Chapter 526: Regional Military Commissioner — Localization of Grain and Pay

Lacking violence, Zhu Yijun once again felt that he lacked violence.

The last time he had such a feeling was when the ruler was young and the country was suspicious, and vicious events such as assassinating the king and burning the palace occurred one after another. Zhu Yijun clearly realized that he lacked violence, which is why some people didn't care about him, the Emperor.

At that time, even if Zhu Yijun was assassinated and died, there was still the Prince of Lu in the capital who could succeed to the throne. As long as the Emperor died, the iron triangle of Zhang Juzheng, Feng Bao, and Empress Dowager Li would immediately fall apart. Changing the Emperor, the ancestors in the palace would change, and the current Chief Assistant would also be changed. While the iron triangle limited the imperial power, it also protected the Emperor himself.

Zhu Yijun struggled through the time when the ruler was young and the country was suspicious and came to the moment of being young and strong. Zhu Yijun thought he already possessed enough intuitive violence to deter the villains, but he still underestimated the huge resistance of the New Policy. Facing the "Memorial on Returning Land" proposed by Zhang Juzheng, Zhu Yijun found that the power in his hands was not enough at all.

Zhang Juzheng became a conservative on the matter of the "Memorial on Returning Land," showing strong opposition from beginning to end, even if this memorial itself was proposed by him, because the turmoil caused by the redistribution of the means of production would hurt everyone in the Great Ming, from the Emperor to the poor and laborers, everyone would bear this pain in the process of this distribution.

The Great Ming could not afford such a risk at all, and Zhang Juzheng also believed that the current intensity of strengthening the military was already enough. The Great Ming was strong enough to suppress all disloyal forces that dared to disobey.

The ballast stone must also have a degree. If the ballast stone is too heavy, the ship will sink.

In the final analysis, Zhang Juzheng had already seen what it would look like if he continued to walk down this path. It was the distinction between the monarch as father, monarch as teacher, and monarch as country, it was the most severe challenge to the supreme imperial power, and it was the disintegration of the county-prefecture imperial system. Zhang Juzheng did not want to go to that step. In the end, he lived under the monarch-monarch-minister-minister for thousands of years. His purpose in pushing the New Policy was not to completely destroy the Great Ming, but to make the Great Ming great again.

He wanted to be the leader of the Great Ming's greatness again, not the gravedigger of the Great Ming.

Since Qin Shi Huang unified the world, the Central Plains dynasty has been nearly two thousand years. Ending the imperial system is too shocking and too rebellious. Even if he thinks about it, Zhang Juzheng feels that this is a huge challenge for the Great Ming both inside and outside.

So Zhang Juzheng, the founder of the Wanli Reform, became a conservative.

However, the pace of the New Policy is no longer under Zhang Juzheng's control, because now the Great Ming Emperor is the center of power.

Zhang Juzheng knows very well that the third and fourth volumes of the class theory, and even the fifth volume that he dare not even think about, might be written by His Majesty and then attributed to him. He doesn't care. Anyway, he will definitely be dead by then. If people are dead, he can't manage anything about the aftermath.

Zhu Yijun picked up the imperial decree he had already drafted, checked it again, picked up the seal on the table, and stamped it on the imperial decree, saying: "Let the Cabinet and the Ministry of Rites know, and act according to the decree."

Feng Bao took the imperial decree. This is a very important imperial decree, because the paper cannot be peeled off the satin surface of the imperial decree, which means that after this imperial decree is sent to the Cabinet and the Ministry of Rites, it will be sealed with pine resin according to the convention. It is an important document that the Emperor will take into the mausoleum.

Feng Bao took the imperial decree to the Zhao Wenhua Hall to announce the decree. Zhang Juzheng and the assistant ministers bowed respectfully. Wang Chonggu also rarely appeared in the Zhao Wenhua Hall. He came to handle affairs. The engineer corps set up in Henan was still expanding. Wang Chonggu came to the Cabinet to communicate his opinions with Zhang Juzheng. Before he could communicate, he encountered Feng Bao announcing the decree.

"By the grace of Heaven, the Emperor decrees:"

"Order the assistant ministers and the Ministry of Rites: among the Jinshi who passed the examination this time, select those who are excellent in mathematics, increase the quota by 50, and enter the Academy of Things for selection. Respect this."

The imperial decree was very short, but the content was quite explosive!

Increasing the quota by 50 means increasing the 300 Jinshi to 350. But the premise of these 50 additional people is that their mathematics grades are excellent and they must enter the Academy of Things for selection.

This involves problems in all aspects. This is simply a flowering in the center of the imperial examinations controlled by Confucianism. The imperial examination tests the Four Books and Five Classics, which is Confucianism's monopoly on official positions. The Emperor adding mathematics is already rebellious, and now he wants to increase the quota because of mathematics.

Moreover, whether these 50 people excellent in mathematics are willing to enter the Academy of Things to be Five Classics Doctors is also a problem. Is the Great Ming Emperor wishful thinking?

The Minister of Rites Wan Shihe received the decree and immediately asked: "What if the scholars are unwilling?"

"If they don't want to, then don't enroll them. It's not that we are begging them to enter. If one doesn't go, it saves the Prince of De some trouble. If they don't want to touch the bottom, His Majesty said, if the scholars of our Great Ming don't want to, and all want to be officials, that's fine, then open another examination."

"Originally, after passing the metropolitan examination, they are not Jinshi. Only after the palace examination are they. Isn't that right?" Feng Bao said calmly: "If they want to enter, the Academy of Things may not necessarily accept them. After arriving at the Academy of Things, they have to take another examination."

Originally, during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the imperial examinations had mathematics, and it was not abolished until the end of the Tang Dynasty.

Under normal circumstances, after the metropolitan examination list is released, the palace examination policy question is a formality. Basically, the list and ranking have been fully confirmed, but the palace examination form is not finished, so they are not Jinshi yet.

Therefore, after the metropolitan examination list is released, ask the top 50 in mathematics. If they don't want to go, touch the bottom until 50 positions are selected. More than 5,000 people compete on the same stage in one metropolitan examination. Zhu Yijun doesn't believe that these scholars don't want to go ashore. Is the metropolitan examination a fun thing? Once every three years, if you don't pass, it's another three years of cold window reading, which is even more terrible than the black high school year. It is three years of torture.

Entering the Academy of Things for selection also requires an examination, and the difficulty will increase a lot. It doesn't matter if you can't enter the Royal Academy of Things. You can teach at the Royal Institute of Technology. If you have aspirations for the Academy of Things, you can teach while continuing to prepare for the examination.

Feng Bao explained the key points in detail.

"So that's it." Wan Shihe wanted to say something but stopped. Finally, he didn't say it. The core problem of this imperial decree is actually not whether the scholars are willing or not.

Everyone is a person who has come over. If you can go ashore, you must want to go ashore early. Continuing to read by the cold window, the pointing of neighbors will constantly make you doubt yourself, and it is also a huge burden on the family. Whether it is studying at the Imperial Academy or consuming manpower, material resources, and energy to

Being able to go ashore was certainly something they would be more than willing to do, and the steam engine had already shown its edge, showing a trend of being used everywhere.

From the moment Zhu Zaiyu entered the capital, he had been attracted by the sextant. From the start of his time in the capital, he had been actively preparing for the revision of the calendar, and now he was going to revise the calendar, moving from preparation to the reality of practice.

To Confucian scholars, revising the calendar was a major event that shook the foundations of the state, a direct manifestation of heretical arts. But the Directorate of Astronomy could not stop the revision of the calendar at all. Running into a superior like Wan Shihe, one could only say that this generation of the Directorate of Astronomy was truly unlucky.

Wan Shihe not only did not oppose it, but he also sang its praises, and what he said made a lot of sense: who else was to blame for the current calendar being inaccurate?

Although the Imperial Academy of Sciences could not guarantee a meteoric rise—one might remain a fifth-rank Doctor of the Five Classics for life—it did not mean one could not realize one's ambitions and leave a name in history. After the New Year, the Ming Emperor held a grand ceremony at the Xishan Coal Bureau and awarded the first Ming Technical Progress Award.

Leaving a fragrant name in history could also be achieved through the Imperial Academy of Sciences.

The core issue of this imperial decree was that, from now on, the Imperial Academy of Sciences would have a status completely equal to that of the Hanlin Academy.

The Hanlin Academy was a place for cultivating talent and storing prestige. Regardless of the rank of the officials within it, throughout the dynasties, Hanlin scholars had always been the social group with the highest status, the holy land in the hearts of all scholars, and the place where the elite of contemporary scholars gathered. While enjoying superior social status, they were also held in high esteem.

Wan Shihe had originally wanted to oppose it, but his "soft-bone disease" made him unable to oppose the Emperor's decision. The moment that decree appeared, Wan Shihe thought of a terrifying problem: the waste of talent.

Was the Ming lacking in talent? It was severely lacking. It lacked naval experts, geologists, physicians, geomancers, and surveyors. The Ming needed talent for mapping, talent for road construction, and even the Dissection Institute needed talent. But there was no talent. Since the second year of Wanli, they had visited hermits everywhere, and even opened up the promotion channel of the "recommendation system" which had been abolished in the thirteenth year of the Zhengtong era, and established specialized maritime schools. Yet the gap remained extremely severe; one person was expected to do the work of two.

The five maritime schools opened in the Ming's five hinterland shipping offices could not even supply the ships the Ming sent to sea.

But the Ming was not lacking in scholars. A single metropolitan examination would have 5,000 participants, all of whom were provincial graduates, fighting tooth and nail for three hundred spots as presented scholars. Five thousand provincial graduates meant hundreds of thousands of government students and millions of child students. With so many scholars, the holy land in their hearts was still the Hanlin Academy, still the Confucian classics.

The imperial examination system had to be changed, otherwise, scholars would all waste their time in the Confucian classics, and the Ming's talent would be wasted.

Xing Yunlu was the most typical example. What he loved most was looking up at the stars. After passing the examination in the eighth year of Wanli, he immediately and without hesitation entered the Academy of Sciences and became a Doctor of the Five Classics, which was opposed by Confucian scholars. But he could not stop reading those Confucian classics, otherwise, he would not be able to pass the talent selection mechanism and appear in the imperial court to change the Ming's calendar.

There were many such people in the Ming.

Therefore, the Emperor's decree made the Imperial Academy of Sciences and the Hanlin Academy parallel holy lands in the hearts of scholars, which could systematically alleviate similar problems of talent waste.

Scholars were all wasting their time in the ocean of Confucian classics, and society as a whole valued literature and despised science and technology, which would greatly delay the exploration of the infinite principles of all things.

The Ming had been substantially lagging behind before. Spain and Portugal had completed circumnavigation, and later even England, a tiny place, had done it, but the Ming before could not.

If the imperial examination system did not change, the Ming's technology would still lag behind the West. If this continued, the "Eastern learning spreading to the West" would likely become inevitable.

Every single one of the Westerners was a moral wasteland. If Eastern learning spread to the West, what would the Ming look like?

Wan Shihe wanted to speak out in opposition, but in the end, he didn't say it, choosing instead to support it. Anyway, he was a sycophant, as everyone in the world knew. So what if he was a sycophant? A sycophant was also a Grand Secretary sitting in the Zhao Wenhua Hall! He was a Grand Secretary!

Wang Chonggu looked at the memorial and frowned, saying, "Why does this decree feel so small? Shouldn't it be a large scroll that two people have to pull open?"

A proper Ming imperial decree was ten feet long; it took at least two people to pull it open. The decree the Emperor issued was two feet long and one foot wide; no matter how one looked at it, it wasn't solemn enough. Wang Chonggu looked closely, his brows knitting into a knot. The scroll of the decree looked like jade, but it was actually a glass scroll!

"Uh, this is the small-format decree regulation specifically ordered by His Majesty. From now on, decrees not published nationwide will all use this small format. You Grand Secretaries are busy, so this servant will take his leave." Feng Bao dropped this sentence and walked away, covering his face, unwilling to stay for even a moment longer.

First-rank jade scrolls were used for the enfeoffment of princes, commandery princes, empresses, and imperial consorts; second-rank black rhinoceros horn scrolls; third-rank silver-cored gold-plated scrolls; fourth and fifth ranks were black ox horn scrolls. The satin surfaces also differed. A proper imperial decree was at least ten feet (3.3 meters) long, but this mini-version from Zhu Yijun was only two feet (60 centimeters), which truly made Feng Bao, who was announcing the decree, unable to keep a straight face.

No one in the world could accuse Zhu Yijun, the Emperor, of being excessively extravagant.

"Grand Secretary, haven't you been a bit too forceful with this?" Wang Chonggu said with a complex expression. Although it wasn't the first time, every time it happened, it made Wang Chonggu sigh with emotion. What exactly had Zhang Juzheng instilled in the Emperor while he monopolized the imperial lectures!

It was one thing when the Ming was poor, but now the Ming was rich as oil, with millions of taels of silver in the inner treasury year-round. Being so stingy really damaged the dignity of the state.

Zhang Juzheng looked at the small imperial decree, truly at a loss for words. He was already sweating a little. He swore that this was absolutely not what he had taught. He had just told the Emperor to save a little; he had even added two hundred thousand taels of silver in pocket money for the Emperor in the third year of Wanli!

Save where you should save, and don't spend a penny more than necessary; spend where you should spend, and don't save a single cent. For the dividends of the government-run factories, just for the Xishan Coal Bureau, nearly three hundred thousand taels of silver were thrown in, and Zhu Yijun didn't even blink.

"This is a great thing. In this way, the three-level schools of the Engineer Corps will also have some advantages in participating in the imperial examinations." Wang Chonggu highly approved of the Emperor's overbearing and rude interference in the results of the imperial examinations. It wasn't about lineage, but about selecting more scientific and technical talent. On this point, it coincided with the ideas of the Labor Party. As the leader of the Labor Party, Wang Chonggu naturally had to give his full support.

Zhang Juzheng pondered for a moment and nodded, saying, "I think so too. What does the Minister of Revenue think?"

With Wan Shihe and Wang Chonggu in support, and Zhang Juzheng in agreement, only the opinion of the Grand Secretary Wang Guoguang remained.

"Isn't this quite good? The Ministry of Revenue lacks accountants. Every year in October and November, when auditing the world's accounts, if it weren't for the Doctors of the Five Classics from the Academy of Sciences coming to support us, I'm afraid the accounts wouldn't be finished until next year. I naturally approve of the Emperor's practice of specifically selecting scientific and technical talent in the imperial examinations." Wang Guoguang, who led the Ministry of Revenue, had been in pain and joy these past few years. The joy was naturally that the state treasury had money, and the officials of the Ministry of Revenue could stand tall wherever they went.

When the Ministry of Revenue had no money, they were worse than grandsons, ranking at the bottom of the Six Ministries along with the Ministry of Works. When the Ministry of Revenue had money, they were masters wherever they went!

The pain was the massive auditing of accounts. Even if it was just auditing one of the "Six Books and One Account," it was a massive project. Every year, the mathematics doctors from the Imperial Academy of Sciences had to come to audit it to ensure the results.

Now that the Emperor wanted to expand the registration of mathematical talent, he naturally had to give his full support.

"Then let the Ministry of Rites handle it." Zhang Juzheng saw that the Grand Secretaries had reached a consensus and chose to issue the order. Faced with the Emperor's foolish decree, the Cabinet and the Six Offices could reject it. Of course, such rejection was actually useless; the Emperor's will was set, and the decree would still be issued. But whether it could be executed was another matter.

And when the Grand Secretaries stood with the Emperor, the matter would be executed, because of these four Grand Secretaries, who among them didn't have the power to cover the sky in the court? Even Wan Shihe led a group of writers; whoever dared to offend Wan Shihe, Wan Shihe would dare to let his writers curse them until they couldn't step out of their own doors.

"I came to the Wenyuan Hall this time because of the Engineer Corps in Henan. Why is it stuck again?" Wang Chonggu frowned and said, "It's not like the list of talented generals for the Capital Battalion back then. You let Tan Lun block it, and blocking it was fine, but that list was full of people from Jin."

"Now, what is the reason for blocking the establishment of the Engineer Corps in Henan?"

"Governor Ling Yunyi and Yin Zhengmao are both your people, Zhang Juzheng. If you block him like this, can Governor Ling Yunyi have no opinion? Now that Henan is at a critical moment, blocking him like this is equivalent to grabbing Governor Ling Yunyi by the throat and not letting him work."

Each Engineer Corps had twelve thousand men, and the establishment of this corps required the Ministry of War to provide a designation. But now the Cabinet had been slow to give an answer, making Wang Chonggu run all the way to the Wenyuan Hall.

The Senior Grand Secretary had not been sitting in the Wenyuan Hall for nine years. Except for the month when Wang Chonggu handled affairs while Zhang Juzheng was ill, the Senior Grand Secretary Wang had been too lazy to come.

"We are all people of the imperial court; how can there be such a thing as your people or my people?" Wan Shihe immediately expressed his opposition. Although forming cliques was a fact, on the surface, some things still needed a fig leaf.

"Governor Ling Yunyi recruited four Engineer Corps in Henan. Do you know how many corps he wants to establish? Eight corps." Zhang Juzheng frowned and said, "Ninety-six thousand people. This number is really too large. This is the reason I have been hesitating."

Wang Chonggu gestured with his hand for eight, paused forcefully, and said, "Eight? Even if it were eighteen, could he beat the Capital Battalion? A group of farmers who can't even get enough to eat, what are you worried about?"

Zhang Juzheng rubbed his temples and said, "They can't get enough to eat now, but the Engineer Corps can produce, and they will slowly get enough to eat. If they are well-fed, they will follow the rules and be obedient. What am I worried about? I am worried about warlordism! Henan is one thing; even if he forms eighteen, if there really is warlordism, it can be suppressed. But the Ming doesn't just need Engineer Corps in Henan."

Wang Chonggu was stunned. Wasn't this the same logic Zhang Dingsi used to imply criticism?

But Zhang Juzheng's considerations were much more comprehensive than Zhang Dingsi's. Zhang Dingsi was stirring up trouble, while Zhang Juzheng was worried about the Ming becoming localized into warlord states. If it really became like that, the four Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet, one by one, would all be sinners!

"Ah, I have it!" Wang Chonggu clapped his left hand against his right and said, "Let the elite soldiers of the Capital Battalion retire and take charge of the Engineer Corps. This solves the problem of placing the elite soldiers and also solves the potential problem of warlordism. It kills two birds with one stone."

Wang Guoguang's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he said, "This is a good idea."

Anyway, the revolving door between the Capital Engineer Corps and the Capital Battalion already existed. Why not expand this revolving door to the local Engineer Corps? In this way, wouldn't the dilemma be solved?

Wang Chonggu thought for a moment and shook his head, saying, "No, just having elite soldiers in charge is not enough."

"Is it not enough?" Wan Shihe asked with a frown. This was still not enough?

"Not enough." Wang Chonggu sighed and said, "After a year or two in the local area, they become local people. People change. Don't think I'm fear-mongering."

What Wang Chonggu didn't say was: this was all based on experience!

When he was the Viceroy of Xuan-Da, how did he turn enemies into friends and turn the officials sent by the imperial court to Xuan-Da into his own people? Wang Chonggu had done it himself, so he knew that relying solely on the revolving door of elite soldiers to take charge in local areas wouldn't work.

Engineers are also soldiers. This was what Zhang Juzheng was worried about. The An-Shi Rebellion was a warning from the past. Zhang Juzheng refused to approve Governor Ling Yunyi because Governor Ling Yunyi had 1,500 guest soldiers under his command. These 1,500 soldiers were brought by Governor Ling Yunyi from Guangzhou to Shandong and then to Henan. It could be said that they had fought thousands of miles and were invincible. They had even clashed with the Capital Battalion, and without large-scale use of firearms, they had only narrowly lost.

Even if the probability of warlordism was very small, Zhang Juzheng had to be cautious.

"The dilemma of localizing military provisions." Zhang Juzheng said with great emotion. Back then, he was guarding against Wang Chonggu and Li Chengliang; now he was guarding against Governor Ling Yunyi. In fact, the core of this problem was not just military administration, but also taxation—the localization of military provisions.

Sometimes, as you go along, you drift apart. It was not a problem of Governor Ling Yunyi's personal integrity, but the great waves of the times pushing him forward.

The localization of military provisions was essentially a fiscal and tax problem, an inevitability under the current background of productivity. With the current productivity and speed of transportation, it was impossible to provide professional military logistics for any military unit other than the Capital Battalion. This resulted in the localization of military provisions, meaning local armies had to rely on local support.

From the Qin Dynasty's collection of all weapons in the world and gathering them in Xianyang, every dynasty had faced this problem by emphasizing the center and weakening the periphery.

"I have a way!" Wang Guoguang looked at the three Grand Secretaries and said, "Build a highway from the capital to Kaifeng, and the problem the Senior Grand Secretary is worried about will no longer be a problem."

"Hmm?!" Wang Chonggu's eyes lit up, and he looked at Wang Guoguang, saying, "That's right! This method is good! Very good!"

Shortening the time in transportation meant that the imperial court had powerful interference in Henan, rather than just a light piece of paper, meaning lower costs for suppressing rebellions. In this way, the problem of localizing military provisions would also be eased, and there would be no need to worry too much.

Zhang Juzheng immediately retorted, "What's good about it? From the capital to Kaifeng, 1,400 li, a highway costs 9,800 silver per li, which is 13.72 million silver. Where will the silver come from? It's easy to say, but even if calculated over three years, it's nearly five million silver a year. It's easy to say."

Wang Chonggu whispered, "Why not borrow some from His Majesty? His Majesty has it. In early February, His Majesty told the ministers in the Zhao Wenhua Hall that there were more than seven million taels of silver in the inner treasury. This deal is appropriate. Senior Grand Secretary, think about it. This Governor Ling Yunyi is the model that started the precedent. The guest soldiers he leads are something no one else has."

"As long as the Henan Engineer Corps is handled well, it will set a precedent. As long as this hard bone in Henan is taken down, no one else will dare to have any ideas or fantasies in the future. Using 13.72 million silver to exchange for the full rollout of the Engineer Corps in the Ming's two capitals and fifteen provinces, this deal is worth it!"

"Let me think about it." Zhang Juzheng was obviously persuaded. He knew very well that once this highway from the capital to Kaifeng was built, there would be countless highways waiting in line for the imperial court to build. How to recover the costs was something the Ming Dynasty had to consider. The investment was really too large.

The expected benefits were extremely tempting. Not to mention the tolls from the customs stations on the highway, just the fact that the Engineer Corps could be promoted was worth doing. The Engineer Corps was not about returning land, but it could settle the people.

"Attach a floating note to memorialize His Majesty. The Ministry of Revenue is really unable to turn around, so let's ask His Majesty to borrow some." After thinking it over three times, Zhang Juzheng decided to follow the opinions of Wang Chonggu and Wang Guoguang. The revolving door of the Capital Battalion's elite soldiers would radiate to the local areas, and at the same time, the highway would be built to the local areas.

Anyway, the highway from the capital to Kaifeng had to be built eventually. Whether built early or late, it had to be built. It was better to take advantage of this critical time to get this done.

"Count me in." Wang Chonggu saw that Zhang Juzheng had written the floating note and took out his seal, which counted as a joint signature. Wang Guoguang and Wan Shihe had no objections and added their seals together, which counted as the Cabinet reaching a unified opinion.

When Zhu Yijun received the floating note, he was slightly puzzled. He always felt that Zhang Juzheng had lost the sharpness he had back then. When he wanted to implement the "Examination of Achievements" law, punching Gao Gong and kicking Yang Bo, that sharpness of "who else but me in the world" could not be seen; instead, he had become increasingly conservative and cautious, not even trusting his own Zhang Party loyalist, Governor Ling Yunyi.

If it weren't for Zhang Juzheng protecting him in the court and Zhu Yijun taking his side, Governor Ling Yunyi, with his notorious reputation for killing, would have been impeached long ago. How could he have gone to Henan to show off his power?

Zhang Juzheng's caution was because the Ming was getting better. Zhang Juzheng didn't need to bet everything to gamble on a possible future. This was the fundamental reason for Zhang Juzheng's conservatism. If the Ming were still the crumbling mess of the end of the Longqing era or the beginning of the Wanli era, Zhang Juzheng would only be sharper than before.

"They want to borrow seven million taels of silver from me. Tsk tsk, as expected of the state treasury, they ask for more than anyone else when begging for food!" Zhu Yijun viciously wrote his vermilion comments on this memorial, saying, "I knew the silver I lent to the state treasury had no interest, and now they've come to me to raise funds!"

Zhu Yijun borrowed money from the outside at interest rates of 24%, and sometimes even increased the interest due to war risks, but the silver he lent to the state treasury was interest-free. After all, the world was his, Zhu Yijun's, world.

Zhu Yijun approved this sum of silver and instructed Feng Bao, "Let the inner treasury eunuch Cui Min keep an eye on it. If even a little bit of this silver is not used in the right place, I will hold the Ministry of Revenue accountable!"

(End of chapter)