Volume Two: The Great and the Small, Chapter Fifty: What Is He Planning Now?

The Shuntian Prefecture Yamen stood near Anding Gate, almost at the northernmost edge of Beijing.

The Ministry of Justice that Huang Ming was heading for, however, lay within the Imperial City, south of the city’s center.

Since passing through the palace gates was out of the question, their only option was to take the long way around: follow Anding Gate southward, cross Chang’an Avenue, then circle back to Zhengyang Gate before they could reach the Imperial City, where the Ministry of Justice was located.

In effect, they were touring nearly half of Beijing in a wide circuit. Naturally, the spectacle attracted a great many eyes along the way.

Two wounded men being transported on a handcart would already have been conspicuous enough. Now they were accompanied by a large procession. Among them were several eloquent speakers who kept explaining to passersby that Shuntian Prefecture had beaten the plaintiff and that officials were shielding one another, urging people to join them at the Ministry of Justice to seek redress…

The impact was enormous. Despite the sweltering heat, many people joined the procession. By the time they finally reached Zhengyang Gate, their numbers had swelled to five or six hundred.

Had anyone else been leading such a procession, a crowd of that size suddenly heading straight for the Imperial City would surely have been intercepted and arrested by the City Patrol Office long before it got there.

But the man stirring up trouble today was Huang Ming. He had devised a complete plan from the beginning and had secured the assistance of the Embroidered Uniform Guard well in advance.

Thus, although the commotion grew steadily louder and several patrol units came to investigate, the Embroidered Uniform Guards positioned around the outskirts quickly settled matters. In the end, the patrolmen could only follow far behind, ready to intervene should anything go wrong.

Ironically, this made the procession appear even larger, almost as though it had become a thousand-strong force combining soldiers and civilians.

When this enormous crowd entered the Imperial City and finally stopped outside the Ministry of Justice, the disturbance had already alarmed every quarter. The forces stationed at all six ministries and their affiliated offices were mobilized in full, convinced that some great upheaval was about to occur.

The Ministry of Justice was placed under the strictest guard, inside and out. Its gates were firmly shut, and only one official was allowed to climb a ladder to the top of the wall and shout down at them.

“What are you people trying to do? Are you planning a rebellion?”

At this point, Huang Ming deliberately faded into the background, leaving the stage to Zheng Zinian.

The latter immediately dragged his injured body painfully down from the cart, then fell to his knees before the gates of the Ministry of Justice. He first kowtowed, then cried out in a voice steeped in grief:

“I am Zheng Zinian of Ruyang County! I kneel here in blood and tears to accuse Censor Liao Kui of the Censorate of wrongfully murdering my father, Zheng Qian, seizing my family’s property, and causing the deaths of all forty-seven members of the Zheng family! I beg Your Excellency, in your justice and mercy, to uphold the truth and redress the wrongs done to my entire family!”

The officials and functionaries inside had never expected that such a massive show of force was merely for the purpose of presenting a grievance. For a moment, none of them knew what to say.

Zheng Zinian, however, was utterly fearless. After finishing his denunciation, he kowtowed once more, then dragged his wounded body directly to the drum outside the ministry gates and began pounding it loudly through the accumulated dust.

At last, the people inside could no longer remain hidden. The gates opened again, and a group of constables rushed out to seize and restrain him.

At the same time, a young official in a blue robe approached Zheng Zinian with a solemn expression.

“Your family’s grievance may well be genuine, but this matter does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice. If your family has truly suffered such a grave injustice, you should bring your accusation before the county office, the prefectural office, or the Judicial Commissioner’s Office in your native region. The Ministry of Justice is responsible only for reviewing cases submitted by local authorities…”

“My lord, please judge this fairly,” Huang Ming quickly interjected. “The deaths of all forty-seven members of the Zheng family are known to everyone in the area. And yet what happened? Neither the county office nor the prefectural office asked a single question. They even nearly killed the last surviving member of the Zheng family. Tell me, then—where else can he go to make his appeal?”

Some matters were beyond Zheng Zinian’s ability to handle. He feared neither pain nor death, but his intellect and eloquence were sorely lacking.

“And who might you be?” the official asked Huang Ming irritably.

“I am Huang Ming, a student of the Imperial Academy. I merely happened to witness an injustice and so came forward to speak on this gentleman’s behalf.”

Huang Ming made no attempt to conceal his identity. He answered openly and without hesitation.

The official instinctively began to wave him away, but his expression suddenly changed.

“You are Huang Ming?”

Without realizing it, Huang Ming had already become somewhat well known in Beijing, particularly among the court officials.

Quite apart from his recent collaboration with the Twelve Towers to create the new ranking of celebrated courtesans, there was his performance at last year’s palace lecture, not to mention the widely circulated story that he had caused the Directorate of Music to lose face and even led to Gu Yunxiao, a Vice Director of the Ministry of Rites, being dismissed and transferred to a provincial post.

Those two incidents alone had left the officials of the court with a deep impression of this eunuch’s son.

And now he had gathered all these people and surrounded the Ministry of Justice. What was he planning this time?

The same question was being asked by an official who had cautiously stepped out from another government office several dozen paces away.

Gu Yunxiao—one of the stepping-stones on Huang Ming’s road to fame in officialdom—happened to be there as well.

He had not emerged from the familiar Ministry of Rites, however, but from the Ministry of Personnel.

He had come to collect his new official seal and appointment credentials before leaving the capital.

The earlier affair had dealt him a particularly severe blow. As the official in charge of the Directorate of Music, he had naturally been forced to shoulder responsibility for all the offenses connected with the state-operated brothels.

In the end, he had been demoted by half a rank and transferred to a provincial post.

Fortunately, Gu Yunxiao possessed some connections at court and had spent considerable effort currying favor both above and below. In the end, he managed to secure a reasonably decent substantive appointment for himself: Prefect of Shaoxing in Zhejiang.

For an ordinary official, being appointed prefect of such a prosperous region south of the Yangtze would have been cause for lavish celebration.

To Gu Yunxiao, however, it was merely the least disastrous outcome.

The post of Shaoxing Prefect was certainly lucrative, but compared with serving in the capital—especially as a powerful bureau director of one of the six ministries—it was vastly inferior.

Thus, even after receiving the relevant documents and appointment credentials that day, his mood remained foul.

Then, before he had even left the Ministry of Personnel, he heard that a disturbance had broken out outside. When he came out to investigate, he discovered that the man leading the commotion was none other than his old adversary, Huang Ming. His feelings instantly became even more complicated.

Under the gaze of so many people, Huang Ming showed not the slightest trace of stage fright. He bowed courteously and clasped his hands.

“It is indeed I, my lord. Dozens of lives are at stake, and I was moved by righteous indignation. That is why I have accompanied this gentleman, Zheng, to the Ministry of Justice to seek justice. I hope Your Excellency will show us some indulgence and go inside to report the matter.”

The official studied Huang Ming deeply. In his experience, Huang Ming’s connection to this affair was certainly far deeper than he claimed.

Precisely for that reason, however, he dared not treat the matter lightly. After a brief consideration, he nodded.

“Very well. Wait here. I shall report the circumstances to the higher officials at once.”

After hurrying back inside, the atmosphere before the Ministry of Justice eased somewhat. Many of the commoners who had followed the procession finally began to realize what they had done. Several started quietly edging backward…

Huang Ming showed no reaction. The momentum had already been created. If these people dispersed, so be it. In any case, they would never have been permitted to enter the Ministry of Justice and hear the proceedings.

Just then, the official hurried out again.

“Lord Yan has shown mercy and agreed to let you enter and explain your grievance. However, no more than two people may go in!”

…

Gu Yunxiao will have a role to play later, so his whereabouts are mentioned here in passing.