Top Scholar

Chapter 313 The Top Scholar

The capital city, the Northern Garrison Prison.

This place is perpetually shrouded in darkness, filled with the stench of blood and decay, making one feel as if they are in a dark hell.

The cells, separated by bars, housed prisoners who were personally tried by the emperor… Of course, most of the time, the imperial guards and secret police did the trial.

When the prisoners first arrived, they still had the energy to curse and shout that they wanted to see the emperor and appeal their cases! But before long, they were tortured beyond recognition, no longer having the strength to cry out for justice, and could only eke out a living and wait for death...

The imperial prison has recently become overcrowded, with officials who have offended the emperor being arrested one after another, making this living hell even more crowded. Some cells are packed with more than ten prisoners, making it difficult to even turn over.

Fortunately, these prisoners had just been flogged and could only remain in one position, unable to turn over...

Wang Shouren and Zhu Liu were among them. Both of them received forty strokes of the cane, leaving them with torn skin and barely alive.

Zhu Liu fainted on the spot, and after being imprisoned in the imperial prison for a day, he developed a fever. Although Wang Shouren was also seriously injured, he still took meticulous care of him despite his own wounded body, and even bought some wound medicine for him from the jailers at a high price...

But there was very little he could do in the imperial prison. Wang Shouren could only pray that Heaven would protect him and not take his dear friend away.

In the middle of the night, Wang Shouren was lying on a pile of straw, resting with his eyes closed, when he suddenly heard Zhu Liu's weak voice say beside him, "Water..."

He quickly did a push-up, crawled to the cell door, and strained to stick his arm out of the bars, dipping his wide sleeve into the rough earthenware water jar outside the cell. He then crawled back and fed the water from his sleeve to Zhu Liu.

Zhu Liu's chapped lips were moistened, and he seemed to be in less pain. Wang Shouren was overjoyed and repeated this process several times until Zhu Liu had finally drunk enough water...

"Where am I?" Zhu Liu slowly opened his eyes and asked in a hoarse voice.

“In the underworld, we’re just waiting to be reincarnated…” Wang Shouren then said, “Regret it now? You finally passed the imperial examination, but before you could even experience what it’s like to be an official, you were beaten to a pulp.”

"Nonsense..." Zhu Liu rolled his eyes to look around, then forced a smile and said, "This is the Northern Garrison Prison, not the underworld."

“They’re all pretty much the same.” Wang Shouren said with a wry smile, “When I saw prisoners being escorted to the capital, those sent to the Northern Garrison Command were all weeping and wailing as if they had fallen into hell, while those sent to the Ministry of Justice’s prison were overjoyed to be alive. And now we’re just waiting to be reincarnated.”

“Yes…” Zhu Liu nodded slightly and said, “The road ahead is fraught with danger and we don’t know where it will lead.”

“According to custom, if we don’t die from the court flogging, we should be demoted and exiled next,” Wang Shouren said knowingly.

"Where will they be exiled to?" Zhu Liu couldn't help but worry.

"Anyway, it's either the Northeast or the Northwest, or the Southeast or the Southwest." Wang Shouren, being very knowledgeable, said, "Based on past experience, exile to the Northwest and Liaodong is the most dangerous, followed by the Southwest. As for Lingnan, as long as it's not Qiongzhou, it's acceptable."

"Then I hope I can be exiled to the southwest," Zhu Liu said. "At least that would be closer to home."

“I don’t think it’s going to work.” Wang Shouren shook his head and said, “The eunuchs of the Eastern Depot are the worst. They’ll do whatever it takes to make you suffer. Since your family is from Sichuan, they’ll definitely send you far away.”

"Sigh..." Hearing him mention his family, Zhu Liu sighed sadly, "If my family heard that I'm like this, they would be terribly worried..."

"I told you not to be impulsive. Your Zhu family only produces one Jinshi like you every few years. You must be blaming me to death," Wang Shouren said apologetically.

“Don’t underestimate the Zhu family.” Zhu Liu laughed and said, “Producing a Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) can only bring glory to the family for a short time, but producing a loyal minister who dares to stand up for the country can make our family proud for a hundred years.”

"But what about you, Brother Bo'an," Zhu Liu said to Wang Shouren, "what is your father supposed to do now?"

"Alas, I am unfilial..." Wang Shouren's weakness was touched, and he began to worry about his elderly father.

~~
Chang'an West Street.

The stone tablet alley in Dashiyongfang is usually called "Wang Zhuangyuan Hutong" by the people of Beijing because the residence of Wang Hua, the top scholar in the seventeenth year of Chenghua and the current Junior Minister of the Imperial Clan, was located here.

It was late at night, but the lights were still on in Wang Zhuangyuan's mansion.

Wang Hua paced back and forth in his study, sighing deeply. He was exactly sixty years old this year, but he was well-maintained and looked only in his early fifties. His hair and beard were gray, but not much, and his face had only shallow wrinkles.

But in the past two weeks, he looks more than ten years older...

Just then, a soft knock sounded on the door. "Father."

"Come in." Wang Hua composed himself, stopped, and said in a steady voice.

Two young men pushed open the door and came in. The older one was his nephew, Wang Shouyi, and the other was his second son, Wang Shoujian.

"uncle."

The two men bowed together, referring to each other as "fathers".

"How is it?" Wang Hua asked impatiently.

The two brothers looked at each other, and Wang Shouyi said with shame, "I am useless. I have searched everywhere, but I still cannot see my elder brother."

“That’s normal,” Wang Shoujian continued. “Father, Eunuch Zhang told me that Liu Jin is compiling a list of ‘traitors’ because he’s angry that my elder brother called him a ‘powerful traitor’ in his impeachment memorial. So he’s going to put his name at the top. That’s why the people below will definitely be keeping a close watch on my elder brother.”

"I see..." Wang Hua sighed, slowly sat down, and rested his forehead on his hand, looking several years older. "However, Eunuch Zhang said that there is still a chance to turn things around..." Wang Shoujian hesitated again.

"What?" Wang Hua looked at his second son, a glimmer of hope rekindling in his eyes.

"Eunuch Zhang said that Liu Jin admired Father's character and asked him to tell Father that he had a past relationship with Father. If Father could... go and see him, he could pardon his elder brother and restore him to his original position. Father could even... enter the cabinet and become prime minister."

“That’s what my people say too,” Wang Shouyi echoed.

"..." Wang Hua remained silent for a long time after hearing this, and finally slowly shook his head and said, "I can't go."

“Liu Jin is now incredibly powerful. If Father refuses him, he will definitely retaliate against my elder brother…” Wang Shoujian whispered.

“Your elder brother has his own sense of righteousness, and I, as his father, have my own principles…” Wang Hua’s wrinkles deepened, and the lines on his face were etched with pain.

"As the thirty-fifth top scholar in the Ming Dynasty, I must set a good example for all scholars. I cannot be like Hu Guang, bringing shame upon the glory of the top scholar once again..."

As Wang Zhuangyuan spoke, tears streaming down his face, he said painfully, "I can only apologize to Bo'an..."

~~
Inside the North Gate of the Imperial City, in the main hall of the Directorate of Ceremonial.

The Grand Eunuch Liu Jin, wearing a steel fork hat and a purple gauze robe, sat upright in the main seat, while several eunuchs holding memorials took turns reading them to him.

Because Liu Jin was not from the Imperial Academy and had limited education, he used this method to manage state affairs on behalf of the emperor.

"Elder brother, the Minister of the Court of Imperial Stud, Chen Mazheng, has four matters concerning the feeding of warhorses in the capital garrison. He suggests that the families of the officers and soldiers in the garrison should be examined and their property divided into grades for feeding the horses. The old practice of pooling silver among the horse handlers should be abolished..."

“Hmm, this method is good.” Although Liu Jin was not very literate, he had a lot of insight into government affairs: “In the past, all military households shared the cost of raising horses, but the military households were not of equal wealth. The poor had to sell their pots and pans, while the rich only needed a drop in the ocean. It was too unfair.”

After a pause, Liu Jin continued, "It would be better to raise horses according to their family property and grade them. The rich should contribute more money. The poor are so poor that they are nothing but bones. Even if you squeeze them dry, you won't get any oil out of them."

"Yes, Your Excellency's insight is brilliant." The eunuch Luo Xiang, who was in charge of writing, hurriedly praised, "I don't know what those civil officials were thinking before, always levying taxes on the poor. Isn't that forcing people to rebel?"

"What are they thinking? Because their roots are in wealthy and powerful families, of course they don't want the knife to fall on their own heads." Liu Jin, however, saw through everything and said:

“We eunuchs are all down on our luck, otherwise who would be willing to cut off our testicles? Once that cut is done, we will be completely powerless. Without power, we have no scruples, so of course we will choose the fattest sheep to slaughter.”

“Boss, our roots are in the Emperor,” another scribe, Wei Bin, hurriedly reminded him.

"We are just the Emperor's dogs..." Liu Jin said with a desolate expression, "Don't try to glorify yourselves."

"Yes, Boss is right, we are not worthy." The scribes hurriedly nodded in agreement. They could sense that Boss Liu's mentality had changed a lot since he escaped death.

Chief scribe and Director of the Eastern Depot, Qiu Ju, changed the subject, saying, "Brother, the list of traitors has been drawn up. Please make your decision."

After saying this, he presented a densely packed list to Liu Jin.

Liu Jin took it and glanced at it. Leading the group were two retired Grand Secretaries, Liu Jian and Xie Qian, followed by Ministers Han Wen, Yang Shousui, Zhang Fuhua, and Lin Han.

Then came Li Mengyang, who wrote the impeachment petition, requesting the recall of twenty-one officials including Dai Xi and Jiang Qin, who were critics of Liu and Xie, as well as twenty-five people including Wang Shouren, Liu Rui, and Zhu Liu, who were tasked with rescuing Dai Xi and the others.

There were a total of fifty-three people.

"Excellent! Label all these people as traitors, and make sure they never rise again!" Liu Jin exclaimed gleefully. "Let's see who dares to oppose us now!"

"Then, boss, is it settled?" Qiu Ju asked for instructions.

"Wait a minute..." Liu Jin suddenly remembered something and asked, "Did you convey our message to Scholar Wang?"

"Boss, I've brought it." Zhang Yong, the eunuch of the Admiral's Battalion, replied.

"What was the top scholar's reaction?" Liu Jin asked.

“There was no reaction…” Zhang Yong said softly.

"Hmm..." Liu Jin frowned for a long time upon hearing this, and then ordered, "Tell Scholar Wang that we'll give him one last chance, or I'll kill his son!"

By the end, the old eunuch was gritting his teeth. He was now extremely intolerant of being disobeyed...

However, the next day, Zhang Yong brought back Wang Hua's reply—

"Thank you, Eunuch Liu, but my son chose this path himself, and he has only himself to blame for all the consequences. As his father, I cannot interfere."

"Very well. Scholar Wang, since you're going to bring this upon yourself, then don't blame us for being impolite!" Liu Jin smashed his teacup in anger.

P.S. I know you're all getting impatient, so I'm posting this chapter as soon as I finish it, and then I'll continue writing...

(End of this chapter)