Chapter 1030

Paulino's expression changed several times before he followed Luo Bingliang away from the envoy banquet; he thought his speech was perfect, his reasoning rigorous, and even that all the envoys present now had a basic understanding of the Daguangming Sect.

The only mistake was not expecting the Embroidered Uniform Guard to arrive right on time and arrest him, throwing him into the Songjiang Embroidered Uniform Guard office's prison.

Paulino was arrested by the Great Ming Emperor he fanatically admired, which was somewhat laughable.

If Paulino had been preaching the Extreme Bliss Sect, Luo Bingliang wouldn't have bothered explaining—he would have just fired a volley of arquebuses.

Luo Bingliang had actually arrived early and had been waiting outside; he waited until Paulino finished speaking, listened for a long time, and even began to reflect on whether he himself was not loyal enough.

This fanatical follower of the Daguangming Sect is truly too fervent! His sincerity is almost solidified.

Paulino is not performing; he sincerely believes the Great Ming path can save all of Taixi from fire and water.

Five years ago, Paulino was still a nominal follower of the Daguangming Sect, and his attitude toward it then was somewhat perfunctory.

Mainly, as Antonio's second-in-command, Paulino knew the Daguangming Sect was merely a makeshift idea by State Minister Xu Fan to clean up Antonio's willfulness.

At that time, Antonio had just become king and expelled the red-clad cardinal who bore him a grudge, making Portugal more turbulent, so Xu Fan had no choice but to act.

In Paulino's view, the Daguangming Sect was a tool of rule, and he could neither sincerely agree with it nor become fervent about it.

The change occurred within these five years, during which Paulino became a fervent follower of the Daguangming Sect.

Over these five years, he has endured much; the Great Ming is far away, and even if one understands Taixi's situation, one cannot truly empathize with it.

Since Felipe began England's great expedition, all of Taixi has been restless, chaos has intensified, pirates have increased, and civilians outside the cities live in constant panic; Taixi now needs an answer to continue forward.

The Great Ming path is undoubtedly the only hope Paulino sees; just as a drowning man desperately grasps at a straw, the more chaotic Taixi becomes, the more widespread and firm this belief grows.

The Great Ming's opening of the sea has brought Taixi a negative effect: it has shown some people a glimpse of light, and they have begun to pursue it.

"Paulino must pay for his meals—ten days' worth is still money." Zhu Yijun emphasized that this detention would last ten days and that the other party must pay, as every expense of the court must undergo the Ministry of Revenue's year-end audit.

"I obey the decree." Feng Bao bowed and accepted the order.

This is a very reasonable order, given that the Great Ming's interpretation of the Emperor's frugal habit has become: every tael of silver in the Great Ming is not superfluous.

This interpretation is comprehensive, reflected in policy as the Great Ming auditing every expenditure to prevent excessive waste.

"It also puts the interpreters in a difficult position, having come up with the term 'Emperor'." Zhu Yijun, after reading Luo Bingliang's case file, felt these two characters showed the interpreters' care.

Writing "Holy Emperor" would displease Zhu Yijun, but he wouldn't blame the interpreters, nor would he care much; yet because they put in effort, Zhu Yijun would notice.

Regarding Paulino's claim that only the Great Ming path can save Taixi, Zhu Yijun is completely unconvinced, for reasons already thoroughly explained by Wan Shi and He: the Great Ming is horizontal, a class society, while Taixi is vertical, a communal and societal structure.

For such a vertical society, the Great Ming path can only be borrowed from; outright copying would result only in drawing a tiger by copying a cat—something unnatural and unfit—and would also cause serious maladaptation, after all, the Yellow Turban-style missionary method is still too lethal.

Moreover, the Great Ming hasn't even gotten it right yet—the Salary and Appointment Office was only just established, and making the Great Ming great again, including the poor and laborers, has not been fully realized.

However, Zhu Yijun noticed one thing: ideological colonization is not something only the Great Ming does; the colonizers of Taixi are also doing it, and their most important means is missionary work.

Churches and academies established in the various governor-generalships, and missionaries spread throughout the colonies, are important tools of ideological colonization; on this point, the Great Ming has strictly guarded against it from the very beginning.

Prohibiting any missionary activity by barbarians within the Great Ming's territory is not a new rule of the Wanli Reforms, but ancestral law.

The ideological colonization through missionary work is much faster than the Great Ming's Wang Hua, a point also noticed by Gao Qiyu, so he attaches great importance to the Daguangming Sect's attitude—for example, in Nanyang, the court has never banned the spread of the Daguangming Sect.

The Daguangming Sect, established relying on Great Ming wisdom, is prohibited from spreading in the Great Ming's heartland, because in the process of transmission, information inevitably becomes distorted.

When three people pass on a message, it gets wrong; let alone after passing through countless hands, the message is already completely unrecognizable.

Three men make a tiger, many mouths melt gold—this is how a falsehood, repeated over time and spread by many, comes to be believed by more and more people.

The most typical example is the story of Fang Xiaoru's extermination of ten clans.

The story of Fang Xiaoru's extermination of ten clans has evolved; the Ministry of Rites compiled it, and the earliest traceable rumor is the 《Wild Notes》 written by Zhuzhishan, one of the Four Talents of Jiangnan, after which this 《Wild Notes》 was included in the Ninghai County Gazette's biography of Fang Xiaoru.

At the same time, Fujian scholar Song Duanyi listed the names of 873 people in the 《Standing Studio Leisure Records》, claiming they were the ten clans exterminated together with Fang Xiaoru when he was killed.

At some unknown point, a bloodstained stone suddenly appeared in Nanjingcheng, said to be stained with Fang Xiaoru's blood.

This story quickly transformed from a symbolic figure of Fang Xiaoru into the former ministers of the Jianwen era—Tie Xuan, Jing Qing, Qi Tai, Huang Zicheng, and so on.

Lies became widely spread stories, and then those stories became accepted as truth.

The Great Ming strictly prohibits missionary work precisely to prevent ideological colonization; if one truly wishes to discuss the importance of grassroots mutual aid and rural order as essential components, the Great Ming has many such sects, like the Bai Lianjiao and the Manichaean Sect.

The Bai Lianjiao teaches that wealth obtained within the sect shall be evenly distributed; to aid the sick, to die together in hardship; equality, mutual assistance, no killing, no stealing, no illicit sex, no false speech, no alcohol—these are far more worthy of devotion than the illusory notion of God loving mankind.

The Portuguese envoy Paulino was arrested; he will be detained for ten full days, strictly speaking, for making suggestive remarks at the envoy banquet; in the end, the court had no intention of truly punishing him—ten days' detention is sufficient, amounting to administrative detention.

Zhu Yijun holds a Latin book, reading it with relish; it is the oral account of the Dutch envoy Hotman, later transcribed by someone, mainly recounting Hotman's maritime adventures.

Hotman is the founder of the Dutch East India Company; as a founder, he may not do other things, but he will certainly tell stories.

Clearly, the image of being intelligent, brave, tenacious, and militarily strong is beneficial for Hotman to attract more investment; people live for fame and profit, and with fame comes profit.

This book is widely circulated in Taixi; nearly everyone knows the name of the adventurer Hotman, to the extent that Hotman can easily borrow sufficient money from Amsterdam bankers, recruit more and better sailors, and hire more professional pilots, making goods brought from the distant East much easier to sell out completely.

Hotman only needs to announce the sale of exquisite goods from the distant East, and people will swarm forth, waving their moneybags, rushing to buy those goods.

In the latter part of Hotman's book, he describes a worry: that the insurance companies of Amsterdam, around the nineteenth year of Wanli, had ceased personal insurance for sailors, because insurance fraud was simply too rampant.

The risks and dangers of voyaging to the distant East are great; it is far better to pull aboard a newly recruited sailor who has purchased personal insurance for a full ship's complement, go out to sea for a circuit, kill a few people, claim they encountered a storm as an excuse to return, and then defraud the insurance.

There are always some young people, attracted by these oceanic adventure tales of the strange and marvelous, who resolutely board ships, only to embark on a death road with no return.

Hotman painfully states in his book that this is wrong; formerly it was not so; no ship captain hopes to see crew members slaughtering each other; as risk increases and trust collapses, representing the failure of this voyage, the ship ultimately becomes a ghost ship, drifting upon the vast ocean.

A ghost ship is a vessel whose crew has entirely perished in plague and mutual slaughter, leaving only an empty hull, drifting alone upon the waves.

This is the worst possible outcome for captain, crew, and ship—like believers lost in the Wall of the Faithless.

Upon reading this, Zhu Yijun sat upright and ordered Feng Bao to ask the Songjiang local officials about the Great Ming's relevant insurance business.

The Great Ming's oceanic insurance, at its beginning, was simply a copy of Amsterdam's insurance system.

Shen Shixing arrived at Songjiang Prefecture and established a system primarily of state-run insurance; all oceangoing vessels of the Great Ming must be insured, and once a vessel cannot return and the loss is confirmed, compensation will be made to the shipowner and the sailor's family.

The state-run coastal and oceanic insurance is a safety net, spreading maritime risks across every vessel setting sail, stimulating the prosperity and development of sea trade.

At the outset, due to lack of experience, the Great Ming also took many detours; after Shen Shixing's bold reforms, state-run insurance has gradually stabilized.

Of course, insurance fraud also exists, but once discovered, the consequence of deceiving the court must be borne.

"So that's how it is." Zhu Yijun understood the relevant regulations of Great Ming maritime trade insurance and confirmed that the Great Ming would not experience such a thing, because from beginning to end, there has never been personal insurance for sailors.

Because of the constraints of Great Ming rites and law, personal insurance for sailors has been strictly prohibited.

This ritual law is: brothers fighting within the walls, yet united against external insults; though brothers may quarrel at home, they must stand together to resist outside humiliation.

Regarding personal insurance for sailors, it entirely encouraged those on the same ship to turn on each other, so it was directly banned.

The Great Ming insurance system is mandatory; without payment, one cannot go to sea, and ship insurance fully covers personal insurance.

If a sailor is injured or dies at sea, the Songjiang Prefecture Maritime Defense Office will first provide compensation, then sue the shipowner and captain, demanding they bear joint liability.

To avoid trouble with officials, shipowners and captains impose strict rules on sailors to prevent accidents during voyages.

Getting into official trouble means compensation is one matter, but the key is the ship being delayed from sailing—short delay half a year, long delay a year—and this loss is unbearable for anyone.

The court has four rapid wage recovery offices, with a half-month deadline to reclaim labor pay, but the court lacks four rapid magistrate offices; once in legal trouble, the magistrates' rigidity, low efficiency, and slow processing make life worse than death for shipowners and captains.

Shipowners, captains, and even sailors are barred from boarding ships or leaving the city, constantly awaiting summons and interrogation.

Even after the Wanli Reforms, the Great Ming remains extremely conservative—more conservative than conservative—and these ancestral rituals are widely observed across all professions.

Dutch envoy Hotman truly resented the sailors' mutual slaughter, his anger immense.

Once aboard, one must be of one mind; if not, the ship's danger multiplies countless times, as the deteriorating environment leaves sailors with no trust, making captains suffer immensely.

The wretched maritime trade environment, where trust between people vanished entirely, began with the issuance of privateering licenses.

Hotman's cursing of the British was utterly sincere, just as the initially ignorant Qi Zhu would slowly come to understand, and the captains who gradually grasped the truth would also curse bitterly.

Zhu Yijun put down this Latin travelogue and picked up another book, *Deep Plowing*; *Deep Plowing* and *Turning Over* share the same perspective—discussing neither the whole nor generalities, only fortified assaults and concrete cases.

Zhu Yijun frequently reads these two books, and each reading feels fresh.

*Turning Over* can also be called *Record of Zhang Zhuang's Field Restoration in Lin'an County, Zhejiang*, while *Deep Plowing* can also be called *Record of Public Deliberations on Affairs in Shan Yin and Will Gu Counties*.

Taking Shi Qiong Biao of the Shi Sect Ancestral Temple in Shan Yin as the main perspective, it vividly describes the specifics of his forty-two local deliberations and depicts the changes before and after field restoration in Zhejiang.

Qi Biao passed the imperial examination in the second year of Wanli, later dismissed due to years of poor evaluations in law and numbers, returned to his hometown, and as a local virtuous gentleman, began participating in elder, gentry, and student deliberation meetings convened by Shan Yin County, expressing his views on county office affairs.

The main matters discussed in these forty-two deliberations were land surveying, field restoration, clarifying land contracts, proclaiming court edicts, strictly supervising against any damage to field restoration proclamations, education system, retaining local officials, repairing bridges and roads, Zhejiang East Canal labor, Zhejiang East Canal embankment repairs, famine relief, constructing water conservancy ditches, and appointments/dismissals of county office six-bureau clerks.

Of these forty-two deliberations, twenty-one were initiated by notifications from the county magistrate, and *Deep Plowing* contains the originals of these eleven notifications, including the reason, names, servant dispatch signatures and seals, and attendance records.

The other twenty-one were spontaneously organized by the local gentry, with the Shan Yin County office only assigning clerks to record, ensuring it was not a collusive rebellion.

When the gentry spontaneously organized deliberation meetings, they were notified by 'posted notices', and *Deep Plowing* likewise contains the originals, with content identical to the 'notifications'.

Notifications: court-organized meetings, mainly for court tasks; posted notices: spontaneously organized by virtuous gentlemen under court supervision, mainly for resolving mutual conflicts and completing court-assigned tasks, etc.

"Tsk tsk, Hou Yuzhao truly is a scholar—able to fight crickets with just a grass stalk." Zhu Yijun had nearly worn out this book from reading; he truly read deeply and carefully grasped it, and Hou Yuzhao unreservedly shared his local governance experience, hiding nothing.

Notifications and posted notices are important rules in Hou Yuzhao's hands, serving as his evaluation of all virtuous gentlemen in Zhejiang.

For example, the book's protagonist Qi Biao once effectively purchased one hundred twenty mu of land through long-term lease, thinking others did so too, so he did the same; soon, for violating the field restoration order, he was recorded in the registry, and he had missed seven deliberation meetings.

These seven absences caused heavy losses to the Shi Sect, and even Qi Biao, a presented scholar, nearly got driven out by the ancestral temples.

Thereafter, Qi Biao dared not violate again; to restore his notified authority, the Shi Sect paid a great price, and if a second violation occurred, the Shi Sect would forever lose eligibility for notifications—equivalent to being expelled by the court from the ranks of virtuous gentlemen.

When meetings were held without calling him, for a short time everyone still called him Elder Qi, but over time he became Little Qi.

This is a comprehensive downward slide in status, rank, and interests; Qi Biao, even with much silver, lacking status, surrounded by wolves, would be devoured to nothing, for the virtuous gentlemen devour people, distinguishing neither poor laborers nor middle households nor former peers of their own kind.

Poor laborers are sour, bitter, and destitute—hardly two taels of meat, unpalatable; while the virtuous gentlemen are fat and strong.

Likewise, posted notices are Hou Yuzhao's tool; without posted notices, the virtuous gentlemen gathering for deliberation equals rebellion, but with them, reporting to the magistrate's office brings clerks to record, and virtuous gentlemen who violated the celestial change pledge then lose eligibility for posted notices.

If there is a second violation of the pledge, eligibility to attend posted notice deliberations is lost.

If there is a third violation of field restoration and the celestial change pledge? Answer: confiscation of property—once or twice might be careless, but every time sweeping vice involves you—could it still be carelessness?

Disregarding imperial edicts, failing to align with the court's revitalizing spirit, violating court laws and regulations—yet the Emperor still reduced land taxes to share hardship with the people.

Multiple violations of the celestial change pledge constitute rebellion!

Moreover, the rule of 'once, twice, not thrice' also leaves people unable to gossip idly.

If once, a massive military mobilization to confiscate property would inevitably draw criticism, making the court seem inhumane and overbearing; but after three times, even fellow virtuous gentlemen would have nothing to say against it, and would instead avoid any entanglement to prevent implicating the innocent.

Notifications and posted notices—actually, their most important function is dividing the virtuous gentlemen.

Previously, when court officials took local posts, they faced nearly monolithic virtuous gentlemen with almost no means to restrain them; compared to these, the Great Ming dukes and marquises made the virtuous gentlemen seem like aristocrats.

Especially the six-bureau clerks and three-class yamen runners, nearly all were from these virtuous gentlemen; when local officials took office, whatever they did required informing grandparents and running everywhere—disaster relief, bridge and road repairs, tax assessment—all depended on reading these people's expressions.

Notifications and posted notices: using the power of the court system to determine the virtuous gentlemen's list and qualifications, and their internal conflicts, to stage cricket fights.

Qi Biao, a presented scholar who served in government for years, clearly understood the malice of this system; he initially opposed it, thinking the court overreached and rushed reforms, but alas, as only one dismissed scholar, his words could only resonate.

When the magistrate's office issued notifications, these virtuous gentlemen still had to attend.

Who would dare not go? The tax inspectors' cavalry, like wolves and tigers smelling blood, would pounce immediately.

After all, the Great Ming had not yet fallen, and seeing this posture, the Wanli Reforms might yet extend the nation's mandate by another two hundred years.

"Hou Yuzhao truly deserves his reputation as a scholar." Zhu Yijun put down the book, again marveling at this fellow—he indeed had substance, and not just a little.

"That is also a method learned from His Majesty." Feng Bao said with a smile: "On the twenty-fifth of the twelfth month, His Majesty will appear at the Meridian Gate to meet外官, elders, and commoners—nearly a thousand randomly selected people from all social strata—who will write their concerns on the left and right corridors of the Meridian Gate."

"Corridor Hall Presents People's Thoughts, Vermilion Terrace Inquires into Governance Models."

Hou Yuzhao's implementation of this method is not without cause; the entire policy bears His Majesty's imprint everywhere, especially the 'once, twice, not thrice' rule, which has consistently been His Majesty's practice.

"Huh, you say that, and it really seems so." Zhu Yijun reopened the book, selected several meeting records, examined them carefully, and indeed found His Majesty's shadow throughout.

For example, whether notifications or posted notices, the meeting place is fixed—the county office—not随便 somewhere; unreported private gatherings would be deemed rebellious, so meetings are held in the county office's Gongchen Hall.

In Gongchen Hall, the 'chen' actually refers to the North Star, namely the center, namely the Emperor—meaning to surround, support, and uphold the Emperor's sacred intent.

Zhu Yijun's fixed meeting place with外官 is the left and right corridors of the Meridian Gate.

To enable His Majesty to meet外官, elders, and elders in Songjiang Prefecture, the prefecture specially built a Gongchen Hall; if His Majesty has need, he may spend the New Year in Songjiang Prefecture without disrupting the Corridor Hall Presents People's Thoughts, Vermilion Terrace Inquires into Governance Models.

To vie for secondary capital status, Songjiang Prefecture made truly ample preparations.

For example, the entire deliberation process closely resembles court deliberations: the chair presents the topic, participants speak and express views, the chair further guides to a conclusion, some disperse while others refine details—almost a direct copy of court deliberations.

During special times and events, Zhu Yijun had to suspend the court deliberation system, shouldering the burden himself, allowing Zhang Juzheng to enjoy his twilight years—not meaning Zhu Yijun abandoned court deliberations, but rather, after Zhang Juzheng's posthumous affairs are settled, he will reconvene them.

The Three Experiences Workshop printed twenty thousand copies of *Deep Plowing*; unlike *Turning Over*, besides the Emperor's preface, Zhu Yijun also had Zhang Juzheng and Qi Jiguang write prefaces for this book.

Zhang Juzheng's comment was very simple: "Officialdom is also."

Is that not the model of an official? To hold office is to hold it well, to have the bearing of an official—after all those years of hard study in cold halls, making the golden list, is it not all to earn the qualification to make others kneel before you?

Stand up, stand above everyone, and carry out this office properly!

Do not give yourself so many excuses to deceive yourself; Great Ming is an official-based system, even the emperor is a hereditary official—there is fundamentally no such laughable fantasy as 'no way to serve the people'.

Qi Jiguang's commentary mainly concerns the restoration of fields:

After the fields were restored, Zhejiang had already taken the lead in Great Ming; its commerce and trade were as prosperous as Songjiang Prefecture, the people lived in peace and contentment, and naturally the realm enjoyed tranquility—restoring fields can be done, heavenly changes bring no harm, what the people desire, heaven will surely follow.

What Qi Jiguang said—'what the people desire, heaven will surely follow'—comes from the Book of Documents; the elite troops of the Capital Garrison are very familiar with this phrase, and it is an essential component and theoretical foundation of the memorial to heaven and the rescue of the common people.

What the people hope for is what Your Majesty hopes for; what all the people aspire to, even Heaven itself must follow.

Heavenly changes? Nonsense about heavenly changes—if Heaven does not let people live, then under Your Majesty's leadership, with the united strength of ten thousand men, we will pierce a great hole in Heaven itself!

Restoring the fields can become an important means for Great Ming to respond to heavenly changes.

The 'Deep Plowing' treatise was initially distributed in five thousand copies, requiring readers to write reflections; the content of next year's congratulatory memorial will be precisely those reflections on 'Deep Plowing'.

"Your Majesty, the review of Shanghai University Hall has been completed." Feng Bao saw that the Emperor's mood was still acceptable, and presented a memorial before the throne.

The situation is not bad, not good—altogether sixteen assistant instructors and lecturers were investigated and punished, already apprehended and returned to justice, with solid evidence, accusing the imperial carriage, in this public setting of the lecture hall, openly criticizing Great Ming's policies.

Compared to the six hundred staff of the university, sixteen people really is not many, as Your Majesty said—scholars, after all, love to vent a little resentment, which is quite normal.

Yet the construction and stipends of the Eighteen University Halls are funded from Your Majesty's privy purse; if not for implementing the Dinghai educational system, Your Majesty would not have to live so tightly—no matter how you speak of it, this is all Your Majesty's grace.

To eat Your Majesty's food, drink Your Majesty's drink, take Your Majesty's stipend, then put down the bowl and curse one's mother—this is highly inappropriate.

"Let Chen Zhun go; the others, according to procedure, be handed over to the Ministry of Punishment for handling." Zhu Yijun carefully examined all the case files, singled out one person—Chen Zhun.

For those with substantive subversive acts, such as colluding with Japanese pirates and sea bandits, participating in opium smuggling, or joining scholar-officials to undermine the new policies, all constitute substantive rebellion; these are all to be beheaded in public, their families punished by exile to Luzon, Old Port, and similar places.

For those without substantive acts, but who repeatedly in public settings slander, vilify, criticize, accept bribes to write articles that deliberately spread rumors in gazettes, distort facts, and guide corrupt customs—these are all to be dismissed, stripped of all titles and honors, never to be reemployed, with their families implicated—three generations of direct descendants shall not take the imperial examinations nor join the military.

The final category is that of grumbling talk; this category mainly serves as a warning: one must serve fifteen days in the jail of the Northern Garrison Command Office, receive a stern warning, and if there is a next offense, the punishment shall be increased by three degrees.

Chen Zhun, then, belongs to the second category—accepting bribes, writing articles, criticizing court policies.

The reason Zhu Yijun singled out Chen Zhun for special pardon is that the Northern Garrison Command Office submitted all his articles; Zhu Yijun hastily read through them, and of the seventeen articles, seven were written to give voice to the suffering of the lower-class poor laborers; these seven articles were sincere and heartfelt, not slander, at most criticism.

Of course, the remaining ten articles are clearly paid-for pieces at a glance—their tone is too overt, and they are poorly written, merely going through the motions.

Zhu Yijun took up the vermilion brush and said: "Since Songjiang Prefecture completed the transformation of its commodity economy, the entire Songjiang Prefecture has been immersed in an atmosphere of complete prosperity."

"Many upright scholar-officials, who run about speaking for the lower-class poor laborers, exposing the serious state of exploitation still present in society, will be labeled as rebels."

"The concrete manifestation of this atmosphere is the spread of extravagant excess, which also suppresses the voice and public opinion of those who speak for the poor laborers and expose exploitation."

"Feigning peace does not mean true peace; the harm of false victory, the Ming military's essential dispatch on barbarian victories, states this clearly—false victory will only cause the Great Ming, top to bottom, inside and out, to deliberately ignore the poor laborers; to say ignore is actually to abandon them."

"I am the Emperor of Great Ming, the Emperor of every person of Great Ming; I cannot abandon the poor laborers, for otherwise one day they will abandon me."

"I have said this more than once, and I must emphasize again: let Great Ming become great once more, including the poor laborers within."

This is why Chen Zhun, who took silver to write articles, was still specially pardoned by the Emperor—but if there is even a little use, it is not entirely without use.

Chen Zhun is willing to engage with the poor laborers and willing to write articles for them, exposing the current state of exploitation—this is what is useful.

"This article 'Carrying the Basket' is to be reprinted in the Gazette." Zhu Yijun selected one piece and had it published in the Gazette.