Chapter 1090: Scholar-officials must truly have read books

"General Manager Sun has good means and good planning, but I accept it." Zhu Zhu Yijun pondered slightly, tasted why Sun Sun Kehong did this, and understood his intention. The Emperor didn't feel the silver was hot to the touch at all.

"Just a little trick, it couldn't hide from Your Majesty's wise eyes." Sun Sun Kehong hurried to say.

Zhang Hong was at the side, looking at a loss. Where exactly were the calculations and tricks? Zhang Hong really didn't hear it.

If it were Li Li Yougong or Feng Bao here, they would have known Sun Sun Kehong's purpose before reporting it to the Emperor.

Chen Li Jingyi interfered with judicial justice and procedures, which led to a very terrifying problem: the businesses and workshops of Sun Sun Kehong's relatives and old friends all lost imperial favor.

It's not without reason that the world calls Sun Sun Kehong an official-merchant. His network was full of such people. Once the official-merchants gathered around Sun Sun Kehong lost imperial favor, they lost their biggest protective umbrella, and the situation of "the tree falls and the monkeys scatter" had already appeared.

Judging from the Emperor's special decree to dismiss Chen Li Jingyi, the solemnity of the Great Ming's judiciary and the majesty of the imperial court could not be challenged.

Sun Sun Kehong spent silver to pull strings and ran into the palace to pledge a donation of over 11 million silver, not just for the sake of leaving a name in history, but to buy imperial favor.

A fierce tiger also fears a pack of wolves. No matter how capable Chen Li Jingyi was, two fists couldn't beat four hands. If they attacked together, the Sun family's structure would have to collapse, and the silver would eventually fall into the hands of others.

However, Sun Sun Kehong was truly willing to part with it. He entrusted all his struggles and efforts over the years to the Emperor, exchanging them for the Emperor's understanding of Chen Li Jingyi.

He had to protect Chen Li Jingyi's position; he had to do it, otherwise, he would have no place to stand. The situation where loyalty and filial piety are difficult to balance is unsolvable.

Everything was because Sun Sun Kehong sent his second son to the Southern Yamen. Chen Li Jingyi had already covered for the matter. If Sun Sun Kehong hadn't sent the second son to the Southern Yamen, would everything not have happened?

Sun Sun Kehong was nearly seventy. He lived very clearly. There are no walls that don't leak wind. The second son caused a death; this was a handle. Once someone made a big fuss about this, it would be the moment the Sun family completely disappeared.

By then, under the Emperor's fury, even Chen Li Jingyi's life wouldn't be saved. Rather than giving others an opportunity, it was better to prick the abscess himself, and the loss would be smaller.

Having done business for so many years, Sun Sun Kehong's business philosophy was very simple: don't seek big profits, only seek small losses.

Zhang Hong didn't understand, but Zhu Zhu Yijun could completely understand Sun Sun Kehong's plan. He donated all his silver to the Emperor, and instead, he would be safe, because he had too much silver—11 million silver. This figure was already equal to the Great Ming imperial court's annual revenue for two years before the Emperor Wanli Reform.

Sun Sun Kehong's silver was truly a lot. Of course, before the Emperor Wanli Reform, the Great Ming's fiscal revenue was truly too low.

Sun Sun Kehong was old and had retired, losing the protection of official status. Having done business as an official for half his life, without official status, so much silver was just a big piece of fat and a fragrant bun in the eyes of countless people.

He was still there, and his remaining prestige was still there, so ambitious people didn't dare to take action yet. Once he died, and his sons were unpromising, how was this massive property to be guarded?

His younger brother Sun Sun Keyi had great influence overseas, but that was overseas. In the Great Ming, in Songjiang Prefecture, in the eyes of everyone, his brother was just someone who went to sea to fight for his life. In these years, going to sea was mostly a choice of having nowhere else to go.

With unpromising sons, this family property was just inviting disaster.

"Passing down a family is difficult. Your subject is getting confused as I watch. While I am still clear-headed, I will handle the things that should be handled." Sun Sun Kehong was a bit emotional and sighed, shaking his head. "Your Majesty, your subject has failed Chen Li Jingyi in this life."

Zhu Zhu Yijun naturally understood Sun Sun Kehong's meaning and nodded. "General Manager Sun worries too much. Fifty strokes—even a tough guy with iron bones would take a hundred days to crawl up, and half his life would be gone. This matter is over."

Sun Sun Kehong sent his second son to the prefectural Southern Yamen, implicating Chen Li Jingyi in losing his position as General Manager and also implicating him in receiving fifty strokes. These 11 million silver bought the Emperor's understanding and imperial favor. Chen Li Jingyi's path in the future would be smooth.

At least some ambitious people would have to worry about the Emperor's gaze before taking action. As long as Sun Sun Kehong left the Yanqing Palace safely and promoted the establishment of the Qisheng Award, this imperial favor would firmly fall on Chen Li Jingyi.

After Sun Sun Kehong left, Zhu Zhu Yijun instructed Zhang Hong to investigate the internal strife in Sun Sun Kehong's family. Zhang Hong wasn't good at these things, so Zhu Zhu Yijun emphasized that he should see if there was any external force involved in the Sun family's internal strife, especially what role Chen Li Jingyi played in the middle.

The power the Emperor could mobilize was absolutely not something Sun Sun Kehong could compare to. The imperial favor bought with silver was immediate.

The agents who specifically handled major, difficult, and suspicious cases took action, and in less than three days, they investigated the truth of the matter clearly.

The situation was completely consistent with the Emperor's judgment, but also inconsistent. The Sun family's internal strife was indeed instigated by someone, and it was indeed a hunt for Sun Sun Kehong. This point was completely consistent with the Emperor's judgment.

But Chen Li Jingyi was different from what the Emperor thought. Chen Li Jingyi had been blocking the situation from worsening and the conflict from escalating.

Because of the interference in the judiciary, Zhu Zhu Yijun's impression of Chen Li Jingyi had become very poor. He even felt that Chen Li Jingyi was the mastermind behind all this, acting too well and deceiving Sun Sun Kehong, this old fox.

The Emperor was completely wrong. Chen Li Jingyi was truly a filial apprentice who had done everything he could.

"A bunch of mud that can't support the wall!" Zhu Zhu Yijun finished reading the case file and felt a toothache from anger. He pointed to the case file on the table and said, "If there had been just one promising one, could he have let his old father have to throw away the family business? They are truly a bunch of mud."

If there had been just one promising one, the Sun family wouldn't have fallen like this.

The most terrifying thing was that the forces involved in the hunt reached more than a dozen families. Among them were proprietors of the Songjiang Ocean Trading Firm, powerful and wealthy people of Songjiang, and even wealthy merchants from Shanxi and Guangdong. Their goals were surprisingly consistent: they were all looking at the cotton spinning that Sun Sun Kehong held, which was the most valuable.

It was precisely because Sun Sun Kehong perceived the danger and felt countless snakes spitting letters that he ultimately chose to hand over the silver to the Emperor, to the Great Ming, and to the health workers who were running around in the countryside and counties, working hard to spread the way of health.

Since they all wanted it, then go ask the Emperor for it!

Sun Sun Kehong gave the silver to His Majesty and didn't give it to this group of wolves and leopards. Giving it to His Majesty, His Majesty would only give the silver to the five-room tile houses, and he, Sun Sun Kehong, could at least leave behind a good name. Giving it to this group of people, besides suffering their slander, he would get nothing.

Zhu Zhu Yijun looked at the long list. The third son was the internal traitor of the whole family and the source of all evil.

Because the various forces first contacted the third son, this ambitious person.

The third son had long ago perceived that his father had no intention of passing down the position of General Manager. Because his father's attitude toward Chen Liuzi was a bit too good—going to sea for trade, going out to socialize, making friends with officials, etc. —his father took Chen Liuzi, not his four sons.

Zhu Zhu Yijun discovered that this internal strife among the wealthy and powerful was truly cruel. The third son set a trap for the second, fundamentally aiming for the second's life, without leaving any room at all. Even if the second hadn't strangled the Chen girl to death, there were subsequent arrangements, but they weren't used.

The second son's personality was the most impulsive and extremely cruel. Chen girl wasn't the first person he killed personally. As early as the ninth year of Emperor Wanli, the second son threw two disobedient courtesans off the painting boat at home and drowned them alive in the sea.

If the agents hadn't intervened to investigate this case, not many people would have known, and no one would have pursued it. On the painting boat, dying of a few courtesans from Japan was nothing unusual.

As for the fourth son, his personality was the weakest, but that didn't mean the fourth son was a good person. Although he was weak, his mind was the deepest. He was the first to discover the contact between the third son and the various forces, immediately understood the third son's plan, and began to help, either openly or secretly.

If it weren't for the fourth son's help, the third son's trick would have had no possibility of succeeding.

And the third son, having grasped the fourth son's weak personality, gave the fourth son a green hat. This matter was investigated very clearly by the agents. The mistress had been secretly bought by the third son and got together with him not long after. There were two children, a boy and a girl, and as for who the father was, the agents couldn't investigate it either—it was a muddled account.

Of Sun Sun Kehong's four sons, only the eldest, who had spoken out of turn in a moment of impulse and wanted to beat Liuzi, was clean. The agents had investigated his situation over the past few years very clearly.

That mistress, who was thirteen years older, was a well-known talented woman in Suzhou Prefecture. Later, her family fell into decline, so she fled to Songjiang Prefecture. As a result, she met the wrong person and drifted about. About twenty-five years ago, she met the eldest, Sun Chengzhi.

Sun Chengzhi especially loved poetry, books, rites, and music, so he got together with this talented woman. This lasted for twenty-five years.

Sun Chengzhi didn't smoke opium, didn't go to gambling dens, and just liked poetry, books, rites, and music. The talented woman he thought was respectful and harmonious with him had actually been bought by the Zhang family of Suzhou twelve years ago. The reason Sun Chengzhi would speak wildly was precisely because this talented woman had been whispering in his ear and blowing wind.

The Sun family started as official-merchants and became ironclad official-merchants in the Xu Xu Jie case. Once the Sun family lost imperial favor and lost their official status, the moment of the Sun family's destruction would arrive.

Sun Sun Kehong couldn't be persuaded, so he could only exert effort on his sons.

Sun Sun Kehong and Sun Sun Keyi, the two brothers, experienced the Japanese pirate troubles, and their whole family was lost to the Japanese pirate troubles. Only the two brothers survived, and Sun Sun Kehong even had his leg broken by Xu Xu Jie.

The imperial court suppressed the Japanese pirates, and the Emperor dealt with Xu Xu Jie. This was avenging the brothers. Sun Sun Kehong and Sun Sun Keyi were experienced in the world and were loyal to the imperial court.

This was also the reason why Sun Sun Kehong ultimately gave the silver to the Emperor. This was silver earned by being an official-merchant anyway, so giving it back to His Majesty was fine.

Sun Chengzhi had been subtly influenced for so many years and was finally completely alienated, but his nature was still considered kind, and he hadn't done anything illegal.

"This is a talented woman? She's fundamentally a snake and scorpion! It's not even as good as Liu Liu Qiniang. No, comparing her to Liu Liu Qiniang is an insult to Liu Liu Qiniang." Zhu Zhu Yijun looked at the case file and clicked his tongue in wonder.

Liu Liu Qiniang was the head courtesan of the Yanxing Tower. When the Emperor was young, he went to the Yanxing Tower as "Young Master Huang" to see Jiao Hong. Liu Liu Qiniang saw that the Emperor, who was on a micro-tour, had handsome eyebrows and eyes, so she intended to take the Emperor to have his first taste of meat.

Feng Bao arranged for Liu Liu Qiniang to go to the Yongsheng Woolen Factory to be a weaver, and she had been doing it for over twenty years.

Later, the Emperor went to the woolen official factory and met Liu Liu Qiniang several times. Although she didn't marry, she adopted a child and also reflected some problems of the official factory to the Emperor many times.

And this so-called talented woman of Suzhou was recently planning to introduce a big money-making business to Sun Chengzhi: selling "Fushou Paste."

Fushou Paste is the elegant name for opium. This thing is a ten-thousand-fold profit. If Sun Chengzhi nodded, this talented woman would introduce Sun Chengzhi to opium traffickers, using the Sun family's special status in the Ocean Trading Firm to smuggle some goods into the customs.

Maritime defense inspectors and anti-smuggling and anti-drug operations also rely on intelligence. And the Sun family were official-merchants. As long as there was no clear intelligence support, they wouldn't search too strictly. This was the opportunity.

"It's truly a snake and scorpion heart." Zhang Hong shook his head repeatedly. What kind of people are these? This isn't a money-making business; this is fundamentally a business that costs one's head!

Sun Chengzhi didn't agree. It wasn't that he didn't want to make a fortune; mainly, Sun Chengzhi wasn't stupid to that extent. What could be touched and what couldn't be touched, Sun Chengzhi was still clear about. Moreover, he was a bit timid, and as long as it was something ambiguous, he wouldn't touch it.

And according to the agents' investigation, this talented woman had long changed. She was also a gambler and a drug addict. Besides smoking opium, she liked playing cards, and she played big—five silver per bet, losing hundreds of silver in one night. She was a regular at underground gambling dens.

When the agents told Sun Chengzhi the investigation results, Sun Chengzhi couldn't believe it at all and kept saying, "She's different, she's different!"

Following the Great Ming Emperor's announcement of the establishment of the Sun Sun Kehong Qisheng Award, the prying eyes on the Sun family immediately disappeared without a trace, because the Sun family was no longer profitable. Sun Chengzhi only inherited assets of less than 100,000 silver; the Sun family's silver and industries all went into the inner treasury.

Zhu Zhu Yijun noticed that a new wind of public opinion about the "sea-crossing ban" had appeared in Songjiang Prefecture. This wind of public opinion came somewhat suddenly, but it wasn't abrupt. To be precise, because of the opening of the seas and expansion, the Great Ming hinterland and the overseas Governor-General's offices were simultaneously falling into a situation of lacking people.

The calls to tighten the lenient policy on going to sea were rising wave after wave.

Scholar-officials, powerful and wealthy people, and wealthy merchants all wanted to find a henchman or lackey, but it was becoming difficult, because all those who were idle and liked to fight were caught by His Majesty and sent to the South Seas to crack whips. The South Seas lacked everything, even people to crack whips.

Surrounding whether to tighten the lenient policy on going to sea, the "pen-correctors" of Songjiang Prefecture launched a tit-for-tat war of words.

"Both sides have their reasons." Zhu Zhu Yijun looked at the piles of miscellaneous newspapers in front of him. The Emperor reading miscellaneous newspapers had never been a secret. Social conditions reaching the top was also an important way for the imperial court to open up to public opinion, and the Emperor didn't just look at the memorials of the ministers.

This discussion about the "sea-crossing ban" didn't escalate into a war of words where people labeled each other, but both sides were desperately stating their reasons—that is, stating the interests of the gold masters behind them.

The conservative faction and the open-sea faction each held their own views, and neither could convince the other.

The conservative faction's reasons were very sufficient.

No one was farming, the land was abandoned, what would the people of the Great Ming eat and drink? Could they just rely on that bit of imported grain? Imported grain could satisfy taxes, but it couldn't satisfy the stomachs of the people of the Great Ming.

The current situation wasn't obvious yet, but as the seas remained open for a long time, the influence was getting greater and greater, to the point that even the poor and laborers in Henan, Shanxi, and other places were trying every possible way to leave.

Secondly, there was the loss of wealth. Some wealthy merchants who feared the majesty of the imperial court chose to move their families away from the Great Ming as soon as they had some success in the South Seas, inevitably causing the loss of wealth and the loss of silver.

There were also some desperate people who had committed major crimes in the Great Ming and, because of the lenient sea ban policy, immediately fled the Great Ming. The travel permit policy overseas was not sound. As long as they walked out of the five shipping offices, they were immediately "the sea is wide for fish to leap, the sky is high for birds to fly."

The conservative faction started from organizing production, the flow of silver, and the degree of social stability to discuss the ban on tightening maritime trade.

The open-sea faction firmly believed that the expansion of territory was the expansion of the ethnic group and the expansion of people.

In the Governor-General's offices that the Great Ming had opened overseas, there were still too few Great Ming people and too many barbarians. If the proportion of Han people was not an absolute majority, there would be the possibility of repetition. Even in Luzon, the proportion of Han people was still in a relatively dangerous situation, with less than sixty percent.

Such a proportion was very dangerous. Once a rebellion occurred, it could become like a prairie fire. What about the Three Offices of Jiaozhi back then?

The Yongle Emperor obtained it and then lost it; the Emperor Wanli Emperor has regained it—is he to lose it again?

The fundamental reason the Great Ming lost Annan was precisely because the Emperor Chengzu Wen Emperor did not carry out large-scale migration to Annan, which gave Annan the opportunity to rebel. In the early years of the Great Ming, there was a large-scale migration policy of "Huguang filling Sichuan," and to this day, even Yunnan has not been lost.

Without filling them with people, these overseas Viceroy's Offices will always just be exclaves.

If there aren't enough people, then find a way to have more children. Why don't the commoners, the poor, and the laborers have children? Is it because they don't want to? It is because during the distribution process, some people occupied too much wealth and were stingy, refusing to distribute it downward. With their livelihoods unsustainable, clothes not covering their bodies, and food not filling their stomachs, how can they raise children?

Secondly, the overall morality of a society does not naturally increase as the level of prosperity increases.

"When the granaries are full, people know etiquette; when clothes and food are sufficient, people know honor and shame." Material wealth is the foundation of morality, and material wealth is the prerequisite for morality. Songjiang Prefecture was once just a mudflat; it became wealthy following the opening of the seas, but morality, far from improving, has instead shown signs of decline.

The poor and laborers worked for the powerful, and the powerful actually dared to withhold their labor compensation!

Most importantly, going to sea gave the poor and laborers more choices, which prompted the powerful to have to distribute more downward. If this mechanism of competition did not exist, the labor-capital conflicts in places like Songjiang Prefecture and Guangzhou Prefecture, following the abolition of the lowly slave status system in the ninth year of Emperor Wanli, would likely have long since brazenly reappeared.

The "Open Seas" faction, based on aspects such as the distribution of social wealth, the decline in social morality leading to a decrease in social stability, and conflict competition, refuted the initiatives of the conservatives.

The conservatives and the "Open Seas" faction each held their own views, arguing until the world was turned upside down, while the imperial court remained silent on this, allowing the public to discuss it. Because the greater the wave of discussion, the fact that there were more choices would be known by more people.

When the seas were first opened in the early years of Emperor Wanli, the Great Ming's naval forces, astronomical observation, star-guiding ocean-crossing techniques, and sea-vessel technology were all very poor, even inferior to Portugal and Spain. This led to the fact that even for near-shore trade at the time, the return rate of ships was not very high; although going to sea was not "nine deaths and one life," it was extremely dangerous.

Today, twenty-three years after opening the seas, the safety return rate for Great Ming near-shore trade exceeds 99 percent; in fact, it is already very safe.

The conservatives soon realized this and chose to shut up, no longer discussing it further, because they discovered that their own maids and servants were privately discussing that going to sea was no longer as dangerous as it used to be, and it seemed that going to sea to take a chance was not a bad idea.

The conservatives chose to shut up, but the "Open Seas" faction began a relentless pursuit, and they seized upon the most fatal point of the conservatives: the abolition of the lowly slave status system and the establishment of the Wage Arbitration Offices in the ninth year of Emperor Wanli.

After the Great Ming opened the seas, a group of workshop owners dominated by handicraft workshops appeared. These workshop owners gradually became wealthy merchants and tycoons; they were certainly of low morality, but the old powerful families, who relied on cultural nobility and enclosing land to keep slaves, were of even lower morality.

The imperial court abolished the lowly slave status system, yet they still carried out resistance openly and secretly, eventually inciting the Jiangnan slave uprisings. The terror of the slaves taking up arms and cutting off noses is still circulating to this day.

And the Wage Arbitration Offices, established by the imperial court with a massive investment of resources, were meant to alleviate labor-capital conflicts. The newly emerged workshop owners at least issued a little "start-up silver" every year. Although this custom came from the official factories and from Wang Wang Chonggu, and the private workshops generally did not issue much, issuing a little was still issuing something.

These conservatives opposing relaxed sea travel—isn't it just because they want to continue to act tyrannically and make people slaves and servants!

"It can be seen that on the surface, they are discussing whether the relaxed conditions for going to sea need to be tightened, but in reality, it is the emerging bourgeoisie challenging the old cultural nobility." Zhu Zhu Yijun keenly perceived the main contradiction behind this debate.

As the representative of the interests of the landlord class and the old cultural nobility, His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Ming, however, expressed nothing about this, and did not even have the slightest intention to mediate.

Because in the Emperor Wanli Reform, the Emperor's base of support had already gradually shifted from the landlord class of the past to the military represented by the Capital Battalions and Border Battalions, the industry represented by the official factories, and the agriculture following the "Return Land Decree" and the "Camp Farm Law."

The military, industry, and agriculture had gradually become the Emperor's new, solid supporters. The Emperor even had new choices; these emerging bourgeoisie could become one such choice.

Zhu Zhu Yijun was a bit uncertain, so he took a dozen or so miscellaneous reports and found General Qi, who was fishing by the Dragon Pool, and Zhang Zhang Juzheng, who was reading.

"An old person in the house is like a treasure." Every time Zhu Zhu Yijun was uncertain, he could find his Imperial Teachers to ask.

"Your Majesty, I am no longer in the imperial court." Zhang Zhang Juzheng put down the miscellaneous book in his hand, picked up the reports given by the Emperor, and after reading a few, he felt a bit lazy to continue. People all have inertia; one should seek political affairs when in one's position, and when not in one's position, Zhang Zhang Juzheng had little interest in these matters.

Qi Qi Jiguang also read a few and shook his head, saying, "The situation is very clear. The writers of these reports are backed by the old cultural nobility, while the writers of these are backed by new merchants. These conservatives are not good people, and these 'Open Seas' faction members are actually not either. If the Great Ming naval forces weren't suppressing them in Songjiang Prefecture, they would only act even more excessively."

Qi Qi Jiguang's view was that only when the tangible military boots stepped on the intangible "big hands" did these "meat-eaters" become human-like, not because their morality was naturally noble. The imperial court must have real power to make people afraid; that is what makes an imperial court.

Without powerful force, there are no obedient powerful families.

"Your Majesty, among these reports, only this one, I believe, speaks very reasonably and is worth a look." Qi Qi Jiguang patiently finished reading these reports, picked one out from them, and asked His Majesty to look it over.

After Zhu Zhu Yijun read it, he gave it to Zhang Zhang Juzheng, and the three of them discussed this report in detail.

The writer of this report was Chen Zhun. Chen Zhun was neither of the "Open Seas" faction nor the conservatives. The title of his report was "On the 'Stop Offering' Trend from the Beginning of the Founding."

During the Emperor Hongwu years, serving the Great Ming Emperor was "offering," and the very common "Stop Offering" trend, such as the case of the Confucian scholar Zi Xia Zi Xia Boqi cutting off his fingers, was a typical example—preferring to cut off his fingers rather than enter officialdom to serve as an official.

The "Stop Offering" trend had been blowing for two hundred years, and there was no sign of it stopping. These people mainly advocated for the "benevolence" of the Yuan Dynasty, wantonly fabricating and spreading news unfavorable to the majesty of the Great Ming imperial court. For example, the political rumor that Zhu Di killed the ten clans of Fang Fang Xiaoru was fabricated and spread in this way.

The reason why Zhu Zhishan, one of the Four Talents of Jiangnan, had to fabricate such news was simply to dissolve the legitimacy and majesty of the imperial court so that he could usurp power.

And Chen Zhun put a big label on these people, calling this type of person "Former Yuan Rebels."

Moreover, he also gave the "Former Yuan Rebels" a very precise definition: specifically referring to those political forces hiding in the dark, stirring up trouble, mainly advocating for the benevolence of the Yuan Dynasty and the harshness of the Great Ming, with the intention of usurping the power of the Great Ming state.

And this political force was mainly composed of the old cultural nobility; after all, at that time, the emerging bourgeoisie didn't even have a shadow of a start.

"These scholars are truly formidable when they curse people. With so many reports piled together, none are as fierce as these four characters from Chen Zhun: 'Former Yuan Rebels'." Qi Qi Jiguang clicked his tongue in wonder, not knowing what these scholars pondered all day long.

Four characters, and they cursed the ancestors of the person for eighteen generations.

The sun and moon were obscured and then brightened again, a miracle like a person dying and coming back to life. These "Former Yuan Rebels" actually dissolved the legitimacy, orthodoxy, and majesty of the Great Ming. It was equivalent to Chen Zhun pointing at these people and telling the world, "Everyone come and look, this is forgetting one's origins!"

It was truly cultural knowledge shining into reality.

It was a truly dirty curse.

"Indeed, scholars—if they have truly studied, then clearly Chen Zhun has truly studied." Zhu Zhu Yijun nodded very affirmatively and said. He sent Chen Zhun's report down to the Ministry of Rites and forwarded it to the Imperial Gazette.

Zhu Zhu Yijun was the Emperor of the Great Ming and certainly would not allow the existence of such "Former Yuan Rebels."