Chapter 267: Zhang Juzheng's Self-Doubt

Zhang Juzheng had known for a long time that the Emperor's previous sunny and cheerful smiles were just a disguise, all done on purpose. It was the young Emperor trying not to let the court officials look down on him. At that time, even the most cheerful smile looked a bit like a forced smile.

This kind of forced smile was very obvious on many old foxes, such as Zhang Juzheng, Wang Chonggu, and Wan Shihe. Personalities as honest and blunt as Ge Shouli were truly rare. People grow old and become refined; like these old things, they had long passed the age of showing joy or anger on their faces. Living with a mask had long become an instinct for these old foxes, and the mask had long been branded onto their faces.

But the Emperor was only fifteen years old. To be precise, from the age of ten, the Emperor had been wearing a mask consistently.

A youth with a twilight air, dead and lifeless.

It was fine for a short time, but once it lasted a long time, it would become a disease—a heart disease with a large pile of knots tied inside. By then, trying to find relief would be harder than ascending to heaven, because the knots themselves were tied one inside another, and there was simply no way to start.

When an Emperor suffers from this kind of mental illness, he becomes reclusive, sensitive, prone to violent rage, and obstinate. If it were an ordinary person, it would at most mean being unsociable, but His Majesty is the Emperor of the Great Ming; he is the one person whose every thought and impulse can influence the fate of the Empire.

Zhang Juzheng was very concerned about the mental health of adolescents. Clearly, the Emperor's own personality was very lively, but it was just that the national situation of Great Ming was extremely poor before, so poor that the Emperor had to live like a stone.

And the cheerfulness now was a youth's disposition. In short, the Emperor lived more like a person.

"Wang Xiangu, Wang Shizhen, and that 'Zhixing Zhixing Heyi Sect' of theirs should be the masterminds behind the last assassination attempt. The *Tiqi* have already investigated it clearly, but the hundred thousand followers make me a bit hesitant to act. The Great Ming Capital Battalion has won a great victory, so I can only wait a bit, wait for General Qi to return in triumph, and then settle accounts with them." Zhu Yijun leaned on a soft rattan chair, nagging and saying.

If there was anything left unfinished in the fifth year of Wanli, it was this "Zhixing Zhixing Heyi Sect" of Wang Xiangu.

Wang Xiangu promoted the unity of the three teachings of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. This was actually first advocated by Wang Chongyang of the Southern Song dynasty. He advocated the unity of the three teachings, "the three teachings have always had the same ancestral style," harmony of the three teachings, forgetting words without a heart, softness and tranquility, upright heart and sincere intention, few thoughts and few desires, leaving home to practice, and returning to simplicity.

Wang Chongyang's advocacy for religion also became the core of how successive dynasties governed religion: be harmonious, don't fight because of faith, and don't cause civil unrest, or it would invite the Imperial Court's power and punishment.

But after Wang Xijue's daughter, Wang Xiangu, plagiarized it, she began to preach for her own Zhixing Zhixing Heyi Sect. Various secret methods were shocking, and Wang Xiangu's chief disciple, Sujing Sanren, was so close to Wang Xiangu that they shared a bed, and they spent all day practicing some kind of Yin-Yang Great Method of the Tantric Sect, which actually fit the sect's purpose.

Wang Xiangu claimed to be a "fallen immortal," an immortal from heaven who had fallen down. In public, she was sanctimonious, but in private, what she played was unsightly. And that Sujing Sanren, honored in the sect as "Eunuch," had indeed been active in the capital for over two months before the assassination attempt in the Western Mountains. Moreover, Wang Qian had also investigated through bribery that this "Eunuch" was indeed that "Eunuch." Those maids provided important clues: Wang Xiangu had a ledger with income and expenses, and it was clear at a glance who had supported this matter.

"Using the people to weigh oneself—this has never been strange since ancient times." Zhang Juzheng sneered and shook his head, saying: "But they are all just a mob. Even if we investigate and handle it now, these followers will scatter like birds and beasts and won't cause any trouble. Your Majesty has become cautious. The subject congratulates Great Ming, congratulates Your Majesty."

The young Emperor's baring of fangs and claws, his ferocity and violence, were often forced by circumstances. The state affairs were rotten, and the Emperor was a soft-footed shrimp. Even the Empress had been killed, and not to mention resisting, he didn't even dare to say a word. A weakling like that could not be the master of a revival.

Great Ming's power had always been top-down and bottom-up. Top-down was the legal system and rules; bottom-up was the strength of ten thousand people, the unity of the people. The importance of the Emperor in the institutional design of the imperial system was self-evident.

Now the Emperor was becoming cautious and prudent. Clearly, there was no need to bare fangs and claws anymore.

"Master, General Qi wrote a letter saying that if Great Ming wants to continue fighting on the grassland, it must establish a cavalry battalion. According to what is said in the letter, General Qi is just having a thought, and he wants me to communicate with you, Master. This is a major matter of the state. My virtue is cool and my age is young, so I want to hear your opinion, Master." Zhu Yijun mentioned the reason why he had to come over even in this snowy weather.

Qi Jiguang wanted to establish a cavalry battalion, but it was just a start. The reason he didn't give a specific plan was that Qi Jiguang didn't know the Imperial Court's finances very well.

"Your Majesty, cavalry horses are expensive, armor is expensive, and people are even more expensive; grain and pay are expensive, pensions are expensive, and resettlement is even more expensive." Zhang Juzheng's expression was very hesitant. He thought for a moment and still said: "Your Majesty, how about slowing down? It is truly too expensive."

"Even Emperor Chengzu Wen, who campaigned in the desert five times, never established a specialized cavalry battalion; there were only the Five Military Battalions that had both cavalry and infantry."

Even Zhang Juzheng, who had always emphasized giving military authority to military generals and enriching the country and strengthening the army, was extremely cautious when facing the topic of cavalry, because it was really very expensive.

Emperor Zhu Di's northern expeditions mainly used *Wu Gang* carts. This was also the reason why Zhu Di returned without success the last three times. As soon as he arrived at the grassland, the Northern Lu saw that you, old man, were here for an armed tour again, and immediately fled thousands of miles away, not fighting you. And you couldn't catch up to them, so what could you do but sigh?

It wasn't that Zhu Di didn't want to establish one, but when he discussed it with Minister of Revenue Xia Yuanji, Xia Yuanji simply lay on the ground and said it would be more straightforward for Your Majesty to kill me.

Qi Jiguang had the same attitude. Great Ming needed cavalry, but if they continued to fight without cavalry, they couldn't substantially eliminate the enemy's effective strength.

"How expensive is it specifically?" Zhu Yijun was silent for a moment and asked.

Zhang Juzheng said with a heavy expression: "Horses are expensive. Besides their physique, warhorses must have a fierce and bold temperament; otherwise, they will fear and not advance on the battlefield. The second point of horses being expensive is that for one cavalryman to fight, at least three horses must go together; otherwise, the cavalry will have no mobility. Then the cavalry established will not be much different from donkey cavalry."

"This is one man and three horses, people eating and horses chewing. Horses eat much more than people, and they have to eat at night. They have to eat grain in spring and summer; otherwise, they won't have strength."

"People are even more expensive. Your Majesty, our Great Ming people farm and don't herd. Only herdsmen grow up on horseback. Your Majesty learns martial arts and horse riding, and you also know that learning to ride a horse specifically is not because the family assets are thick; it's impossible to learn otherwise. The post-station couriers all walk on fixed official roads and post roads, where the road surface is flat and they are familiar with it. This is going to the grassland to fight; the post-station couriers are definitely unable to serve."

Zhu Yijun rode horses himself, and he indeed knew that learning to ride a horse was indeed something that required thick family foundations; otherwise, wanting to go to the battlefield was just wishful thinking. The working scenarios of grooms and post-station couriers and the battlefield were completely different things.

Zhang Juzheng sighed heavily and said: "Roughly speaking, for one cavalryman, not counting other expenses to form the army, just him and his three horses, armor, and training, one cavalryman is equal to eighteen oxen, and one ox is eighteen taels of silver. This does not count pensions and subsequent expenses, just until the day the army is formed."

Ten thousand cavalrymen is eighteen thousand oxen, which is nearly four million taels of silver.

And the grain and pay for the ten thousand soldiers of the Capital Battalion, calculated at eighteen taels per person per year, total only a little over two million taels a year.

Ten thousand cavalrymen could eat up the grain and pay of the hundred thousand soldiers of the Capital Battalion for two years. It was really expensive.

"Then why does the grassland have tens of thousands of cavalry, tens of thousands of cavalry, at every turn?" Zhu Yijun was a bit confused. How could the Northern Lu produce tens of thousands of cavalry at once? With those few resources on the grassland, how could they support tens of thousands of cavalry?

"Their horses are cheap, their people are cheap, their grain and pay all rely on looting, and pensions and resettlement are even more of a nonsense."

"Whether their horses are warhorses or not doesn't matter. If they can win, they fight; if they can win, they loot; if they can't win, they run. Human lives on the grassland are worthless. They all live days of not knowing if they will survive until tomorrow, living today without tomorrow. How much is a life worth?" Zhang Juzheng pondered for a moment and continued: "In order to survive, San Niangzi runs to the capital two or three times a year, fearing that the Imperial Court will cut off the enfeoffment and tribute, cut off the wool business, and have no salt, no iron pots, and no tea to live."

"Living is a luxury for grassland people. Survival is the first major event they must face. Therefore, there is widespread recognition of the Golden Family on the grassland."

Because the Golden Family led the grassland people to live a stable life for nearly a hundred years, entering the Central Plains, they could live, and live on the heads of the Central Plains people. It seemed that as long as they believed in the Golden Family, they could continue to live the stable and affluent life they had in the beginning, and it gradually became a kind of faith.

"General Qi told me that the cavalry tactics of the Central Plains and the cavalry tactics of the grassland are completely different. Central Plains cavalry emphasizes penetration and are all fully armored heavy cavalry, while grassland cavalry are mainly skirmishers, emphasizing harassment and mobility. What you said, Master, makes me suddenly enlightened. The costs are different, and the effects are naturally different. Therefore, since ancient times, when Central Plains cavalry and grassland cavalry faced off, Central Plains cavalry won more and lost less." Zhu Yijun suddenly realized. No wonder the Han and Tang iron cavalry could suppress grassland cavalry and beat them like beating grandsons.

Ten thousand Central Plains cavalry, facing an enemy several times their size, could also chisel through the enemy formation.

"Does Your Majesty know when the strongest cavalry of the Central Plains was?" Since Zhang Juzheng wanted to explain the cavalry matter clearly, he didn't intend to stop at the surface. His discussion of politics with the Emperor, except for things like "monarch and father are one body" and "monarch and teacher are one body" which wouldn't be deeper, never stopped at the surface, but deeply analyzed the problem before letting the Emperor make a decision.

Zhang Juzheng was completely different from the base scholars. He wouldn't let the Emperor guess for himself, but used his own talent to assist the Emperor in making decisions.

"Tang dynasty?" Zhu Yijun pondered for a moment and then thought: "Hu Yuan?"

Hu Yuan was the legitimate dynasty recognized by the Taizu High Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. If that counts as a Central Plains dynasty, naturally one can count Hu Yuan as well. Hu Yuan itself was the Mongols moving south, so Hu Yuan's cavalry being the strongest was also reasonable.

"It's not Hu Yuan, even if you count the four major khanates, it's not Hu Yuan's cavalry, and it's not the Great Tang. The Great Tang actually had more policies of 'using Hu to control Hu' and 'using barbarians to control barbarians,' provoking their contradictions and letting them be the running dogs for the Great Tang to fight." Zhang Juzheng said very firmly: "The strongest cavalry of the Central Plains was in the Great Han, to be precise, when Wu Di of Han was in a decisive battle with the Xiongnu."

"Wu Di of Han and the Xiongnu had a decisive battle in Mobei, mobilizing a total of one hundred thousand elite cavalry. This was the family foundation Wu Di of Han had saved for a lifetime. Even though the fifty thousand iron cavalry led by Wei Qing did not achieve complete success, Huo Qubing did achieve complete success. Since then, the northern country has been stable for four hundred years."

The location of the decisive battle between Han and Xiongnu was in Mobei. Crossing the grassland and the desert from Han territory to the Mobei decisive battle at the Hangai Mountains, the pressure of supply can be imagined. And mobilizing one hundred thousand elite cavalry at once—simply converting it, one thousand elite cavalry needs eighteen thousand oxen, so one hundred thousand elite cavalry needs one million eight hundred thousand oxen.

Elite cavalry being powerful is naturally powerful, but that was all smashed out with silver!

"The subject never thinks Wu Di of Han was the tyrant people speak of. During the Western Han dynasty, the grassland was warm and moist, and the Xiongnu's strength was extremely strong. Even Emperor Gao Zu of Han had the Siege of Baideng, and the Xiongnu sent envoys into Han to humiliate Emperor Gao Zu's Empress, Empress Lü, and Empress Lü could only welcome them with a smiling face. The Great Han and the Xiongnu had a contradiction of survival. Whoever lost would have their name erased and become an insignificant footnote in history. With such a sharp contradiction, one could only bet everything." Zhang Juzheng made an evaluation of Wu Di of Han. Wu Di of Han was definitely not a benevolent ruler.

But during Wu Di of Han's time, the contradiction between the Xiongnu and the Central Plains had already sharpened to the point of survival. You die, I live. If you don't bet everything, are you going to spend the money on war reparations?

The Han-Xiongnu decisive battle was a complete victory for the Great Han. Even if the main army of Wei Qing did not achieve complete success, it was just that they didn't catch up, but the fifty thousand troops led by Huo Qubing had solidly wiped out the Xiongnu's right wing.

Wu Di of Han staked all the savings of the reigns of Emperors Wen and Jing, overdrawing the national strength of the Great Han for fifty years, only then completing the formation of one hundred thousand elite cavalry to launch a distant expedition to the northern desert and secure it forever.

This was the reason why in the fifth year of Hongwu, the Great Ming Taizu High Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang wanted a three-pronged army to attack Mobei. Zhu Yuanzhang hoped to create a Great Ming without border troubles for several hundred years, permanently pacifying Mobei.

Zhang Juzheng explained in detail what Wu Di of Han bet.

First was selling official positions and titles. Wu Di of Han even sold official positions. At first, he sold clerks, later he simply sold official titles; second was the currency law. The *Wuzhu* coin went from full weight to iron coins, and then to prohibiting the vassal kings of the Liu family from minting coins privately, etc.; first he promulgated the *Suanmin* Law to collect taxes. When the *Suanmin* Law couldn't satisfy him, he started using the *Gaomin* Law, letting everyone inside and outside the Great Han report each other, reporting who had money and didn't pay taxes;

And then there was the salt and iron monopoly, invisibly taxing through salt and iron. Even after this step, it was still not enough. Wu Di of Han aimed his butcher knife at the powerful families, moving wealthy households to Maoling to guard the tombs. All kinds of things like this were Wu Di of Han scraping for money to fill the big hole of these ten thousand elite cavalry.

Without cavalry, one couldn't destroy the Xiongnu. If one wanted cavalry, one had to bet everything. The first fifty years and the last fifty years, all the wealth was bet on it.

This was the price of ten thousand elite cavalry, expensive to an astronomical number.

When the Great Tang dynasty was at its most elite, the cavalry was no more than forty or fifty thousand. Among them, those who could go on expeditions to Mobei and the Anxi Protectorate nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine *li* away were less than ten thousand.

"If our Great Ming wants to permanently pacify Mobei, how many cavalry do we need?" Zhu Yijun was silent for a moment and asked.

"One hundred thousand." Zhang Juzheng gave a very firm number. This was a number verified by Wu Di of Han, and it was also the number obtained during the Hongwu and Yongle reigns. The climate of the grassland had become bitterly cold, but the scale and depth of the battlefield were there, so there had to be such elite cavalry.

Zhu Yijun waved his hands repeatedly and said: "Can't afford it, really can't afford it."

"Great Ming is not the early dynasty now. Wu Di of Han still had the inheritance of the emperors Wen and Jing. When I ascended the throne, our Great Ming still owed one hundred and ten thousand taels for building the Imperial Tombs. Elite cavalry being expensive is not its shortcoming; poverty is just the disadvantage of our Great Ming."

Zhu Yijun knew the fiscal situation of Great Ming very well. One hundred thousand cavalry, one million eight hundred thousand oxen—why not slice me, the Emperor, into pieces and sell me by the slice?

"This is also the reason why San Niangzi can come to the capital for tribute so frequently. She wants reconciliation, and grassland people also need to live. Of course, there are still die-hard elements on the grassland, and that requires slaughter." Zhang Juzheng explained why San Niangzi came to the capital for tribute frequently. She represented the surrender faction, or reconciliation faction, on the grassland.

Zhang Juzheng looked at the snowflakes fluttering in the sky, his tone slightly heavy: "After the decisive battle in Mobei by the ten thousand elite cavalry led by Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, they had no use. General-in-Chief Wei Qing never went out to fight again until he died of illness thirteen years later. Whether to maintain these ten thousand elite cavalry and the hundreds of thousands of troops cooperating with them, how to maintain them, how to resettle them, and how to provide pensions for those who died in battle became a problem for Wu Di of Han."

"In these elite cavalry, there were a large number of Xiongnu who had surrendered. Their treatment during the war was extremely high. Should they continue to receive such treatment after the war? All kinds of problems like this, plus the Great Han's finances also began to be stretched."

"After this battle, the Xiongnu did not have their descendants cut off. Many Xiongnu tribes that had submitted to the Great Han began to rebel again, and because the Xiongnu in the elite cavalry were dissatisfied with their treatment, they began to join these tribes. The Xiongnu began to invade the south again. Because the national power was exhausted, the people's livelihood was full of sorrow. Facing all this, Wu Di of Han in his later years naturally became that kind of suspicious and paranoid personality."

The greatest achievement of Wu Di of Han's life was probably winning the Han-Xiongnu war. This was his greatest pride, and later this pride became less real as the Xiongnu invaded the south again.

Zhu Yijun pondered for a moment and said: "History has no 'if.' Who knows if Wu Di of Han hadn't established these ten thousand iron cavalry, would the Great Han have been destroyed by the Xiongnu? So Wu Di of Han couldn't prove his choice was right, so he became suspicious and paranoid. It's within reason."

Zhu Yijun could actually understand Wu Di of Han's thoughts. As an emperor, when the Xiongnu began to invade the border again, his own life's achievements were like a joke. But looking at it from the perspective of later generations, as Zhang Juzheng said, it was a critical historical window period. Wu Di of Han grasped it, and with the help of two military geniuses, Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, he completed the miracle of the expedition to Mobei.

The Xiongnu were always alive, even living longer than the Great Han, but their strength could no longer pose a substantial threat to the Central Plains. The succession of the Chanyu on the grassland also had to look at the face of the Great Han. The Xiongnu always wanted to live like the Great Han. By the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Xiongnu Liu Yuan even established Han Zhao, honoring Liu Bei's son Liu Shan as his ancestor, wanting to restore the glory of the Great Han.

Zhu Yijun didn't think Wu Di of Han did anything wrong, because at that time, the Xiongnu's strength was far stronger than the current Northern Lu.

"The Han and Xiongnu finally reconciled." Zhang Juzheng was very supportive of Great Ming's enfeoffment and tribute to Altan Khan. Altan Khan's surname was Borjigin, a traitor of the Golden Family who defected to Great Ming and became a prince, which brought a turning point for the reconciliation between Great Ming and the Northern Lu.

Zhu Yijun knew about this reconciliation, the Han-Xiongnu marriage policy jokingly called the "Han-Xiongnu Merger Treaty," which began with Wang Zhaojun going outside the passes.

"Therefore, regarding the establishment of cavalry, let's establish two cavalry battalions first, six thousand people." Zhu Yijun thought about it again and again. Cavalry still had to be had. Elite cavalry had the ability to influence the situation on the battlefield. Elite cavalry had always been expensive. A scale of six thousand people was something Great Ming could still bear. Any more, and Great Ming really couldn't afford it now.

Great Ming's military expenditure for the Nine Borders was six million six hundred thousand taels of silver a year, and the Capital Battalion and the Southern Yamen Water Navy supported two million seven hundred thousand taels of silver a year. This was a military expenditure of nine million taels of silver. Even if a six thousand-man elite cavalry was established, Great Ming's annual military expenditure would exceed ten million taels.

And in the early Wanli years, Zhang Juzheng hurriedly completed the national land survey, increasing the number of *mu* from four million *qing* to seven million *qing*, and fully implemented the Single Whip Law in the ninth year of Wanli. Great Ming's fiscal revenue that year was no more than twenty-two million one hundred and seventy thousand taels.

And now, in the fifth year of Wanli, when the land survey was not fully completed and the Single Whip Law had not been implemented, a military expenditure of ten million taels a year, occupying half of Great Ming's fiscal expenditure, could already be considered "impoverishing the country and using force."

Thanks to the wool official factories, Western Mountain Coal Bureau, Songjiang, Southern Yamen, Fujian Shipyard, major weaving bureaus, and the continuous expansion of maritime trade in Guangzhou, Fujian, and Songjiang Maritime Trade Offices, and the tax collection in Southern Yamen, Zhejiang, Huguang, Fujian, and other places, Great Ming's finances did not have a deficit again.

In November of the fifth year of Wanli, the Ministry of Revenue began an audit. In one month, the Ministry of Revenue calculated Great Ming's tax revenue, converted to silver as 20.37 million taels.

After subtracting this year's expenditure, the national treasury had a surplus of over 2.3 million taels, while the inner treasury had a surplus of 3 million taels. The national treasury had about 9 million taels of silver, and the inner treasury exceeded 10 million.

The growth of the inner treasury's income mainly came from the business of the Imperial Manors. The Great Ming Emperor was truly good at making money. For example, the Yanxing Tower in the Imperial Manor, the fine spinning wool hall set up on the first floor, just the 0.3% commission alone could reach nearly a thousand taels a day.

Wang Guoguang, this Grand Secretary, was dutiful and absolutely worthy of the Emperor's trust.

Great Ming was really poor because it couldn't collect taxes. The ninth year of Wanli was already the most glorious year of the late Ming. By the twenty-third year of Wanli, the Wanli Emperor, who had abolished the New Policies and was crazy about poverty, sent out tax supervisors to gather wealth everywhere, and he couldn't even get eight million taels a year.

The Qing dynasty, which used the same tax law as Great Ming, reached 31.65 million taels in tax revenue in the eleventh year of Shunzhi. The Qing dynasty could collect taxes because its knives were sharpened quickly.

"Your Majesty, am I a treacherous official?" Zhang Juzheng suddenly spoke, his expression a bit lost.

Zhu Yijun was shocked and asked in horror: "Why do you say that?!"

"Your Majesty, the Yongding and Yongsheng wool official factories handed over profits exceeding 3 million taels this year. The Minister of Justice, by his own strength, exceeded the five years of hard work of the subject and the subject's Zhang Party. The subject calculated the tax growth since the land survey, and it was actually not as good as the official factory of the Minister of Justice. And this is still the profit after dividing the accounts with the Minister of Justice's family." Zhang Juzheng could empathize with Wu Di of Han. He had racked his brains for five years, but the result was not as good as the profit Wang Chonggu made alone.

Was there no justice, was there no law!

The Jin Party had greatly reduced its strength after the execution of Zhang Siwei and his party. Under such fierce court strife, Wang Chonggu's official factory could be said to have relied entirely on his own strength, and its profit exceeded all of Zhang Juzheng's efforts.

"So the Master was thinking about this last night until dawn?" Zhu Yijun only then knew why Zhang Juzheng had to stay up late.

The Master probably couldn't sleep, and every time he closed his eyes, it was the three words "Wang Chonggu." Zhang Juzheng implemented the *Kaocheng* Law, and he also evaluated himself. The result naturally made him restless, and he began to suspect that he was a treacherous official.

"It is so." Zhang Juzheng's face still revealed a bit of confusion. Did he really do the right thing these five years? The land survey intensified the contradiction between the Imperial Court and the gentry, and after all the tossing and turning, the result was not as good as Wang Chonggu.

"The Master is also confused. The 'contradiction theory' is the Master's own theory. I won't mention others. Just regarding Wang Chonggu as a person, without the Master's earnest advice, how could he be willing to turn back to the shore?" Zhu Yijun shook his head and said.

That wasn't Zhang Juzheng's earnest advice; that was a heavy punch—a heavy punch that almost beat Wang Chonggu to death. Even now, Wang Chonggu had psychological trauma. As long as Zhang Juzheng was still alive, Wang Chonggu would continue to fulfill his promises in fear and trepidation.

Wang Chonggu didn't "turn back to the shore"; he was beaten to the point of being half-dead before he was willing to turn back. When the Xuan-Da Great Wall was built, Wang Chonggu had exhausted his family wealth to plug the hole and resettle the nineteen thousand displaced people, which was the only way he could settle the account of his previous transgression.

Zhu Yijun continued: "The profit of the Yongning and Yongsheng wool factories is actually a result of Great Ming's wealthy nation and strong army. If it weren't for General Qi's successive victories in Daning Guard and Huining Guard, could the wool business be done so stably? The Northern Lu is willing to sit down and talk, and San Niangzi is willing to come to the capital trip after trip—isn't it because they don't dare to invade the south to loot?"

"The white clay for cleaning wool was also found in Taotu Mountain in Daning Guard. Without the Master's wealthy nation and strong army, where would the white clay come from?"

"The Master is also talking nonsense. 'Zhang Juzheng's New Policies'—can these five words be measured by the Imperial Court's fiscal taxes? Indeed, without money, one can do nothing, but money cannot measure everything."

"The Yongding and Yongsheng wool factories are the fruits of the New Policies."

"Master, this is like eating the fifth bun and being full—did you not eat the first four buns? Master, you are obsessed. The bystander sees clearly, and I see it very clearly."

Treacherous official? Who is a treacherous official? Zhang Juzheng's New Policies, if measured by money, are priceless.

The clarity of the administration, the excitement of the army, the clarity of the academic administration, the prosperity of commerce—the Imperial Court's taxes can naturally reflect this. Wang Chonggu is supervising the Imperial Court's official factory, not his own. The official factory is also a part of Great Ming's New Policies. Wang Chonggu can hand over so much profit; that is one of the fruits of the New Policies.

"Really?" Zhang Juzheng was still a bit suspicious.

The Jin Party, as his political enemies, performed even more loyally to the monarch and the country than he did.

"As true as real gold and silver!" Zhu Yijun said very firmly: "The Master is just not in charge of the state, and after being busy for so long, he suddenly became idle, so he started having wild thoughts."

"Wang Chonggu and Wang Qian came to pay respects and said they wanted to set a fixed share. This year, they were given over three hundred thousand taels for their family. Wang Chonggu said the silver was too hot to handle, it was really too much. Wang Chonggu is very clear-headed; he knows he is supervising the Imperial Court's official factory."

Wang Chonggu must be clear-headed. If he wasn't, Wang Qian would help him be clear-headed. The nine clans are a major matter; one cannot joke about the nine clans.

Situation explanation: After I finished writing yesterday, because I had to go on a long trip today, I left at six in the morning. I thought I had set it to publish at a fixed time, but when I finished my work in the morning and looked, it hadn't been published. Begging for monthly tickets, Awoo!!!!!!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 268 =====