Chapter 420: Li Mo at the Court Debate

“No additional taxes on the people—yet the imperial treasury doubles!”

What arrogance. What brazen, reckless nonsense from an overconfident junior!

Among Li Mo’s faction, not a single person believed Zhu Ping’an’s claim—not one in ten million. Throughout history, how many towering statesmen and brilliant minds had come and gone? How many prodigies had shaken the age? And yet none of them had ever dared utter such words. Zhu Ping’an was nothing more than a youth barely in his teens, yet he spoke as though the laws of heaven and earth bent to his will. Truly a newborn calf unafraid of the tiger—spouting wild talk without knowing the depth of the waters.

“Oh?” The Jiajing Emperor raised his eyes slightly. When he heard Zhu Ping’an say that this idea—no new taxes for the people, yet a doubled treasury—had come from his review of maritime prohibition records, a spark of interest flickered in the emperor’s otherwise inscrutable gaze. “Are you saying that without increasing the people’s taxes, the state coffers could still be doubled?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Zhu Ping’an nodded without the slightest hesitation, his voice calm and steady.

“Your Majesty!” Li Mo could no longer restrain himself. He stepped forward two paces, cupped his hands, and bowed deeply, his tone sharp and severe. “This man’s words are illogical to the extreme—utter fallacy of the highest order! I beseech Your Majesty to expel this reckless talker from the palace, to serve as a warning to others!”

“Why do you say so?” The Jiajing Emperor’s expression did not change in the slightest. His voice remained faint, unreadable.

“I request permission to debate him,” Li Mo said, bowing once more. Then he turned abruptly, striding toward Zhu Ping’an in long steps, stopping right before him. His gaze bore down like a blade. “What you claim—that without increasing taxes on the people, the treasury can be doubled—is this true or not?”

“It is,” Zhu Ping’an replied, nodding once.

“Absurd! Utterly absurd!” Li Mo exploded, his temper flaring. If Zhu Ping’an had not turned his face aside in time, he would have been drenched in Li Mo’s flying spittle.

“All the wealth and goods produced by heaven and earth are finite in amount! If they are not with the people, then they are with the state! Increase taxes, and the state grows rich; reduce taxes, and state expenditures grow scarce! What you propose is nothing but a disguised form of squeezing the people—more harmful even than traitors who bring chaos to the realm! In the Western Han, Sang Hongyang once advanced such ideas: no added taxes for the people, yet sufficient state revenue. And how was it done? By banning private coinage and monopolizing salt and iron! Was that not simply another way of stripping the people of their strength?! Water can carry a boat—but it can also overturn it. When the people are drained dry, chaos rises like a storm, rebellions breaking out without end!”

He pointed straight at Zhu Ping’an, fury blazing in his eyes. “You, a grand zhuangyuan, instead of serving the state, choose the path of a traitor who brings ruin! What is your true intent?!”

Li Mo was truly enraged now. He cursed Zhu Ping’an without restraint, nailing him to the cross of “traitor to the state,” trampling him beneath a thousand imagined feet.

Yet Zhu Ping’an seemed as though he neither heard nor saw any of it. Deaf to the tirade, blind to the accusations, he responded with an even, unhurried voice—so calm it formed a striking contrast with Li Mo’s flushed face and bulging neck.

“My lord has said that all wealth under heaven is finite, residing either with the people or with the state. On this point,” Zhu Ping’an said mildly, “this humble official is in deep agreement.”

“I do not need your flattery!” Li Mo snapped.

To Li Mo, Zhu Ping’an’s words sounded nothing like reasoned agreement. Instead, they reeked of shameless sycophancy. First he flatters the emperor, now he dares flatter me as well? Li Mo sneered inwardly. Spare me—this old man does not fall for such tricks.

“Hah! He really patted the horse on the leg!”

“Doesn’t he know Lord Li despises this kind of bootlicking most?”

Several officials chuckled quietly among themselves. As they laughed, they glanced at Zhu Ping’an with open derision, seeing him as nothing more than a walking embodiment of foolishness. And he still talks about doubling the treasury without taxing the people—what a joke!

Amid the soft laughter and Li Mo’s scornful stare, Zhu Ping’an merely smiled faintly and shook his head. Then he cupped his hands and addressed Li Mo respectfully.

“My lord misunderstands. I only meant that what you just said—‘all wealth under heaven is finite, residing either with the people or with the state’—is indeed a reasonable statement.”

By Li Mo’s words, the meaning was clear: the world’s wealth is limited. If the state becomes rich, then the people must necessarily have been burdened—either through open taxation or through subtler forms of extraction.

“Oh, I misunderstand?” Li Mo let out a cold laugh. “If what I say is reasonable, then what you claim—that the treasury can double without taxing the people—is utter nonsense! And if so, then your solemn declaration before His Majesty was nothing but deception of the throne! Do you know what crime that is?!”

Seizing upon what he perceived as a contradiction, Li Mo pressed forward relentlessly, directly accusing Zhu Ping’an of deceiving the emperor.

An ordinary man, crushed beneath such momentum and authority, would have collapsed long ago—armor discarded, banner fallen.

But Zhu Ping’an did not waver.

Facing Li Mo’s aggressive advance, he only shook his head gently, his expression composed, his posture unshaken.

“My lord speaks with reason, and so does this humble official,” Zhu Ping’an replied calmly. “My loyalty to His Majesty is sincere beyond question. How could I dare deceive the throne?”

“Nonsense!” Li Mo thundered. “If I am right, then you are nothing but a liar!”

“Must it be one or the other?” Zhu Ping’an asked serenely. “Why can it not be both?” He cupped his hands again. “Forgive this humble official’s bluntness, but while my lord’s words are reasonable, they are also somewhat incomplete.”

“Incomplete?” Li Mo laughed in anger.

“Please calm your anger and allow this humble official to explain,” Zhu Ping’an said with a respectful bow. “If my words are reasonable, I ask my lord’s pardon. If they are not, then I shall personally beg His Majesty for punishment.”

“This old man will hear what you have to say,” Li Mo replied coldly, not even deigning to look at him.

“What is reasonable,” Zhu Ping’an began, “is like the highest virtue being water. Allow me to use water as an analogy. If all wealth under heaven is likened to a river, then the upper reaches represent the state, and the lower reaches represent the people. The total volume of water in the river is constant. If the upstream holds more water, then downstream must inevitably hold less. Thus, my lord’s statement is indeed reasonable.”

Li Mo snorted, a cold sound through his nose—silent acknowledgment.

“What is incomplete,” Zhu Ping’an continued, “can still be explained through water. The river is wealth; upstream is the state; downstream is the people. My lord’s reasoning assumes there is only this one river. But what if, nearby, there exists another river? If this humble official diverts water from that second river into the upstream of our first, would not the upstream volume increase—without the downstream decreasing at all? For the added water comes from elsewhere.”

At this, several officials could not help but let out soft exclamations of realization. Until now, they had been trapped in the image of a single river. Zhu Ping’an’s words struck them like a cleansing pour over the head—sudden clarity, the fog lifting in an instant.

“You are merely twisting words,” Li Mo snorted, flinging his sleeve aside.

“The principle is the same,” Zhu Ping’an said evenly. “When this humble official spoke of ‘no additional taxes on the people, yet a doubled treasury,’ that was precisely my meaning. Why must our gaze be fixed only upon Great Ming? Beyond our borders lies boundless wealth. Without increasing the burdens of our people, we can draw the wealth of other nations into the Ming treasury. In this way, the treasury doubles—yet the people suffer no added tax.”

Standing there as he spoke, Zhu Ping’an addressed Li Mo and the assembled ministers with calm assurance. An intangible radiance seemed to gather about him, setting him apart from the crowd—like a lone crane standing among chickens, unmistakably distinct.