Chapter 397: The First All-Firearm Cavalry in History

The main text of "I Really Don't Want to Neglect My Proper Job," Chapter 408: The First All-Firearm Cavalry in History. A person is a person, I am myself. Humans exist naturally, not as servants of gods, and certainly not as anyone's appendage. This is the most basic humanistic thought.

*I Ching, Sequence of Hexagrams* says: There is Heaven and Earth, then there are all things. There are all things, then there are men and women. There are men and women, then there are husbands and wives. There are husbands and wives, then there are fathers and sons.

*Zhuangzi, Zhi Bei You* says: "The birth of a person is the gathering of *qi*. Gathering means birth, dispersing means death."

Humans are born of fathers and mothers; they exist naturally. It is not that gods bestowed a mission, letting humans come to the human world to suffer.

The "Old Heaven" and "Eternal Heaven" in the mouths of the Great Ming and the Northern Barbarians are both formless rules that exist in all things, time, and space. This is nature. And the great power of nature is greater than the individual. Humans, through effort and exploration, seek the way of survival with nature, which is acting in accordance with Heaven. Therefore, there is the "follow Heaven, follow Earth, follow the four seasons" proposed by Guanzi, as well as what is said in *Xunzi, Fugu*: "All things share the same universe but have different bodies; having no appropriateness but being useful to humans is the number."

The Hundred Schools of Thought in the pre-Qin period, on one hand, advocated that the great power of nature cannot be resisted, and on the other hand, they were pursuing the spirit of "control the mandate of Heaven and use it" (*Xunzi, Tian Lun*), "human strength overcomes Heaven," and "human determination overcomes Heaven" (*Zhou Shu*). These seem to be contradictory concepts, but Zhu Yijun, who is well-versed in the theory of contradictions, can clearly understand the basic fact that contradictions are universally present.

Zhu Yijun opening the sea and creating an industrial chain for grain imports is also based on the thought that human determination overcomes Heaven. Old Heaven does not let the Great Ming commoners live well, but Zhu Yijun insists otherwise.

A person is an independent individual. Zhu Yijun is the Son of Heaven, the spokesperson for the great powers such as the Heavenly Dao, Old Heaven, Eternal Heaven, and Nature. But he is very clear that he is not omnipotent. He always respects the fate of every person in the Great Ming relatively equally. Wanting to go against the will of Heaven requires ten thousand people to have one heart.

The cavalry camp, a place to risk one's life. The few elite cavalrymen will definitely appear in the places where the empire needs them most. Danger, just like the vanguard army when attacking a city, in intense military conflicts, someone will definitely walk towards death. The mortality rate of the cavalry camp is inevitably greater than that of the infantry camp.

Precisely because of the danger, when selecting for the cavalry camp, Zhu Yijun fully followed the principle of voluntariness.

It did not exceed Zhu Yijun's expectations. The number of people signing up for the cavalry camp was simply too many, so many that the Vice Regional Commanders responsible for the cavalry camp, Li Rusong, Yang Wen, and others, could not select them all.

Inside the Wu Ying Building, General Qi Jiguang Jiguang and Li Rusong walked in front. They were going to introduce the configuration of the cavalry camp to the Emperor in detail.

"This should be the first all-firearm cavalry in history." General Qi Jiguang Jiguang stood in front of three sets of armor and said with some emotion: "Three cavalry camps, with a quota of 10,500 people, possess a total of 35,000 flintlock muskets, 56,000 flintlock handguns, 524 side-box war chariots, 27 nine-jin cannons, and 1,200 mother-and-son cannons."

General Qi Jiguang Jiguang had to sigh with emotion. The all-firearm cavalry was entirely the Emperor's vision. At the beginning of the vision, everyone thought it was too bold, and even General Qi Jiguang Jiguang was relatively opposed to it. But as time passed, General Qi Jiguang Jiguang clearly understood that the Emperor's vision was by no means a reflection of flowers in a mirror or the moon in water; it was walking towards reality step by step.

The birth of these three cavalry camps was entirely realized based on the Emperor's "paper money ability." For these ten thousand people, the Emperor, in terms of personal relations, made friends with Shah Buyan; in terms of diplomacy, established diplomatic relations with the Mughal Empire, the remnants of the Northern Yuan; in the imperial court, rejected the advice of the remonstrating officials and stubbornly revived martial arts; in terms of finance, in two years, the three cavalry camps cost Zhu Yijun a full 3.2 million silver.

The Great Ming's ten thousand troops in the capital camp cost no more than two million silver a year, while the cavalry camp of ten thousand troops cost three million silver a year, equal to the expenses of six former emperors' mausoleums. All expenditures, in order to simplify the process, went through the Inner Treasury, and then the Inner Treasury and the State Treasury would argue with each other.

Flintlock muskets, seventeen silver each, came from the ginseng iron of Benxi in Liaodong and the rosewood of Qiongzhou. The output of ginseng iron in Liaodong was extremely small, and almost all the output was sent to the Bureau of Weapons. The Emperor was frugal and did not even use rosewood to build pillars and furniture in the palace, using it all on the gun stocks. The most important spring steel in the flintlock structure came from the Xishan Coal Bureau, and the gun oil for maintaining the firearms came from Ryukyu and Luzon.

"Flintlock long and short guns, with yin-yang spiral lines inside. The long gun uses three *qian* of gunpowder, breaking armor at sixty paces; the short gun uses two *qian* three *fen* of gunpowder, breaking armor at thirty paces. Both are paper-cased fixed gunpowder." General Qi Jiguang Jiguang picked up a musket and handed it to the Emperor. The Emperor came to the Northern Camp every day and was no stranger to cavalry guns.

Paper-cased fixed gunpowder—it sounds simple, as if just wrapping a fixed amount of gunpowder in paper is enough. But this is based on precision manufacturing, which has extremely high requirements for the precision of the gun bore caliber and the size of the lead bullets. It cannot explode the barrel, nor can it have insufficient power. The technical difficulty of this—after the idea of fixed gunpowder for the Pingyi gun appeared, Great Ming craftsmen spent a full seven years to initially perfect the process.

Side-box war chariots, nine-jin cannons, mother-and-son cannons, explosive shells, wooden time fuses—these were all old faces. The side-box war chariots were horse-drawn. Li Rusong and General Qi Jiguang Jiguang had also fiercely argued about the assembly of the nine-jin cannons. Li Rusong felt that for cavalry, which valued mobility, carrying such three-thousand-jin heavy cannons was really putting the cart before the horse. General Qi Jiguang Jiguang, on the other hand, believed that necessary heavy firepower could effectively break through defenses and was conducive to the realization of tactics.

In the end, General Qi Jiguang Jiguang won. This was not because Li Rusong had a problem with his understanding, but because General Qi Jiguang Jiguang's fighting style Ma Deli Rusong a bit confused.

The most important role of the three-thousand-jin heavy cannons was long-distance raids of thousands of *li*. Rapid marches of thousands of *li* and the storming of key targets all required the use of heavy firearms. The further the raid, the more necessary heavy firearms were, because they needed to "eat from the enemy."

The enemy's grain and baggage were stored in cities, and even Altan Khan built two cities in Hohhot.

"Iron armor is completely different from the clumsiness people imagine. Compared to other armors, the iron armor weighs less than thirty catties, satisfying defense needs while having lower weight." General Qi Jiguang Jiguang pointed to the iron armor on the rack and knocked on it.

Iron armor, or plate armor, is actually very flexible. The iron armor used by Zhu Yijun and Zhu Yijun's brother, Zhu Yiliu, was an integrated iron armor, even with gauntlets. Singing, dancing, and playing *cuju* were not problems at all.

But when large-scale equipping occurred, the inevitable problem appeared: the high cost of iron armor, the insufficient amount of steel to equip more than ten thousand people, and the weight of standard iron armor exceeding thirty-five catties. This was a huge burden. For cavalry engaged in long-distance raids, excessive armor quality meant greater consumption.

Zhu Yijun and Zhu Yijun's brother, Zhu Yiliu, could use specially made iron armor because their horses were specially selected warhorses. But when large-scale equipping occurred, they could only choose to reduce the configuration.

Three-quarters of the armor—the helmet, neck guard, and breastplate were complete, and the armor covered the entire upper body and the front half of the legs, down to the knees. This design guaranteed the safety of the cavalry to the maximum extent, and the reduction in weight could reduce the pressure on logistics and expand the operational radius.

What is relatively interesting is that there was only one glove, because the right hand needed to load gunpowder. Whether it was made of cotton, hemp, leather, or steel, it greatly affected the loading of gunpowder. After intense reactions from the soldiers, only one was equipped. If one was left-handed, they could also switch hands, which was very humane.

According to Zhu Yijun's previous plan, every cavalryman was to carry a war hammer, specifically used to "open cans"—that is, to eliminate the opponent's heavy cavalry. The war hammer was three feet long, with a hook and rope. The hammer head was a pointed hammer. With Zhu Yijun's strength, just one hammer blow on the helmet was completely enough to break the defense.

Even the leather sheath for the war hammer was made, but it was abandoned by the soldiers. The soldiers preferred to use it to hang sabers. This was determined by the battlefield environment.

The war hammer had no usage environment. For breaking armor, the gun was easier to use than the hammer. And the Great Ming's enemies did not have that much heavy armor; their armor was no different from paper in front of firearms.

A three-foot-three-inch knight saber was completely enough. If they really encountered heavy cavalry, and tens of thousands of muskets failed to eliminate the opponent's heavy cavalry, then carrying a hammer would not be as reliable as retreating, replenishing a round of gunpowder, and continuing to face the enemy.

Zhu Yijun had always admitted that his military talent was not high. The Great Ming's military battles were large-scale cluster battles, not scattered soldiers. The war hammer for "opening cans" was indeed easy to use, but it was not suitable for the current Great Ming battlefield.

After introducing the military equipment, Zhu Yijun led the officials to the outside of the Wu Ying Building.

On the drill ground in front of the Wu Ying Building, three cavalry camps totaling ten thousand people stood on the drill ground. The orderly and well-armored cavalrymen stood in front of their tall horses, one hand pulling the horse, one hand holding the helmet. All military equipment was placed on the horses.

More than ten thousand people stood on the drill ground, yet it was so quiet, silent, and murderous.

Sitting on both sides of the Wu Ying Building were the civil and military officials of the Great Ming. The Great Ming officials arrived at the Great Ming Northern Camp today together to witness the inspection of the cavalrymen.

The Great Ming cavalry camp just stood there quietly, without any more movements, but some civil officials were restless, as if there were nails under their buttocks, making them extremely anxious. Many people, looking at the murderous cavalry camp, were already sweating profusely.

The weather in the fifth month had not yet reached such a point.

If they had known about today, they should have stopped the Emperor from practicing martial arts!

After the assassination attempt, the Emperor forced the Embroidered Uniform Guard Commandant Zhu Xixiao to be the Emperor's martial arts teacher through coaxing and deception. At that time, everyone did not take it seriously, feeling that the young Emperor was frightened after the assassination, his heart was unsettled, and choosing to practice martial arts was more to win over the Commandant.

At that time, no one would have thought that the Emperor's "neglect of proper work" was for real. Practicing martial arts was extremely hard, and opening tendons was painful to the point of wanting to die. Without any talent, achieving success in martial arts required great perseverance. And would the Emperor, a natural noble, have such perseverance?

The Great Ming had experience. Last time, when the ruler was young and the country was suspicious, the ancestral law of inspecting troops and horses every day was still there, but the young Emperor Yingzong did not even go to inspect troops and horses, and the reason was sufficient: the child was still young.

After the restoration, Emperor Yingzong simply disbanded the capital camp, and it was not until the Chenghua period that it was reorganized.

The dark clouds of the assassination attempt did not end until Zhang Siwei entered the Jiekuyuan. No one was willing to be the bird that stuck its head out to oppose the Emperor's martial arts practice. It was better to avoid trouble, and everyone was waiting for the Emperor to give up on his own.

The Emperor did not give up, and the martial arts revival became more and more intense. Today, it finally blossomed and bore fruit.

The cavalry camp—the unparalleled sharp weapon that galloped outside the Great Wall during the Hongwu and Yongle periods of the Great Ming. During the Hongwu period, there were 500,000 horses, and by the Yongle period, during the five expeditions to the north, the Great Ming had 720,000 horses. Cavalry had always been the victorious army of the Great Ming in conquering the frontier. Since the Tumu Crisis, the Great Ming had never had a cavalry force of any scale.

Three cavalry camps, ten thousand people—compared to the beginning of the country, it could be said that it had shrunk severely, but no one would question the fierce combat power of these ten thousand troops.

Zhu Yijun walked onto the point-command platform. The slightly dry and hot wind of summer blew the banners, making them rustle. The sound of horns and drums became quiet again as the Emperor ascended the platform. Zhu Yijun, who had already reached adulthood, was vigorous and heroic. The contradictory temperaments of toughness and gentleness, masculinity and elegance were extremely harmonious on the Emperor, as well as that somewhat sigh-inducing, age-inappropriate steadiness.

This steadiness did not belong to this age.

Carrying the sun and moon on his shoulders, he had no choice but to act.

Zhu Yijun slowly stretched out his right hand and said calmly: "Great Ming Army, mighty."

"Your Majesty is mighty! Your Majesty is mighty! Your Majesty is mighty!"

"Great Ming Army is mighty!"

"Report to the Son of Heaven above, save the common people below! Report to the Son of Heaven above, save the common people below!"

The soldiers shouted in unison, the sound shaking the mountains and rivers, rushing straight into the clouds. The Great Ming military appearance shone with heavenly might.

Zhu Yijun looked at the cavalrymen and showed a smile. Zhu Xixiao and Zhu Xizhong, the two brothers, always talked about the Great Ming military appearance shining with heavenly might. Today, their expectations were finally realized.

Wang Chonggu leaned on the grand armchair, looking at this scene, full of smiles. He was a sycophant, a hypocrite. For the rest of his life, he would always be a hypocrite. Being a hypocrite for a lifetime could also be considered a gentleman, right?

The gun barrels and cannon bodies of the Great Ming cavalry camp were all produced by the Xishan Coal Bureau. The establishment of the Great Ming cavalry camp was completed under the Emperor's edict, Zhang Juzheng's order, and the concerted cooperation of the Six Ministries. If it were a matter of merit, he, Wang Chonggu, had contributed a little, and he had also obtained a share of holy favor.

Wang Chonggu was happy and decided to give Wang Qian a raise in pocket money, an extra thousand silver per month.

The inspection of the cavalry camp was outside the Northern Tucheng. Zhu Yijun came to the gate tower of the Northern Tucheng and watched the entire drill. The horses kicked up huge dust, and the dust and smoke filled the entire hunting ground. The sound of firearms was constant, slightly blocking some vision, but Zhu Yijun was still very, very satisfied.

One target after another was erected, one target after another was knocked down. The flying birds that were released were, without exception, all shot down by the Great Ming cavalry. The sound of horse hooves was constant, like a landslide and tsunami, smoke rolled, and the sound of cannons was like thunder!

"Good! Reward! Five silver for each cavalryman! Reward the three armies today." Zhu Yijun waved his hand, and more than seventy thousand silver went out. The cavalry camp received fifty thousand silver in rewards, and rewarding the three armies once required more than twenty thousand silver.

Stingy and generous—both were Zhu Yijun.

Zhu Yijun looked at the officials on the viewing platform. His eyes carried some playfulness. He actually hoped that these officials could give him a little surprise. The Great Ming's opening of the sea was gradually deepening, and the thick profits of maritime trade were truly moving. The Great Ming Maritime Trade Office's extraction and the Great Ming's ban made it impossible for the wealthy families to make money unscrupulously. Zhu Yijun hoped that the mouthpieces of these wealthy families could jump out.

Killing the chicken to warn the monkey required continuously killing those guys who dared to show their heads to deter the ambition of the wealthy families.

But Zhu Yijun increasingly discovered that the officials in the capital were as shrewd as the fish in the Taiye Pool. On one hand, when the Emperor wanted to take action, he never softened his hand; on the other hand, Hence Hai Rui and Li Youzi of the Censorate were anti-corruption and catching greedy officials, and they were accurate every time, which made the officials in the capital even more careful.

Hence Hai Rui was not a cruel official, but what he did was completely that of a cruel official. Where was there anti-corruption and catching greedy officials that involved dragging a fourth-rank Junior Secretary or Vice Minister out of bed in the middle of the night? The face of the scholar-official was thrown on the ground by Hence Hai Rui, who rubbed it hard and even spat on it a few times.

But pointing fingers at Hence Hai Rui, this moral model and moral saint, was really impossible to start with. When Hence Hai Rui was ruthless, this sharp divine blade even dared to aim directly at the Emperor. Even Zhang Juzheng knew how to take a detour.

Last time, during the rewards for opening up, Hence Hai Rui ran to the Huangji Gate and persuaded the remonstrating officials to leave, and he himself knelt at the gate, asking the Emperor to withdraw the order.

Zhu Yijun looked at the military nobles and was also a bit angry at their lack of ambition. The military nobles of the Great Ming were somewhat lazy. They were somewhat indifferent to the establishment of the cavalry camp, and even had no enthusiasm. Most of the descendants of the Great Ming's military nobles could not pass the examination of the Lecture Martial Academy and could only hold an idle position without duties, repeating the glory of their ancestors over and over again.

Below the viewing platform, there was also a group of officials of the fifth rank and below who were not qualified to be seated, as well as some barbarian envoys. Sanniangzi, who came to the capital to send wool, was also among them. Her expression was very complex; amidst worry and fear, there was also some relief.

The inspection of the cavalry camp ended. Zhu Yijun looked at the Northern Camp with some reluctance and boarded the carriage.

The small eunuchs had checked the horse-drawn carriage many times, and Feng Bao circled it twice before flicking his whisk and shouting loudly: "Prepare the carriage to leave the palace."

The horse-drawn carriage began to move forward, entering from the Desheng Gate and following the military road into the capital. Suddenly, the horse-drawn carriage stopped slowly because the Embroidered Uniform Guards checking the tracks along the way reported that there was a situation ahead. The Great Imperial Carriage was quickly lifted up, and larger wheels were installed on the axle. In less than three minutes, the carriage had turned onto another road and was speeding towards the detached palace!

Zhu Yijun asked about the situation with great excitement. He thought someone had buried gunpowder on the tracks, waiting for his carriage to pass to arrange a grand assassination.

Zhu Yijun was wearing armor; he could fight as soon as he put on his helmet.

After Yu Dayou passed away, Zhu Yijun became more and more careful. He rarely rode horses outside the capital camp drill ground now. People make mistakes, and horses stumble. To prevent accidents, he could only be cautious.

For the drama of gunpowder blowing up the carriage and then assassins rushing out from the streets and alleys to assassinate, the Embroidered Uniform Guards had performed several rehearsals. The Great Imperial Carriage of the Great Ming Emperor had a one-finger-thick steel plate underneath!

But it was a pity that it was just a loose connection at a railway track. To prevent accidents, they chose to activate the contingency plan.

"Intensifying contradictions is also a way to regulate contradictions. What disappoints me is that the courage of the wealthy families is as narrow as their vision. They don't even dare to assassinate the King. What kind of wealthy families are they!" Zhu Yijun returned to the detached palace and said to Feng Bao with some dissatisfaction.

People who like to watch the fun even hope to become the fun themselves, but unfortunately, the hope fell through.

Feng Bao placed the organized memorials before the Emperor and said with a smile: "That is not pointing at the Emperor to distribute dividends? The wealthy families of the Western Tucheng and the Shanxi merchants have bet more than half of their family wealth in the Yanxing Building Shipping Ticket Exchange. They are even more afraid than us that something will happen to the Emperor."

Zhang Hong brewed tea for the Emperor and also said happily: "The Emperor is now their bread and butter. They are now very opposed to the Emperor going to the Northern Tucheng to inspect troops and horses. There is even talk in the streets that if the Emperor really likes it, it's fine to go and take a look, but don't go down to the drill ground, just go for a stroll. The Son of Heaven is a body of ten thousand gold; swords and guns have no eyes, what if he gets hurt?"

"So now I am a body of ten thousand gold?" Zhu Yijun sneered.

The subscription for the five-masted ocean-crossing ships of the Yanxing Building was restored in the first month of the eighth year of Wanli, increasing month by month. According to the original rules, starting from the eighth year of Wanli, dividends were no longer distributed monthly, but changed to annually. The wealthy families who had already tasted the sweetness had clearly changed from the past of being completely opposed and resistant to being supportive.

"A bunch of guys who only see money!" Zhu Yijun picked up a memorial, and after reading it, he was stunned for a moment.

The memorial was written by Wang Daokun, the Governor of Songjiang. In the memorial, there were some changes in the Civil Letter Bureau. The Civil Letter Bureau was a profit-making institution created by the Ningbo merchants in the early Yongle period against the background of constant relocation and resettlement of households in the Great Ming, similar to the Great Ming's Nine Dragon Post Station.

In Wang Daokun's memorial, the Civil Letter Bureau added a business of handling exchange on top of the two simple functions of sending letters and items, similar to something like the Great Ming Treasure Note Bureau's money notes. Great Ming merchants could deposit and withdraw silver in these Civil Letter Bureaus.

Sun Kehong had a sum of silver that needed to be sent to the capital. He did not need to send the cash directly to the Northern Yamen, but deposited it in the Songjiang Prefecture Civil Letter Bureau and then withdrew it at the capital's Civil Letter Bureau.

This kind of business had a professional term: *piaohao* (draft bank), exchange bank, or exchange shop.

Handling exchange business had already appeared in the prosperous fourteen prefectures of the Southern Yamen as early as the Hongzhi period, but large-scale development, extending to the Northern Yamen, Datong, and even Liaoyang, was a matter of last year.

The reason Wang Daokun wrote this memorial was because the Ningbo merchants who controlled the Civil Letter Bureau had fiercely cheated Sun Kehong. Sun Kehong had a sum of 30,000 silver that had inexplicably disappeared. The exchange draft stubs handled were lost by the Songjiang Civil Letter Bureau. The reason for the loss was also very simple: the merchant ship sending the exchange draft stubs entered the capital by water and capsized.

Sun Kehong had a large family and a large business, so he did not feel the pain of this 30,000 silver. He went to the Yamen to file a complaint, just wanting an explanation! Was it the Ningbo merchants targeting him? Other people's money was fine, but when the stubs were lost, there were local stubs. Why was it that only his could not be taken out?

Wang Daokun wrote this memorial hoping to establish a set of draft banks belonging to the Great Ming official post stations.

The Great Ming official post stations were in deficit, losing money year after year. Although after the clearing of mountain people who were not allowed to impersonate official status, the Great Ming post stations were no longer in a state of serious deficit, but a loss was a loss. Under the Great Ming's atmosphere of precise calculation, these post stations would probably be precisely calculated sooner or later. Therefore, finding new profit points to support the huge number of post station soldiers became a very necessary thing.

"Send it to the Cabinet, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Ministry of War to draft a set of regulations. Set a limit of seven days to get a draft for me to see. According to Governor Wang's statement, we can first build three places: Songjiang, Northern Yamen, and Southern Yamen, expanding the scale bit by bit, taking small steps and running fast." Zhu Yijun gave his vermilion approval to Wang Daokun's memorial.

The draft bank is the prototype of the bank's external business.

If we want to form a Great Ming bank, the Great Ming's coinage must meet the needs of the Great Ming, and we must also establish complete external business. Only the Treasure Note Bureau and the Treasure Source Bureau are far from enough. Zhu Yijun is very happy to see this kind of exploration.

Similarly, opening the sea is nurturing a new bourgeoisie, and the speed of nurturing and development is far beyond Zhu Yijun's expectations.

"Issue an edict to the Cabinet and the Ministry of War to inquire and urge the Navy to expand the army." Zhu Yijun took out another imperial edict, wrote down the content of the inquiry, and let Feng Bao handle it.

The Navy must accelerate its expansion. Although it passed the imperial discussion, it would take some time to execute. Zhu Yijun originally planned to expand the army in three years, but now it seems that he must speed up his pace.

"Call the Prince of Lu to me! Where did he run off to again?" Zhu Yijun reviewed a few memorials before realizing that Zhu Yijun's brother, Zhu Yiliu, was not in the Imperial Study.

Zhu Yijun's brother, Zhu Yiliu, had already restarted the imperial audience. According to Zhu Yijun's training plan, Zhu Yijun's brother, Zhu Yiliu, needed to read every memorial reviewed every day, ask if he didn't understand, and after dinner every day, Zhu Yijun would ask nine questions about the memorials. If he could answer them completely, he wouldn't need to run laps on the drill ground.

For the imperial audience, Zhu Yijun's brother, Zhu Yiliu, was unwilling. Looking at the memorials and asking about state affairs—he was even less cooperative.

"His Highness has returned to the Prince of Lu's mansion." Zhang Hong and Feng Bao looked at each other and said in a low voice.

"What did he go to do?"

Feng Bao said helplessly: "He said the Persian beauties had arranged a new dance and asked His Highness to appreciate it. His Highness has already gone!"

"Persian beauties?" Zhu Yijun looked at the memorial in his hand, slapped the table, and said loudly: "Call him here! Today, as long as he gets one question wrong, tomorrow he will practice with Luo Sigong!"

Zhu Yijun's brother, Zhu Yiliu, came with a mask of pain. Today, the beauties of ten thousand countries had prepared more than a dozen dances, not just Persian beauties! They were brutally interrupted by his imperial brother!

Clearly, he had already inspected the cavalrymen today and was really tired. He thought his imperial brother would put the memorials aside until tomorrow, so he happily went to watch the dance, only to be dragged back to continue questioning about state affairs.

Hearing that he had to practice with Luo Sigong, the second-best expert in the youth group, Zhu Yijun's brother, Zhu Yiliu, immediately became serious. Luo Sigong was stubborn; with an imperial order, he never softened his hand.

Zhu Yijun's brother, Zhu Yiliu, answered fluently, making his imperial brother's punch land on cotton.

"Tomorrow, Luo Sigong will practice with you." Zhu Yijun was very satisfied and chose to reward him.

"Ah?!"

"No, brother! Didn't you say that if I couldn't answer, I would practice with crazy... Luo Sigong?" Zhu Yijun's brother, Zhu Yiliu, widened his eyes and said loudly: "A gentleman's word is a fast horse's whip! The golden mouth and jade words must not be retracted!"

Zhu Yijun said calmly: "I didn't say that if you answered, you wouldn't have to."

"Your Majesty!" Zhu Yijun's brother, Zhu Yiliu, jumped up, shook his head repeatedly, and said: "The teacher said! If the country loses great faith, people's hearts will be suspicious. Your younger brother traps Your Majesty in unrighteousness. Your younger brother deserves to die ten thousand times."

Zhu Yijun's brother, Zhu Yiliu, used this sentence to advance by retreating, moral kidnapping, and raising it to the level of principle. It had to be said that Zhu Yijun's brother, Zhu Yiliu, had not read many books as a scholar, but he had learned all the tricks.

"Then forget it." Zhu Yijun nodded and retracted the order. He was a very reasonable person; just let Xiong Tingbi go up.

"Brother! Bright!" Zhu Yijun's brother, Zhu Yiliu, was happy. He completely did not know the sinister nature of adult hearts. Luo Sigong was not easy to deal with, and Xiong Tingbi was not easy to deal with either.

"Brother, I have always had a question. The Four Books and Five Classics are all things from the pre-Qin period, at least 1,500 years old. Why do we still read such old books? Base Confucians always say that the present is not as good as the past. I am still young and not smart. Brother, do you know why?" Zhu Yijun's brother, Zhu Yiliu, sat on the grand armchair and asked his confusion.

The books he read were too old.

Zhu Yijun's brother, Zhu Yiliu, had also been slowly reading *Xunzi* and *Guanzi* recently, which were also annotated by Zhang Juzheng for the Emperor. But these books were all too old. If it weren't for the Emperor being rebellious enough, he wouldn't be able to read anything other than the Four Books and Five Classics.

"Your question is very good." Zhu Yijun closed the memorial. ===== CHAPTER 398 =====