Chapter 497: Humble Origins Are No Disgrace

While Chen Lin was attacking the various private markets in the Sandu'ao Bay, the Coastal Defense Inspector was racing across the sea, delivering imperial edicts to the five major inland Shipping Commissions and the four major overseas Governor-General's Offices. This strike against smuggling, the trafficking of opium, and the establishment of private markets was being launched across the entire maritime territory of the Great Ming, all to maintain the safety and smooth flow of sea routes.

This was the most intuitive manifestation of imperial power—a visible hand, a visible blade, aimed at improving the Great Ming's tariff and trade environment.

Every five-masted ocean-crossing ship, accompanied by four to five three-decked clippers and ten to fifteen battle-ready boats, charged straight at the five private markets in Sandu'ao Bay. As for the remaining two markets, they were the "one" in the "surround three, leave one" strategy. As all the sea bandits fled toward the markets without conflict, they fell completely into Chen Lin's trap.

The navy had laid out a massive pocket at those two adjacent private markets, which Chen Lin called a "sheep pen."

The sheep pen was led personally by Assistant Regional Commander Wu Weizhong, with a total of three infantry battalions—ten thousand men—who landed at the Fenghuomen stronghold. Advancing by land, they set up an encirclement net. The Great Ming navy was also capable of ground advancement; after all, only ground advancement could complete a conquest. Thus, when the navy went ashore, they became infantry battalions—a point reflected to the extreme in their daily training.

At this time, due to the influence of their operational environment, the navy could actually be called an army that had boarded ships. While the struggle for command of the sea was naturally important, because the Great Ming navy's ships were large, fast, and heavily armed, and the enemy's maritime strength was far too backward, their daily training still included a large number of land combat exercises.

The sheep pen was chosen at the mouth of the Jiaoxi River, a river running due north of the entire Sandu'ao Bay. There was a road there leading out of the mountains, the only path for escape. Wu Weizhong set up three layers of ambushes on that small path, wearing down the sea bandits' morale layer by layer until they were finally annihilated.

Chen Lin's flagship slowly approached Li Family Village in Zhangwan, sitting silently on the sea like a massive monster. It slowly passed through the sea surface, which was only one mile wide. Behind it, fifteen three-masted clippers slowly deployed their lines, while twenty battle-ready boats waited for the shelling to finish, preparing to charge the coast and land on the beach.

Li Family Village was the host site for this trade fair and the main battlefield for tonight's pacification of the Japanese pirates and bandits.

No one noticed the arrival of the fleet. This was already deep within Sandu'ao. The outposts of the seven private markets, mostly set up at that seven-mile-long river mouth, had already been scouted out by the Coastal Defense Inspector and eliminated one by one.

Chen Lin held his telescope, looking at the brightly lit Li Family Village.

The trade fair was held under the guise of a Buddhist Ullambana Festival. On this day, temples held scripture-chanting assemblies, water-and-land rituals, food offerings to hungry ghosts, and lantern-lighting activities. But clearly, this was no Buddhist assembly; it was a carnival for sea bandits.

Li Family Village was a den of vice. In intelligence reports, it was far less shocking than seeing it with one's own eyes. Before each bonfire, countless people lay on couches, tilted to one side, puffing away.

Wherever the telescope looked, there were countless women, moving through the crowd without a stitch of clothing. There were Red-Haired Barbarians, Japanese courtesans, Black Barbarians, and Han women. Their eyes were vacant, crawling on the ground like dogs, begging for opium pipes. No matter what was done to them, it seemed that as long as they had an opium pipe, it was enough.

Cheers erupted continuously from the beach. It seemed that at the auction in the center of the village, an incredible price had been reached, or some shocking treasure had appeared—ambergris, pearls, gemstones, or beauties were all possibilities.

"There has been a debate in the imperial court about whether human nature is inherently good or inherently evil at birth. Seeing this scene, perhaps human nature is inherently evil. If one does not learn when young, one's nature will change. It has always been said that if one does not study diligently, the inherent goodness of human nature will shift. These academic studies of Confucianism really find it hard to convince me. Is this 'human nature is inherently good at birth'? And what difference is there between us and the myriad creatures of this world?" Chen Lin put down his telescope, his expression complex as he spoke to Chen Tiande.

Are humans truly the most spiritual of all things?

"Light the torches, fire the signal arrows." Chen Lin exhaled a turbid breath and began to issue orders.

Matches scraped across sandpaper, igniting with a *puchi puchi* sound, spreading a slight scent of sulfur. Torch after torch was lit. A signal arrow pierced the sky with a sharp whistle, exploding suddenly in the air like a blooming pear blossom, scattering fireworks across the firmament.

Torches on ship after ship lit up, soon connecting into a single piece, forming a long dragon of fire reflected on the sea surface.

The signal arrow rising and exploding seemed not to attract the attention of anyone in Li Family Village, because the people on the beach were immersed in the swirling smoke, and the trade fair in the field had reached its most intense moment.

Drums and horns began to sound, flags began to wave between the moonlight and the firelight. The cannons, already loaded with ammunition, were aimed at Li Family Village. After the bright red flag was waved down forcefully, the gunners lit the fuses. The fuses hissed and burned rapidly, igniting the gunpowder inside the barrels. Violent explosions erupted within the chambers, constrained by the barrels, and the explosive shells with wooden delay fuses roared out of the muzzles amidst the explosions.

The explosive shells spun across the sea, flying toward Li Family Village. The delay fuses burned out, and the shells exploded with a *boom*. The shell fragments and the iron caltrops within the gunpowder scattered outward with a whistle. In an instant, the entire Li Family Village was covered by artillery fire.

Chen Lin did not order the fleet to turn around but waited quietly for reloading. There was no need to change direction; the time required for the ships to start moving and turn around was enough to finish reloading. Tactics used in maritime annihilation battles were not applicable here. The Great Ming battle-ready boats did not move either, waiting for the second round of firing.

Li Family Village was on fire. The first round of artillery coverage had already turned the village into a sea of flames. The gunners avoided the rear of the village, where slaves were being traded. The second and third rounds of artillery coverage followed one after another.

If gunpowder were insufficient, Chen Lin would have chosen to let the battle-ready boats land elsewhere and then march by land. Now, however, it was a matter of saturation bombing followed by landing, because the enemy could no longer form effective resistance and had been completely stunned.

The battle-ready boats headed toward the tidal flats under the power of their oars. It went very smoothly; there were not even any arrows. Fifteen hundred men began to assemble on the beach. Attacking while half-crossed or before a battle formation was formed was the best moment for a defender in a landing battle to counterattack. But the sea bandits, unable to organize an effective counterattack, had not even reacted to what was happening before the navy had completed its formation.

Chen Lin continuously observed the battlefield with his telescope. There were still five battle-ready boats acting as a reserve force. When the battle line became precarious, the reserve force would immediately supplement it to prevent the line from collapsing. In a landing battle, one can only win and not lose, because there is simply no retreat behind them.

But Chen Lin's reserve force was prepared entirely in vain. The soldiers in the reserve force could only watch helplessly as their comrades performed meritorious deeds, stamping their feet in frustration on the ships!

In this landing battle, the Great Ming relied purely on the coverage of artillery explosive shells and the superiority of their firelocks to turn it into an annihilation battle. The enemy's morale had completely collapsed, or rather, the sea bandits who smoked opium had no morale to speak of at all.

"This wealthy battle—even a dog could fight it!" Chen Lin wanted to show off his command artistry, but there was absolutely no such opportunity. Fifteen hundred well-trained naval soldiers soon annihilated the sea bandits gathered in Li Family Village.

The reserve force finally landed, but could only do some work cleaning up the battlefield.

Command? Even if a dog barked twice, it could be fought like this. This was absolute superiority. Chen Lin wished he could transform into a vanguard soldier, charging at the front!

The sea bandits also had something to say: They were just sea bandits, and sea bandits were a rabble! The dignified Great Ming navy, a powerful force raised by over two million taels of silver a year, when truly put on the battlefield, might not even be a match for the Invincible Armada! A single regiment's firearms were more than all the sea bandits combined! And they actually came to launch a sneak attack! A sneak attack on this group of rabble! Was there any justice? Was there any law?

Before dawn, the battle was over, and even the battlefield had been cleaned up.

During the cleanup of the battlefield, an incident occurred that left the soldiers quite silent. A Han woman who had survived the artillery coverage attacked a naval soldier, simply because the soldier had kicked over her opium pipe. The young naval soldier pushed her away and eventually had to subdue her, tying her to a pillar with scattered clothes.

This Han woman died.

It was not because the young soldier had tied her incorrectly, but because the woman's addiction had flared up. She kept hitting the pillar, bleeding continuously, and finally died from excessive blood loss.

"It is not your fault." After learning of this situation, Chen Lin comforted the young soldier. He was only nineteen years old and had just been selected for the navy for only one year. This was his first time following the navy on an expedition. The death of the Han woman made the young soldier feel somewhat despondent. It was said that one should "report to the Emperor above and save the common people below." He had saved them, but not completely.

"I am a man from the countryside, and I don't know any damn principles. Let me show you why we must suppress smuggling." Chen Lin clapped his hands. A group of bound men and women were thrown onto the beach. There were more than twenty people in total, all Han.

After these twenty-plus people were thrown onto the beach, they were tied up tightly, but they still kept twisting, twisting like worms.

The naval soldiers looked at each other in dismay. That was the fear of the unknown. What kind of thing was this that turned people into this state? If they were to become like this, it would be better to die early and be reborn. This state was even harder to accept than death.

Chen Lin looked at the worms on the ground with a complex expression before turning to everyone and saying: "To control them and make them willingly serve the sea bandits, the sea bandits gave them opium. In three to five years for the long ones, or one to two years for the short ones, they become like this. Therefore, the sea bandits must be suppressed, they must be suppressed!"

"Do not let the sea bandits plunder the fishing villages along our Great Ming coast, and do not let opium poison the people of the Great Ming."

"We have obeyed the imperial order to wipe out the sea bandits of Sandu'ao. You have avenged these suffering people. The sea bandits have been wiped out by us, and you have rescued the Great Ming people behind the village slave trade. This is reporting to the Emperor above and saving the common people below!"

Chen Lin was actually not good at explaining these things. Many veterans understood, but the new recruits did not know much about these things and were confused about what they were fighting for. This was a living example, and this was the meaning of the navy's existence: to guard the safety of the Great Ming's maritime territory, to protect the Great Ming people from being plundered by sea bandits, and to ensure that opium would not poison the people of the Great Ming by sea.

The 'worms' would be escorted to the capital and sent to the Jiekuyuan (Dissection Institute). The chief physician of the Jiekuyuan would try to help them quit drugs. It was not detoxifying; long-term opium use was not a psychological dependence, but a physiological change.

In the battle of Li Family Village alone, 235 two-masted ships were captured, 150 boxes of opium, over 5,000 bags of tobacco, 500 taels of gold, 127,000 taels of silver, several sea charts and compass charts, over 300 Great Ming people were rescued, 300 Japanese pirates were captured, over 1,300 were killed, and over 1,700 sea bandits were killed. These captives would all have their bells removed and be sent to plantations or mines in the Northwest.

This harvest was actually nothing. The most important thing was that they had harvested a large bay suitable as a naval base and old lair! Chen Lin sincerely thanked the sea bandits for scouting the way.

The battles in the other four private markets were much the same: relying on artillery superiority for coverage, then landing on the beach. Only one private market organized sea bandits to put up negligible resistance, and it was completely crushed by the navy.

The reason why Ling Yunyi had previously led guest soldiers to confront the Great Ming Beijing Camp and narrowly lost was entirely because the Great Ming Beijing Camp did not use artillery and firelocks. Otherwise, the battle situation would have been completely one-sided. The navy's firepower configuration was even more powerful than the Beijing Camp's, because every landing operation of the navy could only win and not lose; losing meant the annihilation of the entire army, so the navy's equipment was more sophisticated and more expensive.

Wu Weizhong waited all night, waiting until he was a bit sleepy, before he waited for the scattered and fleeing sea bandits. There were only three hundred or so, and not even the first line of defense was shaken before the sea bandits were completely wiped out. A ten-thousand-man pocket formation surrounded three hundred people...

The operation plan of catching turtles in a jar was completed beyond expectations.

Chen Lin wrote the victory report and handed it to the Coastal Defense Inspector. The Coastal Defense Inspector threw the 'worms' onto the hydrofoil sailboat and sped toward the capital. Zhu Yijun soon received the victory report. The operation to pacify the waves and clear the seas was still continuing.

"This Li Yashi hasn't learned anything else, but he has learned the skill of flattery quickly." Zhu Yijun looked at a miscellaneous newspaper in front of him with a look of disgust. The Li Yashi who had once stiffened his neck to argue about kneeling rituals with the Ministry of Rites was gone, leaving only the sycophantic Li Yashi.

Li Yashi said in the newspaper: 【Pacifying the waves and clearing the seas is the thunderous fury of the Great Ming Emperor. This is the Great Ming, the supreme Majesty. By just turning over slightly, he can crush sea bandits thousands of miles away; this is the Great Ming, the wise and martial Majesty. A single imperial edict can protect the people of the world; this is the Great Ming, the sleeping lion king. When he wakes up, everyone must submit.】

Zhu Yijun took out Chen Lin's victory report again and read it with great pleasure.

This was already the third time he had taken out the victory report to read today. To prove that he was indeed pacifying the Japanese pirates and bandits, twenty Japanese pirate captives were sent to the capital. The court officials could go and interrogate them as much as they wanted.

"Feng Banban, when Marshal Yu valued Chen Lin, it was because he valued his humble origins, or more clearly, he valued that he had no one in the imperial court." Zhu Yijun leaned back in his chair, holding the victory report, and talked about the old days.

There were many people who could fight, so why was it Chen Lin?

Feng Bao thought for a moment and said: "Your Majesty, humble origins are no disgrace."

Chen Lin had practiced martial arts since childhood and liked to associate with chivalrous men. To put it nicely, he was chivalrous; to put it bluntly, he was a dissolute man of the streets. His reputation was very poor, he liked corruption, did not advocate morality, had a violent and irritable temper, and liked to charge at the front. In the 41st year of Jiajing, civil unrest broke out in Chaozhou and Yingde. Chen Lin joined the army to suppress the rebellion and became a Regional Military Commissioner.

In the pacification of Japanese pirates and bandits, he was continuously promoted and transferred: Regional Military Commissioner, Guangzhou Garrison Commander, Regional Military Commissioner, Assistant Regional Commander, and Zhaoxing Mobile Corps Commander. He was one of the great generals under Yin Zhengmao. Yu Dayou forcefully snatched Chen Lin from Yin Zhengmao's hands to become the Assistant Regional Commander of the Songjiang Town Navy, and later was promoted to Vice Regional Commander. After Yu Dayou grew old and returned to the capital, he became the Regional Commander of the Great Ming Navy.

Yu Dayou valued Chen Lin's humble origins, which meant that Chen Lin had no one in the imperial court and could only rely on His Majesty, becoming a die-hard member of the Emperor's faction.

Chen Lin was extremely clear about this, and Yu Dayou had also explained it very clearly to Chen Lin: The Great Ming capital was in the north, and the navy was in the south. If the Regional Commander was a subordinate of some minister in the court, His Majesty would inevitably have doubts about the navy.

Chen Lin and Yu Dayou's experiences were very similar.

In the original history, Chen Lin's life was extremely bumpy, and he suffered because he had no one in the court.

Being able to fight and win battles, he rose and fell many times just because he had no one in the court.

In the fourth year of Wanli, Chen Lin followed Ling Yunyi to suppress the rebellion in Mount Luopang. Chen Lin made meritorious service and became Vice Regional Commander. As a result, the Censor Luo Yinghe, who was pacifying Guangdong, impeached Chen Lin for greed, and Chen Lin was dismissed. The rebellion in Mount Lang started again, and the court had to re-employ Chen Lin. After suppressing the rebellion, he was dismissed again.

In the 21st year of Wanli, the first time he entered Korea to resist the Japanese, Chen Lin led soldiers from Jizhen, Liaoyang, Baoding, and Shandong to enter Korea to resist the Japanese invasion. He won a great victory. Because the court and Japan negotiated peace, Chen Lin was demoted to Chaozhou. Not long after, he was dismissed again. The reason this time was that Chen Lin had bribed the Minister of War, Shi Xing, to get the job of leading troops to Korea to resist the Japanese.

This was indeed a fact. With no one in the court, Chen Lin didn't even have a chance to fight. After winning the battle, he was dismissed from office. Later, the Minister of War, Shi Xing, was also thrown into prison because of the peace negotiations and died in the heavenly prison.

In the 25th year of Wanli, the Japanese pirates attacked Korea for the second time. Chen Lin led 5,000 Guangzhou guest soldiers and sped to Korea overnight. At that time, Li Rusong was in Liaodong, underestimated the enemy, advanced rashly, and was surrounded and killed. The Great Ming no longer had a Great General. Chen Lin entered Korea, became the Regional Commander for resisting the Japanese, and began to preside over the major affairs of resisting the Japanese.

In the discussion of merit for resisting the Japanese, Chen Lin had the first merit.

In the 28th year of Wanli, Chen Lin held the General's seal and suppressed the battle of Yang Yinglong in Bozhou.

Of the three major campaigns of Wanli, Chen Lin fought in two. Chen Lin, who had spent his life in the army, had fought hundreds of battles, large and small, and had never been defeated once. But throughout his life, he never received any title of nobility. Chen Lin, who had worked for the Wanli Emperor for many years, spent his later years guarding Huguang, Guizhou, Guangxi, and Guangdong. These places belonged to the miasma-ridden lands in the Great Ming, places where people would only go if they were exiled.

The Great Ming never lacked heroes who could win battles, nor did it lack officials with a sense of responsibility. The Han dynasty's rivers and mountains had loyal ministers in every generation.

Now Chen Lin had someone in the court! That was the Great Ming Emperor!

Zhu Yijun looked at Chen Lin's victory report and said with a look of disgust: "If you can't write poetry, don't write it. It's just showing off."

Chen Lin wrote a poem, which was exactly the same as Qi Jiguang's poetic style, both doggerel. It read: 【A million Hu barbarians are at the city walls, why not go and recite a poem?】

There was no metrical pattern at all; it was just mocking those cheap Confucian scholars in the court. Reciting poetry and composing couplets could not reject the barbarians. They stood and talked all day without feeling back pain, pointing fingers at military affairs they didn't understand, and even interfered with fighting battles.

Chen Lin actually envied Li Rusong for having a good father. At a young age, he had already become the Vice Regional Commander of the Beijing Camp. At the same age, Chen Lin was still a chivalrous man on the street, having meals intermittently.

"Your Majesty, the trade fair side has finished entering the market." Feng Bao reported on the large amount of funds from the inner treasury entering the trade fair. The entry was relatively slow, with only one million silver entering for the first time, and it did not pull up the prices. The Great Ming Emperor did not intend to swing the sickle easily. The entry was mainly to deter those bookmakers from acting recklessly, not to harvest, but just to maintain a certain rationality through periodic adjustments.

Zhu Yijun hoped to use absolute influence to maintain a trace of rationality in the trade fair, rather than a mess, to bridge the abyss of human evil.

"What do the censors say?" Zhu Yijun picked up the memorial on the table. Surprisingly, there was no memorial discussing the trade fair. The big hat of "gathering wealth and seeking profit" had long been put on him.

Feng Bao bowed his head with a complex expression and said: "The censors are busy distributing water, fighting endlessly."

"Ah, this..." Zhu Yijun was stunned before saying: "Then let them continue to carry water."

The censors carrying water was the latest big excitement in the Great Ming capital. Every time they carried water, there were onlookers pointing fingers at the censors. The cycle of heaven is good. The censors who pointed fingers at others on weekdays were finally pointed at by others.

Zhu Yijun didn't have time to watch the excitement himself, but from the memorials, he could also see the resentment of the censors. The Emperor, who was busy with a thousand tasks, reviewed the memorials.

The messy business of "Cao Ge Suo Qi" and "Ju Zuo Suo Qi" (referring to the diplomatic incident) finally had a result. The Governor of Yingtian, Li Le, reported that the census of the fourteen prefectures in the Southern Yamen had been completed. It was expected that the abolition of slavery would be completed in the first ten days of August. Originally, Li Le intended to carry it out in the middle of July, but because of the navy's mobilization, Li Le could only proceed slowly.

The Southern Yamen organized seven engineering regiments totaling 84,000 people to dredge the waterways and built twelve official factories, mainly for iron smelting, weaving, and cotton spinning. In particular, there were four for cotton spinning. The construction of the engineering regiments would establish a batch of small lime factories and ironware factories, and a small section of the imperial road was built, the imperial road from Mount Maan to Nanjing.

Before the balance of payments was reached, an investment of about 670,000 silver was needed, and for this investment, Li Le chose to let the powerful and wealthy families donate.

The powerful and wealthy families admitted defeat and calmly donated this silver, only asking that these servants who had lost their contracts would not riot in an disorderly manner again.

After all, this large-scale "Cao Ge Suo Qi" really frightened the wealthy families. Even the poetry clubs and bookstores of the absolute liberal faction, because they lost the support of the powerful and wealthy families, returned to the wings of the limited freedom theory, and Lin Fucheng once again became the leader of the liberal faction.

There was no doubt about the discussion on the boundaries of freedom: one must comply with public order and good customs, and one must comply with the laws of the Great Ming.

Ling Yunyi reported the progress of the census in Henan, but there was no obvious progress. Instead, Ling Yunyi began to cut redundant personnel with great vigor. The redundancy in Henan was much more serious than Ling Yunyi had imagined. Those who worked were tired to death, and those who didn't work didn't even go to check in. Ling Yunyi didn't indulge them either; they either went to survey the land and census the population, or they would be dismissed from their official positions.

The opposition on the ground in Henan was not great. After all, Minister Ling had not killed anyone, which was already a blessing from the ancestors. The cleanup of redundant personnel was progressing rapidly.

Zhu Yijun was in a very good mood. After reviewing the memorials, he met the two new concubines who had entered the palace: the heroic Guo Yunyao and the gentle Wang Xiyue. The two concubines were still learning palace etiquette from the old nannies and would not serve in the bedroom for a short time. They were both young, only sixteen years old. Facing the Emperor for the first time, they were both very nervous, and their heads knocked against the floor with a *peng peng* sound.

The next morning, Zhu Yijun came to the Wenhua Hall again and began the daily court discussion.

"Chen Lin led the navy to attack and destroy seven private markets in Sandu'ao Bay. This is the victory report that came yesterday. Chen Lin said bluntly in the memorial that there were high-ranking officials covering for them. The court officials are all here. Who is it? Stand out now. I can spare his life. Since we are monarch and minister, within the eight pardons, I am not so unreasonable." Zhu Yijun looked at the court officials and said calmly.

The court officials were all old faces, and some were ministers of the state who had served since the young Emperor's reign. Zhu Yijun did not want to make things look so ugly.

"I am very simple, everyone knows it very well. Don't think that it can't be found out. Confess now, and it's still in time." Zhu Yijun saw that no one spoke, and repeated his principles of doing things. When he talked about it for the first time, the conditions he gave were the most generous, and he was a man of his word, fulfilling his promises.

If one really waited until it was found out, it would be inevitable to be beheaded and displayed to the public, dragged to the vegetable market, separated from the corpse, and not have a complete body. How embarrassing! The Emperor would not be decent, and the court officials would not be decent either.

"Your Majesty, although the court officials have their own claims, they are all loyal ministers who care about the country. I think there are no treacherous ministers in the Wenhua Hall." Hence Hai Rui stood up and spoke on behalf of the Censorate. He did not think that the ministers would protect the sea bandits. It was mainly not worth it. If the crime of colluding with the Japanese was confirmed, the scolding received would be about the same as Qin Gui.

Once Hence Hai Rui spoke, the court officials all breathed a sigh of relief. Hence Hai Rui had been catching corruption for many years, and his judgment of people was very accurate. The court officials didn't even have the scandal of a concubine. Colluding with the Japanese for silver? Wouldn't that mean the whole family tree would be scolded?

Were the court officials really that clean? Not necessarily, but they were definitely not that dirty. One must know that Yan Song and Yan Shifan were already the most evil treacherous ministers in the Great Ming. Yan Song and Yan Shifan let Hu Zongxian pacify the Japanese, and in the end, they didn't cause the trouble of raising bandits to maintain their own importance.

"Your Majesty, the Minister of Rites also has moments of backbone." Hence Hai Rui thought for a while and took Wan Shihe as an example. Wan Shihe was the most flexible among the court officials, but Wan Shihe had also remonstrated directly more than once or twice.

"Hence Hai Rui, I didn't provoke you!" Wan Shihe was furious when he heard it and called out by name. What did Hence Hai Rui mean! He, Wan Shihe, had not provoked Hence Hai Rui!

So he, Wan Shihe, was the floor tile of the morality of the Great Ming court!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 498 =====