Chapter 40

On the gate-tower of the Great Liang palace's south gate, Chen Dasheng had sat quietly two days. He sat stock-still on the high platform, looking at the stone pillar beyond the south gate, and at the beast crouched atop it.

Today wasn't his watch. But he still rose at the fifth watch, came, said nothing, went straight up the tower, put on the mask the Emperor had given him, and sat without moving.

No one knew what was in his mind. But an uncommon man surely has uncommon thoughts.

So, except when someone came up to call him to meals, the rest of the time the guards only watched him from afar, with the awe you'd give a hero, and no one dared lightly disturb him.

Chen Dasheng sat high on the gate-tower, and his brothers, of course, squatted somewhere near. They were men who didn't care to talk. They didn't even speak to one another. They came up, looked over the spots, each chose a place, tucked into a corner, and went still. And the gate-guards, in no time at all, forgot the few of them clean out of their heads.

Only at meal-times, when Recorder Chen passed the corners, would they slowly stand, and only then would you remember: oh, there are six here too.

And then break out in a cold sweat.

These few were that frightening.

In truth the Long Saber Guard's duties weren't heavy. Only for the Emperor's ten-day grand court did they rise at the fourth watch and stand at the south gate until court let out.

As for the daily small courts, other guard garrisons took those turns. They had no need for such trifles.

From the day it was raised, the Long Saber Guard stood above all the other guard garrisons, for they were the only seven Gate Marquises of the founding of Great Liang, granted the right to eat from the cauldron, and beings of such a kind that people felt the honors given them were, if anything, too few.

Three hundred and eighty years of the old dynasty, and the Black Cavalry had ridden its iron warhorses to war on every side. How many foreign foes had it beaten, how many revolts put down, and who could have dreamed it would be foot-soldiers like these who wiped it, step by fleshly step, from the earth.

The Emperor's own troops had always fought fierce, and among them the old retainers brought out of the Yang house were matchless. Yet even Recorder Liu, himself a Yang retainer, said: they're not the same, not the same from head to foot, not the same breed at all, nothing to compare, nor can you compare it.

They'd all come off the battlefield through a hundred fights. Some men, at a glance across a li into the wind, know in their own hearts whether they can win. That was the kind of man who now stood at the south gate keeping the Emperor's door, and you could imagine the taste of it in the Tan house's mouth. That house kept saying: the Long Saber Guard is here! It's here!

Hmph! A Long Saber Battalion that's never seen blood, never had an edge, is it a Long Saber Battalion at all?

The Emperor, no doubt, had laughed to himself no end of times in secret.

Recorder Liu had told Chen Dasheng that the post of Gate Marquis, long, long ago, was a formidable thing. In those days the emperor granted a Gate Marquis two thousand dan of salary.

Now, though, a minister of about the third grade counted himself lucky to be granted two thousand. Blame it on Liang's being poor. Start small, and heap on the honors year by year, that's true favor!

The Long Saber Guard did have night duty, usually behind the Jinwu Guard, and at most it came to sleeping three nights a month in the palace, the Jinwu Guard, after all, ran to several hundred men.

The rest of the time, they'd appear at the great sacrifices, at New Year, at the winter solstice, oh, and when the Emperor went out on a tour. In short, whenever the Emperor left the palace, they went with the Jinwu Rear Guard's column. And all the other time, they did as they pleased and went where they pleased.

Idle to a shocking degree.

Recorder Liu had the watch today. He went to the back a while, then came ambling out from the rear hall, a few withered fruits in his hand, and behind him eight imperial guards, and among the guards a minister with a grey, dirt-smeared face.

One of the south gate's chief functions: here the Emperor had ministers beaten with the board. In the old dynasty they stripped the trousers and beat the bare backside. By the Emperor's grace, Great Liang beat a minister's aged rump with the underclothes left on.

Thanks for the sovereign's mercy! A benevolent policy, only the frequency was a touch high, and these days especially, with the Emperor's temper up, one was sent out every hour or two.

Below, the board went whack, whack. Recorder Liu ambled up the tower, and passing the corners, drew a little packet from his sleeve and tossed it over. It was a packet of dried fruit granted from the inner palace. When the consorts were pleased, they often bestowed food and drink, and sometimes silver too. The inner eunuchs got most, the guards little.

Ranked guards didn't take such gifts. A commissioned officer of the court, taking a consort's cash? Unseemly!

So Recorder Liu could only get the offerings that sharp-eyed guards brought him, a little something to sweeten the mouth. Not that he cared for the gifts. He was only glad his brothers thought of him when a good thing came their way.

Guan Si'er raised a hand, caught the packet, and grinned up at Recorder Liu: "Thanks, Lord Liu."

This was a thick-browed, big-eyed, likeable young brother, forward and curious, forever grinning at Recorder Liu, asking this and that like a back-court girl who'd never been past the second gate.

In the Long Saber Guard's thousand mu of waste ground, he was the one eager sprout, and Recorder Liu loved him like a treasure, forever teasing him a line or two.

Recorder Liu made a hurt face and pointed at him, complaining: "Si'er! You wound your brother's heart! Two days now, you've eaten how many of your brother's good things, and you can't even bring yourself to call me 'big brother' once? All my fondness wasted."

But even his complaining was sweet. These few didn't guard themselves against him, so he could sense them.

So he complained, but the corner of his eye slid smugly down to the foot of the tower.

The guards below were sick with envy, of course. To be able to joke with the Long Saber Guard! And on such easy terms! Truly, our Recorder Liu, glib on all eight sides, at home wherever he goes.

Guan Si'er grinned. Yes! He'd eaten no few of the man's things. But Big Brother was Big Brother. In a life there's only ever one lead saber, and on that, not even the Emperor would do.

Hearing that another man was being beaten, Chen Dasheng actually stood up.

A country boy, in the old days the sight of the village headman set his calves cramping. Now he could watch ministers beaten with the board every day. It was a marvelous thing to live through.

He caught a withered fruit Recorder Liu flung him out of the air, and, eating it, shifted round to lean on the inner tower-wall with Recorder Liu, gnawing fruit, watching the minister flogged.

The minister was thirty or forty, of decent bearing. Seeing a broad bench laid out, he loosened his belt of his own accord, took off his three-beam cap, his court robe, his under-robe, his lined jacket, his lined trousers, his black boots, and last, barefoot in a patched under-shirt, lay down on the broad bench.

He even nodded courteously left and right: "Trouble you, brothers. Go light, and I'll thank you well."

Then he set his teeth and buried his head.

Below, the board began to fall, whack, whack, and the minister began to howl, someone calling out, one, two, three!

And Chen Dasheng, up above with Recorder Liu, went crunch, crunch on the fruit.

Chewing, Recorder Liu said: "Brother, don't you look down on these few fruits, hmph! Never mind that this is Yanjing, even these dried-up little things with no juice, only the palace has them now. You could hold your money and find nowhere to buy them. These days, no telling when there'll be an end to it."

The last time Chen Dasheng ate fruit was back home. His house had an old jujube tree. Every year when it ripened, they'd hug their grandfather's leg and beg, till the pestered old man, out of patience, took up a pole and gave the tree a few knocks.

And even those few knocks had to be hidden from granny, or there'd be a fine scolding all round. Grandfather was afraid of her too.

Their jujubes were sweet. Each year's harvest filled several cloth-sacks, and hauled to the town, they'd fetch a good deal of salt to bring home.

Chen Dasheng ate the fruit down to the pit, and then, watching the minister below begging for the strokes to come slow, said: "That's a fifth-grade silver-pheasant."

Recorder Liu gave him a thumbs-up: "Good, brother, fine memory! You learn fast."

The guards had their lessons too, memorizing the ministers' rank-badges. First grade a crane, second a golden pheasant, third a peacock, fourth a wild goose. Martial officers wore beasts: first and second a lion, third and fourth a tiger or leopard.

Or you counted the ridges on the beam-caps: the Emperor nine, first grade seven, second six, third five.

With so many of them, no matter if you couldn't remember faces, get the rank-badge and the cap, and you'd not much offend.

The new dynasty was in great disorder now. From the Emperor down to the ministers, all wore the old dynasty's things. Because of the war, the ministers' court dress was patchwork too, one full set split and lent out among several, some in sacrificial robes, some in court robes, some with a paper-painted rank-badge just pasted onto the front of a plain gown. In short, the new dynasty had no craftsmen, and no tailor's shop in Yanjing was open.

The minister below took fifteen strokes in all, and the last few finally drew blood.

His beating done, he braced on the bench and stood, swaying, and put his court dress back on, piece by piece. Last, he fished a few bits of broken silver from his sleeve to give the guards.

The gesture told you at a glance he was an old-dynasty man. Our Emperor had never shorted the soldiers under him, and none of them had ever grown such a habit.

So the silver was refused, which left the old minister standing dumb a good while, before he braced his back, braced on the palace wall, and inched his way toward the west gate.

Three courts and five gates, east and west and south and north, every kind of man has his own place to go, his own gallery to walk.

The minister walked very slowly, but Chen Dasheng watched him all the way until he vanished.

Recorder Liu, rather curious, asked: "Brother? What are you looking at?"

Chen Dasheng thought a moment: "So the great lords wear patched clothes too."

Recorder Liu laughed: "Not so rare! Our Emperor, what a man! He uses this fellow, maybe, just because he wears patched clothes. Ai! Tell me, all the people of great Yanjing, how is it they don't know our Emperor's goodness? We've coaxed and coaxed, talked and talked, beaten the big gong and cried it through the wards and lanes all this while, heh! and still not a soul comes out to open shop. What are they thinking?"

Yes, what were they thinking? The Emperor so good, and why did a whole city of people keep their gates shut and stay in?

The city now held only the ruffians, the loafers, the wastrels, the drifters. And this was great Yanjing!

Recorder Liu chattered on: "My grandfather and the old Supreme Commander came to Yanjing in their day, and as a boy I heard the old man go on about it. He said Yanjing's inner city was twenty li across and the outer wall ran eighty. That was still a golden age. Some scholar even wrote in a book that this was the seat, generation on generation, of the great and noble houses, the emperor himself could be swapped out at will, but those old families were never swapped. In good times Yanjing held six or seven hundred thousand souls. Such splendor, such a stir."

At this Recorder Liu nudged Chen Dasheng with his elbow: "Know why that fellow just now got the board?"

Chen Dasheng, of course, did not.

Recorder Liu wasn't really asking. He said, smiling: "The man was back there giving the Emperor a piece of his mind, said that on the day we entered the city, we killed the old dynasty's noble houses too hard, and frightened the whole city into shutting their doors and hiding from disaster, not daring to earn a living. Hmph! A rash mouth, if not him, who to beat? Isn't that so?"

No one answered a good while. Recorder Liu turned his head, and saw Chen Dasheng, head down, feeling at that black raw-lacquer mask of his: a horn on the brow alone, only the two eyes showing, but the mouth all sharp fangs and cruel bite, truly a fierce thing.

Sensing Recorder Liu's look, Chen Dasheng held up the mask and asked: "What is this?"

The Emperor, last audience, hadn't had time to say.

Recorder Liu had endless patience. He said, smiling: "A horn on the head, a mighty face, this is a xiezhi, the justice-beast. Go round the Ministry of Justice one day and you'll see this holy beast everywhere."

Chen Dasheng didn't follow, and asked, puzzled: "Why the Ministry of Justice?"

Recorder Liu stroked his chin and thought a good while: "I've wondered myself. They say the xiezhi knows human speech and human nature, a great holy beast born knowing right from wrong, that's why it guards the Ministry of Justice. But then I thought further: the xiezhi has more virtues than that. It's mighty and fierce besides, and the moment it sees anyone false or disloyal, it punishes him on the spot.

"Maybe the Emperor wishes to be a just emperor, or, say, he sets you to hold the south gate meaning that by your loyalty you'll bar all evil spirits. Who knows? At any rate, it's a fine beast. Only, you've got one, so guard it well. Find a good craftsman one day and have a good pouch made for it. That little deer-hide is fine stuff, keep it inside and let it cure slow, and in a few years it'll shine like oil!"

Chen Dasheng stroked the mask in earnest, and after a while looked up at Recorder Liu: "I understand. From now on we're the Emperor's xiezhi, his alone! I see it!"

Then he clapped on the mask, turned, and went to sit up front.

At his words a rush of gooseflesh and cold sweat came over Recorder Liu.

He slapped his own head hard, and thought: yes! Truly, hit the nail on the head! That's just it, that simple.

The Emperor set the Long Saber Guard to be his human xiezhi. So from now on their justice would be this: whatever opposes the Emperor is evil, and must be rooted out.

As for the court, as for the law, those were nothing to them.

Look at that quickness of grasp.

Once Recorder Liu had it clear, he was truly both envious and admiring. A good while later he got up, went forward, sat down again by Chen Dasheng, and started to make up to him.

The honest truth, a few country boys, born bond-slaves. Once there'd been those who looked down on them. But now, truly, it was different.

He asked, smiling to please: "I say, brother, you've watched the beast two days, is there some meaning in it?"

Chen Dasheng blinked, and through the xiezhi mask looked at Recorder Liu: "Isn't that a lion?"

Recorder Liu near fell off the platform. He pointed at the beast: "You call that a lion?"

Chen Dasheng nodded, earnest.

Recorder Liu laughed to himself a while, then said: "This one is a holy beast too, but it's called the Emperor-Watcher. It has nothing to do with us. It watches over the Emperor alone. If the Emperor goes roaming about and neglects the court, it calls him back to see to his rule. Remember, this is a hou, not a lion!"

Chen Dasheng repeated it inwardly, remembered, and nodded his thanks: "Thank you, Brother Liu. I have it. A hou!"

"Mm! A hou! In this world, in the end no one is free. Look, our Supreme Commander is Emperor now, and still there's a hou set at his door to keep him in line. Tell me, if the thing were any use, why can't it jump down and go through the wards and markets and roar at every door, open up and trade! Then our Emperor could rest easy."

Recorder Liu rambled on, but Chen Dasheng said to him: "You said it yourself, it's a hou, and it roars only at our Emperor."

Chen Dasheng's voice broke off. Of a sudden he stood up.

Recorder Liu jumped, and stood too. He followed Chen Dasheng all the way to the wall, and along the palace wall a good stretch, before Chen Dasheng took off the mask, his face flushed red, and said: "Thank you, Brother Liu. I know what to do."

And with that he trotted off down the nearby wall-steps.

Guan Si'er and the rest stood to follow. But Chen Dasheng, his back to them, waved a hand, and the few squatted right back down.

Big Brother didn't want them along.

Recorder Liu was left hanging there. A good while later he shuffled over to Guan Si'er, crouched too, nudged him with a shoulder: "I say, Si'er, what did your lead saber work out?"

Guan Si'er blinked, and answered as a matter of course: "My Big Brother's so clever, and I'm this stupid! How would I know!"

"Couldn't you think a bit? What's your head for?"

"Eating!"

Wearing the mask, Chen Dasheng passed through the outer palace unhindered. At his waist hung the guard-Recorder's tally, and every guard along the way who saw him bowed from afar.

He'd walked it with Recorder Liu a few times, so he did as he'd seen, didn't look, didn't return the bows, only, reaching the inner door of the side hall, he handed over his waist-saber and the long saber on his back as a matter of course, let them pat him down by the rule, and was passed through.

Being patted down was yesterday's new rule. Last night, it seemed, someone had got into the palace again.

"Forgive us, please go in, Recorder."

The inner-gate guards let him through courteously.

So Chen Dasheng walked on unhindered to the side hall. Guards stood thick, yet no one barred him.

He came to the side-hall door and said to the eunuch keeping it: "Trouble you, I want to see the Emperor."

The little eunuch smiled at him and slipped quietly inside.

The side hall was busy as ever today. Chen Dasheng couldn't make out most of what was said in there, so he stood honestly by.

A little eunuch handed him a teacup. He took it, drank a few sips, thanked him, and gave the cup back. They offered him a seat. He wouldn't sit, but stood thinking.

When he was small, he'd minded his mother. Grown, he did whatever his father told him. Later, when the whole village fled the famine, the whole village minded the old clan-elder, who couldn't read either, and led them scrambling every which way, and no few died, and no one dared blame him, because no one had any plan.

They drifted about as if, with no one to point the way, their heads couldn't think at all, they always had to follow someone, and when there was no one ahead, they couldn't move.

Stand them at a fork with roads running every way, and men like them didn't dare take a step, for fear of choosing wrong.

If someone else pointed and ordered, then even if it went wrong, their hearts were easy.

He couldn't see, now, why he'd once thought that way.

In the camp he minded the officers, minded Tan the Second, minded the lead-saber brothers, until one day he became a lead saber himself, and panicked, thinking: now I'm to make the decisions?

What was a decision, anyway?

Until one day Yangdan was gone, and all at once he understood: if he didn't think of a way now, there'd be no more thinking to do at all, a man would be muddled clean out of the world, like his clansmen, his grandfather, his father. Yangdan.

For the first time in his life Chen Dasheng, by his own head, moved his own hands, swung the blade, and took Tan the Second's head.

These days too, he was forcing himself to think, to plan. A man has, in the end, to stand on himself.

So he'd thought quietly, alone, for two days.

A few ministers came out of the inner hall, faces drawn, clutching their memorials.

Today wasn't bad, the Emperor hadn't sent any memorials flying out.

The moment these few saw Chen Dasheng, they jumped in fright, and one even scattered a whole armful of memorials on the floor.

Chen Dasheng, of course, wouldn't bend to help him gather them. Now, never mind how many beams on the man's cap, or what bird or beast flew on his chest, his wife had said: mind the Emperor alone. He was the Emperor's man.

He stood ramrod-straight, the mask on his face menacing and hard to face, the force he gave off truly heavy.

No telling what these civil officials made of it. They came out, gave him one look, jumped, and dodged aside on the instant, not looking at him, glancing off elsewhere, silently waiting on their luckless fellow.

The luckless one was wretched enough, scolded near half a day, his colleague dragged off to the board and never come back, and out the door frightened by a fierce beast.

This new emperor, from himself down to his ministers, every one a monster.

Wronged and miserable, and not old, once a man who'd worn the exam-flower in his cap, whose name had topped the golden roll, doted on by all the city's women, he gathered his memorials and quietly began to sob.

Frightened to tears already? Chen Dasheng was satisfied within: long live my Emperor, I'm mighty indeed!

From the hall came the Emperor's question: "What's going on out there?"

A little eunuch trotted in and said a few words, and the Emperor called out, laughing: "Dasheng's come? Come in!"

So Chen Dasheng went into the side hall, and didn't see the Emperor. Instead he saw Eunuch She up a stepladder, fetching books from a shelf that ran to the ceiling.

Four or five little eunuchs steadied it below in dread, terrified that one slip and the man would come to harm and their own little lives be forfeit.

Seeing Chen Dasheng come in masked, Eunuch She sat on the ladder cradling a few scrolls and asked, smiling: "Why come in wearing that? They say you frightened Tanhua Zhang to tears? Aren't you stifled in it? Take it off, quick!"

I may take it off? Chen Dasheng reached up at once and pulled off the mask, his face very odd.

Eunuch She laughed on the ladder.

Not knowing why the man laughed to see him, and since he'd smiled at him, Chen Dasheng could only smile back, and with a slight bow said: "Thank you. I didn't know. It's very stifling, but the Emperor gave it, and I didn't know I could take it off." Thinking he'd worn it two whole days, he felt rather ill-used, and muttered, stroking the mask: "Worn it two days, thinking I had to wear it in the palace."

Eunuch She heard him mutter, of course, and roared with laughter on the ladder.

He was laughing his fill when the Emperor came out from the back, all smiles, Zhang Minwang following close and hoisting his trousers and wrapping his belt for him.

The Emperor said: "You two are fated friends." He nodded, praising Chen Dasheng: "When you've nothing on, go by your Eunuch She's courtyard more often, keep him company, keep him cheerful."

The Emperor had ordered it, so it must be done.

Chen Dasheng bowed: "Yes!" Then turned and asked Eunuch She: "Which courtyard do you live in? I can't go into the rear palace." He felt at his tally and added: "The kind Steward Zhang wears lets you go to the back, I'd need one too."

Before he'd finished, Eunuch She was laughing again, laughing till he all but went limp, swaying on the ladder.

Zhang Minwang had just tied the Emperor's belt, he trotted over with men to help Eunuch She down.

When at last the laughter was done, the Emperor hadn't spoken, but Eunuch She asked first: "You rascal, why aren't you up front warding your Emperor's door? What brings you back here, is it business?"

Chen Dasheng nodded in earnest: "Yes, it's business!"

The Emperor tossed aside an open memorial and asked, smiling: "Oh? You've business too? Say it, what business?"

Chen Dasheng sniffed, walked up before their daybed, bowed properly, rose, and, his face grave and solemn, said: "To borrow money!"

"Ha ha ha ha."

Eunuch She was near mad. He howled another gust of laughter, and finally pointed at the door and cried: "I can't, I can't, I've met my match. Drag this fellow out, drag him out, or I'll laugh myself to death on the spot. Borrow money, come to the emperor to borrow money, ha ha."

He was so happy the Emperor couldn't very well send Chen Dasheng out. So he asked, smiling: "Ai! Why send our Scabby off when all's well? The man's speaking of real business. Tell me, what do you want to borrow money for?"

Chen Dasheng was puzzled, how did the Emperor know he was called Scabby, and he didn't know why Eunuch She kept laughing. It wasn't funny at all. Behind his wife's back he was about to run up a debt, and it grieved him.

Chen Dasheng looked at Eunuch She, a little cross, but not daring to cross him, and could only press his lips and say: "To buy cloth!!"

That did it, the Emperor began to laugh too, and everyone in the room broke down, the whole hall roaring at once, which startled the few old ministers not yet gone into stopping short together and staring, dazed, at the side hall, thinking: are they laughing at how useless we are?

Chen Dasheng looked quietly round until they were all shame-faced. Then the Emperor wiped his eyes and asked, a little apologetic: "How did you come to want to borrow money from me to buy cloth?"

Chen Dasheng, ill-used, said with a touch of temper: "No one's home! Little Hua'er and the old earl went off to war. My wife said, if there's trouble find Lord Zeng, the Emperor set Lord Zeng to look after me, so he must! If Lord Zeng's out, find Lord Guo, if they're both out, find the Emperor."

Up there they were holding it in, cheeks bulging. Zhang Minwang, tears in his eyes, mouth open, was rubbing Eunuch She's back, when they heard Chen Dasheng say, more ill-used still: "They're all out today! If I don't borrow from you, oh, I'm your servant! Your servant knows no one!"

"Pfft." Eunuch She blew a bubble of breath from his cheeks, clutched his belly, and lay down over it.

The Emperor asked, half angry, half laughing: "Your wife said?"

Chen Dasheng nodded: "Mm, my wife said it."

The Emperor asked, exasperated: "You're my Gate Marquis! You don't obey me, you obey your wife? And you're not Chang Mianshen, who can't beat his wife in a fight, why obey her?"

Chen Dasheng was astonished. He looked at the Emperor and said, full of sincerity: "It was hard enough to get a wife, why would I beat her?"

Heavens. The great consorts of the rear palace, poor things.

No one knew what was in this honest lump's head, but the pity brimming in his eyes, and that sudden glance he shot toward the rear palace, said it all.

Eunuch She laughed himself mad, pointed at the door and cried: "Get out! One more look at you and I'll die, ha ha ha."

The Emperor, helpless, asked Chen Dasheng, curious and amused: "Fine, they're out, your wife said so, and how obedient you are! Tell me, how much money to borrow? How much cloth?"

Chen Dasheng thought hard, held up his fingers and studied them, and at last looked at the Emperor, at a loss: "I don't know. I can't reckon it."

Eunuch She rolled straight off the daybed onto the floor.

The Emperor took a memorial and flung it at Chen Dasheng: "You don't know, and you come to me!"

Chen Dasheng dodged the memorial and explained to the Emperor in earnest: "No, not me, your servant, I'm your servant and I can't read a character either. Oh, Your Majesty pardon me, your servant can't read, can't reckon, so, so how would I know how many tailors' shops are in the city?"

The Emperor was stopped short: "You want to make clothes? Find every tailor in the city?"

Eunuch She's laughter slowly died away. He braced on the daybed and got up.

Seated again, he asked, smiling: "Don't you know there isn't a single shop open in all Yanjing? Even with money and cloth in hand, no one to sew for you. Bear it a few more days."

Chen Dasheng blinked, drew a breath, and said in earnest: "I know. It's because the Emperor's so worried over it that I thought for two days. So the shops aren't open, what of it? I take my money and my cloth, and knock till they open! People, people have to eat, don't they? They can't sit idle forever and not feed their families!"

The room went silent on the instant.

Since the taking of Yanjing, this capital had been like a dead thing. How many ways had the Emperor, the ministers, the old advisers tried, how many edicts of relief handed down, and still they couldn't make these people trust them.

And now a man who couldn't read, who couldn't even count, stood here and said: it's simple, are you fools? Take your money and cloth and knock till the door opens.

Yes. Knock till it opens.

The Emperor slowly stood, walked the room a few turns, and at last came before Chen Dasheng, put out both hands and clapped him on the shoulders several times, and said, deeply gratified: "Yes! They won't open their doors, so we go and knock! You, you sat outside two days thinking about this?"

The boy was blunt by nature, and so with the Emperor too. He nodded, matter-of-fact: "Yes. I, your servant has a great deal to do, so busy. My wife said to bathe and I didn't go, the garrison's not tidied, things heaped every which way, your servant's unwell, I sat there two days not moving, I, oh, I'm your servant!"