Half Moon

Benefiting from the decades of Jiajing governance, the Immortal Equalization Tax Law spread through local government offices across Great Yan with astonishing efficiency. Yet like a bomb dropped into water, it would explode only after a period of eerie stillness. During that interval, all fourteen provinces of Great Yan sank into a strange silence.

The final calm before the storm.

Half a month had passed since the day of the Northern Hunt.

Many things had happened in the Capital City these past days.

Though the Immortal Equalization Tax Law had stirred towering waves in court, ninety-nine percent of the common people remained unaware of it. Even when war finally erupted in full, they might never learn what had caused it.

Thus, the two decrees that affected ordinary folk in the markets the most were likely the withdrawal of the gold-armored Imperial Guards from outside the city and the Imperial City Directorate's relaxation of entry and exit controls in the capital.

Di'an had enjoyed peace for so long that military control had not been imposed for decades. Now that normalcy had returned, naturally the refined scholars and gentlemen in taverns and brothels spoke freely and fervently of the reasons behind these decrees.

Some said the Imperial Guards had been transferred to the front lines to prepare for war. Others said they had been stationed there from the start to guard against the Prime Minister's Mansion usurping the throne; now that the new law had been promulgated, conflict between the imperial clan and the Prime Minister's Mansion would not erupt anytime soon. Still others claimed that His Majesty had already purged the traitorous prime minister, so there was no longer any need for vigilance.

They were all insights these Confucian scholars and literati had pieced together from fragmentary news and a little