42: Chapter 42 You say you're standing up for the people? Here's a county for you, dare you accept it?

Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng looked at the bowl of porridge right in front of him, his stomach churning. He kowtowed violently, shouting hoarsely: "Your subject dares not eat! When the ruler worries, the subject is shamed; when the ruler is shamed, the subject dies! The foundation of the nation is shaken, your subject cannot swallow!"

"Cannot swallow!" Behind him, those core followers with firm wills also began to shout.

"What a 'cannot swallow'." Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong placed the bowl on the ground, stood up, and his gaze turned sharp. He turned to face all the students and said loudly: "Lord Huang, you and I are both scholars. The Sage's books say, 'The people are the most precious; the state comes next; the ruler is the least.' Do you acknowledge this?"

Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng was stunned. This was the word of Mencius, a Confucian classic; how could he not acknowledge it? If he dared to say a single word of "no," the students he brought out today would all part ways with him.

"This is the teaching of the Sage; your subject naturally believes in it." Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng held his head high, righteous and stern.

"Good." Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong nodded. "Then the Sage also said, 'Treat your own elders with respect, and extend it to the elders of others; treat your own young with care, and extend it to the young of others.' Do you acknowledge this?"

"Your subject naturally believes in it!"

"The Sage also said, 'Cultivate the self, regulate the family, govern the state, and bring peace to the world.' And, 'When the granaries are full, the people know etiquette; when food and clothing are sufficient, they know honor and shame.' Do you all acknowledge these?"

For every question he asked, Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng and the students behind him replied in unison, "Believe!" The voices grew louder and louder, and their momentum grew stronger. They felt that the Prince of Wu was pushed to the wall by them and had no choice but to follow their logic.

Look, even he himself admits the words of the Sage, so his actions today are contrary to the Sage!

Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng sneered in his heart, just about to make a move, but Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong suddenly changed the subject.

"Since you all acknowledge it, then things are easy to handle." The smile on Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong's face slowly faded, and his gaze became sharp. "Do you know that in Jurong County, near Yingtian Prefecture, a tenant farmer works hard for a year and harvests ten shi of grain? But after paying the land rent and repaying the usurious loans, what remains in his hands is less than two shi. A family of five relies on these two shi of grain—how are they supposed to survive this winter?"

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong personally ladled a bowl of porridge, with minced meat spread over the thick rice gruel, red and white alternating, extremely tempting.

He held the bowl and walked slowly through the crowd, stopping in front of a young student whose eyes were wavering. The student looked to be only seventeen or eighteen, his face sallow, clearly from a poor family.

"We study to understand principles, and we understand principles to save lives." Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong squatted down, his voice as gentle as a neighbor's older brother. "If you starve to death here, who will support your mother waiting at home, hoping for you to pass the imperial examination? To cut off your own family line for a hollow reputation in Lord Huang's mouth—is this called filial piety, or is it called loyalty?"

The student trembled all over, his eye sockets instantly reddening. He stared at the bowl of porridge, tears swirling in his eyes.

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong returned to Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng, took a large mouthful from the rim of the bowl, and let out a satisfied sigh.

"Lord Huang, look, this aroma is real, and hunger is also real." Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong looked at the pale-faced Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng and said emphatically, "You want to lead them to death, while I want to invite them to survive. The hearts of the scholars in this world—do you want to tie them up with your grand principles, or shall I warm them with this bowl of porridge?"

"You are well-read in poetry and books, full of talent. Tell me, when a father holds his child who has starved to death, and you tell him, 'Let the ruler be a ruler, the subject a subject; the father a father, the son a son,' can he listen to that?"

"If you tell him, 'Do not look at what is improper, do not listen to what is improper,' can it make his son's corpse warm again?"

"If you tell him, 'There is a distinction between the legitimate and the illegitimate, and an order between the noble and the humble,' can it conjure a bowl of hot porridge to keep him alive?"

Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng's face turned deathly pale, his lips trembling, unable to say a single word.

"No!" Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong did not wait for his answer, turned sharply to face everyone, his voice like thunder. "Your books of sages, they cannot!"

"Your rituals and moral codes, in the face of hunger, are just a piece of waste paper! In the face of a butcher's knife, they are just a joke!"

"You kneel here, impassioned, thinking you are establishing the heart for heaven and earth, and establishing destiny for the living people. But the so-called 'living people' in your eyes are just a cold, blurry concept! Have you ever truly looked at them? Have you ever truly thought about what they need?"

"What they need is not for you to argue here about who should be the Crown Prince, who should be the Prince of Wu! What they need is food! It is the hope to survive!"

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong's words were like heavy hammers, smashing fiercely into the heart of every student.

They had been familiar with classics and history since childhood. Their teachers taught them the grand ideals of 'cultivating the self, regulating the family, governing the state, and bringing peace to the world,' and moral essays on 'sacrificing one's life for righteousness.' They were accustomed to pointing out the country's direction and writing impassioned words in high halls. But today, this Prince of Wu, who was only a few years older than them, tore open the bloody reality, broke it into pieces, and forced it right in front of their eyes.

Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng's complexion was ugly to the extreme. This Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong was not some ignorant child at all. He did not debate rituals and laws with him, because he denied the significance of empty talk about rituals and laws from the root. He directly overturned the table, dragging the venue of the debate from the temple halls to the fields, to the disaster areas where starving people were everywhere.

"Your Highness... Your Highness is using glib words to confuse the public!" Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng was an old hand after all. He forced himself to steady his mind and said hoarsely, "The state has state laws, and the family has family rules! It is precisely because we want the people of the world to have food to eat that we must maintain the moral codes and stabilize the court! If the legitimate and illegitimate are not distinguished, and the succession is in turmoil, it will only lead to greater chaos, plunging the people of the world into fire and water! Our actions today are precisely to prevent trouble before it happens, for the sake of the world, for the sake of all people!"

"Well said!" Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong clapped and laughed, his laughter full of sarcasm. "For the sake of the world, for the sake of all people. Lord Huang, this sentence of yours almost made me cry with emotion."

He stopped laughing, his eyes becoming deep.

"Since Lord Huang and all the students are so concerned about the people, then I will give you a chance to truly do things for the people. How about that?"

Hanlin Academician Huang Zicheng's heart skipped a beat, and a sense of foreboding arose spontaneously.

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong looked around at everyone, a playful smile hanging on the corners of his mouth again.

"Don't you think that my virtue does not match my position, and that my methods are the way of tigers and wolves, which will bring chaos to Jiangnan?"

"Don't you believe in the teachings of the Sage, and feel that 'governing by doing nothing' and transforming people through virtue is the right path of the king?"

"Very well."

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong clapped his hands, the sound crisp.

"I will give you a place to display your royal way and realize your ideals. I will designate Shangyuan County as a pilot for 'Sage virtue transformation.' From today on, the Magistrate of Shangyuan County will be served by you, Lord Huang. The Assistant Magistrate, Registrar, and Chief of Police will all be selected from you, the outstanding students of the Imperial Academy. I will give you one year. During this year, I will not send a single soldier, not a single Embroidered Uniform Guard, and will not interfere with any of your government affairs."

"You will stay in Shangyuan County, use your Sage books to educate the people, influence the local gentry, and realize your Great Harmony world where 'things dropped on the road are not picked up, and doors are not locked at night.'"

"After one year, I will go to inspect it myself. If the tax revenue of Shangyuan County can be ten percent higher than last year, and the people's stored grain can be one dou more than last year, then I will go to the Imperial Ancestral Temple to plead guilty, voluntarily ask to be stripped of my princely title, and return to the Imperial Clan Court to be imprisoned for life!"

"Do you dare to accept?"