Chapter 172: Men's Hearts — In National Turmoil, One Longs for Jiangling

Lai Zongdao stood with his body bent forward, waiting for the young emperor's final instruction.

He remembered clearly that the Ministry of Rites had three matters to handle today.

The first two: one was to settle the hearts of all under heaven, the other was to reestablish the dynasty's credibility.

What, then, would this third matter be?

As expected, after a brief pause, Zhu Youjian on the throne spoke, his tone indifferent.

"Third…"

"…it is still a matter of men's hearts."

Zhu Youjian's gaze slowly swept across the assembled officials.

"Our Great Ming dynasty is now beset by troubles within and without, a hundred evils sprouting everywhere."

"But did this only begin today?"

"In times past, was there never a prime minister who turned the tide and saved the age?"

In an instant, everyone in the hall realized whom the Emperor was speaking of.

But… had Zhang Juzheng not already been restored to his original office and granted proper burial rites in the second year of Tianqi?

Was he going to restore the man's posthumous title?

The Duke of Ying, Zhang Weixian, abruptly raised his head, shocked and uncertain.

The high ministers exchanged glances, unconsciously lowering their breathing.

Zhu Youjian took all of this in. He paid it no heed and simply continued speaking as if to himself.

"There was. Zhang Juzheng was precisely such a man."

"The Single Whip law, holding names to reality, rectifying the bureaucracy, cleansing the realm."

"In that time, the land within the seas grew rich, and all laws and statutes were made clear."

But then Zhu Youjian's tone shifted abruptly, turning incomparably sharp.

"Yet what was his end?"

"He planned for the state, not for himself. Once he died, his entire household was confiscated."

"His eldest son, unable to bear torture, hanged himself; his second son was sentenced to military exile, banished to a distant miasmic land; his third son threw himself into a well but did not die, and was stripped of his status and reduced to a commoner!"

"A prime minister who once saved the age — in the end, he met such a fate!"

These words were like a basin of ice water poured over the heads of every civil official in the hall.

Those who had just moments ago felt stirred at the thought of posthumously rewarding old merit now felt a chill in their hearts.

Zhu Youjian's gaze was like a blade, sweeping over Huang Liji, sweeping over the faces of every civil official.

"Now, I wish to initiate new policies, and the state thirsts even more for worthy talent."

"The worthy prime minister I diligently seek is a Zhang Juzheng."

"But when the worthy talents of this world read of Zhang Jiangling's old affairs, do their hearts not feel a trace of dread?"

"You ministers here, when you serve the state, do your hearts not harbor a trace of misgiving?"

"When rewards and punishments are unclear, the loyal and the treacherous cannot be distinguished; when merit and fault are not separated, men's hearts turn toward retreat!"

"With the Jiangling affair before them, even if I were to cut open my heart and show it to you today, how could you ministers fully trust and accept it?"

Huang Liji's lips quivered. He rose shakily to his feet, wanting to say something — perhaps to defend the late emperor, perhaps to express his own loyalty.

Or perhaps… merely to offer some small comfort to men's hearts.

But Zhu Youjian merely waved a hand lightly, signaling him to sit.

The Emperor's gaze then turned to the military nobles on the other side.

"Then, in times past, was there no general who bathed in blood for the state and saved the age?"

The atmosphere in the hall shifted again. The breathing of the noble military officers grew audibly heavier.

Zhu Youjian sighed with emotion.

"There was. Qi Shaobao was precisely such a man."

"He abolished abuses, forged crack troops, first pacified the Japanese pirates in the southeast, then pressed back the northern barbarians at the Ji Garrison. He guarded the frontier for fourteen years, and the border passes were utterly untroubled."

"Yet what was his end?"

Speaking to this point, Zhu Youjian could not help but let the emotions of later generations seep in.

For a moment, he shed the identity of emperor, and his voice carried a note of sorrow:

"Once demoted, stripped of office and sent home, poor, ill, and destitute, trapped his whole life — in the end, his wife gone and his children scattered!"

"A meritorious servant such as this could not even secure noble titles for his wife and sons, nor preserve his wealth and rank."

"Now, among the Regional Commanders and Assistant Regional Commanders of the nine border garrisons, who will still think of serving with dedication? Who will truly count on that so-called ducal reward?!"

"That reward of hereditary Liaodong garrison that Huang Yuntai spoke of — it is truly, truly…"

Zhu Youjian shut his mouth, swallowing back the harsher words, but the disappointment and fury in his eyes he made no effort to conceal.

He slowly rose to his feet, surveyed the civil and military officials in the hall with their varied expressions, and asked, weighing each word.

"My ministers, how can the affairs of the realm be like this!"

"How can we let those who gather firewood for the many freeze to death in the wind and snow?!"

At these words, the assembled officials stirred. Among the older ministers, several now had unshed tears glistening in their eyes.

If the earlier matter of unredeemed rewards could still be dismissed as the Shenzong Emperor's failure to distinguish reward from punishment,

then these two affairs — Zhang Juzheng and Qi Shaobao — were practically a veiled condemnation of the Shenzong Emperor himself.

Yet at such unfilial words, such cutting speech,

not a single minister in the hall — not even the nobles whose houses endure with the state, not even Li Guopu who had received the Wei Zheng plaque — stepped forward to remonstrate or argue.

In every human heart, there hangs a scale.

Even Yan Song, corrupt to the marrow, would sigh at Hai Rui's incorruptibility.

Even a man who bent his knee to serve the barbarians would feel shame beneath Wen Tianxiang's dazzling light.

Even the Eastern Depot, a den of jackals and wolves and tigers and leopards, would enshrine Yue Fei in its halls.

Some things, even left unspoken, find their just measure in the human heart; the long sweep of history will pronounce its own verdict.

To cover them up and say nothing merely hoodwinks the ignorant and foolish; the wise harbor a thousand reckonings in their hearts, ten thousand calculations.

And those thousand reckonings, those ten thousand calculations, in the end amount to nothing more than self-preservation and drifting with the current.

The Ming's decline began in the Wanli era — began with finances and taxes, began with the civil service, began with frontier defenses — and yet how could it not also have begun in the hearts of men?

By this point, Zhu Youjian could no longer restrain his emotion. He simply spoke, issuing the Ministry of Rites' third directive of the day:

"Though my Imperial Brother restored Zhang Jiangling and Qi Shaobao's offices and hereditary privileges in the second year of Tianqi, We deem that still insufficient!"

"The merits and faults of the past lie buried in the annals of history, but now that they have come before Us, We intend to weigh them properly, to debate them properly!"

"The rewards that could not be conferred in the past — We shall confer them. The honors that were never settled in the past — We shall settle them!"

Zhu Youjian leaned forward slightly, fixed his gaze on Lai Zongdao, and said, one word at a time:

"This day, We hereby command the Ministry of Rites to deliberate and determine the posthumous ennoblement of Zhang Juzheng and Qi Jiguang!"

"Can the Ministry of Rites accomplish this?"

In an instant, every gaze turned to Lai Zongdao, Minister of Rites.

This was no longer merely "poking a hole in the heavens" — this was flipping the entire sky of the Wanli reign upside down!

It was not even a matter of restoring former offices, re-granting posthumous names, or permitting sacrifices and hereditary privileges.

It was to deliberate a peerage — to deliberate a peerage that had never been conferred!

From Wanli to the present was a mere fifty-odd years.

Nearly every man in this room had grown to maturity through that very period.

Enlightened as boys, studying the classics as youths, passing the examinations in their prime — the moment they entered officialdom, all was murk and muddle, drifting with the current.

If one or two stirred themselves to action, they could hardly escape being trapped in factional strife.

Every man in this room past forty had watched with his own eyes as the Great Ming's fortunes slid steadily downward.

And among the younger ones, whose heart lacked a surge of hot blood? Who was without a measure of high-spirited ardor?

When the family is poor, one longs for a worthy wife; when the state is in chaos, one longs for a good minister.

With the Great Ming in its present state, who does not long for Zhang Jiangling!

Lai Zongdao felt his scalp prickle and go numb.

In his mind, the calculations of reward and punishment flickered instinctively.

— The Great Ming Code stipulates that a civil official may be enfeoffed only if, in his lifetime, he has served as both a general in the field and a minister at court, has eliminated great calamities, and has served the state with utter loyalty. Zhang Jiangling… after all, never served as a general in the field.

— Qi Jiguang's achievements were great; he sat secure on the frontier fourteen years without incident, but in the end, his tally of severed heads fell short, and he lacked a single decisive great exploit.

But…

But what did any of that matter!

The Wei clan held three peerages in a single generation, and several of the ennoblement patents had passed through his own Ministry of Rites for processing!

What absurdity that was! What nauseating filth!

Compared to such a grotesque humiliation, what did posthumously enfeoffing Zhang Jiangling and Qi Jiguang — two peerless meritorious ministers — even amount to?!

In what was practically an instant, Lai Zongdao cast every scruple and restriction from his mind.

He stepped forward, bowed deeply toward the throne, and answered in a grave voice:

"Your Majesty! The Ministry of Rites can accomplish this! This subject, Lai Zongdao, is willing to accept this command!"

Zhu Youjian nodded with satisfaction. He pressed both hands downward in a calming gesture, signaling for silence in the hall.

He swept his gaze around the room, pondered a moment, and then spoke with even greater earnestness:

"We must say a few more words, lest all under Heaven think that We bestow titles and honors recklessly."

"This round of ennoblements spans from the Jiajing reign to the Wanli reign. The persons involved have no connection whatsoever to the ministers and nobles in this court today."

"There are those for whom honors were already decreed but never conferred — Hu Zongxian is one such. There are those for whom honors were never decreed, and whom We now posthumously reward — Zhang Jiangling and Qi Shaobao are such."

"But is it men of the past We reward, or men of the present?"

"In the final reckoning, it is for nothing other than these two words: the human heart."

"To govern the Great Ming, the civil service, finances and taxes, military preparedness, and all such matters are of paramount importance."

"Yet all these things must, in turn, begin with the human heart."

"Faced with this crisis unprecedented in two thousand years of Huaxia, faced with this moment when the Great Ming dynasty must fight for survival, if we cannot unite our wills as one, how can we salvage this perilous situation!"

Zhu Youjian stood just so, letting his gaze pass across the faces of each minister and ennobled dignitary.

Within the great hall, the eyes of every minister and noble — some stirred, some ardent, some resolute — were all fixed intently upon this Emperor.

Zhu Youjian spoke.

"Therefore, from this day forward, should any loyal and steadfast man of honor under Heaven exert his full strength to reverse this heaven-toppling course —"

"— then of all the wealth, titles, honors, and emoluments that We possess, how could We dare be the least bit stingy?"

Zhu Youjian raised his right hand. His expression was calm, but the words he spoke forthwith constituted his second political pledge since ascending the throne, following the affair of the Broken-Tassel Banquet.

"We make this covenant with you, and with all the people under Heaven."

"Here, in this very place, at this very moment, let the August Heaven and Sovereign Earth, let the altars of the Great Ming's realm bear witness together!"

"For all who serve the state with utter loyalty, who plead the people's cause, who open an age of enduring peace for the Great Ming — We shall ensure their titles are not conferred in vain, their deeds not left unrewarded, their names not consigned to oblivion!"

"The Great Ming has reached a moment when it must once more produce the Twenty-Four Meritorious Officials of Lingyan Pavilion, the Twenty-Eight Generals of Cloud Terrace!"

"My ministers — titles and honors bestowed, lives staked in earnest — We sit with an empty seat awaiting you. This heaven-saving deed lies right before your eyes!"

As his voice fell, the great hall filled with the sound of ragged, heavy breathing.

The assembled ministers wore varied expressions, but in their hearts, all shared a vague, indistinct feeling.

The long scroll of history stretches on, and it seemed as though, somewhere in the unseen, a brush was already writing upon it.

—In the seventh year of Tianqi, the Emperor, in Wuying Hall, set forth a deed to reverse the heavens and established a covenant of rewards that would shake the realm.

When a wise sovereign discerns men of talent, all worthy men will gather.

When a wise sovereign establishes rewards, all meritorious deeds will arise.

How truly, how truly fortunate is the Great Ming!

With these three matters of the human heart alone, the restoration of the sacred dynasty is already before our eyes!

The Duke of Ying could no longer contain himself. At last, he cast aside all his worries, rose first from his seat, and like a mountain toppling, a pillar of jade falling, he knelt upon the ground.

As if at a signal, the civil and military officials, the nobles and the hundred officers, all within the hall, knelt down in unison like a receding tide!

Within the silent Wuying Hall, only the rustle of robes and the muffled thud of knees striking the floor could be heard, rising and falling one after another.

Even one as seasoned as Xu Xigao, the Duke of Ding, now had tears in his eyes as he bowed and pressed his forehead to the ground.

The difference is too vast, far too vast!

There is no need even to compare him with the Shenzong Emperor.

Among all the Sons of Heaven of the Great Ming, apart from the Taizu and Chengzu Emperors, which one ever possessed such heroic spirit?!

In this game, my Ducal House of Ding will follow—what is there to lose!

Among the court officials, it was the middle-aged and elderly ministers and nobles who had lived through the Wanli era who were the most stirred.

As for the younger officials, though they may not have experienced the era of Zhang Juzheng or the indolent rule of the Wanli Emperor, they had still felt that same unwillingness and desolation through the history books and the sighs of their elders.

But more important still was the opportunity of this era!

How could the side of a sovereign who restores a dynasty lack renowned ministers of restoration!

At this moment, they felt only a surge of hot blood rush from their chests straight to the crowns of their heads, burning their eyes red and making their bodies tremble!

"Your Majesty is sagely and wise!!"

No one knew who it was, but a hoarse voice shouted these four words.

It was as if a powder keg had been lit.

"Long live His Majesty, long live, long, long live!!"

A sound like the roar of mountains and the crash of the sea erupted from within Wuying Hall.

In this sound, there was none of the perfunctory numbness of the past, none of the routine of the morning audience—only an excitement suppressed for far too long, only a hope bursting forth!

Zhu Youjian stood quietly, also striving to calm his own surging emotions.

After a long while, Zhu Youjian slowly raised his hand. "My ministers, rise."

The assembled ministers rose as instructed. Many were already disheveled in their robes, their expressions fervent, but the gazes they turned toward the throne were filled entirely with ardent zeal.

Zhu Youjian's gaze fell upon Lai Zongdao.

"Minister Lai."

"Your subject is here!"

Zhu Youjian nodded and said:

"The three matters for the Ministry of Rites are all matters of the human heart. The many critical junctures and personal considerations involved—I have already written them into the decree."

"When you return today, set out the plans for each matter clearly and as quickly as possible, and assign personnel to deliberate on them. Once a timetable is set, report first to Gao Shiming at the New Policies Committee."

"Every proposal shall be written according to the prescribed format. Once one is settled, publicly post it outside the Gate of Receiving Heaven."

"Thus, the very first matter of the new policies shall be carried out by you. Do not disappoint me!"

Lai Zongdao drew a deep breath, and his reply was sonorous and forceful: "Your subject—dares he not serve unto death!"

Zhu Youjian then turned his gaze to another person.

"Vice Minister of the Left of the Ministry of War, Huo Weihua."

"Your subject is here!" Huo Weihua rose to his feet, his expression agitated yet somewhat awkward.

There were words he needed to say, but under the current atmosphere, he no longer dared to speak them.

Zhu Youjian, however, spoke directly:

"This matter of bestowing military honors and rewards should, by rights, be handled by the Ministry of War."

"But such a matter of pursuing the bestowal of grace from the previous reign is no ordinary affair. In name, it is the conferring of rewards; in truth, it is the beginning of the new reign's effort to settle the people's hearts."

"For this reason, I have placed it with the Ministry of Rites to carry out."

"However, for all the old archives and past records of merit evaluation, the Ministry of War must also provide full cooperation."

"And from this day forward, the matter of evaluating merit and conferring noble titles shall still rest with the Ministry of War."

"Can you accept this arrangement of mine?"

Huo Weihua let out a long breath of relief in his heart. That small point of hesitation instantly dissipated, and he cupped his hands to receive the order: "Your subject respectfully obeys the sacred instruction!"

Zhu Youjian nodded with satisfaction and waved his hand for him to sit.

He paused for a moment, and finally turned to the next person.

"Minister of Justice, Qiao Yunsheng, rise and receive your orders!"

Lai Zongdao sat back down, his fingers brushing over the three silk decrees personally written by the imperial brush. In a daze, he felt as though his fingertips were scalding.

These were not cold articles of law; these were kindling sufficient to set a prairie ablaze.

The refined governance of the new reign would begin from this.

Subconsciously, he raised his head and looked around Wuying Hall.

The Duke of Ying, Zhang Weixian, had still not fully composed himself; his eyes were rimmed red as he sat upright and solemn.

The Chief Grand Secretary, Huang Liji, kept his head lowered, his expression unreadable, save that the hand resting on his knee trembled ever so slightly.

Among the rest of the Six Ministries and Nine Courts, white-haired men were everywhere.

But the young men newly admitted to the Secretariat all straightened their backs, the light burning in their eyes almost too fierce to meet.

On one side, the sun sinking behind the western hills; on the other, the sun just rising.

Lai Zongdao suddenly understood — this was only the beginning.

A storm that would sweep across the Great Ming had, this very day, quietly gathered here in Wuying Hall.

And he, Lai Zongdao, only fifty-six this year, was fortunate enough to stand at the eye of that storm.

He drew a deep breath, and felt the blood long stilled in his chest stir hot once more.

And yet…

Could the past of clinging to the eunuch faction truly be set aside so easily?

Lai Zongdao's blood had been hot for only a moment before the wits that had navigated officialdom for twenty years reasserted themselves.

His eyes narrowed slightly, and he could not help turning his head to look at Qiao Yunsheng, the Minister of Justice, who had risen to his feet.

The old Donglin cases — what did His Majesty intend to do about them?

Lai Zongdao's fingers, rubbing absently over the decree, gradually came to a stop.

(Image attached: the Eternal Prosperity Emperor's "decree," a new tool for a new dynasty)