Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 127: Requesting a War and Apologizing
In the early morning, the Beijing sky was thick with dark clouds, and snowflakes drifted down in a flurry, as if the breeze, carrying the bright white of the snow, painted a colorful winter scene for the world. As time passed, the snow fell heavier, but the sky grew brighter, as if nature was preparing for the coming sunshine. At noon, the thick clouds finally parted, and golden sunlight filtered through the gaps between the clouds, streaming down the earth. It echoed with the bright yellow glazed tiles on the edges of the palaces and pavilions, which had not yet been covered by ice and snow, outlining a circle of majestic grandeur.

"Master. The cabinet has reported that almost all government offices have submitted memorials." Wei Chao strode into the southern study room with the door ajar, and reported the news he had heard in the cabinet straight away.

"Almost." Zhu Changluo grasped the key words and asked, "Hanlin Academy and Six Departments and Thirteen Examinations?"

"In reply to my lord, a few of the departments under the control of Lord Fang also submitted memorials." Wei Chao thought for a moment and replied.

The reform has developed to this point, and submitting a petition requesting leniency is tantamount to surrendering.

"Fang Congzhe is still mature." Zhu Changluo nodded, expressing his satisfaction.

"What should we do with those stubborn guys who are left?" Wang An's good impression of the Donglin Party had been completely worn away by the repeated obstructions. He suggested, "Master, how about giving them a beating in court? These people deserve a beating. Just kill a few chickens and the remaining monkeys will naturally behave themselves."

"Grandfather, I'm afraid this isn't a good idea," Wei Chao said cautiously. "Everything must be justified. How can we give them a spanking? Killing a few officials is fine, but if we can't find a suitable excuse, I'm afraid the master will be branded as someone who 'punishes without teaching.'"

Zhu Changluo listened to the two eunuchs' discussion but didn't express any opinion. He had already predetermined the outcome of this matter before ordering the eunuchs to submit a note to the cabinet regarding the early morning court reform, but now it seemed that many people were taking actions around this matter that Zhu Changluo had not anticipated.

Not long ago, he received another secret memorial from Wei Zhongxian, which stated that Tian Ergeng of the Jinyiwei was planning an operation against Zou Yuanbiao.

Tian Ergeng was a notorious eunuch in history, one of Wei Zhongxian's most brutal adopted sons. He was known at the time as "Eldest Son Tian Ergeng." Zhu Changluo always found it strangely amusing that Wei Zhongxian was monitoring and informing on Tian Ergeng.

Seeing that the emperor didn't even look up, the two eunuchs stopped discussing the matter and changed their topics.

Adhering to the principle of discussing minor matters first and major ones later, Wei Chao began by reporting memorials from officials across the country. These memorials described the Ming Dynasty as a place of auspicious signs, with the new emperor ascending the throne and the upcoming change of era name, as a vibrant and flourishing aura. All the subjects praised the emperor's virtue and majesty, as if, from the moment he ascended the throne on August 1st, the Ming Dynasty had automatically begun a new chapter of order, transitioning from chaos to order.

As Wei Chao read the memorial, he coined new and beautiful words to echo the praises. If he were truly a canary emperor, confined to the Forbidden City his entire life, he might have truly believed his dynasty was peaceful and prosperous under such praise. But in reality, the vast majority of officials concealed everything they could from their superiors. Even if natural disasters or civil unrest truly occurred, they would try their best to whitewash and deflect responsibility, securing a relatively safe position.

Supervisory officials can certainly correct this distorted information, but the prerequisite for them to play this corrective role is that supervisory officials and administrative officials are not from the same faction or lineage, and are not from the same hometown or the same year.

Zhu Changluo ignored these memorials that were year-end summaries, and not a single word of them stayed in his mind even for a moment.

Almost a quarter of an hour later, the memorials submitted to Beijing by officials from all over the country were finally read.

"Master. A chieftain in Sichuan has submitted a memorial to the court." After talking about the same old trivial matters, Wei Chao began to report some bigger but less urgent matters.

"Sichuan." Zhu Changluo raised his head and asked, "Which chieftain?" There are countless chieftains in the three southwestern provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, etc.

"She Chongming, the envoy of Yongning, Sichuan, submitted a petition requesting the dispatch of 20,000 cavalry and infantry to support Liaodong." Wei Chao replied.

"Yongning Xuanfu Envoy She Chongming, She Chongming" Zhu Changluo felt that the name sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had heard it for a moment.

"Who is the current chief official in Sichuan?" Zhu Changluo asked.

"My Lord, the current chief official in Sichuan is Zhu Xieyuan." Wei Chao had made thorough preparations. "In the 20th year of the Wanli reign, Zhu Xieyuan was admitted as a Jinshi (71st place in the third class of the Renchen imperial examination). In the 35th year of the Wanli reign, Zhu Xieyuan resigned from office and returned home due to his elderly parents. In the 44th year of the Wanli reign, he was reinstated as the Censor of Shaanxi. In August of the 46th year, he was transferred to the position of Right Governor of Sichuan."

"In August of this year, the Emperor issued an edict ordering the highest officials of local yamen to temporarily take over the positions of chief officials. Therefore, Zhu Xieyuan is currently serving as the 'Acting Left Provincial Governor' and is temporarily in charge of all Sichuan affairs."

"She Chongming, Zhu Xieyuan; Zhu Xieyuan, She Chongming" Zhu Changluo kept repeating these two names together for a long time, and finally a light bulb went off in his head and he remembered who these two people were: She An's Rebellion!
In September of the first year of the Tianqi reign, She Chongming, the chieftain of Yongning, murdered Sichuan Governor Xu Keqiu and others, occupied Chongqing, and seized Zunyi. Subsequently, She Chongming usurped the throne and mobilized tens of thousands of his own troops, along with those of the barbarian tribes, to launch a separate offensive. The rebels successively conquered 41 prefectures and counties, advancing by land and sea, and ultimately besieged Chengdu.

That's not right! Didn't Sichuan already have a governor? How could it be Zhu Xieyuan's turn to replace the Left Governor with the Right Governor, temporarily taking charge of all Sichuan affairs?

"Where is Xu Keqiu?" Zhu Changluo asked.

"Xu Keqiu?" This time it was Wei Chao's turn to be confused.

"What are you standing there for? Go check it out." Wang An said to Wei Chao.

"I'll go right away, I'll go right away!" Wei Chao thought he hadn't done his job well, and sweat suddenly filled his forehead. He swallowed, put down his things, ran out of the South Study and rushed to Wenhua Hall.

"Wei Bingbi, why are you in such a hurry? Did something happen?" Wei Chao ran out of the Qianqing Palace and ran into Cui Wensheng.

"Cui Dongchang, you should be sitting in the Dongchang at this time. Are you coming to the Qianqing Palace to report something important to the master?" Wei Chao walked quickly to Cui Wensheng.

"I'm here to apologize to His Majesty." Cui Wensheng's face was full of worry.

"Apologize, what crime?" Wei Chao asked worriedly. "You've just been reinstated."

Cui Wensheng was stunned, his expression shifting slightly from worry to joy. "Wei Bingbi doesn't know yet?" This means that Wei Zhongxian's letter of rejection, which he had handed to the Imperial Household Department, hadn't been read to the Emperor yet. This is truly wonderful!
"I made the mistake of employing a few people, and the Western Factory rejected my proposal." Cui Wensheng gave a simple answer, then said sincerely, "Go ahead and do whatever you need, and don't worry about me anymore."

"These are all trivial matters. His Majesty is kind-hearted. He will most likely not blame you too much if you take the initiative to admit your mistake. But I have to remind you that now is not a good time." After a brief exchange, Wei Chao rushed towards the Wenhua Hall in a hurry again.

In the southern study, Zhu Changluo closed his eyes, pondering the historical details of the She'an Rebellion. After searching his mind for a long time, he could not recall anything useful. Compared to the series of major events of the late Ming Dynasty, such as the fall of Liaodong, the She'an Rebellion was nothing of significance. Historians' accounts and research on it were extremely brief, far inferior to the rebellion of Yang Yinglong in Bozhou, considered one of the three great campaigns of the Wanli Emperor. Clearly, in the eyes of historians, the She'an Rebellion was merely a minor incident on the southwestern border that was eventually quelled, insignificant compared to the various civil unrests that remained unresolved until the Ming's fall. But Zhu Changluo was no historian; he was a participant in history. The cold, fuzzy data was about to become a bloody reality, starkly laid before him.

Never mind, there's no need to rush, let's plan slowly. Zhu Changluo breathed a sigh of relief, and his expression became much better.

"Master." Wang An saw the emperor's expression turn from gloomy to bright and thought it was time to throw something else out there to divert the emperor's attention. "I just remembered a little thing and wanted to tell you, Master."

"You say." Zhu Changluo rubbed his temples and pulled his attention away from his chaotic thoughts.

"Zhang Shirui of the Zhang Mansion has sent a petition to the palace through a eunuch on duty." When Wang An heard this news from Wei Chao, he had originally planned to report it early in the morning. However, with the Lantern Festival approaching, the palace suddenly had a plethora of matters requiring his approval. In the flurry of activity, he forgot about this minor matter, which had no written document or note attached.

"What petition are you submitting?" A not very clear image of a young Taoist nun emerged in Zhu Changluo's mind.

Before their chance encounter at the Lintai Tavern, he had always thought Zhang Shirui was an old Taoist nun like Nun Miejue. After leaving Xu's residence, he realized that Zhang Shirui was only in her early twenties.

However, since Zhang Shirui had been standing far away, maintaining a proper distance in accordance with the "difficulty between men and women", Zhu Changluo did not have much impression of this young Taoist nun.

"To answer the master's question, Zhang Shirui wants to ask for a chance to see the master." Wang An replied.

"Come to plead for her father?" Zhu Changluo sneered. "Send someone to tell her that the Zhang family's affairs are not her place as a woman of mine who has come to Beijing to pay a visit. Ask for a pardon. Send Zhang Yingjing. Once Zhang Yingjing arrives, she can leave." Zhu Changluo planned to make a big deal about the Zhang family's affairs, using the Zhang family's chicken to show the monkeys who pretended to obey the court what the consequences of perfunctory behavior would be. Therefore, even if Zhang Yingjing was willing to come to Beijing, Zhu Changluo would keep him under house arrest for a period of time.

"What about Miss Ding?" Wang An said in a businesslike tone, but if it was really businesslike, he wouldn't have to mention it specifically.

"Ding Baiying" Zhu Changluo thought for a moment and said, "If she wants to leave, let her go. There's no need to embarrass her. She's a good person, and the Zhang family's affairs have nothing to do with her."

"I obey your order." Wang An showed an expression of "As I expected."

"By the way, what's going on with the Jesuits lately?" Zhu Changluo asked.

"People from foreign religions are much more enthusiastic than those from Taoism. They have been very active recently. Almost all civil servants above the third rank have received their visiting cards." Wang An replied.

"Who met them?" Zhu Changluo asked.

"Most officials didn't meet them, and many didn't even accept their invitations." Wang An pulled out several slips from his desk, recording the affairs of various foreigners. "Beijing officials were waiting to see how their masters would react to them. Only officials like Vice Minister Ye Xianggao, who had previous dealings with foreigners, received them. However, Ye only met them once. The most eager were those who had 'washed something.' I wonder if 'washing' was a code word for private transactions."

Zhu Changluo nodded. "Once you've been 'baptized,' you become a member of the same sect."

"Like studying at the Donglin Academy?"

"Almost." Zhu Changluo had never had much interest in religious rituals. "Well, arrange a time for the Jesuit president, Long Huamin, the elder statesman Guo Jujing, and the young Johann Adam Schall von Bell to come to the palace. I want to speak with them separately."

"I obey your order." Wang An had just written down the two things the emperor had ordered on the memo when he heard a voice coming from outside.

"Cui Wensheng, the chief eunuch of the Imperial Household Department and commander of the Eastern Depot, requests an audience!" a eunuch announced.

"Announce." Zhu Changluo didn't know why Cui Wensheng asked for a meeting, but he didn't have the time to guess.

"Your servant Cui Wensheng kowtows to the emperor, Long live the emperor!" Cui Wensheng entered the hall and then knocked his head hard on the floor.

"Stand up and sit down." Zhu Changluo waved his hand casually.

"I am guilty and dare not get up." Cui Wensheng kowtowed again.

"What crime have you committed?" Although Zhu Changluo was asking Cui Wensheng, he turned his gaze to Wang An.

Wang An also looked confused and had no idea what Cui Wensheng was talking about.

Wang Cheng'en was actually to blame. He was a well-behaved and punctilious child, a quick learner, but also incredibly stubborn. Western Factory regulations required him to submit his "rebuttals" to the Imperial Household Department, and he sent them to the Imperial Household Department headquarters. But neither Wang An nor Wei Chao typically visited the headquarters during the day. Cao Huachun, the eunuch who handled daily affairs at the headquarters, was Wang Cheng'en's godfather, but he didn't have the authority to read the Western Factory's reports.

In the end, Cui Wensheng even came to apologize, but the emperor and the two cardinal eunuchs still didn't know what had happened.

"I have committed the crime of employing private individuals." Cui Wensheng said this very cleverly.

Private transactions and favoritism are supposedly serious crimes. But in reality, which official, whether internal or external, doesn't use personal connections? As long as the emperor took this into consideration and pardoned him for "appointing personal connections," he wouldn't react too strongly to the West Factory's subsequent rebuttal of the Imperial Household Department's "rebuttal letter."

In this way, his "large-scale appointment of private individuals" was diluted by this vaccination into simply "appointing private individuals".

(End of this chapter)