Take control of Wei Zhongxian at the start and confiscate 100 million from him!

Chapter 24: Casting stones to ask for directions
The morning light at the beginning of the hour of Mao (5-7 AM) is a cool, sleepy grayish-white.

It struggled to pierce through the persistent thin fog over the capital, gilding this vast imperial capital with a cold and solemn silver edge.

The Forbidden City, this behemoth of power, slowly awakens in the morning light. Frost that had clung to its golden glazed tile roof overnight shimmers with a faint yet dazzling light in the dim glow, like cold scales shed from the beast's body.

In the vast square in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, officials stood quietly, arranged according to rank, with civil officials to the east and military officials to the west.

The cold wind, sharp as a knife, howled across the empty square, whipping up the hems of their heavy official robes, making them flutter loudly.

This sound, along with the mournful whistling of the wind coming from the distant palace walls, became the only sound in the world at that moment.

No one whispered or laughed quietly.

It was an unusual silence.

Before the morning court sessions in the past, this place would always resemble a bustling market.

People of the same year, hometown, or party would gather in twos and threes, exchanging the latest news, testing each other's words, or casting a contemptuous glance at a political enemy.

It was a kind of vitality and hustle unique to the Ming Dynasty's civil official group.

But not today.

Everyone stood silently, like statues frozen in time.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, their gazes all passed over the shoulders of their colleagues and fell upon the Hall of Supreme Harmony, a symbol of supreme imperial power shrouded in the morning light and shadow.

Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Cheng, a deeply entrenched veteran nobleman who had been in charge of the Beijing Garrison for decades, has fallen from power.

It fell so quickly and so completely, like a seemingly ancient tree with deep roots and lush foliage, which was snapped in two by a sudden bolt of lightning, turning the surrounding land upside down!
The scene of the Imperial Guards storming into the Duke of Cheng's mansion like wolves and tigers is still vividly etched in the minds of every powerful and influential person in the capital, like a blood-stained painting.

Behind all of this is the young emperor sitting upright on the dragon throne.

This silence is a product of fear and uncertainty, a suffocating stillness before a storm.

……

Zhu Youjian sat upright on the huge and cold dragon throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, looking down at the officials below.

His gaze was calm and unwavering. He could feel the hundreds of gazes, like countless invisible threads, extending from His Highness and converging around him.

These gazes contained fear, doubt, scrutiny, probing, and even deeply hidden hostility.

Zhu Chunchen's downfall was the first heavy blow he dealt, shattering the complacency of the nobility and disrupting the plans of the civil service.

Now, these old foxes, who are used to controlling the government, are trying to reassess his worth as the "new ruler".

They won't launch a direct attack; that would be too foolish.

They would use their most proficient methods, using seemingly insignificant "trivial matters," to test his bottom line, to wear down his spirit, and to tell him that governing this vast empire did not rely on the emperor's momentary whims, but on their complex system of "ancestral rules" and "regulations" that had been operating for hundreds of years.

This is what Zhu Youjian and others were waiting for.

"His Majesty has arrived—" With the long, sharp announcement from the eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, the officials below the hall knelt down like a tide, shouting "Long live the Emperor!" Their voices were uniform and resounding throughout the empty hall.

"Everyone is safe."

Zhu Youjian's voice was clear and steady, revealing no emotion.

The morning assembly has begun.

As he expected, the initial agenda consisted of some trivial routines: auspicious omens in a certain place, an official in mourning for his father. Everything seemed uneventful, and the atmosphere inside the hall remained as oppressive as solidified amber.

Finally, an imperial censor wearing an official robe adorned with crane patterns stepped out from the queue.

"Your subject, Zhang Kai, Left Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, has a memorial to present."

coming.

Zhu Youjian's gaze fell on the censor named Zhang Kai, who was about fifty years old, with a thin face and sharp eyes. He was a well-known "gunner" in the Donglin Party.

"Speak," Zhu Youjian said calmly.

"I have heard that a month ago, the Yellow River breached its banks near Lanyang County, Henan Province. Although not a major flood, it still inundated hundreds of acres of farmland and displaced thousands of people. Local officials petitioned the court to allocate funds and grain to relieve the victims and repair the riverbanks. However, more than a month has passed, and the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works are passing the buck over the responsibility for this matter, with no resolution yet reached. I believe that the people are the foundation of the nation, and the safety of the country depends on the hearts of the people. Now, the victims are desperately in need of food, yet high-ranking officials are prioritizing their own departments and disregarding the people's livelihood. This trend must not be allowed to continue! I implore Your Majesty to unleash your wrath, severely punish these corrupt officials, and swiftly resolve the issue of disaster relief to appease the people!"

Zhang Kai spoke with a stern voice and an awe-inspiring righteousness. After finishing his speech, he bowed deeply to the throne, appearing as a loyal minister who was "speaking out for the people and risking his life to remonstrate."

Inside the hall, several officials immediately stepped forward to second the motion, all speaking earnestly and with deep sorrow.

Zhu Youjian listened quietly, his face remaining expressionless.

This appeared to be an impeachment of the bureaucratic style of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works, but in reality it was a carefully calculated trial balloon.

First, they chose a "minor matter." The breach in Lanyang County was small in scale, did not involve fundamental national policies, and was purely a matter of people's livelihood. In such a matter, the emperor had no reason to refuse.

Secondly, they occupied the moral high ground. The reason of "speaking out for the people" was perfectly plausible and unassailable. If the emperor showed any impatience or mishandled the situation, he would immediately be accused of "disregarding the people's plight."

Third, and most importantly, they elevated a specific technical issue to a vague moral question concerning "official conduct." What they wanted to see was how the emperor would handle this "dithering." Would he, like the Tianqi Emperor, impatiently pass the matter on to the cabinet, or like the Wanli Emperor, simply ignore it? Or, like a hot-blooded young monarch, fly into a rage and punish the officials of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works equally?
Either way, they fell into their trap.

As long as the emperor follows their line of thinking, it means that the emperor is still acting within the "rules of the game" that they are familiar with.

They had countless ways to use ancestral rules, conventions, and morality to dissolve the emperor's power into nothingness.

Zhu Youjian's gaze slowly swept over His Highness.

He saw the worried face of Wang Yongguang, the Minister of Revenue, and the indifferent "it's none of my business" attitude of Li Congxin, the Minister of Works. He also saw the Right Vice Minister of Rites standing at the very front of the civil officials' ranks, a man with a thin face but eyes as deep as the sea.

Qian Qianyi.

At this moment, he was looking down slightly, seemingly indifferent to everything around him.

Zhu Youjian knew that this man was the mastermind behind this silent war.

(End of this chapter)