I predicted your prediction

A bitter wind swept past, carrying the lingering snow, and water freshly splashed onto the ground froze into frost.

A middle-aged man with disheveled hair, dressed in a single thin layer, ran shouting through the streets and alleys. "This prince is roasting to death!"

Zhu Di snatched a live fish from a stall, shoved it toward his mouth, and took a bite. Laughing and shouting with delight, he ran onto a bridge and jumped straight into the icy river. He thrashed about, repeatedly gulping river water and crying, "That feels good!"

The officials and citizens of Beiping watched, dumbfounded and unable to believe their eyes.

Zhu Gaochi, Zhu Gaoxu, Zhu Gaosui, and the others finally managed to have Zhu Di hauled out of the river, only for him to lash out with a flurry of punches as though he did not recognize the three of them. He kicked Zhu Gaoxu into the river, stood on the bank laughing uproariously, then ran off along the river, drenched from head to toe...

Many people saw it.

Believe it or not, Zhu Di was mad there on the riverbank.

The once awe-inspiring, invincible commander had now become a madman whose plight made people wring their hands and sigh.

Ping An removed his fur coat and strode into the rear hall of the Regional Military Command Office. Sitting beside the stove and warming his hands, he said to Sheng Yong and Zhang Bing, "The people at the Prince of Yan's Palace said Zhu Di fainted after reading the confessions of Ni Qiong and the others. When he woke up, he had gone mad."

"Mad? Heh. I don't believe it."

Sheng Yong's reply was categorical.

Zhang Bing was less certain. "In this howling winter cold, when a man cannot survive in a single thin layer, the Prince of Yan actually thinks it is unbearably hot and keeps jumping into the icy river to cool off. If that isn't madness, what is?"

Sheng Yong looked at the fire and scoffed. "How could a general who has fought a hundred battles be frightened into madness by a few charges? Provincial Administrator Zhang, forgive my impertinence, but if His Majesty ordered your head cut off, would you go mad?"

Zhang Bing considered it carefully, then shook his head. "No, but we cannot rule out-"

Ping An narrowed his eyes and rubbed his hands. "There is nothing to rule out. The Prince of Yan is feigning madness."

Zhang Bing looked at Ping An in surprise. "How can you be so certain?"

Ping An chuckled, pulled open his robes, and took a secret letter from his innermost garment. He handed it to Zhang Bing and said gravely, "I, Ping An, do not believe in gods, nor have I ever believed anyone could foresee the future. But now I believe. With his extraordinary genius, our emperor foresaw the situation we face today!"

"What?"

Puzzled, Zhang Bing opened the envelope and took out the letter. After one glance, he sprang to his feet in astonishment. His hands trembling, he looked at Ping An. "This... this cannot possibly be real, can it?"

"Let me see."

Sheng Yong hurriedly snatched the letter. After reading it, his eyes widened too, and he stared at Ping An. "What exactly is going on?"

Ping An gazed at the orange flames in the stove, where the charcoal had already begun to turn white.

Over a month earlier, men from the Great Ming Security Bureau had arrived in Beiping, handed this secret letter to Ping An, and informed him of Zhu Yunwen's intentions.

Following Zhu Yunwen's arrangements, Ping An created opportunities for the Great Ming Security Bureau's men to enter the camps of the Prince of Yan's Three Guards, paving the way for intelligence gathering and covert efforts to turn men to their side.

The defection of Ni Qiong and the others from the Three Guards was the Great Ming Security Bureau's work.

And this secret letter clearly recorded Zhu Yunwen's assessment of how events in Beiping would unfold. One passage read:

[Once men have been turned, the conspiracy will be exposed. To escape disaster, the Prince of Yan will surely feign madness, seeking sympathy while awaiting his opportunity...]

The letter was dated the sixteenth day of the tenth month!

And the present date was the twenty-first day of the eleventh month!

In other words, over a month earlier, Zhu Yunwen, far away in the Capital, had already seen through the situation in Beiping and predicted Zhu Di's every move!

What a terrifying ability!

Zhang Bing and Sheng Yong could scarcely believe it. This was even more shocking than Zhu Di going mad!

In particular, Zhu Yunwen had written "will surely feign madness," not "may feign madness." That meant he had been completely certain.

When Ping An first saw those words, he thought nothing of them and dismissed them with a laugh:

How could Zhu Di, who had killed countless men, possibly go mad?

His Majesty's words are far too exaggerated, utterly unrealistic.

But now, like Zhang Bing and Sheng Yong, Ping An was so shaken that he could not recover.

Daning Prefecture, the Prince of Ning's Palace.

Zhu Quan was reading in his study. There was little military business in winter.

The Mongol Tatars were human too. They felt the cold and would not come stirring up trouble at this time of year. Most likely, they were relaxing comfortably in their yurts.

Besides, Mongolia did not yet dare launch large-scale raids against Great Ming.

In the twenty-first year of Hongwu's reign, 1388, Lan Yu had led an army of 150,000 on the Northern Expedition. He marched north from Daning to Qingzhou and all but annihilated the Northern Yuan regime at Buir Lake.

Great Ming's political enemy had vanished ten years earlier.

Mongolia's forces today no longer belonged to a single regime. They were scattered, independent forces, lacking the courage and strength to invade the Ming frontier in force.

While inspecting the patrols within the city, Regional Military Commander Fang Kuan suddenly saw a mounted dispatch rider galloping through the gates. He immediately ordered men to stop him. After questioning him, Fang Kuan's expression changed drastically, and he hurried to the Prince of Ning's Palace with the urgent dispatch.

"Your Highness, an urgent dispatch!"

Fang Kuan hurriedly pushed open the door, letting a gust of cold wind sweep into the room.

Zhu Quan frowned and asked in a low voice, "Where is it from?"

"It was sent from Beiping Prefecture."

Fang Kuan's lips were somewhat chapped.

Surprised, Zhu Quan looked up at Fang Kuan and took the dispatch. "Why would an urgent dispatch from Beiping Prefecture be sent to my Daning Prefecture?"

"Your Highness, look at the emblem on the dispatch."

Fang Kuan prompted him.

Zhu Quan lowered his head for a closer look. The dispatch bore a design of a saber and sword crossed in a diagonal X. He sucked in a cold breath. He recognized this unusual emblem: it was the distinctive mark of the Great Ming Security Bureau, reportedly chosen by Zhu Yunwen himself to signify "always fighting."

Why would the Great Ming Security Bureau send me an urgent dispatch?

Zhu Quan hurriedly opened it. The instant he read its contents, he stood up and demanded, "Where is the courier? Bring him here at once!"

Fang Kuan called outside, and a courier whose lips had turned blue from the cold entered the room and cupped his fists. "Greetings, Prince of Ning."

Zhu Quan glanced down at the letter, then asked the courier in disbelief, "My fourth brother, the Prince of Yan, has gone mad?"

"That is what the citizens of Beiping say, and countless people have witnessed it. But whether he has truly gone mad remains uncertain."

The courier answered cautiously.

Zhu Quan recalled his "exchange in the hall" with Zhu Yunwen before leaving the Capital. Zhu Yunwen had explicitly worked through how the situation in Beiping would develop. Now, everything he had predicted had come to pass.

The Prince of Yan had gone mad.

His madness was feigned.

Zhu Quan knew that Zhu Yunwen was aware Zhu Di was feigning madness and had even predicted that he would do so. Yet Zhu Di knew none of this and was still throwing himself into his performance of insanity.

Deep in his heart, Zhu Quan felt profound sorrow for Zhu Di, even as Zhu Yunwen's brilliant foresight left him utterly shaken.

It was as though Zhu Yunwen had written the script long ago, selected the cast, and built the stage, then called out, "Zhu Di, please begin your performance." Completely unaware, Zhu Di had followed the script step by step, finally arriving at its most spectacular scene:

Feigning madness and playing the fool.

Zhu Quan could imagine Zhu Yunwen laughing delightedly in the Capital at that very moment, while Zhu Di, believing himself successful, devoted all his effort to a performance that could never possibly achieve its purpose.

"His Majesty was right!"

Zhu Quan slumped into his chair. The room seemed to have grown colder, making him shiver despite himself.

Zhu Yunwen had foreseen everything, yet had taken no action. He had been giving his fourth brother chances all along!

Zhu Quan knew that, according to Zhu Yunwen's next prediction, Zhu Di would wait for an opportunity, then send men to Daning or come himself. In the end, he would seize Zhu Quan's Doyan Three Guards, strike back at Beiping, and use it as a base to stand against the imperial court as a rival power!

"No. I will not allow this to happen!"

Zhu Quan knew that if events continued to unfold, he would undoubtedly die.

There was no hope of victory against an emperor who held all of Great Ming and possessed such extraordinary foresight.

Moreover, Zhu Quan understood the new army strategy very well. Almost all the guards in the Capital and Beiping now gave their allegiance to the imperial court. If trouble erupted in Beiping, those soldiers would fight to the death.

Armed with the new army strategy, the soldiers of the guards were an army that understood death yet did not fear it, an army whose will was like the Great Wall, an army that would repay its country with death and die without regret!

Zhu Quan had no confidence that he could defeat such an army, even with Great Ming's strongest cavalry, the Doyan Three Guards, under his command!

"Have Mao Zheng and He Yunzhong come see me!"

After a long period of deliberation, Zhu Quan gave Fang Kuan the order.

Mao Zheng and He Yunzhong soon entered the Prince of Ning's Palace. Zhu Quan sealed the letter he had written and handed it to Mao Zheng. "You two once served under the Prince of Yan. Now I need you to depart tonight and deliver this letter into his hands as quickly as possible, then return to Daning Prefecture immediately. Do not say a single unnecessary word, and do not ask a single unnecessary question! Understood?"

He Yunzhong glanced at Mao Zheng. Although Mao Zheng did not understand what was happening, he solemnly agreed. Seeing that Zhu Quan had no further instructions, he concealed the letter, then hurried out of Daning Prefecture and headed straight for Songting Pass.

Zhu Quan did not wish to see brothers take up arms within the same house.

The twenty-seventh day of the eleventh month, the imperial palace in the Capital, the Hall of Reverent Conduct.

Watching Dao Yan sit with his eyes closed in contemplation, his fingers ceaselessly moving over his prayer beads, Zhu Yunwen took out an urgent dispatch sent by eight-hundred-li express delivery. "This urgent dispatch came from Beiping Prefecture."

Dao Yan opened his eyes and fixed his gaze on Zhu Yunwen. "Has the time come?"

Zhu Yunwen nodded slightly. Taking a sealed letter from the wooden box on his desk, he said, "Master, your prediction remains unopened in my keeping."

Dao Yan drew a letter with its wax seal intact from his sleeve and said softly, "Your Majesty's prediction is untouched."

Zhu Yunwen used a small knife to pry open the wax seal and took out Dao Yan's prediction. "If your prediction proves wrong, Master, please remain at my side and lend your strength to Great Ming."

Dao Yan's gaunt cheeks twitched slightly. He tore open the envelope, took out the letter, and said gravely, "If Your Majesty's prediction proves wrong, please honor your promise and allow this monk to return to Qingshou Temple in Beiping."

"Haha, it is a deal."

Zhu Yunwen unfolded Dao Yan's prediction. It contained only nine characters:

Accept the new army strategy; serve the sovereign and repay the country.

Dao Yan unfolded Zhu Yunwen's prediction and looked down. His pupils suddenly widened. Written there were only eight characters:

Feign madness to escape disaster; await an opportunity to act.

Zhu Yunwen pointed at the urgent dispatch from Beiping Prefecture, then left the Hall of Reverent Conduct laughing heartily.

Uneasily, Dao Yan opened the dispatch, his hands trembling slightly. With a face full of alarm, he looked toward the doorway. Standing proudly in the bitter wind was the emperor of Great Ming-Zhu Yunwen!