The Sage, the Swordsman and the Scholars

by Pierre Dimaculangan

  The battle began with the unexpected entrance of Big Bang who, with a war cry, fired a mortar onto the Jinyiwei. He shouted and cursed at them.

  “Take that, you accursed traitors!” he screamed. The first battle of the Ming’s first civil war was taking place within the emperor’s very own palace. Swords, shields, and polearms clashed as the highly skilled combatants on both sides battled to the death. Lu Guanying and the remaining Martial Scholars joined the fray. Government officials, clerks, and other eunuchs who have not been charged with a crime scrambled in different directions to take cover in the nearby structures and offices.

  The battle lasted many minutes without either side gaining a decisive foothold over the other. At last, when the timing was most crucial, Big Bang tossed several powerful explosives into the side of the traitors. Bodies flew in every direction and leaving many others disoriented or paralyzed. Big Bang’s attacks consequently turned the tide of the battle in favor of the Scholars. After the Jinyiwei had surrendered or fled, the guilty parties were seized from escape as the Academicians and the loyal Capital Palace Guards secured the victory for the emperor. Liu Jin and his seven accomplices including many scheming officials however, had slipped past their grasp and immediately made their way out of the palace and mounted up in haste to their new masters the Pale Foreigners elsewhere outside the city. The victorious Scholars then imprisoned the survivors and the defeated Jinyiwei into the lowest dungeons then proceeded to secure the entire Forbidden City.

  The Scholars and their Academicians were now officially the emperor’s new trusted advisors, protectors, and attendants. Those loyal men working within the palace expressed their gratitude and great relief for what had transpired. It was most unfortunate however, that the vast majority of the government’s secret police force had seceded to the enemy or had long since disappeared into hiding.

  The Terukk were most cunning indeed, being sure to win over the emperor’s trusted officers of the Depots and secret police to their devious agenda. No bother. The Martial Scholars and Hanlin Academicians more than sufficed to fill the gap left behind by the Jinyiwei and the traitorous officials. Unlike their traitorous counterparts, the Academicians were highly educated and intelligent in more than just warfare. Each of the initiated would have passed the Imperial Examinations to the highest degree so the emperor was far better off under the protection of the Martial Academicians despite being much fewer.

  “Many of us here knew what was happening behind the walls and closed doors of the palace. We did not know whom to trust and where each of us stood. The Foreigners are extremely clever and would have most surely brought death and ruin to us all,” the remaining palace officials expressed to the League and the emperor.

  “We commend you, brothers, for what you have accomplished for the emperor and the Ming Empire!” The Hongzhi Emperor sat upon his throne still clearly distressed and bereaved. He grieved not only for his administration, but for the utter betrayal he and all the people suffered. He was nonetheless grateful to the Scholars and Academicians for what they had done though he expressed mixed emotions concerning the existence of the League from Guangzhou and the brotherhood they had forged with their Academician warriors.

  The Middle Kingdom had just declared war on the Terukk and the Scholars would do all in their power to fight alongside the Emperor to protect the nation. Censors Zhou Liang and Wei Qiuyuan were found in a pit beneath the Jinyiwei headquarters starved, tortured, and near death. They were transported to the palace for recovery and rehabilitation. Chancellor of the Hanlin Academy Wu Chan approached the Emperor and assured him saying,

  “As Chancellor of Hanlin, good Emperor, I am able to ensure that the palace and the central government are in the most capable hands and minds. All the key Scholars of both Academies are not only masters of the civil service examinations, but polymaths, men and women of superior skills and intellect most qualified for aiding the emperor in the management of the government and the strategizing of war.” The Emperor gazed at him without blinking an eye. “Of Hanlin I know this to be true but then little did I know of the true extent of neither its capability nor the number of the initiated within your inner circles. What is of great bother to my already-anguished mind, however, is the discovery of yet another order— a League of Scholars that has existed beneath my sight and the sight of my fathers’ whilst operating freely with a hidden army outside the parameters of the government for many years. The existence of such a secret society that occupies itself with campaigns that belong to the government alone is punishable by death. You as well, Chancellor, are not innocent of this withheld knowledge,” said the Emperor seemingly testing the response of Wu Chan.

  “Your Excellency, the League at Guangzhou is but an association of professionals, the wealthy, and highly educated. They aim not to defy the authority of your government by working behind it, but rather take action in favor of the empire and its emperor for the preservation of the culture of the Middle Kingdom and the protection of the commoners from outlaws and rebels throughout the provinces. Their services are but great gifts to your very throne and the thrones of those who came before you. They exist in secret only so that their actions would be swift and to be of great effect as they are able to bypass what they would deem are bothersome, time-consuming politics. In fact, I should add that it was through their work that the Wo pirates of Riben have been kept at bay and rebels in the outlying regions have been subdued. Their actions are selfless and rarely do they ever receive reward for their work. They will prove to be more capable and trustworthy than the traitors we had just eradicated. Their services would be invaluable for our campaigns against the Pale Ones,” assured Wu Chan.

  “Your words will be taken to consideration. Other pressing matters require my attention for the time being. I will deal with the League of Martial Scholars and decide their fate after this is ordeal with the Terukk is over,” answered the emperor.

  He was compelled to agree with Wu Chan’s justifications on behalf of the League of Scholars. He had little choice but to accept their aid. They had, after all, saved his administration from the destructive corruption and betrayal of the powerful eunuchs and their puppet officials. Now, he needed the Scholars to free the Middle Kingdom from the bonds of the deceitful and cunning Terukk. A dozen members of the Scholars from Beijing and Guangzhou took their seats within the ministries and conducted their duties according to court tradition and laws. Wu Chan and Lu Guanying were now the emperor’s closest advisors.

  ****

  The evening after the battle within the Forbidden City, Big Bang and a strike team of Martial Academicians with a light detachment of imperial troops led an attack to destroy the Terukk outpost which stood not far outside the walls of the capital. The Terukk leadership had already fled the premises before the team arrived leaving only handfuls of Jinyiwei defectors dressed in Terukk uniforms to defend the compound and encampment. Resistance was minimal and all defectors within the secret police who defended it were eliminated. By dawn, what was left of the Terukk outposts were but rubble, splinters, and ash. The compound had already been emptied of its supplies and materials leaving nothing for the Scholars to investigate. The great conflict of their age had officially begun. Much blood would be spilt and in the mind of Lu Guanying, he aimed to make most of that blood from the Terukk themselves.

  The emperor and the Scholars had to act swiftly. The Terukk were just beginning to leave their mark upon the Ming Empire and would no doubt be infuriated at the unexpected turn of events that have reversed the tide against them in the Middle Kingdom. The rise and the defiance of the Scholars were unforeseen and greatly unexpected by the corrupted eunuchs and the Terukk. The true extent of their capabilities had finally been revealed and with one swift act, the pale devils have become unwanted guests. Through the efforts of the new government, every province along the coast would have the alien visitors expelled and destroyed by the command of the Hongzhi Emperor. In the following weeks, an imperial decree then sprea
d across the governments across the provinces and prefectures, commanding all righteous magistrates, grand coordinators, governors, and prefects to cease all diplomatic relations and treaties with the Terukk. All Pale Foreigners were to leave at once never to return should they face the full military might of the Ming Empire. All their structures and settlements were to be dismantled or be destroyed. Thousands once loyal to the Jinyiwei fled to unknown regions of the empire and stayed low among the ranks of the Underworld only to regroup elsewhere, ready to finish what the foreigners had started.

  The emperor and the Scholars knew this task would not be so easy and neither would every one of the government officials, guards, and soldiers, across the empire remain loyal to the throne. Their defecting would have unforeseen and inevitable consequences as their knowledge of the empire’s strengths and weaknesses were now at the disposal of the Terukk. This did not dismay the capital as the emperor and his new administration were more determined than ever before to rid the foreign scum from their shores and their seas. The attack led by Big Bang and the Academicians were similarly repeated by the provinces on many other Terukk outposts in the major cities and towns along the eastern and southern provinces. The strikes were led by loyal and capable military officers whom the Terukk had not yet had the opportunity to corrupt. So it was with the angered Terukk who did not take kindly to these new actions and changes.

  Therefore, they sought to defend their right to stay in the Middle Kingdom based on their self-imposed feelings of superiority over the people in as much the same way a master was to his slave. Many of their ships were anchored in the island of Dayuen and south of the Yellow Sea. Their eunuch puppets rallied many from within and from abroad, a force one hundred thousand strong. Within a fortnight, defected Jinyiwei officers, slaves, and defected Nuzhen and Menggu horse warriors from the fringes of the steppe all assembled under the command the enemy. They established several outposts and one major encampment on the Peninsula of Liaodong. The Terukk regrouped along the northeastern coastlines and in the waters of the Gulf of Beizhili within reach of the most eastern border garrison of the Great Wall in an attempt to stand their ground and perhaps take back the capital. The bulk of the Terukk forces had retreated to island kingdoms south of Dayuen Island leaving their new minions, some so-called “mages”, and a few dozen of their commanders to deal with the fighting in the Ming Empire. No longer were the defected Jinyiwei officers clad in the uniforms of the Imperial Police.

  All such reports and more were gathered together by the court through the aid of the Martial Scholars, Hanlin, and all the Academicians working in tandem with the bureaucracy.

  “They are likely to start with a hasty invasion from the North and the burning of the Forbidden City palace. Their true colors have finally been revealed to all the Ming people who at first looked upon the Terukk with great curiosity and esteem. In the recent weeks and days, several fierce and isolated clashes between government troops and the forces of the initial Terukk occupation have already been reported to have occurred in Guangzhou, Nanjing, and in several townships in the south and in the east during the Terukk oustings. Many of their districts have been left smoldering in ruins or ashes. The expelled Terukk now regroup with their kin who have taken to the seas and along the shores of the Penghu Islands off the coast of the island the natives called Dayuen, in the archipelago kingdoms to the south, and in coastlines of the neighboring sister nation of Joseon in the northeast. They too have begun to resist the Pale Foreigners not long after the Ming’s expulsion of them,” reported the Scholars to the emperor.

  But for how long would they be able to resist?

  “These are an unexpected turn of events for the Terukk. All that we have done is simply cause them to prematurely initiate the second stage of their grander plan— and that is war,” said Shang Jian. “What they have been unable to accomplish with the use of deceitful diplomacy and politics they shall achieve with force.”

  ****

  The sun arced and neared its dip into the horizon when Sun Xin had been sitting in meditation under a small pavilion overlooking his master’s estate. His mind still grew clouded and restless. The rains had just about come to a complete stop and through the mist and drizzle, the afternoon sunshine bathed the wealthy village in golden rays as if to signal the end of his time in quiet solitude. Meiling approached him from behind holding a parasol and a tray of hot tea, her dress gently swaying in the breeze. Xin opened his eyes and stood from his stiff seated position and turned to face her.

  “It’s a pleasure to see you before all other things, Meiling,” said Xin as he emerged from meditation with a slight smile in his eyes. She blushed and although she tried to hide it, it pleased Xin to see her still fond of him. They sat together as the smile on Xin’s face faded into a solemn reminiscing. “My deeds and accomplishments through all these years have not left me fulfilled or any closer to finding peace. I have absolutely no sense of my destiny, Meiling,” confessed Sun Xin humbly. “Though I have done much, my deeds have achieved the very opposite of what I have intended. Where one would expect a decrease in criminality and corruption, I instead find a significant resurgence of darkness as if in retaliation to what I have done.”

  Meiling sat and listened intently as Xin continued to pour his thoughts and inner disturbances.

  “I am continually haunted by the lives I have taken. They haunt me in my thoughts and in my dreams, as if slaying them was a much greater injustice than their crimes. I do not understand it. It makes no sense. Seven years ago, after a prolonged manhunt I had finally tracked down one of the Ming’s largest crime lords. After I had slain his companions, I pursued him across the province and tracked him down to his large estate, which I knew was acquired by ill means. When I had finally landed the killing blow, I saw a woman and a young boy glaring at me in horror at what they had just witnessed,” Xin said as his face writhed with the memory. “He held documents in his hand granting him full pardon for his crimes in exchange of the services and charities he offered for the local and imperial governments. I had read through them, smearing the blood blotting out the letter proving that he was transitioning to legitimate and lawful enterprise… for the sake of his family. Right before the eyes of his family I killed a man who sought reform.” Xin and Meiling kept silent for several moments as they absorbed the depressing story. “Now that I think about it, he tried to tell me he was a changed man, but I denied him that chance.” He closed his eyes and turned away feeling remorse for what he had done. “Now his son has grown much in the past several years and has rallied his father’s allies to hunt me. I cannot blame him and I cannot find it in myself to confront the boy. I have spent most of this past year trying to elude them”. Meiling summoned the courage to tell Xin what she thought.

  “Perhaps it is time that you put your sword to rest from these sorts of contracts. Truth and reality are often times far more complex than we realize and the permanence of our actions produce finality we can never retract. A peaceful life is nothing to be looked down upon,” she counseled Xin.

  “I am ill at ease knowing my skills are put to no use,” he said.

  “The skill and strength of a swordsman goes far beyond mere fighting, Xin,” she preached.

  “In the journey that is life, the sword is but a tool used sparingly and with extreme discretion; it is not a measuring rod for judgment.” These words left a mark in Sun Xin’s heart and mind as he lightly smiled and nodded to her words.

  Meiling had become wise as much as she had grown fair. An honorable and principled young woman was she, far from the playful and mischievous girl she was ten years ago.

  “Your reminders have humbled me, ‘Ling,” whispered Xin. Together under that pavilion they had tea while Xin continued to speak of his travels and adventures throughout the provinces, to the lands across the sea, and to the kingdoms beyond the deserts of the west. Upon searching for Master Lo he was told that he had left for some time to attend to certain personal matters of particular imp
ortance far away from the village. No one was certain as to where he had gone or matter it was that he had to attend. The estate and the woodshop business were left in the care of Meiling and the workers, so there Sun Xin took up the work alongside them just as he did during the days of his youth. For the first time in a long time, Sun Xin felt at peace and a sense of belonging he had not felt since the day he allied himself with the League of Scholars. He wondered however, what they were doing at that moment.

  ****

  News of these drastic and world-changing events have finally reached the ears of Sun Xin who had all that time been working and staying in his master’s woodshop alongside Lo Meiling, his master’s daughter for the past few weeks.

  “Have you seen the notice board’s announcements in town? It appears my comrades in the League of Martial Scholars have been busy in my absence,” Sun Xin said to Meiling. “I feel I have abandoned them as well. It’s time I go back to them in the capital to give my support.”