Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 623 Resurrected and Blinded by Greed!
Zhan Hui's voice was calm, but when it landed, it was like a thunderclap.

He spoke calmly, yet with great certainty.

Wang Zuo's body trembled slightly in the night wind.

He opened his mouth, wanting to argue, but found his throat so dry that he couldn't utter a sound.

Looking at this "ally" who had served in the same court and shared the same sentiments for decades, Wang Zuo realized for the first time that he had never truly understood him.

Neither of them spoke again, and a deathly silence fell over them.

Only the rustling of armor plates of the patrolling guards in the distance, and the final, mournful chirping of a few autumn insects under the eaves, echoed faintly in the empty palace corridor.

On the horizon, the moon rose above the palace walls, casting a few shadows.

But the darkness of the night did not disappear; instead, it grew thicker and colder.

After a long while, Zhan Hui let out a long sigh filled with exhaustion and disappointment.

“Wang Zuo…” He slowly shook his head, his eyes no longer filled with anger, only sorrow. “Our ‘old learning’ has come to this dead end because of stubborn old men like you who are so self-righteous and unscrupulous.”

"You think you've won?" Zhan Hui's lips curled into a self-deprecating smile. "No, you've completely destroyed the last shred of our dignity."

"From this day forward, the new school of thought will rise up, and no one can stop it."

"Although I am not as opposed to the new learning as you are, and I believe that the new learning has its merits, I really cannot bear to see the old learning be completely overthrown."

"The Cheng-Zhu school of Neo-Confucianism may not be entirely correct, but it certainly has its merits."

He glanced at Wang Zuo again, his voice still utterly calm and resolute:

"We've known each other for decades. From this moment on, we're severing all ties."

Wang Zuo's heart sank: "You...you're going to report me to the Empress?"

In an instant, he regained his composure and sneered, "It's useless. You have no evidence, and I will never admit it. Your guesses alone cannot sway me in the slightest."

Zhan Hui did not refute him, but looked at him with an almost pitying gaze, shook his head again, turned around, and dragged his heavy steps toward the Hall of Diligent Governance.

Do you think you're very smart?

Just as Zhan Hui's figure was about to disappear into the darkness ahead, a faint voice drifted over on the night breeze.

"Do you think that by remaining outside the game and manipulating events from the sidelines, you are a master?"

"Ha ha……"

"But little did they know, Your Majesty... is the only true chess player in this world."

"His level of attainment is beyond our reach."

Wang Zuo shuddered violently, abruptly raising his head, wanting to ask more questions, but only saw Zhan Hui's lonely figure disappear at the end of the corridor.

"Your Majesty is... the true mastermind?"

Wang Zuo stood there blankly, chewing on the words over and over again, feeling a chill run from the Baihui acupoint on the top of his head all the way down to the Yongquan acupoint on the sole of his feet.

A sudden gust of wind swept in from outside the palace walls, swirling up fallen leaves and causing the palace lanterns on the pillars to sway wildly, their light and shadows chaotic, like a riot of demons.

Wang Zuo subconsciously wrapped his official robe tighter around himself, but he still felt as if the wind had pierced through his flesh and blood, threatening to blow away his very soul.

……

Shandong, Qufu, Dacheng Hall.

Inside the hall, there was a chorus of weeping.

"Your Majesty...Your Majesty!"

Xu Miaojin lay on Zhu Yunwen's body, crying her heart out, and fainted several times.

Her grief was so real and so heart-wrenching that it moved all the civil and military officials who had come to protect her, causing them to kneel down and weep along with her.

"Your Highness, please accept our deepest condolences and take care of your health!"

"Yes, Your Majesty, your health is paramount. Please do not cry and harm your body!"

Everyone offered words of comfort, but Xu Miaojin seemed to hear nothing.

She simply held Zhu Yunwen tightly, as if trying to revive him with her own body heat.

That despair is heartbreaking.

After a long while, Xu Miaojin gradually stopped crying, but her body was still convulsing.

She slowly raised her tear-streaked, haggard face, and in a hoarse, almost indistinct voice, addressed the crowd:

"I wish to be alone with His Majesty on his final journey."

"You all stand down."

Everyone felt a pang of sadness in their hearts.

The deep affection between the Imperial Concubine and His Majesty is known throughout the land, yet this has come to this.

No one dared to disobey, so they all bowed and left the main hall.

The heavy palace doors slowly closed, isolating the outside world.

The hall fell into absolute silence instantly.

As soon as the door closed, Xu Miaojin, who had been wailing and crying, instantly lost her sorrow.

Instead, he rolled his eyes at the "corpse" on the ground.

She suddenly raised her hand and lightly tapped Zhu Yunwen's forehead, shouting, "Get up! Everyone's gone, how long are you going to keep up this act?"

The people on the ground did not react.

"You're not getting up, are you?" Xu Miaojin raised an eyebrow.

She bent down, stretched out two slender fingers, grabbed Zhu Yunwen's ear, and twisted it hard without any politeness!
"Ouch!"

The "former emperor," who had just been completely "dead," suddenly came back to life, sat up while covering his ears, glared at Xu Miaojin, and said, "Can't you be a little gentler? I am the supreme ruler!"

"Gentle?" Xu Miaojin rolled her eyes at him, annoyed. "I shed so many tears for nothing to play along with your act, and my voice is almost hoarse from crying. And you still want me to be gentle?"

Zhu Yunwen rubbed his ears, chuckled, leaned closer, and asked curiously, "How did you know I was faking it?"

"I believe I performed very well this time, and Zhao Rui and the Tian Shu Guards in the palace cooperated flawlessly."

"Yes, it was flawless; it almost fooled me too," Xu Miaojin snorted.

He then said, "At first, I just thought it was too much of a coincidence."

"The rebels Wang Shoulian and Zhu Su are both dead. The rebel army is like a headless body, already trapped like turtles in a jar. Moreover, you safely retreated into the main hall under the protection of the Tian Shu Guard."

“I was watching from a high place outside. The Tian Shu Guards had you surrounded so tightly that no bullet could possibly penetrate you.”

"Not to mention that after retreating into the main hall, there is another layer of protection from the hall door, and there are things inside that can shield against bullets."

"How come you were the one who was 'unlucky' enough to be hit by a stray bullet that came from who-knows-where?"

“That doesn’t make sense.”

Xu Miaojin said with a grin.

"However, what really made me realize that you were acting was your three imperial edicts."

“They sound like deathbed testimonies, but upon closer inspection, there are many problems.”

"First, we must not let the Emperor Emeritus know."

"That makes sense." "It's only right that I don't want to upset him."

"But the last two points gradually revealed their flaws."

Her eyes gleamed with wisdom as she analyzed each point.

"Second, the death must be kept secret."

"It sounds reasonable, as it's to prevent the court from falling into chaos due to the emperor's sudden death."

"Third, and most importantly, is to select a virtuous and capable person from the imperial clan to inherit the throne."

At first glance, it seems reasonable.

"However, I know you as a person."

“If it were truly your will, you would have directly designated a specific person, without allowing the ministers to discuss or debate it.”

"This will only incite infighting within the government."

"This caused turmoil in the court and unrest throughout the land."

"It is not impossible that it could even escalate into armed conflict, plunging the Ming Dynasty into civil war and causing it to fall apart."

"Why would you issue such a strange decree?"

"It's as if they're deliberately trying to create chaos in the world."

"This is very unusual."

"Combined with your previous two decrees, the answer becomes obvious."

A knowing smile appeared on Xu Miaojin's lips.

"You have to put on a grand show of your 'death,' and you have to make it convincing so that the people behind you believe you are really dead and that a power vacuum has been created."

"Offering a throne would make those big fish hiding in the deep waters surface on their own."

"The first two points are to minimize the impact of 'fishing'."

"The Supreme Emperor would not believe the news of your 'fake death' and be saddened by it."

"If the death is kept secret, the people of the world will not have to wear mourning clothes because of your 'fake death,' which would be a waste of resources and manpower."

"With these two rules in place, the 'cost' of your acting will be very low."

"Anyway, neither the Supreme Emperor nor the common people know."

"All we need to do is catch the fish from Chaozhong."

Zhu Yunwen laughed and said, "You guessed everything. My Consort, you are really too clever."

"Don't praise me. It's just that you wanted to fish but also wanted to minimize the impact, which is why I was able to guess it." Xu Miaojin laughed. "If you had made all the people in the world wear mourning clothes, then I really wouldn't have been able to guess it."

"However, I was really sure when I held you in my arms while you were crying."

"You still have a heartbeat and body temperature, so how could you be a dead person?"

Zhu Yunwen chuckled to himself.

That's true.

No matter how much you pretend to be dead, at most you can only hold your breath for a while, then control your breathing rhythm and lower your breath to avoid being seen through.

But heart rate and body temperature are things you can't control.

However, he never intended to, nor could he possibly, lie to the people around him, so this point is actually not a big deal.

Xu Miaojin snorted, "Tell me, you made me sad and upset, and even made me cry my eyes out, what compensation are you going to give me!"

Zhu Yunwen pulled her soft body even tighter into his arms, lowered his head and planted a gentle kiss on her smooth forehead. A playful smile appeared on his lips as he lowered his voice and breathed hot air into her ear, saying, "Compensation? My imperial concubine has been worried sick for me and put on such a good show. Of course she should be rewarded."

"Then punish me... by indulging in your favor more often from now on, how about that?"

"Pah!" Xu Miaojin spat, but the "pah" was as light as a feather brushing against the tip of the heart.

A captivating blush quickly spread from her neck to her ears. She said nothing more, but buried her burning cheeks deeply into Zhu Yuntang's warm and firm chest.

The two embraced quietly for a moment, feeling the peace of surviving the ordeal and the rhythm of each other's hearts.

Halfway up, Xu Miaojin lifted her head slightly from his embrace, her clear eyes filled with worry as she said, "Those ministers in Jinling are all outstanding individuals. Can your 'death' act really fool them all?"

"Yes." Zhu Yunwen's tone was absolutely certain.

"Because 'greed blinds reason' is an eternal truth."

"No matter how intelligent or wise a person is in ordinary times, when a huge profit that can overturn the world is placed in front of him, his heart will definitely be in turmoil."

"What in this world could be more beneficial than the supreme throne?"

He exhaled, his voice cold: "Playing chess and watching chess are completely different states of mind."

"Being an outsider, one can offer insightful opinions and have a clear understanding of everything."

"But once you become a chess player, all you see is the life-or-death struggle of winning and losing."

"They are now all involved in this game."

“Moreover,” Zhu Yunwen chuckled, “even if someone can remain clear-headed and see through some of the clues, will his colleagues, students, and old friends, blinded by greed, allow him to remain calm?”

"Would you just stand by and watch him give up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?"

"No, they will push him, arch him, force him, and make him jump into the vortex I have prepared for them."

"He has no choice but to jump into this pit I've set for him."

"You have to jump, whether you want to or not!"

Xu Miaojin nodded slightly, her worries vanishing and replaced by boundless admiration: "You're right. It seems that none of this has escaped His Majesty's calculations."

"Now that they've entered the game, how can they possibly outmaneuver you, the world's number one chess player?"

She changed the subject, a hint of curiosity appearing in her beautiful eyes: "Was the matter at the Confucian Temple also something His Majesty had anticipated? Did His Majesty deliberately use himself as bait to lure them into action?"

"That's not entirely true." Zhu Yunwen shook his head, a complex emotion on his face. "I am, after all, a human being, not an all-knowing and all-powerful god."

"I did expect that they would most likely cause trouble at the Confucian Temple."

He explained, "The reason is simple: although I have never openly abolished the old learning, my intention to support the new learning is already known to everyone."

"Taking advantage of this opportunity to worship the sage, establishing the new learning as the orthodox school of Confucianism is a natural step."

“Those who support new learning can see it, and those who regard old learning as their lifelong belief can naturally see it as well.”

"They cannot sit idly by and wait to die."

"I have anticipated that their most likely scenario is that they will stage a dramatic scene of 'crying and dying in remonstrance' in the Temple of Literature, using morality and public opinion to blackmail me."

"I was prepared for this long ago."

"But..." he sighed softly, "I never expected that these civil officials, who usually spout 'benevolence and morality,' would actually launch a military coup."

"The human heart is truly unpredictable."

"But even so, their move, which seems clever, is actually quite stupid."

"However, it was indeed beyond my expectations."

……

(End of this chapter)