Chapter 64: Purely and Utterly Evil

Li Le almost failed to become a man of substance.

Li Le had completely surrendered to the Shanxi faction, failing both Zhang Juzheng’s expectations of him and the mission entrusted to him by the imperial court. He was disloyal to his own convictions, disloyal to the moral principles he had learned, disloyal to the court's commission, and disloyal to the emperor. At the very final stage of the firing process—the burning—he had failed to be successfully forged.

To put it more simply, Li Le almost knelt down.

However, after nightfall, Li Le sneaked into the All-Chu Guildhall, and the nature of the situation changed entirely. In this round of conflict, Zhang Siwei was reduced to a clown who had lost both his wife and his troops.

Li Le’s memorial gathered Zhang Jing’s findings from his inspection of the border regions, reporting the truth. The clan and faction would instantly fall into complete passivity. In this round, the Zhang faction, led by Zhang Juzheng, would achieve total victory.

Empress Dowager Li inquired about the young emperor’s opinion on Li Le’s inspection and grand construction of the Great Wall.

Feng Bao was filled with deep emotion. Just as he had anticipated, the young emperor would grow up after all. Empress Dowager Li was no Wu Zetian; she had no intention of monopolizing all state power in her own hands. Thank goodness he, Feng Bao, had chosen to obey the emperor.

Zhu Yijun pondered for a moment and began, "A freezing of three feet is not the result of one day's cold; the accumulation of earth into a mountain is not the work of a moment. The decay in the grand construction of the Xuan-Da Great Wall is thus the result of months and years, certainly not of a single morning or evening. Eradicating such deeply rooted poison cannot be done in a single day either. If one wishes to—"

"Alright, alright, alright. Go play," Empress Dowager Li waved her hand, signaling the young emperor to go hoe the earth at Jingshan.

As long as the young emperor understood what mattered most, what was the use of preaching big principles?

Whenever grand principles were brought up, Empress Dowager Li got a headache. This young emperor, just like those Confucian scholar-officials, always had a ready excuse and endless theories. If he had so many theories, he could go discuss them with the Senior Grand Secretary. She was merely a woman; listening to any more grand principles would make her mind spin.

Those ten mu of land in Jingshan were the apple of the emperor's eye and the flesh of his heart; they could not be treated carelessly. If he went a single day without checking on them, it felt as though something vital was missing.

Zhu Yijun arrived at the Baoqi Hall in Jingshan, thinking to himself what a pity it was. Xu Zhenming had fully grasped and implemented the dual spirit emanating from the Cabinet and the Directorate of Ceremonies, refusing to let the emperor do a single bit of dirty or exhausting labor. The top-dressing of fertilizer had been completely finished before His Majesty even arrived.

The smell of the fertilizer was far from pleasant, but the crops required it.

Zhu Yijun instructed Feng Bao to plug the loopholes in Baoqi Hall. The specific method of operation was mutual denunciation. Since they were all people who had scaled walls and sneaked into the palace to steal, they knew the ropes well: denounce one person and have your punishment reduced by one grade, denounce one person and be spared the death penalty, denounce three to five and avoid corporal punishment, requiring only exile to Qiongzhou.

They were all people walking the same underworld paths; who didn't recognize whom?

The young emperor busied himself in Baoqi Hall for a long time before returning to the Palace of Heavenly Purity. He still had a small flower bed where he grew potatoes and sweet potatoes. He wasn't allowed to participate in fertilizing the large fields at Baoqi Hall, but over this small flower bed, he had the final say.

As the sun slanted westward and curfew hour approached, inside the All-Jin Guildhall, Zhang Siwei, Wang Chonggu, and Yang Bo were gathered in the study. Yang Bo was in low spirits, his eyes half-closed as he rested leaning against a grand master's chair. Li Le had already reached the Huyukou Great Wall, and his memorial had been dispatched by swift horse to the capital.

The three of them were already well aware of the contents of Li Le's memorial.

"Li Le goes too far in bullying others! He took the benefits but refuses to do the work! He didn't even pay for the barbarian woman; this is... a free ride!" Zhang Siwei was beyond furious.

Yet he dared not take any action. Dealing with Li Le’s family dependents, or even taking direct action against Li Le himself, was an option.

However, Zhang Juzheng was a gentleman, and the methods employed by such a gentleman were far from gentle; they could only be described as ruthless.

"What on earth is going on at the Huyukou Pass? Are the matters raised in Li Le's memorial true?" Yang Bo asked, looking at Zhang Siwei with a stern expression. "The pass was repaired only at the end of last year. Why on earth was it breached by the Northern Tatars?"

Zhang Siwei finally spoke. "The Huyukou Pass was never repaired at all."

***

"Absurd! How can affairs of state be treated with such child's play! Altan Khan did not dare to penetrate deep; he merely plundered the granaries. If he had intended to seriously violate the borders, wouldn't that have placed the border regions in extreme peril?!" Hearing this, Yang Bo flew into a rage, slamming his hand on the table and springing to his feet. He had asked about this several times before, and Zhang Siwei had always assured him there was no problem. Today, Li Le's memorial had arrived back in the capital.

Zhang Siwei finally brought himself to tell the truth.

With considerable calmness, Zhang Siwei replied, "My uncle's tribute money also included the funds designated for the Huyukou Pass. Putting it that way makes it sound as though I swallowed it all by myself."

The corners of Yang Bo's mouth twitched. He slowly sat back down and let out a heavy sigh of turbid air. It was merely a repeat of the old affairs concerning Yan Song.

Yang Bo today was Yan Song of the past, and Zhang Siwei today was Yan Fan of the past. Just as the Yan faction of old had kept Yan Song in the dark while committing misdeeds, the Shanxi faction of today operated behind Yang Bo's back in the exact same manner.

The young emperor had used the guise of asking a question to indirectly scold him, testing his loyalty, trustworthiness, knowledge, and action. To this, Yang Bo could only admit that His Majesty’s scolding was entirely deserved!

Yang Bo lacked the shamelessness of Zhang Siwei.

"Security around Baoqi Hall is extremely tight; it's difficult to make a move," Zhang Siwei said again.

He certainly would have liked to find a thief skilled in scaling walls to sneak in and scout the situation, but he could never find a way. Although Feng Bao in the palace was useless at other things, ever since the imperial assassination case, his overhaul of the palace eunuchs had made them exceptionally difficult to deal with.

Yang Bo looked at Zhang Siwei in absolute shock, asking in utter disbelief, "Baoqi Hall is merely a place for a ten-year-old sovereign to play. What on earth are you trying to do?!"

Zhang Siwei extended his right hand and pressed downward, gesturing for Yang Bo to calm down. With a smile, he said, "I'm not trying to do anything. What could I possibly do? I just want to scout the situation and see what the emperor is up to. The rumors coming out of the palace lately are a mix of truth and falsehood; it's impossible to tell which is real and which is fake. We don't even know what General Qi did or said in the palace after returning to the capital."

"If we lose all news from inside the palace, won't we become deaf and blind, leaving ourselves completely at the mercy of Zhang Juzheng's bullying?"

"That Zhang Hong has some ambition; we could sound him out."

Under the guidance of the Emperor of Great Ming, Feng Bao had carried out a thorough overhaul of both the inner and outer courts, and the results were remarkably striking. However, the cleansing of the palace was incomplete; some unimportant areas still harbored people from the outer court.

This resulted in all sorts of false rumors flying about, to the extent that even men like Zhang Siwei, Wang Chonggu, and Yang Bo were unable to verify whether the news was true or false.

For example, last night, definite news had come out of the palace that the emperor had collapsed!

This news had given Zhang Siwei and Wang Chonggu a tremendous fright. They had spent ages plotting whether they could seize the opportunity to take some action, only to find the next day that the emperor appeared in the Hall of Literary Glory just as usual.

Information was power; information was the lifeline. Now that the Shanxi faction had lost its channels for obtaining news from the imperial palace, their hands and feet were tied.

When Zhang Siwei sent people to investigate the news at Baoqi Hall, his goal was to find out what the emperor was doing. Whether those flying thieves might take advantage of the opportunity to do something else—such as setting a fire or poisoning the water—was beyond Zhang Siwei's control.

It was all the work of wandering thieves! What did it have to do with Zhang Siwei?

Yang Bo massaged his temples and said with helpless exhaustion, "What could His Majesty possibly be doing in Baoqi Hall? After every month's twenty-ninth examination, His Majesty leads the court officials there. Isn't everything he does completely transparent?"

"I am entirely opposed to you making contact with Zhang Hong. Are you trying to drag my old face down, press it into the dirt, and stamp on it repeatedly before you'll be satisfied?!"

"Zhang Hong is a man close to His Majesty. If you try to approach him, will Feng Bao permit it? Eunuch factions ruin the state, yet they merely circle around the imperial city. Scholar-officials who ruin the state use those who govern to do evil; minor evils become major evils, the very root of calamity."

"Li Le is Bai Gui's man. If you treat his subordinate this way, will Bai Gui swallow his anger in silence? When it provokes an even greater disaster, how do you plan to clean up the mess?"

Zhang Siwei, however, looked quite displeased as he retorted, "The Senior Grand Secretary has already reached his hands directly into our territory, and we are supposed to do nothing? Wouldn't that make us look like pushovers?"

Yang Bo looked at Zhang Siwei and said with absolute certainty, "Do you know why Bai Gui refuses to deliver a fatal blow against us?"

The corners of Zhang Siwei's mouth curled into a smile. "It's because he can't pull it off! With his mouth full of benevolence and morality, talking about 'holding the world in his heart,' isn't it simply because he lacks the ability? Is he just trying to salvage a bit of face for himself? If he were capable of it and able to deliver a fatal blow, he would have done it long ago."

Yang Bo looked stunned, then shook his head with a bitter smile. "That's just what you think."

"The reason Bai Gui refuses to deliver a fatal blow against the Shanxi faction is not because he cannot defeat us, but simply to prevent people in the palace from thinking he wants to establish a one-man dictatorship, which would arouse anxiety within the palace. If both the inner court and the outer court were entirely filled with Bai Gui's men, the Empress Dowager in the palace would start to worry. That is why Bai Gui keeps us around, merely maintaining a surface-level balance of power."

"Can you understand this? You cannot understand. How could you possibly understand?"

Zhang Siwei waved his hands dismissively. "No, no, no! To achieve extraordinary accomplishments in statecraft, one must resort to extraordinary actions! The Senior Grand Secretary possesses both talent and virtue, which the entire world acknowledges. However, his actions always fall short of completion; he starts things but never carries them through to the end—isn't that the same as doing nothing at all? Right now, he lives a life that appears above reproach, but what happens when he dies?"

"Heh, he should have wiped us all out in one net rather than leaving a single root behind! When that day comes, he'll surely get a taste of what's coming to him!"

Yang Bo looked at Zhang Siwei, then at Wang Chonggu, and finally said with a sigh full of emotion, "Gentlemen can be deceived by proper paths. Is Bai Gui's pursuit of extraordinary achievements the joke here, or is the petty scheming of us villains the real joke?"

Zhang Siwei cared not a whit. "A joke is just a joke. The Senior Grand Secretary gets nothing at all, while we can obtain everything—it's nothing more than a fleeting reputation."

Zhang Siwei never believed he was in the wrong. If Zhang Juzheng wanted to play the gentleman, in the end he would gain neither fame nor merit. Rather than pursuing some illusory extraordinary achievement, it was far better to secure wealth that would endure for generations.

"Enough, leave us. Behave yourselves; you can stir up trouble to your hearts' content after I am gone," Yang Bo finally gave up trying to persuade them. He waved his hand, signaling the gatekeeper to show the guests out.

What Zhang Siwei said carried a grain of truth, but would the young emperor in the palace really allow himself to be manipulated by Zhang Siwei?

May was the season of unbreakable willows. Looking across the land, the willows had unfolded their yellowish-green tender leaves on branches that fluttered softly in the gentle spring breeze.

May was the season of returning swallows. Amid carved beams and painted pillars, the swallows danced with agility to build their nests, chirping joyously in the mild spring sunshine.

In mid-May, the Hall of Literary Glory remained as solemn and dignified as ever. After the three-fold resounding of the whipping of the purification rods, the gathered officials slowly walked into the hall.

"Your ministers pay homage to His Majesty. Is His Majesty's sacred health well?" the officials respectfully greeted.

Zhu Yijun extended a hand in a gesture of welcome and said, "We are well. My beloved ministers, please rise. Let the court session begin."

Zhu Yijun could hardly wait to watch the court officials tear into each other! Wasn't the very reason he came to the Hall of Literary Glory every day to listen to government affairs simply to watch them argue?

"Thank you, Your Majesty." The twenty-seven court officials of the Great Ming rose, took their seats, opened the memorials in their hands, and prepared for a day of court debate.

"Zhang Chucheng, Right Supervising Secretary of the Office of Scrutiny for War, addresses the matter of the wife of Wang Chonggu, Minister and Grand Coordinator: her imperial patent of honor is deemed inappropriate to be written in gold characters, and he submits a memorial requesting its confiscation and destruction," Zhang Juzheng began. He did not immediately pull out Li Le's memorial to launch a total offensive; instead, he brought up an entirely different matter.