Chapter 124: My Ship Can Fly (For the Alliance Leader

The account book of the Imperial Manor really had problems.

Feng Bao sent the accounts of the Imperial Manor to the Ministry of Revenue. After checking carefully, he really found more than a dozen small problems. But these problems accumulated to less than two thousand taels of silver, and most of them were caused by individual lazy eunuchs who didn't calculate carefully, rather than family thieves deliberately faking them.

The evaluation of eunuchs during the Longqing and Wanli periods by Ming Dynasty scholars was two words: "quiet and peaceful." Because the eunuchs of this period really had a meaning of being indifferent to the world. The Emperor didn't fight, so how could these eunuchs fight? They couldn't fight the civil and military officials.

And the accounts of the Imperial Manor highlighted two words: "striving for success."

Even Feng Bao stood up straight in the Wenhua Hall, and he was arrogant. Eunuchs were also somewhat proud.

This comparison caused tons of damage to Zhang Siwei, to those who stole the country for private gain, and to the civil officials who labeled themselves as moral gentlemen. At least in the matter of being a family slave, eunuchs were much stronger than others.

The streets and alleys were discussing the family thieves of Zhang Siwei and Wang Chonggu. Once this distribution ratio was announced, the fun-loving people of the whole city immediately discussed this matter. When it was talked about with relish, Zhang Siwei directly sued the two big managers and a bunch of accountants to the Shuntian Prefecture yamen!

Zhang Siwei reported to the officials.

As the number two figure of the Jin Party in terms of wealth and military, existing on par with Ge Shouli, after a family thief appeared in Zhang Siwei's family, he could only ask the government to come forward to help recover it. Because this was a family thief, it was hard to guard against a family thief. Zhang Siwei and Wang Chonggu fell into a vicious cycle. They were all family thieves digging at the foundation of their family, and the people they could send, whether they were family thieves or not, and what standards to use to judge?

Zhang Siwei knew he had made a joke, but he sent a letter to Wang Chonggu and finally finalized this chapter: report to the officials!

The ugliness of his own family had already been known to everyone, caused a storm in the city, and was laughed at by the world. Then there was no need to hide it, just report to the officials directly and ask the court to preside over justice for the two families.

Zhang Siwei went to report to the officials, but the Shuntian Prefecture yamen refused to accept it. The Shuntian Prefecture yamen was different from other prefecture yamen; it was a capital yamen. Zhang Siwei and Wang Chonggu were not only a host who suffered losses, but also third-rank officials of the court, a Xuan-Da governor, and a person in charge of the Zhan-shi Mansion, the teacher of the unborn crown prince. They were the party whips of the Jin Party. Whether to accept this case or not was a political trend and a matter of standing in line.

When things reached this point, Zhang Siwei had already lost all his face. He simply submitted a memorial in his capacity as a third-rank official, painfully stating the pros and cons, and pulling this matter apart from beginning to end.

"Zhang Siwei, he has no big cleverness, but his small cleverness is top-notch. He is not grand and determined. If he has the world in his heart, he is a hero." Zhu Yijun finished reading Zhang Siwei's memorial and felt a lot of emotion for Zhang Hong beside him. Zhao Mengyou was right. Zhang Siwei was really smart, but not big smart.

Zhang Siwei discussed from 【Zeng Zi said: A gentleman does not think outside his position】 in the memorial.

People's positions, although different in size and honor, all have their own duties to fulfill. If one abandons one's original duty and thinks wildly outside the position, then for oneself, it is dereliction of duty, and for others, it is invading the official.

A gentleman's position is here, and his thoughts are also here. All the plans and considerations day and night are only to fulfill the things that should be done in his own duty.

If one is in the position of a warehouse, one should think about reviewing accounts, clarifying income and expenditure, and fulfilling the duty of managing finances; if one is in the position of the army, one should think about diligent training and ordering military orders to fulfill the duty of managing the military. One has never crossed the position and thought about anything. If so, all duties will be fulfilled, and all affairs will be managed.

Zhang Siwei was discussing that everyone should perform their duties and stay in their own positions, so that things could be done. This is the old cliché of Confucian etiquette, but later Zhang Siwei linked this matter with the theory of contradictions.

The main contradiction of the Great Ming's financial deficit is the conflict of interest between the court and the powerful. The powerful encroaching on production materials leads to the shrinkage of the tax base and the deterioration of tax revenue. As a yamen destined to be notorious, how to maintain its transcendent status for a long time, the case of Zhang Siwei's family has great practical significance. The accounts checked by the Tax Inspection Room can be used as evidence for accusation, which is enough to use secondary contradictions to reconcile the main contradiction.

And Zhang Siwei mentioned in the main contradiction that the complexity of the main contradiction is because many secondary contradictions influence each other. To solve the main contradiction in a problem, one must solve the relatively secondary contradictions, so that the main contradiction can be solved and a state of reconciliation and balance can be reached.

Zhang Siwei also extended from solving contradictions to rewards and punishments and the power of the monarch.

Rewards and punishments are the main means of regulating contradictions. Only having punishment without rewards is not a long-term plan. It can only show the Emperor's majesty, but cannot show His Majesty's benevolence. All things are always in a cycle of repetition, succeeding and managing, and constantly moving forward.

Finally, Zhang Siwei asked the Emperor to take action.

Zhang Siwei and Wang Chonggu fell heavily in the matter of family thieves, but in the end, they used the identity of a scholar to earn back a share of dignity belonging to scholars in the theory of contradictions.

Wang Chonggu's memorial was very interesting. He was boasting about his achievements as the Xuan-Da governor in large sections.

Last year, he built 142 cellars in Xuan-Da for sweet potato seedling cultivation, set up nearly 200,000 *mu* of land specifically for seedling cultivation, and last year's sweet potato harvest was great, with an average yield of about 70% of the Baoqi Division, far ahead of other farming areas. He recalled 12,000 people and 46,000 mouths, and about 20,000 people in Shanxi went out of the Yanmen Pass to farm in Xuan-Da.

The objects of recall were those who fled to the mountains to become bandits because of the disaster, those who lived in the mountains and forests to avoid straw taxes and grain rents, Han people who fled to the northwest Jin country Tatars, and those who were naturalized in the northwest Tatars. Achieving such proud results was because Xuan-Da was really farming. If they came, they would be given land to plant, and taxes would be collected according to the court's established straw tax.

Wang Chonggu also put forward his own claims. How to judge who did well and who did poorly in farming, clearing, and returning land? What is the standard to judge? Look at the flow of people. If people flow to his governance, it must indicate that he did something right, which can be used as a supplement to the Examination Law.

In the memorial, Wang Chonggu also looked forward to the prospects of this year, expecting to lead 220,000 displaced tenant farmers and wanderers to further farm, restore at least ten thousand *qing* of farming in Xuan-Da, build another 300 seedling fire rooms, and set up another 100,000 *mu* of farming. In the matter of farming in Xuan-Da, he would restore it to the peak level before the twenty-ninth year of Jiajing. Wang Chonggu said he would try his best to do his job as a governor.

In the end, Wang Chonggu hoped that the young Emperor could help recover some losses.

"Let the Shuntian Prefecture yamen accept this case. This silver must have a destination." Zhu Yijun finally made a decision to let the court come forward to help Wang Chonggu and Zhang Siwei recover part of their losses.

The four words "rewards and punishments" are the main means of regulating contradictions.

Zhu Yijun had a long table in front of him. On the long table was a three-*zhang*-long closed waterway. At the end of the waterway, there was a wind ball and a water ball used to measure wind speed and water flow speed. Zhu Yijun wanted to understand a problem, that is, why hard sails can sail against the wind.

Especially in the case of headwind, why can hard sails sail forward?

And his tool was a small sailboat with counterweights and hard sails. The Great Ming's hard sail is a parallel sail, that is, in the horizontal direction of the sail surface, a bamboo strip is installed at a certain interval, thus forming a parallel frame. The purpose of doing this is to sail in all eight directions. The wind blowing from all directions can sail.

This is a very magical technology. Zhu Yijun planned to understand the principles behind it.

On the third day of the third lunar month, the spring was bright and beautiful, and the young Emperor appeared in the Wenhua Hall as usual, almost no different from usual.

"Ministers, no need for courtesies. Several items have arrived from the Southern Yamen today. I would like to show them to you, ministers." Zhu Yijun said with a smile: "Feng Banban, bring the auspicious signs sent from the Southern Yamen for the ministers to see."

The auspicious signs from the Southern Yamen were toys specially made for the young Emperor by Wang Daokun and others. They were extremely exquisitely made, almost using all the craftsmanship of the shipyard. They were made to scale, all made of teak, brushed with tung oil for anti-corrosion, hung with hard sails, and made vividly and lifelike. There were also various small figures, sitting, standing, or pulling sails.

The craftsmanship of the Great Ming artisans couldn't be said to be supernatural, but it could only be said to be exquisite.

Seeing these hand-made figures, Zhu Yijun could only say that "The Record of the Nut Boat" did not deceive him. The "Record of the Nut Boat" used walnuts to carve a boat, while the toys built by the Southern Yamen officials for the Emperor were assembled.

To please the Emperor, this was a kind of bribery. Only when the Emperor was happy could he continue to support the Great Ming's maritime affairs and shipbuilding affairs.

This was a helpless move by the Songjiang Shipyard. How to let the Emperor see their achievements after building a three-masted large ship became a problem. Models, or hand-made figures, became a compromise.

"Clapboard ship and clapboard giant ship." Feng Bao placed three sailboats among the many models on the long table of the court discussion.

Feng Bao pointed to the small boat and said: "The West calls it a caravel sailboat, meaning it is made of oak, meaning it is extremely sturdy. But teak ships are even better. The length is nine *zhang* and two *chi*, the width is two *zhang* and six *chi*, and the length-to-width ratio is 3.5 to 1, four hundred *liao*. Compared with the Great Ming's merchant ships, Western ships are more slender. Most of the Great Ming's merchant ships are relatively wide, making navigation and turning difficult, and they are not resistant to strong winds."

The Great Ming is wide, while the Western ship method is slender. This is caused by the environment, not technical reasons. In terms of ocean-going ship design, the Great Ming also has narrow ships, such as the seal boat.

Feng Bao continued: "On this basis, the Great Ming designed a watertight bulkhead. The structure of the watertight bulkhead is like this, divided into two upper and lower layers with more than seventy compartments. Once there is seepage, the watertight holes are automatically sealed, ensuring that the ship will not sink due to seepage."

"The Western ship is a soft sail, while the Great Ming's ship sail is a hard sail. Taking the strengths and discarding the weaknesses, when the Songjiang Shipyard planned, it retained the triangular sail at the tail to assist the ship's rudder in turning, and changed the other two masts to hard sails."

"The Songjiang Maritime Academy and the Shipyard reported that soft sails have their own benefits, but hard sails have their own benefits. They are designing a kind of sailboat that has both soft and hard sails, cutting the soft sail into sections of horizontal sails."

Horizontal sail is a method of transforming a soft sail into a pseudo-hard sail. In short, it is to cut the soft sail into individual wind sails, with the same purpose as the hard sail.

Hard sails can sail against the wind, while soft sails cannot.

In the fifth year of Longqing, a missionary named Chad Guildford wrote in his notes: The sailboat he took always liked to enter the port at night, and when there was no wind or against the wind, it had to anchor on the sea, rising and falling with the waves. It generally didn't use oars, so it couldn't sail against the wind.

Hard sails can use the wind from all eight directions. Improving the ship's sails can reduce the number of rowers, can greatly increase the load, which is a necessary improvement.

But hard sails are not very suitable for ocean-going voyages. How to solve this dilemma? That is to cut the large soft sail into small soft sails.

Wang Guoguang shook his head and said: "Four hundred *liao* is really too little. Are there no bigger ships?"

*Liao* is how much wood is needed to build a ship. One *liao* is about three hundred *jin*, which is roughly equal to the weight of two Qi Jiguangs and three and a half young Emperors.

For example, in the fourth year of Xuande, it was stipulated: from Nanjing to Tongzhou, each ship of 100 *liao* would be charged 100 *guan* of paper money, later reduced to 60 *guan*, which was called *liao* tax or beam-head tax. After the paper money method failed, the paper money pass method was abolished during the Honghua era. Since then, the Great Ming merchants were no longer taxed, and only sitting merchants were taxed.

This was also the reason why Francisco set conditions for the first time, saying he wanted tonnage tax, which was the Great Ming's beam-head tax. But Yuegang implemented the extraction method, where all goods arriving at the port were taxed at six percent of their value, which could be converted into silver.

By the Longqing era, the unit of *liao* gradually evolved into the buoyancy capacity of the ship's wood in water, used to calculate the size of the ship. The first type of clapboard ship displayed by Feng Bao, including the hull, machinery, full personnel, provisions, fresh water, and cargo, had a full displacement of 234 tons.

For the West, this kind of ship was already big enough, but for the Great Ming, this kind of ship was too small.

The treasure ships built during the Yongle era had a maximum of five thousand *liao*, and the main ships were about one thousand *liao*.

Four hundred *liao* was just a small boat. For the Great Ming, especially the court, four hundred *liao* was too small. In the fortieth year of Jiajing, the seal boat built by Guo Rulin to go to Ryukyu was about two thousand *liao*. For the court, the ships that displayed imperial power, four hundred *liao* small boats, were a bit insufficient.

Feng Bao nodded and said: "Yes, a five-masted clapboard ship."

He pulled away the second piece of red silk cloth. This ship was an improved version of the clapboard ship. He continued to introduce: "This is a ship under planning. Wang Daokun doesn't know if this ship can work. It has five masts, the ship length is twenty *zhang*, the width is four *zhang*, the length-to-width ratio is 5 to 1, the height of the three main masts is three *zhang* and two *chi*, each pole hangs six sails, the tail is a triangular sail, and there are three oblique sails under the bow oblique pole, totaling 21 sail surfaces."

"It is a large ship of about one thousand *liao*."

"If it can be launched, with trade winds, it can travel six hundred *li* a day. It only takes five days from Guangzhou Prefecture to Manila in Luzon, and only half a month from Luzon to Tianjin Wei."

The five-masted clapboard ship under design further expanded the length-to-width ratio, increased the number of masts, improved the sails, further increased the speed and load, and also satisfied the court's need for larger ships to promote national prestige.

Build one generation, design one generation, this is the generation under design.

Zhu Yijun looked at the data of the seal boat in the forty-fourth year of Jiajing. The seal boat was the ship used by the court to confer titles on the King of Ryukyu, and it was about the same as the ship Feng Bao mentioned.

The Great Ming's seal boat was fifteen *zhang* long, two *zhang* and nine *chi* and seven *cun* wide, one *zhang* and four *chi* deep, with five masts and four hard sails, a length-to-width ratio of 5.77, and one thousand *liao* (567 tons). That is to say, the ship the Songjiang Prefecture planned to build was even larger than the court's seal boat, faster, and had gun positions.

This was a warship used to promote national prestige.

The Great Ming Minister of Rites, Wan Shihe, looked at the five-masted clapboard ship in front of him and said with a solemn expression: "Isn't this a seal boat? If it is used for warships or merchant ships, isn't it a bit presumptuous?"

"It is indeed presumptuous, so Guo Rulin of the Songjiang Shipyard had to submit a memorial to request the imperial order to build this thing." Feng Bao also affirmed Wan Shihe's idea. The five-masted clapboard ship was a one-thousand-*liao* large ship modified on the basis of the seal boat.

Zhang Juzheng also said helplessly: "The practice of reality in the form and the etiquette in the form have conflicted."

Zhu Yijun looked at the five-masted clapboard ship and said to Zhang Juzheng: "Guo Rulin spent one year in the fortieth year of Jiajing to supervise the construction of the seal boat and went to Ryukyu to confer titles on the King of Ryukyu. No wonder when the Master built the Maritime Hall, he said he wanted to visit the wise, it really makes sense."

Just like the Great Ming's financial taxes, the court was so poor that it was wearing pants, while the powerful were so rich that they were intoxicated. The Great Ming also had talented people in the folk who could build ships. When the court issued an edict, it could really find all kinds of talents from the folk.

This is the Great Ming, a country with infinite potential, but trapped in the quagmire of etiquette and unable to extricate itself.

As soon as Wan Shihe saw that this thing looked so much like a seal boat, he immediately raised a question about etiquette. This was his job.

"Then build a larger seal boat. In this way, there will be no worries about being presumptuous, right?" Zhu Yijun proposed his own solution. The five-masted clapboard ship had the suspicion of being presumptuous, so building a larger seal boat and placing it there would solve it, right?

"Ah, this..." Wan Shihe was stunned. He always felt something was strange, but he couldn't say what was strange. What the Emperor said was very reasonable.

Presumption is something that cannot be crossed, so raise the threshold. The Emperor's majesty will not be offended, and the urgent need for the practice of reality can also be satisfied.

Zhang Juzheng saw that Wan Shihe was "seconded" by the young Emperor's words and asked with a smile: "Then let's do it this way?"

"Then let's do it this way." Wan Shihe thought about it again and again, looked at Ge Shouli and Hai Rui, and seeing that neither of them had any objections to this flexible method, nodded in agreement.

The Ao Mountain fireworks were taller year by year, so the Wanli Emperor's seal boat should also be larger than before.

"This third item is an imitation warship." Feng Bao didn't introduce this warship too much. In the eyes of the shipwrights of the Songjiang Shipyard, this warship with oars was built specifically for fighting. It had its shortcomings and advantages, and it was still being improved.

Zhang Juzheng wrote the floating ticket and handed the memorial of Wang Daokun's auspicious signs to Zhang Hong.

After the court discussion on the Emperor's edict ended, Wang Guoguang took out a tax receipt, placed it on the table, and said: "The Great Ming's first tax receipt was paid by His Majesty. A total of six hundred taels in the first month has been entered into the Taicang."

After Wang Guoguang took out the tax receipt, all the court ministers gasped!

By this time, if they hadn't realized that the young Emperor wasn't playing around but was preparing a big package, then there was no need for them to sit in the Wenhua Hall.

There was one person who didn't realize it, and that was Wan Shihe. Wan Shihe looked at the tax receipt in a daze, pointed at the tax receipt, looked at Zhang Juzheng, then at Feng Bao, and then at the young Emperor on the stage who looked as usual. Finally, he confirmed it: the Emperor had paid taxes!

Wan Shihe was still thinking about who was presuming imperial power and who was trampling on imperial majesty.

Zhang Juzheng said: "His Majesty has issued an edict to the Wenyuan Pavilion to set up a Tax Inspection Room in the Northern Suppressing Faction to specifically handle tax inspection matters. It is appropriate to send thousand-household officials of the judicial department to each province and road. The second item of today's court discussion is this Tax Inspection Room."

"This Tax Inspection Room is authorized by imperial power. Taxes that the Ministry of Revenue cannot inspect will be inspected by the Embroidered Uniform Guard."

The Minister of Justice, Wang Zhi-gao, immediately said: "Wouldn't that be a confusion of criminal names? Each prefecture has judges, each county has assistant county magistrates, each road has a clean official division. Isn't this a repetition?"

The Great Ming's officialdom can be divided into capital officials and outer officials. This is a block. The court is one block, and the local area is one block.

The Great Ming's officialdom also has strips. The Six Ministries and the Censorate have strips set up from top to bottom in the thirteen provinces of the two capitals of the Great Ming. For example, the Ministry of Justice has a Ministry of Justice yamen in the capital and a Henan clean official division in Henan Road. The prefecture yamen has a judge, and the county has a judge in charge of criminal names.

Only by understanding the basic political ecology of strips and blocks can one further understand the complexity of the central-local contradiction, which is also a complex contradiction of "you have me and I have you."

Zhang Juzheng immediately said: "Neither the Ministry of Revenue nor the Ministry of Justice has the authority to investigate and inspect financial taxes. Therefore, the Embroidered Uniform Guard's Tax Inspection Room has no conflict with the functions of the Ministry of Justice. The thousand-household official in charge of taxes is only responsible for tax inspection matters."

"Just tax inspection, nothing else."

"In that case, I have no questions." The Minister of Justice nodded after hearing this.

Zhang Juzheng looked at Wan Shihe and asked: "What about the Ministry of Rites? How do you view this matter?"

"Is this the Senior Grand Secretary's idea, or the Emperor's idea?" Wan Shihe still looked at the tax receipt in a daze and asked.

Zhang Juzheng took a deep breath and said: "The minister's suggestion."

After repeated weighing, the Senior Grand Secretary decided to bear this infamy with the Emperor. The young Emperor's shoulders were still too tender. As a minister entrusted by the late Emperor and as the Emperor's teacher, Zhang Juzheng had the power and obligation to hold up a sky for His Majesty, just like the sky he held up for Qi Jiguang to pacify the Japanese pirates in the southeast, shielding the Emperor from wind and rain.

Let the storm come more violently.

"Fu Yingzhen was right! Zhang Juzheng, you have done all evil things!" Wan Shihe said in a rage: "Treacherous minister with wolfish ambition! You bully the young master, the imperial majesty is not clear, the power shakes the master, and the disaster sprouts! No wonder you die soon, and the humiliation follows!"

"If you have the ability, go up! Sit on it and see how the people of the world tear you to pieces!"

Wan Shihe was really angry. Zhang Juzheng had the heart to let the young Emperor pay taxes and mobilize the Embroidered Uniform Guard to inspect taxes. In the future, Zhang Juzheng would probably mobilize the Embroidered Uniform Guard to launch a palace coup, get on that platform, and sit on that throne himself!

Zhu Yijun held his forehead, and the ministers frowned.

It can only be said that Wan Shihe is worthy of being the last one.

Ge Shouli spat out a turbid breath and said: "Minister Wan, this is the Wenhua Hall, where the solemn and sacred artifacts are located. Since we are sitting in the Wenhua Hall for court discussion, please address him as Senior Grand Secretary. You are shouting and calling him by his name like this, which is not very polite and insults the scholars."

These words were what Zhang Juzheng used to teach Ge Shouli back then. Now Ge Shouli used these words to hit Wan Shihe on the forehead. Calling him by his name was very impolite. It was a pity that Wan Shihe was still the Minister of Rites.

Wan Shihe's brows were tightly locked. Ge Shouli said all day long that he respected the monarch's power, but it seemed that he was just talking. For such a big thing, Ge Shouli actually stood on Zhang Juzheng's side.

"Changing dynasties, how can it be so simple? The Senior Grand Secretary is just the Senior Grand Secretary." Ge Shouli looked at Wan Shihe's surprised and puzzled eyes and still said a fair word for Zhang Juzheng.

Zhang Juzheng, a leader of civil officials, wanted to subvert the Great Ming's system. How could he have such ability? The mandate

Zhu Yijun said with great emotion, "Why is it like this? Everything must start from the hard sail sailing against the wind."

"Supported by bamboo strips, the hard sail becomes a concave-convex surface. When the wind blows across the concave side, the speed slows down, and when the wind blows across the convex side, the speed increases. This creates a lifting and pushing force, which is the fundamental reason for all the phenomena above."

"The wooden ball is stable in water currents and wind, the hard sail sails even faster against the wind, and adding underwater balancing wings makes it faster; adding horizontal balancing wings allows it to fly on the water surface—all because of the concave-convex surface of the hard sail. The wind speeds up when blowing across the concave side and slows down when blowing across the convex side."

This is the reason why airplanes can fly.

A hydrofoil sailboat can be seen as having four wings on the boat responsible for balance. Even so, it is only a small sailboat that sails very fast; it cannot be built into a large ship of a hundred or even a thousand *liao*. Large ships and small ships are completely different, and small ships and models are completely different again.

Zhu Yijun said with great emotion, "My ministers, I know *that* it is so, and I know *why* it is so, but I still do not know the *inevitability* of it. What exactly is the reason for this magical phenomenon of the concave-convex surface? How exactly does the concave-convex surface curve to obtain greater lifting force under the same conditions? What other magical applications does this concave-convex surface have? I still do not know the inevitability of it."

"Who can resolve these doubts for me?"

Not a single person answered. The ministers were still studying the problem of the concave-convex surface. After the Emperor asked about the "inevitability" following the "why," who could explain it clearly?

They were also learning about the magic of the hard sail's concave-convex surface for the first time.

Seeing that no one answered, Zhu Yijun smiled and said, "Send this hydrofoil sailboat to the Songjiang Shipyard and let them try to build it. If there really is a hydrofoil sailboat that can sail at this speed, it would be excellent not just for transporting goods, but even for delivering messages."

"The road ahead is long and arduous; I shall search high and low. My esteemed ministers, I offer this verse to you all for mutual encouragement."

The court officials left the side hall of the Wenhua Palace with heads full of question marks. At forty, one is free from doubt; at fifty, one knows the mandate of heaven. The young Emperor, with the iron fist of practical implementation, smashed a stamp onto everyone's ideological steel seal: the world has infinite principles, and they actually contain so many mysteries.

Zhu Yijun held the model of the hydrofoil sailboat in his hand and looked at Zhu Zaiyu, saying, "Imperial Uncle, can you resolve these doubts for me?"

"I... will do my best." Zhu Zaiyu was under immense pressure for a moment. After the "mad scholar" arrived in the capital, he really couldn't be "mad" anymore. This young Emperor who didn't attend to his proper duties always raised many, many questions that made people scratch their heads bald and were impossible to answer.

Thanks to "1 High Mountain Flowing Water 1" for the tip. This book has added another alliance leader. Thank you very much for your support and recognition. Everyone's chapter comments can be seen in the backend. Seeking monthly votes, Awoo!!!!!!!

(End of chapter)