Chapter 33: If Mind Games Won't Work, Then Strike Ruthlessly

"Do you ministers know what the Petition Drum established by the Ancestral Emperor was for? It was to let the emperor hear the grievances of the people below and prevent corrupt and lawbreaking scoundrels from harming the common folk. Yet the government students of Zhilu Academy went to beat the drum outside the Chengtian Gate yesterday, and what they did was nothing short of forcing the emperor's hand. If they had been even bolder, would they have dared to replace me, the Emperor, outright!?"

The Chongzhen Emperor was speaking from the heart. When he had been struck by that blade that day, the sharp pain that had clearly traveled through his body still left him with lingering fear even now. At that moment, the Chongzhen Emperor had truly felt as though he was about to die at any instant, his mind filled with nothing but the thought of whether he would live or die.

It was precisely this merciless strike from the Donglin Faction that had thoroughly awakened the Chongzhen Emperor, making him understand his own position—if he tried to play mind games, he would only be toyed with to death by these senior court ministers.

Either he killed others, or he waited to be killed—a very simple principle.

"These thieves wrapped in the skin of government students not only beat the depot and guard officers in the capital, they even had my Five Wards Troops and Horses Office mobilized without authorization to surround the depot and guard officers. Does Che Shenqu, a mere patrolling Censor, have such great authority? My dear ministers, your influence truly knows no bounds!"

"But you should restrain yourselves in your actions. This is still the realm of the Great Ming. As for the re-establishment of the Three Depots, I know your backgrounds very well. It is not that there will be no reckoning, only that the time has not yet come. Beware of straining your backs!" The Chongzhen Emperor paused here, then continued:

"Former Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander Luo Yangxing and Military Supervising Secretary Gong Dingzi secretly plotted assassination and conspired together in their actions. With all crimes combined, their guilt is beyond pardon. Order the Eastern Depot, Western Depot, Inner Depot, Ministry of Justice, and Court of Judicial Review to jointly confiscate their properties and exterminate their ten clans. Furthermore, execute their entire households in the capital on the spot, and pile their heads into a mound as a warning!"

With matters having reached this point, the absurd farce of assassinating the Chongzhen Emperor was finally at an end. For the Donglin Faction, this was a bloody lesson.

But was that truly all there was to it? The Chongzhen Emperor knew full well that he was still far from the truth!

Yet he had no time to continue investigating. Wang Cheng'en had been constantly reporting in person all the major and minor matters the agents had discovered these past days. The circle of suspicion kept expanding, and more and more people were implicated.

Even just counting those with verified evidence of participation in the plot to assassinate him already accounted for a third of the court, and many in the Embroidered Uniform Guard whom he had believed utterly loyal were still diehard supporters of Luo Yangxing.

If he killed them all, he could not finish even in three days and three nights.

Within two days, the Chongzhen Emperor issued edict after edict, executing the nine clans of the four ringleaders who had beaten the drum, and exterminating the ten clans of the two masterminds uncovered by the investigation—former Embroidered Uniform Guard Regional Military Commissioner Luo Yangxing and Military Supervising Secretary Gong Dingzi.

In this matter, the toughness the Chongzhen Emperor displayed exceeded anything the Donglin ministers had imagined. Exterminating ten clans was not unprecedented in the Ming dynasty, but applying it to two people at once was indeed a first.

During the Yongle reign of Emperor Chengzu, Fang Xiaoru had reviled Zhu Di as a "Yan bandit usurping the throne" and mocked him with sharp words, sneering that the Yongle Emperor frequently threatened officials with their families and relatives, showing he had none of the bearing of an enlightened sovereign. The Yongle Emperor flew into a rage upon hearing this and indeed issued an edict to exterminate his ten clans.

Before this there had been no precedent for exterminating ten clans, so the Yongle Emperor personally established the rule, categorizing all of Fang Xiaoru's disciples and old associates as the "tenth clan" and executing them together with the preceding nine clans.

In that single case alone, over eight hundred people were executed from beginning to end, and more than a thousand were implicated and exiled.

The vine-dragging purges and ten-clan exterminations of the Yongle era were each earth-shaking events of tremendous magnitude, and none of them had any precedent at the time.

The Chongzhen Emperor had now thoroughly figured things out. When it came to killing, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di were streets ahead of him—and yet who called them tyrants like Jie or Zhou?

History is written by the victors. If the Chongzhen Emperor of the past had been at his wit's end, not knowing where to begin, then ever since the Donglin Faction conceived the idea of killing the emperor and drew their blade against Chongzhen first, the Chongzhen Emperor had found his sense of direction. To protect himself, he had no choice but to raise the butcher's knife in his hand.

The Donglin partisans said that without killing the depot and guard officers, the people's hearts could not be settled. This truly reminded the Chongzhen Emperor that if he wanted to make full use of every remaining day and avoid walking the old path of history by hanging himself on Coal Hill, he could only make the Donglin Faction understand through ruthless measures who the true sovereign was.

Everything they held in their hands—with a single word, he could easily take it all away. That was the authority an emperor ought to possess.

That afternoon, the gates of Zhilu Academy were kicked open once again. More depot and guard officers than last time filed in one after another. At their head, the Chiliarch in charge of punishments, Li Youcheng, held a great lock in his hand and directly bellowed:

"The traitors in here plotted against His Majesty the Emperor! The evidence is ironclad. Execute them on the spot—not one shall be spared!"

"Yes!"

The Embroidered Uniform Guard and Eastern Depot agents all drew their gleaming steel blades and charged into Zhilu Academy, cutting down anyone they met, killing everyone they saw. In an instant, miserable screams filled the ground and blood flowed like a river.

"Gong Dingzi, your crime of plotting against the Emperor has been exposed!" Li Youcheng charged straight into the inner hall, locked up Gong Dingzi, who was still in a dazed stupor, and dragged him out.

"What are you doing? Breaking into a private residence in broad daylight—is there no law anymore? Just because you are depot and guard officers, do you think you can do as you please? This official will impeach you!"

Hearing this, Li Youcheng threw him to the ground with a ferocious expression and yanked hard on the iron chain in his hand. "Master Gong, my ears are not so good. You should say that again!"

Li Youcheng used eighty percent of his strength, and Gong Dingzi could barely even breathe, let alone muster the energy to utter threats. When he was dragged out of the inner hall, he discovered that the outside had already become a living hell.

With the Chongzhen Emperor's tacit approval, the depot and guard officers were carrying out bloody revenge and brutal suppression against the Donglin literati and scholars.

A large portion of Zhilu Academy's students had already been arrested yesterday. Now that the Chongzhen Emperor had issued the edict to exterminate ten clans, these people had all suddenly become criminals. With the Emperor's decree in hand, the depot and guard officers grew even more reckless.

"Not one shall be spared! Cut off their heads and hand them to Assistant Regional Commander Dong to build the skull mound!"

The depot and guard officers thoroughly destroyed the academy, and the students were executed on the spot as Gong Dingzi's tenth clan. Seeing such a miserable sight, many of those who normally loved to "speak out for justice" were so terrified they soiled themselves, kowtowing repeatedly and begging for mercy.

The smell of blood mixed with the stench of excrement was all too familiar to the Eastern Depot agents. Had these government students maintained their noble integrity at this moment, the depot and guard officers would have shown them respect. But what they saw instead was a scene so utterly laughable.

Gao Wencai, a Chiliarch of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, was covered in fresh blood. Charging inside, he saw a woman of stunning beauty cowering and trembling in the inner room. He immediately frowned—wouldn't it be a pity to send such a lovely beauty straight to the Music Bureau to serve as a prostitute?

"Hey, Gao! What are you still doing in there?" Li Youcheng's urging voice came from outside the door.

Gao Wencai pondered for a moment, then raised his voice:

"I suspect there are still people hiding in the room. I need to search again. You take that Gong Dingzi out first."

"Fine, but Brother Gao, you'd better be quick—Assistant Regional Commander Dong of the Capital Camps will be arriving soon!"

Hearing Li Youcheng's unhesitating reply from outside the door, Gao Wencai naturally knew what this Eastern Depot agent was thinking. Gong Dingzi was one of the chief culprits in the plot to assassinate the reigning Emperor—personally escorting him out would certainly earn great merit.

Normally, Gao Wencai ought to have competed with Li Youcheng over this, but looking at the beauty before him, he immediately set that thought aside. This was his future prospects right here.

The streets of the capital were unusually chaotic that day. Depot and guard officers were arresting people everywhere, and from time to time mounted messengers holding imperial warrants galloped out of the city, apparently heading to the provinces to execute condemned criminals.

A procession made its way from East Street toward the West Execution Ground. The man at the head was the newly appointed Chief Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat, Wei Zaode. Although he had obtained the position of Chief Grand Secretary he had dreamed of just yesterday, his expression today was far from pleasant.

Yamen runners from Shuntian Prefecture cleared the way in front, soldiers of the Five Wards Troops and Horses Office marched in two columns along the sides, and beside the prisoner cart in the very center followed over a dozen tall and sturdy Capital Camp soldiers wearing brand-new armor and carrying gleaming steel blades—all of them brave warriors personally recruited and selected by the Duke of Ying, Zhang Shize.

At the very rear of the procession followed the court officials whom the Chongzhen Emperor had sternly ordered to witness the executions. Their expressions varied, but none of them looked particularly comfortable.