Chapter 122 Confession

The fleet that had gone to fight the Japanese pirates returned in the hottest time of July, sailing via Shandong to Nanjing, where they were preparing to sign a treaty to end the war. However, before the formal negotiations, the Prince of Duke Mu, who had quietly gone out, still had to deal with some minor matters - after a month of hard work, the imperial envoy unexpectedly arrived in Jinling during these few days, delivering the official document from the court convicting the prince.

Of course, the prince did not need to have an in-depth understanding of the development of the court situation over the past six months. He only needed to take a look at the envoy's pale face to know the outcome of the political confrontation in the capital. This envoy must be a leader among the anti-Mu faction as he was given the important task of traveling thousands of miles to confront the leader of his political enemies. But it was precisely because of this that when he heard the news of Japan's great defeat on the way, he suddenly felt great despair in his heart:

No matter what, this game was a complete illusion, and we lost completely with no room for maneuver!

But how could this happen? Obviously, everything was planned so well, and all the forces that could be united had been united; the possibility of a turnaround was so slim, as long as Japan could barely hold the gate, they could take the opportunity to control the situation and strangle the Mu family; but how could such an advantageous situation turn into a place of death?

——It’s all the fault of those useless Japanese! Even if they didn't lose so badly, even if they managed to keep their pants, they would still throw a tantrum and try their best to muddy the waters by accusing others of killing innocent people and taking credit for it. But now the other side has even captured the hostages who were offered as prisoners in the Imperial Ancestral Temple. Even if the anti-Mu faction is making empty promises, what can they do?

Military merit alone is actually not a big deal; but the Prince of Duke Mu and even Qi Yuanjing, Yu Zhifu and others are either the sons of absurd nobles or unknown grassroots officials in the army. None of them are generals selected through the regular military system of the court, and they are completely outside the bureaucratic system. If such people can lead the team to victory, it means that the emperor has already mastered a reliable armed force independent of the existing system, and the country's most powerful violence machine is no longer monopolized by civil servants.

This was news like a bolt from the blue, and its significance was no less than the news that General Wei, who was born a relative of the emperor, broke through the Xiongnu's Dragon City with one blow... No, it might even be more so - although Emperor Xiaowu was very strict with his subordinates, before he went crazy with witchcraft, he still acted in a roughly regular manner; but the current emperor...

Thinking of this, the messenger felt dizzy unconsciously.

And the saddest thing is that even though the victory or defeat was decided and the anti-Mu faction had no room to struggle anymore, the envoy had no choice but to endure the torment in his heart and go through the process with gritted teeth - although in fact everyone understood it, the crime that the anti-Mu faction nominally accused Mu Qi of was not illegal resistance to the Japanese pirates (they were not bold enough to do that), but a bunch of inexplicable trivialities, accusing Mu Qi of being "domineering", "rude", "slanderous" and so on; since the charges had nothing to do with the resistance to the Japanese pirates, of course they could not be terminated because of the victory in the naval battle. Even if it was just a formality, the envoy had to read the lengthy conviction document in front of the Prince of Mu, reciting one by one the various phrases that the anti-Mu faction's writers had carefully designed to humiliate the other party.

——Of course, judging from the current situation, it is not certain who this thing is humiliating.

The prince of Duke Mu stood solemnly with his hands down, and listened attentively to the end of this hearty impeachment letter. He bowed to show his respect to the court, and then said something very fatal:

"Do I need to kneel down to take it?"

The messenger slowly exhaled a breath and looked at him with his pale face.

"I remember that when Governor Hai Gangfeng received the official documents from the cabinet, he knelt down to receive them." Mu Qi said to himself, "So do I need to kneel down and kowtow to the envoy?"

How should the messenger respond? He couldn't answer a word and could only stand there stiffly, with an expression of almost empty despair on his face.

Perhaps because the situation was too embarrassing, Hai Gangfeng, who had also been ordered to come, was magnanimous and explained:

"According to the Great Edict of Emperor Gaozu and Emperor Taizong, all official documents issued by the Cabinet and the six ministries must be received by local officials of the fourth rank and below on their knees, while officials above the fourth rank only need to stand and salute. The Duke's Mansion is considered a super-ranking official, so there is no need to kneel to receive it."

Knowing etiquette and rules has this benefit, at least it can stop someone from talking nonsense. Prince Mu snorted and could only change the subject:

"According to the court's custom, I should write a letter to defend myself. But I have important matters to attend to and have no time to spare. Could you please ask the envoy to give me a few days?"

To pretend to ask for "leniency" at this time is undoubtedly a mockery in your face. Perhaps because he was desperate, the messenger was too lazy to put on any humble appearance of begging for mercy, and simply spoke in a stern voice:

"what are you up to?"

"Emperor Gaozu followed the will of heaven and unified China; but before he passed away, he was still obsessed with the Japanese threat in the southeast." The prince said, "Now, thanks to your majesty's great blessing, the fleet has fortunately destroyed the Japanese pirates. We must report to the spirit of Emperor Gaozu in heaven. I think we should offer sacrifices in front of the Xiaoling Mausoleum before we set off to return to Beijing."

The messenger was silent.

No matter how fierce the debate was in the court, up to now, the emperors had always believed that resisting the Japanese pirates was absolutely politically correct and an undeniable basic consensus, especially in Nanjing, and especially in Jiangnan - yes, there might be many forces in Jiangnan that secretly colluded with the Japanese pirates to engage in smuggling, but there were even more victims who were harassed by the Japanese pirates and whose families were broken up. The blood feud could not be eliminated, and no one dared to say no.

What’s even more interesting is that there weren’t even any legal or ritual obstacles to worshipping Emperor Gaozu in Jinling. What the Prince of Mu said was absolutely correct. In his later years, the Emperor Gaozu was indeed obsessed with the task of suppressing the Japanese invaders. In addition to instructing the people along the coast to prepare troops for defense, he also issued an edict to commend the soldiers who fought against the Japanese invaders. Even if they were commoners, as long as they had outstanding contributions in the fight against the Japanese invaders, they could be brought into the palace and commended in person by the Emperor Gaozu. This decree is still valid today. Even if one cannot meet the emperor during his lifetime, one can still worship him after his death - getting a few heads to worship Emperor Gaozu is a politically correct idea that emperors of all generations could not refuse.

And now on the trip to Japan, the Mu family has undoubtedly obtained a considerable number of heads. During the Black Ship negotiations, he repeatedly pressed for the amount of compensation until Sakai begged bitterly before he was willing to make concessions, and the condition was to use the heads of the Japanese pirates as collateral. As long as the shogunate killed people according to the list drawn up by the Chinese side, then one thousand taels could be saved for each extra head sent; if the shogunate could provide bandits not on the list, then the same deduction could be made - according to this standard, there were seven or eight hundred human heads sealed tightly on the returning black ships, enough to pile up into a small Jingguan.

Of course, a mere seven or eight hundred heads would probably not be enough to compensate for the losses caused by Japan's repeated coastal invasions over the past few decades. But it's always a beginning, and a very good one. Hearing is not as good as seeing. Nothing is more convincing than the seven or eight hundred heads saltpetred with lime, salt water and nitrate. The piles of heads lined up in the Jingguan are enough to offset the learned helplessness after years of invasion and humiliation, and inspire the courage to take revenge. As long as they gain the trust of the local people, they can find more evidence of the pirates' crimes, compile a longer and more complete list, and chop off more and more heads...

The prince smiled. The face of the envoy on the other side was as stiff as death, which was really a funny contrast.

Perhaps because the superiors were making such a scene, Hai Gangfeng, who was dragged here like a conscript, had no choice but to bite the bullet and take over:

"…If you want to worship Emperor Gaozu, it seems that you should seek permission from the Ministry of Rites of Nanzhili and the eunuchs who stayed in Jinling."

"I will write to the Jinling authorities." The prince smiled and said, "But I don't know how long this important matter will be delayed. Please don't delay my submission to the court."

The eunuchs in Nanjing are very well-informed and must have known about the great changes in the capital. Given their ability to adapt to the situation, how could they try to make things difficult for such an upright matter? So the messenger looked indifferent and said only one sentence:

"It's all up to you."

·

The eunuch from Nanjing was indeed very straightforward. Upon receiving the official document, he immediately agreed to make concessions without any delay. However, the specifications for the sacrifices to the imperial tomb that the Duke was ordered to follow were very lengthy and required quite tedious and lengthy preparations. During the preparations, the prince found time to do a few chores, such as meeting and greeting his parents whom he had not seen for a long time, visiting close friends living in Jinling City, giving them souvenirs he brought from Japan - rings made of finger bones of Japanese pirates (real souvenirs); and killing people.

That's right, after the Black Ship Agreement, the Mu family went on a killing spree, and their ideas were divided into two groups; the ordinary nobodies followed the map, chopped off their heads and directly saltpetered them, and shipped them back to Nanjing with miscellaneous items to be displayed to the public; the culprit with a high status was treated slightly differently, he was tied up with a rope and taken to the ship, and planned to be tied to the front of the Xiaoling Mausoleum to be "used" by the Emperor Gao, so-called imitation of the ancient rituals of the Shang Dynasty, using sacrifices to offer sacrifices to the former kings and so on - the etiquette of ministers offering sacrifices to the imperial mausoleum, as usual, is to use "tai lao" and "shaolao", and now kill a cow and a sheep as sacrifices; but the ox has worked hard in the fields and has made great contributions, it is really wrong to slaughter and cook them for no reason; it is better to restore the ancient rituals and use the Japanese.

Such an arrangement that complies with the will of Heaven, such self-discipline and restoration of rituals, and carries forward the good governance of the Three Dynasties could not be more appropriate. Even the eunuchs guarding Nanjing could not help but agree (although after hearing the proposal to offer the Japanese to Emperor Gaozu, the eunuchs' faces instantly became quite strange). However, they euphemistically suggested during the meeting that even if the ancient rituals were to be restored and the Japanese were used in the sacrifices, the ones who were qualified to be used by Emperor Gaozu must be the leaders of the Japanese pirates, the heinous traitors, and the powerful rebels; if you brought dozens of captives and "used" them all, then it would not be a sacrifice, but a bloody slaughterhouse - how could such a rude thing be tolerated in front of Emperor Gaozu's mausoleum!

"But it was no big deal for the ancient Shang kings to sacrifice dozens of people at once." Mu Qi pointed out: "Each time Emperor Wu Ding of the Shang Dynasty offered sacrifices to his ancestors, the number of people he sacrificed was at least a hundred."

The garrison eunuch's eyes bulged.

·

Facts have proved that the ancient rituals of the previous kings can never be restored. Although it was common to employ several hundred people during the Shang Dynasty, times have changed. Now, employing a slightly larger number of people is no longer something the moral system can tolerate. Not to mention that there is also the Confucius Temple in Jinling, which gathers almost half of the literati in Jiangnan. If the incident gets too serious and alarms public opinion, it will be quite troublesome - not to mention that even Duke Mu, who is still recovering from illness, will probably take off his belt and whip the prince to make him spin like a top...

Secular prejudice is as heavy as a mountain, and no one can overcome it. The prince had no choice but to make concessions and keep the most prominent leader among the captives as a gift to Emperor Gao, while the rest of the prisoners were taken to the Nanjing Ministry of Justice and executed directly via the fast track. But it was precisely this fast track of immediate trial, sentencing and execution that caused quite a bit of trouble: according to the "Great Edict" of Emperor Gao, all captured Japanese pirates were to be tortured to death or skinned alive, without any excuse; and now with dozens of serious criminals to be tortured to death crammed in at once, even if all the executioners in Nanjing and the entire Jiangnan region were plundered, they would not be able to handle it!

Lingchi execution also requires technical skills, and frequent training is required to improve one's skills. Nowadays, the imperial court may not be able to execute a rebel even after ten or eight years, so the skills of the master chef are of course very advanced. On the day of the execution, the crowds of spectators were packed. When the executioner really started to use the knife, the nearly 10,000 people watching were immediately stunned, and even the discussions everywhere became much quieter. When the second and third knives were cut in succession, the surroundings were completely silent, and the atmosphere was almost stagnant - because the work was done too roughly, the scene did not look like lingchi, but more like living dismemberment. The horror of cutting the flesh and dripping blood amid wailing and groaning did indeed trigger the fear of human genes' instinct, and the stimulation was even more unusual.

Compared to this kind of excitement, even the feat of the black ships burning down Edo is nothing. At least at that time Mu Qi was lying in the boat, feeling dizzy and hearing nothing except the sound of cannons and explosions; now he was sitting on the stage and watching the slaughtering scene in person, and the brutality was of course beyond words...and the most important thing was that no matter how violent the stimulation was, he had to hold on, not lose face or show any cowardice, or show the slightest bit of disgrace - besides him, those watching the execution included officials from the Jinling Ministry of Justice, garrison eunuchs, and the family elder Mito clan who had been brought all the way from Edo to sign the "Jinling Treaty" on behalf of the shogunate; to lose face in front of these people would be a complete mistake that could never be undone.

Not only that, he also asked Mito’s opinion with a smile on his face and in a calm manner, but Mito said nothing and just stared blankly at the execution ground - most of these prisoners were forcibly abducted onto the black ship by him, so when they were executed, they cursed and attacked the shogun and the general like crazy; the people watching could not understand Japanese, but Mito himself knew it clearly, knowing that from now on, the shogunate would have countless enemies in Japan, and the war would not end until one side died...

This may also be a trick of the Han people. Even though the Black Ship Agreement had recognized the shogunate's power to rule Japan, it was still necessary to use various means to create an irreconcilable enemy for the shogun. The more enemies the shogunate has in Japan and the more unpopular it is, the more it relies on the imperial court's enthronement and support; therefore, the shogun must play his role well and not make the superior country unhappy...

This is a cruel reality. But what is even more cruel is that even if they knew the other party's plan, they could do nothing about it.

Mito exhaled lightly, his eyes wandering; he no longer looked at the blood-stained execution ground, but carefully examined the rockets rising high on all sides of the execution ground. According to Da'an custom, firecrackers would be set off on the spot after lingchi and skinning to drive away the vengeful ghosts of the tragically dead; but this time the prince made the final decision and deliberately replaced the firecrackers with reduced-specification rockets. The intention was self-evident: the Japanese pirates were no match for rockets when they were alive, let alone after they were dead? Even if he really turns into a ghost, it would be a good opportunity for the rocket to kill him again.

But in Mito's eyes, such a ceremony undoubtedly contained greater terror - on the way back to Nanjing by ship, he had also had delusions; he hoped that the firepower of the black ships was already the wealth of the Da'an court, and that after the First World War, the country was exhausted and it would be impossible to carry out large-scale attacks for the time being; in this way, at least Japan could still survive, and even take the opportunity to fight for something in the treaty.

But now, now, he glanced at the rockets densely packed on all sides of the execution ground, and felt his heart grow darker and darker.

...How could this be so? How could this be so? The more powerful the force, the rarer it is; this is the law that governs the world. If such an incredible weapon as "rocket" can be mass-produced like sausages, and if the firepower that bombed Edo that day could be endless, then what is the meaning of the so-called resistance and struggle of other countries?

If Mito was right, the "rocket" placed at the execution ground was just a sample produced by Hai Gangfeng, the prefect of Shaoxing, after supervising the factory. If the factory was further expanded, and if Hai Gangfeng rose rapidly and was able to promote this experience in more provinces, then the result would be...

Mito glanced at Hai Gangfeng who was sitting below, and his heart twitched for a moment.

After a round of rockets was fired, the smoke dispelled the bloody smell all over the ground. Mito, who had been sitting there for a long time, twitched his lips, and finally gritted his teeth and called out to the prince:

"The Japanese pirates have invaded our borders and offended our country. Our country is responsible for this." He said in broken Chinese: "Even so, the Japanese pirates were able to wreak havoc here because someone was behind it! I am willing to report all the news to the prince as atonement, is that okay?"

As soon as this statement was made, the effect was immediate. The Prince of Duke Mu had his eyes wide open, and was obviously quite shocked; and the officials sitting on both sides... in just a moment, their faces had become even paler than Mito's.

·

The Rockets are so strong that it seems there is no way they can turn the tables; but even if there is no way they can drag a few people down with them?