Chapter 536: Scraping the Poison from the Great Ming's Bones

Jiangnan was gripped by anxiety, but by now the storm in Yangzhou had gradually subsided, and the city was slowly returning to normal.

The new Prefect of Yangzhou had assumed office, and the new Salt Transport Commissioner had arrived as well.

None of this required Zhu Youxiao's personal attention—besides, from now on these two posts would no longer be as important as they once were.

The salt merchants had been largely purged, and the Yangzhou Chamber of Commerce had risen to take their place.

The inventory work would be handled by subordinates; taking over the businesses would be dealt with by the Imperial Household Department. Basically, there was nothing left for Zhu Youxiao to do—he could head straight back to Nanjing.

In fact, that was exactly what Zhu Youxiao did. The reason he had come to Yangzhou in the first place was simply to keep an eye on things and make sure nothing went wrong.

Now that matters had been set on the right track, it was naturally time to leave.

Zhu Youxiao departed Yangzhou and hurried to Nanjing.

At this time, Nanjing remained perfectly calm—at least on the surface. How many undercurrents lurked beneath, no one could say.

But no matter how fiercely those currents surged, it was useless. Before absolute power, such things were nothing more than clay dogs and straw horses.

The great general guarding Nanjing was Duke Chengguo, a man who had come from Beijing and had little deep entanglement with Nanjing's local powers. Even if he had once received some favors or had some connections, he didn't care much about them. At a time like this, it was even less likely that he would offend the Emperor for the sake of such people—that would be an act of seeking death.

Aside from him, there was the Duke Weiguo's mansion.

During this period, Zhu Youxiao had been secretly investigating the Duke Weiguo's mansion, and the Duke Weiguo himself had already been placed under guard—there was no possibility of him stirring up trouble.

As long as the military remained stable, nothing below could cause any real problems. Even if there were a few demons and monsters lurking about, they couldn't leap high enough to make trouble.

Were they going to rebel? Who would dare?

When Zhu Youxiao returned to Nanjing, he did so with considerable fanfare.

The procession was long and imposing—the entire city of Nanjing knew the Emperor had returned.

This was precisely the effect Zhu Youxiao wanted: to tell everyone that the matter in Yangzhou was finished, and that He had returned.

After entering the imperial palace in Nanjing, Zhu Youxiao looked at Chen Yu'er and asked with a smile, "What's wrong? Nervous?"

How could Chen Yu'er not be nervous? This was the imperial palace, after all!

She had followed the Emperor back to the palace, not knowing what she would become in the future—she had no confidence in her heart at all.

Chen Yu'er looked at Zhu Youxiao, biting her lip and twisting her hands together, and said somewhat nervously, "I'm scared."

Chen Yu'er was well aware of what she was about to face. Her only chance lay in the Emperor's protection of her.

And during this journey back to the capital, the Emperor had only her by his side. Using this time to win as much favor as possible, to make the Emperor like her—that was the only thing she could do.

Chen Yu'er put on a pitiful, delicate expression and looked at Zhu Youxiao.

This trick usually worked well on men—and the Emperor was no exception.

Zhu Youxiao naturally smiled, reached out to take Chen Yu'er's hand, and said, "Don't be afraid. Just stay here with Me and behave yourself. Rest assured."

With that, Zhu Youxiao led Chen Yu'er and walked inside.

After settling Chen Yu'er in, Zhu Youxiao glanced at Xu Guangqi beside him and said, "Summon the civil and military officials of Nanjing, along with the officials of the Six Ministries. I will hold morning court tomorrow."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Xu Guangqi hastened to reply.

Everyone in the court knew that Nanjing had its own complete set of administrative apparatus. But no one had ever imagined the Emperor would actually use this apparatus to conduct affairs—or would truly hold court here.

This apparatus normally served two purposes: one was to cultivate reserve officials, and the other was to serve as a place for retirement.

Officials of some reputation who had offended the Emperor were usually sent here to retire in comfort, while incidentally overseeing several provinces in the south.

There might also be another purpose: in case something went wrong one day, this place could serve as a backup.

Back in the day, when the Great Song lost Kaifeng, they still managed to carry on in the south for so many years. If the Great Ming ever ran into trouble in the north, a new court could be established in Nanjing and begin functioning immediately.

Under such circumstances, having this set of apparatus was actually quite necessary. Even if it weren't necessary, Zhu Youxiao could hardly abolish Nanjing's status as a capital.

Two capitals operating in parallel was not an impossibility—such arrangements were common in many dynasties.

During the Tang dynasty, there was the western capital Chang'an and the eastern capital Luoyang, and emperors would casually shuttle between the two, spending half a year in one and half a year in the other.

This precedent began in the time of Li Shimin. Sometimes they would go to Luoyang to eat, after all—shipping grain from Jiangnan all the way to Chang'an was too far, and the cost along the way was too great.

Moreover, the Guanzhong region had a dense population and had actually suffered grain shortages, so the Emperor would lead the civil and military officials and the nobility to Luoyang to eat. This was called "going to eat where the food is."

The Great Ming naturally had no such crisis, but the next few years in the north would still be hard to endure.

If He resided in Nanjing, it would be very convenient when matters arose. But He would have to settle things in the north first—otherwise the north could easily fall into chaos, and without Him there to hold it down, it wouldn't do. After this time, He believed He would have the energy for it.

When the news spread, the whole of Nanjing was thrown into an uproar. Everyone was wondering: what was the Emperor planning to do?

Summon them?

If He wanted to summon them, wasn't it a bit late for that now? He should have summoned them when He first arrived.

No one thought the Emperor holding morning court in Nanjing was a good thing—especially since the Yangzhou affair had just concluded.

The Emperor had sent heads rolling in Yangzhou, confiscated so many households, and arrested so many people. If that were a good thing, it would be a miracle.

Still, no one dared not to come. Everyone waited, waiting for early the next morning to attend court.

But small matters get big meetings, and big matters get small meetings—before the morning court, Zhu Youxiao had already gathered the relevant people.

Of those attending this meeting, not a single one was a local Nanjing official—they were all people Zhu Youxiao had brought with him. Aside from the Grand Secretariat members, there were the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Office of Transmission. Everyone had arrived.

After sweeping his gaze across everyone's faces, Zhu Youxiao said, "The affair in Yangzhou is utterly shocking! Officials corrupt, merchants lawless, the people of Yangzhou living in dire misery. I am the Son of Heaven, yet I have failed the trust of Heaven and Earth, allowing the people to suffer such calamity!"

"If even one Yangzhou is like this, what of other places in Jiangnan? I have decided to conduct a thorough investigation throughout Jiangnan—investigating all merchants and officials. Anyone guilty of wrongdoing, anyone violating the law, anyone oppressing the good and honest, shall be severely punished without mercy.

"The Grand Secretariat shall dispatch officials and personnel to stabilize all levels of government offices—no disorder will be permitted. The Embroidered Uniform Guard shall cooperate with the Office of Transmission to investigate and make arrests. The Imperial Household Department in each region shall be responsible for receiving and handling the aftermath—absolutely no hoarding of goods or disruption of the market will be allowed."

"If anyone commits such acts, regardless of who they are, they shall all be dealt with according to law and severely punished without mercy!"

After speaking, Zhu Youxiao swept his gaze across everyone's faces again and said, "As for the military side—Lu Xiangsheng, you keep an eye on all of them. They must not make any rash moves. Anyone who privately dispatches troops shall be treated as plotting rebellion."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Lu Xiangsheng quickly stepped forward and replied.

"Alright, then go back and make your preparations. At tomorrow's morning court, I will announce this to the public. When that happens, everyone must get moving—do not disappoint Me."

Everyone hastily replied, "Yes, Your Majesty."

This great purge was of a scale and scope rarely seen in any dynasty.

But Zhu Youxiao knew that at this moment, the Great Ming had reached a point where it needed to scrape the poison from its very bones. If he didn't do it this way, nothing else could be accomplished.

He had no time to clean up one prefecture at a time, nor one province at a time.

All he could do now was to swing the axe with full force. With the Imperial Household Department spread across the realm coordinating, and with intelligence gathered by the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Lichun Court, this operation would basically not suffer any major blunders—everyone who needed to be dealt with would be dealt with.

In fact, Zhu Youxiao already had a list in his hands, submitted by his subordinates, implicating every prefecture across the seven provinces of Jiangnan.

Though outwardly they proclaimed these things, in reality this had been prepared for eight years. All that remained now was to make a grand show of arrests and trials—there was nothing else to do.

This time he would sweep Jiangnan clean once more, smashing all those who had banded together.

The expressions on everyone's faces were very grave. This imperial edict from the Emperor had exceeded all imagination—no one had expected the Emperor to do something like this.

Some hesitated, but they were quickly cowed back into line by Zhu Youxiao's glare.

Eight years—having been on the throne this long, Zhu Youxiao knew very well in his heart that this was the moment to stake everything.

As long as he had the army, there would be no chaos. Whoever dared to rebel, he would suppress the rebellion.

Besides, the Great Ming would not be peaceful from here on out anyway—peasant uprisings were springing up all over the realm. Better to sweep them away before that.

When Zhu Youxiao returned, he would have to resolve other problems—the Little Ice Age growing ever more severe, floods and droughts increasing across the land, earthquakes without end.

Zhu Youxiao needed to solve these matters: redistribute land, reform taxation, and even venture overseas.

When absolutely necessary, grain would have to be shipped up from the south; matters in the north also needed to be resolved as quickly as possible, so there was no time to take the long way around.

It was nothing more than fighting wars and putting down rebellions. If someone rebelled, fight a battle—the manpower was already prepared. With the equipment of the Son of Heaven's personal army, there was no problem crushing these rebels.

Everyone walked out of the palace, their faces extremely somber.

Zhu Youxiao stood beside the dragon throne, turned his head to glance at Chen Hong not far away, and said: "Is the ceremonial robe I had you prepare ready?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, it is ready." Chen Hong answered hastily, not daring the slightest delay.

One should know—the ceremonial robe was not something that could be worn at just any time. It could only be worn on major occasions.

The ceremonial robe could only be worn during the great court assemblies, or when offering sacrifices to Heaven or the ancestors. On ordinary days, the Emperor did not wear the ceremonial robe.

The ceremonial robe—people of later generations should all know this—was that kind of garment with a cap that had strings of beads hanging from the front.