Chapter 116: Come On! Let’s Hurt Each Other! Requesting Monthly Tickets!
Zhang Biao’s words, “I only wish for a quick death! I beg the Emperor to grant it,” were spoken with perfect diction and genuine emotion.
It was as if he were not going to his death, but to receive some immense reward.
Old Zhu, angered by his “dead pig not afraid of boiling water” demeanor, felt his vision darken again, and he swayed, being quickly supported by Yun Ming beside him.
“Good! Good! Good!”
Old Zhu repeated the word “good” three times, his chest heaving violently, killing intent almost condensing into substance in his eyes:
“I will grant your wish! I will now—”
“Your Majesty is wise—!”
Before Old Zhu could finish speaking, the old Censor Li Tiesheng, who had been half-killed by Zhang Biao’s anger, as if he had finally found an opportunity to show his loyalty, struggled forward a few steps and shouted:
“Your Majesty! This villain Zhang Biao is immeasurably arrogant, slandering the sage’s teachings, shaking the foundation of the nation, deserving of ten thousand deaths, and a thousand cuts would not be too much!”
He first affirmed Old Zhu’s decision, then changed his tone, his finger trembling as he pointed to Shen Lang, Li Mo, Sun Gui, and others who were kneeling behind Zhang Biao, already pale with fear. His voice was as sharp as a night owl’s:
“However!”
“Your Majesty, please look! Zhang Biao is not acting alone in his madness! How can such heretical words go unopposed and unpromoted?”
“Shen Lang, Li Mo, Sun Gui, Wu Nai Da, Zhao Fengman, and the like, willingly serving as Zhang Biao’s dogs and lackeys, colluding with him and working for him!”
“They audited the Six Ministries’ nobles and disrupted the Court Order; they are all accomplices!”
“If they dare to slander the sage’s teachings and dismiss Confucianism with Zhang Biao today, tomorrow they will dare to commit even greater treasonous acts!”
“These are Zhang Biao’s faction members, the foundation of national ruin!”
“Your subject tearfully implores Your Majesty!”
Li Tiesheng spoke, banging his head on the ground with a thud.
It felt a bit like learning by doing, applying some of the “dying for a cause” tactics that Zhang Biao had taught him.
His blood instantly stained the golden bricks.
But his voice did not stop, and he continued sternly and sonorously:
“To eliminate future troubles and to set the record straight, your subject advises that Zhang Biao and his faction members be all publicly executed, to warn against future offenses and to pacify the hearts of scholars throughout the land, Your Majesty—!”
Boom!
The entire court was in an uproar!
“Your subject seconds the motion!”
“Zhang Biao’s faction must not be spared!”
“Please have Your Majesty deal with them all, and eliminate them forever!”
“…”
The other pure stream officials, finding an outlet and a target for expressing their loyalty, also kowtowed and shouted, demanding that Shen Lang, Li Mo, and the others be put to death.
They hated Zhang Biao to the bone, and in turn, hated those who “followed the madman.”
They also hoped to use this opportunity to completely eliminate their opponents, demonstrating their resolve and strength in defending the Orthodox Tradition.
In the office, Fu Youwen watched this scene, was stunned for a moment, and then a cold smile curled up on his lips: “Interesting, very interesting.”
“Heh, Old fool Li Tiesheng, he knows how to climb the ladder…”
Ru Chang let out a sinister laugh, then changed his tone: “However, this statement suits my wishes! Leaving these ‘mad dogs’ is also a disaster; it’s cleaner to get rid of them all!”
“Precisely.”
Zhai Shan nodded: “If you don’t cut the grass at the root, it will grow again in the spring breeze.”
They were all happy to see the situation escalate, to muddy the waters further, and preferably to make Old Zhu’s butcher knife swing even harder, cutting down more destabilizing factors.
However, Zheng Ci disagreed, his expression becoming more somber: “Have you all forgotten Zhang Biao’s madness that day, in the Hall of Supreme Harmony Square?”
“This—”
The faces of the three men changed immediately upon hearing this.
They naturally remembered Zhang Biao shouting “I beg the Great Ming to die.”
Could it be that this scene would be repeated today?
As expected—
Zhang Biao, who had originally looked like he had achieved his desire and was ready to die, instantly lost his smile upon hearing that Li Tiesheng and others not only wanted to kill him but also to brand Shen Lang, Li Mo, and all his brothers as “faction members” and execute them all.
A chilling coldness and anger replaced his previous madness and mockery.
He suddenly turned his head, his eyes, which always held a playful cynicism or a desire for death, now burning with a terrifying ferocity, like a dragon whose reverse scale had been touched.
“Old scoundrel! What did you say?!”
Zhang Biao’s voice was no longer high-pitched but terrifyingly low, carrying a bone-chilling coldness as if grinding teeth and sucking blood, interrupting Li Tiesheng’s wailing and the pure stream officials’ agreement.
Immediately, he walked step by step towards Li Tiesheng. The Imperial Guards wanted to stop him, but Old Zhu stopped them with a look.
Old Zhu also wanted to see what this madman would do when his reverse scale was touched.
Zhang Biao walked up to Li Tiesheng, looking down at the old Censor whose forehead was bleeding from kowtowing, and said with icy coldness:
“You just said that Shen Lang and the others are my faction members? And that they should all be executed?”
“Aren’t they?”
Li Tiesheng was intimidated by Zhang Biao’s aura, but relying on Old Zhu’s presence and believing he was in the right, he forced himself to look up and said stubbornly:
“They associate with you and commit such treasonous acts; if they are not faction members, what are they?! Naturally, they should all…”
“You are talking out of your damn backside!”
Zhang Biao roared, interrupting him like a thunderclap, scaring Li Tiesheng into swallowing the rest of his words.
“Faction members? A fine term, ‘faction members’!”
Zhang Biao laughed in extreme anger, his laughter colder than the winter wind: “I audited the Six Ministries’ nobles; I investigated corruption using open stratagems! I acted on imperial orders! They followed me to fulfill their duties and be loyal to the Emperor!”
“How is it that in the mouths of you old degenerates, who are full of benevolence and righteousness on the outside but depraved on the inside, it becomes forming factions for selfish ends? It becomes a heinous crime of being faction members?!”
“Don’t you always talk about Confucianism being the orthodox tradition, and ‘gentlemen associate in cliques but do not form factions’?”
“What? Now you judge cases as needed, prosperity for those who follow me, and death for those who oppose me?!”
As soon as he finished speaking, he added disdainfully: “No wonder Confucius killed Shaozheng Mao; he truly set an example for his disciples and their descendants!”
“You… you must not slander the Sage!”
Li Tiesheng trembled with anger.
“I slander?”
Zhang Biao gave him no chance to speak, suddenly turned, faced Old Zhu, and then looked around at the pure stream officials, his voice rising sharply, filled with desperate madness:
“Your Majesty! Your loyal pure stream ministers want to kill my faction members, don’t they? They want to implicate them? Good! Very good!”
“But.”
He then changed his tone, looked around at Shen Lang and the others, and said: “If we just kill us, won’t these hypocrites get off too easily? Won’t the real worms hide behind and watch the show?!”
“Since you want to talk about faction members and crimes! Then let’s settle it clearly today! Let’s make it big!”
As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly pointed at Li Tiesheng and the other pure stream officials, his voice like the pronouncement of doomsday judgment:
“You impeach me for disrupting the Court Order? Impeach me for shaking the foundation of the nation? Impeach me for forming factions for selfish ends?!”
“Then what about you?!”
“Are your own hands clean? Under the Orthodox Tradition you believe in and uphold, how much filth is hidden and how much grime is accumulated?!”
“I, Zhang Biao, am laying my words out here today!”
Zhang Biao’s eyes were ferocious, filled with a desire for mutual destruction: “My auditing of the Six Ministries’ nobles was just an appetizer! The real accounting, I haven’t had time to settle with you yet!”
“Don’t you call yourselves pure stream? Aren’t you pure and spotless?”
“Come on! Right here in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, in front of His Majesty!”
“I will audit you on the spot!”
“Let’s check how the office funding for each of your yamen over the years has been spent!”
“Let’s check if your charcoal tribute and other tributes have exceeded the standard!”
“Let’s check if you can afford the properties and shops you’ve bought in your hometowns with your salaries!”
“Let’s check if you have accepted the gifts from your disciples and old friends!”
“Let’s see if the skin of you pure stream officials is red or black underneath! Let’s see what kind of things your so-called Orthodox Tradition has nurtured!”
With each sentence he spoke, the faces of Li Tiesheng and the other pure stream officials turned paler, until finally, they were ashen-faced and trembling like sieves.
They never imagined that Zhang Biao’s counterattack would be so fierce and so direct.
This was an attempt to flip the table on the spot, to tear off everyone’s fig leaves and tie them all naked to a pillar of shame and burn them!
“You… you are slandering!”
Li Tiesheng shrieked, his voice changing pitch.
“Slandering?”
Zhang Biao threw his head back and laughed, his gaze bloodthirsty: “Whether I am slandering or not will be known upon investigation!”
After speaking, he immediately turned to Old Zhu, cupped his hands, and said hoarsely: “Your Majesty! Your subject requests an imperial decree! Here, on the spot, let’s verify some accounts of the Censorate, Hanlin Academy, and other pure official yamen!”
“No need for much, just check three items: charcoal tribute records, office ink and brush paper consumption for the past three years, and property registration for some officials’ hometowns!”
“If even one item is found to be problematic, I ask Your Majesty to have me and this villain! Executed by Lingchi together!”
As soon as he finished speaking, he immediately pointed at Li Tiesheng: “If two items are found, all pure stream officials present, every single one, will be dismissed and investigated! If all three items are problematic…”
Zhang Biao paused, showing an extremely cruel smile: “Then please let Your Majesty see what kind of quality the pure stream officials of the Great Ming Dynasty are! See who is forming factions for selfish ends, who is hollowing out the national treasury, and who is shaking the foundation of the nation!”
“Even if we deserve to die, we want to die with clarity! Let the people of the world understand!”
“If we must die!”
He then looked around at Li Tiesheng and the others, smiling cruelly: “Let’s die together! No one will be able to hide behind and watch the show cleanly!”
Madness! Unimaginable madness!
It was so crazy it made one’s scalp tingle!
This was no longer an audit; it was an attempt to self-destruct the entire civilian official pure stream system!
The Hall of Supreme Harmony Square instantly fell into a deathly silence, like a graveyard.
All the pure stream officials were terrified out of their wits, not daring to breathe.
How many of them could honestly say their accounts could withstand such an open, surprise audit?
Li Tiesheng’s vision blackened, and he almost fainted.
He knew his own affairs.
In the office, the smiles on the faces of Fu Youwen, Ru Chang, and others had long since frozen, replaced by immense terror.
They suddenly realized that Zhang Biao’s fire was about to burn them too!
This madman was going to bring down the sky before he died!
Old Zhu’s expression also changed.
He looked at Zhang Biao, who was like a madman but logically clear and hitting the nail on the head, and then at the group of so-called pure stream officials who were terrified and putting on a brave front. The killing intent in his heart was temporarily suppressed by an extreme sense of absurdity and cold reason.
He knew Zhang Biao was forcing his hand, using a more extreme method to pressure him.
But he also knew that what Zhang Biao was saying was very likely the bloody truth!
If an audit were to take place on the spot…
That scene…
Old Zhu dared not imagine how ugly it would be.
At that time, it would not be just Zhang Biao who would be killed.
The entire court, and even the hearts of scholars throughout the land, would be completely disrupted.
This madman… this true madman!!
Old Zhu stared intently at Zhang Biao, his teeth gnashing.
He wished he could tear Zhang Biao into ten thousand pieces at that very moment.
But he could not let the fig leaves of these pure stream officials be completely torn off in front of him!
If that happened, the Great Ming would fall into chaos.
And between endless chaos and more hidden rot, what choice should be made?
Old Zhu was in an unprecedented predicament.
Meanwhile, Zhang Biao held his head high, looking at the ashen-faced Old Zhu and the trembling pure stream officials, a cold and triumphant smile playing on his lips.
Want to touch my people? Then no one lives!
Come on! Let’s hurt each other!
