Chapter Thirty-Five: Lu Xiang Sheng

  These days, outside the city is where the bandits and Ming army are fighting, while inside the city is where the civil officials group is fighting against Emperor Chongzhen.

  Outside the city is not to mention, the focus of the struggle within the city is the handling of the corrupt officials in the case of the city wall.

  That day, Emperor Chongzhen unilaterally left the scene, leaving the Wen ministers very helpless, but they did not give up. First, five cabinet ministers jointly petitioned: The punishment of Gongbu Ge Shizhong Wangdu and Yu Shi Gao Bingming was too severe. He had read books for a lifetime, and it was difficult to get an official position, but because of the lack of supervision, he lost his official position, which did not attach importance to scholars.

  The Chongzhen Emperor detained the memorial.

  Then, some officials asked questions as soon as they met, and some even wrote memorials again, and even instigated some censors to participate.

  The Chongzhen Emperor was extremely angry and firmly stated that the decision on punishment would not change.

  Well, the officials retreated a step and said that when Zhang Fengxiang, the Minister of Works, took office, the city walls had basically been repaired, and he was not aware of the corruption, so he should be released without guilt.

  The Emperor said that the punishment of the Ministry of Works was given to Wang Du, and the verdict of the Censor-in-Chief Gao Bing was firm and unchanging. There's no problem, we've made concessions. Now, dealing with the Minister of Works, the Emperor must give some face, right? Many officials went up and bombarded him, and Chongzhen Emperor couldn't resist, so he had to release Zhang Fengxiang and let him resume his original position.

  You say these words, the minister is making trouble, all this is for what, it's just to let Emperor Chongzhen stop investigating the corruption case of this city wall, focus the struggle on this, make a fuss, and then close the case.

  The enemy retreated not long ago. In the afternoon, the gloomy weather was clearing up, and a winter sun appeared in the sky, trying hard to bring warmth to the world.

  In the east of Beijing, a troop came over. It was strange that this troop had soldiers wearing crimson mandarin duck jackets, civilians in green clothes, and some people dressed as yamen runners. The team was also disorganized, with those in front already stopped, while those behind were still pushing forward, accompanied by various shouts, including inquiries and rebukes, which were endless.

  At the very front of the team, there was a burly man riding on horseback, wearing a crimson official robe with cloud and wild goose embroidery. He listened to several servants dressed as family members reporting: "Master Futaixi, I have clearly investigated in the capital city. The Jianyou army has just retreated and passed through Tongzhou. The capital is safe, but General Ma Guangyuan, who led the loyalist armies from all over the country, died for the country this morning."

  The commander-in-chief died in battle, it can be imagined how fierce the battle of the capital was. The prefectural magistrate who led the way frowned and said: "I didn't expect that I, Lu Xiangsheng, still came a step late and missed this battle."

  On the other side, the deputy envoy was concurrently serving as a vice-envoy of the Surveillance Commissioner's office. Since Lu Xiangsheng had a higher rank, he felt relieved in his heart and thought to himself that he hadn't caught up with Jianchu after all. Although he didn't say it out loud, he flattered Lu Xiangsheng on the side: "I suppose Jianchu knew about the governor's mighty prestige and heard that a great man with the bravery of ten thousand men was coming, so he ran away in fright."

  Lu Xiangsheng gave him a glance, ignoring him. If he hadn't been dragging his feet and hesitating, they would have already assembled the soldiers and militiamen and might even have made it to the Battle of Beijing to defend the capital and share some of the Emperor's worries.

  At this time, the noise from behind grew louder and louder. Turning his head to take a look, he found that the long snake array of marching troops was almost turning into a crescent shape. He also sighed in his heart, and the temporarily assembled and pieced-together troops were really not reliable. They had to be reorganized when they had time, but for now, they should go to the capital to report first.

  Lu Xiangsheng thought for a moment, then let the servants riding horses beside him go to maintain order, line up and proceed, so as not to lose face in front of the mansion.

  Emperor Chongzhen was extremely busy during this period, on the one hand arguing with these civil officials, and on the other hand inquiring about the specific affairs of the defense war in the capital, fearing that another incident of generals fleeing would occur. As soon as the defense war was over, he had to comfort the wounded soldiers, especially worrying about the comfort problem of generals such as Ma Gui.

  This time in the defense of the capital, Wen Chen did not have a brilliant performance, but instead exposed cases of corruption and greed, and was reprimanded by the emperor for several days.

  The ministers also felt the change in Chongzhen Emperor's attitude towards them during these days, from previous trust and obedience to suspicion and inquiry. So they have been thinking about how to regain their impression in the emperor's mind.

  It just so happened that when the statistics of the loyalist army were being compiled, a civil official was also found to be leading troops to support the emperor. This fist-fist loyalty to the monarch is worthy of being held up as an example and can also take advantage of the opportunity to improve relations with the emperor. Lu Xiangsheng did not expect that he would be hit while lying down.

  When they presented the list of various loyalist armies to Emperor Chongzhen, they put Lu Xiang's name at the very front and specially marked that he was a prefect.

  The officials did not know that the name of Lu Xiangsheng had been recommended by Zhong Jingwei to Emperor Chongzhen several months ago. Given the excellent recommendation effect of Zhong Jingwei, even if Lu Xiangsheng's name was put at the end of the list, as long as Emperor Chongzhen saw it, he would take it very seriously.

  The result was very natural, as soon as Emperor Chongzhen saw the three words "Lu Xiangsheng", he immediately thought of Zhong Jingwei's recommendation and remembered Wang Chengen's report on Lu Xiangsheng's information. Indeed, he is a loyal minister! With the body of a literary minister, he took the initiative to lead soldiers to rescue the emperor. This courage, I'm afraid ordinary generals do not possess.

  Chongzhen Emperor was very curious about what kind of person Lu Xiangsheng was and immediately summoned him to an audience.

  Lu Xiangsheng was then handing over the grain, fodder and silver for the loyalist army. As a fellow civil official, he only deducted one-tenth of it. He knew this unwritten rule but had no power to resist the entire civil official clique, so he could only accept it.

  Suddenly found that the silver ingots all had the words "Silver Bureau" printed on them, and couldn't help but feel a little strange - how did these silver ingots come to be cast by the Imperial Silver Bureau?

  He then asked the person distributing the allowance: "Why does this silver come from the Silver Making Bureau?"

  The person in charge of distributing the salary was a chief officer from the Ministry of War. If it were those military generals who asked, he wouldn't care whether they wanted it or not. But now the one asking was an official from the civil service system, and still the Prefect himself, his own superior. He said: "This is silver from the Imperial Palace." Looking around as if no one was paying attention, he lowered his voice and whispered to Lu Xiangsheng: "It's said that His Majesty ordered the Silver Bureau to melt some of the silverware in the palace, which is why there are these three characters."

  Lu Xiangsheng listened and remained silent. The imperial court was actually so destitute, a sad feeling rose in his heart. How difficult is the situation of His Majesty!

  The Ministry of War's chief told Lu Xiangsheng, wanting to gossip and laugh together, but seeing that Lu didn't cooperate, he felt it was no fun and ignored him, busy with his own affairs.

  After receiving the imperial summons from Emperor Chongzhen, Lu Xiangsheng tidied up his attire and made sure everything was in order before going to pay homage.

  Chongzhen Emperor summoned Lu Xiangsheng to the platform, and as soon as he saw him, he was deeply impressed. What a waste of words! A civil official, a scholar who had passed the imperial examination, yet wearing an air of a majestic military general - wouldn't anyone be deeply impressed?

  After Lu Xiang rose to his feet, Emperor Chongzhen smiled and said: "Someone had recommended you to me a long time ago, saying that you are loyal to the monarch and love the country, brave and powerful beyond ordinary people, and a pillar of the state. Today I see you, indeed it is true."

  Lu Xiangsheng was taken aback: If someone had recommended me for my clever thinking, divine judgment, and loving the people like a son, it would have been believable. But now they're recommending me for being bravely fierce! Who is this?

  The Chongzhen Emperor said: "I wonder if you can show me your two hands?"

  Lu Xiangsheng saw that the Chongzhen Emperor was very interested, and also did not want to disappoint the unknown recommender, so he agreed: "Whatever you command, I will do."

  It's pleasant to hear, and Emperor Chongzhen's favorability towards Lu Xiangsheng rose sharply.

  "I apologize for the rudeness." Lu Xiangsheng said, adjusting his court attire to facilitate movement. He looked around and then asked Emperor Chongzhen, "Your Majesty, may I have a weapon?"

  The embroidered uniform guard standing on one side brought a nine-pronged fork with the permission of Emperor Chongzhen. Lu Xiangsheng said, "Your Majesty, I am not good at using forks. Please grant me another one."

  Then he brought another halberd, Lu Xiangsheng took it and tried it, saying: "Your Majesty, this one is too light, can we change to a heavier one?"

  Lu Xiangsheng changed into a heavy butcher knife weighing over 40 kilograms and weighed it again, saying it was still too light.

  Chongzhen Emperor laughed and said, "Isn't this just like that Sun Monkey going to the Dragon Palace to get the Golden Hoop Rod? It's a good thing I have a treasure here too." He then ordered, "Bring me the Qinglong Yan Yue Dao forged by my predecessor."

  Lu Xiangsheng's heart itched upon hearing this, because the weapon he was most skilled with was precisely the reclining moon knife.

  This time it was the palace attendant who went to fetch it. Lu Xiangsheng took one look at the palace attendant struggling to hold up the guandao, and his heart felt a sense of beauty. He took it over and weighed it in his hands, finding the weight just right, and the entire body of the sword was a deep black color, simple and unadorned, but the blade was extremely sharp.

  The Chongzhen Emperor saw Lu Xiangsheng examining the weapons and smiled as he introduced: "This was made by the best blacksmith during the previous emperor's reign, who listened to stories of the Three Kingdoms. It is a replica of the legendary Qinglong Yanyue Dao, forged from the finest steel, weighing 82 catties."

  Lu Xiangsheng danced with joy, his heart itching with excitement, and said to Emperor Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, I will go down and dance a few steps, please watch me."

  The Chongzhen Emperor's youthful temperament is naturally no problem.

  Lu Xiangsheng arrived at the arena, stood still for a moment, and then began his performance: every move was either an attack or a defense, with offense hidden within defense, and both offense and defense combined. His footwork and knife techniques were swift and fierce, his movements powerful and bold, his blocks and advances unstoppable. The unique characteristics of the Detached Moon Knife technique - sweeping, chopping, hacking, throwing, slicing, wiping, cleaving, thrusting, and slashing - were all displayed to perfection.

  The Chongzhen Emperor watched from the platform and applauded repeatedly, truly a fierce scholar-general!

  Lu Xiangsheng finished a set of knife techniques and returned to the stage to meet Emperor Chongzhen, his complexion unchanged, not panting.

  Chongzhen Emperor suddenly praised, making Lu Xiangsheng humble and unable to be humble. He also saw Lu Xiangsheng's fondness for this replica of the Qinglong Yan Yue knife and rewarded it to him without hesitation.

  Lu Xiangsheng knelt down to thank him, then raised his head and said: "Your Majesty, I know that Your Majesty's situation is very difficult, the grain supply is hard to continue, I should use this knife to fight bravely against the enemy, and soon eliminate the bandits, and bring peace to the world."

  Chongzhen Emperor listened and calmed down from the excitement earlier, remembering that Zhong Jinwei had recommended Lu Xiangsheng to replace Mao Wenlong in governing Dongjiang Town. He nodded: "Good, your loyalty and bravery are already known to me. After this matter is settled, I will dispatch you to kill the bandits in Jian."

  Thus, the monarch and his ministers all dispersed with joy.

  Chongzhen Emperor thought of Zhong Xian and decided to go see him.

  Zhong Jinwei is slowly walking in circles inside the hall with the support of Qi, his body has gradually recovered. Emperor Chongzhen came over and saw that Zhong Jinwei could walk around, he also felt happy. After comforting him, he let everyone else leave the hall.

  Chongzhen Emperor enjoyed chatting with Zhong Jingwei, and every time they chatted, he gained a lot and felt very happy and relaxed. Others didn't have this feeling. He said to Zhong Jingwei: "I just met Lu Xiangsheng. Not bad, Mr. Zhong's recommended people, I'm all satisfied."

  Zhong Jinwei heard, oh, a big celebrity has been here, don't know if it's the same as described in history books. So he asked Emperor Chongzhen if he could go see what Lu Xiangsheng was like.

  Chongzhen Emperor listened to Zhong Jinwei's words and couldn't help but think that Zhong Jinwei had been in this world for so long, always staying in the palace without going out. This was not a solution in the long run. Moreover, Zhong Jinwei's wedding was approaching, and it was time to make arrangements.

  Then the Chongzhen Emperor began to consider how to arrange for Zhong Xian, which was a problem!

  In response to the requests of friends from Migu Youxia, Xia Ri's Xun Feng, Shen Dao Shi Jie and Tieba, I will update an extra chapter today, which should be after work. Thank you for your support of this book! Also, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank those friends who have given many suggestions on the book, thank you!