30: Chapter 30 Where did all this wealth come from? Tie it all up and hand it over to the authorities!
Outside the Fengtian Hall, Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai walked side by side, the hems of their official robes flapping with their hurried, uneven steps. These court officials, who had always considered themselves the upright faction, had backs that betrayed a hint of panic today.
"It is utterly absurd. If such chaotic policies are pushed through, the foundation of the Great Ming will be in peril," Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng whispered through gritted teeth, his hands balled into fists inside his sleeves.
Qi Tai wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Brother Huang, that Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong is only fifteen, yet his methods are vicious to this extent. Are we just going to let him run wild? Investigating the farmland in Jiangnan—this is going to overturn the rice bowls of all the scholars in the empire."
"To the Eastern Palace." Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng stopped and cast his gaze forward. "His Majesty claims illness and will not appear; only the Grand Imperial Heir can preside over the situation. As long as the Grand Imperial Heir is willing to kneel before the Fengtian Hall and weep in remonstrance, Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong will lack legitimacy, and the censure of public opinion will naturally drown him out."
With that, the group quickly changed direction and headed straight for the Eastern Palace.
In front of the Eastern Palace gate, the fully armed Imperial Guards blocked the entrance tightly. The leader was a Company Commander with his hand resting on the hilt of his blade at his waist; he did not even lift an eyelid as he watched Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng and his party arrive, panting.
Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng adjusted his robes and stepped forward. "Please pass on the message: Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng requests an audience with the Grand Imperial Heir."
The Company Commander looked at him coldly and replied with a few words: "The Eastern Palace is closed to visitors. The Grand Imperial Heir is unwell, and the imperial physicians have ordered rest. You lords may return."
"Unwell?" Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng stomped his foot in anxiety. "The situation is critical! Move aside, I must go in and remonstrate!" With that, he attempted to force his way in.
Two long-handled blades crossed and barred Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng's path. The Company Commander's blade slid out of its scabbard by half an inch, the steel grinding against the sheath with a piercing sound.
"Lord Huang, step back. One more step forward, and it will be treated as trespassing in the Forbidden Palace—we have orders to kill on sight."
Seeing this, Qi Tai hurried forward, grabbed Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng's sleeve, and whispered, "My lord, do not be rash!"
Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng stared at the two blades gleaming with a cold light, his teeth clicking together. Through the high palace walls, he looked toward the Wenhua Hall. The Grand Imperial Heir, upon whom their civil official faction had poured countless efforts and pinned all their hopes, could not even grant them a single meeting at this moment.
Conversely, looking at Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong—who had pressed them into the ground and rubbed their faces in it back at the Fengtian Hall—the viciousness of his methods and the meticulousness of his planning made Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng feel a profound sense of powerlessness.
"Let's go." Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng shook off Qi Tai's hand and turned to walk back.
Half an hour later, in the study of the Huang residence.
The doors and windows were tightly shut. No incense was lit in the room; there was only the heavy breathing of several men. Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng sat in the master's chair, with Qi Tai and Fang Xiaoru seated on either side, while several censors of Jiangnan origin stood before the desk.
"It seems the Grand Imperial Heir has been placed under house arrest in the Eastern Palace, and His Majesty claims illness and will not appear. Is this empire truly going to fall into the hands of that madman?" Fang Xiaoru pounded the armrest of his chair, his heart filled with grief and indignation.
Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng downed a mouthful of cold tea and slammed the bowl onto the table.
"He wants to investigate the farmland in Jiangnan? Dream on!" Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng lowered his voice, his tone sharp and ruthless. "The waters in Jiangnan are deep; how could a mere child like him stir them up? The Great Ming's tax and grain granaries have never been directly managed by imperial power down to the county level; it has always relied on the local gentry and clans to maintain them. If he wants to bypass us to scrape for silver, he is digging up the very roots of the Great Ming!"
Qi Tai frowned and analyzed, "He made fierce threats in the court, even bringing up the execution of nine generations of one's kin. If he really sends the Embroidered Uniform Guard down to investigate forcefully, those local officials might not be able to hold out."
"They must hold out, even if they can't!" Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng snorted coldly. "Do you still not understand the principle that the law does not punish the masses? As long as all one hundred and eight prefectures and counties in Jiangnan cook their books, can he possibly kill them all?"
Meanwhile, at three-quarters past the Hour of the Monkey, in front of the Mansion of the Duke of Liang, it was a different scene entirely.
Chang Sheng, General Feng Sheng, General Fu Youde, and General Wang Bi—the four core figures of the Huaixi Nobility—arrived in a grand procession, riding tall horses and accompanied by a crowd of servants.
They had just come down from the morning audience at the Fengtian Hall. Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong's performance in court—the way he had hammered and struck to forcefully suppress the civil officials—had made these old generals feel thoroughly refreshed. For so many years, they had been stifled by the civil officials who looked down on them as mere brutes; today, that resentment had finally been vented.
"Tell me, do you think General Lan Yu is currently groaning while lying on his stomach after taking those eighty military floggings?" General Wang Bi shouted in a loud voice, laughing with a fair bit of schadenfreude.
General Fu Youde stroked his beard and replied, "That beating was worth it. With His Highness overseeing the nation, the lives of us old brothers of the Huaixi Faction are saved. When we go in later, we must toast him properly."
As Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong's biological uncle, Chang Sheng was even more triumphant. He was already calculating how he would reorganize the troops of the Capital Battalion once Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong was formally invested as the Grand Imperial Heir.
As the group laughed and turned the corner, the sight before them caused the smiles on everyone's faces to freeze instantly.
The two cinnabar-lacquered gates of the Mansion of the Duke of Liang were wide open, and a thick, pungent smell of blood hit them with the wind. Yingtian Prefecture bailiffs were pushing several flatbed carts out. The carts were covered with ragged straw mats, and viscous, dark red blood dripped from the edges of the mats. A gust of wind blew, lifting a corner of a mat to reveal the wretchedly mangled corpses inside, their skin torn and flesh ripped, with bones exposed.
Chang Sheng and the others recognized those faces—they were all the adopted sons whom General Lan Yu usually kept by his side to flaunt his power.
"What... what is going on here?" General Wang Bi's eyes widened. He dismounted and charged into the mansion in a few long strides.
Chang Sheng and the others followed close behind.
The scene in the courtyard was even more horrifying. The bluestone floor had been washed with water, but the bloodstains in the crevices were still glaring. Dozens of large chests stood open, with gold bars, silver ingots, pearls, and jade ornaments piled up like mountains, dazzling to the eyes in the setting sun.
The steward, Lan An, was holding an account book, handing over items one by one to the Magistrate of Yingtian Prefecture.
On the steps of the main hall, General Lan Yu was lying on a couch, bare-chested. The white cloth on his back was completely soaked through with blood, and he exuded an aura of death, save for his eyes, which were fixed tightly on everything in the courtyard.
"Duke of Liang, have you gone mad?" General Fu Youde strode forward, pointing at the flatbed carts outside. "Those were people you called sons; what wrong could they have committed to deserve such a lethal hand? His Highness has now taken power, and our good days have just begun. Who are you putting on this show of a 'bitter flesh ruse' for?"
General Lan Yu lifted his head with great effort, his gaze sweeping over his four old comrades-in-arms. His eyes were chillingly cold, devoid of any warmth, making even Chang Sheng and the others feel a shiver down their spines.
"A bitter flesh ruse?" General Lan Yu let out a raspy laugh, which pulled at the wounds on his back, making him gasp in pain. "General Fu Youde, have you lived all these years in vain? Do you think the words His Highness spoke at this morning's court were only meant for those pedantic scholars?"
The men were stunned and looked at each other.
General Lan Yu grabbed a teacup from the side table and smashed it violently on the ground, sending porcelain shards flying.
"That was meant for everyone in the empire! And it was meant for us too!" General Lan Yu panted, his chest heaving violently. "Investigating the farmland in Jiangnan is just the first step. Do you really think he doesn't know about the military farmlands we've encroached upon and the fertile fields we've seized in the provinces?"
"But he is..." Chang Sheng started to say he is his own nephew.
"Shut up!" General Lan Yu snapped, cutting him off sharply. "Put away that act of playing the relative! Let me tell you, this Third Imperial Prince of ours is deeper in his thinking than His Majesty was in his prime, and his blade is sharper than His Majesty's! His Majesty needed to find a Chancellor Hu Weiyong or some excuse to kill; for him, he only needs to see if you are a hindrance to the Great Ming!"
General Lan Yu pointed at the gold and silver treasures in the courtyard. "I beat those animals to death and handed over the illicit funds to save the lives of everyone in the Mansion of the Duke of Liang! If you are still dreaming those spring and autumn dreams of being meritorious ministers of a new reign and lording it over others, get away from me as soon as possible. If you want to die, don't splatter me with your blood!"
These words were spoken with such urgency and ruthlessness that they landed like a heavy hammer directly on the skulls of the old generals.
General Fu Youde's back began to break out in a sweat. He carefully recalled the details of this morning's court session: Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong had schemed against Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng, schemed against the Jiangnan gentry, and even calculated the old Emperor hidden behind the dragon throne with perfect clarity. That level of control over the overall situation and the oppressive weight of his disregard for human life were certainly not things a fifteen-year-old youth should possess.
If they, as military generals, continued to occupy military farmlands and indulge their servants in bullying men and violating women, the blade that had just been swung at the civil officials could turn at any moment to lop off the heads of their arrogant and unruly selves.
"Mother of God..." General Wang Bi slapped his thigh, turned, and ran outside, cursing as he went. "That good-for-nothing brother-in-law of mine back home just occupied several dozen mu of paddy fields south of the city last month. I'm going back right now to tie him up and send him to Yingtian Prefecture!"
General Feng Sheng and General Fu Youde exchanged glances, not even bothering to say goodbye, and turned on their heels to leave.
Chang Sheng stood frozen in place for a long while, looking at General Lan Yu's pale face, and finally understood.
Within a mere half-day, the residences of the great nobles in the capital were thrown into chaos.
After returning to his residence, General Feng Sheng ordered the immediate binding of the eight stewards responsible for procurement and rent collection, sending them along with the account books to the Yingtian Prefecture prison. General Fu Youde wrote over a dozen letters overnight to his hometown, ordering his clansmen to immediately return all hidden farmland and pay double the tax grain.
Those noble scions who usually walked sideways in the capital were hung from trees by their own fathers and whipped until they howled like ghosts and wolves.
The Magistrate of Yingtian Prefecture looked at the prison cells overflowing with noble servants and the mountains of illicit funds, clutching his hair in despair.