Chapter 309: Why Did Your Majesty Rebel?

Zhu Yijun had been calculating the Kong Fu's account book. After reading it, he could understand why the direct descendants of the Kong Fu went to sea to find money—because they were poor.

The Kong Fu, which confiscated 3.7 million taels of silver and 40,000 *qing* of land, went to sea to find money because they were poor. Such a reason is very contradictory, but this is reality. Contradictions are universal. The Kong Fu, sitting on such an industry, actually went to sea for money.

The Kong Fu's income was high, but its expenses were also high. In recent years, it had begun to exceed its income.

The Kong Fu of Yanzhou, not counting the collateral branches, had a total of 527 people, including servants and slaves.

The monthly allowance alone was nearly ten thousand taels of silver.

The monthly allowance for Kong Shangxian's mother, Kong Shangxian himself, his two brothers, and his sisters-in-law is 20 taels of silver; after that come the various wives, whose monthly allowance is 4 taels each; as for the sons and daughters of the generation of Kong Yinsong and Kong Yinlin, their monthly allowance is 2 taels, and there are about seven others—sons and daughters of wealthy families from elsewhere who have come to seek refuge and are long-term boarders—who receive 2 taels of silver a month as long as they live within the Kong residence.

Like Kong Shangxian and other wealthy households, the whole Shandong area had only this one family. On weekdays, there was not even a person of the same level to talk to. Therefore, other wealthy families would go to visit other families, and this visit would last for several years without returning. This kind of boarding-style visit is extremely common in wealthy families.

As for the sons and daughters of the younger generation, in addition to their monthly allowance of 2 taels, the males receive 8 taels of silver each month for snacks at the school, buying paper and brushes, visiting temple fairs, and socializing with classmates, while the females receive 2 taels of silver each month to buy rouge, powder, and other such items.

For the generation of grandchildren, due to the affection between grandparents and grandchildren, they each receive five taels of silver a month.

Young masters and young ladies all had their own maids. Usually, there would be two concubines, one first-class maid, four second-class maids, and eight third-class maids. According to the rules of the Kong Fu before, concubines and first-class maids could not be used by young masters and young ladies, but this rule had long been broken. These first-class maids were usually the young masters' concubines and the young ladies' dowry maids, who were intimate people.

Concubines were not outside wives or concubines, but old maids who served people, 2 taels a month. First-class maids were 1 tael a month, second-class maids were 5 cents of silver, and third-class maids were 3 cents of silver.

There were also "family members." Family members were servants collected by wealthy households to bypass the Great Ming imperial court's ban on slavery. These family members were the basic units that could maintain the operation of this wealthy household. For example, this accounting room had three rooms: a silver treasury, a procurement, and an accounting room. The three teachers had four taels of silver a month. There were also some servants who were called, and each level was different.

Great Ming Beijing troops selling their lives outside only had 18 taels of silver a year. Even if the Emperor continuously rewarded them, the most was 20 taels a year, no more than 1 tael and 6 cents a month, which was about equal to a first-class maid in the Kong Fu.

Eating, wearing, and using all cost money. This Kong Fu needed more than 100,000 taels of silver a year just to maintain it, even if no major events like weddings or funerals were held.

The Kong Fu had 40,000 *qing* of land. The annual real estate and currency land rent could exceed 500,000 silver after the real estate was converted. But the Kong Fu was still in deficit.

These masters were not fuel-efficient lamps. Each family had its own calculations. When purchasing, they reported a slightly higher price. The accountant calculated it with tacit understanding, and the silver treasury supervisor took the money when he saw the slip. This silver went out. This family's window was broken today, and that family's tile was broken tomorrow. It can be said that the eight immortals crossed the sea, each showing their magical powers.

This accountant absolutely did not dare to report. If he reported, the masters were all family members. At most, he would be scolded. If the servants reported the masters, they would be beaten to death and buried in a chaotic grave. If they didn't report, everyone would get rich together. Isn't that beautiful?

Therefore, the money spent by the masters of the Kong Fu had no count at all. A deficit appeared between the income and expenditure of the Kong Fu.

This big collective of the Kong Fu was losing money, but the masters were all fat and oily.

Kong Shangxian, as the head of the Kong Fu, had no way. He didn't even have a son or daughter. If he moved anyone's family, wouldn't they climb on his nose and face? There was no way to reduce expenditure, so he could only go to open source. There were two ways to find money: annexation was one way, and going out to find money was also one way.

The account book of the Kong Fu was exceptionally chaotic when it reached Kong Shangxian. The biggest deficit came from the corruption within the mansion.

Ling Yunyi had been checking the accounts for the Kong Fu this month and found several other huge expenditures, all of which were big holes.

The first was raising bandits. There were many bandits in Shandong, and the biggest bandit strongholds were all raised by the Kong Fu. This item alone cost more than 10,000 taels a month. As annexation intensified, there were more and more bandits, and the expenditure became larger and larger. The second was the reward money for the sake of face. During festivals, they had to support it hard. Various arts entered the mansion to perform, and the servants of each room and courtyard all had to receive reward money. This item alone cost more than 100,000 a year. The third was borrowing money. The Kong Fu lent money out.

The Kong Fu raised 72 running dogs in the Shandong area. Every one of these families liked to come to the Kong Fu to pay respects and pour out their bitterness, and they could always get some silver. And these silver, just the accounts from the first year of Wanli to the sixth year of Wanli, exceeded 500,000 silver.

What made Ling Yunyi particularly annoyed was that the Kong Fu's account book did not use the "six books and one account" method to keep accounts, and it was recorded in a mess. After sorting it out, the confiscation account book of Ling Yunyi matched this "six books and one account" of the Kong Fu, and it was escorted to the capital.

In the first year of Wanli, the account book of the Imperial Palace was actually as messy as the Kong Fu's. It took several years of effort for the palace's expenditure to be reduced from more than 1 million silver a year to 500,000 silver a year. Who let the Emperor be stingy? Everyone knows it.

As a comparison, when Zhang Juzheng was in the capital, the annual expenditure of the entire Quanchu Guild Hall was only more than 1,000 taels.

Most court officials highly recognized that the Emperor's stinginess was learned from Zhang Juzheng. Zhang Juzheng himself was also very frugal, and even the decoration accounts of the Quanchu Guild Hall had to be seen by Zhang Juzheng himself.

When it reached the Earl of Yicheng's mansion, there were more people and more expenses, but it was only 1,500 taels of silver a year.

The annual expenditure of the Kong Fu was enough for Zhang Juzheng's Quanchu Guild Hall to operate stably for 416 years.

Qi Jiguang led the Great Ming Beijing troops to return to the capital. Defense matters were handed over to the Great Ming Guard troops. The Miyun Town and Jizhen Guard troops began to defend the border to the north. Danning Guard moved to Huining Guard, and Yingchang Prefecture was also in the coordination area of Huining Guard. All defense matters were handed over in an orderly manner.

Tuman Khan and Altan Khan both breathed a sigh of relief. Qi Jiguang, who had won every battle, finally left the grassland. This killing star can finally be considered gone!

The attribute of the Great Ming border troops determined that the border troops did not have the ability to conquer. Qi Jiguang's triumph represented the end of this Great Ming attack.

But what about the next time?

Qi Jiguang's Beijing troops successfully passed Gubeikou. The terrain of Gubeikou is extremely dangerous. Qi Jiguang stood at the pass of Gubeikou. From a purely military perspective, breaking this pass is as difficult as ascending to heaven. But Altan Khan invaded the Great Ming's Beijing area from this impregnable pass in the 29th year of Jiajing, and Dong Huli killed the Miyun Regional Commander Tang Kekuan here in the third year of Wanli.

The solidity of mountains and rivers lies in virtue, not in danger.

This was originally a very correct sentence. The Great Ming imperial court did not give military pay and owed pay for a long time. Even if they didn't give silver, giving a mouthful of food could keep the pass. But they owed pay to the point where the soldiers couldn't survive. At this time, if the nation loses great trust, people's hearts will be suspicious, and no matter how dangerous the pass is, it cannot be kept.

But just such a sentence became a footnote for "cultivating civil virtue to soothe the distant people." Not giving soldiers food and pay, just soothing the distant people, getting along well with the distant people, and the distant people will not come to attack.

This strange logic of "giving to foreign barbarians rather than to family slaves" did indeed exist in ancient times and was a must-be-correct wind public opinion.

Practice has proved that the virtue of the solidity of mountains and rivers is martial virtue, not civil virtue.

"General Chen, once, His Majesty talked to me about the death of Yue Fei." Qi Jiguang stood at Gubeikou, letting the scorching sun of summer bake him, looking at the winding mountain road with a full smile. Everything was full of vitality and everything was competing to develop.

Qi Jiguang leaned against the parapet of the pass, looking outside, and continued: "Grand Coordinator Yue's fourth northern expedition went all the way north, beating the Jin Kingdom until they threw away their helmets and armor, beating Wanyan Zongbi of the Jin Kingdom until he fled across the Yellow River, once again restoring the momentum of the Great Song's empire. But then, he received twelve urgent imperial edicts with golden tallies, ordering Grand Coordinator Yue to withdraw his troops. Ten years of effort were wasted in an instant. When he withdrew his troops and reached the Yangtze River, he looked up to the heavens and sighed in sorrow: 'All the prefectures recovered are lost in a single moment! It is difficult to restore the empire! The world cannot be recovered!'"

Qi Jiguang actually had this worry too. Last time he attacked Danning Guard, he was afraid that it would be his last time to go out of the border, so he planned a military adventure to attack Huining Guard. To this day, he is still being impeached by court officials.

And this time returning to the capital, he was in a very good mood and had no such concerns, because the Great Ming's plan to restore the loop had already begun to be implemented, and the Great Ming still had to attack.

And Qi Jiguang completed his second northern expedition, which was actually very satisfying. Even if the restoration of the Hetao became a castle in the air due to various reasons, he was enough to close his eyes.

Eleven years, Qi Jiguang saw the situation in Liaodong very thoroughly. Once the Northern Barbarians and the Eastern Barbarians merged, they would become a serious problem for the Great Ming. Now a Great Xianbei Mountain road is blocked in the middle. If the barbarians and barbarians merge, there will be no chance.

His Majesty is a very stingy person. He absolutely refuses to spit out what he has eaten. As long as His Majesty is still in his prime, the Great Xianbei Mountain road will be impregnable.

"Why don't I see General Yu?" Qi Jiguang asked somewhat suspiciously.

"The subject requests an imperial decree to visit the sick." Qi Jiguang's eyes widened, intending to go to visit the sick immediately. Yu Dayou is already 76 years old this year. At this age, once he lies down, it is really difficult to get up.

"Go." Zhu Yijun signaled Qi Jiguang to go.

Zhu Yijun did not go to visit the sick. He always felt that his killing was too heavy. If he went to visit, it would bring bad luck to Yu Dayou. This was Zhu Yijun's true thought. He went to visit several times, and the results of Zhu Xizhong and Zhu Xixiao were not very good. Zhu Yijun was waiting, waiting for the news from the medical officials of the Dissection Academy.

And at this time, Li Shizhen and Chen Shigong were both at Yu Dayou's mansion. Yu Dayou was indeed suffering from a cold. If it were a young man, he might have had a runny nose for half a day and been fine. But Yu Dayou was old, and his physical fitness began to decline. He developed a high fever last night, which scared Li Shizhen and Chen Shigong so much that they didn't sleep all night, watching by his side.

"The fever has subsided." Chen Shigong breathed a long sigh of relief and showed a relieved smile to Li Shizhen.

Li Shizhen also shook his head with exhaustion and said: "Hmm, one foot had already entered the ghost gate, but it was finally pulled back."

In Li Shizhen's medicine box, there was a glass bottle containing a clear solution, which was the Chen brine. The oral effect of this thing was relatively poor, but injecting it directly into the blood vessels had an excellent effect. Li Shizhen did not dare to use a large dose for Yu Dayou, but injected a little bit, and the effect was excellent.

And this time, the appearance of the new medicine gave Li Shizhen hope.

"The output of this thing is really too low." Chen Shigong knew the magic of this medicine, but the only problem was that the output was limited.

The only problem, output, the output of this thing is almost equal to nothing. That yellow mold has a very high output, but that thing is a poison.

"Can that yellow mold really not be used? The output is very large." Chen Shigong was still somewhat unwilling to give up.

Li Shizhen said helplessly: "Humans are no different from rabbits, mice, and monkeys. Zhang Siwei has already verified it. Yellow mold is indeed harmful to people."

Yellow mold is poisonous, but the medical officials are still unwilling to give up and have been experimenting.

The purpose of the medical officials seems to be to find the strain that produces green mold Chen brine in yellow mold, because the output of yellow mold is really large.

There are indeed strains in yellow mold that produce green mold Chen brine, but finding them requires a lot of people. Japanese pirates or people like Zhang Siwei, if they try more, they will find them.

Because the medical officials did indeed refine green mold Chen brine that saved people from yellow mold at the very beginning. What exactly it is requires a lot of experiments to find.

Qi Jiguang came, but was stopped outside the door by the medical officials of the Dissection Academy because the patient was still recovering and it was not suitable to see people now. After learning that Yu Dayou's condition had improved, Qi Jiguang chose to wait outside. After looking at the window for two glances, Qi Jiguang chose to leave. Yu Dayou's complexion indeed did not look like he was about to die.

On the seventh day of Qi Jiguang's return to the capital, His Majesty the Great Ming Emperor Zhu Yijun saw Yu Dayou again in the Wenhua Hall court discussion.

"General Yu, is the illness completely cured?" Zhu Yijun asked with a smile when he saw Yu Dayou in high spirits.

Yu Dayou bowed his head and said: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your concern. This decoction from the Dissection Academy is indeed stronger than the Imperial Hospital's prescription."

The four unreliable things in the Great Ming capital are well known: Hanlin Academy articles, Martial Arts Supervisor knives and guns; Guanglu Temple tea soup, Imperial Hospital prescriptions.

The articles of the base scholars in the Hanlin Academy are smelly and extremely empty, while the knives and guns of the Martial Arts Supervisor are rotten and useless. This is the Great Ming's martial arts not flourishing. Guanglu Temple is a place specifically for cooking, and it is very unpalatable. The masters in the palace all have their own small dining halls. And the Imperial Hospital's prescriptions are because there are too many dignitaries in the capital, and the Imperial Hospital officials who cure diseases are tied up when treating famous people and dare not use medicine.

Yu Dayou even left a will, but the medical officials of the Dissection Academy were able to bring him back to life.

Already able to joke, it is clear that Yu Dayou is really cured. Thank Zhang Siwei and the Japanese pirates for their contribution to Great Ming medicine.

The court discussion began. Lu Diaoyang took a memorial and said with a complicated expression: "The Ministry of Justice's Giving-Attendant Zhao Youtang submitted a memorial opposing the execution of the gambling shop traitors."

"How much benefit did this Zhao Youtang receive to submit such a memorial? It must be at least a thousand taels of silver." Zhu Yijun opened Zhao Youtang's memorial and drew a red "x." It was already the sixth year of Wanli, and he was still collecting money to submit memorials. Could Zhu Yijun really be fooled by these few words?

"Your Majesty, Zhao Youtang's words are not credible. He said that Emperor Taizu was violent and had no capacity for people, which was a great harm to the world. Actually, it is not so." Wan Shihe raised a point of opposition, saying that Zhu Yuanzhang was violent, which everyone recognized, but saying that Emperor Taizu had no capacity for people, Wan Shihe had something to say.

"Oh?" Zhu Yijun looked at Wan Shihe. Could it be that this Minister of Personnel had his own unique insights on rituals and laws again?

Wan Shihe bowed his head and said: "Han Yike."

"What happened to this person?" Zhu Yijun asked curiously.

Wan Shihe tentatively said: "This person repeatedly submitted memorials to blame Chen Shan. Emperor Taizu not only did not refute it, but adopted it."

Is it true that only one Hai Rui scolded the Emperor in the Great Ming? Actually, no.

In the Hongwu years, there were court officials who climbed on Zhu Yuanzhang's nose and face. In the ninth year of Hongwu, Han Yike said that Emperor Taizu was addicted to killing, and would whip or exile people to Fengyang at every turn. Zhu Yuanzhang was not angry when he heard it, but accepted the opinion.

At that time, Han Yike said: "Punishment is to forbid lewdness and evil, to unify the people's tracks. One should discuss the lightness and heaviness of the situation, the public and private of the matter, and the size of the crime. Now all are ordered to be exiled. This is the luck of the villain, and the gentleman is in danger. Beg to distinguish, to coordinate the hearts of the crowd."

Han Yike pointed at Zhu Yuanzhang's nose and said that Zhu Yuanzhang did not distinguish between rewards and punishments, and did not distinguish between the public and private, size and smallness of matters, and exiled everyone. If this is not a muddled emperor, what is it?

Zhu Yuanzhang humbly accepted it. Saying that Zhu Yuanzhang had no capacity for people is really underestimating Zhu Yuanzhang.

Han Yike submitted memorials more than once. In the early years of the nation, the wives and daughters of officials whose families were confiscated were to be rewarded to officials of various yamen. Han Yike submitted memorials again, which finally promoted the establishment of the Jiaofang and the perfection of the system. And Zhu Yuanzhang also said that Han Yike's remonstrance was correct and that he was a clean and upright backbone minister.

One can say Zhu Yuanzhang was violent, which is a fact recognized by everyone.

Zhu Yijun wrote the three characters "Han Yike" on the memorial, which was considered a red approval and a formal response.

Lu Diaoyang took out the second memorial and said: "The plantations of the Wanli Sea Embankment are not being received smoothly."

Antonio did indeed give up these plantations, but these plantations nominally belonged to Antonio, but actually belonged to the governor in the local area. Even Antonio could do nothing about this. It was so far away that maintaining direct rule was impossible.

It requires the Great Ming navy to use force to collect the payment for the twelve five-masted ocean-crossing ships. If you reason, then reason; if you don't reason, then use force.

Seeking monthly tickets, Aowu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 310 =====

Zhu Yijun said with deep feeling: "Why else would the Dissection Institute be short of people lately? Isn't it all because of this Chen brine? These Japanese pirates are grouped in fives; they don't get rashes under the skin, so they just cut a few slits on their bodies to let the wounds fester. With the Chen brine used both internally and externally, the amount of medicine needed for each wound requires extrapolation, and after doing this, we know how much to use."

The experiments by the chief physicians of the Dissection Institute are very rigorous; they started with rabbits, then rats, then monkeys, and finally Japanese pirates. But even with such rigor, the materials in the Dissection Institute are somewhat insufficient.

The issue of dosage requires long-term practice.

The Dissection Institute has a very strong sense of humanistic care; if someone passes away during the drug testing process, they will be cut into thousands of cross-sections and placed in resin, which can remain undecayed for a thousand years.

Zhang Siwei is dead; he didn't pull through. After the inflammation, he developed a high fever. The inflammation went down, but in the end, he was still gone. Zhang Siwei burned himself to give his final light, illuminating the path of medical progress for the Great Ming.

As for how Zhang Siwei actually died, Chen Shigong of the Dissection Institute provided the answer: because the Chen brine Zhang Siwei used internally and externally contained some yellow mold. Through extensive practice, it was discovered that the toxicity of yellow mold brine is ten times more lethal than the venom of Zhoushan poisonous snakes; yellow mold brine only requires one-tenth of the dosage to kill a rat of equal weight.

Zhang Siwei still died from poison. He didn't die from arsenic back then, but died from yellow mold brine. Penicillin brine is a good medicine that saves lives, while yellow mold brine is a poison that kills on contact. That a good medicine and a poison could be so similar is truly something that deeply touches the chief physicians of the Dissection Institute.

Zhu Yijun explained the specific uses of penicillin brine to Qi Jiguang; the hardest part about this thing is mass production.

Primitive penicillin brine is very potent, and most importantly, this stuff can actually be recovered and reused from urine. Of course, how such a conclusion was reached must naturally be attributed to the various strange experiments of the Dissection Institute.

The beheadings began.

The court officials looked at the Kong family members on the execution platform with a sense of shared grief. His Majesty the Emperor had, after all, taken action. In fact, before the execution platform was built, the court officials still had some fantasies that the Great Ming Emperor might care about his reputation; even if he didn't show mercy, giving them some dignity by ordering them to commit suicide would have been fine.

But the Great Ming Emperor did not choose dignity; he chose to behead them and display their heads to the public.

Kong Shangxian was already disheveled. As time passed, Kong Shangxian did not wait for the Emperor to be deterred by fear of damaging his own reputation, nor did he wait for the scholars of the world to run around pleading for his family. What he waited for was the final meal before execution. The Great Ming Emperor was very generous, providing a meal worth two taels of silver for the condemned, allowing them to be well-fed ghosts on their way.

After Minister of Justice Wang Chonggu read out the crimes of all the defendants and requested the Emperor to issue an edict for their execution, cries of "Take them away!" rang out before the Meridian Gate. A total of over five hundred members of the Kong residence died under the bone-splitting blades, their heads chopped off by guillotines; they were dead beyond any doubt.

As luck would have it, Kong Shangxian's head was snatched away by a wild dog. In his final moments of consciousness, Kong Shangxian could not understand why the Emperor wanted to kill him; he was, after all, a descendant of Confucius.

Zhu Yijun looked at the people watching the execution below the platform. Before the defendants were to be escorted to the Dissection Institute, there was still not a single person there, as if there were something filthy there. He said, slightly distracted: "General Qi, the Master said that the existence of the empire is a distinction between public and private, and is formed by contradictions."

"Your Majesty, this subject does not understand these things." Qi Jiguang had a very deep study of the theory of contradictions; contradictions were, after all, military equipment. Although Qi Jiguang understood many principles, what the Emperor and Zhang Juzheng discussed was not within the scope of what Qi Jiguang could understand.

Zhu Yijun still explained the meaning of this sentence clearly to Qi Jiguang.

The distinction between public and private is that under the greatest 'public' that is the Great Ming, there are various 'privates' of all classes. Compared to the 'public' that is the empire, every collective is 'private', and there will inevitably be all kinds of contradictions between these collectives. Therefore, when contradictions intensify to the point where small collectives cannot regulate themselves, in order to avoid mutual destruction, a force that transcends all collectives is needed to regulate these contradictions; this is the reason for the existence of the empire.

The theory of contradictions is a set of learning that can explain the legitimacy of the empire, the existence of the empire, and the significance of the empire.

Contradictions inevitably exist between various collectives in society, and when contradictions intensify to an irreconcilable point, a force that transcends all collectives is needed to regulate them. What transcends other collectives is the power of the empire, and the duty of the empire is to try every means to regulate these contradictions.

According to the theory of contradictions, the Great Ming court has long failed to fulfill its obligations and has not regulated the contradictions between classes, which will eventually lead to a change of dynasty.

The lowly scholars are always discussing who should be blamed. Huang Yuezhong, a famous scholar from Jiangnan, wanted to pin all the blame on the Emperor, promoting his theory that the names of monarch and subject are different but the reality is the same, while Zhang Juzheng is constantly completing the content of the theory of contradictions.

As for who is actually saving the nation from extinction, there is no need to say more.

The reason why Zhu Yijun wanted to tell Qi Jiguang this was that Qi Jiguang had actually understood it.

The emperors of the Great Ming, except for Emperor Xiaozong, had all found the Kong residence unpleasant, but none could touch them. However, the reason why the current Emperor dared to take such ruthless action against the Kong residence in Qufu is that the Emperor no longer needs the Kong residence as one of the supporters of imperial power.

The signboard of Confucianism is no longer useful.

And the signboard of the theory of contradictions has become exceptionally useful. The theory of contradictions can even explain the legitimacy of the empire, why the empire exists, and the significance of the empire. As time passes, the Confucian set has gradually become unable to continue regulating contradictions as a political tool.

Kong Shangxian did not understand how the Great Ming Emperor dared to deal with their Kong residence. This question is roughly: "Your Majesty, why are you rebelling?"

The Kong residence has lost its irreplaceability; this is the answer.

Begging for monthly tickets, Awoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(End of chapter)