whispered some instructions to Wu Zhong, telling him to go to the Directorate of Imperial Meals and roast some sweet potatoes, then came to the dragon desk and studied the handling of government affairs from the side.

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