Always keep doing it

Spring of the tenth year of Taichu.

The decree of the Minyou Palace was announced to the whole world.

The first one is about the Merit of Arms:

"Duke Wuyi, Wang Mengzi, failed to discipline his subordinates and betrayed the Emperor's grace. His title of Duke is reduced to ten years. Within ten years, he must personally cultivate a thousand acres of land at the Imperial Estate outside the capital, and all his earnings will be used as military funds. Upon completion of this term, he will be reinstated based on his effectiveness. All nobles in Mingzhou will have their titles reduced by one rank each, as a warning to others."

"Weiyuan Earl Niu Zhuang, who indulged his fellow villagers and brought disaster to the region, resulting in tragedy, is stripped of his title and demoted to a commoner. All his property is confiscated and placed into the national treasury."

"Order the officials to thoroughly investigate all the nobles' followers. Anyone who abuses their power to bully the people, embezzles money, or perverts the law will have their illegal gains doubled and confiscated. Anyone who violates the criminal law will have their title stripped. There will be no leniency."

The second is to soothe the grievances and rectify the administration of officials:

"In the case of Mr. Zhao in Mingzhou, all the perpetrators involved were executed by slow slicing. Their property and the proceeds from their exploitation over the years were to be doubled to compensate the victims, especially the Chen family."

"All the officials in charge of the prefectures and cities where Chen had previously appealed were dismissed and handed over to the Ministry for strict investigation and prosecution for dereliction of duty and shirking of responsibility."

The third path directly points to the fundamental principle of government policy:

"From this day forward, every prefecture will establish a Public Opinion Hall, specifically responsible for receiving petitions and complaints from the people. Reports from the Public Opinion Hall will be sent directly to the central government, free from the control or review of any local government office. Any prefecture official who dares to obstruct, detain, or delay the people's petitions will be executed without mercy."

When the decree was announced, the whole world was shocked.

The people rushed to tell each other, especially the naturalized people in the northern border and the common people at the bottom, all saying that Your Majesty is wise and has not forgotten them.

The mansions of the nobles were in a state of deathly silence. They were demoted, their property fined, and even stripped of their titles. Every blow was bloody. His Majesty was really going to cut out the rotten flesh from their bodies.

At Wang Mengzi's house, after the eunuch who announced the decree left, he stood alone in the yard for a long time.

He returned to the house in silence, took off the scarlet Qilin robe that symbolized the glory of a first-class duke, and changed into a coarse linen shirt, which was what he used to wear on the ridges of the fields in Mingzhou many years ago.

Before dawn the next day, he left the city and picked up a heavy hoe on the land allocated to him in the imperial farm outside the capital.

The sun was scorching and sweat quickly soaked his clothes. After many years, his palms were blistered again, cracked, and formed new calluses.

He plowed the land bit by bit, as if he wanted to bury all his regrets, depression, and the days when he was blinded by power into the deep soil.

When Niu Zhuang received the order, he collapsed to the ground as if all his muscles and bones had been pulled out.

It was not that he was afraid of money or position, but that boundless shame and regret almost overwhelmed him.

"It's me, it's me who has implicated my brothers..." He fell to the ground and cried loudly, his voice hoarse. All the old brothers of the Mingzhou faction had to bear the punishment of demotion because of his mistake.

His wife, Yang Tiantian, supported his trembling shoulders and said, "It's okay, it's okay. The brothers tried to save your life, and no one will blame you..."

"Even though we've lost our titles and our fortunes, it doesn't matter. We still have our hands and feet, so we can just farm the land honestly. As long as we're still alive, as long as His Majesty is willing to spare our lives, that's more important than anything else. It doesn't matter."

From then on, there was no more Weiyuan Earl Niu Zhuang in the capital.

In a distant village, there was a new farming couple.

*

The affairs of the nobles came to an end for the time being, but the undercurrent in the court became more and more turbulent.

One night, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse, and the palace was solemn.

Chief Minister Shen Qingyan entered the palace in response to a secret decree.

Before entering the palace, he met the last person in the secret room of the mansion.

That was Zhou Wenyuan, who had been imprisoned for several years.

The former top scholar and prefect of Mingzhou was imprisoned for twenty years by Shen Qingyan.

In the dark cell, Zhou Wenyuan looked haggard, but when he saw Shen Qingyan wearing the first-grade crimson official uniform, he burst into crazy laughter.

"Hahaha... Shen Qingyan! You did it! You really made it this far!"

Zhou Wenyuan had a look of almost relieved mockery on his face: "What? Are you here to send me off today? Are you going to use my head to pave another step for you?"

Shen Qingyan stood in the shadows. He shook his head slowly: "No. I came here to ask you something."

"Oh?" Zhou Wenyuan raised his eyebrows, interested.

"If there is someone whose political views are different from yours, who is as hostile as fire and water, and who blocks your path and disrupts your plans, how do you get rid of him?"

Hearing this, Zhou Wenyuan's laughter became even more piercing. "Hahaha! Shen Qingyan! You'll end up like this too! You'll ask such questions too! Hahaha! What pillar of integrity? What serving the country and the people? In the end, aren't you just as despicable as us, the termites you call us?"

Shen Qingyan remained silent and let him laugh out loud.

Zhou Wenyuan had laughed enough, panting heavily, and stared at him intently: "The man you are talking about is an enemy of the entire gentry and scholar-officials. Not even Your Majesty can protect him! Why do you have to take action? You just need to acquiesce, and someone will naturally do what you want to do but cannot do or dare not do."

"Your Majesty will blame me." Shen Qingyan said silently.

Zhou Wenyuan smiled and said, "Since ancient times, kings have shared the world with the literati! It is precisely because of his death that His Majesty will understand more clearly that without you, Shen Qingyan, the court will be unbalanced, and your position as Prime Minister will only be more stable."

Shen Qingyan listened quietly, with no expression on his face, except for a very subtle fluctuation in the depths of his eyes.

He thought for a moment, finally nodded, turned and left the secret room.

*

When Shen Qingyan was led to Minyou Hall, he was still thinking about Zhou Wenyuan's words.

When he came in, he saw Ning Lingyi with her back to him, looking at the dark night outside the window.

"Your Majesty, I, Shen Qingyan, pay my respects to you." He knelt down according to etiquette, his voice steady.

Ning Lingyi didn't look back, nor did she ask him to get up. He just knelt on the gold brick like that, for one quarter, two quarters... half an hour passed, and Ning Lingyi still didn't move.

Shen Qingyan's knees went from numb to tingling, but he didn't move. He just lowered his eyes and looked at his blurry shadow on the ground.

Finally, Ning Lingyi turned around, holding a thick stack of files in her hand, and threw them in front of him.

"Let's see." Her voice expressed no emotion.

Shen Qingyan picked it up and flipped through the pages.

Above are several detailed confessions regarding the case of poisoning Nong Zishi.

Among those involved in the case were gentry who hated Nong Zishi's reform policies, and bureaucrats whose financial resources were cut off by him due to taxation. They either united for profit or gathered because of fear, and eventually led to this horrific case of assassination of the minister.

The confession did not directly identify him as Shen Qingyan.

He is safe.

"What does Prime Minister Chen have to say?" Ning Lingyi looked down at him.

Shen Qingyan closed the file, put it back where it was, and kowtowed: "Your Majesty, I have nothing to say."

"Of course," Ning Lingyi sneered, "It wasn't an order from Prime Minister Shen himself, nor was it a poison from Prime Minister Shen's own hands. What does it have to do with the bright and clear Prime Minister Shen?"

Shen Qingyan remained silent.

Ning Lingyi stood up and walked step by step to him, looking down at the man who had followed her for more than ten years and was promoted to the prime minister by her.

He was the first minister to pledge allegiance to her, and a capable person whom she relied on when she was in obscurity. Because of this, she placed him in the position of the head of all officials for ten years. Even though she knew that he represented the interests of the gentry and bureaucrats more and often had political disagreements with Su Qingfan, Nong Zishi and others, she never thought of replacing him.

She always thought that checks and balances were also the way of the emperor.

But she never expected that he would acquiesce and condone others to kill Nong Zishi!

Ning Lingyi raised her hand and slapped Shen Qingyan hard in the face.

The crisp sound of "pop" was particularly harsh in the silent warm room.

Shen Qingyan was hit and his head turned sideways. He staggered and a trace of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. He said nothing, but silently adjusted his posture and knelt straight again.

Ning Lingyi looked at his submissive yet stubborn demeanor, her anger growing even more intense. "Prime Minister Nong is ten years older than you! He's already quite old, and you're in your prime. Why... why can't you tolerate him? Why do you insist on killing him?"

Shen Qingyan finally raised his eyes, a dark sea of ​​silence in them. "Your Majesty, it's not that I can't tolerate him, it's that he's courting his own demise. His determined reforms have touched upon the interests of so many people. His desire to change the tax system will shake the very foundation of the nation! A man like him is like carrying firewood to a fire, how can he not die?"

"Asshole!" Ning Lingyi slapped him harder, nearly sending him plummeting to the ground. "You're courting death! You're destabilizing the nation! In your opinion, those who plead for the people deserve death, and only those who cling to corrupt government are considered loyal ministers?"

Shen Qingyan struggled to kneel down again, still without saying a word.

Ning Lingyi was so angry that she was shaking all over. She pointed at him and said, "I want you to die. You can die now! Are you going to die?"

Upon hearing this, Shen Qingyan raised his head and looked directly at the emperor in front of him whom he had assisted for more than ten years.

It turned out that things had come to this between them.

He suddenly laughed, and there was endless bitterness in that smile. Then he stood up and stopped kneeling. He had kneeled enough and didn't want to kneel anymore.

"Your Majesty," he said in a hoarse voice, "you are now on top of a volcano of fire and explosives. If you are not careful, you will be shattered to pieces, and the entire world will be in jeopardy. Everything I do is to ensure your Majesty's safe landing."

"Let me land safely? Shen Qingyan, I didn't know when you had such ambitions," she took a step closer, her eyes sharp.

"You want to share the emperor's power? You want to be a powerful minister?"

Shen Qingyan met her gaze without flinching. "Your Majesty, throughout history, only one or two out of ten emperors have been wise and virtuous. And only four or five out of ten have been capable ministers. Your Majesty holds all the power in one hand, which makes you arbitrary and decisive. However, the power of heaven is unpredictable. A single thought can cause the country to collapse and the people to suffer. As the Prime Minister, it is inevitable that I will share the power of the emperor. Even if Your Majesty refuses today, a hundred years from now, the struggle between the power of the prime minister and the power of the emperor will never cease in the hands of future emperors!"

"Good, what an inevitable trend!" Ning Lingyi laughed in anger and slapped him again. This time, she used all her strength and knocked Shen Qingyan to the ground.

"You're so hypocritical! Shen Qingyan, you keep saying you're doing this for the country, but in reality, you're just looking for a high-sounding excuse for your ambitions! Do you think power can be won through struggle?"

She berated him condescendingly, "Power is bestowed from the bottom up! It is because the people of the world benefit from your policies, the officials are convinced by your talents, and the country is stabilized by your governance that it will be in your hands! I hold power today not because I am the emperor, but because my will can be carried out throughout the world and is superior to you!"

"How ridiculous! You're still fighting me? What are you fighting? This head full of pedantic bureaucratic habits, this entangled gentry self-interest! It turns out you're one of the biggest stumbling blocks on my road to reform!"

Ning Lingyi stopped looking at him and turned back to the throne.

"You keep doing this, Prime Minister."

"I will let you watch how I transform this fire explosive into the cornerstone of a prosperous age."

"Issue an order: All those who poisoned Nong Zishi and his gang, regardless of whether they were the master or the servant, will be beheaded in public in front of Minister Nong's grave three days later to comfort their loyal souls!"

"Nong Zishi was posthumously awarded the title of Grand Master, and was enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple, with the posthumous title of Wenzhen."

"The agricultural science advocated by Nong Zishi during his lifetime has been established as a law in the new dynasty. All official schools and academies across the country must teach and study it, so that the policies that benefit the country and the people can benefit the world."

Finally, she said, "Also, Prime Minister Shen Qingyan, you failed to manage your subordinates strictly, which led to such a horrific tragedy in the court. You have greatly failed me. From now on, after leaving court every day, you must go to the palace's secret room and kneel before the Nongzi Stone Spiritual Tablet for an hour to reflect on your mistakes. You must kneel for three consecutive years without interruption."

Shen Qingyan fell to the ground, kneeling silently, listening to the orders one after another. He thought he was ready to bear all the consequences, but he did not expect that Ning Lingyi would humiliate him like this day after day.

Once a day, one hour at a time, for the next three years, every day and every night, Ning Lingyi, what do you take me for? Am I not loyal to you?

He wanted to rip open his chest: "I don't believe that you have devoted your whole life to me, and the government will test your sincerity..."

But Ning Lingyi's figure had already faded away, leaving here far away, leaving him alone, kneeling in this deep hall, and his voice could no longer be heard.

The blood drained from his face, and after a long, long time, he bowed his head deeply.

"Your Majesty...I accept your order."

The king and his minister finally broke up, and they could never be together again.

Finally, a hint of regret.

*

While the court and the people were still shocked by the sudden death of Prime Minister Agriculture and the thundering act of His Majesty who angrily executed all the ministers in front of his tomb, Ning Lingyao, wearing the dress of the Crown Princess, walked into the Minyou Hall.

She walked steadily, stopped at the foot of the imperial steps, and bowed deeply according to etiquette.

"Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you."

Ning Lingyi put down her red brush, looked up at her, and said, "Stand up."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Ning Lingyao stood up and bowed her head slightly. "Sister, you have entrusted me with such a heavy burden. I am deeply apprehensive. I must be vigilant at all times, not daring to let you down. I will do my utmost to fulfill what I am supposed to do."

Ning Lingyi nodded slightly and continued, "Having fear and determination alone is not enough. Being in the ninth heaven is most susceptible to being cut off from the outside world. When you have time, go out to the people, see what they are saying, and listen. Don't forget where you and I came from and what we fought for. Never stray too far from the people."

"Yes, I will remember this." Ning Lingyao responded solemnly.

She pondered for a moment, then raised her head, looked at her sister on the throne, and asked the question that had been lingering in her mind for a long time: "Sister, since I have been appointed as the Crown Princess, what should I do next? How can I do it well?"

Ning Lingyi stood up, walked out from behind the imperial desk, went to the front of the palace, and looked out the window at the palace and the distant sky dyed in autumn colors.

"What should I do?" She seemed to be asking Ning Lingyao, but also seemed to be asking herself.

"Next, we have a lot to do, and it's very difficult."

"The tax system needs to be reformed, something the Minister of Agriculture was obsessed with during his lifetime. This affects the interests of countless people and is likely to cause significant damage. It needs to be implemented step by step to find a balance that replenishes the national treasury without exploiting the people."

"Women's studies must be opened. Not only must they be opened, but they must also become a genuine path for selecting female talents, rather than a bonsai that embellishes peace and prosperity, so that women all over the world have books to read and paths to follow."

"The northern border needs to be integrated, people's livelihoods need to be improved, water conservancy needs to be developed, granaries need to be filled... there are so many things to consider, so many complex issues."

"None of these things can be accomplished overnight. It may take ten, twenty years, or even our entire lives to lay the foundation. It may take a century for us to truly see results. This is not something that can be accomplished by one person in one lifetime. It requires the unremitting efforts of us sisters, those who come after us, and generations to come."

Ning Lingyao listened and felt the burden on her shoulders grow heavier. She took a deep breath and replied again, "Okay."

Ning Lingyi turned around and looked at her sister with a deep gaze. "Lingyao, remember, if one day in the future I become ugly and obsessed with power, completely different from who I am today, I want you to kill me with your own hands."

Ning Lingyao was horrified: "Sister would never do that!"

"Yes." Ning Lingyi's voice was eerily calm. "Anyone who sits in this position could turn into a monster, so we can't rely on the monarch's wisdom. Pursuing a sage monarch who will never fall is itself the most irrational fantasy."

She held her sister's hand and said, "What we want to establish is a system that can function well even without a wise ruler. This is the true long-term stability."

Ning Lingyao was stunned for a long time, and finally nodded solemnly: "I promise you."

Ning Lingyao thought for a long time and asked again: "Sister, can we really do this? This vast country, these trillions of people..."

Ning Lingyi did not answer immediately.

She cast her gaze out the window again. Under the high autumn sky, the forests were dyed in color, and the palace walls were solemn. She thought of the beacon fires in Mingzhou, the lonely city of Shanshan, the northerly wind in the north, the black blood vomited by Nong Zishi, and Shen Qingyan's stubborn eyes...

Along the way, bones and flowers coexist, betrayal and loyalty are intertwined.

"I have no idea."

She turned her face to the side, and the expression on her face at that moment was so complicated that it made Ning Lingyao's heart tighten.

"But, we have to keep doing it."

The road ahead is long and arduous.

But we have to keep doing it.