Chapter 155: The Qian Qianyi Case

The Chongzhen Emperor's thunderous methods startled the civil and military officials into fear. After such a great upheaval, many people became obedient, not daring to take reckless risks at this critical moment and commit unwise acts.

However, Chongzhen felt no joy at all. In fact, there was a hint of sorrow in his heart. His original intention in governing had been for the court and the sovereign to be of one mind, jointly saving this riddled and broken country. Unexpectedly, after all these years, what he saw instead was courtiers scheming against one another, with the gap between sovereign and ministers growing ever wider.

Not long after, Minister of Rites Jiang Fengyuan submitted a memorial requesting resignation. This old minister perhaps could not stomach the Emperor's methods against civil officials, or perhaps was unwilling to be drawn into a future dispute between the Emperor and the Crown Prince.

Chongzhen did not try to retain him. He approved the resignation readily, permitting him to return to his hometown of Yuyao to spend his remaining years in peace. In his heart, Jiang Fengyuan was of limited ability—not the kind of pillar of state he wanted.

On the day Jiang Fengyuan departed for home, Zhu Cilang personally rode out of the city to see off this teacher of his, and asked for a piece of calligraphy as a memento.

Jiang Fengyuan looked at this student who treated him with such respect and was deeply moved. He opened his mouth but ultimately said not a word. With a sigh, he rode away from the capital in his carriage.

A few days later, Chongzhen summoned Li Tingbiao once again to inquire about the investigation into the Crown Prince's poisoning.

Li Tingbiao reported that when the scope of the investigation had narrowed to a dozen or so people, a eunuch from the Directorate of Imperial Meals had committed suicide in the Imperial Prison out of fear of punishment. The Embroidered Uniform Guard had discovered a small amount of poison in the cracks between the floor tiles of his residence.

This eunuch from the Directorate of Imperial Meals had records of leaving the palace to make purchases in recent days. It could basically be confirmed that he was the poisoner, but accomplices could not be ruled out, and the person behind him had yet to be unearthed. The Embroidered Uniform Guard's investigative work would continue.

Chongzhen nodded, giving high praise to Li Tingbiao's abilities. At the same time, he ordered him to make certain to uncover the person behind the plot and report directly before the throne, without divulging the contents of the investigation to anyone else.

Li Tingbiao slapped his chest with a resounding crack and gave his assurance on the spot. He then tactfully brought up the matter of Luo Yangxing's adultery with a palace maid.

Chongzhen, who had long been displeased with Luo Yangxing, dismissed him that very day—but did not appoint a new Guard Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Zhu Cilang was released from house arrest. Chongzhen did not let him attend court deliberations again, suspending his participation in governance on the pretext of letting him recuperate.

Having failed to topple the Crown Prince and the Yongwei Camp, Wen Tiren originally felt great regret. But later, thinking it over with a bit of spiritual victory, the current situation wasn't bad either—the Crown Prince had lost his power to discuss state affairs, and he himself was still the boss.

After a period of careful planning, Wen Tiren prepared to launch a great purge against those in court who opposed him.

At the Huzhou Guild Hall in the capital, Wen Tiren savored hometown delicacies while scheming over how to deal with those who opposed him.

Originally, that old thing Jiang Fengyuan had been his first target, but unexpectedly he had resigned on his own initiative—lucky for him.

Lu Zhenfei was a tough bone to chew. He had only recently returned to the capital and there was still no handle to grab on him. Better to hold off for now.

That fellow Hou Xun had contradicted him many times and needed to be dealt with quickly.

Minister of Justice Feng Ying, along with Vice Minister of Justice Yang Tinglin—both sided with the Crown Prince and were also lacking in tact. Since they were both from the Ministry of Justice, they would need to be wiped out in one fell swoop. A big case would have to be found.

As the national treasury was again depleted, on the twenty-fifth day of the tenth month, the court ordered the reopening of silver, iron, copper, and lead mines.

Disasters across Shandong were gradually worsening. On the seventh day of the eleventh month, the court remitted unpaid taxes from Shandong dating back more than five years.

Not long after, the court, which had been quiet for a time, stirred up new waves. Chief Grand Secretary Wen Tiren and Grand Secretary Xue Guoguan instigated officials such as Song Zhipu to impeach Hou Xun for wasting military funds and harming the state. Minister of Revenue Hou Xun was stripped of his post and thrown into prison.

Hou Xun was truly wronged in this matter. At the time, when the Qing army had invaded through the passes, not only did the various relief forces rushing to defend the capital demand grain and pay every day, but the Crown Prince leading tens of thousands of troops from the major camps out to fight the Jianzhou barbarians also needed vast amounts of provisions. After the victory, rewards required silver, and settling the pay of the various Regional Commanders who had come to aid the capital also cost money.

All of this came out of the Ministry of Revenue. Now that the money had been spent, they blamed him, the Minister of Revenue, for wasting military funds and harming the state?

But there was no help for it. Chongzhen only recognized money, not people. The nine border regions had begun pressing for pay again, and the Ministry of Revenue could not produce the silver. What else could be done but make the Minister of Revenue the scapegoat?

Seeing that the opening move had worked splendidly, Wen Tiren submitted another memorial, requesting that the Emperor execute Qian Qianyi, the leader of the Donglin Faction who had been held in prison all this time. His feelings toward Qian Qianyi ran too deep—if he did not kill Qian Qianyi, he could neither eat nor sleep in peace.

In the first year of Chongzhen, the newly enthroned Chongzhen Emperor reorganized the Grand Secretariat. When recommending Grand Secretaries, Vice Minister of Rites Qian Qianyi considered that if Minister of Rites Wen Tiren and Vice Minister of Rites Zhou Yanru were both recommended into the Grand Secretariat, their names would rank above his own, which would greatly affect his chances of entering the Grand Secretariat and becoming Chief Grand Secretary.

After thinking it over, Qian Qianyi decided to resort to some tricks. He sent his protégé, Supervising Secretary of the Ministry of Rites Qu Shisi, to secretly contact the officials responsible for recommending Grand Secretaries, asking them not to recommend Wen Tiren and Zhou Yanru.

During that period, the Donglin Faction held great power in court. The recommendation list contained eleven names including Cheng Jiming, Qian Qianyi, and Zheng Yiwei—and indeed, the names of Wen Tiren and Zhou Yanru were absent. This made Wen Tiren and Zhou Yanru hate Qian Qianyi and the other Donglin partisans to the bone.

The two began to join forces against Qian Qianyi. Wen Tiren exposed the case of examination fraud in Qian Qianyi's examination hall, Zhou Yanru assisted covertly, and they also pulled in Luo Yangxing from the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

When Qian Qianyi had presided over the examinations in Zhejiang, the examinee Qian Qianqiu had cheated on the imperial examination, writing "rising to the blue clouds in one step" at the end of each paragraph as a secret code, colluding with examination officials Jin Baoyuan and Xu Shimin.

This had happened several years earlier, but Wen Tiren dug it up. The newly enthroned Chongzhen was still a hot-tempered young man in his teens. He immediately stripped Qian Qianyi of his office, subjected him to the punishment of beating with the staff, and none of the people on the recommendation list were appointed either.

Wen Tiren and Zhou Yanru turned the tables. Zhou Yanru became Chief Grand Secretary, and to repay his old comrade-in-arms, he brought Wen Tiren into the Grand Secretariat.

The court of the Great Ming was cruel. Before long, Zhou Yanru gave his old friend a hand up—but his old friend Wen Tiren kicked him down instead, using the Denglai Incident involving Sun Yuanhua to bring him down and becoming Chief Grand Secretary himself.

After Wen Tiren rose to power, he viciously persecuted the Donglin Faction to the death, especially Qian Qianyi. Even though Qian Qianyi had been stripped of office, Wen Tiren had no intention of letting him go.

In the seventh year of Chongzhen, Wen Tiren bribed Zhang Hanru of Changshu to falsely accuse Qian Qianyi of greed and insolence, claiming that he had gathered a band of partisans in his hometown, spreading strange theories, slandering the government, and disregarding the law—dozens of charges in all. Qian Qianyi was ultimately arrested and thrown into prison.

Qian Qianyi, who had been locked up for nearly two years, learned that Wen Tiren was now preparing to kill him. Panic seized him. He hastily sent his family members running in all directions, seeking help from old friends to plead for mercy before the throne. He also sent word through the son of his teacher Sun Chengzong to beg for help from the eunuch Cao Huachun of the Directorate of Ceremonial.

Cao Huachun had originally been a trusted aide of the great eunuch Wang An. Wang An had assigned him to serve the Fifth Imperial Grandson Zhu Youjian at the Prince Xin Residence. Later he returned to the palace to take up duties. During the Tianqi era, after Wei Zhongxian killed Wang An, Cao Huachun was implicated and expelled from Beijing, banished to the auxiliary capital Nanjing to grow vegetables.

After Chongzhen ascended the throne, he recalled Cao Huachun and entrusted him with important responsibilities, charging him with clearing up the wrongful cases of the Wei Zhongxian era and assisting in investigating the eunuch faction. In the following years, Cao Huachun rehabilitated more than two thousand cases. Because he handled matters capably, he earned the deep trust and reliance of the Chongzhen Emperor.

Qian Qianyi had once written a memorial inscription for the eunuch Wang An. Both Wang An and Cao Huachun were members of the Donglin Faction. Hearing that Qian Qianyi was in trouble, Cao Huachun, being a man of honor, agreed to lend his full support.

Lu Zhenfei, Zhang Guowei, and a host of other court officials submitted memorials one after another pleading for Qian Qianyi, and even Cao Huachun began to work on his behalf before the throne.

The Ministry of Justice began retrying Qian Qianyi's case. After renewed interrogation, no matter how Zhang Hanru tried to frame him, Qian Qianyi refused to confess. Gradually, the situation turned in Qian Qianyi's favor—there was even a possibility he might be released.

When Wen Tiren learned that Cao Huachun had intervened, he hesitated for a moment. He knew that Cao Huachun was a man in high favor before the Emperor with tremendous influence, and the two of them had always kept out of each other's way.

Wen Tiren was unwilling to accept that Qian Qianyi, a man already at death's door, was about to be rescued again. After weighing the options repeatedly and racking his brains, a vicious glint appeared in his eyes. He said coldly, "That Cao fellow! Does he truly think I'm made of mud?"

He decided to go all the way—to wipe out Cao Huachun, Qian Qianyi, and those two stumbling blocks in the Ministry of Justice in one fell swoop!

From this moment on, the ever-cautious Grand Secretary Wen began his path to self-destruction!