Dao Yan looked down. Bead after bead scattered like startled rabbits, bounding in different directions without the slightest order. He opened his aged hand, revealing a black bead lying quietly in his palm.
"I do not understand what Your Majesty means."
Clutching his prayer beads, Dao Yan gazed intently at Zhu Yunwen as he spoke.
Zhu Yunwen rose, picked up a prayer bead from the floor, and rolled it between his fingertips. "You know what you have spent all these years urging the Prince of Yan to do, Master, and so do I. Taizu ordered you to serve the Prince of Yan only to temper his violent nature. Little did he imagine that he would instead fulfill your selfish ambitions. I know about your offer to give the prince a white hat."
Dao Yan's pupils contracted slightly, and his aged face darkened.
"Your eyes burn bright as torches, Master. You understood the consequences of Taizu's slaughter of his meritorious officials. You also understood that among the frontier princes, only the Prince of Yan closely resembled Taizu, whether in methods, ability, or potential. So you chose him and repeatedly urged him to raise troops and march south. Am I right?"
Zhu Yunwen handed the bead to Dao Yan as he asked.
Dao Yan opened his hand to receive it. His gaze dimmed. "Is the person Your Majesty speaks of really this monk?"
Zhu Yunwen burst out laughing and kicked a bead away from his feet. His voice turned stern. "Dao Yan-no, Yao Guangxiao-I am not Shakyamuni. I cannot send you to the Land of Ultimate Bliss. But I am the ruler of the Great Ming, and I can send you beneath the Imperial Prison! The only reason I still allow you to live is that I cannot understand what you hope to gain by devoting yourself to rebellion."
Dao Yan was a very strange man. He had incited Zhu Di to rebel and overthrow a court, then helped him establish a new one. But what had he wanted for himself?
He sought neither office nor wealth, neither fame nor women.
By day, he put on court robes, attended court, and diligently performed his duties. At night, he changed into a black kasaya and devoted himself to the Buddha in the stillness of a solitary lamp.
The history books had not recorded his interests, only the sins he had committed, the acts he had failed to dissuade others from, and his final wish before his death. No one knew why he had wanted to rebel.
Zhu Yunwen was deeply curious.
Dao Yan rose and bowed. "I do not understand what Your Majesty means."
Watching Dao Yan feign ignorance, Zhu Yunwen gave a cold laugh and sat back down. "Very well. You have your reservations, and I will not force you. But Dao Yan, since you possess foresight and a talent for strategy, and can predict so many things, why don't we both guess what the Prince of Yan will do next?"
Dao Yan frowned, uncertain what Zhu Yunwen meant.
Zhu Yunwen pointed to a stack of documents on the desk. "These are all the documents received since you left Beiping Prefecture. You may read them here, then predict the Prince of Yan's next move. I will make a prediction as well, and we shall see who is right and who is wrong. What do you say?"
Dao Yan frowned. How could a monk be allowed to read court documents?
"If your prediction is correct, I will let you return to Beiping Prefecture. If you are wrong, you will stay and help me govern the Great Ming. What do you say?"
Zhu Yunwen spoke earnestly.
Surprise appeared in Dao Yan's eyes.
Return to Beiping?
He clearly knows I am Zhu Di's trusted confidant. He even knows I harbor thoughts of rebellion, yet he still dares to let me return?
Stay here?
He dares to employ me?
He dares to let me govern the Great Ming?
Dao Yan realized he could not see through the Jianwen Emperor before him. Beneath that seemingly frail exterior, another soul appeared to lurk-a powerful, confident soul.
"If you say nothing, I will take that as agreement. Here is my prediction. You may take it with you. Leave your own prediction sealed here, and another day we will open them together to determine the winner."
Zhu Yunwen placed a sealed letter on the desk, then walked toward the door. He instructed the eunuchs not to disturb Dao Yan, and to arrange an escort if he needed to leave the palace.
Seeing that Zhu Yunwen was in a good mood, Shuangxi smiled. "Your Majesty, will you visit the rear palace today?"
Zhu Yunwen had not visited the rear palace for over a month, all because of the trouble stirred up by the single whip law. The Grand Secretariat had produced a comprehensive plan and prepared strategies to address the existing problems.
For instance, to address expensive silver and cheap grain, the Grand Secretariat proposed having the Taxation Office assume responsibility for exchanging silver and grain, with uniform standards throughout the country to prevent merchants from maliciously driving up silver prices.
As for possible resistance from prefectural and county administrations, the Grand Secretariat and the Revenue Ministry had repeatedly discussed the matter with Zhu Yunwen. They concluded that local resistance would arise because the single whip law would harm the interests of local government offices, leaving them no profit to pocket.
The court could take a step back, allowing prefectures and counties to retain thirty percent of the tax silver for their own allocation. The central government would need only seventy percent.
Had Zhu Yuanzhang been in power and heard that the Grand Secretariat and the Revenue Ministry wanted local administrations to take a share of his money, their heads could have been hung from flagpoles to dry in the wind. But Zhu Yunwen was not Zhu Yuanzhang. He understood market forces better, as well as primary fiscal distribution and redistribution.
After studying the Revenue Ministry's tax figures from previous years and calculating for a long time, Zhu Yunwen finally agreed to the Grand Secretariat's proposal: yield some revenue to local administrations and implement the policy.
But although Zhu Yunwen agreed, the Grand Secretariat approved, and the Six Ministries were informed, the officials refused to cooperate.
They began making trouble in groups, claiming that allowing local administrations to retain money would inevitably lead to regional separatism and local corruption. What would they do when the local administrations grew wealthy while the central treasury ran short?
They also claimed that such a measure would inevitably leave the capital without grain, bringing back the tragedy of people exchanging their children to eat.
Before the single whip law could even reach the provinces, it met resistance at court.
This gave Zhu Yunwen a terrible headache and brought home the full force of resistance to reform. Under the cover of grand-sounding justifications, these diehards tore the single whip law to shreds. Some officials even claimed that implementing it would surely provoke Heaven's wrath.
Zhu Yunwen did not know whether Heaven was angry.
But an earthquake really did strike.
Although its magnitude was low and the disturbance slight, the tremors were still felt.
This gave the officials even more room to maneuver. They linked the single whip law to Heaven's warning and insisted that Zhu Yunwen abandon it.
Even Zhu Yunwen's good temper finally gave way to anger.
Damn it, I know what causes earthquakes better than you idiots do! You dare use an earthquake to attack the single whip law? Then I'll reward you with a whip apiece and send you fools to the frontier to tend horses!
Within a month, Zhu Yunwen transferred thirty-five officials. One was Liu Yong, a seventh-rank investigating censor who had made the loudest fuss. Zhu Yunwen praised him, then promoted him with a sweep of his brush to sixth-rank Pacification Commissioner, posted to Leizhou Prefecture.
Upon receiving his transfer order, Liu Yong begged the emperor to rescind it and changed his stance, declaring that he would be the first to support the single whip law.
Leizhou Prefecture lay at the southernmost end of Guangzhou. Swim across the sea, and he could fish on Hainan Island.
Liu Yong clearly had no interest in fishing. He called in favors and sought help through back channels. Only after Qi Tai, the Minister of Personnel, interceded did Zhu Yunwen revoke the appointment.
The others were not so fortunate, and they had stiffer backbones. They packed their bags. Those assigned to tend horses on the frontier went to the frontier, those assigned to dig sand in the desert went to the desert, and those assigned to make their lives at sea went to sea.
After all this upheaval, Zhu Yunwen, the Grand Secretariat, and the Six Ministries repeatedly explained their position and the advantages of the single whip law. At last, they brought the officials around.
By then, however, more than a month had passed, and some regions had already begun forwarding their autumn tax payments.
Winter had arrived. It was not a suitable time to implement the single whip law.
Ultimately, the Grand Secretariat drafted a notice instructing local administrations to suspend shipments of the autumn grain tax and prepare to implement the law in the First Year of Jianwen. Meanwhile, a group of students would be selected from the Imperial College to form a body of officials specifically responsible for overseeing the single whip law.
Worn out by all this turmoil, Zhu Yunwen also had to deal with the New Army Strategy.
Just as Jin Zhong had told Zhu Di, the greatest issue with the New Army Strategy was whether it could be sustained. If implementation stopped abruptly halfway through and the strategy was abandoned, the resulting problems would be severe.
Zhu Yunwen was not someone who charged ahead blindly. The men of the Five Army Commandery were no fools either, and those in the Revenue Ministry were even shrewder. None of them could have overlooked this point.
Judging by previous years' tax revenues, although the central treasury received only three million taels of silver, converting the grain into silver would yield another ten million or more.
With the New Army Strategy restricted to the Capital Garrison, Beiping Prefecture, Shanhai Pass, and a few other places, sustaining it for a year or two would pose no problem at all.
Moreover, Zhu Yunwen was preparing agricultural tax reform and had authorized Beiping to pilot commercial reforms. The potential for commercial growth would soon be unleashed, and the Great Ming's finances would inevitably improve. Expanding the New Army Strategy to the entire military then would not be too late.
He walked through the snow toward the rear palace.
Zhu Yunwen liked snow. He liked a world of boundless white.
The light snowflakes filling the sky were like spirits bestowed upon the world by Heaven, each trying to transform heaven and earth through its own strength.
Seeing Zhu Yunwen arrive through the snow, Ma Enhui anxiously ushered him inside. She had someone build up the charcoal fire and instructed a maid to prepare hot soup before reproaching him. "The snow may be light, but your health matters most. In weather this cold, Your Majesty should stay in the Warm Pavilion. Why trouble yourself to come to Chang'an Palace?"
Zhu Yunwen caught Zhu Wenkui as he rushed into his arms. Hearing the child call "Father" in his tender little voice filled his heart with warmth. He told Ma Enhui, "Wouldn't you complain even more if I kept staying away?"
"What have I to complain about?" Ma Enhui glanced at Zhu Yunwen, took a change of clothes from a palace maid, and approached him. "Change your clothes."
Zhu Yunwen took the clothes and set them aside with a sigh. "There's no need. Sit down and talk with me."
Ma Enhui picked up Zhu Wenkui. Seeing Zhu Yunwen's exhaustion, she quietly sat beside him and asked with concern, "Your Majesty, affairs of state may number in the thousands, but you must still balance work with rest."
Zhu Yunwen nodded. "I simply cannot understand it. They are all learned men who understand reason and right from wrong. Why do they oppose the single whip law when they know it is right and beneficial? Why must they thrust a bar across the path of something that benefits the country and its people? For whom do these men serve as officials?"
"For Your Majesty, of course," Ma Enhui said softly.
Zhu Yunwen frowned slightly.
Seeing this, Ma Enhui hurriedly asked, "Did I say something wrong?"
"No. You are not wrong. I am."
Zhu Yunwen shook his head and said solemnly, "You have opened my eyes. They serve as officials for me, but what I want is for them to serve the people and the Great Ming! Rather than taking their stand on guessing the emperor's wishes and political opportunism, they should take it on benefiting the country and its people! These men have taken the wrong road. At root, something has gone wrong with education in our Great Ming."
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