Zhu Di commanded tremendous military authority, his voice rolling like muffled thunder and shaking men's hearts.
Every soldier watched Zhu Di, turned toward him, and listened to that thunderous voice. Gradually, they understood: keeping the New Army Strategy out of the Three Guards had been for their own good.
The New Army Strategy was a flower in a mirror, a moon reflected in water. Beautiful though it was, it was only temporary and unreal. It might be implemented today and abolished the day after tomorrow.
The Prince of Yan feared their disappointment, feared that one day they would resent the court. That was why he refused to let the New Army Strategy enter the Three Guards.
Thinking it over carefully, the Prince of Yan was right. Since ancient times, when had soldiers ever enjoyed such generous conditions?
Not even the golden ages of Han and Tang had offered them, let alone the Great Ming Dynasty.
Seen in that light, the New Army Strategy was merely the result of the Jianwen Emperor's inexperience and hasty governance, a means for him to win people's hearts.
As Zhu Di reached the most emotional part of his speech, tears streamed down his face. He shouted, "I have considered your interests, shared the court's burdens, and exhausted myself for Great Ming. Is all I get in return your blame and curses? Very well! Since you do not trust me, from this day forward, the Prince of Yan's Three Guards may choose their own path. Anyone who wants the New Army Strategy may leave the camp and join Ping An. I, Zhu Di, will never stop you!"
"We will not leave! We pledge our lives to the Prince of Yan!"
Zhang Yu and Zhu Neng shouted at the top of their lungs.
"We will not leave! We pledge our lives to the Prince of Yan!"
Countless soldiers thundered their response, their voices carrying in every direction.
Holding the Precious Sword, Zhu Di pointed it straight into the sky and shouted, "The New Army Strategy is riddled with flaws. Within two years, great turmoil is inevitable. Once something goes wrong, Great Ming's two million soldiers will fill the roads with complaints and lay the blame on the court. We bear a heavy responsibility and must shoulder the mission of defending Great Ming and protecting our mountains and rivers!"
"Officers and soldiers, hear my command! From this day forward, the Three Guards will intensify their training and preparations. If turmoil arises in Great Ming, we, the Prince of Yan's Three Guards, will quell it and set the realm right! We will uphold the state and protect all our people! To battle!"
"To battle!"
"To battle!"
"To battle!"
The Three Guards pledged their hearts to him and moved like thunder.
Through his own methods, Zhu Di held the troops of the Three Guards firmly in his grasp. At the same time, he instilled in them a powerful sense of mission and righteousness, making them believe that everything they did was for Great Ming and its people!
The Prince of Yan's Palace.
Zhu Di led his three sons in offering Jin Zhong a solemn expression of thanks. Jin Zhong hurriedly knelt.
Zhu Gaochi and the others all understood that without Jin Zhong's schemes and wisdom, the Prince of Yan's Three Guards might no longer have obeyed the palace's orders. Now, no matter how the New Army Strategy was implemented, the Three Guards would remain unshaken.
These core troops remained Zhu Di's most dependable force.
Zhu Di assigned Jin Zhong duties at the Prince of Yan's Palace and gave him the latest intelligence from Beiping to read. With his brows tightly furrowed, he said, "I fear the New Army Strategy's shortage of provisions and pay has been resolved."
Jin Zhong looked at Zhu Di in surprise.
Zhu Di handed him an intelligence report and said, "His Majesty has permitted Zhang Bing, Beiping's provincial administration commissioner, to dispose of the summer and autumn grain collected locally. Some has gone to supply the military camps, some into reserve, and the remainder has been sold to merchants for silver. Thirty percent of that silver went to the Provincial Administration Commission, while seventy percent was sent to the Capital."
Secretly astonished, Jin Zhong pondered for a long time before saying, "Your Highness, whoever stands behind His Majesty is quite formidable. This method can indeed provide sufficient provisions and pay for the New Army Strategy. However, the New Army Strategy's enormous expense lies not in its launch, but in its implementation. In my humble opinion, Great Ming's current foundations cannot possibly sustain this strategy over the long term."
Zhu Di had some idea of how much grain and money Great Ming possessed. With the way Zhu Yunwen was proceeding, the New Army Strategy would run into trouble sooner or later.
But the problem lay precisely in those words: "sooner or later."
If trouble came too soon, he would not be ready.
If it came too late, Zhu Yunwen would be ready himself.
"Your Highness, better to prepare before the rain than dig a well when thirst strikes."
Jin Zhong spoke solemnly.
Zhu Di nodded gravely, then frowned. "Provisions are manageable. Beiping has plenty of grain and fodder. But how are we to manufacture the equipment?"
Without equipment, surely they could not march onto the battlefield carrying bamboo sticks? Besides, these soldiers had never practiced the Dog-Beating Staff Technique. It would hardly suit them. But sabers, spears, swords, and halberds did not simply spring out of rocks.
If he wanted weapons, he could hardly buy them from a weapons shop. Nobody ran that sort of shop in this era.
Nor could he order custom-made weapons from a blacksmith. Making a kitchen knife was one thing; asking a smith to forge weapons could cost the man his life. Even if he threatened the smith's entire family and insisted on swords and sabers, at two swords a day, how many ages would it take to arm an entire army?
He had to establish a large weapons workshop. The requirements were simple and clear: secrecy, secrecy, and secrecy.
But where should he put the weapons workshop?
In the Three Guards' camps?
No. Who knew how many court spies were there? If word leaked out, he might find himself exiled to a smithy to hammer iron someday.
Outside the city?
No. Security could not be guaranteed.
Inside the city?
No. Ping An and Sheng Yong were both too formidable.
After turning it over in his mind, Zhu Di suddenly realized he could manufacture them inside the Prince of Yan's Palace. Nobody would dare search the palace, so security would not be a problem. Everyone inside was one of his own, too, making leaks unlikely.
Most importantly, he could keep an elite force within the residence to prepare for the unexpected.
Zhu Di also knew how to seize an opportunity. Wasn't Zhang Bing encouraging livestock farming? Then naturally, as the Prince of Yan, Zhu Di had to respond enthusiastically and set an example.
Before long, a huge poultry farm was established on the western side of the Prince of Yan's Palace. Chickens, ducks, geese, pigs-anything that could make a noise was brought in.
Aboveground, they raised livestock to improve their meals.
Underground, they forged iron and concealed a force of soldiers.
While Zhu Di crouched in the chilly farm, pondering why old hens did not lay eggs in winter, Zhu Yunwen, in the Capital, finally met the legendary black-robed chancellor, Dao Yan.
Dao Yan had been in the Capital for over a month, but he had spent his time reciting sutras and worshipping the Buddha for the empress dowager at Qian Ning Palace. Once finished, he would go to the Valley of Spirits Temple to rest.
Zhu Yunwen had been busy dealing with the New Army Strategy and the Single Whip Law, leaving him no energy to spare for Dao Yan. Besides, confined to the Capital, this expert in shameless cunning and conspiratorial rebellion could stir up no great waves.
Dao Yan was the fuse, and Zhu Di was the shell.
Now that he had removed the fuse called Dao Yan, he hoped Zhu Di would rein himself in and submit. Yet according to the intelligence sent by Zhang Bing and Ping An, Zhu Di had already secured the Prince of Yan's Three Guards and found a new fuse.
When he saw Zhang Bing praising Zhu Di for supporting poultry farming and setting an example for the people, Zhu Yunwen nearly laughed aloud.
Zhu Di still intended to rebel after all. The man had thrown his heartfelt goodwill to the winds. Repeated warnings had failed to make him behave. In that case, he could hardly blame Zhu Yunwen for administering a stronger dose.
On the sixteenth day of the tenth month, Zhu Yunwen ordered Zhang Bing, Ping An, and Sheng Yong to notify Beiping Prefecture that the deadline for accepting the New Army Strategy was the end of the eleventh month. If the Prince of Yan refused, all supplies originally prepared for implementing the New Army Strategy in his Three Guards would be transferred to Liaodong, and their inclusion in the strategy would not be considered again for ten years.
That same day, he secretly ordered the Great Ming Security Bureau to send thirty men to Beiping to investigate Zhu Di's movements and seek opportunities to turn the commanders of the Prince of Yan's Three Guards against him.
On the seventeenth, Zhu Yunwen appointed Tie Xuan regional military commissioner of Jinan, giving him full responsibility for Jinan Prefecture's defenses. He ordered Geng Bingwen, Marquis of Changchun, to lead fifty thousand elite Capital Garrison troops to Hebei to reorganize and train the forces of Zhen Ding, Baoding, and Hejian prefectures.
On the eighteenth, Zhu Yunwen personally visited the Capital Garrison to oversee New Army training. Xu Huizu demonstrated new battle formations for him and divided the New Army into blue and red sides for exercises.
On the nineteenth, Zhu Yunwen ordered Zheng Ci, minister of works, to reorganize the Ministry of Works and strengthen military preparations. He also visited the Directorate of Imperial Manufactories.
On the twentieth, he renamed the Directorate of Imperial Manufactories the Science and Technology Bureau and improved the artisans' standing and compensation. All unqualified artisan households were redesignated as farming or military households, leaving only the best to specialize in improving Fire Lances, cannons, bows, and crossbows. He also established a top-secret armaments base on Lion Mountain outside Jinchuan Gate to develop new gunpowder.
On the twenty-first, citing the need to address the Mongol threat, the Capital designated Jinan Prefecture as the Northern Expedition's logistical headquarters. Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, and most of North Zhili would transport their autumn grain taxes to Jinan Prefecture to supply the Northern Expedition. Any shortfall would be shipped from the Capital.
Zhu Yunwen's succession of moves left people inside and outside the court trembling with alarm. Some who failed to understand the situation accused him of exhausting the people and wasting resources by training troops and transporting grain in winter. Zhu Yunwen sent them straight to the front for reform through labor.
Even the Grand Secretariat pleaded for them, arguing that remonstrating officials must not be punished for their words, or the promise of opening every avenue to criticism would become a joke.
Zhu Yunwen disagreed. These remonstrating officials lacked even basic common sense, yet prattled on and on. Why shouldn't they be punished?
What was wrong with training troops in winter?
When war came, did it distinguish between winter and summer?
They did not know that the volunteer army of later generations would fight in thin clothing amid ice and snow at thirty or forty degrees below zero! Yet they knew troops could not train in the north during the tenth month?
Grain could not be transported?
Self-righteous fools who had no idea what they were talking about!
"How can this be called punishment? I am sending him to the front to understand the hardships of the troops and the people. He can return when spring comes next year."
Zhu Yunwen blocked the ministers' pleas with those words.
On the twenty-second day of the tenth month, light snow fell over Nanjing.
Enjoying a rare moment of leisure, Zhu Yunwen went to Qian Ning Palace. After the empress dowager finished her Buddhist devotions, he looked at Dao Yan, who was about to leave, and said with a smile, "Master Dao Yan, please join me in the Hall of Reverent Conduct."
After taking leave of the empress dowager, Zhu Yunwen went to the Hall of Reverent Conduct. Looking at the gaunt old monk bowing before him, he said warmly, "Thank you for your efforts during this time, Master."
Dao Yan hurriedly replied, "You are too kind. This is merely what this monk ought to do. The empress dowager is devoted to the Buddha. He will bestow blessings upon her, protecting both her and Great Ming."
"Ha ha! It is not Shakyamuni who protects Great Ming, but its countless common people, its soldiers, merchants, and officials. If we place all our hopes for blessings in the Buddha, does the realm belong to him or to me?"
Zhu Yunwen looked at Dao Yan and spoke earnestly.
Moving his prayer beads through his fingers, Dao Yan said, "The Buddha is a presence within the heart, a refuge for the spirit. Your Majesty is the sovereign of the empire and lord of all its people. The two are not contradictory."
Zhu Yunwen nodded slightly and asked, "Just like your own actions, Master? On one hand, you recite sutras, practice austerities, serve the Buddha, and do good by day. On the other, you earnestly persuade others, give yourself over to demons, and do evil by night. The two are not contradictory, are they?"
A faint sound rang out. The prayer-bead cord snapped. One bead after another tumbled down, struck the floor of the Hall of Reverent Conduct, and scattered in every direction...
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