Chapter Summaries

Wang Xuan organized a northern migration network to recruit people from poorer regions and transport them by river and sea, while arranging grain and security for the operation. He then discussed with Li Shantang the likely vacancy of Minister of War and the possibility of supporting Li’s appointment.

• Wang Xuan stopped expanding conscription in Fujian and planned to recruit migrants from the Three Borders, Liaodong, and other regions.
• Wang Xuan ordered You Yongnan to establish pirate-front bases near an island and the Yellow River estuary, receive migrants, and ship them south in groups of no more than a thousand.
• Wang Xuan sent Lin Zhennan to establish outposts in Henan and organize migrants’ travel down the Yellow River and Tongji Canal, with Qinghong Zaobai assigning Yun Haokai, Luo Xuezhen, and others to secure the route.
• Wang Xuan sent Zhu Jiayan to Yangzhou to buy grain with Tang Minxue’s help and ordered Lin Zhennan’s Fuwei Escort Agency to assist with supplies and recruitment.
• More than 1,700 people, including You Yongnan’s thousand soldiers, sailed north on eight large ships to establish Wang Xuan’s first foothold there.
• Li Shantang told Wang Xuan that the Minister of War was likely to be dismissed, and considered whether Wang Xuan would support his return to the capital for the post.

Wang Xuan persuaded Li Shantang to seek the position of Minister of War and proposed using money to weaken the Jurchen threat by relocating Liaodong's commoners and changing local livelihoods. As Li Shantang left for the capital to pursue the post, Wang Xuan outfitted him with enormous sums of silver and lavish gifts to win support.

• Wang Xuan agreed to support Li Shantang's bid to become Minister of War and promised advisers and policies to help him manage military affairs.
• Wang Xuan proposed paying Liaodong's commoners to relocate and capture Jurchen people, while encouraging livestock and wool production to replace farming.
• Li Shantang agreed to compete for the post and traveled with Wang Xuan toward the capital.
• Wang Xuan showed Li Shantang five hundred thousand taels of silver, twenty jin of pearls, and hundreds of jin of coral to use as gifts among court officials.

Wang Xuan arranged for Zui Hongchen to enter the Crown Prince’s household and build ties with Zhu Youxiao, while Li Shantang prepared to travel to the capital. He then inspected the Glass Factory’s new large glass panes and Silver Mirrors and rewarded the researchers.

• Wang Xuan gave Li Shantang a fortune, assigned him experts for protection, and asked him to arrange for Zui Hongchen to marry into the Crown Prince’s household as a secondary consort.
• Li Shantang warned Wang Xuan that the Crown Prince was vulnerable to court and palace enemies, but Wang Xuan said he would arrange protection and sent Li Shantang off to the capital.
• Wang Xuan instructed Zui Hongchen to win the Crown Prince’s favor, look after Zhu Youxiao, and try to bear the Crown Prince a child.
• Wang Xuan visited the Glass Factory after its workers mastered large glass panes and ordered glass windows for his residence.
• Wang Xuan examined the experimental Silver Mirrors, advised the craftsmen on improving their coating, and awarded the researchers for their work.

Wang Xuan rewarded the glass craftsmen and expanded the circulation of his silver currency before intercepting Xu Yangqiu’s secret letter. After learning Xu Yangqiu had reported sensitive plans to the Xu Family, Wang Xuan ordered his people seized and Xu Yangqiu placed under house arrest.

• Wang Xuan promised the craftsmen further rewards for research breakthroughs, and they pledged to work hard for him.
• Wang Xuan’s silver coins spread through Fujian, easing the local money shortage, while he began producing silver notes for large transactions.
• Wang Xuan’s intelligence agents intercepted a letter Xu Yangqiu had sent north, detailing Wang Xuan’s actions and plans.
• Wang Xuan ordered Xu Yangqiu’s followers brought under control and placed Xu Yangqiu under house arrest, leaving the prefectural office’s affairs to Tongzhi.
• Xu Yangqiu, who had secretly sent the letter in hopes of provoking the Xu Family to act against Wang Xuan, watched from his window as Wang Xuan arrived at the prefectural office.

Wang Xuan used the prefectural court to arrest and interrogate Prefect Xu Yangqiu over letters sent to outsiders. Xu Yangqiu accused Wang Xuan of rebellion, and Wang Xuan denied it while calling the Xu Family traitors.

• Wang Xuan arrived at the prefectural office, sat in the prefect's seat, and ordered Dai Yutang to bring Xu Yangqiu to court.
• Dai Yutang arrested Xu Yangqiu and his aide at the rear hall and brought them before Wang Xuan.
• Xu Yangqiu refused to kneel, so Dai Yutang kicked him down before he submitted to Wang Xuan's questioning.
• Wang Xuan showed Xu Yangqiu the intercepted letter, and Xu realized his communication with outsiders had been discovered.
• Xu Yangqiu accused Wang Xuan of crimes including building an army and conspiring with barbarians, while Wang Xuan denied rebellion and accused the Xu Family of treason.

Wang Xuan forced Xu Yangqiu to deny that he had witnessed a rebellion, then ordered him placed under house arrest and his men dealt with. He offered Xu Yangqiu’s aide a chance to take an examination and work for him, leaving the aide grateful and eager to accept.

• Wang Xuan had Dai Yutang beat Xu Yangqiu until he denied seeing any rebellion and praised Wang Xuan’s loyalty.
• Wang Xuan pretended to reprimand Dai Yutang for kicking Xu Yangqiu, then let Xu Yangqiu leave after he called the beating a misunderstanding.
• After Xu Yangqiu left, Wang Xuan ordered Dai Yutang to place him under house arrest and deal with the people he had brought.
• Wang Xuan questioned Xu Yangqiu’s aide about his experience and invited him to take an examination for a position in Wang Xuan’s administration.
• The aide thanked Wang Xuan and celebrated the chance to become a manager rather than continue as an aide.

Wang Xuan ordered coordinated attacks on Fujian’s bandit strongholds and public trials for the wealthy families behind them. The Cheng family and several bandit leaders were sentenced to death and placed in iron barrels as cement pillars, while other local elites watched in fear.

• Ye Huo gave Wang Xuan records linking more than sixty mountain strongholds to over eighty wealthy families across Fujian.
• Ding Yi condemned the families’ use of charity to disguise wealth seized through violence, and Wang Xuan argued that law should judge actions rather than intentions.
• Wang Xuan ordered the troops to attack the strongholds on the first day of the next month and sent Tian Boguang and Ding Yi to oversee the fighting.
• The recruits wiped out most of Fujian’s strongholds, and officials in Jiangle County prepared a public trial for the Cheng family and captured bandit leaders.
• The former constable announced death sentences for eight members of the Cheng family and bandit leaders, then had the condemned prisoners thrown into iron barrels for cement pillars.

Wang Xuan’s province-wide crackdown on bandits and landlords was followed by a land survey and tax reform that brought Fujian’s middle tier under his control. The chapter ended with soldiers surrounding a temple, and its abbot panicking after insisting that monks should stay calm.

• Wang Xuan ordered public trials across Fujian, where more than fifteen hundred bandits were killed and eighty-two landlord and wealthy households were punished.
• Wang Xuan recruited clerks and assigned them, along with more than eight hundred educated orphans, to conduct a province-wide land survey and implement the new land tax.
• Wang Xuan ordered officials to investigate temple lands, while soldiers suppressed resistance to the survey and tax collection.
• Qi Zonghui, the newly appointed Commander of the Guards of Fuzhou Prefecture, led five hundred soldiers to surround a temple near Mount Gu.
• The abbot lectured a young monk about remaining calm, then panicked when he learned soldiers had surrounded the temple.

Qi Zonghui arrived at Shaomu Temple with soldiers and tax officials to inspect its farmland deeds, while the abbot feared that the army had discovered the temple’s hidden crimes. The monks brought out their records, and the officials began checking them in public.

• The abbot privately arranged a signal with a senior monk to destroy the bodies hidden in the temple if necessary.
• Qi Zonghui confronted the abbot at the temple gate and declared that Prefect Xu had ordered a search of the temple’s land deeds.
• The abbot tried to resist by invoking the temple’s Buddhist status, but Qi Zonghui warned that undeclared land would be confiscated by the court.
• The abbot ordered monks to bring out all the deeds, worrying that the officials might destroy them or deny the temple had owned land.
• Qi Zonghui signaled the five tax officials, who began examining the deeds in front of the gathered worshippers.

Qi Zonghui used a land audit and the threat of military force to pressure Shaomu Temple over its tax-exempt land. The abbot surrendered Hui Xing and denied responsibility for the fraudulent deeds, while the army withdrew after ordering the land to be reexamined.

• Tax officials found a duplicate deed, and Hui Xing attacked them before Qi Zonghui’s soldiers surrounded the monks.
• The abbot surrendered Hui Xing to prevent Shaomu Temple from being accused of resisting the army.
• The audit found that forty percent of the deeds were duplicates, another forty percent overstated the land, and only twenty percent were correct.
• The abbot denied knowing about the fraudulent deeds, and Qi Zonghui ordered Shaomu Temple to submit them for official reexamination.
• Qi Zonghui withdrew the army, and the abbot realized how badly the confrontation had shaken him.

Wang Xuan confronted the Southern Shaomu faction with an army and demanded Shaomu Temple's land deeds, threatening to enforce the law against the temple. The Old Abbot faced the choice of exposing the temple's land violations or refusing Wang Xuan's demand.

• The abbot of a local temple sent a pigeon to Shaomu Temple in Putian, but Wang Xuan's ambush shot it down before it could deliver the message.
• Yu Leyou led three thousand soldiers and heavy crossbows to Shaomu Temple in Putian, where the Old Abbot feared Wang Xuan intended to destroy the temple.
• Wang Xuan confronted the Old Abbot, accused Shaomu Temple of possible collusion with Japanese Pirates, and warned that the law applied to everyone.
• Wang Xuan ordered Shaomu Temple to produce its land deeds, and the Old Abbot realized the records could reveal extensive land violations.

Wang Xuan forced Shaomu Temple to surrender land deeds from previous dynasties and compensate the authorities for profits accumulated over 280 years, then warned the abbot that he would return. He left with plans to apply the same scrutiny to other temples in Fujian.

• The Old Abbot sorted Shaomu Temple’s land deeds and presented the deeds he considered legitimate to Wang Xuan for inspection.
• Wang Xuan seized on the Yuan Dynasty deeds, accusing the temple of disloyalty to Great Ming and threatening to treat it as rebellion.
• The Old Abbot surrendered the land covered by the old deeds and agreed to return the profits accumulated during Great Ming’s 280 years.
• Wang Xuan ordered the same treatment for other temples in Fujian, then prepared to leave with Yu Leyou and the troops.
• Wang Xuan privately reminded the Old Abbot that the temple had harmed him before and warned that he would come back.

After Wang Xuan threatened to return, the Old Abbot decided Shaomu Temple had to endure and avoid provoking him. The next morning, tax clerks calculated that the temple owed 102 million taels in compensation, and the Old Abbot collapsed from shock.

• The Old Abbot sent the monks away and resolved to wait for a sure chance to eliminate Wang Xuan or outlast him.
• Yu Leyou refused the Old Abbot's attempt to draw him into a private meeting, citing strict military rules and the army's Political Instructors.
• Tax clerks began inventorying Southern Shaomu Temple's property as Yu Leyou and the Old Abbot watched.
• A tax clerk calculated that the temple's 34,000 mu of farmland amounted to 102 million taels in compensation.
• The Old Abbot collapsed after hearing the total.

The Old Abbot confronted Wang Xuan over a tax bill of more than forty million taels, insisting that Shaomu Temple could not pay it. Wang Xuan threatened to search and seal the temple, and the Abbot began explaining where the temple’s money had gone.

• The Old Abbot fainted after learning that two hundred and fifty years of unpaid taxes amounted to more than forty million taels, then refused to accept the tax officials’ calculation.
• The Old Abbot went to Wang Xuan with the land deeds and declared that he had no money to pay.
• Wang Xuan learned the tax total, threatened to destroy Shaomu Temple, and struck the Old Abbot when he continued denying that the temple had funds.
• Wang Xuan ordered three thousand troops to seal and search Shaomu Temple, prompting the Old Abbot to plead for a chance to explain.
• The Old Abbot claimed the temple’s expenses included supporting monks’ families and paying costs when monks returned to secular life, married, and had children.

Wang Xuan forced the Abbot to reveal Shaomu Temple’s wealth by threatening him with overwhelming strength and an assembled army. The Abbot was marched with the troops toward the temple, where the monks mistook the approaching army for an attack.

• Wang Xuan confronted the Abbot over Shaomu Temple’s land and wealth, threatened to investigate his family, and demonstrated his power by smashing the concrete floor.
• Wang Xuan ordered three thousand soldiers to assemble and showed the Abbot their powerful crossbows, warning that the weapons could kill even formidable martial artists.
• Wang Xuan asked how much money the temple had, then set off with the army and the Abbot to inspect it.
• The monks at the temple gate waited for the Abbot to persuade Wang Xuan, while Yu Leyou recognized the approaching army and ordered his men to make room.
• The monks saw the army arrive with the Abbot among them and feared that he had brought it to attack the temple.

Wang Xuan brought his army to Shaomu Temple and ordered a search for its secret treasury, while the monks struggled to resist his authority. After the abbot’s uncle Zhengdu confronted him, Wang Xuan gave the order to search the temple.

• Wang Xuan presented the fainted abbot to the monks, then intimidated a monk who accused him of harming the abbot and ordered the monks to take him away.
• Wang Xuan told Yu Leyou to search the temple for its secret treasury, but Zhengdu came forward to block the army from entering.
• Zhengdu learned from the monks that Wang Xuan effectively governed Fujian, then revived the abbot, who had been pretending to remain unconscious.
• The abbot tried to send Zhengdu back inside and apologized after Wang Xuan mocked the monk’s claims about Shaomu Temple’s standing.
• Wang Xuan forgave Zhengdu’s blunt remarks, turned serious, and ordered his soldiers to search the temple.

Wang Xuan raided Shaomu Temple’s treasury and used forgotten Ming laws to punish monks for wearing unauthorized robes. A check of the clergy register revealed that fewer than fifty of the temple’s more than four hundred residents had Monastic Certificates, leaving the abbot facing a far more serious charge.

• Wang Xuan ordered the abbot to open Shaomu Temple’s treasury, where he found piles of Copper Coins, gold and silver, and valuable antiques, then had clerks inventory its contents.
• Wang Xuan demanded the temple register and, citing a long-neglected Great Ming regulation on robe colors, ordered soldiers to arrest more than fifty monks for labor reform.
• The abbot admitted the robe violation and accepted the one-year labor reform sentence for those arrested.
• Wang Xuan compared the temple register with Xinghua Prefecture’s clergy register and discovered that fewer than fifty of more than four hundred monks were officially registered.
• The abbot realized most of the temple’s monks lacked Monastic Certificates and wondered whether he himself had one.

Wang Xuan confronted Shaomu Temple over its monks’ missing Monastic Certificates and demanded payment to register them, then revealed he intended to remake Buddhism according to his principles. After discovering the temple treasury held enormous wealth, he ordered soldiers to seize the unregistered monks, who surrendered without resisting.

• The Old Abbot discovered that neither he nor the temple’s monks appeared in the register of Monastic Certificates, and Wang Xuan offered to register them for a fee.
• The Old Abbot saw that Shaomu Temple’s treasury was being emptied, while Wang Xuan demanded payment and threatened to confiscate the temple’s properties.
• Wang Xuan told the Old Abbot he would destroy and rebuild Buddhism unless it met his standards, prompting the abbot to reconsider the temple’s future.
• Tax officials reported that Shaomu Temple’s treasury held more than fifteen million taels of gold and silver, and Wang Xuan condemned the temple for hoarding wealth.
• Wang Xuan ordered soldiers to take away the monks without Monastic Certificates and kill anyone who resisted, but the monks surrendered peacefully.

Wang Xuan tightened his campaign against the Shaomu lineage, using arrests, family pressure, and property seizures to weaken it from within. Old Abbot struggled to raise money and secure support as the branch temples came under scrutiny and more abuses were exposed.

• Wang Xuan had more than three hundred monks registered and confined at camp, then ordered other prefectures in Fujian to follow his campaign against the temples.
• Old Abbot and the remaining monks agreed to seek donations and sell temple property, while Wang Xuan made the detained monks warn their families to break with Shaomu Temple.
• Wang Xuan’s messenger warned the Jiang Family Head to be careful when acquiring Shaomu Temple property, and the Jiang family avoided helping Old Abbot afterward.
• Old Abbot found that other major families were also refusing to receive him, while secular disciples declined to pay for the monks’ release.
• Wang Xuan’s troops inspected branch temples, arrested monks for legal violations, and experts under his command exposed further wrongdoing in public.

Wang Xuan’s forces raided Southern Shaomu temples across Fujian, exposing crimes that destroyed their standing with the public and led to mass trials and punishments. Seven days later, the abbot learned that the lineage had been ruined and cursed Wang Xuan for deceiving him.

• Two thousand soldiers stormed the Fuzhou temple after an explosion exposed its underground chamber, where monks had imprisoned women.
• Tian Boguang wounded the abbot, and Ding Yi disabled the monks who attacked her before soldiers captured the temple’s remaining monks.
• Ding Yi brought the rescued women outside as worshipers watched, and inspectors revealed that most of the temple’s Monastic Certificates were fake.
• Wang Xuan’s forces investigated temples throughout Fujian, publicized their crimes, and held trials where guilty monks were executed or imprisoned.
• After seven days, reports of the campaign reached the Southern Shaomu abbot, who realized Wang Xuan had destroyed the lineage’s foundations and cursed him.