22: Chapter 22 Am I afraid of being too powerful and overshadowing my master?

"I truly dare not, The Emperor."

After a long while, Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong spoke slowly.

"I dare not let my father's hard work go to waste."

"I dare not let the empire you built follow the same disastrous path as the former Song Dynasty."

"And I dare not watch idly as our Great Ming transforms from a tiger roaring across the world into a fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered."

These words made Zhu Yuanzhang's pupils constrict slightly.

"The former Song Dynasty?" He repeated these words, his voice filled with a dangerous undertone. "How could my Great Ming become the former Song?"

"Because you are afraid." Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong raised his head, looking directly at Zhu Yuanzhang. "What you fear is the same thing that the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty feared back then."

"You fear that in the future, military generals will gain too much power and threaten the throne, and you fear that future emperors will be unable to hold the blade in their hands."

"Therefore, you want to kill. You want to kill General Lan Yu, General Feng Sheng, General Fu Youde... You want to replace all the fierce generals in this world who lead troops with obedient sheep. You believe that as long as you lock the blades in the warehouse and cage the tigers, your empire will last for ten thousand generations."

"The Emperor, you are wrong."

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong's voice suddenly rose. "What did the 'release of military power over a cup of wine' achieve? It led to the Humiliation of Jingkang and the tragedy at Yamen! It resulted in two emperors being led away like dogs, and Lu Xiufu carrying the young emperor as they jumped into the freezing sea!"

"Do you think the world can be governed solely by civil officials? Will they use benevolence and morality to talk back the iron cavalry of the Northern Yuan? Will they use classical rhetoric to recover Liaodong and Yunnan-Guizhou?"

"They will not!" Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong said decisively. "They only know how to form cliques to attack others, fight for power and profit, and slowly hollow out the backbone of Great Ming inch by inch! When foreign enemies knock at the gates, they will run faster than anyone else!"

"The Emperor, you feel that you are old, so you seek stability. You think that when I say you are old, I am offending you. But the 'old' I speak of is not about age; it is about spirit!"

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong took a step forward, his aura suddenly surging.

"Have you forgotten how, when you started with nothing but a bowl, you possessed the spirit to swallow ten thousand miles like a tiger? Have you forgotten how, at Lake Poyang, you laughed while the enemy fleet was reduced to ashes? Did you fear military generals outshining the throne back then? Was Xu Da's military power greater than yours? Was Prince Kaiping Chang Yuchun's blade sharper than yours?"

"They dared not! Because back then, you were the Heavens, the only god on this land! Your spirit was enough to suppress all the dragons and snakes in this world!"

"But now, you are old. Your spirit has shifted from expanding territory to maintaining stability. You no longer believe you can suppress the tigers, so you choose to kill them."

Every word from Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong was like a heavy hammer, smashing fiercely against Zhu Yuanzhang's heart.

Zhu Yuanzhang's complexion turned from livid to pale in an instant, his hands tucked into his sleeves clenching into tight fists.

He wanted to retort but found himself speechless, because in these years, he had indeed become afraid.

He feared that after Biao'er was gone, there would be no one to inherit this vast empire. He feared that after he passed away, those arrogant soldiers and fierce generals would be uncontrollable, leading to another Chenqiao Mutiny.

He was indeed not as confident as he used to be.

"However," Zhu Yuanzhang's voice was severely hoarse, he forcefully suppressed the turmoil in his heart. "If I don't kill them, should I just let them hold power and become uncontrollable? I ask you, if you were to sit on that throne, what would you do?"

It had finally come; this was what the old emperor truly wanted to ask today.

General Lan Yu and Duke of Cao were stunned by what they heard. They exchanged a glance, both seeing the same thought in each other's eyes: If we fainted right now, would it seem natural?

This... is this something we are supposed to hear? Will they kill us to silence us later...

"Use the law as a blade, use war as sustenance."

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong spat out these eight words without hesitation.

"Speak." Although Zhu Yuanzhang's heart was in turmoil, he still patiently wanted to hear what shocking theory this rebellious grandson could come up with.

"Using the law as a blade means establishing an iron law, an iron law where even a prince is punished the same as a commoner if they break the law. This law must strike down corrupt civil officials and arrogant, lawless military generals. Whoever dares to reach out their hand, chop it off! Whoever dares to break the law, cut off their head! Under the blade, there are no Dukes, no Marquises, only the laws of Great Ming!"

"Using war as sustenance is even simpler." Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong sneered. "Surrounding Great Ming, there are the remnants of the Northern Yuan in the north, Japanese pirates in the east, Timur in the west, and barbarians in the south. Where in this world is there peace? The army of our Great Ming should not be fattening up in the capital; their destiny is on the battlefield!"

"Establish military titles, open border markets, trade military merit for rewards, and exchange the heads of enemies for one's own wealth. Let every soldier in the army know that as long as they dare to risk their lives, they can earn titles for their wives and children, and bring honor to their ancestors!"

"In this way, the minds of the military generals will naturally shift from the imperial court to the borderlands. What they think about will no longer be how to act tyrannically in the capital, but how to go to the grasslands, the deserts, and the seas to expand territory for themselves and for Great Ming!"

"This is where the tigers belong!"

After listening, Zhu Yuanzhang fell into a long silence.

He had to admit that this kid had some ideas, transferring internal conflicts to the outside through war. This was an almost crazy, yet extremely brilliant imperial art of governance.

"Warlike and aggressive." After a long time, Zhu Yuanzhang squeezed out these four words from between his teeth, then raised his own concern: "With such constant warfare, how can the common people sustain it? How can the national treasury sustain it? Are you not afraid that before the world is settled, the people will rise up in resentment?"

"Why would the common people rebel?" Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong retorted. "Because of harsh taxes and because they cannot survive. But war is not just consumption."

"We can imitate Emperor Wu of Han, open up the Western Regions, and establish trade routes. We can organize fleets, set sail, and use Great Ming's silk and porcelain to trade for ships full of gold and silver. We can use war to plunder land, population, and resources!"

"For Great Ming, external conquest is not consumption, but a path to hegemony with ten thousand times the profit!"

"As for talent," Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong glanced at Zhu Yuanzhang. "I believe the model of the Imperial Academy should be changed. Reading only the books of sages cannot cultivate capable officials. I want to build several new schools, categorized by subject: studying arithmetic, studying the investigation of things, studying military formations, and learning from the strengths of all schools of thought. Regardless of background, regardless of whether they are civil or military, appoint only those with talent!"

"As long as talent, wealth, and a strong army are all prepared, I can create for you a foundation for ten thousand generations that far surpasses the Han and Tang dynasties! This empire will not only be stable, it will be at the height of its power!"

"Wherever the sun and moon shine, all shall be Great Ming!"

Zhu Yuanzhang completely stopped speaking. He looked at the youth before him whose eyes were shining, his own gaze complex.

Shock, anger, appreciation, curiosity, guilt... various emotions intertwined, finally turning into a long sigh.

"You said so much, yet you still haven't told me, what makes you think you can suppress those military generals who outshine the throne?"

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong smiled.

That smile was bright and confident.

"The Emperor, only an incompetent emperor would fear that his meritorious subjects would outshine him."

He paused, his voice resonant and powerful.

"When the First Emperor swept across the six states, were Meng Tian and Wang Jian not highly meritorious? When Emperor Wu of Han drove out the Xiongnu, were Wei Qing and Huo Qubing not highly meritorious?"

"And you."

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong's gaze burned as he looked at Zhu Yuanzhang.

"As long as you are still here for one day, who in this world would dare to rebel?"

"And as for me..."

"I will make them willingly die for our Great Ming!"