The Ming Dynasty: Starting with the Carpenter Prince!

November 24th, late Yin hour and early Mao hour.

The fallen leaves in the capital were becoming increasingly sparse, with only a few withered yellow leaves hanging among the bare branches of the locust trees, rustling down as the north wind passed. Three days after the imperial lecture, the cabinet finally submitted the formal procedures for verifying the Liaodong military pay.

The regulations were drafted by Han Kuang himself, with steady wording and clear items. He inserted the written slip into the document and, as usual, distributed it to two cabinet ministers before sending it to the Directorate of Ceremonial for approval.

After reading it, Liu Yizhu pondered for a moment.

He immediately picked up a brush and added a sentence at the end of the receipt.

"The investigation also covered the expenses of the Liaodong Military Governor's Office."

The twelve characters were written on paper before it was even dry.

Han Kuang's brows furrowed slightly.

He put down his manuscript without saying a word, only glancing at Liu Yijun.

Liu Yiju met his gaze and said calmly, "Brother Ji Hui, since we're going to investigate the missing boat, we should also take a look at the accounts of the military governor's office."

He paused.

"If we only investigate the migrants and not the military governor, what if Xiong Tingbi claims that 'all the silver I received was distributed by the imperial court'? Wouldn't we have made a wasted trip?"

Han Kuang hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not pick up his pen to make any further changes.

He knew that by adding this clause, the knife that Donglin had kept silent for the past half month was now openly and brazenly presented to the public.

……

The warm pavilion of the East Palace.

When Wang An entered carrying the copy, Zhu Youxiao was carving a small tenon. The tenon had just been shaped and had not yet been polished.

He took the copy and glanced at the last twelve characters.

The wood shavings under the carving knife suddenly stopped for a moment.

It was a fleeting moment. Had Wang An not been watching closely, he wouldn't have noticed it at all.

Zhu Youxiao put the copy back on the table and continued carving wood.

"Grand Secretary Liu is quick-witted."

Wang An tentatively asked, "Your Highness, would you like to submit a memorial to the cabinet?"

"Report what?" Zhu Youxiao asked without looking up. "The regulations for reviewing documents are drafted by the Grand Secretariat, approved by the Directorate of Ceremonial, and stamped by the Emperor. If I, as the Crown Prince, were to revise the draft from the Grand Secretariat, I would be committing a taboo."

Wang An dared not speak further.

Zhu Youxiao made two cuts, then suddenly spoke again: "Rewrite all the entries in the training institute's bi-weekly reports that involve the Pu River, iron armor, or Zhou Yingqiu, seal them, and put them in the wooden box in Xian'an Palace."

"It's the one that Gu Shangyue asked Liu Shun to take care of."

Wang An was taken aback: "Your Highness intends to...hide it?"

"It's not hidden."

Zhu Youxiao's carving knife smoothly pushed out a thin layer of wood shavings along the grain.

"It's on standby."

"If the Donglin Party wants to investigate the governorship, and they are in too much of a hurry, some of the original documents need to be available immediately."

He stopped and finally said something.

"Xiong Tingbi's bones are harder than I thought, but the finger-crushing instruments in the imperial prison are harder than bones."

Wang An was horrified.

Zhu Youxiao put down his carving knife, opened the stacks of papers on the table, and continued to grade them one by one.

He turned to the ninth book and stopped.

The Ministry of Rites submitted a report. Sun Ruyou requested the latest details of the "Procedures for Consort Li's Request to be Conferred the Title of Imperial Noble Consort." The procedures remained firmly stalled.

Sun Ruyou's reason was written neatly, consisting of only four characters.

"Refer to previous precedents."

Zhu Youxiao glanced at them coldly.

Referring to past precedents? Sun Ruyou has been dragging this out for almost two months with just these four words. Every time we urge him, he pulls out an old document from the Wanli era and says, "This still needs to be verified," and there's always a new "still needs to be verified" in it. The Minister of Rites is first-rate at handling affairs, and his skill at delaying is even more consummate.

He drew a small circle next to the folded paper and placed it in the second stack.

In the blink of an eye, he suddenly realized something.

Consort Li has been quiet for almost two months.

Since the shad feast, this woman had never offered him any favors, pressed for a title, or tried to probe his intentions through any means. Chun Tao occasionally bumped into Liu Shun in the corridor and greeted him politely, as if nothing had happened.

The quiet Consort Li.

Zhu Youxiao's hands continued whittling the wood, but his mind had already moved on to another matter. Not the pile of "resolved," but the pile of "pending inspection."

He still remembers the look in the woman's eyes when she said "we're all family" at the shad banquet.

That's not how you act cute.

That's bookkeeping.

The person keeping the accounts won't go two months without coming to collect the debt.

Unless she's waiting for something bigger.

……

Cabinet Office.

The sun was already setting in the west. Fang Congzhe sat alone at his desk, with a neatly copied copy of the **"Lectures and Readings at the Imperial Academy"** spread out in front of him.

Three days ago, after the lecture ended, he should have returned to his office to handle cabinet affairs as usual. However, the first thing he did upon returning to his office that day was to order the scribe to send over a transcribed copy of every word from the lecture.

This copy has been sitting on his desk for the past three days.

Fang Congzhe read it word by word, sentence by sentence, for the third time.

His gaze lingered on one spot for a very long time.

"The gentlemen have been talking about 'the people are the most important' for half a year..."

Half a year.

Fang Congzhe's finger pressed firmly on the words "half a year".

He looked up and pondered.

In April of the first year of the Taichang reign, the Crown Prince began to lecture. At that time, he was still the eldest son of the emperor, and the lectures were merely a formality. In May and June, the lectures were presented as usual, the lecturers gave lessons as usual, and the eldest son of the emperor sat there carving wood as usual.

Emperor Taichang ascended the throne on August 29th, the investiture ceremony was held on September 10th, and the accounts were revealed at the imperial banquet on November 21st.

If you remove the beginning and the end, it's exactly half a year.

But from which day does this "six months" start?

If we count from when he began his studies, it has indeed been half a year. But Fang Congzhe knew perfectly well that the Crown Prince had not paid any attention to the lectures during the first two or three months.

The real turning point came around late August, around the time Emperor Taichang fell critically ill.

That was three months.

Not half a year.

Was the Crown Prince's mention of "half a year" a slip of the tongue, or was he deliberately bringing forward the starting point?

Fang Congzhe put down the manuscript, got up and walked to the window.

Outside the window, withered leaves were swept by the north wind and slid half a meter away along the stone steps.

The hidden thorn in his heart, called "mystery," was now causing a dull ache in his chest.

Three months.

The eldest son of the emperor, a fifteen-year-old carpenter, transformed himself from a wood-carving expert into a seasoned veteran capable of displaying the Six Paths of the Vanishing Hand in front of the entire court at the imperial lectures, forcing the chief minister to divide his forces to investigate.

Three months.

Fang Congzhe spent seven years rising from a Hanlin Academy reader to the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites. Zhang Juzheng, on the other hand, took ten years to enter the cabinet as a Hanlin Academician and participate in state affairs.

This is completely illogical!

Fang Congzhe closed his eyes.

The officialdom of the Ming Dynasty was so illogical that there must have been things that were not logically clear.

Where reason and logic are unclear, there must be a basis for it!

He turned back to his desk, picked up his pen, wrote a few lines of small characters, and handed them to Xu Yiqing, who had been waiting outside the door.

"Have you taken notes of the Imperial Medical Academy's prescription files that were transferred today?"

"I've got it."

"Have that man do a second thing as well," Fang Congzhe said in a very low voice, "investigate the backgrounds of the six students at the training institute."

"Each of them, three generations back, in what year they passed the imperial examination, in what year they entered the capital, and in what year they met His Highness."

"Especially Chen Wenju, he was the one who drafted the format for the ten-day report."

Xu Yiqing accepted the order. Just as he was about to leave, Fang Congzhe called him back.

"And Sun Chengzong."

Xu Yiqing was taken aback. Sun Chengzong was a lecturer at the Imperial Academy, and it was his duty to be around the Crown Prince. Why did he need to be investigated?

Fang Congzhe seemed to know what he was thinking and said calmly, "Investigate when Sun Chengzong had a secret meeting with the Crown Prince, and when was the first secret meeting?"

"Without going through the cabinet, one cannot take the official route."

When Xu Yiqing left the duty room, a thin layer of sweat had already seeped from his back.

After the door closed, Fang Congzhe sat alone at his desk.

The candlelight flickered, illuminating the deep lines on his face. He gave a self-deprecating laugh.

He served as prime minister alone for seven years. He suppressed the Donglin Party, endured the draft regulations, chopped up draft proposals, and smoothed things over. Yet he never once entertained the thought of "thoroughly investigating the background" of any opponent. An opponent was just an opponent; he simply dealt with them.

Only this fifteen-year-old crown prince.

He was determined to find out how this child could have developed such a mindset!

……

Fang Congzhe called Xu Yiqing back.

"Take care of one more thing."

Xu Yiqing's back, which he had just dried, immediately became wet again.

"Go to the corridor of the Sixth Department and find Qi Shijiao."

Qi Shijiao. A troublemaker in the Qi faction, Fang Congzhe's mouthpiece in the Six Ministries. The man who was silenced by the Crown Prince with three sentences at the investiture ceremony, and he still hasn't gotten over that insult.

"Let him keep watch in the Sixth Ministry. Just say—" Fang Congzhe picked up the cold teacup on the table, took a sip, "The Crown Prince has been reviewing memorials these days, and he's made annotations on the relevant memorials from Liaodong."

"The magistrate's memorial urging payment was approved with the word 'urgent'."

"The Ministry of War's memorial requesting an increase in the number of soldiers was approved with the word 'nuclear'."

He paused.

"Xiong Tingbi's memorial was marked with the word 'Pay attention'."

Xu Yiqing was taken aback: "Pay attention? Not 'Under investigation'?"

"no."

Fang Congzhe put down his teacup.

"There's a world of difference between 'paying attention' and 'pending investigation.' 'Paying attention' means protecting them from further action, while 'pending investigation' means holding them accountable. The Crown Prince is protecting Xiong Tingbi."

"The Grand Secretary wants Qi Shijiao to inform..."

"Who would I tell? Qi Shijiao is better at choosing than you." Fang Congzhe's face was ashen. "After having tea in the corridor of the Six Ministries, the wind will naturally blow to the Censorate."

Xu Yiqing accepted the order and withdrew.

Fang Congzhe sat alone in the duty room for a while, then slowly unfolded the second sheet of Xuan paper.

Investigating the details is only the first step.

The second step didn't require him to do anything himself.

After the lecture, he began to ponder. The Crown Prince appeared as steady as a mountain in the palace that day, but in reality, he had left a fatal flaw.

The flaw isn't in the numbers. The numbers are irrefutable evidence.

The flaw lies in the stance.

The Crown Prince's accounts all pointed to the missing chains, with not a single word mentioning the military governor's office. What did this mean? It meant that the Crown Prince was protecting Xiong Tingbi to the death.

But Donglin insisted on killing Xiong Tingbi.

The two knives are pointing in opposite directions, so they are bound to clash and produce sparks.

Fang Congzhe only needs to do one thing.

I won't stop you.

He hadn't said a word about Han Kuang's draft, letting Liu Yizhu add those twelve characters without intervening. Now, if Qi Shijiao were to spread the word "pay attention" from the register to the Donglin Academy, they would know that the Crown Prince was protecting Xiong.

Once they know, they'll get anxious.

When they get desperate, they'll preemptively strike and kill.

If Donglin's knife were to fall on Xiong Tingbi's neck, the Crown Prince would surely protect him. If he protected him openly, Fang Congzhe could submit a memorial to the emperor, stating, "The Crown Prince's secret alliance with border generals may be inappropriate." If he protected him covertly, Donglin would suspect the Crown Prince.

Once the Donglin Party and the Crown Prince's palace fall out, Fang Congzhe will be able to sit securely in his post and reap benefits from both sides.

The most ingenious part of this game is that Fang Congzhe didn't have to utter a single word.

All that's needed is to leave those twelve characters undeleted in today's cabinet draft, and to let Qi Shijiao have a bowl of tea in the corridor of the Six Ministries.

This boy is now dead.

Let Liu Yiju's knife strike first.

Let Zhu Youxiao's men block them first.

Let the two rivals tear themselves apart in the icy snow of Liaodong, creating an endless battle.

Fang Congzhe, on the other hand, only needed to sit in the duty room and drink tea.

Fang Congzhe picked up his brush and steadily wrote eight characters on the Xuan paper.

"To remain still is to move; to remain silent is to speak."

After finishing writing, he put down his pen and threw the paper into the charcoal brazier.

Flames rose, and the eight characters instantly turned into a wisp of smoke.

……