Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 640 Rats in the Deep Palace
Pei Yuan asked Li Zhang, "I wish to see Empress Xia. Is that possible?"

Upon hearing this, Li Zhang smiled, "The most difficult place to enter the inner palace is Qianqing Gate. Right now, all the commanders are sleeping in Hongde Hall. What difficulty could there be in letting you see Empress Xia?"

Pei Yuan was immediately captivated.

When Pei Yuan came before, he was still somewhat wary of himself, but now, gritting his teeth, he couldn't care less about anything else.

Moreover, he's about to make his move in Shandong.

The turmoil over there will inevitably affect Empress Dowager Zhang and her brothers, and the arrogance of the Empress Dowager's clan will be greatly suppressed afterward.

It can be said that this is the most difficult moment for Empress Xia. If we don't take advantage of this opportunity to threaten and manipulate her, are we going to wait until she recovers?

As the saying goes, if the name is not correct, the words will not be proper. When Zhu Houzhao died, it would be useless to rely on lackeys like Lu Yin, Gu Dayong, and Qiu Ju to fight for control of the Forbidden City and the young emperor.

At crucial moments, a proper host must step forward to serve as a stepping stone for all parties to seek consensus.

Although Empress Xia is currently being bullied by Empress Dowager Zhang, she is still the rightful mistress of the palace.

Perhaps, after Zhao Zige is gone, Pei Yuan's future son will have to rely on this Zhen Tai to raise him.

Although Pei Yuan doesn't have a son yet, at least his efforts are in the right direction, and he has more hope than Zhu Houzhao, who puts all his effort into men.

Pei Yuan also asked himself, if A Zhao were more reliable, and if there were another descendant he could support and uphold.

Then Pei Yuan could also restrain his ambition and join hands with this powerful monarch to make the world a better place.

It's just a pity...

Having mentally prepared himself countless times, Pei Yuan naturally wouldn't hesitate at this moment.

He glanced towards the Qianqing Palace and asked meaningfully, "Is there any unforeseen event on His Majesty's side?"

Li Zhang said, "Just now, a eunuch sent a message to the Directorate of Ceremonial, saying that tomorrow's morning court session has been postponed. It seems that His Majesty is also tired."

Pei Yuan felt relieved; in that case, there was still plenty of time.

Seemingly having guessed Pei Yuan's thoughts, Li Zhang's words even carried a hint of instigation.

"When Eunuch Lu was adjusting the night patrol personnel and asked me to come over, I asked him to also arrange for Manlong and Ma Xi to patrol, saying they were all on our side."

"Eunuch Lu didn't think much of it and even praised me for being thorough in my work."

Pei Yuan couldn't help but ask, "Where are Manlong and Ma Xi arranged?"

Li Zhang smiled and said, "One will lead the eunuchs to patrol the vicinity of Zhuofang Garden, where the Empress is imprisoned, and the other will lead the eunuchs to guard the gates along the way."

Pei Yuan could clearly sense Li Zhang's twisted mentality of wanting to see the royal family make a fool of themselves.

But Pei Yuan couldn't really say he was resisting.

He understood the principle that "nothing ventured, nothing gained."

Once Empress Zhang's influence was weakened, it wouldn't be so easy for her to form an alliance with Empress Xia again.

Pei Yuan asked directly, "What should we do?"

Li Zhang turned around and waved to someone in the distance. Immediately, a stout eunuch came over.

The eunuch seemed to have been instructed beforehand; upon seeing Pei Yuan, he wore a fawning smile but remained silent.

Li Zhang said to Pei Yuan, "The commander can change into his clothes and then, under the pretext of changing shifts, follow the night patrol team."

"In this palace, the only place with strict access control is the gates. If you encounter something while patrolling at night, I'm afraid no one will dare to say a word."

Without saying a word, Pei Yuan took off his clothes and exchanged them with the eunuch.

Li Zhang then took Pei Yuan out and gestured to those nearby, at which point several of his trusted eunuchs immediately came over.

Pei Yuan hesitated, afraid of being recognized, and dared not get too close to those people.

Li Zhang said to Pei Yuan in a very natural tone, "Life is cheap in the palace. Once you've chosen your path, there's no chance to turn back."

“These people are all my godsons, they are reliable.”

When Li Zhang mentioned them, the eunuchs all bowed to Pei Yuan.

They seemed to have been instructed beforehand, and like the fat eunuch before them, they remained silent.

Pei Yuan immediately felt relieved.

Li Zhang, carrying a lantern, led this small group of people slowly deeper into the palace.

The last time Pei Yuan ran amok in the palace, he was all alone and hiding in the darkness.

The thought of walking openly in the palace with a lantern filled him with unease.

On the way, they encountered several sentry posts, both visible and hidden, but Li Zhang dealt with them all by claiming it was a shift change.

Pei Yuan asked curiously whether the shift change was real or just a pretext.

Li Zhang remained calm, and said with a forced smile, "If anyone really wants to take this seriously, this old servant will just pass it on to the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs, and Eunuch Lu will accept it."

"Besides, what kind of place is this? Who would dare to take this seriously?"

"What if we discover something truly extraordinary?"

As he spoke, Li Zhang looked at Pei Yuan with a mixture of flattery and malice, and said, "This old servant should say something I shouldn't, but even if we were to make a scene like this, and even if the Empress's side caused a commotion, the Jing soldiers passing by would have to pretend to be deaf and blind."

"In this palace, living peacefully is more important than anything else. Trying to stand out in this way will not end well."

"Back then, when Zhang Heling raped palace maids in broad daylight, wasn't it only He Wending who jumped out to report it?"

Pei Yuan understood this mentality of seeking no merit but avoiding mistakes.

If a scandal were to occur in the inner palace, those who knew about it would likely not have a good end, in order to maintain the dignity of the royal family.

By then, who will care whether you have made a meritorious report?
Pei Yuan even felt that Li Zhang's words contained a strong implication.

Clearly, the empress, who had been banished to the cold palace with no hope of ever rising again, had been used by Li Zhang as a sacrifice to curry favor with Pei Yuan.

The old eunuch was betting that the empress wouldn't dare to make a big fuss.

Although Pei Yuan was pleased with Li Zhang's understanding and tact, he was also secretly wary of the man's treacherous act of betraying his master for personal gain.

He changed the subject and asked, "Then why did He Wendin dare to take such a risk and report Zhang Heling?"

Li Zhang laughed and said, "He Wending was a scholar who passed the imperial examination. I don't know what happened, but he castrated himself to enter the palace in his prime. After He Wending reported this, the Hongzhi Emperor ordered someone to beat He Wending and asked him who was behind it."

"He Wending never expected that the first person to try to cover it up would be the very Emperor Hongzhi, whom he was trying to protect. Under the repeated torture by the Jinyiwei jailers, He Wending was heartbroken and told the jailers that he was instructed by two people." Li Zhang was a good storyteller, so he deliberately paused and left them in suspense.

When Pei Yuan asked curiously, "Which two?"

Li Zhangcai smiled and said leisurely, "He Wending said it was Confucius and Mencius."

After saying that, he added, "He's become stupid from reading too much."

Pei Yuan sighed softly upon hearing this. Compared to He Wending, Li Zhang was truly insignificant.

But if everyone were like He Wen-ding, how could he have the opportunity to strut around the palace with such impunity?

Pei Yuan asked, "What happened to He Wending afterward?"

Li Zhang said, "The Empress Dowager ordered him to be beaten to death. When Emperor Hongzhi heard that He Wending had died, he knew the injustice done to him, so he ordered him to be buried with proper rites and even wrote a eulogy for him himself."

After finishing his sentence, Li Zhang said calmly, "Anyway, I don't want to be buried with proper rites."

Upon hearing this, Pei Yuan was deeply moved. He also understood why so many ruthless eunuchs of the "Hongzhi era" generation had emerged.

As they passed a sentry post, Li Zhang whispered to Pei Yuan, "The man in the middle is Ma Xi."

When Pei Yuan looked over, the head eunuch named Ma Xi, though not speaking, bowed obsequiously.

After walking for a while, Pei Yuan noticed that the nearby palaces were somewhat dilapidated. He looked around in surprise and asked Li Zhang, "Are there such dilapidated places in the imperial palace?"

Li Zhang replied, "Many of the side halls and gardens are actually deserted; it's already quite an achievement to maintain their superficial appearance."

Pei Yuan, now showing a strong sense of ownership, shook his head and said, "It shouldn't be this dilapidated."

Upon hearing this, Li Zhang smiled and asked an unrelated question, "Does the commander know how many palace maids and eunuchs are in the Twelve Directorates of the Capital?"

Pei Yuan said, "I don't know that."

Li Zhang said, "There are no fewer than nine thousand palace maids and no fewer than one hundred thousand eunuchs in Beijing alone."

Pei Yuan was taken aback upon hearing this, "How come there are so many?"

Li Zhang laughed and said, "This is just a rough estimate. I think it should be more or less. Take the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs, which is in charge of Eunuch Lu, for example. The printing press under its jurisdiction alone has more than 1,500 craftsmen."

"The number of people employed by the other supervisory offices, departments, yamen, factories, warehouses, bureaus, and offices is even more numerous."

Upon hearing this, Pei Yuan couldn't help but gasp.

Then, he subconsciously looked around and exclaimed, "If that's the case, the Forbidden City is truly like a giant city."

After recounting He Wending's story, Li Zhang was somewhat dejected. Hearing Pei Yuan's lament, he chimed in, "Outsiders only see the grand palaces and their magnificent splendor. Who notices us eunuchs, hiding in the corners like rats?"

Li Zhang gestured to Pei Yuan and said, "Commander, look, this place is dark and quiet, like a dead house. Do you know what the people in the houses on both sides are doing?"

Pei Yuan noticed some low-rise buildings nearby, which he assumed were where the eunuchs and palace attendants lived, and guessed, "They're probably all asleep by now."

Li Zhang laughed, "The commander of a thousand men wouldn't know that, would he?"

"It's October now, and the nights are long. The eunuchs will heat up the heated kang (a traditional heated platform bed) early in the morning. We eunuchs usually eat and live a life of leisure, with nothing to do. Lying in the warm kang at night, we often find it hard to fall asleep. So we gather in groups of three or five to drink, play dice, watch cards, play dominoes, play chess, and play backgammon. The festivities continue until the second or third watch of the night before we start to disperse."

Pei Yuan stared wide-eyed at the silent rows of houses in disbelief.

Li Zhang continued, “When one party ends, another is arranged. Often, the wine and meat are served in turn, and those who are in high spirits will come back to take turns hosting. They talk and laugh in a vulgar way, and when they get drunk, they quarrel and fight. But they can easily make up. They kowtow a few times, shed a few tears, and then they are as happy as ever.”

"Many people are addicted to gambling, especially cockfighting. As a result, many fighting roosters were secretly raised in the Forbidden City. In fact, many wealthy and powerful eunuchs even secretly hired people from outside the palace to raise chickens in the palace."

"This is our life in this silence."

Pei Yuan looked at him blankly, then at the dark houses that appeared to be from the outside.

Li Zhang said, "That's not a world that a noble person like a commander should understand. A commander only goes to the palace occasionally, so there's no need to cause trouble for him."

Pei Yuanzhen gained a completely new understanding of the eunuch clan.

This group of idle people, supported by the entire country, almost constituted a completely new ecosystem parasitizing imperial power.

Pei Yuan, his mind racing, deliberately expressed his keen interest and praised Li Zhang, "What I have heard today has truly been a refreshing experience for this commander."

Li Zhang said with emotion, "Although we are like rats, we are still living, breathing human beings."

Li Zhang deliberately tried to curry favor with Pei Yuan, intentionally belittling the masters of the palace.

"Those emperors and concubines don't treat us like human beings, but how do they know that in the eyes of us nine thousand palace maids and one hundred thousand eunuchs, isn't the emperor, the empress, just an object of our admiration, enclosed in a wooden house?"

"However, these members of the imperial family are a bit more ferocious."

Li Zhang smiled insincerely, "That's why we often say... serving a ruler is like serving a tiger."

Pei Yuan felt a strange chill run down his spine upon hearing this.

Who would have thought that such a group of people, who were always either bowing or crawling, would have no reverence for imperial power in their hearts?

Surrounded by nine thousand palace maids and one hundred thousand eunuchs, the mighty Emperor of the Ming Dynasty truly resembled a tiger being kept in the Qianqing Palace for viewing.

They parasitized, observed, discussed, and plotted around the imperial power.

They treated the dignified monarch as a pet to be provided for and entertained by.

Li Zhang, somewhat carried away, then said in a sinister tone, "Does the commander know why many emperors prefer men?"

Pei Yuan immediately thought of Zhu Houzhao.

Ah Zhao was a powerful ruler of his time. If he had been fortunate enough to die of old age, his achievements would surely have been recorded in history.

However, he was unlucky enough to not know whether he became number zero or number one.

When he was only in his twenties, his court was already in disarray. Civil officials vied to recommend the next monarch to whom they would serve, while military generals sent pregnant women directly to the palace.

Even at the very end, when Ah-Chao was all alone and lying on his sickbed, his confidants wanted to raise money to hire a doctor from the community, but they were all ruthlessly rejected.

Thinking of Li Zhang's words, and of A Zhao who was destined to have no good ending, Pei Yuan's face turned ugly, and he suddenly clenched his fists.

At this moment, Li Zhang said in a sinister tone, "That's because when they were young, some people instigated beautiful young eunuchs to seduce them."

Li Zhang seemed convinced that Pei Yuan was going to sleep with Empress Xia, and he appeased the emperors of the Ming Dynasty by flattering this audacious traitor.

Li Zhang's eyes gleamed like a mouse's in the moonlight.

"The thought of becoming the supreme emperor, just like us, unable to sleep while looking at those beautiful and passionate women, makes us tremble with excitement."

(End of this chapter)