Chapter 143: The Problems of Great Ming Today (I)

Ni Yuanlu's face flushed crimson, as if a fire were blazing in his chest.

"Gentlemen, please look at the screen!"

As his words fell, a young eunuch tore away the paper on the screen once more, revealing a new page.

It was a strange diagram, composed of many vertical bars of varying lengths arranged in a row.

"In the era of Chengzhou, the dynasty's mandate lasted eight hundred years!"

"The Western Han and Eastern Han, each endured for over two centuries."

"The great flourishing of the Tang lasted two hundred and eighty-nine years."

"The two Song dynasties combined also spanned three hundred and nineteen years."

Ni Yuanlu's speech grew faster and faster, his voice echoing through the now-silent great hall.

"And as for our Great Ming, from the Hongwu founding to the present day, it has already been two hundred and fifty-nine years!"

He paused, his gaze burning like a torch as it swept across the astonished and uncertain faces before him.

"So, have any of you, my lords, ever considered — how many years will the mandate of our Great Ming be?"

A deathly silence fell over the hall.

Everyone stared at him with eyes filled with a mixture of horror, absurdity, and disbelief.

That no dynasty under heaven is imperishable is a truth everyone understands.

— Perhaps Qin Shi Huang did not understand it, but the emperors who came after should all have understood.

Yet understanding is one thing; who would dare, in the imperial court, before the very eyes of the Emperor, to tear through this paper-thin window?

Has Ni Yuanlu gone mad? Look who sits upon the throne behind you!

As if blind to the crowd's stares, Ni Yuanlu remained immersed in his own rhythm and continued:

"To answer this question, we might perhaps take history as our mirror."

"The Western Zhou and the two Song dynasties fell to foreign foes; the Eastern Zhou and the Tang fell to enfeoffed princes and military governors; the Western Han fell to a powerful minister; the fall of the Eastern Han and the tyrannical Qin began with the common people."

"Then, if our Great Ming were to fall, what would be the cause?"

The assembled ministers were all terrified; many no longer dared to listen or look, and bowed their heads one after another, eyes on their noses, noses on their hearts, as if this could isolate them from this monstrous calamity.

Just within this suffocatingly oppressive atmosphere, a shout of rebuke suddenly exploded!

"Insolence!"

Everyone abruptly looked up to see that Han Kuang had already risen from his seat!

His beard and hair bristled, his whole body trembling with rage, as he pointed at Ni Yuanlu in uncontainable fury.

"Your Majesty! This subject petitions that this scoundrel be executed, to set the record straight!"

"Huangji Hall is a place of the utmost solemnity — how can it tolerate such treasonous ravings! This is not a matter any subject should speak of!"

Han Kuang's voice had become somewhat distorted by anger, yet it was filled with an unyielding finality that brooked no doubt.

Everyone fell silent, turning their eyes toward the throne.

The eye of the storm had now gathered.

Ni Yuanlu, unflustered, merely turned around, bowed once more with clasped hands toward Zhu Youjian upon the throne, and then stood with his hands at his sides, silent.

A wordless gesture, yet it conveyed the clearest of attitudes — everything I have said is by imperial command.

For a moment, the atmosphere in the hall froze to an extreme, and all eyes converged upon the young Son of Heaven, awaiting his judgment.

Huang Liji, who had been sitting as steady as a fisherman on his rock, sighed inwardly.

You fool, has living at the cemetery dulled your wits? Can you truly not see the situation clearly today?

Today's lecture — how could it be that these five wished to speak? It is clearly the Emperor who wishes to speak!

Sure enough, Zhu Youjian upon the throne slowly began to speak:

"Minister Han, do you truly believe there exists in this world a dynasty that shall never perish for ten thousand generations?"

A plain question, yet it struck straight at the vital point.

Han Kuang struggled fiercely within himself for a moment, but in the end could not bring himself to speak against his conscience, and could only bow and reply: "Replying to Your Majesty, in this world... truly there is no dynasty that does not perish."

But he immediately raised his head again and added in an urgent tone:

"However, Your Majesty! Such words might be expounded upon in private, or discussed with the Grand Secretaries, but they absolutely must not be proclaimed openly in this great hall!"

"Once such discourse spreads, the unrest of the people's hearts throughout the realm will begin from this very moment! When that time comes, villainous elements will exploit this to stir up trouble, the foundations of the state will be shaken, and regret will come too late!"

Zhu Youjian gently shook his head.

"Minister Han's heart is in the right place."

He first offered this affirmation, then immediately shifted his tone.

"However, to conceal an illness and avoid treatment is ultimately the way of Duke Huan of Cai, destined to be buried in the dust of history."

"Though I have read little, I still understand the principle of nipping trouble in the bud."

Han Kuang was so anxious that sweat beaded on his forehead.

"Your Majesty, this subject is not saying this matter should not be raised, but that it cannot be raised here, cannot be raised at this time, cannot...!"

He paused, swallowing the words "cannot be raised before all under heaven, for the common people are ignorant, hear only half of what is said, and from then on every region will be plagued with unrest," but the meaning was already fully revealed.

Zhu Youjian nodded, as if quite in agreement.

"Minister Han's words are indeed reasonable."

Just as Han Kuang felt a slight easing of the tension in his heart, Zhu Youjian suddenly posed a world-shaking hypothetical.

"But... Minister Han, let me ask you: suppose it were the time of Emperor Ling of the Eastern Han."

"And the entire court, from sovereign to minister, and even the common people of the realm, all saw in advance that the Great Han was about to fall."

"Would the warlords of the realm have instantly risen up together, tearing the Great Han to pieces before Dong Zhuo even entered the capital? Or would the subjects of the realm have been mindful of danger in times of peace, united in purpose, and worked together to reverse the course of events and restore the House of Han?"

The assembled ministers were stunned speechless by this unconventional proposition.

Han Kuang was also completely stunned.

What… what kind of argument was this?

Knowing the Han was about to fall? This… this is utterly unheard of!

And yet this argument… seemed to hold some faint truth.

But… but for a moment, his mind churned into a tangled mess, utterly unable to sort out his thoughts.

Before Han Kuang could think it through, Zhu Youjian continued.

"Minister Han, be seated. If the Great Ming is truly doomed, then whether we discuss it or not, it will fall in the end. It is only a matter of sooner or later."

"If men's hearts are shaken, perhaps it will fall faster. But it is also possible that, by seeing the maladministration clearly, all wills unite as one, so that this Great Ming falls more slowly… or even… does not fall at all."

"Let us first hear this magnificent essay before passing judgment. My ministers, all of you, have a little patience."

"This policy essay may indeed be called the foremost essay on statecraft of all time."

Zhu Youjian's gaze swept across the hall and finally settled on Ni Yuanlu. With a slight gesture that said "continue," he leaned back against the dragon throne and closed his eyes to rest.

Han Kuang hesitated, then sat down.

Although he had been Chief Grand Secretary in the previous reign, he had only just been recalled to office, and for now held no official post at all.

To put it bluntly, even referring to himself as a subject was an overstep…

Only then did Ni Yuanlu slowly raise his head. The look in his eyes as he gazed toward the imperial dais was nothing short of fanatical!

Yes! If one could see clearly in advance how the Great Ming would fall, what then?

This was precisely the path His Majesty had pointed them toward over these ten days!

Though the five of them, in the course of verifying the evidence, had time and again been so horrified by those appalling truths that they could not sleep at night, and had even at one point believed the problem had no solution.

But His Majesty was a born sage-ruler. Since he dared to make this question public, there must be a solution!

Ni Yuanlu turned around to face the assembled officials once more. His gaze swept across face after face — some terrified, some bewildered, some scornful — and the hot blood surged in his chest.

Every gaze in the hall

focused on him once again.

Everyone reined in their wandering thoughts, eager to hear what earth-shattering words he could possibly utter.

Ni Yuanlu's heart beat faster and faster, yet he grew more and more exhilarated.

"Take history as a mirror — but we cannot look only at history!"

He declared in a ringing voice.

"Would our Great Ming, like the Zhou, be destroyed by its feudal princes?"

He looked at the assembly. Many ministers unconsciously shook their heads.

A rebellion by the Zhu clan princes? That would be the greatest joke under heaven.

"Would it fall to foreign enemies, like the Mongols of old, or the Jurchen of today?"

Some fell silent, beginning to think along the lines Ni Yuanlu was laying out.

Though the Jurchen now held only a corner of Liaodong, the prowess of their army was known to all, both at court and among the common people. And the capital lay close to the Nine Frontiers — it was no place to rest easy.

If there were another Tumu Crisis, and the capital were suddenly besieged… The thought was absurd, but not entirely impossible.

Yet most, after thinking it over, still shook their heads in the end.

For one simple reason: the Jurchen were far too small in scale, their fighting men numbering little more than a hundred thousand. To say they could seize this vast realm was even less believable than a rebellion by the feudal princes.

Seeing this, Ni Yuanlu continued: "Powerful ministers, military governors — our Great Ming has no such troubles within, no such calamities without. These two can be set aside."

"Then, would it fall to the common people?"

The thinking of the majority was at last fully drawn into his rhythm.

They could not help but wonder: if the common people rose in revolt, where would it begin?

Would it be Henan, beside the great river? Shandong, where the White Lotus gathered? Huguang and Yunyang, teeming with refugees? Or Shaanxi, where the land was poor and the people wretched?

But a few in the crowd had a flicker of disappointment in their eyes.

Today's discourse, though novel and bold, seemed to be nothing more than this.

It merely claimed the virtue of "daring to speak." How could it deserve His Majesty's praise as "the foremost essay on statecraft of all time"?

This was clearly just paving the way for the coming new policies — nothing more. Truly… dull.

At that very moment, Ni Yuanlu shook his head.

"A sage-ruler ascends the throne, intending to launch new policies, abolish long-standing abuses, and cherish his people. How could he sit idly by and watch the common people wander homeless, watch beacon-fires blaze up on every side?"

"Therefore, we hold that the danger of the common people is likewise not the root cause of our Great Ming's destruction."

He shifted his tone, having whetted everyone's appetite to the fullest.

"So then, after scouring the records and visiting every quarter, what is that most fundamental answer we finally found?"

Ni Yuanlu sighed inwardly, a look of reluctance in his eyes, but he still stepped back and rejoined the group of five.

He was only responsible for opening the argument. The drama that followed was not his part to play.

Among the five, the one who opened was the most illustrious, the three in the middle the most intense, and the one who closed the most shattering.

He would have liked to seize one of the other positions, but his contributions were, regrettably, too meager. He lacked the face to insist, and could not bring himself to ask.

Begging for monthly tickets.