Chapter 158: The Death of the Chief Grand Secretary

Wu Mengming's grandfather, Wu Dui, served through the Jiajing, Longqing, and Wanli reigns, rising to Minister of War and a seat among the Eight Ministers. In the fifth year of Wanli he was Governor-General of Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi military affairs, and in the ninth year of Wanli Governor-General of Ji, Liao, and Baoding military affairs while also serving as Governor of Shuntian—a quintessential frontier grand official.

With such a formidable family background, Wu Mengming entered the Embroidered Uniform Guard as a young man and became a Chiliarch, assisting Xu Xianchun in handling criminal cases at the Northern Prison. Later, he offended Xu Xianchun, was falsely accused of harboring fugitives, and was tortured and stripped of his rank.

In the early years of Chongzhen, he was restored to office and reactivated. A little over a year ago he had also handled the Zheng Man case. His character was still fairly upright, and Chongzhen intended to promote him, so he specifically ordered him to accompany Li Tingbiao in arresting Wen Tiren.

Wu Mengming never expected that this old comrade-in-arms would become so reckless. Before, he only thought him ruthless; now he was not only ruthless, but audacious!

Wu Mengming did not stop him, merely standing aside quietly watching the show. After all, the other man's rank was higher than his own—his position as Assistant Guard Commander was just a bit part. Better to mind his own business than invite trouble.

Li Tingbiao cut off the heads of Wen Tiren's two sons, held one in each hand, and came to Wen Tiren's bed in the inner chamber, tossing the two severed heads onto his cotton quilt.

Wen Tiren, already deteriorating from excessive shock, now trembled violently at the sight of his two sons' gruesome deaths. Tears welled in his eyes, and he raised a trembling finger, gnashing his teeth in grief and fury: "You—"

Li Tingbiao leaned down, putting his mouth close to Wen Tiren's ear, and said softly: "His Highness asked me to tell you—what goes around comes around! Think of all the people you've destroyed over the years, and perhaps you'll feel a little better."

Wen Tiren was stricken with terror, silent for a long time, as if recalling the past. After a moment, he lay back down on the bed, turning his back to everyone.

The others did not understand what this old devil meant by this, but only Li Tingbiao's mouth curled upward slightly—he caught a whiff of something odd.

Li Tingbiao looked at Wu Mengming and said: "He's yours now!" With that, he led his men off to confiscate the household without even turning his head.

Wu Mengming felt frustrated, not understanding what Li Tingbiao meant by this. He lingered in the inner chamber, and when Wen Tiren showed no sign of movement for a long time, he could not help calling out: "Grand Secretary Wen, come with me!"

Wen Tiren did not respond, as if asleep.

Wu Mengming called out several times in succession, but Grand Secretary Wen still did not stir. He hurried forward two steps and turned Wen Tiren over—only to see that Wen Tiren had long since stopped breathing, with fresh blood still seeping from his seven orifices. He had already taken poison and killed himself.

Li Tingbiao and his men searched the Wen residence for quite a while but found nothing of value—no gold, silver, or jewels. The Wen household held mostly a few small silver Buddha statues and the like, which together were not worth much.

"This old devil, he really knows how to hide things!" Li Tingbiao cursed inwardly. Serving as Chief Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat for six or seven years, yet living so frugally at home—who would believe that!

The Embroidered Uniform Guard dug three feet into the ground at the Wen residence but still could not find where Wen Tiren had hidden his money, which made Wu Mengming and the others begin to believe that Grand Secretary Wen truly was incorruptible.

Just then, Wen Tiren's eldest son, Wen Yan, was captured and brought back—the fellow had nearly made it to the outer city.

"I've committed no crime, what right do you have to arrest me?" Wen Yan shouted loudly.

Li Tingbiao waved his hand and said: "Take him to the Imperial Prison, and we'll slowly explain the reasons to him there!"

In the Imperial Prison, after sampling several of the Embroidered Uniform Guard's signature "courses," Wen Yan finally could not hold out and confessed everything.

According to what he said, all the money his father had embezzled over the years had been transferred to several pawnshops in Tongzhou, so that in an emergency they could directly load it onto boats and travel the Grand Canal from Tongzhou straight to their hometown in Zhejiang.

Li Tingbiao took the confession and sent men to investigate the addresses Wen Yan had provided. Before long, they discovered that indeed a massive amount of wealth was stockpiled in the said pawnshops—worth fully over two million taels of silver.

A Chiliarch of the Embroidered Uniform Guard asked: "Sir, how should we handle the Wen fellow?"

Li Tingbiao was busily writing his report at a furious pace and only said flatly: "Keep feeding him. When he's finished his meal, let him go."

This Chiliarch of the Embroidered Uniform Guard felt a chill in his heart—he already knew how to handle it. But who could possibly finish all one hundred and eight courses of the Embroidered Uniform Guard's menu? Unless they packed it up to eat along the road to the Yellow Springs.

In the Forbidden City, at Wenhua Hall.

The Chongzhen Emperor paced about, cursing loudly: "So these are the pillars of my Great Ming court? Petty villains! Death is too good for them!"

Chongzhen was deeply grieved and furious. He had never imagined that Wen Tiren, long held up as the model of integrity in the court, was actually a colossal embezzler! And he had disguised it so well all this time—truly a petty villain, an unpardonable petty villain!

The several Grand Secretaries and the ministers of the Six Ministries in Wenhua Hall all stood obediently to one side, wearing expressions of complete non-involvement.

Chongzhen pointed at them all and continued: "And all of you! Don't think that just because you stand here looking dignified and proper, every one of you is clean!"

Hearing this, the ministers' already unsteady bodies gave a violent shudder, and they all secretly wiped the cold sweat from their foreheads.

Cursing was cursing, but business still had to be done. After finishing his tirade, Chongzhen selected a new Chief Grand Secretary for the Grand Secretariat—and to everyone's surprise, he chose a man with plenty of good sense, Xue Guoguan.

This Xue Guoguan, like Wen Tiren, was a member of the eunuch faction. However, he knew how to read the room, unlike Wen Tiren's great lust for power. Zhu Cilang had also been in contact with him and had covertly revealed some of his dirty laundry.

Xue Guoguan was quite convinced by this Crown Prince. He avoided conflict at every turn, never daring to provoke him proactively, and occasionally even engaged in strategic cooperation with him.

First, to express his sincerity, Xue Guoguan submitted a memorial to the Emperor requesting that the Crown Prince be allowed to participate in governance discussions. With the Chief Grand Secretary himself speaking up in support, Chongzhen could find no good reason to refuse and had to grudgingly accept it.

Xue Guoguan's tactfulness greatly satisfied Zhu Cilang. In response, Zhu Cilang only took the opportunity to eliminate a batch of important eunuch faction figures, without wiping out the rest entirely.

Even if he killed them all, another batch of factional officials would emerge, and the Donglin Faction would lose its rival and gradually grow stronger. Since he could neither kill off all the civil officials nor completely resolve factional strife, he could only dump these messy affairs on Chongzhen while he himself planned for the matter of heading south.

In recent days, Zhu Cilang received a secret report from the Embroidered Uniform Guard in Liaodong that Hong Taiji, under the pretext of again marching south to campaign against Ming, had ordered the various Mongol tribes to assemble at Shenyang in early December.

"Marching south again? How is that possible!" Zhu Cilang frowned deeply. Last time the Eight Banners had already been hurt badly enough—what could they possibly use to march south now?

Zhu Cilang paced back and forth in his study, thinking it through carefully, then opened a map and studied it for a while.

The troop mobilization must certainly be real—the Jianzhou barbarians truly seemed to be preparing to send out their army. But it definitely was not to march south through the passes. If they were entering the passes to go south, the Tartars would have no need to converge at Shenyang.

"Hong Taiji is either attacking Pidao or striking at Joseon!" Zhu Cilang concluded.

Pidao is situated at the pivotal point between the Liaodong Peninsula and the Korean Peninsula. It served as Great Ming's base for containing the Later Jin, and its position was extremely important—like a knife that Great Ming pressed against the back of the Manchus, keeping Hong Taiji uneasy in his seat.

Back then, Pidao Regional Commander Mao Wenlong led a band of brothers to open up Pidao. Whenever the Tartars sent out troops on campaign, he would lead men ashore secretly to kill, burn, plunder, kidnap, and extort in the Tartars' backyard, thoroughly disgusting the Tartars.

Ever since Mao Wenlong was executed by Yuan Chonghuan, his brothers under his command had scattered or defected in turn, and the Ming troops who later came to the island were not as bold as the previous batch. Even so, the presence of Ming troops on Pidao still kept Hong Taiji restless and uneasy.

As for Joseon, it was even more antagonistic toward the Manchus. The Tartars had been extorting Joseon in every way possible. In the sixth year of Tiancong, the Later Jin's extortion demands on Joseon increased tenfold over the original amount.

The Later Jin used the frontier trade market as a pretext to forcibly buy Joseon goods at low prices, and every time they sent envoys to trade, they also demanded one hundred taels of gold, one thousand taels of silver, one thousand bolts of silk, one thousand bolts of hemp cloth, ten thousand bolts of fine cloth, one hundred leopard skins, four hundred otter skins, and so on.

Joseon had long been unable to endure such extortion and had already been forced to bear it unwillingly. The contradiction between the two sides was extremely acute. When Hong Taiji held his enthronement ceremony to proclaim himself emperor, the Joseon envoy refused to kneel, insisting on the rites of "brother nations," and was beaten and kicked out by the Manchu nobles.

Last month, Hong Taiji issued an ultimatum to Joseon, demanding that the Joseon king send royal clan members as hostages within a set deadline, or he would dispatch troops to punish them. Joseon, however, completely ignored the Tartars' threat.