Chapter 412

The Great Ming's anti-corruption and anti-graft efforts were being carried out very well. Hence Hai Rui had submitted a memorial regarding the "weighing-scale case," the main content of which was a discussion of corruption methods.

Under high pressure, traditional corruption had almost vanished; the spectacular scene of dragging silver along to offer as bribes could no longer be seen. However, a new type of corruption was forming. For this mode, Hence Hai Rui used the phrase "accidentally obtained" to summarize it.

Officials would have comprador agents hold assets in the city and open an inconspicuous shop. This shop would contain various high-priced goods, such as tea leaves priced at fifty or even over a hundred taels of silver per catty, paintings or poetry collections by certain masters, gold and stone (antique) items from certain eras, silk products, ready-made clothing, and so on. Such shops would not see many customers in a year, but every customer was extremely, extremely arrogant.

When a customer met an official, a single phrase, "accidentally obtained"—for example, "I accidentally obtained a pair of carved dragon tea tables"—constituted the delivery of a bribe. The official would immediately understand the elegant implication. At this moment, the official's reaction would naturally be to understand it in their heart without showing it on their face. The entire process highlighted a sense of cleanliness, because the private secretary on the side was responsible for fulfilling the customer's demands.

In places where there was even more gold and silver, the customer and the official did not even need to meet. They only needed to chat a few words about the difficulties encountered while buying things from the shopkeeper, and the shopkeeper would also constantly remind them, "You only gave this little money; it is very difficult for me to get things done."

Ultimately, this achieved rent-seeking of power.

This method of corruption was already extremely difficult to verify. If these brokers and compradors were further controlled by local powerful clans, and these local clans then sent the accumulated illicit money obtained each year back to the official's hometown, it would be even harder to find traces.

The number of people in the Great Ming like brokers, compradors, and litigation tricksters was countless, and the private secretaries were responsible for contacting these people. Everyone was a villain on the chain of corruption and a worm that corrupted the Great Ming's officialdom.

Hence Hai Rui did not have a very good method for dealing with these people. He could find clues and investigate to the end, bringing the evil to justice, but the evil was hidden deep beneath the surface of the water, leaving Hence Hai Rui slightly helpless.

This again involved the issue of anti-corruption costs. The concealment of this type of corruption caused anti-corruption costs to rise in a straight line, while anti-corruption gains were falling in a straight line.

In the past, one only needed to confiscate their property to recover what the corrupt officials and greedy clerks had obtained, and after starving them for ten days or so, everything could be retrieved. But confiscation was already outdated. Wealth never passed through the hands of the officials or even their family members; how could one investigate? Their homes were clean, and confiscation had even become synonymous with unjust, false, and wrong cases.

Li Le, the Prefect of Yingtian, investigated a similar case.

In Liuhe County, Yingtian Prefecture, there was an instructor. This person was not even considered an official; he was in charge of sacrifices at the Confucian Temple, educated the enrolled students, and managed the local county school. For just one student quota in the county school, one could not get it without fifty taels of silver, and one had to be qualified to buy it.

As a disciple of Zhang Zhang Juzheng, Li Le had extremely strong capabilities and was a sharp blade Zhang Zhang Juzheng had used to deal with Wang Wang Chonggu. Investigating an instructor in Liuhe County should have been easy for him, right? However, as he investigated, Li Le discovered that the resistance was very, very great; he could not even dispose of an instructor in a county Southern Yamen.

The great resistance regarding an unranked instructor in a county Southern Yamen aroused Li Le's interest. Li Le admonished the instructor, and it seemed the punishment ended there, but in reality, Li Le secretly requested the "Old Ancestor."

Upon learning that Li Le wanted to investigate the case, Zhu Zhu Yijun issued an imperial decree for the Embroidered Uniform Guards to intervene. After half a year of secret observation and investigation, the Guards finally figured out what was special about this instructor.

This instructor had received a share of the "incense money" from all the private schools and family schools in Liuhe County.

Roughly speaking, all the private schools and family schools in Liuhe County would be shut down by this instructor in the name of "rectifying school administration" if they did not offer bribes on time. The amount ranged from fifty taels to several hundred taels of silver per family. The reason it took half a year was that this silver was not sent directly to the instructor; it passed through the hands of brokers and compradors, was tossed around, and finally turned into land in the instructor's hometown.

The entire process was extremely concealed; if not for the intervention of the Embroidered Uniform Guards, it would have been difficult to trace.

According to the Guards' visits and investigations, this was not only the case in Liuhe County; the entire Yingtian Prefecture, and even the entire Southern Metropolitan Area, was like this.

Private schools, county schools, prefectural schools, and academies everywhere would be "rectified" if they did not offer bribes to the Education Commissioners, School Principals, and Instructors. The resistance also stemmed from this. Would Li Le's investigation stop at Liuhe County? Naturally, he would investigate the entire Yingtian area, and subsequently, under the leadership of Yingtian Provincial Governor Pan Pan Jixun, conduct a comprehensive screening of the entire Southern Metropolitan Area.

Moreover, the instructor did not enjoy this income alone; the entire Liuhe County Southern Yamen was involved. The County Magistrate took the lion's share, those receiving imperial salaries took a portion, and the instructor took a portion.

This was a blood feud.

Cutting off someone's path to wealth is like killing their parents.

When Li Le investigated to this point, he knew he couldn't handle it, so he immediately wrote a letter to his teacher and another letter to his junior fellow apprentice Zhu Zhu Yijun, asking whether to continue the investigation. The final answer he received was to investigate to the end—whoever blocks it dies.

This case concluded in the ninth month of the eighth year of Emperor Wanli. The entire officialdom of the Southern Metropolitan Area experienced a major earthquake. Over seven hundred people were arrested and taken into the Southern Chief Military Commission Southern Yamen, waiting for the final judgment of being exiled overseas. The four major Viceroyalties of Luzon, Ryukyu, and Old Port were places the Great Ming didn't want, but in the overseas Viceroyalties, they became hot commodities.

The Great Ming's "weightlifting team" was truly too competitive. In the Great Ming, these officials were all trash, but once they reached the overseas Viceroyalties, they were all rare talents.

In the Great Ming, Xu Fan was just someone who relied on his father to obtain an official position, but once he reached the West, Xu Fan could serve as a Minister of State, and he did an extremely good job.

Was "rectifying school administration" merely a political tool for accumulating wealth during its execution?

There were also land surveying and returning land.

When the imperial court wanted to survey land, the wealthy households would seek shelter under local officials, especially the Household Department that handled the specifics. During the survey, the Household Department would leak some land not recorded in the Fish-Scale Registers through their fingers, or swap good land for bad, letting the commoners bear the cost of the New Policies.

"The Great Ming's New Policies, pushed to this point, have finally encountered the Wang Wang Anshi dilemma, or rather, the New Law dilemma." Zhu Zhu Yijun closed Hence Hai Rui's memorial and rubbed his brow with slight anxiety.

Wang Wang Anshi's Green Sprout Law was well-intentioned. It flexibly used the grain stored in the Ever-Normal Granaries and Broad Charity Granaries, converted it into capital, and loaned it to bankrupt farmers and urban handicraftsmen at an annual interest rate of 20%. This helped the commoners get through difficulties while simultaneously easing the bloody exploitation of private usury, increasing government fiscal revenue, and promoting the development of industry, commerce, and production, achieving the effect of "the people are not taxed more, yet the state has sufficient funds."

From the perspective of institutional design, this set of policies indeed had no loopholes.

But in the end, it became a knife cutting into the commoners.

Money always flows to places that don't lack money. When local officials executed this order, their primary consideration was collecting it back, not lending it out. If they lent money to the small commoners, what would the small commoners use to repay it?

Therefore, when lending money, it was often given directly to the wealthy households. The wealthy households had large families and great assets; if they couldn't repay, the debt could still be pursued. It was not given to the small households; the small households would collapse at the slightest breeze. After the wealthy households obtained these resources, they would then lend them to the small households layer by layer, leading to final interest rates that even exceeded private usury.

Ultimately, the three words "Green Sprout Money," originally well-intentioned, became synonymous with usury in the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties.

And the two cores of the Great Ming's New Policies, land surveying and rectifying school administration, were also quietly turning into this appearance. During the land surveying process, the wealthy households' land was concealed through various methods, while the commoners' land was not missing a single fraction, and even extra non-existent land was apportioned to the commoners, which could be described as miserable.

And rectifying school administration also became a poison to local education, causing endless harm.

The Great Ming's officials always had policies above and countermeasures below, carrying out self-adaptive adjustments to obtain their own share of benefits in the new era and new background.

Zhu Zhu Yijun thoroughly woke up from the illusion that the Great Ming had become great again. He completely understood how Zhu Zhu Yuanzhang's Four Great Cases, involving tens of thousands of heads at every turn, had come about.

The matters Li Le reported were not just in the Southern Metropolitan Area; they were everywhere in the Great Ming. Zhu Zhu Yijun wished he could kill wantonly and create two more land surveying and school administration cases.

Feng Bao pondered for a moment, bowed his head, and said: "Your Majesty, it is far from reaching that point. Just taking the case Li Le reported and the weighing-scale case as examples, punish one severely for every one discovered, strictly and heavily, to achieve a deterrent effect. This 'Contradiction Theory' is well-spoken; contradictions are endless and widely exist. After solving a contradiction, new contradictions will inevitably arise. Facing this new situation, there will be new methods."

"This minister thinks that things are stable and improving. After all, in the land surveying everywhere, the land occupied by wealthy households still accounts for the majority. There is no widespread crime. There is naturally some petty skimming, but it hasn't reached the point of boiling over with public resentment. After all, their heads are their own."

His Majesty's reputation for liking to kill people was on par with his reputation for stinginess. Who didn't know that the Great Ming Emperor was still supervising executions on the first day of his grand wedding? A true bloody wedding.

"Feng Da Ban, this 'Contradiction Theory' is read extremely well." Zhu Zhu Yijun highly approved of Feng Bao's opinion.

Feng Bao smiled and said: "This minister also watched the 'Contradiction Theory' emerge. Even if I am stupid, I am still a 'clumsy bird flying first,' and I have learned some things."

"Your Majesty, in this minister's view, this matter can be incorporated into the Evaluation Law. If local self-investigation cannot solve the problem and they refuse to report it to the imperial court, use the case of the former Sichuan Provincial Governor Luo Yao as a precedent and exile them. Whether the New Policies are executed properly will be linked to their official hats; I am not afraid they will disobey openly while complying in secret."

"If they can really build a province into an iron bucket, watertight, without letting out a single bit of news or wind, then they shouldn't be Provincial Governors or Censors; they might as well just rebel."

What Feng Bao was talking about was the responsibility system for Provincial Governors everywhere.

As the top leader of a region, you can even be incompetent—incompetence will only lead to dismissal—but you cannot lose your faith. You must be loyal to the Emperor and care for the country; this is the most basic bottom line. Touching this bottom line will lead to exile or even beheading.

The Great Ming imperial court allows problems to exist locally, and even allows Provincial Governors to have problems they cannot solve, subsequently seeking help from His Majesty. This is inherently a part of the Great Ming's imperial system.

This is a devolution of responsibility, and also a devolution of the power to supervise the implementation of the New Policies, and it is even more the meaning of the existence of Provincial Governors and Censors everywhere.

"Good method." Zhu Zhu Yijun finished writing the vermilion comments, handed them to Feng Bao, and said: "Send them to the Grand Secretary in the Wenyuange and order the Grand Secretary to draft the regulations for me to see."

Zhu Zhu Yijun knew very well what Feng Bao was doing; he was putting eye drops on the high-ranking officials of the Outer Court.

This is the natural duty of a eunuch. If you don't deal with civil officials, what kind of eunuch are you? Civil officials and eunuchs are naturally opposed; this is a game rule that has lasted for thousands of years. Speaking slander in front of the Emperor is the natural duty of a eunuch; otherwise, why would eunuchs be so annoying?

By coming up with a bad idea, he pitted the Provincial Governors everywhere. From now on, the Provincial Governors must keep their eyes wide open; if they can't solve problems, they must at least discover them.

Zhu Zhu Yijun approved of this bad idea; he felt this bad idea was not bad.

Since the establishment of the Provincial Governors in the Yongle era, 170-odd years had passed, and they had become de facto top local leaders. Calling them "frontier-guarding high officials" was not an exaggeration. With such great power, failing to thoroughly implement government decrees is a matter of ability, but being able to discover problems and refusing to report them is a matter of attitude. The result is exile.

"Your Majesty, Lady Lady Zhongshun requests an audience to thank you for your grace and is waiting outside the Li Palace," Feng Bao bowed and said.

Zhu Zhu Yijun granted an audience to San San Niangzi and received her collateral, shipping certificates worth nearly 200,000 silver. San San Niangzi reluctantly handed the shipping certificates to the Emperor. This heartless man just accepted them directly like that.

Zhu Zhu Yijun gave San San Niangzi detailed instructions and asked about the details of spending the winter outside the Great Wall. In the sky-filling heavy snow, the first things to freeze to death were livestock, so there would be no shortage of food. Insufficient fuel and insufficient warm clothing were the biggest difficulties for commoners outside the Great Wall to get through the winter.

San San Niangzi was very concerned about the mining of coal in Shanxi and hoped that the Northern Barbarians outside the Great Wall would also have the qualifications to purchase coal near Datong Prefecture. Zhu Zhu Yijun did not agree, which made San San Niangzi somewhat regretful.

Everyone knew it in their hearts: without coal, the grasslands could not smelt iron. Without large-scale ironware, the Oirats, Tatars, Uriankhai, Eastern Barbarians, and so on could not launch large-scale southward invasions.

Only after the Great Ming launched a punitive expedition would the supply of coal possibly be put on the agenda.

After San San Niangzi once again solemnly thanked the Emperor for his holy grace in protecting the grasslands, she took a lingering look at the Imperial Study in the Tonghe Palace, put on her cloak, and left the Tonghe Palace.

This cloak was a gift from the Emperor after she entered the capital. She was a First-Rank Lady Lady Zhongshun, and all the high officials in the Great Ming capital had them too. It was made of worsted wool and had a furry collar. On the chest of the cloak, the left side was embroidered with the Sun and Moon Shining Together flag, and the right side had the character "Ming" written on it. San San Niangzi would wear it every winter, completely disregarding the look in Altan Khan's eyes that wished he could eat people.

On the left side of the waist and abdomen of the cloak, a small bright red figure was embroidered; it was the shadow-puppet image of San San Niangzi. San San Niangzi particularly liked this little figure. She embroidered a shadow-puppet image of His Majesty on the other side—naturally, in his casual attire. No one said anything about it being improper, and no one was idle enough to ask who that shadow-puppet image actually was.

Zhu Zhu Yijun maintained a certain respect for San San Niangzi; she was a political figure who cared for all the people, and her stage was the vast grasslands.

The Yang clan of Xindu and their lackeys, totaling 234 people, were beheaded. The execution ground was set up on the Changan Long Street outside the Great Ming's Meridian Gate. The commoners of the Great Ming capital also liked to watch the excitement; even in the freezing cold, they wanted to come and see. Zhu Zhu Yijun arrived as scheduled to supervise the execution at the Meridian Gate. When hundreds of Embroidered Uniform Guards shouted in unison to "take them away," heads fell to the ground.

When it was necessary to kill people, Zhu Zhu Yijun never cherished his own reputation. Being called a tyrant was better than the New Policies dying prematurely.

These hundreds of heads falling to the ground represented the Emperor's huge determination to push forward the New Policies. If you don't submit, then rebel; come to the table and gamble with your life!

And the memorials from the Great Ming's Censor-in-Chief Wang Qian and Sichuan Provincial Governor Wang Wang Tingzhan made Zhu Zhu Yijun heave a long sigh of relief. The land surveying in Sichuan, which had been motionless, finally began to advance, and the cold winter wind could not hinder the pace of the land surveying. The first stop of this land surveying was the Prince of Shu's Mansion.

When Wang Wang Tingzhan walked into the Prince of Shu's Mansion, he discovered that this Prince of Shu's Mansion was far from as luxurious as rumored. In fact, many palaces had collapsed due to lack of repair over the years, and it even appeared dilapidated. In the thirty-first year of Emperor Jiajing, the Emperor Jiajing Emperor stopped the funding for the repair of palaces in the Princes' mansions, the reason being the war. Since then, the Princes' mansions had no special funding for repairs.

The land under the Prince of Shu's name exceeded 30,000 qing. The life in the Prince of Shu's Mansion was actually not too bad, but it definitely did not match 30,000 qing of land and three million mu of fields.

The progress of land surveying in Sichuan also drove the land surveying in Henan and Shaanxi, especially Henan, which had many Princes' mansions. His Majesty's approach of investigating to the end, resolutely executing the New Policies, and not caring at all about the kinship of relatives, made the Princes' mansions everywhere have to pinch their noses and return the land hidden under the Princes' mansions' names to the wealthy households.

The Princes' mansions were part of the hereditary officialdom. They were actually not afraid of the retaliation of local wealthy households—at worst, they would just close the city gates and live their own lives—but they were extremely afraid of the Emperor's anger.

"This minister pays respects to Your Majesty. Long live Your Majesty, may you be safe and well." Buyan arrived at the Tonghe Palace to have an audience with the Son of Heaven and thank the Great Ming Emperor for his holy grace.

Altan Khan was enfeoffed as the Prince of Prince Shunyi in the sixth month of the seventh year of Emperor Wanli, and Buyan became the Heir Apparent of the Prince of Prince Shunyi. After San San Niangzi left the capital, the Heir Apparent also saw off the caravan. He would not personally lead the caravan to the area outside the Great Wall, but instead stayed in the Great Ming.

Ever since Altan Khan was enfeoffed as a Prince, Buyan had never returned to the grasslands. He was a hostage.

This audience with the Emperor by Buyan was to discuss the many matters of Altan Khan's tribute to the capital next spring, or rather, to confirm the fact that the Great Ming Emperor was willing to take in Altan Khan.

"Exempt from the rites." Zhu Zhu Yijun waved his hand, finished writing the vermilion comments on a memorial, and then signaled for Buyan to sit down and speak.

"It is interesting. Why did Chahar Tumen suddenly want to think it through?" Zhu Zhu Yijun looked at Buyan and asked curiously. Calling it a tribute to the capital was actually a surrender—a thorough, complete surrender. Zhu Zhu Yijun liked to speak the truth based on strength and did not beat around the bush.

"Father actually tried his best." Buyan had really thought about this question seriously and gave an answer.

As the suzerain Khan of the Mongols, Altan Khan even had a legal claim to the Moghul Empire, but the strength of this suzerain Khan was truly somewhat weak compared to Altan Khan. Since the first year of Emperor Longqing, he had been fighting the Great Ming for fourteen years. It was time to end it. The ideal of reviving the glory of the Golden Bloodline had ultimately lost to reality.

Altan Khan had really, really tried his best, but he had encountered Li Li Chengliang, Qi Qi Jiguang, Zhang Zhang Juzheng, and this diligent Emperor. The Great Ming's strength was getting stronger and stronger. The grassland people's fixed skill of westward expedition—when they couldn't beat the Central Plains, they would go bully the Western Regions—Altan Khan couldn't do that either, because there was still an Altan Khan blocking the way in the west, and the Great Ming border troops even had the ability to attack.

Reaching this step, they were already at the end of their rope.

Buyan bowed his head and said: "Your Majesty, anyway, the traitor of the grasslands didn't start with my father, but with Altan Khan. As a member of the Golden Family, he was the first to betray the grasslands."

"Ah? This... is also true." Hearing this, Zhu Zhu Yijun was also stunned. He smiled, his expression extremely strange. So, Altan Khan had been sparing no effort to publicize that Altan Khan was a traitor to the grasslands for this purpose as well. Anyway, the sinner of history was not him, Chahar Tumen. The first of the Borjigin Golden Family to surrender to the Great Ming was Altan Khan; he was the sinner!

"Your Majesty, the Hu (barbarians) have many teeth and rely on China for everything. If there is a shortage, they must demand it. If they cannot get what they demand, they must plunder. If they cannot plunder, they can only go west. If they cannot go west, they can only attach themselves. Before, there was the surrender of the Xiongnu; later, there was the Sinicization of the Xianbei; then there was the attachment of the Turks. Altan Khan could still run west, but Father truly has nowhere to go." Buyan explained the reason for the surrender very clearly—they had to rely on the Great Ming's production for everything, especially the necessities of salt and iron.

"The Great Ming is willing to accept your father's tribute. Starting tomorrow, the Ministry of Rites and the Court of Diplomatic Reception will discuss this matter with you in detail. Do not worry too much about the lives of you and your father." Zhu Zhu Yijun gave Buyan a reassurance. Regarding the suzerain Khan's tribute to the capital and his permanent stay in the Great Ming, Zhu Zhu Yijun would not harm his life.

This was not Zhu Zhu Yijun's personal choice, but the result of the imperial court's discussion.

Do not pursue a desperate enemy; a trapped beast will still fight. After all, he was a suzerain Khan. A rotten ship still has three thousand nails. For the Great Ming to completely eliminate Altan Khan would require paying a greater price. Accepting Chahar Tumen's surrender was undoubtedly a simpler way, and after that, it would be a matter of cleaning up the hardliners and eliminating the last will to resist.

This was actually also the reason why the imperial court did not pressure the various Princes' mansions too much. Forcing a Prince's mansion to the point of bankruptcy wouldn't even raise a million silver in total, but for a Prince's mansion to rebel, it would require at least five million silver or more to suppress the rebellion. Jianwen Emperor Zhu Zhu Yunwen had already proven the serious consequences of excessive pressure with practice.

The difficulty of the Henan problem lay right here. It was not the "kinship of relatives" in the mouths of the scholar-officials, but a problem between cost and benefit.

The fact that the Princes in Henan could take the initiative to clear and return the land hidden under their names made Zhu Zhu Yijun very happy. If they continued to be stubborn, Zhu Zhu Yijun would have no choice but to strike with a heavy fist.

Buyan suddenly stood up, flicked his sleeves, bowed five times and kowtowed three times, and said loudly: "Please, Your Majesty, bestow a surname so that the descendants can multiply."

This was a process that had to be gone through: changing to a Han surname.

The Great Ming had a large number of Tatar officials who all needed to change to Han surnames. For example, the Earl of Gongshun, Wu Gu Yuncheng, was a Tatar who surrendered to the Great Ming in the Honghou era with 5,000 households and was bestowed the surname Wu. For example, the Assistant Regional Commander of the Rear Chief Military Commission and Commander of the Liangzhou Guard, Chai Bingcheng, was also a Tatar. After he died, his son inherited the title, and his son was named Chai Zhao Tiezhu. This lineage continued until the fall of the Great Ming.

Many people misunderstood "Tatar official" (Da Zhen Guan) as the "Da" in "high-ranking officials" (Da Zhen Guan Gui Ren), but in fact, the "Da" in "high-ranking officials" refers to "developed" (Fa Da).

By requesting a surname from the Great Ming, this direct bloodline could truly multiply. If they still kept the surname Borjigin in the Great Ming, extinction would be the only result. Once they changed to a Han surname, actually, no one would pay attention to them anymore.

The "Shang" in Shang Jiu was itself a Han surname, and Ashikaga Yoshiaki actually had the surname Minamoto, which could barely be considered a Han surname, because at this time, the Japanese nation did not have its own writing system. All culture was Han culture, and even the era names were like that.

"Let's bestow the surname Bao." Zhu Zhu Yijun pondered for a moment and picked one from the surnames sent by the Ministry of Rites.

He had originally wanted to give the Borjigin family a very formal surname, Liu. This was not without reason—who let Genghis Khan Temujin truly have the bloodline of the old Liu family? But in the end, Zhu Zhu Yijun didn't do that. The "Golden Knife Prophecy" was a prophecy that had haunted the Central Plains for over a thousand years.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your great grace." Buyan bowed and thanked him again.

The "Golden Knife Prophecy" was a prophecy saying: An Emperor with the surname Liu will inevitably save the world from danger. If Liu Bei's Shu Han had truly succeeded, the old Liu family might have truly become hereditary Emperors. Successive Emperors were all extremely wary of this Golden Knife Prophecy, and the Great Ming was no exception. There wasn't a single knife made of gold in the palace.

Yang Yang Guozhong, a cousin of Yang Yang Yuhuan, was originally named Yang Zhao, but because of the "standing knife" radical in his name, he almost failed to become a Prime Minister. He took the initiative to change his name to Yang Guozhong, just because he was afraid the Emperor would see the "standing knife" radical and think of this prophecy.

After Buyan left, Zhu Zhu Yijun looked at a scroll of books in his hand. This was a method he had thought of. Zhu Zhu Yijun actually already had a complete set of methods for the Henan land surveying problem, but he hadn't taken action yet. The Henan Princes had chickened out first, which truly made Zhu Zhu Yijun somewhat regretful.

This was a grand gift Zhu Zhu Yijun had prepared for the Princes.

Zhu Zhu Yijun planned to invite all the Princes to Nanjing to participate in the grand event of making the Great Ming great again, and carry the "Prince Prohibition" to the end.

Using the excuse of offering sacrifices at the Xiao Ling Mausoleum, he would summon the Princes from everywhere to bring their families to the capital to offer sacrifices to the ancestors. This was the ancestral law. In the Jianwen era and the beginning of the Yongle era, the Princes from everywhere had to go to the Xiao Ling Mausoleum to offer sacrifices.

Because they were restricted by Zhu Zhu Yuanzhang's last will, the Princes from everywhere were not allowed to enter Nanjing to offer sacrifices within three years. However, the descendants of the Princes from everywhere had to observe mourning at the Xiao Ling Mausoleum in Nanjing. In order to let Zhu Zhu Yunwen sit firmly on the throne, Zhu Zhu Yuanzhang had done everything he could.

Zhu Di's sons, Zhu Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Zhu Gaoxu, had both stayed at the Xiao Ling Mausoleum for a long time.

Once these Princes arrived in Nanjing, after offering sacrifices, they wouldn't be able to go back. Zhu Zhu Yijun planned to lock them all in the Fengyang High Walls to raise pigs. Raising them free-range is raising, and centralized farming is also raising.

Zhu Zhu Yijun was planning to carry out this "centralized pig-raising method" after the Sichuan weighing-scale case came to an end and Henan became the only difficult problem for land surveying. For this matter, Zhu Zhu Yijun had also discussed it with Wan Wan Shihe for a long time. Wan Wan Shihe provided the ancestral law, and Zhu Zhu Yijun was responsible for implementation.

Moreover, these Princes scattered everywhere in the Great Ming were not all living lives of luxury. Even Princes like the Prince of Shu or the Prince of Zheng were living tight lives. The Great Ming imperial court had repeatedly lowered the salaries of the Princes, and life was already very difficult.

But the Princes were not stupid. The current Emperor was already a relative outside the five degrees of mourning. The Great Ming Princes had already completely lost their original function and had gradually become one of the Great Ming's stubborn diseases. The Emperor wanted to survey land, and if the Princes still insisted on hiding land under their names, that was inviting disaster.

This "centralized pig-raising method" of Zhu Zhu Yijun's ultimately remained a hypothesis.

As Zhu Zhu Yijun gradually grew up, he now actually hoped that a Prince would rebel, so he could suppress it with military force and announce it to the world.

How sharp the Great Ming's sword was now.

(End of chapter)