On the morning of October 18, in the seventeenth year of the reign of Emperor Chongzhen, the streets and alleys of the Capital were suddenly flooded with leaflets bearing printed text.
The content was the full text of a letter in which Duke Yansheng, Kong Yinzhi, pledged allegiance to the Jiannu and provided aid to the enemy. It was word-for-word, without a single discrepancy. Although the Brocade Guard were deployed immediately, they neither made arrests nor seized the papers. They merely issued warnings to the public not to believe or spread rumors.
Because the Brocade Guard took no substantive action, the people were emboldened. They took to the streets, sharing the news and adding their own colorful commentary. The contents of the letter spread rapidly throughout the Capital, causing a massive uproar among the scholarly community. In the letter, the Duke Yansheng showed none of the dignity expected of the head of the civil officials; instead, he acted as obsequiously as a grandson. This caused his reputation among scholars to plummet, and he quickly became a laughingstock to the common people of the Capital.
Chapter 1084