Surviving in the General's Mansion - Chapter 23: Thorough Investigation

Chapter 23: Thorough Investigation

Dongfang Wei sat upon the dragon throne, his gaze passing over the crowd to settle on the rain-drenched ground outside the palace hall.

The hall was filled with kneeling officials. Only a scant few remained standing.

The atmosphere in court was stretched taut. The Minister of Revenue and the Vice Minister of Revenue were both prostrated flat against the floor, and beside them were the officials from the Ministry of Justice and Dali Temple.

Several grand secretaries trembled where they stood, not daring to make a sound for fear of provoking imperial wrath.

As for the reason, it was the malicious withholding of supplies from the Zhenbei Army.

At the beginning of spring this year, the Tujue had invaded the northern border.

Not long after the harsh winter had passed, Young General Cang had led the Zhenbei Army under his command to the northern front, suppressing the Tujue and restoring order to Yongcheng.

Cang Chuli had been nearly invincible in battle. In just over half a year, he had beaten the northern Tujue so thoroughly they no longer dared to show their heads. If the south had not recently suffered a disaster and the national treasury had not been rather depleted, given a little more time, he might even have taken the Tujue royal court.

Yet this undefeated army had actually had its grain and fodder cut off in the later stages of the campaign-for three whole months! The entire war had only lasted a little more than half a year!

Even Grand Secretary Li could not help sighing over it.

For those three months, Cang Chuli had led the soldiers under him in digging up wild vegetables. Later, when the weather turned cold and there were no wild vegetables left, they caught fish.

He had even heard that toward the end, they had eaten elm-bark flour. They had only managed to return alive by capturing the Tujue granaries on the other side and relying on donations of grain from merchants and commoners.

On the day he had returned, that young face had been so thin that when he stood in court, it made the several officials who were already plump on ordinary days look even more bloated and piggish.

Grand Secretary Li had also heard that as soon as this man returned to the capital, he had killed several women sent to his residence.

Grand Secretary Li thought that if it had been him, he would have killed them too. He had nearly starved to death on the front lines, and after finally making it back, these people in court still dared to stuff women into his household?

Even two pigs would have been better!

Grand Secretary Li looked at the young man known as the God of War, sighed inwardly, then stepped forward and submitted his petition.

“Emperor, this matter must indeed be investigated thoroughly. To have supplies cut off by one’s own people while fighting a war-if there is no proper accounting for this, the hundreds of thousands of soldiers of Huaxia will not be able to rest easy!”

“Grand Secretary Li is correct, but has the Ministry of Revenue not already found the cause?”

Cang Chuli did not even turn his head.

“Left Prime Minister, that statement is mistaken.”

Grand Secretary Li stood ramrod straight.

“Rations for ten thousand men and their horses-the grain was clearly allocated, yet the soldiers of Zhenbei never received it. Where, exactly, did the problem arise?

“The Minister of Revenue claims that he feared mishaps on the road, and therefore arranged the dispatches in batches.

“Then why does the Ministry of Revenue’s allocation order state that the grain was to be dispatched all at once? And to this day, the Ministry of Revenue’s account books still do not match the actual quantity of grain. So this is how chaotic one of the Six Ministries truly is?”

“There are things Grand Secretary Li does not know. My Ministry of Revenue oversees allocations and taxation throughout Huaxia. Recently, with the autumn harvest as well, there have truly been too many matters to handle.”

If Xia Heng had been here, she would have realized this was nothing other than the modern art of passing the buck.

“Every person in my Ministry of Revenue is doing the work of ten. The allocation for the Zhenbei Army was indeed handled by Mu Yan, and this man has already been interrogated. It was indeed his personal oversight.”

“This official knows he failed in supervision and allowed the Zhenbei Army to suffer injustice. I beg the Emperor to punish me!”

“I beg the Emperor to punish me!” The Vice Minister of Revenue immediately followed his superior in kowtowing.

“My soldiers of Zhenbei went hungry for three months. The lives lost cannot be brushed aside with a single phrase like ‘suffered injustice.'”

Cang Chuli finally spoke, each word ringing with force.

“One hundred thousand soldiers of the Zhenbei Army fought against an army of one hundred and fifty thousand Tujue.

“This time, they did not come simply to seize grain and people.

“Before I had even arrived at Yongcheng, Huyan Dan had already massacred three villages.

“The adult men were taken away as prisoners.

“The infants, women, and children all died miserable deaths. Tujue soldiers speared their corpses on long poles and hung them from rooftops as a show of force!

“What they wanted was the land of Huaxia!”

Cang Chuli walked to the Minister of Revenue’s side.

“When I first arrived at Yongcheng, I spent three days burying those people.
All of Yongcheng was draped in white. Every household had dead to mourn.

The Zhenbei Army had fought on battlefields for years, yet even they had never seen such misery.

“A child only seven or eight years old knelt before me in the road and asked if he could join the army to avenge his sister!”

The Minister of Revenue shuddered violently at those final words.

“Three thousand elites of the Zhenbei Army lay in ambush beside the river channel at Dacang Mountain for five days and four nights. In the end, they wiped out eight thousand Tujue soldiers!

“They won against greater numbers, but their casualties were devastating. And that is not even mentioning how there was not a single unbitten patch left on their bodies after the poisonous insects got to them.

“Such a force returned victorious, yet I could not even give them one half-decent meal!?

“For our wounded soldiers, one bowl of medicine had to be shared between two men. Even the dregs had to be boiled again and again, four times over.

“Though they were far thinner and weaker than the Tujue across from them, they have never lost a single battle!

“They were so gaunt that the common people at the border could no longer bear to watch. Every household pooled what grain they could spare.

“Men and women alike carried grain to the barracks, all so we would not abandon Yongcheng, so we would protect their homes!”

Many in court, led by Grand Secretary Li, raised their sleeves to cover their faces and silently wiped away tears.

“I had never imagined that when there was a lull in battle, the army would not be resting, but would instead be digging wild vegetables all over the mountains, stripping elm bark, going down to the river to catch fish! We even dug up Guanyin clay!

“We did these things not to cultivate our bodies and minds, but so we could fill our stomachs!

“Minister! May I ask whether you have ever tasted wild vegetables or tree bark?

“This is not a little grievance we suffered. This is murder!

“The Zhenbei Army is risking everything on the front lines to drive the Tujue out of Huaxia! Yet behind our backs, you want our lives?”

The hall fell silent. No one dared answer Cang Chuli’s question.

Cang Chuli knelt and kowtowed.

“Emperor, the hundred thousand soldiers of the Zhenbei Army are willing to die on the battlefield for Huaxia, to have our bodies wrapped in horsehide and returned home.

“We can also expand the borders and be buried in foreign soil. But we absolutely cannot, and will never allow ourselves to, starve to death at the hands of our own people because of something like logistics!”

“A mere internal clerk in charge of grain at the Ministry of Revenue secretly withheld the provisions for an army of one hundred thousand? Who gave him the courage and the authority?

“The allocation of grain involves every level, from accounting to dispatch, loading, and escort.

“Which step is decided by one man alone?”

“But…”

Cold sweat poured down the Vice Minister of Revenue’s back. Before he could finish, Cang Chuli cut him off.

“It does not matter if you cannot find the numbers. As it happens, I found the total amount of grain allocated to the Zhenbei Army,

“along with the official approval bearing the Minister’s great seal.

“As for the laborers who loaded and escorted the grain, although they have already left the Ministry of Revenue, by a fortunate coincidence, one of them turned out to be from the same hometown as my deputy general. He has already been taken into custody. If there are any questions, one interrogation will make everything clear.

“Before that, should you not first explain why the Zhenbei Army’s provisions were cut down to only half their allotted amount, and why the grain that should have been delivered to Yongcheng was instead escorted all the way to the Southern Frontier?”

“The Southern Frontier? There is no war in the Southern Frontier this time. What was the grain sent there for? Zhao Fan! Are you people trying to rebel?”

Dongfang Wei was furious. He flung the memorial in his hand down before the Minister of Revenue.

Zhao Fan went limp all over and collapsed straight onto the floor. The Vice Minister of Revenue also looked up at Cang Chuli in shock, his face filled with disbelief.

How could he know!?

“Investigate! Investigate this thoroughly for me! I want to see exactly what the people managing my granaries have been doing!? Chief Justice of the Court of Judicial Review!”

“This subject is here!”

“This case is yours to investigate. The General of the Northern Pacification will oversee it. I permit you to mobilize the Jinyiwei. Investigate this matter until every detail is laid bare! Use the mastermind’s blood to honor the banner of my Zhenbei Army!”

“This subject obeys the decree!”

“This subject obeys the decree!”

Cang Chuli and the Chief Justice of the Court of Judicial Review answered.

The group of grand secretaries, led by Grand Secretary Li, all knelt in unison. “The Emperor is wise!”

The Minister of Revenue and the Vice Minister of Revenue trembled as they cast covert glances toward Cheng Zhesong.

But they saw him kneeling with everyone else, loudly declaring, “The Emperor is wise!” Their faces instantly turned as white as snow.