Chapter 1271: In the Midst of Satisfaction

And some even brought up the matter of the Song dynasty — what fate ultimately befell the two Songs after making peace with the Liao, peace with the Jin, peace with the Mongols. The ancestral precept of no peace talks and no ceding of territory is a maxim of profound truth. Now the bandit horde presses close to the capital — how identical is this to the Jin army closing in on Kaifeng back then! We absolutely must not be careless or negligent and thereby commit a monumental blunder.

While this side was impassioned and vehement, the other side was hardly mealy-mouthed either, saying: With the great defeat at Jinghai and Tianjin breached, the bandit army presses upon the capital region, and the whole realm is already shaken. You speak of fighting — if we win, all is well, but what if we lose? Have any of you considered the safety of the Son of Heaven? To speak recklessly merely for personal gain or loss — what loyalty and righteousness is there in that? Now the bandit army occupies Tianjin, north and south are already cut off, and in this vital capital area, the imperial house and the court have not the slightest room to maneuver. You speak of fighting — do you mean to disregard the imperial house, and disregard this court as well?

"Such thoughts of yours are nothing more than clinging to power and position, unwilling to leave, afraid that Grand Secretary Sun's return will ruin your glory and wealth. With such selfish motives at work, have you ever given thought to the rivers and mountains of this Great Ming, ever given thought to our sovereign?" By the end of the quarrel, all pretense was cast aside, and no one cared any longer whether their words struck at the heart or not.

At these words, Ye Xianggao had already risen with a bitter smile and returned on his own to his earlier position. Though his name was incessantly invoked before him, these matters now had nothing whatsoever to do with him. The atmosphere in the room was drawn taut as a bowstring, each man's words clashing with the next in indescribable cacophony, while the Tianqi Emperor's increasingly dark expression presaged an imminent storm. The Chief Grand Secretary Ye Xianggao suddenly found himself very much at ease — that ever-leaking heavy burden had already slipped from his shoulders. No matter how things went from here, it had little to do with him anymore.

When the talk over there turned to clinging to power and position, to fearing Sun Chengzong's return to the capital, Zhao Nanxing's expression also changed. In court disputes and public censure, a grandee of his stature merely set the direction and tone; he would never directly engage. But at a moment like this, someone of weight had to step into the fray and speak harsh words, or else the situation would be beyond salvaging. By now the Tianqi Emperor had still not uttered a sound, and Wei Zhongxian kept his head lowered the entire time.

The Minister of Personnel Zhao Nanxing turned his head back to look at Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou of the Chief Surveillance Bureau. Both were men of fiery temperament and unyielding disposition, never falling behind others in political struggles, and their speech was free of taboos — most suited for a scene like this.

Even more rare was that Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou were upright and incorruptible, of impoverished family backgrounds, so when they argued and remonstrated they had few shortcomings or handles to be seized upon — they were sharp weapons for the Donglin faction and other groups in debate. But what Zhao Nanxing had not expected was that these two had not stepped forward. Meeting his gaze, they instead gravely shook their heads.

Zhao Nanxing knew what they were thinking — no doubt that at this juncture, suing for peace to make the Xuzhou bandits withdraw was the most critical matter, not engaging in some pointless struggle in the court. These two were once again thinking in terms of the realm's rivers and mountains, once again considering the greater picture over there.

"Truly ignorant of what matters!" The Minister of Personnel Zhao Nanxing cursed inwardly. These were men whose minds had been ruined by book-learning. Only with power in hand can one serve the state and the people. If this power and position were lost, then what else was there to speak of?

Though Zhao Nanxing cursed bitterly in his heart, his face was all solemnity. He gave a cough, and as the acknowledged leader of several factions at court, this gesture immediately silenced the scene. Even the opposing faction held their tongues, waiting for Zhao Nanxing to speak. The gazes of the Emperor and Wei Zhongxian also turned toward him.

"The bandit soldiers say they wish to negotiate peace, and so you gentlemen wish to go and negotiate peace. Since the founding of the Ming, have any of our successive ancestors, any of our worthy predecessors, ever negotiated peace with a bandit horde? What is more, this is suing for peace in the wake of defeat. Setting aside such deeds of national humiliation and surrender of sovereignty — gentlemen, do you truly intend to hand over Shandong and the prefectures and counties of South Zhili north of the Yangtze to the bandit horde with both hands?" Zhao Nanxing's voice was stern and his expression severe.

Although he addressed the civil and military officials inside and outside the chamber, in truth he was speaking for the Tianqi Emperor's ears.

"What lies under the jurisdiction of the Fengyang Governor of South Zhili? The imperial ancestral tombs, the Great Monastery of the Dragon's Rise — that is the very birthplace of our dynasty. And what else lies there? The salt tax, the tribute grain. That region concerns not only the ancestral temples, but also the very lifeblood of the realm. Moreover, to abandon those various places there is tantamount to letting the bandit horde water their horses in the Yangtze, letting the bandit horde threaten and plot against the rich and fertile lands of Jiangnan, and thereby seize all of South Zhili into their grasp. What is this? This is digging out the lifeblood of our dynasty, leaving our dynasty without money and without grain. If we agree to this, what difference is there from national ruin? Why should we bother negotiating peace — would it not be better to simply surrender?"

Zhao Nanxing's words could already be described as utterly unrestrained, even a breach of decorum before the sovereign. But these words struck at the vital points, and though the Tianqi Emperor's face was ashen, he still listened intently.

"... Doesn't that peace proposal say that the salt tax and the grain transport will continue as before?" someone muttered from below.

"Can the words of those bandits be trusted? That Xuzhou bandit is nothing more than a menial servant, a slave household, a peddler, the dregs of society — how could such a man keep his word? Before such benefits as the salt tax and grain transport, how could he possibly remain unmoved? If the court loses the salt tax, the grain transport, loses the money, grain, and population of Shandong and South Zhili, it will be a wound that cannot stop bleeding, and all that blood will be drunk by those bandits, who will grow ever stronger the more they drink. Not to mention those so-called ports — those several ports are all strategic locations. If the bandits occupy them, they will surely collude with the Japanese pirates and press into our heartland. What then? Must we cede more territory? Until there is no more territory left to cede?"

Zhao Nanxing was the very picture of righteous grandeur. At that moment, sunlight streamed in through the doors and windows, illuminating him as though he were bathed in golden light — truly the bearing of a renowned minister, sacred and sublime beyond compare.

The Tianqi Emperor and Wei Zhongxian exchanged a glance, each able to see the helplessness in the other's eyes. Sweeping their gaze across the men in the chamber, even those who had just been vigorously advocating for peace talks had fallen silent. The Minister of Personnel Zhao Nanxing had said so much precisely to preserve his own faction's power and position, to prevent Sun Chengzong from returning to the capital and entering the Grand Secretariat, yet the reasoning he laid out was something no one could refute.

Amid the clamor of debate, not even the Son of Heaven could cede Fengyang Prefecture, the land of the ancestral tombs and the Dragon's Rise. The grain transport and salt tax, touching upon every aspect of the realm, could not be casually given away either. Even though Xuzhou had already indicated that these places were not within the scope of the peace talks, Zhao Nanxing's single line — "Can the words of bandits be trusted?" — had blocked everyone's words right back.

The Tianqi Emperor's brow was tightly furrowed. When he had discovered that sage-emperor autocracy was merely a notion on paper, that any single thing he wished to do would provoke endless wrangling between the inner court and outer court — after discovering all this, the Tianqi Emperor had begun to "indulge in pleasure," occupying himself with woodworking and all manner of diversions, letting Wei Zhongxian manage everything in the foreground. Yet now, with the situation so critical that the Son of Heaven must make a decision, he still could not carry through his own will. This filled him with a sense of defeat.

As long as advocating war remained beyond reproach, as long as the fight against the bandit horde continued, there would still be opportunities to reverse course. No one could say that the original strategy of encircling and suppressing Xuzhou had been wrong, and naturally there would be no change in the Chief Grand Secretary. The Donglin faction's current position could still be maintained. As for whether they could actually win, whether the bandit army would agree — no one gave that any thought. Every man with a seat in this chamber was among the top elite of the Great Ming, and each had his own judgment of the current situation. That Xuzhou bandit had already reached a strategic location like Tianjin, yet was proactively proposing peace talks instead of pressing on toward the capital — there must be a reason they could not advance, whether their strength was flagging or some other cause.

In other words, the situation at the capital was in truth not so desperate. Since the founding of the Ming, the various Mongol tribes of the steppe had risen in turn — the Oirats of old, the Altan Khan later on — all had led armies to the very walls of the capital, yet in the end it had been no more than a false alarm. No matter how fierce that Xuzhou bandit horde might be, could they be fiercer than the Mongols of the steppe? What if this time they were at the end of their tether, or the court mobilized troops and drove them away? Then those who had endorsed and participated in the peace talks would likely face a reckoning, perhaps even be convicted of crimes.

It was precisely because such thoughts were in their minds that no one dared to refute the Minister of Personnel Zhao Nanxing's fierce words and stern demeanor. He had laid out the consequences, and everyone felt they could not bear them. Even more, they feared that if they persisted now, they would face a reckoning in the future — and so no one spoke.

The Tianqi Emperor glanced at Wei Zhongxian once more. Wei Zhongxian nodded. He knew the Emperor wanted him to speak, but for the Director of the Directorate of Ceremonial to voice an opinion during such a court debate — his standing was inherently weak, and the effect was truly hard to predict.

But the impassioned Zhao Nanxing would not even grant him this opportunity. He had been nervously watching the interaction between sovereign and minister the entire time. Seeing this, Zhao Nanxing directly dropped to his knees, tears already streaming down his face, and said in a choked voice: "Your Majesty, in this standoff with those bandits, one step back means utter destruction, one step back means eternal damnation. We absolutely must not fall for the bandits' delaying tactic. At this opportune moment, we should be selecting loyal and crack troops, dispatching them to Tianjin, and annihilating the bandit army. Otherwise, the realm will be thrown into turmoil, and the successive ancestors of the Great Ming will never consent!"

With him kneeling, the entire cohort of his faction knelt in succession, loudly echoing Zhao Nanxing's words, with every appearance of refusing to rise unless the Son of Heaven agreed.

"My Lord, they're resorting to these shameless tactics again. Why not..." Wei Zhongxian leaned close to the Tianqi Emperor's ear and said in a low voice.

Even as he spoke, Wei Zhongxian suddenly raised his head. More than one person in the chamber made the same motion. Everyone had heard the sound of urgent footsteps coming from outside. In such a forbidden precinct of the great inner palace, where one had to cover one's mouth even to sneeze, and in such a solemn occasion of court debate, how could there be such hurried footsteps? This was surely no breach of protocol and rules, but rather some matter of grave urgency.

"A matter of the most extreme urgency — let me in at once!" The footsteps halted outside the door. It was recognizable as the shrill tone of a eunuch, his voice even trembling somewhat.

"It's Xiao Hu from the capital garrison..." Wei Zhongxian recognized it. He informed the Tianqi Emperor and was just about to order the man admitted when the door outside was pushed open. A middle-aged eunuch in a red robe came stumbling and staggering in, followed by several flustered and exasperated Han Generals.

The moment that eunuch saw the Tianqi Emperor and Wei Zhongxian at the head of the chamber, he dropped directly to his knees and cried out in a shrill voice: "My Lord, the Xuzhou bandit army has already passed Tongzhou! They are about... about to reach the capital..."

The several Han Generals of the Brocade Guard who had been pursuing right behind him had just caught up and were about to seize him. Hearing this, their movements froze rigidly on the spot. The clamor in the chamber also fell into instant, absolute silence. Those civil officials kneeling at the front, no longer caring about any breach of decorum before the sovereign, all turned their heads in unison to look.

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