Chapter 164: The Three Pillars of the Great Ming

Under the eaves of the Grand Secretariat duty room, Chief Grand Secretary Huang Liji stamped his feet heavily, shaking the slush from his official boots onto the stone steps outside.

He exhaled a puff of white breath, rubbed his hands together, and said, "Thankfully the snow today is quite dry. If it were the clinging, soaking kind, these old bones of mine might well have lost half their life."

As his words faded, Li Guopu also walked in from the wind and snow. He brushed the fallen snow from his shoulders and chimed in casually:

"This snow has come at the right time. A timely snow heralds a bountiful year. Perhaps next year's northern harvests will give us something to hope for."

The two men entered the room, one after the other.

Inside the duty room, several braziers of charcoal burned vigorously, their warmth pervasive, dispelling the chill that seeped in through the doorway.

Although honeycomb briquettes had been introduced over ten days ago, they were still only used in the homes of commoners.

Wealthy households and the palace still used top-grade red-vine charcoal — smokeless, odorless, and remarkably clean.

After the clerks served hot tea, they quietly withdrew.

Huang Liji cradled the hot tea, took a sip, and felt the warmth spread through his limbs and bones. Only then did he let out a long, relaxed breath, his expression easing.

He gazed out at the swirling snow beyond the window and said leisurely, "Ever since His Majesty took personal rule, the capital has been like this weather — changing by the day. New policies emerge one after another, swift and resolute. Now even the heavens themselves seem eager to join the excitement."

"The Chief Grand Secretary speaks truly." Li Guopu set down his teacup. "His Majesty's desire for good governance far exceeds that of ordinary men."

"Once the examination for statecraft policy papers was announced, anyone with any ambition could hardly resist submitting a memorial to discuss their views."

"Indeed. Fortunately, these must first pass through the secretaries, or we would have quite the reading load." Huang Liji sighed, then shifted his tone. "Speaking of which, Yuanye, has His Majesty finalized your policy essay on bureaucratic reform?"

At this, a trace of a wry smile flickered across Li Guopu's face.

He shook his head, drew a manuscript from a document box, and sighed. "You are now part of the new policies yourself, so there is no need to hide this from you. It is just that…"

He handed the manuscript to Huang Liji, helpless. "His Majesty said it is still not enough. He sees competence in affairs, but insufficient insight into the heart. He told me to revise it again."

Huang Liji took it, and a single glance at the dense red characters made his vision swim.

The Emperor's calligraphy danced like dragons and phoenixes, but the circled annotations and marginal comments were all remarks like "has not touched the root," "is there a more practicable method," "do not rush; proceed gradually," and "consider human nature."

He placed the policy essay back on the table and consoled him: "His Majesty holds you in very high regard. As his ministers, we can only exhaust our minds and energies to keep pace with his stride."

Though his lips spoke thus, a whisper of doubt could not help but stir in his heart.

This young monarch's mind was as deep as the sea, and his energy was so vigorous it seemed almost superhuman.

The demands he raised often struck straight at the core of entrenched abuses, yet were so wildly unconventional that they left his veteran ministers scrambling in exhaustion.

To keep pace with his stride — how could that be easy?

Better to wait and see during the Wuying Hall audience. By custom, an audience always followed the grand court assembly. Why had no summons come today?

For a moment, the two men fell silent. In the duty room, only the occasional crackle of the charcoal could be heard.

After a while, Li Guopu spoke. "Judging by today's circumstances, His Majesty will not summon us to Wuying Hall to deliberate. You and I had best attend to the backlog of memorials first."

"Very well." Huang Liji nodded, drew one memorial from the mountain of documents piled before him, and began reading it carefully.

The duty room gradually quieted, leaving only the rustle of turning pages.

After an unknown length of time, Huang Liji suddenly made a sound — "Hm" — and set down his brush.

"Yuanye, come and look at this."

Li Guopu rose at the sound, walked to his side, and took the memorial.

Fixing his gaze upon it, he saw the opening lines read:

"Wang Zhichen, Governor of Liaodong, reports: The western barbarian chieftains Dulingsebi Naiman and Huang Bada and others, with tens of thousands of people, have gone east to defect to the Jianzhou barbarians."

"Fortunately, the greater part of their tribes were unwilling to go, and the Jianzhou barbarians, also suspicious and wary, have not permitted them to cross the river."

"Now the bulk of their tribal followers have gone west to submit to Khutugtu Khan."

"Among them, the tribal headmen of Naiman and Huang Bada's followers — Neng Qitu, Jin Daiqing, and others — have brought men, women, and children totaling five thousand seven hundred and thirty persons to surrender."

"This subject has already ordered Regional Commanders Du Wenhuan, You Shilu, Hou Shilu, and Zhu Mei, along with Vice Regional Commanders Wang Mumin and Zu Tianshou, to receive them for the time being…"

Li Guopu's eyebrows rose in surprise.

"The Naiman tribe? Is this not one of the eight great tribes subordinate to the Chahar? Why would they defect to the Jianzhou barbarians without cause?"

Huang Liji stroked his beard and mused, "Among the various tribes, the Naiman have never been particularly close to the Khan. Now that the Khan has led his main force westward, the Naiman tribe, situated beyond the Liaodong border wall and so near the Jianzhou barbarians, likely felt the pressure and thus sought another path."

Li Guopu nodded and, following this line of reasoning, analyzed: "If that is truly the case, then the Aohan tribe, which neighbors the Naiman, may also waver. This matter is of no small consequence. We should immediately dispatch a directive to Wang Zhichen, ordering Liaodong to conduct close reconnaissance and gather military intelligence."

When he finished, he saw a strange, knowing smile appear on Huang Liji's face.

"Yuanye, you forget — the Supreme Commander of Liaodong is now Sun Chengzong."

Li Guopu started, then understood. He clapped his hands and laughed. "Look at my memory. I had completely forgotten."

He pondered for a moment, then pulled the question back. "Then what of these surrendered people? How shall we handle them? Accept them, or not?"

Huang Liji's gaze fell upon the memorial, his eyes deep and inscrutable.

"In my view, we should accept them."

He spoke slowly. "Some days ago, His Majesty ordered Ma Shilong to lead six thousand elite cavalry beyond the passes to seek an opportunity to intervene. His intent was to block the Later Jin's path into Mongolia. Now, looking again at this Naiman affair, we can see the Jianzhou barbarians are also exerting force. On the chessboard, our opponent has already made his move. We have no reason not to answer."

He paused, then proposed a concrete plan. "We can first settle them beyond the passes, designate pasturelands, and keep them under strict supervision. In this way, we display both Ming grace and Ming might, and they can also serve as a buffer."

"Good." Li Guopu picked up the vermilion brush and, without hesitation, wrote his opinion on the draft rescript. "Then I shall draft the rescript accordingly."

After writing, however, he did not immediately set it down. Instead, he rubbed the brush handle, scrutinized the memorial once more, and looked up at Huang Liji.

"Chief Grand Secretary, though this memorial is not a border report of the utmost urgency, I believe that, as it bears on the direction of national policy, it should be classified as Grade A and sent at once by express to the Western Park for His Majesty's personal review. What do you think?"

Huang Liji nodded. "It should be so."

With that, he raised his voice and summoned a Secretariat Drafter, placing the freshly rescripted memorial into his hands.

"This memorial is urgent. Deliver it at once to the Western Park."

The Western Park, Rabbit Hill.

In just over ten days, the place had already taken on an entirely new appearance.

The original emerald-green grassland had been cleared, revealing dark brown soil beneath.

Over a hundred veteran farmers and laborers summoned from outside the palace were busy in the cold wind, following the Emperor's decree to divide the newly cleared several dozen mu of land into distinct categories, reorganizing them into fields of three different grades: superior, middling, and inferior.

It was a massive undertaking, especially now with the weather growing colder by the day — the ground was hardening steadily, making the digging quite laborious.

And at the very center of this bustling scene, a plot of land roughly one mu in size had been cordoned off separately with wooden railings and coarse rope, making it stand out conspicuously from the rest.

At the edge of the field, a wooden signboard half a man's height had been planted, bearing four large characters personally inscribed by the Emperor. It was just that the content… was rather peculiar.

— "QQ Farm."

Gao Shiming stood in attendance at the field's edge, a gentle smile on his face, quietly watching the figure busily at work among the crops.

Empress Zhou had asked His Majesty about it and was told the characters read "Qiu Qiu Farm." Delighted, she had personally cooked noodles for His Majesty again.

Gao Shiming had been fortunate enough to receive a bowl as well — her cooking had indeed improved considerably.

This bizarre name, much like the "Hall of Earnest Diligence," left one utterly baffled.

But seeing that His Majesty's mood brightened a little with every strange name he coined, Gao Shiming had long since stopped troubling himself to fathom them.

So long as His Majesty was happy, what harm would there be in calling it the "QQ Hall"?

Xu Yingyuan stood nearby, hands folded, a newly compiled roster tucked inside his robes. His expression was solemn as he waited quietly for the Emperor's summons.

As for Wang Tiqian, he was nowhere to be seen today — presumably dispatched by His Majesty on some other errand.

Out in the field, Zhu Youjian held a long-handled bamboo broom, carefully sweeping snow from his precious spinach.

At the morning court session, he had been in high spirits, his heart surging with boundless ambition to rally the multitudes and scourge the realm.

Yet the moment he stepped into the Hall of Earnest Diligence after court adjourned, a thought suddenly struck him.

— Oh no! My spinach!

So he had hastily changed out of his court robes and hurried straight to Rabbit Hill.

Fortunately, after consulting the old farmer, his anxious heart had settled.

This dry snow was loose and light — one need only gently sweep the snow weighing down the tender shoots to prevent them from being crushed. The remaining snow covering the furrows would actually serve to insulate and preserve soil moisture, greatly benefiting the crops through the winter.

At last, when he had swept the snow from the final spinach plant, he straightened up with satisfaction and let out a long breath of relief.

He stepped up onto the ridge between fields, casually tossed the broom to a junior eunuch waiting nearby, and turned his gaze toward Xu Yingyuan, who had been standing by patiently for some time.

"Yingyuan," he said, brushing a bit of dirt from his hands, "well? Have the Valiant Guard Camp's evaluation results come out?"

Xu Yingyuan stepped forward swiftly, bowed, and presented the roster from his robes, a trace of a smile on his face. "Replying to Your Majesty, the name list has been compiled here. As per your instructions, every Platoon Officer's daily drill score, monthly written examination score, and total score have all been recorded individually."

"Excellent, excellent!" Zhu Youjian took the roster. "Let me see — just who will win my Company Commander posts!"

He opened the roster, and after reading only a few names, his eyebrows rose at once.

The list held some surprises, yet upon reflection, they made perfect sense.

According to the rules he had laid down, for officers at Platoon Officer rank and above, daily unit training performance accounted for fifty percent of the evaluation, while the "monthly examination" score — reflecting individual cultural attainment and military theory — likewise accounted for fifty percent.

As for the lowest-ranking File Leaders, personal martial prowess was weighted more heavily, with training scores and individual combat ability each accounting for fifty percent.

Ordinary soldiers were not evaluated individually — their retention depended entirely on whether their unit prevailed in the assessments.

The name ranked first came as no surprise.

— Sun Yingyuan.

Training score: ninety-nine. Monthly examination score: seventy-eight. Total score: eighty-eight point five.

As the first military officer to be promoted, Old Sun's unit had trained the longest and achieved the best cohesion. In the daily evaluations of drill formations, drill methods, and military discipline, they had dominated the top spot almost throughout — hence a training score as high as ninety-nine, leaving the rest far behind.

As for that seventy-eight on the monthly examination, it was not for lack of effort — it was simply that… his cultural foundation was somewhat weak. Most of the deductions came from problems involving arithmetic and logistical calculations.

Zhu Youjian smiled faintly and continued reading.

Second place: Wu Jisi, eighty-seven points.

Third place: Wu Fangrui, eighty-two point five points.

Both of these men were figures from the original Valiant Guard Camp who had distinguished themselves through their own ability.

Their advantage lay in starting early, with longer training time and well-coordinated units. Their training scores were quite high, their monthly examination scores were decent, and they had steadily secured the top three seats.

It was from fourth place onward that the fierce generals he had summoned from the border garrisons this time began to appear.

Fourth place: Cao Bianjiao, eighty-one point five points.

Fifth place: Zhou Yuji, seventy-four point five points.

Sixth place: Huang Degong, seventy-two points.

The training scores of these fierce generals were a notch lower than those of the top three.

These officers from Liaodong had been the last batch to enter the capital, so their units' cohesion time was naturally far shorter than the others'.

Moreover, since training scores were calculated as a daily average over the cycle, the poorer performance during that chaotic initial adjustment period when they first arrived had also dragged their scores down considerably.

As a result, their training scores all hovered around sixty.

But these men, after all, had crawled and fought their way out of the mountains of corpses and seas of blood in Liaodong. With their rich practical experience and rudimentary literacy, they had relied on extremely high monthly examination scores to forcibly pull their total scores up and squeeze into the first tier.

Zhu Youjian nodded with satisfaction and continued flipping through.

Finally, in the middle-to-lower portion of the list, he saw those familiar names — the ones that gave him headaches.

Those "semi-literate" fierce generals he had dug out from the dust of history.

Among the pool of military officers he had drawn this time, their cultural level was the absolute bottom of the barrel…

Thirty-seventh place: Kong Youde, of miner origins, total score sixty-four point five.

Forty-third place: Zuo Liangyu, fatherless since childhood, total score fifty-eight point five.

Forty-sixth place: Zu Kuan, of household retainer origins, total score fifty-four.

These three already had unremarkable training scores, and due to their literacy issues, their monthly examination scores barely scraped a pass.

Take Zuo Liangyu, for instance — it was said that his exam paper was riddled with wrong characters and smeared corrections everywhere. For many questions, it was not that he did not know the answers, but that the characters he wrote were unrecognizable even to the examiners grading the papers. That he managed a monthly examination score of fifty-five was already sheer luck.

(Attached image: Valiant Guard Camp Platoon Officer Evaluation Score Sheet)

Seeing this, Zhu Youjian's brow furrowed slightly, almost imperceptibly.

Xu Yingyuan had been carefully observing his expression, and at this sight, he asked in a low voice, "Your Majesty, does this list not meet with your approval?"

Zhu Youjian slowly shook his head, his gaze still fixed on the roster, but his mind was racing through calculations.

For him, simply training an army capable of fighting and winning was, relatively speaking, not that urgent.

The overall situation beyond the passes was still stable and controllable for now; even if this butterfly of his had already flapped its wings, the Later Jin could not possibly materialize overnight right beside the Great Wall of the Great Ming.

The Later Jin's wooing, dividing, probing, and annexing of the Mongols all required time.

By the most pessimistic estimate, there would always be at least one year of stable development.

This was the very foundation of his confidence that allowed him to train troops in the Valiant Guard Camp using this seemingly "inefficient" and even somewhat "bizarre" method.

A shortage of qualified officers would keep the army's organizational cohesion from rising, and its combat strength would form slowly — did he really not understand such an obvious principle?

Of course he understood.

He could absolutely do better, faster, and stronger than that Chongzhen Emperor in history.

He could simply promote all those late-Ming star generals from his memory, directly granting them high positions like Camp Officer or Battalion Commander, then select talent from the Capital Camps and frontier garrisons to serve as Company Commanders and Platoon Officers, hand the soldiers over to them, and focus entirely on intense drilling.

Fully trusting the wisdom and ability of this era's top commanders, the army produced would hardly turn out poorly in the end.

But what would be produced that way would be nothing more than a traditional, enhanced version of the Ming army.

That was not what he wanted.

In an old and ailing empire riddled with chronic maladies, if one wishes to hack through the brambles and open up an entirely new situation, what is the most important thing?

It is to set a benchmark, to create a template.

The New Policies in the capital were the "governance benchmark" he was establishing for the realm.

Sanitation, roads, regulations, official discipline, public order... everything had to be done to the highest standard.

Then, through the grain-transport laborers, scholars, and merchants traveling north and south, a generational image gap as stark and glaring as the later-era "China versus India" contrast would form in the minds of everyone under heaven.

Ultimately creating a siphon of hearts and minds, seizing the cultural, talent, and public-opinion discourse from the Southern Metropolitan Region.

Fostering among the realm's scholars a zeitgeist of "go to the capital."

The "New Policy bureaucrats" selected through the statecraft essays were the "official-discipline benchmark" he was setting for the bureaucracy.

Using a completely new selection method, supplemented by the strict oversight of the Depot and Guard agencies and the censorial system, the working style, performance-evaluation model, promotion channels, and even prestige and status of the New Policy officials would be utterly incompatible with the traditional old bureaucrats, thus forming a benchmark of another dimension.

Fame, power, wealth.

For those who entered the gate of the New Policies, these were readily within reach.

The first two he could give right now; the last, he was about to begin resolving.

And this new army of the Valiant Guard Camp was likewise a benchmark.

Uninterrupted daily drill, unshakable literacy classes, strict monthly examinations held once a month, full pay delivered into every soldier's hands, and his personally enforced zero tolerance for corruption.

The capable rise; the mediocre step down.

Everything would be decided by ability, and in the future, by battle merit.

In that case, this "military benchmark" he had poured countless efforts into creating — who exactly was its intended target for a dimensionality-reducing strike?

At this thought, Zhu Youjian hesitated no longer.

He raised his head and issued a string of orders.

"Proclaim Our decree!"

"The five Valiant Guard Camp Platoon Officers — Wu Jisi, Wu Fangrui, Cao Bianjiao, Zhou Yuji, and Huang Degong — have trained assiduously, are accomplished in both civil and martial affairs, and have ranked at the top in the assessments. They are hereby each promoted to Company Commander of their respective companies in the Valiant Guard Camp!"

Xu Yingyuan's expression turned solemn; he bowed and said, "As commanded!"

Zhu Youjian then asked, "At present, what is the total number of soldiers in the Valiant Guard Camp? How many Platoon Officers?"

Xu Yingyuan immediately replied, "In reply to Your Majesty, there are currently five thousand and fifty soldiers, and a total of one hundred and one Platoon Officers."

"Good." Zhu Youjian nodded and said,

"Then proceed as discussed the month before last: retain only sixty Platoon Officers. The remaining forty-odd Platoon Officers, along with the File Leaders and soldiers under them, are all to be reassigned to the various camps in the capital. Reduce the Valiant Guard Camp back to a strength of three thousand."

Xu Yingyuan's heart skipped a beat, but he still cupped his hands and accepted the order.

This matter had been decided a month ago; he had long anticipated it.

As expected, this sage sovereign truly meant every word he said.

Zhu Youjian asked further, "Where approximately are the Platoon Officers and elite vanguard troops from the various garrisons of Shaanxi now?"

Xu Yingyuan replied, "Shaanxi is a long journey; they are estimated to arrive around mid-to-late October or early November."

Zhu Youjian nodded, pondered for a moment, and said, "Very well, the next round of eliminations will be set for the twelfth month. In the interim, when the men from the Shaanxi border garrisons arrive in the capital, continue to fill the vacancies according to the previous method."

"For these matters, coordinate with the Ministry of War and the Chief Military Commission of the Five Armies as before. We have already given them notice."

"Lastly..." Zhu Youjian paused briefly and said, "Send word: at the twelfth-month assessment, We will personally select three Battalion Commanders from among them."

A Company Commander oversaw five hundred men; the next rank up was Battalion Commander, and above Battalion Commander was the Camp Officer who commanded three thousand men.

A new, higher step had been set forth. Whoever could ascend it would do so by their own ability!

With all orders issued, Zhu Youjian tossed the roster back to Xu Yingyuan.

"The items We ordered you to prepare — are they all ready?"

Only then did Xu Yingyuan collect himself; he hurriedly answered, "In reply to Your Majesty, everything has been prepared in advance."

"Good." Zhu Youjian nodded. "Return now, announce the list publicly, and then make preparations for the reassignments."

Xu Yingyuan accepted the order and departed.

Zhu Youjian watched him go into the distance, then turned around and looked at Gao Shiming, who had been standing in attendance the entire time and had witnessed everything.

"Let us go, Companion Gao."

His face regained that expression brimming with vitality.

"Accompany Us back to review the memorials, and along the way... let us wait for the examination results from the Inner Palace School."