Bringing the Railway to Daming

Zou Huai was beaten with twenty strokes of the cane. Although he was not beaten to death, his buttocks were bruised and he even suffered internal injuries.

After being thrown into the cell, he could only lie on the filthy floor, smelling the musty stench that filled his nostrils, and felt utterly hopeless—not only was he going to die in the cell, but he was also afraid that his wife and children would not survive either.

My son has no money to buy medicine for his illness, so he will surely not live long.

If his wife were to face retaliation from the Kong family, she would likely also find it difficult to survive.

It's all his fault. How could he have been so bewitched as to agree to let his daughter become a maid in Master Kong's house?

Otherwise, even though life would be very difficult, at least the family wouldn't be destroyed.

Another person in the same cell as Zou Huai was missing a leg and could only sit there.

After the jailer left, the man asked, "Brother, how did you get beaten so badly? Did you offend Magistrate Kong?"

Zou Huai looked up at the man and found that he was younger than him, but it was hard to tell whether he was in his twenties or thirties. He answered breathlessly, "I did not offend the magistrate, but I accused Master Kong and Young Master Kong of killing my daughter, but Magistrate Kong ruled that it was a false accusation."

The man with the broken leg sighed, “Then you probably won’t get out of this county jail—I just wasn’t paying attention on the way and bumped into Young Master Kong’s carriage, so I got my leg broken and thrown into this jail, where I’ve been for more than half a month.”

"You actually dared to sue Young Master Kong. Regardless of whether he really killed your daughter, you're finished."

Zou Huai said angrily, "He killed my daughter, I will haunt him even as a vengeful ghost!"

The man with the broken leg said, "If people can truly become vengeful ghosts after death, how could Young Master Kong, who has harmed so many people, still be alive today?"

"Besides, he is a descendant of Confucius. Even if a person can become a vengeful ghost after death, I'm afraid he wouldn't be able to get close to the Second Young Master Kong."

Upon hearing these words, Zou Huai was almost completely desperate.

Yes, Kong Gongzhe was a descendant of a sage. Even if he turned into a vengeful ghost, he probably wouldn't be able to take revenge... How hateful! How hateful!
Driven by despair and anger, Zou Huai coughed up blood and immediately lost consciousness.

"Brother Zou? Brother Zou?"

After an unknown amount of time, Zou Huai was woken up.

Looking up, he saw Li Gui, the old servant beside Master Huang.

He asked in a daze, "Manager Li, what are you doing in the prison cell? Could it be that I've implicated Master Huang?"

Li Gui said, "I'm here to rescue you—quickly carry Zou Huai out and take him to the best medical clinic in Qufu for treatment."

Then Zou Huai was carried out of the cell by two guards onto a door panel.

The man with the broken leg stared blankly at the scene, his mind still reeling. Only when Li Gui was about to leave did he suddenly come to his senses and shout, "Injustice! General! I was also framed by Young Master Kong! He even had my leg broken!"

Although Li Gui was an elderly man in plain clothes, since he could bring soldiers into the prison, it couldn't be wrong for him to call him "General." This man dared to rescue Zou Huai, who had filed a lawsuit against Kong Gongzhe, so he was probably not afraid of offending the Kong family, which was his only hope for rescue.

Li Gui turned around and asked, "Were you also harmed by Kong Gongzhe?"

"Yes, yes." The man with the broken leg nodded quickly.

Li Gui said, "The imperial court is going to conduct a major investigation into the Confucius Mansion and the Qufu County government. You should stay in the prison and wait for someone to re-examine your case. If you are truly wronged, or even harmed by Kong Gongzhe, the imperial court will give you justice."

After saying this, Li Gui led the remaining imperial guards away from the county jail.

Although it would have been easy for him to bring out the man with the broken leg with just a word, he didn't do it—he knew very well that even if he were still in office, let alone a eunuch who had left the Directorate of Ceremonial, he shouldn't concern himself with such matters.

Having followed Zhu Yuanzhang, he learned too much about later events and knew how wary Zhu Yuanzhang was of eunuchs. He didn't want to risk offending him.

At most, he would mention this person to Zhu Yuanzhang after returning home.

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Confucius Mansion.

To be precise, it was the Duke Yansheng's Mansion.

In the tenth year of the Hongwu reign, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the Duke Yansheng to set up an official office and build the Duke Yansheng's residence to the east of the former residence of the Confucius family.

The foundation of the Duke Yansheng's mansion in later generations was basically laid during the construction in the tenth year of Hongwu's reign. Subsequent Ming and Qing emperors simply ordered renovations and expansions.

It covers an area of ​​over 100 acres and has nine courtyards with a three-way layout.

The main building in front of the central axis is the government office, which consists of three halls and six rooms. The inner residence is in the middle, and there is a back garden at the back.

Both the east and west sides were mainly schools, and also served as residences for the direct descendants of the Confucius family and their servants.

That morning, Duke Yansheng Kong Ne got up late, ate some breakfast, and then stayed in his study to read.

Judging by the book cover alone, one might assume he's studying a Confucian classic. However, if someone were to actually read his book, they would discover it's a popular novel. And not just any popular martial arts or military historical fiction, but a novel called *The Sequel to the Lamp-Wielding Monk*, complete with illustrations and incredibly exciting content.

Kong Ne was engrossed in reading, even starting to think about how he would verify the exciting content of the book with his concubine after he recovered in a few days, when he heard someone shouting outside.

"My lord, something terrible has happened!"

Hearing this, Kong Ne became furious, thinking to himself: Who is this steward? I will definitely demote him to a mere steward later—I am perfectly fine, what's wrong with me?
Immediately afterward, he heard the steward say, "A lot of government troops have come and surrounded our mansion!"

The government troops have surrounded the Confucius Mansion?!
Kong Ne was taken aback. He quickly put the book in the drawer, walked out of the study, and asked anxiously, "What happened?"

The second steward came to report, and upon hearing this, he said, "I don't know either—we asked around, but those government troops were too fierce. They only said that they were ordered by the army to seal off the Kong family mansion and not allow anyone to enter or leave, and they wouldn't say anything else."

'Could it be that the commander of the Yanzhou Garrison has rebelled and wants to detain me, the Duke of Yansheng, as a figurehead?'

Kong Ne had the same thought as Kong Gongsheng.

Immediately, he arrived at the gate of the mansion with his steward and attendants. Just as he was about to ask questions, he noticed the style of the soldiers' armor, helmets, and weapons, and Kong Ne was stunned.

The other people in the mansion did not recognize the Emperor's personal guards, but he went to the capital every year to attend important court assemblies and had even watched military exercises, so he naturally knew the Emperor's personal guards.

But he never expected that the Confucius Mansion would be surrounded by the Emperor's personal guards!

In the more than ten years since he succeeded as Duke Yansheng, he has followed the rules to pay homage to the emperor and hold various Confucian ceremonies every year, without doing anything to anger the emperor.

Could these not be the emperor's personal guards, but rather the guards of vassal kings?

The armor of the princes' guards and the emperor's personal guards were similar, making it difficult for someone like him, who had almost no military experience, to distinguish them.

If it is a prince protecting the army, could it be that one of the princes is dissatisfied with the new emperor and has rebelled in a fit of rage?

As Kong Ne stood dumbfounded behind the gate of the mansion, the other "masters" of the Kong family also came out one after another. They were mainly Kong Ne's wives, concubines, children, and even grandchildren, such as his eldest son Kong Gongjian and his second son Kong Gongzhe.

Kong Gongjian was exceptionally refined-looking, with a touch of femininity about him. If Liu Kuan were here, he would definitely describe him with one word: "effeminate!"
As the second most important person in the Kong family, he looked completely bewildered, unaware of what had happened or what to do, and instead showed a hint of curiosity.

Kong Gongzhe, standing nearby, was filled with curiosity. Taking advantage of Kong Ne's favor towards him, he asked casually, "Father, what's going on? How dare the government troops surround our Kong residence?"

Kong Ne snapped out of his daze and said somewhat irritably, "How should I know?"

Immediately, he arrived at the gate of the mansion and said to the leading officer, "I am Duke Yansheng Kong Ne. May I ask which army you belong to and why you have surrounded my Kong mansion?"

In the past, this general, who appeared to be at most a thousand households, would have at least bowed to Kong Ne and offered a rather polite explanation.

But at this moment, the officer coldly said, "We are acting under military orders, so please don't ask any more questions, Duke Yansheng."

Kong Ne said, "We are all descendants of Confucius, and this Duke Yansheng's mansion was built by order of the Emperor Emeritus. I am the head of the civil officials of the Ming Dynasty. Now that our mansion is besieged, do we not even have the right to know? Or are you actually rebels?!"

In the end, Kong Ne displayed some of the "imposing presence" of the Duke Yansheng, and questioned him sternly.

Unfortunately, his imposing manner was completely feigned, and the officer acted as if he hadn't heard him at all, ignoring him entirely.

Seeing this, Kong Ne, who was already all bark and no bite, was completely at a loss. He left with the words "You wait here" and went inside, ordering the door to be closed so he could avoid seeing it and getting annoyed.

However, after returning to his seat in the main hall of the mansion, Kong Ne frowned and began to ponder: Which vassal king had rebelled? Or had the court changed its policy towards the Kong family?

He thought about this and that, but he never considered that his own family members had committed any crimes—in his subconscious, as long as the people of the Confucius family did not commit serious crimes such as treason, other things were not a big deal.

Compared to Kong Ne, the Duke Yansheng, the other "masters" of the Kong family, such as Kong Gongjian and Kong Gongzhe, had no sense of crisis at all; they only felt it was inconvenient.

For example, Kong Gongjian thought that he could not go to the famous male entertainer he was keeping to discuss the art of playing the xiao (vertical flute).

Kong Gongzhe, meanwhile, thought that the peasant girl he'd spotted in the countryside yesterday would probably be a few days away from him, so for now, he could only satisfy his lust with a few somewhat presentable maids at home…
More than a day passed in the blink of an eye, and it was the afternoon of the following day.

Cheng Gongdao, the Provincial Judicial Commissioner of Shandong Province, and Hui Tiancheng, the Censor, each brought a group of attendants and arrived in Qufu one after another.

The two men naturally went to the inn to pay their respects to Zhu Yuanzhang first.

"Your humble servant pays respects to the Retired Emperor!"

Zhu Yuanzhang did not tell them to rise. He frowned slightly and said, "One of you is the Shandong Provincial Surveillance Commissioner, responsible for upholding the law and criminal justice in Shandong; the other is the Censor, responsible for upholding the good customs and discipline in Shandong."

"But when we arrived in Qufu, we found that the birthplace of Confucius had become a den of iniquity! What, could it be that Qufu isn't in Shandong, or even in our Great Ming Dynasty?!"

At the end, Zhu Yuanzhang's voice became stern and harsh. (End of Chapter)