Chapter 72: The Glittering Golden Stars of Great Ming!

Qianqing Palace.

Zhu Youjian dropped heavily onto the dragon throne behind the imperial desk, his mood somewhat dejected.

On the imperial desk, two items lay neatly arranged.

One was the collated roster of military officers from the Nine Border Garrisons.

The other was the latest assortment of Capital Gazettes and unofficial news-sheets from the capital.

Among these lay the "card-drawing" segment he had most looked forward to — but now, he had no heart for it at all.

He irritably waved the Daily Lecture schedule Gao Shiming had dug out, and asked in dissatisfaction:

"So, this is the procedure for the Daily Lecture?"

Gao Shiming bowed slightly, his voice steady and unruffled: "In reply to Your Majesty, since the time of the Jiajing Emperor, the Daily Lecture has generally been thus, without any major alterations."

With a slap, Zhu Youjian tossed the booklet onto the desk, feeling utterly torn between laughter and disbelief.

If the Classics Colloquium was "Great Ming Open Class," then this Daily Lecture was, without the slightest exaggeration, "Great Ming Summer Crash Course"!

Unlike the Classics Colloquium, held only three times a month, the Daily Lecture was theoretically held every single day, suspended only on regular court-session days.

Four or five Daily Lecturers, like a wheel-relay assault, would revolve around you alone.

In the morning they lectured on the Four Books and the Five Classics; in the afternoon they lectured on the Illustrated Discourses for the Emperor, the Ancestral Instructions, and the Comprehensive Mirror.

Finishing the lectures was not the end of it — you then had to practice calligraphy on the spot, writing several large characters, which the lecturers would "critique."

This entire routine consumed one or two double-hours at a stretch.

Given that amount of time, he would far rather go every day to inspect the Valiant Guard Camp and properly drill the real power he held in his hands.

Zhu Youjian stroked the short whiskers on his chin and sank into deep thought.

The look in his eyes, from its initial irritation and helplessness, gradually grew profound and sharp.

Letting himself be led like a marionette, passively accepting these utterly meaningless things, was absolutely impossible.

Any time he invested had to produce something!

This was an instinct carved deep into his soul, indelible.

Since this "Daily Lecture" could not be avoided, then he would simply turn it into his own tool!

The corner of Zhu Youjian's mouth slowly curled into a wicked smile.

He was going to make these Hanlin scholars of Great Ming deeply experience just what terrifying things could happen when a "brat" of a student seized the initiative in the classroom!

He would start with this list of Daily Lecturers, and later select some interesting "topics."

He would deliver them a few small shocks from the 21st century.

As for right now...

Zhu Youjian's gaze fell once more upon that thick roster of military officers, and his eyes instantly blazed with fervor.

That was, of course... drawing cards!

Zhu Youjian immersed himself completely in that enormous list.

From Shaanxi to Shanxi, from Jizhou-Liaodong to Xuanda, across all the garrisons of the Nine Borders of Great Ming — everyone from Company Commander and above, plus the adjutants and staff officers of every camp, somehow added up to a grand list of over three thousand men.

As he read, he copied them out by hand.

Behind every name might lie a legend, or a tragic elegy.

Before he knew it, the sky outside the window had gone completely dark.

Candles had been quietly lit in the hall, blazing bright as day.

When he finally set down his writing brush and rubbed his somewhat sore eyes, the paper before him already bore over twenty names.

He looked at this list, filtered out by memory, and could not help sinking into thought.

A very interesting phenomenon.

Among these thirty-odd men, those of Liaodong origin and those of Shaanxi origin each accounted for nearly half.

The remaining small fraction were mostly of Shandong or Northern Metropolitan origin.

This was perhaps the "war dividend" of this ancient era.

It was not that the soldiers and officers of the south could not fight — only that in the south, long at peace, there had simply never been the enormous capital investment and the vast tempering of endless warfare that existed in Liaodong and the Nine Borders, and so naturally it was difficult for true stars of war to emerge.

So-called famous generals have always been forged, quite literally, from mountains of silver and seas of blood.

Zhu Youjian's finger slowly traced across this list, the ink still wet.

One by one, names both familiar and unfamiliar surfaced beneath his fingertip.

The representatives of the Liaodong local military houses: Wu Xiang, Zu Dashou, He Kegang...

The fierce generals forged in Shaanxi: You Shiwei, Hou Shilu, Zhao Lujiao...

And the formidable men of Shandong origin: Man Gui, Zuo Liangyu, Liu Zeqing...

The famously renowned Prince Who Pacifies the West, Wu Sangui, was not even on this list at this point.

He was probably still in his teens? Or just a child?

His father, Wu Xiang, was not yet the Regional Commander of Liaodong either — merely an inconspicuous adjutant staff officer.

The future Three Successor Kings — Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, Shang Kexi — were at this moment still obediently working under the Pacify-Liao Regional Commander, Mao Wenlong.

Whether they were secretly running smuggling operations, as later generations rumored, or, as Mao Wenlong stated in his memorials, suffering bitterly from hunger, short of clothing and food — no one could say.

Zu Dashou had not yet, in despair, killed his own comrade He Kegang with his own hands to feign surrender to the Qing army.

Zhao Lujiao and Man Gui were also still alive and well, not yet fallen in the Jisi Incident.

Zhu Youjian looked at these names and could not help letting out a soft sigh.

How, in the end, had things turned out that way?

Zhu Youjian turned his head and spoke to Gao Shiming, who had been standing silently by all the while:

"Gao Shiming."

"Your subject is here."

"A few days ago, We ordered the nine border garrisons to select their finest platoon officers and shock-troop champions for transfer to the capital. Today, We shall summon a few more men by name."

Zhu Youjian's gaze returned to the list, no longer the slightest hesitation in it, and he crisply read out the names one by one:

"Huang Degong, Garrison Commander of Juehua Island."

"Zhou Yuji, Garrison Commander of the Jinzhou Left Garrison Station."

—The future three titans of the Valiant Guard Camp, together with Sun Yingyuan who had already made his mark, were now assembled ahead of time. He wondered if this might trigger some special "bond" bonus.

He continued reading:

"Zu Kuan, Company Commander of Liaodong."

"Kong Youde, Assistant Regional Commander of Dongjiang."

"Zuo Liangyu, Commandant of the Right Chariot Camp of Liaodong."

"Cao Bianjiao, Company Commander of Liaodong."

"He Renlong, Garrison Commander of Shaanxi."

—These men, for their part, basically covered the key regions of Ning-Jin, Dongjiang, Shandong, Shaanxi, and Shanxi.

Their combat prowess was one reason, but more importantly, they could serve as his eyes and ears planted inside the various military mountain-strongholds, operating as a source of intelligence parallel to the Depot guards and the civil officials.

The men he had chosen all currently held fairly low ranks. Only Kong Youde was of a higher grade, but in a place like Dongjiang, an Assistant Regional Commander would not actually be leading a full camp of troops, so it should not pose much of a problem.

Summoning them to the capital would not throw the frontline garrison deployments into chaos.

Gao Shiming bowed to receive the order, turned, and went to arrange for junior eunuchs to draft the edict and dispatch the summons.

Zhu Youjian watched his retreating figure, and a long, quiet sigh escaped him.

I hope my arrival can make all of this turn out differently.

The excitement stirred up by this "card draw" was suddenly weighed down by the crushing gravity of history, and his mood turned inexplicably melancholy.

Zhu Youjian's gaze fell upon the Capital Gazette issues and private intelligence briefs on the other side of the imperial desk.

His brimming enthusiasm for work abruptly evaporated.

Forget it. I'll treat today as a holiday and clock out early.

I'm going to find Changqiu and have a meal!

The military officer list is as shown in the image. I could not find records for Zu Kuan and Cao Bianjiao; perhaps their ranks were too low at this time and the histories did not record them, so I have invented their details.