Chapter 19: Old Zhu Has Gone Mad! New Book Seeking Collection
Old Zhu stood rigidly on the imperial steps.
That face, weathered and etched with majesty, now showed an unprecedented, almost blank, confusion.
He felt as if struck by an invisible bolt of lightning from the heavens, carrying the storms of the future, from the top of his head to the soles of his feet, completely paralyzed.
His mind buzzed, a chaotic mess.
Princes, Commandery Princes, one million three hundred thousand piculs, five million six hundred thousand people.
The astronomically enormous number of Imperial Nobles that Zhang Biao had calculated spun and piled up madly before his eyes, ultimately transforming into a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, so immense it could crush the entire Great Ming Empire!
Those were his descendants!
The most ironic of fruits borne by the “Myriad Generations Law” he prided himself on, the law he believed would eternally safeguard the land!
“What kind of decision have you made? Are you going to have all the people in the world support your Zhu family? Treating all the people as livestock for your Zhu family?”
Zhang Biao’s cold, calm question echoed in his ears like a curse.
Each word was like a red-hot branding iron, searing deeply into his most unquestionable pride and foundation!
Hadn’t his lifelong struggle, to expel the Yuan and establish the Great Ming, been for the sole purpose of allowing all the people in the world to live good lives, to end the tyranny that treated people like mere ants?
Yet the very system he had designed with his own hands, centuries later, would push his descendants and the people into an abyss!
Princes
Tens of thousands of elite soldiers
Rebellion of the Seven States
Calamity of the Eight Kings
Brothers fighting each other, rivers of blood flowing!
Zhang Biao’s sharp words precisely pierced his deepest, most secret fears, the ones he dared not contemplate!
He had enfeoffed his sons to guard the center and secure the empire forever!
But the heir he had chosen, the only one capable of suppressing those wolf-like brothers, was gone!
What would those princes, nourished by power and ambition, become after his death?
Loyal subjects? Or a hidden danger?
The bloody scene of brothers killing each other and the land shattering that Zhang Biao painted was like a cold dagger, instantly piercing all his lingering hopes!
The successor position was vacant.
The hearts of the people were restless.
Ambitious individuals.
The seeds of turmoil.
Zhang Biao’s final cry ripped away the reality he had desperately tried to avoid, to cover with grief and anger, in a bloody display!
Lu Ping, Qi Tai, they were not the end, but the beginning!
In the Imperial Court, undercurrents surged, various factions were waiting, observing!
As long as he didn’t decide, these seeds of turmoil would be planted deeper each day!
“I have no fear of being ground to dust and scattered to ashes, for I wish to— remain clear-headed in the human world!”
Zhang Biao’s standing figure, his demeanor of facing death without fear, yet carrying a sort of pitying gaze that saw into the future, now, in Old Zhu’s chaotic vision, seemed almost dazzling, even… sacred?
Should he kill him? Old Zhu wished he could flay him alive a thousand times!
But
Should he just kill him like this?
A hesitant thought flickered through Old Zhu’s mind, but it was quickly startled awake by an indescribable, bone-chilling coldness.
Killing this seventh-rank censor was as easy as flipping his hand.
One stroke of the blade would silence him, temporarily calming the court’s tremors, which had been completely overturned, revealing its rotten foundation.
But then what?
Could killing Zhang Biao erase the terrifying data he had calculated?
Could it block the inevitable eruption of the clan stipend volcano in the future?
Could it eliminate the enormous hidden danger of princes holding military power?
Could it solve the unresolved issue of the successor position, which was causing widespread panic in the court and among the populace?
No!
Killing him would only be covering one’s ears while stealing a bell!
It would merely be… cowardly behavior!
Old Zhu had lived for over sixty years, clawing his way out of a sea of corpses, ascending to this supreme position on the bones of countless enemies. He considered his heart to be as hard as iron, his decisiveness unquestionable, and he had never truly felt fear.
Yet now, facing the vast and desperate predicament of the future that Zhang Biao had revealed with his life, an unprecedented, bone-deep chill seized him.
He felt like a giant standing on the edge of a cliff, the ground beneath him cracking inch by inch.
He possessed supreme power, capable of easily crushing this buzzing little bug pointing out the danger, yet he felt profound powerlessness against the abyss itself that was about to swallow everything!
This feeling was so foreign!
So stifling!
“A perfectly fine… remain clear-headed in the human world.”
Zhu Yuanzhang’s voice was hoarse and broken, each word seeming to be ground out between his teeth, carrying a chilling dread: “Zhang Biao… you are very good. You are truly very good!!”
He abruptly raised his hand, his withered fingers like eagle talons, pointing directly at Zhang Biao, his fingertips trembling violently from extreme anger: “The number of people I have executed since ascending the throne could fill this Hall of Supreme Harmony! The skin flayed… could pave this Yingtian Prefecture!!”
“But someone like you, someone like you…”
He gasped for breath, his voice suddenly rising, like the final roar of a wounded beast: “Who has gouged out my empire, my descendants… my heart, and trampled them underfoot! Yet claims to have done it for my own good! For the sake of the Great Ming Dynasty—”
“You are the first!!”
“Jiang Huan!!”
Old Zhu’s voice exploded like thunder, shaking the entire Main Hall, causing accumulated incense ash to fall.
“This servant is here!”
Jiang Huan immediately knelt on one knee, his hand tightly gripping the hilt of his Xiuchun Saber, his knuckles turning white from exertion, his eyes sharp as blades, awaiting the final command.
“Give us—”
Old Zhu’s bloodshot eyes were fixed on Zhang Biao’s face, his gaze intending to devour him alive! To grind his bones and scatter his ashes!
“Give us—”
Don’t take so long, Old Zhu!
Be quick about it!
Punish me however you wish!!
As long as you can kill me!!!
Zhang Biao’s heart was in his throat with anxiety.
“Draft an imperial edict!”
Old Zhu’s voice, containing boundless killing intent and a chilling resolve, declared: “Zhao Qian, Minister of Revenue, for suggesting additional taxes in Jiangnan, his heart is deserving of death! The Imperial Guard is ordered to immediately confiscate his residence and arrest his three generations of relatives! All to be executed! Zhao Qian himself, to be flayed and stuffed, and displayed before the Ministry of Revenue Office as a warning against future offenses!”
“Lu Ping, Vice Minister of Rites, and Qi Tai, Vice Minister of War, the Crown Prince has recently passed away, yet they do not mourn but rashly discuss the imperial succession! They are to be stripped of all official positions and handed over to the Three Judicial Offices for investigation of their accomplices! After the investigation is complete, all their families will be confiscated and they will be punished!”
“As for you, Zhang Biao!!”
The killing intent in Old Zhu’s eyes was palpable.
But he forcibly suppressed it.
“Hoo—”
Old Zhu exhaled a deep breath, then stared at the figure in cyan who still stood with a straight back, prepared to face death at any moment, his eyes complex and unreadable, and said word by word:
“Promote Zhang Biao, a seventh-rank censor of the Censorate, to— Left Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, grant him a crimson robe and a silver fish pouch!”
“Effective immediately, you shall be solely responsible for supervising the Ministry of Revenue’s money and grain, land and taxes, and… secretly investigating the movements of all the princes!”
“Grant him the right to report directly to the emperor via secret memorials. If any illegality is found, regardless of who is involved, it may be reported directly to the Heavenly Ear!”
Boom—!!!
This imperial edict was even more shocking than all of Zhang Biao’s thunderous pronouncements combined!
The eunuchs and palace maids kneeling on the ground were completely stunned, their minds a blank slate!
Even Jiang Huan looked up abruptly, disbelief flashing in his eyes!
Zhang Biao: “(⊙_⊙)”
It’s confirmed, Old Zhu’s late-life killing spree was because he had gone mad.
