Take control of Wei Zhongxian at the start and confiscate 100 million from him!

Chapter 204: Fengtian Jingnan
At the hour of Yin (3-5 AM), the sky was still dark.

As the highest point in Qufu, the "Kuiwen Pavilion," the library of the Confucius Mansion, resembles a silent monster in the darkness.

At this moment, a ritual capable of overturning the heavens and earth is taking place in the heart of this monstrous beast.

Duke Yansheng, Kong Yinzhi, had already bathed and changed into a formal ceremonial robe of the highest rank, which was only worn during the most prestigious ceremonies such as the sacrificial rites to Heaven and Confucius.

His crown stood tall, his red robe trailed on the ground, and the jade pendant at his waist made a crisp and solemn clinking sound with his steady steps.

He dismissed all his servants and, alone, pushed open the heavy wooden door leading to the top floor of the Quivin Pavilion.

"Squeak-"

The moment the door opened, a gust of cold morning wind rushed in, making his wide robe sleeves flutter loudly.

The wind carried the chill unique to the pre-dawn hours, but it did nothing to cool the raging fire burning in his heart.

On the rooftop terrace, a huge rosewood desk was already prepared. Wisps of smoke curled from the sandalwood incense burner, while the ram's horn palace lanterns on either side shone brightly, illuminating the space as if it were daytime.

Kong Yinzhi stood before the desk, looking down at the sleeping city of sages below.

His gaze seemed to pierce through the mist and darkness, seeing the prosperity of Southern Zhili, the bustling canal, and even the lonely temporary palace far away in Dezhou.

Kong Yinzhi slowly took a deep breath.

The cool air filled his lungs, instantly clearing his head, which had been slightly feverish from extreme excitement.

He knew that from this moment on, the Confucius family, which had lasted for two thousand years, along with all the scholars in the world, would embark on a path from which there was no turning back!

Kong Yinzhi's movements were almost like those of a pilgrim; he stretched out his hands and slowly unrolled the long, snow-white silk cloth on the desk.

The finest Huzhou Xuelang silk is fine and dense, with a restrained luster. As the silk is laid out, rows of neat, elegant, and powerful small regular script characters are revealed under the lamplight.

Every word seems to have been forged through countless trials, possessing both the solemn grandeur of a temple and the rugged spirit of a scholar.
This is the original text of the proclamation that was enough to stir up the winds and waves of the Ming Dynasty—"A Petition in Blood for the Scholars of the World"!
Kong Yinzhi's gaze swept over each word, silently reciting the sentences he had personally considered.

"Your Majesty, I, Kong Yinzhi, the 65th generation descendant and hereditary Duke Yansheng, weep and kowtow, for the sake of the people and the countless scholars, I submit this memorial with tears in my eyes!"

"...I have heard that the way of a ruler lies in being close to virtuous ministers and keeping away from treacherous men. However, since Your Majesty ascended the throne, eunuchs have been in power, blinding Your Majesty's wisdom! In the past, there was the traitor Wei who corrupted the court, and now there are treacherous officials lurking in your presence. Their hearts deserve to be punished!"

"Western traitors, like Xu Guangqi, disrespect the teachings of the sages and the laws of our ancestors! They have even brought in foreign devils and Western strange and wicked skills, attempting to use the heretical doctrines of so-called 'science' to disrupt China and destroy the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, the very foundation of our nation! This is a heinous act of forgetting our ancestors and inviting wolves into the house!"

"Furthermore, there are cunning officials in the court who are bewitching the emperor and want to use the heretical idea of ​​'converting rice paddies into mulberry fields' to implement the evil policy of 'competing with the people for profit'! They want to drive the people to the brink of despair and use the bones of the people to extract oil for the emperor! Once this policy is implemented, refugees will rise up everywhere, the world will be in chaos, and the Ming Dynasty's more than two hundred years of rule will be in imminent danger!"

"...We scholars, who eat the emperor's food, are obligated to serve him. Now that the emperor is ill and has been misled by treacherous officials, how can we sit idly by? We implore Your Majesty to rein in your actions and clearly distinguish between the loyal and the treacherous! We, the scholars of the land, will surely help Your Majesty—purge the court of corrupt officials and punish the traitors! To bring peace to the world and tranquility to the people!"

After confirming that everything was correct, Kong Yinzhi opened the sandalwood box beside him and solemnly took out the white jade seal that had been passed down for thousands of years and symbolized the supreme status of the Kong family—the "Seal of the Duke Yansheng"!
He personally picked up the vermilion brush, dipped it fully in the blood-red, top-quality ink paste in the dish, and evenly applied it to the seal surface.

Then, Kong Yinzhi held his breath, lowered his arms slightly, and used all his strength to press the heavy jade seal heavily onto the end of the proclamation, right above his own name!
"Om-"

A deep, resonant sound, like the echo of history.

The vermilion mark spread out dramatically on the snow-white silk, bright red and dazzling, like a drop of blood and tears shed by a saint, or a flower of death blooming in the snow!

Done!

Kong Yinzhi straightened up and waved lightly towards the downstairs.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Dozens of elite messengers from the Confucius Mansion, who had been waiting patiently at the Kuiwen Pavilion, instantly scattered like arrows upon seeing the signal! Carrying rubbings of the proclamation they had already copied, and riding steeds that could travel a hundred miles a day, their targets were the prefectures, counties, states, schools, and the most crowded academies, docks, and markets throughout Shandong!

Meanwhile, in various hidden corners outside Qufu, the loyal followers of Prince Fu Zhu Changxun and Yangzhou salt merchant Wang Zonghai, carrying equally fervent proclamations, were like streaks of black lightning, piercing the darkness before dawn and rushing towards the more distant Southern Zhili, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Huguang regions…

A meticulously woven public opinion net, large enough to cover the entire territory of the Ming Dynasty, was officially cast at this moment!

The rain is coming from the wind!
Once the manifesto was published, rumors spread like wildfire, burning wildly in every corner of the empire at an unimaginable speed.

……

Hangzhou, canal wharf.

This is the artery through which the empire's wealth flows; noise and sweat are its eternal themes.

A boatman, who had just come from the north by boat, was surrounded by a group of dockworkers. Holding a large bowl of coarse tea, he was spewing out shocking tidbits:

"Brothers, are you still working your butts off here? You won't even notice if the sky falls down!"

A burly foreman asked in a deep voice, "Old Zhang, what nonsense have you heard this time?"

"Nonsense?" Old Zhang slapped his thigh and lowered his voice mysteriously, "This is a true story that could cost you your head! Do you know why the current emperor doesn't dare to make a move in Dezhou? It's because he listened to the foreign monk and wants to implement the 'conversion of rice paddies to mulberry fields' in our Jiangnan region!"

"Converting rice paddies to mulberry fields?" This phrase was completely foreign to these poor laborers. A young laborer asked with a look of horror, "Then what will we eat?"

This question resonated with everyone.

Old Zhang's face revealed a sinister sneer: "What are we eating? Mulberry leaves! Just like silkworms! They're trying to drive us to our deaths! Let me tell you, in Shandong they've already started forcing farmers to pull up their rice seedlings. Those who refused were beheaded on the spot by the Imperial Guards, and blood flowed like rivers!"

"Oh my God!"

"What kind of world is this?!"

Panic, like a deadly plague, spread instantly throughout the docks. The laborers stopped what they were doing, their eyes no longer numb, but burning with fear and anger.

……

Nanjing, Imperial College. "Extra! Extra! The Duke of Yansheng has submitted a tearful memorial, pleading for the scholars of the land!"

A loud shout instantly set the highest institution of learning in the ancient capital of six dynasties ablaze! Countless students flocked to the bulletin board to see the newly posted "A tearful petition for the scholars of the world."

A student with considerable prestige among the students jumped excitedly onto a stone bench and, with a voice trembling with indignation yet full of power, recited the manifesto with fervor and passion.

When he read the last four words, "Purge the court of corrupt officials and punish the traitors," the entire audience fell into a deathly silence, and then erupted like a volcano that had been dormant for thousands of years!
"Well said! Even the descendants of Confucius have spoken. What are we learning from the classics? How can we sit idly by and watch treacherous officials rise to power and destroy our great Ming Dynasty!"

"Purge the court of corrupt officials! Execute the traitors!"

A student with dark circles under his eyes, clearly someone who had studied diligently for many years, beat his chest and stamped his feet in grief and indignation: "'Changing rice paddies to mulberry fields' is such a wicked policy, it's an attempt to cut off the livelihood of the people! And the foolish move of canceling the palace examination is even more vicious! His Majesty must have been deceived by treacherous officials, this move is intended to cut off the path of advancement for us scholars after ten years of hard study, and to sever the source of our Confucianism as pillars of the nation!"

These words immediately struck a nerve with all the students, causing a huge uproar!

"That's right! First they used 'converting rice paddies to mulberry fields' to wreak havoc on the world, then they used the suspension of the imperial examinations to stifle free speech! It's clearly a vicious scheme by those treacherous Western scholars. They want us disciples of the sage to never have a chance to rise in society, so that they can replace us with their strange and wicked theories!"

"If treacherous officials are not eliminated, the nation will face endless troubles! We scholars must speak out for the people and seek our own survival today!"

"We will petition the Censorate! We will appeal to the Cabinet! We implore His Majesty to execute the traitors and reopen the imperial examinations!"

Hundreds of passionate young people surged into the streets, and people along the way joined them, the ranks growing like a snowball, their slogans shaking the entire city of Nanjing!

……

Songjiang Mansion, outside the government office.

Hou Xun and Yang Sichang's carriage was completely surrounded by an angry crowd.

Countless eggs, rotten vegetable leaves, and stones rained down on them.

An elderly scholar with white hair, leaning on a cane, trembled with rage. Pointing at the carriage, he cursed, "Hou Xun! You traitor of the Donglin Party! For wealth and glory, you aid and abet evil, coming to my Songjiang Prefecture to implement the wicked policy of 'converting rice paddies into mulberry fields'! Do you have any respect for the classics?!"

Inside the car, Yang Sichang's face was ashen, and his clenched fists were white at the knuckles.

He couldn't understand how the national policy of surveying and measuring land could turn into an inhumane and heinous crime overnight.

Hou Xun, sitting opposite him, slowly closed his eyes, but his slightly trembling beard betrayed his extreme inner turmoil.

They were now caught in the raging tide of anger among the gentry and common people, unable to move.

From teahouses in Yangzhou to government offices in Zhejiang, and then to markets in Guangdong and Guangxi... Proclamations and rumors, like twin demons, caused the entire Ming Dynasty to seem to collapse from within in just over ten days.

If the storm in the south was a raging tide of public opinion, then the upheavals in the Central Plains were real swords and fire.

Outside Luoyang City.

The city gates were wide open, and a so-called large army slowly poured out like a flood breaking through a dam.

Looking down from the city wall, at the forefront of this force were two or three thousand well-equipped Prince Fu's personal guards, who were barely maintaining their formation.

But behind them was an endless, dark mass of people!

Driven by hunger and the promise of "opening the granaries to distribute grain," the 20,000 to 30,000 refugees were emaciated and ragged, carrying hoes, sticks, and kitchen knives, while many others were empty-handed.

They were less like an army and more like a swarm of locusts whose nest had been disturbed, lured by a little sweetness to Texas, the legendary capital of the emperor.

Amid the chaotic crowd, a huge apricot-yellow flag was raised high, bearing four crooked yet shocking characters: "Fengtian Jingnan".

However, this so-called rebel army revealed its ferocious fangs from the very first moment it set out on the campaign.

The marching column was in complete disarray. When they passed through a village, countless refugees immediately turned into hungry wolves and rushed in to burn, kill, and loot.

Instead of stopping them, the servants of Prince Fu joined in, whistling as they went.

Cries and screams echoed across the fields, and soon, black smoke rose from the village.

This army, which flew the banner of "pacifying the rebellion," turned its swords against the very people it claimed to be saving.

In a ditch by the roadside, an elderly man with gray hair, holding his grandson who had long since starved to death, stared blankly at everything.

His cloudy eyes held no tears, only endless silence. After a long while, he faced the banner that read "Restoring the Rebellion in Accordance with Heaven," and with his last ounce of strength, he spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva.

……

Dezhou Inn.

"His Majesty!"

Tian Ergeng, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, strode inside, knelt on one knee, and reported in a loud voice:
"Urgent military report from Henan! Prince Fu, Zhu Changxun, has raised an army in Luoyang! Under the banner of 'purging the court of corrupt officials,' he has gathered tens of thousands of refugees and claims to be an army of 100,000, and is marching eastward toward Shandong!"

Upon hearing this, Wei Zhongxian and several cabinet ministers standing nearby all turned ashen-faced.

A prince has rebelled! This is a matter of utmost importance that could shake the very foundations of the nation!
The emperor, at the center of the storm, remained calmly seated on his throne.

He seemed not to have heard this earth-shattering news, but slowly shifted his gaze from the "Complete Guide to Martial Arts" in his hand and calmly glanced at the gray sky outside the window.

Then he asked casually:
"Is it finally here?"

He paused, a faint smile even appearing at the corner of his mouth, and murmured to himself.

"It's much slower than I expected!"

(End of this chapter)