Zhu Mo was not in a hurry and made three or four more moves.
Lu Fang and Jiajing waited and waited, truly wanting to hear what else this exceptionally talented youth would say.
After a long while, as Jiajing was about to urge him, Zhu Mo suddenly retorted, "Daoist, you have seen much of the world, you should know what the greatest illness of the realm is today, shouldn't you?"
Lu Fang had expected profound words from the youth, but hearing his tone, it was much like those in the imperial court. After decades, his ears were calloused, and he let out a scoff. Kuaishuge.
Jiajing, however, was calm. He turned to Lu Fang and said, "Oh? Li San, do you know?"
Lu Fang flinched slightly and coughed before replying:
"I am merely a servant, how would I understand such matters? But since Young Master asks, I might as well offer one… The greatest illness of the realm today, I have heard, should be… should be the matter of wealth, shouldn't it? When wealth is scarce and the people suffer, resentment naturally arises, and this is why benevolent gentlemen like Young Master Zhu lament…"
Jiajing couldn't help but nod.
Unexpectedly, Zhu Mo also scoffed:
"Wealth? Wealth is merely the result, not the cause…"
Oh?
This youth's audacity was truly immense?
Both of them couldn't help but pause.
In governing the realm, wasn't wealth and finance the fundamental issue? If the national treasury were full, the Wokou pirates and the Tatars could be quelled, and the people's livelihoods could be alleviated through lighter taxes. Would the realm not then be peaceful?
The Great Ming was indeed poor, but this was also an age-old problem. Which dynasty had solved it? To put it bluntly, which dynasty hadn't struggled with poverty? To speak of a great illness, which dynasty didn't have this illness of poverty? This youth saying poverty is merely a result, not the cause? It was rather speaking from a position of comfort!
Jiajing couldn't help but smile faintly and asked, "Young Master Zhu's words are quite profound… but, pray tell, what do you consider the cause?"
"Daoist, you have seen the world, you should know what the root of wealth and finance is, shouldn't you?" Zhu Mo asked again.
Lu Fang, upon hearing this, immediately felt it was a mockery of the Emperor. Did anyone in the realm not know that land was the fundamental basis? And as soon as someone showed disrespect to the Emperor, he reflexively rebuked,
"How dare you! You…"
Unexpectedly, Jiajing waved his hand to interrupt him and replied quite seriously:
"The wealth and finance of the realm, since Qin unified the land, have always been based on agriculture, with industry and commerce as supplementary. The Great Ming, since the founding by the Taizu, has further promoted the fundamental and suppressed the secondary, hence the long-term fiscal decay… If we speak of the reasons for fiscal decay, it has always been land annexation and reduced tax revenue throughout the dynasties… Though this illness is severe in our current dynasty, compared to past ones, it might not yet be the end times…"
Zhu Mo nodded upon hearing this, having expected exactly this answer, as it was what all the books taught. However, having lived in the Ming dynasty for over a decade, his observations and experiences, when compared to what he had read, had led him to entirely different conclusions. He immediately asked again,
"Then, Daoist, why is it that land is annexed and tax collection is not smooth?"
"Heh heh, that is naturally due to too many corrupt officials…"
Jiajing answered habitually, but as soon as he finished half of it, he immediately felt something was amiss – the youth's flashing eyes seemed to hold deeper meaning? If it were merely too many corrupt officials, even an eight-year-old could answer that, why ask this question?
He immediately smiled and said, "There are, of course, many reasons, for example—"
Before his words could even fall, Zhu Mo stated decisively, "Yes, there is only one reason, and that is—Greed!"
After a brief pause, Zhu Mo reorganized his thoughts before continuing,
"Land annexation, corrupt officials collude to conceal land, thus reducing the taxable land and naturally decreasing tax revenue… This is not wrong. However, Daoist and Uncle, have you ever considered? How do they achieve this under the eyes of the authorities? Why have the Taizu's edicts and the Great Ming Law become mere decorations?"
After waiting for a while, seeing that the two did not respond, Zhu Mo couldn't help but press on, "Why are corrupt officials always entrenched and in collusion? Why do the Grand Secretaries always turn a blind eye? Why has the officialdom become accustomed to this? Why can the common people be bullied at will in their eyes? Why does no one intervene? Is it unwillingness, or genuine inability to intervene?"
"..."
A series of questions, posed in a very calm and gentle tone, inflicted a deeper, more piercing pain.
These doubts, while commonplace among the populace, were something that Jiajing and Lu Fang, though understanding in their hearts, would never dare to voice directly. Thus, as they heard them, they couldn't help but give a bitter smile, and inexplicable ripples surged within their hearts.
Lu Fang did not refrain from answering, but the more he thought, the more he felt it. For years, the situation had indeed been like this. It wasn't that they hadn't thought of it, and they had tried many methods, but over forty years, not much had fundamentally changed. Those who were greedy remained greedy, those who annexed land continued to annex. When Mister Yang left, Mister Yan arrived, and when Mister Yan left, Mister Xu was no different! What could be done about them? Most of the time, weren't things done according to their will? As the Director of Ceremonies, he could be considered an expert in governing the realm, but he had spent his life entangled in trivial matters, never thinking from such a detached perspective. The youth's words now also evoked a peculiar sense of helplessness in him—
Yes, why?
After Yang Tinghe left, Xia Yan arrived. After Xia Yan left, Yan Song arrived. After Yan Song left, wasn't Xu Jie no different? What could be done about them? Most of the time, wasn't it to go along with their wishes? If these leading ministers did not restrain the corrupt officials below, and the Emperor could not do so, then who could? After all, it was these Grand Academicians who governed on behalf of heaven. If one were to truly purge all corrupt officials overnight, then all the capital's officials would come out for a sit-in to force the Emperor's hand…
…
And Jiajing, by this time, was somewhat entranced. His sense of helplessness and despair was naturally far deeper than Lu Fang's.
This was not only because the person before him was his long-lost son, and he wished to hear him speak and know his inner world. More importantly, as he had grown older over the years, he had discovered he was deeply mired in a quagmire. His lifelong convictions were wavering, and thoughts he had once firmly believed in, or once dismissed, were slowly transforming, fermenting, and even inverting…
Thus, these questions, spoken by Zhu Mo, were like stones cast into a deep abyss, stirring up ripples like a thousand waves.
These questions, he had asked them in his youth, pondered them bitterly in his middle age, yet found no answers. Now, facing these questions again, it felt like thorns piercing his back…
In his early days as Emperor, he attended court and worked late every day. Besides handling state affairs, he read the Veritable Records of Taizu and Chengzu daily… Zhu Mo's questions were exactly what he had thought back then.
But the answers?
He had once attributed it to human nature, believing that every dynasty would inevitably decay. It was something no one could help. At first, he had indeed tried to rectify matters, forcing the Grand Secretaries to arrest subordinates and forcing Lu Fang to arrest corrupt eunuchs, but after several years, had the situation not returned to its original state…? What could be done about them? Could they all be arrested?
Years later, he finally abandoned his illusions: no Grand Secretary would truly act against corrupt officials. Once their own nephews, relatives, disciples, or former subordinates were implicated, the investigations would cease. What else could be done? Change personnel? Wouldn't changing them yield the same results? Moreover, if the Emperor directly sent people to arrest them, and too many were arrested, not only would the officials be dissatisfied, but the Grand Secretaries would bear the brunt of it. They would conspire to resist, claiming the Emperor was losing his virtue and not abiding by ancestral rules, and then, they would even consider replacing the Emperor…
Tired of the struggle, he could only retreat: let them be corrupt, as long as they were obedient. And based on his experience, relying solely on deterrence, a villainous minister like Yan Song was actually more convenient to use. For twenty years, this had truly achieved the effect of making all officials tremble in fear.
This was what he proudly called "using evil to control evil." In his eyes, Yan Song was an evil staff in his hand, used to strike down other evildoers. As long as he held and controlled this evil staff, Yan Song, he controlled the entire realm. Therefore, he did not attend court for twenty years, yet the imperial power remained firmly in his grasp.
But this could not solve the fundamental problem.
Over the years, as he grew older, he became increasingly pained by this. Because Yu Wang clearly lacked his own resourcefulness and ability…
What would happen in the future? Who would control the fierce and wicked officials in the court?
From this perspective, how could Zhu Mo's claim that the end times were not far off be without reason? It was practically an obvious matter: he himself could keep the situation under control even with their greed and ruthlessness. If Yu Wang couldn't control it, what would happen then?
Thinking of this,
Jiajing lost all interest and let out a long sigh. With his left hand, he swept the chessboard, disrupting the pieces.