Chapter 13: The Two Lords Were Only Pretending to Faint

Not only did he refuse to retract his edict, but he even had porridge sent to them. This was clearly a deliberate attempt to make a spectacle of them!

Faced with this situation, some officials, whose resolve was already wavering and who stood to lose little from the reforms, immediately began to reconsider. Most of them were fence-sitters, having been persuaded by a few other ministers to join in. After all, even if the new policies went into effect, their losses would be minimal; it simply wasn’t worth opposing the emperor for the sake of such petty gains.

Thus, as they looked at the bowls of porridge brought before them, a considerable number of officials kneeling at the back quietly stood up and left. Those at the front, however, could only grit their teeth and persist.

Of course, not a few also began to hatch schemes. Since their purpose in coming was to force the emperor into concessions, they realized they would have to make some sort of sacrifice themselves.

After kneeling for a while longer, two ministers exchanged glances, then clutched their chests and collapsed to the ground, faces contorted in pain.

The young eunuch attending nearby immediately panicked and rushed back to the palace to report the situation to Chen Xingtian.

This was the first time Chen Xingtian had encountered such a situation, and in his confusion he turned once more to Chen Mu for guidance.

“Should we let them go back?”

By contrast, Chen Mu remained calm and composed. “Have the imperial physicians examine them. If they have truly fainted, treat them at once. If they are feigning, punish them for deceiving the sovereign and send them to the dungeons!”

The young eunuch hurried out to deliver the order, while Chen Xingtian remained deeply anxious. Chen Mu looked at him and shook his head inwardly. As emperor, Chen Xingtian had his merits and was of decent character, but his greatest flaw was an excess of softness.

Sure enough, not long after, the eunuch returned with a report. “Your Majesty, after examination by the imperial physicians, it has been determined the two ministers were feigning illness. They have now been sent to the dungeons to await punishment!”

Chen Xingtian looked at Chen Mu in disbelief. “How did you know?”

Chen Mu could only inwardly roll his eyes. Was it really that difficult? This was child’s play!

How did he know? The answer was simple: the time had been far too short! If the ministers had been kneeling outside for two or three hours, it would be understandable for the elderly and frail to faint. But it hadn’t even been half an hour, and they had just been served porridge—how could anyone have genuinely collapsed from exhaustion?

Outside the palace, the ministers at the gates, seeing the imperial physicians arrive, breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the emperor had relented. Who could have guessed the physicians would, with a single examination, declare the two had been feigning? In the next moment, the pretenders were promptly taken away by the eunuchs to the imperial prison.

Now, true panic set in among the ministers outside the palace gates. It was clear that the emperor was determined to implement the new policies, come what may.

With this realization, another group of officials quietly rose and slipped away. Those who remained were mostly the principal targets of Chen Mu’s reforms. Uneasy as they were, they could only grit their teeth and persist.

Chen Mu, for his part, had no concerns. After all, these were men of the same ilk as Lord Zhang.

As expected, by dusk, when one minister finally collapsed from genuine exhaustion, the few remaining began to waver. As night fell, not a single one of those who had so boldly sworn to force the emperor to retract his edict remained in sight.

Thus, this first contest between sovereign and ministers ended in victory for Chen Mu and Chen Xingtian.

At that moment, Chen Mu shared his second suggestion with Chen Xingtian. “Now that the opposition has just suffered a defeat and has no time to regroup, we must seize this opportunity to swiftly implement the new policies. Once they are fully in effect throughout the realm, even if they wish to resist, it will be too late.”

With these experiences behind him, Chen Xingtian now heeded his son in all things. Without delay, he set the subsequent measures in motion, issuing the edicts for the new policies to all regions.

The powerful local clans had no time to prepare. The court took advantage of this, swiftly absorbing these forces before they could reorganize.

In this way, the long-standing problem that had plagued Chen Xingtian for decades was resolved by Chen Mu’s single stroke of reform.

With hopes of resisting the new policies now thoroughly dashed, the officials who had opposed them had no choice but to give up. Yet, in contrast, Chen Mu found that more and more officials now sought to curry favor with him.

Originally, as Crown Prince, Chen Mu had not enjoyed much standing among the ministers of the court. For one, Chen Xingtian was still in his prime and, barring unforeseen circumstances, could be expected to rule for decades—there was little reason for officials to ingratiate themselves with the Crown Prince so early. Secondly, the emperor’s harem was vast, and the future of the succession was far from certain. If the heir apparent were to change, wouldn’t being too close to Chen Mu now be tantamount to digging one’s own grave?

Yet after the events surrounding the new policies, their attitudes shifted dramatically. It was clear that, given Chen Mu’s talent and the degree to which Chen Xingtian favored him, the future of the realm would surely be his. The sooner they aligned themselves with Chen Mu, the higher they might climb in the future.

Chen Mu saw all this, but from start to finish he never once gave these officials any response. He had no wish to become embroiled in factional struggles. Besides, it was rare for an heir to maintain such a harmonious relationship with the emperor, and he wished above all to keep things steady.

But just because Chen Mu sought stability didn’t mean those scheming ministers were content to do the same. For quite some time, the gates of the Crown Prince’s residence were thronged with visitors. Ministers calling to pay their respects or bearing gifts nearly wore the threshold down.

Chen Mu, however, refused all audiences. As for the gifts, he ordered every one returned. In this era, after all, there was nothing he truly valued; accepting such things would be pointless.

Thwarted in their attempts to offer gifts, the ministers devised other, more preposterous schemes.

One morning at court, the Minister of Revenue stood forth and, after a lengthy and rambling speech about Chen Mu’s coming of age and the welfare of the nation’s future, finally arrived at his point: he wished to marry his daughter to Chen Mu.

At this, Chen Mu shuddered. The Minister’s daughter was well known to him—a lazy, gluttonous, ill-tempered woman of striking ugliness, and now well past twenty, still unmarried. That old fox actually hoped to foist such a daughter onto him, all for the sake of climbing the social ladder—he must have lost his mind!

As for Chen Xingtian, he naturally rejected the proposal outright.