The Ming Dynasty: Starting with the Carpenter Prince!

When Zhu Youxiao entered the warm pavilion, Emperor Taichang was leaning against the couch, with a stack of petitions half a foot high on the imperial desk in front of him. The teacup was placed untouched beside him, and the eunuchs standing by him even held their breath.

Wang An greeted them at the door and said in a low voice, "Yang Lian's memorial has arrived, and Grand Secretary Fang couldn't stop it. Qi Shijiao also submitted one, requesting the removal of the clause 'detailed investigation of the notification document.' The two memorials have filled the gap."

Zhu Youxiao nodded but did not reply.

Let the two censors have their literary disputes under the Six Ministries' corridor if they want; the Crown Prince won't wait for that.

He walked to the bedside, and Emperor Taichang glanced at him with his eyes half-open.

"You're here?"

"Your subject greets Your Majesty."

Emperor Taichang hummed in agreement and closed his eyes again. His body couldn't withstand the strain; missing a morning court session and dealing with a few memorials was enough to exhaust him.

Zhu Youxiao did not speak immediately.

He sat down by the couch and neatly stacked the documents scattered on the corner of the table for Emperor Taichang, moving the teacups to a more convenient position. He had been doing these tasks for several days and had become quite adept at them; Emperor Taichang had also grown accustomed to his son helping him tidy the table.

After resting for a while, Emperor Taichang recovered.

"Yang Lian handed over another question book." Emperor Taichang's tone was indifferent, revealing neither joy nor anger.

"I heard my chief attendant mention it."

"Let's trace the supply chain of the medicines and see if the Imperial Pharmacy has any regulations for inspection." Emperor Taichang sighed. "These officials, investigating people isn't enough; they have to dig up old precedents."

He sounded a little annoyed when he said the phrase "reverting to old practices".

Zhu Youxiao did not respond to this question.

Yang Lian's proposal was a fine weapon, but accepting it would mean colluding with the Donglin faction. Li Xuanshi's words about "paving the way for Yang Lian" were still fresh in everyone's minds yesterday; Qi Shijiao and his gang were just looking for a target, and now the Crown Prince himself has stepped in?

However, Yang Lian was on the right track, but the Crown Prince couldn't take the knife from him; he had to make one himself.

"Father, there is something I don't understand."

Emperor Taichang glanced at him. "What is it?"

"Last time when Cui Wensheng brought in the medicine, I was watching from the side. He just brought it in and put it on a plate. The people from the Imperial Hospital were standing in the corner looking at the floor tiles. No one had ever examined what the medicine was."

Zhu Youxiao paused for a moment, then said, "In the future, when medicine is administered, could you please have someone from the Imperial Medical Academy examine it first?"

Emperor Taichang did not answer immediately.

He leaned back on the couch, tapping his knees twice with his fingers.

"Disregarding the rules of the Imperial Pharmacy is not something that can be done with a single word."

It's not a matter of just one sentence; it translates to, "I find it troublesome, so don't rush me."

"The Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs manages the personnel of the Imperial Pharmacy. If you change the rules for decocting medicine, it's like encroaching on the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs' territory." Emperor Taichang rubbed his temples. "The head eunuch of the Imperial Pharmacy has been with me for over a decade. If I suddenly put a 'band' on his head, it won't be easy for me to be his master."

He said it out loud.

There were rules, though. The system established during the reign of Emperor Taizu was quite comprehensive: imperial physicians would prescribe medicine, the imperial pharmacy would prepare it, and after it was decocted, it would be divided into two bowls. One bowl would be tasted by the imperial physicians and eunuchs first, and only if everything was alright would it be served to the emperor, with each note carefully recorded in a book.

It looks good on paper.

Over the course of two hundred years, the head eunuch of the Imperial Pharmacy had seized control of everything. His people were in charge of decocting the medicine and tasting it. Imperial physicians from the Imperial Medical Academy couldn't even get close to the medicine cabinets once they entered the Pharmacy.

The rules are still written on paper, but living people don't follow them. Two hundred years of accumulated problems, and they've become too powerful to be controlled. That's how Cui Wensheng slipped in—without even a proper diagnosis, just a bowl of rhubarb laxative served up and that was it.

The only thing to do now is to put the Imperial Medical Academy back in place. The logic isn't complicated; the problem lies with the people. The people in the Imperial Pharmacy are used to having everything to themselves, and suddenly someone comes to audit their accounts—who would be happy about that?

"This matter... allow me to think about it."

When a leader says "I'll think about it some more," nine times out of ten it's just because they find it troublesome. The worst thing you can do when trying to persuade someone is to rush them; if you follow up with "This is quite urgent," it's guaranteed to fail.

Zhu Youxiao waited for two breaths.

"Father, Madam Ke told me something."

Emperor Taichang slightly raised his eyes.

She said there was a pharmacy in her hometown where, after the medicine was dispensed, the resident doctor had to examine it and verify the prescription before it could be packaged for the customer.

Zhu Youxiao casually remarked, as if remembering something, "I was wondering at the time, why do small pharmacies have these rules, but the Imperial Pharmacy doesn't? Isn't that a bit odd?"

After saying that, he fell silent and lowered his head to fiddle with the loose thread on his cuff.

The warm room remained quiet for quite some time.

Emperor Taichang stopped pointing with his finger.

He was just weighing the consequences of offending someone. Disrupting the Imperial Pharmacy meant jeopardizing the livelihoods of everyone involved, and the ailing emperor didn't want to cause any more trouble.

However, the rules that exist in rural pharmacies are not found in the imperial pharmacy.

Having been the crown prince for thirty years, what kind of twists and turns hadn't he seen? But some things are more effective the more direct they are. Even a pharmacy owner knows to have the doctor check the prescription; why shouldn't the emperor's medicine be checked?

He almost lost his life.

Cui Wensheng's laxative nearly killed him, and Li Kezhuo's red pill nearly burned him out. He lay on this couch for half a month, panting even when he turned over.

What are you still hesitating about?

Emperor Taichang opened his eyes.

"Wang An".

"This old servant is here."

"Issue an order to the Imperial Medical Academy." Emperor Taichang's voice was different from before; it was hoarse, but each word was clearly enunciated. "From now on, all medicines must be presented to the Imperial Medical Academy only after the prescription has been verified by the head of the Imperial Medical Academy. The Imperial Pharmacy is not allowed to bypass the Imperial Medical Academy and obtain medicines on its own."

Wang An was taken aback.

He had served Emperor Taichang for twenty-six years. He was naturally upright and straightforward, but there were some things he understood without needing to be tactful. This imperial edict was only issued by the Grand Secretariat and the Six Ministries. It could not be approved without being drafted and formally approved. The emperor was in charge of his own eunuchs, and no one could stop him.

But this one imperial edict broke the Imperial Pharmacy's two-hundred-year monopoly.

"This old servant obeys the decree." When he knelt down, his knees slammed onto the floor tiles, and his voice was a bit louder than usual.

The judge on duty in the corner raised his head briefly, then quickly lowered it again.

He heard it.

All medicines must be approved by the Imperial Pharmacy. In other words, from this day forward, every bowl of medicine and every pill brought in by the Imperial Pharmacy must first pass through the Imperial Medical Academy.

The judge lowered his head and silently clenched his sleeve.

He was standing in this warm chamber when Li Kezhuo brought in that red pill, silently watching the medicine dish being placed on the bed. It wasn't that he didn't know there was something wrong with it, but that he dared not speak up.

If I say that, I'll be the next Cui Wensheng.

Now that he has this imperial decree, he will have the authority to block any elixirs of dubious origin that are placed on the medicine dish next time.

It's not that he dared to stop them, it's that the rules forced him to.

This was truly a remarkable imperial edict.

Zhu Youxiao kept his head down, his expression blank.

From the initial order to the establishment of the rules, it took a total of fifteen days. Fifteen days ago, the palace didn't even have a procedure for verifying prescriptions; now it does.

Yang Lian spent half a day pursuing the "medicine inspection" issue, but the Crown Prince bypassed his report and handled the matter himself, without even using the Donglin Party's name.

At least there's an extra checkpoint at the entrance to the Imperial Pharmacy. Next time anyone tries to put an elixir into the emperor's mouth, they'll have to get past those old men in the Imperial Hospital first.

Last time we stopped Benimaru by luck, but luck is something you can only use once, so it's better to establish some rules that are more reliable.

…………

After Emperor Taichang issued the decree, his spirits actually improved somewhat.

Perhaps because he had made up his mind, he relaxed and leaned back on the couch, chatting with the Crown Prince for a few minutes. The conversation eventually turned to the exam papers.

"The document sent by the Ministry of Revenue yesterday, concerning the unpaid wages of the nine border regions, gave me a headache after reading only half of it." Emperor Taichang rubbed his temples. "It's not that I don't understand it, it's just that it annoys me. On the first day of my ascension to the throne, I allocated one million taels to reward the border regions, and it was gone in the blink of an eye. Now the various garrisons are still pressing for payment."

"Are they pressuring you a lot?"

"The letter says 'polite,' but it means 'not polite.'" Emperor Taichang smiled bitterly. "After being the crown prince for thirty years, I thought everything would be fine once I sat on the throne. But once I sat on it, I realized there were holes everywhere."

A hole left there won't grow legs and run away, but money does have legs; we'll see where it goes later.

Zhu Youxiao nodded in response, not taking the bait with him. Taking the bait would lead to a discussion of Liaodong, and discussing Liaodong would involve money, a pit ten times larger than Cui Wensheng's. Now was not the time.

"If Father finds it troublesome, I will read it through for you first, and mark the parts you don't understand. You can read it when you are in a better mood."

Emperor Taichang glanced at him.

This look was different from usual; he stared at his son for a long time. A fifteen-year-old crown prince, who had never studied a proper book, was now offering to help the emperor with his exam questions. If he was completely ignorant of the classics, his words the night he was given the medicine didn't seem like those of someone who was ignorant. But if he was knowledgeable, he hadn't even read the Four Books.

Emperor Taichang didn't understand, but this child had saved his life, and flipping through the books wouldn't hurt him.

"Okay. Circle anything you don't understand, and I'll explain it to you later."

He pulled out a few practice books from the table and handed them over.

Zhu Youxiao took it with both hands, his hands were very steady.

The several notebooks together weighed less than a pound, lighter than a piece of boxwood. They had little weight in his hand, but their significance was different. Before, he couldn't even touch those notebooks on the emperor's desk in the warm pavilion; he relied entirely on Wang An to relay what he knew. Hearing something from someone else and seeing it with one's own eyes were worlds apart.

Now I have the test booklet in my hand.

"Thank you, Father Emperor."

"Choose the most important ones to look at first." Emperor Taichang closed his eyes.

Zhu Youxiao opened the first book and read it by the light from the window beside the couch.

To the outside world, it's said to be "just flip through it, circle anything you don't understand." In reality, the things written in the test booklet would be perfectly clear to a modern person who has traveled through time. Skip the platitudes, pick out the numbers, and out of the three hundred or so words in the test booklet, thirty are useful; a quick glance is enough.

We should proceed slowly. Emperor Taichang is resting nearby; turning things over too quickly would attract attention.

The first book was from the Ministry of Rites, discussing supplementary matters concerning the ceremony of investiture. It had nothing to do with him, so he turned over it.

My hand stopped when I was halfway through the second book.

It was a petition from a local official, tucked inside an official document from the Ministry of Revenue. The petition was short, only thirty or forty characters long, saying that a certain county in Henan had suffered a severe drought this summer, and that "three hundred households of refugees had fled south."

Three hundred households of refugees.

How many people are in three hundred households? If each household has five members, that's 1500 people. If everyone travels south with their families, how far can they go? What about those who can't walk? The elderly? The young?

I once visited a flood relief site in the county with a research team. A family had only one woven bag of luggage. The adults' faces were peeling from sunburn, and the children sat on the ground without crying. They weren't crying because they were tired of crying.

He stared at that line of text for a long time.

"What's wrong?"

Emperor Taichang's voice came from the couch.

Zhu Youxiao snapped out of his reverie. "It's nothing, it's just... I wonder where those refugees mentioned in the exam paper have gone."

Emperor Taichang opened his eyes and looked at his son.

At fifteen, I was flipping through my exam book when I came across the phrase "three hundred households of refugees" and my mind wandered.

It's not that I don't understand it, it's that I've absorbed it.

The officials were flipping through the memorials, looking at who impeached whom, who protected whom, and whose money had been intercepted. When they came to the section on refugees, they mostly just glanced over it, because no faction stood behind those few words.

This child is different. When he looks at the problem book, he doesn't just look at the numbers.

Emperor Taichang remained silent for a long time.

"Keep flipping through." The tone was different from before.

…………

On his way back to the Eastern Palace, Zhu Youxiao carried the examination paper in his bosom and walked slowly. The paper was pressed against his chest, the sharp edges of the pages digging into him, more so than a woodcarving knife.

Upon entering, Madam Ke was waiting at the table with a bowl of medicinal food. For fifteen years, she knew exactly when the Crown Prince would return. The medicinal food was warmed and placed there, with a hot towel at the bottom of the bowl so it wouldn't be too hot to handle.

"Your Highness has worked hard. Have a bowl of food before you rest."

Zhu Youxiao sat down and took a couple of sips of his drink. Madam Ke was tidying up the sawdust on the table beside him, her movements efficient as she chatted idly.

"I heard that His Highness discussed the matter of purchasing medicine with His Majesty in the warm pavilion today?"

The news travels fast. The moment the Crown Prince left the warm pavilion, Madam Ke knew. The young palace maid who served the Emperor tea in the warm pavilion was named Cuiping; she had grown up in the Eastern Palace and was someone Madam Ke had personally trained. News travels fast in the palace, like it has legs; you can't stop it.

"Yes, from now on, all medicines will be approved by the Imperial Medical Academy first."

"Has His Majesty granted permission?"

"Granted, issued on the spot."

Ms. Ke gave an "oh" and continued sweeping, but her tone took a different turn.

"Is Your Highness using my family's pharmacy as an excuse?"

That's a direct question. The confidence she gained from fifteen years as a wet nurse allows her to hit the nail on the head with a single sentence, addressing the issues others might broach.

Zhu Youxiao continued drinking the medicinal food, saying, "The story told by Madam Ke was excellent; Father understood it immediately upon hearing it."

Mr. Ke paused for a moment, then continued sweeping.

"If Your Highness finds it useful, this servant will naturally be happy." Her tone was flat, not at all like she was happy.

He swept the sawdust into a dustpan, turned around, and went out.

His back was nimble, and his expression was impossible to discern. But Zhu Youxiao knew that his face wouldn't be too pleasant.

The Crown Prince used her words as a tool to tell stories to the Emperor without consulting her beforehand. Afterwards, he would simply say "well told" and consider it done. She wouldn't make a scene or confront him directly; someone who had lived in the palace for fifteen years wouldn't engage in such a losing proposition.

But I've held a grudge. You passed my words to the emperor, and I didn't even get a notification. Fifteen years of friendship isn't worth a single word?

This is the same principle as borrowing someone's things without asking. They might not be angry with you, but they might not be willing to borrow them again next time.

Let's owe it for now, and I'll pay it back later when I have the chance.

…………

In the afternoon, Zhu Youxiao spread the remaining question books on the table.

Liu Shun waited in the outer room and came in twice to refill the tea. He saw the Crown Prince flipping through a book of questions for a long time, his brows furrowed and his mouth muttering to himself. He probably thought that His Highness was reading the question book as if it were a book written in heaven.

That's good, that's how it should be. When a prince is studying, he should stumble and struggle a bit; reading ten lines at a glance would be frightening.

The Ministry of War's document, "An Overview of Military Affairs in Liaodong," was incredibly long and tedious, filled with phrases like "Your Majesty, I humbly believe" and "I humbly submit to Your Majesty's decision." Every three hundred words were a roundabout way of speaking, and even after getting to the point, it still didn't get to the heart of the matter. I flipped through it for ages but couldn't find anything important.

Let's flip to another book, the one from the Ministry of Revenue.

It was written about the Liaodong military pay.

The Ministry of Revenue reported that 1.2 million taels of silver were allocated to the Liaodong Military Commissioner's Office last year for military pay, equipment, and provisions. The figures were clearly written down, with each item listed, and it appeared that every single expense had a source.

Zhu Youxiao flipped back to the Ministry of War's copy and looked for the reply from the Liaodong Military Commissioner's Office.

The receipt reads "Actual receipt of 534,000 taels of silver".

He placed the two sets of exam papers side by side on the table. The one on the left, from the Ministry of Revenue, contained 1.2 million. The one on the right, from the Ministry of War, contained 534,000.

There was a shortfall of 670,000 taels.

Six hundred and seventy thousand taels of silver is enough for the Crown Prince to eat osmanthus cakes for eight hundred years, enough for 30,000 soldiers on the Liaodong front to eat their fill for two years, and enough for those along the way to make a fortune by plucking feathers from passing geese.

He wasn't surprised by this number. Before he transmigrated, he knew that the loss of Liaodong military funds at the end of the Ming Dynasty was common, as clearly stated in the books.

Surprisingly, the person who wrote the report dared to display the numbers on both sides, seemingly unafraid that someone would look at them side-by-side. They probably assumed no one would. Reports from the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War were separated by official departments and regulations, and were not usually viewed together.

Whoever goes through whose ledger, without disturbing each other, will live in peace.

But now the two sets of numbers are side by side. One set is from the Ministry of Revenue, and the other from the Ministry of War. The two sets of accounts match, and the hole is clearly visible.

The hole in the Liaodong military tax wasn't dug in a day. In the Battle of Sarhu, the four armies were said to number 470,000, but in reality, they numbered less than 110,000. Du Song braved the snow to rush in, and they were all wiped out in a single day. From then on, Liaodong became a bottomless pit. The Ministry of Revenue levied an additional Liaodong military tax per mu of land, and the national annual tax collection reached 5.2 million taels of silver. The money was spent like water, and the front lines cried poverty every year.

Where did the money go? No one has investigated, and no one dares to. The pay has passed through so many hands, with each person skimming off the top and bottom, like a goose taking a feather from every passerby. To investigate the accounts is to investigate the people, and to investigate the people is to offend them. From the capital to Liaodong, a distance of over a thousand li, the money diminishes with each stop along the way. So many people have swindled money from each other's fingers, and by the time it arrives, less than half is left—and that's considered being lenient.

It's not that we can't figure it out, it's that nobody wants to.

Zhu Youxiao picked up his brush and drew a circle on the cover of the manuscript.

…………

When the memorial was returned to the warm pavilion in the evening, Emperor Taichang had already retired for the night.

Wang An took the question booklet, flipped through it, and saw the circle.

The old eunuch's hand paused for a moment. The memorial concerning the Ministry of Revenue's Liaodong military pay was circled in the center of the cover, the handwriting heavy, the ink seeping into the yellow silk cover.

He looked up and glanced at the Crown Prince.

Zhu Youxiao said nothing, nodded, and left.

Wang An neatly stacked the examination papers and placed them back on the imperial desk, then paused for a moment, his hand resting on the circle.

Having served as the chief eunuch for twenty-six years, he knew how murky the waters were regarding the Liaodong military expenditures. The circle drawn on the Ministry of Revenue's memorial couldn't be clearer.

But the crown prince didn't mention anything, he just drew a circle.

Well, another one who can keep a low profile.

…………

Back at the East Palace, dinner was served.

Zhu Youxiao picked up his chopsticks and took a bite of the food, and immediately knew something was wrong. The porridge was still porridge, and the dishes were still dishes, but today's dishes were noticeably coarser than yesterday's. There was less sauce, the plate was smaller, and even the rice was of poor quality.

Zhu Youxiao put down his chopsticks and called Liu Shun in.

Who arranged today's meals?

"Your Highness, it's the usual procedure in the kitchen," Liu Shun said cautiously. "However, Eunuch Wu from the kitchen said that supplies have been a bit tight these past few days."

"Where is it tight?"

"It is said that the supply channels of the Imperial Treasury have been changed, and the Crown Prince's share has been changed from the main treasury to the branch treasury. The materials in the branch treasury are not as good as those in the main treasury."

Zhu Youxiao did not ask any further questions.

The Imperial Treasury adjusted its supply channels. Who authorized this adjustment?

The eighty taels of silver reward is the obvious one; it lets you know she can touch your money. The downgrade in food quality is the covert one. She doesn't deduct your silver, but she reduces the quality of your food. You can't complain because "the quota hasn't changed," only "the channel has been adjusted."

This was not the work of Madam Ke. Madam Ke could not touch the imperial treasury.

It was Consort Li's doing, delivered to the Eastern Palace through Lady Ke's mouth.

The note that Ms. Ke burned yesterday was probably related to this matter.

With the implementation of the drug inspection system, those involved in the pharmaceutical industry have been severely impacted. Cui Wensheng was able to enter the government through the connections of Consort Li, but the Crown Prince exposed the inner workings of the Imperial Pharmacy, affecting the interests of the people under her command.

She wouldn't openly oppose it; after all, it was the emperor's decree—would she dare defy it? But she had other methods. She wouldn't touch your money, but she'd take your food. So what if you're the crown prince? Even the crown prince needs to eat.

Zhu Youxiao picked up his chopsticks and drank the bowl of porridge.

Even a slightly less-than-perfect bowl of porridge is still porridge; it won't kill you.

But he kept this debt in mind.