Chapter 47: Move Aside, Don’t Get Blood on You
Chapter 47: Move Aside, Don’t Get Blood on You
Yang Xin had laid low in the Xu Mansion for three days. He had merely dictated things like Heliocentrism, and had Chen Yujie write them down, compiling a small booklet to send to Tianqi, which included some foreign customs and practices.
During these three days, the outside world had been in an uproar because of him.
Xue Zhen’s memorial was “retained without response.”
It meant it sank like a stone into the sea. In short, no one knew when there would be any follow-up.
It wasn’t that Wanli was intentionally shielding Yang Xin, but rather that His Majesty the Emperor had this style. Historical assessments of his negligence in governance were not wrong. In his later years, he “retained without response” the majority of officials’ memorials, ignored all those who requested retirement due to old age, and left vacant official positions unfilled…
The three No’s principle.
No response, no attention, no filling.
Pathetically, the Grand Secretariat originally required at least four or five Grand Secretaries to function properly, but in reality, only Fang Congzhe was there. And Fang Congzhe had repeatedly submitted memorials himself, asking His Majesty the Emperor to appoint a few more Junior Grand Secretaries to assist him; he truly couldn’t manage alone. Yet all his memorials were “retained without response.” There was no Minister of Rites; Left Vice Minister He Zongyan handled affairs. There was no Minister of Works. Minister of Personnel Zhao Huan was almost eighty and still not allowed to retire. Minister of War Huang Jiashan had just taken over; his predecessor, Xue Sancai, had died of illness while in office. Minister of Revenue Li Ruhua was also old and sickly but was not permitted to retire—he was a Jinshi from the eighth year of Wanli! That was nearly forty years ago. As for the Censorate, only the Left Censor-in-Chief Li Zhi was holding his post, and he was reportedly bedridden, likely to die in office soon.
This was the court in the late Wanli period.
A bunch of old men who wanted to retire but couldn’t were holding things up, while a group of younger, ambitious officials below were simmering with pent-up frustration and resentment.
If Xue Zhen’s memorial actually got a result, that would be a miracle!
Then, immediately, rumors flew everywhere.
Court Gazettes, Anonymous Accusation Posters, folk rumors—all kinds of forms emerged…
This was exactly how Yuan Dudu was played to his death.
Whether he deserved his punishment or not is a question to set aside for now. But throughout the entire Jisi Incident, whether military situation reports or memorials and Court Gazettes, they all spread rapidly among the common people. Those private news agencies, through various legal and illegal means, disseminated all these military and political secrets. Even when Chongzhen explicitly forbade the copying of these reports, it was useless. The common people had a clear understanding of everything that happened during the entire war.
Just as Yuan Dudu’s Anonymous Accusation Poster declaring he would “certainly not let them cross a step west of Ji” arrived, the area near the Capital City was already littered with corpses. On one side was the bloody reality, on the other his boastful poster…
Public fury was instantly ignited.
And Yang Xin’s public fury was ignited in the same way.
A heinous fugitive murderer, who had actually infiltrated the Capital City and was acting so wildly, even befriending powerful families and entering the palace—it was simply madness! Especially Miss Fang—she was a flower longed for by so many young noble sons in the Capital City! Beautiful, from a prestigious family, skilled in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, and especially adept at managing family businesses—she was practically the perfect virtuous wife! And she had been tainted by this thief? Countless young, handsome men beat their chests in anguish. Miss Fang definitely wasn’t that kind of shameless woman; this thief must know some sorcery.
He must!
Didn’t he claim a celestial teacher instructed him, making some kind of instrument to present to His Majesty?
What kind of celestial teacher was that?!
That was a sorcerer!
Heaven is bringing disaster upon the Great Ming! A fiend has descended! Our Great Ming has a sorcerer deluding the Holy Emperor!
“Sorcerer?”
Yang Xin speechlessly threw away the tabloid.
Beside him, Xiaocao continued to sway gently. She had brought Yang Xin the newly arrived newspapers. The newspaper seller responsibly delivered the newspapers to Yang Xin’s home every day, and she worked hard to bring them every day, then left at some unknown time. Because Yang Xin wanted all the newspapers being sold, this included such tabloids.
“I also think you look like a sorcerer!”
Chen Yujie said gleefully.
As he spoke, he raised a newly made telescope in his hand and pointed it at Xiaocao. The latter looked at this strange object fearfully, completely unaware that her small face was now magnified in Chen Yujie’s eyes, even her freckles clear as day. However, Chen Yujie’s telescope then lifted, its target becoming a distant tree. Everything on the tree was clearly brought close. He was eagerly about to continue searching…
Yang Xin snatched the telescope away.
“Without me, the sorcerer, where would you get this thing? But this isn’t enough. This is the Galilean type, suitable for military use. The best for observing celestial phenomena is the Keplerian type, and it needs to be made very, very long.”
He said.
At this time in Europe, there were two types of telescopes.
The Galilean type, which is the familiar one—convex lens plus concave lens. But around the same time, Kepler also invented his own, using two convex lenses, which ultimately produced an inverted image. For astronomical observation, this wasn’t a big deal. However, neither of these telescopes could solve issues like chromatic aberration and spherical aberration. That would require advances in glassmaking techniques. Of course, Yang Xin wasn’t planning to work on that for now. He just wanted to make a batch of simple ones for military use.
But this telescope’s quality was decent.
As for magnification, it could only be estimated, but it shouldn’t be lower than four times.
That was enough.
Higher magnification could also be made, but they would be hard to carry conveniently, and the field of view would be too small. Four times, while far from modern military telescope standards, was already a huge advantage for this era.
Right at that moment, the sound of the outer gate opening came, followed by Wang Wang, holding up her skirt, appearing at the open inner door with a tense face. The telescope in Yang Xin’s hand quickly turned to her face. This little girl had run so hard that sweat beaded on her forehead, her light makeup washed away by sweat. But because her natural complexion was so good, it didn’t look horrifying like a modern beauty revealing her true face; instead, she looked quite cute…
“Run!”
Then Wang Wang gasped while shouting.
“Huh?”
Yang Xin was stunned.
“Run! Someone, I don’t know who, stirred up a large group of Imperial College Students and Government Students from the city at the Imperial College! They’re coming to capture you and take you to the Ministry of Justice!”
Out of breath from running, Wang Wang stood there coughing violently, then bent over, pointing at him and shouting.
“Huh? Does the Great Ming not have laws?”
Yang Xin moved the telescope away and shouted righteously.
“Quickly, report to the officials!”
Chen Yujie immediately said to the steward.
He knew very well how scary such matters could be. Those fellows, idle and bored at the Imperial College, loved stirring up such attention-grabbing events. Not to mention coming to capture Yang Xin; they even dared to perform kneeling petition before the palace.
“Reporting to officials is useless. Go directly to the Eastern Palace to find Wei Chao, have him look for the Imperial Eldest Grandson!”
Yang Xin said.
This was definitely Wang Wenyan’s doing.
This “righteous scholar” of the Donglin Faction from history had bought a Purchased Student Status, then used his sponsor’s silver to befriend the powerful in the Capital City. It was he who, when Wanli was critically ill, along with Yang Lian, urged Zhu Changluo to quickly enter the palace to prepare for succession. Similarly, it was he who helped the Donglin Faction settle Wang An, eventually making Wang An join the Donglin Faction’s side and become a main force in the Palace Removal Case.
But this fellow was indeed cunning enough.
They probably felt the public opinion had been stirred up enough; it was time to set the stage for a decisive battle. As long as they captured him and delivered him to the Ministry of Justice, if Consort Zheng or Fang Congzhe didn’t intervene, it would be equivalent to admitting defeat. Over these three days, they had already made the entire Capital City know he was Consort Zheng’s person. If Consort Zheng or Fang Congzhe did intervene in this matter, it would become open political struggle within the court, spreading nationwide to continue manufacturing public opinion, even uniting with other factions, using this incident as a catalyst to launch a full-scale attack on Fang Congzhe and force him to step down.
As for reporting to officials—don’t even mention it.
The Five City Military Inspectorate was the enemy’s side; reporting could only be done to them.
They only needed to wait until they’d seen enough of the commotion before coming.
And finding others was useless. Even if Xu Xianchun could be bought with money at this time, he wouldn’t intervene. But Tianqi was waiting for his good things. If Tianqi truly wanted those things, then he couldn’t possibly ignore him. The Imperial Eldest Grandson should be able to suppress these fellows. Moreover, his place was the closest. Wei Zhongxian hadn’t truly returned to the Eastern Palace yet at this time, so the only contact person to find was Wei Chao.
Chen Yujie immediately took a Silver Note and gave it to the steward, who hurriedly rode a horse out the back gate.
“You still aren’t running?”
Wang Wang said in shock.
“How does the Great Ming Code treat trespassing into a private residence?”
Yang Xin asked Chen Yujie.
“Kill without fault!”
Chen Yujie said.
“But the Great Ming Code only says ‘kill without fault’ for those who enter someone’s house without reason at night, right?”
Yang Xin asked.
He had studied the Great Ming’s laws quite seriously.
“The Great Ming Code itself has many omissions and can’t cover everything. But Taizu’s Grand Pronouncements has detailed explanations for this article. The Grand Pronouncements uses cases for explanation. According to the Grand Pronouncements, as long as someone trespasses into a private residence without reason, they are all dealt with accordingly. So there’s no need to doubt this issue. But you’re not really going to kill them, are you? Those are all Imperial College Students! Moreover, they are numerous and will surely bring their Household Servants. Can you handle so many alone? I have no strength to bind a chicken!”
Chen Yujie said, showing a distinct lack of loyalty.
“With the combat power of those Green Robed Scholars, I could take on the entire Imperial College. As for killing or not killing, that’s hard to say!”
Yang Xin said with emotion.
As he spoke, under Wang Wang’s stunned gaze, he walked past her, casually handing the telescope to her.
“Move aside, don’t get blood on you!”
He said with an evil grin, looking down.
Just then, a clamor of voices rose outside. Chen Yujie hurriedly followed him out, immediately seeing Wang Wang’s several Household Servants run in panic, along with his own gatekeeper, hurriedly closing the originally open courtyard gate. But at the same moment, several servant-like men from outside rushed over and blocked the gate.
“Audacious! This is the residence of Lord Xu, Junior Advisor of the Left of the Left Spring Quarter of the Office of the Heir Apparent! Who are you to dare trespass? Aren’t you afraid of the laws of the Great Ming? Withdraw at once!”
Chen Yujie shouted.
At the same time, he signaled his own servants to return.
Those servants quickly retreated inside the inner door, and then Chen Yujie also retreated back.
“Brother Yang, I leave this place to you. Do not let these thieves break in and disturb the womenfolk!”
He said righteously from inside the inner door.
“Rest assured. With me here, I absolutely will not let thieves disturb the inner quarters!”
Yang Xin equally declared with great righteousness.
As he spoke, he rolled up his sleeves and walked out of the inner door.
Almost simultaneously, a surge of blue robes flooded in from outside like a rushing tide through an open ticket gate. The one at the head even pointed at him with a Folding Fan, filled with righteous indignation…
“This is the dog-thief! Today, let’s see how wild he can be!”
This fellow shouted towards the back.
The next moment, Yang Xin, like a pouncing leopard, instantly reached him.
That man turned his head in shock.
A fist, carrying the sound of wind, squarely hit his face…