Chapter 70: Reversal (Second Update)

"The Troops and Horses Office is conducting official business—all idle persons, disperse at once!"

"Brothers, follow me into the city to quell the unrest!"

The Patrol Censor was dead, dead very suddenly, but this was not a matter with no one to answer for it. The Eastern Depot agents spoke arrogantly, to be sure, but in doing so they were effectively shouldering the blame for the unauthorized killing of a Patrol Censor—that counted as taking action, as showing responsibility.

To the yamen runners, the Eastern Depot agents, for all their fearsome reputation, were generally more useful than those Donglin Faction officials when chaos broke out—they could actually suppress the situation.

The several head runners in the North City Troops and Horses Office exchanged glances, and in the end did not hesitate long. With superiors above to bear the burden, what did they have to fear themselves?

They drew their blades and rushed out of the yamen hall with the runners swarming behind them, heading to their respective assigned posts to quell the unrest.

Not long ago the Emperor had ordered the establishment of the Jiazi Camp, and the prisoners in the jails had all been released. At this moment the jails of every office stood completely empty—surely they could hold these people.

Just as they exited the main gate, those refugees were still gathered at the gate making trouble. The few leaders at the front seemed not to have expected the Troops and Horses Office to send out runners to quell the unrest, and their eyes went wide with shock, then they moved to slip away in the confusion.

Unexpectedly, the head runners had sharp eyes. In a few swift moves they picked out the ringleaders, seized them without hesitation, and killed them on the spot. As the smell of blood reached their noses, the remaining refugees gradually calmed down, not daring to step forward again.

"The Shuntian Prefecture yamen is conducting official business—the Troops and Horses Office must send men at once!"

Before long, a group of runners in blue clothing came running from the other side of the street. At their head was the Shuntian Prefecture's seated Company Commander, who said that things were already beyond control over there, so he had come to borrow men from the Troops and Horses Office.

Watching the head runners disperse the refugees, this Company Commander's face immediately fell. He too could see that with the city in such chaos, the Troops and Horses Office did not have enough men either.

The Shuntian Prefecture Company Commander sighed, said no more, and turned to leave with his men.

The trouble that had begun at the Almshouse had now lasted half a day. Because the Troops and Horses Office and the Shuntian Prefecture yamen had not suppressed it in time at the start, it had grown out of control.

Now the situation showed no sign of improvement. Even with every yamen's runners turning out in full force to quell the unrest, fires were breaking out everywhere and could not be put out in time—the capital was gradually approaching peril.

A mob of rioters, wooden clubs in hand, hefting great stones, charged at a squad of Troops and Horses Office runners who had taken to the streets to quell the unrest. The runners refused to be outdone, drew their waist blades, and met them head-on. The two sides fell directly into a tangled brawl of slaughter.

The runners numbered only a dozen or so, but the refugees and street toughs charging at them grew ever more numerous. The runners, outnumbered, were soon beaten back. Even the head runner at the front had his skull smashed open by a stone thrown by an excited beggar—he lay on the ground convulsing, blood pouring out.

When the trouble broke out, Wu Youke and Yuan Ban, the men in charge of plague treatment, were at an apothecary gathering medicine. They had no time to flee back to the military camp and could only hide inside in a hurry.

Everyone had assumed this kind of disturbance would be quickly put down, but no one could have imagined it would reach its present state—mobs of rioters in groups, openly brawling with the runners of the Troops and Horses Office and the Shuntian Prefecture yamen in the streets, making trouble door to door.

Fires blazed throughout the city, and everywhere was filled with screams of agony and excited shouting.

The runners of every yamen finally did turn out at such a time to quell the unrest, but before long word came back that the runners had been utterly routed—far from quelling anything, they could barely even hold their own yamen gates.

"Ram it! Ram it open for me!"

Suddenly, a tremendous crash rang out.

It turned out that not far from where Wu Youke and his party were hiding, the West City Troops and Horses Office yamen had been smashed open by frenzied rioters. The runners scattered in flight, and even the Patrol Censor and the Guard Commander were beaten to death on the spot.

Watching this scene before him, the Western Depot's Chief Punishment Chiliarch in charge of protecting Wu Youke also turned pale with fright, abandoning any thought of taking to the streets to quell the unrest. His dozen or so agents all had their long blades drawn, but they only pressed back to back against one another, not daring to act rashly.

Compared with quelling the unrest, the Western Depot agents had a more important mission—by imperial command, they were to protect Wu Youke and Yuan Ban, the men in charge of plague treatment.

At the Zheng residence, a mob of rioters was excitedly ramming the gates. The Embroidered Uniform Guard officers who had come by imperial decree to conduct the search had already been driven back, and several corpses were even left on the ground.

Clearly, this situation was no longer something the depot agents and runners could control. Even the Donglin Faction could no longer rein it in—no one had imagined it would develop to such a point.

Zheng Sanjun and his steward were pacing frantically in circles in the main hall. No matter how he thought about it, he could not understand—a few days earlier, the internal Donglin deliberations had only meant to give the young Emperor a show of force, to make him back down of his own accord.

But looking at it now, this was no longer a matter of a show of force. With one misstep, the Great Ming might actually perish as a nation—and whether it was the Chongzhen Emperor or the Donglin Faction, none of them would survive!

If the Great Ming truly perished as a nation because of this matter, he would be a true sinner condemned through the ages.

Zheng Sanjun, panicked and desperate, paced ceaselessly about his residence. Not long ago he had sent someone to summon the Minister of Works Xue Fengxiang and several other great ministers, but to this very moment no word had come back.

"How could it have come to this?"

"What about the Troops and Horses Office? What are they good for? Why haven't they quelled the unrest yet?"

"Master, have you forgotten—it was you who ordered the Troops and Horses Office not to move their men..." The steward's face was equally helpless, and he could only remind him carefully.

Zheng Sanjun was stunned for a moment, dazed and lost, and finally understood.

That the Great Ming had come to such a pass was entirely the doing of literati like himself who knew only factional strife and cared nothing for state and country!

"Foolish! I have grown truly foolish in my old age!!"

"How could I have done such a foolish thing!"

Zheng Sanjun burst into wracking sobs, gazing toward the direction of the Forbidden City, weeping beyond words. If there were a next life, he would devote himself wholeheartedly to serving the Emperor, to seeking blessings for the people of the Great Ming, and would no longer be a man who drew a salary without doing his duty.

But there was no next life, and no medicine for regret in this world.

The literati took to the streets proclaiming loudly, naively believing that the rioters would follow their direction and orders as if everything had been agreed upon beforehand.

But in fact, the Donglin Faction, through excessive arrogance, had been used by the rioters. From the moment the rioters of the Almshouse had scattered, they had in truth already ceased to be under anyone's control.

These rioters from the very bottom rung were, in another sense, roving bandits. Once unrestrained and uncontrolled, the harm they could cause was immense.

The Donglin scholars who had filled the streets with righteous indignation at the start had now all vanished, replaced by rioters from all over and the street toughs, riffraff, and scoundrels of the capital who had originally been suppressed by the Troops and Horses Office yamen.

These people had no kin to turn to, and were not even natives of the Zhili region. They had never had enough to eat or enough to wear. All their grievances accumulated together, combined with the tireless incitement of the Donglin scholars, had produced this result of chaos breaking out everywhere.

"Master, flee now! The rioters are about to break through the gate!"

Staring at the front gate that was on the verge of collapse, Zheng Sanjun's gaze was vacant. No matter how the steward shook him, he remained motionless. Suddenly, with a "plop," he knelt to the ground and wept:

"Your Majesty, the capital has fallen into such chaos—this is all your minister's fault!"

"A thousand deaths would not suffice to declare your minister's resolve—a thousand deaths, your minister deserves!"

Having spoken, Zheng Sanjun's gaze was firmer than it had ever been. He stood up and charged headlong at a pillar on one side of the wall.

With a "crash," this Heavenly Official of the Ministry of Personnel dashed his head directly against it and died before everyone's eyes. Even in his final moments he had wailed that it was all his own fault, leaving everyone stunned.

Before long, the sound of horse hooves came from outside the gate.

After a brief burst of fighting, the gates of the Zheng residence were pushed open. Seeing who had arrived, the steward and the servants inside all breathed sighs of relief, knelt on the ground, and kowtowed, weeping bitterly.

"You've finally come!"