Chapter 176: Even the Turtles in the Wishing Pool Shake Their Heads

Wang Chonggu hummed a little tune, singing as he happily recounted to Wang Qian the process of his verbal sparring match with San Niangzi. Wang Chonggu had argued fiercely with San Niangzi over money; every single point he made was based on the perspective of seeking profit for himself. He did not yield an inch on any clause unfavorable to the Great Ming, while for clauses beneficial to himself, he pursued them relentlessly.

His verbal sparring was truly an argument; it was completely different from the verbal sparring between Wu Dui and San Niangzi.

Wang Chonggu said with a chuckle, "My son, throughout our Great Ming, from top to bottom, from ancient times to the present, it has always been like this. People always hope for the appearance of an enlightened ruler. Regarding their understanding of state affairs, they always hope that there is someone who can pull everyone out of that vulgar, hopeless, and meaningless life, solve all real problems once and for all, so that from now on, one never has to face the true hardships of life again."

"Oh my, Zhang Juzheng teaches well, and His Majesty learns even better. If there is merit, there is truly a reward. This life is just wonderful."

Wang Qian, however, shook his head with great conviction and said, "No one can pull others out of the mire, solve all problems, and ensure that hardships never appear in life again. Based on the theory of contradictions, this is impossible, because when one contradiction is resolved, new contradictions will arise."

"Only the succession of contradictions can allow the infinite principles of all things to develop continuously. The development of things is not the things themselves."

"If one pins all hopes on a single person, it would be better to go make a wish. Even the turtles in a wishing pool would shake their heads if they heard such an absurd request."

Wang Chonggu was stunned for a long time after hearing this before saying, "I now believe you will definitely be able to pass the imperial examination. I am very pleased that you are willing to read the theory of contradictions and are willing to understand it. Even if you don't pass the imperial examination, you will be able to settle yourself well and won't end up like Zhang Siwei."

Wang Qian continued, "Zhang Juzheng is a man, not a god. He cannot reverse the decline of the world with his own strength alone. In the imperial court, he has Tan Lun and Wang Guoguang as his right and left arms for the New Laws; in the provinces, he has Yin Zhengmao, Zhang Xueyan, Ling Yunyi, Pan Jixun, Pang Shangpeng, and others; in the military, he has Qi Jiguang, Li Chengliang, Yu Dayou, Zhang Yuanxun, Liu Xian, and others."

"And behind these people is the shared expectation of the Great Ming commoners to live and work in peace. Even if Qi Jiguang is unable to fully unfold his talents, he still stands firm in the north. That is not just Zhang Juzheng's protection; it is also the expectation of the commoners."

"It is because all these people gathered together and exerted their strength together that they were able to hold it up."

"And Zhang Juzheng indeed found them, or one could even say he indulged them, which allowed them to exert their own roles."

"Even including you, Father."

"Ah, this, this, this, does it include me too? Hahaha." Wang Chonggu was amused and laughed exceptionally happily. He indeed started from the perspective of profit, but the things he did were indeed beneficial to the imperial court. When the time comes, his name might not be on the list of meritorious officials, but his name will certainly not be on the list of treacherous officials either.

Wang Chonggu shook his head and said, "My son, have you also read the Learning of the Mind, especially that set of rhetoric from He Xinyin? Reading is one thing, and talking is another; you cannot believe it. He doesn't even believe it himself; he just wags his tongue and goes around swindling people."

"What he said is correct; it is indeed the expectation of the masses. But just like war, the common people cannot decide the start or end of a war, and the common people likewise cannot decide the rise or fall of the imperial court. Their expectations, to the 'meat-eaters' (the ruling class), are untouchable matters, because the general expectation of the commoners is for the meat-eaters to cut off their own flesh, or more clearly put, for the meat-eaters to have a conscience."

"Is that possible?"

Wang Qian was silent for a long time before saying, "It is indeed not very likely."

Wang Chonggu sighed and said, "Why am I willing to do things? Why do I not dare to disobey His Majesty's edicts? Because evil people need other evil people to grind them down. If you want to get things done but don't want to be an evil person, you can't get things done. Zhang Juzheng is an evil person who has done all kinds of bad things, and His Majesty is an even more evil person who has surpassed his master."

"Perhaps the world just lacks such an evil person."

As the Minister of Justice, Wang Chonggu does not believe in the law, and even finds it laughable; as a person running about for the interests of the Great Ming, he does not believe in discussing facts as they are or analyzing specific matters specifically; as a court official and one of the empire's decision-makers, he firmly believes that evil people need other evil people to grind them down.

Or rather, what Wang Chonggu firmly believes is that the weapon of criticism is not as direct as the criticism of weapons. This is the reality of his practice. If he hadn't been hurt to the bone by Zhang Juzheng's combination of punches, he would be no different from Zhang Siwei.

Wang Chonggu spoke of this confrontation with San Niangzi and said with great certainty, "San Niangzi advocates for a long-term stable supply price, while my advocacy is for a long-term, stable, and rapidly increasing supply quantity. This conforms to His Majesty's advocacy of 'sheep eating horses' to weaken the mobility of the grassland people, and it also conforms to the demand for the constant expansion and growth of the official factories."

"Of course, our family can also make money."

"Therefore, I designed a set of supply prices based on the average supply quantity of three years. For example, if the average supply from the second year of Wanli to the fourth year of Wanli was 12,000 bags of wool, then in the next three years, 12,000 bags will be the benchmark. For every 10% exceeding this, the purchase price of the wool will increase by 1%. This cycles; in the next three years, the previous three years will be the benchmark and average price benchmark. For the sake of this price increase, the grassland people will exert their own initiative."

Wang Qian looked left and right and whispered, "Father seems to have not finished."

Wang Chonggu continued, "Yes, there will be price penalties for supplies lower than the benchmark. If it is 10% lower than the benchmark, the price will be reduced by 10%. This is not equal to the price increase for growth, but San Niangzi agreed. The reason she agreed is that she promised to raise more sheep and raise fewer horses. For San Niangzi, or rather San Niangzi's supporters, what they worry about most is the Great Ming suddenly stopping purchases."

"This is the huge disadvantage of being a raw material supply area, or rather, not possessing commodity advantages. Without commodity advantages, one can only fall into infinite passivity."

"I'll take minting coins as an example. In Yunnan, in order to keep the minting business in Yunnan, they even stood up to face Zhang Juzheng, impeaching Zhang Juzheng for seeking welfare for his hometown! Yunnan is a raw material supply area; they do not possess the commodity advantage of copper coins. What is Yunnan most worried about? It is that the copper produced in central Yunnan cannot be used for minting, and instead, they have to buy from overseas at high prices."

"This is a concrete manifestation of being pragmatic and being able to grasp the main contradiction."

Wang Qian sighed and said, "It is clearly a pragmatic approach, yet it is criticized by others. First, they say it is harsh to distant people; second, they say Father is profit-seeking. Sigh."

"I am flattered by the praise; I cannot help but be overjoyed," Wang Chonggu said, not caring at all.

"Ah? Praise?" Wang Qian asked blankly.

Wang Chonggu said with a smile, "Yes, you said that there is no such person who can save others from fire and water. But for the mire that is the Great Ming, isn't Zhang Juzheng that peerless hero who makes the turtles in the wishing pool shake their heads and say 'no' when one makes a wish? I told His Majesty that having rules is better than having no rules."

"This is the reason. The standard for judging right and wrong should be based on maintaining the Great Ming imperial court—this greatest public interest—rather than the chatter of literati and poets. Are they right just because they have loud voices? If they are so capable of talking, why don't they go and reform Altan Khan, Tumet, the Jianzhou Jurchens, and the Red-Haired Barbarians?!"

"Father is brilliant," Wang Qian said sincerely.

So that was it. No wonder Wang Chonggu worked so desperately. Before Wang Qian had even finished reading the theory of contradictions, Wang Chonggu had already started reading the theory of public and private interests.

Zhu Yijun saw this tiered wool method of Wang Chonggu and said that the minds of scholars are all dirty.

Wang Chonggu introduced negative numbers into pricing and measurement, and used institutional design to trap the grassland into a predicament. If they want the price of wool to rise, they must supply more wool, and each cycle must be more than the previous one, and they must supply much more to achieve a price increase.

In this institutional design, the price reduction of wool is extremely drastic. Once a cycle is 10% less than the previous cycle, that price reduction will destroy the efforts of the previous cycle in one fell swoop.

This created the fact that the grassland must raise more sheep. The grassland is very barren, and the total amount of water and grass is fixed or even gradually decreasing.

In San Niangzi's view, Wang Chonggu is extremely vicious, but she must accept it. The Great Ming is willing to give a long-term stable price, which is also a kind of grace for the grassland. Stability is something that does not exist for the grassland.

The Yuan Dynasty was a dynasty established by Hu people; there must be no border troubles. The Han hereditary lords had to obey the Emperor's orders every year to go to the grassland to reduce the population.

For the grassland, stability is a luxury, and rules are even more out of reach.

The Great Ming is willing to give a stable price, which San Niangzi can accept. At worst, she can just go out and rob for wool.

The current theory of public and private interests has been unable to move forward, which has caused the theory of public and private interests to never be published to the world. It is mainly stuck on the fact that Zhang Juzheng has always refused to cut off the concepts of 'Monarch as Father,' 'Monarch as Country,' and 'Monarch as Teacher.' Only by further negating these opposing yet unified concepts can they be integrated into one.

The theory that Zhu Yijun most hopes Zhang Juzheng can obtain is that the Monarch represents the majority of the common people in the world, represents the common people in fulfilling duties, and subsequently, local officials represent the local common people in fulfilling duties.

But this will trigger a more terrifying problem: if the Monarch cannot represent the majority of the common people and cannot represent the common people in fulfilling duties, then does one need to change to a new Monarch? And what is the standard for judging that?

Power, the supreme power in the human world, is simply too tempting, enough to make everyone in the world take risks for it.

Of course, Empress Dowager Li is the exception; after all, he is her own son, and a very promising one at that, so she simply lets go and stops interfering.

Zhang Juzheng knew the little Emperor's intentions too well, so Zhang Juzheng just let it rot and did not answer at all, letting 'Monarch as Father,' 'Monarch as Country,' and 'Monarch as Teacher' remain as one, letting the Monarch always remain in a sacred and inviolable concept.

This is based on the reality of practice. The productivity or social development of the Great Ming Dynasty has not yet reached that point. Therefore, Zhang Juzheng's theory of public and private interests is still an incomplete concept, but for the Great Ming of the present and the next few decades, it is completely enough.

Because the definition of public and private is already sufficiently unorthodox and sufficiently guiding for the production and life of the next few decades. Going any further is completely unnecessary.

Zhu Yijun can only express regret about this.

The Minister of Justice, Wang Chonggu, is responsible for supervising the construction of the Great Ming Dynasty's imperial palace. Before His Majesty left the capital, Wang Chonggu and the Minister of Works, Guo Chaobin, first let His Majesty participate in the foundation-laying ceremony.

This foundation-laying ceremony is just the Emperor appearing, setting off two strings of firecrackers, and then the Emperor holding a shovel to shovel some dirt twice, representing that the house was founded by the Emperor. It is just going through the motions.

But as this formality went on, it became less of a formality, because the Emperor asked Guo Chaobin and Wang Chonggu to explain how exactly they would realize his requirements.

"For the buildings on the central axis, we plan to use a steel-concrete structure." Guo Chaobin stood before the foundation, explaining his construction plan to the Great Ming Emperor and several court officials. This construction period is tight, the task is heavy, the requirements are high, and it is the common aspiration of the court officials.

The court officials were already furious. If the little Emperor were to hold his wedding at the construction site, the officials of the Great Ming Dynasty might as well just find a rope and hang themselves!

"Wait a moment? What structure?" Zhu Yijun signaled Guo Chaobin to pause and asked with some uncertainty.

"Steel-concrete. Steel as in iron and steel, concrete as in mixed," Guo Chaobin said very definitely. "We have found materials that meet His Majesty's requirements. It cannot be burned by fire, and it does not need to be repaired and patched all day long. We will stick a layer of wood veneer on this surface, and the regulations will be exactly the same as in the past, but it will be completely unburnable."

Zhu Yijun of course understood the meaning of this term. He originally thought Wang Chonggu and Guo Chaobin would use stone blocks; after all, the processing technology for stone blocks is very mature. But now Guo Chaobin is talking about a structure of cement and steel.

"What is this 'mixed' in concrete?" Zhu Yijun asked again.

"Lime. All lime is burned by fire for use. After it becomes a substance, it enters water and will never be destroyed for eternity. For millions of boats and millions of walls, filling gaps and preventing moisture, this is a must. It is used for filling the seams of ship planks, and it can also be used for sitting piles. The pond bottoms of the upper four docks and lower four docks of the Longjiang Shipyard will all be smeared with this lime first, adding water to cement crushed stones to build the bottom." Guo Chaobin brought over a solidified lump and handed it to His Majesty.

The reason for not using stone materials is very simple: the Ministry of Rites would not agree to use stone materials, because in the Great Ming, stone houses are used more in mausoleums.

So steel-concrete is a good compromise plan, which both satisfies His Majesty's requirements for his new home and satisfies the Ministry of Rites' requirements for ritual laws.

After Zhu Yijun finished looking at it, he was very convinced that this was cement, hydraulic lime.

Guo Chaobin explained the process in detail. The reason for using lime plus clay is to increase stability, and steel is the aggregate. Cement alone is afraid of collapse, but with steel, it will be much better.

This is Wang Chonggu's archaeological-style scientific research, digging out construction materials for building bottoms from the records of the Longjiang Shipyard to build a new imperial palace for His Majesty. Sticking a layer of wood veneer perfectly meets His Majesty's needs.

"Do it, do it." Zhu Yijun agreed to use this building material. He was very satisfied. Mainly, the Great Ming imperial palace had caught fire several times, which made the Emperor very passive. Zhu Yijun actually planned to build a stone palace, but Wang Chonggu and Guo Chaobin came up with a big project.

Zhu Yijun only then realized that in shipyards, especially in the construction of docks, using hydraulic lime to build bottoms was already a common practice in this era.

And the Ministry of Works added a steel skeleton on this basis.

Zhu Yijun stepped onto the carriage and looked at Zhang Juzheng, saying, "Sir, let us ride in the same carriage."

"Your subject does not dare." Zhang Juzheng refused to get into the carriage. If His Majesty had already taken personal control of the government, this would represent a sage monarch and a virtuous subject, but His Majesty had not yet taken personal control of the government, so getting into the carriage would be an act of usurpation.

Zhang Juzheng was a court official who knew his etiquette very well. He discovered that the little Emperor always had some mischievous hobbies, thinking he wasn't busy enough and finding things for him to do all day long.

Zhu Yijun waved his hand and said listlessly, "Empty formalities."

The Great Ming Emperor had left the capital!

Since the Jiajing Emperor's southern tour was burned by fire, how many years had it been since a Great Ming Emperor had left the capital? But now, the little Emperor had left the capital city, and his destination was Tianjin Wei.

The ships for transporting grain by sea were almost there. The reason Zhu Yijun went to check in person was mainly to see with his own eyes this five-masted ocean-crossing ship, to see if it was truly as magnificent as the Songjiang Shipyard said.

This trip to Tianjin Wei had undergone a long period of court discussion. The Chu Party, led by Zhang Juzheng, highly approved, while the Jin Party, led by Ge Shouli, vehemently opposed. The two sides had engaged in a confrontation lasting three months, which finally ended with Zhang Juzheng's victory and the little Emperor's smooth departure.

According to Ge Shouli's statement, letting the Emperor suffer and travel was the incompetence of the court officials, while Zhang Juzheng said, "The one who carries out the action is the one who knows, and it is just a matter of being sincere." If His Majesty hadn't even seen an ocean ship, how could he understand the hardships of maritime trade? Saying a thousand or ten thousand words is not as good as seeing it with one's own eyes.

Zhang Juzheng was adding weight to the matter of sea grain transport, while Ge Shouli was respecting the power of the master's prestige. It is worth noting that Ge Shouli was not saying it couldn't be done or couldn't be seen, but rather saying to wait until after the Emperor's wedding to go see it. He believed that His Majesty was young now, and going out would inevitably lead to acclimatization problems and catching an epidemic; how could that be allowed?

Ge Shouli's reasons were very sufficient and were recognized by most court officials. Yes, in Ge Shouli's view, the little Emperor was like a porcelain bottle that would shatter at a touch. People in this era were just this fragile. Perhaps going on a long journey and coming into contact with different bacteria would lead to death from acclimatization, especially now that the Emperor had not yet married and had no children. If he went out and got sick, the Great Ming would face a major disaster.

These two opinions formed a fierce conflict in the court. Finally, after the little Emperor performed shooting ten arrows with a sixty-five-jin heavy bow and hitting the target every time, Ge Shouli was shocked to discover that the Emperor was not a porcelain bottle, but completely a steel-concrete cement pier!

Fourteen years old, a sixty-five-jin strong bow, ten arrows hitting the target every time—what kind of level was this? It was only slightly weaker than Li Rusong.

Ge Shouli's worry was not without reason. The little Emperor got sick as soon as he arrived in Tianjin Wei, but the next day, the little Emperor appeared before everyone full of vigor and attended the ceremony of the grain ships arriving at the port.

Because the grain ships traveled relatively fast, they arrived a day earlier than expected. The grain was already at the port, and for the sake of the ceremony, it had not yet been unloaded. The Southern Yamen transport navy thought that a day earlier or later didn't matter. This was originally a test voyage, and support from the Emperor was simply too important!

His Majesty being willing to move his nest and come to Tianjin Wei to take a look was the greatest support for the policy of sea grain transport.

Music began to rise, and there were lanterns and decorations everywhere. The young heroic ruler Zhu Yijun stood on the pier, symbolically checked the seals along the way, and then pushed the grain cart, completing the entire ceremony.

Zhu Yijun watched as one grain box after another was continuously unloaded from the ships and then piled up in the warehouses at the port. After inspection and signing the seals, they would be transported to Tongzhou.

"Commander Yu, is this ship powerful or not?" Zhu Yijun asked Yu Dayou, who had white hair and was several years older than he had been in the first year of Wanli.

Yu Dayou stroked his goatee and said with a chuckle, "Powerful! Its power lies in the fact that it only needs wind power to sail; its power lies in the fact that it has continuous artillery decks—if fully loaded, it can have fifty-four cannons; its power lies in the fact that it can defend the Great Ming's maritime borders."

"The Great Ming Songjiang Shipyard built a total of twelve such ocean-crossing ships. After summarizing the experience and lessons, new ocean-crossing ships and artillery will be designed. Some parts of the design are unreasonable, such as the storage of gunpowder, and the design of the artillery positions. The artillery firing on this ship has no grid boards, which causes the artillery to get water inside when it rains. Come to think of it, it's strange; before using it, no one thought of such an obvious mistake."

"That's very normal," Zhu Yijun said full of smiles. Engineering is like this; there will always be problems that haven't been considered, requiring repairs and patches, and designing new ships.

"The general managers Guo Rulin and Zhao Shizhen made a souvenir gift over two feet long for His Majesty. Please accept it, Your Majesty." Yu Dayou had someone bring over a small gift—a model of the ocean-crossing ship. Children, after all, always like these playthings. As long as this memory can be left in His Majesty's heart, it will be part of the imperial grace in the future.

Zhu Yijun liked this kind of souvenir very much; the more, the better.

"Your Majesty, your subject is old. After finishing this errand, I intend to retire." Yu Dayou already had white hair. This was also the reason he returned to the capital to transport grain this time. He was not like Qi Jiguang, who was only in his forties; he was already seventy-three. He had already had the thought of retiring several times, and this time he finally said it out loud.

The Songjiang Navy already had an initial scale. The deputy regional commander Chen Lin, whom he had carefully selected, was already able to take charge of his own. It was time.

"Retirement is unnecessary. Stay in the capital as the Right Commander of the Front Military Governor's Office and answer questions for me, how about that?" Zhu Yijun agreed to Yu Dayou's request not to lead troops anymore. Yu Dayou was born in the sixteenth year of Hongzhi. At this age, commanding the Southern Yamen Navy was indeed no longer appropriate. Hardship was one aspect, and energy was another.

Yu Dayou was stunned after hearing His Majesty's arrangement and asked, "This doesn't conform to the ancestral system..."

Since he couldn't take on duties, he should just take some benefits and go home. But looking at His Majesty's meaning, he intended for Yu Dayou to continue to exert his remaining heat.

Zhu Yijun whispered, "Commander Yu, my house was set on fire. Commander Qi cannot return from the Danning Wei for a short time, and I cannot act yet. Look at these court officials; they bully me every day. If Commander Yu sits in the capital, how would these petty people dare to be so rampant!"

Yu Dayou heard this and found that His Majesty's reasons were sufficient and reasonable. At the very least, if he was in the capital, when His Majesty needed to use people, he wouldn't be without anyone to use.

"Your subject obeys the edict." Yu Dayou agreed without any opposition. If he wasn't suitable for leading the navy, he could lead the army. He didn't ask for any military merit; as long as he was there, he would have a deterrent force, because his name was Yu Dayou.

Zhu Yijun boarded the Great Ming's first ocean-crossing ship. He asked whenever he saw something novel—asking about the masts, the waterline, the cargo hold, the artillery decks, and so on. This ship already had some steel parts. In the connecting parts and watertight compartments, steel was easier to use than wood.

During this voyage, two water seepage incidents occurred. Because of the existence of watertight compartments, the Great Ming did not lose a single ship.

While the little Emperor was welcoming the grain transport into the capital and celebrating the success of the Great Ming's sea grain transport, San Niangzi's group arrived at Danning Wei, and then went to Mount Taotu. After seeing a mountain-sized pile of white clay, they were silent for a long time. The Great Ming indeed had a stable supply of white clay.

Afterwards, San Niangzi arrived at the front line, Qinglong Fort.

Qi Jiguang was right there. Regarding the defense of Danning Wei, San Niangzi was truly somewhat impressed; it was indeed very powerful.

"The Great Ming is very difficult to break from the outside, but its interior is already completely rotten," San Niangzi said, looking at the majesty of the Great Ming's capital battalion.

"Do you mean I should defect to a new master? Who? You?" Qi Jiguang smiled, his tone very gentle, but carrying a very clear disdain.

San Niangzi said with slight helplessness, "Before I entered the capital, Altan Khan asked me to try to persuade Commander Qi to defect. I told him he was daydreaming, but he didn't believe it and insisted that I take a scolding before he would be satisfied."

Persuading Qi Jiguang to defect at all costs was Altan Khan's idea. From the beginning, San Niangzi felt this was a rotten idea. People like Qi Jiguang—let alone the little Emperor conferring titles and treating him well—even if the little Emperor treated him poorly, Qi Jiguang would not defect.

When Qi Jiguang was in the border town of Jizhou, he could even endure the humiliation of a capital battalion company commander. Qi Jiguang's loyalty was to the Great Ming imperial court, not to any single person.

For such a person, trying to kill him or using the internal strife of the Great Ming to topple him might have a chance, but persuading Qi Jiguang to defect was too difficult.

San Niangzi didn't mind doing it at all costs. She considered herself to have some beauty; if she could bear a child for Commander Qi, that would be her honor. But Qi Jiguang had a fierce wife at home. The anecdote about "inviting the wife to review the troops" was known even to the grassland people. This anecdote was mainly used to mock Qi Jiguang's fear of his wife, lowering their own fear when facing Qi Jiguang.

This kind of self-consolation using unimportant minor matters was extremely common and not unique to the Central Plains people.

Qi Jiguang's existence was like a bone in the throat. To plunder the capital region, one inevitably had to break through from Gubeikou or Xifengkou in the Jizhou area. But Qi Jiguang's strong army in the north was gathered in the Jizhou, Yongping, and Shanhai Pass areas. How could the Northern Barbarians invade?

San Niangzi asked with curiosity, "I will leave Qinglong Fort and head to Quanning Wei. Commander Qi, take a guess: will our grassland's left and right wings and six departments join forces again to attack the Great Ming?"

"Is there such a good thing?" Qi Jiguang seemed to see the title of Duke beckoning to him. "Conferring titles of Marquis and Duke is not my intention; I only wish for the sea waves to be calm." This was just Qi Jiguang's sigh based on the status quo. If he could be conferred the title of Marquis or Duke, Qi Jiguang would still be willing to strive for it!

San Niangzi was choked up. Qi Jiguang said this based on his strength. San Niangzi had to be convinced even if she wasn't; she really couldn't beat him.

If they could beat him, would the grassland people be doing business quietly and properly?

"I am going to persuade the Tumet Khan to surrender. It's not just the left wing that has grassland people willing to make peace with the Great Ming; the right wing has them too. To use the most popular saying in the Central Plains recently, contradictions exist universally." San Niangzi mounted her horse, bid farewell to Qi Jiguang, and led dozens of riders toward Quanning Wei.

Qi Jiguang thought about whether he should chase after her and kill San Niangzi. She actually read the theory of contradictions—that was simply intolerable!

Qi Jiguang looked at San Niangzi's back and took a letter from his bosom. This was a letter written by His Majesty himself. The content of the letter was: I am doing very well in the capital; I can draw a sixty-five-jin strong bow now. Everything in the capital is very good. Although Wang Chonggu and San Niangzi argued fiercely, they still finalized the regulations for the wool business. The sea grain transport is progressing very smoothly; there are no sunken ships. The invention of grain transport boxes has further reduced the sinking of grain ships.

Everything in the Great Ming is good. Do not be impatient at the front line; do not be greedy for merit and advance rashly. According to the predetermined plan, thoroughly occupy Danning Wei.

Good my foot!

My house was set on fire, good my foot!

Please vote for the monthly ticket, Awooooo!!!!!!!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 177 =====