Chapter 145: The Unjust Case

In the Ji Garrison area, after the Chongzhen Emperor's order to re-establish it was issued, troops began to gather in force, with various units of the regular army constantly coming and going. The old garrison town of Ji, in particular, was now bustling with traffic like a stream of carriages and horses.

Huang Degong was credited with the highest merit after the Battle of military pay and provisions, while Tang Tong, then the Earl of Dingxi, was credited with the second, and the two were both promoted to marquises.

In mid-year of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, after being honored in the capital for his victory, Tang Tong was dispatched to Shanhai Pass to assist in its defense. Huang Degong, after being summoned by the Chongzhen Emperor at the platform, was likewise entrusted with an important post, and his troops were personally bestowed by the Emperor with the name "Tiger Mountain Camp."

Thus, in the current Ji Garrison area, among all the various regular army units, the most numerous were still Huang Degong's Tiger Mountain Camp troops from Chuzhou and Sizhou.

Huang Degong assumed the post of the new Regional Commander of the Ji Garrison, leading the Tiger Mountain Camp to become a protective screen north of the capital, just like the Divine Martial Army when it first arrived in the capital to aid the throne—glorious beyond measure.

After taking office, Huang Degong immediately set about building a city on the old site of Ji Garrison Town. At first, due to a lack of silver and gold support, the Chongzhen Emperor dispatched eunuchs from the Directorate of Ceremonial and the Embroidered Uniform Guard from the capital area to carry 500,000 taels of silver for the construction.

Later, when earth and stone materials proved difficult to purchase, Huang Degong reported to the Chongzhen Emperor and decided to temporarily demolish the abandoned garrison forts and beacon watchtowers in the vicinity for use in the construction of the new Ji Garrison Town.

The old Ji Garrison had over three hundred beacon mounds and signal towers, but they had all been abandoned for years and were useless to keep. After deliberation by the ministers of the Grand Secretariat, the Chongzhen Emperor personally approved the execution of this matter.

In fact, even before receiving the imperial edict, Huang Degong had already begun sharing hardships with his soldiers every day, toiling on the front lines. After the edict arrived, he worked day and night without pause to rush the city's construction.

Up to now, they had finally completed more than half of Ji Garrison Town.

During this period, quite a few civil officials had voiced criticism of Huang Degong's idea of building the city before receiving the imperial edict. At court deliberations, they impeached Ji Garrison Regional Commander Huang Degong for violating military law, indulging his subordinates in harassing the common people, and wielding military power abusively.

At first, the Chongzhen Emperor sternly rebuked the remonstrating censors, but a few days later, Chen Mingxia, Senior Compiler of the Hanlin Academy, submitted a tearful memorial, again impeaching Huang Degong on twelve counts of misconduct, causing an uproar at court.

Left with no choice, the Chongzhen Emperor symbolically dispatched riders of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot to the Ji Garrison to look into the situation. However, during this period, the Chongzhen Emperor did not relieve Huang Degong of his post; instead, he issued an open edict of consolation, telling him not to slacken in Ji Garrison affairs because of this matter.

After the riders returned to the capital, Li Youcheng, Chiliarch of Punishments of the Eastern Depot, and Gao Wencai, Chiliarch of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, confirmed that the impeachments by members of the Donglin Faction were all baseless fabrications.

Just as the court officials were struck with alarm, Feng Quan, a Grand Secretary and Minister of Works, suddenly stepped forward. Holding a memorial prepared long in advance, he angrily denounced the Donglin faction's fondness for partisan strife and impeached twelve Donglin members, including Chen Mingxia, for framing loyal and virtuous men.

Chief Grand Secretary Wei Zaode then stepped forward in turn, expressing considerable criticism of Chen Mingxia and others in his words, and incidentally confirmed that some days earlier he had happened to encounter Chen Mingxia and his associates entering and leaving the Spring Breeze Pavilion in the street.

Thereafter, Wang Cheng'en, the eunuch Director of the Eastern Depot, came forward to state that in the days after Chen Mingxia and his associates impeached Huang Degong, they had already attempted to move their family property to Nanjing, and all of it had been seized by Eastern Depot personnel.

Such conduct was clearly a sign of a guilty conscience—a confession without being asked.

The Chongzhen Emperor flew into a rage and issued an edict on the spot to strip Chen Mingxia, Senior Compiler of the Hanlin Academy, and eleven other Donglin civil officials of their posts and confiscate their property. Chen Mingxia, as the ringleader, was additionally punished by the extermination of his three clans. The depot and guard riders even went out in batches to the provinces to arrest people and bring them back to the capital for public display.

The Chongzhen Emperor refused to let the matter rest afterward and strictly ordered the Eastern and Western Depots and the Embroidered Uniform Guard to conduct a thorough joint investigation, which again uncovered that eight Donglin civil officials, including Wang Liji, had committed crimes such as embezzlement.

Compared to the beginning of the Chongzhen reign when the Emperor indiscriminately killed high ministers, this time there were few major officials involved, but the impact was even greater, with several hundred scholars and low-ranking officials implicated as a result.

In the capital region, depot and guard agents ran rampant everywhere, arresting and killing Donglin partisans on a large scale, smashing the academies and secret meeting places where Donglin members lectured and taught. Anyone who offered the slightest resistance was thrown into the great prison and tortured severely until they confessed under duress.

Of course, these words turning right and wrong upside down came from the Jiangnan Fushe Society's attacks on the court and the state of affairs in the capital—they were not the facts.

The real truth was that the Chongzhen Emperor had discovered that Chen Mingxia and his associates were secretly communicating with the Jianzhou barbarians, and had in fact acted on the barbarians' instigation to stir up trouble in the Ji Garrison.

That was why the Chongzhen Emperor, in his fury, ordered the depot and guard to conduct a thorough investigation. The depot and guard proved capable and in one stroke uncovered quite a number of officials and scholars in the capital who had been in constant contact with the Jianzhou barbarians.

These Fushe scholars fabricated a narrative in the Jiangnan region, calling this incident that occurred in mid-September of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen the "Injustice of Late Autumn in the Year of Jiashen," and everywhere spread the claim that the Chongzhen Emperor was a benighted tyrant like Jie and Zhou, indulging his depot and guard jackals in harming people everywhere.

The Chongzhen Emperor paid this no mind—they were merely a pack of jumping clowns clutching writing brushes. He held the great power of life and death in his hands; what could they possibly do?

The current Ji Garrison had long been abandoned and was nothing like the days when the famous general Qi Jiguang had once guarded it. Huang Degong believed that at least another half year would be needed to restore its defensive capability.

Many people had heard of the Tiger Mountain Camp's great reputation. After news of the injustice case spread, the Chongzhen Emperor's trust in and protection of Huang Degong was on full display, and no one dared to say another word against the re-establishment of the Ji Garrison.

Civil and military officials from places like Yongping Prefecture, Zunhua, and the Central Tun Guard came continuously to Ji Garrison Town, beginning to send gifts and exchange pleasantries with Huang Degong.

As for these, Huang Degong refused no one and accepted everything, but afterward he handed all the gifts over to the local Chiliarch of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and compiled a list of those who had sent gifts, submitting it all together.

Not to mention how the Embroidered Uniform Guard reacted to this matter—during the process of rebuilding the Ji Garrison, Huang Degong gradually came to realize the importance of the Santun Camp to the Ji Garrison's defense, and so submitted a memorial suggesting that the Chongzhen Emperor re-establish the post of Santun Regional Commander.

In this way, it would form a pincer angle with Ji Garrison Town, making it easier to guard the capital.

Ji Garrison Town and the old site of the Santun Camp were barely over ten li apart. At such a close distance, no ordinary person would think the court would place an assisting Regional Commander there to check one's own power—everyone understood the principle that one does not tolerate another snoring beside one's own bed.

To many, Huang Degong's memorial seemed the words of a fool, but he had never considered that angle at all, devoting himself wholeheartedly solely to rebuilding the Ji Garrison.

Huang Degong had in fact thought the same as the Chongzhen Emperor—if a capable general were sent to build up the Santun Camp, the Ji Garrison's defense would be greatly enhanced, and the capital would no longer have Shanhai Pass as its only barrier.

After Shandong Regional Commander Liu Zeqing was jointly suppressed by the court's regular forces, Mou Wenshou was promoted by accumulated merit to Shandong Regional Commander. The Chongzhen Emperor adopted Huang Degong's suggestion and activated Yang Yufan, son of Yang Zhaoji, to serve once more as Santun Regional Commander.

Speaking of it, Yang Yufan truly was the most suitable person for the post of Santun Regional Commander.

His father Yang Zhaoji had fought campaigns his entire life and finally died in the post of Santun Regional Commander. The Chongzhen Emperor's intention in having Yang Yufan return to the Santun Camp was also very clear—he hoped Yang Yufan would continue his father's cause of loyalty to the sovereign and service to the state, guarding the north well for the court alongside Huang Degong.

When Yang Yufan, then in Laizhou, Shandong, heard of this matter, he was immediately so excited he could not contain himself, and at once led his Yang family troops north to take up his post at the Santun Camp.

The Santun Camp was a place of great significance to Yang Yufan and the Yang family, one with which they were quite familiar. Yang Zhaoji had garrisoned there for many years and wielded considerable influence among the local people and military officers alike.