Chapter 248: Preparedness as the Way: Yuan Chonghuan's Advance!

The moment Zhu Youjian tossed out the question, Yuan Chonghuan felt a jolt of alarm in his heart.

Just moments ago, as they walked arm in arm, sovereign and subject had spoken only of domestic trivialities; this question was the first the Emperor had raised that touched upon matters of governance. Yet among the various versions of the "Interview Compendium" that old acquaintances had passed to him after he entered the capital, nothing remotely similar had ever appeared!

In those interview compendiums, Your Majesty either inquired about grand aspirations for ordering the state and benefiting the people, or delved into the complex minutiae of a single locality or county, or probed deeply into regional conditions and the abuses of officialdom — but never once had he posed a question so vast and unwieldy, one that seemed to let anyone expound freely.

What is the meaning of this...

Before Yuan Chonghuan could think further, the young sovereign behind the imperial desk pressed a hand downward and said with a smile:

"No rush, Minister Yuan. You may think it through clearly before answering."

"Today's interview will not probe the particulars; time is quite ample."

As Zhu Youjian spoke, he gestured toward the antique bronze incense burner beside him, where a freshly lit stick of incense sent up wisps of blue smoke.

"I shall give you the time it takes one stick of incense to burn, to ponder this question."

When the Emperor finished speaking, Yuan Chonghuan did not feel the slightest relief; instead, his heart grew even more awed and wary.

He bowed deeply, clasped his hands in assent, then lowered his gaze and fell into silence.

But his mind was already racing at an unprecedented speed.

The first question exchanged between sovereign and subject — no matter how highly one estimated its importance, it could never be overstated.

Yet this manner of questioning, which deliberately granted a stick of incense's worth of time to think, appeared magnanimous on the surface, but in truth was all the more unnerving.

The question itself was simple; after all, a vague question could naturally be answered in vague terms.

One could speak of the fresh departures of the new policies, or of Lu Zhenfei's performance, or even simply extol Your Majesty's sagacious display in pursuing details — none would be out of place. Yet if one truly answered only the question itself, one would be doomed never to pass the jinshi examination!

Yuan Chonghuan had only passed the metropolitan examination after failing four times, and he understood this subtle art all too well.

The point was never the question itself, but how, by answering it, one precisely articulated one's own stance, demonstrated one's ability, laid bare one's aspirations, and ultimately... seized the opportunity one desired.

Indeed, though this question differed in form, in essence it was no different from the eight-legged essays of the examination hall.

Though the topic appeared to confine one within a certain scope, in truth it set no scope at all.

Yet what the empire's candidates wrote and presented varied enormously, all shifting with the grand currents of court politics, personal circumstances, and their reading of the chief examiner's mind.

Those who did not know the examiner's background, who did not grasp the trends of the times — even if their essays were dazzlingly brilliant, they could hardly escape the fate of having their names fall off the list.

Today, this young sovereign was his chief examiner.

And where, exactly, lay the crux of this question?

While Yuan Chonghuan was still lost in a thousand anxious deliberations, Zhu Youjian, utterly unconcerned, picked up his enormous blue-and-white porcelain tea vat and gulped noisily from it.

For a boor like Zhu Youjian, drinking tea was best done in great swigs — how satisfying!

The reason the Yongchang Emperor had personally stepped in today was half compulsion, half deliberation.

On the one hand, he was deeply dissatisfied with how the interviews had gone over the past few days.

The press of government affairs meant he could not throw himself wholly into every task.

But he was accustomed to having his subordinates report and summarize at the halfway mark.

And in the Secretariat's mid-point report on the interviews, after sampling over a dozen interview records — excellent, middling, and abysmal — he had quickly spotted the problem.

They were far too gentle and tenderhearted!

The new policy reforms in Northern Zhili were not a dinner party, not a poetry recital — they were a war of life and death!

If the new policies failed, the authority and the hearts of the people he had labored so painstakingly to build would suffer a devastating blow. The grand momentum he had created now was still nothing but duckweed floating on the water's surface, barely sustained by all manner of balancing acts — in essence, still a castle in the air.

What the hell was the point of questions that never even pricked the flesh and blood?!

Within the Secretariat, they had specifically flagged a number of problematic examiners.

Some deliberately fed answers, some smoothed things over, and some asked vague, perfunctory questions, merely going through the motions.

In the end, the ones who took this matter most seriously and posed the sharpest questions were, ironically, those county magistrates who had entered the capital but now could not secure a local post in Northern Zhili.

As expected... it is always one's own kind who hate their own kind the most. Well, what trade or profession is any different?

Therefore, his personal intervention today was precisely to rap these interviewers on the knuckles.

Starting tomorrow, the new policy interviews would by no means be permitted to remain so facile.

Whoever dared to go through the motions again — reprimands and green placards were all waiting for them!

On the other hand, his personal involvement was also meant to set a "standard" for the core team and to rally their hearts and minds.

The so-called "cultivate oneself, regulate the family, order the state, and bring peace to all under Heaven" was not confined merely to the implementation of the new policies.

In the training of personnel and the building of a talent pipeline, Zhu Youjian made the same arrangements.

At present, the talent echelon Zhu Youjian had planned was divided into four tiers.

The outermost layer was the Black Crows;

One layer inward was the "Gray Crow" cohort, soon to be screened and selected by Zheng Sanjun;

Further inward were capable ministers who could actually get things done, like Huang Liji, Li Banghua, and Xue Guoguan;

And at the very core were these young and vigorous officials of the Secretariat, whom he drilled day in and day out.

Among them, the highest ranked were no more than Grade Five, the lowest Grade Seven; the oldest were in their forties, the youngest in their twenties.

In their daily interactions, Zhu Youjian paid not the slightest heed to their discomfort or unfamiliarity, nor did he accommodate any so-called Ming traditions or customs, and still less did he care whether their ability or their shift in thinking could keep pace.

He simply, relentlessly, and from every angle subjected them to the strictest demands, using the work philosophies, methods, and attitudes of a later era, molding them by the standards of "management trainees" from his own time.

It was precisely because the new sovereign acted this way that the "New Policy Glossary" had swept through the Secretariat.

For the new sovereign would explain a new term only once.

And at each meeting, some attendees would hear the explanation, but many more who did not attend would never hear it.

Thus the "New Policy Glossary" existed in many different versions; each faction within the Secretariat had its own unique edition, exchanged and supplemented within its own circle.

As for those who could not keep up with the new policy thinking, whose abilities were too low, and who could not transform into the paradigm the new sovereign demanded — they were simply cleared out and sent back to their original posts.

After all, the Secretariat was not yet a formal institution.

Even now, these secretaries had no corresponding position or salary; all of them were drawing the stipends of their original offices while working here as outsourced labor, toiling off the books.

Being sent out—everyone knew it meant a career dead end, yet it could not even be called a demotion, so how could one submit a memorial to plead one's case?

If the Emperor says you are a good secretary, then you are a good secretary—that is all there is to it!

And today's drama, in which the sovereign himself descended into the arena to interrogate the local county lords, was precisely the ongoing "team-building" and "brainwashing" of this core team.

This secretariat was, in truth, the otherworldly "Whampoa Military Academy" that Zhu Youjian had fostered and gathered in this era.

Only, what this academy taught was not warfare, but Zhu Youjian's modern thinking, modern methods, modern concepts.

Within this academy, he could not yet teach ideas that were too far ahead of their time, nor could he push reforms that were too subversive.

He could only, through the constant shaping of his image as a wise and sage ruler and the trumpeting of grand goals, sustain the team's centripetal force and fervor. He hoped that this way, these sparks, once scattered among the black crows of the Great Ming in days to come, might hold on just a little longer.

But fledgling eagles still need time to grow.

At this stage, the ones who could provide the strongest driving force for his reform chariot were still the doers in the middle tier.

And Yuan Chonghuan—the man whom both the Donglin and the eunuch faction had, with rare unanimity, recommended for the post of Governor of Liaodong—was undoubtedly the most outstanding among them. Only, whether he was solid gold or merely gold-plated was not something to be puffed up by those memorials at court; ultimately, he had to come before Zhu Youjian and be tested by fire, to prove his true mettle.

Seeing that Yuan Chonghuan was still pondering, Zhu Youjian did not press him, and simply picked up Yuan Chonghuan's career summary dossier from the desk and began reading it over again in detail. Passed the provincial exam at twenty-three, passed the metropolitan exam at thirty-six—an ordinary level.

Not to be compared with a genius like Zhang Juzheng; even compared to Xue Guoguan and Li Banghua, he fell far short.

After passing the jinshi examination, he was appointed County Magistrate of Shaowu for two years—competent enough, but utterly unremarkable.

It was not until the age of thirty-eight that this "Yuan the Stubborn" truly saw his life take flight.

First, during the grand evaluation period, he rode alone to Shanhai Pass to reconnoiter the enemy situation, returning after twenty days, and at once his name for bravery spread among all his colleagues in the capital. Had the story ended there, Zhu Youjian would not have been sparing in interpreting it with the utmost malice.

You say you went to Shanhai Pass—did you really go, or was it a pretense?

You say you rode alone—truly alone? Without any servants?

Did that relative of yours, then serving as Judge of Yongping Prefecture, not provide any assistance? Impossible, surely?

To the suspicious Zhu Youjian, the whole story sounded just like a tale from a romance, full of exaggerations, and naturally raised many question marks. After all, officials renowned throughout the provinces for their incorruptibility and filial piety were beyond counting; it would hardly be surprising if now there was one more trying to craft an image of "heroic valor." The importance of reputation to an official career—the scholar-officials of the Ming dynasty understood that all too well; incidents of currying fame and buying the appearance of rectitude were endless, entirely normal.

But right after that, Liaodong suffered another defeat, Guangning fell, Wang Huazhen and Xiong Tingbi retreated in defeat to Shanhai Pass, and everyone in the capital was stricken with panic. The county magistrates who had come to the capital for the grand evaluation fled south one after another; some had barely entered the city before bundling up their bedding and leaving again.

And the gentry and capital officials likewise sent their families back to their native places.

The wives, concubines, and household dependents of every sort of dignitary packed the courier stations of the capital to bursting.

The entire capital presented a scene of utter collapse.

The Tianqi Emperor first sent Zhang Heming to take over as Governor of Liaodong.

In the event, this divine personage took seventeen days to travel from the capital to Shanhai Pass, and once there, sat idle all day long, incapable of handling any business, like a block of rotten wood. And, as it happens, this Zhang Heming was the very man the eunuch faction pushed forward as Minister of War right after Zhu Youjian ascended the throne—truly a figure of the most dog-dung caliber.

Then after that, he ordered Xie Jingbang, then Governor of Xuanfu, to go.

Xie Jingbang, too, refused to go no matter what, submitting three memorials declining the post, until finally the Tianqi Emperor, in great fury, stripped him of his office, reduced him to commoner status, and barred him from ever being employed again.

Only then did it fall to Wang Zaijin to take up the post.

With Zhu Youjian's habitual tendency to interpret people's motives with malice, he found it truly hard to say whether Wang Zaijin had only obediently taken up the post because he was intimidated by the fate of the previous Governor Xie.

After all, judging by his subsequent planning at Shanhai Pass, it was also extremely conservative, basically just the routine of defending the pass to the death.

And so, at a time when every voice was silenced and every heart was seized with terror, for Yuan Chonghuan to take the initiative to involve himself in Liaodong affairs, to participate in the Ministry of War's selection process, and to volunteer to go to Liaodong—

then this character for "courage" was probably rather genuine.

But as for his other abilities and his temperament, they were truly still callow.

At the beginning of his tenure, he actually proposed recruiting wolf troops from Liangguang, declaring that this could replicate the victories of the Wanli era's Korean campaign and the Bozhou campaign, and even said that if he failed, "behead this subject before the army, as a warning to those who treat matters lightly."

The sheer absurdity of this line of thinking, the arrogance and recklessness of his temperament—it was exactly like an intern on his first day at work, saying...

"I have a plan that can punch Alibaba and stomp on Tencent!"

The most absurd part was that Tianqi actually believed it, and even released two hundred thousand taels from the privy purse in support.

Zhu Youjian could not help shaking his head.

The early Tianqi reign really was a carnival of demons. There were officials who would rather be dismissed than dare go to the front, and officials who wanted to transfer troops from five thousand li away to suppress a rebellion. It was a good thing the Great Ming's health bar was thick enough; even under such bizarre conditions, it could still brute-force its way through and build up the Ning-Jin defense line.

Still, people do grow. In the experiences that followed, this Yuan the Stubborn changed quite a bit... for example...

But Zhu Youjian's train of thought stopped right there.

Because across from him, Yuan Chonghuan, who had been silent and pondering all the while, gave a light cough, finally raised his head, and spoke.

"Your Majesty."

"In today's interview, what this subject has perceived lies in a single word: 'preparation.'"

"To respond to all affairs with preparation, to link the upper and lower with preparation, to determine rewards and punishments with preparation—this, precisely, is the fundamental difference between the New Policies and all reforms of past dynasties!" Zhu Youjian set down the dossier in his hands and savored the words for a moment.

What a fine eight-legged essay opening—truly incisive!

He nodded, signaling Yuan Chonghuan to continue.

Yuan Chonghuan went on.

"In the reforms of past dynasties, none failed to emphasize only the upper levels, while neglecting the lower."

"A single administrative order, a few empty words, were then handed down to subordinate officials. Then, at the central hub, empty performance evaluations were made, with urgent demands and harsh pursuit."

"Thus, the success or failure of reform depended entirely on the talent and virtue of local officials."

"If the wrong men were appointed, then even good policies became evil laws, poisoning the land and bringing chaos in return."

"However, was it that the worthies of the past did not understand the importance of subordinate officials? Not so! It was simply that in selecting and appointing men, they could only rely on past reputation and criticism—like gazing at flowers through the mist, truly difficult to penetrate deeply." Yuan Chonghuan first pointed out the old abuses, then shifted his tone.

"But now, the New Policies Your Majesty has implemented in Northern Zhili—their crux lies precisely in 'nothing left unprepared, no preparation left unrefined, no refinement left unexamined'! In this way, with upper and lower integrated as one body, and evaluation standards fixed and precise, only then can one 'make the realm within the royal domain like the body moving the arm, the arm moving the fingers, without any hindrance'!" At this point, he drew a deep breath and finally steered the topic toward what he truly wished to say.

"Since the second year of Tianqi, this subject has held office for eight years, most of them in Liaodong. All my thoughts, all my painstaking efforts, have been devoted entirely to the two words: 'Liaodong affairs.' The moment I entered the capital and beheld the character of these New Policies, how could I not ponder their crux? How could I not compare and examine them against the affairs of Liaodong?"

"This subject believes that the New Policies of Northern Zhili today can precisely become the New Policies of Liaodong tomorrow!"

"The two have differences and similarities, yet both can follow the Dao of this word 'preparation'!"

Yuan Chonghuan analyzed point by point, laying out each argument in turn.

"As for their differences."

"The New Policies in Northern Zhili lie in cadastral surveys, taxation, and population registers; in water conservancy, banditry, and commercial taxes."

"The New Policies for Liaodong lie in military readiness, military farmland, and horse administration; in pacification and rewards, espionage and reconnaissance, and defense and offense."

"These are differences in subject matter."

"The New Policies for Northern Zhili lie in the petty officials, the county magistrates, the Regional Inspectors, and the Ministry of Personnel."

"The New Policies for Liaodong lie in the soldiers and officers, the circuit intendants and governors, the army supervisors, and the Ministry of War."

"These are differences in personnel."

"But what they share," Yuan Chonghuan's gaze burned bright, his eyes full of fervor, "lies in the identical foundation of these New Policies — in the great Dao of the single word: 'readiness'!"

At this point, he finally laid out completely the ultimate answer he had weighed and considered to its limit within the space of a single incense stick's burning!

"This subject believes: if we are to implement the New Policies for Liaodong, we must follow the precedent set in Northern Zhili!"

"We must establish a 'Liaodong New Policies Command Headquarters,' personally led by Your Majesty, to set down every regulation and detailed procedure, to serve as the standard for review and approval!"

"All affairs — building walls and forts, boiling salt and smelting iron, raising military farmland, managing horse administration, auditing troops and fixing wages, preparing grain and fodder, drilling defense and offense, recruiting and pacifying the various tribes — all must be laid out in itemized proposals, to determine their state of readiness, and reported upward as official documents!"

"From Supreme Commander Sun on down, every officer in Liaodong must each compose a 'Liaodong New Policies Implementation Pledge,' clearly stating their own strategies and objectives, and be held strictly accountable by performance evaluation!"

"In this way, the higher levels will communicate with the lower, affairs will be pursued down to the finest detail, authority and responsibility will be clearly divided, and rewards and punishments will have a solid basis!"

"Then what worry is there that the Liaodong enterprise will not succeed!"

Posting one chapter first. Probably nothing more tonight, but I've taken a day off — the Great Ming is about to fall again — there will be many more updates over the next few days. Don't worry.