Chapter 11 Court Flogging "Stubborn to the end, beat him harder!"
The imperial court flogging system of the Dahuang era was traditionally carried out jointly by the Directorate of Ceremonial and the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Outside the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City, the wind was biting cold. After reading Emperor Chongming's edict, the Grand Eunuch Sheng Honghai of the Directorate of Ceremonial sat down on the west side of the platform without saying a word. The Embroidered Uniform Guard envoys then took out the flogging rods and stood on either side of the rack. They glanced at Sheng Honghai's slightly splayed toes, understanding that His Majesty intended to "strike hard," but not to kill him.
Feng Tan, her hands bound with rope, slowly approached the Meridian Gate. Eight years had passed, and she never imagined that she would stand here again in such a state. Gao Yu was treacherous and cunning; the moment she struck him, she knew she couldn't escape a beating. Suppressing her anger for too long was bad for her health, and acting impulsively to vent her anger felt good... even though her current fate was rather tragic... She lowered her head, trying to find a bitter solution, and was pushed and shoved by the Imperial Guards until she fell onto the rack.
The eunuch in charge of writing, Jiang Lili, was Sheng Honghai's godson. He bent down beside Sheng Honghai and whispered, "Godfather, shall we strip Lord Feng naked and carry out the punishment?"
Sheng Honghai squinted at Feng Tan and said, "It's the dead of winter, there's no need to take off your clothes."
Two rows of Imperial Guards stood with their canes in hand. One of them walked up to Feng Tan, handed him a gag, and said, "Loud shouting is forbidden in the palace. Lord Feng, please bite on this."
Feng Tan lowered her eyes slightly and said, "No need, let's fight."
Jiang Lili immediately shouted, "Get out of here!"
The staff is about 1.5 meters long, slightly thicker at both ends and thinner in the middle. It is made of green bamboo that has grown for a long time in the mountains and has a hard texture. Its advantages are that it is extremely elastic, tough and durable. When it hits an official who has committed a crime, it causes him unbearable pain, and the wound is bloody and mangled, which is frightening to look at.
After the first blow, excruciating pain shot through every limb. Feng Tan gritted her teeth, clenched her fists, and desperately tried to suppress a sound. Then came the second, the third, the fourth... blow after blow. Feng Tan's breathing became rapid, and she could barely hold back a sob. Her clear eyes were bloodshot, and as her body struggled uncontrollably, large drops of cold sweat dripped from her forehead onto the ground.
After being struck ten times, Feng Tan was in so much pain that his face lost all color, his mind became hazy, and his clothes were soaked with cold sweat. His breath was filled with the taste of blood.
A shadow suddenly fell over them. Sheng Honghai raised his hand to signal the Imperial Guards to stop the punishment. He squatted down, looked at Feng Tan's face, and said, "After ten strokes of the cane, His Majesty will give Lord Feng two choices: apologize to Lord Gao in the presence of the officials of the Ministry of Justice, or... continue to be beaten."
Feng Tan spat out blood and said weakly, "He deserved that slap."
Sheng Honghai stared at Feng Tan for a long while, then turned around and returned to his seat, giving Jiang Lili a subtle wink.
Jiang Lili understood, walked up to the Imperial Guards who were being flogged, made a gesture to 'beat them lightly,' but loudly commanded, 'Stubborn to the end, beat them harder!'
The remaining ten strokes of the clerks from the Imperial Guards were noticeably less forceful. After all twenty strokes were completed, the Imperial Guard envoys put away their sticks and left the Meridian Gate. Feng Tan slumped on the rack, closed his eyes, and fell into a deep sleep.
Sheng Honghai had served the emperor for over a decade and was the head of all the eunuchs in the Directorate of Ceremonial. He was the emperor's most trusted confidant. After the people from the Northern Garrison Command left, he walked up to the exhausted Feng Tan, his gaze falling on Feng Tan's prominent Adam's apple, and said bluntly, "I hit it off with Lord Feng at first sight, so I let him off the hook."
Feng Tan's eyes were not open, and her voice was weak and feeble, "Thank you, sir."
Sheng Honghai waved away his godson, squatted down to look Feng Tan in the eye, and said, "Aren't you going to ask why I hit it off with you so quickly, sir?"
Feng Tan knew, of course. Feng Qinghuang had grown up in the palace since childhood, and from her earliest memories, she knew that Sheng Honghai and Emperor Chongming were inseparable. When she was young, Emperor Chongming was busy with state affairs and had no time to play with Feng Tan, so Sheng Honghai became Feng Tan's "big companion." Eight years had passed, and although her appearance was different from when she was a child, she still retained some of her childhood features. However, Feng Tan was not worried that these people would recognize her, after all, 'Feng Qinghuang' was currently on her way back to the capital.
Feng Tan opened her eyes and looked at her childhood "companion," moving her pale lips as she asked, "Then why did Eunuch Sheng and I become fast friends at first sight?"
“You resemble an old friend of mine…” Sheng Honghai stared intently at Feng Tan, not missing a single expression on her face. “But not entirely. She has a beauty mark under her eye, which you don’t. She is terribly afraid of pain, while you can endure much more.”
Feng Tan twitched the corners of her mouth and laughed, "Looks like this face saved me."
Sheng Honghai remained noncommittal. His gaze lingered on Feng Tan for a moment before he stood up, and Jiang Lili, with her sharp eyes, ran over to help him.
After walking a few steps, Sheng Honghai looked back at the thin figure lying on the rack, his clothes soaked with blood from his waist and hips, and sighed softly: "I'm getting old... Our personalities are worlds apart, and this compassion is really something."
Jiang Lili said, "I don't agree with what you said, Godfather. You are clearly kind-hearted and soft-hearted, a living bodhisattva!"
The voices gradually faded, and the cold wind blew through Feng Tan's damp hair, making her severely injured body tremble. She struggled to lift herself from the rack and step onto the ground. With each movement, she felt excruciating pain all over her body, and she frowned as she swallowed all her cries of pain.
The Meridian Gate faces north and leads to the inner palace, where entry is forbidden without a summons. Facing south is the exit from the palace city. Three gates are located on the vermilion wall. The central gate is only for the emperor and empress's carriages, while the left and right side gates are for dukes, marquises, imperial sons-in-law, civil officials of the third rank, and military officials of the fourth rank and above. Feng Tan, currently holding the seventh rank, can only use the two smaller gates.
Feng Tan pressed her palms against the frozen palace wall, using it to support her swaying body. She glanced back at the majestic inner palace, a slightly sarcastic smile playing on her lips, before turning and walking out of the Meridian Gate without looking back.
Two carriages were parked outside the Meridian Gate, where Meng Henabul had been waiting for a long time. Seeing Feng Tan's injuries, a fierce anger surged between his brows. He wanted to lift her into the carriage but was afraid of hurting her wounds, and angrily said, "Not here, not in the capital! Go back!"
Feng Tan knew that Meng Henabuer was furious, so she gently comforted him, "Alright, alright, it's just a superficial injury, nothing serious."
She took Menghenabur's arm for support and slowly walked to another vermilion-lacquered carriage, asking the driver, "Does Lord Xiao want me to interrogate Su Bai today?"
The coachman remained taciturn, clasped his hands in a respectful bow, and said, "Indeed. Lord Feng, please get into the sedan chair."
Menghenabur suddenly gripped Feng Tan's arm tightly, "No, you should rest and recover."
Feng Tan shook his head and insisted, "Uncle Meng, the ladies in the pavilion supported my studies, and now they are abandoning me in this time of great difficulty. This is not the behavior of a gentleman."
In addition, there is another reason: the gentleman is imprisoned in the imperial prison, and specific details are still unknown. If a desperate situation arises in the future...
Meng He paused for a moment. He knew Feng Tan's stubbornness; once he made up his mind, nothing could pull him back. He slowly released Feng Tan's arm, took out the wound medicine and the prepared herbs, and said, "Here you go, Uncle. We'll wait for you to come back."
Today, when Xiao Yin was not in the carriage, there was an unfinished game of chess on the table. After Feng Tan got into the sedan chair and closed the door, the movement aggravated her injury, causing her to hiss softly. She endured the pain, loosened her belt, uncorked the jar, and poured the medicine powder onto her waist and abdomen.
The burning pain was relieved, and Feng Tan breathed a sigh of relief, praising Meng Henaboul's pharmaceutical genius in his heart. Suddenly, the sedan chair shook, and the medicine pot for wounds fell from Feng Tan's hands, rolling to the sedan chair door. Feng Tan hurriedly pulled on his belt and reached out to touch the medicine pot.
As the sun set, the contents of the sedan chair shone brightly and luxuriously. A bronze ceramic medicine pot fell onto the thin carpet, and she then noticed what appeared to be a hard object under the carpet.
Feng Tan lifted the thin velvet blanket, picked up the chess piece that had fallen under it, and looked back at the unfinished game on the table. After hesitating for a moment, she placed a piece in the right spot.
The coachman stopped the carriage at the right moment and said in a deep voice, "Lord Feng, we have arrived."
The capital city had three major prisons: the Ministry of Justice, the Eastern Depot, and the Northern Garrison. The Ministry of Justice was in charge of civil cases, such as arson, murder, robbery, and rape; the Eastern Depot was in charge of crimes committed by eunuchs and palace gatekeepers; and the Embroidered Uniform Guard arrested officials who had committed treason or disobeyed the emperor. After arrest, they were sent to the Northern Garrison for trial, which was also known as the "Imperial Prison."
The Eastern Depot and the Imperial Prison were intertwined and directly under the emperor's rule. Officials in the capital spoke of these two major prisons with dread, avoiding them at all costs, fearing that they might one day find themselves imprisoned.
Having witnessed the "Prison Pagoda" of the Ministry of Justice, Feng Tan was not intimidated by the fact that the Northern Garrison Command was even more ruthless in its tortures. He endured the pain in his body and slowly walked inside.
If the Yufu Pagoda is modeled after the pagoda, then the Dahuang Imperial Prison is modeled after the layout of the eighteen levels of hell. It spirals down from the bright daylight into the dark underground, becoming darker and heavier the further down you go. The armored soldiers guard the place more and more strictly, and the dim torchlight makes the place feel eerie.
As Feng Tan walked, he memorized the terrain. Each level of the underground prison was heavily guarded, with Imperial Guards standing at attention, swords drawn. The cell bars on both sides of the passageway were forged from fine iron, while the other three sides were reinforced with diamonds, making the prison as fortified as an iron barrel. Every two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters) there was a lantern, its dim light casting flickering shadows. Living people remained silent, and being inside truly felt like being in hell.
After descending to the third level, the Imperial Guard leading the way brought over a black hood and said to Feng Tan, "Below is the inner prison of the Imperial Prison, which is a top secret. Please bear with this, sir."
Feng Tan took it and put it on her head. Her vision was completely dark. She sighed in her heart. The master must be imprisoned on the third floor or below. Unfortunately, the defenses were too tight, and she had no chance to memorize the terrain.
After walking for a while, the heavy iron gate opened with a loud bang, and the Imperial Guard beside Feng Tan removed his black hood and said, "Please come in, sir."
Feng Tan didn't know which floor this was. The nauseating musty and bloody smells had lessened considerably. Looking around the entire secret room, four dragon-shaped pillars stood upright against the inside of the copper and iron walls, about a foot away from the sky. In the innermost part of the room, Su Bai was chained to a rack. The torture he had endured for several days had left him emaciated and covered in wounds.
The door to the secret chamber slammed shut again. Feng Tan turned around and saw Xiao Yinshi and Wei Shengxian stride in. The two had just finished their shift, as they were still wearing their official robes. Xiao Yinshi wore a crimson brocade robe with gold-embroidered cloud and dragon patterns, which made him look like jade and incomparably handsome.
Wei Shengxian, still dressed in his flamboyant flying fish robe and carrying an embroidered spring knife, looked at Feng Tan's blood-stained clothes and weak appearance and laughed, "Tsk tsk tsk, why is Lord Feng in such a sorry state today?"
He was just asking a question he already knew the answer to. The emperor was the one who ordered the execution, and the executioners were the Embroidered Uniform Guards. As the highest commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guards, Wei Shengxian couldn't possibly be unaware of this.
Feng Tan glanced at him, her face expressionless, and said, "Does Lord Wei Sheng know what he resembles?"
Wei Shengxian became interested and asked, "What does it look like?"
Feng Tan, with her kind and innocent gaze, said, "Moldy grapes."
Wei Shengxian's interest grew even stronger, and he asked again, "What does that mean?"
Feng Tan didn't answer, so Wei Shengxian turned to Xiao Yinshi and asked, "What's the purpose of this minor official you summoned?"
Xiao Yinshi's cold and stern expression remained unchanged. His gaze casually fell on Feng Tan, and it was unclear whether he was referring to Wei Shengxian or Feng Tan, but he said, "You're full of bad ideas."
A note from the author:
My darlings, little red envelopes will be dropping in the comments section of this chapter!
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