Chapter 318: East Gate

“I’ll lead a team to arrest Dugu Qiuhun right now!” Ye Mengyan started waving his arms and legs again. “Mobilizing troops into Bairen City without authorization, this is a military coup!”

“Who exactly is staging the coup?” Xue Ziliang was confused.

“This is none of your business! Stop adding to the chaos!” Bei Wei scolded. “Cancel the emergency assembly, go back to sleep!”

After shooing Ye Mengyan away, Bei Wei turned to Xue Ziliang. “Get ready quickly and come with me!” he said urgently.

“Alright, I’m on it.” Xue Ziliang quickly grabbed his duty belt from the wall.

“No need for that, don’t bring any weapons,” Bei Wei said.

“OK.” Xue Ziliang grabbed his American police-issue high-intensity flashlight, which could double as a baton if necessary.

Bei Wei then picked four or five more men to go with them. Before leaving, he ordered double sentries to be posted on the gate tower and instructed them not to open the city gate without a direct order from above.

At that moment, both inside and outside the city, lights flickered on in many departments. Urgent telephone rings, assembly drums, and recall bugles sounded in the naval barracks in Bopu, the naval docks, the shipyard, the chemical plant’s office building, and the dormitories. The atmosphere grew tense.

Decades later, when the Empire’s flag flew across the globe, the early history of the Empire was no longer a taboo topic. Historians systematically researched this “forbidden history” of the Senate. With special permission from the Senate, many of the first-generation Elders’ private memoirs, meeting minutes, and official archives were made available for limited viewing by historians—no copying, no removal.

The “Maid Revolution,” which took place in late December of the old calendar year 1629, the second year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, and the first year of the Holy Calendar, was the most fascinating subject for historians. Many historical details of the night of the “Maid Revolution” remain shrouded in mystery and conflicting accounts. Whether Dugu Qiuhun actually led his troops into Bairen City, and if not, who stopped him before he reached the East Gate, remains a point of contention among historians to this day.

According to the official records of the Senate: that night, when Dugu Qiuhun mobilized the police force towards East Gate Market, he was persuaded to stop by several officers from the Special Reconnaissance Team responsible for security at Bairen City’s East Gate. Under the persuasion of Bei Wei and Xue Ziliang, Dugu Qiuhun abandoned the idea of advancing into the city and retreated to the East Gate Market police station.

However, according to the article “The First Night of the Long Saber (Banned Draft)” from Ye Mengyan’s memoirs, it was he and Xue Ziliang who jointly intercepted Dugu Qiuhun’s coup forces—the elite SS Police Regiment. At the time, the only armed force within Bairen City was an under-strength Special Reconnaissance Team, making the disparity in forces enormous. The two sides met outside the East Gate of Bairen City. Our side immediately shouted at Dugu Qiuhun, demanding he disarm and return to his post to await orders. Suddenly, someone from the police force opened fire on the Special Reconnaissance Team. Upon hearing the gunshot, Xue Ziliang led the retreat, causing great chaos on our side. Thanks to Ye Mengyan’s valiant efforts, our side managed to turn the tide. After a fierce battle, the entire SS Police Regiment involved in the coup was routed and annihilated, and Dugu Qiuhun was subsequently captured alive.

Xue Ziliang’s account in his own memoir, “The Beacon of Light Guided Me to a Glorious Life,” was vastly different. He stated that no conflict occurred. When he arrived at East Gate Street alone with a few guards, although Dugu Qiuhun’s police force was armed to the teeth, not only with Minie rifles but also with the then-rare SKS rifles, and despite many attempting to physically threaten him, he single-handedly disarmed the police force with his bare hands and dauntless spirit. “No one dared to make a sound of resistance, not even a dissatisfied murmur.”

The account of the former Chief of Engineers, Pan Da: that night, he was in the company barracks preparing for a New Year’s celebration with the soldiers. Upon hearing the news, he strictly adhered to discipline, did not deploy troops, and went alone, unarmed, to intercept Dugu. Wearing a safety helmet, holding an entrenching tool in one hand and a pot lid in the other, he stood proudly on East Gate Street with the air of Zhang Fei at the Changban Bridge. When the mutinous soldiers arrived, they were so overwhelmed by his presence that they were routed without a fight. Pan Da wrote in his memoirs, “Later, someone asked me if I was afraid facing a forest of bayonets and the dark muzzles of guns. I said I was, but when I thought of the Executive Committee behind me, I feared nothing.”

However, the former head of the Military-Industrial Production Department, Lin Shenhe, denied this ever happened. In an interview with “Imperial Spring and Autumn,” he said: “At that time, it was I who led the masses of the Industrial and Energy Committee to block the police force with handheld crowbars and wrenches.” Lin Shenhe became very emotional at this point. “The police force that came were all in full armor, carrying clubs. If we hadn’t stopped them in time, many people in the city would have been bloodied, and the great cause would have been ruined.”

The reporter asked: “Which other Elders participated in the interception? The masses of the Industrial and Energy Committee you mentioned should all be Elders, right?”

Lin Shenhe (hesitating for a moment), slapped his forehead: “Oh, I can’t remember clearly. I’m old, my memory is failing…”

A few months later, “Imperial Spring and Autumn” published a letter from Elder Wang Ruixiang, which solemnly pointed out: on that day, Lin Shenhe was in Bopu improving the army version of the “typewriter” and could not possibly have rushed back at night to intercept the police force. The one who fearlessly and righteously stepped forward to intercept the police force and persuade them to return was none other than himself, Wang Ruixiang, along with several naval officers—though due to old age, he also couldn’t recall their names.

Due to the intervention of the Propaganda Department, “Imperial Spring and Autumn” soon announced it would no longer publish letters from other Elders on this matter. However, in the “Imperial Agriculture” magazine, an article by the former People’s Commissar for Agriculture, Elder Wu Nanhai, titled “Remembering the Past Amidst Ripe Rice and Fat Pigs,” was published. The article mentioned that the demonstration that night was stopped by him in front of the Plantation Café. The leaders, a certain Ma and a certain Shan, later got drunk at the plantation and only submitted their petition the next morning. No demonstration ever took place. As for whether Dugu had mobilized the police force to enter the city, he was not outside the city and was not aware of the matter.

The official compilation of church history, “Under the Glory of God and the Senate,” recorded the event as such: the nuns of the Bairen Convent went to the streets to pray. Amidst the sound of hymns, a white light shone upon East Gate Street. The soldiers of the police force, weeping, dropped their weapons and knelt to pray. Dugu Qiuhun was also moved by the glorious manifestation of the Lord. He immediately confessed to Father Bai Duolu who had rushed to the scene and expressed his willingness to donate all his property to the church.

The other party involved, denounced as an “ambitious schemer,” “traitor,” and “running dog of Mr. X,” who was utterly crushed and almost never recovered, Dugu Qiuhun, wrote in his memoir “My Helmet, My Regiment (Internal Circulation)”: that night, a small clique of conspirators, ambitious schemers, pseudo-democrats, and “professional democratic troublemakers” (shortened to “dem-roublemakers”), instigated a large number of misinformed masses to besiege the Executive Committee over the issue of women, in a vain attempt to overthrow the legitimate administrative body elected by the Transmigration Congress. For their own selfish interests and a bit of lower-body pleasure, they did not hesitate to launch a riot to shake the foundation of the great cause. This was a typical case of the small brain directing the big brain. He stated in the article that he had assembled the police force merely as a necessary precaution against a potential native uprising during the internal chaos in Bairen City. To be subsequently subjected to various slanders and attacks, leaving him wronged for many years and receiving all sorts of “unjust treatment,” was a case of “trumped-up charges” carried out by a small clique of ambitious schemers to cover up their own crimes. As for the church suing him in the Senate’s Court of Honor to enforce his alleged promise to donate all his property upon death, this was pure fabrication—he had never been baptized, much less said he would donate his property to the church.

Finally, he pointed out that the historical debts of this small clique of ambitious schemers had not been fully settled, and that the Senate had not given him fair treatment for many years. Among his twenty-odd children, a dozen still had no specific career paths arranged for them.

In short, regardless of the truth of the matter, the police force did not appear in Bairen City. Dugu Qiuhun’s team returned to the police station, and the procession of demonstrators eventually arrived safely at the entrance of the Executive Committee compound. The fine, dense winter rain had soaked many people’s clothes and hair, and the ink on the paper signs had bled into smudges, but the crowd’s enthusiasm did not diminish. They shouted slogans all the way, and with the efforts of Ma Jia and others from the Law Club to maintain order, no destructive incidents occurred.

Inside the Executive Committee compound, Ran Yao was in Wen Desi’s office.

“Chief Wen, shouldn’t you step aside for a moment? Let the other committee members meet them first. The crowd is very agitated right now.”

“It’s fine.” Chief Wen was very calm. “Is it quiet outside Bairen City?”

“It has returned to blue status. We’ve contacted all the key departments by phone, and everyone has stated they will stand fast at their posts.” He then reported the news that Dugu Qiuhun’s police force had been intercepted and turned back. Wen Desi listened with a blank expression.

“What’s bound to happen will happen.” Wen Desi became even calmer. “Come on, let’s go out and meet everyone.”

“Chief Wen, if you go down and face them now, someone might throw eggs or something,” Ran Yao said anxiously. On one hand, this crowd of onlookers was stirred up over women and electricity, but there were also many troublemakers mixed in. If they saw the leader and their resentment boiled over, leading to a violent incident, his position as the People’s Commissar for Internal Affairs would be very difficult. On one hand, he had the duty to maintain order within Bairen City; on the other, he did not want to set the terrible precedent of using violence against fellow transmigrators—it could ruin his reputation.

“It’s fine. If they had eggs, they’d be reluctant to throw them.” A curious smile played on Chief Wen’s lips. “Distributing maids to the transmigrators is something that should be at least as important as steelmaking, and slightly less important than shipbuilding—at the very least, they should be issued 7, one for each day of the week—of course, any more than that, they’ll have to raise themselves.”