27: Chapter 27: Governing on Behalf of Heaven, the Nine Clans Elimination Game Officially Begins!
Upon hearing these words, Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng's eyes widened sharply, his face, which had previously worn an expression of readiness to die for a cause, flushing a deep purple.
"Overestimated myself?"
"What... kind of talk is this?"
He, Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng, a scholar of the Hanlin Academy and tutor to the Emperor, a pillar of talent destined to assist the new sovereign in creating a prosperous age, was here in Fengtian Hall willing to die to prove his resolve—all for the sake of the Great Ming's moral order and the legitimacy of the realm!
Such a heroic act, even if not enough to move heaven and earth, should at least be enough to leave a profound mark in the annals of history!
How, in the mouth of this mere child, did it become... 'overestimating myself'?
Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong did not give him the chance to continue brewing his tragic emotions. His cold gaze swept past Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng and then slowly turned to the few civil officials who had been shouting the loudest just moments ago.
"My lords, you all claim to act for the sake of the Great Ming state, so I shall test you on a few practical matters."
"First, what is the deficit in military pay for Liaodong?"
"Second, the Yellow River burst its banks last year; if we are to manage it effectively this year, where should we allocate the funds and grain?"
"Third, the remnants of the Northern Yuan are stirring near Buyur Lake. If I were to dispatch an army of fifty thousand for a northern expedition, how much fodder for warhorses must the Ministry of War prepare, and how much military provisions must the Ministry of Revenue provide?"
These three questions were dropped like stones, and the silence in Fengtian Hall was so profound that one could hear a needle drop.
These pure-minded scholars from the Hanlin Academy spent their days spouting the names of Yao, Shun, Yu, and Tang, and constantly citing the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, composing flowery, ornate essays.
If one were to actually ask them about the ledgers of the Ministry of Revenue or the military provisions of the Ministry of War? That would be like playing the lute to a cow.
In their eyes, national affairs were all abstract symbols that could be simplified into the two characters of 'moral virtue.' As for the concrete realities of daily necessities, weapons, and armor—those were vulgar matters unworthy of soiling their noble pens.
Upon hearing this, Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng was completely stunned. He sputtered, 'Ah, ah,' but couldn't manage to squeeze out a single coherent word.
In the ranks of the military officials, General Wang Bi could not hold back and let out a snort of laughter that sounded like a pig's squeal. With him taking the lead, Chang Sheng, General Fu Youde, and the others followed, erupting into uproarious laughter.
"What? Have all you lords gone mute?" Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong stepped forward, pointing his finger at the group of high-ranking court officials in their red and green robes below, his voice laced with mockery.
"You know nothing of the Great Ming's treasury, yet how do you claim to secure the lives of the people? By the sharpness of your tongues, or by those sour, pedantic essays that gloss over the truth?"
A commotion rippled through the camp of civil officials; some hung their heads in shame and anger, while others glared back. These words from Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong were too venomous; they stripped away the underpants of their 'perfect moral' persona and nailed them to the pillar of shame as 'incompetent waste.'
"The moral order and ethics you speak of cannot save the starving wretches beyond the border, nor can they block the curved sabers of the Mongols. When I led troops to pacify the disaster last night, you accused me of being disloyal and unfilial. I, in turn, must ask: allowing such a poisonous woman to control the Eastern Palace, allowing the state administration to decay so much that even the padded winter clothes for the border soldiers cannot be distributed—is this the loyalty you uphold?" Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong pressed forward step by step, his words as sharp as blades.
Behind the dragon throne in Fengtian Hall, inside that massive yellow pear-wood screen carved with dragons and phoenixes, Zhu Yuanzhang sat on a soft couch, draped in a padded jacket and sitting with an air of bold authority. There was not the slightest hint of weakness about him.
Through the gaps in the wood carvings of the screen, he took in everything happening in the hall.
After hearing the treasonous words this boy spoke last night, he truly hadn't closed his eyes all night. Claiming illness today and not appearing was precisely because he wanted to weigh whether this suddenly emerged Imperial Grandson could truly suppress this group of civil officials, who all had eight hundred schemes in their hearts.
It looked acceptable for now; if he had just started killing people immediately, that would not have been qualified.
He, Zhu Yuanzhang, had killed people his entire life, but what was the result? The case of Chancellor Hu Weiyong claimed thirty thousand lives, the Empty Seal Case claimed ten thousand. In the end, those in court who were corrupt remained corrupt, and those who fought continued to fight.
"However, this bit of ability alone is not enough." Zhu Yuanzhang murmured softly, picking up the small teapot beside him to take a sip, his eyes remaining fixed on Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong outside the screen.
In the court, after a brief silence, someone finally could not sit still. Fang Xiaoru, a professor from Hanzhong, strode out of the ranks. He had always considered himself a great Confucian scholar, and being publicly humiliated by Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong like this caused the stubbornness deep in his scholar's bones to erupt completely.
"Your Highness, your words are wrong!" Fang Xiaoru held his head high and chest out, waving his large sleeves with an air of righteous indignation.
"Governing a large country is like cooking a small fish; a sovereign should rule by non-action. We, your subjects, each have our own duties. Specific matters of funds and grain are for the officials of the Six Ministries to calculate and allocate. A sovereign only needs to rectify their heart and be sincere, using virtue to transform the people, and the world will naturally be at peace. Why must Your Highness use these trivial accounts to interrogate us in this court? This is abandoning the root to pursue the trivial!"
These words were spoken with resounding force, and the surrounding civil officials nodded in agreement, as if they had found their backbone.
"Professor Fang is right!"
"A sovereign should not compete with the people for profit, nor labor his mind with trivial matters; this is an ancient teaching!"
"Your Highness does not cultivate virtue but focuses solely on money—this is truly the misfortune of the Great Ming!"
Seeing the civil officials gaining momentum again, Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong laughed. He clasped his hands behind his back and walked halfway around the sandalwood chair, then stopped abruptly, his gaze passing over Fang Xiaoru to look into the ranks of the Ministers of the Six Ministries.
"Minister of War, Ru Chang, come out and answer."
Minister of War, Ru Chang, was a pragmatist and usually did not get involved in the empty talk of the group from the Hanlin Academy. Upon being named, he felt a cold sweat break out down his spine. He bit the bullet, squeezed out from the ranks, and bowed, saying, "This subject is here."
"You tell Professor Fang." Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong pointed at Fang Xiaoru. "If the imperial court rules by non-action, what will the soldiers at the border eat? What will they wear? What is the current situation in the ledgers of your Ministry of War? Speak the truth; if you get one word wrong, I will hold you accountable."
Minister of War, Ru Chang, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, knowing that today's matter would not end well. But he was a sensible man; he had heard the commotion last night clearly, and the person before him was one who had beheaded the commander of the Imperial Guards with a single stroke.
"Replying... replying to Your Highness." Minister of War, Ru Chang, swallowed hard, his voice echoing in the great hall. "In the autumn of the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu, the military farms of the Liaodong border army collapsed, with seventy percent left desolate. Since the beginning of winter, military pay has been in arrears by a total of 1.3 million taels. Many soldiers do not even have padded jackets to keep out the cold and can only wrap themselves in dried grass while standing guard in the snow. Each garrison is severely understaffed, and the number of deserters... remains high. As for fodder for warhorses, the stock in the treasury is less than thirty percent."
As soon as these words came out, the temperature in Fengtian Hall dropped by several degrees.
Fang Xiaoru's face changed instantly. General Wang Bi put away his smile, his fists clenching until they cracked. Chang Sheng gritted his teeth, his eyes burning with rage.
"Did you hear clearly?" Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong turned abruptly, his finger almost poking the tip of Fang Xiaoru's nose. "This is your so-called 'ruling by non-action'! Soldiers are bleeding and freezing to death at the border, while you are drinking flower wine and composing lewd poems on the banks of the Qinhuai River in the capital! This is your 'each performing their own duties'!"
"You take the salary of the Great Ming, enjoy the support of the people, and spend your days in this great hall discussing the ways of sages. When the border is in crisis, you cannot produce a strategy to defend against the enemy; when the Yellow River floods, you cannot provide a solution for water control. Now that I want to stir up this stagnant pool of a court, you jump out and shout about ancestral laws and moral ethics!"
"What you are protecting is not the Great Ming, but your own pathetic privileges! It is the comfort of being able to point fingers without having to do any real work!"
Every sentence drew blood; every word cut to the bone.
Fang Xiaoru was scolded until he retreated repeatedly, his body swaying and on the verge of collapsing. Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai buried their heads in their chests, not daring to let out even a peep. The sacred fig leaf that had covered the civil official group for decades was torn to shreds by Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong in front of all the civil and military officials.
On the side of the military officials, Chang Sheng roared at the top of his lungs: "Your Highness, well scolded! This bunch of bastards just needs to be disciplined! We are risking our lives at the front, and they are dragging us down from the back, all while complaining that we are too murderous. They really should be thrown into Liaodong to drink the northwest wind!"
Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong ignored the jeering of the military officials and walked straight back to the sandalwood chair, looking down at the assembled officials from a position of superiority.
"Today, I am acting on behalf of the Emperor to administer the government, not to listen to you preach grand principles." Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong's voice turned abruptly cold, devoid of any human warmth. "Regardless of whether you are convinced in your hearts, here in Fengtian Hall, you must do things according to my rules."
He straightened up and threw out his real killing blow for the day.
"Pass on my order: from this day forward, investigate the land and salt/iron accounts in the capital and all circuits of the Jiangnan region. I want to see exactly whose pockets that silver has flowed into while the national treasury is empty!"
As soon as these words were uttered, it was no less than dropping a meteorite from outer space into Fengtian Hall.
Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng raised his head sharply, his eyes bulging, his mouth half-open, unable to make a sound. Qi Tai's legs went weak, and he knelt directly on the ground. Even Fang Xiaoru, who had been so adamant just a moment ago, was so frightened that he gasped.
Investigate the land in Jiangnan?
Most of the Great Ming's taxes came from Jiangnan. And eighty percent of the land in Jiangnan was held in the hands of local gentry and the families of court officials. Over the years, in order to evade taxes, they had concealed landholdings and colluded with local officials to falsify accounts, which had long been an open secret.
It was not that Zhu Yuanzhang did not know, but for these years, his energy had been entirely focused on killing meritorious officials and guarding against military generals. Coupled with the intricate and complex interest relations in Jiangnan, he had never dealt a ruthless blow to overturn this iron plate.
Now, Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong, a fifteen-year-old youth, had taken the knife to the Jiangnan gentry on the very first day he held power! This was digging up the ancestral graves of the entire civil official group!
"Your Highness, you must not!" Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng was completely desperate. He scrambled out of the ranks, his head banging loudly against the golden bricks. "Jiangnan is the nation's crucial region for wealth and taxes; pulling one hair will affect the whole body. If you forcibly investigate the land, it will surely cause local unrest. If the Jiangnan gentry rebel, the state will be in danger! This is a policy that will throw the country into chaos; it must absolutely not be implemented!"
"A policy that will throw the country into chaos?" Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong sneered, a laugh that made people's scalps tingle.
He slowly walked down the imperial steps, approaching Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng step by step. His black cloud-patterned casual robe swayed gently with his movements. Although he was clearly a youth, the sense of oppression emanating from him forced Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng to gasp for breath.
Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong stopped in front of Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng, bent down, and stared at that face filled with terror.
"Chaos? Who dares to cause chaos?" Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong's voice was very low, but every word was like a hammer. "Last night, I rode alone and fought my way through three thousand Imperial Guards. Are the hired thugs of the Jiangnan gentry, whom you speak of, more elite than the Imperial Guards?"
Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng trembled all over, his lips quivering, unable to say a single word of rebuttal.
"I will leave these words here." Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong straightened up, his gaze sweeping across the entire hall. "Whoever dares to obstruct the investigation, whoever dares to tamper with the accounts, I will kill them. Leave no one behind, and strip their nine lineages of everything. I would like to see if the necks of you Jiangnan gentry are harder, or if the blade in my hand is harder!"