After the event concluded, everyone stayed in the barracks by the parade ground.
Since Zhu Mo was so cordial, the local officials gave him face. The barracks were cleaned up on short notice, and Zhu Mo’s room was especially spacious, with an old porter attending to him.
Zhu Mo said to Xu Wei:
“Brother Wenchang, why don’t you delay catching up with us by a few days? We’ll first go to Wusa Guard in Guizhou, then to Kunming Prefecture, and finally to Yongchang Guard, which is close to Lushi. We’ll see then if we should head south… You first stall them and investigate the matter behind the shadowy wood. Once you have a lead, come and catch up with us. If you haven’t figured it out in two months, don’t head south anymore, just wait for us to return?”
“Alright! Zixuan, you must also be careful. Yongchang is a land of miasma. Many people from the central plains go there and never return. You should bring more medicine and find more guides…”
Xu Wei said with genuine concern.
Zhu Mo and Li Zhi exchanged a smile. Zhu Mo said, “Brother Wenchang, you take care too. Investigate if you can, but if not, let it go… As for the clue, I think it’s with that Gu Chengzǔ. See if it has anything to do with the Marquis of Yuexi…”
As he said this,
He hesitated for a moment, then continued,
“I see that the commanderies here are deeply entrenched. Anshun City alone has three prefectures and six yamen. You can make good use of their various internal conflicts. Also, those porters, boatmen, and servants are all eyewitnesses. You can spend more money on them… Wenchang, I’ll leave you one hundred thousand taels of silver. If all else fails, reveal your identity. Say you are a secretary from the Grand Secretariat of Wenyuan Pavilion. They wouldn’t dare to touch you.”
“The information you have provided is 100% accurate and aligns with the given context. The translation maintains the original narrative, character voice, and setting. The language used is fluent and natural, reflecting the style of a Chinese novel. Specific terms and names have been transliterated or translated according to the rules, and the formatting adheres to English novel conventions. The overall quality of the translation is excellent.”
Xu Wei was very grateful. He felt that this Zhu Mo, in terms of loyalty, was much better than Hu Zongxian. He was also incredibly generous with his money. Furthermore, Zhu Mo’s insights into the various problems of the Great Ming were incredibly sharp. He wondered how such a young man possessed such knowledge.
He thought that there were always greater talents, and perhaps Zhu Mo’s background was truly extraordinary. It was likely true that he was the heir of some prince.
“Zixuan, I understand. It will probably take at most a month. Once I’ve figured it out, I’ll go directly to Kunming Prefecture. By then, you should have finished your business in Wusa Guard.”
He said this with great confidence.
Zhu Mo knew that Xu Wei had managed military affairs before and would not be unfamiliar with espionage. He immediately gave up the idea of investigating in person and decided to hurry to Ava in the Kingdom of Myanmar. If Mang Yinglong invaded, that would be the most troublesome matter.
The large group left Anshun the next morning, heading towards Wusa.
As expected,
Xu Wei was indeed experienced in military espionage and already had a plan.
He had volunteered this time primarily to repay a benefactor. As for fame and fortune, he had thought of them when he was young, but he had long since forgotten them when he joined Hu Zongxian’s army. He simply felt that Zhu Mo’s ideas were largely in line with his own. The path of Yao and Shun, though a bit exaggerated, was the only way forward.
He knew that
In his youth, he had traveled everywhere with the same aspirations as the young Zhu Mo today, wanting to save the Great Ming, which was plagued with problems, and bring peace to the common people. But now, nearing fifty, although he had accomplished some things, in the end, Hu Zongxian was dismissed, and the Wokou were subdued by others.
This young man reminded him of his younger self. During their time together, he felt he was far inferior to Zhu Mo. If Zhu Mo failed, then the Great Ming was doomed. He strongly agreed with Zhu Mo’s idea of “cycles of governance and chaos.” Although he thought establishing laws for all time was unlikely, he believed that correcting the extremes was achievable. At the very least, when the dynasty collapsed, the people would not suffer as much…
Gazing at the group of people as they walked further and further away on the mountain road, Xu Wei sighed and murmured to himself, “I hope he is right…”
He immediately found Ji Guangyu and then met Ji Ya. After examining some of the inventory, he placed an order for twenty thousand taels of silver on the spot, agreeing to receive the goods when the water was low in winter. This immediately dispelled the doubts of the people in Anshun. Coupled with Xu Wei’s high cultural cultivation, through interactions, he became acquainted with these prominent figures within ten days.
He also hired some people in the city, pretending to be doing business, but in reality, they were part of a hidden spy network. In less than a month, this invisible network had spread throughout Anshun City, slowly closing in on Gu Chengzǔ, the King of Anshun…
At this time, Zhu Mo and his entourage were in Wusa Guard.
Wusa was Bijie, one of the Ming Dynasty’s most heavily garrisoned guard posts in the southwest. Zhu Mo’s purpose in coming here was to find the trace of a person who would become the spiritual totem of the Yan Party throughout the realm, and whose whereabouts were themselves a clue and a cipher to the Great Ming’s political situation.
This person was, of course, Emperor Jianwen.
Zhu Mo recalled that a great scholar on a certain forum had presented very strong evidence suggesting that members of the Yu family, Marquis of Yuexi, along with a large group of descendants of meritorious officials who had followed Emperor Jianwen during the Jingnan Campaign, had welcomed Emperor Jianwen to a temple in Wusa Guard named Guanyin Temple. These meritorious officials were very displeased with Zhu Di and were closer to Huang Zicheng and Fang Xiaoru in their understanding of the founding principles of the Great Ming. They deliberately gathered in the southwest (Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan), adopting a stance of subtle opposition to the court.
While many of these individuals were executed or marginalized by Zhu Di, a small number were untouchable, such as the Mu Ying family. In fact, it was with the protection of the Mu Ying family that Emperor Jianwen lived a semi-public life of reclusion in Wusa Guard until his death.
Of course,
During this period, he also traveled to Fujian, Yunnan, Sichuan, Hunan, Guangxi, and Hubei provinces, and there were legends of Emperor Jianwen in these places as well. But ultimately, this represented a persistent undercurrent of opposition to Zhu family’s founding principles. These people included influential figures like Yu Tongyuan, Fu Youde, and Liao Yongzhong.
In these days,
Zhu Mo and Li Zhi were also staying in a temple in Weining. The local official of Wusa Guard, An Xiaoliang, was very obedient. Not only did he try to curry favor, but he also came to pay his respects every day. He also assigned a thousand-household officer named Zhong Chaoyong to guard outside the temple, citing the troubled times and the need to ensure the safety of the imperial envoy.
The reason for the troubled times was that this area had been in chaos since the early Jiajing period. The chieftains of Wusa, Yongning, and Dongchuan engaged in mutual warfare. The imperial court had suppressed them many times, only for them to rise again. These chieftains were powerful indigenous factions that had existed since the Tang Dynasty, such as the An and Lu families, as well as various chiefs of the thirty-six tribes of the Wuman. When they fought, the imperial court had to rely on the official armies of Guizhou, Yunnan, and Sichuan. However, each deployment of the official army was costly, so the court simply stopped intervening.
Therefore,
In these days of staying in Weining to investigate the traces of Emperor Jianwen, Zhu Mo and Li Zhi did not see many officials, but rather many people came to file complaints. Hearing that an Grand Academician had arrived from the imperial court, they came to seek redress.
Zhu Mo and Li Zhi met with several of them and felt deeply that this area was truly chaotic, completely different from what was reported in the imperial court gazettes. Li Zhi could not discern the hidden complexities, but Zhu Mo increasingly felt that the fierce competition among these local officials was actually a great reshuffling, closely related to the court’s situation.