303.
The Council at Dadu — "A Single Page Shakes the Son of Heaven's Palace"
In the spring of the fourteenth year of Zhizheng (至正), the skies over Dadu (大都) were overcast.
Beyond the southern gate of the imperial city stood the offices of the Jiangzhe Branch Secretariat (江浙行省), charged with executing imperial edicts.
On that day, a single letter arrived there.
On the envelope were written these words:
「A Letter from Yun Dam (尹曇), Soldier of Goryeo (高麗軍士)」
The sender was an unfamiliar Daoist (道士).
Yet the words within shook the entire court of Dadu.
The letter was unrolled by Dalshichepmuri (達識帖睦邇), a Pingzhang (平章) charged with its reading.
Beside him sat the Grand Chancellor Arakhtai (阿剌忒孩) and several ministers of the Secretariat.
The voice of the reading echoed through the council hall.
"Heaven is far, and people are near.
The people's will is Heaven's mandate, and Heaven's mandate is the law of the world.
Those who fight with blood will perish;
those who unite through the heart will flourish.
Goryeo and Chen Youliang have joined hands through righteousness (義),
and have begun a struggle to save the people.
We ask that Dadu not block this righteousness.
This is not rebellion, but the intent to set the world upright."
When the reading ended, the hall sank into silence.
Speech broke off for a moment.
The Ministers' Debate
The first to speak was Left Chancellor Arakhtai.
"This is a seditious letter.
To exalt human will above Heaven's command—this shakes the very foundation of the Empire."
Dalshichepmuri nodded slowly.
"Indeed.
Those words will seep among the people.
Our taxes and conscription have long pressed upon the people of Jiangnan.
They have forced their way into that gap."
Left Vice Chancellor Lian Chengji (廉承濟) stepped forward.
"This is not the form of an ordinary rebellion.
They speak of war through Dao (道).
Not the sword, but ideas.
It is a dangerous conception."
At this, murmurs spread among the ministers.
"Are ideas more frightening than blades?"
"A rebellion without weapons…"
"If the people believe, that belief itself becomes war."
After a while, the Emperor Toghon Temür (順帝) entered.
He was young, and deeply aware of the Empire's decline.
"What is this?" he asked.
Dalshichepmuri presented the letter.
The Emperor read it himself.
「民心卽天命 — The people's will is Heaven's mandate.」
For a long time, the Emperor remained silent.
Then he spoke quietly.
"When I was young, I heard a saying:
'When Heaven grows distant, the ruler forgets the faces of the people.'"
Everyone held their breath.
The Emperor placed the letter on the table.
"Whether these words are right or wrong comes later.
If the people believe them, that belief becomes the force of the world.
Dao (道) does not remain in words alone.
It moves, following the heart."
Arakhtai raised his head.
"Your Majesty, such thinking is perilous.
The Dao they believe in will bring down the Empire."
The Emperor smiled.
"The Empire's tilt has already begun, Arakhtai."
His gaze drifted toward the distance.
"When a foundation tilts, what remains upon it?
That end—I wish to see."
After the council dispersed, Lian Chengji unfolded the letter again in solitude.
He lifted his brush and copied a single line.
「以心爲天 — Take the heart as Heaven.」
He folded the paper and slipped it into his sleeve.
By then, among Dadu's officials, a few had already begun to recite Yun Dam's words from memory.
They were neither commands nor slogans.
They were a strange resonance that unsettled old beliefs.
That night, Emperor Toghon Temür sat alone.
Even after the candles were extinguished, he murmured the phrase again and again.
"民心卽天命…
The people are Heaven…
The mandate (命) Heaven once gave me is departing."
He smiled slowly.
The smile was cold.
When he took up his brush again, the Empire's night tilted further.
"An empire that began in Heaven ends in the hearts of men."
Zhu Yuanzhang's Growing Unease
Zhu Yuanzhang's Camp — "When Heaven Begins to Waver"
Night in Yingtian Prefecture (應天府)—present-day Nanjing—was quiet.
The stillness spread like fire.
Zhu Yuanzhang stood alone.
The doors of the hall were shut.
The wind halted beyond the walls.
He left the darkness untouched; darkness sharpened thought.
On the table lay a single report.
Placed before battle updates and troop counts was a text.
Yun Dam's writing.
It reported that those sentences had crossed Jiangnan, shaken Chen Youliang's camp, split Zhang Shicheng's ranks, and at last seeped into Dadu itself.
Zhu Yuanzhang picked up the paper.
He had already read it many times.
Even so, his fingertips trembled faintly.
「民心卽天命」
He stared at the four characters for a long time, then muttered softly.
"The people's will… Heaven's mandate."
The phrase was not unfamiliar.
He had learned its power with his own body.
He remembered the night, when he first raised troops, hungry peasants gathered of their own accord.
How they bowed when grain was distributed.
How they called him, "Heaven has arrived."
At that time, he had fixed a single thought in his heart.
Yes.
I am Heaven.
Now someone had taken that place away.
"Heaven is far, and people are near…"
Those words were not a blade.
Not an army.
Yet they pierced deeper than arrows.
Zhu Yuanzhang ground his teeth.
"Chen Youliang… was he ever the sort to utter such words?"
He knew Chen Youliang well.
A man of force and resolve.
One who loudly claimed Heaven favored his back.
A stubborn ruler who pressed forward with blood and steel.
And yet now that man stood before the people, releasing grain, placing "people" before "king."
That change exceeded mere change of heart (變心).
It bore the name of transformation (變身).
Zhu Yuanzhang struck the table slowly.
Thud.
"The problem is not Chen Youliang."
His gaze sank into the darkness.
"It is the one who wrote those words."
Yun Dam.
Shaking armies, shaking states, forcing even the Son of Heaven into silence.
Words collapsing soldiers.
A chill spread along Zhu Yuanzhang's spine.
Then careful footsteps sounded.
Liu Ji (劉基) bowed at the door.
"Chancellor, in many Jiangnan districts, the saying 'taxes are something to be reclaimed' is spreading."
After catching his breath, Liu Ji continued.
"Among the soldiers as well, more are speaking of 'the people's will.'"
Zhu Yuanzhang raised his head.
His eyes had gone cold.
"When soldiers begin to speak—"
He broke off.
What followed was already laid bare, like the floor of the council hall.
The fissure had begun.
Zhu Yuanzhang spoke slowly.
"If Yun Dam dies, will it end?"
Liu Ji remained silent.
Zhu Yuanzhang continued.
"Those words already belong to the people.
They will not be extinguished with the life of a single man."
He rose from his seat.
In the darkness, his shadow stretched long.
"Zhang Shicheng rules with money.
Chen Youliang seeks to rule with people."
After a brief breath, he added quietly,
"And I—
with what shall I stand between them?"
Zhu Yuanzhang's hand stiffened in midair.
One thing became unmistakably clear to him.
This war would not be decided by numbers of soldiers alone.