Chapter 20

Zhu Yijun was living his second life; did he know how to farm?

He really didn't.

The only plant he had managed to keep alive was a pothos—the kind that needs a little water and a little soil—and in the end, he had even managed to kill that.

It didn't matter if he didn't know how to farm; the Great Ming had as many people who knew how to farm as there were carp in the river. This was the Central Plains, where farming was carved into the bones. Even in the Wanli era, looking around, in this world, was there anyone who knew how to farm better than the people of the Great Ming?

As Emperor, if he wanted to farm, organizing some experienced old farmers to launch a special research project on potato planting wouldn't actually cost much money. At worst, he could just clear out the Your Majesty Mountain outside the Xuanwu Gate and farm there.

That was the Your Majesty Mountain where the old crooked-neck tree grew, the Your Majesty Mountain where the Chongzhen Emperor chose to hang himself at the final moment.

If one could grow flowers and grass, one could naturally grow potatoes.

Even if the worst happened and the special research project failed and no potatoes were grown, the little Emperor of the Great Ming personally engaging in agriculture would still express his concern for agricultural affairs. Even without practical significance, it had strong political symbolic significance and could attract the Great Ming court's attention to potatoes, sweet potatoes, and such high-yield crops. That would be a huge profit.

"When the ruler takes action, the millions of people will all look up to him, take him as a model, and follow him."

If the Emperor takes even a slight action, the common people of the world will all be watching and will think the sun is rising from the west. What is the little Emperor doing? To some extent, they will pay attention to potatoes and sweet potatoes. Once someone grows twenty or thirty shi, that would be a great deed for the benefit of the people!

Empress Dowager Li hesitated. The little Emperor had just given her a lesson on "Hong" (greatness) and "Yi" (firmness). "Hong" meant having the world in one's heart. If that Luo Gongchen hadn't lied and there really were food crops with a yield of twenty or thirty shi per mu, once it succeeded, who in the world would dare to say things like "a ten-year-old ruler cannot govern the world"?

Even if it didn't succeed, it would at least show that the Emperor had a heart of greatness and firmness, which could gain him more recognition.

Empress Dowager Li thought and thought, then shook her head and said, "It is better to focus on your studies. Practicing martial arts can still be explained as being related to the assassination attempt and the laws of the ancestors; after all, the founding Emperor and the Chengzu Emperor both had illustrious military achievements. But now, for the Emperor to farm is truly neglecting his proper work. The court officials will rise up to remonstrate, and I fear it will be difficult to end."

Empress Dowager Li didn't want to cause more trouble; she only hoped that her child could grow up safely and successfully take over the Great Ming, which would fulfill the late Emperor's entrustment.

Zhu Yijun still didn't give up and said, "Your son will definitely complete his studies well."

"It's not because of your studies." Empress Dowager Li hesitated, but still explained the pros and cons in detail. Originally, Empress Dowager Li could have just demanded it with her authority without explaining.

But on the day of the assassination attempt, the little Emperor had knocked over tables and chairs while dodging the pursuit, and the moment he opened his mouth, he said not to blame him for his lack of decorum, which made Empress Dowager Li feel a sense of trepidation and even sadness. How had mother and son reached this point?

If she constrained him any more strictly without explaining, she feared that mother and son would drift apart and create an even greater rift.

Would the ministers in the court remonstrate because the little Emperor personally engaged in agriculture and point fingers at the little Emperor's words and actions?

Yes, they definitely would, and everyone would do it, even Zhang Juzheng might oppose it.

The Emperor is a noble person by birth. When sacrificing to the spring god of agriculture in the spring, symbolically holding the plow is enough. The most important thing is to study, to learn the Four Books and Five Classics, and to be a good Emperor who meets their standards.

The Great Ming had strict ritual and law.

Luo Gongchen had run his legs off, begging everyone everywhere to collect taxes on foreign ships. This tax wasn't going into Luo Gongchen's pocket; it was for the state treasury and the inner treasury.

The Yuegang Maritime Trade Office didn't just have him as a Coastal Defense Vice Prefect. Just the Tax Collection Office had three Coastal Defense Vice Prefects, as well as the Tax Collection Eunuch, the Chenghai County Magistrate, the Fujian Provincial Governor, the Investigating Censor, and various officials of the Fujian Tax Collection Office watching. How much could Luo Gongchen possibly put into his own pocket by collecting taxes on foreign ships?

Luo Gongchen was creating revenue for the court.

For doing this thing that didn't harm the interests of any Great Ming person,

and creating revenue for the court, there were mostly opponents in the court. "The Nine Classics of the State say to cultivate civil virtue to treat distant people with kindness."

The little Emperor actually wanted to personally engage in agriculture; the court officials would definitely submit memorials to discuss it.

This also involved the dispute between agricultural studies and Confucian studies.

Agricultural studies advocated "the ruler and the people farming together" and "sharing the harvest equally." "The ruler and the people farming together" meant the ruler personally participated in agricultural affairs, and "sharing the harvest equally" meant that all harvests should be distributed evenly to everyone.

Sharing the harvest equally was absolutely impossible to achieve with the productivity of the pre-Qin era; it was a political ideal similar to a utopia or a world of great harmony.

And "the ruler and the people farming together" was a viewpoint that had been personally refuted by the Confucian sage—Mencius!

"Mencius, Teng Wen Gong Part I, Chapter 4" recorded in detail how Mencius personally debated the issue of the ruler and the people farming together with the agriculturalist Chen Xiang, with Mencius winning with an overwhelming advantage. Of course, this was a one-sided record of Confucianism, and agricultural studies had long since lost its orthodoxy.

This was a story from the pre-Qin era; would the Confucian scholars of the Great Ming still use the disputes of the pre-Qin era to argue the principles of the Ming Dynasty?

Wasn't this using the imperial sword of a previous dynasty to manage the Emperor of the Great Ming?

Confucian scholars would indeed do that.

Because Confucianism was an extremely antiquity-worshipping doctrine, and Confucian scholars were an extremely antiquity-worshipping collective. The first thing they loved to do when submitting memorials was to imitate the "Three Eras." As soon as they opened their mouths, it was how Yao, Shun, and Yu did this or that; it seemed that if they didn't cite them, they would appear unlearned.

If the Emperor personally farmed, wouldn't all the "meat-eaters" (officials) in the world have to farm?

This would be slapping the face of the great Confucian sage Mencius and slapping the face of all the Confucian students in the world.

"The ruler and the people farming together" is rebellious and against the Way!

Empress Dowager Li didn't understand scholarship, but she understood officials. These officials would want to preach even when there was nothing to talk about, let alone when there was something.

Empress Dowager Li and Empress Dowager Chen, the two Empresses Dowager, were quite dissatisfied with the corrupt Confucian scholars. Empress Dowager Chen even felt that the ministers in the court were using the frameworks of Confucianism to weave a basket and put the Emperor inside; the ministers were just using the word "sage" to constrain the Emperor.

If those ministers, powerful squires, and gentry who were deeply influenced by Confucian education had even a little bit of respect for the Confucian classics, could they still disregard the country and, instead of being great and firm, only know how to stubbornly dig away at the foundations of the Great Ming?

Empress Dowager Li explained the reasons earnestly. If the Emperor really wanted to do it, he could wait until he grew up and wait until he personally ruled.

Zhu Yijun fully understood Empress Dowager Li's worries and nodded, saying, "Your son understands."

After returning to the inner bedchamber of the Ganqing Palace, he didn't read the sage's books, nor did he think about the Jin Party, but was thinking about how to push forward the planting of potatoes and sweet potatoes.

Zhu Yijun couldn't even care about collecting taxes on foreign ships; all his thoughts were on these potatoes and sweet potatoes.

After a brief weighing of the situation, he decided he must go through with it. And if he wanted to break free from the ritual constraints of "the ruler and the people farming together," the key person for this matter was not someone else, but Zhang Juzheng.

Zhang Juzheng controlled the Cabinet. If he could firmly support his personal engagement in agriculture and "the ruler and the people farming together," then this matter might not be impossible to achieve.

Zhang Juzheng was not a traditional, conservative, pedantic, or stubborn Confucian scholar. Any reformist would have doubts about the old system and would want to improve it to display the ambitions in their heart.

In fact, no matter what, Zhu Yijun wouldn't lose out in this matter. Even if he couldn't achieve "the ruler and the people farming together" in the end, causing the Great Ming to pay attention to crops like potatoes and sweet potatoes would be a huge profit for Zhu Yijun.

The ten-year-old young Emperor, "worrying before the world worries," had the world in his heart and wanted to do these things for the world, but he just didn't pay attention to the methods. After all, the little Emperor hadn't studied Mencius yet, and he had only been studying the Analects seriously for three days, so he didn't know the gravity of the situation.

The Great Ming ministers still had this kind of tolerance. Those who didn't have this tolerance were naturally officials who didn't cultivate benevolence and virtue and had no respect; they should be subjected to extraordinary punishments, and these unfilial and disloyal officials should be sent to the Dissection Institute to have their hearts, livers, spleens, and stomachs dug out to see if they were all black!

Zhu Yijun signaled Zhang Hong to extinguish the lights; he needed to sleep early and rise early to grow tall.

Zhang Hong understood His Majesty's thoughts and worries.

When Zhang Hong left the Ganqing Palace, he waited for a long time by the side of the palace gate without lighting a lamp, blending into the night. After a long time, a palace maid hurried over.

"Did you tell Xu Jue everything?" Zhang Hong asked.

"Yes," the palace maid replied hurriedly.

Zhang Hong waved his hand and said with a smile, "Hmm, go back."

Xu Jue was Feng Bao's man; Xu Jue had worshipped Feng Bao as his patron and foster father and was the most trusted of Feng Bao's confidants. And this palace maid was arranged by Zhang Hong to pass information to Feng Bao.

Zhang Hong found that he was more than capable of being a eunuch in the Ganqing Palace, but he couldn't yet be a "Grand Ancestor." He didn't yet possess Feng Bao's ability to leave Ge Shouli speechless in the outer court.

This was an opportunity for Feng Bao; it just depended on whether Feng the Great Eunuch had a heart of respect.

At this moment, inside the Wenchang Pavilion of the Quanchu Guild Hall, Zhang Juzheng lit three bright lamps and was writing and drawing non-stop. His official duties were extremely busy. After returning from the Wenyuange to his private residence, he went to his study. He was annotating the new Four Books and Five Classics for the little Emperor, and he also had to personally write a book for the Emperor titled "Mirror for the Emperor with Illustrations."

This "Mirror for the Emperor with Illustrations" had illustrations, just in case the little Emperor didn't have the patience to read it; adding some illustrations would attract the child. The illustrations were the responsibility of the Reader-in-Waiting Ma Ziqiang, while the stories were personally compiled by Zhang Juzheng.

Zhang Juzheng truly hoped that the Wanli Emperor could become a wise ruler of his generation. On this January day with a late spring chill, he wasn't in a warm pavilion but in his study, wearing a heavy cloak and personally drawing.

The pen in Zhang Juzheng's hand was a hard pen with a graphite core sent from the palace—the pencil the little Emperor used.

The little Emperor's oral instruction was correct; the pencil was very easy to use, especially for Zhang Juzheng, who had a huge demand for writing. Not needing to dip in ink and being able to write continuously had the greatest benefit of not just saving time, but most importantly, his train of thought wouldn't be broken.

Zhang Juzheng was a scholar; his calligraphy and official script were excellent. After using this hard pen for a while, he wrote extremely beautifully. After he finished writing, he would hand it over to the clerks to copy, and finally, it would be sent to the Imperial Academy to be carved into blocks for printing, and then presented to the little Emperor for preview.

"Master, it is already the hour of the Rat (midnight)." You Qi reminded Zhang Juzheng quite solemnly that he should rest. You Qi was Zhang Juzheng's head steward; in the Great Ming, this was called a private secretary or a family member, with different titles, but in short, You Qi was Zhang Juzheng's confidant.

Zhang Juzheng had never spoken a word in private to Feng Bao, the Director of the Ceremonial Palace, at any time or any place.

This was a major taboo. Once the Senior Grand Secretary of the outer court and the inner minister of the inner court colluded, it would be the Emperor of the Great Ming who should be terrified.

In most cases, Feng Bao and Zhang Juzheng communicated through eye contact, relying entirely on tacit understanding.

But some things had to be confirmed in private; this You Qi and the palace eunuch Xu Jue were from the same hometown.

If there were truly a major matter, such as the Empress Dowager wanting to issue a decree to abolish Gao Gong's position as Senior Grand Secretary and needing the cooperation of the outer court, Xu Jue would communicate and coordinate with You Qi.

Zhang Juzheng rubbed his slightly sore eyes and said, "After writing this chapter, the eighty-one rules of the sages and the thirty-six commentaries will be finished. They can be carved tomorrow morning, and they can be used for the noon lecture."

"There is news from the palace saying that His Majesty the Emperor wants to personally farm," You Qi said with an extremely strange expression.

Zhang Juzheng also looked at You Qi with a confused expression and asked blankly, "Ah?"

This little Emperor was truly not following the usual path.

Practicing martial arts was one of the "Six Arts" of a gentleman advocated by Confucius; the Emperor could practice it or not. If he wasn't afraid of hardship and it didn't delay his studies, then practicing it was fine.

But farming—what kind of thing was that?