Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 28 The Emperor is going to cultivate immortality?

"Wang An is really an old fox." Wei Zhongxian muttered to himself while sitting alone in the carriage returning to the city.

Killing a woman who didn't enjoy the emperor's favor was like tearing off a piece of useless paper for the powerful Wang An. Just a small hint and Ke Shi would disappear.

Wei Zhongxian was arguably one of the most brilliant minds of the era, so it was impossible for him not to hear Wang An's hint. The so-called "doing it nicely" was nothing more than wiping out the roots.

There was nothing to hesitate about. Wei Zhongxian was indeed greedy for Ke Yinyue's body, but in order to satisfy his desire for power, he could even give up a man's most precious thing, let alone a beautiful appearance.

He had gone to extremes. The charred corpse of Ke Yinyue and the headless body of Hou Guoxing were Wei Zhongxian's tokens of loyalty to Wang An, but he also cut off his own escape route.

The eldest prince, Zhu Youxiao, lost his mother at an early age. Ke Yinyue, a fussy wet nurse, stepped in and largely filled this role, filling the void left in Zhu Youxiao's heart by the lack of both maternal and paternal love.

Even if Ke Yinyue stuffed dirty things into the hollow of Zhu Youxiao's heart, for Zhu Youxiao, dirty things were at least better than nothing. Moreover, Zhu Youxiao, who lacked education since childhood, did not really know what was "right".

Wei Zhongxian brutally murdered Ke Yinyue and her son. This meant he could no longer serve as the trusted eunuch of the eldest son, Zhu Youxiao. Under the prevailing political climate of the Ming Dynasty, as long as the eldest son survived his father's death, he would become emperor.

If the emperor of the Ming Dynasty wanted to execute a eunuch, he only needed to say a word, even if you were the highest-ranking official in the Imperial Household Department.

Therefore, from the moment Ke Yinyue died, Wei Zhongxian could no longer be indecisive, and there was only one way to go: to become the most loyal servant of Emperor Taichang Zhu Changluo and eliminate all those who tried to threaten Zhu Changluo's status and life.

Dying before Emperor Taichang was the only way for him to have a good end.

------

"Have the bodies of Ke Yinyue and Hou Guoxing been found?" Wang An was sitting on the main seat in the side hall of the Imperial Household Department. In front of him was only a young eunuch standing with his hands hanging down.

"Ancestor, we've found her. Ke Yinyue was burned to a charred corpse by Wei Zhongxian, unrecognizable as a human. She was buried in an uninhabited forest sixteen miles east of Chaoyang Gate."

"Hou Guoxing's head and body were separated, and his body was thrown into the mass grave outside Guangning Gate by Wei Zhongxian's servants, while his head was smashed to pieces and thrown to feed wild dogs." The eunuch who came back to report did not know that those who helped Wei Zhongxian were all his relatives.

"Did he discover you?" Wang An nodded and continued to ask.

"We found out. Following the instructions of our ancestors, we did not deliberately hide our tracks. They did not avoid us when they did things." The eunuch replied.

"Very good. Go to the accounting office and withdraw some money, and use it to have a good rest with you and the others." Wang An wrote a note for withdrawing five hundred taels of silver and handed it to the eunuch who came to report, then waved his hand to signal him to go out.

"Thank you, ancestor."

After the eunuch left, Wang An's mouth curled up slightly. His throat moved as he muttered to himself, "The Emperor is kind and merciful, but I, Wang An, am not."

On the afternoon of the second day after dealing with Ke Yinyue, Wang An brought Wei Zhongxian to the Southern Study again.

"The eunuch Wang An, the seal-holder of the Imperial Household Department, and the eunuch Wei Zhongxian, the pen-holder of the Imperial Household Department, request to see you." This time, someone announced their names at the door.

"Announce." Zhu Changluo stood up and slightly stretched his lower back which was numb from sitting for a long time.

"Your servant Wang An pays homage to the emperor, Long Live the Emperor!" Wang An performed the ceremony as per protocol.

"Your servant Wei Zhongxian pays homage to the emperor!" Wei Zhongxian was still trembling. "Get up, everyone get up." Zhu Changluo twisted his waist.

"Wang An, where is Zhang Tianshi from Longhu Mountain?" Zhu Changluo's tone seemed to be asking Wang An to call Zhang Tianshi and ask him where he was.

How would I know? Wang An was completely bewildered by the question. But he had to answer the emperor's question: "Your Majesty, Zhang Tianshi should be receiving the imperial edict soon." Even if all the places involving water were taken by boat, it would take at least a month to travel from Longhu Mountain in Jiangxi to Beijing.

Is the Emperor going to cultivate immortality again? Wei Zhongxian was puzzled.

"Too slow. I hope Zhang Tianshi can get there before the Jesuits." Zhu Changluo shook his head and sighed, then looked at Wei Zhongxian: "Have you checked over there?"

"Your Majesty, I have seen it." The so-called "over there" is the newly built barracks on the site of the old West Factory.

"Okay, take this and familiarize yourself with it. Then do as instructed." Zhu Changluo took out a stack of papers tied with a golden rope and handed it to Wei Zhongxian.

"I will obey your Majesty's order." Wei Zhongxian knelt on the ground and caught it with both hands.

The formation of the New Western Factory was done in complete secrecy. Although everyone in and outside the palace knew that the troops Xu Guangqi had trained in Tongzhou were being transferred to the Imperial City, everyone assumed the palace was planning to assign these troops to the Imperial Horse Administration to supplement the Imperial Guard. They simply didn't have the time to pay attention to this force of less than a thousand men; the matter was too minor.

The East Depot's greed was truly shameful. Zheng Guotai and Zheng Yangxing, father and son, capitalized on Emperor Wanli's exclusive favor for Consort Zheng, amassing wealth at court for over thirty years, more than half the length of Yan Song's twenty-year tenure. How could the money seized from the confiscations not even cover the mere 540,000 taels of unpaid salaries owed to officials below the sixth rank in Beijing?

The Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War’s dissatisfaction with the East Depot has reached its peak.

However, the Donglin Party and the "Three-Party Alliance" headed by the Zhejiang Party simultaneously suppressed the censors' burning desire to express themselves.

The core figures of the two factions couldn't figure out the emperor's intentions and didn't want to be the first to take action.

Logically, the Emperor clearly stated at the expanded cabinet meeting the purpose of the confiscated funds: first, to supplement salaries, then to supplement military pay, and finally to be handed over to the Ministry of War. This suggests that the Emperor should have known the approximate amount of the confiscated funds.

The Imperial Guard and the Imperial Household Department weren't blind, and the Eastern Depot certainly couldn't have covered up everything. The incident had caused such a stir that even if the censors hadn't filed an impeachment petition, the Emperor wouldn't have been completely unaware. Only a fool would have believed Cui Wensheng's foolish letter, which only served to conceal the truth.

Therefore, the "Three-Party Alliance" speculated that the emperor had changed his mind. The reason why the emperor did not order the East Factory to be reprimanded was because the money was actually used by the East Factory Admiral Cui Wensheng to honor the emperor!
Moreover, a piece of news brought out by Liu Heqing, the director of the Imperial Medical Service, also indirectly confirmed this conjecture to a certain extent: the emperor secretly issued an imperial edict to Zhang Tianshi of Longhu Mountain, ordering him to come to Beijing as soon as possible.

The emperor may have started thinking about cultivating immortality!
Building a Taoist temple, repairing a shrine, searching for auspicious signs, collecting rare treasures from all over the world to refine elixirs. Each of the above tasks costs a lot of money.

However, the "Three-Party Alliance" did not reach a conclusion on this, because Liu Heqing had joined the Donglin Party due to his connections with Liu Yirong. Regardless of whether his information was true or false, the Donglin Party was definitely behind it.

Furthermore, during a meeting, Fang Congzhe, the leader of the Zhejiang Party and the cabinet's chief minister, had a flash of inspiration. He connected the two seemingly unrelated events—the emperor's summons to the capital for Zhang Tianshi and the promotion of Donglin Party member Xu Guangqi to the positions of Minister of Rites and Minister of Rites—and came up with a bold hypothesis: the emperor wasn't seeking immortality, but rather a religious confrontation to prevent the Jesuits from dominating.

This conjecture has some rationality. But the problem is that it still does not explain why the emperor did not reprimand Cui Wensheng, but allowed him to continue to amass wealth.

In the end, the "Three-Party Alliance" could only come to a conservative resolution: Cui Wensheng must be impeached, but they should let the Donglin Party impeach him first.

"Isn't the Emperor imitating Duke Zhuang of Zheng?" Fang Congzhe's mind suddenly popped up the story of the "Gongshuduan Rebellion". "But why is this?"

(End of this chapter)