"I want her alive, and I want her to live this life for me alone."
"A man like him is impossible to reason with, because he is betting that one woman can bear the weight of all his ambition."
·
In a turbulent year, the old faction that controlled grain transport by canal has struck back, and Lu Donglou's new maritime trade policy stands at the center of the storm.
Huang Jia, who oversees the construction of sea-going ships and the fortification of Tianjin's Dagu Harbor and the Shuangyu Harbor-Zhoushan defense line in eastern Zhejiang, has settled into a life of assassination attempts: one minor attack every three days, one major attack every five.
Their relationship is known throughout the court and the country.
Huang, an official in the Ministry of Works, was a condemned prisoner in jail until Lu, the minister, appointed him. He then became a key contributor to the new policy.
Though Minister Lu is engaged to Huang, most people assume he is merely using him.
After all, in recent years Lu has relied on maritime trade to eliminate his rivals and become all-powerful at court, yet he allows his fiance to stand watch on the pier through wind and rain, living with a blade at his throat.
How could anything be so strange?
And the truth was just as everyone suspected.
The two had been together for over half a year, but neither mentioned their engagement again.
Their peaceful arrangement held up well, until the day Lu Donglou was granted a title of nobility, when news suddenly arrived from Shuangyu Harbor in eastern Zhejiang.
She was dead, killed in an assassination attempt.
The assassin had been killed on the spot. After being shot with an arrow, she jumped into the ship lock, and her fate was unknown.
In theory, the news should not have come as a surprise.
But Lu Donglou seemed to lose his mind. He claimed in the great hall that the news was false, then vomited blood all over himself and fainted on the spot.
That night, he searched through all her ship-lock plans, again and again checking the places she had circled in ink.
The person holding the lamp frowned. "My lord, can you even read these?"
He paused, a dazed look flashing through his eyes. "She hasn't told me about these things in a long time."
The one you love, the one who serves your interests, the one who shares your ambition, the one entrusted with your power.
Maritime grain transport reform in the mid-to-late Ming dynasty
Theme: Life is not a fate imposed upon you, but a choice.
