Chapter 312: The Sinister Ma Shiying

At the Battalion Commander's command, large numbers of Divine Martial Army soldiers stepped forward.

Everyone in the Divine Martial Army was descended from the Huaixi troops who had conquered the realm under Zhu Yuanzhang in the beginning, and the officers in particular were inheritors of that founding elite force.

As military men, the soldiers had long been fed up with these grandiloquent civil officials, and hearing their superior's order, seeing Commissioner Zhou turn a blind eye, many felt a secret satisfaction.

The soldiers shouted "Rebel dogs, surrender now!" and charged in, slaughtering wholesale.

Seeing these fully armed soldiers charging at them with murderous intent, the Donglin ministers finally lost all their luck and the moral integrity they usually mouthed, collapsing to the ground and crying out for mercy.

But it was no use—military orders were like mountains, and with everyone's own willingness added on top, how could they stop?

These household servants, relying on superior numbers, had beaten the Eastern Depot runners out of the mansion, killing two and wounding several—an ironclad crime of treason. Qian Qianyi therefore could not talk his way out of it, and his guilt was compounded. This was precisely what Ma Shiying, Zhou Jingwu, and Li Youcheng had agreed upon beforehand.

It had been Ma Shiying's idea originally; later Zhou Jingwu and Li Youcheng thought it made sense too—since the current Son of Heaven wanted to purge the Donglin Faction just as he had purged the eunuch faction, they might as well go all the way.

These people were going to die anyway, so why not pin a huge crime on them and kill them all on the spot?

This way, first, it saved much follow-up trouble and removed the worry of future consequences; second, it let the nobles and Nanjing heavyweights present personally experience the current court's intensity and resolve in rectifying Donglin.

Though the servants carried weapons, they had never been drilled and had never seen blood in battle. They had driven off the runners by sheer numbers, but facing the orderly advancing Divine Martial Army soldiers, they suddenly became children—utterly without power to resist.

For a time, the Qian mansion—which in the eyes of Donglin scholars had been so dignified, where Donglin scholars had always gathered to chat—was filled with unseasonable bloodshed.

Batch after batch of servants were slaughtered on the spot amid screams, intestines spilling across the ground, blood everywhere. Moreover, Li Youcheng had already mobilized additional Eastern Depot runners onto the streets in force, openly carrying arrest warrants to seal the mansions of Donglin ministers.

The soldiers charged in and quickly killed every servant who had been holding a weapon, and along with them, almost all the Donglin officials who had joined in beating the Eastern Depot runners were executed on the spot under the label of rebels.

Even if some survived by luck, the subsequent purge would continue—this was only the beginning.

On the street, a squad of constables from the Nanjing Troops and Horses Office was patrolling when suddenly a commotion came from ahead. The leading constable frowned and immediately hurried over with his men, pushing through the crowd of onlookers, only to see the Eastern Depot sealing a mansion.

Seeing the Troops and Horses Office people arrive, the runners' momentum did not diminish. A squad leader stepped forward and directly waved off both the constables and the watching commoners:

"Move along, move along! The Eastern Depot is arresting the court's wanted criminals—this is none of your Troops and Horses Office's business!"

"You—!"

That constable chief was at least a minor local bully in the area—stall vendors fawned on him, and commoners were deathly respectful. Hearing this in front of his subordinates, he felt his face couldn't take it and said with habitual arrogance:

"Oh ho? This is Jinling, not the capital! How long have you Eastern Depot types been here, and already acting like it's your own home?"

"Heh." The Eastern Depot squad leader looked him up and down at this, laughed in fury, and suddenly kicked him hard in the belly, shouting with spittle flying:

"I'm Eastern Depot! Are you even fit to speak to me, you piece of dogshit? Even if I chopped you down on the spot as an accomplice, what could you do to me? See this? This is the current Emperor's own handwritten order—all Donglin are traitors, and they're all being purged!"

"Fine! Your Eastern Depot is tough—we're leaving!"

Seeing the surrounding runners already gripping the hilts of their paired sabers, the constable chief lost his nerve, clutched his stomach, and hurried away through gritted teeth. He had swallowed a bitter loss, but at least he kept his life.

At the East Market execution ground in Nanjing, Zhou Jingwu looked at the smiling Ma Shiying beside him and felt this man was truly sinister to a frightening degree.

As for the choosing of the arrest date—the imperial decree had actually arrived in Jinling three days earlier. At that time Zhou Jingwu had already planned to directly mobilize the garrison, seize Qian Qianyi, and kill him, and be done with it.

But Ma Shiying was a civil official. He understood that this disposal of Qian Qianyi was really the Emperor finding a roundabout way to purge Donglin—and who could blame him, given how badly the current Son of Heaven had been deceived by these human-faced, beast-hearted fellows over the past decade-plus?

It was just like how the little Qing emperor Fulin had been suppressed by Dorgon for too long—once Fulin took power, the first thing he did was thoroughly purge Dorgon. Now that the current Son of Heaven had woken up, of course he wanted to vent his hatred fiercely.

As the saying goes, beat the dog once it's in the water. Though Donglin held the majority among the court's civil and military officials, the Qi, Zhe, and Chu factions were also numerous—surely one couldn't hold office without Donglin? Wei Zaode was the best example; the man was now thriving like a fish in water and leaving his name in history.

At such a time one naturally had to declare one's stance and reassure the Emperor and the imperial faction. So what Ma Shiying saw in the disposal of Qian Qianyi was a heaven-sent opportunity to wipe out the Donglin Faction in one stroke, and a rare chance for his own future career.

Ma Shiying set the date three days later—today. At the time Zhou Jingwu and Li Youcheng hadn't understood, but thinking back now, this fellow had probably already studied it all out behind their backs, planning to cook everything in one pot.

Looking at this matter, Ma Shiying's cleverness had been used in the right place, and he had trapped the right people. But after Donglin was finished—if he used it to trap Zhou Jingwu or others—Zhou Jingwu had a feeling it would be impossible to guard against.

Still, fortunately he himself was a military man; in the future he would lead troops in battle and be transferred to the provinces. He'd best keep out of these court affairs—historically, military men who got entangled in the struggles of remnant civil officials rarely came to good ends.

Jinling at this time was even more prosperous than the capital. Hearing that the great Donglin elder Qian Qianyi was to be executed by slow slicing and his ten kin-groups exterminated, the city's big and small fish temporarily set aside their scheming and rushed to watch.

Though the newspapers and the guards and depots had already penetrated Jinling city, their foundation was too thin, not a match for the native Fushe and Donglin scholars.

Under these scholars' tireless propaganda, Qian Qianyi had been built up as a model minister excelling in both letters and arms. Many commoners still held great respect for Qian Qianyi, and hearing this news, they were astonished and found it hard to believe.

So at this time the execution ground was packed with people, and even several streets away commoners were discussing it heatedly.

Though executions at the execution ground were old hat to people in the capital, this was still a first for Jinling city. Many people had never understood why this dynasty had always executed at the memorial archway, but starting from the year of Jiashen it had suddenly moved to the execution ground?

Before long, Ma Shiying, who had taken on the role of supervising executioner, stood up. First he maintained order in the surroundings, then took out a dossier and shouted loudly:

"According to the Great Ming Code, on treason and great rebellion: treason means plotting to endanger the state; great rebellion means plotting to destroy the ancestral temples, imperial tombs, and palaces. All who conspire, whether principals or accessories, shall be executed by slow slicing."

"The current Son of Heaven is sagely and enlightened. Qian Qianyi committed treason and must be sliced alive in three hundred fifty-seven cuts before death! The other accomplices have already been executed in the disturbance at the Qian mansion, but though the men are dead, their crimes are not atoned! By law, the accomplices' property is confiscated to the state, the women of their clans are sent to the Music Bureau as official prostitutes, and the male members are conscripted to garrison the frontiers and serve the nation!"