Chapter Summaries

Su Changhe awoke in the body of Zhu Yunwen, the newly enthroned Ming emperor, and resolved to rule with strength rather than repeat the failures of his historical reign. After hearing Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng urge him to abolish the princes’ fiefs, Zhu Yunwen ordered the Prince of Yan summoned to the capital.

• Su Changhe woke in the palace with Zhu Yunwen’s memories after falling at the Xiaoling Mausoleum and learned that Zhu Yuanzhang had recently died.
• Su Changhe accepted that he was Zhu Yunwen and vowed to become a powerful emperor who would make Great Ming prosper.
• Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng warned Zhu Yunwen that the frontier princes commanded formidable forces and urged him to abolish their fiefs.
• Zhu Yunwen asked where the Prince of Yan was and, learning he was likely in Huai'an, ordered him summoned to the capital.

Zhu Yunwen ordered Zhu Di to be summoned to the capital despite his advisers' warnings, while Xu Huizu weighed the emperor's plans and his own loyalties. Zhu Di's three sons remained in the capital, where a mounted archery contest was arranged.

• Zhu Yunwen overruled Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai and ordered Zhu Di summoned to the capital, arguing that leaving him out while the other princes attended would look improper.
• Ma Enhui noticed Zhu Yunwen's changed attitude, and he promised she would stay with him for a hundred years while privately remembering that she would die in four.
• Xu Huizu considered the emperor's efforts to curtail the princes and questioned why Li Jinglong held command of the Left Military Commission.
• Xu Huizu learned that Zhu Yunwen had summoned Zhu Di and wondered whether the invitation concealed a trap.
• Zhu Gaochi, Zhu Gaoxu, and Zhu Gaosui proposed a mounted archery contest, and Xu Huizu agreed to arrange one with the military nobles.
• Xu Huizu wrote a confidential memorial for delivery to the palace and decided it was time to choose a side.

Zhu Yunwen received Xu Huizu’s secret memorial and reflected on how to avoid the mistakes that had led to the Jingnan campaign. After a warm visit with Xu Miaojin and his young son, he learned Xu Huizu had come to see him.

• Zhu Yunwen burned Xu Huizu’s secret memorial without showing his reaction and resolved to handle Zhu Di carefully.
• Zhu Yunwen walked through the palace and encountered Xu Miaojin at Chang'an Palace.
• Xu Miaojin told Zhu Yunwen that Xu Huizu was busy with military affairs at the Central Army Commandery.
• Zhu Yunwen greeted Zhu Wenkui and enjoyed a quiet moment with his family.
• A eunuch announced that Xu Huizu had requested an audience, and Zhu Yunwen sent him to the Hall of Martial Valor.

Zhu Yunwen rejected Xu Huizu’s suggestion to curtail the princes’ power and instead ordered a sweeping reform of the Capital Garrison, including reducing its nominal strength by one hundred thousand. Xu Huizu came to see the order as both a military cleanup and a calculated signal to the frontier princes, and resolved to support the emperor.

• Xu Huizu warned Zhu Yunwen that the Prince of Yan’s Three Guards had become his private army and urged him to curtail the princes’ power.
• Zhu Yunwen said he still trusted his uncles and shifted the discussion to a new military training policy.
• After reviewing the muster rolls, Zhu Yunwen ordered Xu Huizu to reduce the Capital Garrison by one hundred thousand and make it an elite force within a month.
• Xu Huizu told Xu Yingxu and Xu Zengshou about the order, and they discussed its implications for the army, the nobles, and the frontier princes.
• Xu Huizu estimated that most of the reduction would remove fictitious soldiers and nobles’ servants, then resolved to serve as Zhu Yunwen’s vanguard.

Zhu Yunwen defended his military reforms while reassuring Fang Xiaoru, Qi Tai, and Huang Zicheng that he did not intend to strip the princes of power. After noticing a memorial attacking Xie Jin, Zhu Yunwen decided to summon him and consider having him compile a Jianwen Encyclopedia.

• Censor Gao Xiang and other officials submitted memorials opposing Zhu Yunwen's plan to reduce the army.
• Fang Xiaoru urged Zhu Yunwen not to strip the princes of power, and Zhu Yunwen told him the Prince of Yan had been summoned to make amends.
• Zhu Yunwen reassured Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng that the army's fighting strength would be maintained despite the reductions.
• Zhu Yunwen read Yuan Tai's memorial criticizing Xie Jin for leaving his elderly father and unburied mother to mourn the late emperor.
• Zhu Yunwen decided to summon Xie Jin and considered having him compile a Jianwen Encyclopedia.

Zhu Yunwen summoned Xie Jin, reinstated him in the Hanlin Academy, and asked for his advice on stabilizing the court and curbing the princes. After hearing Xie Jin’s proposals, Zhu Yunwen concluded that one adviser’s perspective was too limited and considered establishing the Grand Secretariat.

• Zhu Yunwen reviewed Xie Jin’s troubled history and heard Xie explain that he had come to the capital to mourn Zhu Yuanzhang as a filial son.
• Zhu Yunwen appointed Xie Jin as a Hanlin expositor and asked how he would address the court’s situation.
• Xie Jin recommended governing benevolently to win officials’ support and relocating the frontier princes to reduce their power.
• Xie Jin identified Zhu Di as the most difficult prince to contain and proposed benevolent governance followed by military pressure.
• After Xie Jin left, Zhu Yunwen decided that he needed broader counsel and considered establishing the Grand Secretariat.

Zhu Yunwen’s army reduction pleased officials in the Ministry of Revenue, who wondered whether it was connected to summoning the Prince of Yan. Meanwhile, Zhu Yunwen showed concern for palace servants separated from their families and called for Kunji after speaking with a homesick maid.

• Yu Xin and Xia Yuanji discussed the savings from dismissing a hundred thousand soldiers and speculated that the reduction might be linked to summoning the Prince of Yan.
• Yu Xin noted that Zhu Yunwen had promoted Xie Jin instead of his former Eastern Palace officials, while Xia Yuanji suggested the emperor had other plans.
• Zhu Yunwen stayed away from court, leaving officials waiting for his approval of their memorials.
• Zhu Yunwen asked Shuangxi whether he missed his family and learned that palace eunuchs could not return home or expect their clans to accept them.
• Zhu Yunwen spoke with a maid from Suzhou who had not seen her family for three years, then told Shuangxi to fetch Kunji.

Zhu Yunwen sought to win the palace staff’s loyalty, while Ma Enhui introduced reforms that gave maids and eunuchs better treatment and regular days off. The grateful staff hailed them as a sage emperor and empress, as Zhu Yunwen prepared to focus on governing the court.

• Empress Dowager Lü urged Zhu Yunwen to recover before taking up state affairs, and he offered to bring an eminent monk from Beiping to the Capital.
• At the Laundry Bureau, Luo Yan'er lamented her family’s ruin and hunger until Qiao Hui shared a steamed cornmeal bun with her.
• Zhu Yunwen told Ma Enhui that a ruler should spread kindness widely and entrusted her with managing the inner palace.
• On the fifteenth day of the sixth month in the thirty-first year of Hongwu, Ma Enhui introduced new harem regulations, including two days off each month for palace maids and eunuchs.
• The palace staff celebrated the reforms, praised Zhu Yunwen and Ma Enhui, and Shuangxi wept with gratitude.

Zhu Yunwen established the Grand Secretariat to handle memorials and advise on state affairs while keeping final authority for himself. He reorganized court duties, issued reforms and relief orders, and sent Xia Yuanji and others to inspect the realm.

• Zhu Yunwen appointed Yu Xin, Zhang Zhen, and Xie Jin as grand secretaries and designated the Hall of Literary Brilliance as the Grand Secretariat's offices.
• Zhu Yunwen appointed Qi Tai Minister of Personnel, Huang Zicheng Minister of Revenue, and Fang Xiaoru a Hanlin Academician overseeing the Grand Secretariat.
• Zhu Yunwen set rules for the Grand Secretariat, including how to route military, urgent, and major state affairs, and revised the court schedule.
• Zhu Yunwen proclaimed an end to unjust Hongwu-era cases, pardoned innocent people, reduced or waived taxes in struggling regions, and ordered aid for vulnerable people and disaster victims.
• Zhu Yunwen assigned Xia Yuanji and others to tour the Great Ming as investigative commissioners.

Zhu Di learned that Zhu Yunwen had summoned him to the Capital while cutting its army, and Dao Yan advised him to make a public show of support before accepting the journey. In the Capital, Zhu Yunwen tasked Wang Shen with finding capable Imperial College students, and Wang Shen began reviewing their records.

• Qiu Fu told Zhu Di that the court had summoned him to the Capital and planned to reduce the Capital's army by a hundred thousand men.
• Dao Yan argued that the publicized summons and army reduction did not signal an immediate threat to the princes, then advised Zhu Di to announce his journey widely with the people's and army's support.
• Zhu Di decided to travel to the Capital and ordered Ma Sanbao to prepare to accompany him in two days.
• Zhu Yunwen instructed Wang Shen to enter the Imperial College and select students who were quick-witted, innovative, and learned.
• Wang Shen obtained the Imperial College student roster and began investigating students' performance and assessments.

Zhu Yunwen considered the Ming Empire’s costly vassal system and ordered a fleet built to seek crops and resources abroad, while appointing Tie Xuan to the Ministry of War. He enforced a sweeping army reduction despite resistance from nobles, and Li Jinglong asked whether the Prince of Yan was nearing the Capital.

• Zhu Yunwen summoned Xie Jin, discussed the Prince of Yan’s growing influence, and appointed Tie Xuan Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War.
• Zhu Yunwen ordered craftsmen gathered at Longjiang Shipyard to build long-range seagoing ships and began preparing lacquered boards and chalk for a blackboard.
• Zhu Yunwen confronted Xu Huizu over reducing only five thousand troops and authorized him to proceed with the planned reduction of one hundred thousand.
• Xu Huizu began purging fictitious soldiers and noble-connected officers from the camps, including men tied to Li Jinglong’s family.
• Li Zengzhi reported the cuts to Li Jinglong, who insisted the Capital Garrison belonged to the emperor and asked whether the Prince of Yan was about to arrive in the Capital.

Tie Xuan was promoted to Left Vice Minister of War after sentencing officers who abducted commoners’ daughters, then advised Zhu Yunwen about troop reductions and the threat posed by the princes. Zhu Yunwen tasked him with planning the Capital Garrison’s new-recruit training, and Tie Xuan and Ru Chang were astonished by the emperor’s proposals.

• Tie Xuan sentenced officers and soldiers who had abducted commoners’ daughters to beheading despite their ties to Li Jinglong.
• Wan Gui delivered Zhu Yunwen’s decree promoting Tie Xuan to Left Vice Minister of War.
• Tie Xuan met Zhu Yunwen, warned that the Princes of Yan, Ning, and Dai threatened the state, and predicted that Zhu Di might act within two years.
• Zhu Yunwen assigned Tie Xuan to develop a training plan for the Capital Garrison’s new recruits and gave him the emperor’s proposed policies.
• Tie Xuan read Zhu Yunwen’s document, praised him as a god among men, and Ru Chang echoed his reaction after reading it.

Zhu Yunwen drafted a sweeping plan to reform the army and considered how Great Ming could fund naval expansion and loosen restrictions on commerce. He recognized that legalizing merchants was essential to economic growth, but postponed the issue because Zhu Di was about to enter the capital.

• Zhu Yunwen drafted a five-part military training plan that called for improved fitness and morale, new formations and equipment, artillery units, and 4,000 specially selected soldiers.
• Ru Chang and Tie Xuan praised the plan and decided to consult the Duke of Wei, while Tie Xuan avoided involving the Ministry of War in court factions.
• Zhu Yunwen studied a map and worried that Great Ming lacked the time and money to prepare for overseas expansion and prevent future foreign domination.
• Zhu Yunwen reviewed the strained state treasury, noting the costs of troops, officials, and imperial relatives and the limits of tax revenue.
• Zhu Yunwen concluded that merchants needed legal recognition to unleash economic growth, but decided that Zhu Di’s imminent arrival made this the wrong time to change policy.

Zhu Yunwen created the Great Ming Security Bureau as an intelligence agency under his direct control, with its arrest and interrogation powers restricted. Meanwhile, Zhu Di reached Yangzhou Prefecture and was welcomed by Li Zengzhi as he continued toward the capital.

• Zhu Yunwen read a secret memorial reporting that Li Zengzhi had left the city for Yangzhou Prefecture as Zhu Di approached, and suspected Li Jinglong's influence lay behind the move.
• Shuangxi reported rumors about the Prince of Ning's ties to military nobles, and Zhu Yunwen ordered an investigation into who had spread them.
• Zhu Yunwen established the Great Ming Security Bureau to gather intelligence and conduct security operations, while barring it from arresting or interrogating officials without authorization.
• On the Sixteenth Day of the Seventh Month, Zhu Di arrived outside Yangzhou Prefecture, where Li Zengzhi welcomed him and invited him to rest before continuing to the capital.

Li Zengzhi encouraged Zhu Di to consider rebelling against Zhu Yunwen by framing the emperor’s reforms as violations of the founding emperor’s principles, while Zhu Di weighed the risks. Zhu Yunwen moved to secure the north against him, and Zhu Di arrived outside the capital and presented himself in mourning for his father.

• Li Zengzhi met privately with Zhu Di in Yangzhou and argued that Zhu Yunwen’s reforms threatened the hereditary nobles and violated Zhu Yuanzhang’s governing principles.
• Li Zengzhi implied that he would support Zhu Di if he rebelled, and Zhu Di acknowledged the possibility but remained uncertain about the risks.
• Liu Changge reported that Li Zengzhi and Zhu Di had spoken privately for two hours, but the Great Ming Security Bureau had not learned what they discussed.
• Zhu Yunwen ordered Zhang Bing, Ping An, Sheng Yong, Qu Neng, Xu Kai, and Guo Ying assigned to strengthen and command defenses in the north.
• Xie Jin drafted Zhu Yunwen’s decree, and the Office of Transmission dispatched it that night.
• Zhu Di arrived outside the capital, rested without entering, then crossed to Three Hills Gate in white mourning clothes and cried that he had come too late to see his father.

Zhu Yunwen lowered Jiangzhe’s taxes and deployed trusted generals to secure Beiping while Zhu Di mourned his father in Jinling. At the court ceremony, Zhu Di hesitated over whether to bow to Zhu Yunwen, leaving their confrontation unresolved.

• Zhu Di staged a public mourning procession through Jinling and cried at Xiaoling Mausoleum while Zhu Yunwen received reports of his movements.
• Zhu Yunwen and his ministers debated Jiangnan taxation, and he rejected Fang Xiaoru’s proposal to restore the well-field system.
• Zhu Yunwen ordered half of the next year’s land tax remitted, capped Jiangzhe’s levy, and reopened Revenue Ministry posts to men from Suzhou and Songjiang.
• Zhu Di learned that Zhu Yunwen had sent Zhang Bing, Ping An, Sheng Yong, and Qu Neng to secure Beiping and its surrounding defenses.
• Zhu Di stood before Zhu Yunwen at the court ceremony but hesitated to bow, weighing submission against the risk of provoking his nephew.

Zhu Di refused to bow to Zhu Yunwen at court, but Zhu Yunwen forced him to submit and warned officials against baseless accusations. After the audience, Zhu Di visited the Xu family and learned that Xu Huizu would not help him investigate the Capital Garrison reductions.

• Zhu Di stood through the court ceremony while Zhu Gaochi and his brothers knelt, prompting Fang Xiaoru and Chen Di to demand punishment.
• Zhu Yunwen confined the dispute to court protocol, and Zhu Di eventually bowed after the ministers fell silent and his sons trembled.
• Zhu Yunwen accepted blame for Zhu Di missing the funeral, then urged officials to offer evidence-based counsel and reject reckless accusations.
• After the audience, Zhu Di visited Empress Dowager Lady Lü and then went to the Prince of Zhongshan's Mansion, where Xu Huizu rebuked his conduct at court.
• Xu Huizu refused to discuss the Capital Garrison reductions, and Zhu Di concealed his growing distrust behind a warm smile.

Xu Huizu warned Xu Zengshou to distance himself from Zhu Di while strengthening Zhu Yunwen’s new military policy. Zhu Di cultivated public support through courteous visits, and Zhu Yunwen prepared to use the officials who defended him as he raised the pirate threat in Guangzhou at court.

• Xu Huizu rebuked Xu Zengshou for his closeness to Zhu Di and warned that Zhu Di’s ambitions could endanger the Xu family.
• Xu Huizu advanced Zhu Yunwen’s military reforms, including ideological training, improved soldiers’ welfare, and support for their families.
• Zhu Di visited princes and officials across Nanjing, using courteous public appearances to counter rumors that he had refused to bow to Zhu Yunwen.
• Zhu Yunwen heard Liu Changge’s report on Zhu Di’s visits, ordered him to compile a list of Zhu Di’s supporters, and noted reports of pirates in Guangzhou.
• At court on the first day of the eighth month, Zhu Yunwen asked the ministers who should be sent to suppress the pirates threatening Guangzhou and nearby areas.

Zhu Yunwen appointed Li Jinglong to lead a campaign against pirates in Guangzhou and ordered officials who opposed the decision to accompany the army. Li Jinglong feared the assignment would sideline his family, but Li Zengzhi proposed using Xu Huizu’s ties to the Prince of Yan to strengthen their standing at court.

• Xie Jin and Qi Tai recommended candidates for the Guangzhou campaign until Qi Tai named Li Jinglong, the Duke of Cao.
• Zhu Yunwen appointed Li Jinglong General Who Guards the South and ordered him to depart for Guangzhou with Li Zengzhi, Xu Zengshou, and other commanders.
• Wang Zuo and other officials objected to sending a duke, so Zhu Yunwen ordered them to accompany the army and witness conditions in Guangzhou.
• After returning home, Li Jinglong worried that the campaign would cut off his family’s ties to the Prince of Yan and the Prince of Ning.
• Li Zengzhi proposed secretly reporting the princes’ supposed disloyalty to Zhu Yunwen, emphasizing Xu Huizu’s relationship with the Prince of Yan to undermine Xu’s court standing and elevate the Li family.

Zhu Di feared that Zhu Yunwen was weakening his influence by sending his allies out of the capital, while Zhu Yunwen redirected Li Jinglong’s ambition toward building a navy in Guangzhou. Li Jinglong left determined to serve Zhu Yunwen, unaware that the emperor’s main fleet was already being built in secret.

• Zhu Gaoxu told Zhu Di that Li Jinglong had been appointed General Who Guards the South, and Zhu Gaochi warned that the expedition was a move against the Prince of Yan.
• Zhu Di read Zhu Gaochi’s list of Li Jinglong’s companions and realized that many of his supporters, including Xu Zengshou, were being removed from the capital.
• Li Jinglong secretly accused the Prince of Yan of disloyalty and cautioned Zhu Yunwen to watch Xu Huizu, but Zhu Yunwen concealed the memorial and reassured him.
• Zhu Yunwen told Li Jinglong to build seagoing ships and establish a powerful navy in Guangzhou while publicly fighting Sea Pirates.
• Li Jinglong accepted the mission and left the palace resolved to put his plans for the Prince of Yan aside, while Zhu Yunwen relied on a fleet already being built secretly at Longjiang Shipyard.