Chapter Summaries

Zhu Yunwen tightened his hold over Zhu Di by transferring his trusted monk Dao Yan to the Capital, then asked for Zheng He, whom Zhu Di did not recognize. Zhu Yunwen realized Zheng He was a eunuch and was left wondering where to find him.

• Li Jinglong led three thousand troops south to Guangzhou, while Zhu Yunwen continued transferring military officers to positions that constrained Zhu Di.
• Zhu Yunwen visited Zhu Di and pointedly praised his military skill, prompting Zhu Di to swear that he would never oppose the emperor.
• Zhu Yunwen asked Zhu Di to send Dao Yan to the Capital to pray for the empress dowager, and Zhu Di reluctantly agreed.
• Zhu Yunwen asked for Zheng He, but Zhu Di and Qiu Fu said they had never heard of him.
• Zhu Yunwen remembered that Zheng He was a eunuch and realized he needed to look for him among the eunuchs.

Zhu Yunwen found Ma Sanbao in Zhu Di’s residence, granted him the name Zheng He, and promised him a chance to sail to Mecca. He then presented Zhu Di with new military policies that would win soldiers’ loyalty to the court, leaving Zhu Di with little power beyond his Three Guards and personal troops.

• Zhu Yunwen asked Zhu Di about a eunuch named Zheng He, then recognized the guard Ma Sanbao as the man he sought.
• Zhu Yunwen greeted Ma Sanbao in Arabic, promised to help him sail to Mecca, and granted him the name Zheng He and the post of Chief Eunuch in the Imperial Stables Directorate.
• Zhu Yunwen told Zhu Di he was taking Ma Sanbao, and Zhu Di reluctantly let his trusted guard go.
• Xu Huizu gave Zhu Di the new military policies, and Zhu Di realized they would draw the soldiers’ loyalty away from him and toward the court.
• Zhu Di declined to implement the policies, so Zhu Yunwen assigned Ping An to carry them out around Beiping while leaving Zhu Di’s Three Guards and personal troops untouched.

At a Mid-Autumn family banquet, Zhu Yunwen granted the Princes of Liao and Min new fiefs after they pleaded to leave their frontier posts, alarming the remaining princes. Zhu Quan failed to secure permission to stay in the Capital, while Zhu Yunwen left the other frontier kings in place.

• Zhu Yunwen postponed court for the Mid-Autumn Festival and received congratulations from Ma Enhui, his brothers, and palace officials.
• Zhu Yunwen reviewed lavish gifts from Zhu Di and Zhu Zhi, then hosted his uncles and relatives at a family banquet.
• Zhu Zhi complained about the harsh winters in Liaodong and asked to change his fief, so Zhu Yunwen granted him Songjiang Prefecture.
• Zhu Geng cried and begged to leave Yunnan, and Zhu Yunwen granted his request as well.
• Zhu Quan asked to remain in the Capital, but Zhu Yunwen refused and ordered the other uncles to keep guarding the frontiers.
• Zhu Yunwen kept Zhu Shangbing and Zhu Jixi in the Capital after the empress dowager intervened, leaving six northern frontier kings in place.

At the Mid-Autumn banquet, Zhu Yunwen hinted that he knew of Zhu Di’s ambitions, frightening him and prompting his sons to debate whether to submit or rebel. Later, Zhu Yunwen appointed Zheng He to organize an oceangoing fleet and ended the night with Ma Enhui beneath the moon.

• Zhu Yunwen toasted Zhu Di, repeated a phrase from Zhu Di’s secret meeting with Li Zengzhi, and left Zhu Di convinced that the emperor knew his plans.
• Back at the Prince of Yan’s residence, Zhu Gaoxu blamed Li Zengzhi, while Zhu Gaochi urged Zhu Di to show loyalty and warned that rebellion would fail against the court’s forces and preparations.
• Zhu Di ended the argument and said they would discuss their options after returning to their domain.
• Zhu Yunwen appointed Zheng He deputy commander-in-chief of the navy, authorized him to select ten thousand servicemen, and ordered him to organize and train an oceangoing fleet.
• After Ma Enhui asked him for a festival poem, Zhu Yunwen recited one and embraced her as they watched the full moon.

Zhu Yunwen considered how to uncover abuses across Great Ming and improve governance, then received a memorial accusing Li Zengzhi of twelve crimes. After Xie Jin warned that the Prince of Yan might still rebel, Zhu Yunwen summoned the Prince of Ning to bring him under his control.

• Ma Enhui told Zhu Yunwen that the Laundry Bureau's supervisor had embezzled funds and denied palace maids their leave, and Zhu Yunwen reflected on abuses hidden from the emperor.
• At morning court, Cheng Ji impeached Li Zengzhi on twelve charges, but Zhu Yunwen postponed judgment until Li returned to the Capital.
• Zhu Yunwen ordered Liu Changge to send Cheng Ji's memorial to Li Zengzhi as a warning that his fate depended on submitting.
• Xie Jin warned Zhu Yunwen that the Prince of Yan would likely stir up trouble after returning to Beiping, despite the court's preparations.
• Zhu Yunwen decided that Zhu Di needed an ally and ordered Shuangxi to summon Zhu Quan, the Prince of Ning.

Zhu Yunwen summoned Zhu Quan and convinced him that the Prince of Yan might use the Doyan Three Guards to break out of Beiping, then offered Zhu Quan a peaceful future in Shaoxing Prefecture in exchange for his loyalty. After Zhu Quan left, Zhu Yunwen called for Wang Shen, while Su Muzhe reviewed Wang Shen’s recommended candidates.

• Zhu Yunwen showed Zhu Quan Li Jinglong’s secret report and asked what he thought of the Prince of Yan.
• Zhu Quan feared the accusations and asked to leave Daning, but Zhu Yunwen urged him to help assess how the Prince of Yan might act.
• Zhu Yunwen described how the Prince of Yan could secretly prepare for rebellion and use Zhu Quan and the Doyan Three Guards to break the encirclement of Beiping.
• Zhu Yunwen asked Zhu Quan to watch the Prince of Yan and promised him Shaoxing Prefecture; Zhu Quan agreed to obey him.
• After Zhu Quan left, Zhu Yunwen summoned Wang Shen, while Su Muzhe read Wang Shen’s recommendations of Li Zhigang and Guo Lian.

Wang Shen won Zhu Yunwen’s trust by selecting ten promising candidates through unconventional tests, including a python-based test of courage. Zhu Yunwen then charged him with finding the Imperial College’s shortcomings, while a report about Li Zengzhi visiting the Jiaofang Office during the mourning period raised a separate concern at the palace.

• Wang Shen reasoned that talent required learning, ability, and moral character, and he selected candidates by testing their skills and quick thinking.
• Zhu Yunwen approved Wang Shen’s list, assigning Li Zhigang, Guo Lian, and Wang Huai to posts in the Hanlin Academy, Ministry of Personnel, and Ministry of War.
• Wang Shen explained that he tested Wang Huai’s courage by putting students in a room with a harmless python, and Zhu Yunwen praised his work.
• Zhu Yunwen ordered Wang Shen to identify ten shortcomings of the Imperial College and propose improvements.
• At Chang’an Palace, Zhu Yunwen told Ma Enhui that Li Zengzhi had reportedly visited the Jiaofang Office during the initial mourning period.

Zhu Yunwen saw the princes off, then visited the Jiaofang Office and met Murong Jing'er, whose family had been ruined by the Blue Jade Case. After asking whether she wanted to escape its register, he set fire to her bed and declared that the Jiaofang Office was burning.

• Zhu Yunwen saw Zhu Di and the other princes depart for their fiefs after urging them to defend Great Ming.
• Zhu Yunwen sent Zhu Zhi, Zhu Shangbing, Zhu Jixi, and Zhu Geng away and went in disguise to the Jiaofang Office.
• Zhu Yunwen learned that more than six thousand eight hundred names were on the Jiaofang Office register and asked to meet its most celebrated women.
• Zhu Yunwen spoke with Murong Jing'er and learned that her father, an army clerk, had been executed in the Blue Jade Case.
• Zhu Yunwen asked whether Murong Jing'er wanted to leave the register, then set fire to her bed with her firelighter.

Zhu Yunwen burned part of the Jiaofang Office, then ordered its thousands of residents released from their status and registered according to their chosen livelihoods. He abolished the office, established the Arts Bureau with Murong Jing'er as its keeper, and left Ma Enhui worried about the cost of feeding its 2,600 performers.

• Zhu Yunwen set fire to a room in the Jiaofang Office, evacuated its residents, and had Liu Changge beat back Cheng Fengluan's men when they tried to stop him.
• Zhu Yunwen ordered nearly 7,000 people from the Jiaofang Office brought to the Rites Ministry and told officials to register each person in the household category she chose.
• Murong Jing'er chose to join the palace women's households, and Ma Enhui arranged temporary lodging, hot tea, and warm clothing for those in need.
• Zhu Yunwen abolished the Jiaofang Office and established the Arts Bureau, releasing 4,216 female entertainers and organizing the remaining 2,600 into an Arts Troupe under Murong Jing'er.
• Ma Enhui complained that the Arts Troupe's food would strain palace finances, and Zhu Yunwen jokingly suggested they eat coarse steamed buns.

Zhu Yunwen proposed introducing the single whip law early to reform agricultural taxation, and ordered his ministers to develop a workable plan. As he delayed implementation until the vassal princes were dealt with, Ping An and Sheng Yong began reorganizing the military around Beiping.

• Zhu Yunwen decided to introduce the single whip law, combining land taxes, corvée, and miscellaneous levies into a silver assessment based on acreage.
• Huang Zicheng warned that the law could burden poorer northern regions, leave farmers dependent on merchants to obtain silver, and risk insufficient revenue.
• Xie Jin and Yu Xin supported adopting the law, citing reduced household burdens and transport costs, while warning that local officials might resist or abuse it.
• Zhu Yunwen ordered the Grand Secretariat and Revenue Ministry to prepare a workable reform plan within a month, with Imperial College students invited to assist if needed.
• Zhu Di left the Capital for Beiping, while Sheng Yong reassigned thirty-two military officers and Ping An took over Beiping's defenses.
• Qu Neng drilled troops at Shanhai Pass, and Ping An began implementing the New Army policy around Beiping Prefecture.

Ping An and Sheng Yong introduced the New Army policy in Beiping, winning the soldiers’ support for Zhu Yunwen and the court. As Dao Yan was taken to the Capital, the policy reached the Prince of Yan’s Three Guards, where Zhou Duo led a group of soldiers to demand the promised benefits.

• Ping An and Sheng Yong announced that Zhu Yunwen had approved the New Army policy for Beiping, and the soldiers pledged their loyalty to the emperor and Great Ming.
• Ping An and Sheng Yong spread the policy through Beiping Prefecture and nearby guard stations, winning over veteran soldiers of the Prince of Yan.
• Zhang Yu and Zhu Neng sought Dao Yan’s advice, but an imperial envoy and the Bureau of Buddhist Registers took him toward the Capital.
• Dao Yan entrusted Zhang Yu and Zhu Neng with a letter for Zhu Di before continuing toward the Capital.
• The Prince of Yan’s Three Guards welcomed the policy, but grew angry when their noon meal contained no meat.
• Zhou Duo gathered about a hundred men and led them to the Regional Military Commission offices to demand the promised benefits.

Ping An revealed that Zhu Di had refused to let the Prince of Yan's Three Guards receive the New Army policy, turning the soldiers' anger against their prince. The Regional Military Command Office punished the men who had caused a disturbance, and four commanders died from their strokes.

• Sheng Yong announced that the Prince of Yan's Three Guards were excluded from the New Army policy, and Ping An ordered Zhou Duo and his men arrested after they protested.
• Zhang Yu and Zhu Neng rushed to the Regional Military Command Office as more than five hundred soldiers demanded the release of Zhou Duo.
• Yu Qiong arrived with men from the Left Guard, ordered them to lay down their weapons, and was arrested along with nearby commanders.
• Zhu Neng urged Zhang Yu to redirect the soldiers' anger toward the court, but Ping An publicly explained that Zhu Di himself had refused the policy for the Three Guards.
• Zhang Yu told Sheng Yong to punish the soldiers according to law, and Sheng Yong ordered fifty strokes for each offender.
• Four of the punished men died, including two Hundred Households Commanders and two Thousand Households Commanders.

The Prince of Yan's Three Guards turned against Zhu Di after learning he had rejected the New Army policy, while Zhu Yunwen’s policies reshaped Beiping’s military supplies and commerce. Zhu Di returned to a city and army in disarray, then decided to summon the strategist Jin Zhong.

• Zhang Yu and Zhu Neng reported the Three Guards’ unrest, and Princess Consort Xu Yihua ordered a lockdown with severe punishments for disobedience and unauthorized discussion.
• Zhu Neng rode south to meet Zhu Di as Zhang Bing funded military provisions through local summer taxes, encouraged livestock farming, and loosened restrictions on merchants.
• Zhu Di returned to Beiping on the fourteenth day of the ninth month and realized Zhu Yunwen had used the New Army policy to turn the Three Guards against him.
• Zhu Gaochi rejected Yuan Rong’s proposal to offer the Three Guards a rival policy, explaining that the Prince of Yan’s Palace lacked the authority and wealth to sustain it.
• Zhu Di named Jin Zhong as the man recommended by Dao Yan and secretly sent Zhu Gaoxu to invite the fortune-teller from Quiet Alley to the palace.

Zhu Gaoxu sought Jin Zhong’s help, and Jin Zhong advised Zhu Di that the new army policy would eventually fail because its generous benefits could not be sustained. Zhu Di then addressed the three guards, denouncing the policy as unworkable and explaining that he had kept his soldiers out of it to protect them.

• Zhu Gaoxu visited Jin Zhong for a character reading, then revealed his identity and invited him to the Prince of Yan’s Palace.
• Jin Zhong told Zhu Di that the new army policy would strain military supplies and finances, and predicted that its weaknesses would emerge within two years.
• Zhu Di asked Jin Zhong how to resolve the immediate crisis, and Jin Zhong said the plan would require the Prince of Yan’s cooperation.
• Zhu Di assembled the three guards, challenged the soldiers to confront him, and argued that the new army policy’s promised benefits could not be delivered or sustained.
• Zhu Di told the soldiers that he had kept them out of the policy because he feared they would suffer when it failed.

Zhu Di secured the loyalty of the Three Guards and secretly began forging weapons beneath a poultry farm, while Zhu Yunwen prepared the New Army and tightened pressure on Beiping. The chapter ended with Zhu Yunwen confronting Dao Yan about his double life, causing the monk’s prayer beads to snap and scatter.

• Zhu Di convinced the Three Guards that he had kept the New Army policy from them for their own good, and the soldiers pledged their loyalty to him.
• Jin Zhong examined intelligence about the New Army’s provisions and pay, then advised Zhu Di to prepare for trouble; Zhu Di decided to build a secret weapons workshop inside his palace.
• Zhu Di established a large poultry farm at the Prince of Yan’s Palace while secretly forging weapons underground and assembling soldiers.
• Zhu Yunwen imposed a deadline on Zhu Di to accept the New Army policy, sent security agents to Beiping, and ordered military preparations across the northern regions.
• Zhu Yunwen reorganized the Directorate of Imperial Manufactories into the Science and Technology Bureau, established a secret armaments base, and punished officials who criticized his military preparations.
• Zhu Yunwen confronted Dao Yan over his supposed devotion to Buddhism and his suspected schemes, and Dao Yan’s prayer-bead cord snapped.

Zhu Yunwen confronted Dao Yan about his role in Zhu Di’s rebellion and challenged him to predict the Prince of Yan’s next move, wagering whether he would return to Beiping or stay to govern. After struggling to advance the single whip law, Zhu Yunwen reflected that officials had been taught to serve the emperor rather than the people, leaving him to question how Great Ming’s education had gone wrong.

• Zhu Yunwen accused Dao Yan of steering Zhu Di toward rebellion and challenged him to predict the Prince of Yan’s next move, with Dao Yan’s future depending on the result.
• Zhu Yunwen explained that court officials had obstructed the single whip law, using local corruption, grain shortages, and an earthquake to argue against it.
• Zhu Yunwen transferred thirty-five officials who resisted reform, then the court agreed to postpone implementing the single whip law until the First Year of Jianwen and prepare student overseers.
• Zhu Yunwen judged that the new army policy could be sustained in selected regions while the government pursued agricultural and commercial reforms.
• At Chang'an Palace, Zhu Yunwen told Ma Enhui that officials served him instead of the people and the Great Ming, and concluded that the country’s education had gone wrong.

Zhu Yunwen planned to turn cotton into wound-care gauze, with the Inner Palace producing it and the Prince of Liao handling sales through a new Central Bank. He also used the venture to give the Prince of Liao, the Prince of Qin, the Prince of Jin, and the Prince of Min a role in commerce rather than sending them to their fiefs, then summoned them.

• Ma Enhui sewed a cotton-lined winter robe, and Zhu Yunwen realized cotton could be used to make gauze for treating soldiers' wounds.
• Zhu Yunwen proposed that the Inner Palace produce gauze, the Prince of Liao sell it, and the Ministry of War purchase it.
• Zhu Yunwen explained to Ma Enhui that a Central Bank would manage the rear palace's commercial proceeds separately from the Imperial Treasury.
• Ma Enhui inferred that Zhu Yunwen planned to keep the Prince of Liao, the Prince of Qin, the Prince of Jin, and the Prince of Min from taking up their fiefs by giving them commercial ventures.
• Zhu Yunwen summoned the Prince of Liao, the Prince of Qin, the Prince of Jin, and the Prince of Min.

Ni Qiong led more than five hundred men from the Prince of Yan’s Three Guards to join Ping An, leaving Zhu Di’s forces shaken and their loyalty in doubt. After the defectors exposed Zhang Yu and Zhu Neng’s alleged rebellion plot, Ping An decided to arrest them himself and take responsibility.

• Ni Qiong persuaded fellow commanders to join the Beiping Guard before the New Army Strategy deadline, and more than five hundred men left the Three Guards for Ping An’s command.
• Qiu Fu told Zhu Di that the men had defected, and Zhu Di fainted from shock and anger.
• Zhu Gaoxu urged killing the defectors, but Zhu Gaochi and Jin Zhong instead advised sealing the Three Guards’ camp and keeping Ping An from addressing the troops.
• Ni Qiong and the defectors told Ping An and Sheng Yong that Zhang Yu and Zhu Neng had incited the guards against the court and plotted rebellion.
• Zhang Bing warned that arresting Zhang Yu and Zhu Neng without an imperial decree could trigger unrest, but Ping An ordered the arrests and accepted responsibility.

Ping An arrested Zhang Yu and Zhu Neng, and Zhu Di reluctantly agreed to introduce the New Army policy into the Three Guards. After Ping An presented evidence of the alleged plot and imposed martial law, Sheng Yong reported that Zhu Di had gone mad.

• Ping An surrounded the Three Guards’ camps with thirty thousand troops and arrested Zhang Yu and Zhu Neng.
• Zhu Gaochi urged Zhu Di to adopt the New Army policy, and Zhu Di agreed to wait for an opportunity rather than rebel.
• Ping An visited Zhu Di and presented one hundred soldiers’ statements accusing Zhang Yu and Zhu Neng of plotting treason, causing Zhu Di to faint.
• Ping An ordered Beiping Prefecture placed under martial law and told Sheng Yong to watch the Three Guards.
• Sheng Yong arrived at the Regional Military Command Office and announced that Zhu Di had gone mad.

Ping An, Zhang Bing, Sheng Yong, and Zhu Quan learned that Zhu Di was feigning madness, just as Zhu Yunwen had predicted more than a month earlier. In the Capital, Zhu Yunwen and Dao Yan compared their sealed predictions, and Zhu Yunwen’s forecast proved accurate while Dao Yan’s did not.

• Ping An showed Zhang Bing and Sheng Yong Zhu Yunwen’s letter, which had predicted that Zhu Di would feign madness after the plot in Beiping was exposed.
• Zhu Quan received an urgent dispatch reporting Zhu Di’s apparent madness and realized Zhu Yunwen had foreseen his brother’s plan to seize the Doyan Three Guards.
• Zhu Quan sent Mao Zheng and He Yunzhong to deliver a letter to Zhu Di, hoping to prevent the brothers from fighting.
• Zhu Yunwen and Dao Yan opened their sealed predictions in the Hall of Reverent Conduct: Dao Yan had predicted that Zhu Di would accept the new army strategy, while Zhu Yunwen had predicted that Zhu Di would feign madness and wait for an opportunity.
• Zhu Yunwen left laughing as Dao Yan read the dispatch and stared toward the doorway in alarm.