Chapter 5

### Chapter 5: Life and Death (Part 1)

In the night of the distant capital, around the first watch, the vast city had already become quiet, appearing particularly gloomy and desolate, like a giant black beast ready to swallow everything. Important street corners were guarded by soldiers, checking the occasional passersby. Red or white paper lanterns hung outside every household, their dim lights swaying under the eaves.

Under the faint light, one could see large, woodblock-printed curfew notices posted on the walls at each street corner. In the narrow and long streets and alleys, watchmen often appeared with small lanterns,敲着破铜锣或梆子，瑟缩的影子出现一下，又向黑暗中消逝；那缓慢的、无精打采的锣声或梆子声也在风声里逐渐远去。

Despite the continuous cries and commotion in the eastern part of the city and south of the Luo River, with flames flickering, and the presence of patrolling troops prohibiting night travel, a few grand mansions still enjoyed a life of debauchery and revelry.

In any era, even in the twilight of a dynasty, there are always those who indulge in drinking and feasting, living from day to day, regardless of the impending doom. In these mansions close to the imperial palace, to avoid being heard by the inner court, they refrained from using drums or string instruments during their revelry. Instead, the courtesans used purple sandalwood or ivory clappers to gently tap the rhythm, singing softly. Sometimes, the songs were so delicate that they seemed like a single thread of hair, barely audible, yet continuous, swirling around the intricately painted beams before drifting into the mysterious sky.

The hosts and guests paused with their cups in hand, tapping their toes lightly on the ground, and listened intently, almost holding their breath. When the singing stopped, they nodded in appreciation, happily urging each other to drink and eat, playing drinking games, and rarely paying attention to the commotion outside the city walls. No one thought about what they should do to help the declining court and end the chaos.

On the contrary, the few bare and frightened cranes, the last remnants of good omens, residing in the annexes of the Imperial Ancestral Temple and the Temple of Heaven and Earth, were startled by the city's sounds, often flying in groups, circling over the inner city and the eastern part of the city, emitting mournful cries.

However, the scene in the eastern and southern parts of the city was quite different. Due to the frequent upheavals, the city already had many disaster victims and beggars. In the past two days, tens of thousands more had fled from Heyang and Mangshan, with nowhere to stay, many sleeping under the eaves on both sides of the streets, huddled together to avoid freezing to death.

They shivered, groaned, complained, and sighed in the bone-chilling winter wind. Women softly called out to the elders, weeping bitterly. Children huddled in their mothers' arms, crying from the cold and hunger, their cries tearing at the hearts of the adults.

But when the patrolling soldiers sent by the Luoyang Prefecture and the Jinwu Street Office approached, they temporarily endured in silence, fearing the wrath of these ruthless men.

Since the city-wide curfew on the 24th of last month, hundreds of refugees died each day, sometimes reaching two or three hundred. Although porridge kitchens were set up at all six gates and eleven entrances of Luoyang, the death rate continued to rise, especially among the elderly and children.

Tonight, a northeast wind carrying snowflakes began to blow, making the cold particularly unbearable. Who knew how many bodies, big and small, would be carried to the乱葬场 in the hills of Mangshan by morning?

Snowflakes also drifted over the dark imperial palace, finally settling in a layer of yellowish frost where the few sparse lights flickered.

As the oldest and most senior eunuch in the imperial palace, Wei Yue, slowly sipped a tasteless, strong tea, suppressing a cough. He looked at the cold wind seeping through the leaky roof tiles and wrapped himself tighter in his old, moth-eaten fur coat. This coat was a reward from a certain emperor for his loyalty, personally taken off and given to him, when he was still a young man with black hair, deeply moved.

From the third year of Baoying, when he began his service, to his current age with white hair and beard, he had served six emperors, from a babbling child to a prematurely aged middle-aged man due to excessive worry, and even a young emperor who died early from excessive indulgence in wine and women. Of course, there was also a deposed emperor who tried to revitalize the court but was driven mad by reality.

He had witnessed the grand and magnificent imperial palace gradually decay into a dilapidated, rat-infested, and spider-webbed ruin.

Under the weakening imperial power, only these rootless people maintained the emperor's meager dignity and grandeur with their last bit of loyalty.

Under the rule of the outer court's powerful ministers, the eunuchs, who were once powerful and respected as intermediaries between the emperor and the outer court, became a high-risk profession. As the buffer and link between the inner and outer courts, they were often the scapegoats in palace coups, or sacrifices in the transition of power.

They either became the eyes and ears of the outer court's regents or died mysteriously in dark corners, or were disgraced and died in prison after being accused of illegal activities by their colleagues and censors.

Of course, these few eunuchs who monitored and oppressed the emperor were often used to appease the emperor's anger, like killing a dog.

Wei Yue's predecessors, who refused to endure, fought back, led troops, and confiscated the homes and families of the powerful, stood proudly in the court, looking down on the bowing outer ministers.

But these moments of glory were fleeting, like bubbles in the sun, disappearing without a trace. Their weak military power and unreliable loyalty forced them to seek external support, leading to their destruction along with the emperors they supported in the chaos of foreign troops.

Over a decade ago, his last adopted son was executed for the crime of stealing offerings from the Imperial Ancestral Temple. Once powerful and arrogant eunuchs had fallen to the point of stealing cold leftovers from the imperial ancestral offerings.

His most promising adopted son once reached the position of a high-ranking official in the military council, but his final crime was the theft of imperial artifacts. Wei Yue clearly remembered that the jade ring, supposedly seized as evidence, was actually personally given to him by the current emperor.

He witnessed it but, under the emperor's pleading gaze, harshly condemned this eunuch for falsely accusing the emperor, and watched him be beaten to a bloody pulp as he sobbed in confession.

Past events, like stirred wine, floated to the surface of his memory, but he could no longer cry. His tears had been dried up in the pain of being forced to take medicine and die while bound and gagged, serving an unknown emperor.

Sometimes, he thought that if the mad emperor of the Yiwei period had not tried to eliminate the Liang clan and their supporters, the emperor's authority and the court's dignity would not have been so thoroughly destroyed.

At least during the Liang clan's rule, despite their tyranny, they treated the emperor with respect and reverence, something the later military rulers could not match. Under the Liang clan, even if the emperor was incompetent and the country faced internal troubles, the overall power of the Tang Dynasty remained strong, with tributes from all corners of the empire.

The final glory of a corrupt inner court and a clear outer court was destroyed by the naive belief that regaining power would solve all problems and ills.

Unfortunately, Wei Yue was born in the era when this decline began. The emperor's supporters were few, and only these crippled and weak eunuchs remained.

Now, the best outcome for a eunuch was to bribe the outer court, request an external mission, and rely on the favor of the regional governors, writing flattering reports to gain their support and sustenance.

Titles like Military Inspector, once powerful and feared, now only served to appease and pacify the tyrannical officials and act as scapegoats when necessary.

Those who were lucky could save some money for old age or die in office, considered blessed. Of course, some were killed by dissatisfied regional governors, but it was better than staying in the precarious capital.

Suddenly, a commotion interrupted his reminiscence. He lifted his white-haired head, but the bright firelight made it hard to see the faces.

A voice, similar to a eunuch's, called out, "Old Master Wei, your time has come."

He squinted at the bright firelight, realizing that he would not die a slow, natural death.

"Please, let me die with some dignity," he mumbled, allowing himself to be dragged to the square outside the Silver Gate of the imperial city, where a crowd of people was already kneeling.

His crimes were loudly read out: treason, corrupting the emperor, colluding with rebels, and oppressing loyal officials.

Had they run out of suitable scapegoats among the inner court eunuchs, that they had to drag out an old man who had retired years ago?

He suddenly understood. Perhaps his adopted sons felt the same way when they were executed. It was said that a quick blade would make the pain less noticeable.

However, the executioner's blade did not immediately fall on him.

Then, some young faces were dragged out, allegedly the instigators of the current upheaval, students from the military academy and the capital's two schools. They were mutilated, their eyes and tongues removed, and lay in a bloody, disheveled heap. Even when beheaded, they only struggled a bit more, spraying blood farther.

As the pile of heads grew, Wei Yue's confusion lifted. He seemed to recognize these young men, who had been sent to the imperial palace to make up for the lack of guards. They had appeared grateful before the emperor, leaving a faint impression on him.

He suddenly laughed, "So, I die not unjustly. But, looking at the dark palace, the hunched figure imprisoned within, how long must you wait to come down?"

---

**End of Page**