Chapter 234: The Gentleman Draws the Bow but Does Not Release; Poised to Spring

Above the Gate of Imperial Supremacy plaza, a roar like crashing mountains and surging seas went on for a very long time.

Zhu Youjian stood atop the crimson stairway, his dragon robe stirring faintly in the wind; he simply watched in silence, feeling this wave of fervor that he himself had stirred up.

Not until he keenly sensed that the crest of the roar had passed and a trace of fatigue was beginning to show did he, with perfect timing, raise his right hand and gently press it downward.

The power of ritual lies not in whether the reasoning within it is correct, but in the solemnity of the ritual itself.

This principle is self-evident in all organizations that must stir men's hearts — religions, political parties, companies, gangs.

Zhu Youjian naturally understood it perfectly well.

One who rides the wind and harnesses momentum must grasp the rhythm of the wind and waves, only then can he turn the force of heaven and earth to his own use.

No words, just a single simple gesture.

Yet across the entire plaza, the shouts of several thousand men, because of that one downward press, subsided at a speed visible to the naked eye, finally dissolving into a solemn, reverent silence.

One could hear a pin drop.

Zhu Youjian's gaze swept over the faces below — some agitated, some stern — but in his heart he was utterly indifferent.

This grand assembly was, in truth, something he had been forced to convene in haste.

The entire climate of the court had, of late, begun to feel faintly off.

This off-ness did not manifest in the implementation of the new policies.

Road-building, the radio stations, the capital commercial tax, the Valiant Guard Camp's drilling, the various County Magistrate selection examinations — all were proceeding step by step.

These matters, for which he strictly controlled the details, strictly controlled the personnel, and strictly controlled the pace, were all delivering the results he had expected.

That off-ness came from the various distorted actions of men of the old order, after the new policies had cut away from the old.

Some people, in order to rush into the new order, had begun stopping at nothing — the quarrels over the Grand Secretariat candidates and the Governor-General of Northern Zhili were precisely that.

Some had already gone so far as to begin bribing the Secretariat staff, seeking to have their official documents selected.

Not to mention the calling cards, the bribes, the letters of connection and so forth, delivered to the mansions of Xue Guoguan, Huo Weihua, and other red-hot new-order magnates.

And as for the rest of the old-order officials — those without connections, without ability, without wealth, and even without much ambition —

one could also see, from the volume of routine memorials submitted daily and from the public sentiment gathered in daily interviews, that they had gradually begun to show a tendency to lie flat.

Two sides of the same coin: once you cut the white crows out from the flock, the gray crows and the black crows will naturally, because of that very categorization, begin to generate their own currents of thought.

Some surge forward desperately, some lie flat where they are, some muddle through, some rush to grab a fistful of silver.

And yet this very moment, by coincidence, was the most critical juncture before the full launch of the Yongchang new policies.

The recalled officials had nearly all entered the capital; only those from remote regions like Fujian, Liangguang, Yunnan, and Guizhou were still trudging and hurrying along the roads.

And many grandees of moral authority, even more unwilling to fall behind in the contest for the power of discourse, had begun brandishing their moral cudgels, attempting to steer the Yongchang Emperor toward the direction of the sage-ruler they expected.

Meanwhile, over a hundred prefectural and county officials from across Northern Zhili had also all entered the capital, submitted their governance plans, and were awaiting selection.

Once the personnel were decided, the work of setting the objectives for the Northern Zhili new policies, training the cadres, and so on, would have to begin immediately — all to be swallowed whole and completed within this month, and then dispatched.

After all, the Great Ming's autumn tax rule was: granaries open in the tenth month, collections complete by the twelfth.

This very juncture was precisely the autumn tax collection season.

It simply did not permit these local officials to truly remain in the capital, earnestly studying and debating for several months, before setting out.

Such was the entire new policy: with the Yongchang Emperor having seen the course of history in advance, many things were hastily framed and pushed out before they were fully ready.

Seeking only to win six-tenths out of ten — that was enough to make it worth doing.

And so, at this moment of converging winds and clouds, the tangled and chaotic currents of thought among the hundred officials were what forced the Yongchang Emperor to once again convene a gathering of hearts and minds, to clarify the objective.

After all, if one wishes to accomplish great things, one must first set the keynote — that is a truth unchanged since antiquity.

Otherwise, in the Yongchang Emperor's mind, the ideal moment to unveil these "three principles" should have been the New Year's Day grand court assembly of the first year of Yongchang.

That way, a new year and new policies, with an auspicious omen, would have spread more easily, and the effect of rallying hearts and minds would have been better.

Yet the affairs of the world never fully accord with one's wishes; when soldiers come, send generals to block them, when water comes, use earth to dam it — that is all.

And now, the pep talk should have been enough.

This so-called "surpassing all previous dynasties, accomplishing what no dynasty could accomplish" — though not as grand as the great dreams of later ages, it happened to be precisely the shared vision that fit the currents of thought and reformist aspirations of this era.

But pep talk alone is not enough; one must also kill a chicken or two.

These chickens, the Yongchang Emperor had been fattening for a full two months.

In the middle of it, he had even worried that some people, being too rational, might stop their hands early, leaving him with no chickens to kill.

Fortunately, the greatest lesson mankind learns from history is to never heed its lessons.

After gathering from many sources, he had at last collected enough chicken meat for today's feast.

Having endured this long, no one could ever again say that he, the Yongchang Emperor, acted with rash haste, could they?

Having taught such a lesson, no one could ever say that he, the Yongchang Emperor, was reenacting "the Count of Zheng's conquest of Duan at Yan," could they?

Then let the blade fall!

Zhu Youjian cleared his throat and began to speak slowly.

"We have made Our principles clear."

"We have also made Our aspirations plain."

"Since ascending the throne, We have asked Ourselves whether We have ever toyed with any so-called sovereign's art of manipulation. Toward all you ministers, every word and every sentence has come from a sincere and open heart. Every promise We have made, every explanation We have given, has been fulfilled and honored step by step."

At this point, his voice suddenly dropped.

"Yet — though We have treated all with a sincere heart, there are still those who regard the laws of the realm as nothing, who regard the common people as straw dogs! They are content to be borers of the state, great parasites of the people, draining the national treasury from within and losing the hearts of the people without!"

Before his words had even faded, he wheeled sharply toward the Chief Grand Secretary Huang Liji and demanded sternly: "Such men who corrupt the dynasty — can this be tolerated?"

Huang Liji immediately stepped out from the ranks according to the prearranged script, bowed, and said in a deep voice: "In reply to Your Majesty, it absolutely cannot be tolerated!"

Zhu Youjian nodded slightly, then turned his gaze toward the Duke of Ying, Zhang Weixian.

"Duke of Ying, such men who bring disaster and chaos to the realm — can they be shown leniency?"

Zhang Weixian followed closely behind, stepping out as well, his voice like a great bell: "In reply to Your Majesty, they absolutely cannot be shown leniency!"

Finally, Zhu Youjian's gaze settled on Ma Shilong, who had just entered the capital.

"Commissioner-in-Chief Ma! Can such men — who hold neither sovereign nor father in their eyes, who bend the law for greed — be pardoned?"

Ma Shilong also cupped his fist and said loudly, "Replying to Your Majesty, their crimes admit no pardon. They cannot be forgiven!"

The civil officials, the titled nobility, the army.

Having secured a clear stance from the leaders of the three parties he had sounded out in advance, Zhu Youjian nodded with satisfaction.

"Good." He spoke only that single word, then turned to his side. "Proclaim the edict."

An official from the Court of State Ceremonial immediately stepped forward, took a scroll of bright yellow imperial edict from the hands of a junior eunuch beside him, and began to read aloud.

"By the Mandate of Heaven, the Emperor decrees:

"We, ascending the great succession in Our youth, have labored day and night in anxious lament, fearing We might fail the trust of Our ancestors.

"Since Our enthronement, We have treated Our ministers with leniency, endured all matters with forbearance, hoping that sovereign and ministers, of one heart, would together overcome these trying times and rebuild the Great Ming.

"Yet, the words of the Hat-String Plucking Banquet still ring in the ear, the warning bell has yet to fade, and still a handful of obstinate and wicked men neither know repentance nor will stay their hands, treating Our leniency as something to exploit, treating the laws of the court as nothing!"

The official read to this point, paused briefly, and his voice suddenly rose sharply.

"Xu Yingyuan, seal-holding eunuch of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses, since the Hat-String Plucking Banquet, has still not restrained himself, has still not stayed his hand. The nature of his offenses is vile, the circumstances severe!"

"Within the Four Guards of the Soaring Steeds, he fraudulently claimed military pay, withheld rations, illicitly sold army horses, and also accepted numerous petitions, lobbying beside the sovereign to offer slanderous counsel!"

"Following a joint trial by the Directorate of Ceremonial, the Eastern Depot, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, it has been found that he received illicit silver totaling one thousand seven hundred twenty-six taels, the evidence of his crimes fully substantiated. In consideration of his past service in following the dragon, his household property is confiscated, and he is banished to the Xiao Mausoleum in Nanjing to plant vegetables!"

"Wang Yongzuo, eunuch Superintendent of the Capital Camps, since the Hat-String Plucking Banquet, has still not restrained himself, has still not stayed his hand. The nature of his offenses is vile, the circumstances severe!"

"In his post in the Capital Camps, he swallowed empty pay slots, embezzled and sold military equipment, and accepted bribes, to the point that military preparedness in the camps fell into neglect!"

"Following a joint trial by the Directorate of Ceremonial, the Eastern Depot, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, it has been found that he received illicit silver totaling three thousand two hundred eighty-one taels, the evidence of his crimes fully substantiated!"

"In consideration of his past service in following the dragon, his household property is confiscated, and he is banished to the Xiao Mausoleum in Nanjing to plant vegetables!"

"Tian Yu, eunuch Superintendent of the Nine Gates —"

"Wang Cheng'en, eunuch Superintendent of the Armor Arsenal —"

"Si Zhili, seal-holding eunuch of the Inner Supply Depot —"

The edict was immensely long.

The flat, uninflected voice of the Court of State Ceremonial official echoed across the silent square.

Every time a name was read out, a suppressed stir rippled through the crowd.

This edict, beginning with Xu Yingyuan, seal-holder of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses, and working its way down, named a full seventeen people!

Among them were "old retainers of Prince Xin's household" who had followed the Emperor since his enthronement, like Wang Yongzuo, Xu Yingyuan, and Si Zhili, and also former dynasty old servants like Tian Yu

and Wang Cheng'en.

Without a single exception, all were eunuchs! All were inner-court palace officials!

Zhu Youjian gave the crowd below a moment to digest this before he spoke again, his voice even.

"In the past, when the court fought corruption, it fought back and forth, but it was nothing more than factional attacks, a tool of political vilification."

"In the end, there was no one who was not corrupt. Whether one was deemed corrupt or not depended only on which faction one belonged to."

"What is more laughable is that, no matter how they fought, it seemed they could never touch the palace officials, the Depot, or the Guard."

"All under Heaven seem to have tacitly accepted that the Depot, the Guard, and the palace officials must necessarily be corrupt, lawless, and beyond redemption."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over Gao Shiming, Wang Tiqian, and Tian Ergeng.

"Gao Shiming, Wang Tiqian, Tian Ergeng — tell me, is this so or not?"

The three men stepped forward in unison and, following the prearranged script, bowed and replied, "Replying to Your Majesty, in the past, it was indeed so."

Zhu Youjian nodded.

"But since We intend to inaugurate the New Policies, We cannot let it remain so. The law does not bend for the powerful; the plumb line does not warp for the crooked. Our New Policies shall begin with this law, with this plumb line!"

"If We must seek white crows among the hundred officials of the realm, then within the inner court and the Depot and Guard, We must naturally seek white crows as well!"

"If we're looking for white crows among the officials of the realm, then naturally we must also look for white crows within the inner court and the Depot and Guard!"

Gao Shiming drew a deep breath, stepped forward, and declared in a ringing voice, "By His Majesty's decree, from this month onward, the twenty-four Directorates of the Inner Palace, the Eastern Depot, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard shall be purged once a month! To eliminate the black crows and reward the white crows!"

"Among them, the Embroidered Uniform Guard shall investigate corruption within the Eastern Depot, and the Eastern Depot shall investigate lawless conduct within the Embroidered Uniform Guard!"

"The various directorates of the inner palace shall be supervised overall by Liu Ruoyu, brush-holding eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial! Any instances of lawbreaking, extortion, embezzlement, or the like, once verified, shall be shown no leniency whatsoever!"

"Should any of the various ministers and officials of the court encounter unlawful acts by the Depot, the Guard, or inner-court officials, they may also submit direct memorials, to be collected at the Grand Secretariat under Li Guopu."

"Once a report is made, the Directorate of Ceremonial, the Eastern Depot, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard shall conduct a joint trial and determine the charges!"

At these words, the civil officials below the dais listened with rapt enjoyment, and expressions of vindictive satisfaction appeared on many faces.

Truly, a sage sovereign had taken the throne!

Where in the world had there ever been an emperor who, upon ascending, first turned the blade upon his own most trusted Depot, Guard, and eunuchs?

Zhu Youjian took in all their expressions and continued, "Therefore, from now on, let there be no more talk of the Depot and Guard running rampant, tyrannical and cruel."

"If the Depot and Guard have problems, then clean up the Depot and Guard. If the inner-court officials have problems, then clean up the inner-court officials. Address each matter on its own merits, and clean up step by step."

He looked around at them all and said, weighing each word, "This realm, now, may perhaps belong to the black crows — but in the end, it belongs to the white crows."

As his words fell, Huang Liji, the Chief Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat, was the first to prostrate himself, crying out, "Your Majesty is sagely and enlightened!"

Behind him, the hundred officials at once also knelt in unison, a vast sweep of them, crying out, "Your Majesty is sagely and enlightened!"

His rhythm interrupted, Zhu Youjian furrowed his brow, but still looked toward Li Guopu.

This Second Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat was now slowly stepping forward from the ranks, exactly according to the arranged script.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, your subject has a memorial to present!"

The smiles on the faces of the civil officials, who had just been watching the show, instantly froze.

The play of the inner court and the Depot and Guard had just finished its run.

Up ahead, the drama of the Inner Palace and the Depot and Guard had already played itself out.

Now, Li Guopu, who had overall charge of anti-corruption, stepped forward. What was he about to say?

Many of the quicker minds among them felt a jolt of alarm.

Some had already gone slightly pale, their hearts gripped by the utmost tension.

Zhu Youjian watched him, his expression calm.

"Approved."

Li Guopu drew a deep breath, raised the tablet in his hand, and spoke in a voice colder than the winter wind.

"This subject, charged with overall command of anti-corruption, has compiled all this month's impeachment memorials relating to graft — twenty-seven in total. I now report them as follows!"

"Zhao Shijin, Supervising Secretary of the Office of Scrutiny for Revenue, impeaches Xu Dahua, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works, for embezzlement, bribery, misappropriation of materials, and lining his own pockets in the matter of coin casting!"

"Liu Mao, Supervising Secretary of the Office of Scrutiny for War, impeaches Chen Jiuchou, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, for using the Mount Huang case to extort massive bribes from numerous persons implicated!"

"Yang Xin, Supervising Secretary of the Office of Scrutiny for Revenue, impeaches Xu Siyue, Chief Minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud, for accepting bribes and selling offices and titles!"

"Censor Gao Jie impeaches Wang Chongren, Bureau Director of the Bureau of Appointments in the Ministry of Personnel, for corruption and bribe-taking—"

Li Guopu's voice went on and on; he even had to pause midway to catch his breath before he could finish reading the entire memorial.

This list was even longer than the one from the inner palace just now!

A full twenty-nine names were read out!

Among them were notorious former members of the eunuch faction like Xu Dahua, and also men like Xu Siyue, who was a relative by marriage of the currently red-hot Tian Ergeng!

The Donglin Faction, the Chu Faction, the Zhe Faction — practically none were spared!

Only after Li Guopu had finished reading each one did he step back, cup his hands, and say, "The many impeachment memorials listed above — we await Your Majesty's decision!"

Zhu Youjian nodded and spoke slowly.

"Good. Follow the precedent set last month for disciplinary impeachments."

"Henceforth, all impeachments relating to corruption shall be under the overall charge of Li Guopu."

"Every person impeached must, within a set time and at a set place, present an explanation regarding the case to the Ministry of Justice."

"The Censorate, the Ministry of Justice, and the Court of Judicial Review shall conduct a joint trial by the three judicial offices."

"The Eastern Depot, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and the Directorate of Ceremonial shall dispatch personnel to attend and observe."

"In every matter raised, right and wrong must be clearly determined!"

"If the corruption is verified upon investigation, the offender's property shall be confiscated and his guilt established, and the person who submitted the memorial shall receive one red mark, to be entered into the New Policies evaluation! If the investigation finds the charges unsubstantiated, the person who submitted the memorial shall receive one green mark!"

"Furthermore, impeachments of this kind need no longer be compiled on a monthly basis. Report each case as it arises; investigate each case as it is reported!"

Li Guopu bowed and accepted the order: "This subject obeys the decree!"

Left Chief Censor Fang Zhuangli, Minister of Justice Qiao Yunsheng, Chief Minister of the Court of Judicial Review Zhang Jiude, Gao Shiming, Wang Tiqian, Tian Ergeng, and others also stepped forward in unison, cupping their hands to receive the order.

The expressions of the remaining civil officials varied.

There were those whose faces were ashen — they were men on the list.

With the earlier New Policies impeachment serving as a foundation, these corruption impeachments — those who could act, and dared to act — had almost all secured solid proof before making their move.

Having made this list, even if their lives and fortunes were not forfeit, their official careers were certainly cut short, and they would have no part in the New Policies.

There were those who secretly let out a breath of relief — men who had also stretched out their hands but, for some unknown reason, were not on this list.

There were also some whose expressions were animated, who looked left and right, even letting their gazes roam across the faces of their colleagues.

These were often men with clean records, or men who had only just pulled back their hands, and were now wondering whether they might borrow a colleague's official cap to advance their own.

Zhu Youjian's gaze swept lightly over these ministers with their varied expressions, pausing for a moment on the stern face of Left Chief Censor Fang Zhuangli, but he said nothing.

He merely flicked his sleeve and said, "That will be all for today."

The Embroidered Uniform Guard were quick to catch the cue; the whip in their hand cracked crisply through the air.

Crack!

"—Court is dismissed!"

The civil and military officials of the hundred ranks immediately prostrated themselves in unison.

"We respectfully see Your Majesty off! May His Majesty live ten thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand of ten thousand years!"

Anti-corruption, anti-corruption — how difficult a thing it was.

After withdrawing from the hall, Zhu Youjian led his horse and walked slowly, sighing inwardly.

This difficulty did not lie in pushing through the orders.

Anti-corruption had always been a matter of political correctness in the Great Ming; never had it thrown the court into chaos.

If he had harshly used the Depot and Guard to conduct outright secret-police rule in pursuit of anti-corruption, that might well have provoked collective resistance from the civil official corps.

And a flood of remonstrances decrying the Depot and Guard as cruel, treacherous, and framing loyal subjects would have surged in like the tide.

Because the essence of the matter would have shifted from anti-corruption to a power struggle between the Depot and Guard and the civil officials.

No civil official could endure the horror of waking in the middle of the night to the Depot and Guard smashing down his door and dragging him off to the Imperial Prison.

This had nothing whatsoever to do with whether he was loyal or treacherous, worthy or foolish, Donglin or eunuch faction.

But now, with a civil official leading the purge, with red and green marks as incentives, and with the Depot and Guard monitoring from the sidelines and providing evidence as support — that was different.

Everything proceeded according to procedure, according to process, supplemented by the imagined storms they all shared; any resistance could no longer find a pretext.

What was more, it was not that no one welcomed anti-corruption.

There were only so many official posts higher up; only when one man fell could another rise. This matter did not in itself harm the interests of lower-ranking officials.

And many who styled themselves white crows, or who had once been gray crows drifting with the current, perhaps even hoped to use such means to cut themselves off from others — and from their own pasts.

Add to that the Ming dynasty's speed of rotation and its disciplinary mechanisms, which meant the civil official corps did not coalesce around "office" but around native place and teacher-student ties, then exercised power through the disciplinary apparatus.

A Minister might be rotated out in as little as half a year — how could any "Ministry of War bloc" or "Ministry of Revenue bloc" ever form?

They were, for the most part, merely small factions built on native-place and teacher-student bonds.

And so the matter of anti-corruption was, in truth, not as difficult as one might imagine.

But fighting corruption is also extraordinarily difficult!

This difficulty lies in a tide that has been swelling for a hundred years.

The whole realm prizes a well-filled purse; a man who stays clean and takes nothing may even be mocked as a fool.

This difficulty lies in defining what corruption is.

Taking ten thousand taels as a bribe is corruption — but what about accepting a customary "token of respect" of a hundred taels?

At the founding of the dynasty that would certainly have been corruption, yet today it would instead be praised as "pure as water."

And this difficulty lies, above all, in the punishments themselves!

In many stories Zhu Youjian had read before, the moment someone transmigrated into the Ming dynasty, they would take up a great blade and slaughter corrupt officials wholesale.

Only after he himself pored over the penal statutes did he understand — he actually could not do that.

Damn it! Yet another precious legacy left to him by that amiable and kindly Old Ancestor!

That brilliant and martial Chenghua Old Ancestor, in the thirteenth year of Chenghua, noting that the Great Ming Code had been in force so long it was gradually becoming unsuited to the circumstances of the time, revised and promulgated the Regulations for the Adjudication of Penal Matters.

Within it, there is one most fatal provision — and it is precisely the chief culprit behind the steady rot of officialdom ever since the Chenghua reign.

"All soldiers, commoners, and persons in miscellaneous service, as well as household retainers adjudged to possess means, together with civil and military officials, Imperial Academy students, government students, honorary officials, seal-keepers, clerks, yin-yang practitioners, physicians, community elders, and household retainers — regardless of whether the sentence is caning, the heavy stick, penal servitude, exile, or even a capital crime not falling under the gravest categories — shall all be permitted to redeem their punishment by transporting charcoal, transporting lime, transporting bricks, paying grain, paying rice, and the like."

What does that mean?

It means that so long as it is not some unpardonable capital offense, and no matter who you are, if you commit a crime, you need only pay up!

Of course, corruption by officials is still a crime. So how is that handled?

"Regulation on Officials Receiving Property: Civil officials, Imperial Academy students, seal-keepers, and clerks who receive property and bend the law, where the amount reaches the threshold for strangulation, shall be sentenced to military exile at a nearby guard station."

Aha — the maximum punishment has become military exile, and exile nearby at that.

If you commit an offense in the Southern Metropolitan Region, you can simply be exiled to a guard station in the vicinity of the Southern Metropolitan Region.

What the hell difference is there between that and no punishment at all?

And so, the matter of fighting corruption is not actually hard.

The Great Ming is still capable of pushing this forward.

But the matter of fighting corruption is also extraordinarily hard.

Never mind anything else — just try amending that Regulations for the Adjudication of Penal Matters, and I guarantee the entire court and country will leap to their feet in uproar.

Even men like Xue Guoguan and Huo Weihua — "sycophantic hangers-on" — probably lack the courage to submit such a memorial.

This is also why Wei Zhongxian was so ferocious, why at the slightest provocation he would have men beaten to death inside the prison of the imperial decree.

Once outside that prison, on a trifling matter like corruption, I assure you, in our Great Ming, it is not the case that you, Nine Thousand Years, can crush whoever you wish!

Leading his horse, Zhu Youjian walked on with steps growing heavier and heavier, until at last he could not help but heave a deep sigh.

Gao Shiming, at his side, understood nothing of what was going on and could only follow step by step.

Enough!

Zhu Youjian shook his head inwardly.

This business of fighting corruption — it is exactly like wiping one's backside.

The first wipe removes the filthiest, the biggest clump.

The next wipe removes the next filthiest, the next biggest clump.

Wiping over and over until the end, it may look clean, yet it can never be truly clean. Only the color on that paper has faded to something tolerable, that is all.

Moreover, wiping one's backside requires attention to frequency and force — if you wipe too hard, you will draw blood. For a dynasty like the Great Ming, grown thick with piles of hemorrhoids, this is all the more true. After all, a burst hemorrhoid is not incapable of costing a life.

And so, a hemorrhoid like the Regulations for the Adjudication of Penal Matters — for now, Zhu Youjian can only turn a blind eye and deal with it gradually.

After all, this is the great policy that truly pits one against the will of the entire realm!

Compared with letting criminals buy their way out, land surveys are nothing! Fighting corruption is nothing! Reforming the ancestral institutions is nothing!

This is setting oneself against every man of wealth under heaven!

But then again, the Great Ming's noble backside is not something just anyone may wipe, nor does just anyone have the standing to do so!

A certain ancient-well-like, expressionless, stern-faced visage rose in Zhu Youjian's mind, and he gave a cold inward laugh.

He swung himself into the saddle, looked up, and found he had already arrived before Wuying Hall, so he simply turned in the saddle and instructed: "Companion Gao, send word down — at the hour of wei, convene a meeting at Wuying Hall. Civil officials, ennobled nobles, military officers — summon every man on the list."

"All the many matters left hanging in the air — today, every one of them shall be settled one by one."

Gao Shiming cupped his hands and acknowledged the order.

Having said this, Zhu Youjian still felt a foul anger pent up in his chest.

His gaze rose unbidden and fell upon the distant roof ridge of Wuying Hall.

Among the row of glazed-tile beasts bathed in the light of day, the divine beast "Xiezhi" — representing justice and law — stood with head raised to the sky, silently poised.

Zhu Youjian's eyes abruptly sharpened.

He reached back and unhooked from the saddle the carved longbow that had long accompanied him.

Drew an arrow, nocked it, drew the bow.

The string of movements flowed like water, charged with a suppressed sense of power.

The bowstring was drawn slowly back with a tooth-grating creak, until the bow opened full as the round moon.

The ice-cold arrowhead gleamed with a cold light under the winter sun, aimed from afar straight at that divine beast symbolizing law.

His breathing grew long and deep; the whole world seemed to shrink to the bow, the arrow, and that tiny distant target.

The surrounding guards and eunuchs all held their breath; even their heartbeats seemed about to stop.

If Zhu Youjian released his fingers, this arrow would carry the force of a thunderbolt and shatter that Xiezhi to pieces.

Yet he simply aimed like that for a long, long time.

Gao Shiming, at his side, was quaking in his boots, hesitating over whether to remonstrate with His Majesty against committing such an act of world-shaking outrageousness.

But at the same time he felt that, given His Majesty's past conduct, this act might carry some deeper meaning, and so he suppressed the impulse to remonstrate.

Sure enough, just as that force was drawn to its utmost limit, Zhu Youjian slowly eased the bowstring back, inch by inch.

The dull thump of the bow limbs snapping back echoed with startling clarity through the silent palace lane.

Zhu Youjian lowered his eyes and gazed at the longbow and great arrow in his hands.

No——

The time is not yet ripe.

He must first conduct himself as a gentleman; only when change proves truly impossible may he unleash the thunderbolt.

This is the forbearance of a sovereign, and a test for the assembled ministers as well.

As the ancient worthy said: the gentleman draws the bow but does not release — poised, ready to spring. Truly it is so!