The Ming Dynasty's Five Hundred Years

Chapter 192 Two Officials Kill One
Outside Jinan city, all was quiet.

Li Xianmu forced himself to close his eyes, but almost everyone could see the bulging veins on his forehead and his right hand tightly gripping the hilt of his knife.

His face was contorted with an undisguised ferocity.

That overwhelming killing intent was impossible to suppress.

After a long while, Li Xianmu finally loosened his grip on the hilt of his sword, opened his eyes and looked at the remaining Shandong officials. His eyes were bloodshot and as cold as a frozen river.

It is said that all the remaining people can be killed, but that is not entirely true. There are several subordinate officials of the three leaders who cannot be killed, as well as the Salt Transport Commissioner who cannot be killed.

However, the prefects of Jinan, Yanzhou, Dongchang, Qingzhou, Dengzhou, and Laizhou, which were under the jurisdiction of the Shandong Provincial Administration Commission, as well as the prefects of Binzhou and Puzhou, two directly governed prefectures, were all within the scope of the imperial edict that allowed them to be executed.

"I have no desire to hear your sophistry. Shandong has become what it is today, and you all deserve to die!"

"Your entire family deserves to die!"

"I really wish I could kill you all right here!"

Li Xianmu made no attempt to conceal his murderous intent.

Almost everyone's face was covered in sweat, and they trembled as they awaited their death sentence in agony.

Li Xianmu pointed at the group of Shandong officials, his voice flat and cold as he said, "I'll lend you your heads for now."

You must be feeling quite smug, knowing that I still need you, which is why you dare not touch you.

Upon hearing this, the Shandong officials immediately prostrated themselves on the ground, kowtowing and wailing, "We dare not!"

"Your Excellency, we really dare not."

The mournful cries were a performance of begging for mercy, but many people, just as Li Xianmu thought, believed that with Shandong in such a chaotic state, the court would have to rely on officials like them who had worked in the region for many years if it wanted to quell the unrest.

There is a classic scene in the TV series "The Eloquent Ji Xiaolan" where Heshen and Ji Xiaolan debate the issue of disaster relief. Heshen says, "To save the people, we must first save the officials. If we can't even save the officials, how can we save the people?" So even though he knew that some officials were embezzling grain, he still tolerated the officials eating their fill first and then exchanging the grain for chaff for livestock to distribute to the disaster victims.

Opinions vary on whether Heshen's actions were right or wrong, but if it happened during the Qianlong era, it wouldn't have been wrong. Emperor Qianlong himself was corrupt, and the entire Qing Dynasty's officialdom had become so corrupt that fighting corruption would have been suicidal. Heshen's actions at least managed to maintain the Qing Dynasty's system.

But this is the Ming Dynasty, the Yongle era!
Li Xianmu spent ten years climbing to his current position. If this is still the only way he can achieve anything, he would rather commit suicide here than be ashamed of his father's teachings.

"Whether you dare or not, I don't know and I don't care, but I'm lending you my head, and that's not an empty promise."

Li Xianmu looked down at the officials, his voice filled with barely suppressed chill, "From today until I pacify Shandong and return to the capital, I will calculate the merits of each of you. On the last day, those in the bottom half of the merit ranking will have their heads taken."

what?
what?
The officials who had been somewhat indifferent just moments before suddenly widened their eyes in disbelief at what they had just heard. What did it mean to be ranked in the bottom half? What did it mean to take back one's head?

"Of all of you, only half can redeem your own lives." Li Xianmu spurred his horse forward, the dust kicked up by his hooves landing on their faces, but it was nothing compared to what he was saying. His indifferent and cold voice rang out, "The other half will go and be buried with me for the millions of dead people in Shandong. I always keep my word, so you'd better watch yourselves!"

Kill half?
An overwhelming sense of fear gripped almost everyone's heart. Shrouded in the shadow of death, they could hardly breathe. No one had ever imagined that Li Xianmu would resort to the method of killing one person with two men.

This is a punishment that only occurs on the battlefield, and it is always used to kill one out of ten deserting soldiers.

Enveloped in the fear of death, the crowd looked around at the others. Their first reaction was naturally that they could not agree to such a cruel execution and had to show their opposition. But before they could make a move, Li Xianmu's last words came: "Anyone who objects will be killed on the spot. The rest will still be executed in half."

despair!

A deep sense of despair.

Li Xianmu was really too ruthless. The meaning of his last sentence was that if there were ten people, he would kill five of them. If two people had already died and there were eight people left, he would kill four of them. That means six out of ten people would die!
At that very moment, some people were already trying to pull strings and find a way to survive. Perhaps only a few officials of the third rank were somewhat at ease, since the imperial edict did not give Li Xianmu the authority to kill them.

The wails of the officials behind him naturally reached Li Xianmu's ears.

Is it ruthless? Is it cruel?
Li Xianmu felt he had been too merciful. On his way south from the capital, he had seen countless refugees and the roadsides were littered with corpses of the starved and bones gnawed by wolves.

The desolate, cracked fields, the barkless, lifeless trees, and the emaciated, vacant-eyed children, some about the same age as his eldest son, two or three years old, floated in a chipped iron pot. He remembered smashing that pot in anger and killing the cannibalistic refugees, but in the end, he remained silent for a long time.

Along the way, he accumulated endless resentment and killing intent in his heart. If slaughtering all the officials in Shandong could bring back all of this, he would rather bear the name of Asura than be a saint or sage as noble as the crystal snow in the mountains.

"Young master, are you alright?"

The person who stepped forward to inquire was an elderly man from the Duke of Ying's mansion. He had followed the Zhang family in their campaigns since the time of Zhang Fu's father, Zhang Yu. Zhang Fu had sent them out to protect Li Xianmu's safety, which showed how worried he was.

"I'm fine." Li Xianmu slowly exhaled a few breaths, gradually calming himself down. "From now on, I'll have to trouble you to protect me closely. I've given these people a kill order, and I'm worried that someone might take the risk and disguise themselves as those bandits to kill me."

Li Xianmu had just vented his anger, but he did not feel that he had completely defeated them. This was different from when he was the governor of Jiangnan. There was no life-or-death enmity when he was in Jiangnan, but now they were truly facing each other to the death.

Zhang Da nodded heavily, knowing the dangers of this journey. He reached out and touched the sword at his side before feeling a little relieved.

Li Xianmu and his entourage entered the governor's yamen, which had been built in Shandong several years ago. Zhang Da sent a group of people, and Song Cheng, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, also sent a group of people. They checked the place several times, inside and out, and only after confirming that there were no problems did Li Xianmu step inside. The Embroidered Uniform Guard, his personal guards, the Imperial Guards and other imperial envoys he brought occupied the entire surrounding area, guarding Li Xianmu in layers, showing extreme caution.

Li Xianmu didn't see anything wrong with it. A son of a wealthy family shouldn't sit under a dangerous roof. He was the brains of the imperial envoy. Going deep into the front lines would make him too easy to be beheaded. This wasn't a storybook where the protagonist always escaped danger. If he died in obscurity, who would speak up for the grievances of millions of people in Shandong Province?

The Shandong Provincial Governor's Office was established when the first governor was sent to the thirteen provinces during the sorcery case. It has been expanding over the years, with the goal of surpassing the current Provincial Administration Commission Office. After all, it is obvious to everyone that although the governor has no official rank, his power surpasses that of the Provincial Administration Commissioner.

Most of the governors who went on tours after the sorcery case held the titles of Vice Minister of the Six Ministries or Censor of the Censorate, which were not low ranks.

Now that Li Xianmu is on tour as a second-rank Right Vice Censor-in-Chief, it will likely become the norm in the future, with at least third-rank censors going on tours to supervise local affairs. The situation in Shandong has truly shocked and alarmed the court.

Upon entering the governor's office, Li Xianmu immediately organized a small meeting for the imperial envoy delegation. The high-ranking officials who accompanied him to Shandong this time mainly included Song Cheng, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard; Liu Gonggong, the head of the Eastern Depot; and Li Shen, the commander of the Divine Machine Battalion. As for the marquises and dukes such as the Marquis of Shouchun who were sent to Shandong to quell the rebellion, they were a separate group stationed outside Jinan.

The Shandong incident was extremely serious. Court officials concealed information from each other, which naturally angered the emperor. However, the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot also failed to report the matter. Either they were a bunch of incompetent fools, or the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot could not be trusted.

In Li Xianmu's view, both should be present.

It should be understood that for privileged bureaucratic institutions, displaying their privileges is the most important thing. The Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot were institutions whose privileges far exceeded those of normal government departments.

Moreover, most of the Eastern Depot agents and lower-level Imperial Guards were idle people with little moral character or quality.

It's impossible to get them to work loyally; they're more likely to use their powerful privileges to amass wealth. The fact that Song Cheng, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, came in person shows that he thinks there might be problems with the Embroidered Uniform Guard in Shandong, and he's prepared to personally clean up the mess so as not to implicate himself.

"Commander Song, Eunuch Liu, the men the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot sent out along the way should be returning soon. Give me what they have to say about the situation in Shandong."

Then I will meet again with officials from Shandong Province, prefectures, states, and counties to learn about the specific situation in Shandong from their accounts, and to verify their information.

At this point, Li Xianmu frowned deeply, his eyebrows furrowing sharply, and said in a cold voice, "If anyone dares to conceal anything at this point, they will be executed on the spot without mercy!"

The sheer intensity of the murderous intent and the overwhelming aura sent a chill down the spines of the three men, who came from the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Eastern Depot, and the military.

"Yes!"

After agreeing, the three of them left the house.

Li Xianmu sat in the room, staring at the Shandong geomantic map. His gaze first fell on Qingzhou, where the fiefdom of Prince Zhu Gaoxu of Han was located, but he quickly looked away.

The blood of a prince must not be touched yet.

After shifting his gaze, Li Xianmu's eyes fell on Qufu County, and this time he didn't look away for a long time, muttering to himself, "The Duke Yansheng..."

(End of this chapter)