In the capital, Yingtian Prefecture.
For the officials of the Great Ming dynasty court, it was no secret that in mid-November the Emperor had summoned his close ministers, imperial princes, physicians, monks, and craftsmen to gather at Huagai Hall.
What had been discussed in Huagai Hall remained unknown to the officials. In truth, not many people were particularly interested.
This year alone had already left the entire bureaucracy trembling. The affair of Hu Weiyong was more than enough to make everyone nervous, like birds startled by the mere rustling of grass.
With Hu Weiyong's death, the office of Chancellor was abolished by imperial decree. The Ministers of the Six Ministries thus quickly became the Emperor's principal aides in administering the state.
Yet within only a few months, the ministers had either fallen ill, retired, requested leave due to age, or simply stood silent in court without daring to speak.
The situation in the capital had become increasingly difficult to read, and the officials attending court discussions had grown ever more cautious.
Under such circumstances, a minor secret conference in Huagai Hall could hardly stir any waves among them. Anyone with a bit of discernment could already see clearly that the current Emperor of the Great Ming was a true Son of Heaven whose words carried the force of law and whose single decision could settle all matters.
Since speaking up achieved nothing, those officials with active minds could only do two things.
Work diligently.
And look forward to the New Year holiday.
After all, this entire year had been mentally exhausting. A single day of monthly rest was no longer enough to soothe the officials' nerves, which had grown as tense as soldiers in hostile territory.
Everyone was eagerly waiting for the New Year to arrive sooner so that this dreadful year could be turned over quickly, allowing them to spend a proper holiday with their families and wives.
Still, among the officials were those with sharper instincts.
After the secret meeting at Huagai Hall, the court seemed to have undergone a few subtle changes.
First came an imperial decree selecting several capable officials from the court and granting them the position of Eastern Palace Scholars to assist the Crown Prince in hearing government affairs.
At first glance this order seemed ordinary.
But those familiar with the Emperor's temperament knew very well that His Majesty was a ruler who liked to keep the power of life and death firmly in his own hands. He expected the same of the Crown Prince as well.
Now, however, scholars of the Eastern Palace had been allowed to assist the Crown Prince in governing.
This inevitably stirred speculation among those with quick minds.
Perhaps His Majesty was not satisfied with the current arrangement in which the chancellor had been abolished and the Six Ministries were left to assist governance. Perhaps he intended to test a new system to fill the vacuum left by the chancellorship.
Thus many officials had already begun making quiet calculations.
When the New Year came, those newly appointed Eastern Palace Scholars would certainly be among the people to whom visiting cards must be delivered.
But while the officials were peacefully waiting for their holidays, another war report arrived from the north, making their hearts tremble.
An urgent report from Beiping stated:
On the tenth day of the eleventh month, the remnant Yuan commanders Wan Zhe Bu Hua and Nair Bu Hua led several thousand Mongol cavalry across Taolin Pass north of Lulong County and invaded Yongping Prefecture.
The Yongping Guard commander Liu Guang fought fiercely and died in battle.
The thousand-household commander Wang Lu was wounded but refused to retreat. After joining with reinforcements he repelled the enemy, then divided his troops to cut off their retreat, pursued them across the Yan River, launched a surprise attack, and captured the rebel commander Wan Zhe Bu Hua.
The Great General Xu Da possessed tremendous prestige. When he returned to court earlier, some censorial officials had advised the Emperor to send him back to Beiping as soon as possible, lest the remnant Yuan take advantage of his absence to launch an attack.
For some reason, however, the Emperor had rejected this proposal.
Now the remnant Yuan had indeed launched an invasion.
Fortunately the final result was still a victory. Otherwise, the officials felt that even the coming New Year would have been impossible to celebrate peacefully.
Thus although they had never met him, the officials of Yingtian Prefecture all sincerely thanked the brave commander Wang Lu in their hearts.
Logically speaking, after such an incident the Great General should have been ordered back north immediately to strengthen defenses.
Yet during court assembly the Emperor only emphasized the posthumous rewards for the fallen Liu Guang and the commendation for Wang Lu. No further orders were issued, as if the victory at Yongping were only to be expected.
Instead, the Emperor issued several other decrees in quick succession.
One ordered the officials to deliberate on abolishing the hereditary status of medical households.
Another ordered them to discuss changing the Penghu Inspection Office into the Ryukyu Inspection Office.
Although the officials bowed and accepted the decrees in the Fengtian Hall, once the court assembly ended and they stepped outside the palace gates, every official could see the same complicated expression on the faces of his colleagues.
Seven parts bitterness.
Three parts resignation.
The reason was simple.
The Winter Solstice holiday was approaching.
Given the Emperor's personality, these two decrees were almost certainly assignments for them to ponder during their holiday.
For a moment the censorial officials even felt the urge to turn back and advise the Emperor with the saying that the Way of civil and military governance lies in balancing tension and relaxation.
After all, the Emperor's method of governance seemed to be tension, more tension, and still more tension.
But once they recalled that the Hu Weiyong case had not yet fully concluded, this thought of offering advice quickly died.
Discuss it then.
The Winter Solstice holiday lasted three days. Rest for two days, spend one day thinking about policy responses to the two decrees. That should be enough.
So they told themselves.
In reality, during the Winter Solstice visits between colleagues, the two decrees inevitably became topics of conversation as they exchanged ideas.
As a result, after the three-day holiday ended, the officials actually felt even more exhausted than before.
The reason was simple.
Both decrees appeared brief but carried enormous implications.
The system of hereditary artisan households had been inherited by the Ming from the former Yuan dynasty. Since the founding of the Ming state, aside from the artisans themselves who had been registered into the system and occasionally voiced complaints, criticism of the institution was extremely rare both in court and among the public.
Now the Emperor had suddenly presented this widely accepted system and asked the officials to discuss whether it should be abolished.
The matter itself was already strange enough.
As they pondered this, the capital officials quickly identified two people connected to the issue.
The imperial physician Dai Sigong.
And the monk Yao Guangxiao, known as Dao Yan, who was said to be well versed in Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism and also skilled in medicine and divination.
Yet when they tried to visit them, they discovered that Dai Sigong had practically been living inside the palace since the Huagai Hall meeting.
As for the monk Dao Yan, after returning to Tianjie Temple he had entered secluded meditation, refusing visitors while claiming to be contemplating the Great Dao.
Only then did the officials begin to suspect that something significant must indeed have occurred during that secret meeting in Huagai Hall.
The second decree was even more consequential.
It proposed changing the Penghu Inspection Office into the Ryukyu Inspection Office.
At present, however, two places were known as Ryukyu.
One referred to the offshore island once called Yizhou in ancient times, now known as Lesser Ryukyu.
The other referred to the overseas tributary state of the Great Ming, known as Greater Ryukyu.
The Emperor's decree was deliberately vague.
Its implications could be extremely large or relatively small.
At the highest level, it might suggest absorbing a tributary state into direct administration, something that could alarm other tributaries.
At the lowest level, it might simply mean reforming maritime policy and intensifying efforts against the wokou pirates.
Regarding this matter, the officials quickly identified another key figure.
The Duke of Cao, Li Wenzhong.
When it came to maritime affairs and matters concerning Japan, if anyone in the Ming court ranked second in enthusiasm, no one would dare claim first ahead of him.
And this duke had also been present at the Huagai Hall meeting.
Thus speculation spread rapidly among the officials.
Perhaps those who had attended the Huagai Hall secret conference were in fact the Emperor's true inner circle. The scholars assisting the Crown Prince might have been chosen precisely from among those participants.
As for the Crown Prince Zhu Biao, he knew nothing of these chaotic speculations.
He merely turned to his father and asked,
"Father, the medical household system should indeed be reformed. But abolishing it all at once… might that not be moving too hastily?"