After mulling things over all night, the generals were finally able to speak up today.
Song Lian and Ye Zheng also temporarily stopped taking jabs at each other. They quietly recorded the discussion while offering suggestions of their own.
To their surprise, the same group of men who had sat there yesterday with wide-eyed, vacant expressions now eagerly joined the discussion. Every one of their suggestions was practical and to the point.
After thinking it over, Song Lian and Ye Zheng understood why.
Most of these generals had worked the fields and lived through hardship. They truly understood the problems poor farmers desperately needed solved.
For example, after women were allocated farmland, what should happen if they married someone from another village? How should the land be exchanged?
What if a household received a great deal of land but lacked enough laborers, farming tools, or draft animals? How could neighboring families cooperate to help one another?
How should officials supervise the allocation of land to newly adult citizens? County Magistrates alone clearly wouldn’t be enough. Should new officials be appointed beneath them?
Besides the basic land tax, how should corvée labor be collected afterward, especially from women?
And if an adult left to become a merchant or an official, how should that person’s land, taxes, and labor obligations be handled?
By the end, Song Lian and Ye Zheng had both fallen silent, frantically recording every issue the generals raised.
Only then did they realize that many of these problems had never even crossed their minds. They had spent their lives studying old texts and ancient land policies, yet there were simply too many practical issues they had overlooked.
Of course, they were both outstanding scholars.
Before long, they were also able to contribute from their own areas of expertise and help Zhu Yuanzhang refine the policy.
As a successor of the Yongjia School, Ye Zheng had grown up in a mountain village and often mediated disputes among his neighbors with his students. Most village conflicts revolved around farmland, so he quickly followed the generals’ train of thought and offered practical, useful suggestions.
Song Lian, meanwhile, had studied under renowned teachers since childhood and spent most of his life buried in books. Though he lacked practical experience, his theoretical knowledge was extensive. Although the “Zhu-style Well-Field System” was something entirely new, many of the problems it encountered had already appeared throughout history.
For instance, the issues surrounding allocating land to women had already arisen during the Tang dynasty and even earlier.
The generals present knew nothing about such history, but Song Lian had thoroughly studied the Equal-Field System.
…
While Zhu Yuanzhang and the others scratched their heads trying to fill in the details of the framework Chen Biao had written for the “Zhu-style Well-Field System,” Chen Biao himself was explaining it to his three older brothers.
This so-called “Great Ming” or “Zhu-family” Well-Field System was, in reality, simply the rural household land contract system from later generations.
The land belonged to the state. Individual households contracted plots to farm. Rural communes cooperated for mutual benefit, increasing farmers’ enthusiasm for production while minimizing differences in productivity caused by physical ability.
Even so, Chen Biao had no illusions that this policy could ever achieve what it had in later times.
When this policy was implemented in the future, the nation already possessed complete mechanized production systems.
In the great plains, combine harvesters and other large machines moved from field to field.
In mountainous villages with scattered plots, rural communes still had small agricultural machines available for farmers.
What did this era have?
If the rural commune could own even a single ox, it would already be fortunate.
As for the government renting out oxen for collective use…
Sorry, the Western Han had already done that.
Did Chen Biao really need to explain it?
What mattered now was how long Zhu Yuanzhang’s butcher’s knife could keep the officials managing those oxen honest.
By the middle and late Western Han, the government-rented oxen had dwindled to old, weak, sick, and crippled animals that were practically useless. The money intended to purchase replacements had all been swallowed by corrupt officials and powerful local families. Farmers who could no longer cultivate their land had no choice but to sell it just to pay their taxes.
Now, replacing land sales with long-term leasing merely created an insurance policy that allowed the dynasty to redistribute land again later. As long as it didn’t suffer through successive incompetent emperors, Great Ming would never completely rot from within.
Then there was the matter of corvée labor.
People often said heavy taxes crushed the common people to death.
In reality, throughout history, land taxes themselves had generally been quite low. What truly crushed people were the countless miscellaneous levies and compulsory labor. And many of those miscellaneous taxes were themselves tied to labor obligations.
Ancient officials were not actually exempt from land tax.
What they were exempt from was corvée labor.
Ordinary commoners who wanted to avoid being worked to death but couldn’t afford the fees required to substitute for labor service had little choice but to sell themselves as tenant farmers. At least that way they could survive.
Before the Tang dynasty, women also received land allocations equal to half those granted to adult men.
In ancient times, labor obligations were directly tied to land ownership.
The early Tang inherited the Sui system, under which women received land. Later, after the Equal-Field System was refined and the government sought to increase the population, land allocations for women and slaves were gradually abolished, and with them, their labor obligations.
At the time, this was considered a benevolent policy toward women.
The land allocated to each household during the early Tang was enough to support the women in the family. Without having to perform corvée labor, women could continue farming while the men were away performing state labor, allowing the family to survive.
Viewed over the long term, however, women gradually became dependent upon the household. They remained alive, but lost much of their social status.
For ordinary people, though, simply surviving was already enough. Who had the luxury to worry about the distant future?
Besides, before the Song dynasty, women could generally inherit family property, so their status wasn’t particularly low.
Then came the Song.
Not only did the government stop allocating farmland to commoners, it also encouraged land annexation. Poor families could no longer afford to support large households, and abandoning daughters became commonplace.
Among wealthier families, the Southern Song first introduced the concept of the “daughter of an extinct household,” who inherited only one-third of the family estate.
By the late Southern Song, such daughters were further restricted by Neo-Confucian social norms and could not even leave the house. Their inheritances were instead managed by the clan.
Only then did women lose both their status and their security.
Now, Zhu Yuanzhang’s plan to allocate land to women wasn’t motivated by any lofty desire to elevate women’s status.
It was simply to increase the available labor force.
Old Zhu wasn’t that ideologically enlightened.
No matter what kind of human rights society pursued, such ideals could only emerge after productivity reached a certain level, when material abundance allowed the majority of society to willingly sacrifice part of their own interests in favor of a more civilized public good.
Given the current level of productivity and social awareness, if Zhu Yuanzhang announced land allocations for women now, people might instead see it as persecution.
What?
Women working the fields?
Women performing corvée labor?
What kind of tyrant was this?
As for ideas like property determining social status, or that people without property ultimately had their lives controlled by others, or that the hardships endured by women today would lay the foundation for greater equality in a more productive future…
Who would care about any of that?
Most people only knew that farming was exhausting, corvée labor could kill you from overwork, and exemption from labor required paying a huge amount of money.
Of course, Chen Biao could always propose the solution from later generations.
Construction crews.
No more compulsory labor for the entire population.
But that was impossible.
Without an industrial system, massive infrastructure projects like river control, road construction, and city walls all had to be built with human labor—and often human lives. If compulsory labor were replaced entirely with paid volunteers, no prosperous dynasty could possibly afford the cost.
At best, a benevolent government could provide laborers with sufficient food, some modest wages, and reasonable rest, allowing them to return home alive.
So, as long as Zhu Yuanzhang dared implement his Zhu-style Well-Field System with land allocations for women, he was guaranteed to earn the reputation of a tyrant.
Chen Biao had already written all these drawbacks down clearly.
The choice was now Zhu Yuanzhang’s to make.
Chen Biao scratched his head.
Feudal society really was miserable.
Even he, a capitalist, found it difficult to stomach.
He suddenly felt fortunate that the empire would belong to the Zhu family rather than the Chen family.
If it were the Chen family’s empire, how many things would he have to do against his conscience?
He placed a hand over his chest.
If you refused to harden your heart, the country would perish.
But if you wanted the nation to prosper under the current level of productivity, you had no choice but to harden your heart.
What a difficult position.
Chen Biao sighed.
“Good thing the Zhu family will be the imperial family. Being a wise ruler isn’t something an ordinary person can do. I certainly can’t.”
His three older brothers were already completely dizzy from listening, and even Chen Ying, who had always stayed by Chen Biao’s side, now had spirals in his eyes.
They were still trying to digest everything Chen Biao had explained when they suddenly heard that last sentence, leaving them speechless.
Chen Wenzheng hugged his head and shook it vigorously, as if trying to shake all the swelling thoughts out of his brain.
“This is way too complicated! It’s even more complicated than fighting a battle! I’d rather defend a city one against ten than listen to this!”
Li Bao’er rubbed his forehead with one hand.
“I… I think I understand a little. Even though women without land are always the first to be abandoned or killed during famines, wars, and poverty, as long as there’s enough food, they don’t have to work in the fields or perform corvée labor, so their lives are comparatively easier. So… they’ll actually oppose the Marshal giving land to women? They’ll even call him a tyrant? I… I just can’t understand that!”
Chen Ying nodded vigorously.
“I can’t understand it either. I really can’t!”
Chen Biao said, “What’s so hard to understand? The poor women who get abandoned and killed in troubled times don’t have any voice at all. Do you expect well-off women who voluntarily bind their feet to empathize with poor women who have to take turns sharing a single set of clothes with their family just to leave the house?”
He clapped his hands together before spreading them apart.
“The ones who have clothes to wear when they go outside are the ones considered people. Those who don’t—whether men or women—aren’t treated as people at all. Only people have the right to speak up and fight for their own interests.”
Chen Wenzheng, Li Bao’er, and Chen Ying all parted their lips, but none of them could find any words.
All three were men.
In this era, very few men ever considered women’s feelings.
They themselves had never thought about any women besides their own mothers and foster mother.
Yet after hearing Chen Biao’s words, they felt both sorrow and disbelief.
Because Chen Biao’s words had made them empathize completely.
Before following Zhu Yuanzhang in rebellion…
They, too, had once belonged to those who “weren’t considered people.”
…
There were still countless details left to refine regarding the land tax policy.
But those could all be improved later.
The immediate priority was to divide the land in Yangzhou.
For once, Zhu Yuanzhang indulged himself by purchasing a fine piece of jade. He personally carved the three characters “Zhu Yuanzhang” into it and happily stamped the contracts for the people’s leased farmland.
Ever since Zhu Yuanzhang announced the “Zhu-style Well-Field System,” refugees had poured into Yangzhou like a flood.
Watching Yangzhou become livelier by the day, Zhu Yuanzhang cheerfully said to Xu Da,
“Next year, I’ll allocate land to all of you too. Every soldier will get land!”
His Biao’er had said that soldiers’ families also needed farmland. Only then would everyone be more motivated to serve.
Fight for Zhu Yuanzhang?
No!
Fight for your own family’s farmland.
That was what truly inspired ordinary soldiers to fight with everything they had.
Putting himself in their shoes, Zhu Yuanzhang imagined it.
If he were still just an ordinary foot soldier instead of a commander, and his superior had allocated farmland to his family, with Madam Ma and Biao’er living on that land, then every battle he fought would be with his life on the line.
Otherwise, his wife and son might lose their land and starve.
His subordinates, however, all wore gloomy expressions.
It was obvious that these fellows had already claimed quite a bit of land in advance.
Still, gloomy as they were, not one of them considered betraying Zhu Yuanzhang.
Given their military achievements, they certainly wouldn’t receive too little land.
The Marshal had also said that merit lands could remain hereditary for one additional generation. Combined with farmland they acquired by paying money—well, technically, by contracting it—their descendants could remain prosperous for generations, provided they weren’t complete wastrels.
Even if the family later declined, adult land allocations would still provide them with another chance to recover.
After thinking it through, the generals’ smiles returned.
One after another, they spread maps before Zhu Yuanzhang and eagerly began arguing over which land they wanted.
Zhu Yuanzhang beat every one of them back into line and told them to get lost.
Those responsible for training troops should train troops.
Those responsible for military farming should return to military farming.
Song Lian and Ye Zheng personally stood outside explaining the Zhu-style Well-Field System to the common people who came to receive their land contracts.
There were no loudspeakers in this era.
Scholars who regularly lectured in public all possessed tremendous lung capacity.
Filled with righteous spirit, both great scholars projected their voices from deep within their dantians, their booming voices ringing out like great bells.
Even Zhu Yuanzhang was startled.
He asked Chang Yuchun,
“Do Teacher Song and Teacher Ye usually talk this loudly? They’re louder than we are when we’re shouting challenges before battle.”
Chang Yuchun replied, “Normally… normally they speak quite gently.”
Zhu Yuanzhang looked skeptical.
“Really?”
Chang Yuchun lied without changing expression.
“Really.”
Actually, whenever they argued, they shouted incredibly loudly.
But Chang Yuchun didn’t dare badmouth either of them.
After witnessing Song Lian and Ye Zheng’s sarcastic verbal duel outside the Marshal’s residence, Chang Yuchun had already realized that Ye Zheng hadn’t returned simply to retrieve his protective talisman. He had privately spoken with Zhu Yuanzhang and somehow earned the Marshal’s trust.
Knowing Zhu Yuanzhang’s boundless energy, Chang Yuchun guessed the Marshal had probably talked with Ye Zheng all night while forcing Xu Da to stay awake and listen.
That explained why Ye Zheng had spent the night at Xu Da’s residence, and why Xu Da’s dark circles looked as though someone had punched him in both eyes.
Even more terrifying…
Ye Zheng was now entering and leaving the Chen residence freely.
Even Chang Yuchun himself wasn’t allowed inside the Chen residence!
What exactly had Ye Zheng said to Zhu Yuanzhang that suddenly transformed him into the Marshal’s trusted confidant?
From everything Chang Yuchun knew about Zhu Yuanzhang, the man found it very difficult to trust scholars.
Apart from Li Shanchang, whenever Zhu Yuanzhang rewarded merit, he always favored the generals who had fought on the battlefield first.
Because Chang Yuchun understood Zhu Yuanzhang so well, he couldn’t even bring himself to envy Ye Zheng.
He simply found Ye Zheng utterly terrifying.
Afterward, Song Lian launched a determined counterattack.
He wore out several pairs of shoes visiting soldiers who had once been farmers one by one. He also personally surveyed the farmland surrounding Yangzhou, measuring the fields himself while improving the implementation of the city’s land distribution.
Marshal Zhu began favoring Song Lian once again.
But it didn’t take long before Ye Zheng produced a complete set of temporary regulations governing land taxes and corvée labor for Yangzhou.
He even fully developed Zhu Yuanzhang’s verbally proposed policy of “labor reform for captured soldiers.”
And just like that…
Ye Zheng once again pulled ahead of Song Lian.
The silent, bloodless battle between the scholars left the cohabiting Chang Yuchun trembling in fear.
What frightened him even more was that, despite fighting so fiercely, the two men greeted each other every day with warm, gentle smiles, as though they were closer than real brothers.
They read together, discussed the Classics together, and debated philosophy together. If not for the fact that the proposals each of them produced after those discussions were completely different, Chang Yuchun would truly have believed they were as close as brothers.
Forget Chang Yuchun—even Lan Yu, who wasn’t exactly known for his brains, sensed something was terribly wrong and started taking detours whenever he saw the two great scholars.
Unfortunately, the two scholars frequently grabbed Lan Yu and made him grind ink and fetch water for them. In only a few days, the poor man had become hollow-eyed, like a walking corpse.
Chang Yuchun, who had been so frightened that he’d considered “moving out,” immediately abandoned the idea.
Seeing Lan Yu… no, seeing him suffer… no, seeing him receive such excellent education, Chang Yuchun, as his brother-in-law, was willing to make that sacrifice.
Zhu Yuanzhang eyed Chang Yuchun suspiciously.
Chang Yuchun glared back with what he thought was righteous dignity but what actually looked more like a bandit’s sneer.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked away.
If he kept staring any longer, he’d probably punch him.
Why couldn’t Chang Yuchun be more like Xu Da and keep a stone face all the time? Why did he have to wear that mocking expression everywhere he went?
Zhu Yuanzhang stroked his own face smugly.
Fortunately, I have a broad forehead, a square jaw, handsome features, and an imposing bearing.
The land redistribution proceeded smoothly, and all Zhu Yuanzhang heard wherever he went were poor commoners singing his praises.
Old Zhu had been in excellent spirits lately. Even his daily routine had become much more regular.
Busy as he was, he still carved out time every day to spend with his son. And whenever he did, he never missed an opportunity to sing Zhu Yuanzhang’s praises, trying to convince Chen Biao to stop being prejudiced against Marshal Zhu.
Chen Biao only rolled his eyes, too lazy to pay attention to his father’s obsessive Zhu Yuanzhang fanboying.
Only eighteen households of the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled remained in Yangzhou. While mourning the massacre of the city’s former residents, Zhu Yuanzhang quietly moved every piece of ownerless property in the city into his own warehouses.
The books in particular were all stuffed into the Chen family’s residence, becoming Chen Biao’s private collection.
Zhang Mingjian looted Yangzhou. I looted Zhang Mingjian. Therefore everything I obtained is perfectly legitimate! Absolutely justified!
At Chen Biao’s age, he shouldn’t have been wandering around during such chaotic times anyway. Now that there were so many new books he had never read, he stopped talking about returning to Yingtian immediately and stayed in Yangzhou with his father instead, while also serving as an adviser to Zhu Yuanzhang and Xu Da.
After all, he had simply changed the place where he studied.
Zhu Yuanzhang rarely bothered Chen Biao about the land reforms.
His son had already written him the entire framework and even listed the problems they would encounter. If he still couldn’t handle distributing land on his own, what emperor did he think he deserved to be? He might as well abdicate early and become his son’s Grand General instead.
This time, Zhu Yuanzhang was determined.
I, Zhu Yuanzhang, absolutely will not ask my son for help!
Sitting cross-legged on his father’s stomach while reading, Chen Biao replied casually, “Mm-hmm. Sure. Of course.”
Judging by the timing, it was about time for the powerful gentry and local elites to launch their counterattack.
A crooked grin spread across Chen Biao’s chubby little face, making him look ridiculously villainous.
He was just waiting for Zhu Yuanzhang to lose his temper. Once his father got scared by the furious Zhu Yuanzhang, he’d surely come begging his son for help. Hmph!
Zhu Yuanzhang was leaning against the headboard reading, while Chen Biao sat facing him. The instant the boy curled one corner of his mouth upward, Zhu Yuanzhang panicked.
He immediately picked Chen Biao up and vigorously kneaded his cheeks.
“Biao’er? What’s wrong with your face? Is it cramping? Don’t tell me you practiced too much health-preservation boxing in the courtyard today and caught a stroke from the wind! Physician!”
Chen Biao flew into a rage and rolled up his book, smacking his father with it.
You’re the one with facial cramps! You’re the one who had a stroke! I just curled one side of my mouth into a disdainful smile! How is that a stroke?!
When the physician, summoned in great haste by the servants outside, rushed into the room, he found Zhu Yuanzhang kneeling on the bed and Chen Biao standing ramrod straight, the father and son exchanging palm strikes and punches while shouting “Hah! Hyah!”
The physician wiped the sweat from his forehead and asked in confusion, “Who’s sick?”
Father and son pointed at each other simultaneously.
“He’s sick!”
The physician: “…”
I think both of your brains are sick!
In the end, the physician took both their pulses and, out of petty revenge, prescribed each of them an extremely bitter summer heat medicine.
Chen Biao added another entry to his “Filial Father and Dutiful Son” notebook, blaming his father for making him drink bitter medicine.
At long last, under Chen Biao’s eager anticipation, the Jiangnan gentry finally understood the “Zhu-style Well-Field System” and launched their counterattack.
The only thing Chen Biao hadn’t expected was that the opening salvo wouldn’t come from scholars writing poems lamenting the suffering of women forced into corvée labor.
Instead, it began with sorrowful ballads sung by famous courtesans.
Even in an age of chaos, there were still luxurious pleasure houses overflowing with wine and extravagance, and renowned courtesans adorned in jewels who shared kindred spirits with lofty scholars, creating romantic tales that would be passed down for generations.
The Qinhuai River in Yingtian had once been just such a place.
But after Zhu Yuanzhang captured Yingtian, being both utterly unromantic and afraid such places would corrupt the precocious Chen Biao, he shut down every brothel in the city and executed all the madams.
The Chen family did operate a theater in Yingtian and occasionally staged song and dance performances, but they never engaged in such inhumane business. Even if Chen Biao had no lofty ambitions to save the nation and only wanted his own family to live well, he had no interest in tormenting others. He was simply an ordinary person with normal values.
For the first time, this rough-and-ready Zhu Yuanzhang witnessed the power of famous courtesans.
Courtesans occupied an extremely low social status. They weren’t entitled to land, nor were they subject to corvée labor.
Yet once they plucked their pipa, shed a few tears, and sang mournful songs about impoverished women suffering under corvée labor, scholars and poets across the land erupted in sympathy, behaving as though these beautiful women had all been forced into brothels because Zhu Yuanzhang had assigned them farmland and condemned them to the misery of farming and labor service.
These famous courtesans were much like celebrities in later generations.
Ordinary people might not understand the scholars’ poetry, but they could always hum a few lines from the courtesans’ songs, even if they didn’t know what the lyrics meant.
As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang’s reputation outside Yangzhou immediately became utterly infamous.
Then the talented women secluded within wealthy households began speaking out as well.
Almost overnight, countless female teachers and female Confucian scholars appeared from nowhere. Every one of them seemed exceptionally well-read, capable of writing both poetry and prose.
Within a single month, the number of books and collections of poetry published under women’s names was probably equal to the total produced throughout the entire Yuan Dynasty.
Zhu Yuanzhang’s ban on foot binding was also twisted into evidence that he wanted to force women into hard labor until they worked themselves to death.
Even the story of Meng Jiangnü Weeping at the Great Wall was rewritten. Now it claimed that Meng Jiangnü herself had been forcibly conscripted by the tyrant Qin Shi Huang to build the Great Wall, and her tears had brought it crashing down.
Husbands separated from wives. Fathers separated from daughters. Mothers separated from sons.
How many human tragedies had Zhu Yuanzhang caused?
It seemed as though ten thousand women were weeping at once.
Even Zhu Yuanzhang’s own followers back in Yingtian began to waver.
Chen Wenzheng was the first to suffer.
He had already reached a verbal engagement with the daughter of Xie Zaixing, one of Zhu Yuanzhang’s generals.
Now Xie Zaixing had broken the engagement and fled with his entire family to join Zhang Shicheng.
Chen Wenzheng had originally been scheduled to marry either at the end of this year or the beginning of the next.
Now the bride who had practically been his had flown away.
Other than starving in his early years, he had never suffered such a devastating blow.
He actually fell ill.
If Chen Wenzheng had merely become sick because his marriage had fallen through, that would have been one thing.
But Xie Zaixing had also become the first major general under Zhu Yuanzhang to betray him, driving a knife straight into Zhu Yuanzhang’s heart.
The violent temperament Zhu Yuanzhang had gradually shed thanks to his son’s influence erupted once more.
It was as though he had returned to the days when Guo Zixing had nearly starved him to death.
He looked upon everyone with suspicion, like a startled bird frightened by the mere twang of a bowstring. He trusted no one.
Zhu Yuanzhang swore a blood oath that he would personally cut Xie Zaixing’s entire family into a thousand pieces and leave not a single survivor.
Xie Zaixing’s betrayal dealt a devastating blow to Zhu Yuanzhang’s newly stabilized power.
Earlier that year, Hu Dahai and Xie Zaixing had captured Wuzhou. Zhu Yuanzhang trusted Xie Zaixing enough to place him in charge of defending it, renaming Wuzhou Ningyue Prefecture.
Ningyue bordered Zhang Shicheng’s territory.
Xie Zaixing surrendered the city to the enemy.
Fortunately, the soldiers under his command mutinied, buying enough time for Hu Dahai to return with reinforcements and recapture Ningyue, preventing Zhu Yuanzhang from losing nearly half of his already limited territory.
Even so, Zhu Yuanzhang had poured enormous effort into developing Ningyue Prefecture.
Just as the city had finally begun to recover some semblance of life, the flames of war erased everything once again.
The newly repaired city walls were reduced to ruins once more, making Zhu Yuanzhang’s already impoverished territory even poorer.
Many generals who had originally supported the Well-Field System also began to waver after Xie Zaixing defected.
Xie Zaixing had been about to become relatives with Marshal Zhu’s adopted son and with General Chen, Zhu Yuanzhang’s financial pillar!
If even he had defected…
Could there really be something wrong with this Well-Field System?
Li Shanchang sent Zhu Yuanzhang a letter every single day, urging him to return to Yingtian immediately to stabilize the situation.
“I’m telling Xu Da to continue the Well-Field System with Biao’er! Marshal, get back here immediately!”
When Zhu Yuanzhang saw the words “Biao’er,” the bloodshot fury in his eyes eased ever so slightly.
Recently, he had been eating and sleeping at the Marshal’s residence, claiming that Marshal Zhu was holding endless strategy meetings with his closest advisers and therefore couldn’t return to the Chen residence to accompany his son.
Zhu Yuanzhang knew perfectly well that something was wrong with his current state of mind.
He was overflowing with murderous hostility.
He was afraid of frightening his son.
Xu Da had kept up the stern demeanor of Marshal Xu the entire time, never relaxing, not even in his sleep.
Only after seeing the hostility in Zhu Yuanzhang’s expression lessen slightly did he finally breathe a small sigh of relief.
Walking over without waiting for permission, Xu Da leaned in to read the letter and laughed.
“Leaving Biao’er here? What an idea from Mr. Li. At a time like this, Marshal, you’ll probably want to tie Biao’er to your belt wherever you go. Still, I didn’t expect Mr. Li to support you in continuing the Well-Field System. I thought he’d advise you to postpone it.”
When Zhu Yuanzhang first read Li Shanchang’s letter, he had genuinely considered leaving Chen Biao in Yangzhou while returning to Yingtian himself.
Although Yingtian was his headquarters, Yangzhou was actually safer at the moment.
But after Xu Da spoke, Zhu Yuanzhang searched his own heart.
In his current mental state, he trusted no one but himself.
He would definitely take his son with him.
Just as Zhu Yuanzhang was still hesitating, Ye Zheng and Song Lian arrived together requesting an audience.
Zhu Yuanzhang hurriedly invited them inside.
Despite the immense pressure Zhu Yuanzhang was facing, neither of them had advised him to suspend either the Well-Field System or the policy of granting land to women.
Instead, they had become even more energetic and efficient, driving everyone else in Yangzhou to work even harder, to the point where they had practically forgotten everything happening in Yingtian and Ningyue.
This time, they had come to urge Zhu Yuanzhang to return to Yingtian.
They would help Xu Da continue implementing the Well-Field System.
At the same time, they informed Zhu Yuanzhang that they had also begun fighting back, explaining to the common people throughout the land the benefits of the Well-Field System.
Both Ye Zheng and Song Lian looked utterly exhausted.
They had never imagined their opponents would resort to famous courtesans.
It was completely outside the rules—utterly disgraceful.
Although scholars admired celebrated courtesans, they still looked down on prostitutes.
Since when did scholars send courtesans out as the vanguard in an intellectual battle?
It was utterly shameless.
Ye Zheng and Song Lian understood exactly why their opponents had done it.
The moment those people saw the Well-Field System, they had truly become frightened.
They feared the common people would be swayed, so they wanted to stabilize public opinion first.
Scholars’ voices, however loud, rarely reached ordinary people’s ears—just as the voices of common people rarely reached scholars.
That was why they had sent the famous courtesans first.
Only afterward did they introduce the gimmick of “female teachers” and “female Confucian scholars,” using public curiosity to draw common people into paying attention to the war of words.
Ye Zheng and Song Lian could certainly write reasoned essays demolishing those absurd scholars’ arguments.
They even dared to pat their own chests and declare that history would remember them more prominently than their opponents.
But the other side had never intended to fight them head-on in a proper scholarly debate.
The two genuinely noble scholars instantly found themselves at a loss.
Even the cleverest housewife cannot cook without rice.
There were no brothels left in Zhu Yuanzhang’s territory.
They couldn’t very well run into Zhang Shicheng’s lands or Yuan territory to write poems for famous courtesans to sing.
All they could do was devote themselves even more wholeheartedly to their own duties.
Through their actions, they wanted to show Zhu Yuanzhang that they would support him to the very end and hoped he would not retreat.
If Zhu Yuanzhang backed down under this assault, the hope of restoring the Well-Field System might disappear forever.
All true Confucian scholars understood that the “Well-Field System” described in the Mencius was not the actual system that had existed during the Shang and Zhou dynasties.
Rather, it was Mencius’s imagined “perfect system,” an ideal realm like the Great Harmony.
Thus, just like the Great Harmony itself, the Well-Field System represented the “Way” in the hearts of true Confucian scholars.
Ye Zheng and Song Lian were willing to give everything they had to help Zhu Yuanzhang implement it.
Even death would not make them regret it.
After hearing these two great scholars, who had only recently joined him, bare their loyalty for him to see and reassure him, Zhu Yuanzhang did not hurry to help them to their feet as he usually would.
Instead, he remained seated, just as he had on the day Li Shanchang begged him to rescind his order.
His expression was stubborn, yet bewildered.
“I still wasn’t wrong this time.
“The Well-Field System really can give ordinary people enough food and clothing.
“Especially women. They won’t have to bind their feet. Baby girls won’t be abandoned after birth. Whether they marry or become widows, they’ll have the confidence that they can support themselves.
“Isn’t that a good thing?
“Then why are the most learned and most famous female scholars all condemning me?”
Neither Ye Zheng nor Song Lian knew how to answer.
They were just as confused.
But they knew that what Zhu Yuanzhang had done was right.
No matter how noisy the uproar outside became, the fact that everyone inside Yangzhou—even the surrendered Yuan soldiers who had once been frightened by the sacrificial ceremonies—was enthusiastically cultivating the fields proved it.
In less than two months after Zhu Yuanzhang announced the Well-Field System, the dead city of Yangzhou had come back to life.
Meanwhile, Yingtian, the heart of Zhu Yuanzhang’s power, had fallen into panic, with many commoners fleeing after hearing the rumors.
Xu Da sighed.
He wanted to comfort Zhu Yuanzhang, but he had no idea what to say.
He genuinely didn’t understand either.
He knew someone who probably did understand.
But for some reason, his old friend had become unbelievably stubborn and absolutely refused to ask Biao’er for help.
Even if Biao’er didn’t offer any advice, simply comforting him would surely improve Zhu Yuanzhang’s mood.
Right now, Zhu Yuanzhang had completely worked himself into a dead end.
Just as the atmosphere grew unbearably heavy, Chen Wenzheng—who was supposedly bedridden with serious illness—burst into the room.
“Godfather! Biao’er is coming! I can’t stop him!”
Zhu Yuanzhang shot to his feet.
“What? Wait—you were sick… Forget it, that’s not important! Who brought Biao’er here?! Bring him back immediately! I’ll chop that person’s head off!”
Chen Wenzheng scrunched up his face.
“Godfather… are you sure you want to?”
Zhu Yuanzhang slammed the table furiously.
“I’ll chop down anyone! Even Xu Da! So who was it?!”
Xu Da pointed at his own nose, then silently closed his eyes.
Fine, fine. Every time you threaten to execute someone, you use me as the example now.
Wonderful.
Chen Wenzheng replied, “Oh, it was Uncle.”
“I’ll go tell Bao’er right away so he can pick a burial site for his father… Ow!”
Zhu Yuanzhang grabbed the paperweight from the table and hurled it squarely into Chen Wenzheng’s shoulder.
“Shut up! Why is your uncle here?!”
Chen Wenzheng blinked.
“Godfather, you let it slip. Better take it back.”
Ye Zheng stood up, rubbing his forehead with a sigh.
The corners of Xu Da’s mouth twitched.
“Wenzheng… you’re the one who should shut up.”
Song Lian also slowly rose.
“Biao’er? You mean Chen family’s Biao’er?”
Zhu Yuanzhang said, “You’ll find out sooner or later anyway, so I’ll tell you now. Chen Biao is my son. He’s an immortal child. A physiognomist said he mustn’t learn that he’s Zhu Yuanzhang’s son before reaching adulthood. Mr. Song, you’re the only person here who didn’t already know. You must keep the secret.”
Song Lian: “…Huh?”
What immortal child?
What physiognomist?
Marshal Zhu… you really don’t have to invent such an outrageous lie just to stabilize morale.
I’ve studied the histories.
Do you think I really don’t know that the fox was supposed to cry ‘ying ying ying,’ not ‘The Great Chu shall rise! Chen Sheng shall be king!’?
Song Lian turned toward Ye Zheng.
Ye Zheng smiled kindly at him.
Song Lian’s face immediately darkened.
That old scoundrel’s smile…
Could Marshal Zhu actually be telling the truth, and that old fox had known all along?
Song Lian instantly connected Chen Biao’s identity with Ye Zheng’s excuse about retrieving his protective talisman that night and every suspicious event surrounding it.
His eyes nearly split with rage.
Had that old fox already figured out Chen Biao’s true identity back then?
Did he deduce it himself, or had Marshal Zhu revealed it after Ye Zheng earned his trust that night?
I’d been competing with him all this time…
Was he actually far ahead the entire time, secretly laughing at me, while I only just barely managed to catch up?
Seeing Song Lian’s dark expression, Ye Zheng first lowered the corners of his mouth before smiling gently once more.
Song Lian nearly suffered a heart attack.
His vision went black for a moment, and he almost fainted on the spot.
Ye Zheng, you old bastard!
You and I are irreconcilable enemies!
Meanwhile, Zhu Yuanzhang was already running around like a headless fly.
“Ahhh! Mr. Song! Mr. Ye! Stop having conversations with your eyes and help me figure out how to keep Biao’er in the dark! What on earth is my brother-in-law doing?! Isn’t he afraid of exposing everything?!”
While rubbing the shoulder that had been struck by the paperweight, Chen Wenzheng said, “Oh, Uncle said Marshal Zhu is already on the road back to Yingtian. He told me to coordinate our story with you.
“Oh, and he also told me to secretly tell you in private.”
Zhu Yuanzhang: “…”
He finally stopped pacing.
“Then why did you shout it in front of everyone?!”
Chen Wenzheng scratched his head.
“I was too anxious.
“Biao’er absolutely can’t find out his real identity.”
Zhu Yuanzhang: “…”
Ye Zheng and Song Lian: “…”
Resting an arm on Zhu Yuanzhang’s shoulder, Xu Da said lazily, “Boss, I strongly recommend finding a physician to examine your eldest nephew’s brain.”
Chen Wenzheng looked puzzled.
“Why? I’m already better.
“I told you, I only got diarrhea from eating too much shaved ice. I wasn’t lovesick.
“I’m completely fine now.”
As he spoke, he repeatedly slapped his own stomach.
“No more diarrhea.”
Zhu Yuanzhang: “…Go die from it, then!”
Xu Da laughed.
“Boss, change your clothes before you keep yelling at him.
“Mr. Song, Mr. Ye, come disguise yourselves with me. We’ll pretend the Marshal has already left, and that the two of you are assisting me in managing Yangzhou.
“Mr. Song, if you’re still too shocked…”
Song Lian immediately cupped his hands.
“Please rest assured, Marshal Xu. If Ye Zheng can do it, I can do it with ease.”
Xu Da: “…”
When scholars addressed each other directly by name like that…
Was it the equivalent of generals drawing their weapons the moment they met?
Ye Zheng gave a soft snort of laughter and returned the salute.
“As long as I’m here, I’ll cover for Song Lian. Marshal Xu, you needn’t worry.”
Xu Da: “…”
They’re definitely fighting.
They’re fighting with words.
Are scholars really this hot-tempered?
I don’t even know how they suddenly started arguing!
While Xu Da was still marveling at the sudden “brawl” between Song Lian and Ye Zheng, Chen Biao’s loud childish voice rang out from outside the door.
“Dad! Dad! I know the Marshal has already gone back to Yingtian! It’s just you and Uncle Xu in there!”
“Dad! If you’ve got the guts to ignore me for half a month, then you’ve got the guts to come out!”
“I’m telling you! I’m angry now! I’m going back to Yingtian by myself! If you ignore me, then I’ll ignore you too!”
“Aooo!”
The freshly changed Zhu Yuanzhang burst through the doorway like a whirlwind.
“Son! Listen to my explanation!!”
The whirlwind was so fierce that it blew Xu Da’s loose, unbound hair sideways.
Xu Da brushed the hair away from his face and let out a long sigh of relief.
Good.
Good.
Zhu Yuanzhang has finally gotten out of here.
Chen Guorui is finally back.
These past days scared me to death!