The Xuan Emperor pressed his lips tight together. He looked at Qian Xingguo, who had come near to fainting away with rage, and very nearly laughed out loud.

He glanced at the Left Chancellor.

Qian Xingguo had glanced at the Left Chancellor before he went at Ning Chen, and none of it had escaped the Xuan Emperor.

The Xuan Emperor gave a light snort.

“Ning Chen. Is the court a place where you take liberties?”

“What you said has reason in it, certainly. But it is all one side’s account. How is this emperor to believe you?”

Ning Chen was still working out how to answer when a loud voice sounded outside the great hall.

“Your subject Geng Jing requests audience with Your Majesty. Your subject can prove that what Ning Chen has said is true in every word.”

The Xuan Emperor looked at Ning Chen and said angrily, “Ning Chen. You get on well with people, it seems. Here is another one come to plead for you.”

“Tell Geng Jing to get himself in here. This emperor will see what flowers he can talk out of it.”

Geng Jing came quickly into the great hall, went down on his knees and called out, “Greetings, Your Majesty.”

The Xuan Emperor looked at him coldly. “Geng Jing. You said you can prove what Ning Chen has said is true in every word?”

“Your subject can.”

“How will you prove it… Geng Jing, if you cannot, this emperor will punish you along with him.”

Geng Jing held up a sheaf of charge sheets in both hands, and the book of evidence with them. “Your subject questioned the officials of Chongzhou last night, high and low. These are their charge sheets. Every one of them has confessed and put his mark on it. Your subject asks Your Majesty to look them over.”

“Bring them up.”

Eunuch Quan came down with his small mincing steps and carried the charge sheets up.

The Xuan Emperor took them and began turning through them.

Every official in the court watched his face.

And his face got uglier and uglier.

“Worthless. Every one of them worthless… They deserve death. All of them deserve death.”

His Majesty was in a fury, and a killing air spread through the whole hall.

The officials, civil and military, shivered with fright like birds that had heard a bowstring.

“Quan Sheng. Take these and let them see… Every one of you open your eyes wide and look properly at what these damnable things have done.”

The Xuan Emperor threw the charge sheets and the book of evidence down to Eunuch Quan, all of it together.

Eunuch Quan caught it in a fluster and handed the charge sheets out among the officials.

As the charge sheets went from hand to hand and were read through, horror and anger came into every face.

Inventing pretexts for new levies, treating a human life as so much grass, forcing honest women into brothels… crime piled on crime, and there isn’t bamboo enough in the world to write it all down.

Pick any one of them out at random and it was a capital crime.

“Have you all seen it clearly? This emperor asks you. Do they deserve death or not?”

Old General Chen was the first man out. “It stops the heart to look at it. It truly does… They dared go as far as this, doing exactly as they pleased. The crime deserves death.”

“Your Majesty. Conduct like this ignores the law of the land. Nothing but their deaths will settle the people’s anger.”

“We beg Your Majesty to give the order, behead these unpardonable villains, and give the common people of the empire an answer.”

“Your Majesty. Your subject seconds it.”

“Your subject seconds it as well.”

The censors wanted a name for themselves. That did not make them stupid.

Trimming their sails to the wind was something they were very good at.

With His Majesty in a fury, who was going to be tactless now?

The Xuan Emperor looked at Qian Xingguo and asked him coldly, “Beloved Minister Qian. You said just now that the people of Chongzhou live settled and content?”

Qian Xingguo’s vision went black and his head rang, and the fright brought cold sweat out all over him.

He went down on his knees, shaking like a sieve of chaff. “Your subject— your subject is at fault… Your subject was muddled for a moment. Your subject begs Your Majesty’s mercy.”

“Muddled for a moment? I would call it muddled to the bone… Speaking up for things lower than pigs or dogs. How much have you taken from them?”

The fright very nearly killed Qian Xingguo. He said it trembling, “Your subject would not dare. Your subject begs Your Majesty to look into it properly.”

“This emperor will look into it properly, certainly… Beloved Minister Qian, go home. Mend your brains while you are there. This emperor will pick somebody suitable to act in the office of Minister of Revenue.”

There was no blood left in Qian Xingguo’s face, and the whole of him collapsed onto the floor.

He looked at the Left Chancellor. The Left Chancellor kept his head down and did not so much as glance at him.

“Your subject— your subject thanks Your Majesty for the great favor.”

Qian Xingguo knocked his head in thanks with the face of a man who had buried both his parents.

Not a man in the whole court dared breathe, and cold sweat stood out on every forehead.

A Minister of Revenue, an official of the second rank, put out of office between one breath and the next… His Majesty was truly angry this time.

“Geng Jing. Receive the order.”

“Your subject is here.”

The Xuan Emperor said coldly, “The officials of Chongzhou, high and low. These things lower than pigs or dogs… put every one of their households to the sword. Carry it out at once. This emperor will not have them see tomorrow’s sun.”

“Your subject obeys.”

Geng Jing thought for a moment. “Your Majesty. By what these men have confessed, there are officials of the capital in it with them.”

“Look into it. Look into it to the bottom for this emperor. No leniency of any kind.”

“Yes. Your subject takes the order.”

The whole court was like birds that had heard a bowstring, shivering with fright.

And several of them were nearer still to fainting away with it.

The Xuan Emperor ran his eye over them, was silent a while, and said, “How do the beloved ministers think Ning Chen ought to be punished?”

“This old subject believes that Ning Chen had the imperial sword in his hand and the favor of the throne on him… Cutting down the Empress’s brother was rank treason, certainly. But what the Empress’s brother did left heaven angry and men resentful. Ning Chen’s crime does not deserve death. This old subject begs Your Majesty’s mercy.”

Old General Chen had stepped out again.

“Your Majesty. The Empress’s brother’s evil deeds are piled one on another, and there isn’t bamboo enough in the world to write his crimes down. Men and gods alike are enraged by them, and nothing but his death would have settled the people’s anger… What Ning Chen did, he did to preserve the dignity of the imperial house. Your subject also believes his crime does not deserve death.”

The Right Chancellor, who had not said a word until then, had spoken.

“Your Majesty. Your subject believes there is much reason in what Old General Chen and the Right Chancellor have said.”

“Your subject seconds it.”

The Right Chancellor’s followers came out one after another and seconded him.

“Your Majesty. Ning Chen is accomplished in both letters and arms, he is brimming with talent, and he is an immortal of poetry born again… In time he will certainly be a pillar and beam of the Great Xuan. To kill him would be a loss to the world of letters, and a loss to the Great Xuan itself. Your subject begs Your Majesty to deal leniently with him.”

Li Hanru, Director of the Hanlin Academy, had come out to plead for him too.

The rest saw it and came out one after another to speak for Ning Chen.

That old rogue Li Hanru kept his own skin safe as a rule and never took part in the factions… Jumping out now, he was certainly putting Ning Chen in his debt so that he could ask him for a poem afterward.

A good thing like that was not going to be left to Li Hanru alone.

And besides, at a moment like this it was go along and prosper, resist and die… Anyone who dared sing against His Majesty now had Qian Xingguo in front of him, the cart already in the ditch.

Satisfaction showed at the back of the Xuan Emperor’s eyes. His gaze came to rest on the Left Chancellor. “Left Chancellor. You stand at the head of all the officials. How do you see this?”

The Left Chancellor’s body gave a small jerk, and inside him there was nothing but dread. Why is His Majesty asking me, of all people?

“Your Majesty. Your subject believes my lords are entirely right… Ning Chen killed the Empress’s brother, but there was a reason for it, and he should be dealt with leniently.”

Circumstance is stronger than any man. High as he stood, he did not dare set himself against the emperor and the whole court together… He could only grind his back teeth, swallow the ache in his belly, and go with the current.

This little mongrel is hard to kill. There is no finishing him today. It will have to be some other chance, later. The Left Chancellor said it savagely inside himself.

The Xuan Emperor made a small sound of acknowledgment and looked at Ning Chen. “The beloved ministers are all pleading for you, Ning Chen. Have you anything you want to say?”

“Your guilty subject thanks Your Majesty, and thanks my lords for speaking up for what is right.”

“Your subject has a few lines he would like to offer the gentlemen here.”

The Xuan Emperor said, “What lines?”

Ning Chen cleared his throat and said it aloud, clearly. “Your salary and your stipend are the fat and blood of the common people. The people below are easy to wrong; heaven above is not easy to cheat.“

“Those lines have been your subject’s motto for as long as he can remember… We who are subjects eat our sovereign’s salary. We should keep faithfully to our duties and share Your Majesty’s cares.”

The Xuan Emperor was thoroughly pleased. He knew perfectly well Ning Chen was laying on flattery, and the flattery went down very well.

Astonishment showed in every eye, civil and military.

An immortal of poetry born again, and no doubt about it. The words come out of him already made into literature, and the talent in them is all brocade.

“Well said. Your salary and your stipend are the fat and blood of the common people. The people below are easy to wrong; heaven above is not easy to cheat. Let the ministers keep what Ning Chen has said in their hearts, and disappoint this emperor no further.”

His Majesty was delighted, and for the first time since the court had opened that morning he smiled.

“Your subjects will keep it in their hearts and will not fail Your Majesty’s great favor.”

The ministers knelt and said it with one voice.

Then the Xuan Emperor set his face and said, low, “Ning Chen. The beloved ministers have all pleaded for you. But you cut down the Empress’s brother and ignored the dignity of the imperial house. You are spared the death. You are not spared the punishment.”

Ning Chen looked at him, taken aback. Christ… What is he getting up to now?

(End of Chapter 68)