Chapter 9: Reestablishing the Eastern Depot

After Wang Cheng'en shouted, the murmuring ministers fell silent and retreated a few steps, huddling together.

At first, when the Chongzhen Emperor had not resorted to killing, many ministers assumed that would be the end of it, but no one expected that this punishment would be even harsher than directly executing Wang Aoyong.

All the men were to be conscripted into the army, all family property confiscated, and all the women sent to the Music Bureau...

And what sort of place was the Music Bureau? To put it plainly, it was the brothel with the most powerful backing in the world, serving exclusively the official class — many of the "upright gentlemen" in this very hall were regular customers in private.

Throughout the dynasties, those sent there were either the wives and daughters of criminals, or the consorts of fallen former dynasties; the most famous among them came from the "Vine Sweep" of the Yongle era.

Jing Qing, then serving as Censor, had plotted to assassinate Zhu Di but failed, throwing the Yongle Emperor into a thunderous rage. All of Jing's clansmen were implicated, with several hundred dead, and a great number of women were subsequently consigned to the Music Bureau, adding a fresh wave of vitality there.

Lord Jing enjoyed considerable renown among the literati, and it was said that some of the Jing clan had survived by changing their surnames in time and going into hiding, but the Chongzhen Emperor clearly had no time for such matters — when his very life was barely secure, what else could he afford to consider?

The ministers below the steps said nothing, but that did not mean they were thoroughly cowed by this affair. The Chongzhen Emperor understood this principle — the reason one kills the chicken to warn the monkey is precisely so that, while they are still dumbfounded, one can quickly issue the next edict.

Seeing the Chongzhen Emperor's signal, even the old slippery eel Wang Cheng'en appeared somewhat agitated. Trembling, he took a scroll from the young eunuch Li Chun beside him, unfurled it in mid-air, cleared his throat, and shouted loudly:

"By the mandate of Heaven, the Emperor decrees: Since our August Ming was founded by the Grand Ancestor in the Hongwu era to this day, two hundred and seventy-six years have passed. I ascended the throne in my youth, relying wholly upon the blessings of my ancestors. Yet oppressive levies and miscellaneous taxes have emerged without end, offending Heaven above, and I deeply abhor them..."

"... From this day forth, the three levies — the Training, Liao, and Suppression taxes — are permanently abolished nationwide, and land taxes are waived for one year. The Eastern Depot shall be reestablished, with Wang Cheng'en, brush-holding eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, appointed as Imperial Commissioner overseeing the Eastern Depot's officers and agents, serving as Director of the Eastern Depot. By imperial order!"

The moment Wang Cheng'en's words fell, the court, which had just fallen silent, erupted into clamor once more. Many people widened their eyes and exchanged glances, each seeing the disbelief in the other's gaze.

Cutting off a man's livelihood is like killing his parents. With the Chongzhen Emperor abolishing the three levies and waiving taxes for a year, how were local officials supposed to skim money to curry favor with their superiors? And how could they line their own pockets from the three levies? Their income had suddenly dropped by more than half.

Waiving land taxes for a year was not the same as waiving all taxes — the two had to be separated. If the Chongzhen Emperor had only waived land taxes for a year, the greatest impact would have fallen on the petty clerks below, with little effect on capital officials, who had plenty of other means to squeeze out silver.

But today it was not just that. With a single edict, the Chongzhen Emperor had completely abolished the three levies that had been collected for years — and on top of that, that Eastern Depot, which made people pale at the very mention, had actually been reestablished!

What was the reasoning behind this?

When the Chongzhen Emperor first ascended the throne, he had exterminated the eunuch faction and completely abolished the Eastern Depot. That was what had gradually made them bold and fearless — because the Emperor had no way of knowing their true circumstances, and without solid evidence, he could do nothing to them.

Now the situation was different. The Chongzhen Emperor had first appointed Wu Xiang to command the Capital Camps and recruit new troops, then made Li Ruolian the new Guard Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and appointed Fang Zhenghua to reorganize the Directorate of the Imperial Horses.

This series of measures bore no resemblance to the timid, hesitant Zhu Youjian of the very beginning.

All of the above could be tolerated, but the reestablishment of the Eastern Depot was absolutely unacceptable. Heaven knows what those Eastern Depot agents might dig up!

Those two life-taking institutions, the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot, had both been set up — and even Grand Secretaries like Chen Yan and Wei Zaode had received no word beforehand. Was this not showing too little regard for us ministers?

Though most harbored discontent, even burning anger, after waiting for a long while no one dared to step forward.

When the Chongzhen Emperor had issued his edict, he had first made an example of one to warn the rest. Wang Aoyong had been dragged away by the palace guards, but the bloodstains remained on the hall floor, the stench of blood had not yet dissipated, and his miserable screams were still fresh in their minds!

Say what you will — the ministers remaining in this Ming court were all old hands, most skilled at self-preservation. With the Chongzhen Emperor's iron-fisted handling of Wang Aoyong, naturally no one wanted to go out and test it personally.

The ministers looked at one another, each waiting for someone else to step forward, so that they could all voice their support in unison and push back against the Chongzhen Emperor.

The law cannot punish the multitude — this tactic, when used against the one on the dragon throne, had never failed to work.

Ordinarily, when the Chongzhen Emperor held an opinion contrary to the ministers', some prestigious literati official would step forward, and the rest would chime in one after another. At such times, the Chongzhen Emperor would generally yield a step and let the matter drop.

But now, Chen Yan, Grand Secretary of the Wuying Hall and Chief Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat, kept his head down and said nothing, behaving very obediently.

Though the ministers murmured among themselves, having witnessed the Chongzhen Emperor's methods just now, naturally no one else dared to come forward and criticize.

Walking back toward the Warm Pavilion, the Chongzhen Emperor wore a joyful smile on his face, striding briskly. Since transmigrating here to become emperor, he had never felt as happy as he did at this moment.

The stifling frustration of many days was swept away in an instant — truly a feeling of incomparable exhilaration.

Wang Cheng'en, walking beside him, saw the Chongzhen Emperor's delight and was genuinely happy for His Majesty from the bottom of his heart. Today was a fine day for him as well.

Seeing those ministers humiliated, each with an expression of daring not to speak their anger, the Chongzhen Emperor felt immensely satisfied. It seemed that fighting poison with poison and resorting to ruthless measures was the only way to get things done.

In the original history, the Chongzhen Emperor had been fooled from start to finish by the Donglin Faction. This current emperor, though not a professional at ruling, had quickly discovered within days of arriving that he was in the awkward position of knowing nothing at all.

Since he knew nothing, he naturally had to make changes immediately — to make himself know everything.

The Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard came first. Though these two things were somewhat distasteful, that was only from the Donglin Faction's perspective. In the Emperor's eyes, the Eastern Depot was his eyes, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard was the blade held in his hand.

The ancestors of the Zhu family had all been dragons among men. There must have been a reason they left these institutions behind — perhaps precisely to prevent and handle this very situation of being jointly deceived by the ministers.

The most interesting part was that once these two institutions were established, whoever they wanted to arrest or kill was entirely up to the Emperor — no need to go through the Grand Secretariat, no need for court deliberation.

From the ministers' perspective, the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard were a sharp sword perpetually hanging over their heads. United, they were simply terrifying — one would have to think three times before acting.

"Confiscating Wang Aoyong's household might yield two hundred thousand taels of silver or more. In the short term, that should be enough for the Capital Camps."

What the Chongzhen Emperor hoped most for now was that Wang Cheng'en and Li Ruolian would live up to his expectations and establish the two agencies with utmost speed. Setting aside other places, at the very least the capital had to be covered first.

With money in hand, one could undertake bold reforms!

Along the way, the Chongzhen Emperor hummed a little tune back to the Warm Pavilion. The first memorial he saw upon sitting down was an urgent military dispatch from Zhou Yuji, Regional Commander of Shanxi.

Flipping through the dispatch, the Chongzhen Emperor's expression turned from clear skies to overcast. He said in a deep voice:

"Summon Li Fengxiang, brush-holding eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, to the Warm Pavilion to see me!"