The Last Persuader: Zhu Di Pledged His Allegiance

Dao Yan had returned?

Zhu Di shot to his feet and stared at Zhu Gaoxu in surprise, then turned to Zhu Gaochi and asked, "Didn't you just say that Dao Yan had entered the Hanlin Academy and was in the Capital?"

Clutching the "Cat Theory" in his hand, Zhu Gaochi frowned. "That was indeed the news we just received. Second Brother, what's going on?"

Zhu Gaoxu hurriedly replied, "I don't know the details either, but Master Dao Yan is already outside the Prince of Yan's Palace."

Zhu Di kicked aside his quilt and was about to go out to welcome him, but Zhu Gaochi grabbed him and stopped him. "Father, the intelligence that Dao Yan entered the Hanlin Academy came from the Capital, sent by our own people. It is absolutely reliable. If he really has come to Beiping, then the emperor sent him. You cannot see him!"

Zhu Gaoxu also blocked the doorway and urged, "Elder Brother is right. The emperor may have sent him to test you."

"Anyone under heaven might betray me, Zhu Di, but Master Dao Yan never would!"

Zhu Di wanted to go out and welcome Dao Yan, but neither Zhu Gaochi nor Zhu Gaoxu would allow it.

Dao Yan had arrived in the Capital in September. Now, three months later, he had returned to Beiping.

Who could say for certain whether his heart had changed?

According to the news from the Capital, Dao Yan was now an exposition scholar of the Hanlin Academy. Put plainly, he was one of Zhu Yunwen's men. If Dao Yan saw that Zhu Di was feigning madness and reported it to the emperor, Zhu Di would be guilty of contempt for the court and deceiving the sovereign.

"Very well. Invite him here!"

His face dark, Zhu Di sat back down in the corner.

Seeing this, Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Gaoxu had no choice but to leave the inner residence and meet Dao Yan.

Dao Yan looked at the two familiar princely sons. After greeting them, he sighed. "Your Highnesses, this monk has come today only to see the Prince of Yan and exchange a few words. Please grant me that much."

"Exchange a few words? Or deliver a message?"

There was displeasure in Zhu Gaoxu's eyes. He had read the intelligence from the Capital, and that source had never once been wrong. If it said Dao Yan had entered the Hanlin Academy, then he certainly had.

If Dao Yan had merely come to talk, well and good-he was still one of them. If he had come to deliver a message, then he belonged to the Jianwen Emperor.

"Heh, both."

Dao Yan spoke calmly, ignoring Zhu Gaoxu's coldness.

Zhu Gaoxu sprang to his feet. Beside him, Zhu Gaochi hurriedly called him to order and made him sit down, then said to Dao Yan, "We heard that you entered the Hanlin Academy, Master. Is the news accurate?"

Dao Yan nodded earnestly. "His Majesty commanded it, and this humble monk agreed."

Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Gaoxu stared at Dao Yan, both finding the answer hard to accept. Dao Yan had served in the Prince of Yan's Palace for more than ten years. He had been by their side for a considerable part of their lives.

Now their old friend had actually gone over to Zhu Yunwen!

What affection or loyalty could remain between them?

Forcing down his anger, Zhu Gaochi rose and said, "Father has been unwell recently. When you see him, Master, please keep your distance as much as possible. You must take care."

Dao Yan chuckled and thanked him. "Please lead the way, Your Highness. Sorry for the trouble."

Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Gaoxu led Dao Yan to the inner residence. Zhu Gaoxu gave Zhu Gaochi a look and fell behind. As he passed Qiu Fu, he instructed him in a low voice, "If he's a spy for the court, don't let him leave the inner residence alive!"

Qiu Fu solemnly agreed.

Zhu Gaochi stopped, pushed open the door, and invited him in. "Please enter, Master."

Dao Yan stepped into the room. Looking at Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Gaoxu, who were about to follow him inside, he said, "Your Highnesses, please allow this old monk to reminisce with the Prince of Yan in private."

Zhu Gaochi frowned slightly but finally nodded.

Dao Yan closed the door and walked farther into the room. Zhu Di sat in the corner with disheveled hair and a quilt draped around him, his eyes filled with wariness and the look of someone facing a stranger.

Was he acting?

It was so convincing that it inspired both admiration and heartache.

Dao Yan sat on the floor a short distance from Zhu Di, fingered his prayer beads, and sighed. "Your Highness, we met in the fifteenth year of Hongwu. Counting carefully, it has been almost seventeen years. How many seventeen-year spans does a man have in his life?"

When Zhu Di said nothing, Dao Yan did not mind. He continued bluntly, "This humble monk is already sixty-four. In another seventeen years, will I still be alive? If I pass away in obscurity, with no one knowing Dao Yan's name, then what was the purpose of all I learned in my life? I would rather die amid thunder than grow peacefully old upon a bed!"

"That was why I served at your side and stirred your ambitions. All I sought was to overturn the realm and set the winds and clouds in motion, leaving my name through the ages, proving the path I chose in this life, and doing justice to the arts I learned!"

"After the founding emperor passed away and Jianwen ascended the throne, I secretly observed him and judged him no more than a frail scholar, unable to withstand a single blow. Your conquest seemed close at hand! Yet after entering the Capital in September and sitting with the Jianwen Emperor to discuss the realm, I was startled into awakening. Our present emperor is no ordinary sovereign. He has the commanding spirit to lay foundations for ten thousand generations, the lofty resolve to chart the realm and turn heaven and earth in his grasp, the ability to plan, decide, and foresee, and talent of astonishing brilliance!"

Here Dao Yan paused. Looking deeply at Zhu Di, he said gravely, "His Majesty foresaw what you are doing now back in September. He has refrained from acting only because he does not want you to raise troops, does not want brothers of the same house to turn their weapons against one another, and above all does not want you to die on the march south. So, Your Highness, stop pretending."

Zhu Di's gaze gradually cleared as he looked at Dao Yan. He stood, tidied his hair, and chuckled. "Then it seems you have come to my palace as a persuader, Master?"

Seeing that Zhu Di had indeed been feigning madness, Dao Yan was awed by Zhu Yunwen's foresight. He rose and said, "A persuader? Perhaps. I have come only in the hope of joining the Prince of Yan in a great undertaking."

"A great undertaking? Ha! You, Dao Yan, have entered the Hanlin Academy. What great undertaking could there be? I fear that once you leave my palace, I will already be locked in a prison cart!"

Zhu Di shouted, seething with anger.

Dao Yan stepped forward and said solemnly, "Your Highness, the great undertaking I speak of is not rebellion, but the affairs of Great Ming, both within and beyond its borders. Within, we will usher in a flourishing age together; beyond, we will open the mountains and seas! Reopen the Silk Road, recreate the mighty achievements of Han and Tang, and restore the glory of ten thousand nations coming to pay homage!"

Zhu Di flung out his sleeve. "And what does that have to do with me? History will remember him, Zhu Yunwen, but not me, Zhu Di!"

Dao Yan fell silent.

Zhu Di sat at the table and gulped down wine.

Suddenly, Dao Yan broke the silence. "If history remembered you, Your Highness, would you submit to His Majesty?"

Zhu Di frowned and looked at Dao Yan. "What do you mean?"

Dao Yan's gaze was profound as he said, "You have not yet read the 'Cat Theory,' have you, Your Highness?"

Zhu Di was somewhat surprised. Not long before, Zhu Gaochi had brought him a booklet titled "Cat Theory," but he had not had time to read it. Could there be some hidden significance in this "Cat Theory"?

Dao Yan took a handwritten copy of "Cat Theory" from inside his robe and handed it to Zhu Di. "Your Highness, this is the 'Cat Theory,' written by the present emperor. Countless copies have now been transcribed, and its ideas can be found throughout the prefectures and counties."

Zhu Di opened "Cat Theory" and read it closely, shaken by Zhu Yunwen's novel ideas and views.

That was right. Ordinary people did not care whether a cat was black or white. If it could catch mice, it was a good cat.

Zhu Yunwen followed that example, disregarding birth and refusing to be bound by convention, daring to employ capable people. Everything rested on effective governance and sound administration. That, too, was right.

The "Cat Theory" could not be refuted, and it benefited Great Ming.

Zhu Di's hands trembled slightly. Zhu Yunwen had been on the throne for only half a year, yet he had already displayed an astonishing gift for governing:

With the New Army Strategy, he had won the hearts of the realm's soldiers through an open, upright stratagem;

With the publication of "Cat Theory," he had swept forward with irresistible momentum and won the hearts of the realm's budding scholars;

Word had it that the court would soon introduce the single whip law to reform agricultural taxation. When that happened, the hearts of the common people would surely turn to him.

There were signs that Zhu Yunwen was dismantling the barriers to commerce. Zhang Bing's bold move to lift the household registration restrictions on merchants in Beiping was one such sign. Once implemented, it would surely win powerful support from the merchant community.

In just half a year, Zhu Yunwen had struck on multiple fronts and broken through each in turn!

If soldiers, scholars, commoners, and merchants all submitted to the Jianwen Emperor, who under heaven could contend with him?

Bitterness welled up in Zhu Di. Could his father have been right? Would Zhu Yunwen become a great sovereign of the Ming Empire?

Seeing Zhu Di waver, Dao Yan stepped forward and added, "His Majesty entrusted me with a message for you."

Zhu Di set down "Cat Theory" and shook his head, yielding at last. "Enough. I have lost to him! This realm belongs to him, Zhu Yunwen! I accept it. Tomorrow, I will go bound to the Capital and submit to his judgment."

Dao Yan's aged face remained taut. He understood Zhu Di's temper, nature, and way of thinking, and knew that he would not easily admit defeat and submit. Walking over to the table, he said solemnly, "His Majesty's message was this: 'Uncle, Prince of Yan, I need you. Great Ming needs you. I wonder whether you, Fourth Uncle, have the courage to follow me through brambles and thorns and open a road never before seen in all the ages?'"

Zhu Di looked at Dao Yan in surprise. "Did His Majesty truly say that?"

Dao Yan nodded with a smile.

Zhu Di frowned. "What is this road never before seen in all the ages?"

Dao Yan shook his head and sighed. "I do not know. But in His Majesty's quarters, I once saw a Map of the World."

"A Map of the World?"

Zhu Di's eyes were full of bewilderment.

Dao Yan said earnestly, "On that Map of the World, our Great Ming was merely one region. The vastness of the world was staggering. Though I do not know how His Majesty obtained such a map, I believe the road never before seen in all the ages must be connected to it!"

Zhu Di was profoundly shaken. Great Ming's territory stretched endlessly, vast in every direction. Could such an immense, boundless land be merely one region of the world?

Was that true?

Was Great Ming not the largest country under heaven?

Dao Yan urged, "If you do not believe it, Your Highness, you may go to the Capital and ask His Majesty. I can sense that an immense chessboard lies within his heart. That is the truly great undertaking, unmatched from antiquity to the present!"

Zhu Di gazed deeply at Dao Yan and slowly said, "I underestimated him. Very well. I have no road left to take anyway, do I? Though the Prince of Yan's Three Guards obey me, I fear none would heed an order to march south against the court. Besides, Ping An and Sheng Yong are in Beiping, with Qu Neng, Guo Ying, Geng Bingwen, and Tie Xuan all around. Heh. He has already secured the advantage. Even if I wished to rise, I would have no power to act."

"I, Zhu Di, submit!"

"I, Zhu Di, acknowledge him as emperor!"

"I, Zhu Di, will entrust the rest of my life to following His Majesty and opening a road never before seen in all the ages!"

With tears in his eyes, Dao Yan knelt and bowed. "Your servant pays his respects to the Prince of Yan."

He observed the rites of an official, in accordance with court regulations.

At that moment, he was Yao Guangxiao, exposition scholar of the Hanlin Academy; he was Zhu Di, Prince of Yan of Great Ming; and he was Zhu Yunwen, emperor of Great Ming!