The golden fleet of the Taichu Sky-Armada glided back over the southern gate of the Central Heavenly Capital in disciplined, majestic formation.
Hovering beneath the flagship’s main cargo cranes, two heavy iron transport cages swayed gently in the crisp morning breeze.
In the first cage sat Warden Xiong Ba, still wearing his neon-yellow debtor vest over his red undergarments, huddled in the corner in total, shivering disgrace. In the second cage hung Procurement General Zhao, suspended upside down by his purple polka-dot waistband, his gilded helmet long lost in the volcanic slag.
Four million citizens lined the stone avenues below, pointing up at the sky with gasps of utter astonishment and disbelief.
For three decades, the proud, untouchable officers of the Imperial War Ministry had ridden through these very streets whipping carriage drivers, trampling vendor stalls, and demanding free wine.
Now, the supreme warden and the heavy procurement general were hanging from construction cranes like plucked pheasants on market day, paraded across the sky for every commoner child to see!
In Central Capital Plaza, Lord Wen Zhengming stood atop a ten-foot marble tribunal stage.
Beside him stood Dean Yan and Zhuangyuan Han Yu, surrounded by sixty newly commissioned civic magistrates and fifty junior legal clerks in crisp, dark scholar robes.
